“Come,” Ratcatcher said. “You can give a girl a kith on the cheek, or hold her hand if you’re thicken.”

She pushed her mask a bit aside. There was scar tissue on her cheek and chin. Her hand reached out, and her pet mouse poked its nose out of the sleeve.

“I should warn you, last in, first out, it means… the further down the chain, the faster it takes effect.”

“I know,” Ratcatcher said. “I’ll thicken out or do thomthing thupid if I don’t hurry it up.”

Crystalclear took her hand in his, leaned over, and gave her a kiss where the mask had previously covered the side of her face.

“Fucking heavy,” Ratcatcher said. Her hand tremored as she withdrew it. She turned her rat mask with the crooked nose to look down the length of the hallway behind her, as if she expected to see someone or something there. An answer or a distraction from this present moment.

Typhlosis reached out with a hand. Toward Crystalclear.

“I could, if you wanted more time to get where you’re going,” I told her.

She shook her head. Crystalclear extended a hand toward her, and she laid her hand in his, momentarily. She withdrew it with as much or more care than she’d set it down.

“Typh is helping keep track of who we’ve gotten to,” Crystalclear said. “Wardens have resources, the big teams are organizing, Foresight’s got a whole roster of people we’re hoping to get to in the next thirty to sixty minutes.”

“And we’ve got to get where we’re going,” Typhlosis said. “And make arrangements. For stuff like Ratcatcher’s pet rats.”

“You want to get moving then,” I said.

“We’d better,” Crystalclear said. “Is a goodbye appropriate? Too much?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But thanks for making this easier.”

“Whatever happens, if this works or doesn’t work, I’m glad I crossed paths with you, Antares.”

“Likewise.”

The parting of ways wasn’t as graceful as I might have hoped it to be. We were going in the same direction. We headed back toward the stairs in two barely separate groups, me joining Rain and Sveta, Crystalclear with Racatcher and Typhlosis. When we reached the stairwell, and they turned to go down, Crystalclear gave me a little wave, like the wave I’d given him earlier.

That was now three more people.

I couldn’t bring myself to move forward, as I processed it all.

Sveta touched my arm, and I flinched at the contact.

I met her eyes. “Anywhere you need to go? Anyone you want to see?”

“In a way, I’m glad Weld and I agreed for me to be the scapegoat with the Irregulars. He’s handling them.”