"And we're not at war."

"Well, Behemoth. But he's gone now."

    "More like a force of nature, that, and it's not like which government's fighting it changes anything."

"Hold on," says Mônica. "Are you the one responsible for that?"

"Yeah but his attacking several times in a row was also my fault kinda."

"Several times in a row?"

"I put him on Mars and he came back so then I put him farther away and then when I found out about Cauldron and got to work on verifying their story the teleporting one showed up."

"And now you're sure they're both gone?" asks Bernardo dubiously.

"Pretty sure."

    Shrug. "Fine by me, I guess."

"Do you have a better estimate than 'within a year' for when your organization of gods is likely to show up?" Mônica asks Maitimo.

"Depends when we hit on the bridge world. This place has unusually many neighbors, working from the other side might be faster. I'd expect much sooner than a year - maybe this week - but not strongly."

"And I don't suppose Epic could use his teleportation powers to rescue their current prisoners?"

"I could do that."

"In that case I don't think we have a problem not doing anything much for the next while."

"Who am I getting?"

Looks like another list Bernardo has memorized in spite of lacking an eidetic memory!

...scale models of these people right now?

Two of them are dead. The other couple dozen are in various states of damage or the recovery thereof.

" - if I go right now it'll be kinda suspicious it was me, do we care -"

"You're the one playing double agent," shrugs Bernardo.

"Maybe I will go tonight after I get unkidnapped. Where should I take them?"

"Here. We can show you the infirmary."

Nod.

Bernardo leads the way to another repurposed room, large enough to contain the whole list of people and then some, but not very comfortably.

"Okay. If I can get unkidnapped now then I'll fetch them tonight. Or were you planning to keep me?"

"The point seems to be moot. What will your story be, then?"