“Can we get stuff out? I have workshop stuff I’d miss. And furniture? Books? Ashley had so many things she was so fond of. I want to keep some.”

“We’ll do something,” I said. I struggled with keys, my left hand not fully cooperating, the gloves I wore not exactly helping. “But not everyone can do something, that’s why they’re upset.”

“Yeah. But if they spent less time protesting and more time preparing, they could bring more with them.”

“Maybe,” I said, as I unlocked the door. “Some of them don’t care about things, they want to keep other things. Security. Not having to worry they’ll keep facing tough winters. Not feeling like there’ll be one world ending threat every few years. Endbringers, then Scion, now this, which we’re being vague about, and which we haven’t made any major arrests on.”

We let ourselves into the top floor of the Wardens’ HQ, not that this was much more than a cardboard cutout building propped up in front of the real HQ.

“Because we’re saying it was the portals and the long term danger is worse than we thought, and the portals were done by the religious nuts at Cheit, who we can’t do anything about because diplomacy.”

“We can’t attack them without losing diplomatic support. We’re the big guys in terms of the weapons we hold and the little guys in everything else. And honestly, it would be really nice to have clearance to go into Cheit right now.”

Kenzie nodded.

We made our way down the stairwell to the passworded hallway. Kenzie could do the hallway with her eyes closed, so I let her do the steps to take us to the Bunker.

The road to the Bunker was framed by two new buildings, and the Bunker had a neighboring structure. The number of guards had tripled, many gathered on the rises on either side of the path, looking down at us with weapons at the ready.

But they knew my face. I raised a hand in a wave, and they waved me through.

We didn’t stop in at the Bunker itself. We continued down the path, took a hard left, and passed beneath more guards on our way to our destination.

Into Teacher’s facility.

“My first time here,” Kenzie said.

“You haven’t visited Byron?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I was planning to.”

As there had been armed guards guarding the way between bunker and facility, there were capes waiting for us on the other side. One of them handed me an info sheet. They hesitated before handing Kenzie one, and after a quick glance, I motioned for them to hand it to her.

At Large
Earth Cheit, Church Capitol West
Teacher—Benjamin Terrell
Overseer/Custodian—A76
Moord Nag—Lou Joubert

Greater City Area
Ingenue—Miranda Webb
Leister—Jamar Lafranca
Usher—Ray C. Rudolph
Captain Claw—Charles Ali
Black Goat/Scapegoat—William Giles
9 Soldiers, Mixed Squads