With Sean up, we didn’t have any reason to stay. We’d given everyone some privacy when they woke up, limiting the attendees to Alex and me and moving conscious people over to the side rooms.

It had been Alex’s idea. As he put it, “With poison, people sometimes vomit or… worse.”

No one needed to ask what was worse.

As we walked out of the shattered center of Justice Fist’s top floor, Sean said, “You’ll tell us when you’re going, right?”

“Of course,” I said, “but it will be soon. I don’t want to make it today because I’m fried, but we still might. I’m not ruling it out, so tomorrow’s more likely, but for all I know, it could be very early tomorrow. Control will keep everyone informed.”

Sean nodded, saying, “Just as long as we get to go. About Fossey, we don’t trust him either because, well, you know. If he comes back with a location for Jody, what are you going to do?”

“It’s a trap,” Alex said, and knowing him, I knew he wasn’t making a Star Wars reference. “It’s got to be.”

Then he shook his head, “You know what sucks though? They might give you real information, figuring that you can check up on them somehow. Then even if you figured it out on your own, you’re still going into a trap.”

“Yeah,” I said, deciding to check in with Hal and my bots as soon as possible. “That would be our luck because I’m betting I know exactly where they’ll take him. There’s almost no way they could expect us to show up there unless they pass on his location as bait.”

Sean stopped, staring at me. “We should go right now. The more time they’ve got with him, the more time they have to put things into his brain.”

I stopped with him, trying to think of a good answer. He was right. We should be heading to the island immediately. Even with Daniel wiping Jody’s memory of everything that had happened at our “meeting” and implanting suspicion of Magnus in his brain, Magnus had people capable of turning Jody into little more than a lapdog.

At the same time, the sooner we left, the more likely we were to have Govan show up in the middle of everything with potentially world-ending consequences. Plus, we were all wiped. Whatever part of me used Artificer powers gave off a feeling of persistent soreness. Everyone else had either been poisoned or fought powered-up members of the Nine to the limit of their endurance.

We needed to rest.

Alex responded before I could. He asked Sean, “How do you feel?”

Sean’s face tightened, but then slumped, saying, “Like crap.”

“That’s everyone,” Alex said. “I had enough power to work with to break up the poison and heal everyone up, but only barely. If we were to go now, I’d have practically nothing and all of you would be going in tired and frankly, with no plan at all. Maybe the guys you just fought would still be tired, but if there are other people, they’ll be fresh.”

Dayton nodded, “Dude, he’s right. I don’t know what in that stuff, but I still feel tired. There must have been something extra to their poison.”

“Don’t ask me what,” Alex said, “but I think so. I’ve healed the effects of Night Cat and Night Wolf’s poison before. This took more to fix. I don’t know what it would have done if I’d left it, but I’m betting you would have been down longer at the very least.”

Alex wouldn’t have ever dealt with poison amped up with Artificer technology before, but I asked anyway, “Is there any chance the poison sticks around on some level?”

Alex shrugged, “My superpower isn’t super-analysis. It’s healing—or necrosis, I guess. They work together. You might have a better shot at figuring it out than I would. That or ask Bloodmaiden. Magic seems to work around weird stuff.”

* * *

I found myself in my lab in HQ within an hour. We’d left Justice Fist’s base, grabbed the van, and gone to HQ, where we’d taken showers and started planning our next step. For some, that meant sleeping off the leftover damage from combat and Art and Zola’s poisons. For Haley, Jaclyn, and Izzy, it meant brainstorming ideas with Hal for how we’d assault the island.

I had people to call. Why me? Because I’d been the guy who promised Dr. Transylvania that he could participate when we went after the Nine. I’d also been the guy who’d promised Prime, the former leader of the Cabal’s soldiers, that he could help.

Plus, if I had a choice and could pick where a powerful artificer found me, HQ’s lab wasn’t a bad spot. It was better than mid-combat with Magnus for sure.

Hearing voices from the main room talking through ideas, sometimes laughing, I decided to get down to my part of this. Staring at my computer monitor and clicking on the contact information for Prime, I waited to see if he’d pick up.

He did, the shakiness of the picture showing that he was holding his phone. I couldn’t see much of the background, just grey, metal bookshelves and thick, hardcover books. Was he in a library? On the other hand, was it impossible that an immortal soldier might have a lot of books at home?

He wore a black t-shirt that did nothing to hide his muscles and grinned as he saw me, or at least the Rocket suit. “You’ve got them?”

“Not really, but I know where the main headquarters is—a Caribbean island,” I said, watching his response.

He nodded, “Ekur.”

“What?”

“It’s where the gods meet in the Sumerian religion. Magnus always called his headquarters Ekur. I’ve never seen the current location. I’ll gather my people.”

“Your people? I expected you were going to bring your team.”

Prime shook his head, “This is a family matter. I’m bringing my people. The Cabal and the Nine have never known about all of us.”