Interlude 5. Coil
January 13, 2011, Brockton Bay, 12:56 AM
Coil discarded the timeline where he had Tattletale and her date apprehended and interrogated. This was an unexpected but not entirely unwelcome development. Association with the Sensharma kid would be good for Tattletale, because Coil was starting to run out of incentives to keep her in line. He couldn't loosen her leash too much because even if her loyalty was verifiable, he knew she was dangerous and she resented him for the way he'd brought her in. Well, what needed to be done, needed to be done. He'd had her brought in firstly for her own good, the other gangs would simply have misused her. And secondly, there was no way he was going to pass on such a valuable acquisition.
He'd taken some time to personally chat over the phone with the boy before closing the timeline, he was an impressive young man, almost crippled one of his men before being caught. He was much more respectful when he learned that Coil was Tattletale's employer. He could be a valuable addition to the organization later.
The fact that he was Dev Sengupta's brother increased his value both as an asset and leverage, Dev was another extremely valuable asset. The man was ridiculously smart - in the obviated timeline where Coil had personally interviewed Dev, the financial savant had figured things out in minutes and it turned out that their ideologies were pretty well aligned. He was very proud of that new acquisition, it's not everyday that you get a call from the Number Man complimenting your hiring decisions.
Coil left instructions to his men that Tattletale would be allowed to visit the Sengupta's household anytime she wished, and that her interactions with Aveek Sensharma should only have light surveillance. This had the markings of a good start.
January 13, 2011, Brockton Bay, 8:23 PM
Coil looked on with a confused frown as Tattletale lay unconscious in front of him, sure he'd questioned her a bit forcefully. That didn't mean she had to bang her head on the table to unconsciousness. This was very unlike her... Were her new relationships making her more emotionally charged?
Coil quickly closed that timeline when he noticed an almost imperceptible pause in Tattletale's speech in the other timeline - where he was chatting amiably with her. The girl was very sharp. He generally avoided facing her in both timelines, today he was just parallelly questioning her during a meeting, nothing overly harsh. He needed to be more cautious. Good thing he never brought her to his base, the girl was entirely too nosy.
He needed more leverage over her and the Undersiders, well, there was a plan to sow a bit of chaos in the Bay's gangs and make Emily look bad. It started with poking the ABB. He could see how initiating it now would get that leverage over the Undersiders. It would also give Tattletale something to do besides socializing. He also made a point to mention his awareness of her social interactions as a subtle bit of leverage, then he told her to plan the hit on the ABB cash source. This would keep her in line for now.
January 19, 2011, Brockton Bay, 11:14 AM
Coil read through Tattletale's report on Maker, in the timeline that he would discard, he was snooping on more detailed, classified versions of the same reports at the PRT HQ.
He always thought of himself as Coil, Thomas Calvert was a very useful cover, but commander Calvert had perished back in Ellisburg. He was Coil, and he was going to lead the Bay's underworld to a better future.
The new tinker was a troublesome prospect, Coil wished he'd known of him when the tinker was starting out. It would be much more difficult to suborn him now, his association with the Senguptas were possibly a good thing, but it was offset by the fact that he worked with Glory Girl. Hopefully it was a one-off thing. Anyway, he had to test this tinker out, if things worked out well, he expected to acquire the cape, a combat-capable versatile tinker with healing tech would be a game changer for his plans.
It would be nice if Maker would listen to reason once captured, he didn't like to employ harsher methods of manipulation. He knew he could get away with almost anything with his power, but he'd seen monsters who looked like men in Ellisburg, and he didn't want to turn into one. So he kept his guilty pleasures as treats for rare occasions, and sometimes to vent frustration or boredom, but always in moderation. Control was important.
The other new cape, Swarm, was another potential addition for the Undersiders, but as of now she was too elusive to confront. He'd need to see how to remedy that later.
He arranged the ambush according to the patrol route that Tattletale provided. Two plants would enact a mugging as the tinker passed by, when Maker would intervene, his men placed around the spot would attempt to subdue and capture him. He'd also put one sniper on the roof of a building with a good vantage of the ambush spot. He'd also acquired the feed of a good quality cctv camera with a good angle to view the proceedings.
When he got confirmation that Maker had been spotted. He split the timelines, in the first one, he sent the abort code and prepared for bed. In the second one, he sent the go code and opened up the feed to watch.
