Chapter Ten: Reading Between the Lines
March 7, 2011
Dragon knew that she ought to trust the local PRT and police departments to handle the Hebert case, but she couldn't help shadowing it to ensure they didn't miss any details. Fortunately, the officers assigned to the case were competent and managed to work together smoothly, so that by Monday afternoon the bullying case had been completely documented, and the PRT had found parole violations that even Dragon hadn't noticed. Before she turned her attention away from the situation, she decided to check on Taylor one more time.
The IP address in question was logged into PHO, so Dragon used one of her moderator accounts to see what she was viewing. It was a discussion thread in the connections board that seemed to be made of pure nonsense. The truly peculiar detail, was that there were virtually no conspiracy or speculating posts. Dragon saw that Roses of Success had tagged Ferry Girl, and this was likely what had brought it to her attention. Intrigued, Dragon tried to figure out why the post hadn't received more attention, and found her answer in the coding of the post. The PHO coding had been subtly changed so that the site never listed it first on any page, instead sorting the post as though it was months older than it was. The programming was familiar, and it took only a moment for Dragon to remember the virus that had led the PRT answering service to fail to notice the repeated calls from Sophia Hess. This wasn't the same, but it was similar enough to warrant investigation.
Dragon started by applying basic code breaking techniques to the posts. Ciphers turned up nothing useful, and less than twenty percent of the posts hid any sort of potentially meaningful anagrams. The one post for which she had any reference, the one which tagged Ferry Girl, seemed to be straightforward enough, if the 'ant-hill' in question was the bullying situation and sniper was either Contract, herself, or anyone else who had initiated the investigation. Under that sort of code, the entire thread might be straightforward messages using obscure nouns to hide the meaning. There were too many possibilities to even try to verify. Was DJ symbolic of a band? A person's initials? An entire super hero team? A villain? None of the users on the thread had posted anything on any other boards. In fact, each account had been created only minutes before the first post appeared. The IP addresses bounced all over the country, so either the users were highly mobile or the hacker was re-routing the signals to cover the actual locations.
Dragon considered simply deleting the thread to see how the users would respond, but it was possible that they would simply slip her notice once again. If this was the same "Ash" who had helped Contract with the Sophia situation, then he had ducked her radar twice in the past week. It was an uncomfortable thought. To that end, it might be best to simply monitor the situation, but there was a chance that this thread was written to Contract. If it was her friend "Ash" and if he wasn't currently based in Brockton Bay, then the only reason to leave the thread in the Brockton Bay connections section was to bring it to Contract's attention. Dragon didn't know if stumbling upon coded messages would violate the contract and free Behemoth, but it wasn't worth the risk.
After a few more minutes of searching for alternative explanations and trying to figure out how the hacker had gotten into the PHO coding of his post, she made up her mind, and sent him a private message.
Tin Mother: You have one chance to explain your thread before I delete it.
Dragon expected a delay, because Roses of Success wasn't currently logged into PHO. But as soon as the message was sent, the account received a log-in. Dragon tried to back-trace the IP address but it seemed to be coming from an empty stretch of fields in Texas.
Roses of Success: Hello big Mama. What tipped you off? Surely not the idiot cowboy?
Tin Mother: I am giving you a chance. Don't waste it.
Roses of Success: This is just a chance for a few friends to send some postcards.
To Dragon, that sounded liked confirmation that it was aimed at Contract, but she didn't want to give away any information that a moderator wouldn't have access to.
Tin Mother: If this is directed at a cape, I will ban you just for stalking.
Roses of Success: Well aren't we touchy. Look, Dragon, I get that you're trying to do a job here, but Fi will go mad if she doesn't have some sort of information access. Cut this off, and you'll wake up one day to find that she's skipped town.
A human might have frozen in shock at being addressed by name from behind anonymity, but Dragon simply raised her estimation of her opponent's intelligence.
Tin Mother: Fi says otherwise. In fact, she has told me that this sort of information could be dangerous.
Roses of Success: Codes? Don't be ridiculous. Fi couldn't trade away codes if she wanted to. She'd hardly be able to speak.
Tin Mother: It contains information from her past. Fi has cut off all contact with her past for a reason.
Roses of Success: I bet. Look, be straight with me. I don't want Behemoth back any more than anyone else, but I'm not giving up on Fi without a damned good reason and a straight explanation. You cut this off without satisfying my curiosity, and I'll show up on her doorstep.
