"Are you certain?"

"Yes. We've recovered all the remains that were still present. There's only trace amounts of the body mass of either Jack Slash or Jake Petty, they had no protection from the explosion and were virtually vaporized. DNA evidence was present over a large area. The bus was blown to fragments, as were the occupants. Even Hatchet Face was killed instantly by the shock wave, the amount of explosives under the road was phenomenal. The way they'd laid everything out, it acted like a huge shaped charge, blowing shrapnel upwards through the vehicle."

"How many of them did he get?" David looked both impressed and appalled.

"More or less all of them. We found the bodies, or partial bodies, of Bonesaw, Hatchet Face, Shatterbird, Mannequin, Manton, and Burnscar. DNA evidence of Jack Slash, as I said, but nothing more, he was turned into a fine mist. No sign of Crawler, he wasn't with them at the time." She looked somewhat bemused. "He also basically got the Siberian when Manton died."

"What the hell was Manton doing in the same vehicle? That wasn't his normal practice." David stared at her, then at Doctor Mother and Contessa, who looked thoughtful and more or less neutral respectively.

"We're… not sure. The position of what was left of the body and other evidence, though, shows that he was driving the bus. A team backtracked them and found a vehicle in a town that they'd gone through which had his fingerprints and DNA all over it. It had a transmission fault which had disabled it."

The man also known as the superhero Eidolon nodded slowly.

"We also found a large van that had evidence showing that it was the one that the S9 used. Tracing its movements through traffic cameras and the like proved difficult but possible, they'd been driving back and forth through some very isolated places. And of course there were few survivors in a state to give any information. The Thinkers' assumption is that when his car broke down they stole that bus and combined forces."

"I wonder why he didn't have the Siberian make the vehicle invulnerable when Jack Slash got out? Or why he got out in the first place, for that matter? He was a paranoid bastard, I'd have more than half expected them to run that guy Jake over and keep going."

"As far as the second part goes, if they had, the same thing would have happened anyway. We only found fragments of the detonation trigger, not enough to reconstruct anything useful, but the two men with him, Zack Smith and Willy Peterson, told our people that he'd been sitting in a chair in the middle of the road with a pressure switch in the seat. As soon as he stood up it blew. If they'd run him over, exactly the same result. Once they were in range, they were dead, unless Manton thought fast enough to use the Siberian's power, which he clearly didn't. Even backing up or turning around wouldn't have helped, he'd just have stood up at that point." Rebecca shrugged tiredly. "I'm impressed, in a horribly depressing way. The poor bastard had nothing left to live for and was going to take them with him one way or another."

"Christ," David sighed.

"My best guess for the first part of your question is that William was just exhausted. The route they took was over very bad roads under awful conditions, it must have taken all night at least. If he'd been driving the entire time he was probably ready to drop. He made a mistake and they all paid the price. Although, with the door open, which the techs are sure was the case, the overpressure wave would have killed most of them anyway even if the bus was invulnerable. His friends used .50 caliber anti-materiel rifles loaded with armor-piercing explosive rounds on Mannequin while he was disorientated from the blast, or more likely quite badly damaged. They kept shooting until he was definitely dead, then buried what was left with more explosives on the cliff-sides. It was a very professional job to be honest."

"What about Bonesaw?"

"She died instantly, in pieces. Even her reinforcements and upgrades were overwhelmed, the bus was right over the hottest part of the explosion. Turned her and her biological weapons to ash. They buried a lot of gasoline and diesel with the other explosives, and got a rather impressive fuel-air blast on top of the main one." Rebecca leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, rubbing them with one hand. "It's like he knew exactly what to do to deal with them all, but as far as we can find out he was just smart, suicidal, and lucky. He had friends who were sitting on more weapons than you'd normally see outside a military base, they found a lot more blasting explosives at the road site than they'd expected, and they had a horrifying amount with them anyway."

"What's the old saying? 'Beware the lucky amateur with a gun. He may be an amateur, but he's lucky, and he has a gun.' I think explosives could be substituted for gun pretty well," David commented.

"So it would seem."

"We've gone over the site very thoroughly and sprayed it with some extremely powerful biological counter-agents to be on the safe side," Doctor Mother put in rather emotionlessly. "The entire area to a radius of a quarter of a mile is biologically dead and will be for a decade. There is definitely no risk of any residual pathogens in the debris."

"You're absolutely sure of that?"

