3.5
Max Anders loosened his tie as he and Nessa rode the elevator up. His niece absently looked through her phone as she had been since they'd dropped their uniforms off.
She had been sullen the whole ride home, ever since she expressed her irritation to him about the deal to bring an end to Samedi. Of his two girls, she was the more fervent in her desire to crush their inferiors and ensure the Aryans gained their rightful place in the world. For her, working with the likes of Lung and his horde reeked of betraying their race. Max was not unsympathetic to her, but she needed to learn that pragmatism is sometimes required to lead. Hopefully, her sister would be able to act as a counterweight to her passion, as she would in turn ensure Jessica's commitment to the cause remained strong. Should the worst happen, they'd need to be ready to take their place as the heads of his empire. Lord knew he couldn't trust his son with power.
The elevator doors opened and the pair stepped out, Nessa headed straight to her room while Max moved into the living room. His son was seated there watching some insipid cartoon. Theo had likely been sitting since he arrived home from school. With his wife still pretending to be independent, Theo had been spending most of his nights at her new apartment, watching over his sister. If he was here that meant his wife must have planed on staying in. That suited him fine. With that lunatic running about it was better that she remain careful.
"Have you finished your class work?" He asked his son while moving over to the bar and mixing himself a small drink.
"Yes, sir." Theo said, turning the sound on the TV off and facing Max. "Did you have a good meeting?"
"Good enough, there is a plan in place now to deal with Samedi."
"That's good, she seems scary."
Max's eyes narrowed at his son's statement. "You needn't worry. She only targets Parahumans."
"Yeah, but... never mind." Theo turned away from his father, and turning the sound back on.
Max felt his anger rise at the disrespect from his son. Taking a sip of his drink he prepared to discipline his child when Nessa came racing into the living room.
"Uncle Max you got to see this." She snatched the remote from the couch, and started changing the channel.
"HEY!" Theo protested. "I was watching that."
"Shut up, this is important," Nessa responded before finally finding a local news broadcast. "Here look."
Max turned to face the screen, and saw what his niece was talking about. On the screen the anchor was sitting grim faced, beneath him were the words: "Samedi's Identity Revealed?" Giving the TV his full attention he listened to the report.
"...With this newest information coming out of the PRT we can now confirm that the earlier reports are true, the killer know as Samedi has been identified as local Brockton Bay resident Taylor Hebert." The newscast put up a photo of Samedi standing in front of a slumped form, her face in full view of the camera. "As Samedi, Hebert stands suspected of at least sixteen murders. These most recent deaths of Micheal Horton and Shawn Sanders, better know as the team of Uber and Leet bring the count up to 18. Stay tuned as we bring you more on the story as it develops."
As the broadcast cut to commercial Nessa shut the TV off in disgust. Throwing the remote down she crossed her arms. "Hard to believe that little bitch took out Liz and Justin."
"Looks are deceiving in this world," Max reminded her. "I'll need to address this."
With that he walked off to his office. Entering he locked the door behind him, and headed to his desk. Reaching down to the secret compartment he pulled out a fresh phone. He dialled quickly. Putting the phone to his ear it didn't take long to be answered.
"Hello?" The rough voice of Hookwolf answered, the slight drawl in his voice more pronounced.
"Samuel, it's Max." The phones should be safe, but his father always taught him to avoid any chance of discovery.
"Boss, what's up? The meeting go well?"
"In a way, no group effort but we were able to agree on a bounty, we'll need to speak on that soon. More importantly, have you heard the news?"
"Uh? Recently? No, something come up?"
"Yes, it's about Samedi. She let her face get caught on camera. The PRT has given out her name."
"Great," Samuel exclaimed. "Let's go hit her like she hit us."
"No."
"No? What the hell do you mean no?"
"I mean no. If we go after her we'll only draw her eye down on us. We must ensure she is dealt with before we take that sort of risk. Once she is dead, we'll move on to sending a message."
"So what's the plan on killing her? You do have one right?"
