When we got back to the neighborhood, someone was waiting by the eastern entrance to flag us down. They had a message from the colonel, who wanted us to drop off the Living Legion a few streets away, to try to keep their presence secret. They were to travel to the edge of the neighborhood to meet the others in the rescue force.

It wasn’t perfect, but everything we’d seen about the Dragons suggested that there weren’t many of them. If they were watching, they couldn’t watch everywhere. The odds that they were scanning the neighborhood for my return (rather than watching my house, the Shop, or the colonel himself) weren’t high. As long as we didn’t give them a reason to look for a gathering army, there was a good chance we could slip it into their area unnoticed, even if their Clairvoyant was awake and watching.

Colonel Zwerinski had moved to the far western side of the neighborhood, near Cotton Acres, along with a couple of escorts to watch his back in case the Dragon with Camouflage was sent to take him out. He wasn't too worried about being overpowered by a larger group; he was confident he'd detect any substantial force long before it reached him.

The neighborhood entrance nearest the hospital, the eastern entrance, was out of his range there (hence the messenger). Even if we’d been in his range, though, he was far too busy to be watching for our arrival. Before he’d left the Shop, he’d been working on recruiting people for a rescue force. After he’d found enough people, he’d moved to surveil the Dragons’ area, with the excuse of “watching for an attack.”

If the hostages were at the address Ava had given us, they were far away, deep inside Cotton Acres. They’d be out of his range unless he moved into Dragon territory. That seemed risky since there was a good chance the Dragons were watching him, specifically. Still, the Points Siphon was closer, so he thought he had a good chance of finding the Dragons’ main force and their draftees. That was vital. If we could find them, we could be fairly sure we weren’t sending our own people into a trap.

I had a brief conversation with the colonel as I reached my house.

How many did you get? At least eight?

“Five more than that.” I said, trying to sound regretful. I hoped the lack of context would confuse any listeners.

Excellent. That gives us 35. The location we were given for the hostages is just out of my range, here, but I’ve located the Dragons and their troops in a house near their Points Siphon. Our people are waiting and can move out as soon as the Legion arrives. Try to get some sleep.

I laughed a little at that. Sleep? With all this insanity up in the air?

I thanked the driver and headed in, to find Tamara and Priya waiting anxiously on the couch.

“We… good?” Tamara asked me.

“We’re good. He told me to go to sleep.” I sat down on the couch next to them.

Priya rolled her eyes. “Us too.”

It was frustrating, not being able to talk with them. Even an errant comment making fun of the colonel for expecting us to sleep at a time like this might tip someone watching us off. Honestly, we probably shouldn’t be ostentatiously sitting on the couches, either.

I frowned. “I guess we should go lay down.”

Priya and Tamara looked at each other. I could see them working through the same things I had, but I was sure both were as reluctant as I to sleep.

“Oh, I can’t sleep yet!” Tamara said. “I need to finish the filing for today. What with all the excitement, I forgot to do it earlier.”

“Do you want some help?” Priya asked hopefully, leaping on the plausible excuse.

“That would be great!” Tamara said.

The three of us sat, going through papers, being sure that all the information we’d recorded today was written in the proper notebooks and spots on the map, neatly organized for future reference. It kept us busy.

I wished it had taken enough focus to keep us from worrying.

I felt like I should be with the rescue force. Life Sense was a fantastic tool for an infiltration mission; I could tell exactly how many people were behind a door or wall, and I was near-impossible to ambush. What if the hostages had been moved? The rescue group could walk right by the house holding them and not even know.

I mean, the odds that the rescue group walked right by the hostages were pretty low. Abysmal, honestly: if I were worried that the hostages’ location had been compromised, I would move them further away from Autumn Hills, or to the side… not to a location we might walk by.

I wasn’t being rational, and it took me a little bit to figure out why. It wasn’t that I wanted to take risks. My kids needed me.

I just hated sitting on the sideline, even if it had been my own choice.

I flipped through a binder filled with notes on abilities and synergies, trying to look busy and occupy my mind. I imagined I'd spent more time than most thinking about the implications of ability use on human beings, rather than monsters. I’d spent a lot of time awake at night, thinking about all the things that could have gone wrong after my altercation with the squirrel thieves. I’d spent more in the past couple days, after that shitty “race” made it clear that the aliens were going to put us in spots where we’d be tempted to use abilities on each other, starving dogs set to fight as sick entertainment.

Going through the book, I couldn’t help but catalog the abilities I looked at in terms of human-on-human combat. Hex - low damage, but no known way to dodge or mitigate: slightly useful. Conjure Image - excellent for disrupting lines of sight or sowing confusion, a good equalizer for people with disparate amounts of points: vital. Touch of Decay - difficult to apply, but difficult to remove in-combat: unclear, look for opportunities for use. Shockwall - useful as both as disruption and deterrent: vital. Shape plants - unknown, should have asked Mattie more questions. Freeze - excellent, if the eyes can be targeted, although healers will make blindness temporary: strong.

The Dragons themselves seemed to have taken mostly Biological Augments, as far as I could tell. It should give them high synergy. They'd be utter terrors in melee combat, if they attacked the rescue group, but if the rescue group could keep it from turning into a straight-out brawl, I thought they'd have a decisive edge.

I wished someone in our neighborhood had taken Mark Target, or that I'd asked the Legion if any of them had it. I should recommend the ability to Sofia, next time she had a choice. For an individual, it was only slightly useful, but its utility blossomed in a group setting. She could essentially share her enhanced sight, pointing out stealthy monsters or Camouflaged Dragons to everyone.

Suddenly, Tamara dropped the pen she was holding.

Priya and I set down our papers and looked at her. She didn’t look back, staring off into space, clearly hearing something we did not. I was sure her husband had been keeping her updated throughout the evening, and it wasn’t the first time I’d seen a distant look in her eyes, but this time she seemed more than just worried. She looked shocked. Scared.

Priya and I waited as she listened, anxious about what she was hearing.

Finally, she met our eyes. “The rescue group left Dane’s range a little while ago, on target to free the hostages. We still haven’t heard back from them.”

“Should you be… talking about that?” I asked.

Tamara grimaced. “It doesn’t matter. Dane couldn’t watch our people the whole way without venturing into Dragon territory himself, so he was keeping his distant eyes and ears on the Dragon headquarters. Most people were asleep there until a minute ago. Then, the dark green one - Chris, the leader? - he woke up. He was quiet for a minute, then started shouting to wake everyone else.”

I felt a chill go through me. “They’re going after the rescue group?”

Tamara shook her head. “No. Dane was listening in. He could hear what Chris was saying. He thinks they’re all coming for us.”