A/N: Double Update.
Chapter 7
They drove down to the Market. Taylor silently sat shotgun, and Lisa would sometimes try to make pithy conversation to distract her from whatever thoughts continued to plague her. She failed.
The previous night, Taylor had dreamed, and it was a familiar one. She dreamed herself as something else, something cold and arrogant and detached, to whom all those uncountable human beings of this world and every other world might as well have been but insects. Insignificant and barely worth noticing.
And in that dream, Taylor Hebert would look upon her waking self and feel pity and some semblance of annoyance – she was such a lost creature, fighting against the inevitable. And then she awakened and the dream faded and she felt diminished. She felt as if, for one brief moment in time, she had contained an entire universe in her head, and now it was gone, and what did that make her?
Taylor thought back towards that previous night, towards the people she killed and the horrors she unleashed, and she didn't know what was worse: the fact that she had been responsible for that deed, or the fact that, to a large degree, she suspected that she only felt the guilt because she felt it an appropriate response.
She closed her eyes and summoned up the image in her mind, and once again Jan and Yan (in different times and different places) stood stark in her memory, their faces pale and eyes bulging, every feature of their bodies etched in some parody of terror, while Lisa backed away in fear, as all of creation came undone, and her pets began to draw close. Some part of her remained shaken by the experience, but there was another part of her, and it wasn't a small subset either, which felt nothing for it at all, save perhaps a vague sense of satisfaction, and she could hear that second voice in the back of her head, that second aspect of herself, whispering about how much easier it would be if she would just submit, and about how all her struggles would make no difference in the long run. That this was what she was supposed to be.
The worst thing of all was that, even though she desperately wished she didn't, Taylor agreed.
She looked out the car window, out at Brockton Bay, and for a brief moment the city faded away around her, as did the car and Lisa, and she was alone in a vast nothingness – where space and time and mathematics and proportion twisted and rippled all around her and she felt as if she was swimming in it. And slowly, she could begin to hear the swell of some strange song, so quiet that if she could only just…
"Taylor," Lisa's voice emanated from somewhere so very distant and so very near, and in that moment the girl who was not a girl crashed back into herself, and there was just Taylor, and Lisa, together in a parked car. "We're here."
Taylor nodded, but gave no response. The two stepped out of the car and headed off towards the market stalls.
"Try not to get too lost in your thoughts," Lisa advised, uncharacteristically solemn, though Taylor didn't blame her for that. Not after what they had both seen the night before. The things that Taylor had done.
"Well, come on," Lisa insisted with false cheer. "We've got things to do and all that."
Wordlessly, Taylor followed.
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They spent that afternoon wandering through the stalls. It was still cold, and there were threatening clouds in the skies above, so the market wasn't quite as trafficked as it tended to get during the summer months, when the tourists converged. But they wandered along the rows of stalls, more than a few of which were empty, and Lisa eavesdropped on countless private conversations, a smug grin on her face as she set to work solving all those puzzles. And occasionally, she'd speak to Taylor, try to draw her just a little bit out of her shell, sharing some of the juicier stories her power was unable to uncover, but Taylor remained subdued, lost somewhere in her own head.
Needless to say, Taylor didn't have the heart for such gossip and, if she was honest with herself, neither did Lisa. In the end they returned to the car and drove back the way they came.
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The next day, Lisa's phone rang.
"Lisa," she heard Coil's voice on the other end. "I think it's time the Undersiders made a mark on Brockton Bay, don't you agree?"
She gritted her teeth, hearing the unspoken threat in his voice, and the memories of past sessions, of torture and cruelty and even of her death, slammed into her. She flinched in spite of herself, as something within herself seethed and raged. "You're aware that my team – we're not exactly combat oriented."
"You've said that before."
"Because it's still true," Lisa said mulishly. "If this is about your suggestion that we attack the ABB…"
"Forget about the ABB for a moment," Coil said, and those words gave her pause. "Perhaps it's time we shift the focus, throw you against a target the PRT can't so easily ignore."
There was a silent pause on the other end, and then Coil continued, "In any case, I'm inclined to think you underestimate your team's capabilities. Rachel and Brian have powers that can be useful enough in a fight, and I'm sure Alec's can provide some useful tactical versatility as well."
She frowned, her power not needing to tell her that there was something more he wasn't saying. Coil was playing at something.
"You're overestimating them and you know it. Could we best a crowd of civilians? Sure, perhaps even hold our own against one of the minor gangs, but we wouldn't last a minute against any of the powerhouses. Or the Wards."
There was a pause on the other end, "I'm prepared to loan you some additional manpower, if it proves necessary."
She paused and her earlier suspicions redoubled. That was quite the concession, which meant her boss had something big in mind.
"Have a workable plan before the end of the week. Before your next rendezvous with Hebert."
"That's an awful lot of latitude," she said.
His reply came back clipped. "Yes. It is."
Coil hung up. Lisa cursed.
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The following days jumbled together in a mad rush of planning and meetings. There was managing the Undersiders, managing Coil (hah!), looking into potential targets and weak spots. The Brockton Bay Central Bank stood as a very promising target and, if nothing else, it would promise an influx in cash (which at the very least, Regent and Bitch could get behind, and Grue as well given enough time).
But still, there was so very much which could go wrong, and when she met Coil's 'help,' her worries doubled.