"Of course, with our numbers low after my wife's little tantrum we need to keep from leaving ourselves open to attack. No matter the agreement we can't trust Lung to hold to it, treachery is in his blood." Samuel grunted in agreement. "What we need is outside support. I was hopping you might have a suggestion from your earlier life."
There was a long pause from the other end, then, "Yeah, I got a guy. Real intense guy, but he's a tough son of a bitch. He might be able to pull it off. It's just, well, it might be awhile before I get in touch. Guys like him don't really leave a forwarding address."
"That's alright, we have time."
XxXXxX
Emily Piggot was not having a good day. Not that last night was a treat, but this morning was proving even more challenging. PR was still giving her grief about giving up Samedi's real name without running it by them. Even after she explained that she either confirmed the truth, or some random amateur detective did so, and made them look like morons in the meantime. Legal was getting in on it too, talking about liabilities with effectively announcing Hebert guilty without her being tried. This was despite her being on camera killing someone. That was not even counting the dozens of reporters demanding interviews.
She had hopped to get a few minutes of rest, but unfortunately it was not to be. A light buzz sounded from the speaker on her desk. Emily let out a sigh, and pressed the button on the machine.
"Yes, what is it?" Her tone was sharper than she intended.
"Director, a call on line one." Her secretary informed her, unfazed by the tone.
"I said to hold my calls."
"I know ma'am, but I think you'll want to take this one, it's the Chief Director."
'Damn,' Emily swore internally 'That's just what I need.'
Taking another few seconds to compose herself she picked up the phone.
"Hello, Director," She greeted.
"Emily," the Director returned cheerfully, but Emily could sense an undercurrent of insincerity to it. "How has your morning been?"
"Difficult," Emily knew she shouldn't be short with the Director, but she had little patience for social niceties during a time like this.
"I can imagine, but I do have some good news. You'll be happy to know that Paige Macabee has arrived into Legend's custody. She'll be entering surgery tomorrow. Dr Fix-it has high hopes for her case. With luck she'll be ready to be relocated within the month."
Emily merely grunted. She hadn't really thought about the girl since the failed trap two nights ago. She doubted she was the only one given recent events. Still, there was a silver lining, with the media circus surrounding Samedi's identity no one would think about Canary. One less thing to worry about.
"However, that's not why I'm calling."
"Samedi." Emily said.
"Yes, giving her name to the press will stir things up. I've already gotten word of distant rumblings. Even some from within the PRT."
"The girl's face was caught on camera, and she's a local. It wouldn't be long before word got out. If it wasn't us than it would have been someone else, and if that happened we would have looked like morons for not putting two and two together, or worse, we'd be accused of protecting her."
"Has that been a rumor?" She sounded concerned, such a rumor could rapidly spin out of control.
"No, but it rapidly could if it seems like we're not doing all we can to take her down."
"Still, releasing the girl's name was a bold move Director Piggot. There is a lot of ways this could have gone wrong." Director Costa-Brown informed her.
"I'm aware of the risk, but I felt it was the best of a lot of bad options. Should this blow back, I'll take full responsibility."
"Very well, I'll trust in your judgment. Just be aware that the situation with Samedi has drawn a lot of eyes, and after last night we will be paying far greater attention. Should we feel the situation has gone far enough we will step in."
"I understand."
"Good, be careful out there director, I think things are about to become very interesting for everyone." With that the line went dead.
Emily once more closed her eyes, doing her best to suppress the pain stabbing at her head. Her attempt at relaxing was cut short seconds later when the door to her office slammed open with a bang. Her eyes snapped open, and she had to force her instincts from forcing herself into cover. It was Assault, out of costume, who was storming into her office, a dark look on his face.
Her secretary was following close behind, chastising him. "Sir, if you would just wait, I would have told the director-"
"Why'd you do it?" Assault demanded, ignoring the other woman entirely.
"Sir!" Her secretary began to protest, but Emily held her hand up, cutting off further argument.
"Madeline, you may leave. I can handle it from here." The other woman seemed shocked, but left as instructed.
The entire time Assault never took his eyes off the director. His eyes filled with anger, judging her.
"Why'd you do it?" He demanded again. "This? It's over the line."
