Approaching the DWU facility at the head of the small convoy of PRT vehicles, Colin nodded to the gate guard, who nodded back. "Quite a few of you this time, Armsmaster," the man commented.
"Yes, we have a total of thirteen personnel this time," he replied. "New Wave are sending a pair of representatives as well."
"Metis let us know," the guard said. His colleague and a couple of helpers were carefully scanning both the PRT armored SUVs and the troop carrier bringing up the rear. The men finished their check as Colin and the lead guard waited patiently, the second man coming up and talking in a low voice. He then stepped away and raised his radio, transmitting a short sentence to someone unseen.
"All clear, sir. You know the drill. Please don't deviate from the normal path. Saurial and the others are expecting you." The guard nodded politely again, then stepped back, motioning to the security booth, which caused the barrier to rise. Colin drove through, looking with interest at the newly upgraded fence and wondering what the towers at intervals between the two more normal looking ones were for. As they approached the admin building, a familiar pair of figures came out of it. He looked over his shoulder, at Director Piggot who was in the front seat of the lead SUV, with Hannah driving it. The woman motioned to him so he turned his bike and drew up next to Danny Hebert and his security chief Mark.
"Good afternoon, Armsmaster," Danny said. "I just wanted to check if you required anything from me today."
"At the moment, no, Mr Hebert," Colin replied. "But we will wish to speak later about a service we would like to contract the DWU to provide over the weekend, if that's all right."
"It should be," the man said thoughtfully. "Anything serious?"
"Most likely not, it's on the lines of a similar crowd control exercise as you provided during the tanker moving operation. I will be free to explain in more detail after our meeting with the Family."
"All right. I'll be in my office until fairly late tonight, so you know where to find me. If I'm not there, I'll be somewhere on site and you can have me located easily enough." Danny looked interested, but patient.
"Thank you." Colin glanced back to see the vehicles waiting for him. "I must get back to my primary mission but we'll talk again soon."
"I'm looking forward to it," the man said, stepping back. Colin turned his bike around and rumbled off, the others following. Shortly he was parking outside BBFO, just as Dragon landed beside him. Moments later Lady Photon and Brandish did the same, approaching from a different direction.
"Hello, everyone," the former said calmly, while her sister watched the various vehicles park neatly and disgorge quite a few people. "This is certainly an impressive collection. Is anyone left back at base?" She was smiling a little.
Colin nodded, sensing that the question was intended humorously somehow. "A significant number," he replied, not knowing what else to say. "Thank you for attending this meeting."
"It's our pleasure," the woman told him. She looked to the left as Emily walked up beside him. "Hello, Director. It's been a while."
"Good afternoon, Lady Photon," Emily said. "I trust the family is well?"
"We're doing very nicely at the moment, thanks."
Everyone turned to look when they heard a click from the BBFO building. The pedestrian door opened to reveal Saurial, who looked around. "Well, don't stand around out here, come on inside," the lizard-girl said brightly, standing aside. "We've got coffee and tea, and a load of sandwiches from the cafeteria."
Ethan looked interested, heading for the door immediately, his wife following and appearing resigned. Colin watched, glanced at the Director who also headed that way, then followed, the two New Wave women behind him.
Emily looked around once they were inside, Saurial closing and locking the door, then coming around to the front of the large group of people and waving towards the table. It had been moved out from the wall and extended, with a couple of dozen chairs around it now. "Have a seat," she said pleasantly, while walking over to a fixture on the wall to one side. She unplugged a number of cables from it, then closed the lid of the system. "We're completely isolated now, so this should be more than secure enough."
Nodding a little, Emily led the group to the table. She paused when she saw Raptaur come out of the separate room unit, the much larger lizard smiling at them, then taking her place at the table next to Metis and Ianthe, who were watching them with interest. Glancing at Hannah, she noticed that the other woman had also briefly paused at the sight of the second of the Family to have hit Brockton Bay. The ones that no one, aside from Amy Dallon, had apparently seen in the same place at the same time...
Saurial sat in one of the chairs next to her sister, grinning for a moment. The slightly smug look they both wore for a moment made Emily sigh inside.
'Fucking lizard sense of humor,' she thought to herself. 'How much of what they do is simply to screw with us?'
She had a feeling that she wouldn't like the answer so dismissed the question with an act of will. Hannah, who had sat as far away from the reptilian aliens as possible, was watching them right back with an expression that appeared to be one of deep thought mixed with mild annoyance and some trepidation.
Emily made the introductions for the ones who hadn't met each other before, the Family members greeting each new face politely. It didn't take long, and when she was finished she took a seat.
It was interesting, she thought, to see how the various people sat around the table. Colin showed no hesitation at all at taking the chair next to Saurial, and Dragon sat next to him. Lady Photon and her sister, after a shared quick glance at each other, moved around to sit next to Ianthe on the other side of the table. Ethan took a position nearer the middle, but she realized after a moment that was probably because it put him closer to the food that was on a number of plates in the center.
Battery mumbled something too faint to make out and sat next to him, away from the reptiles. Rory sat next to her. Legend went across from Dragon, seemingly amused by the entire thing. Emily, after some consideration, sat opposite Ethan.
Robin and Craig both ended up near Hannah, as did the three PRT staff members, Lieutenants Gibson, Pratchett, and Gaiman. All of the latter were apparently somewhat nervous and looking like only rigid discipline was keeping them even that close to all the teeth at the other end of the table.
"The Mayor sends his regards, by the way," she said. "I met with him earlier to discuss the operation in broad terms. He's not wildly pleased about it but accepts the necessity."
"Roy is a good man," Saurial commented. "His sister is nice too, and his niece is fun."
"You've met them?" Emily asked after a moment. Everyone was looking at her.
"Yep, they came for a visit yesterday, and my sister gave her a ride around the city for a while. She's really interested in us, it turns out." The reptilian cape seemed amused, as did her relatives. "We had a lot of fun, Roy and Cheryl looked around the place and met a few other people, everyone went away happy." She shrugged a little. "Good public relations, combined with doing a favor for a friend, and a young girl."
"Small humans are rather cute," Raptaur rumbled, smiling. "She had a lot of questions."
