By the time we headed back to the apartment complex, both William and Kat had enough for a second ability and were just short of a third. In addition, each had earned over 20 Money, enough for several days worth of food and clean water.

Strangely, no one in our group earned any Novelty. I was hoping Micah and I would earn some, but the fact that even Gavin’s tail-grappling antics and Kat’s weird baby-protection gear didn’t garner any attention… I was beginning to think that not only could the “audience” not see Micah and I, they might not be able to look at anyone near us.

If that was true, it was a silver lining to the dark stormcloud of our system invisibility. Yeah, people who didn’t cap their Novelty got a Money reward, so earning some Novelty “helped,” but if you got to the cap you might be pulled into a death game. I was happy that we’d been able to help Kat and William without bringing them closer to that fate, and delighted that my monkey-boy’s showboating hadn’t pulled him closer to danger.

We’d found William on the brink of death, but between Gavin’s heals and our assistance, he was doing much better. He had energy and was moving well, even if he was still frighteningly thin. With the Shop on his back doorstep, he’d be fine. I no longer felt anxious about his future if we left.

We wouldn’t be able to leave today, however.

Colonel Zwerinski had been working his ass off to make it possible, but the stabcrabs were too destructive. Today’s experiments with welding armor around the wheelwells had been disappointing. It had helped a little, but the armor couldn’t go all the way down to ground level, and all it took was one puncture to pop a tire.

What we needed were wheels that wouldn’t fail catastrophically when damaged, so the colonel had spent much of the latter portion of today negotiating with the groups controlling nearby Points Siphons. He’d already gotten one specialist powered up: an electrical engineer had claimed a suite of metal-manipulation abilities like Tori. He’d be able to get some electronics working for the Cozy Grove area eventually, but his first task was to make steel tires for the vehicles.

The rims that remained after the bus tires popped were made of steel. I’d wondered - reasonably, I thought - why we couldn’t just drive on those.

I said as much to William, who was quick to disagree.

“You can drive on a blown tire for a bit, sure, but the faster you go and the longer you drive, the more you’re gonna bust up your rim. And even then, you’re not gonna have traction. Hell, I get my tires on my car serviced regular, and I still slip a little on the hills ‘round here if it’s been raining. Y’all want to do that in a bus with no treads?”

When he put it that way… no. No, I did not.

The lack of traction would also make it harder on our drivers. Animate Machinery was interesting. I’d spent a while talking with the people who had it, impressed they could move such large machines around, but apparently that was only possible because the automobiles were machines. The driver’s Ability was acting in the place of a motor and gasoline, but the smooth function of our wheels and axles and the good repair of our roads were important. The more energy it took to make the vehicle move, the more quickly our drivers tired.

The tires would be ready by tomorrow, but that wasn't all we needed. We’d be taking damage as we drove. Our preparations should keep that damage from being catastrophic, but that was a far cry from "negligible." That was why we needed more specialists before we left, people with high synergy in Repair who could patch us up on the go.

Colonel Zwerinski stopped by William’s apartment late that night, looking utterly worn-out. His exhaustion reminded me of Gauge Boy and his sister who’d taken the Sleepless augment, and I realized that in the confusion earlier I’d never filled the colonel in on the things I’d learned during my Challenge. I quickly recounted my findings, pausing periodically to let him pass the information to the Arsenal.

He himself showed only the barest flicker of interest, passing it along mechanically. When I got done, he asked no questions, moving along to what he had to share. “I think I’ve got a Siphon lined up for tomorrow at around noon, and someone we can power up who’s willing to immigrate to Fort Autumn. You’ll be able to leave then.”

“How are things going with the hostages?”

He shrugged. The motion was more of a twitch, as if his shoulders had grown too heavy to lift. “We’re talking. The transport difficulties have thrown a wrench in everything. Word is spreading, but not everyone believes it. They’re not willing to let Nancy and her people go yet, but I think they will soon.”

“Oh?”

He didn’t quite smile. “Finding out that the Arsenal is active seems to have scared the daylights out of them. There’s some holdouts but… no one wants to fight the US Army. I’m hoping by the time we get the truck running, it’ll just be a matter of driving over. ”

“Good,” I said firmly. I’d been focused on my own issues, but Nancy and her family were heroes. Thousands of people owed their lives to her warnings. They were exactly the kind of people we needed more of.

