Alan read the final page of the document, then lowered it to the table and looked at his wife with a long sigh. "Is this really necessary?" he asked somewhat hopelessly.
She met his eyes directly and he could see the pain in them. "I think it is, yes," she replied in a quiet voice. "It's only for a couple of weeks at first. We'll see how she gets on, and what the doctors say. They'll be able to assess her progress and tell us if they think a longer stay is warranted. One possibility is a week there, a week here, for a while." Zoe shrugged a bit helplessly. "She needs care we can't give her at home, not twenty four hours a day seven days a week. The doctor thinks that, if it goes well, in a couple of months she might be well enough to come home again for good, with regular sessions a few times a week. But she said no matter what it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of time to get Emma back to a place where she's able to function normally."
"Oh, god," he said, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyelids. "If only I'd done something at the time…"
She reached out and took one of his hands in hers, leaning closer to him and making him look into her eyes again. "Yes, you should have done something at the time. I should have done something at the time. But neither of us realized how bad it was, and from what the doctor said, even if we'd got her into therapy immediately, she'd probably have still had a lot of problems. That little bitch Hess did a lot more damage and without her I doubt we'd have had poor Taylor dragged into all this like she was, but Emma was never going to just get over it without any problems. She was traumatized far past what a girl that age should ever be and she's…" Zoe shook her head, her face showing her distress. Swallowing, she went on, "She's not the strongest person in the face of that sort of thing. It was a horrible, ghastly experience that would have crushed a lot of adults, never mind a fourteen year old girl with a sheltered upbringing."
Half-smiling, she added after a moment as he considered her words, "Ironically Taylor undoubtedly has a stronger mind in the face of adversity. She would have handled it a lot better, I think. As she did with Annette's death. And all the things that have happened to the poor child since then. Emma's not a bad person at heart, but she's not mentally equipped to cope with rough circumstances in the same way Taylor is. But it's too late for recriminations. We can only deal with the situation as it is, not how we'd like it to be."
Leaning on him, she sighed. "Honestly, while in the back of my mind I think I should blame you, I can't. Because it's not your fault. If I blamed you, I'd have to blame myself equally. I do, to a degree, but… all of us missed what was happening right in front of us, and Emma was going to a lot of trouble to hide it from us anyway. Ultimately the real blame is Sophia for talking Emma into her little cult of two, and more than anyone else that fucking school for simply abandoning their responsibilities to children."
"And the goddamn PRT," he growled.
"Oh, yes, I'm not even slightly happy with them," she replied in a hard voice. "I want the people responsible to burn. But that part is in the hands of Danny and Michelle and I'm more than happy to leave it to them. Our job is supporting our daughter for as long as it takes to get her back from the dark place she ended up. No matter what it takes."
He nodded slowly, before picking up a pen and signing the document below his wife's signature. "Agreed." Dropping the pen on the paperwork he leaned back on the sofa. "I'm so sorry, Zoe."
"So am I, Alan. But we'll get through this as a family. I have faith in us." She put her arm around him and held him as he quietly cried, looking up a little later to see their eldest daughter watching them. Gesturing, she waited for Anne to sit on her other side and held her as well. Outside the evening finally became night as the diminished and grieving family comforted each other.
"OK, everything's set up, Chief," Matt said with a grin, causing Danny to glare at him. "Hey, it's cool being part of U.N.I.O.N. and I intend to have as much fun with it as possible," he added to the mute annoyance.
"My daughter is a bad influence on you all, and the fact that I can think that with a straight face is horrifying," Danny growled. "Stop playing around and give me that thing." He accepted the night vision unit Matt held out and strapped it over his face, the other man doing the same. The discovery of the devices in the haul from the van had been very useful and had made them change the initial plan slightly.
Everyone else present was already wearing a set of the goggles, other than Taylor, who had demurred when offered and said she didn't need them. It had taken him a moment to realize that her ability to look beneath was so effective now she didn't need light at all. He'd tried it himself and was a little startled to see it did actually work, but she was a lot better than he was at the trick and it was less effort to use the NVG equipment. At least for now.
Taylor was standing next to him, Lisa on her other side, and the others arrayed around them. In the room on the other side of the glass the chair was back and everything else had been removed, the van reassembled and vanished into Taylor's storage, while all the equipment that had been in it was now carefully sorted and in a store room behind a heavily locked door. They'd spent some time checking everything for any form of tracker, finding three separate ones including the bomb in the van and another in one of the weapons crates. All of those had also been stuck into hammerspace, which would keep them out of the way and unable to phone home.
"All right, let's see what happens, I suppose," he said, looking at his daughter. She nodded as Kurt turned the lights out, both in there with them and in the other room, leaving only one infrared LED lamp in the ceiling on. All of them turned the goggles they were wearing on as Matt had shown them, a very faint whine sounding for a moment as the high voltage circuit inside charged before it went silent. Through the goggles Danny could clearly make out the room past the window, lit well in shades of green thanks to the light amplification and that LED. The night vision camera that Matt's guys had mounted on the wall above the window inside the room was capable of using the IR light to get a good view too. But anyone in the room wouldn't see a thing.
"I'll bring the first one out," Taylor commented, concentrating. "Let's see… Leave his underwear, but… Ah. There we go." Abruptly there was a large and heavily muscled man wearing only boxers standing in the middle of the room, blinking in shock, with his empty hands held out as if he was holding both a gun and a phone. His head swung about and he staggered, clearly disorientated by the way that from his point of view the scenery had suddenly gone pitch black. Showing commendable reflexes, he almost instantly realized he wasn't holding anything after his hands instinctively closed, lowered one to his side as if he was going for a weapon, then froze when he only touched bare skin.
A moment later he frantically patted himself down, his face showing shock. Taking a step to the side he half turned, before stopping again. "What the fuck is this?" they heard him say in a low angry voice. Very carefully he put his hands out in front of him and waved them around, before starting to move slowly, sliding each foot across the floor but not lifting them. It was a good strategy to avoid falling into a hole that he couldn't see and clearly the result of training. It didn't, however, stop him whacking his shin into the chair with a solid crunch, followed by some vicious albeit quiet swearing.
Lisa made a snorting sound and when he looked at her she was smirking evilly. Considering the circumstances of the last time she'd seen the guy, he felt she was probably justified in her amusement. Looking back, he saw their first captive was now exploring the chair with his hands, apparently working out what it was quite fast. He knelt down after checking there was nothing on the floor and felt under the chair, then ran his fingers over the floor near it, in a wide circle. After a minute or so, he stopped and seemed to carefully listen, his head tilting a little, while slowly turning it.
