“Rachel!” I called out, trying to be heard over the rush of wind. “Can you hear me!?”

I heard her grunt. I wasn’t sure if it was in the affirmative or the negative.

“What’s going on with Tattletale? She didn’t catch this with the mercenaries?”

“She’s an idiot!” Rachel barked the words.

There wasn’t any elaboration.

“Victoria!”

It was Foil who called out through her open window. She’d heard me. She leaned out the window, one elbow poking out. The hand of that arm had a gun in it.

I flew close enough to hear, which meant being close enough I couldn’t wrap the Wretch around me. It was cold, but I could deal in the short term.

“I don’t know if you can relate,” Foil said. “But sometimes you get stuck in a place that isn’t you. Where everything you do is a drain on you. It brings out your worst traits.”

My face was so cold I was worried about frostbite. I turned my head around, one gloved hand going to my hood to keep it up as a shield against the wind. All the same, I flew sideways, one eye closed.

Foil said something, and I had to cup a hand by my ear to hear because the wind whistling past the van was too much.

“Tattletale’s in that place, trying to help the city,” Foil raised her voice.

“She took over Brockton Bay!” I had to half-shout to be heard over the rush of wind.

“She didn’t! Not like you’re thinking! Coil took most of it over, set most of that stuff in motion! Skitter did a lot of the rest of the work when it came to the taking over part! Tattletale isn’t a warlord! She isn’t a chessmaster!”

Eerie to hear one of her allies say it. More uncomfortable to have to recontextualize my mental picture of her.

“What the hell is she, then?”

“She’s an idiot!” Rachel shouted.

I was surprised she could hear.

“She’s a manipulator!” Foil called out, raising her voice in response.

“She’s an idiot, but if you start talking shit about her—”

“I’m not, Bitch! It’s not shit,” Foil said, the latter half of what she said was a normal speaking volume. “She took over what Coil started and she steered that. She’s good at that, but the farther we get from that setup of his, the harder it is. She steered the group, helped Skitter, helped Imp!”

“And Rachel?” I asked, looking at Rachel.

“You don’t manipulate her, or you get your head torn off!”

Rachel turned her head to stare at Foil. With the protection against cold weather, her expression was hidden. I was going to assume sheer hostility. It seemed to stay the case, unless she was being sweet to the Heartbroken kids.