'Who doesn't?' Emily thought morosely. "I see," she said out loud. "Very nice of you, I'm sure."
All four looked pleased.
"Thank you," Metis said. "Please help yourselves to snacks. If anyone wants coffee, tea, or anything else we have, just let me know."
The humans all exchanged glances. Emily sighed when she noticed Ethan was already getting outside a sandwich with apparent enthusiasm. Various people started requesting drinks, soon all of them receiving a cup of one thing or another. When everyone was settled again, Saurial said, "Metis has filled us in on the details she currently knows, and some deductions she's made. We have a solution to the explosives and can implement it almost immediately. We also have some requirements of our own that I think Dragon and Armsmaster between them can fulfill, which should allow us to give Mr Calvert a rather hard time."
She grinned lazily, as did her sister. "Having talked extensively to Tattletale, we would like to meet the man and express our displeasure with his operating methods," Raptaur added meaningfully. "He may not enjoy the experience, but I feel it will be an opportunity to learn important life lessons."
Emily couldn't suppress an evil grin of her own, even as she shuddered a little, thinking about what it would be like to be in an underground base, almost certainly in the dark, with lizards in the walls…
'Couldn't happen to a more deserving man,' she decided.
Thomas shivered, looking around with confusion. Something was… coming. He could feel it.
He checked all the security feeds yet again, then started another series of timelines, looking for a way out. So far, nothing he'd tried had done anything other than end badly.
And he still had no idea why.
"Well, to open this discussion, we would appear to have three main points to cover. One is to determine what Coil's power actually is, as far as we can. We have some suggestions from our Thinkers and researchers on that matter," Director Piggot began, taking charge of the table full of people. "One is to work out a suitable solution to the self-destruct system that he's implemented in his base. And one is to decide how we gain entry to that base, who takes what role, and any relevant support operations required for the job. A little lower down the list is sorting out how New Wave will cover for our own capes when they're involved in the main operation."
She nodded at Lady Photon and Brandish, who returned the gesture, but otherwise remained silent, listening carefully.
"We have a few ideas on Coil's power-set of our own, 'Metis' commented with a glance at her friends. "But we'd like to hear your theories first."
"Fine." Piggot opened her notebook, as did several of the others. "Our best fit is some form of either probability manipulation, or a variant of precognition, possibly combined. It matches what Tattletale told us when she gave us the main information dump and would explain a few of the more unusual aspects of jobs we know or suspect Coil was involved with. His success rate is near enough one hundred percent, high even for precogs, which can quite often be thrown off by randomizing certain actions. Either he's affecting local probability to tilt it in his favor, which is a power we've encountered before, or he's able to predict the future for at least a short distance with unprecedented accuracy. Or possibly both which is definitely a worst case scenario."
"We also suspect he's not prone to Thinker headaches, which are a common phenomenon, especially with precognitive abilities," Miss Militia added. "We've seen it before. If he's able to use his powers without such a limitation, it makes them considerably more effective even if they're actually fairly restricted. He could possibly use them continuously, in fact."
Lady Photon looked disturbed. "If that was the case even a few seconds of precognition, especially if it was very accurate, would make him a dangerous and hard to deal with opponent. And generally the shorter the duration of precognition used the more accurate it gets."
"That's a worry of ours, definitely," the military cape nodded. "However, we may have an ace in the hole as far as that sort of power goes."
"Which is?" Brandish asked curiously.
"Them." Miss Militia pointed at Taylor and her friends, who all glanced at each other.
"The Family? How is that helpful?" Lady Photon inquired. "Not that I'm saying that they're not both helpful and effective, of course," she hastily added with a smile in their direction.
"We have, for reasons we're still not sure about, an unusual effect on human Thinkers," Amy replied to her unknowing aunt. "It appears to essentially jam their abilities to the point they either get nothing at all from us, or very erroneous data."
"How odd." The woman seemed very curious. "Does that happen with all Thinkers?"
"As far as we can tell, yes," Director Piggot said. "None of the ones that the PRT has access to can derive any useful information at all, many of them now refusing to even try. In some cases the… backlash, error, call it what you will… is so overwhelming they pass out. And normally can't remember why, aside from not wanting to try again."
Taylor shrugged. "We don't know what the cause is although we're looking into it," she said truthfully. "Even Tattletale can't get anything useful. Her inferential Thinker ability is very powerful, but that if anything appears to make it worse."
"So there's a decent chance that it's you guys that actually spooked Coil in the first place and made him run away and hide?" Assault seemed amused about this.
"So it would seem." 'Raptaur' grinned at him. "Useful, if unexpected. We didn't even know about it until fairly recently."
"And it's also likely that his powers are significantly hobbled in general, with the Family so close to his base," Director Piggot said. "We suspect that's why he's still down there. He may be so used to using his power that the lack of sensible results has made him panic and lock himself in. He always was a paranoid bastard, who never made a move unless he was pretty sure what the outcome would be, assuming he had a choice in the matter."
"Our research has come to a somewhat similar conclusion, with some differences which could make it a better fit to the data we have," Lisa remarked after everyone had thought that over. "Thinker, definitely, very high level. Precognition is almost a certainty. But we don't think there's any probability manipulation going on. We feel that he is almost certainly able to simulate reality over a probably fairly substantial area at much more than real time rates, allowing him to set some starting conditions then see what happens. A limited form of future omniscience, to a point. He's probably restricted in time although we don't know for sure how much. I suspect no more than a few days to a week or so maximum."
"Which would make sense," Velocity said. "As Lady Photon pointed out, precogs get more accurate the sooner their prediction is from when they make it, and the opposite happens the further away the predicted thing is going to occur."
"That's by far the most common aspect of that sort of ability," Legend agreed. "There are rare exceptions but they often have other limitations, such as only being able to focus on a very narrow range of interest."
"Tattletale told us that he seemed to have infallible knowledge of the next few hours to days, and demonstrated this a number of times to her and others to force them into line," Director Piggot mused out loud. "He claimed he was affecting probability, but a detailed simulation would also fit."
