Chapter Thirty-Six: The Enemy of My Enemy
April 6, 2011
Dennis put down the most recent thinkers' report with a sigh. Being team leader was not at all like he'd expected it to be. Of course, a good part of that was because the Endbringers had been destroyed during his first day transitioning into the job.
In the wake of the events which the Wards were still calling "that night," Triumph and Aegis had basically vanished from the team. Technically, they were still on the roster for another month and were just temporarily assigned to supporting the Protectorate for training purposes, but Dennis had known the truth even before Company had laid it out for him.
Contract didn't trust them.
Of course, then Dennis had read the details that only Company could provide, and his blood had run cold. Company hadn't been able to figure out why Contract was suspicious of them, except that he said it seemed to be somehow connected to Contract's resentment of Legend. In the interest of not provoking Legend's precog, Dennis had tried not to speculate on the details of what that might imply.
Although his information was useful, Dennis could sort of understand why Contract neither liked nor trusted Company. She was protecting powerful secrets, secrets which could get herself or others killed, and she didn't like such a powerful thinker poking around in her business. Dennis had even wondered, once, if Company might be working for THE CONSPIRACY, before he'd tried to force himself not to think about that either.
Dennis was not thinking about a lot of things recently, which would be harder if he wasn't so busy with everything else.
The most recent update didn't include any information attributed to Company. It was just a routine follow-up briefing on world events as they currently stood. The public was reacting well to Contract's decision to match the Capeless funds dollar-for-dollar, although in the spirit of preserving the "capeless" part of the Capeless funds movement, she was spreading her donations out throughout various medical research and treatment funds.
Not that Contract really needed the good PR; the general public absolutely adored her. The city of New York had decided to put up a monument in the neighborhood now known as "Ground Zero" and hundreds of artists were offering to do the work for free. The thinkers were supportive of Fi's insistence in regards to that monument.
First, there was to be no depiction of herself. Clockblocker suspected that was due the fact that she didn't see her body and her face as her own, yet, after the changes she'd made to it through her power. The other demand was also pretty reasonable: the dead were to be honored prominently. And if capes were recognized by name, civilians were to be, too.
Though these were reasonable desires, Glenn had thrown a conniption fit over Fi's decision to announce them in her fifth interview, in particular her refusal for recognition. In Dennis' personal opinion, he should have just been pleased that she bothered to inform him of the decision before she actually got in front of the cameras, but he was dead-set on talking her out of her first restriction. He wanted her to embrace her fame.
After letting Fi yell at Glenn for about fifteen minutes and get it out of her system, Dennis had stepped forward in his authority as team leader and calmly told Glenn that he was being overruled. Glenn had promptly appealed to Armsmaster to overturn the decision. Colin had taken one look at Fi, then given one glance to Dennis, and told Glenn no. Dennis had tried and failed not to smirk at that. Glenn had been forced to concede the argument; Fi wasn't a probationary Ward, so technically only her direct supervisors could order her to obey Glenn. Without them backing him up, he could only advise and suggest.
There were exceptions to the public's adoration, of course. There were four whole pages of the thinkers' report dedicated to the conspiracy theories that were growing around Contract. PHO was particularly active, but the analysts were more concerned about people on less public boards. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Contract's power, as described to the media thus far, wasn't capable of the things she had done with it. Though Fi had been asked about her power in every interview following "that day," she'd politely declined to answer. That footage had not been broadcast, of course, but the glaring lack of the question was almost as bad.
Then there was the parts of the report that focused on Contract herself. Her personality. Her mental health. Her past.
Every time he got one of these stupid packets, he almost didn't read those sections. Contract was his teammate. She was grieving. She was smart. She was a little arrogant, but with pretty good reason most of the time. She'd forgiven him for being a total ass and she'd healed his dad, which was a thousand times more than anything Dennis had had any right to ask of her.
What more was there to know?
But, every time, Dennis ended up turning the page anyway. Not reading the information wouldn't mean that the PRT didn't know it. It wouldn't stop the Triumvirate from reading it. Dennis knew that Armsmaster was trying to get the most intrusive objectives of the Contract think tank shut down, but it wasn't easy. If he pushed too hard, they might just keep on as they were but stop including the personal content in the Brockton Bay reports.
Plus, THE CONSPIRACY had managed to kidnap and torture Contract. An invasion of her privacy sucked, but it was hardly the worst thing she'd survived.
Right now, the think tank seemed to be mostly focused on the fact that Contract had obviously been exposed to combat before New York, even though she hadn't been an active cape. Dennis hadn't disclosed his own suspicions: that Contract probably had been active as a cape, just not as Contract. She'd given herself Jedi powers; she'd upgraded Eidolon; chances were that she could have been an entirely different cape before New York.
He'd spent a couple hours on PHO reading about the capes that had died at Ground Zero or who had disappeared at the end of January, but his heart wasn't in it. Whoever Fi had been before New York, she was here now. Dennis didn't understand entirely why she was dead to her family and her past, but she was. Whatever had come before didn't really matter.
And Contract seemed to be coping with that loss, somehow. Dennis couldn't imagine it, but she seemed to be managing okay. Armsmaster had told him (outside of the PRT, when they were alone) that Contract was faking no small part of her "okay"ness but that it wasn't the worst way she could be handling it. Jason insisted that the team let her fake-it-'til-she-made-it if that's what she wanted to do, so long as they were ready for breakdowns when they came. It seemed to be working so far.
Of course, "faking it" seemed to bear a terrifying resemblance to "beat the snot out of sparring partners and equipment." Even that, however, had had benefits. Taylor had proven to be a particularly eager student, followed by Jason, but all of the Wards were slowly improving their close-quarters readiness. At the very least, they were getting better at anticipating Fi specifically. As a Striker, Dennis had the most background in hand-to-hand encounters so he had the best record, pinning Fi about one match in five.
Of course, thinking about Fi's combat preferences always reminded him of the first afternoon she'd come back to the PRT after "that night." Dennis had spent several hours preparing his arguments for her debriefing. Although her track record was impressive, the self-harm she had done and the risks she had taken were less desirable. That conversation had gone much better than he'd feared, and he suspected she'd already had a similar discussion with Armsmaster. Fi had agreed that that level of physical harm was not appropriate, and assured him that she wouldn't let it happen again.
