Curtain Call at the Lantern

The temperature dropped ten degrees. Red Hood's smile stayed exactly where it was, but the eyes behind it closed like shutters. Someone spat, not at you, just near you. A phone was raised to film your face, and you understood that a small piece of the Sentinel's next headline had just been written by your own hand.

Kez said nothing. He didn't have to. He'd been looked at like a problem his whole life and he was very good at being one.

Jonah's voice was low behind you. "Coercion gets obedience," he said. "It doesn't get information."

You had known that once. You had, at some point, forgotten it.

"Let's go," you said.

Somewhere on the wall behind you, Kez was already telling the story of the detective who thought she could scare him.