Danny knew that the room was pretty much totally silent with the door closed and as long as none of them shouted he wouldn't hear anything at all. It was probably extremely disorientating for the guy, and likely to unbalance him quite a bit. They watched as he stood up again and cautiously made his way past the chair, still sliding his feet along, until he found a wall, then spent the next five minutes circumnavigating the room while feeling the wall. Once he stopped having found the door and explored it carefully, giving up when he didn't find a handle, and again when his questing fingers found the window. He tapped it and Danny had to resist tapping back, because it really was kind of funny watching his simultaneously angry and worried expression.
Eventually the mercenary found his way roughly back to where he'd started, apparently having been counting corners, and turned to put his back at the wall. A little longer and he'd located the chair again, after a couple of false starts. Sitting down in it, he cast sightless eyes around the room, finally looking more or less at the window. "So who the fuck are you?" he asked out loud, sounding resigned but annoyed. "PRT? FBI? CIA?"
No one replied, which seemed to make him more annoyed. "Look, this is clearly an interrogation room. I don't know how I ended up here, but someone put me here. What do you want?"
"I'd have expected name, rank, and serial number," Kurt quipped, knowing the man couldn't hear him. "He's obviously military trained."
"He's confused and worried and trying to hide it," Lisa replied immediately, her gaze fixed on the mercenary. "The sudden change from what he was doing to where he is now spooked him a lot. He knows it had to be a Parahuman action, or at least that's the only think he can think it could be, which is giving him nightmares because who knows what a Parahuman might be capable of?"
She didn't seem all that bothered by what she was saying. Which again wasn't surprising.
After a minute or so of listening, the merc tried again. "You want to tell me what's going on? Or are you just going to play mind games?"
Everyone looked at Danny, who shrugged. Reaching out he pressed the talk switch, after glancing at Matt who nodded and indicated a piece of equipment he'd added to the intercom. The audio modulator made his voice sound quite unlike what it really was and hopefully wouldn't give any clue as to his identity. "What is your name?" he asked.
The merc jumped, apparently having been taken by surprise. Controlling himself, he looked around fruitlessly, then shook his head. "Call me Klein."
"Well, Mr Klein, we have some questions for you."
"Of course you do. Why should I answer them?" Klein snapped.
"It would be in your best interest to do so," Danny replied calmly.
"So you say. But if I do answer, what's in it for me?"
"We turn you over to an appropriate law enforcement organization."
Klein laughed. "That's a hell of an incentive. What happens if I don't answer?"
After a pause, Danny leaned closer to the mic and said very deliberately, "We do not turn you over to an appropriate law enforcement organization. You may wish to avoid such a fate."
He released the switch and watched the other man, who despite his expression not changing appeared to swallow a little as his imagination went to work. Lisa made a small amused sound and Taylor grinned. Matt and Kurt both chuckled. "Very ominous, Dad," his daughter said admiringly.
After a number of seconds had passed, he pressed the switch again. "We know quite a lot about you, Mr Klein. You are a mercenary working for Coil, in Brockton Bay. You were ordered to kidnap a young woman from the street, force her to talk to your employer, and if necessary eliminate her. Your squad of ten men was equipped with military specification hardware, including a number of weapons appropriated from both the US and Canadian armed forces. Coil employs more mercenaries than you and your companions."
Klein listened impassively. "You've done your homework," he commented when Danny stopped talking.
"Yes," Danny replied. "Why were you attempting to kidnap the girl?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"Why would you not tell me? Loyalty to your employer? Coil doesn't seem to be the sort of person who particularly inspires loyalty."
"Money is a good substitute," the other man remarked, almost smiling for a second.
"I'm sure it is, up to a point, but you need to be able to spend it." Danny kept his voice calm through long experience and much practice. "Do you think that at this moment in time that's very likely to happen?"
Klein didn't respond, merely folding his arms and looking straight ahead.
"It might interest you to know that Coil planted a fairly impressive bomb on the gas tank of your van. A remote triggered one."
That got a reaction, the man visibly jerking slightly.
"Is your loyalty to your employer and his bank balance enough to live with the knowledge that he was prepared to kill your entire squad if necessary?" Danny asked. "Do you really think he actually cares about you, rather than what you do for him? From where I'm standing it looks like you were all expendable."
"A lot of talk and no proof," Klein replied after a pause when Danny stopped again. "You can say anything you like. I've got no way to know if any of it is true, and no reason to believe you."
Danny nodded to Taylor, who made the bomb she'd remove appear in the other room, the actual explosives removed from it along with the detonator. Kurt, at Danny's signal, tapped a switch and a small spotlight turned on, illuminating the floor in a circle of light with the bomb in the middle. Klein swore and closed his eyes, opening them very slowly and carefully to allow them to adjust. He stared at the thing with an expression of considerable surprise on his face before he was able to control it. By the look of it, he recognized the device, or at least what it was. "It's been disarmed now, of course. Ten pounds of C4 with a remote trigger," Danny commented. "Right under the floor. You were probably sitting directly over it. If he'd sent the signal…" He let the sentence trail off meaningfully.
Klein swallowed again.
"Your employer is not someone who has your best interests in mind, Mr Klein," he went on after a moment. "And I strongly suspect that if you happened to end up back in his hands, he might well decide that the reward of failing your mission was not so much a bonus as a rather sudden retirement."
"Who are you people?" the mercenary said after a second or two. Kurt turned the light off and Taylor made the defused bomb disappear again, causing him to noticeably twitch in reaction.
"I'm afraid that information is on a need to know basis, Mr Klein, and you don't need to know," Danny replied. "Now, are you prepared to answer our questions, or do we try one of your compatriots? We have your entire squad in custody and sooner or later someone will tell us what we want to know. The ones who talk… well… we will be less irritated with them than the ones who insist on staying quiet." His voice was filled with as much quiet menace as he could muster, which made the others look at him with odd expressions. "Do you want to be one of those we are more irritated with, or one we are less irritated with?
He was a little worried he was overdoing it, but judging by the way the man was shifting in his chair, it seemed to be working. Despite any counter-interrogation training he'd probably had, the sudden change in circumstances had clearly unnerved him a lot, as had the bomb.
The other man didn't respond, but he was clearly looking around for a way out of the situation he'd found himself in and very much not liking his chances right now. "How many mercenaries does Coil have working for him?" Danny pressed. "Twenty? Forty? More?"
Lisa, who was staring hard at the man as Danny questioned him, whispered, "Forty six. My power tells me that's the total number."
