“Engel is a community leader. She’s beautiful, inside and out, very opinionated. Not a big fan of me. She’s… I’m not sure I feel comfortable saying more about things personal to her. She had difficulties. She got help. She would be my second pick to be a movie star, but I wouldn’t want her to do so if it’s with the photographer I’m thinking of. From what she says she’s avoided the worst of all of that kind of mess. Egg is a kid. They were around for the attack on Cauldron, as of Gold Morning. Scraping I don’t know.”

“Scraping isn’t a Case Fifty-Three,” Tattletale said.

“Then that’s why I don’t know them.”

“You know more than you’re letting on,” Tattletale said, to Semiramis.

“I need more if I’m going to give more.”

“And I’m barely involved, apparently,” Little Midas said.

“No,” Tattletale said. “You work with mercenaries. You farm them out. You work with people that include the ones downstairs. Those people targeted the Navigators three and a half weeks ago. They butchered them at the client’s behest. Familiar?”

“That does not mean I’m involved.”

“When they made that attack, they lured the Navigators out with carefully crafted messages. I think that was a first draft of this particular kind of attack. It worked. It passed muster. It leaned on deep and specific knowledge of the team and their deeper desires.”

Frick.

This wasn’t a sudden thing.

“No comment,” Little Midas said. He made a small, pleased sound, moving the beard portion of his helmet to drink some beer and giving me a view of a smug smile surrounded by facial hair that had been pressed out of shape by the helm.

“—Unless you give us more,” Semiramis said.

She really wants more.

“We could talk about their other moves,” I said. I can share what they did with me.

“No,” she said.

“You have this ouroboros design in your costume,” Tattletale remarked. “It all ties back into itself. You poked a bear and you lost three possible underlings.”

“Actors and actress,” Semiramis said. “I don’t like losing. I’m a builder, I lay groundwork, I gather loyal people, and I reward them to keep them loyal. Oftentimes the work is a grind. I bite my tongue and work and I make my way toward my goal of having an empire. Something cleaner than what I used to be. It’s rare that I’m passionate about a project, and then don’t get to see the fruits of that labor. Give me my revenge, bring my three actors back to me, or tell me something else I need to know.”

I heard the clink of glass. Conversation across the upper floor changed. The old man approached. Our conversation paused.