Testing

Anya-28 resented her lack of talent more and more every day. She wanted so much to be directly useful in the Elpis investigations, but she wasn't anywhere near powerful enough to see that far. All she could do was take on a greater share of the standard Watcher requests that came in every day, freeing up Charlotte and Niko to focus exclusively on what mattered most.

Right now, she basically functioned as a space probe. A vast mining fleet was making ready to head out to what remained of the Kuiper Belt. The mission planners wanted a few more close images of the biggest rocks.

Admittedly, zipping her mind through space and buzzing tiny asteroids did have a certain thrill. How many kids over the last few centuries had wanted to be astronauts when they grew up, but couldn't realistically achieve the high levels of physical, mental, and technical expertise the job required? Anya needed none of that training. Without a ship, space suit, or months of transit time, she could visit other celestial bodies with zero risk. Well, zero risk of harm. If she brought her perspective too close to a star, it got so bright that sensory overload grew too painful to maintain her Trance. But that didn't actually expose her to any heat or radiation.

The three most important asteroids deserved special attention. She shot her perspective right through each of these, as if rapidly tunneling in one side and out the other. Her conscious mind interpreted this as moments of total darkness, because a Watcher couldn't see through opaque objects. But the footage would be able to get around this in a specific, useful way. The exact center point of her perspective would show the tiniest area of perceived matter. The scientists looking over the footage would be able to tell whether it was ice, rock, or useful metals. In a way, Anya's mind could be viewed as taking a tiny core sample through each asteroid, helping the mining fleet set better priorities.

She finished her scouting with a little time to spare, so she now sent her mind to Venus. She'd once listened in as Klaus and Duri rambled on about how Venus was the second deadliest place in the Solar System, with only the Sun being more capable of instantly wrecking a visitor's day. Duri enjoyed using the term "perpetual global hurricane of boiling acid," which admittedly sounded pretty sick. And yet Anya could set her mind high in the atmosphere, watching the hellish nightmare unfold around her with no danger to herself. The roaring winds, the churning storm, the sense that the planet hated you, wanted to kill you… but couldn't. Anya was immune. She thought back to that ancient Ray Bradbury story she'd read in seventh grade. It might have been more interesting if Venus were indeed a vast, hyper-verdant jungle with murderous lightning storms that seemed almost alive… but there was still a raw, primal grandeur to this place.

She deeply missed her gymnastics career, and she hated being the least talented member of the team. But every so often, it was nice to revel in the awe and wonder of what nobody but Watchers could experience.

Duri-22 did his rounds. It should have been Klaus-21's turn, but Duri had volunteered to check the Watcher Boards for the second day in a row. Every day, Earth's extrasolar colonies posted questions and supply requests for earth. With the closest colonized star system four lightyears away, halving the total time to receive answers or request special equipment was no minor accomplishment.

Most of the others found this job a bit tedious. It wasn't even necessary to read the requests. A split second in the presence of a Board was plenty: the archivists would examine the footage later and start forwarding it to the proper departments or agencies. This vital task could easily devolve into a dull checklist, moving from one set of coordinates to the next, with no need for personal curiosity or investigation.

But Duri's curiosity never switched off.

He always took longer than anyone else when doing his rounds, as it fascinated him to see what mattered most to each colony. A gifted speed reader, Duri could get the gist of things with only a few moments at each board. Right now, with the urgency of events on Elpis, Duri couldn't afford to waste time, but his mind still pondered what he saw at each destination. Only Elpis was too far from Earth to know about Watchers, so the total number of boards to check was quite high. But Duri's mind buzzed happily with the wealth of rich cultural, scientific, and economic implications of what he read.

For a little while, Duri was distracted from the deep pain of losing his closest friend.

Then he found something new. The Watcher Board at Jazhiit had a teenage boy seated in front of it. The kid managed to look both anxious and bored. He held a sign that read, "I might be a Watcher."

Duri had just enough time to experience a spike of excitement… before knowing it was a false hope. The boy didn't react to his presence in any way. He'd surely been posted here in hopes of him sensing someone Watching, but there was zero sign of it.

Poor kid. Such high hopes of being the most useful person on an entire planet, unlocking instant communication for the first time… but he won't even get a definitive answer. He'll have to sit here all day, hoping to sense something unusual. It'll be hours before he accepts that it's never happening.

