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Bartholomew looked over their small party another time. "Prince David Lumenbel, yes?"

Aha. So he did already know. "That's right," said Hector.

"I can help to arrange safe transport for you and him out of the city," said the captain.

Hector blinked, having expected more pushback. "That would be incredible."

Roman stepped in again. "There's a catch."

Bartholomew eyed him briefly. "No catch. Just time. There is a lot going on, and such arrangements would be necessarily delayed." Then he settled on Hector again. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but if that was so, then he was deciding against it.

"What is going on, exactly?" said Roman. "This 'lockdown' you called it? What's it for? Is the city under attack?"

"You could say that," said Bartholomew. And he pointed at the silent stranger that they'd been trying to talk to earlier. "That man there is an Abolish infiltrator. Hence why I wanted you not to rouse him."

Oh shit, Hector thought. But that did prompt another question. "Why is he not in custody, then?"

"We were hoping to use him as bait," said the captain. "But that does not seem to be panning out, so he will now be taken prisoner, instead."

Ah. Bait. And Hector had just "taken" it, more or less.

Fortunately, the Vanguard seemed to already know that he wasn't with Abolish.

Perhaps Carl Rondel's reports hadn't all been bad. Or maybe he had the Magician of Light to thank.

"Everyone's heard about the attack on Livingston," said Hector. "But that was a while ago, wasn't it? And this all seems more... recent, somehow."

The young captain took another moment to think, perhaps debating how much he wanted to share. "It's Jercash's doing. He's been sending subversives into the city, trying to stir up unrest and cause a mass panic for weeks."

Hector gave a slow nod. "I see. So your response was to just... calm everyone down. Literally."

"Is that disapproval I hear in your tone?"

"No. But I wouldn't say I'm comfortable with it, either."

"That is fair. Truthfully, I've had my own reservations about it as well, but the results are difficult to argue with. Zero lives have been lost since it began."

Impressive, but he wondered if that was really true. "This can't be easy. How long do you guys plan on keeping this up for?"

"At least until all the civilians have been moved to more defensible locations."