[b]Crystal and Eli:[/b]

Crystal messages back; [i]They’re the one that does all the scene reporting for your little outlet, aren’t they? I was wondering if it would be her or 3V attending. You have the key to the penthouse already? Take her up. I don’t want to be seen just yet, but the more press coverage the better. I’ll do it on the condition that, whatever else they write, they publish something about the event [/i]tonight[i]. [/i]

Eli, looking over Pink’s shoulder, reads it for herself. “I mean, I was going to wait to see how the whole thing played out, but I can do that, no problem.” She starts to drag Pink by the arm back out of the exhibition hall, towards the elevators. 

On the way up, in the whisper-quiet carriage shooting up, up, up the inside of the castle tower, Eli gives Pink a nervous look. “What do I need to know about her?” 

[b]Leather:[/b]

Even in the absolute privacy of the burned-out simulation room, sitting around freshly refurbished wooden furniture that still smells like barbeque, the huge man keeps his voice low.

He shakes his head, and spreads a hand palm-up on the table, fingers spread, like he’s giving something to the room. “Here’s where I’m at. I was on the Pump detail, one of the only people who could do scuba work in those conditions. I’m following the hosepipe and way down the line there’s this massive cut into a chamber that, near as I can tell isn’t recorded on the maps. That’s not too strange, the Spine is full of places like that, but usually you can find out if you ask. Nothing. Zero. Worse still, I’m talking to people I’ve never heard of in the chain of command, even though they’re all on the org charts. And Merkin happened right after this, right? I don’t know how he’s related, but… we’re talking a real, honest-to-god conspiracy, right?” 

Leather leans forward, his chair creaks under his weight. “I think the Pump was a distraction to get at whatever was in that room.” He leans back again, way back. “Haven’t had anyone I can say that to without sounding like, you know. Crazy.”

[b]Monk:[/b]

She thinks. As she thinks she rubs her face a few times, shifting from Giddy to Monkey to a new one you haven’t seen before. This one is the face of vicious laughter with a long tongue rolling out, poking over the bottom lip. This must be Mockery. Then, back to Authority again. 

“We’ll need a bow, an axe, a spear, a mace, a stave and a scimitar.” With every item she closes the fist she’ll carry it with, counting it off. “Sanskrit chanting. A fog machine. And just a little bit of psilocybin in his coffee, first.” 

It’s Tranquility who finishes. “Singh will recognize Durga when he sees her.”