Cryptid closed in.

“Crock,” Vista said. “She’s strong?”

“After,” I said. “I’ll fill you in when I’m sure we won’t be caught talking.”

She nodded.

Too many things to keep track of. We hurried through the gate and down the hall, stopping at the corner. I indicated our path with my finger, a zig-zag around the areas cameras could see. The ground floor had an eating area taking up a good fifth of it, another area that was sealed off and curtained, maybe a closed storefront, and then lobby and smaller rooms. There was a stairwell tucked into a nook, just to the left of the hallway we were in, my view through the camera telling me it led up and down.

But our focus was the smaller room.

I checked, then gave the signal. To the room by a trolley loaded with bottles and folded cloths.

Into the room, where more bottles and cloths were stored and shelved.

Using Wretch strength, a burst, I moved a shelf. Metal scraped against floor. We stood in silent tension, waiting and listening to see if there would be an issue or cry for alarm.

“I’m making a hole?” Ashley asked.

“Controlled destruction,” I said.

“I don’t do controlled. Not well.”

“Vista, expand the target area? I want it so that when things revert, the hole is small.”

Vista nodded.

“That works,” Ashley said.

“Crock. She was Fidelis, once. Ex-marine who left the service to be a Protectorate heroine. Louisiana PRT.”

“I don’t remember her,” Vista said, as she expanded the floor that had been beneath the shelf.

“Before your time,” I said. “Took on a position where she’d spend six months of the year with the Lousiana team, six months going from town to town in one of the dead zones without any nearby departments. Helping police with weird and tough cases. She’d work as a lie detector, then if there was trouble she’d mutate into an eerie, beautiful, ten foot tall woman.”

“I’ve seen hints of what she becomes and she isn’t beautiful and she’s barely—”

A crash marked Cryptid arriving at the portcullis gate. He slammed into it, loud, striking bars and straining metal.

“—Barely a woman,” Ashley said.

“That’s Cryptid,” I murmured. “We should go.”

Through the stairwell camera, I could see people hurrying to the scene to see. They saw and backed off.

Being big and ugly isn’t working for you here, I thought.