Monday, February 28, 2011
"What's wrong with him?" Vicky asked, looked at Chris, who was in danger of having his head drop into his bowl of soup, as it sagged under the weight of what seemed to be extreme tiredness. In fact, he looked so exhausted he seemed in real danger of drowning in it.
"Caffeine crash, two and a half days straight awake, and I think he might be insane as well," Dennis said in a low voice, looking up from his own lunch. "He was babbling enough for a crazy person, anyway."
"Wsn't babbl'ng. T'red, go 'way," Chris mumbled, not raising his head.
"How much caffeine did he have?" the blonde asked, her eyebrows raised.
"How much is in… um… nine of the big cans of energy drink?" Dean asked wryly, counting on his fingers.
"T'n," the other boy muttered.
"Ten cans," Dean interpreted.
"Way too damn much to be safe, I'd have thought," she replied, more than a little concerned for her friend. "What the hell did he do that for?"
"He had some sort of breakthrough on Saturday. Or perhaps 'breakdown' would be more accurate," Dennis told her, glancing around to make sure no one was too close and speaking very quietly.
"H'y, tha's r'd," Chris protested faintly, his head drooping further. Vicky reached out and moved the soup bowl just before he would have dipped his hair into it. "Th'nks." There was a small thud as his forehead hit the table.
"Chris, you were cackling at one point. Like a demented Bond villain. It was creepy as hell," Carlos pointed out, looking disturbed. His only answer was a slight snore.
The four wakeful young people exchanged glances, then Vicky twisted around in her seat and waved to her sister, who was talking quietly to Lucy and Taylor. Amy glanced up, excused herself, and came over. "Problem?"
"Jump-start this idiot, will you, and make sure he hasn't done something horrible to himself by staying up for over two days and drinking all the energy drink in the city?"
Amy stared at her for a moment, then looked around at the conscious Wards, before shrugging and putting her hand on the back of Chris's neck. There was a short pause. "He's dehydrated and needs at least twelve hours of sleep," she reported. "I'll wake him up, but make sure he gets several glasses of water into him, and make him get an early night. Or I'll track him down and do it myself."
Chris twitched violently, almost knocking his fork onto the floor, then his eyes snapped open and he shot upright, looking around wildly. "Who?! Where?" he yelped, making people look over from other tables, and Dennis start laughing. Catching himself, he flushed a little. Amy was smirking a bit as Vicky giggled.
"Thanks, Ames," she said.
"No problem. But I'm serious about the water and the sleep. You hear that, you idiot? Go to bed when you get home." She bent down and fixed him with a hard stare, making him lean away. "You won't like what I'll do if I find out that you stayed up all night again… And ease up on the energy drinks before you wreck your kidneys and liver, got me?"
"Yes, Amy," he squeaked.
Nodding, she straightened up, smiled darkly at him, then went back to her other friends.
"Your sister is fucking terrifying sometimes," Dennis said in an awed voice. Vicky nodded proudly, grinning.
"She has her moments."
Chris was looking around, rubbing his neck, his pupils wider than normal. He stared at each of them in turn then closed his eyes with a pained expression. "Oh, shit, did I fall asleep in English class…?" he asked weakly.
Dennis grinned, nodding. "You did. And you were snoring."
"Snoring..." The boy pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and moaned. "Did… anyone notice?"
"Everyone noticed, Chris," Carlos sighed. "You have three hours of detention. Don't you remember?"
"He was basically blowing bubbles and muttering when Mrs Murchison was growling at him," Dennis snickered, making Chris moan again.
"Oh, god," he sighed, lowering his hands and looking at them in despair. "What have I done?"
"You tell us." Dean leaned forward, looking interested.
Chris sighed. "I can't."
"Can't, because of where we are?" Dennis whispered, also leaning closer, as did the others, Vicky feeling both curious and very amused. The boy shook his head.
"That, and I actually can't. Like, I can't remember some of what I was doing. But it was really good. I think." He frowned, appearing to concentrate. "But some of it is… very strange. I'm going to have to think about it some more."
"Try not to kill yourself in the process," Vicky suggested, grinning at him. "Or Ames will bring you back, then do it again harder."
