“If this doesn’t get us something undeniably worth it, you can throw me or Sammy here into jail when we’re done with this mission,” Imp said.

Chin stiff, I stared her down. She didn’t flinch.

Samuel turned, then struck the thrall across the side of the face. The man kicked out ineffectually, and Samuel stepped back out of the way.

“Is this really what we want to be?” I asked.

“It’s what I am,” Samuel said. “And it’s why I’m here.”

“I don’t care what we are, so long as we make it through this,” Imp said.

I didn’t have a response for that. I watched as Samuel continued to beat the thrall. A man I’d rationalized I could hurt in the midst of battle because he wasn’t fully thrall. He wasn’t an innocent being put through his paces. He’d had volition, and by our understanding of Teacher, that suggested he’d had a choice. For privileges or good behavior, he’d earned more slack.

Samuel punched the guy in the side of the stomach twice. He motioned for Roman to let go of him. The man dropped to hands and knees, head bowed.

“There,” Samuel said. “What’s coming? What capes does he have?”

“Team Green-Black has an agent that can make the visible invisible. She’s to place explosives in a series of set locations, we detonate part of the facility if the next two waves fail, we clean up, then we rebuild. We did it already with one of the attackers. Took their powers so they couldn’t hold off.”

The voice from the thrall was almost robotic, hollow. Haunting.

“How does it work?” Samuel asked. “What are the steps in this plan?”

“You’re to be distracted, you have certain capes who can see or handle the explosives, one team is already working on them. Team Copper-White is to slow down or take out your fastest and most elusive.”

“Keep talking,” Samuel said. He kicked the man in the side.

I started forward, purely on instinct, at seeing a villain kick a man on the ground. I stopped myself, and a half-second later, Sveta reached me, hand at my shoulder. She looked down the hall at the Heartbroken.

This was getting to me. More than I wanted to admit.

When I was dropping Lookout off at one point, Darlene had remarked that Samuel was one of the nice ones. Educated, older, smart, and the one to keep the more dangerous kids like Flor in line.

There was nothing nice about this scene.

Withdrawal and Caryatid were close by. I wanted to distract myself, so I turned their way, running fingers through my hair.

“You did well,” I told them.

Withdrawal nodded. Caryatid didn’t.