Dragon considered doing just that, because she doubted that anyone could get at Fi at the moment. But there was no reason to be arrogant, so she decided to play it would first. This would require volunteering new information, but it was well-known enough that it wouldn't be impossible for him to find it another way.
Tin Mother: She traded her family, her past life, for Behemoth.
Roses of Success: Bullshit. We're not dead.
Tin Mother: Not your lives, her ability to contact you.
Roses of Success: I've known Fi her whole life. Most of what she knows about her contracts I helped her put together, or I was in the room when others helped her. And I know that contracts don't work like that. She has to have a certain measure of control over the cost, or a very good reason to trust that it will be upheld. She has no ability to stop us from reaching out to her, as the thread under discussion proves, and no reason to be reasonably certain that we'd leave her alone.
Tin Mother: The contract comes from Fi herself. She told us when she was under a compulsion to tell the truth.
Roses of Success: You mean she was forbidden to speak a complete truth or write a complete lie?
If anything, that confirmed what Fi had told Armsmaster earlier that afternoon.
Tin Mother: Yes.
Roses of Success: Okay. What did she say exactly? Did she say "I traded my family for Behemoth" or did she say "I can never see them again?"
Tin Mother: What does it matter?
Roses of Success: Those of us who know Fi have been speculating on what her actual cost would have been, and there really aren't that many options. We're pretty sure we're right. It's not her family. Losing us could be a potential side-effect of that cost, but it wouldn't be part of the deal itself.
Tin Mother: What are you saying?
Roses of Success: I'm saying that Fi betrayed everything she believed in, everything we all believe in. Now she thinks she can't come home. She's afraid we'll attack her, or that we will persuade her to break the deal. We won't. That's what the thread is about. Letting her know that she's not alone. She probably won't believe it; she won't take the risk that it's a ploy to trap her. But she knows that the worst case scenario is low probability, and in the meantime she will at least know that we are alive and well.
Rapidly, more rapidly than a human could have, she reviewed her previous discussions with Fi, and she found that he wasn't completely wrong. Fi had said that she "cut contact" with her friends. She had said that she was sacrificing her family, and that she had to continue to make the decision to uphold the contract. She hadn't explicitly stated that the decision in question was the decision to sacrifice her family. In fact, in the next sentence she had said she had to decide to, among other things stay in 'this gang-ridden city'. But she hadn't been in Brockton Bay until weeks after Behemoth had disappeared. The entire recitation made more sense as a list of consequences than it did as a list of sacrifices.
Tin Mother: why lie?
Dragon knew that it was a harsh response and her anger might be better served pointing at Contract herself, but she was curious to see what this very knowledgeable ghost would say.
Roses of Success: Fi hates to talk about her contracts. She's had a few bad experiences where she's been tricked or forced into breaking them because she told the terms to the wrong people. It would also be very difficult to explain the nature of her betrayal to those who don't already understand it. It's simpler for her to tell you the effects: that she's had her whole life ripped away by her own choice. That's not a lie. Only the very specific details are.
Dragon decided to think on that later, but it did help soothe the hurt a little.
Tin Mother: So you honestly believe this thread will keep her stable?
Roses of Success: it will help.
Tin Mother: then I repeat my earlier offer. Explain it before I take it down.
Roses of Success: Stubborn. Fine, I'll explain the broad strokes. DJ and debutant are her siblings. Book Worm is a mutual friend and rival of mine. The lines related to our names are just what they sound like: the two of us ribbing each other over our usernames. I tell him the "early worm gets eaten" he says "if at first you don't succeed, trying again won't help". Nothing more. Other stuff is just personal jokes, for example "the goose is flying" is what she always used to say on Fridays, as a play on TGIF. Some stuff I just threw in there to confuse readers. The post on the fifth about the interrupting cow was actually about you. I saw you and Fi poking around my code, which reminded me of "knocking". I was just letting her know that I'd spotted you guys. After that, I watched the police chatter to get an idea of how the situation would play out. Fi exposed what she thought was a cape bullying a normal and found a cape murderer breaking probation. That's what I meant by kicking an ant-hill and finding termites. I was just letting her know that we were all rooting for her. Then Book Worm got on my case for tagging an outsider in the thread. Jupiter agreed with him. I told them both to shove off, because I didn't think it would catch your attention. Roger agreed with me, when evidently he shouldn't have.