"Yes." She gave him a look that implied that he shouldn't ask stupid questions. "The precogs and other Thinkers are also certain. The threat that Bonesaw was is finished, permanently, as are those of the rest of the Slaughterhouse Nine except for Crawler."

David nodded thoughtfully. "Where is he?"

"We're not currently entirely sure," she replied. "As best we can tell he's heading east, but he dropped out of sight shortly before the Petty interaction. It's proving slightly difficult to track him, but I have no doubt he will emerge sooner or later. He always does."

"What about Peterson and Smith? None of this has made the news yet, so I assume we have them in custody?"

"Yes. They reported the matter to the PRT outpost in Boise, which is a luckily a small one. The Agent there contacted his higher-ups immediately and they told him to sit on them while they passed it up the chain. So far everyone has kept their mouths shut, although those two have something of a fan club. There wasn't a lot of love lost on the S9, after all."

"We can't hold onto them forever," he pointed out. "And when this hits the public consciousness, there's going to be a lot of comments about how could three normal, more or less untrained men, with improvised weapons for the most part, do something that the entire PRT and Protectorate has failed to do for years. It's going to be embarrassing."

"We could in fact hold onto them forever easily enough," Rebecca pointed out, making him frown. "Although that would be more difficult than I'd like considering the number of people who know about it. Not impossible, though."

He shook his head. "I really don't think that's a good idea. It's going too far. We should give them the reward for killing the S9 and let them go. In fact, make them out as heroes. That could spin it in our favor, I think. We tell everyone that we were worried that they had been contaminated with a Bonesaw bioweapon, but tests have shown they're clean, and we thank them very much for their efforts. And poor Jake Petty, of course."

"The same excuse of a bioweapon would allow us to hold onto them indefinitely," the brunette woman noted.

"After everything we've done, you want to do that as well? Rebecca, no. It's too much. Let them go, give them a well earned reward and thank them, then forget about them." David shook his head again. "We've done enough, for good reasons, but enough. We don't need to descend to that level. They know nothing that could hurt us or get in the way of our goals and we need people with that sort of survival drive out there."

"As you wish," she said, nodding. "I agree, in fact. I was just pointing out the alternatives."

"All right. We're agreed? They go free with their well-earned reward?" Eidolon looked around at the other women, who both nodded.

"Good." He was satisfied, and sad that it had come to that. William Manton had been a friend of his at one point.

"The loss of Shatterbird and Bonesaw is annoying," Doctor Mother commented dispassionately. "Some plans will have to be redrawn."

David looked at her, but didn't respond, instead after a moment asking, "Do we know much about this Jake Petty character? Or his two friends?"

"He was thirty-four, married, to Mary Petty nee Anderson, with a nine year old son named Michael. He trained as a machinist in New York, moved to Boston where he met his wife eleven years ago, and spent time in Brockton Bay." Rebecca spoke without referring to any notes, her perfect memory providing her the information. "He did some work for the city on a small contract, but apparently decided that he didn't like the city life and ended up moving to Creek Bend just after his son was born. His wife had family in the area."

"Brockton Bay?" David thought for a moment. "That damn place. Odd."

"He'd visited friends there only two weeks earlier, apparently," she added. "He spent a week in New York with his parents, wife, and son just after the New Year, then the wife flew home with their son and he went on a short road trip to visit friends in Boston and Brockton Bay. We're not sure who he visited or when exactly, although we know he was there between the sixth and eighth of the month. The research department ran a face recognition search on public video sources in the city over that period but only had one hit, a recording on PHO that had him in the background of one of the idiotic stunts that those fools Über and Leet are so fond of. But that's the only trace we've found so far."

"Was that the one with the New Wave girl in it?" he asked, smirking a little. She nodded, with a smile of her own. "She went a very impressive shade of purple, I have to admit."

Rebecca grinned. "I was a little worried about her blood pressure. Both of them got away, of course, although they had Armsmaster and Glory Girl after them. If nothing else they're remarkably slippery even by normal cape standards."

"Brockton Bay does seem to produce some very interesting Triggers even without help," Doctor Mother said, looking somewhat intrigued. "These two new ones, Saurial and Raptaur, I find fascinating. Do we have any more information on them yet?"

"No, only what's on PHO and the internet," he replied. "I'm curious about them myself. Are you sure they're not some of yours?"

"Completely," she told him with a small frown. "They are not the result of Cauldron's work. I assume they are natural Triggers, although the similarity in Shards is… odd. Especially considering the lack of time for one to propagate if they are indeed siblings."