The boy looked over at the other table where Amy and Taylor were both watching him, the healer saying something to her friend and looking like she was trying not to smirk again. Taylor was hiding, not very well, a small smile.
"Oh, shit."
"Quite. So make sure you get a good night's sleep, or you're going to end up being chased around by a pissed off healer," Vicky giggled.
"When did your sister get so aggressive with her damn healing?" he demanded.
Very quietly.
"When she met the Family, I think," Vicky shrugged. "Although it might go back to when Taylor talked her into taking it a little easier. I think she has a sort of excess of healing-mode sometimes and looks for an outlet for it. Whether you want it or not."
"Yeah, annoy her and she'll chase you down on Raptaur-back, sit on you, and fix you right up," Dennis snickered, making Vicky laugh again, and Chris shudder, giving his friend an aggrieved look.
"Oh, thanks a lot for that little mental image," he muttered.
The red-head saluted him with his can of soda, then went back to eating.
Chris, grumbling almost inaudibly, retrieved his bowl of soup and started eating it, while the others exchanged looks then resumed their own lunches.
Vicky kept discreetly glancing at the table containing her sister, Taylor, and the others who formed their own little group, all of whom were happily talking about random things. Snatches of conversation were intermittently audible, letting her know Lucy was describing something her iguana had done that had amused her, Eric was thinking about getting a car soon, and the others were just enjoying themselves.
She watched Taylor, who was mostly just listening, although sometimes adding something to the conversation, and apparently quietly enjoying herself. The usual very faintly pleased expression was on her face, the girl giving an air of just generally enjoying life and her friends in a relaxed manner.
Noting the mannerisms the tall girl had, little things like how she cocked her head to the side in the manner of a curious cat when she was interested in something, the blonde thought about all the odd ideas she'd had the night before. In the light of day they mostly sounded mad, but she still couldn't just flatly discard any of them.
For instance, that particular little quirk was one she'd seen before.
In Saurial. Leaving aside the utterly different overall physiology, it was very similar.
She was aware that little gestures like that could pass through a family, due to constant exposure to them growing up. She found herself tapping her fingers on something when she thought, exactly like Carol did, and had noted the similarity in the past. Amy chewed her lip a little when she was deep in thought, something she also did sometimes. In fact, she was doing it right now.
Vicky stopped immediately, licked her lips, then smiled a little to herself.
Based on things like that, her theory that Saurial and Taylor had grown up in the same family seemed not impossible. The fancy that Taylor was Saurial was a little more far-fetched, since overall the girl looked and acted entirely human, while the lizard… didn't.
Not in looks, obviously, but her body language was also very different, making the girl think she was entirely comfortable with herself. She didn't personally know anyone with a Changer ability but she'd always wondered if suddenly finding yourself in a different body would be as confusing as she thought it would be. Surely, unless you'd spent a lot of time like that, grown up like it, or had a very unusual mind, you'd act a little weirdly, probably for quite a while?
Saurial didn't seem at all out of place. While she was entirely different from a normal human, she was at the same time completely at home as who she was, that was obvious. Her reflexes, body language, mannerisms, everything Vicky could think of, suggested that she was and always had been exactly what she appeared to be, a humanoid reptilian girl with a long tail and a bizarre sense of humor.
Yet…
Some of the little things were still shared between them. Mannerisms, turns of phrase, things that you'd have to know them both quite well to even notice, they were sufficiently close to make her wonder. The similarities were much harder to explain than the differences unless they'd had a lot of contact with each other over a considerable amount of time, far longer than the couple of months or so that Saurial had been known to the public.
Which would fit either possibility, of course. She thought it slightly more likely that her theory that Saurial was brought up alongside Taylor was the right one, assuming she wasn't making everything up in some deluded manner, but she still couldn't eliminate the other ideas on the information available.
'I suppose I could simply ask her straight out,' she thought, glancing at the other table again as she put her fork in her mouth. 'I can just see it. Hey, Taylor, is the incredibly dangerous lizard girl I insulted for no reason the very first time we met your foster-sister or something? Yeah, I can see that working out perfectly...' She rolled her eyes a little. 'Even better, Oh, hi, Taylor, I figured it out, you're actually a reptilian teenager from the deep who's grown up with the humans for some reason. How's that working out for you?'
