“Look,” Prancer said. “It sucks right now. Pay’s shit, money doesn’t go far, heroes are ramping up, and we end up in places like Hollow Point and Frontier Row, here. And the heroes show up, and we can’t get settled.”

While he talked, I drew a circle on the phone screen to ‘reel in’ the zoom. Moving in closer, looking at the cluster of traps where my friends were, I could see how they were spaced out, seven in a loose cluster.

Nothing distinguishing one trap from the others.

“My group’s doing fine, Prance. Sucks to be you, I’m sure.”

“All of us are getting together. You’ve got drug kingpins and smugglers like me and my crew, you’ve got hitmen for hire, information brokers, the publicity hounds… we had to agree to a truce, to a strict no-infighting policy. A truce that means we hear stories about what people are getting up to and we let it slide.”

“You were part of those discussions too, Prancer. In fact, I seem to recall that the topic of the Navigators came up, and you had a stake in the matter.”

“Not denying I did,” Prancer said. He glanced at me. “Blue will bring it up if I don’t. I wanted the Navigators gone.”

I was in the middle of zooming out to see the trap layout when I processed what he’d said.

I tensed, phone forgotten for the moment.

“They were going after our one means of trading with the settlements establishing on the other side of the ocean. Stopping all trafficking, not just the human trafficking. With winter coming up, everything fucked up, my girl dead…”

“You asked for it?” I asked, my voice hard.

“He didn’t,” Moose said, sounding defensive. “That’s not how we operate.”

“But Cradle knew I wanted it and he offered,” Prancer said.

“And you said yes,” Bluestocking said. “My group said no.”

“But you allowed it,” Swansong said.

“Etna’s even protecting the people who did it,” I added. “And she’s working for you.”

“The only way we survive as a whole is if we’re strong. Strength in number and strength in the powers we have,” Bluestocking said. “The network of alliances we’re operating under is like a chessboard. Try to take one piece and two more are positioned to wipe you out. That’s on purpose.”

“All beside the point,” Prancer said.

“It’s the point,” I said, more than a little incensed.