Moving on to the remaining colonies, Duri forced the disappointment from his mind by thinking about the task at hand. Yorkshire's request for five more modern fabricators suggested an upcoming boom in infrastructure expansion. Keç posted a vast and complex series of chemical equations, so they probably hoped to get design specifications to solve a local biological or agricultural conundrum. Dylon happily reported the arrival of the equipment and experts they had requested eleven years earlier.

After checking the last world on the list. Duri hesitated. He considered going back to double-check Jazhiit, just in case that boy hadn't been paying attention. Deep down though, he knew there was no point. The sensation of being Watched was unmistakable and couldn't be ignored.

He felt the buzz of a comm request, and he reluctantly ended his Trance and withdrew from his Rig. "22 here."

"This is 11. Meet me in conference room 70. We have a decision to make."

"It should be me," Charlotte said, with no hint of doubt. "I'm the strongest Watcher, so I'll get the greatest results. As soon as the last of the red tape gets cut away, I'll test Miss Gross' medication."

"Not a chance," Duri said flatly. "You're too valuable. Only you can Watch Elpis any time you want. We will not risk losing you."

"I'm the best choice," Anya insisted. "By far. I'm the most likely to survive if the drug's toxic, and I'm the closest thing to expendable any Watcher can be."

"I will not accept that!" Fawzia snapped. "You're young. You have decades of Watching ahead of you. But my power is diminishing every day. If anyone here is expendable, it's me."

"Your knowledge is unmatched," Anya countered. "And there's still the first half of my argument. You're seventy. You're the least likely to survive if MD-Δ turns out to be dangerous. I however, am in my prime, and a far healthier specimen than any of you quite frankly. I'm far more likely to survive."

"What about me?" Niko said, though the argument had him visibly stressed out. "My nervous system's tougher than–"

"You're the least expendable Watcher of all!" Charlotte said, cutting him off. "It's only a matter of time before you surpass me! It's possible you already have, with that stunt where you pierced the faraday shielding with nothing but pain and grit. And anyway, there's not a chance we're testing this on a child. Sorry, little man. We all respect you, but this is one of those times when we won't ignore your age."

"Ugh!" Peng groaned. "This is getting tedious. Fawzia, Anya, and Charlotte all have a decent case for being chosen, so let's just vote! We're in a hurry, remember?" Anya and Duri nodded eagerly, while Charlotte grumbled, Fawzia scowled, and Niko looked sad. But they soon agreed.

Each of the candidates voted for themselves. Peng voted for Fawzia. But both Niko and Duri voted for Anya.

"Good," she said. "I'm the only one that makes sense."

"Duri and I will be on hand when the test is performed," Fawzia said, failing to hide her distress at the second youngest of them being chosen. "Charlotte and Niko, keep cautiously Watching Elpis. The Aurora should be starting up very soon. Peng, I'm impressed at your recent results, adding a lightyear to your max range in such a short time. See what you can accomplish during the Southern Lights. Watchers: Dismissed."

Security Chief Hasina Rakoto stretched, popped her knuckles, and powered up her equipment. While most of HQ focused on supporting the Watchers in their investigations, and in exploring ways they could improve, Hasina still needed to stay at the top of her game. With Klaus dead, and his mysterious killer at large, there was no knowing when or in what capacity Hasina might be called on to act in their defense. Every single day since receiving the most important military post in human civilization, she tested her limits in at least one military simulation. Most of these involved defending Watcher HQ from various threats, typically with far more powerful attacking forces than could ever realistically assemble. Occasionally, she even simulated battles where insurgents managed to get infantry inside the facility, despite such a scenario being all but impossible.

Today though, she'd stretch her mind and test her expertise in an area that would never apply to her position. Admiral Horacio Tapadia of the Interstellar Fleet had challenged her to a battle in space.

"Rakoto here. Ready to begin."

"Good morning, Hasina. I've prepared something you'll approve of…"

The numerous screens and holos of Hasina's Command Center ran the simulation. Earth featured prominently in the center of the virtual battlefield, with the vast array of orbital space stations forming a loose cloud around the planet. Admiral Tapadia's forces glowed red on her displays. Seventeen frigates, more than even existed, and swarms of drones and support craft. Hasina had just five frigates, though the ratio of smaller craft wasn't quite so one-sided.

"You know me well, Horacio," Hasina admitted. "In a real battle, I prefer to have every advantage possible. But in a simulation, there's no point unless I'm steeply outnumbered."

"This scenario will require the utmost care and precision," Tapadia warned. "Absolutely no collateral damage will be tolerated. If a single shot strikes an orbital station, civilian craft, or any part of Earth's surface other than Antarctica, random assets belonging to the offending player will immediately self-destruct. If you do enough damage to something big enough, you might even forfeit an entire frigate."