"We also think that he can run more than one simultaneous simulation," Lisa said. "Since most Parahuman powers seem, for some reason, to have almost deliberate limitations built in, it's likely that he can do no more than two, but a higher number can't be ruled out entirely. That said, two would allow some very impressive results since he could simulate both outcomes of a binary decision and pick the one he wanted, pretty much perfectly every time. It would certainly explain how he's almost always succeeded in anything he tried."
"He'd be practically unbeatable with an ability like that," Brandish suggested uneasily. "Depending on how fast he could do it, of course. If it took an hour to simulate a day, it would limit him a lot."
"Tattletale's information suggested it was probably more or less instant," Taylor replied, thinking back to what Lisa had told them. "No more than a couple of seconds in real time at most."
"That's more than a little worrying," Dauntless commented. He didn't seem too pleased about the concept.
"And it definitely fits the data," Armsmaster added. His mouth was a straight line, showing how hard he was thinking. "I've been wondering how he managed to do everything he pulled off under the noses of the entire PRT. But an ability like that would let him try alternatives until he found a successful one." He looked around at them one by one, then turned to the director. "I feel that the Family suggestion is more likely than our own, Director," he said.
"All right." She made some more notes. "We'll work on that basis for now. Until we get the bastard and nail him to a table for interrogation we can't be certain, but since that's the worst possibility, it's got an annoyingly good chance of being the right one. I'm suddenly very glad that you lot foul up Thinkers, you're probably the only reason he's still around."
"Thank you, Director," Taylor smiled, "although we can't really take credit for something we didn't realize we were doing."
The blonde woman nodded, still writing, then looked up when she finished. "OK. We have a working theory on his power and we can work out some countermeasures. Precogs are a pain in the ass to catch but we have some protocols for that situation. Next, explosives."
"Like I said, we came up with a solution for that," Taylor said through Raptaur. She nodded at Amy. "Or rather, Ianthe did."
"What is your solution?" Dragon asked curiously. Taylor, both aspects, looked at Amy, who picked up a small transparent container with a firmly screwed on lid, showing it to the various people around the table.
"This. It's a synthetic organism I designed which is specifically tailored to be attracted to cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine." Several people instantly looked very worried, Emily Piggot most of all. Amy held up her other hand. "Don't worry, it can't self replicate, and it will die off very fast if it doesn't encounter that particular molecule. I can also kill it with a simple chemical trigger, which I will give you the formula for if you wish. After this operation is complete."
"What the hell is cyclotri… whatever the hell that was?" Triumph asked, sounding puzzled.
"RDX, the explosive component of C4," Armsmaster said before Amy could. "What does this organism do?"
"It basically digests the stuff, uses the breaking of certain high-energy nitrogen bonds to fuel itself, then rearranges the carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen in the original chemical to form its waste products. These are water vapor, ammonium carbonate, free carbon, and polypropylene, with an amount of free nitrogen which can be used as a tracer to allow the progress of the reaction to be monitored remotely. Essentially, it turns the explosive RDX into water, inert plastic and a harmless chemical or two."
Armsmaster appeared impressed and curious. She smiled at him. "It's quite fast, actually, it would take approximately two to three hours to decompose the ten tons of the material you estimated was present under ideal circumstances, given enough of the agent. Since we can assume that it's probably embedded in the concrete structure of the bunker, I have made it capable of penetrating porous materials of that nature. That will take a little time, perhaps five minutes per inch of thickness, but not enough to matter. I suggest that we release it around the perimeter of the Endbringer shelter as soon as possible, certainly before tomorrow morning, then just wait. You can easily check the progress by monitoring the nitrogen content of the air coming out of the exhaust vents of the shelter, which we know are currently open to the outside since Raptaur can smell the explosives in there in the first place."
Armsmaster was nodding slowly as she explained. "Interesting. And impressive. We just wait for the nitrogen levels to rise, indicating it's accessed the C4, then wait some more until it drops off again. At that point we know the threat is removed."
"Exactly. It will only deal with C4 and other RDX based explosives, but it will eliminate them anywhere in his base. Or in the surrounding area, for that matter, so I suggest you're careful not to allow your own munitions near the place for approximately six hours after the nitrogen levels drop again. It won't release enough of the gas to be an asphyxiation hazard or trigger any air quality sensors, from the data we were able to find on the ones normally present in such a facility. Standard biosafety precautions for a class 2 biohazard are all that's required to prevent it being spread beyond the target area. It's designed to be easily killed by concentrated chlorinated cleaning agents such as bleach, and is entirely uninterested in anything other than RDX. The organism is as safe as I can make it."
Armsmaster looked at Dragon, who was studying the silvery liquid in the vial she was now holding, then looked around the table, stopping on Director Piggot. "Director?" he said. "I have to admit, while this is definitely not a normal approach, it does sound efficient and safe, assuming that Ianthe's precautions are valid. Which I have no reason to doubt. We don't have any better method at the moment to deal with the problem."
She looked dubiously at him, then at Amy. The currently reptilian healer smiled. "We can demonstrate if you want."
"That… might help," the blonde woman said slowly. "Assuming you can do it safely."
"Easy enough. Saurial?" Amy turned to Taylor's smaller aspect. "Some RDX, please?"
Taylor tossed her a two inch sphere of a white slightly waxy substance, which made several people flinch. "Don't worry, it's almost impossible to set it off without a detonator," she grinned. "It won't go bang if she drops it."
Dragon pulled produced a small scanner and waved it in her direction, then nodded. "Pure RDX with a wax binder, consistent with a simplified formulation of C4."
"Now a box, please. Sealed, transparent, about this big." Amy described a two foot cube with her hands. "Standard port on the top for access."
"OK." Taylor made the requested box on the table in front of her out of the same transparent pure sapphire she used for the costume face-plates, then slid it over to her friend. Amy retrieved the vial from Dragon, opened the port in the top of the box, dropped the RDX sample inside, then followed it with the vial. Snapping the small access port closed she nodded to Taylor's aspects. The vial promptly vanished.
This caused a number of odd looks, but no one said anything, more interested in what happened next.