And then she'd taken to spending several hours a day working out physically and with her powers. Not exactly what Dennis had in mind, but better than her risking her life in the field.
Not that there was a lot of pressure on that front. The Wards were being kept off everything except the lightest patrol duties, and there were at least two thinkers dedicated to the strange quiet in their city. Brockton Bay had been eerily silent since "that day;" none of the gangs really wanting to be the first one to poke their head up and risk it getting slapped by "the Ender" of the Endbringers.
Oh, yeah, the Ender. That's what the internet and popular culture were calling her. And hadn't she just been thrilled about that?
(In Dennis' opinion, it was better than either the Killer's Killer or the Re-Starter which had been the other two titles that almost caught on, but even so, "the Ender" sounded weird. Why did the internet need titles anyway? She already had a cape name. Sometimes people were weird.)
Speaking of the devil, Dennis glanced up from where he was sitting in the Ward's office to look through the open door and watch as Fi left the elevator, headed straight for her bunk. At Armsmaster's request, Dennis was logging how often she cat-napped in her bunk. The answer was "not a lot," which was bad because she wasn't getting a lot of sleep at night or anywhere else either.
And she wasn't napping now. After barely a moment, Fi reemerged in full Contract costume, using Armsmaster's visor instead of her leather mask. Dennis suppressed his amusement at the continued fluidity of her costume. Despite Glenn's protests that she needed to establish "an image," Dennis and Armsmaster were in complete agreement that if she wanted to make changes to her costume, she could. It was harmless, and she seemed to find it entertaining. Either that, or she was using it to try to prevent the creation of action figures.
At the moment, that meant that she was in Contract-brand jeans (she'd given up on avoiding those the day before "that night" and now wore nothing else), white running shoes, a white shirt with long, dark-blue sleeves and her visor.
Dennis had a running bet with Chris about the shelf-life of her various costumes, and he was betting that in her next change she'd keep the shoes but change her shirt. When they'd sparred together, he'd noticed she had better traction in her shoes than in her boots, but the shirt seemed to limit her range of motion and he didn't think she'd keep it regardless of the knife-resistant properties of the material.
Missy had overheard the betting and casually offered fifty bucks that Contract was really just looking for a stand-in until Taylor had time to make her a spider-silk shirt, which would be more flexible, knife-proof, perfectly tailored, and even bullet-resistant where armored. There had been a moment of stunned realization, then no one had been willing to match her bet.
Dennis had expedited Beetle's request for dedicated weaving and insect breeding space the next day, guaranteeing she got twice as much room as she'd asked for, over the protests of various PRT employees who didn't want Beetle's bugs anywhere in the building no matter what the safeguards. How he'd missed the advantages of Taylor's spider-silk costume and the reality that she could make them for others he didn't know, but he made sure to correct his oversight as fast as possible and apologize to Taylor the same day.
Dennis shook himself from his thoughts as Fi dropped into the seat opposite him, looking tired. "Good workout?" he asked. If Fi was following her schedule, and wouldn't everyone's life be easier if she did, she should have been coming back from a session with Yamada after spending a couple hours in the gym.
Fi shrugged, which meant she hadn't been in the gym. Well, that explained why Chris had actually gotten his paperwork filed on time this week. Fi had been in his shop, hiding and helping him with his project documentation. Dennis had debriefed Chris the first day she disappeared into his lab, but the tinker wasn't worried.
Fi mostly spent her time handing him tools, double checking the few calculations he did for number transpositions, and just chatting with him or brooding silently. She had a good enough drafting hand to generate drawings based on what he was building, even when she didn't understand the Tinker designs. Technically, a tinker's lab was restricted space and doubly so when the tinker was working, but Dennis wasn't going to push the issue just yet.
"You got a minute?" she asked, and Dennis spread his hands wide, indicating that he wasn't doing anything. If Fi saw or cared about the thinker report still sitting on the desk, she didn't react. "Remember the whole, 'You should have told us about the secret identity thing, even it meant possibly revealing Taylor's secrets?'"
Dennis winced, remembering the team's turbulent beginnings. Had that been less than a month ago? It felt longer. So much had changed since then. "What about it?"
"I think Taylor might be dealing with something similar."
Dennis's interest was piqued, and he leaned forward. "Oh, do tell."
"She's been asking a lot of questions about protocol. Things like, 'If a Ward found out X, what would he or she be obligated to do in response? What sort of procedures would be required?' I think she's gotten into some sort of delicate situation, and she's worried about official paperwork causing problems."
Fi sighed, glancing down, and Dennis mentally sent his sixty-seventh thank you to Armsmaster for making a visor that would translate text to speech. Being able to talk to Contract when she wasn't looking at him was a huge boon, even when he wasn't using it.
"I don't want to put you in a difficult position," Fi continued. "But I was worried if I went to Armsmaster then he'd be in a difficult position, and he might not be as flexible about it. I want us to go talk to Taylor, and then do whatever is best. Not that I want to go rogue or anything, it's just that I don't know the regulations super well. If I recall, though, you've got a little leeway in things like this, as team leader?"
Dennis nodded slowly, understanding Fi's point. As a veteran Ward, he was far more likely to know the necessary procedures to deal with whatever Taylor had uncovered. Also, as a Ward team leader, he had authority to make things confidential or extend procedure deadlines, although most of that had to be cleared with Armsmaster eventually anyway. Still, it was much better than the two girls going off on their own.
"Does Jason know about this?"
"Maybe? I don't know. He and Taylor hang out at Winslow, so depending on what 'this' turns out to be, and where Taylor encountered it, Jason might be exposed or involved. She's the one who's jumpy, though. Not him."
Dennis nodded. "Let me suit up in case we need to respond quickly, then we'll go talk to her."
"Thanks," Fi smiled, and Dennis smiled back at her.