The Travelers were parahuman mercenaries and, whatever it was he had offered them (and didn't she know there was something more than just money involved), they were Coil's through and through. There was an air of desperation, a wild need which tied them to his banner. Not the sort of people she could count on to back her in her own eventual rebellion, but there were fissions there – long boiling tensions which, if necessary, she could someday exploit. But for now, they could provide much needed firepower, assuming Coil got his way. And she had no illusions that he wouldn't.
And wasn't that the biggest variable of all? Coil. He was getting anxious. She could see it in their face to face meetings. Perhaps even afraid, of Taylor she had no doubt, and she wondered (not for the first time) whether the two had had any more recent interrogations stored away in some forgotten reality. Whether he'd found out about Taylor's trick in the alley, and was speeding up his plans accordingly. Lisa bit back a sigh. Her life was a fucking circus.
She spoke with Coil again that Friday. She discussed the bank, and her tentative plans surrounding it: about security routines, reaction times, its location in proximity with the Wards and the Protectorate, and her confidence that her team could get in and get out quickly, successful, especially if she had the additional muscle of the Travelers backing her up, and about her concerns should the Protectorate make a timely response.
Coil listened as she spoke, giving no tells or hints as to what thoughts streamed through his mind. He was steely, and all of his focus and intent was drawn upon what she was saying. She finished, and stood before him, and some masochistic part of her subconscious began wondering if the bastard was having some separate conversation with her right now, towering over her as his armed goons flanked her, and perhaps she was being held at gunpoint or perhaps there were drugs or perhaps…
His words cut through her dark daydream, "The Brockton Bay Central Bank? Yes, I suppose that could be workable. Are you certain you can get your entire team on board with that plan?"
Lisa shrugged, "I suppose Grue would be the hardest sell. You can't deny that it's risky, and he has a sister to worry about. The lure of guaranteed money could go a long way in convincing him however. A guaranteed pay-off, even if the actual heist goes south."
Coil fixed her with a cold look, "Lisa, Lisa, Lisa. Why would you think I would pay your team for failure?"
She smiled, even as she went cold inside. She wore the arrogance as a mask, gave no sign that she was onto his methods and his true persona. "Because you're after something else. Don't deny it. You're playing a different game, and this job of yours plays a part in it, but it's not an end in itself. You don't care whether we succeed or fail, only that we put on a show."
A silence stretched between them and, when he next spoke, Coil sounded approving. "You always were insightful. A minimum reward for pursuing the job. I do wonder what you would consider fair?"
"Five thousand a piece," Lisa insisted.
Coil nodded, "Five thousand it is. Guaranteed minimum of twenty thousand for your team. And I'll even match whatever funds you manage to make off with."
Lisa looked at him, something calculating in her gaze. "That's quite the offer. What about the Travelers? How will they play into this little scheme?"
He leaned back into his chair, "Consider them back up. If the Protectorate or the Wards make a swift response and converge upon you, they'll even the odds a bit. You've met them, you should know that they're quite capable."
"But you don't see that happening?" Lisa asked, leaning over the desk. "You're expecting something else."
Coil watched her for a long while, "The ABB and the Empire 88 have been fighting their cold war for years now, but as we both know, sometimes that stalemate turns hot. I've received intelligence that those tensions have been building up for quite some time now, and I have agents positioned in both gangs."
"This is insane," Lisa interrupted him. "You're talking about setting off a gang war."
"It's a necessary play. And besides, you can't deny it would make an effective distraction. If all goes as expected, things will get messy in the Docks, and even the Protectorate will be forced to respond. They're so focused on that image of theirs, as you know."
Lisa frowned, "What about Taylor? The people who live there?"
"I've taken precautions so that your friend won't be caught in the middle. That Food Kitchen you two are so enamored with will be far removed from the battleground, as will her home and neighborhood. As for anyone caught in the crossfire, tell me, Lisa, when did you ever start caring about the little people?"
Lisa glared at him, "Fuck you, Coil. I'm not quite that heartless."
"No, I suppose you're not," her boss said. "Still, if it will put your mind at ease, I would ask you to remember that these things do happen from time to time. Cold wars turn into momentary bursts of violence, and this one has been due for some time now. Whether I set it off or not, the ABB and the Empire 88 are scheduled for another outburst, a purging of all their built up antipathies and blood lust. If it doesn't happen on my schedule, it will happen on theirs."
He smiled beneath his mask, "But that's not something you need to worry about Lisa. Tell me, do you think you can get your team on board with this plan of ours? Or will you choose defiance?"
Lisa met his masked gaze, and her mind flashed back to those conversations which had never been, and their first encounter over a cell phone, with a gun held to her head. She deflated. Not now, she'd have to choose her battles. Because if she didn't, if he decided to cut his losses and just eliminate her, and Taylor found out… she got a momentary glimpse of a world in turmoil, the skies coming apart as vast and terrible and vague horrors spilled out upon the planet below, an orgy of destruction and chaos far beyond the capacity of any Parahuman to unleash.
"I'll do it," Lisa said. "Give me a time, and I'll make the preparations. Get my team on board."
"Good," Coil said. "I do appreciate it when things run smoothly. Thank you, Tattletale, for your cooperation."
The armed guards escorted her out and Coil leaned back in his chair. Soon, he'd have the pre-cog, and he could start acting proactively. Until then, he could only wait.