No, neither of those possibilities seemed wildly bright. She knew full well that Saurial had stated outright more than once that she would take any form of threat to her family as something requiring up to a lethal response She was also certain that the lizard-girl was definitely more than capable of carrying out that promise. Vicky wasn't at all sure it would be a good idea to say anything that could be misconstrued as any form of threat. She was also certain that regardless of the truth of Saurial's origin, or Taylor's for that matter, she looked on both the Heberts and the Family as equals from that point of view. And the others undoubtedly did as well.
'You'd have to be a special kind of moron to tell her you knew who she was to her face,' she mused, yet again checking on the girl, who was laughing at something Rich had said. 'Out of the blue like that… It wouldn't end well. Even if Taylor is only Taylor, she's not someone I'd like to get seriously annoyed with me, she's smart enough to cause real problems. If she really is Saurial in human form...'
She shivered a little. Memories of that 'training session' they'd watched came back rather vividly.
'No, not going there,' she though uneasily.
But it was still niggling at her, the sense that she was onto something, and at the same time, missing something. The puzzle was one she wanted to solve if only for her own peace of mind and intellectual curiosity. She had no intention of outing any cape, especially a friend, but it was really weird and wouldn't let her forget it now that it had come to mind.
Idly pondering the other ideas, she internally smiled. 'It's weird, but it's more likely than Mr or Mrs Hebert being a disguised Family member, I guess. They'd probably both have had to be aside from anything else, and if that was the case, no mere car accident would have hurt Taylor's mother.' She'd learned about that tragic issue from Amy, and felt very sorry for the brunette. ' The other car would just have bounced.'
Stirring her chicken salad, she picked out some sweetcorn and ate it, just letting the ideas flow. 'Although...'
She stopped for a moment, then resumed eating more slowly, thinking hard.
'If Mrs Hebert had to go back to the Family, a car accident would make a very convenient excuse as to why she'd vanished…' The blonde glanced at Taylor again. 'But Amy told me she's still very upset about her mother's death. So… maybe she didn't know? If it was some weird sort of Family infiltration mission, maybe her mother got reassigned and it was some security issue that meant Taylor couldn't be told. God, that would suck.'
She shook her head very slightly as the absurdity of her thoughts struck her. 'This is crazy. Next I'll be thinking the Family is the reptilian version of the CIA or something. It's like something Void Cowboy would come up with, only less sensible.'
The concept amused and horrified her equally, comparing her thought processes with that idiot.
'Hah. If he'd come up with this, he'd say that the whole thing was some alien plot. The Heberts are all hidden Family members, running a trade union because it gives them access to the infrastructure of the city or something.' She suppressed a giggle by chewing a piece of chicken. 'Then he'd go on to say that the reason no one at the DWU is apparently worried at all by the giant lizards is because they're all disgui...'
Dean looked over from where he'd been quietly talking to Carlos as his girlfriend dropped her fork. She was staring into space, a very peculiar expression on her face. "Vicky? Anything wrong?"
Dennis waved his hand in front of the blonde's eyes, then said, "I think her batteries ran down or something. Do we have any spare Barbie power packs?"
The girl blinked a few times, then looked at the boy, before bending down and retrieving her fork, which was bent double. Dean watched, concerned and curious. "Sorry," she apologized, looking embarrassed. "I was thinking about something and had a weird idea that took me by surprise. Daydreams, you know how they can go sometimes."
"Was it… good?" Dennis said, emphasizing the word and wiggling his eyebrows up and down comically. She sighed, looking at him again.
"Thank you for lowering the tone of the conversation," she sighed.
"Any time, Vicky, it's a gift," he chuckled. The girl smiled faintly, then got up to get another fork, while Dean wondered what it was that she'd been thinking about.
"Vicky seems fascinated by you today, Brain," the Varga rumbled inside her head, making Taylor discreetly look over to the Wards table for a brief moment. The blonde girl was indeed glancing at her every now and then, a slight frown coming and going. She appeared to be thinking hard.