The plants started to enact the mugging, the muggee cried out loudly for help - god that was so over the top, he should invest in mercenaries with better acting skills. Maker swooped down from a nearby building and hit the leg of the mugger in his signature move. As he straightened up and turned to speak to the so-called victim, two of his men fired at his legs with their tinkertech lasers. Three more men ran out of cover at him, shouting at him to surrender.
Maker stumbled, then red eyes appeared on his otherwise smooth faceplate. He started moving almost too fast for the camera to see, all Coil could spot was his hands spraying glowing blue bolts with frightening accuracy at all of his men. The sniper confirmed over the radio that the men were down. He could see that for himself, all of them had smoking holes in their heads, right between the eyes... even the mugging enactors. Maker stood in the middle of the narrow lane as his men fell into ungainly heaps, one of them even tumbled down from a second storey window.
The sniper asked for a go ahead to take the shot, he replied with an affirmative, trying his best to keep the quiver out of his voice. Maker whipped out his arm and fired another blue bolt, the sniper's comm line gurgled, then fell quiet.
Coil was still in shock at the efficient brutality he just witnessed, he was going to close the timeline, but then his eyes widened as he looked at the feed.
Maker was looking right at the camera, a cartoonish toothy grin lit up on his faceplate to accompany the red eyes. He lifted a finger and waggled it in an admonishing 'no'.
Coil hurriedly shut down that timeline. He had no explanation for what just happened. An unconscious shiver of fear wriggled up his spine. This was bad, this was very bad. The tinker was far, far more dangerous than expected. And his tech was probably much more advanced than either the PRT or the cape geeks suspected.
Coil needed a stronger hand. If this guy couldn't be suborned, he needed to be neutralized. He sat down on his computer and drafted two mails. He was going to bring in some heavy hitters. Till then, he needed to be wary of Maker.
January 28, 2011, Brockton Bay, 10:13 AM
Coil was having a lot of fun. Not in this timeline, he was being the good PRT consultant here. In the other one he was repeatedly trying out different scenarios to get a proper gauge on the capabilities of the Travellers. He'd wanted heavy hitters, he'd got them. By now he had a whole team of his best mercs killed thrice, the base overrun by rampant clones twice, even had the vault broken through once. Noelle was staying confined in there completely voluntarily. As fun as these exercises were, he did realize that he might have bitten of slightly more than he can chew with these guys. At least they were more than a match for Maker. He should concoct a scenario to test that soon.
Apart from that, things were going well, the hit on the ABB was a resounding success, he'd even congratulated Tattletale on it. The ABB were sure to retaliate, and he'd get to play the benevolent boss. Tattletale's planning skills and focus had risen a whole notch, the socializing did indeed have a good effect.
The meeting finished as the clock hit eleven. He walked out of the meeting room and texted with his check-in password and received the All Clear. He was walking towards the cafeteria, closing the other timeline and splitting again, to try to see which members of the Travelers could be subverted to work against each other, it was important information to have. His phone chimed again, his eyes widened as he read the message.
System Compromised.
Shit, this was the third party contractor who he'd set up with a program that had no other access privileges apart from running diagnostics with developer credentials on his servers once every month, this alert meant the diagnostics had found something. He'd paid top dollar for his digital security, the toybox servers were no mean feat to break into. The only cape who could do it with some effort would be Dragon, but why? What motivation...
He stopped himself from thinking in circles. Dropped the spare timeline and split again to double his thinking capacity. Dragon, no, made no sense, who else was capable of breaking tinkertech online security and the means and motive to do it?
Tattletale.
She treated the PRT servers as her playground, breaking heavy passworded security was her passtime. Coil checked his pockets, his dongle was safe with him. He was going to have words with Toybox. In one timeline, he resumed his activities at the PRT offices, in the other timeline. He messaged the mercs who were on Tattletail duty (he smirked at his own pun) to apprehend her when she came out of the loft and headed for her apartment. Then secure her for a special rendezvous.
He left the PRT building in that timeline, changed into his real identity (he was quite proud of the menacing look of the costume) and waited for the limo to arrive. He entered the limo to find Tattletale sitting there looking smug as usual between the two men who were restraining her.
"Hey Coil, you could have just called me. we were supposed to meet this evening anyway for debrief. So the ABB..." Her smugness was infuriating.
He had no time for games, "Keep quiet." He signaled to the third man beside him, who nodded and brought out a vial and syringe. This drug was slightly better than the usual truth serums, it lowered inhibitions by a significant amount, he avoided using it because there were some long term cognitive side effects. But if he had to dumb the girl down a bit to keep her in line, so be it, her power should compensate for the shortcoming.
