“Goat, not sheep, and it’s not clothing.”

“Keep deluding yourself. I’m happy to admit to being a wolf. I’m under no illusions.”

The streets were empty, the snow coming down in drifts as the wind blew it from the rooftops. A dense sheet or collection here, then another there.

“You said you wanted me here for the other part of my job,” Natalie said, cutting in while there was still room in the back and forth between Ashley and Tristan. “Is it Kenzie?”

“I was assuming it was,” Ashley said. “Except you brought Tristan, and he doesn’t connect to Kenzie.”

“I chime in for leadership decisions and things,” Tristan replied. He looked annoyed. “Kenzie and I don’t not get along.”

“But you haven’t figured her out,” Ashley said.

“It’s not Kenzie,” I said, before things got any further. “Not exactly.”

I had their full attention now.

We still walked, but they were quiet, all of them watching me. Ashley had a reddish tint to her nose and cheekbones, her only headwear was a pair of earmuffs. Tristan was better bundled up, while Natalie was best prepared, wearing her puffy jacket that was primarily for function.

“Kenzie,” I said. “If you’re listening in, I’d really appreciate it if you’d stop. I’m going to talk with these guys and if everything’s good, I’ll talk to the rest of you about it now.”

There was a pause where nobody spoke.

“It’s worrying that you have to do that,” Natalie said.

“What’s going on?” Tristan asked.

“I got the files from Dragon. I got some other information too.”

“And it impacts the team,” Tristan said. “Kenzie in particular?”

“Yeah, the team,” I said. “We talked about this before, back when we were all shopping, but I should go back to it. What do you know about Chris?”

“Chris,” Tristan said, with a bit of surprise.

P. Following the scheduling, ‘S’, was perception. See where others were at, restate the known, and get them in the right frame of mind to think and talk about it. Forgetting ‘P’ was to risk dropping something on someone right away.

“Nothing we didn’t cover in the shopping trip,” Ashley said. “He wants to be close to powerful people. He’s secretive to a fault. His power is destroying him. Kenzie defends him fiercely.”

“I don’t know much,” Natalie said. “I tried to give him some of the same kind of support and help we’ve been trying to give to Kenzie and he refused it.”

“He’s an asshole, but he was our asshole,” Tristan said. “Then he wasn’t, and it’s getting to me that we don’t know why. Did you figure out why?”