“I assumed it came from within, from internal background checks,” Big Picture said. “It didn’t?”

“No. I don’t think so. You might have enemies,” Tattletale said.

“Oh, I definitely do. It’s a very dramatic world, art,” he said. He smiled, eyes crinkling a bit.

“If we go back to Foresight and ask, are you okay with them sharing?” I asked.

“I’m not bothered. I’m upfront about my art and where I come from. We parted amicably, as I saw it.”

“Great,” I said. My eyes scanned the pictures. Even the innocent ones with warm smiles—mostly civilians or capes out of costume—left me feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. I turned to Tattletale. “We should go.”

“Is there a rush?” she asked, with a tenor or vibe that made me feel like she was jabbing at my jugular because I’d exposed too much throat. Putting me on the spot.

I turned to Chicken Little, “Want to go wait outside?”

“Sure,” he said.

“Dirty move,” Tattletale said. But she didn’t stop Chicken.

Chicken Little paused before leaving. “Thank you for inviting us in. They’re really good pictures.”

“Thank you,” Big Picture said.

“They’re dark, though.”

“They can be,” Big Picture said, turning to look at Gully’s picture, her head, face, and dreads seeming to emerge from the picture, out of darkness and into light.

“Do you want that darkness, along with wanting to be them?” Tattletale asked.

I was spared the continuation of the conversation by the ringing of my phone. I put a hand on Chicken Little’s shoulder to guide him to the door of the studio as I put the phone to my ear.

Rain.

“What happened to the communication blackout?” I asked.

“Emergency,” he said. “Weld came by to check in, I don’t even know what’s going on, but Tristan’s trying to handle it and he’s not having any luck, and now all hell is breaking loose.”

Black 13.7

I flew, Chicken Little remanded back to the care of Tattletale with the shortest possible explanation. If she was so smart, she could figure me out.

In the first minute of flight, I’d told Rain to enforce the communications blackout for anything short of ambulances needing to be called. That had been ten minutes ago. I wasn’t even sure if I trusted ambulances, or Rain’s call.