I thought about our other options, “What about Daniel?”

Vaughn snorted, “Well since Jody knows you’re friends from Stapledon, it’s probably best that he’s outside too. He’s checked though. Their base doesn’t have any protection from telepathy—not regularly.”

“Really?” I said, “That seems like a bad idea. I admit that we don’t have them on in our downtown office, but that’s because it’s only for show. I’ve got telepathy and teleportation blockers for the rare meeting.”

Frowning Vaughn said, “I brought it up with Dayton. According to him, they’re there, but they don’t stay on. They’ve had people in to look at them, but they haven’t found a problem. They work for a while, but then they don’t and no one on that team is a techie so they can’t fix it themselves. They’re trying to figure out who to call next, but they’re turning them off and on again every day for now. Dayton said he’d make sure they’re off for the meeting.”

That didn’t seem right. “In combination with Jody being maybe a traitor and what you just said, I’m wondering if they’re being sabotaged. I don’t see Jody knowing enough to do that, but I could get help from the Nine… Have they talked to Mindstryke? Weren’t they working with him to watch Futuremen Capital or something?”

Vaughn leaned back against the wall, “The problem there is that the Defenders can’t send anybody without possibly alerting the Nine. Dayton said the Defenders were arranging how to secretly send a tech.”

“Huh,” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I suppose that could blow their connection, especially with the Nine having an unknown amount of influence everywhere. I’d be a good candidate to look at their problem if they agreed on it.”

Tilting his head to the side as he grinned, he said, “I’ll pass it on. You understand those things as well as anyone. They might go for it.”

“Unless Jody’s the saboteur,” I said. “Then probably not. Uh… When does this all happen?”

“Good question,” Vaughn said, pushing away from the wall to stand straight. “It might be tonight. It might be tomorrow morning. It depends on when they have time.”

“Okay,” I said. “I don’t know what we’re doing an hour from now. I’m still waiting for the bots to get into a good position on the island. If I find out anything interesting there, we might be going back, but that said, right now I’m thinking that we might have to call in all the favors we have when we go in there. If Magnus is there and he’s got the device, this might be the final confrontation with all of the Nine’s forces. In that situation, we’ll need all the friends we can get. So I’m hoping we have until tomorrow. That might be challenging to arrange.”

With a grin, Vaughn said, “Works for me. If you don’t think Magnus will take over the world by tomorrow, I can try to schedule a morning meeting.”

That made me think of all the stuff that Magnus would supposedly be able to do even with his limited control of the device—empower people and affect the minds of huge groups. That didn’t even mention physical attack and defense. Sure, it wouldn’t be the full power of the device, but it seemed likely to be more than the full power of the Rocket suit.

Some of that must have shown on my face because Vaughn said, “Are you really thinking that he might conquer the world by tomorrow morning?”

I answered, “I can’t rule out the possibility that he’s already conquered the world and no one’s bothered to report on it because they haven’t noticed.”

“I love your optimism,” Vaughn said. “Does tomorrow work?”

“We might as well,” I said. “If it turns out that we’re not all doomed, it’ll give me time to work out a couple of things before the meeting.”

Vaughn’s forehead furrowed, “Hey, are you okay? I know things are bad, but you’re generally more optimistic.”

I shook my head, “I don’t know. I feel like I’ve been running from one thing to another since I got up. I literally went to the Moon and Mars and conducted a raid on the Nine’s home base. Kals is in the middle of a revolution that might spill over here. Plus, the Xiniti gave us the ability to blow up the planet if the Artificer tech gets out of control. Plus, my mom killed someone to save my life. Plus, the mushroom zombies. Plus Travis. Plus Major Justice and friends. Plus Magnus. Plus Lee is in the device and I have to get him out. Plus, I’ve got an idea or two involving using stuff from the storage rooms… It’s a lot.”

He let out a low whistle, “When you put it that way, I feel depressed… Travis deserves more than we’ve been able to give him. I’ve seen his body in the medical pod, but I still don’t feel like he’s gone. The rest of it is chasing me, but hasn’t caught up yet.”

“I know,” I said. “We haven’t had a funeral for Travis and when have we even had the chance? I suppose it’s his parents’ job, but I don’t know when they’re going to do it either. Plus the rest. It all happened over a few days and it’s still going. I don’t know when it will stop.”

Vaughn nodded, “If it stops too soon, it’ll be because we lost. If it continues and we get the chance to breathe, We’ll get to work it out after we win.”

“Was that a pep talk? After we win, we’ll have time to grieve?” I grinned, “You may want to work on that.”

Vaughn laughed, “It’s not much incentive, is it? But you’ll have the rest of it too. You and Haley seem solid. There’s your engineering firm. How many people our age have that? Plus, your parents are alive. It could have worked out worse.”

“It still could,” I said, looking out the door past him to the table where Haley talked with a group of us. If we were going to survive, I needed to ignore everything that wasn’t immediately relevant.

“On the bright side,” I added, “we are still living—most of us. I need to concentrate on that. So tomorrow works. Let’s go for it.”

Vaughn’s mouth twisted, but he didn’t argue, “Alright. Do whatever you’re going to do, but get a decent night’s sleep. You’ll feel better.”