"Right, about visas and such. Have you spoken with the Liar?"

She makes a hissing sibilant sound.

Zoe quirks her head. "He teach you how to do that?"

"Yes."

"If you drink enough Nectar, you'll learn."

"Bit of a parlor trick, unfortunately, not terribly useful."

"Huh. Well, the other stuff ain't parlor tricks, yeah?"

"Not at all."

"What did you do before you were a cult member?"

Zoe was never very good at lying. "I was in the circus."

"A useful occupation for a guard. Lots of dodging ability."

"And I'm pretty strong for my size. A lot of people underestimate me."

"My coworker Joan used to work for the rodeo as a trick shooter. It's given me a rather distorted idea of what you do in America."

She sits. "Do you ever get tired of parties?"

"Not everyone in America is some kind of traveling performer, but maybe it says something about the kind of person likely to get involved in," she waves her hand at her environs, "all this."

"And I rarely get tired of attending them, but I will admit that guarding them turns out to be not quite so entertaining."

"Academics or traveling performers."

"Why don't you come inside for a bit? I'm sure Joan would be happy to guard."

"I appreciate the offer, but I've only had my job a week or so. I wouldn't want to be caught shirking my duty. Maybe when the next shift comes to relieve me I'll have some time to mingle."

Smile smile smile. Mariam stays there for another minute or so, making conversation, and then vanishes back into the crowd.

And, after some time passing, Zoe's shift ends.

Zoe is very glad to not be standing still doing nothing anymore. She tries to remember what The Plan was. Probably the others will have finished their shenanigans by now? Was she supposed to meet them at the party, or at the hotel room, or somewhere else..?

She was supposed to meet them at the party!

They do not seem to be at the party.

Once Zoe has done a round of mingling around the party and not found her companions anywhere, she will alert whoever is managing the guards that she's heading home for the night, and then head to the hotel on the grounds that that's the next obvious place to look.

"Hello. How are things going?"

"Has anyone else shown up?"

"No."

"Damn. I got off shift and couldn't find anyone at the party. I'm not sure where else they might have gone to. The factory? The hospital? Some sort of secret dungeon below Montgomery's house?"

"Them not meeting up with me means things are not going according to plan which means they need backup."

"Ugh. They could be anywhere. --Mordred's at the coffeeshop, right?"

"Shit, I didn't check there. He might still be? Worth looking, at least."

"If anyone shows up here, tell them what I told you, okay?"

And she hails a taxi back to the coffeeshop.

Meanwhile, in the car outside of the hospital, Oswald is worrying.