That would be the direction we were going.

Things had changed. From a city of gold to a city of crimson.

⊙

“I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you face to face, Victoria, and that you had to take a detour. Other things are demanding our presence and focus.”

“Trust me,” I said. “I totally get it. Things are bad right now.”

I approached a window. The streetlights were on, and the city beyond was dark.

Evening—no. After dark.

“Can I ask how your team is doing?” Dragon asked.

“I’m too used to Lookout, because my first impulse is to be surprised that you didn’t look it up on hospital computers first.”

“Admitting that sort of thing gets you in trouble,” Dragon said, over the phone that I’d set to speaker. “I asked because I wanted to hear it from you.”

I looked away from the window, and at the old computer with the round monitor and its slightly fishbowl screen. Green text on a black background flew across the screen. My device on the desk was more modern, with a red light flashing violently on the top as it accepted the data.

“In surgery, recovering, in for a third surgery, worrying, waiting in the dark, recovering, and… attending this meeting, I guess. It’s a mess.”

“Hopefully things will level out.”

I shook my head. “Advance Guard killed villains who had been hired to ambush that coalition. Our warning got to them too late, that this looked set up. It’s agitated things pretty badly—at least on our end there were some civilian witnesses. There’s a lot of question marks. People are scared.”

“I wish I could do more. I’m being watched too carefully to intervene in subtle ways, and the only unsubtle help I could provide would be deploying my machines. I don’t think that would calm the public.”

“No,” I said. “Knowing someone’s out there who has our back is… really nice. It’s appreciated.”

“It looks like we’re halfway done,” Dragon said. “Then you can get back to looking after them. I’m sorry that the timing is awkward.”

“This will be helpful for my looking after me, if nothing else,” I said. I was so tired. “Something to read on all the nights I’m not sleeping.”

I could see the files as they disappeared into my storage drive. DEPT_26.fold, DEPT_27.fold, DEPT_28.fold. Folded files that each supposedly contained the notes and pertinent details of major PRT departments.

“How much of this is redacted?” I asked.

“Some,” Dragon answered. “Enough to protect identities of heroes.”

“And identities of villains?”

“Very few. If you need access to something redacted, you can ask me. We’ll discuss. I imagine you’re thinking of Tattletale?”

“I wasn’t thinking of anyone particular.”

“She’s the one you have the most history with, who is most active and in opposition to you.”