She landed on the three intact limbs, centered herself, and then pounced at me.

“The hell?” another officer asked.

“You’ve got moles!” I shouted. “It’s why we’re here!”

The gunman was maneuvering to get a shot, his focus on Sveta again. The second Teacher thrall. The night vision sniper Capricorn had remarked on wasn’t using night vision. They had something else going on, courtesy of Teacher’s gifts.

And they were dead inside enough that my emotion power wasn’t affecting them.

Capricorn closed the distance with the gunman. Sveta grabbed the pouncer.

The Wretch’s first hit was deflected, but only barely—the woman was hit hard enough that she was pulled from Sveta’s grip. She didn’t have a second leg to catch herself on, so she wobbled unsteadily as she dropped to a one-legged squat, put her hands out to either side, and then sprung forward at me yet again.

I ducked low, using flight to orient myself, and kicked out. She was ready for it, pulling her leg up out of the way—but the broken leg that dangled wasn’t so adroit. I’d kicked it, hard, and as dead as she was inside, she seemed to feel sufficient pain or shock. She landed hard across broken concrete.

“Hey! Stop!” one guard shouted.

Capricorn had been punching the gunman, his gauntleted fist coming back from what couldn’t have been the first hit, starting to move in for a third or fourth.

He stopped himself. When he let the guy fall, the guy fell limp, unconscious.

His head lowered, fists clenching.

“Can’t stop,” I said. “We’ve got more coming.”

There were others in the incoming squad. Capricorn looked down at the compass. I saw two more red lines.

Teachered people that Lookout had noted and marked in her system.

Fuck me.

“Two of these guys are compromised too,” Capricorn said, more for the benefit of the other guards.

There was an eruption. The incoming squad was scattered, various members thrown in every theoretical direction.

Rain and Crystalclear leaped from a higher point. Rain stopped them mid-fall, then let them fall the rest of the way.

“We’re clear? I’m not going to blow up?” Rain asked.

“You’re clear,” I said, before raising my voice. “The rest of you who’re listening aren’t, by the way!”

“What the fuck!?” a guy on a balcony shouted down. “What’s going on!?”

We ignored him. My phone was buzzing, and the ‘compass’ that was the projector disc showing headings of various threats that surveillance had spotted was lighting up. One big magenta line, then another, and another. Red lines were converging.

“I’m really hoping we can close the portal if we need to,” I said, “because I’m going to guess that those magenta lines are… bigger threats.”