It fit, but the problem was that the thread was vague enough that any explanation could have fit. Maybe she should ask one of the other users for information and see if she got the same answers. Still, there was a little more poking she could do before she let him go.
Tin Mother: So what are the five rules?
Roses of Success: She listed them right after.
Tin Mother: I only see three.
Roses of Success: It's like the first rule of fight club: Don't talk about fight club.
Tin Mother: I don't trust you. So you better explain to my satisfaction.
Roses of Success: Fine. Be that way. Rule one, remember the five rules. It means first and foremost, pay attention. Rule two: demons lie. You have to know your sources, know their biases and motivations, not trust everything that's said. Rule three: vampires suck. Sometimes, it IS exactly what it looks like, so don't overthink everything. Rule four: centaurs kick like mules. Don't make clichéd assumptions. For example, a man with an unloaded gun is not unarmed, he is armed with a great club. Rule five: there is no rule five. Not everything can be taught by rules. Also, don't forget the beginning of the riddle by the time you get to the end. Look at the whole picture, and don't expect anyone to spell it out for you.
That was clever and useful advice, and the rate the message had come in indicated that he hadn't taken much time to come up with it.
Tin Mother: There's still a lot of names you haven't explained. Venus, lion, cup, Texas Ranger, NASA…
Roses of Success: I'm not going to go line by line for you. If I wanted you to understand, I would have written it so you could. We are quickly approaching the point where it would be less trouble to out-hack you then it is to deal with this interrogation. Take it down or leave it up. That's your choice. But Behemoth hasn't come back yet, so if that's your excuse you're reaching.
Tin Mother: What makes you think Fi has read it?
Roses of Success: Um… she told me that she had. Feb 3, over on the thread for her Press Release. She was horsing around, poking people just for their reactions. I figured you at the PRT might not be thrilled with that, so I covered her tracks and asked her not to poke Dragons if she didn't have to. I made that request on the Denim thread. Minutes later, she write one last reply and logs off, silent even now.
Dragon found the thread in question in seconds, and as surprised to realize that no one had noticed it. Glenn had a team that followed all of the posts by verified PRT capes, but they had evidently missed these. If Ash was to be believed, he was to thank for the oversight. The times lined up as he said they did. There was less than two minutes between Contract's first post and her last, and in that time, Roses of Success had posted the complaint about heroes who attacked dragons over gold, instead of prioritizing. Dragon made a decision on the fly, and hoped she wouldn't regret it when she talked to Colin tomorrow.
Tin Mother: I'll leave it, for now. On one condition.
Roses of Success: Listening.
Tin Mother: If you can think of any other way to help Fi, you get in touch with me.
Roses of Success: Done. A final thought for you?
Tin Mother: Listening.
Roses of Success: Fi grew up around a lot of paranoid people. They're intensely private towards outsiders, and most because of personal experience. Fi herself has been betrayed more than once. She is capable of trust, but she doesn't do it easily. Don't take offense that she cut corners in her explanation. It's reflex, at this point. And she's used to being around only two types of people: Those she needs to lie to, and those who know her so well that they already know the truth, or they can figure it out easily even when she's lying. She may not even realize how often lying is her first instinct. Be gentle.
Tin Mother: I'll keep that in mind. May I ask a final question?
Roses of Success: Can't promise I'll answer.
Tin Mother: Why does she call you "Ash"
Roses of Success: It comes from the same root as Fi. But if you know that nickname, you should at least understand my username: from the "ashes" of disaster come the "roses of success!"
Roses of Success logged off a moment later, and Dragon rapidly copied the message content elsewhere so she would have a backup independent of the PHO boards. She wasn't sure what to make of the conversation. He could have easily been lying. If he was smart enough to figure out that she was Tin Mother and to hack into PHO, then he was conceivably smart enough to find plausible lies. But a lot of the details lined up, and Fi had said that she trusted him with her life.
For that reason alone, Dragon decided to wait and see what came next. If this information was true, it would eventually need to be passed on to Rebecca, Colin, and Company. But there was simply no way to know, for now, and Dragon didn't see how causing any more trust issues would help Fi. She'd try to find a chance to talk to her once the excitement died down, and until then she would keep a very close eye on the connections board.