I turned slowly, looking up at Harris. He gave me a slight shrug and shake of the head. Resigned.

Fuck no.

I didn’t want to let them win like this.

“Instructor Harris… stuff for Etna and Crested is on the Captain’s desk. Get them set up and bring them out?”

“Yeah,” he said, voice terse.

He jogged back.

“What’s it going to take to heal them?” I asked.

“I have the stuff. Healing. It should get them to ninety, ninety-five percent. They’ll be hungry. Good enough?” Bitter Pill asked, a condescending note in her voice, her gaze too casual and distracted.

“Good enough,” I told her.

Bluestocking added, “Small expenditure of resources. The fixing of this building when you did half the damage? No.”

“How do you know how much damage we did?” I asked.

She gave me a look, half glare, half disdain.

I hated being ignored, patronized, and looked down on. I’d triggered because it had been so oppressive. Now here she was, just pressing that button.

I consoled myself by telling myself that this was handled. Things were calm. We could still negotiate.

Maybe Bluestocking had some postcognitive powers. Past-reading, like the time camera had been able to do.

In the back, Birdbrain perked up. She raised her voice, alarmed. “Blue! Bitter!”

She was running now, catching up with our group. Bluestocking raised a hand, motioning for her to stop and stay back. She might have been thinking that this was already a two versus one discussion, and a third person would make it lopsided enough to stop being civil.

But then Birdbrain drew close enough that the alarm in her eyes was visible through the eyeholes of her bird mask.

“What did you do?” Bluestocking asked.

Bitter Pill seemed to connect before Bluestocking did, because she pushed past me, hurrying toward the building. I motioned for the others to back off and let her through.

The others followed, with Foggy Idea trailing behind. Birdbrain held out her guns, threatening anyone who threatened to attack while the thinker team was surrounded.

I flew to keep up. I had to be ready to protect Harris if—

He was already backing up, hands up, when the thinkers arrived at the door to the hallway. He’d dragged Crested from the cell and shoved the food that had been left on the captain’s desk into Crested’s face.

“Are you stupid?” Bitter Pill asked.

“Did you eat it?” Bluestocking asked.

“He ate enough,” Bitter Pill said, sounding pissed.

“Your call,” I told her. “You can travel with someone that’s going to go monster and either wreck everything or refuse to budge… or you can let them stay in this cell here. We’ll wait for our reinforcements, see if they come…”

“Shut up,” Bluestocking said.

“Or you can accept my terms, and we’ll keep this easy for you.”

There was a long pause.

My team was standing beside me. I could see Bitter Pill holding a bottle so the cap was between her index and middle fingers, ready to drop it.