Danny nodded, then hit the switch again. "Ah, your squad and thirty six more. Thank you. Now, what is Coil's location? Where is his base?"
Klein opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, then shouted, "Who are you?"
"Somewhere in the commercial district, downtown," Lisa said quietly, not looking away from him but gently rubbing her forehead. "Most likely underground."
"An underground base in the commercial district, Mr Klein? Isn't that rather cliched for a super-villian?" Danny grinned as the man glared frantically around.
"If you already know all this why are you asking these stupid questions?" Klein snarled, sounding furious.
"We wish to confirm our information," Danny told him. "Now, what is Coil's power? Is he actually a Parahuman at all?"
"Yeah, he's definitely a Parahuman," Lisa said after some twenty seconds during which their guest folded his arms and sulked, glowering more or less in their direction. "Thinker of some sort… I need more information, but he's a Thinker, that much I'm sure of."
"Your power is ridiculous," Kurt commented from behind Lisa, sounding rather impressed. She grinned at him under the NVG.
"I know," she replied. "Sometimes it's stupid and comes up with the exact wrong answers, if it starts from the wrong place, but when I have enough data, it really does work amazingly well. And it's sure cooperating right now for some reason. More than ever before. But I still need more."
"We've got time, and nine more to talk to, so we should be able to arrange that," Michelle said, having been listening with interest. "Try not to make any threats too blatant in case we need to give the recordings to the authorities at some point. We're skating the edge of legality as it is, although the vigilante laws would apply as long as we don't go overboard."
"Do we get to confiscate their stuff under those laws?" Kurt asked, sounding interested. "Because they had some really nice kit. It would be much better in the hands of U.N.I.O.N."
She chuckled slightly while Danny sighed. "I'll have to double check, but the law is broad enough that with some care we can most likely turn it to our benefit. I would strongly suggest that any purloined military firearms at least should be arranged to be returned to their original owners. Leaving aside the legality of possessing fully automatic weapons, if they've been used in crimes, we certainly don't want them traceable back to us."
"I know a few names I could probably work out something through," Matt remarked. Danny nodded.
"I've got a couple of people in mind too, for that matter. We'll look at that when we're done."
"Just think of all the other cool toys Coil will have in his base, Dad," Taylor said with a rather too eager grin. Lisa started chortling. "We'll have so much stuff when we take it all away from him."
"Oh, lord," Danny sighed, shaking his head. "Try to keep your kleptomania under control, Agent Gimme." She cracked up, as did Lisa, and even Kurt was snorting with laughter. When they'd all calmed down, he pressed the talk button again. "My apologies, Mr Klein. Now, where were we? Oh, yes, what specifically is Coil's Thinker ability?"
Klein swore loudly, but Danny kept asking questions, Lisa's power filling in a lot more blanks than it probably should have been able to. Parahuman powers truly were completely ridiculous, he thought as their interrogation continued. But at times exceptionally useful. This whole process would have been much more tedious the old fashioned way...
"I have to say I can't really see any way in which we come out of this smelling of roses, if it gets to the point of going to court," Emily commented, looking around the table. "We can certainly confuse the issue a lot, but in the end we have to admit that Sophia did all the things she's been accused of, and the Hebert's and Barnes' can prove it. They've got nearly a month of extremely incriminating audio recordings gathered completely legally, along with the testimony of both Taylor Hebert and Emma Barnes. And they know damn well that she's Shadow Stalker, that the school administration and our own fucking staff were conspiring to hide evidence… We don't really have anything we can use to fight that."
"As this involved a Ward, we do have more options than we otherwise might," Glenn began.
Emily shook her head, cutting him off. "Not in any useful way. We can't use an NDA to cover this up, we've been over that. We can probably use an NDA to stop them talking about any settlement, if they're willing to sign one and if they're willing to settle in the first place. Considering everything that's happened, I sure wouldn't want to assume either of those things would be true. I don't care what the Chief Director wants, there are limits to what we can actually do. Certainly without risking making the problem much worse. If she wants to come here and try talking to them directly she's perfectly welcome to try but I'm almost certain they'll laugh in her face. I know I would if I was in their shoes."
"The PR hit this could end up being is appalling," he grumbled, wiping sweat from his brow with a handkerchief then shoving it back in his pocket. "You have no idea how hard it will be to fix that."
"That's not my job," she shrugged. "My job is to try to stop this fucking city from going up in flames with no resources and no help from outside. Which so far I've managed to do, more or less, despite everything. I'm never sure precisely how. A hell of a lot of luck and some very competent people is most of it." She looked around at the others present, then back to him. "Despite our differences, everyone here has done a very good job in the face of insane difficulties."
"A PR disaster won't make that any easier," he pointed out rather acidly.
"Agreed. Which is why I'd prefer to stop trying to find some way to avoid the whole situation, which in my opinion we're not going to manage short of a miracle, and instead figure out some way to minimize the inevitable damage," she snapped. "If that requires paying the Heberts and the Barnes' pretty much anything they want and burning Winslow to the ground, I'm willing to do it. I can guarantee you it will cost less and cause less damage than fucking around and finding out just how far they're willing to go to shove the knife in. From what I know about Danny Hebert, that's a hell of a long way. I looked him up. He's not someone you want on your back. All those fucking dock workers are nuts at the best of times."
Glenn sighed. "The Chief Director isn't going to be happy about this."
"Do I look like I have any fucks left to give?" she demanded. "And may I remind you that as far as I can see she tried throwing you under the bus too, or was that idiotic idea you opened with yours after all?"
He flushed a little. "No, that was certainly not my idea," he growled. "I agree it was idiotic and only likely to end up making this entire disaster worse. All I'm saying is that the Chief Director is going to push back hard on just settling with the Heberts. It sets a bad precedent."
"She'd prefer a precedent be set that the PRT tried and failed to suppress the repercussions caused by criminal actions including murder and conspiracy by one of their Wards due to public relations desires?" Sommers, who had been listening carefully while looking irritated, inquired with a sarcastic tone to his voice. "That seems to be a suboptimal solution at best."
Glenn turned a glare on the lawyer, which had no visible effect at all. His own pair of legal people exchanged glances.
"I would suggest that we appear to have reached a stalemate," Armsmaster put in calmly a moment later. "We have been arguing the same points repeatedly for far longer than seems sensible and are no closer to a decision. Director Piggot has made her case, and frankly I agree with it. Mr Chambers does not, although he also appears to believe that what Chief Director Costa-Brown wants is unachievable. Which I also agree with. We can't afford to waste several more days going over the same arguments only to still end up where we are now. It's already taken two days to get here, which is where we were an hour after you arrived. This is an inefficient use of all our time."