'I noticed,' she replied. 'I wonder why?'
"It could be any number of reasons, without any more information it's difficult to be certain," he responded. "I doubt it's anything particularly worrying, although perhaps you should ask her if she keeps doing it. Eventually she'll attract attention to herself with that behavior and start all manner of rumors, knowing teenaged humans." His voice was dryly amused.
'We are a gossipy lot on balance, I agree,' she laughed.
"All too true. That appears to be a constant wherever humans are found."
She picked up her sandwich and took a bite of it, putting the remainder back down, then chewed while listening to Lucy and Mandy discussing a video the former had downloaded from PHO, the others doing the same. 'I wonder how many of the Merchants are left now?' she asked after a little while and two more bites.
"Lisa seems certain that at least thirty percent have left, which should mean no more than approximately a hundred and ten or so to deal with," the demon replied. "You could take that many out yourself with no difficulty at all. Between the three of you it's barely a training exercise. Although I would suggest that you want to stretch it out a little, both to give a plausible excuse for the assailants who will sadly remove Squealer from the equation to escape, and to avoid showing off quite how effective you all are."
'Hmm. Yes, good points, both of them.' She considered his words. 'Hopefully they won't manage to kill any of their own people like the ABB did when they went after the Undersiders. We'll have to be careful to fix up any damage to the ones we catch. Amy can sort out their drug addictions at the same time, like Lisa did with Linda.'
"That should remove them as problems for the foreseeable future," he agreed. "It will be interesting to see what the PRT says when Lisa calls them and invites them along to help."
Smiling internally, Taylor said, 'She's looking forward to that, I think. Mostly to see their reactions when she turns up at the PRT building and asks to speak to the Director, because phone lines are insecure.'
Both of them laughed.
"With any luck this action will prevent Skidmark carrying out his plans, or at least severely disrupt them," he commented. "Although, based on what we know about the man, I wouldn't want to guarantee it."
'No.' She sighed faintly. 'He's persistent, even if deluded. But removing his backup should make a big difference if he does ever turn up. All the precautions we're taking are something we need to do anyway, I'm sure there will be future threats even if he never does anything, so it's not wasted effort. I'll talk to Mark again and arrange some training for any people he's found who are up for it.'
"Amy and Lisa know enough now that they can do the introductory classes," he suggested. "Leaving you free to train people to a more advanced level."
'Good idea. I wonder how Randall and Kevin are coming along, he'd be a good one to help as well. He can learn the skills faster than even Lisa, and help pass them on. But we haven't heard a thing out of them since we started the experiment. I'm a little worried.'
"I'm sure they're both fine," he reassured her. "If anything had gone wrong, they'd have contacted you by now. I think it's more likely that they've noticed something and are experimenting. The evidence is rapidly growing that our theories are correct, or at least partially correct. As worrying as that is."
'I should tell Dad about this soon,' she sighed. 'I don't want to upset him but he needs to know, and he could also probably help us think it through.'
"Danny is an intelligent man with wisdom beyond his years," her friend smiled inside her head. "He can certainly help us work this out. The more I learn about this, the more it concerns me. I feel we are on the verge of understanding something very strange. And potentially very hazardous."
'I'll talk to him sometime soon, then,' Taylor replied. Glancing at the clock on the wall, she saw it was nearly the end of the lunch hour. 'Do you think the first flying form is ready for testing yet?'
"I think so, yes," he chuckled. He sounded nearly as eager as she felt. "I suggest that we probably want to do the initial flight tests at some distance from the city, though, to minimize both potential damage and embarrassment. Remember the lift platform..."
Taylor giggled. 'I'll never forget that. Neither will anyone who saw it. Poor Assault.'
"I've modified the form a little to make it fully aquatic-capable, so you can swim as well in it as with any of the others, which may be useful. I think that if we head up the coast a way, perhaps to the place we met the Mayor, we could do some initial practice there where no one will see. Once we've tuned it and learned how to fly like that, we can come back. Around the city we should probably use one of the IFF transponders that Legend gave us, although a different one to the Saurial one."
