* * *

  Sarah spread out the scattered notes from her dismantled collage on top of her table like a fallen house of cards.

  The events related to Pegasus’ death she stacked in the upper right corner. The dreams from home she separated to the left. She continued to pile them up until she was left with the notes reading ‘dark hallway’, ‘death’, ‘smoke’, ‘fire?’, ‘explosion?’, and ‘Wolf’.

  She shuffled them around, splitting them into random groups on a whim.

  The fire and smoke seemed like it should be together. Should the explosion and death?

  Then what about the hallway? What about Wolf?

  A less familiar rapping at the door drew her away from her thoughts.

  She opened the door, remembering her assorted clues of madness on her table almost a second too late. She almost crashed into Mermaid as the woman was about to step inside and Sarah made to join her out in the hall.

  “Your chauffer is reporting for duty!”

  Chauffer? Where were they supposed to go? “I thought you guys had a mission.”

  Was she dreaming?

  She glanced down at her wrist. Pegasus’ scribbles in black ink were still clearly visible against her skin.

  “Didn’t you know I was taking you out?” Mermaid asked. “I thought maybe you had a fight with Pegasus.”

  Zeus had mentioned trying to have another episode triggered, but she hadn’t expected him to take action so soon. “Griffon told me I was supposed to stay out of the way.”

  “Outside is out of the way.”

  “But if you’re here, who’s taking your place?”

  “It’s fine. Wolf is going with them.” Mermaid pushed her back into her room. “Go get ready. I wanna escape before someone changes their mind and finds me actual work.”

  “Okay. Give me a moment.”

  Closing the door on a waiting Mermaid, Sarah checked her messages. There was a brief one from Zeus saying he’d approved her request to go outside. Was he afraid someone would see her notes?

  Sarah touched the sticky note with Wolf written on it. She couldn’t help be worried about Pegasus and the others, but there was no foundation to that worry other than Wolf’s name.

  Was that enough?

  * * *

  Pegasus put on his gloves, hyperaware of every move Wolf made next to him.

  Griffon had finished giving them their instructions, and they should be arriving at the location within the next twenty minutes.

  “How are you doing?” Pegasus asked Wolf. “I heard you were sick.”

  “I don’t know how that happened. Normally, nothing gets past my immune system.”

  “Maybe it’s slow, like you,” Scorpion said. “I hear you’re still having trouble running a seven-minute mile.”

  “You shouldn’t mock me if you can’t do it either.”

  “Who says I can’t?”

  Pegasus searched his mind for anything he and Wolf had talked about previously. “Are you done with your annual training?”

  “Most of it, yes. But I should be done by next week. Not a problem.”

  Scorpion laughed. “As long as they don’t time his mile run.”

  * * *

  Sarah looked out the car window. Dark clouds reached across the skies like withered fingers chasing the sun.

  In the driver’s seat, Mermaid was humming a song about sunshine. “I was hoping we were going someplace fun, but Zeus just wants me to take you to the W.R.O. campus.”

  “That’s fine.” Better not look like she was trying to make a run for it.

  She wondered if Zeus told Mermaid to watch her for suspicious activities. On the rearview mirror, there weren’t any familiar cars following. The highway was emptier than usual, but since her tracker was still active, there might be someone following at a distance.

  “Phoenix, am I supposed to take you to the Crisis Center?” Mermaid kept her eyes on the road, but her expression had become noticeably grave. “Did you need to maybe get some help without the oversight committee people dissecting your problems?”

  Sarah turned away so Mermaid wouldn’t see her face. Apparently, the story that she was struggling with mental issues had been accepted by the team. “I’m sure the oversight committee will see the medical reports at some point. But no, we’re not going to the Crisis Center.”

  “The instructions I got said to bring you here, but not where exactly.”

  “You can take us to the annex where we had the Foundation Day party.”

  “Why there? That place is empty.”

  “That’s okay.”

  There was nothing there she would be able to find anyway.

  A light mist turned to drizzle, a rhythmic squeaking of the windshield wipers breaking the silence.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Too bad it’s rainy.” Mermaid sounded wistful. “We could’ve walked around the grounds some. There are some pretty trees and a lake near the main building.”