Everyone watched as the droplets of silver liquid, looking like low viscosity mercury, spread out into a puddle on the bottom of the transparent box. When part of the puddle met the ball of explosive, it began soaking into it in a peculiar manner, the entire quantity of fluid moving towards the material at a fairly rapid pace. Shortly there was no trace of it left.
The ball bubbled very gently, slowly changing color from white to a steadily deepening gray that shaded towards black, and expanding slightly. The box gained a layer of condensation on the inside which ran down the walls and puddled on the bottom. "The color change is from the free carbon, which usefully shows it's done something," Amy explained. In under a minute the process was complete. Picking the box up, she tipped it back and forth, making the ball of inert black plastic roll around and click on the inside of it. "That's it. The organism will quietly die off inside a couple of hours now that it can't find any more RDX to digest. Or you can kill it by spraying it with strong bleach, or my chemical deactivator will make it go inert. No more explosive."
"Wow," Assault said, staring at the box. "That was pretty weird. But a lot faster than I expected."
"There wasn't much RDX there to convert, and the ratio of bioagent to explosive was pretty large, so it was quick," Amy replied. "In our Coil scenario, the ratio won't be as favorable, so like I said it will take some hours, but the effect will be the same. It will have easiest access along any embedded wiring, which most likely means the first C4 nullified will be the material adjacent to the detonators themselves. Even if they were triggered at that point, the result would only be some muffled bangs and an upset Coil. The latter being the desired result, I don't see a down side." She smirked as she put the box down. "Although I recommend waiting until we know all of it has been dealt with. It will also neutralize any loose quantities of the stuff, of course, which may help depending on whether it's present in an armory."
"And this stuff will go through concrete?" One of the PRT lieutenants looked at the box, then her. "It's probably about three feet thick based on standard Endbringer shelter designs."
"It's not a problem, concrete is porous on a microscopic scale and the organism is small enough to penetrate it easily," 'Ianthe' assured the man. "True, it will slow it, but it won't stop it. Even a steel box might not, unless it was completely airtight. I could make it go through anything but that could be dangerous, so I think this is the best approach."
She turned back to look at Director Piggot. "It uses an entirely synthetic genome which is completely incompatible with normal DNA based life. It's not possible for it to interact with other forms of life, they'll simply ignore each other, in the same way that a tree would ignore a rock. I understand your worries caused by the experience of that fool Nilbog, but there's no risk of anything untoward happening. And I do feel it's the best and simplest method to deal with the problem."
"I must, somewhat reluctantly, agree, Emily," Legend put in, having been listening intently the entire time. He looked at her, then Amy. "It's definitely an unusual proposition and normally we'd test it six ways from Sunday, but under the circumstances and bearing in mind who we're dealing with, both as a target and as help..."
"I can let you have some to test for yourself, but we're short of time so you'd need to do it quickly," Amy suggested, holding up another vial.
"How much of it would we need?" The director was still looking and smelling worried, but less so, Taylor noticed with satisfaction, and now she was also looking very thoughtful.
"Approximately ten gallons," Amy said. "I can make that in under an hour. We can apply it as well, Raptaur and Saurial can definitely sneak up on his base and spray it into the intake vents and in the tunnels under the street without him noticing. If we do that before tomorrow morning, I would estimate that the explosives will be neutralized by midnight tomorrow at the latest."
"And we can monitor the situation with a simple gas analyzer on the exhaust vent," Lisa added, glancing at Armsmaster. "I would expect that you could provide something small and discreet that we could leave behind?"
"Easily," he nodded.
Director Piggot was staring at the box on the table with a very thoughtful look on her face. Eventually she rubbed the side of her face, then shrugged. "Damn it all. I have to say I don't like this at all, and I have no doubt that if anything goes wrong it's my neck on the line, but I also have to admit that none of you lot have steered us wrong yet despite being extremely annoying a lot of the time."
Taylor's Saurial aspect snickered, while her other one just smiled a little. Amy and Lisa shared a look of amusement. "One finds entertainment where one can, as my big brother says," she remarked. "And humans are endlessly entertaining."
Most of the people around the table looked at her, then each other. Assault was smiling in a weird way, Legend was definitely suppressing a grin, and Armsmaster merely looked slightly puzzled.
"Yes..." The PRT director fixed her with a stare, then sighed. "OK. We'll use it. I do want to have a sample checked out first, though, if only to be able to prove to my superiors that we did what due diligence we were able to in the time available. But I also think we can claim exigent circumstances and as long as things proceed to plan I'll only get yelled at a little."
"We're open to negotiation to supply the PRT with similar agents in future operations," Amy said, passing the sample vial to Armsmaster who carefully stored it away in his armor. "That may help you. I would expect that an efficient way of disarming explosives remotely could be useful. I can tailor it to attack more or less anything you want, although we refuse to make anything that could either produce toxic byproducts, or break down any compound in a way that would cause injury or loss of life. We're not going to provide anyone with chemical or biological weapons. Non-lethal defensive purposes only, with strictly limited shelf lives."
"Which makes me feel a lot happier," Legend said. "I know you're well aware of the issues caused by Biotinkers, and ones that specialize in chemical design are nearly as worrisome."
"When you control biology enough you also control chemistry to a very high level," Amy pointed out. "At a high enough level you can't really distinguish between the two."
"Yes, I can see that," he replied. "Out of interest, could you make a similar agent to deactivate nitrocellulose propellant, as used in firearms?"
"Easily. I did consider that. However, there are some issues. One is that the propellant in a firearm round is likely sealed in well enough to prevent, or drastically slow, the perfusion of the organism into the cartridges, so I couldn't guarantee how long it would take. Or even if it could make it. Another one is that the agent isn't airborne, so it would be much more difficult to apply it to the rounds in the first place. I am extremely reluctant to make it airborne since it becomes wildly less easy to control once released. And, of course, your people also use the same cartridges in your own weapons and would end up at risk of having them deactivated if you got them contaminated and the cartridges weren't sealed sufficiently well."
He nodded, as Miss Militia was also doing. "Excellent points."
"There is also the fact that Coil's mercenaries are known to use energy weapons and aren't entirely reliant on standard firearms as a result," Velocity put in.
"Another good point," Legend said thoughtfully. "All right, forget my suggestion."
