“I—” I started. I wanted to connect to the team, help them, and divine any underlying crises or subterfuge. It was the first time I’d seen the two of them even remotely on the same page. It seemed fine. “Sure.”

Kenzie pumped both fists.

Irene Martin pulled away. I turned to face the other members of the group; Tristan, Sveta, and Chris were very different people, and all faced me with expressions of alarm and horror.

“Yes, awesome,” Kenzie said, as she joined the group, depositing her things. “I can show you my main workshop. We could have a great dinner, my parents are top notch cooks. Do you like pasta?”

“I do, yes.”

“There’s a dish I love and we haven’t had it in months because I couldn’t find a good place for Italian sausage, but I did the research on my own and found one place with good reviews. I could ask my mom to make it. Oh, and you like cape stuff, I have some magazines, and if you want them for your collection, we could collab.”

Chris approached.

“My mom seemed to like you a lot, I haven’t ever known her to do that before. A lot of people—”

Chris took Kenzie’s hand. Her eyes lit up as she kept talking.

“—seem to like her a lot, she’s a charmer, but she hasn’t invited—”

He maneuvered the donut Kenzie was holding into her mouth.

“—amfohn oher beguh,” Kenzie said, around the donut.

“Don’t talk while you eat,” Chris said. “You’ll choke.”

Kenzie nodded.

“Let’s focus on the mission,” Chris said.

Kenzie nodded.

Tristan provided the update on where things stood. “Advance Guard is here. They didn’t want to meet. They’ll go to the north end of the compound and work south from there. The Wardens’ backup are running late. Transportation issues.”

“And Rain?” I asked.

“No update,” Sveta said.

“Ashley?”

“One message. She saw the clairvoyants getting ready and she took the opportunity to send something. She’s on her way. Beast of Burden and his group are participating, but they’re not cooperating with Prancer’s group. They’ll be independent and it sounds like they’re out for blood.”

“Let’s get this thing situated, while we still have a chance,” I said.

⊙

A convoy of vehicles traveled down the highway. The cars ranged from the sleek and black to the ones that hadn’t weathered the end of the world so well.