The offal-eating, squirrel-sized goblin was the most normal person in her immediate circle right now.

“You have forces massing on our border. Shin insists,” Amy said.

“I thought you wanted cooperation with Antares.”

“I want cooperation with Shin, too. I gave you what you want, I need you to listen to them too. This is non-negotiable.”

“They can’t attack,” I said, out loud. “Ahrima will protect the key players, like the Red Queen and Lab Rat.”

“If they leave, we don’t regain the ground we’ve ceded,” Armstrong told me.

“I don’t think they win. I think you have some exceptionally talented capes there, but I think the bad guys—Shin, they come out ahead.”

“They’d say we’re the bad guys,” Eric said. “Can we get ahold of Chevalier? You said he’d be available. We need a judgment call.”

Armstrong motioned at a nearby terminal where the Wardens’ staff were gathered at one of the bigger computers.

“No, sir. He’s still walking to the portal. Weather’s slowing him down.”

“Can we send a helicopter? Is one free?”

“No. The three closest helicopters are transporting Foresight, clearing a jam on one of the main roads so the people can keep evacuating, and coming back from the Cheit border situation. That last one won’t reach Chevalier before he reaches us.”

“Can’t use powers,” Armstrong said.

“I’m in,” Tattletale murmured, her voice a buzz in my ear. “I can see.”

How to even handle this?

“Ahem. Listening?” Tattletale asked.

People around the table reacted.

“Listening,” Eric said. “Senior Wardens are tied up elsewhere. You have two ex-directors here. Armstrong and Pearce. Have you been following?”

“One of the capes there is a problem. Woman with the slouch and the burned eye. She’s aggressive. If anyone makes the first move, it’s going to be her. She’s the source of the black shit Lab Rat has inside his body. She inspired the power he’s built his body around, like a trial run of the giants.”

“Thank you, Tattletale,” Armstrong said, leaning forward. He looked back at a woman who was at the terminal. “We’ll pass it on.”

“Passing it on,” the woman said. Pearce, I assumed. “Informing team leaders.”

The escalating hostilities continued. No longer a standoff. The Shin capes were finding positions that were less standing in their individual groups and more finding the spots they wanted to fight from. Spacing out. Some capes advanced, so they wouldn’t have as far to travel to start hitting shit. The slouching woman with the missing eye was among them.

Others moved closer to cover, like the pillars by either end of the station, or even using the kneeling giants that Amy had yet to tend to shield themselves from possible fire.

The ones to watch were the ones who didn’t move at all. Bamet. Seir. The cocoon cape.