The two started play wrestling on the couch in their… I wasn’t sure if it was a headquarters or home. The tropical overlay did mask some essential details. There was a key to make the overlay drop away, but that risked letting bystanders see the feed.

Spright and Shortcut were on their way. Shortcut wasn’t my first choice, but I wasn’t about to look this horse in the mouth.

Colt was in the next room, though she might as well have been in the same room as the frisky pair, because the wall that separated kitchen from the living room space had a massive window in it that things could be passed through.

Love Lost was moving. On the screen, the lady with the feather boa was pulling on a light jacket. The camera zoomed in as she slid something up her sleeves, attaching it to her wrists.

Claws.

“Going to battle,” I said.

Rain used his feet to pick up his bag, dropped it a bit, then got it on the second try, passing it to his hands.

Love Lost snapped her fingers. All activity on the ground floor stopped—which amounted to ‘Parker’, Sidepiece as the girl with the shark-bite tattoos, and D.J.

“Do you need us?” Sidepiece asked.

Love Lost indicated Colt.

“We’re going out?” Colt asked.

“Yeah,” Nicky said, as she came down the stairs. She grabbed her own top and hat. “It’s a meeting. Bring everything.”

“So long as it’s not washing dishes,” Colt said, sullen.

The scene on the screen shifted, the camera pulling away. It gave us an overhead view of the ‘Blood Atoll’—a ring of beach with a pirate bay contained within. Other lenses on the camera began to pull up scenes and things of interest. One dominant picture was of the jeep beside Love Lost’s headquarters. A machine gun was mounted on top, covered with a tarp, an x-ray image showing the loose position of the gun.

I looked around to make sure nobody was staring at our screen, and reached over for the key combination, checking with Rain and Sveta that I was good to go. They did their own check before nodding.

Just a second.

The Atoll became Lyme, the dirt from where ground had been flattened out forming the ring around the exterior, construction ongoing, the layout of boat and beach became building and snow layered over dirt and rock.