I floated in the middle of the tunnel, doing my best to orient myself in the air in such a way that if the Wretch started pulling the shield around to my left, I could rotate it back the right way. I looked back and saw Lookout scrabbling at her mask, pulling the reflective insert that ran down the middle of her face back. Her eyes, nose, and mouth were visible.

“Any special vision modes?” I asked.

“Not really. Picking up some of the visual noise as a supplementary thing. It’s wired so I can plug other stuff in or see through a video feed like I’m there.”

“But you could parse it if you took that recording back to your workshop and scanned it,” I said. A statement, not a question.

“Uh huh,” she said.

“Blindside,” I said. Far enough down the corridor that we couldn’t see them yet.

Lookout held up her camera, her expression serious. I didn’t have long to see before she lowered it for Tristan, then turned around to show the others.

It had been a video loop. Most of the cameras that were able to move had turned away. The ones that couldn’t, I presumed, had gone black. The images we had were of people at the very edge of the camera.

“What’s the takeaway?” I asked.

“Two people at the edge of the camera. Kingdom Come and someone else. A guy prisoner.”

Teacher had someone on the inside.

“No footage of the guy?”

“No. He was walking right behind Blindside, and whatever mussed up the cameras meant he wasn’t very visible either. He’s skinny.”

The Wretch jerked the shield to one side. I flew around, my arm extending to its full length, my fingers gripping the view-hole in the shield. Not wanting to fight it any further, I shifted position, ready to move on. “We push on. Save Sveta, get Ashley, get Natalie, make sure we have control over the bombs if we need it.”

“Go for it. I’m right behind you,” Tristan said.

“If you have to fight Blindside, swing something that won’t stop when your arm does. A flail, whatever. Or strike from an oblique angle. Switching elements might really work here.”

“Maybe. They could also risk drowning us or washing us away,” Tristan said.

“Yeah,” I said. The Wretch crushed a part of the shield, and I winced. “Yeah.”

I flew forward.

Blindside, Kingdom Come, and one unknown. Somewhere down this tunnel was a computer, console, or other network that allowed for communication with the other Earth.