“She did her time,” I said. “She made a mistake, she paid for it as much as she was able. We don’t have enough good jails and so she’s free, and it looks like she’s trying to do good. That’s pretty decent, really. She’s not the enemy here.”

“Isn’t she?” someone asked. Their name might have been James. They’d been around last year.

“The threat is the people targeting her. They’ve recruited help. We don’t know how much, but the intel Gilpatrick gave me said money changed hands. You guys know the basics when it comes to capes, you can inform the cops if something comes up, you know her story, and you’ll be a few more people in uniform keeping the peace and giving protesters a little more reason to hang back. If it gets bad, any real danger, you back off.”

There were a few nods.

There were also a few looks on a handful of faces that made me concerned. Too heated, or too cold. They weren’t the majority, but I wasn’t sure the majority was on Fume Hood’s side, either.

It put me in mind of the crowd and the broken pillar. If it was just this, I might have been able to let it lie. I could have accepted that the students here were among the angriest and most invested in the grittier side of the cape stuff. That it was just them.

Except it wasn’t. The old man, the girl who couldn’t drive, the crowd there and the response to the visiting cape… there was so much emotion bound up in things, I couldn’t trust that this was an isolated thing.

I couldn’t stand by and let this be the new normal, without any opposing voices. Even if my voice was a badly biased one.

With the climate, both general and even the fact that it was hot and tempers would be short, it would be so easy for us to see another Vikare.

I glanced over my shoulder and through the door. I saw Gilpatrick with Jasper and the kids.

Damn it, Gilpatrick.

“I’ll come with you,” I decided. “We’ll do our part to keep people organized and keep the peace.”

What did it say about the state of things, if I was increasingly the voice of restraint and reason?

I turned my attention back to the squad.

“For those of you who’ve just joined us, my name is Victoria Dallon, and I’ll be your squad captain today.”

Daybreak 1.2

I had badly neglected my locker. I had an office, so my locker in the changing room was more for the things I didn’t use much at all.