“We do. But they get upset if they miss out. I think that little dude is going to change gears and end up a hero at one point, but don’t let him know I said that. He’s contrarian enough that he’d reverse direction.”

“My lips are sealed,” Brian said.

Hearing her brother’s voice again was like a balm for the soul that she didn’t know she needed. It was tough, but… Brian had always been tough to handle in his own way.

“Want to see the other kids?” she asked.

She saw him hesitate.

She wanted to grab him again, shake him. She wanted to tell him that there was nothing wrong with saying ‘yes’. But ever since Bonesaw had got her hands on him, he’d been even more distant. She could count the people he’d extended any measure of vulnerability to on one hand, and she wasn’t one of those people. Of the two more important ones, one was gone and the other was dead.

“Come on,” she said. “You’re here because you can work with us, and we can work with you, but to do that, you need to know what they’re like and what they can do.”

“True,” he said.

It made her heart hurt that he needed that excuse to come with.

But he was back. It lifted her heart a bit.

She reached for the door, and it opened at the same time she touched it.

It was Candy, who looked up, saw Brian, and shrank back, retreating from the doorway.

“It’s okay,” Aisha said. “You might not remember him.”

“I remember Brian,” Candy said. “Was surprised.”

She still didn’t come closer, and she stepped back a bit further when Brian approached.

“Where were you off to?”

“To get you. Parian told me to. Emergency.”

Imp strode past Candy, one hand on the girl’s shoulder to steady her and keep her on task as Brian followed.

“Come on! Let me try!” Peep’s voice, high and amused.

“Maybe you shouldn’t bother him?” Darlene asked.

“Ha! I think he’ll be a little more bothered if it turns out I could have done something and I didn’t.”

“Maybe,” Darlene said.

The voice was Peep’s. Lookout’s. Imp turned the corner and found the girl on her feet, pulling a tinkertech cube with radiating antennae apart.

“So stupid, I’m so stupid,” Lookout muttered to herself, smiling and shaking her head. “The one time I look away.”

“Stop for five seconds,” Parian said, with zero authority.

“Pe—Lookout,” Imp cut in.