"So what do you think we should do?" Glenn demanded, turning to the Tinker.
"Arrange to discuss the case directly with the Heberts and the Barnes' via their legal representative," he replied. "We can ask them what it would take for them to be satisfied regarding the lawsuit against the PRT. It's possible that they will demand the case go to court, in which case we're no worse off than we currently are. Alternatively they may be open to settling out of court, as the Director has said a number of times. If so, we can find out what would make that feasible from their point of view and see about arranging it. I can't see many options that would make this more damaging than a court case, in which all the facts of the case would come out. There's no practical way to prevent most of the fallout that would create."
"She's really not going to like that," Glenn muttered.
"She will have to learn to live with the disappointment," Armsmaster replied mildly, causing Miss Militia to cough slightly, then turn her head away.
"Anyone else have any other idea?" Emily asked, looking around the table. "Or do you also agree with Armsmaster and me?"
Sutton nodded, as did Miss Militia and Renick. "I honestly can't think of anything else to do," the latter remarked. "Certainly nothing that won't risk making things much worse."
She turned back to Chambers. "Seems to me we all basically agree. Even you."
He nodded heavily. "Damn it, that girl is more trouble than she's worth," he mumbled under his breath.
"Tell me about it," Emily growled. "We warned you. Next time, hopefully you'll listen." She looked at her watch. "I've got another appointment, so I'm calling this meeting done. Sutton, arrange something with the Hebert's lawyer. The sooner we get this finished, the sooner we can get back to real work."
He nodded, making some notes on his pad. She stood up with a suppressed grunt of pain, and turned to Glenn, who was looking peeved. "You did what you could, but this was never going to go how the Chief Director wanted," she said. "It was too late for that the moment that damn girl got caught by the PD."
The man sighed, nodding slightly. "You're probably right, but this is not going to be easy to explain."
"Good luck with that," she replied, almost smiling, before she made her way out of the room and headed back to her office, thinking dark thoughts about certain of her superiors and how they seemed to lack the basic ability to think through the consequences of their actions.
It was a common problem in her experience, and very irritating indeed.
Lisa's head was aching quite a lot by the time they'd finished questioning all ten mercenaries. Taylor had brought each one out of wherever she was keeping them one at a time, their reactions ranging from the relatively sensible one Klein had shown to absolute frothing rage and threats from a couple of them, who seemed to not really enjoy having the tables turned on them so effectively. She didn't particularly give a crap herself, considering what she'd gone through and who they worked for. Her power, which was still being weirdly cooperative and far more effective than she'd ever experienced, had pretty much told her flat out that every single one of the mercs had done things that would get them at a minimum a very long jail sentence. At least four of them had committed multiple murders in cold blood, and not one was innocent of serious crimes.
Coil himself, the more she learned about him, looked more and more dangerous not only to her, but to anyone who got in his way. He certainly wouldn't have stopped at kidnapping her, or anyone else he decided he needed for his plans. What those plans were she wasn't sure but they were highly unlikely to be beneficial.
She was damn sure that Taylor's intervention had saved her from a very unpleasant fate, and felt extremely grateful to the girl and her father, as well as all these other crazy dock workers. Who seemed far more effective at what they were doing than they should have been. It was pretty obvious that there were some interesting backstories among them, based on what she'd picked up and seen so far.
U.N.I.O.N., although a joke, seemed to have a certain amount of truth to it. No matter what Danny said…
Which was absolutely hilarious, for some reason.
Right now they were standing in the shielded room again examining all the other gear the mercs had been outfitted with, which Taylor had stripped from them while they'd been questioned. It added to the large amount they'd retrieved from the van. Each man had carried a machine gun, along with at least one pistol, several knives, some grenades as well as flash-bangs, radios, phones, and a surprising number of other things. Lisa was slightly surprised they were able to stand up with all that on their persons, but clearly they were well trained and fit.
Bastards, but competent ones, she thought with some irritation.
"Yeah, these are definitely military issue too, Danny," Gary, the guy who'd ID'd the original batch of weapons, said as he held out an assault rifle. "I'm guessing probably from a National Guard stockpile. Might be regular Army but NG is more likely, and easier for some bastard to knock over. Two more guns that are definitely from the Canadian forces, which is really going to piss them off. That's eight so far from over the border, and over a dozen from our guys. And a shitload of ammo."
"And two anti-tank missiles, don't forget," Matt put in, glancing at the large pile of olive green boxes stacked up to the side, all with stenciled codes on them. "Not to mention enough grenades to make Oni Lee look envious."
"I still can't believe they needed all that to catch one teenaged girl," Kurt commented, grinning at Lisa. "Even someone like you."
"Hey, I'm slippery," she laughed.
"Apparently so," he nodded. "Glad of it. It's kept you alive."
"Yeah." Lisa sighed a little. "Right up to when it nearly didn't."
"They probably just have a standard loadout for their vehicles, and keep all that to hand just in case," Matt said. "The thing's set up as a mobile armory and command post. Lots of computers too. Better equipped than some of the stuff we had when I served. Whoever Coil really is, he's got deep pockets."
Lisa was still working on that particular question. None of the mercenaries had known his real identity, as he was clearly extremely careful to keep it to himself, which wasn't really surprising all things considered. But at the same time he absolutely had to have some impressively effective contacts, and/or an exceptionally powerful ability, to have acquired all this equipment and a small army without arousing sufficient suspicion that the PRT tracked him down. Which implied all manner of rather worrying possibilities…
"We found two more trackers hidden in some of the equipment," the ex-marine continued, holding up a couple of webbing pouches that were meant to hold loaded magazines. "He really is a paranoid bastard. I'm guessing that all the phones are also reporting their position all the time. No way to be absolutely certain without dumping their contents and checking carefully, but it's the safest thing to assume. Might be the same thing with these radios. They're really good high end digital ones, which means they could have almost anything buried in the software."
"These are about two thousand bucks each," Kurt said, picking one up from the pile of them on top of one of the ammo crates. "He didn't skimp on the good toys."
"No, he sure as shit didn't," Gary agreed, holding up the rifle again. "I figured out what this thing is." He pointed at the underslung device that all the weapons had fitted, which was a tube about a foot long with fins running around it. At the muzzle end there was what looked like a lens, and as Taylor had originally noticed, there was some sort of battery pack at the other end, wrapped around it and extending down a little. "It's not an over the top flashlight, it's a laser. A fucking powerful one. Tinker tech for sure. Probably Toybox, they're about the only group I've heard of that mass produce this sort of stuff and sell it. God alone knows how much they cost but if it's less than fifty grand apiece I'll eat one."
