She smashed the keyboard with her fist.

Again, nothing happened.

“Umm.”

The lights went out in the building. After a moment’s delay, red lights in the ceiling came on.

“Time delay,” Kenzie said. “He didn’t make it past the login screen. We’re clear.”

In his office, the assistant warden was on the phone. Going by the script, Foresight should be telling him to pretend like the phone wasn’t working. In the tension of the moment, he took it a step too far, banging the phone against his desk. Everyone in the room winced.

On the cameras, a world of prison administration under stark red emergency lighting, we could see the deputy, head warden, and the correctional officer all leaving. The officer broke from the group to check on the assistant warden, who was in his office, phone on his desk.

A shake of the head and of the phone confirmed suspicions.

“Stay, Toby,” the head warden instructed, leaning past the officer. “Watch the office and be ready if we get power again.”

Toby the assistant warden hesitated. Was he weighing his trust for Foresight against his trust for coworkers?

He stayed. The moment his two seniors were gone with the officer, he had the phone to his ear, listening.

“If they get near a computer, black them out,” I said. Needlessly, we’d already established the plan. It made me feel better to spell it out.

“On it.”

It was a situation defined by chaos, and we had some modicum of control. Teacher had an army at his disposal, it seemed, but that army had been paid for with his power, and that power had its price.

He would make his play, but we had our own. It was a question of keeping an eye out and timing everything right. I’d thought of Teacher like a tinker, his human resources simply parts of a broader system he’d designed. Tinkers were most dangerous when they could anticipate their threats, and they were least dangerous when surprised.

We would strive to surprise.

“Assistant warden’s cleared by Foresight. We can tell him everything?” Byron asked.

I nodded.

“So far so good,” Sveta whispered.

I didn’t want to jinx it by agreeing, but the two of us were on shaky ground.

“Yeah,” I responded. “Except—”

“Except?” Byron asked.

Goddess. She hadn’t made her move. There was a point she was supposed to enter the prison and take her prisoners. It was a big reason for why Byron, Natalie and I were so tense.

The moment that happened, everything else was up in the air.