“It’s warmer here than back home,” Flashbang said, from a few feet away. “But they’re still motivated to stay where they’re out of the wind and weather. They’ve been told to be on guard, but nothing specific.”

Back home, I thought. Having an apartment, I’d almost reached the point that I could start thinking about it as home, and then the original occupant had arrived. Two of her, in a manner of speaking. I didn’t think of Gimel as home, hadn’t thought of Crystal’s apartment or my dad’s apartment as home.

I hadn’t thought of the care house as home. Or the hospital room.

Home was Brockton Bay and home had been in ruins even before today happened.

Byron moved out of the way, and I peered out the window. I could see the construction lights that had been rigged up in place of streetlights, too bright and wide-area. Homes were small and one-story, all prefab and few with any attempt to hide the fact that they were prefab.

“Even if you find Cradle or Love Lost, maybe Colt, you won’t be able to wake them,” Rain was telling Foil.

“Pain? Drugs?” Chastity asked.

“No, I’m pretty sure. Cradle tried using a power to throw a wrench into things once. When I talked to March about it, she said that Cradle hired someone called Snaggletooth, a cape that invaded dreams. The woman ended up brain dead.”

“You have someone else now,” I said. “Colt. Is that going to be an invasion or an addition?”

“I’ll find out in a few minutes,” Rain said, looking at his phone. I saw him sigh.

The settlement around the station was tricky. So much of it was illuminated so brightly that it seemed to cast the remainder into darker shadow. There were places where I wasn’t sure if the dark shapes were buildings, rocks or trees. With the construction being so cheap and so quick, even down to there being corrugated steel roofs and plywood, the windows weren’t exactly of the insulated double-pane sort. They were drafty and to deal with drafty many of the residents put up heavy blankets or blocked the windows outright, at least for the colder months.

I’d seen enough of it while working with the Patrol.

And blocked windows didn’t shed light unless someone peeked out.

I wished we had Lookout, to map this area. It would have changed everything about our approach. But she was still getting medical care, for what little it was worth.

Byron tapped the glass of the window we were looking out of. “If we leave out the front door, then we’ll have twenty eyes on us. Ten seconds later, we’ll have a good hundred people ready to deal with us.”

“Side door, then. Has to be.”