"Which means nearly a million dollars worth of the fucking things," Matt said, whistling through his teeth. "Can we keep those?"
Danny rubbed his forehead with a pained expression. "Why are you all looking at me?" he complained.
"You're the Chief, Chief," Taylor said with a bit of a smirk, causing him to sigh heavily.
"This place is getting worse…" he mumbled. "I need a drink. Put all this away and we'll call it a night. I think we've learned all we can right now, and we'll have to think about what our next move is."
"Find Coil, steal Coil, go out for a triumphant meal at Mrs Miggen's pie shop?" his daughter suggested cheerfully. He gave her a hard look.
"You have been watching far too much TV," he sighed as Lisa laughed. "At least you watch the classics. And don't get too overconfident just yet. That will only lead to problems. We need to be careful whatever we do."
"Got it, Chief. Careful is our watchword," Taylor cried, snapping off a salute. Everyone else grinned as Danny shook his head.
"Make it go away, stop talking, and let's go home," he said, waving at the piles of weapons and equipment. Moments later the room was empty, which Lisa still found remarkable. Taylor hadn't apparently even looked at most of it.
Her power was watching everything her new friend did incredibly closely, she was absolutely convinced of that. It gave the impression of having found the best toy ever.
Which was just peculiar.
Although if it resulted in only a reasonably mild headache rather than crippling migraines, she'd take whatever it was up to without hesitation.
Everyone trooped out of the shielded room, Kurt pulling the door shut as he went through it. Lisa followed as the whole collection of people went back across the courtyard into the other building and wound their way through the maze of corridors, until they finally ended up at some sort of cafeteria. It was nearly eleven at night but a fair number of people were sitting around the large room eating, drinking, and chatting in low voices. Several of them looked up as the new group arrived, waving at them, before going back to what they were doing. She joined Taylor, Michelle, and Danny as they found a free table and sat down, Kurt coming over with a tray covered in cups of tea and coffee a minute later. Everyone selected a drink and he took what was left around the others who'd been working on the mercenary issue, before joining Matt and Larry. They were immediately involved in a conversation over some notes they'd made.
Looking back to her companions, Lisa sipped her coffee, then smiled. It was actually very good. "Now what?" she queried.
"We've accumulated a lot of information about Coil, his operation, his location, and who else is working for him," Michelle replied after looking around at the others. "We know his base is underground, and where it is. We also know he's got forty six mercenaries in total, leaving thirty six plus him, plus three medical staff. And that he's got a substantial armory, which is rather worrying."
"He's got to have some highly placed contacts, either working with him or being blackmailed by him," Danny suggested thoughtfully. "I can't see how he could have acquired all that equipment without being able to pull some strings. It's way past the normal black market stuff the gangs usually use. He's got some brand new milspec gear, stolen weapons, high tech night vision stuff… Even the E88 don't have those resources to just hand out to anyone who wants it. And his mercs are another thing… He's got a lot of money behind him to afford that many trained people and equip them so well."
"Rich and connected," Lisa nodded. "That limits the possibilities quite a lot."
"Ex-government, maybe?" Taylor asked, her brow furrowed. Everyone looked at her, then each other. She shrugged. "It makes sense. If he'd worked for the government, maybe in the Army or something, he'd know who to talk to or pay off for all his equipment. And probably know how to contact those mercenaries. I doubt you just put an ad in the paper for heavily armed and highly trained ex-military guys."
"That's a good point, yes," Danny nodded. "You'd need to know who to talk to for people like that. There are a lot around these days, since the military's shrunk so much over the years, but even so they don't tend to make themselves obvious. The equipment is sure not easily available either."
"I wonder what part of the government? And what his goal is in the city? Brockton Bay is hardly the likely place to find someone going to all this trouble to create his own private military. He'd sooner or later have trouble with one of the gangs, or the PRT, or both. I'd have expected it would be more likely in a larger city without such a high level of Parahuman activity, and a better economy. New York, or Miami, for example." Michelle was tapping a finger on the table as she thought out loud.
"Maybe they're too obvious," Taylor suggested. "Or they have too much competition. And the PRT is a lot more effective in most of that sort of place. Around here they hardly do anything at all over half the city, so maybe it's actually easier for whatever it is he wants to do."
"You may be right, Taylor," the lawyer replied with a nod. "We don't know enough to be sure of his motives, other than that they don't appear to be in any way beneficial. At least for anyone other than him."
"As far as which part of the government," Danny remarked after a few seconds, "It has to be something fairly connected to the military. Army, National Guard, Coast Guard, Air Force, Navy even. Or some intelligence agency, like the CIA maybe. God knows those guys do this sort of shit all the time, although usually outside the US. Who else…" He thought, as did the others.
"There's one obvious one you didn't mention, Danny," Michelle said rather quietly. They looked at her, Lisa working it out even before she said it.
"The PRT?"
"Yes." Michelle looked at her and nodded. "In some ways I'd think that was the most likely of all. The PRT is… porous. And considerably larger than most federal agencies these days. They have a fairly high turnover for a number of reasons, and are spread out all over the country."
"Fuck." Danny looked worried, but not as surprised as he might have done, and Taylor was wearing an annoyed expression. "That makes more sense than I like."
"Coil's a Parahuman, and the PRT does have contact with more Parahumans than just about anyone," Taylor pointed out with a scowl.
Lisa's power prodded her helpfully, having apparently figured something out.
Coil is former PRT operative
Coil was highly placed in organization
Coil is still connected to organization
Coil has informants active within PRT
Coil likely to discover any information relayed to PRT
PRT must not learn of anti-Coil operation until Coil disabled
'Damn it. So we have no choice, we have to deal with him ourselves,' she thought, not entirely surprised.
Correct
'You are extremely chatty these days,' Lisa sighed mentally, still freaked out a bit by how her power seemed to answer direct questions sometimes in a way that implied it was a lot more independent than she'd ever thought possible. The sensation of smug amusement she got back from somewhere she couldn't discern didn't reduce that at all.
"My power just told me that Coil is someone who used to be a PRT operative of some sort," she said out loud, making them exchange glances. "And that he's still got moles there, and is still somehow connected to them too. If we let the PRT know any of this, he'll find out pretty quickly."