"Good. Second point dealt with," the Director said, looking a lot happier, although she was still giving the box glances every now and then with a faintly disapproving air. "Next item. How the hell do we get inside the shelter without alerting the entire gang and walking into a killbox?"
"Out of interest," Miss Militia began, looking at the others, then Taylor and her friends, "Couldn't we bypass the entire process by the use of the WCC?"
Aside from Director Piggot, Legend, and the other three people who had so far seen the wormhole facility, the rest seemed puzzled, exchanging glances. Clearly they hadn't been informed about the wormhole transportation system yet. Taylor looked at Lisa, who shook her head. Armsmaster and Dragon also indicated it wasn't a good idea.
"It would allow access, yes, Miss Militia," the latter said, before 'Metis' had a chance to speak, "but the gamma emission of the exit is large enough to set off the standard radiation detectors that all Endbringer shelters and other similar underground security facilities inevitably have fitted. Most of them are based on cold war nuclear bunker designs and there's a specific sensor suite that always gets installed. The instant we fired it up, every alarm in the place would go off and we'd lose any element of surprise. Not to mention that it could be fairly hazardous in the confined space to most people who weren't either very radiation tolerant or wearing suitable shielding."
Lisa waved at Dragon. "Just what I was going to say. We thought about it but it didn't take much research and consideration to show it was a sub-optimal solution, although in some ways convenient. We don't want to irradiate either Coil's people or yours if we can avoid it."
"No, I'd prefer not to glow in the dark either," Assault said. "What the devil is the WCC?"
"Not currently relevant," Piggot said absently, her gaze on the notebook in which she was jotting something down. "OK. So that's out. Next suggestion?"
"It's easy enough," 'Raptaur' said. "We can cut a hole in the place anywhere you want, no problem. Or just kick the front door in." She manifested a large hammer and put it on the table in front of her. "It wouldn't take more than a couple of hits. An EDM blade would go through the wall like it was cheese, or the doors for that matter."
Lieutenant Pratchett raised his hand. They all turned to look at him. "Ah, I don't believe that's a good idea," he said a little hesitantly. "If I recall correctly, the shelters run a positive air pressure system of about half a PSI, to prevent airborne contaminants or smoke getting in. They have very sensitive air pressure sensors that will trip an alarm if the pressure abruptly drops when no one is expecting it, and I'd assume that their security protocols are based on prearranged entries and so on. If we cut a hole in the place the alarms will go off for sure. Same problem as with the radiation."
"He's right," Battery noted. "I remember reading the specifications document on the Shelter program, they're definitely set up to monitor sudden air pressure changes and there's no way Coil's not paranoid enough to have every system available armed and monitored."
"Damn." Legend nodded. "I agree. I should have remembered that."
"Pump a sedative in through the air intakes?" Dauntless suggested.
"Air quality alarms would detect it and switch over to internal supplies before it built up to a sufficient level," Armsmaster grunted, visibly thinking hard. "We went into that some time ago. The original design had enough stored oxygen for a thousand people for two days. With only approximately forty people at most, and possibly an upgrade, they could hold out for a couple of weeks or more. Which might let them escape."
"How about flooding the place and just waiting for them to evacuate?" Triumph said with a small shrug. "Do it slowly enough that they had time, but fast enough to panic them."
"No, if it goes wrong that's tantamount to a slow execution," Director Piggot muttered. "If it was only Coil I'd still be tempted, but we don't know for sure he doesn't have any innocents in there, and we really want them alive for questioning anyway. Not to mention it might well wreck any data storage."
Dragon said, "There's also the point that the shelters are designed so that the entrances and air inputs and outputs are on the lowest level, which means that the upper ones would maintain an air pocket for a considerable time in case of a flood unless we pumped water in under very significant pressure. They would know this and be unlikely to panic so we'd just end up in a siege situation."
"Which we definitely do not want," Carol Dallon mentioned. "That sort of thing puts the control into the hands of the enemy far too much." Everyone nodded as they thought over the problem.
"What about making an enclosure against the structure, pressurizing it to the same level as in the shelter, then cutting through the wall?" Lieutenant Gibson suggested. "Your matter creation abilities could do that, correct?" He looked between 'Saurial' and the others.
"Yes, that's not difficult, but one problem I can see is that the base is underground. The only obvious place to do it is the main door, which has cameras and probably other sensors around it. There's a side door at street level we found, but I think that leads down to the main entrance as well through one of the other buildings, so it's probably got the same problem."
"And the possible escape routes into the tunnels would also most likely be heavily monitored," Armsmaster added. "Which would make it problematic. We could bypass the cameras easily enough but Coil would know that and most likely have other sensors in place to avoid holographic countermeasures and such techniques. I could think of a dozen or more methods that he could have used off the top of my head. Don't underestimate the man, he is very far from stupid and was responsible for most of the protocols we would normally utilize to attack exactly this situation."
"Probably because he was thinking up all the ways we could deal with him and coming up with ways around them, on the PRT's coin," the director said sourly.
Armsmaster nodded. "And if our determination of his power is accurate, he may even have tested them on his own base."
"This is annoying," Miss Militia grumbled. "If we blast our way in, we instantly have a massive fight into an armored stronghold where the defenders have all the knowledge and advantages, unless we use overwhelming force. Surreptitious entry would be detected, leading to the same problem. If we didn't care about taking them alive we could just kill the explosives and seal the place up permanently, but that's out too. So what do we do?"
{We can get inside easily enough, and they'll never know we're there unless we let them,} Taylor said to her friends, in quiet tones. The other people stared at the use of their private language. {I mean, we could probably just teleport in, grab the bastard, and get right back out before they knew what was going on, but that would definitely lead to a lot of questions I don't want to answer. Plus the ones that were left would probably wipe the computers before they legged it. It risks giving away, or at least hinting at, some of our secrets to the PRT. What do you guys think? }
Amy looked at her, then replied, {I don't think it's much of a risk, in fact. We just tell them we have a method to get inside. You two go in and make them scream for a while, take out as many as you feel like, and go after Coil. Disable the computers so they can't erase the data or something like that. Then open the doors and let the PRT come in and have some fun rounding the rest of them up.}
{There's also a risk that someone could get hurt,} Taylor said through her other aspect. {I may not be entirely fond of the PRT in general, but these are good people and I don't want them shot by some asshole mercenary who knows the place better than they do.}
{What about the mercs?} Lisa asked, not sounding particularly worried.
