I reached the end of the hallway, found the stairs, and flew in a zig-zag to navigate the flights. The building only had two floors, and the damage to the second was negligible, nothing strewn around, most offices locked.

I shivered a bit more.

Lookout was expecting me to deliver a computer. I was—I was chasing a vague hint from a girl in a paper mask, if it could even be called a hint.

“Hello!?” I called out, again.

Back down to the first floor. I stared down the length of it.

She’d left the tunnel, and she’d done what?

She’d been caught, just like Natalie. She’d caused enough of a fuss that they’d tied her up, despite the fact that she was aligned.

Was she aligned?

The tainted food—the drugged food.

Natalie had had her bound hands pressed to her mouth. Had she been warming her breath, or had I caught a glimpse of something in the way of a message?

They’d crossed paths, met, collaborated.

I flew down the hallway. The stuff from the vending machine. Bags of chip that were half air and half chip. Boxes of candy. Many were damaged. Some were dirty, in a way that could have meant they’d been walked on.

I held the candies, and I hesitated. It was hard to convince myself to. It felt disloyal.

Master–stranger protocols. I imagined Natalie with her fingers to her mouth, like it was a mimed order. Driven by an impulse, feeling like I was potentially about to take poison, I took the most dirty, most damaged package, opened a hole wider, and then tipped a few of the gummy candies back into my mouth.

In the distance, it sounded like Goddess was tearing a mountain out of the ground.

I chewed, tasting the chemicals and preservatives of the candy, something I’d never been a huge fan of, and… it tasted delicious.

I swallowed, turning my head toward the ceiling in the process, and I closed my eyes.

Was it just candy?

A part of me wanted it to be. A part of me wanted an excuse to feel less uneasy. The conflict was brewing and—and good people were going to get hurt. Goddess was—

⊙

—fucked in the head.

Fuck her.

Fuck this.

I hope your fucking danger sense is making your head spin, Lady in Blue.

I grabbed the other candies and chips, favoring the broken bags. When my hands were full, I speared them on the spikes of my costume.

Style be damned.

How had they managed it? The building had been collapsed.

Rats. Mice.

It might have been Natalie who gave Ratcatcher the direction, Ratcatcher who did the lifting. Had they known they were going to be caught, and laid this as a trap? Something that anyone coming through might pick up and share?