Little Midas was already shaking his head. “Won’t, can’t. And you can be reassured that means I won’t be talking to others about what you’ve all shared here. I mean no ill will, this has been very interesting, even fun, but no.”

Pain in the fucking ass. That—

“Okay,” Tattletale said.

—was not okay. I arched an eyebrow, but Tattletale couldn’t see it with the mask obscuring the upper half of my face. By Sveta’s expression, her take on this wasn’t so different.

“No groveling, no mercenary offers?” Midas asked.

“No,” she told him. “No. Time is of the essence. Prancer, you have the means to contact me. Semiramis, if you’ll give me the contact information for those two, we’d like to try talking to them, seeing what they remember, specifically.”

“I can give you the last known numbers. They made it clear they weren’t interested in further contact, after my association with Big Picture tainted their view of me, I don’t know if they’ll answer. I leave that to your discretion.”

Semiramis took a pen from Tattletale, writing the number down on a napkin.

Midas slouched back in his seat, watching carefully from behind his golden helmet. He’d expected a fight and got a surrender instead. He was wary, and I was too, even though I was coming at this from the opposite angle.

“Do me a favor?” Semiramis asked.

“Maybe,” Tattletale said, warily.

“Tell them I’m open to working with them on another project. L.J.M. does not need to be associated with it, and I’m no longer working with Big Picture.”

“But you’d still want to do a sex scene with a Case Fifty-Three?” Sveta asked.

“Wouldn’t it be progress? Acceptance of the body? Something deeper than a one-kiss on screen?”

“One-kiss?” Prancer asked.

“When they allowed white people to kiss black people on screen, it started with the one-kiss. Toe in the water, never two kisses in the same episode or movie. Then they eased in, as people got used to it. Same with gay people. Then with the—you Case Fifty-Threes.”

“I know the guy who got the first on-screen kiss,” Sveta said. “But it wasn’t only one kiss.”

“Yes, you’re right. More than one. Deliberately so. They wanted to push the envelope. But so do I, here. The difference is that they, I think, had the PRT helping? It’s common knowledge the American organizations helped. They are… greasy like our Midas here, greasing up the wheels.”

“Have I offended you, Semiramis?”

“No, Midas. But you haven’t won my favor today, either. I want this done with, with a minimum of headaches. I want to focus on my empire, and grow it. I can’t do that if this looms above.”

“You guys can work this out later,” Tattletale said. “We’re going to chase down this lead.”