“I want y’all out of here before then, though. If there’s one thing this whole hostage business proves, it’s how far people are willing to go. We’ve been doing a good job keeping you on the down-low, but I want you back in Fort Autumn among friendlies before I leave Cozy Grove to try to get our hostages out. If someone’s twigged on to your importance…”

“They’d probably have a hard time overpowering me. But…”

I couldn’t keep myself from glancing toward the office where my kids were sleeping.

“Right,” the colonel said. “Besides that, we know there’s militarized groups nearby. We’ve been trying to control who gets into Cozy Grove proper, but anyone - or any group - with the right ability set could sneak by pretty easy. There’s a limit to how many people you can hold off, and I the fact that I can’t directly see you with Clairvoyance anymore…” He grimaced. “I’m sure I’ll still be able to figure out something’s wrong if I see strangers near a broken Signal stick, but I don’t like it.

It was an uncomfortable truth.

The colonel’s eyes tracked slowly across William’s apartment, and he turned to leave.

“Hey!” I snapped.

“What?”

“What do you mean, ‘What?’ My son has a fricking crown and you told me earlier you were ‘too busy’ and would tell me more later. And what about the negative Novelty stuff? You said you’d ask around at the Arsenal.”

He blinked at me.

“Sorry,” I muttered. “I can tell you’re tired but… I’ve been trying to be patient here.”

“We all have our skills, I guess,” he responded absently.

I glared at him.

He looked surprised and embarrassed, as if he hadn’t intended to speak aloud.

“Ah… About your questions...”

“Yeah,” I grated. “About those.”

He sighed, passing a hand over his face to buy himself time to collect his thoughts. “The negative Novelty. They don’t know what’s up with it either, but they did find that woman you mentioned from your challenge. The one who lived east of the Arsenal? Well, she found them, I suppose, but they asked her about her Novelty and hers is negative too.”

That was interesting to me. Three people with negative novelty, and all three had been at our Challenge?

The colonel spoke again before my thoughts could really take off. “The rulership thing… I can tell you a bit, but Airman Stevens is a ruler too, and she’s planning to track y’all down in person in the next day or two. She’ll give you the full rundown then.”

I frowned. “Is it… transferable? Can he pass it to someone else? Is there anything dangerous about being a ruler, or a subject?”

“Doesn’t seem to be any obvious way to pass it along. Dangers to the ruler…” He frowned. “Stevens is looking into that. None that we know of so far. Subjects have a little more to worry about. There’s the tithe of the Money, of course, and it seems like their rulers can track their locations, at least in broad terms. Uh… other than that… Y’all know about the Money and Points, so… Subjects can send a Message to their ruler once per twelveday. Rulers can make one Announcement to subjects each day and send each subject a Message once per twelveday. Those are the high points, I think.”

“Any word about the Specialties?”

He shook his head. “I let them know, but I haven’t heard back yet. I’ll Message-” he paused. “I’ll find some way to let you know as soon as I find out.”

“Thanks,” I said. “And… try to get some sleep, okay?” I hadn’t forgiven the colonel for letting Mason go free. I might never trust him the same way. But… the fire had gone out of it as I’d seen how fiercely he was trying to keep everyone safe. I was mad at him, but it was the layered anger you might have at a close relative. You could still invite them over, you could still laugh with them during Christmas dinner, but both of you carefully avoided certain subjects.

Dane nodded, stumbling to his feet. “Soon’s I can, I promise. Just got… two more people to talk to, then it’s time for some shuteye.”

The kids were sleeping in William’s office, and William had reclaimed his bedroom, leaving the comfortable armchair in his sitting room free. I sank into it, mulling over what I’d heard.

Someone else from our Challenge had negative Novelty.

That was… fascinating. Three people, all with negative Novelty, all of whom had taken part in the same event.

Pointy had told me before that she thought our Novelty was a measure of how interesting we were, probably directly related to how frequently streams of us had been shared. So… what did a negative number mean?

It might still be an error. Maybe the stream of our event had been so popular and shared so many times that it had overwhelmed their system! Hah. Yeah right.

I’d gotten everyone’s attention during the Challenge by reminding them who our shared enemy was; the aliens running this sick show. Maybe… they hadn’t liked that.

Hadn’t wanted people to see us.

Contestants banding together, not to fight monsters or other humans, but to fight the show itself.

Pointy couldn’t see us. The Shop couldn’t see us. Gavin’s rulership ability couldn’t see us.

Perhaps the viewers couldn’t see us either.