{Honestly, I'd prefer that they don't get killed either, but I don't mind scaring the crap out of them,} she grinned.
{I just want to be there when Coil finds out he's so far up shit creek that even a nuclear submarine wouldn't help him,} the black lizard chuckled. {And I want him to suffer. Mentally, if nothing else.}
{That can be arranged.}
Taylor looked back to the PRT contingent, who were exchanging glances. "Sorry about that," her Saurial aspect said. "We were just discussing a thought I had. My sister and I have a method that will allow us to get inside without tripping any alarms, we think, but I'm afraid exactly how is a Family secret. What we're thinking is that the both of us go in, sneak around for a while and get a good idea of the layout of the place, disable the alarms and any other traps, secure the computers, then let your people in. At that point we can sweep the entire place pretty fast and take them by surprise. Hopefully without any casualties on either side."
There was a long pause. "I find myself very curious about how you plan to do that," Legend commented slowly. "And I wonder how many other abilities you have that we don't know about yet."
"Oh, a few," Lisa chuckled. "But as my cousin said, we're not allowed to talk about some of them. Security, of course. Even so we're willing to use our talents even if we can't explain what we're going to do."
Director Piggot was watching them with her hands folded on the table, her gaze intent. Her eyes flicked from the black lizard to each of Taylor's aspects, then to Legend, who made a tiny shrug, then to Armsmaster who simply nodded once. She looked around again, sighed, and picked up her pen. "I swear your group is deliberately collecting power classifications or something," she groused quietly, writing for a few seconds. "One day..."
Taylor grinned. The woman didn't genuinely seem annoyed, more resigned if anything. She felt that they were slowly growing on her. "Perhaps, Director. One day."
"Fine. Keep your secrets. Just don't let that fucker get away."
"We won't," Lisa assured her. "Once we have him, he's not going anywhere."
This at least seemed to cheer the blonde woman up. She looked at her empty coffee cup, then over at the machine. "I could do with some more of that," she said. 'Saurial' got up with a smile and got new drinks for everyone. Assault was eating another sandwich, apparently finding listening hungry work. Taylor was interested to notice that the various people's scents showed that they were much less worried now, having apparently become used to her and her friends when nothing untoward happened.
Sitting down again, they began going over the raid in more detail, Armsmaster pulling out a large printout of the plans of the shelter as it had originally been designed, along with data on the various tunnels they had found that could well be linked to it now. An hour later they'd worked out where everyone would go during the assault on the place and what they'd be responsible for.
Eventually, Director Piggot dropped her pen onto her half-filled notebook and flexed her hand. "I think that's about all we can do on that for now. You can check out those tunnels tonight and see if you can detect if they're actually linked into the shelter?"
Taylor nodded. "Yes, I'll do that later. We'll poke around and see if we can find any others as well, just in case he's got backups for his backups."
"Good. We'll need to secure his satellite bases as soon as the main one is down, in case they have information we need, but that won't take more than a small team. You're certain they're not booby-trapped?"
"As far as I could tell, yes. At least not with explosives or any obvious toxins, although I'd take precautions even so," she said through Raptaur. "I'd guess there may be some sort of automatic emergency erase thing, though."
"Probably, it's fairly common," Miss Militia said. "We know how to handle that. We'll assign a tech squad to each team to deal with the computers."
"Will you need any of us to help those teams?" Carol Dallon asked.
"That would probably be a wise idea, Emily," Legend commented thoughtfully. "We really should reserve all our Parahumans for the main bunker, just in case something goes wrong. Forty plus heavily armed and well trained mercenaries is a serious force and we could need all of us to deal with them without causing total chaos."
"Agreed." Piggot nodded. "One New Wave member for each team. We'll make sure everyone has PRT-issue earpieces to maintain communications. Change the encryption keys first, though, since we need to assume that Coil may have the current ones."
Armsmaster nodded a little as he made his own notes. "I had already arranged that, Director," he muttered.
"How do you want the rest of us deployed?" Amy's aunt inquired.
"One member of your group to each team, to provide backup in case of serious problems." Director Piggot flipped back through her notes, then pulled a sheaf of papers out of the folder she'd come in with. "Panacea isn't a combat cape, so she needs to stay back unless she's needed for healing purposes, even with that new costume of hers. That leaves seven teams. Two to the satellite locations, five left for security operations across the city if required. Hopefully they won't be needed since the current crime level is so low but we can't risk not having them on standby."
"Each team will consist of a troop transport, an eight-person squad of vetted and experienced troopers, and one New Wave member," Miss Militia said, referring to her own notes. "Lieutenant Gibson is in overall charge of the external security detail. Pratchett and Gaiman are with the main assault force. You'll report to your squad commander, then to Gibson, and if necessary, to me, in that order depending on circumstances."
"All right," Lady Photon said, looking at her sister for a moment, who nodded. "We can live with that for the day."
"Payment for the service will be ten thousand dollars each, with a combat bonus of another eight if you see action, as agreed." Legend looked at them, then Taylor and her friends. "Paid through BBFO as subcontractors."
"Excellent. We can definitely work with that," the Pelham woman smiled. "Thank you."
"Thank you for agreeing to do this," he replied, also smiling. "Without your aid we'd definitely be spread rather thin at the moment."
"The lack of the normal systems could present issues during the shutdown and restart," Armsmaster suggested. "Hopefully the portable units will suffice for the duration although it's an inefficient method without central coordination. Each team will largely be on their own with only minimal backup until the new system is in place and running, which probably won't be until late afternoon."
"We'll make do, sir," Lieutenant Gaiman said calmly. "It's not the first time we've had to improvise around equipment problems."
"With a little luck we can get the Coil assault done fairly quickly and get back onto the street," Dauntless remarked. "I'm worried that someone might take the opportunity to cause trouble."
