“A rare class in a lot of ways. I didn’t think parahumans lived to be that old,” Tattletale said.

“He’s a survivor,” Prancer said.

“He could almost pull it off, but no, he’s not a culprit, too slow,” Tattletale said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. That was the sticking point.

“I’m not sure if I should thank you for explaining that or be horrified, but fuck,” Tattletale said. “I don’t get the impression he was a mole for them. Marquis, Lord of Loss, and the other background players of Earth N? Sure. But them? Not consciously.”

“But the parallel is important?” I asked.

“Could be. Teacher’s, and I’m pretty sure he’s a big part of this, his big thing right now is that he’s trying to connect an awful lot of dots. He performs that connecting with the bottom-tier thinkers and tinkers his power makes.”

“Tinkers scan things,” Sveta said. “They can study parahuman powers and reinterpret them into blueprints and ideas for tinkering. Is it possible they scanned him, and got something similar? A machine that reads memories?”

“I wouldn’t rule it out,” Tattletale said. “But I wouldn’t rule it in, either. They’re acting on information fast enough I don’t think they’re sleeping or waiting until we’re sleeping to collect it. There are so many ways they could do this that it’s not worth getting stuck in the weeds. He could have a clairvoyant sitting on the guy, tinker cameras like your ex-teammate, or a hundred other things. Point is, he’s connecting the dots, and I think he’s devoting a lot of resources to keeping others from connecting and connecting dots.”

“That’s two distinctions you’re making there,” I said. “Connecting in the… team sense, and connecting in the information gathering sense.”

“I don’t care about this,” Semiramis said. “I want to know what to watch out for. You’re giving me a non-answer. You’re saying you don’t know, which is reneging on the deal.”

“No,” Tattletale said, in a voice somewhere between strained patience and outright exasperation. “I’m saying this is very much what to watch out for. What happened to you was a dots and connections thing.”

Semiramis’s voice was low. “You think he disrupted my deal with Engel and Egg to keep them from connecting dots?”

“You connected dots. We are the dots. You know the how, where, and what. I know Teacher’s why,” Tattletale answered.

“Tell me,” Semiramis said.

“You show me yours and I show you mine. How, where, what. Help me narrow this down. I’ll give you your why and then, if we’re lucky enough to get the chance, I’ll point this bruiser—”

Tattletale indicated me.

“—at the culprit, and hopefully we keep him from doing this or anything like it again.”