“It might be worse than that,” Kenzie said, turning the smiling mask my way. “It might be I can’t ever convince her now. She isn’t exactly the kind to let grudges go. I wasn’t really thinking.”

“Fuck, come on,” I said. “Let’s get ahead of this before it gets worse.”

The truck groaned with the burden as I put the gun down. I flew over to shift the tarp.

“I’ll keep an eye on it,” Gilpatrick told me. “We won’t go too far, but I’ll need to get my squad fed. It’s about that time.”

“Thanks. Really. I appreciate you guys going to the effort.”

He nodded.

I didn’t get to ask him for the answer that he and Jasper had both denied me.

“Lookout,” I said. “Let’s go find Imp or Tattletale.”

She nodded. “My stuff.”

“Can some of it go under the tarp?”

She began pointing, looking a little robotic in how she moved, stiff and methodical, like she was running on autopilot. The peace of earlier in the stable spoiled, the exuberance about having a project to work on with Dragon. Even just enjoying herself a bit because she was secretly cuddling a puppy. Replaced with movements like she was a doll with limited range of motion.

Once we were carrying the bare essentials, I carried her into the air.

With no clear idea of where to go, and Kenzie not having her eye stuff in to help us track, I headed straight for the city center, hoping I could get updated directions.

I spotted Rain, Sveta, and Tristan, with Natalie in their company. Natalie wore a jacket in a familiar style—Patrol issue, black and bulky enough to be worn over body armor, but with Natalie’s frame it was just worn.

I set Kenzie down.

“Freaky how you can do that now,” Tristan observed.

“Have you seen the Undersiders?” I asked. “Mini-crisis.”

“No,” Sveta replied. “What’s the crisis.”

“Kenzie borrowed a puppy from Rachel without asking.”

“Ohh,” Sveta said. “She’s angry.”

“Real angry,” Kenzie answered.

“Why?” Rain asked.

“I don’t know why I do things!” Kenzie answered, with enough energy and volume that it turned heads. “I didn’t think of anything except he was warm and sleepy and fuzzy and I liked that and—”

“And you hid it with projector tech.”

“—I realized it probably wasn’t great after, but by then I was already gone and I had a time slot at the workshop, and I thought I’d take him back after.”

“Fan out?” I told the group. “Younger kids and Kenzie’s team were with Rachel at the stable, so they’d still be there, but if Tattletale or Imp were with Rachel when she realized, they would have come with her. We’re looking for Imp, Tattletale, maybe Foil… where are Roman or Juliette?”