“Good. Consolidation helps. We are very curious and very interested as to whether any of the other corner worlds are shielded from Teacher’s eye. If possible, we’d like to talk to Barrow and to have Deader and Goner in custody for interviewing.”

“We’ll make it happen.”

“If you can’t, at least distract them.

“Shepherds, we want you at the east end of the city. Boston, periphery of New Brockton. You have the numbers and organization to do it.”

Moonsong answered, “We talked informally with Legend about it last night, I told him I had reservations, and he seemed understanding. Things feel fragile right now and if we split up too much or stop maintaining a lot of face-to-face contact, that leaves us weak.”

“We need all bases covered for one day. Perhaps two. There’s—”

Cinereal, in her ash-gray costume with a bird motif, feathers weaving together and criss-crossing along the length of her robe and at the edges of her mask, turned her head as some members of her frontline of thinkers broke ranks. Crystalclear had stepped away first, going to talk to Effervescent. Tattletale hopped down from her perch of a stack of chairs and joined them. Countenance, Foresight’s team leader, joined them to make it a group of four.

“Is there a problem?” Cinereal asked.

“Nothing confirmed,” Countenance said. “We’ll take some people upstairs to talk, if that’s okay?”

Cinereal nodded, gesturing for them to go.

The thinkers rounded up a few members of one of Advance Guard’s tertiary groups. People I didn’t recognize. After a short pause, they also gathered up two members of one of the Shepherd’s teams.

All were escorted upstairs.

“One or two days, Moonsong. Knock down the nails that stick up. Keep any villains from getting cocky, keep any big incidents at bay.”

Moonsong looked surprisingly stressed out by the notion of having to distribute her team across several areas of the city. I’d have to ask Byron, who was staring at Moonsong, while absently adjusting his armor.

The armor—I turned to look. The straps that he’d been tightening for the last forever dangled off the side of the table and down to the floor.

I turned to Vista, who was smiling to herself, and I elbowed her, which set her off, in a fit of soundless, supressed laughter.

Byron noticed, and then noticed the straps. He gave Vista a push on the shoulder.

“Breakthrough,” Cinereal said.

All at once, we were at attention.

“You’re missing a member,” she said.

“Lookout is part of a new team now. We support her and she acts as an adjunct teammate, but officially she’s part of a new kids-only team. They’re on a job handling a kidnapping.”

“We hoped to talk to her about security and protocols.”

“We can let her know and send her your way.”