'OK, that sounds perfect,' she said with satisfaction. 'Maybe tonight, after the raid. If we go in around seven to eight, we'll be done in… maybe an hour? Probably a couple of hours of cleanup, talking to the PRT and the police, so we'd be clear by midnight at the latest.'
"Excellent. I look forward to it. I hope I can also have a go again, I very much enjoyed the first flight test."
'You can always have a go with anything I do, you know that, Varga,' she remarked, sending him a wave of affection. 'We're in this together. Just tell me and you can have control whenever you want.'
"Thank you, Taylor," he said with a sensation of fondness. "It is both very generous, and very much appreciated."
The first bell rang, making everyone who still had food left quickly eat it. "See you guys later," Amy said to her friends, putting the book she'd been showing Mandy something in back into her pack, then slinging it over her shoulder as she stood up, picking up her tray as well.
"Later, Amy," everyone said, following suit. They all joined the general exodus out of the cafeteria, Taylor looking over to see Vicky watching her again. She smiled at the other Dallon girl, waved, and went off to Chemistry class.
"How are you feeling today, Linda?" Danny asked as he waved the woman into his office. She came in and shut the door before sitting in the chair he pointed her too. While she was looking thoughtful she also seemed happy.
"Fine, thanks, Danny," she replied.
"Good, I'm glad to hear that. Saurial filled me in on what you all discussed last night, I agree it seems a valid path to take. If somewhat… Family." He smiled when she laughed, nodding. "I'm happy to go along with it." He motioned to the side, where Lisa was sitting in another chair, listening with a familiar smile of her own. "This is Lisa, my assistant, and one of the smartest people I know. Also the smuggest."
"Thanks, Danny," the blonde chuckled.
"Credit where it's due, Lisa. Linda, she's going to do everything required to set it all up. Between them, I doubt it will be too difficult to get things sorted out."
"Thanks." The brunette woman looked at both of them, seeming a little overwhelmed. "This is… way more than I expected."
"Don't worry too much about it, it's not too much trouble even if it did sort of take me by surprise," he told her. Lisa snickered, making him give her a look. "You sort of grow to expect the unexpected around here. Especially these days. What did you think of the workshop building?"
"It's perfect," she replied, looking suddenly excited. "Absolutely perfect. I poked around in the scrap and marked a few things that are worth keeping, but I remembered what you said, you're right, there's no point in keeping all the old crap."
"OK. I'll get some people to clear it all out, most of it will go into the scrap trains, we can take advantage of them while they're out there. We're clearing out a lot of old metal at the moment and turning it into money. The first full load should be going off to the smelters pretty soon, actually."
"The electrical work is all done, Danny," Lisa put in, looking at a clipboard she was holding. "New lights and switches, most of the wiring was replaced too, and I had a couple of the guys look at the lifts. One of them is working, the other one needs some spare parts, but Saurial can make those later. I'll talk to her about resurfacing the floor and lining the walls the same as the BBFO office as well when I see her. It should be up and running inside a day or two."
"Very good. How's the paperwork coming along?"
"With the changes to the plan, I've had to do some more research, but I've got her in the system with all the right information for now. Photos and so on as well. I'll get the ID card done this afternoon. All the payroll data and accounts are already set up correctly, so there isn't too much left on that front." She flipped through her papers. "Still working on the backstory but I have some good leads, I need to contact a few people I know."
He nodded, watching Linda's face as she listened as well. The woman looked slightly stunned, which he could well sympathize with, this was a hell of a lot to take on board and a vast change from her previous life in a very small amount of time. "Sounds good. Keep me updated, but I think it's going to work out pretty well." The blonde girl smiled, appearing satisfied too.
"I still can't believe how fast all this has gone," Linda muttered, looking at her hands and flexing them a little as if she'd never seen them before. Which, in a way, was basically true he thought. Amy did incredible work…
"I'm pleased with how well it's all gone," he smiled. "And I think it's a good thing. All right, in that case, I'm going to get some lunch. Linda, why don't you join me, and I can introduce you to a few people in the vehicle depot, we can work out where you'll officially fit in and who you'll be working with. Once your personal workshop is ready, you can split your time between doing your own projects and the things we want to pay you for."