She eyed them with a frown, "C'mon boss, no need for that shit. Just ask me... OW" The man had plunged the syringe in her thigh. "What the fuck? What's gotten into you?..." She struggled a bit but the men held her tight.
He tuned her babbling out... soon she fell quiet, her eyes took a glazed, droopy look. The drug acted fast. He spoke.
"Tattletale."
"Yeah."
"Have you hacked into my servers?"
"Yes, yes I have." she giggled a bit.
"Why?"
"... To see what you're up to?" She let out a mild chuckle.
"Don't deflect. Why else?"
"To see what safeguards you have."
"What's your goal?"
"To end you. Isn't it obvious?" She seemed a bit perturbed, probably didn't expect to blurt it out like that. Coil's eyebrows rose inside his mask, he didn't know it was this bad.
"How did you beat the dongle security?"
"Uh... Spoofed it."
"How? Elaborate?"
"You're going down Coil, that's how."
"Stop deflecting. How did you spoof it?"
A bit of her usual fire seemed to return in her eyes. She spat at him, "Fuck you Calvert. That's how" The mercs' stoic demeanour cracked at this.
Coil was furious. This has gone too far, she knew too much. He pulled out a gun and shot her point blank. Blood sprayed all over as she slumped down, the mercs didn't bat an eyelid. Good men, these. That was carthartic, but this timeline was useless, he didn't want to waste good men on a security issue. Then he closed that timeline, and split it again.
He had to terminate Tattletale, she was his best asset but this was way out of line. He wouldn't have suspected any of this without his failsafes. Caution pays. And it was time to err on the side of it. He'd make do without Tattletale, she'd given him enough intel to last him for months to come, and he knew when to cut his losses. Also, honestly, he was quite pissed at being made a fool of.
In one timeline, he remained in his PRT office, taking a bit of time to mourn the loss. In the other timeline, he exited the PRT compound, got into his car, then sent the execution command. The assassin did good, clean work, he choked his targets to unconsciousness, then snapped their necks. Very professional and quiet.
He got the confirmation within a few minutes. He sighed deeply in both timelines. Safeguarding his identity was paramount, but no one liked losses. He was heading home, he'd go to the base in the night. Maybe play a bit more with the Travelers.
He received another call, this was the other tail man. Good infiltrator. He received the call, the man had heard a muffled explosion in the apartment. That was... not right. He sent the man to go check. Then veered towards his base, he still had a safe timeline to fall back to, though he had this vague feeling that something was majorly wrong. Tattletale must have had some failsafe too, he needed to get in touch with Toybox to see if she'd left any traps in the server.
The other man didn't call back. Coil would have been very worried if he didn't have the backup timeline. He reached his base, and hurried to his office.
He entered his office, sat down at his terminal and fired it up.
Nothing happened.
What?
He tapped the intercom button on his desk.
Nothing happened.
Then there was a faint buzz, not so faint, it was rising in volume. What the fuck was happening? What had Tattletale done?
The buzz grew louder, then there was a mass of bugs coming out of the airvents. They formed into a supremely formidable and supremely creepy female shape. That was Swarm. How was she involved in this?
This was entirely wrong, he needed to get to the bottom of this. His previous interrogation of Tattletale might have been too hasty. He needed to try again with a calmer head. He decided to close this timeline.
The other timeline closed.
What the actual fuck? This was his nightmare, more than anything, more than Ellisburg, he feared someday he'd end up discarding the wrong timeline. But that wasn't the case, he was sure he had tried to close this timeline, how the fuck did the other one close? What was happening?
"Coil." That voice was wrongness. It evoked a primal fear somewhere in him. He reached under the table and hit the panic button for his emergency exit.
Obviously, nothing happened.
He split the timelines.
For the first time ever, something was different in one of the timelines without any input from him. The Swarm just dissipated into aimless, droning bugs...
"It won't work." The Swarm in the other timeline said. He tried to close that timeline.
The timeline with the dispersed swarm closed.
He tried it twice more, every time the same thing. Swarm must be a trump. This was very, very bad. He split again, and tried to find an exit in the timeline where Swarm dissipated, some of the bugs bit him randomly, it was extremely painful. He closed it and decided to face the music. He had to keep his composure.
"Swarm. Welcome. What brings you here?"
