In a room that appears dim, even though it's brightly lit by bare light bulbs, a stocky, nearly overweight man leans forward over his desk, a starkly functional wreck of sheet metal and wood. "Povtori, tovarishch."
The younger, slightly more slender man barely seated on the simple wooden chair, tensely replies. "{Yessir. We found Agent Alexandrov, and the American Lizards are apparently able to master masters.}"
"{Explain.}"
"{As you are aware, sir, the Americans have been spending a great deal of effort and agents trying to penetrate the Brockton Bay Dock Worker's Union since the appearance of the Lizards. Initially, this just appeared to be an effort by their FBI, but at this point, most of their intelligence community, as well as their Internal Revenue Service, have become involved as well. One of our assets within the CIA was able to pass along the internal analysis. They have identified a large proportion of ex-agents from various services from the rest of the international community. One of those agents is Alyosha Alexandrov, though the Americans have identified him as being ex-GRU and under a different name. He is the most troublesome one, but we also identified Elena Potropova, a Piotr Rasputin, and Svetlana Ivanova. The Americans only identified Svetlana, though they believe she's Latvian, and as far as we can determine, all of their presences we surprises to the Americans, so we don't believe the defectors have shared any intelligence.
"{However, while we were observing all of the activity, one of the agents on site became interested in the American parahuman,} Glory Girl, { and on his own initiative, began observing her as well. During the period he was observing her, she was seen to go through repeated cycles of confusion, fear, determination, and relaxation. Independent of other events in her life. This continued, and increased in its extremes, until recently, when } Glory Girl { was observed to reluctantly, and anxiously, fly to the Lizard's office, which she disappeared into for several hours. When she emerged, her observed anxiety was gone, and she was seen calmly and friendly interacting with the Lizard Raptaur, where before she had obviously been in fear of her. Given the rapidity of the conversion, and the previous cycles seen, our agent believes that } Glory Girl { had been subconsciously fighting off a master effect, and eventually succumbed. In addition, he has noticed the same behavioral cycle beginning in } Glory Girl's { boyfriend, } Dean Stansfield, aka Gallant. {The only other master known in the area before was } Regent, { a member of the } Undersiders, {who is now fully employed by the Dock Worker's Union. No other parahumans have exhibited this behavior, so I find myself supporting the agent's conclusion that the Lizards have a means of Mastering other Masters, though not other types of parahumans. }"
"Hnnh. { The agent's insight has been useful, such a thing would be very useful in defending Mother Russia from those CUI and Yangban bastards. See if you can determine if the effect is caused by a device or is innate to the Lizards, and if there is a way for us to acquire access to it. As well, }" and the nearly overweight man rifles through the reports on his desk, "{ send Agent Nickolai Piotrvich to Venezuela. His insight might be very useful there in helping us acquire those oil fields. Good work, comrade. }"
In a well-appointed, and superbly air-conditioned room a young military secretary finishes typing two messages. One is emailed internally to the communication research division. It directs them to begin researching the qualities of electro-degenerate matter, how such could be used to block electromagnetic signals, and how such blocking could be overcome. Also, if there is some way to recreate some equivalent substance that exhibits the same properties.
The second message is embedded within an otherwise innocuous diplomatic fax to the Embassy in Washington, D.C. Once the fax has been decoded based on the alternate starting row, the concealed cable indicates that the Embassy should make acquiring a sample, or a supply, of the electro-degenerate matter a top priority. Any and all means, public, private, legal and extra-legal, are authorized.
In the deepest, most protected part of one of the most ostentatious palaces the modern world has seen, a small chubby man, wearing a really bad hairpiece, and what can only be described as eye-blindingly garish pajamas, cowers behind a sofa that costs more than most Americans' cars.
"Simurgh! HAH! I TOLD those fools that the Simurgh wasn't the problem! It's the Lizards! The LIZARDS! I can't let them get me. How can I stop them? They're everywhere. LIZARDS! ..."
Outside the closed door, two guards with more braids and stripes than a girl scout convention are standing at attention, their very modern rifles grounded at their side. A man with just as much braiding and striping as the guards, plus epaulets that could serve as aircraft landing strips, wearing ribbons that look like they were painted by a color-blind Jackson Pollock casually stands before them. "So, how is he today?"
"Same as yesterday, sir."
"I see. Well, we have a major restructuring of the Economic Bureau scheduled for this week, so could you please make sure he's given this? Apparently, the Lizards now include three dragons, Breksta, Nike, and ... I forget the name of the third. Ramoth? Not important - it's in the report. It's important he be fully informed of the Lizards at all time."
"Yes Sir! May his great leadership be never-ending!"
"... yes. Quite." The officer salutes the two guards, and continues on to the Regency Council. Now that the purges are over, they can actually start really pulling the country out of the hell the Great Leader put it in.