A couple days ago, they'd finally had the chance to sit down and clear the air between them. Fi had apologized for holding herself so aloof from the rest of the team when she first came to Brockton bay, and Dennis had apologized for being a general ass. She'd told him again that she understood, and he admitted to himself and to her that he could see where she was coming from, too. They weren't best friends, but they were more than just colleagues.
"Oh, by the way," he said as they walked towards the bunks, "my mom told me to invite you over for dinner. The doctors have finally finished the last of their tests; Dad's got the official, complete green light, and we're celebrating. We want you there, if you want to be there."
Fi hesitated for a moment, and Dennis wondered if she was missing her own family, or if she was thinking of something else. Finally, she nodded and said, "Sure. Sounds good."
"I'm glad. And… thanks, again."
Fi shoved his shoulder. "You don't have to keep thanking me," she tried to tease. Her blush belied her tone, however, and told Dennis that she did care.
"Sure, sure. But I am grateful," he insisted, and stepped out of swatting range to go change.
As it so happened, Taylor was coming into the Wards' base as Contract and Clockblocker were going out, and they crossed paths just inside the passageway that led between the garage access and the various hidden entrances of the PRT.
"Oh, hey guys," Taylor greeted, biting her lip and looking between them shiftily. Yeah, Contract was definitely onto something here. Had Taylor been this uncomfortable during the Tuesday briefing? Clockblocker remembered her being quiet, but not this suspicious.
"Hey yourself, Beetle," Clockblocker offered. "I didn't know you were coming in today?"
"I just, ah, wanted to check on my weavers." Clockblocker suppressed a shudder at the thought of the thousands of black widows currently occupying Taylor's (air-tight) workspace. Even knowing the good they could do, and even having been the one to see to the logistics, the idea of that many deadly spiders was not comforting. "Fi, can we talk?" Taylor shifted her weight, doing a poor job of acting casual.
"Sure thing. Actually, Clock and I were hoping to find you. Let's talk in decontamination."
The decontamination rooms were about halfway back towards the PRT base, and they actually weren't a bad location for a discussion like the one he was anticipating. They were secure, protected from everything because the capes inside were usually out of costume and occasionally defenseless. However, because it was an expected maskless zone, with only one entrance and exit, it was not under surveillance. The rooms should also be empty at the moment.
"Oh. Okay." Taylor seemed more disappointed than skittish, so she wasn't suspicious. "What's up, guys?" she asked as Clockblocker led the way into the waiting area which had the only seats, and Contract pulled the door shut behind them.
"We wanted to make sure everything's okay with you," Clockblocker assured her.
Beetle just shrugged. Well, it was better than her lying.
"You may not know this, because you're still getting caught up on your training and everything, but as a Ward Team Leader I have a certain degree of authority to make judgment calls. Whatever has you jumping like a jackrabbit..." Clockblocker silently cursed Jason and his Texan colloquialisms as both girls grinned at him, ruining the mood he was trying to set.
Clockblocker cleared his throat and tried to get back on track, "You can tell us anything."
"I… don't know if I can."
"Why not?" Clockblocker asked gently, glancing up at Contract. She was still standing back by the door, not exactly behind Beetle, but staying out of the conversation. She'd brought the situation to Clockblocker's attention, she had initiated the contact, but now she was leaving the ball in his court.
Where before he might have felt abandoned, he understood Contract well enough now to know that Contract was restraining her own natural tendency towards leadership to let him do his job. She would step up to help in a heartbeat if it was needed, but she didn't want to step on his toes.
"I met… a source… who claims that one of the villains in Brockton Bay has spies in the PRT," Beetle finally said, and Clockblocker turned his full attention to her. She was the one who needed his focus right now.
Clockblocker's first response was to want to dismiss it as a rookie's childish belief in intrigue, but he held off. It wasn't impossible. "Which villain?"
Beetle hesitated, but said, "Coil."
Clockblocker considered that. Coil wasn't a major player in the Bay, not the way that the gangs were, but when he did strike he tended to be pretty successful. There was even evidence that Coil had some sort of regular force besides just the mercs he hired for each job. Even so, it was a long way between thief and criminal to mastermind-with-spies.
"Do you trust this source?" he asked, deciding that they'd come back to the details of the tip after they'd verified the rest of it.
"Maybe?" Beetle murmured. "She… isn't the sort of person I'd normally trust." Translation: Beetle probably knew that she shouldn't trust her. "But I think she was telling the truth. And if even only half of it is true, then she's in really big trouble." Beetle was being earnest, so she genuinely liked this source. She was emotionally compromised, but that didn't make her wrong.
"Did she know anything else about Coil?" Clockblocker asked.
"Yes. A lot, actually. She told me that the PRT doesn't take him very seriously because they don't know half of what he's done. His people on the inside are suppressing information and covering up for him, to keep him off the official radar."
Clockblocker glanced at Contract again. Her lips were pursed, and her forehead seemed to be drawn downward like she was thinking.
Remembering all the other times that Contract had inexplicably had extra information, he asked her, "Do you know anything about Coil that might be helpful here?"
Contract was already shaking her head. "Nothing concrete. He wasn't on our radar either, although I do remember thinking it was weird that a villain could operate in a place like Brockton Bay without any real support for as long as he has. The PRT's file felt a little light when I first read it, but if he's not a priority then a light file isn't suspicious. A man can be a survivor and a cockroach without being a major threat."
"What if she's right, though?" Beetle implored.
"We need a whiteboard," Contract answered. "We need to map possibilities and approach this systematically."
"Contract's right," Clockblocker said. "I've heard enough that I can definitely understand why, for now, this is a conversation we need to keep amongst ourselves. I won't report anything until we have all talked and understand this a little better."
Beetle nodded, reluctant but trusting, and Contract gave him a single nod - a salute.
"I'm going to text Missy to come in and discuss it with us too. She's been operating in the Bay longer than anyone else on the team, and she might have first-hand knowledge that never made it into an actual report, if it didn't seem relevant at the time."
Half an hour later, the four of them were gathered in the Wards' office with the door closed, standing in front of a white board which held a diagram that Contract called a "scenario tree."
At the top, was a single point. Under this was two branches, one labeled "Coil is lame." The other was labeled, "Coil is a mastermind."