"Which may well end up being the same in the end," Lisa commented with a smirk.
"That is indeed true," he chuckled, standing up.
"I'll sort out the ID card now and bring it over a little later," she added, also standing, as did Linda. "Then I need to track down Metis and talk to her, I need her advice."
He couldn't help grinning at her expression, opening the door and waving both women through. "Give her my best, Lisa," he requested, which made her grin.
"I will. See you shortly." She went off in a different direction as he headed downstairs with the brunette Tinker, making small talk and getting to know his daughter's latest project, who seemed like a decent person who'd had a very bad time up until now.
Hopefully, she was going to find things turned around from this point onward.
Emily looked at her phone when it rang, then put her pen down and picked up the handset. "Piggot," she said brusquely, her mind still working on the document she'd been reading.
"Director, Metis of the Family is here to see you," the PRT staffer on the other end said, sounding somewhat worried.
Startled, she asked, "Here? In the building?"
"Yes, in reception. She said she had some information for you that was too sensitive to pass along on an unsecured phone."
"Ah." Thinking quickly, she tried to remember which of the conference rooms they were fairly certain was free of Calvert's possible bugs. "All right, please take her to secure conference room two. Is Miss Militia in the building?"
"I think so, Ma'am, let me check." There was a pause, then the man came back on the line. "Yes, she's in the research library. Shall I have her meet you there?"
"Yes, thank you. Tell Metis I'm on my way down."
"Yes, Director," he said, before the line went dead.
Wondering what fresh hell the lizards were about to unleash on her poor city, she took a deep breath, stood, grabbed a notebook and her pen, then left the office. A moment later she came back in, retrieved a small package from her desk, and left again.
Lisa watched with amusement as people wandering around the PRT building reception area noticed her, then generally stopped dead and stared. She was politely waiting in an area with a couple of dozen chairs and two tables, leafing idly through a magazine on fashionable home-making, which she'd chosen because her ability thought it would produce the funniest expressions when people spotted it.
Two very nervous looking PRT troopers, who smelled slightly terrified but were disguising it surprisingly well, were standing nearby in a way they probably thought was inconspicuous, fingers on the triggers of their containment foam sprayers. She could hear their hearts beating at least twice as fast as normal, the two men obviously wondering if they would have to do anything.
She was fairly sure that even if they did foam her, she could break out of it without too much difficulty, either by raw strength, or by cutting it with a biometallic blade, but didn't want to have to prove it unnecessarily. So she was calmly flipping pages, looking around every now and then, and doing as much as she could to project the image of someone who was just there on business. Although being a half ton giant killer lizard seemed to make that just the slightest bit difficult.
Lisa had definitely had difficulty not simply walking up to the reception desk and stating, "I come in peace. Take me to your leader," although the idea had certainly crossed her mind…
The six other people who were occupying chairs in the waiting area when she arrived were all staring at her, totally motionless, and producing a very interesting mix of scents, mostly on the theme of 'Oh, shit.' One small girl, about twelve, was grinning widely, which made her smile back, which in turn made the girl's mother suck in a breath and nearly faint.
"Oh, mom," the girl said with a sigh. "That's only Metis."
"I know," the older woman said in a weak voice. Lisa smiled winningly at her, which didn't seem to help, although the girl was now giggling a little.
"Miss Metis?" a voice to the side said, a little hesitantly. She looked around. "The director will see you now, if you'll come with me, please?"
"Of course," she replied politely, putting the magazine down and standing up. The man kept his eyes on hers as she rose to her full height, looking down on him from close to two feet worth of advantage. "After you."
He swallowed, nodded, and turned away, while she trailed along behind him, grinning internally. The mass sigh of relief from behind her was hysterically funny to both her and her power.
Shortly she was entering a conference room on the sixth floor which was guarded by two more troopers, both of whom stared at her wide-eyed. Her guide fled when the door shut, she could hear rapid footsteps disappearing down the corridor behind her. Emily Piggot and Miss Militia were sitting at one end of a large conference table, away from the door. She looked around for a moment, noting how the internal cameras had been disconnected, but said nothing about it.
