> Opacity here: we located my client today. Considering their cooperative performance in the last Challenge, I find it odd that they are not hidden from us. Perhaps no one was penalized? It may be that they did not feel cooperation was against the spirit of that Challenge, or perhaps the threshold for penalties was higher. I doubt the Maffiyir company has stopped issuing penalties... We will have to see what happens at the end of the current duodenary.

> – Radio transmission from Voices for Non-Citizens

The next half-hour was a whirlwind. Trying to get the boys and myself armored and fed and prepared to leave would have been bad enough, but I also had to find a babysitter for an overstrong toddler.

It needed to be someone with 11 or 12 abilities or a focus on physical reinforcement to keep Cassie from accidentally hurting them. The trouble was, we would need all our strongest to help in the coming fight.

“What about the people who used their Intensifiers recently?” Pointy suggested. “They’re probably staying behind. It would be foolish to risk their deaths when they can’t use their power.”

It was a good suggestion, but not one that led to an immediate answer. The two people we had at Fort Autumn who had Intensifiers on cooldown weren’t people Cassie knew. Neither seemed comfortable with the idea of watching a kid, and Cassie’s grip on me at the suggestion was tight enough to be actually painful. I was wracking my brain for a way to convince her to let go when Flip landed in the courtyard.

“Hey! Cassie! Do you and Pointy want to come flying with me today? I’ve got work to do, but you can come with if it’s okay with your mom.”

“Oh, thank God.” I took a deep, relieved breath. Flip had always been great around my kids, and Cassie already knew and liked the woman. “Yes, absolutely. You’re not coming with?”

Flip waved her wrist at me. “Just used my Intensifier four hours ago. I’m on light duty until it comes up again, picking up messages and delivering small packages.”

“And it’s okay to keep Cassie with you?”

“Colonel Yoshiro ordered me out here, actually! Not that I mind. He knew I carried you two around last week for the Siphons, and he saw your name on the list of fighters. Apparently you had talked to him about childcare problems?”

“God bless that man. Cassie, do you and Pointy want to go flying with Flip today? Pointy will be able to stay awake this time.”

Cassie looked uncertain, but Pointy spoke up. “Oh, I would love that! Please say yes, Cassie?”

“Well…”

Pointy leaned back, lifting her forelegs to rest against Cassie’s chest, letting her stitched eyes enlarge to their fullest size. “Pleeeease?”

Cassie giggled, as she was meant to, and took her hands away from my neck to reach toward Flip. “Okay.”

“Nice work,” I whispered as I passed my daughter to Flip, knowing that Pointy would hear me. “Take care of her.”

“I will. But come back safe.” The turtle’s voice was serious. “This is fine for today but… not long-term. Cassie's development will be negatively affected by the absence of her primary caregiver.”

I nodded, then turned toward Flip, my face businesslike. “She’s gotten pretty good with using the bathroom and we’ve set up a reminder in her Overlay, so she’ll probably ask… but you should probably have her try to go before any long flights.”

Flip laughed. “No problem. None of my own, but I’m second-oldest of six and I’ve got tons of little nieces and nephews around her age. I’ve done loads of babysitting before. Cassie and I will have a great time and maybe have a fun sleepover or two. We’ve got this!”

And if her Intensifier comes up again before we get back, it’ll be while Cassie is sleeping… she could be away and back before my daughter notices. This is the best offer I’m going to get.

Forcing a bright smile on my face, I nodded. “Okay. You three have lots of fun! Cassie, be a good listener to Ms. Flip, okay?”

“Okay!”

Meghan! Transport 12 is ready to depart. Just waiting on you!

I winced, leaning in to give my daughter one last hug and kiss. “I’m being called. I’ll… I’ll see you later, Cassie! Pointy! Thanks again, Flip!”

I raced away, through the gate of the fort and into the back of a modified semi-truck. The doors swung shut behind me and the truck started rolling forward immediately, the driver not even waiting for me to reach my seat. I sagged, but didn’t let my emotions hit me fully. I might not have Cassie in my arms, but the boys were perceptive. I couldn’t let them see me scared. Just sit down and try to keep your mind off of things, Meghan.

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Not that I had a proper seat. This wasn’t one of the Arsenal’s troop transports, but one of the vehicles that had been used for food and water deliveries. There was a little cage welded to the center of the floor to keep the water jugs away from the piercing feet of the stabcrabs, but no actual seats or seatbelts.