"Are any planetside assets available?"

"Hah! You mean, can you draw on the extreme firepower of the Watcher defense grid? Not this time."

"But that also means you can't launch attacks from the Moon or the I.F. stations in high orbit?"

There was a brief pause, then the Admiral spoke with far less excitement in his voice. "You take the fun out of everything. Alright fine. I was going to surprise you, but no point now. I'll only use the assets clearly defined on your screen."

"Do I need to eliminate all of your forces, or just the frigates?"

"You must neutralize anything that can hit ground targets. So fighter drones and most support craft can be ignored, but my missile boats and kinetic bombers must all be accounted for. My target is Watcher HQ, which is why my forces are deployed in high orbit above the North Pole. This scenario would be a bit pointless if I started out with line of sight."

A ten second countdown began, and Hasina's mind raced. So he's attacking HQ, but I'm not allowed to use any of our ground-based defenses? That was less of a handicap than it initially felt like. Only the Interstellar Fleet was allowed to have any weapons in space, so the Watchers had never before faced danger from anywhere but Earth. Twice, rogue forces had tried to put military craft in space, but the I.F. descended with overwhelming firepower within seconds of the hostiles leaving the atmosphere. Thus, HQ's tremendous firepower was geared toward destroying aircraft and ground vehicles, but was far less useful against spacecraft. Still, it would have been nice to surprise the Admiral with a few hundred missiles from below…

The countdown reached zero, and Hasina's initial orders were obeyed. Her frigates immediately spread out, beginning to circle the planet. She simply couldn't afford to delay. Even with collateral damage to Earth disallowed, the planet would only provide protection at the beginning. Hasina might be able to shoot down missiles and fighters, but if even one of the Admiral's frigates got as far as the equator, she'd have no meaningful counters. Their massive orbital bombardment cannons were the largest gauss weapons ever made. They fired projectiles large enough to pass through the atmosphere with decent accuracy, and Hasina would have no options once those guns started firing.

As she feared, the Admiral also spread out his own frigates, circling the earth on seventeen different trajectories, forcing Hasina to split her attention. Typically, Hasina always strove to win with zero losses, despite how frequently such an outcome was clearly impossible. In this scenario, simply winning might be impossible. Under the most extreme circumstances, she knew her goals might need to shift. And this scenario certainly counted. With even one enemy frigate possessing the power to annihilate Watcher HQ, it would take everything Hasina had to prevent that.

Her SDL drones swarmed out ahead of her frigates, their laser domes ready to shoot down incoming missiles, while her fighter drones hung back, waiting for Tapadia's drones to come in range. This scenario had started with all vessels stationary relative to earth, so both sides' frigates would be far slower than in a real battle. Unmanned drones could safely accelerate many times faster than manned craft, and Hasina had no choice but to push them forward. With her drones so badly outnumbered, she'd have preferred to keep her forces together, so the fast-tracking chainguns of her frigates could support the fighters. But delaying would guarantee defeat.

Only once in human history had an I.F. frigate fired on a real target in space, when a mutiny threatened to seize control of a warship near Mars. And they'd only needed one gun. A single direct hit from the massive, hypervelocity round had been enough to rip the target in half. Thus, frigates carried few projectiles per gun. Nevertheless, Hasina expended some of these precious shots early. Each of her warships fired several of their heaviest weapons, with angles and muzzle velocities calculated to utilize earth's gravity. The Admiral's frigates had to deviate course to avoid the shots, buying Hasina precious time. The instant they settled into their new courses, Hasina fired another volley, and then another when they changed course yet again. She knew these shots couldn't actually hit, but so many course corrections would delay the time till Tapadia's frigates reached firing range.

Horatio's warships returned fire, employing a similar pattern of staggered shots intending to force evasive maneuvers. Hasina played along with this dance until her frigates' main guns each had only two shots left. Then all of her smaller craft altered course. They aimed to converge on three points along the Admiral's formation, which had passed the arctic circle under constant acceleration. Having settled into the game of firing and evading long-range cannon shots, Tapadia was a bit slow to react to the sudden change. His fighter drones began moving to intercept piecemeal. Despite their greater total numbers, it looked like Hasina's drones would briefly have the advantage in two of the projected battle zones. The Admiral started launching missiles en masse, and Hasina did the same, though prioritizing different targets.

