“Take our message to her,” I said. “No guns. No ground to air lightning cannons. Keep it simple. But right now, you’re right, there’s bigger fish to fry. She should keep her head down, be careful about how she’s treating those enemies. Cradle might be after her.”

“She’s not the head-down type, you know.”

“Her funeral, then. The authorities do want her. But for now we want to avoid disaster. Cradle coming after her and winning would be a disaster. She’ll know why.”

“Uh huh. What’s the catch here? Trading us for info on the new recruits?”

“You’re not a priority,” I said. I wasn’t even lying as I said it. If I had my way they’d be a priority, but I wasn’t about to get my way. The courts were falling behind. Or they had fallen behind—the overburdened system had become most noticeable when the compound had been raided. “This is about information and it’s about keeping the peace. We know Love Lost is after Precipice. We know what March is doing. But if she’s willing to back off, so will we.”

“She doesn’t back off,” Sidepiece said. “Don’t want to jeopardize my being freed, but I’d be disrespecting her if I pretended she might.”

“It’s fine. We’re making the offer regardless. I’d rather crack down on the masterminds and big threats.”

“While siccing other teams on all the fodder and bottom feeders?”

“They’ll do what they do. We’re just… organizing better.”

“Fuck that.”

Spright bent down. He undid cuffs, freeing Sidepiece’s hands from behind her head, and Disjoint’s limbs were uncuffed. We’d cuffed ankle to ankle and ankle to table leg. The hands had been cuffed in a way that kept them in view. There wasn’t anything he could do that was faster than the spear-tip at the head of the halberd could be.

The two were freed, and they climbed to their feet. The shitty table nearly broke as Sidepiece leaned on it to stand up.

“You’re really letting us go?”

“We’re letting them go?” Shortcut asked. More red faced and pissed off than before.

“Never let it be said I never do anything nice for you,” Swansong said.

“You can still go fuck yourself,” Sidepiece answered, venom in her voice. “But you can leave the bottle out of it.”

“How gracious.”

“Yeah, huh? I’m a sweetheart like that,” Sidepiece said. “This isn’t a head-game? No tricks?”

“Go,” Spright said.

“No tricks,” I said.

“The creepy camera girl didn’t put trackers on us?”

“No. My stuff is broken, thanks to you guys—”

“Don’t give the enemy information,” Swansong gently admonished.

“—and I don’t need trackers to know everything you do. I kind of wish I didn’t know everything you do.”

“Creepy as shit little kid,” Sidepiece said.