“Okay, but are you going?”

“Come on, Carlos. You know I have three kids depending on me. I can’t just…”

“But you think other people should.”

I winced. It was uncomfortable, as if I was suggesting that he was expendable, or I was more important than he was. He was right… but he was wrong, too. “Twenty people held prisoner, as of a few hours ago. Maybe more now. Each one is a hostage to ensure the cooperation of one or more combatants working for the Dragons. If we free those people, and let those combatants know, that’s at least twenty more people who’ll fight against the Dragons, rather than for them.”

“I can see it’s a good opportunity, Meghan. It’s just…” Carlos looked uncomfortable. His hand went to a spot on his fitted leather armor that had been covered over with duct tape, the repair job a reminder that even the strongest of us was still vulnerable.

I sighed. I understood, but it was still frustrating. “So, it’s a no from you, then?”

It was his turn to flinch. “I mean, who knows what we would run into on the way? The Dragons? The people they’re forcing to fight? Both?”

“We wouldn’t send you out blind. This would be after the Colonel got back, and if he didn’t go along with the group, we’d station him in a house at the edge of the neighborhood, so he could check your path and let you know if it was safe.”

“Yeah… I guess.” Carlos wasn't meeting my eyes, and I thought for a minute he was going to turn me down. Then, he straightened up. “Thirty people. That’s my offer. If you can find twenty-nine others willing to go, I’ll come.”

I frowned, but nodded. I admit I’d been hoping that Carlos’s love of LARPing and bombastic attitude would come with a hero complex, but if it had, the past couple weeks had ground it down. At least it wasn’t a “no.” I could try to find others who’d agree to the same terms.

…

“Eight,” I told Colonel Zwerinski. “I’ve got eight people who would go on a rescue mission, if we could find another twenty-two people.”

I wouldn’t even have had that many, if Helen hadn’t heard me talking to Carlos. She and Darryl had been worried about Ava since the girl had shown up, and Darryl had leapt into helping me recruit others. Most of the people I’d asked had turned me down. Many, like me, had dependents relying on them, and didn’t want to take part in a risky mission. Others declined because, well… up until a few days before, they’d been real estate agents and engineers and retail employees. They might be fighting monsters out of necessity, but almost none of us would have done this by choice, miraculous abilities or no. Fighting other people when it wasn’t strictly necessary was a big ask, and I felt like some of the people who’d agreed had done so only because they were convinced I wouldn’t be able to find enough people to fill out a group.

Which seemed accurate.

At least I didn’t have Ava listening in to our lackluster muster. I had loaned her a sleeping bag, which she’d taken to the house across the street with Combat Group B. They were the people who had first found her, but I hadn’t initially been inclined to try to crowd her into their overburdened walls. I’d been getting pillows and blankets to get our couch ready for her tonight when Priya had walked in.

Ava had taken one look at her and screamed, terrified at the apparent “Dragon.” Even after we’d explained, I could tell she was nervous around my friend, shooting her anxious looks and scooting away when Priya drew near. When I’d mentioned the possibility of her sleeping elsewhere, Ava had leapt on the idea.

Colonel Zwerinski frowned. “Beyond the question of whether we can do this, there’s the question of whether we should.”

“Dane!” Tamara snapped. “If we do nothing, that poor girl’s father will die as soon as they found out she’s gone!”

He nodded, a jerky, staccato motion. “True. If they haven’t discovered her absence already.”

Tammy looked at him in horror and he sighed. “I don’t like the thought either, Tammy, but… Sentiment has no place in war. War is… impersonal. It has to be. You can’t doom five people whose names you don’t know for the sake of the one that you do.”

I wanted to argue when he used the word “war.” Part of me felt it was an exaggeration, that this was just… a disagreement, or a misunderstanding, or some sort of reasonable thing. That was an emotional reaction, though. People were dying. Armies were being raised. If I didn’t want to call this war, what word did I want to use?

Tammy wasn’t trapped in the same quandary. “You think acting would be the wrong call?”

“Not necessarily. I’m just thinking, right now. If we do want to do a rescue, the sooner we can act, the better. Ava was able to give us the location of the hostages, which might change if we wait. The Dragons are gathering troops for something. It seems optimistic to assume that their goal is just defense. Waiting might see us fighting people who are themselves victims.”

“If we act, those same victims might become fighters for our side,” I said.

“It’s possible, but that’s only one possibility. Many other outcomes are less attractive. The Dragons might slaughter their troops in their sleep, if they fear they can’t control them any longer. Also, hasty action on our part might lead to us walking into a trap, or worse.”

I frowned. “I don’t see how that’s possible. You have Clairvoyance. Can’t you just… not go in if you can’t find their forces?”

“I suppose. We believe they have a Clairvoyant as well, though.”

I waved a hand. “So, you don’t join the group yourself. Just stay back and run surveillance and communications.”

Dane frowned. “No. It won’t work. Even if it did, it’d take us days to get it together.”

Ignore what I just said out loud. It’s not outside of possibility that they’re watching us and listening in. Unless they’re literally in this room, though, a short-range Announcement should be untrackable, if anything is. I think we need to do this, ASAP. I’m concerned for the people who’ve been press-ganged, but I can’t see any way to extract them without risk. Even if we choose to do nothing, the odds are that they’ll be forced to risk their lives fighting us. This is a golden opportunity, the best we’ll get to reduce the Dragon’s fighting force without pitched battle.

Tamara was still for a moment, then nodded. “Meghan found eight people. That’s not even a third of what we need. There’s no way we can go with so few.”

“Nine.” George spoke quietly from the kitchen. “Priya asked me to go along. She’s taking this all very personally.”

“Nine, then. We’d still need over twenty more.”

Colonel Zwerinski sat down on the couch. “Yeah, it’ll take us days to round enough up.”

Not the case. I can contact people in our neighborhood via Mental Speech, and there’s some critical information I haven’t shared yet. Today’s scouting groups brought back a lot of intel on the surrounding areas. Some points of concern - none immediate - but some potential allies as well. Most critically, the hospital and the nearby assisted living facility are teeming with high-points friendlies. We’ll need to take the truck over tomorrow, but I’m confident we can find enough volunteers to make an assault by mid-morning.

I hesitated, wording my response carefully to try to match up to his spoken words. “That’s a shame, but I suppose it can’t be helped. The new monsters that’ll spawn tomorrow will slow things down as well.”

Colonel Zwerinski rubbed his face. “Tammy, can you find some people to stand watch around the Shop?”

Damn, I’d forgotten about the monsters. Tomorrow's out. We do this tonight.