“Leaving us in the dark,” Sveta murmured. Her pale face turned to look in the direction of the sun. No longer a sliver—it was a glow across the sky. The ‘slivers’ were now only the crimson-purple linings around some of the rare clouds at that end of the sky.

We’d reached the building. It was the same one the sniper had been in. It was less like a proper apartment building and more like six cargo containers organized so it was two side by side, another two stacked facing a different direction, and then two stacked at the top, with the original orientation. Staircases that led down or through were exposed.

Rain and Ashley’s buildings had four people per. This is a six. It’s almost like a threat rating, but the buildings with six have the easiest prisoners to manage.

We weren’t going inside just yet. Goddess was hesitating.

“I think I know why. If she does that then we become the bad guys,” I said. “Foresight will find out or think something’s going on—they have good thinkers. Right now they’re telling him that his staff and superiors are compromised, something dangerous is going on. He’s listening. We don’t want to give him a reason to think he’s being played.”

“Then we go after him. Tress, if I tell you to go to him and keep him quiet and cooperative, can you do that?”

“I don’t know if I’m that convincing.”

“You might not be, but a knife to the throat is,” Goddess said.

I saw Tress’s expression shift. Hesitation.

“Is anyone else capable?”

“I could try,” Lookout offered.

“You couldn’t be older than twelve, and I need better than try,” Goddess said. She looked in the direction of the entry-building. “Trouble’s coming. It feels like Teacher.”

“It might be,” Lookout said. “Let me look.”

She turned to her phone. I turned my focus to the immediate problem. We had to protect the leadership.

“If we grab everyone, they’ll panic and you’ll get nobody,” I said. “We told Foresight we’d reach out to our team members and their undercovers. They’ll let the guy in admin know. Let’s get our forces together.”

“Teacher realized he can’t get in,” Lookout reported. “He could’ve figured it out if he’d tried to make a portal a hundred feet in the air, but I guess he’s not that smart. Like, helloo…”

“He’s attacking the front door,” Goddess interrupted.

“Yes,” Lookout said. “I was getting around to that.”

“Our guys?” I asked.

“The teams we pulled together are going to be holding him off. Fume Hood, A.G., Auzure,” Lookout said. “And others.”

“They won’t succeed,” Goddess said. “I wouldn’t be aware of the imminent danger if he was going to be scared away.”