With far less experience in space combat than her opponent, and a much smaller fleet, she accepted that victory would cost her entire force, if it was possible at all. She would always view such an approach as a last resort, but in the most lopsided simulations, she'd been forced to take such measures many times before.

Gambling on a specific outcome, without which nothing else would matter anyway, she ran calculations and had her frigates fire most of their remaining ammo. Each ship now had only four shots left.

Fighter drones began firing, spraying hypervelocity chaingun rounds that would experience no drag and considerably less bullet drop than shots fired at ground level. Missiles detonated, drones tore apart, and massive projectiles shot through space, silent. In the midst of the chaos, Hasina's kinetic bombers broke away, spreading out to move on all of the Admiral's frigates. Hasina's fighters prioritized Horatio's SDL drones. This guaranteed she'd lose the dogfight, but it allowed more of her missiles to slip through the heaviest engagement zones. Like her bombers, those missiles were on course for Horatio's frigates. Her fighters began to fall as more and more of the Admiral's drones arrived, but they'd served their purpose. Her missile boats fired off the rest of their ordnance as rapidly as possible, while her SDL drones broke with convention and zipped through the dogfights, leaving their allies behind. Were this a real battle, it would take months for cleanup crews to remove all the debris and shrapnel from orbit, and the real destruction hadn't even started yet.

Firing their point defense lasers to disrupt enemy sensors, Hasina's SDL drones began ramming the Admiral's kinetic bombers. Long range missiles from both sides cleared the dogfighting and continued on course for frigates. Hasina made her final calculations, and her frigates fired the last of their ammo to add to the chaos. Seconds later, swarms of enemy missiles overwhelmed the point defense chainguns of her frigates, and one ship after another broke apart. She couldn't stop herself from feeling regret over that. In a real battle, every frigate would represent four hundred lives.

With her capital ships lost, and her support drones getting picked off by the Admiral's fighter drones, Hasina was losing her ability to track the battle in detail or issue swift orders. But at this point, she didn't need to. Either her plans and previously issued orders would be enough, or they wouldn't. She'd done all she could.

Missiles began reaching Tapadia's frigates, which faced fewer warheads per ship than Hasina's fleet had. Chainguns opened fire, chewing through Hasina's missiles, but she hadn't really expected many to get through. Two of the Admiral's ships blew apart, but what really mattered was her bombers. While the frigates focused on shooting down missiles, Hasina's bombers lined up their shots and released their ultradense payloads. Primarily intended for striking planetside targets, the Admiral had dismissed the value of Hasina's bombers in this scenario. Used against targets in space, the kinetic projectiles would pack far less punch than missiles.

Hasina counted on that.

Multi-ton projectiles struck the frigates even as the huge ships dived to avoid the last of the shots fired from Hasina's warships. Rather than blast huge chunks from their targets, they smashed deep into the frigates, aimed for their primary fusion reactors. Eight of these struck home. Missiles might have triggered catastrophic failure and destroyed the warships entirely, but Hasina didn't actually want that. The damaged frigates had time to shut down their reactors, saving the ships from outright destruction, but the heavy impacts and venting atmosphere caused them to lose altitude. Without power, those frigates could no longer fire their gauss chainguns, allowing Hasina's bombers to maneuver close, match the velocity of the powerless frigates, and make contact. The bombers then fired their engines at full power, acting as thrusters to shift the trajectory of the frigates even more. Realizing the danger, the Admiral recalled his fighter drones, which had already destroyed Hasina's other assets. Despite taking careful aim, destroying Hasina's bombers still worsened the damage to the unpowered frigates and caused atmosphere to vent more rapidly.

That's that. The last of my forces are destroyed, and all I can do is watch. Everything depends on how exactly this scenario's special condition is enforced…

The Admiral's seven surviving frigates passed the Tropic of Cancer, still accelerating, with nothing to challenge them. Hasina's unconventional tactics had taken out his bombers and missile boats, but his largest ships could easily score him a victory once they reached the Equator. Tense minutes dragged on, with Hasina's simulator showing only low-res imagery now that her forces had been eradicated. But she knew the Admiral wouldn't feel any tension at all. As far as he was concerned, he couldn't lose…

Reaching the equator, Horatio's frigates began firing their massive guns…

Then the first powerless frigate crashed into the Pacific Ocean.

Instantly, one of Tapadia's orbiting warships self-destructed before it could fire a second shot.

"YES!" Hasina roared, surging with hope. She could imagine Horatio's confusion turning to chagrin as he realized what was happening.

