The others were huddled. Rain blew on his hands for warmth, then clasped them together, before folding them inside another pair of hands that stuck out of his sleeves. Ashley didn’t look dressed sensibly for the weather, but as far as I could tell her hands didn’t get cold, and she was putting on a brave face, her back straight, hands in her pockets. Her nose and ears looked visibly red in the gloom, though, and I strongly suspected she would be annoyed at the fact.

Byron was fine, of course, entirely in his element, and Kenzie had the stuff with her to dress for the weather. She had the camera that Rain had found clasped in her gloved hands. It looked like Byron was trying to free a bit of fabric from a sharp bit of metal without damaging the glove too much.

“How’s the camera?” I asked.

“Broken in six different and major ways. But it’s nice to have the parts. Makes fixing it way faster.”

“That’s good,” Sveta said.

Kenzie nodded.

“Spright wants to meet,” I said, showing them my phone—more to just indicate the glowing screen than to hold it out for them to see the text messages. “If anyone wants to opt out, go home, warm up, recharge for tomorrow, build stuff, I don’t think anyone’s going to hold it against them. Having some people who are a little more refreshed at the start of tomorrow could be good.”

The statement earned me some blank stares.

“I heard the emphasis on building stuff,” Kenzie said. “You don’t have to shoo me away or anything.”

“I’m not. I’m just offering an out,” I said. “For a lot of us, this conversation could be personal or difficult.”

Rain made a sound, creaky and low in his throat, as if he was chewing on the idea. “It’s because it’s personal and difficult that some of us have to show.”

“Then let’s go talk to Sidepiece and Disjoint,” I said.

⊙

“Fuck you,” Sidepiece said, turning to Swansong. “The short hair looks good, hon, but you looked way better in black and fuck you.”

“The white is growing on me,” Ashley said.

“Is the ‘fuck you’ growing on you too? Go fuck yourself with the business end of a broken bottle, yeah?” Sidepiece retorted. She turned to Rain, “And while I’m at it, fuck you, kid killer. You think she didn’t mention that detail? I hope you shared with your team.”

“I did, actually,” Rain said.

“Did you share all the gory details, kid killer? Did you tell them about her having to watch her daughter’s face get cracked open on a table every time it’s her night?”

“Yeah. I explained some of that pretty early on.”