"Between them they seem to be changing the status quo quite considerably, while apparently going out of their way not to," Alexandria said in an interested tone. "And they seem to have, probably inadvertently, complicated Calvert's life considerably."

"What do you think about the idea that's being discussed on PHO about them both being members of some sort of race of aliens?" David asked with a smile. "The rumors suggest that there are lots of them, going up and up in size, and that they live in the water near the city. At least half the people discussing them online seem convinced it's fact. Although somewhat oddly most of those don't seem to worried about it even so."

"I think the likelihood that we have aliens living in the sea off the east coast of New England is extremely low, David," she sighed. "Despite the more wild rumors that may be floating around. We don't have any evidence of others of their type either. Personally I think that they're probably the only two, most likely sisters who happened to Trigger at the same time. Unless we..."

She was interrupted by the middle-aged blond man who stepped out of a hole in space that had abruptly opened up in the corner of the room. "You need to see this," he said without ceremony, waving at the hole, which led back to Earth Bet and an office. "Right now."

Rebecca looked at him, then her companions. "Is it important? We were right in the middle of the meeting."

"I think you could say it's fairly important," he said in a dead-pan tone.

She nodded, standing up and following him back through the portal produced by Doormaker, the others coming along behind her. He pointed at the TV. "Live from Brockton Bay," he announced. They moved to a position where they could all see the screen, then stared.

Several minutes later, David turned to Rebecca, who was gaping slightly. "You were saying?"

Max watched the gently swimming giant lizard as it started to go around the slight bend in the shore that took it towards the Docks, the huge tanker obediently following along behind it like a dog on a lead. He'd been staring out the window of his office without saying anything ever since the first sight of Kaiju, thinking hard and worried thoughts. Now, he turned to look at his companions. Brad was still looking shaken and pale, not surprising considering the fact that his run in with Raptaur was nothing compared to finding out there was a version of her a dozen times the size in the city. Krieg seemed both shocked and thoughtful, having not said a word, while Victor was muttering to himself and occasionally swearing under his breath in an awed manner.

"Spread the word. NO ONE is to visit, interact with, threaten, look hard at, or otherwise give cause for retaliation from, the Dock Worker's Union, any known or suspected members of it, or anyone or anything they have interests in." His voice was slightly squeaky on the end of the sentence to his annoyance. "That goes double for either the Mayor or Danny Fucking Hebert. Got me? Leave them the fuck alone."

Krieg turned to look at him. "That will limit us a lot."

"I don't care. Not until we work out what the fuck is going on. They have Saurial, Raptaur, and now that fucking thing," he snapped, pointing at the diminishing form of Kaiju and her ship. "Who knows what else they have, for god's sake? The rumors online are… well, I thought they were just stupid conspiracy stories, but one of them just swam past towing god knows how many thousand tons of old tanker. I really don't want either her, or some horror from the depths that's even larger, coming looking for me with blood in its eye! Do you?"

His second in command shuddered visibly, closing his eyes for a moment. "Not really, no," he replied after a moment.

"Exactly. They've basically got their own Endbringer, and it's a union member. I can't believe I just said that." He slumped into his chair, reaching for his glass of scotch, before he remembered he hadn't replaced it after he dropped it. Again. Sighing, he got up and headed for the drinks cabinet. "The world is getting stranger," he mumbled to himself as he poured another glass completely full, then drank the lot, before refilling it once more. "I think I may be in the wrong business..."

Colin glanced up from the plans he and Dragon were going over as the door alarm went. "It's me, you have a guest," Hannah's voice came over the intercom. He looked at his friend, who quickly dismissed the images on the huge main monitor, bringing up something else they'd been working on, a new power supply for her drones which he was aiding her in miniaturizing. Satisfied, he pressed the unlock control and the door opened, revealing Hannah and Legend.

He was somewhat surprised by the appearance of the head of the Protectorate and his immediate superior. "Sir," he said, standing up as protocol dictated. "This is somewhat unexpected. I had no notification that you were going to be in Brockton Bay."

"I know, and I'm sorry about the abrupt appearance, Colin," the other man said after Hannah had closed the door behind them, walking over and holding out his hand, which the Tinker shook. He was carrying a hard hat with a bright orange safety vest folded neatly into in, Colin noticed. "It's a breach of normal procedures, which I apologize for. When I saw the excitement going on here I just had to come and see for myself. I'm not really here in an official capacity, more a personally curious one, although I did have some concerns about your new neighbors."