"Which is why we're being very cautious about security," Legend told him. "It's both to prevent Coil finding out, and any other villains who might seize the chance to do something irritating."
"What about this chemical agent that's going to be the excuse for an evacuation?" Battery asked. "Are you sure it will do the job?"
"Oh, yes, definitely," Dragon assured her. "Thioacetone is unbelievably potent. Even the minuscule quantity we intend to release will be detectable over a significant area, and the smell is reputed to be absolutely horrific. For several hours no one with a functioning nose is going to want to be anywhere near the commercial district. We have a counter-agent we formulated that we can cover the affected area with as soon as the operation is underway and by the time we're done, the smell will have dissipated entirely."
"I guess that wind direction will affect the area it covers?" Velocity said.
"Yes, though the forecast for early Sunday morning is for very light winds blowing to the south, so it shouldn't spread outside the target area," she replied.
"Mayor Christner is preparing suitable press releases that will be disseminated at the appropriate time," Piggot added. "He wasn't too happy about it but city hall will do its part."
"I doubt the Sunday news will be very complimentary about the 'accident'," Assault snickered. "Poor old Roy is going to get a lot of complaints."
"Something he is well aware of and will undoubtedly hold over us for months," the director sighed. "But once we can announce that we've shut Coil down, that should help."
She looked around the table again. "I think that's probably everything for now. Ianthe, we'll have the secure lab do a quick test and analysis of the bioagent, but I can't see that we have many other options to disarm the charges without calling in external help, which will inevitably end up taking time we don't really have. So I expect I'll be calling later to ask you to go and release it in the appropriate places."
Amy nodded silently.
"We'll do that when we check out the tunnels, Director," Taylor told the woman. "Assuming you give the go-ahead."
"All right. Lady Photon, Brandish, thank you for attending and your input. Get your families ready and wait for us to call." Both New Wave women also nodded.
"In that case, I think we're done. Armsmaster, Miss MIlitia, we need to talk to Danny Hebert about using the DWU for crowd control, the rest of you are dismissed." Everyone stood up and began heading for the door, Assault grabbing one last sandwich on the way and receiving a smack on the side of the head from Battery for his troubles.
"Dragon, can I have a quick word before you go, please?" Taylor said. The armored Tinker stopped and turned to her Saurial aspect. Armsmaster also paused, while the others kept going, Director Piggot talking to Legend in low tones as they went outside.
"How can I help, Saurial?" the Canadian Tinker asked politely.
"You have a reputation of being very good with computers," Taylor said.
"I know my way around them, yes," the woman replied with a slight chuckle in her voice.
"Do you have anything that would allow us to do this..." Taylor went on to explain her thoughts. Armsmaster came over and listened carefully, before looking at his friend when she finished. Dragon returned the look, then slowly nodded.
"Yes, I can provide you with what you need. Why do you actually need it?"
"Psychological warfare reasons," Taylor grinned. "Tattletale, who has become a very close friend, feels that Thomas Calvert requires something… special."
"I see." Dragon snickered under her breath. "I probably shouldn't find that as funny as I do. Sure. I'll put something together in Armsmaster's lab and get it to you before the raid."
"Thanks." Taylor turned to Armsmaster. "Thank you too. It's been nice to see you both again. We should talk again fairly soon, Dragon, once this is over. We have some more Leet-tech to discuss if nothing else."
"That would definitely be something I'm interested in," the armored woman nodded. "His tricorder design, and the audio inducer, are both coming along well, and of course the wormhole generator is something we need to talk about. I'll be in contact."
"OK." Taylor smiled at them both.
"It was agreeable meeting you all," Armsmaster said, glancing over at her Raptaur aspect, and Amy and Lisa, all of whom were still on the other side of the table. "We'll see you on Sunday morning if not before."
He turned and headed for the door, Dragon waving to them and following. When it shut, Taylor looked at her friends.
"That was interesting."
"It was indeed," the Varga said. "Hopefully things will go to plan. It would certainly be simplest to just teleport in without warning and eliminate the threat in short order, but I agree that it would give away far too many things we have no need to spread around. This approach minimizes our security issues, keeps the PRT happy, and doesn't panic anyone." He thought for a moment, then grinned. "Except Coil and his men, which is if anything a bonus."
"Light horror?" Lisa questioned with a knowing laugh in her voice.
Taylor shook her head with a very nasty smirk. "No. He upset my cousin. I don't think he's going to get off with 'light' anything..."
All four of them started laughing, looking forward to the next phase.
"Well, that was fucking terrifying," Emily muttered when the door was firmly shut behind them and they were standing around the vehicles, the PRT officers climbing into the transport. "Christ. I thought Saurial and Raptaur were bad, but Ianthe… She could fuck us all up without even trying."
"I think it very unlikely that she ever would, Emily," Legend told her in quiet tones. "Almost any Parahuman with intelligence and a knack for lateral thought could probably leverage their power into something very destructive. The Family are more gifted in that regard than most, but I also feel that they're much more restrained than most, too. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would be likely to push them into seriously becoming a threat. Except perhaps harming any of their people. So I would suggest we try not to do that."
"You think?" she asked dryly. "That hadn't crossed my mind."
"Oh, I'm sure you'd have got it sooner or later," he chuckled.
"Where did Armsmaster and Dragon get to?" she asked, suddenly realizing they were down two capes.
"Saurial asked for a private word," Lady Photon said, walking over to them. She held out her hand. "We'll be waiting for you to call when you're ready, Director."
Emily shook the offered appendage. "Thank you."
The woman nodded, then went over to her sister who was chatting to Battery. Shortly after, she picked her relative up and flew off. Moments later the BBFO door opened, Colin and Dragon coming out and closing it again. "Anything important?" she asked them when they joined her and Legend.
"Saurial had a request for some specialist computer equipment that would be helpful during the operation," Dragon replied. "It won't take long to arrange and it should aid the whole thing." She turned to Colin, adding, "I'll meet you back at the Rig." He nodded, watching as she stepped away, then took off with a roar of jet exhaust.
"All right. Let's go and talk to Danny Hebert, then get back and finish up for today." Emily was feeling that she needed at least twelve hours of sleep even though she still had several hours of work left.
