I turned back to Byron. “That was only the start of it. They’re villains, and while I’m talking fairness? They aren’t. They don’t play fair. Tristan suggested picking a fight, and I think it’s a bad idea, because we could get every hero in our coalition to go after them and the Undersiders might find a way to make the fight unfair in their favor.”

“The reason I brought it up is that I have to wonder if we’ve collectively lost it, because as strong as they are, they ran. We’re heading towards what they ran from.”

“We won’t enter the New Brockton area specifically,” I said. “How are we doing on your end, Kenzie?”

“I’m still getting the occasional blip. We’re on the right road.”

“What if we get this far and there’s nothing?” Sveta asked.

“Then we spent some time driving around and talking. But going by what Kenz reported with the timeline—”

“They went somewhere,” Kenzie said.

I opened my laptop.

9:41 PM, two vehicles with Undersiders inside are seen at the New Brockton area limits, leaving.

9:55 PM, two more vehicles are tracked leaving.

10:24 PM, all four vehicles are seen moving together. Judging by speed limits and where they are spotted, they were not traveling for the full duration.

“Tell us when we’re close,” I said.

“Oh, we’re close. Five more minutes.”

“Gear up,” I said, folding up my laptop, sliding it between the seat and drink holder.

I had washed and laundered my costume, but my costume was fabric with decorations that Weld had fashioned for me before he’d left, a higher quality than nearly anything I could have had made for a reasonable cost. I’d removed the pieces to wash it all, and there were still some to replace on the costume. My hood had a thin length of metal running through the edge of the hood to keep it from slumping off to one side, and I did have to thread that through.

Two minutes of work, to do that, don the ten finger- and thumb-rings that had spikes sweeping back, resting against the backs of my hands, and fix the decorations at my shoulders so they were straight, connecting them to the armor, because designing the costume so the metal hung off the cloth would have had it pull down and drape weird.

The van pulled to a stop. We all opened our respective doors.

A truck rest stop. Dirt road, shoulder-high concrete barriers to guide any errant or out of control trucks, and a fair amount of open space. There were a pair of portable toilets with bright yellow sides in the corner, and a diner-style restaurant a two minute walk away, but as I turned to Kenzie and pointed at the diner, she shook her head.

“Did she con us?” Sveta asked.