Under "Coil is lame" was a single branch "Coil does not have spies," followed by a single line connecting it to "Lisa is lying." Under this part of the tree was a series of questions and bullet points, topped by the question "Why would Lisa lie?" Beetle had shifted uncomfortably when Vista raised the point, and had said she'd talk more about that once the diagram was done and they'd come to a conclusion.
The branch "Coil is a mastermind" dominated most of the tree. Under it was another two branches, "Coil has spies" and "Coil does not have spies," and under each of these was a three-way split: "Lisa is telling the truth" next to "Lisa was sent by Coil" next to "Lisa is a triple agent."
Although complicated to look at, the tree was actually very helpful. There were a number of factors in play, and each affected the other. Lisa's trustworthiness was an unknown variable, as was Coil's competence, and his having or not having spies was another independent consideration. Splitting it out in a chart let them see which probabilities might be interrelated, and which ones weren't.
In the end, they were left with seven possible scenarios.
"Now we start pruning," Contract explained. "We don't have enough information to say for sure that any of these are impossible, but some are less likely than others. For example, if Coil is a mastermind with spies, then he probably didn't send Lisa to try to spy on us." Contract pointed to the branch in question.
"There would be no need," Vista mused aloud. "He'd already have PRT access, and he'd know that anyone interfering with the Ward dynamic is going to get looked at closely by Company or other thinkers."
"That also eliminates the chance of mastermind-spies-triple agent," Clockblocker observed. "She can't be pretending to work for him and using it as an excuse to tell the truth if he didn't send her."
"And then there were five," Contract said, as she put a red x beneath the two indicated branches.
"If he's a mastermind and doesn't have spies, why would Lisa lie and say he did?" Vista mused, considering the tree.
Beetle shifted, and Clockblocker made a decision. "Beetle, I think it's time that you tell us everything you know about Lisa. We can't make a decision if we're blind."
Beetle hesitated. "She said he was willing to kill her."
"We can't help her without more information," he cajoled, and Vista nodded eagerly at his elbow.
Beetle took a deep breath. "She said he kidnapped her at gunpoint, and then forced her to join a gang." Clockblocker waited patiently. Beetle was new to being a hero, new to being a member of the Wards, and this was the first real cape situation she'd faced. They had the time to let her do this in her own way. "She didn't come right out and say it, but I was able to figure it out. Lisa is Tattletale."
It actually took Clockblocker a moment to remember where he'd heard the name before. The Undersiders had been unusually quiet for a villain gang. The biggest job he could think of was when they'd robbed an underground casino, and that was a month ago. Clockblocker had been paying more attention to his team, at the time, than a bunch of criminals going after each other.
Beetle was rushing to explain herself. "She said that Coil has something on each of the Undersiders. He pays them to keep them happy and loyal to him, but she said he's also got the ability to destroy each of them. Lisa seemed genuinely scared for her life."
"Well, that changes things," Vista muttered, hopping up to sit on the desk. Clockblocker ran his hands through his hair, trying to keep a handle on his temper. Vista continued, while he reminded himself that the person he wanted to strangle wasn't here right now, and anger wouldn't help Beetle. "You really should have led with that, Beetle,"
"I didn't want to prejudice you," Beetle muttered.
"She meant the fact that you'd been threatened," Clockblocker growled out, not fully succeeding in keeping his calm.
"What?" Beetle asked in honest confusion.
"You were approached by a villain in civilian clothing," Vista took back over. "She knows your face."
"She doesn't know I'm a Ward."
"Do you know what Tattletale's power is?" Clockblocker asked, as gently as he could manage.
"No?" Beetle responded, finally sounding wary.
"Neither do we." Clockblocker paused to let that sink in. "It could be anything. Somehow, I don't think it's coincidence that a supervillain poured her heart out to a Ward, particularly one who is new enough that she might be so eager to help that she might not go to her team right away, as you didn't."
The story had been suspicious even before they'd had this detail; who would just open up to a friend they'd barely met the way Taylor described? Clockblocker had wanted to give this new girl the benefit of the doubt, because he knew how badly Taylor wanted friends. But this was way over the line.
"What Dennis is trying to say," Vista elaborated, "is that this is a serious breach of etiquette. Under normal circumstances, one cape outing another is grounds for the entire community, hero and villain, to turn on that individual. Tattletale hasn't quite crossed that line, but she's dancing pretty close to it. It makes the situation more serious."
"Her life being in danger isn't serious enough?" Beetle asked.
"If her life is in danger. We have no proof of that," Clockblocker reminded her in frustration. Beetle's heart was in the right place, but she wasn't an experienced hero and at times like this it showed. Despite the bullying she'd endured and living in one of the poorer neighborhoods of Brockton Bay, she was somehow very naïve.
"We have too many unknowns overall." Contract observed. "We don't know how Tattletale found Taylor, and we don't know if she's even aware of cape etiquette. It's my understanding that the unspoken rules are exactly that, unspoken, with the exception of a few laws regarding the S-class truces. I was a parahuman for close to a year before I was told about all the stupid culture stuff. There's a chance the same is true of Tattletale.
"We also don't know her powers, as Clock said, which is serious in its own way. She could be a high-level master or a low-level thinker, and right now we have no way to tell. We don't know enough about Coil; we don't know how true her story was. We don't know what she might or might not know about Jason. The fact that neither of you had a bad gut-reaction is, I'm inclined to say, promising. But then I'm someone who trusts my gut. Another person might look at that and say it just proves she's a good liar."
"We need facts," Clockblocker admitted, bringing his temper back under control. The thought of an unknown villain threatening his teammates was a hard one to swallow, but Contract was right. There were too many theories right now and not enough evidence. He could be angry later.
Right now there was work to do.
Once the other Wards had arrived and been briefed, they split up duties. Vista and Beetle started by back-tracing Taylor's movements, finding Lisa, and tracking her as well as the city records would allow.
Gallant and Kid Win took the research into Lisa Wilbourn, which was the official name returned to them by the facial recognition software. Contract took Intrepid with her, in civilian dress, and went to look over the places where they knew Lisa had been, and where she claimed to have been. Clockblocker wasn't sure what they were looking for, but he trusted them enough to wait for the results.
