I decided I had her on board and I had her playing nice. Time to sell her on the more cautious, moderated part of things. “We play this slow, but we can maintain power, we can put them on the back foot, and we have a way of screwing up one of the major players on the bad guy’s side. That last one is the kind of thing we’ll want to consult outside parties for. Tip off the Wardens or one of the big teams that we’re messing with Tattletale, in case they want that to coincide with something else they’ve got going on.”

“More people involved is more chances a spy gives up the wrong info,” Chris said.

“Very true,” I said. “That’s where it’s good to make it so we’re only calling people we know and trust. Former teammates. I think we can reasonably assume the likes of Chevalier are fairly legit. Others, we control the information we give them. We do this smart.”

“I like it,” Ashley said.

“I can call my old teammates,” Kenzie said, collapsing back into her computer chair. She put the eyeball-pin camera into a jewelry box. “I don’t know if they’ll say yes, but I can try.”

“If everything else falls through, I can call Weld and ask if he knows people,” Sveta said.

“There are options,” I said. “I met some people at the community center. They might help me out.”

“I know people too,” Ashley said. “From my appointments. I can try asking when I next run into them.”

“You’re sure? You actually have hero friends?” Tristan asked.

“No. But they’re heroes other people trust to work with someone like me, we talk, and I can exchange favors with them.”

“That’s awesome,” Sveta said.

“I’ll call mine, first?” Kenzie asked.

The others agreed. Chris was still in the corner with his phone and comic, and Tristan walked over to grab him, wheeling him to the center of the room so he’d participate. Chris did crack a smile at that.

“Still feeling that hit of joy from the other day?” Rain asked.

“Indulgence, not joy. I’m indulging myself or other people if I smile.”

“Shhhh!” Kenzie shushed people. “I’m on the phone.”

There was a pause.

“Hi, Houndstooth,” she said.

Pause.

“I found it online.”

Pause. Sveta used the break in Kenzie speaking to shoot me a worried look.

“It’s technically online. It didn’t take much to figure it out.”

Pause.

“No, I don’t want to bother you. I’m part of a different team now and we’re doing our thing. Yeah. We’re calling people we know and trust and exchanging favors for favors, and I thought I’d ask you, since you seemed like you might be interested based on how the last conversation went.”

Pause.

“I thought it went okay,” Kenzie said, smiling and rolling her eyes.

Pause.