“How’s everyone?” I asked.

“Patched up,” Sveta said, patting her prosthetic shell.

“Good,” Chris said. “Did what I wanted, mostly.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. He’d seemed slightly dissatisfied earlier. He only shrugged.

“I’ve been talking to Jester and Looksee, getting caught up,” Ashley said. “It’s a good distraction.”

“Ooh, she’s into archery,” Looksee said. The phone rested on the rock between Jasper and Ashley. “Badass.”

Ashley raised a hand, indicating the phone, “See? Distraction enough.”

“Wait,” I said. “Say again, Looksee. Who is into archery?”

“Marcial.”

“Why Marcial?”

“Because she’s our biggest obstacle, and I was looking for clues.”

“Looksee, you can’t spy on people,” I said.

“Please,” Sveta said.

“Is it really spying if the information is a mouseclick away?”

“Yes,” Chris said.

“Oh, hey, Creepy Kid. Tattletale was asking about you. I didn’t say anything, of course.”

“I’m apparently Creepy Kid now,” Chris said, to Sveta and I.

“I told you, you need to pick a name, or it’s going to get chosen for you,” I said.

“I don’t have good ideas,” Chris said. “The good names are taken. The shortlist is Dramaturge, Cryptid, Cryptozoo—”

Looksee snorted audibly over the phone.

“Don’t laugh, Looksee,” exaggerating her name.

“Looksee is good! Victoria said you can make any name work if you do good enough, and I did good today.”

“Well enough,” Chris said.

“Everyone did well,” I said. “You included, Looksee. I know that wasn’t as close to the frontline as you want, but the camera drop, outlining the cables—”

“Threads,” Looksee said. “With force around and to them.”

“Okay,” I said. “And the fake cable coming at Cradle. It was good.”

“She was telling me about it,” Ashley said.

“It was good,” I said.

“If you keep saying that, she’s going to blow a fuse,” Chris said.

“Oh, completely changing the subject, Capricorn is coming back with Vista. He’s a couple of minutes away.”

“I’ll go say hi in a second,” I said.

“This whole thing is dizzying,” Jester said. “I don’t know how you do it.”

“In a way, I grew up with it,” I said. “Was different, back then. I dealt with more known quantities. Or I thought I did. No Marcials. I never thought I’d miss having my mom as team leader once I flew the coop. I considered it a good day when my aunt was the one in charge, and I still found it stifling.”

“It’s not all people like Marcial,” Gilpatrick said.

“I know,” I said. I had to make a three-quarter turn to lightly punch him in the arm, because my injured arm was the one closer to him. “We’ve got people like you and Jester.”

“The fact that you’re using that name and you’re putting us in the same sentence pains me,” Gilpatrick didn’t move his lips as he murmured the words.