For his part, he processed the necessary paperwork to open a sealed investigation, and then went to brief Armsmaster in person about the broad strokes; namely, that one of the Wards had been approached in civilian life by a villain, and there was good reason not to involve the general PRT. Armsmaster gave him until Monday to provide more details.
Then he called his mom and explained that not only was Contract not coming to dinner, he wasn't going to make it either. She was understanding, more than he'd expected which probably meant she was thinking about how they wouldn't be celebrating if it wasn't for Contract, and told him they'd do it another time. Clockblocker sighed, then went to check in with his team.
They gathered back together around seven o'clock when Contract and Intrepid returned with Chinese takeout.
"We're pretty sure Tattletale is a thinker," Missy said as she claimed the black pepper chicken and a pair of chopsticks. "She managed to disappear off of the city cameras pretty quick, but usually after she glanced up at them. And we think we found first contact."
Taylor reached over and cued up a surveillance video that showed the exterior of several boardwalk shops, and narrated as she played the relevant section of tape. "Just after 11 AM on Tuesday, Lisa shows up at the Boardwalk. She wanders in and out of shops, but doesn't buy anything. She seems relaxed and calm. Then she goes into this boutique. Ten minutes later, Fi and I go into the same boutique. We stay there for twenty seven minutes, but eight minutes after we go in, Lisa comes out, and she looks freaked."
The security camera wasn't of great quality, but it was enough to see that Lisa was walking more stiffly and more quickly. Missy took up the retelling.
"She gets on a city bus immediately, according to her credit card statement, but we don't know where she got off. Hours later, she uses her card again to catch one of the lines that goes around the bay and terminates at the docks. After that, we've got nothing on her until she gets on Taylor's bus on Monday afternoon, ten minutes before it pulls up at Winslow."
"So she was on the bus specifically to talk to you," Jason said. Dennis took another bite of his beef and broccoli. Gallant had cornered him earlier to make sure he knew that Taylor and Jason were both emotionally compromised on the case. They had believed Lisa's story, and even with the news that she was a villain they were inclined to continue to believe her.
Dennis could see where they were coming from. For most of his own cape career, he had been the hot-shot headache that his superiors had to reign in. He had gone with his gut on several occasions, to great success. He'd probably still be inclined to trust his instinct if it hadn't been for his close call. Although it had been Velocity's judgment and not his own that had put Dennis and Missy in hot water, it had still tempered Dennis' reliance on gut instinct.
At the moment, there was no reason to address the emotional bias of the team because it wasn't affecting their work. It might even temper Dennis's immediate dislike for Tattletale after he realized she'd lied to his teammates. Still, it was something to keep in mind.
"Not only that, but she was on the bus prepared with a fake backstory tailored to you," Chris told Taylor. "Dean and I combed through the camp records. There's no Lisa enrolled as a camper, counselor, or staff. As far as we can tell, your paths didn't cross before this."
"Of course, the more we dig, the more it seems like Lisa didn't really exist before a couple months ago," Dean added. "There's records for her name going back 16 years, but any time we called up a school or a club, no one remembered her, and no yearbook photos, either. It looks like she's been using the Lisa identity for six or eight months at most. Possibly less."
"I can look into it," Fi offered. "I've had my fair share of fake names and false identities. I might be able to find other aliases. No promises, because it was normally Ash that set that stuff up and tracked it down, but I can give it my best shot."
Dennis glanced at Dean, but he didn't seem uncomfortable. That was good. It meant that Fi wasn't suppressing massive amounts of grief at the mention of Ash, and it meant that Dean was adjusting to Fi's normal grief levels, which had been headache-inducing for him the first week or so after "that night."
"We've got until Monday before we have to declassify this to Armsmaster, and then it's his decision where this goes from there," Dennis reported, to general nods of agreement. "As I understand it so far, it looks like Lisa has been on the run, possibly involved in crime, for six months minimum. She encounters Taylor and Fi, and figures out their secret identities, most likely on accident. Any objections?"
Head shakes all around.
"Tattletale then goes home and manages to do a thorough background search on Taylor, and decides to approach her in civilian identity. She manipulates her into agreeing to meet for lunch, and then gets her alone on a city bus." Taylor didn't look happy with the way he was summarizing the situation, but she didn't protest. It was probably the biased language he was using.
"Then she spins her story and leaves. That was twenty-four hours ago, more or less."
"The story is internally consistent." Missy allowed. "It isn't disproven by anything we know for sure. Coming from a villain, I think we're right to be cautious, but I have a bad feeling it might be true."
She sat back in her chair, trying to put what she was feeling into words. "I've only gone up against Coil once, and he was able to vanish… easily. We chased him down a couple streets and he always managed to turn in the worst direction for us. I also took the liberty of looking into his file while we were scanning security footage. It's the same for every encounter. He's… incredibly lucky, at the very least."
Dennis nodded, processing not just what Missy was saying but how she was saying it. Her gut was aligned with Taylor's and Jason's. As an experienced Ward and an insightful team member, he couldn't dismiss her and he didn't want to. She was good at reading people, she'd watched Lisa on the tapes and she'd probably talked with Taylor in greater depth about her encounters.
Jason spoke up next. "I don't like that she lied to Taylor, and manipulated both of us, but if her story is true she may not have had another option."
"Go on," Dennis encouraged, interested to see what Jason thought of the situation. Behind Vista and Dennis, Jason was actually the Ward with the third-most service, even if most of that time had been served in the lower-profile Texas Wards.
"Well, assume for a moment that it's all true. She's out shopping one day when power shenanigans tells her she's standing next to one or two of the Brockton Bay Wards. She's a villain, but she's in over the head and she wants out. Like she told Taylor, she can't go through the normal channels due to spy stuff. She might have been able to go to New Wave, but maybe there's other stuff there we don't know about. So now she finally has a way to get to the Wards directly.