Internally Emily growled, clearly the man needed to remember who was in charge here.
"Sit." She ordered.
"I'd rather stand."
"And I'm telling you to sit." For a moment they stood in silence. "You want to talk? Fine, but we do this like adults. I'm not going to talk if you insist on throwing a tantrum."
Assault glared for a few more minutes, but slowly moved over to the chair across from the director and sat down.
"Good, now what is it exactly that has your dander up?"
"You know what."
"Let's say I don't." She could guess, but she felt it best if he was the one to say it.
"Samedi...Taylor. You gave away her name. It's all over town."
"Oh, yes, that. Well, given that she was the one who got caught on video I think a lot of this can be laid at her feet. Don't you?"
Emily could almost hear his teeth grinding. "You're still the one that made sure everyone knows her name. That's on you."
"Is it?" Emily tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. "I think that even if I did nothing someone would have seen the tape, and put a face to a name."
"You could have suppressed it. Kept the public from finding out."
"And I would want to do that why?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
"Why! Because-" He paused, lowering his voice before continuing. "Because you've just ruined her life."
"Me? How is her life my responsibility? I didn't force her to kill over a dozen people. I didn't make her into what she is. She made her choice, now she has to deal with the consequences."
"It won't just be her dealing with this shit. What about her father? I can't imagine what the press is trying to get out of him. Or hell how long until someone goes after him to get to her? If he dies is that on you or her?"
"I've sent some people over to run off the press, and they've been instructed to offer our protection from anyone trying to get at Samedi through him."
Assault leaned forward in the chair. "And do you think that he'll accept our help? After what we just did to his daughter?"
"That's not really my problem. Either he sees sense, or doesn't. If not then his fate is out of my hands."
Assault stood suddenly, his chair falling over from the speed of his movements.
"Don't you see what you're doing? What you'll push her to? If you...if you'd just give her a chance..." He trailed off looking away from the director.
Emily simply shifted in her seat, steepling her fingers, and leaned toward the hero. "Armsmaster did say that you had been most insistent on her possible rehabilitation. I have to say you seem oddly attached to the idea."
Assault was silent for a long time before finally murmuring, "She's just a kid."
"Wrong." Emily informed him. "She's a murderer. No matter how much you want to pretend otherwise. She's a maniac who has been given far, far too much power. If we don't stop her soon, well we may not have a chance later."
"Director-"
"Enough," She ordered cutting off his protests. "I've noted your concern but I've elected to ignore it. Disagree with me all you want. Rail against the injustice of it if that soothes your conscious, but I expect you to do your job. Understood?"
Assault remained silent.
"I want to hear you say that you understand."
"...Perfectly," he finally spat out.
"Good, now since you're here I have a job for you. Something I think you'll appreciate given your stance on second chances."
"What is it?"
"Well given what you and Battery dug up at Winslow I feel that it would be best if we had someone keep a closer eye on our dear Shadow Stalker. Someone like you."
"Me?" Assault asked in disbelief.
"Yes, I think the two of you will have a great deal to talk about. I'm not asking for around the clock surveillance, just get a feel for the girl, mentor her, so to speak. Impress on her the need to play nice with others. Surely that isn't beyond you." Emily had to hold back a smirk at the look on his face.
If he was going to protest further it was cut off by the noise of his emergency beeper. He pulled it out and gave it a quick look. "It's the Undersiders. They're robbing Bay Central."
At that he started to leave, Emily cleared her throat. "Where are you going?"
"To stop the bank robbery," The words 'you idiot' were left unsaid.
"By the time you get in uniform they'll be long gone. The Wards go to school a block away. Let them handle the Undersiders. It'll make for a good press release."
"Somehow, I don't see it making the front page." Assault stated bitterly.
"Heh, I have a feeling you may be right. Still it might make for a good moral boost. Oh before you go," She called out as he neared the door. "Sophia has patrol duty after six, I expect you to join her."
Assault paused, then with a short nod wrenched the door open and left. Emily felt another smile pull at her lips. Today was starting to turn around all things considered.