Two more burning frigates crashed into the planet, one in the Indian Ocean and one off the coast of Taiwan. As they did so, fully functional frigates in orbit blew apart.

As I hoped, the scenario's rule against collateral damage includes crashing into the planet. Such massive hits to Earth are enough to trigger the self-destruct of ships of equivalent value. The simulator is punishing the Admiral as if he deliberately rammed the planet. If we ever do this again, I'm certain he'll tweak the parameters of the scenario to prevent this from working, but that's irrelevant. He'd never have let it happen again anyway.

The remaining unpowered frigates crashed to earth, triggering the self-destruct of Horatio's remaining warships. The last impact was perilously close to Hasina's birthplace of Madagascar, which would have felt particularly ironic.

Now, it was all up to chance. Sixteen massive projectiles had been fired before the exploit eliminated the remaining frigates, and they all streamed toward the South Pole. They were moving far more slowly than they could have, to allow gravity to curve their trajectory enough to reach their targets. Even so, just one direct hit had the potential to be game over.

Unlike before, as the minutes dragged on Hasina knew Horatio would feel the tension as well. With direct line of sight, his ships couldn't have missed such a large stationary target, but these shots had been fired from the equator, and even the best calculations couldn't guarantee their accuracy when cutting through the atmosphere. Hasina's heart pounded as the icons converged on her home.

Her boards lit up as projectiles smashed into Antarctica, blasting vast craters into the ice. Coming at a shallow angle, one shot clipped the roof of HQ, and the simulator displayed the top ten levels shattering. One shot struck the ground just a few hundred meters from the facility, triggering a corner of the massive building to collapse and tear away from the structure.

But the rest of the building stood.

Horatio's voice came over the comm. "I do believe this counts as a draw."

"What do you mean?" Hasina double-checked the conditions of the scenario. "HQ wasn't destroyed."

"No… but check the casualty report."

Hasina's heart sank when she did so. The simulator estimated that five hundred personnel would have died from the damage inflicted on the base… including Duri-22 and Niko-29.

"I failed to destroy your base completely, but I did kill two Watchers. I'd call that a draw."

Adrenalin fading, Hasina ended the simulation. "It was fun, Horatio. Let's do it again sometime."

"You don't sound happy."

"I really did lose a Watcher recently. Losing two more, even in simulation, hurts worse than expected."

"Sorry, Hasina. I didn't mean to be insensitive."

She chuckled. "I'll get over it. I might immerse myself in these simulations, but I don't lose touch with reality. Now excuse me, but this little exercise took far too long, and I need to get back to work. My team is about to make history, and I'd like to be tied in."

Straining past the point of pain, Peng-24 drove his mind through the Aurora Australis and surpassed his previous limit. No surprise there. If his standard range had increased, this new record was effectively guaranteed. But the improvement wasn't nearly as much as he'd hoped for. His interface informed him that his perspective was centered just over sixty-four lightyears from earth. Still not enough… But once they confirm the new drug's safe, who knows what I'll be able to do? Even if he wasn't directly involved when the time came to put Lamia down, he swore to himself that he'd at least Watch it happen.

This training was both painful and boring. Instead of Watching a planet or space station, to push his limits meant seeing only empty space. Sure, the constellations looked different from out here, but he'd never been into astronomy. Before his Induction, he'd frequently been assigned to maintenance on the exterior of the Lunar domes. Staring at the stars had gotten old fast. He sorta missed them now… occasionally, if only due to his exclusively indoor lifestyle, but–

He felt the touch of another mind. He was being Watched.

For a moment, a spike of terror threatened to knock him out of his Trance. He was not ready for this yet! If that horrible Lamia girl had found him…

But no. He recognized the sensation. It was Anya Watching him. More specifically, she was Watching his physical body. Most Watchers had a hard time distinguishing such things, particularly since most were never Watched after their initial Induction. But Peng had a knack for it. Anya had been especially inept during her first year at HQ, and more than half the time, she'd had no control over where she projected her mind. They'd been forced to alert the whole base ten minutes in advance of her sessions, so everyone would have a chance to get out of the shower or ensure they didn't have confidential information visible anywhere. Peng was the only Watcher who hadn't stayed within his shielded apartment on those occasions, and he'd felt her accidental attention more than once. He might not trust her, but she was certainly the best looking of the Watchers, in every category. He quite admired it when a woman cultivated the physical strength to break someone like him into little bits… so long as she didn't actually do it. Sure, he was quite a bit older than her, but not enough for it to still be creepy in, say… ten years. He could be patient. So he always avoided antagonizing her, and he tried to feign nonchalance in her presence… most of the time. Perhaps she'd warm to him someday. And even if not, it paid to be on the good side of someone with the aforementioned ability to splat him if angered.