Everyone piled back into the vehicles, the convoy rumbling out of the side yard and around to the front of the DWU facility. Emily's SUV and Colin's bike stopped there, the others leaving the site and heading back to the PRT building. Legend landed next to them as Emily and Hannah got out of the SUV and Colin dismounted his bike. They went towards the main door of the admin building, finding it opened as they reached it to reveal the security head Mark. "Come in, please," he invited. "Danny's in his office, I'll take you up."
He led them through the building to the Hebert man's office, the outer administrative room empty except for one tired looking man prodding at a keyboard and yawning every now and then. Knocking on the door to the inner office, Mark opened it and leaned in. "Director Piggot and some friends for you, Danny," they heard him say.
"Send them in," the voice of the DWU leader called. Mark stepped aside, waving them in.
"Thinking about it, your presence could be useful," Emily told him. He looked mildly intrigued and followed them in. Inside the room, Danny was standing next to his large table with a woman none of them had seen before, who was notable in that she appeared to be part cat and was wearing a mask over her eyes. She glanced at them, then said something quietly to the man, who nodded.
Moving past them with a polite gesture of acknowledgment, the cat-woman left and closed the door. "Sorry, I was just finishing up a short meeting," Danny said, waving them to some chairs. Mark leaned against the wall next to the door and listened silently.
Emily looked back at the door, then at Danny. "If you don't mind me asking, who was that?"
"She's called Vectura. A recent hire, actually. Nice woman, very talented."
"She's a Parahuman."
He smiled. "Yes, she is. What gave her away?"
"The tail was part of it," Emily commented with a sigh. "Not to mention the ears, the fur on her head… You're officially hiring Parahumans now?"
"We're perfectly happy to take anyone who can do the work and fit in around here," Danny replied evenly. "She meets both criteria, and she didn't have anywhere else to go. Metis introduced her to us, actually, they met a while ago. She's a friend of the Family, so to speak."
"And her power?"
"She's a Tinker."
Emily stared, then rubbed her eyes with the thumb and forefinger of one hand. "You have an actual Tinker now..."
"We do. She's a damn good mechanic as well, that's her job here." He shrugged, the smile threatening to become a smirk. "The Tinkering part is a bonus and will probably come in handy eventually."
"What's her specialization?" Colin asked with considerable interest.
"Transportation, basically. More or less anything to do with it. She's got an interest in boats among other things, which fits in nicely with our skillset, but she's not limited to that." Danny leaned back in his chair and regarded them. "We were going to contact you about her next week, as it happens. Vectura is interested in power testing."
Colin, Emily noticed, was looking very interested now. She groaned to herself. If she didn't nip this in the bud he was likely to get involved in a long talk about Tinkers which would bore her rigid. Sometimes the man was impossible. "Later, Armsmaster. We have more immediately important things to deal with. You can talk to... Vectura, was it?" Danny nodded. "Vectura, when she comes in."
He radiated mild disappointment, glancing at the door as if he was thinking about going to look for the feline woman, but subsided after a moment with a very faint sigh. "That is true, Director."
Danny, who had been watching them and probably picking up on the subtext with ease, smiled again and asked, "So how can I help you?"
"This isn't for public consumption, but we will, almost certainly, require the DWU for crowd control purposes on Sunday, due to a cooperative operation between us, the Family, and New Wave," Emily began.
"Armsmaster said something along those lines," he replied thoughtfully. "Will you need a lot of people?"
"I would think we'd need about a hundred or so?" she said, glancing at the others. Legend thought about it and nodded, as did Colin.
"At the most," Hannah confirmed. "It's not as complicated as the tanker move was."
"We'll require the people to establish a low security cordon around part of the city center," Emily added. "If what we think will happen, happens."
He nodded slowly. "I believe I understand. And you won't answer any questions about why or what, I assume."
"We can't divulge that information for security reasons, I'm afraid," she said.
The man shrugged. "OK. I won't push. Just tell me if there's any danger to our people?"
"No, I doubt that very much. It's purely going to be a simple public order issue, to keep people away from any harm."
"All right. I'll ask for volunteers for a security exercise, then, we should be able to fill the places easily enough. Does Roy know about this?"
"He does. It has the backing of the city administration."
"Fine. Mark, get some of your people to start asking for anyone who wants some overtime and the chance to stand around in the street and get yelled at, OK?"
The security man grinned. "Sure, Danny. A hundred is easy enough, we can spare them for a few hours."
"It will be early in the morning, but we won't know exactly when until shortly beforehand," Legend said. "You should have them on standby from Saturday night, just in case."
"We can do that."
"Thank you, Mr Hebert," Emily said with a certain amount of genuine gratitude. "This will help a lot. You'll find out what it was about when it's over, but we can't risk telling you any more about it right now. I hope you understand."
"I do, Director," he assured her. "Good luck with your operation."
She stood, the others following suit. Mark opened the door for them. "We'll be in touch soon. And next week, call me when you would like your Tinker to come in for testing."
"We'll do that," he nodded. "Good bye."
"Good bye." They left the room, Mark accompanying them back down to the vehicles. Minutes later they were driving back through the derelict buildings surrounding the DWU yard. Legend had flown off and Armsmaster was driving ahead. Emily noticed absently that there were almost none of the normal junkies still around, only seeing a couple of them.
"They have a fucking honest to god Tinker now," she sighed, rubbing tired eyes. "Wonderful. How many capes is that now in the DWU, one way or the other?"
"Four ex-Undersiders, five members of the Family, Über and Leet if you look at it right, possibly Amy Dallon for most purposes, and now Vectura," Hannah said, shaking her head. "How the hell did the Dockworkers Union end up with more capes than anyone but the E88 without anyone really noticing until it was too late?"
"I have no idea," Emily muttered, leaning her head against the back of the seat and closing her eyes. They drove along in silence for a while. "They're not Changers, are they?" she asked after a couple of minutes.
"It doesn't look like it. We saw both Saurial and Raptaur in the same place. Finally."
"They've been fucking with us the entire time."
"I think so."
"Fucking alien lizard humor," she grumbled, not opening her eyes. Hannah merely snorted, and kept driving.