Thanks for coming and saying hi. Picture just for you—keep an eye out for us in the future.

I showed the others the picture and caption. I got an okay from both, and sent it.

I held the phone where everyone could see it. With the first excited response, half of Ashley’s tension seemed to dissipate. With the second and third, she smiled.

Doing this, helping, functioning in my role, I felt less like a vampire. Less like I was serving myself, because the feelings were set aside to where they were secondary.

It felt like a good warrior monk frame of mind for my discussion with Houndstooth.

⊙

We had to walk a little ways to get to where Houndstooth waited. He was in costume, and his appearance at the station would have risked a disruption.

All through the short walk across Greenwich, there were signs of the protests and strikes. Crude posters had been put up, with slogans and rallies to the cause.

It was too early in the day for a real protest, though. Just groups on street corners, some scattered people making a mess and some cleaning up. Stasis.

Houndstooth waited on a hill overlooking the city sprawl. He looked as he had in Kenzie’s projected image. Anubis writ Western, with a shorter, blunter snout and a costume of mixed panels that straddled the line between being a bodysuit and being armor.

“Thank you for making the time,” Tristan said. He shook Houndstooth’s hand.

“It was my request,” Houndstooth said.

“Hi,” I said, as he shook my hand.

“Thank you for coming, Victoria.”

He turned to Ashley. She stood with her hands clasped behind her.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she said.

“It’s nice to meet you as well,” he said, taking the lack of a handshake in stride.

The conversation hung there.

“This is hard,” he said.

“We appreciate you helping out with Cedar Point,” Tristan said.

“We can open by talking about that,” Houndstooth said. “You’ve visited?”

“Yes,” I said. “Two of us. One of us more covert.”

His snout moved more in Ashley’s direction, then he nodded. “How bad is it, once you’re there?”

I answered, “Protection racket in full swing. Villains moved in en masse. People moved away when they could. Those that couldn’t are paralyzed now, helping to maintain the very thin veneer of normalcy while paying what little they can to the villains in control. Prancer and Velvet are some of the most prominent drug distributors right now and they’re in charge, so it’s likely serving as a hub for that.”

“Some very violent capes are active there,” Tristan said. “A few of them we have a tenuous relationship with seem to be gathering soldiers with an intent to go to war. It looks like that might include us, but we don’t know one hundred percent what they’re up to.”

“As expected, then,” Houndstooth said.