“That… fits,” I replied. “Do you think his shield is natural or the product of technology? Because if he’s blocking you, that’s something I can’t do.”

Daniel nodded, “I know. With you, a telepath can get in, but then they’re hit by waves of madness. Getting out with sanity intact is the bigger challenge. His telepathic shield might be a device. It feels too consistent to be natural. Even with a strong natural shield, there’s an ebb and flow. You feel like it’s moving. This feels solid, but the hints of madness-inducing interference pulsing through it feel natural.”

Izzy shook her head, “How did we not notice this before? Didn’t your dad put in his Stapledon block?”

“It’s a slowly growing thing,” I said. “Exposure to Lee pushed my development. Jody didn’t interact much with Lee until Stapledon and even then, not as much. If he’s been associating with Magnus, all of that would have come post-Stapledon, I bet. If that also helps, he’d be on a slower track.”

Daniel appeared about to add more, but Dayton’s response to Jody cut through the pause. “Come on, Jody, you know it’s not that easy. Let’s keep the meeting moving or we won’t get anything done.”

Jody rolled his eyes, “I’m just having fun. It’ll be fine.”

Still, he sat forward in his chair and sat up, smiling as if he were attentive and interested. To be fair to him, I should say that he didn’t do it in an exaggerated and obnoxious way.

With a brief frown, Sean turned back to everyone, “Then I guess we should start with security precautions. Since the Nine have their hooks in people who don’t even know about it, we need to start with some common trigger words.”

He pulled up his phone and started reading. Most sounded like nonsense words unless you had an implant with Human Ascendancy and Abominator languages loaded into it. Even then few words mapped perfectly to any word, but it didn’t take much to hear the original within the linguistic drift. The implant’s built-in programming made it even easier.

Sean looked up after speaking each word, gauging reactions and watching for an attack. It wasn’t unheard of.

He wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the room was watching in one way or another.

Between my implant and the government databases we had access to, I knew what actions most of the words were supposed to provoke. We were still waiting on getting some of our access back thanks to Major Justice and whoever the Nine had in government, but I’d researched the Nine recently. My implant had absorbed anything I’d seen.

Anyway, back to trigger word reactions? Jody didn’t respond to any of them.

Sean swallowed and took a breath. From the tight expression on his face, I knew what was coming next. He’d put off asking Jody where his loyalties lay as long as possible. He’d tried the trigger words in hope that one of them would show Jody had been manipulated, but now he had no choice.

If I had to bet, I’d have bet that Sean was about to blurt it out. Honestly, I probably would have too, but there had to be a better way.

Glancing over at Sean, Dayton hadn’t missed it either.

“Hey, Jods,” he said, adding that nickname to my list, “do you remember how Magnus showed up when we signed with Futuremen?”

Jody nodded, “How could I forget? He was a strange old guy. Why would he even show up here? It’s not like we’re important.”

“He called Nick once,” Haley said, moving her hands off the table and out of sight. “He wanted us to join up. Nick told him that we weren’t interested.”

Jody leaned forward around Jaclyn to look at Haley, “Seriously? You’d think he might have strung him along for a little while. Maybe he’d find out why.”

Haley thought, “Is that what he did,” at me through her implant, sending her next thoughts to the comm for everybody, “His heart rate ticked up a little. I don’t think he’s on to us, but he must be deliberately hiding something now.”

“Maybe,” Vaughn said, “but we all thought he was a Cabal guy then. We didn’t know he was in the Nine and the Cabal or that he dated back to Sumer or something.”

“Sumer?” Jody had to lean further over the table to see Vaughn. “He’s that old?”

Haley shook her head, “I don’t think he’s that old, but he’s old.”

Dayton nodded and asked, “Did Nick ever hear from him again?”

Tilting her head, Haley didn’t say anything at first. I wondered if she was waiting for me to remind her, but then she said, “Not after he said no, but Magnus’ people have tried to kill us a few times since then—if that counts.”

Looking from Sean to Jody, Dayton said, “He never tried to contact me after that first time. What about either of you?”

Sean shook his head, “Never.”

Rolling his eyes, Jody said, “Of course not. I’m not that important.”

“Right,” Dayton said, “I don’t think any of us are that important, but maybe Nick is. Getting the next Rocket would be a prize for Magnus, I bet. That would give him an in with supers everywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the only reason he came to us. He probably figured we’d be a route into the Heroes’ League.”

Haley sent her thoughts to the comm through her implant, “His heart’s pumping now. From what I’m smelling, he’s angry or maybe scared. Maybe both.”

Sydney pushed a lock of blond hair out of her face, “More than half of the old Justice Fist is in the Heroes’ League now. He might not even think of us as different groups.”

Haley frowned, thinking over the comm, “Be ready, he’s close to losing it.”

“Oh, come on,” Jody said, words tumbling out of his mouth. “Do you think the Heroes’ League is that important? Sure, Nick’s the Rocket, but the Nine have supers from all over under their thumb. The Coffeeshop Illuminati? Major Justice and his gang of losers? Bullet? All of those dipshits got conned. You know what I think? I think he saw something useful in us.”

Sydney’s eyes narrowed, “In Justice Fist or you?”

I remembered Haley saying that Sydney loathed Jody and in the moment I could hear the contempt in her voice.

Jody reddened, “Is that what this is all about?”