"That is… awkward," Danny growled. Taylor looked very irritated too. Lisa had worked out some time ago that they weren't entirely happy with the PRT, even beyond the common mild antipathy much of the outlying areas of the city had towards the organization for several quite understandable reasons. Some sort of legal case, her power told her, although she'd deliberately not pushed as she felt it wasn't really her place to know. Which, admittedly, was somewhat out of character for her, she knew that full well, but she also felt that they deserved the discretion considering what they'd done for her. So she was going to some effort to suppress her normal inquisitiveness.
It was a struggle, but she was sticking to it. Even her power seemed pleased for some weird reason. Possibly it didn't want to upset Taylor and risk losing out on the data it so much seemed to want.
"It explains a lot, though, assuming Lisa is correct," Michelle responded, watching her with interest. "I have no reason to believe otherwise as her ability appears to be very effective. I don't suppose it tells you how he's connected to them?"
"Not yet, still not quite enough data," she replied after prodding her ability and getting a sort of shrug back. "Fairly high up, so more than a trooper or squad leader, I'd think. Maybe an analyst of some sort, considering he's a Thinker? I guess he might have Triggered and had to leave or something?"
"Or went into business for himself after getting powers," Danny mused. "We don't know enough to do more than guess right now. And it probably doesn't matter either, not at the moment. What it does mean is that we can't dump those mercs on the PRT so we'll have to hang onto them for now."
"That's not a problem, they'll keep where they are, but sooner or later I want to get rid of them," his daughter replied. "We still don't know the best way to hand them over yet either. I'd prefer to avoid getting involved with the PRT any more than we absolutely have to."
"Yeah, I think we all would, for obvious reasons," Danny nodded. "We'll figure that out when we have to." He finished his coffee and put the cup down, then yawned. "Not tonight, certainly." He looked at Lisa, then Taylor, the girl nodding. "Lisa, if you would like, we have a guest room you're welcome to use."
Lisa studied him, then nodded. "Thank you. I think I'd like that."
"No problem." He stood up, as did the others. "I'll see you tomorrow, Michelle."
"All right, Danny. Lisa, it was nice to meet you, and hopefully you'll find yourself in a better place than you were before Taylor ran across you," the lawyer said, looking at Lisa. She smiled at her, waved to Taylor and her father, then headed out of the cafeteria.
"Got everything you need?" Danny asked Lisa.
"Yeah, everything I need is here." She hefted the small gym bag Kate had given her shortly before they started questioning mercenaries, which contained the new clothes that had been acquired for her along with some other necessities. The only thing she missed from her previous accommodation was the rather battered laptop she'd stolen, which she could easily replace. Her phone was turned off in her pocket, as she couldn't be sure Coil wasn't able to track it, and there was always the possibility that the same was true of her laptop. She'd have to buy new ones of both when she got the opportunity, once they'd dealt with the villain.
"Great. Let's go, then. I'm ready for bed. It's been a long day."
Lisa, Taylor, and Danny left the room and went along yet more corridors, finally emerging into the cold night from a door that led into a large snow-covered concrete yard with a number of vehicles parked near the building. Danny headed for one of the cars, unlocking it and getting in. Taylor opened the rear door and waved grandly. "Your car awaits."
"Thank you kindly," Lisa grinned, climbing in and putting her seat belt on. Taylor closed the door and hopped into the passenger seat. Moments later they were driving off, Danny waving to the guy at the gate who waved back and opened it.
The trip to the Hebert house only took about fifteen minutes. By the time they reached it Lisa was starting to run out of steam, the day finally catching up with her. From her point of view she'd been going for nearly twenty four hours and was pretty much done. Sleep sounded like the best idea she'd ever had. Even so, she was awake enough to follow Taylor upstairs to a room at the end of the hallway, which the other girl opened. Going inside, Taylor quickly made the single bed that was in there, pulling sheets and blankets from the cupboard. Lisa leaned tiredly on the wall and watched, feeling ready to fall over. Even the coffee she'd had earlier had stopped working.
"There. That should do it. The bathroom is across the hall next to Dad's room, mine is next door if you need anything. Help yourself to anything in the fridge downstairs if you get hungry."
"To be honest the moment I lie down I'm going to pass out," Lisa replied, almost unable to keep her eyes open. "Do you have any painkillers? Ibuprofen, something like that?"
"Sure, hold on a minute, I'll be right back." Taylor moved past her and went into the bathroom as Lisa sat on the bed and took her sneakers off. By the time she'd finished, the other girl had returned, a couple of tablets in one hand and a glass of water in the other. Lisa accepted both gratefully, and swallowed the tablets, washing them down with the entire glassful of water.
"Thanks."
"Bad headache?"
"Nowhere near as bad as it usually is but not ideal," she replied.
Taylor watched her for a second, then smiled. "Sleep well, Lisa," she said quietly.
"I think I will," Lisa responded, smiling back. "And thanks again. For everything. I owe you."
"Nah, forget it, I just did what I had to," the girl who she was thinking of as a friend now said, grinning. "See you in the morning." She waved, then pulled the door closed. Lisa stared at it, shook her head with a small smile, and took her jeans off, then slid under the covers.
She didn't remember lying down, she was asleep so fast.
Yawning, Taylor stretched, then got out of bed, running her hands through her hair to work out some tangles before she wandered over to the window and moved the curtain aside a little. The morning was still quite dark as it was only seven, dawn having just occurred, but she could see that the on and off again snow had finally stopped falling. The sky seemed to be clearing up, which suggested the weather report the night before had been on the money. They should have a couple of fairly nice but cold days before the next snowstorms swept through.
The girl let go of the curtain and headed for the bathroom, hearing her father downstairs making coffee and starting breakfast. Once she'd had a short shower, brushed her teeth, and done the other usual things, she got dressed and started down herself. As she passed the guest room, the door opened to reveal Lisa, who looked rather bleary eyed. "Hi," the other girl said. "Gah. My head. Need coffee…"
Taylor giggled. "Not a morning person, at a guess?"
"Morning can die in a fire," Lisa grumbled, scratching her head and blinking.
Amused, Taylor indicated over her shoulder. "Bathroom's free, lots of hot water, and I put a new toothbrush and a fresh towel out for you. Come on downstairs when you're ready, breakfast will be waiting."
"Thanks," Lisa mumbled, staggering in that direction. The door to the bathroom closed and Taylor went on her way smiling to herself. She thought it likely that Lisa would perk up quite a bit once she'd had a good shower and some food. The girl had, by her own admission, not really slept very well for weeks, which was entirely understandable, but that sort of thing wasn't going to leave her in a good mental state. Taylor knew that all too well from her own recent experiences, and also had practical experience that once the stress was lifted, you pretty much fell over for a while but felt a hell of a lot better once you'd recovered.
