“Good,” Cell Manager Miltona said, standing. While the others were still reading the text that had been highlighted for the Decagon, she was explaining, “They’re close to the mark and the Old Man is caught. We’re losing some of our eyes.”

“Noted,” the cell’s third Cell Manager said. He went by Thrift, he had powers, but he rarely used them. “When?”

“Ten minutes from now,” Laurie said.

Thrift tapped on a keyboard. “That gives us a two-minute turnaround on keeping our target from catching him in the first place. Can we?”

The C.L.s weren’t volunteering much.

“No pawns in place,” Howe said.

“Then can we make it harder? If they investigate him they may find out we’ve been peeking through his eyes. Any pawns for that?”

More shaking heads.

“Come on, come on,” Howe said. The cheerleader. He had a background as a top seller in a pyramid scheme. “There’s a way. Bluestocking?”

One of the C.L.s spoke up, “Our focus was on the trade deal with the city.”

“Is there anyone in Blood Team?” Howe asked.

Another C.L. nodded. “Possible.”

“A pawn?”

“Wild cards. Little Midas sided with the more aggressive villains, but he’s hard to push. There’s someone downstairs we can use, too. I’ll talk to my cell and run the numbers.”

“Thank you,” Howe said. “Setting the clock. Eight minutes fifty.”

The C.L. walked along the divide between cubicles, stepped down, and jogged off. Miltona had barely settled in the Decagon when another C.M. approached from the direction the C.L. had gone.

“This started with your cell?” the C.M. asked. “You were first to go yellow.”

“Unavoidable,” Howe answered.

“You let one slip the net, and now you want my assets?”

“We all work together,” Miltona answered.

“Explain it for me first. I can see your displays. You have seven minutes.”

“They went to the Bunker, where we don’t have eyes and we can’t see. We were told to let them go, no interference, because the others wanted to see what we could get in the way of access or brute forcing their access. That’s not on us.”

“I’m not interested in your ass-covering, Howe.”

“There is no ass to cover. We’re assless. Others decided it was worth the risk, they were wrong. We didn’t get anything and we tipped them off. A target was clued in that something was wrong, went home, and immediately went to the material we planted. We pulled everyone in, best people at the desk, and by the time we were set the target was already collaborating with Tattletale from the Undersiders. We’ve been coordinating with the second team since, keeping them in the loop.”

“You shouldn’t have let the target reach Tattletale.”

“We asked, they said to let it happen. They felt trying to act would tip her off.”