A car accident is the least of our worries these days.

I picked my way through the crowd, edging past Helen and Darryl and squeezing in next to George, Priya, Samar, and my boys on the floor.

Priya frowned. “Did you…?”

“Flip showed up. She got ordered to watch Cassie, but she seemed okay with it.”

“Good. Arnav is low-level enough that it wasn’t so difficult to find care for him, especially since I was leaving Anju too.”

“I wish Anju was coming with us…” Micah said. “At least we’ll get to go together to the next Challenge!”

George and Priya shuddered.

“Not the time, kid,” I said. “We’re handling this thing one crisis at a time.”

We’d barely moving for a minute before I heard an Announcement. The voice sounded like one of the generals I’d met briefly at the Arsenal. Higgens? No, Heggins, that was it. He must have gotten quite the power-up for his Announcements to reach us out here.

We’re scrambling a response to a major danger south of Huntsville.

We need everyone to co-operate to clear the roads and allow our troop transports to move efficiently. A treezilla to the southwest is already over 200 feet tall and is expected to double in height within a day. It is imperative that our elites reach it as fast as possible.

In our elites’ absence, we will need volunteers to assist with Titans and treezillas. Please report to your nearest Shop or distribution center if you’re willing to volunteer. We have a particular need for men and women with sonic-dampening capabilities to join bonefur extermination teams.

I stiffened. “I knew fighting the local treezillas without Intensifiers was going to be difficult, but I forgot about the Titans! Did Benjamin come with us?”

“He did,” George confirmed. “But he left his big guns behind. Fort Autumn should be just fine against the D-Rexes. We have plenty of people locally with anti-sound capabilities, too, enough that Alexandra was trying to negotiate with some of them to help out against bonefurs elsewhere.”

“Cassie and Arnav and Anju will be fine,” said Priya. There was a hard-edged finality to her voice, as if she could enforce her will on reality with enough certainty. “We’ve left them in good hands. We need to focus on ourselves. All six of us need to make it home, you hear me?”

The Announcement did its job: clear roads helped us make it out of Huntsville in short order. Then, we caught up with the transports ahead of us and our pace slowed dramatically.

Out in the countryside, the monsters didn’t reappear quickly, but there were also fewer people to fight them before we got there. Instead, we took shifts, alternating between riding along and slaughtering our way forward. To the boys’ irritation, they were exempt from combat shifts, forced to remain aboard the truck. I caught Gavin trying to sneak out twice, hanging upside-down with his claws sunk into the ceiling.

“Back to your seat! I told you.”

“Mommmm… I’m really bored! I’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure you would, but we’re moving fast! Everyone is too busy, too focused, to be watching you.”

“Then they should just not watch.”

“Just… go play ‘I’m thinking of an animal’ with Samar.”

“We already played that ten times…”

“Gavin Andreas Moretti…”

“Fine.”

I heaved a sigh of relief as Gavin dropped to the floor and slunk back to his friend.

Thank God the Mom Voice had worked. I totally understood Gavin’s boredom. Micah had at least brought a book, but I’d been too focused on figuring out who would watch Cassie to even think about the problem of travel entertainment. Maybe I needed another go-bag with car toys?

Priya and George hadn’t brought entertainment either, but they had at least thought about food and drink. Thankfully, they’d brought enough to share, because lunchtime had come and gone by the time we finally stopped, piling out of our transport at a fire station a few miles away from the treezilla where Colonel Zwerinski had set up a temporary headquarters.

The treezilla was large enough that I’d been able to see it for hours, every time I’d taken a turn outside on escort duty. The boys, shut in the truck, had not. All three stopped cold as they rounded the corner of the trailer, staring at the massive shape.

Alabama isn’t a place with a lot of tall buildings. Even its trees are on the dainty side, with little bitty trunks less than two feet in diameter and most treetops reaching just high enough to hide the roof of a two-story house.

My Analyze measured the treezilla at 260 feet tall, over twenty stories in height, with a trunk more than 200 feet wide. There was something very wrong about something so tall having such a broad shape. It made me feel like I was looking at some kind of optical illusion. My brain kept trying to insist to me that the tree was shorter or thinner than it was, viscerally rejecting the idea that something so tall could also be so fat.

“What the hell!?” Micah squeaked.

Gavin stepped backward, his tail wrapping around me.

I couldn’t blame either kid.