“I think he could use a friend, but again, being blunt—”

I stopped as my phone rang, the earphone still in my ear, cord hidden by hair and armor. I held up a finger for Vista.

“Yes?” I asked.

“It’s Looksee. So I’ve got a thing.”

“Talk,” Sveta said, on the other line.

“I’m getting footage of the Fallen evacuees, two cameras out there, one up close to get the people and one pulled back to track light sources and get another angle. My pulled-back is freaking out.”

“Freaking how?” Sveta asked.

“Literal ghost in the machine freaking?” I asked.

“Yes! Yes, exactly. I’ve never heard that term before but it fits exactly.”

“How has a tinker never heard—” Chris started.

“Don’t look at it, don’t dig into the code,” I talked over him.

“Wasn’t.”

“It’s Mama Mathers,” I said, loud enough for others to hear. “With Gilpatrick’s Patrol squad.”

“She was approaching, not with them yet, I think,” Looksee said.

“Looksee, call Gilpatrick!” I warned. “I’m on my way.”

“I’m coming,” Sveta said.

I thought of the secret message to Kenzie. The plan. I’d pledged something to Rain, too. “Has Mama affected you at all?”

“Barely. Ears.”

“Rain, how hurt are you?”

I moved the hand of my uninjured arm at my side, where only he was really in a position to see. A slash, side to side.

“Really hurt. Snag did a number on me,” he said.

With luck, he was lying, and he got my intent. We needed him as the one person who Mama couldn’t control, operating in a place she couldn’t see—away from those she’d infected.

“Situate yourself, cover us to our south,” I said. Again, I made the slash. “Be ready to join whoever, but stay put. Sveta, escort him, then come to us?”

“Okay,” Sveta said, looking at Rain. “Can do.”

“Rain? Fill her in on anything you can on the way.”

“Understood,” Rain said, with a slight emphasis. Rain jogged northward.

“C and I will follow, or we’ll hold down the fort. I’ll call when we can confirm,” Capricorn said.

“I’m pretty mama’ed up,” Chris said. “I’m dealing but it’s distracting.”

“Distracting?” Capricorn asked. He sounded slightly incredulous.

“Seeing the surface of everything peeling away to show the shrieking flesh beneath distracts me. Sue me.”

Capricorn turned his head. “Narwhal’s fighting. I think the Fallen coordinated things so they’d hit all sides at once.”

“She can do that,” I said. “Seeing what she sees.”

“You realize you’re going alone? Until Sveta catches up with you.”

“I realize,” I said, raising myself up off the ground a bit.

I flew, zig-zagging to avoid the worst of the branches, ducking my head and letting smaller ones graze my hood.