“Naturally,” Ashley said. She put her head back and sighed in a way that looked like she was trying to get back to a place where she could fall asleep again.

I made my exit. Back to my room, grabbing my bag and then simultaneously trying to juggle food and bag all at once. Finding it too much, I checked nobody was looking, then altered my body’s orientation to be horizontal, placing the things across my belly and lap. I swam-floated in the direction of my room and got myself set up there.

Computer, food, water. I tore off a hunk of baguette with my teeth and ate it on its own. Wood smoked, and flavorful enough that it was actually fine and enjoyable like that, even stale. I booted up my computer.

The staler end of the baguette eaten and chewed, I tore off pieces and combined them with cheese and meat from my plate.

A message from the Wardens. I’d sent something from the hospital, asking for details on the bait-message that had gone out to the Navigators.

My reply came from Dragon.

Finding the internet address the message had been sent through wasn’t the hardest thing in the world, though obfuscation had been used. Dragon could do that.

But while she and I were talking, she wrote, she had two subjects she wanted to raise. One was Jeanne Wynn’s pledge to me, that she would get me access to the files. Dragon was her intermediary in that.

She was less keen to provide details on the other. It was something that Dragon felt could only be discussed face to face.

⊙

The information. Spell it out. Trust.

Vista and Golem were in attendance along with Cinereal—and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad one. On any other day, objectively, I would have said she was the perfect person for the role. She was serious, focused, and she had an angry edge to her, but always controlled. Controlled anger was, in my opinion, perfect for the current crisis. She had been a heavy hitter in Atlanta, which hosted a major arm of Watchdog, unusual in that she didn’t tend to leave her city, even for Endbringer fights, because her power was best if she stuck to one location.

But Cinereal was scary as shit. She was almost scarier than Alexandria in pure attitude and disposition, and Alexandria had been the Protectorate’s enforcer, their scary woman in black and steel. Cinereal had no steel and wore ash gray and white. She had no spikes and no hard edges, no weapons in plain view. It was the look on her face, upper half covered with a mask, and it was in how she held herself.