"Ah, I understand," Colin nodded. "Not surprising. The appearance of Kaiju was… unexpected."

"And terrifying," Hannah muttered.

"I wouldn't disagree with that," he replied. "Although based on my interactions with her sister I don't think she is a threat unless someone makes her one. The impression I have is that this 'Family' of theirs is determined to be as neutral as they can and I have reason to believe they will stick to that."

"I understand you've had dealings with Raptaur," Legend said as he sat in the guest chair that Colin waved him to, Hannah taking the other one.

"We both have," Dragon commented. "We met her last week and had a long and interesting talk. I would agree with Colin, based on that I think they are very smart and well aware of the impact they could easily have on the local cape politics. From what I could tell they've done their research on local capes, and most likely all the ones they were able to get information on over the net. We both got the impression that they'll stick to their own people and turf unless provoked, and genuinely seem to want to help."

"Interesting," Legend noted slowly.

Hannah looked somewhat unsure, taking off her scarf and looking around, then put in, "I and Director Piggot think much the same after talking to Raptaur yesterday." The other three looked at her with interest. "We were following up our our meeting with her and the Undersiders," she added, looking at Colin, who nodded his understanding. "I can't say that I find even Raptaur someone I want to be around for a number of reasons, but I have to reluctantly say that she does give the feeling of being truthful when she said that they mainly want to be left alone and help the city and the union."

"That's essentially what I learned from talking to Kaiju," Legend remarked, leaning back and tapping the fingers of one hand on the desk. "She also seems to be intelligent, well read on local cape politics, basically neutral, but more than prepared to deal firmly with any threats to what the Family consider theirs. Having seen her up close, I would hesitate to become such a threat except under the most dire of circumstances."

"What were your thoughts on the likelihood that you even could become a threat to her?" Dragon asked curiously.

It was Legend's turn to look somewhat dubious. After several seconds, he replied, "To be absolutely honest I'm… really not sure. I didn't see much of what she could do aside from one of the most incredible demonstrations of brute strength I've ever seen, although I do note that she moves much faster and more flexibly than anything that size has a right to. You could see that even when she wasn't trying to do anything impressive, merely by watching her normal movements. What would you put her mass at?" He looked at both Tinkers, who exchanged glances for a moment.

"Assuming she doesn't have a structure that is either unusually low or unusually high in density, and based on both a rough estimate for height of approximately eighty-five feet and the knowledge that Raptaur weighs something over a ton… Perhaps in the region of five hundred tons? It's only a very rough estimate based on volume, of course." Colin thought, then nodded. "Yes, approximately five hundred tons, plus or minus on the order of twenty-seven. Her overall body structure appears very similar to Raptaur's with the addition of what look like aquatic adaptions, the longer, somewhat vertically flattened tail, for example."

"Five hundred tons?" Hannah's voice had risen in pitch. He nodded, looking curiously at her, then glancing at Dragon, who also nodded.

"That seems in the right ballpark," the power-suited Canadian Tinker agreed. "Heavier than any other living thing I'm aware of on the planet except for..." She hesitated, looking at Colin for a moment.

"Except for her sister Umihebi?" Legend asked slowly.

"Yes. How did you know about her?" Dragon asked with curiosity in her voice.

"She came up in conversation," the man sighed. "As in, apparently she's interested in visiting New York one day."

"Oh, hell," Hannah yipped in shock, while Dragon chuckled.

"I'd almost pay money to see that," she snickered.

"I'd pay quite a lot to ensure it never happens," Legend said with a shrug. "She said her sister was longer and heavier."

"We had an encounter with her half-way between Newfoundland and here a couple of weeks ago," Dragon said after turning her head to look at Colin, who nodded. "We provisionally put her at more than two hundred feet long from nose to tail and a weight of around a thousand tons."

Legend seemed to pale slightly around his mask.

"She can also swim at more than three hundred miles an hour," she added.

He was definitely pale now.

"Ah. I understand," he finally said, having been rather quiet for a few seconds. "I think there are some things you need to fill me in on, by the sound of it. However, the point I was trying to make is that with a weight of, as you say, five hundred tons or more, the fact that she can even move around at all out of the water is incredible. To be able to move at least as quickly as something vastly smaller implies a level of strength which is totally insane." He smiled a little as the two Tinkers exchanged a glance. "I know a fair amount about the subject, I'm not just a flying laser emitter," he chuckled.

