“A break? Have you been postponing your bathroom break so you won’t miss us if you’re needed?”

“Yes, but that’s not super important. I meant go for a walk, get outside? I’ll bring a bodyguard if you’re worried, maybe.”

“What’s going on, Lookout?”

“Nothing. Can you let me know when there’s time? If you take the current device with, you can use it again. I’m patching it now so it won’t get backtraced.”

“Go take your bathroom break now. For the other break… we’ll let you know when we stop to rest and refresh. Can you put Tattletale on while you’re gone? Just in case?”

“Okay. I’ll be back in three hundred and forty two seconds.”

“Okay.”

“Thralls sighted!” Fume Hood called out. “They passed by and left!”

“Hold the position, don’t get baited out,” Capricorn said, barely audible because he was distant and around the corner.

“Keep me updated!” I called. I got a noise of assent.

Tattletale’s logo, a capital T intersecting a lowercase T, with an eye embedded in the capital T, replaced Kenzie’s mask on the screen.

“What’s up?” Tattletale asked. “Headphones on, hands at the controls. How are my Undersiders and Heartbroken?”

“Beating up someone defenseless.”

“Then they’re fine. Samuel’s a good bet here. Give him a few tries before giving up on him. But that’s not why you’re wanting to talk to me.”

“No. Lookout’s acting strange.”

“She always acts strange. What do you want me to do about it?”

“Her system. If you’re on her computer, find out what she was doing?”

“How invasive. Well, I’m good with passwords. Give me a minute.”

“You have about three. She’s running off to pee, wash her hands, and coming back.”

“Literally running. Right. Well, that makes it easier. Looking now. No password. Weird.”

“She has weird views on privacy. I think her default headspace is that all information should be available.”

“No kidding.”

A few long seconds passed. I was aware of the time limit.

Tattletale broke the silence. “The last time you connected to Teacher’s systems, you were close to the gallery. She got a look at files and what they were keeping track of.”

“Files like the ones you and I were investigating? Falsified, meant to mess with us?”

“No. The stuff they were using to build those. All good, untainted data. Poor fucking kid.”

“What?”

“She spent the last twenty minutes reading through pages and pages of data about herself, her new team, her old team. Records of how annoyed people were about her, how concerned, how thin tolerances were getting…”

“Okay,” I said. I had a sinking feeling.

I’d been on the sidelines, with only hints, and the hints had been a lot.