"As far as we know, she sits on this information for four days before she does anything. I think that's a good sign. When she does approach, she does it in a public place, possibly to protect herself. She doesn't threaten Taylor, instead she makes herself vulnerable. And she begs for help, as best as she can. She actually could have begged even more if she'd told Taylor that she knew who she was. Lisa had to know we'd figure that out as soon as Taylor asked for her team's help, but Lisa didn't play that card."
"If she's telling the truth," Chris tacked on. "Is there a way we can be sure?"
"I'd feel more confident if I could hear it for myself," Fi admitted, reaching for the last egg roll. "Nothing against you guys, but you didn't know what you were dealing with. I'd like the chance to get a gut-read on Lisa knowing what we know now."
"Just a gut read?" Jason teased.
Fi shrugged. "I've been mulling over contracts all day, but I don't know that we're that desperate yet. Anything solid enough to be useful is pretty expensive."
"Well, why don't you work on other aliases, and we'll sort out a way to bring her in for questioning safely," Dennis ordered. Taylor opened her mouth to protest, but Dennis cut her off. "If we're taking Coil's death threat seriously, then we need to put Lisa in protective custody. If we're not, then we have to assume Lisa is lying and we need to arrest her for endangering you. Which is it?"
Fi stood up and went over to the console, not waiting to hear the outcome of his discussion with Taylor.
After another hour of planning, Taylor finally just texted the number Lisa had given her.
Taylor: We need to talk
Within less than a minute, Lisa's response came back.
Lisa: When and where?
This was the rub. Although they didn't really want to give Lisa more time to do whatever she might be doing, the truth was that it was getting late and they had school the next day. So it either had to be immediately, or it had to wait for tomorrow afternoon. A quick vote decided the issue.
Taylor: Can you meet me in the Northern Brockton Bay Library? Second floor? Sooner is better. The library closes at nine.
Lisa: Alright. See you there.
The library was one of the discreet ways for the Wards to get into their base. The unisex bathroom on the second floor concealed a tiny elevator that deposited users in one of the underground access tunnels to the garage.
Clockblocker pulled his mask back on as soon as Beetle finished reading the text. He and Taylor went to meet Lisa and bring her back to the base through the established, protected maskless route while those of the team not previously suited up did so.
Fi hadn't been able to track down any of Lisa's other aliases. She had been able to tell that Lisa had probably set the identity up herself, but hadn't been able to profile much about her from the fake past that she had built. Because Lisa had done the work personally, it might contain clues to her true past, but it would take time. There might be more there to explore later, if it became necessary.
Taylor and Clockblocker walked together in silence until they were in the actual tunnel that connected to the library. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you yesterday," she murmured.
Clockblocker sighed. This really wasn't the right time to be doing this, but since Taylor had brought the subject up, he had to say something. "You're not used to having someone who will watch your back," he allowed. Then he stopped walking, which forced Taylor to stop also. She turned to look at him. "I'm just glad that you were lucky. Lisa might have been dangerous. She might still be dangerous. I'm really happy that you're not hurt. But we can't help if we don't know."
Taylor nodded, and Clockblocker started walking again. There would be more to say eventually, but that could wait until the appropriate time. Right now, they had a villain to meet.
The elevator was barely big enough for him and Taylor to ride together, and Clockblocker made a note to have Lisa come down with him so that he could freeze her if necessary. Then they used the disguised peephole to make sure the coast was clear, and exited the bathroom. Taylor headed toward the reading area next to the staircase, and they both selected a seat.
This late at night the library was open mainly for the benefit of the college students who used the computer labs and archives on the first floor. The second floor was deserted, silent, and eerie. They had to wait nearly twenty minutes for Lisa to show, and Clockblocker noticed that Taylor didn't fidget the entire time. In fact, she didn't move. It took him longer than he'd like to admit to realize why.
"How many people are in the building?" he asked casually.
"Twelve. Nine people on computers, a janitor, a librarian and a dude looking through the microfiche. Why?"
"Just wondering," Clockblocker said, amazed at the detail that Taylor was able to pick up. "Do you think you'll know Lisa?"
"I'll be able to find her when she comes in, definitely, because who else comes into a library just before closing? But I don't know if I can spot her on the street. She's just another girl."
Clockblocker made a note to pull some of the files on Nice Guy and Heartbreaker for Taylor to read over when all this was done. He didn't want to give her nightmares, but she needed to understand the dangers mental powers could present before underestimating them got her hurt.
"Speaking of," Taylor unintentionally cut off his thoughts, "a short woman with long hair in Lisa's style just walked in. She's headed toward the stairs now." Taylor stood up and went closer to the top of the staircase, ready to be the first thing that Lisa saw. Clockblocker followed behind, putting himself out of the direct line of sight but close enough that he could lunge for Tattletale if she tried to run.
"Hey, Lisa," Taylor said, moving forward to hug the girl as soon as she was visible. Then, with an arm still around her shoulders, she turned toward Clockblocker. "I want you to meet a friend of mine. He can help you, and he's already promised to keep your case confidential."
At Intrepid's suggestion, they had decided not to tell Lisa that Taylor was, in fact, Beetle, even if it seemed that Lisa already knew. Instead, they would play the situation off as her being a friend of the Wards, perhaps someone's sibling, and see where it went. It never hurt to be safe.
"Clockblocker," he said, stepping forward and extending a hand. Lisa shook it very warily.
"Lisa. Should we be talking in public like this?" she asked, glancing around.
"We'll go in just a minute. First you have to sign a confidentiality contract. It's required for everyone involved in your case, for your protection and theirs. It means that you can't share anything you learn through the course of the investigation until released by a court order or the PRT."
Lisa raised an eyebrow, but then nodded, and Clockblocker led her back over to the reading area so they could use one of the library's tables. She glanced at the contract, not long enough to read it but longer than most before she signed and initialed in the appropriate places.
"Alright, come on." Clockblocker lead her over to the bathroom, and rode the elevator down with her. Even though Tattletale was smaller than Taylor, it somehow seemed even more cramped with her in the car. Then they both waited, silent and awkward, for the elevator to retrieve Taylor.
When the single door dinged open, Taylor immediately stepped close to Lisa. "It'll be okay," she reassured, as Clockblocker led them both through the maze of access and maintenance tunnels, as though Taylor didn't know the way herself.