"Why did you kill Tattletale?" Again that voice, an unbidden shiver of chill creeped up his spine.
"I didn't know you were acquainted?"
"The spiders climbing up your left arm, they're Brown Recluses. Known for bites that rot flesh." Coil jerked and tried to brush them off. "Don't move, or they'll bite. The ones on your right arm, they're velvet ants, also known as cow killers."
He gulped. Composure was really hard to keep. "What do you want?"
"Why did you kill Tattletale?"
"I.. I found out she had gotten hold of some very... uh sensitive information and that she was trying to kill me." Maybe honesty would work here.
"You utter moron." The venom in that voice chilled him to the core. It also made him defiant. He had survived Ellisburg, he was going to survive this. Time to show this creepy bitch what preparedness could do.
He lunged from his chair, shaking his arms in the process. He got bitten nonetheless, he hissed with pain as he banged on a part of the door where the panel was built thin on purpose, it broke and he ripped out the soundproofing foam. He got a few more bug bites but he endured.
One last failsafe, live or die. He shouted at the top of his lungs through the now non-soundproof hole, "CODE GAMMA ELDRITCH, I REPEAT, CODE GAMMA ELDRaaaaAAGH!"
Pain overrode his senses, he'd gotten so many bites simultaneously that he couldn't even tell where it hurt. Swarm looked on dispassionately as he slumped down at the door.
Then reality cracked in the middle of the room.
That was Maker, no doubt, he wouldn't ever forget that ghostly blue glow.
He'd felt desperation, and he was beyond any shred of pride now. He had to hope that the code was executed. The Travellers would take care of them, if nothing then Noelle would go on a rampage. He only had to survive, and he'd say anything to survive. "Maker, please... Please stop her. I'll give you whatever you..."
"You utter moron." Maker's voice boomed, Coil watched the blue glowing fingers touch his head.
There was a blue flash.
Then nothing.
?, New York, ?
Coil's senses returned as if he just woke up from a dream. Well, that was a good explanation. He'd give a lot to be able to write off his last memories as a dream. His power was usually good for it. Unless they encountered a fucking trump.
He blearily opened his eyes, everything was blurry. He was still slightly disoriented. Did the Travelers fail him? The the guard outside not hear him? What. Just. Happened?
He blinked as his eyes acclimated and focused. This looked like a standard PRT interrogation room setup. Were they naiive enough to hand him over to the PRT? Good enough for him, it'd be slightly difficult, but he had enough plants and moles here to arrange an escape.
He tried splitting and closing different timelines. They worked fine, good, his power was not permanently wrecked.
The door opened. He tried to stand up, then noticed that he was restrained to the chair.
Then Legend walked in.
...
"What." He realized he'd said it out loud.
"You're in trouble. Mr. Calvert. That's what." That meant he was officially unmasked, that was bad.
He split timelines. In one, he asked, "What do you mean?"
Legend frowned, "You've got a phenomenal power, and you've been using it to petty ends, when you could contribute to the world in a much more meaningful way."
In the other timeline he was a bit more aggressive, "Listen, whatever Maker has told you, It's a blatant attempt to frame me."
Legend frowned, "Maker? You mean the cape who contributed to the latest endbringer fight to make it one with the least casualties ever? That Maker? What's he got to do with you?"
That, that didn't compute... unless...
"What date is today?" He asked in both timelines.
Legend smiled, "Wouldn't you like to know? Listen man. I'll give it to you straight. Your crimes are much less unsavoury than quite a few other capes, but honestly, you're a walking security risk. By the way, don't try splitting timelines to pump me for information. I'm not going to spill much in either of them. Right now you're in permanent M/S quarantine till we decide otherwise. So, sorry, no info for you."
"Huh?" He'd forgotten to react differently in either timeline... This was... out of his depth.
"Seems you're not coherent yet. Anyway, I just came in to pass the good word. This is not Brockton Bay, you don't have any moles here. Please don't try stirring up trouble. I hope you cooperate with the people who come in for your power testing and debriefing. If you're nice enough with our trial runs on your power providing strategic outcome control. We'll try to provide you with some information and amenities." Legend smiled genially, then got up to leave.
Near the door, he turned back once and cleared his throat. Coil was still dazed, this must be a dream, what else? Coil looked up.
Legend's smile turned a tad playful, "Ahem. I'd almost forgotten to say. I was asked to give you a message. Would you like to hear it?"
Coil nodded dumbly.
"Tattletale says Hi."
