“A mobilized attack may give us some ground. It’ll be hard, with capes recovering from the death sleep. There are already soldiers working on it. Bombing crews.”

“Shin had military.”

“Shin might be touchy,” he said. “Which is a whole other thing—”

“The Titans?” Narwhal interrupted.

“Ah. I meant to say,” he said. “The Titans have crumbled. All of them went still simultaneously, then crumbled. No signals passing to or from the network hubs we identified. They’re debating bombing those sites.”

“My cue to leave.”

He turned his head to look. Tattletale was getting to her feet.

“Leave?” he asked. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I can move elsewhere.”

“No, it’s too late, you’ve got my brain going again. I should go look after my team.”

“Are they confirmed gone?” Victoria asked. “Is there anything? I wanted to reach out to Fume Hood and Dauntless. They made multiple sacrifices.”

“I’m sure we can investigate,” he said.

“Yeah. There’s time,” Victoria said.

“I—” he started, stopped.

“There is,” Victoria said. Her hands were wrapped around her mug, and the trace of her agent had its hands around those hands. She turned her head as more capes came in. Many of them were uncostumed. Keith was among them, wearing a blue jacket over a black v-neck shirt, jeans, and boots.

“Why are they all coming here?” Tattletale asked, clearly annoyed.

“I asked, the staff said Chevalier was here,” Narwhal said.

“Same here,” Keith said. He’d rinsed off, and his hair was wet, and the ends of his hair had a blue-white halo. He’d flown hard in the cold with that wet hair. “I flew out, checked. The Titans are gone.”

“I know. We’re getting word,” Chevalier said. “Victoria, while I’ve got your attention, I have a report about your ex-teammate.”

He held up the tablet.

“Which one?”

“Chris Elman. He attacked capes, apparently trying to get something from them. He backed off immediately when he realized they were already dosed.”

“He didn’t think people would agree to the plan like they did,” Tattletale said.

“He was affected?” Victoria asked. “Do we have his location?”

“No. I intend to ask Riley Davis, but it’s my understanding he initially planned to help make the device for the death sleep?”

“He did. She walked him through all the steps.”

“Could he create a counteragent?”

“I don’t know,” Victoria said. “I think it might depend on whether he was actually listening to her and entertaining the plan. Can you send out people to find him?”

“We’ll try. We’ll want to secure everyone, cover every base. A dangerous tinker of unknown status is a concern.”

“He’d like to think he’s very good at hiding,” Victoria said. “He’s paranoid. But he overestimates his ability. I hope he’s found, and he realizes what it means, when he is.”