Brockton Bay, 5 January 2011
Emily Piggot was a tired woman, but it didn't make her weak. She knows it. People around her know it. While most of her colleagues were still enjoying their last vacation days after the new year, she worked. As a director of PRT ENE, she was responsible for keeping a sense of peace in Brockton Bay. Not defeating the and putting capes behind the bar as most people believed she should do.
'Fools, all of them.' she thought and kept walking. It would be easy to give order and start the war against Empire, ABB and all that cape scum. PRT could win it, but the collateral damage would be so high that she could say goodbye to her career and maybe even freedom. The death toll would be high enough to rename Brockton Bay to Graveyard Bay when the dust settles. So, Emily would do what she has done since becoming director, keeping peace and hoping the next director would deal with that mess when her time in this hellhole is over.
With that thought, she entered the conference room. Miss Militia, Armmaster, Renick and Chambers are already waiting for her.
"Good morning, everyone. Let's keep this meeting short," said Emily and took her place at the head of the table.
One after another, everyone reports about last week's activities in Brockton Bay. Everything was as usual, which means terrible, but not on the disaster level until Miss Militia mentioned abnormalities in Merchants' territories.
"What do you mean it is quite there?" asked Emily to ensure she heard it right. Merchants don't know what quite means, especially during the new year and Christmas.
"Our informants from policy send their reports before New Year, which as usual, contain information about illegal drug deals and minor crimes around the area. After New Year, nothing. I go there myself, and if I didn't know any better, I wouldn't think it was Merchant's territory at all. " said Miss Militia. She looked at the director and tried to share her concern. Her instincts told her something was wrong.
"Does anyone want to add something to this?" asked Emily, but it was more a request than a question.
"We have a lead. Possibly there was a change in leadership in Merchants. Words on the streets that Squealer took charge and is now in control." said Armmaster. "But so far, we have no direct evidence. Only that no one saw Skidmark after New Year."
Emily sat silent for a minute and looked at Armmaster with disbelief. She could expect that someone might take Merchants out of the pictures. However, Squealer taking charge sounded ridiculous.
"I want you to investigate it. Also, put more patrols around their territories. Soon enough, Lung and Keiser might decide to test Squealer's leadership if she really becomes a leader. Assault, Battery and Miss Militia should be enough for now." said Emily and was ready to finish the meeting before Renick stopped her.
"There is another thing we need to discuss", Renick said and passed Emily a file. "A Charity organization contacted me a few days ago. I need your approval to start working with them"
Emily read a file. Protoctarete has a lot of contacts with Charities. Primarily they provide heroes for public events, and Charities make donations and improve PNR publicity.
"You know my position on it, Renick. As long as this Green Crystal group doesn't ask for heroes for every event they have, we can work with them," said Emily, dismissing the file.
"Just keep you informed, director. They are ready to donate quite a lot. We can use their money." after receiving approval from the director. Renick left, and soon after, the rest followed, leaving Emily alone.
Year only started, but Emily felt that this business with Merchants would cause her a lot of headaches. If only she knew what was coming, she would have sent every parahuman she has right now in Merchants territory.
Hello everyone. I am still alive and well. University and Work keep me busy and stressed every single moment. I spent the last three months working and with enough free time to sleep and relax for an hour or two. Not motivated to write with such a schedule. Even tho I have enough story ideas for 100 chapters. I won't promise regular updates, but I will do my best.