  Sarah nodded. A walk outside would’ve been nice.

  * * *

  Pegasus and Scorpion finished going through the last room on the second floor. No sign of anything but abandoned rooms, a leftover broken chair and rusty table the only indications that anyone had occupied this place in the past.

  “Pegasus?” Griffon asked over the com.

  “Second floor clear.”

  The others found nothing as well.

  “Anything in the basement?” Wolf asked as they regrouped on the ground floor. “You know some of these old buildings had some tunnels or secret passages put in during the war.”

  “Sweetie, they’ve already found most of those,” Unicorn said.

  “Could still be some.”

  “There was nothing in the basement.” Griffon signaled they head out.

  “Damn it. I was sure Morgan had a reaction to this area when I was showing him the maps.” Scorpion tapped on the moldy wall. “We should review the recording of his interrogation again before we have another go at him.”

  The rain had picked up, reducing visibility. Would it be raining at the W.R.O. campus as well? Raindrops that were much colder than he would have liked soaked into Pegasus’ mask, making it stick to his skin. He was grateful the van wasn’t too far away.

  “I hope we don’t start getting all the rain coming in from the east.” Unicorn wrung her mask onto the floor of the van. “It’s been raining for the past four days at my sister’s place.”

  That caught Pegasus’ attention. He’d been wondering how to broach that subject.

  “My nephew hasn’t even left the house.” She wiped at her face with the back of her hand. “Guess what the little muffin wants for his birthday?”

  “A boat,” Pegasus said automatically.

  Unicorn turned to him, smiling. “Right! So he could go to the amusement park.”

  “Maybe I heard you telling someone else.”

  “Not unless you’ve been eavesdropping on my outside calls.” Unicorn chuckled. “I only spoke to her this morning.”

  * * *

  Sarah sat just inside the open door, watching the rain drops splash into the waiting puddles. Mermaid, who’d been wandering around the empty annex, sat down behind her, taking a photo of both of them.

  “What’s that for?” Sarah asked.

  “My report.”

  Sarah hoped she wasn’t being serious. But maybe not taking this whole outing seriously was what let Mermaid take the unusual request in stride.

  “What do you wanna do?” Mermaid asked. “Wanna dance?”

  Sarah turned to look at her, eyebrows raised as far as they could go.

  Mermaid got up, patting her pants down. “What? Isn’t this a cheering up tour? What would you like to do then?”

  Sarah stared back out at the rain. “I’m not sure.”

  It was easy enough to say she’d do what Zeus wanted and try to trigger one of her episodes. But how would she go about doing that? Thinking about painful events only made those memories replay in her mind, with nothing new added but tears.

  The episodes didn’t even have anything in common as far as she could tell. Some come when she was asleep, others when she was awake. Some lasted a few seconds or minutes at most, while others lasted hours, like the day that Pegasus died. Or the day of the Foundation Day party.

  “Have you ever met Lore?”

  Mermaid nodded. “I spent some time at Center. She’s a bit of a workaholic, but she’s cool. How’s helping her with her hobby been?”

  “I feel like there’s something there.”

  Mermaid sat down next to her. “It would be nice if there were.”

  If Sarah could talk to Lore again, she could ask the woman what she meant that night. It wouldn’t matter to that world, but for this world, it could be an important breakthrough.

  Mermaid bumped shoulders with her. “You don’t seem cheered up. I feel like I failed.”

  Sarah was the one failing miserably at what she wanted. She considered asking Mermaid to toss water down her back as a physical trigger, but that would be way too ridiculous to explain.

  “Do you wanna talk about whatever’s worrying you?” Mermaid asked.

  Sarah spent a moment sorting through all her worries, picking one she could offer up to Mermaid as a sacrifice.

  “Is this about Pegasus? You didn’t really have a fight, did you?”

  Sarah shook her head.

  “Are you worried about your relationship?”

  Sarah was going to shake her head again, but she couldn’t honestly say she wasn’t.

  “I know we were joking about reporting you and whatnot. We’re joking, that’s all. It’s not a big deal. We’ve had people date before.” She turned away, playing with her braid.

  Maybe she’d been thinking of Pegasus and Scorpion.