"Hello, Metis," Director Piggot said to her, sounding slightly worried, but nothing like as much as the people downstairs had been. She also sounded interested. "I understand you wanted to speak?"
"I did, yes, Director," she replied, moving a chair to the side and propping herself up on her tail in the space it had taken. "It's too sensitive to talk about over the phone, especially considering your potential security issues. I assume this room is clear?"
"It is, as far as we can be sure," Miss Militia said.
"Excellent. I did consider asking you to come to us, but considering how often that happens, it seemed polite to come to you for once." She smiled at them. "I was also curious, of course." Looking around again, she nodded. "Nice place."
Returning her attention to the two women, she inspected them for a moment. Miss Militia swallowed slightly, proving she was just as nervous as she smelled, which Lisa thought odd for such a competent and practiced woman. But she was like that with all of them, she'd noticed it when the hero and Armsmaster had first interviewed her as Lisa. She'd been terrified of 'Raptaur', and still was. It was a little curious, but unimportant at the moment.
"We are going to move against the Merchants tonight," she said after a moment or two. Both woman looked surprised, then concerned. "We've run out of patience. Skidmark is nowhere to be seen, but we've decided, after discussing it with the DWU and various contacts who have given us more information on the subject, that we can't wait for him and his friends to turn up with whatever ultimate weapon he might have. The risk to the DWU people and innocent bystanders is too great to let him set the terms of an engagement."
"I see," Piggot replied slowly. "I remember what we talked about the other day. You're sure you want to go ahead with this?"
"I don't honestly see we have much choice," she shrugged, which was entirely accurate. "None of us particularly want to start anything, but the more we hear about Skidmark's movements, the more worrying it gets. We don't know what, if anything, he's looking for, but no one feels just sitting there waiting for him to open fire is really a wildly good idea."
"Can't argue with that," Miss Militia mumbled.
"He seems determined to make us the enemy," she added. "Not what we want, but I doubt we could persuade him otherwise. Recent information I gathered gave us a good idea of the Merchant strength, location, and so on, as well as suggesting that a preemptive strike if done very carefully would be effective at reducing the threat. Possibly not eliminating it entirely, as we don't know where he is or exactly when he's likely to resurface, but if we can remove as much of his backup as possible that should help a lot."
"I can't disagree, as much as I'd like to," Piggot replied after some moments, scowling a little. She glanced at Miss Militia. "We don't have any more information on the idiot ourselves, yet, do we?"
"No, Director, nothing very useful has come to light," the other woman told them. "We're hearing more and more stories about places he's been and people he's annoyed, a few of them to the level of putting out a price on his head, in fact. The FBI has also added him to the top ten most wanted list. But so far we only know where he's been, not where he is."
"Damn man's like a particularly annoying cockroach," the director growled. "Balls."
"We performed a little psychological warfare on the Merchants the other night, partly as an experiment, and partly to soften them up," Lisa went on.
"You confiscated his cash, you mean," Piggot said, almost smiling. "That was fairly impressive, I have to admit."
"They seemed to think so," she laughed. "As far as we can determine, a good fifty to sixty of his people have quietly disappeared since then. That brings the estimated strength of the gang down to somewhat over a hundred. We can handle that easily, and plan to move on them at around eight PM tonight. No sense letting them dig in, and the ones who were likely to abandon ship have already done so. The dark will make it easier as well."
"Will you require help from us?"
"We can do the raid with no difficulty," she assured them. "But as we discussed the other day, what we want to do is perform it in cooperation with the PRT and the BBPD, both as a show of our association, and because it will make life easier when dealing with the prisoners. And it will legitimize it, if you announce immediately afterwards that it was done after consultation with you, as a preventative measure to avoid bloodshed. Having the PRT officially back us up will, I think stop the ABB and the E88 feeling that the status quo has altered too radically too quickly, which we both want to avoid."
The director looked at Miss Militia, who gazed back, then nodded. "It sounds… odd but plausible," the latter said. "Everyone in the city probably knows by now that Skidmark is gunning for the Family. Which means he's after the DWU guys as well. They have a lot of support, no one likes the Merchants anyway, so if we spin it as Metis suggests, I expect people will basically applaud. Even Kaiser and Lung will probably simply accept it without too much trouble."
