"They're fixing things up again, so it might be done maybe tomorrow or Friday. There's no one except the League officers."

"Yeah. Okay. But are we being spied on yet?"

Wes sighs and looks down at her recently returned shadow, who makes an X with its arms at her. "No, River," she says, empathetic. "We are not being spied on, we are not being watched, and there is no one in any vicinity watching us as we walk our way to an abandoned warehouse in an evacuated region. Even if they told Josh that, it doesn't mean monitoring going to happen before we even get there."

Paranoid, I watch live video feed of us walking the streets through the closest CCTV cameras. We're just two people; Wes looks small besides me, dressed plain and minimalist without her safety gear in a beige top and grey trousers, and her black bob trimmed short and chin length. She might look like she works at an office somewhere. I, on the other hand, look like I was recently released from high school zoos everywhere, eyes constantly shifting--a tell, I'm realizing--and a slight curve to my spine and posture.

Taking careful attempts to cycle through the recordings of the other cameras, I can't find anything that Wes hasn't yet either. The damage to this area and its buildings has been repaired extensively by some drones since the yesterday. Since anything to do with the city's constant fluctuating state of repair and destruction is in public domain, I don't use up too much power to check in the official posted reports on the League website. All that remains later are several traffic lights being fixed, some repaired infrastructure being stabilized, rubble being cleared, and a mixture of asphalt and concrete being laid into the roads by the remaining drones.

You'd be hard pressed to wonder why any supervillain would care about this area when it's still under repairs and restoration.

Still, with the calling card burning a hole into my pocket, I can't shake the feeling they're out there.

"--iver," Wes says. Exasperated. She elbows me, which hurts, considering the points to them. "Seriously? If you're so worried, scan the area yourself."

"I have." Multiple times. Other than the League officer who allowed us in through the barricades at the edge of the area, and the graphene signals waiting at the warehouse, there's hardly anyone else for me to ping for more details. "I might've missed someone. They might have someone with a masking, or an invisibility, or an anti-tracking superpower, or device."

"The only thing I can think of is that they've got incremental time slots for additional support to enter the city. Makes sense, considering I'm pretty sure everyone hates everyone." Wes, at this point, doesn't even bother looking at her shadow. She opens her phone, opens the Notes app, and types out CUT IT OUT, RIVER. "So, stop."

We walk a bit more, past a convenience store with a car smashed in through the front display glass window. Wes's shadow dances up along the glass as I glance by, too concerned to be amused. "How about now?"

I MEAN IT, Wes types. "No."

"How about--"

I SAID NO. "No."

I fiddle with my hands. "Hey--"

"Listen," Wes says. She puts an arm out, blocking me from moving and stopping both of us dead in our tracks. Putting her hand on my elbow, she turns me around so we look at each other and continues, "I understand that you're nervous, but you really don't need to be."

"I'm not nervous."

"Sure, the Doctor's one of the most prolific supervillains you could ever work under," Wes continues, "and you'd be set for life with an insurance, dental, and benefits plan if his people like what you can do, but--" She pauses herself. Thinks it over. "Is the Doctor hiring, do you think? If the Doctor's supervillains like you enough to make you a job offer, can you send my resumé and cover letter over to someone in--"

I type, PLEASE DON'T DO THIS TO ME RIGHT NOW, on her phone and set it to vibrate. "Wes."

"Okay, fine." She glances at it, cancels the alert, and puts her phone back into her pocket. "But you're overthinking this. Just do your job, and--"

"The Doctor had something to do with the detonated rogue android."

It's props to Wes that she doesn't dismiss this, or step out of place. "Gut feeling?"

"I saw the Doctor's people yesterday. They were here."

She looks around. "Okay. Now I get it. If anything happens, I'll emergency bail you out, okay? But until then, come with me, we'll do what we were meant to do, and I'll guide you out." Her voice softens. "I've got your back, River Ng. You know that, right?"

Staring at Wes's profile, I have the sudden realization that even if Josh doesn't know what to do with me, he put me with her for a reason. Gratefulness washes over me. "Okay." I take a breath and push out another scan. "We should probably get there. Officer Elder's playing Tetris."

"Elder is a boring name," Wes says, as we pass by another barricade before a small door at the side of the warehouse. The League officer there scans our license barcodes and checks over our files.

"River Ng and Solstice," she confirms, her orange jacket hanging over her shoulders and her blond hair long and full. She's wearing a dark business shirt and pants, and her hands are riddled with metallic plates layering atop each other like armor shell. Flexing them, they smooth back into her skin. "Go on in. Elder's waiting for you inside."

"Anything we should know about?" Wes asks her. "We don't know this area, so background information would help too."

The League officer sweeps her eyes over us, a cold steel grey and a shiver runs itself up my spine. Then, she just shakes her head, and the feeling over me vanishes. "Just is a shame it had to happen," she says, regretful. "The android used to belong to this warehouse, but the owners moved onto other ventures, people were laid off, and it was slated for decommission."

Decommission sounds like something an android with self-awareness definitely would not want. "How old were they?"

"About a year or two." Officer Tranquilli sighs. "Sweet kid, really, when we came by last fall for inspection. Elder and I were going to put in a request to transfer it to League alignment." I glance at Wes, who's nodding politely along. "If you can pass any information you can to Elder once you two find out so it won't happen again, we'd appreciate it."

"For sure," Wes says. "Come on, River."