“Be a partner then. Listen to what your teammate is saying.”

She set her jaw, knuckles cracking as she clenched her fist.

Rain and Capricorn caught up with us.

“I’ll let you take the lead,” Swansong said.

“Thank you,” I said.

“But we have to go,” she said.

The crowd had backed away, and in doing so, they’d opened a more or less clear path to the door.

I looked at Tristan.

“Yeah,” he said. “We might as well engage them somehow.”

They’d moved on from Swansong, talking about others. We approached the door, and the voices that came from speakers while we were outside became voices from speakers inside, resonating as they bounced off of bookshelves, walls, and ceiling.

I’d dealt with too many racists back in Brockton Bay to be optimistic about dealing with bigots of another stripe. I could use the minute we had here, while they finished their segment on a villain from the west end of the city, and I could try to figure out what my arguments were.

I didn’t have any.

“For those of you who don’t have a vantage point to see,” Mrs. Darleet said, her voice smooth, one that made me think she’d practiced it over radio. “Swansong, who we were just talking about, has graced us with her presence.”

Swansong swished her dress with one hand and swept a hand in front of her as she curtsied.

“Along with three others,” Gary Nieves said. “All in costume. Naturally intimidating.”

“Naturally,” Swansong said.

“No,” I said. “That’s not our intent.”

“It’s the result, isn’t it?” Gary asked.

“It is. Unfortunately, it is,” I answered.

“If intimidating us into silence isn’t the intent, then what is?” Gary asked.

“Clarifying facts,” I told him. “Swansong wanted to clear her name, I think. I and my companions wanted information, though we kind of planned to wait until all was done.”

Although I’m worried you might have started a riot or provoked something if you’d gone on too long.

“Clear your name? You didn’t benefit from the amnesty, Swansong?”

“I did. But I was on thin ice. When I killed a killer that ice broke. I accepted my punishment.”

“You admitted to the charges and punishment, so I can skip my second question. Funny, that you admitted to murder, and yet you’re still here.”

“The prison is gone. I’m doing my part by cooperating and helping to permanently remove villains,” Swansong answered. “There’s no place to put me and they don’t consider me a priority.”

“An admitted killer isn’t a priority.”

“Seems not,” Swansong said.

“Gary,” I said. “If you want, we look into giving you an inside look at the process. Obviously we can’t let you talk about details, because the villains could use that, but you’d be free to agree, say the idea is flawed, say it’s inhumane, even—”