In the kitchen she found her dad faintly whistling to himself as he dug in the fridge, pulling out a few things and putting them on the counter next to it. The oven was warming up and there was a frying pan on the stove. "Morning, Chief," she said brightly, making his head pop up over the door and a pair of eyes fix her with a hard look.
"Stop that, it's getting irritating," he grumbled, causing her to laugh, then went back to foraging. "You are far too cheerful these days. I can't handle it this early in the morning." Despite his words she could hear in his voice that he was in a good mood. Both of them, while they still had things that would take time to resolve, were in a far better position than they'd been for literally years. Even with all the craziness at the DWA, and the Coil problem, and of course the lawsuits, things seemed to have improved out of all recognition in a remarkably short period of time.
Apparently talking to each other actually worked. She wished she'd realized that a lot earlier yet again.
Pouring some cereal in a bowl she added milk from a bottle he handed her on her way past, then sat and started eating while watching him begin frying some bacon. "Weird day yesterday, wasn't it?" she commented wryly.
He shook his head with a sigh. "Damn right. I have to admit I wasn't expecting any of that. But…" He shrugged. "So far so good, I guess." Looking over his shoulder, he added, "Assuming we can actually track Coil down, hopefully we can solve the problem before it happens. I still think your idea is mad, but it's probably also about the only practical solution to the danger he represents." Going back to poking the bacon, he muttered, "Although your mother would probably kick my ass for getting you involved in something like this at your age…"
"Hey, I got you involved in this, Dad," she chuckled, finishing off the cereal, then taking the bowl to the sink and rinsing it out. "Sorry about that."
"Yeah, good point. This is all your fault, isn't it," he mused thoughtfully as she grinned.
The faint background sound of the shower upstairs stopped, causing him to look up for a moment. "Hopefully Lisa slept all right," he commented.
"She looked a bit frazzled but not too bad," Taylor told him. "I think she used her ability too much yesterday. From what she said it's being more useful than normal but it was still giving her a headache."
"Poor girl. Can't be easy, that sort of thing."
"No. But we did learn an awful lot, and she sure helped with that."
"True enough. Hopefully it's enough." He transferred the bacon to a pan and slid it into the oven to stay warm then started in on the eggs. Taylor loaded the toaster with bread and turned it on, then got out the cutlery and set the table. "We've still got quite a task ahead of us, and we're going to have to be very discreet. The man is a paranoid nutcase from what those mercenaries said, and all the other evidence backs that up. Having an entire snatch squad disappear without trace is hardly going to make him less paranoid either."
"Yeah. But I'm sure the agents of U.N.I.O.N. are up to the task," she said with a wide grin. He glowered at her, which only made her giggle again, then went back to watching the eggs.
"Thanks so very much for that, Taylor," he sighed. "You know what those idiots are like. They're going to be wandering around in suits and sunglasses playing secret agent for months now."
She was still laughing when Lisa appeared at the doorway, looking far more awake and with the moment. "Hey, Lisa. How are you feeling now?" she asked, turning to the girl.
"Like I probably need about three more nights of eight hours sleep, but a lot better than I was, thanks," Lisa replied, coming into the kitchen.
"You slept well?"
"I did, yeah. It's a comfortable bed, and to be honest after what I've been using for nearly two months, the floor would have been an improvement." Taylor poured their guest a mug of coffee which she accepted gratefully, adding a little milk from the bottle that was still sitting on the counter then trying. "Oh, god, I needed that," she almost moaned, drinking half of it fast enough that Taylor was slightly worried she'd scald herself. Luckily she appeared unphased as well as much happier.
"No rats trying to sleep with me for a start," the other girl added with a shudder, making Taylor wince. "That got old really quick. And I wasn't freezing my ass off either."
"You're welcome to stay as long as you'd like, Lisa, as I told you last night," Taylor's dad put in, having been listening while he cooked the eggs. "We have the room, although it's not a large house, and I'm not going to let someone your age live on the street if I can do anything about it. Especially with a super-villain after them."
"Thanks, Danny, that really does mean a lot to me," Lisa told him with what looked like grateful sincerity. "You guys got me out of a really bad situation and are helping me a lot more than I could have ever expected."
"The DWA has a tendency to look after its own," he replied, turning the stove off and starting to plate up the food, while Taylor put the finished toast on the plates as well. "Or anyone else who needs help we can provide. People around these parts are used to being out in the cold, if you want to put it that way. If we don't look after each other, no one else is going to do the job." Opening the stove he took out the pan of bacon and distributed it, then turned the stove off. Handing her a plate, he took his own to the table, Taylor following with hers. "And since Taylor rescued you, I feel an obligation to see the job through, whatever that actually means in this case," he finished as he sat down.
Lisa and Taylor sat as well, all of them quickly involved in eating. "This is really good," Lisa said through a mouthful of bacon and eggs.
"The secret is pepper and paprika on the eggs as you fry them," Taylor's dad remarked, smiling. "It brings out the flavor."
"I'll have to remember that." Fairly soon, they'd all finished eating, Taylor sipping another glass of orange juice while the other two had more coffee. "So what's the plan for today?" Lisa asked, looking between them.
Taylor glanced at her dad, who looked back. "We've got a pretty good idea of where Coil's base is now, right?" she said, causing the other girl to nod. Her dad got up and went out of the room for a moment, coming back with a large scale map of the city. Taylor stacked the plates and other stuff on the counter, allowing him to spread it out on the table.
"Your power and the mercenary's information all shows he's got to be here," her father said, looking at Lisa, then pointing at a position on the map, off to one side of the commercial district. "Now, from what I remember, about… nine, maybe ten years ago, or thereabouts, the city started building another Endbringer shelter in this general area. They got it about half done but then, from what the story said, hit an underground spring. It flooded the whole thing in under two days, and although a lot of money was spent trying to plug the spring and pump it out, in the end it was so expensive that they gave up and abandoned the project. The company who were building it went bust, the city hired someone else, and they ended up picking a new site about three miles away over here on the other side of the business center to build the shelter in. That's the one on Hamilton Drive, under the Hamilton Mall which was built afterwards."
Lisa and Taylor were leaning over the map studying it closely. "There's nothing indicating anything there," Taylor commented.
