“There’s nobody at the top except God,” the bearded man pronounced. I wondered if he was a preacher, with that passion. He was a little less enthused as he went on to say, “No government, no law, no kings or queens. You can decide what happens to Rain and Erin here, you can decide the little things, and we’ll all keep your secret. That will be the shape of our negotiations today.”

“Hi, Erin,” I said.

“Hi.”

“You okay?”

“Not very.”

I nodded.

“Time matters, ‘hero’,” the bearded man said.

“Back off,” I said. “We need to talk a minute.”

“Your loss. The Crowleys are winning. Our offer stands.”

I looked at Gilpatrick, and at the row of his soldiers that were ready to shoot. Erin was among the targets, and there were presumably others in the trees behind. Indiscriminate fire would be disastrous.

I looked back at Ashley, who leaned against the van, almost crushing her forearm in her grip, the grip was so tight.

“You’re right,” Gilpatrick said. “This isn’t our call to make.”

“They aren’t about to wait and let us call up Chevalier and wait for him to finish whatever he’s got scheduled today, and they aren’t going to let us try to track down someone in government who might have the clout to okay this.”

“No,” Gilpatrick said.

I wondered if this was even something we could possibly do. To compromise with a group that was uncompromising and unwilling to change its mind at its core.

“Tick tock,” the bearded man said. Using tactics to make us feel rushed to make a decision. My mom had employed that on me, once, as something illustrative. I’d been too young to appreciate the lesson, at the time. I’d mostly been pissed off.

“There’s no clock,” I said. “Advance Guard can hold their own. They’re good.”

Stupid on a macro scale, but I’d liked how they functioned in a scrap. I could trust that. I wouldn’t get pulled into their tempo.

“They’re outnumbered.”

“They’re good enough that doesn’t bother me,” I said.

“Tick tock,” the man said, again. It irritated, which might have been the point, but it irritated me because it was so stupid and unintuitive.

“Valefor has to be dying, with that wound. If anyone’s feeling the clock, it’s you guys,” I said. “No mother wants their child to die.”

“She says lots of mothers do, but they keep it to themselves,” the bearded man said. “We have time on our side in more than one way. He’s dying slowly, she says. Slowly.”

Slowly. The Speedrunners.

They were operating in the background and every time they intervened, they made this whole situation vastly more difficult.

The old side of myself wanted to kick their asses.

“Tick tock, last chance,” the man said.

Last chance? What was I missing? My eyes scanned the surroundings.