“It’s good that you’re thinking along those lines, though!” Kenzie said, like an instructor applauding her student for trying. “And I don’t blame you for not thinking of what I’m thinking of, because the answer is more abstract and it’s harder to make an analogy for. The best analogy I can think of is… our camera flash is white light and white light is centered, but if we tint the light from one camera’s flash blue and green, which is up, then any other cameras are going to adjust more red because the image is skewed, which slants everything down.”

“What does that mean?” Sveta asked.

“It means everything looks right for them until they try to make their electro-gate, it goes zap, and it tries to put a gate down, only it puts it in the ground. And it’s subtle enough it won’t make people’s hair stand up or make cameras flicker.”

“And the regular portal that lets them walk in?” I asked.

“Well, that’s sort of the thing. Because it’s not light, it’s dimensions, so it would still skew with the signal and block it off. So that might tip people off if they try to use it.”

“Do they?” I asked.

“Um. Not often. From surveillance, it’s usually when work ends or when new prisoners come in, and nobody’s acting like they’re bringing anyone in. No prep, no prepared apartments. I think we’re clear.”

“Surprises happen,” I murmured.

Kenzie nodded, very enthusiastically.

“That’s good, though. It’s a shame we can’t keep the front door open just to make sure that everything doesn’t go to hell the moment one employee tries to leave because they have an upset stomach, then close it later, if we have to.”

“Maybe we could?” Kenzie asked. She made a bit of a face, scrunching everything up.

“You don’t sound sure,” Byron said.

“If I situated our blue-green light right, maybe we could put it far enough away that the, um, the front door wouldn’t close. Except I’m making an educated guess at that point.”

“And if we need to close the front door, we take the blue-green dimensional light this gate is making and move it closer?”

“Turn it off, cool down for a few minutes, then turn it back on, situated closer. Yeah.”

“Are those few minutes long enough for them to do something?”

She scrunched up her face again, shrugging slightly.

“We should contact Goddess,” Sveta said. “Let her know what we’re doing.”

“And talk to the other teams?” I suggested. “The Major Malfunctions wanted to know, and we could use help.”

“Chris wanted to keep things discrete,” Byron said. “Each group as a cell. We share info and maintain contact in a limited way.”

“She’s our network hub, she can lead,” Kenzie said.