"I never thought you were, sir," Colin replied respectfully. He was well aware that the older man was well read and intelligent. "And you're right, of course. Umihebi is even worse. We tracked her all the way up the eastern seaboard as far as the coast of Quebec, then back again with a route that took her well out to sea before we lost her, and she was moving at speeds of three hundred miles an hour or more almost the entire time. The amount of energy needed to do that at all is astronomical, never mind in a biological entity. There are a large number of things surrounding all of these creatures that have both Dragon and myself mystified. Hopefully, when we manage to build a longer relationship with them, we may get some answers."

"That would be nice," Legend agreed with a smile. "OK. I was planning on coming here at some point to look into Saurial and her sister, but now that circumstances have pushed that date to today, I'd like to know what you've found out. By the sounds of it all of you have had more than one interaction with Raptaur at least. I'm slightly puzzled that I haven't seen any reports of it from either you, Colin, or you, Hannah. Or the Director, for that matter. May I ask why?"

Colin looked at both his friends, then back to his boss. After a second or two of careful thought, he replied, "There are a number of issues we are concerned about that have come to light as a result of the arrival in the city of Saurial and Raptaur, then Umihebi, which the unveiling of Kaiju will only make more problematic. We didn't want to make any preliminary reports for security reasons among other things." He looked at Hannah, who shrugged with a look of resignation. "We have discovered that the local PRT security system is hopelessly compromised, as a result of information given to us by Tattletale of the Undersiders, a Brockton Bay minor villain group." After a second, he corrected himself. "Former villain group, more accurately. I am uncertain what they are now, aside from guests of the DWU."

"I'm aware of both the Undersiders and Tattletale," Legend remarked. "I keep up to date on every cape in the general area and this place is less than three hundred miles from where I live. There isn't much information on her, though, or her team members, except for Rachel Lindt AKA Hellhound."

"Bitch."

"Excuse me?"

"She prefers to be called Bitch," Colin shrugged.

"Oh. All right, I understand. The fact remains that she's wanted for murder."

"Which Tattletale claims is in fact a false charge," he replied. His superior leaned forward, appearing puzzled.

"I… see. Interesting. You really do have quite a lot to fill me in on, I think. Start at the beginning."

"As you wish." Colin looked at Dragon, then turned to his computer system and brought up the initial report he'd written for the Director, along with the image of Umihebi taken just before she swallowed the probe. There was a muttered exclamation of shock from the other man, while he himself felt a shiver go through him in spite of his recent knowledge of more of the truth of the situation.

"At just after midnight on the 6th, Dragon detected a high speed underwater acoustic signature heading north from a position some fifty miles north of here..." he began.

Emily looked away from the window overlooking the bay and the Rig as her computer made the insistent sound she knew meant the conversation she'd been dreading for some time was now about to happen. She'd been watching Kaiju disappear into the distance after her talk with Legend, wondering what the Protectorate leader had discussed. Both the participants seemed contented with the results and had parted apparently amicably, which she was extremely relieved about, all things considered.

Taking a deep breath, she ran a hand over her hair, then sat down, moving a few things on the desk around to make the view of the camera on the monitor neater, before reaching out and poking the relevant key on the keyboard. A familiar face immediately appeared on the encrypted voice chat application. It didn't look wildly pleased.

"Hello, Chief Director," she said calmly. "What can I do for you today?"

"Don't give me that, Emily! What the hell is going on in your city? Why is there a creature that makes Leviathan look like a frog in a bathtub idly swimming around in front of the entire population, moving old ships like rubber ducks, for god's sake? Where did she come from, why wasn't I informed, and how the fuck did that damn Mayor of yours manage to get in contact with her?" Rebecca Costa-Brown looked miffed, to put it lightly.

"The situation is somewhat complex, Ma'am," the blonde woman sighed. "We believe she is related to Saurial and Raptaur, the two new..."

"Yes, I'm aware of who they are, thank you. I've been following their exploits with interest, and I was intending to come and look into it when I had time. We've been extremely busy recently due to other problems, so I haven't had that time up until now. But I'm going to be coming to visit you very soon, trust me. This has gone beyond a joke."

"I see. Well, as you know, then, both of them have made references in the past to having larger relatives out there." Emily waved her hand vaguely behind her. "Other information we acquired showed that this was in fact true, although we had no knowledge of 'Kaiju' until today. Mayor Christner was apparently put into touch with her via the Dock Worker's Union, who seem to have a… relationship… of sorts, with this 'Family' we seem to now have living nearby. Or possibly have always had, depending on which rumor you believe. How they originally got in contact we don't know yet."

