Seera Wyndham watched things from a distance. She didn't like being back home. She liked Earth more, and had only stayed because Mister Shanahan had taken a liking to the master Wu Chi.

She couldn't really say it was a liking. Mister Shanahan didn't seem the type of person to like anyone other than his daughters. He seemed to respect the old man more than he did the others. That inclined him to be more agreeable than normal.

He stood at the edge of the hex and kept an eye on the caved-in entrance they had used, and the gap between hexes. He only ate when Wyndham pushed something into his hands. He seemed to be waiting for something other than the masters of factions assembling.

She wondered if he was waiting for another invasion of dragons. She thought that was impossible, but she had seen some impossible things already. What was one more?

She knew some of the others coming in. They had contracted work for her through Grandview. Trading favors was the currency of the masters of the hexes. She had handled the tasks as quickly as possible. Her talent kept warning her of danger so she was never comfortable while dealing with the various faction members.

Getting back to her room in the tower seemed preferable.

Vassily had proven all of her concerns true. She had thought a fair exchange would suit them both, but he had taken advantage.

Mister Shanahan had done something she would have done if she had not been trying to go back to New York. The marine had not considered the danger to himself with that act. She doubted if his condition allowed him to feel fear like a normal person.

She wondered if a new battlefield was what he had been looking for when they had run into each other.

She had certainly given him that.

He turned as if he felt her eyes on his back.

“We're going to need to get more bullets if we stay to help the factions,” Wyndham said.

“They won't need us,” said Shanahan. “The factions will get their own troubleshooters to go in and look at things. We'll just be here to show that Grandview took the threat seriously.”

“They'll want us to lead any force,” said Wyndham. “None of them trust the others far enough to send someone into a dangerous situation if they don't want it. We're the only ones that can be thrown away on something like this.”

Shanahan nodded. Only Grandview seemed to walk around without another member of his faction acting as a guard. He supposed the master weapon felt if they could get through his abilities, they deserved the win.

One shot from his Fist would be enough for a normal man. And despite their powers, most of the faction members he had seen so far seemed normal enough.

“I'll have to ask for time so we can equip ourselves,” said Wyndham. “Without Vassily's bag, we'll need a lot more grenades and first aid gear.”

“We might need plastic if we can get it,” said Shanahan. “There might be things we'll have to blow up that grenades aren't the best solution.”

“Are we going to ask for a team to be assembled out of this mess?,” asked Wyndham.

“I would feel better if it was just the two of us, but I don't see that happening,” said Shanahan. “There's too much in proving things yourself than just some basic trust.”

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“Even though I ran from the Weapons, everyone will still believe I'm only here because of Emil,” said Wyndham.

Shanahan nodded. He had killed two Weapons, and two Shapers. People shouldn't trust him because of that, but someone had to be dropped into the snake pit. He was the only one who fit the bill since he didn't really belong to anyone.

But they wouldn't trust just his word because of the things he had done, and his small reputation for surliness. They'd want someone to testify for or against him about what they had seen on the trip.

On the other hand, they didn't have to go through with anything. Staying to hear the pitch was just courtesy to Grandmaster Bao. Leaving right after would be good enough to sooth whatever conscience he might have.

A small amount of whiskey would handle the rest.

It wouldn't be the first time he had ducked some responsibility to do something else instead.

“Do you like it here?,” asked Wyndham. She almost smiled at the serious contemplation that crossed his face.

“It's just a place,” said Shanahan. “It's just like any other place I've been.”

Wyndham paused. She had looked at maps of the Earth while chasing down lost children for the detective agency. There were good places on Earth, but that world wasn't twelve mesas rising out of a fog with humans living only on the tops. In fact, no one knew what lay beyond the twelve factions, and had no way to find out.

She didn't see any comparison to the two. Then she realized where Mister Shanahan stood didn't matter to him. The marines had sent him all over his world while he did whatever he had to carrying out his orders. One place he had to wait for someone to think about what they wanted him to do was just the same as any other place he had been.

The forward base was just put together differently than how he and his comrades did things.

That was something she was glad to have not experienced yet.

“Some of these guys seem to like you,” said Shanahan. He glared at someone approaching. That someone veered off either from the hostile stare, look of hate, or the clenching of a fist.

“I've worked with some of them,” said Wyndham. “Most are like the Wu Chi and the Shapers. They need totems to use whatever powers they have. Take away the totems, they have to depend on their skills.”

So the Weapons and a couple of others were in the minority, using their powers as soon as they could think about it while the others had to draw and trigger some kind of weapon for their abilities to use.

And Grandview's personality probably got on everyone's nerves on top of the envy.

“If it was just us, how would you do a search?,” asked Shanahan.

“I would travel to every hex and look for the tunnels,” said Wyndham. “There was literally no reason to do that before, but it's the obvious first step. Once we know which hexes need to be searched, we can rule out the others except for a cursory check for more of those vines, or the water.”

Shanahan nodded. Either the water changed the vines into something that became a threat, or the vines were always there and used the water to grow what it always did bigger and faster.

“Then we can map them somehow so others can look at how dangerous everything is and risk their own necks when we're done,” said Wyndham. “Master Yuen's modeling ability would be good for this, but I would prefer to keep him out of the way while we use something else.”

“That Yuri guy has stone cameras,” said Shanahan. “We could drop those as we went. We would just need some way for him to show everyone else.”

“I think that's one of the abilities that comes with that,” said Wyndham.

“All we need to do is get twelve guys to sign off on our plan,” said Shanahan. “I think you're perfect for that.”

“We'll talk to Grandmaster Bao and see how it would look,” said Wyndham. “Then we'll ask for time to arm ourselves.”

He nodded at that. He doubted Bao could sway the other factions enough not to want to send people to make sure the threat was really gone.

It didn't hurt to show one plan, while thinking of another one.