I could hear the tone in the ‘really’, and it clarified the uneasy tone in the rest of it. I’d imagined the city was on fire, before, when all of the villains had stepped up their game and gone on the hard, no-rules offense. Things were still bad and we didn’t have enough capes on rooftops.

But if I really needed it, she would try, she might even find a way, and other critical things would suffer for it.

“We don’t know how bad the situation with the others is,” I answered. “Can I get back to you on that?”

“You can. Fill me in on your thing, so I can tell people higher up the ladder and figure out when and if we can get away sending someone.”

“Our team red got shot up. Some of them were taken prisoner. Ransoms pending.”

“That much I knew.”

“Team yellow is silent. No communication.”

“Who’s on yellow?”

I hesitated. The inquisitiveness wasn’t unusual for Vista, but being pressed when I was weary and my defenses were admittedly down had me on my guard. My first thought was master–stranger protocols. If she was compromised or if she wasn’t really Vista…

But she’d opened with ‘big V’. I believed the story she’d told and I believed that the Vista I knew, in her right mind, might bring it up like she’d done.

“Victoria?”

“Tattletale, Chicken Little, three Heartbroken kids, Sveta and Capricorn.”

“I wanted to make sure Tattletale wasn’t with you, get a mental picture. The second reason I called—offering help wasn’t a reason—”

“Yeah.”

“A friend reached out. I wanted to check with you before giving her your number.”

I could connect the dots. “Hellhound.”

“Bitch,” Foil said from the backseat. “I know it’s awkward, but it’s the name she chose.”

“Call her Rachel,” Vista advised me, over the phone.

“Rachel, Bitch. Okay.”

“Can I give her your number?” Vista asked.

“Go for it.”

“Call me after if you can. Let me know how it went. And if you need something for that throat, hit up a gas station or a pharmacy, look for this medicine they sell that’s from one of the alternate Earths. Weird name, orange cap, blue bottle. I lived by it the last time I had a cold.”

“I will.”

“Good luck with your teammates. And with Rachel.”

I hung up.

“Vista’s giving Rachel my number,” I said. “She doesn’t have yours, Foil?”

“She has it, she loses it. Frequently,” Foil answered.

“She thinks if she can’t remember a number she shouldn’t have to bother with it,” Chastity said. I looked back at her, saw her leaning her head back, eyes closed. “People have tried to tell her about contact lists. She prefers a smaller circle.”

“We don’t cross paths much,” Foil said.

“Any tips?”

“No good ones.”