"I hope you're right," Lisa whispered. The fear in her voice sounded real.
Though it had only been a few moments, Clockblocker was inclined to agree with the snap assessments of Beetle, Intrepid, and Vista. Tattletale didn't seem threatening. She wasn't aggressive or assertive. Her nervousness seemed genuine, and her breathing and walking were almost too-perfect as though she was counting in her head to keep herself calm.
Most tellingly, she was willingly walking into the Wards' base. It was possible that this had been her goal all along, but extremely unlikely. If that was the case, there were other lies she could have told to make the invitation more guaranteed. The only reason she was being brought here was a lack of time; if they weren't worried about giving her (or Coil, whoever the bad guy was in this) more freedom to prepare, they would have waited until a safe house could be prepped.
They took the elevator up to the Wards' base, and Clockblocker mentally counted down the masking clock until the doors opened. The rest of his team, minus Kid Win, was assembled around the general table, with the three seats nearest the elevator left open. With a sly glance in his direction, Lisa took the center seat as Taylor sat on her left and Clockblocker on her right. His suspicion spiked. This was how he'd prefer for them to sit, with the villain in arm's reach in case his power was needed, but still allowing Tattletale to be next to Beetle in order to make her calmer and more likely to cooperate. But the look she'd given him as she took the seat made him uneasy, wondering if it was part of a ploy. God, he hated Thinkers.
"Hi, Lisa, I'm Contract," Contract introduced herself. "This is Intrepid," she motioned to Intrepid on her right. "Do you know everyone else?"
"I do."
Contract smiled, open and inviting. "Good. I want you to know, Lisa, you're not in trouble right now."
As rehearsed, Clockblocker clarified the statement. "From what Taylor told us when she asked for our help, you're Tattletale, right?"
Lisa's eyes widened, startled, but she didn't deny it. "We're not here about your past crimes," he continued. Not at the moment, anyway. "We're concerned about what you told Taylor." Clockblocker carefully omitted whether or not they believed the story she'd spun. That would be partially determined by this interview, though it seemed to be getting more and more probable.
"The thing is," Gallant took over, as the one most able to read her emotions and reactions, "we need to hear it from you directly. Legally, we're prepared to register you as a confidential informant and protect you as such. But first, we have to hear all the information from you, not from Taylor."
"It's okay, Lisa. You can trust them," Taylor encouraged. Lisa, for her part, was starting to look like she was recovering. Clockblocker wondered what had shocked her. The open-mindedness?
"I… don't want to incriminate myself."
"Lisa, may I call you Lisa?" Contract ventured, and she continued as Tattletale nodded, "Either your life's in danger, or it isn't."
Clockblocker took up the thread of conversation. It was amazing how easy it was to read Contract's intentions, now that they'd had more exposure to each other's thinking styles. Contract was purposefully playing the most shocking card first, letting him follow on and re-focus the discussion in the direction he wished, but without monopolizing the interview. "If you honestly are trying to help yourself and us, there is precedent we can fall back on. You can be paroled to the Wards in payment for any previous crimes you might have committed."
Tattletale smirked in a way that screamed "smug thinker" and made it hard to think of her as Lisa. In fact, Clockblocker found he was having trouble pinning down exactly what he thought of this girl. "I don't think the PRT will be eager to repeat the mistakes they made with Shadow Stalker." He also mentally increased Tattletale's rating from thinker three to thinker four.
Contract snorted, and Clockblocker stayed silent, to let her answer the observation about Shadow Stalker. "I dare them to say no to me, or to anything this team recommends."
Lisa's smugness dropped away, and she leaned back a little bit in her chair. "Where would you like me to start?"
"You can go now, Taylor. This is Wards' business. Thank you for bringing it to our attention," Clockblocker dismissed her in order to protect her cover. While it was nearly certain that Tattletale had already it figured out, Clockblocker wouldn't forgive himself if she didn't know and he gave it away.
"Okay. Thanks." Taylor stood up and squeezed Lisa's shoulder, then left through the normal elevator. She would go down to her spinning room and watch the interview remotely from there, making notes if Lisa contradicted anything she'd previously said or that Taylor herself had observed. She'd also be able to talk to Kid Win, who was sequestered in his tinker lab, via comm link. Keeping two Wards separate from Lisa wasn't perfect master/stranger protocol, but it was better than nothing and a compromise to getting the full PRT involved.
The Wards had previously agreed that Clockblocker would lead the main interrogation. Vista had a read-out screen for a version of Armsmaster's lie detector hiding in her lap, and Kid Win was seeing the same display in his lab, and could call into Clockblocker or one of the other team members if necessary. Gallant would be using his abilities to judge Tattletale's sincerity as well. If Lisa lied to Clockblocker and the others felt he needed to know immediately, they'd call her on it.
Otherwise, he and Contract would run the interrogation based on their own judgment, with Intrepid waiting in the wings to act as the "friendly cop" if he and Contract felt it was necessary to become harsh or critical.
"Lisa," Clockblocker said, deciding not to use her villain name for now, "why don't you start with the first time Coil contacted you. What happened?"
"I was at the Boardwalk. I got cornered by three people, all armed. At first I thought they might be enforcers, but then my power told me they were hired hit men. By then it was too late. They got me alone, out of sight, and I was told to either show up at a prearranged location and join the people I would find there, or I would be shot. Fatally."
Lisa tried to be dispassionate about the incident, but Clockblocker sensed that on some level, she was still scared by how easily she had been found and threatened.
"So you went to the location…" Clockblocker led her on.
"And I met the other Undersiders. I tried to stay out of costume, just run interference between them and Coil, keep my hands clean. That… wasn't an option."
Clockblocker wondered if it was Coil or the Undersiders that had pressured her, but it didn't matter. "You've been with the Undersiders for quite some time. Are you saying that everything you've done has been under duress?"
"Yes." She glanced around the table, and then dropped her gaze her hands, which we fiddling about in her lap. "I wasn't innocent before the Undersiders, but I never wanted to hurt anyone and I would never have joined them if I'd had a choice."
