My own teeth chattered, partly because of a sympathy reaction. “Somewhere in there, there’s another lady who can do that. I’m really hoping she’s behind a closed door. I’ve got to help her.”

“If you must,” she said, before nodding in a way that didn’t match the words. “Save her.”

“Huddle for warmth for now,” I said.

She looked down at Thane and sneered. “I’d rather be cold. Huddling with me is a privilege.”

“Then see if Capricorn can make you a ladder.”

“Will try!” I heard Capricorn. Tristan now.

“Vic—Antares!” Lookout called to me.

I looked up.

She turned on a flashlight, then threw it down to me. A small one, bright.

“You’re awesome,” I said.

“Help my friends,” was the response. “I want us all together again.”

I wasted no more time. I plunged into the dark.

Sveta, Crystalclear, Ashley, Ratcatcher.

Kingdom Come, if he didn’t come part and parcel with Sveta.

The water had vented out enough that I could fly over it. I flew into the room with the server, and found it nearly empty of water, now. Debris at the door was damming it, and I destroyed that debris using the Wretch.

“Sveta? Kingdom Come?” I asked.

Tendrils whipped out of the water. They seized me. I activated the Wretch, then dismissed it a moment later.

Calm, I thought, as my heart hammered.

She hauled herself up. She was too coordinated to be Kingdom Come. Most of her was outside of her shell though. In a way, she wasn’t our Sveta.

Raising herself up to eye level, she brought her forehead forward, until it rested against mine.

“Rinsed him off?” I asked.

I felt the nod. “He’s over there in the corner, pulling himself together.”

“The B team is okay. Where’s the A team?”

“Downstairs.”

Downstairs wasn’t good.

“He covered the ceiling so he was dripping down on top of us. I saw it at the last second,” Sveta said. “I took the bullet, and tried to put myself where I would at least get in their way. Thane had to work remotely.”

“You did good.”

“I don’t feel good.”

I wanted to reply to that, but I knew the feeling one hundred percent.

One hundred and ten percent.

“Bricklayer’s mantra,” I said.

I felt her nod, her forehead against mine. “I’ve got me. You go get Swansong and Crystal.”

“And Ratcatcher?” I asked, turning around in the doorway I was already flying through.

She shook her head. “Ran. Get the other two.”

I nodded.

The light from the flashlight wasn’t quite sufficient for this kind of oppressive darkness. A single beam of light weighed against corridor after corridor, room after room of only darkness. I found the stairwell, and beyond the first flight, everything was obscured by the receding water, the level steadily decreasing.