This sensation of her Watching him though… it didn't feel exactly the same as the last time. He knew the mind observing him was Anya's, but she felt… powerful. Impressively so. I knew it! The drug works. While Watching the interior of HQ, she's not getting enhanced by the Aurora. This power can only come from this "Myalodynami Delta." I just hope using the drug isn't uncomfortable. If it works well enough, they'll probably expect me to use it all the time, even if it's an awful experience. Sure, I'd be willing to suffer through quite a lot in the name of avenging Klaus, but once that's over, I hope they let me take it easy…

Surging with energy and excitement, Anya-28 redirected her focus. A brief exploration of HQ had helped her get her bearings, as this new level of power was disorienting. Now, she launched her mind toward the stars. This first test was mostly about safety, and to gauge the severity of any side effects. It thus wasn't particularly important that the results would be complicated by the Aurora. Duri-22 and Head Scientist Renya would have preferred a baseline be established without that additional enhancement, but Head Doctor Supriya, Head Archivist Tácito, and Anya won out. The need was too great, and too urgent, to delay.

Projecting her mind through the Alfvén waves was a rush as it never had been before. She briefly felt lost, with her awareness centered on a random patch of empty space, but then her interface informed her that she was Watching… over one hundred lightyears from earth?

In that moment, Anya knew this was a game changer. She, the least talented Watcher in history, had just edged out Charlotte's personal record. And her mind thrummed with power.

This was totally unlike any other time she'd spent in the rig. Typically, she couldn't Watch without the unsatisfying sensation that she'd always be the weakest link. Always an afterthought. Last pick.

But right now…

This felt like her time before Induction. When she had competed in front of the world, her brilliance, strength, and skill broadcast to every colony and station in the Solar System. She no longer felt weak…

And she no longer felt scared.

With a thought, she got the necessary coordinates from her neural interface. Hasina wouldn't approve. Right now, her Chamber was crammed with scientists and doctors, not security personnel. But she couldn't make herself wait. Not while Niko and Charlotte were taking risks of their own…

Her perspective leapt to the coordinates. She was now Watching the same place as Charlotte. Anya recognized the polluted, blood-stained site of Klaus-21's murder. Lamia always took her victims here, so this was the most useful–and dangerous–place to observe. Anya zoomed out slightly to get a wider angle…

What… what is that?

There was… something… right where she'd been. A faint, hazy blur. Anya moved her perspective to one side, confirming the phenomenon was localized on where the coordinates had initially directed her.

The location from which Charlotte was actively Watching…

The strange shimmer relocated rapidly, moving to the far side of the stream, then it elevated high into the air, then moved again. There was a fearful quality to the movements, like a hunted animal. This must be Charlotte's mind… I can see the spot where she's projecting her awareness… And since she can feel she's being Watched, she's afraid it must be Lamia… I'm the first Watcher ever to–

She caught herself. She might be the first trained, official Watcher to successfully "see" the projected mind of another, but they already knew this was possible. Lamia could see Watchers easily enough, and without even appearing to enter a Trance. Did Lamia only see a faint haze like this? Maybe not. Anya was naturally weak when Watching. When Niko or Charlotte got to try out this drug, perhaps they'd see more clearly than–

"Two of you?"

That shriek, in the voice of an outraged little girl, came with the sudden sensation of being Watched. With her newfound confidence and sense of power, Anya failed to do what she absolutely should have done. Instead of canceling her Watch, she spun her perspective toward the voice.

Lamia looked back and forth between Anya and the hazy distortion that represented Charlotte's awareness. A little boy was running for his life, temporarily ignored. Lamia settled on Anya, and reached out a hand toward her…

Charlotte's perspective darted forward, passing through Lamia like an ethereal projectile. The girl flinched, and screamed in anger, turning toward Charlotte. But then 17's mind vanished from Anya's sight.

Anya almost left too.

But she didn't. Not yet.

The little boy was slow. He needed more time.

As Lamia began to turn toward Anya, the little girl's body started to bloat and stretch. The sight almost broke Anya's resolve. But she still made her move.

Imitating Charlotte, she shot her perspective directly through Lamia's head, earning a shriek of frustration and irritation from the little monster.

Then Anya canceled her Watch.