Clockblocker had two routes he could go now; he could fish for more information about the Undersiders, about their crimes and abilities, or he could go after Coil.
"What can you tell us about Coil?"
"He's far more deadly than anyone gives him credit for," Lisa replied immediately, sitting forward just a bit. Interesting. She was eager to sell out Coil, which once again increased the credibility of her story. Assuming she wasn't just acting. Damn Thinkers.
"What are his powers?"
"I don't know the details, but it's some sort of probability manipulation. He usually calls us just before a job to give us the go ahead or to cancel last minute. Or he'll give us some sort of advice. The Undersiders are known as escape artists, but more of our success than I care to admit has been a matter of luck, or at least helped by luck."
"He could be a shaker, a precog, some other sort of thinker…" Intrepid mused.
"It's a big jump from there to a criminal mastermind with government spies," Clockblocker probed. He kept his tone observational, rather than critical. It did no good to turn this into a conflict.
"He's managed to trap me on multiple occasions. He knew information about me that no one else knows, and he told me himself that he was the single most powerful force in Brockton Bay. He believed it, and I didn't see any sign of psychosis."
Contract sighed, leaning back to soften her words. "The thing is, Lisa, we don't just have to trust you. We have to trust that you're smart enough to have out-played Coil. And according to you, that should be pretty difficult to do."
Lisa licked her lips, nervously glancing around the table again. Clockblocker let her think and tried not to look like he was holding his breath. He was rewarded a moment later, when Lisa finally made her decision. "My power lets me observe details, and draw conclusions based on those details."
"Like Sherlock Holmes?" Intrepid volunteered when Lisa paused, uncertain.
That made Lisa smile, and she nodded. "Yes. Exactly like that, but on steroids. My power isn't perfect. It can be wrong if there's enough not information, or when I push too hard. If I'm looking for a particular type of answer it can overlook other important details, that sort of thing. But I've interacted with Coil multiple times, and each time my power tells me the same thing. He's dangerous, and he's deadly serious about killing me if I betray him."
"So why do it?" Clockblocker asked, point blank. This was the piece he couldn't reconcile. Why turn on Coil, if he did hold her life in his hands? Why now? Why to the Wards?
Lisa stared at him, chewing her lip, then glanced at Contract, who spoke. "You recognized me."
Lisa physically flinched, as though scared that the very statement would be enough to bring some sort of harm down on her head.
"I don't get it," Gallant interjected. Clockblocker, though, could see exactly what she meant.
"You saw Contract's civilian face and your power told you who she was. And you guessed that the Protectorate would be watching for threats like that. So you decided to come in, before we came hunting for you."
As weird as it might sound, knowing that Lisa had come to them for her own purposes was the last bit that Clockblocker needed to be able to trust her story. It made everything line up, make sense, and he had needed that.
Lisa was reluctantly nodding. Clockblocker was reminded of himself, when he'd first realized he was going to have to be more mature if he wanted to be a team leader. It was so hard not to be snarky, to control your thoughts and your expressions. Lisa was right to be wary while she was surrounded by potential enemies, but Clockblocker had the sense that she was actually forcing herself to hold back for other reasons.
"My power guessed that even if I wasn't in danger from the Protectorate, I might be in danger from Coil. More danger, I mean. I've never been able to lie to him successfully. And he would want you," she tacked on, addressing Contract. "If he could find a way to control you, he'd definitely want you."
Contract snorted. "Good luck to him."
Lisa's eyes widened, and Contract's eyebrows and forehead drew down in a way that Clockblocker read as her narrowing her eyes behind her mask. "What did you just see?" he demanded of Lisa, before Contract could do so and possibly give more away.
Lisa gulped, glanced at Contract, but after a moment she answered Clockblocker. "Someone has tried to control you before. Several someones." She trailed off, but Clockblocker sensed that there was more.
"Spit it out."
Lisa shook her head. "Contract interferes with my power. I get bad data. Wrong answers."
"How can you know?" Intrepid asked, cautious.
Lisa sighed, but answered. "Well, I'm pretty sure Contract has never been kidnapped by the CUI." She used a hand to rub her forehead, and spoke with her eyes closed. "The first time I saw you, my power told me that you were fifteen, twenty two, and twenty nine. You'd become Deaf recently, and had been Deaf for several years."
Reluctantly, Lisa opened her eyes and looked at Contract. Clockblocker wondered if closing her eyes had been a defense mechanism to try not to read more. It was lucky, too, because that last observation actually sounded pretty close to the truth, and if Contract hadn't been kidnapped by the CUI she had spent time being tortured at the hands of some sort of shadowy organization. Even if Tattletale couldn't read Contract, she might have read the truth of the rest of it from the other Wards.
Lisa was still speaking to Contract, apparently unaware of the shock Clockblocker and his team was trying to control. "The more I accidentally read, the more I get impossible or contradictory answers. That's how I guessed who you were. I wondered who would be immune to my power, and realized that the PHO rumors are true: you're thinker resistant."
Contract nodded. "I also tend to mess with precogs. But neither of those will help us against Coil." She sounded perfectly calm, unfazed by the fact that she wasn't nearly as thinker-resistant as Lisa seemed to think she was.
Lisa slumped in relief. "Then you'll help me?"
Contract turned to him, since it was his decision as team leader, and Clockblocker nodded decisively, forcing his thoughts back on track. "I've heard enough to continue the investigation. Does anyone disagree?"
Because this was a closed, confidential investigation, regulations required that all team members in the know be given regular opportunities to voice concerns. It was a way to try to prevent vigilantism, although it was far from perfect. Still, better than nothing.
There were no objections, so Clockblocker nodded again to express his thanks, and got subtle nods back from his teammates as he looked back towards Lisa. "You and I need to sign some paperwork to register you as a confidential informant. Paper copies only, for now, so you won't be in any system, but we need to do this by this book."
He stood up, and Lisa followed him over to the smaller, segregated office. Clockblocker had to force himself to breathe steadily. As soon as paperwork was done and Armsmaster was briefed, they'd be able to grill Lisa for details on Coil.
Then the real fun would begin.