  Sarah had a sudden flash from that night, as Mermaid was complaining about her and Pegasus. “Are you married?”

  “Not yet. Was someone gossiping about my fiancé behind my back?”

  “I heard someone say something, I think.” Another difference then.

  “Last year, I needed surgery because of a subdural bleeding, and we thought I might not be able to go out onto the field again. I think he was happy about it. Not about me being that hurt.”

  “Does he work for the W.R.O. as well?”

  “He’s a tech at Center. I think he’s waiting for me to leave the field before we tie the knot.”

  Would it be that? She got the feeling the other Mermaid had been married and out on the field. How many little things could be different between the worlds? How many possibilities existed for each interaction?

  * * *

  Pegasus ran a hand through his damp hair as he wiped his boots on a rag they’d tossed near the elevator doors.

  Griffon rose a hand to stop him from following the rest of the team. “Zeus wants us to stop by his office.”

  Despite the casual words, it did not feel any less like a summoning.

  Pegasus stuffed his damp gloves into his jacket pocket and followed Griffon along.

  The smell of herbal tea surrounded them as they entered Zeus’ office. That was not a good sign. Zeus never drank tea unless he was sick or in a bad mood. He insisted it calmed him down, though Pegasus had yet to see any evidence of this.

  His expression was impassive as always, and he barely looked at them when they came in. Pegasus almost shut the door on Cypher, who came hurrying in and settled in the corner as if afraid to get too close to Zeus.

  “Any disruptions to your team from the inspec—visit?” Zeus asked, clenching his teeth when he had to say the last word.

  “This is about the oversight committee?”

  “No disruption so far,” Griffon informed. “But we did just get back.”

  Zeus leaned forward to blow on his tea. Billows of steam rose and swirled. “I tracked down the order that got them here.”

  “I thought it came from Center,” Griffon whispered.

  “Higher than Center.”

  Griffon narrowed his gaze. “There’s not much above Center.”

  Zeus sipped his tea. “But that confirms our suspicions that it’s likely political in origin.”

  Griffon scowled.

  “Focus on your job, watch your team.” He gave Pegasus a pointed look. “And no going off script.”

  Pegasus shrugged, smiling.

  Zeus shifted his attention to Cypher. “And I want to be sure they’re not looking into our systems without us knowing.”

  “Is that a real concern, sir?”

  “They seemed a little bit too interested in our current operations. I don’t want them digging into things they shouldn’t. We have enough problems as it is.”

  “Speaking of problems and keeping everything by the book…” Griffon glanced at Pegasus. “What should we do with Phoenix?”

  “Phoenix is on medical leave, indefinitely. I’m reviewing our long-term options for her. In the meantime, Pegasus is to keep her out of trouble.”

  “You mean under control,” Pegasus said.

  Zeus shrugged a shoulder. “As best as possible. Leave her as is for now.”

  Griffon nodded, accepting that without question.

  For the next thirty minutes, they went over minor adjustments that should be made to their everyday operations to accommodate for the watchful presence of the oversight committee.

  After that, only Pegasus remained.

  “Anything new from Phoenix’s notes?” Zeus asked without preamble.

  Pegasus shook his head, choosing not to specify that the majority of the notes in question were taped on her wall in an arrangement that would make any TV psychopath proud. “There’s something about an explosion maybe, but no clue as to when or where.”

  “Any more episodes?”

  “Earlier today there was some confusion about where she was and what was happening.”

  “As if she can’t remember?”

  “As if she’s in the wrong place.” He grimaced. “I know how that sounds.”

  “Good.”

  “I asked her to pick out Lore’s photo from several similar ones.”

  “I imagine she had no trouble doing it.” Zeus took another sip of his tea. “But that means nothing.”

  Pegasus knew he’d say that, of course. They’d already taken that into consideration. “She told me this morning that she talked to Unicorn during her latest episode. She told me it had been raining and Unicorn’s sister’s place flooded, and her nephew asked for a boat so he could go to the amusement park. Unicorn told me the exact same thing when we were coming back from the mission.”

  “Nothing actionable there, but the knowledge itself…”

  “There’s no way she set that up. Unless you’re telling me she can control the rain.”