“Comparing notes,” Weld said, simply.

“On?” Egg asked.

“Contessa. It might be relevant to Titan Fortuna,” Weld said.

“How are things going in there?” Sveta asked.

“Just starting. You guys told the woman she looked too much like Doctor Mother to parade around in a lab coat, huh?”

“She doesn’t really,” Weld said. “Not at all.”

“Still,” Egg said.

“Yeah. I suggested she back off a bit. In case it triggered something,” Sveta said.

“The guy they put in charge fucked it up,” Egg said. “We ended up making her explain. Didn’t work.”

“Oh,” Sveta said. “Shit.”

“It’s not that bad,” Egg said. “Engel thought it was a good idea. But she’d change her mind if she knew where that idea came from.”

“I see,” Sveta said. She looked down and away.

“A lot of them would be pissed, seeing you out here, conspiring. Knowing you set things up in there.”

“I’m doing what I’ve always done,” Sveta said. “Making sure people are looked after, that people ask the right questions.”

“The questionnaire was you too?”

Sveta shrugged. “Yeah.”

Egg looked at her neck, her hands.

The new body. Yet she still wore the tattoo, plain on her face.

Insane jealousy bubbled inside him, in that fluid where Rhea dwelt. When everything about him was fragile or fluid, the emotions took on a substance they shouldn’t have. Rhea could drink those emotions in, reacted to them, and began to struggle.

Cracks formed along him that he wasn’t making with his movements. He was careful to stay still and concentrate to let them knit together again. The back of his thumb wicked away the traces of yolk.

“All of us here were interacting with her on some level,” Faultline said.

“Contessa,” Egg said.

“Yep. Weld and Sveta were part of the raid.”

“Sensitive topic,” Sveta said, her voice soft.

“But you fought her. Sent people after her.”

“We worked around her,” Weld said. “I don’t think there’s a way to fight her and win. You throw up roadblocks and hope that the path she’s on goes places far from you.”

“He had a name,” Egg said. “Mantellum.”

“Yeah,” Weld said. He looked very tired, for someone who didn’t get tired.

“Did you want something?” Faultline asked.

I want a lot of things, but I don’t get them, Egg thought. I want to be here, and you want me gone, because I’m interrupting.

“What’s she bringing to the table?” he asked, indicating Slician.

“CYA,” Weld said. “Big meeting of people the staff isn’t familiar with, orchestrated in part by us. Slician is a known quantity, she tells them everything was aboveboard, they’ll listen.”

“It’s kind of fucked up you have to do that,” Egg said.

“I don’t know that we have to, but they’ve got enough things to worry about,” Weld said.

“Everyone does,” Faultline said.

“On the topic of Mantellum,” Weld said, his arms folded, producing a creaking metal sound as they flexed. “I know you were putting out feelers earlier, but there’s no guarantee that another Mantellum would even work, now that she’s a Titan. The built-in limitations are off.”