Oswald sits down heavily on one of the chairs in the lobby. He should've known going in how likely this was, he should have steeled himself, he is doing his best to keep it together in front of the nurses so they don't connect him to Anita but God, he can't stop picturing her with a bullet hole right in her forehead. There are too many people in this room. They are kind of an overwhelming blur.

Eventually he can think of something other than that image. Okay, she got to one of the girls, that girl is alright, there's almost definitely added security, maybe... maybe the girl got away? Should he be holding out for that possibility?

If she did and he leaves now then he's passing up an important opportunity but if he gets caught sneaking around he is almost definitely going to get shot.

Is there... a place he can get to where he can try to determine if the girl got away without getting shot to death if he gets caught.

He doesn't find a spot without someone watching.

Okay he is going to make one last effort to see if he can spot or hear a wayward child anywhere and then he is going to report their collective failure to Frank.

And then there's a sudden scream from upstairs.

It sounds like a young child.

Meanwhile, in the coffeeshop--

Montgomery looks at Mordred. "...You have five minutes to explain yourself."

That is so incredibly fair. Mordred gets talking.

About a minute into this explanation, Montgomery interrupts with "...and who are you exactly?"

"This time try not lying to me."

"A journalist -- I actually do live in New York with my brother, I am not actually an academic, everything I said about Early Modern English was true I don't lie about languages -- who was hired to investigate what happened in Los Angeles ten years ago by the daughter of one of the people who tried to stop the summoning and immediately realized I was in over my head. Until about six months ago I mostly wrote about abuses in asylums."

"Hm."

This time she allows the explanation to continue until she says, "Peter didn't give Dr. Solazzio the spell. I did."

"....yeah I should have reevaluated that theory when I found out about the sorcerer thing but I am still guessing you were not intending for it to be used on Lela?"

"The Font said it was a healing spell when It taught me the spell."

With All Due Respect Your God Is Named 'The Liar' don't say that or at least don't say it like that.

"...I'm sorry but I do not really consider the Font a trustworthy source, given all of everything."

"Reasonable."

She runs her hand through her hair.

"How certain are you of what the spell is? You are not a sorcerer."

"I am indeed not a sorcerer but," sorry Martin, "the person who shared this with me does know magic and is -- a more credible source than the Liar -- and also there isn't a reason for Tereza Doe to even be sick unless someone is actively making her sick, the teethmarks healed a long time ago--"

Donovan waves a hand dismissively. "She's sick because we are giving her dozens of experimental medications, I am sure if we got her off them she'd be well."

He does not actually have an argument for that; he does have everything Ayers said about nectar and what it does to people so how about he goes down that route instead.

Montgomery stops him two sentences into the explanation. "Do you think I don't know what my own product does?"

"Then why are you giving it to your daughter."

"Do I look like I have a lot of options?" she snaps.

"No. No, you don't. Which is why I'm trying to help in the first place."

"Yes."

"I-- don't know how you think you're going to help me."

"I can wither you to dust with a wave of my hand, which I assure you is an even less pleasant death than drowning. You can write articles exposing abuses of power."

"If I haven't found a way out, what makes you think you can?"

'And how exactly would you say that leaping to solving all of your problems with murder has been working out for you thus far' would just be cruel, given context.

"I don't know either," he says instead. "I got murdered last week, I'm about as far in over my head as it's possible to get and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But-- I am not very good at doing nothing. And you needed the hug."

"I'm glad there are two of us."

"If I were brave, I would jump into the Font myself and join my Portia."

"........do you want another hug."

"Yes."