"I agree." Piggot turned back to Lisa. "You understand, we really don't want to trigger a gang war, which in this city would be all too easy. Although after the last couple of months, probably not as easy as it was. Before Saurial turned up we were on a knife edge, almost anything could have set it off."
"That matches my analysis of the situation," Lisa nodded. "But as far as I can tell, if we do it this way, the political impact will be minimized. Public reaction is likely to be generally positive."
"All right. How do you want to proceed?" Piggot put her arms on the table and watched her curiously.
"I was going to go and talk to a contact in the BBPD as well, but the plan would be to have a number of PRT and BBPD units, along with suitable medical services, accompany us to the Merchants base." She pulled out a USB stick and slid it over to them. "This has the details. As I said, I estimate a maximum of one hundred and fifteen people will be present. We intend to take all of them into custody, repair any medical issues, then hand them over to you. We will also destroy their base and equipment, once you've had a chance to remove anything you require for legal reasons, just in case any of the runners come back. And to make a point to Skidmark."
Picking the USB stick up, Piggot looked at it for a second, then glanced at Miss Militia, before turning back to her. "Brutal, but effective, I think."
"We will be very careful to avoid causing any more injuries than necessary," Lisa added. "However, the Merchants are very heavily armed, so it's not impossible that there will be some, quite likely self-inflicted. I would suggest that you bring some Parahumans of your own, and establish a containment area to capture any absconders, while we go in after the bulk of them. We're very durable, we're not likely to be harmed." She smiled at them. "None of us want to see any of you harmed due to a problem we're arguably at least partially responsible for."
"I don't honestly think it's your fault, the man and his friends has always been a loose cannon at best," the director replied, scowling. "I wish we could have dealt with him years ago, but…" She shrugged. "Brockton Bay is a very complex set of problems with no good solution."
"So we've come to appreciate," Lisa grinned. "Hopefully this is part of the solution."
"Thank you for inviting us, Metis," the blonde woman said. "I'll call a meeting and we'll work out a plan of attack on our side, then get in contact with you." She looked at her watch. "That gives us six hours or so. Should be enough."
"I would suggest that we assemble at the DWU yard at seven or thereabouts." Lisa looked at them both. "We can fine tune the plan then. I realize it's short notice, but circumstances have forced our hand."
"Can't be helped. I agree, we'll get to work. Ask your BBPD contact to liaise with us when you see them."
"That's not a problem." Pushing herself to her feet, she nodded politely to them. "Thank you for listening."
"Of course." Piggot picked up a thick envelope that was next to her on the table and skimmed it to her, Lisa putting a claw on it as it came past. "I meant to drop that over soon anyway, so you can take it now. Those are the ID cards I was talking about for all of you."
"Thank you very much, Director," she smiled, opening a pouch in her vest and tucking the envelope into it. Miss Militia's eyes widened a little at the way the envelope disappeared into an opening too small for it, she noticed with an inner smile. "I have to go, I have other people to talk to, but I expect we'll talk again shortly."
With another nod, she turned and headed towards the door, opening and leaving the room, satisfied that things were proceeding to plan. She allowed one of the troopers to guide her down to the lobby although she could easily have found her way, but it seemed to make him a little less worried.
"What do you think?"
Hannah looked at her companion, who was rolling the USB stick Metis had given them in her palm.
"It's a viable plan, definitely. The psychological warfare element to soften them up, then go in with force… It'll work. Whether it will dissuade Skidmark, who knows?" She shrugged. "The man is not good at thinking things through or we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. But we might get lucky."
"Hmmph." Emily looked mildly annoyed. "Damn man. Fine, get Colin, Ethan, and his wife over here. That should be enough, along with three pissed off giant lizards. We need to work out the right number of vehicles to take. Over a hundred prisoners… we'll need at least a dozen of them."
"I'll get on it, Director," she replied, as they stood and left the room. She was both curious to see how this would play out, and more than a little worried about how confident Metis had been that the Merchants wouldn't put up much of a fight.
Well, she'd soon find out what was going to happen. It wasn't like she had other plans for the evening.