Sveta went on, “On a similar note, Tattletale said the thinkers are analyzing Titan Fortuna and the Simurgh. With those two you can never be sure, but it looks like they aren’t aligned. The Simurgh is interfering with the information Fortuna is trying to transmit to her network.”

“To do what?” Rain asked, interest piqued by the mention of the Endbringer.

“No idea,” Sveta said.

“Could be a misdirect,” he said.

Sveta nodded. “Could. Absolutely. But once you start thinking like that about a precog, there’s no coming back up for air. It sucks you down. With Contessa, we found a possible in, a weak Case Fifty-Three that thinkers couldn’t see clearly, we helped him get stronger, mostly by giving him a chance to figure out how it worked, and then we moved fast. We should move fast.”

“So we assume she’s being forthright and is getting in the Titan’s way,” I said.

“Dauntless is fighting off any of her Titans that try to get close to her, so they can’t connect or do whatever Moose and Prancer did. Some of the Wardens are going to see what they can do to make him stronger.”

“That’s insane,” Rain said.

“It makes a dark kind of sense,” Natalie said, meeting my eyes. “When you’re dealing with things this powerful, you make concessions, you guess who you can trust, and work with that.”

“And us?” Tristan asked.

“I was talking to Kenzie about it,” I said. I saw Kenzie turn around in her seat. “Rain enters the dream tonight. I don’t know if we send some people in with him, trust them to handle it, fend off any guardians and get access to something meaningful, but… maybe we also send in a hit squad through the crevices, go down to an equivalent area, and attack Alice’s looking glass from the other side.”

“That’s a lot of investment,” Tristan said. “Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of having backup plans and layering our defenses, but…”

Sveta picked up where Tristan had trailed off. “But they want us active tonight. We get a few hours of rest, and then they want us back on the battlefield.”

“Makes sense,” I said, quiet. I looked over at Rain, “I don’t want to leave him hanging out to dry, though.”

“I don’t want you to either, but we were just talking about the sacrifices we have to make,” he said.

“I think you could make the pitch and they might listen,” Sveta said. “Especially if we let them make the call on who to send. It’s hard to part with capes, but it’s also a chance to get in there and take another look at the system.”

I felt a little nervous about the idea. I’d fixed something broken, diving into there. Would a second contact ruin things? Or worse?