Two months.
It took me two god damned months to pull off this job.
Two months of research on the director, of every book I could find, of getting the needed resources, of getting the electronics and of finding moments of time where Piggot was not under surveillance. Finding out her schedule and tracking her with out being caught.
My new tinker powers came with hacking capabilities but flying under the radar was hard. Fucking Dragon was good, damned good and liked playing guardian angel, but this had to happen Piggot the Bigot had to fucking go.
Why you ask? Why systematically frame her? Because the PRT was riddled with problems, Coil's people who were on the take. The empire, the Azn bad boys, even the fucking Merchants had a guy on inside. In the Merchants case it was a PRT agent who liked his whores and liked to talk to them.
Idiot.
This wasn't the majority of agents but I'd say 5% of the force was compromised and that was fucking unacceptable. I had devices I could ask, crystal balls that told probable futures, and Piggot never fucking listened to me.
With her axed due to corruption charges they were going to shake the local PRT hard, and that meant taking out a valuable source of power for Coil. My ultimate target. The man who I wanted dead.
I have devices that could alter peoples dreams, put in false memories, but killing people with sympathetic magic took knowledge I didn't have. Which brings me to Taylor, she's good, damned good and at this stage emotionally vulnerable enough where I could influence her.
She was angry. She was mad at the entire world and I was going to use that. Telling her that I was after the girls who shoved her in the locker that was the first step, but I needed to bring her in. So I used money, I made her feel important like her suffering meant something.
But she still did not trust me, she still was not opening up to me, and I wanted her on my side. I also wanted to test my 'evidence'. Our little lunch date got her on board with me.
The girls who's lives I destroyed? They're the price of doing business. Taylor got skilled with her bugs. She learned how to spy on people. She learned how to be subtle, but she was getting frustrated and I was losing her.
The tapes worked, after that she would believe anything. It took the whole Dinah mess to get Coil on her shit list. This, well now it was personal from the word go. To drive in my point and bridge a further connection I gave her the copy of her mother's notes.
It took me three days to fake those, to get the hand writing right to age them just right. Im going through questioning now, they want to be sure that I'm telling the truth.
I've got a ring of deceit implanted under my skin so I don't fuck this up. I have memorized my story and gone over it a hundred times. I also made damned sure that I altered Piggot and the girls memories just enough to make sure they failed the lie detectors but not enough where Master/Stranger protocols were enacted.
The times of the frame ups had to match perfectly. Every thing had to match perfectly. It took some thinker drugs from some earth bet books to pull this off. Armsmaster has me hooked up to a list of devices and I'm passing, I'm keeping calm and I have this facade down pat.
Its finally over, I don't let my excitement show, this is what I have worked so very hard for. What I have slaved for. He slumps, his eyes open in a kind of despair and grief. I can sense some anger in there too.
"Its true..."
He's seething now, he visibly calms himself.
"You can go now Compass."
"Do you need anything else?"
"No, you have done more then enough for this city. Its a lot to take in."
I nodded, I saw them search Piggot's place with my crystal ball. You have any idea how many copies of Indiana Jones I had to go through to get all that Nazi gold? How difficult it was to get the suitcase clean them. Get the DNA evidence and right prints on them?
I'm never going to be able to pull this off again, I know that. I got away with it because I was a total unknown and I had a crap load of time to just dedicate to this project, but by god there will be a house cleaning after this.
"Compass."
"Taylor, how are you doing?"
I learned how to get my voice to show just enough concern, to my surprise some of it was real. The girl grew on you after awhile like a dorky little sister.
"The police came into Winslow today."
Good.
"Looks like I owe you 15 thousand dollars."
"It's not necessary."
Time to earn her trust, so that I can set a pissed of bug warlord on Coil.
"I made a promise to you Taylor, and I keep my promises. Tell you what I will take you some place to eat to celebrate. Anywhere you want ok?"
Her dad was working late and we met up in a burger joint, the burgers were greasy and filled with calories. I paid, for them. Taylor ate her meal delicately.
"So, are you dating any one?"
"No."
"Oh, why not?"
Because I have plans and a world to save and I am willing to go to any lengths to save it. Even lie to a 15 year old girl, frame three girls for murder, and one of the most powerful people in the city. I felt every single day pass away like a death sentence.
I looked into Taylor's eyes there was hope there and I was simply not interested but I needed her help. I took her hands and stared into her eyes.
"I made a promise when I found your mother's notes. I will not date any one until your mother is avenged. If I went back on that I would be insulting her memory."
Taylor looked sad, I let her hands go.
"I understand."
There isn't any time for guilt, I couldn't think of these people as people. I was playing chess with a god and if he won trillions of people would die.
"We will catch him Taylor, by any means necessary."
And I meant every word of that.