Inside, she was frantically debating whether to mention the Biotinker theory, or the whole Coil situation. She certainly wasn't going to do it over even the PRT encrypted lines, not knowing that the bastard Calvert had his fingers into everything. In the end she decided to leave it for the face to face meeting she was bound to have very soon. She wondered if it would be a good idea to contact Raptaur and negotiate the use of the shielded BBFO office for such a talk. Despite her worries about the origins of these reptiles, so far they were nothing if not a good influence on the city, as much as she didn't really like to admit it. Having spent some time talking to the enormous cape she'd found somewhat to her surprise that she had a certain degree of respect for her.

Whether she'd ever actually be comfortable around something with that many teeth she had no idea, but for some peculiar reason the creature didn't seem to trip as many of her internal issues about Capes, which she was honest enough with herself to acknowledge at least in the privacy of her own mind, as most Parahumans did. She couldn't work out why, though.

"I find this whole affair both irritating and worrying. Your city is a pain in the ass at the best of times but I could do without this right now." The Chief Director rubbed her forehead with a look of annoyance. "Fine. It doesn't seem to be causing the panic that I would have expected for whatever weird reason, so for the moment I'll leave you to it. I have to finish off some urgent work here, but I'll be in Brockton Bay within two days. I'm sending Eidolon to have a look and see what's going on, though. Alexandria will be coming as well, tomorrow probably, but she's busy right now on another matter."

"Legend is already here," Emily commented, "he spent some time talking to Kaiju then went to the Rig. I haven't spoken to him yet."

"Is he? Odd, he didn't mention that he was going to visit," Costa-Brown murmured with a slight frown creasing her brow, appearing thoughtful for a moment or two. She shook her head after a few seconds. "Never mind. Get all your reports in order. I want to see a preliminary threat report on Kaiju and the others this evening."

"I can give it to you right now, Ma'am," Emily sighed. "Brute: Yes. That's it. You did actually watch the TV, correct?"

The other woman nodded slowly.

"Unless she is sitting on some weird weakness, which I wouldn't want to put money on at this point in time, what we have out there is the biggest cape on the planet, probably the strongest, with the possible exception of Alexandria, probably the toughest, with the same exception, coupled with a matter generation ability that is unlike anything any of our research people have on record. Not to mention very high intelligence, good tactical skills, a remarkable way with people in general, and unknown numbers of reinforcements. Raptaur and Saurial are simply lower powered, much smaller versions of the same. From what I've learned they consider an attack on any of them as an attack on all of them, they respect the Rules but aren't bound by them, and would have no hesitation at all about resorting to lethal force if that was the only way to protect someone or something they valued."

Emily took a breath while her ultimate superior listened.

"Personally, I would much rather talk about how we get them on our side, or at least get them to stay neutral, rather than assess methods that could spark a fight I'm fairly sure we can't win, at least without collateral damage on a scale that makes Ellisburg look trivial."

Chief Director Costa-Brown was silent for a few seconds. Eventually, she replied, "You're really that sure how dangerous they are?"

"I am. Seeing it on TV is one thing, but I can tell you from personal experience that seeing it live is something entirely different." Emily shivered a little. "You have no idea until you're only a few hundred feet away from her, but Kaiju is… more than impressive."

"And there are even bigger ones than her out there somewhere," the other woman mused.

"Correct." Emily hesitated, but decided not to go into the 'Sea Serpent' issue. Like the rest of that entire event, she wanted it kept secure and couldn't be sure that Coil wouldn't find out about it, assuming he didn't already know. She hoped not, they'd been taking precautions even before they knew that they had to, just out of a general sense of paranoia, which now seemed rather prescient. Again, she'd reserve that for a face to face meeting.

"I see. We will have a lot to talk about, I think," Costa-Brown sighed. "Fine. As soon as I have finished up here I will pay a visit and I expect we're going to have a very long talk indeed."

"Most likely, Ma'am."

"Make sure you have all the reports ready, Emily." The other woman disconnected without ceremony. Director Piggot stared at the blank screen for some time, breathing slowly and carefully.

"That went better than I expected," she muttered, then got up and headed for the door. She needed to talk to Hannah and Colin, and to catch Legend before he left.

They had a lot to discuss.