He shook his head. "No, there wouldn't be. As I understood it, in theory it was filled with rubble and capped off with about a yard of concrete, then they built an office block on top of it. Using the half-built shelter as a foundation, basically. So much money was dumped into the project that the city administration was embarrassed to leave it as an empty lot with a flooded shelter under it, I think. But they half-assed it, the office building was shoddily made, and the end result was that anyone who moved in moved right back out again within six months. Leaks in the roof, crumbling walls, problems with power going off all the time, you name it. We were asked to look at it at one point about six years ago and our guys said it was so bad it would need to be demolished and completely rebuilt. The city didn't want to spend any more money on it, they couldn't find a buyer either, so they basically boarded it up and tried to forget about it. It's been sitting there slowly falling apart ever since. Not even the gangs are interested in the place. Nothing around it but other office buildings, too close to the PRT building and the main BBPD station, and so on."
Tapping the map, he continued, "Thing is, though… There was a story going around in a few places that the shelter wasn't backfilled. The money that should have been used for that sort of… disappeared." He shrugged with a scowl as Lisa and Taylor looked at each other. "Mayor Christner has cleaned up the administration a lot since he got elected. I've had my own issues with the guy but I'll admit he's a good mayor. Much better than any we've had for a long long time. I have no doubt there is still a lot of corruption going on, that's almost inevitable considering where we are, but he sure put a stop to the really serious crap. But a decade ago? Yeah, I could easily believe that someone would embezzle a couple of million bucks, concrete over the doors, and say they'd done the job right. And no one would have bothered checking. Probably why the building was so badly built too, for that matter. Most of the cash for it got diverted. They just did enough to look like they'd done it properly then walked away with bulging pockets."
"And it's possible that the money for the shelter itself was being skimmed, which is why they couldn't fix it," Lisa commented slowly, making him nod.
"Yeah, I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if that was the case."
"I wonder if it was even flooded to begin with?" Taylor mused out loud, causing them to look at her. Lisa seemed thoughtful and her dad nodded slightly.
"Coil has been running around now for several years, hasn't he?" he said slowly, clearly thinking hard. "No one really heard much about him until about four years ago, but there were rumors that someone who might well have been him was doing shady things in the background. Mind you, there are always rumors like that, but you're right, maybe this time they were true."
"He might have been setting himself up for a long time before he took on the Coil persona," Lisa remarked, frowning at the map. "From what we found out, he's one of those types who thinks he's a real mastermind, pulling strings behind the scenes. If he was careful, and was in the right position, he might have been able to buy off enough people to fake the whole thing."
"So he stole an entire Endbringer shelter?" Taylor said with an impressed look, which caused her father to stare at her.
"Don't get ideas," he warned. She grinned at him.
"Would I do that?" she asked.
"Damn right you would," he muttered. "Right, then, I suppose we have a target to check out. We need to work out the safest way to do that, since we have to assume he's monitoring the area around the place. It's certainly what I'd expect him to do. Might have tapped into the traffic cameras, CCTV, or anything else nearby. Who knows if he's got more Tinker stuff than those lasers."
"We don't need to get all that close, Dad," Taylor pointed out. "I was thinking about that last night and I've got an idea…"
He and Lisa both looked at her as she started to explain. By the time she finished they were nodding understanding. "That sounds feasible, I agree," he said when she was done. "We'll need to call a few people and arrange it. Probably best to do it as fast as possible. The longer we wait the more likely it is that he'll do something that will complicate things. I wish I knew what his power was."
"My power has been thinking about it and seems fairly sure he's a sort of precog," Lisa put in. She was frowning to herself. "I'm not sure exactly what sort yet though. But it probably means we have to make sure we get him on the first attempt or he'll figure out something's wrong."
"Huh. Precog… Yeah, that could be tricky," he said thoughtfully. "Very tricky depending on how it works. I don't know enough about Parahuman powers to work out all the possibilities though."
"I'm pretty sure that if he doesn't see us coming, we can get him," Lisa said with a small shrug. "His power will need data just like mine does, but right now he likely doesn't have any. As long as we keep that the case we have a good chance of success. My power agrees and seems to think we'll do it. It's pretty impressed with your weird abilities, Taylor."
Taylor grinned. "Tell it thanks."
As her dad was about to say something, the phone rang, so he got up and answered it. Both girls listened to his side of the conversation. "Hebert… Oh, hello, Michelle. Oh. Really? I see. And Carol agrees? Yeah, fair enough. I suppose it's worth listening to them. No obligation, right? Good. Hold on, I'll ask her." He lowered the phone and turned to Taylor, who was curiously watching.
"Apparently the PRT have surprisingly politely asked to discuss the suit with us," he said with a somewhat amused yet mildly irritated expression, causing her to blink in surprise. Lisa was looking between them with interest. "Michelle thinks they're running scared, and Carol Dallon agrees. We've got them by the balls, they know we've got them by the balls, and they know we know we've got them by the balls. She's pretty sure they're going to want to settle out of court just to keep the whole mess from hitting the news."
"Does that mean they're going to try to wriggle out of it?" she asked, feeling annoyed.
He shrugged. "They'll probably try but Michelle is sure there's no way they can actually succeed. We've got far too much evidence for that to fly. And the BBPD is also watching, which they'll know, and it makes it even less likely they can get away with trying to sweep it all under the carpet. More likely they want to come to some arrangement where we promise not to talk to the reporters if they give us everything else we ask for. They're all about the PR and this could end up being about the worst PR hit they've taken in years if it gets to court. And if they want something stupid we can just walk away."
Taylor thought it over, then slowly nodded. "I suppose there's no point ignoring them, if they're willing to deal," she said after a moment. "But will the Barnes' agree?"
"I'll call Zoe next and check. If she's fine with it, Michelle can arrange the whole thing. Probably either this afternoon or tomorrow. It seems they're quite keen on doing it quickly." He shook his head, a small grin on his face.
"OK. If the Barnes' are all right with it, I'll go along with it too," she replied, sighing just a little. "As long as Sophia gets what's coming to her, and Winslow does too."
"Oh, I suspect that the PRT are going to trash whatever is left of Winslow after Michelle gets through with it," he chuckled, putting the phone to his ear again. "Yeah, Taylor's OK with that. I'll call Zoe and check with her. Yes. Good, let me know. Thanks, I'll see you later." Hanging up, he returned to the table with a glance at his watch. "They're definitely worried. It's only a quarter to nine. It'll be interesting to see who turns up and what they say."
"I can't help wondering what on earth that was all about," Lisa commented a little tentatively. "If you want me to shut up about it I will though."
Taylor looked at her dad, who met her eyes. "It's your story more than anyone else's," he said.
She nodded, thought for a few seconds, then made her decision. Turning to Lisa, she started, "Last summer the girl I grew up with changed overnight…"