“My go-bag is under the desk,” Vista told me. “Can you grab that?”

I did, moving the chair aside. It was a heavy gym bag with a strap.

“Wish I could use my power,” she complained, as she took the bag from me and unzipped it. “I hate being in a room, feeling like I’m holed up while the problems are mounting outside. It always leaves me feeling like the walls are closing in.”

“Understandable. I could exit, giving you some more space.”

“I’d rather have your hands, if that’s okay. And we should talk. Not to strategize, that sounds weird, but I’d really rather not get on Narwhal’s bad side.”

“My hands are available,” I said, as she draped her ‘cape’ coat over my hand. Meant for Vista, not Missy, matched to her costume’s colors and style. It had armor and bulk that would get condensed down to something more manageable, but for now it was expanded. “This gets tricky if Capricorn did lie, and I’m supposed to figure out what he said.”

“We should check,” Vista said, absently. She put the helmet and then her ‘cape’ winter coat into the go-bag. As she worked, she glanced back. “Laptop: let me in.”

The laptop illuminated at the voice command. Text appeared.

“Oh god,” I said. “You’ve got the PRT-style login. I hated those.”

“What does it say?” Vista asked, as she fought to get her coat in the bag. I motioned like I was going to help, but she brushed me off. I wouldn’t have been contributing much.

“Quote.”

“Six shots.”

The screen “Correct. Mom or dad?”

“PRT.”

“Correct. Childhood, classroom on the left?”

“Dumped water on her head.”

“You’re in.”

“Open the browser for me? Dial into messages?”

The browser had one of those customized, multi-panel homepages, with different panels having different information, the kind that adapted to the user. In my search for the search box, I saw the ‘recent’ pictures as a panel so predominant I couldn’t help but browse past it. Topless boy, upper body viewed from the side, light brown skin beaded in moisture and textured in goosebumps, muscular but not cut with muscle. There were some specks of blood and small scratches here and there, and the head was cut off by the framing of the shot. Scale mail laid across a lap or surface at the bottom half of the screen, similarly beaded in moisture, with the red of specks of blood contrasting with the dark blue tint of the image. The Reach logo was visible in the top left corner, the faint silver ‘Capricorn’ design worked into the armor at the bottom right. The ‘click to view in full’ box at the right of the panel blocked off the accompanying text or ad.