"Costa-Brown speaking."

"Hello, this is Lorica. The Simurgh really does not want us to talk."

She hangs up.

"Get me a different baffle number and try again."

She texts Dragon about this then answers. "Costa-Brown speaking."

"Hi Alexandria. Don't hang up."

"You were meant to be in Baltimore and just because I can't hear the Simurgh's song doesn't mean I'm immune to her ploys."

And Dragon can probably track where the call's coming from and locate her...

"You're not. I am. As long as you're interacting with me you're in my shadow. You were supposed to get a nice, nonthreatening email and she killed it and it's gone from all the servers where it should have been remembered so this is it."

"This is exactly what the Simurgh would make you believe. How did you get out without Dragon noticing?"

"Who says I did? There are phones in Baltimore. Now listen -" And she reads off the bullet points.

"Do you have access to the backups of your exchanges with Correlate?"

"Yes."

"Can you send them to me now? If you're really shadowed from the Simurgh and talking to me shadows me, too, then it should arrive without a problem."

Lorica forwards it on.

"Please hold."

She starts reading that and, after the first few emails, grabs another phone and calls Dragon.

"Hello."

"I have Lorica on the line. She either escaped Baltimore without you noticing or somehow made a phone work in there in spite of the jammers. Former's more probable. Can you verify which is the case?"

"Neither," says Dragon.

"You helped her."

"A backup of Rete contained the evidence she just sent you. I managed to get her and Library Elf out before he would have died."

"The evidence could still have been fabricated." Pause. "Although that's unlikely. Did you take any further steps to verify its legitimacy?"

"The gaps in the electronic record are not conspicuous on their own but they do line up exactly. The bank accounts of Graph Paper LLC showed deposits consistent with the exchanges asserted having been paid for. Leviathan did unexpectedly little damage to Los Angeles proper on his way to Monrovia, which had no buildings left standing afterwards."

"Are you and Library Elf currently interacting with Lorica?"

"Yes."

"Then please continue to do so, but in a way that does not allow them to influence any major decisions you make."