"Dad, meet my friends!"
Penny moved the scroll around to take in the group, all huddled together in the warehouse. Team RVBY waved (mostly; Blake couldn't bring herself to do more than exist). Ilia moved behind Winter to take attention off herself. The Schnees gave dignified nods. Cam stared into space as their fingers did their tap-dance.
In return, they saw the projected image from Penny's scroll wave to them from mid-air. He was dark-skinned, bearded, and graying, and he wore a jovial demeanor, with eyes both kind and perceptive. "Hello, everyone," he said warmly. "I'm glad to see my daughter is meeting so many nice people."
"Hello, Mr. Polendina," said Ruby. "We're super-glad we met Penny, too. One adventure after another, am I right?"
"You are, in fact, right," said Penny brightly.
Winter thought she might gag. No wonder those two were such good friends.
"You can call me Pietro," Mr. Polendina said.
The extra context helped jar something loose in Winter's brain. "You gave guest lectures at Atlas Academy," Winter said. "One on prosthetics, one on communications, one on advances in computing, and a fourth on applications of hard light."
"Well, I'm glad to see someone was listening," he said with a chuckle.
"I remember being impressed that you kept choosing different topics," said Winter.
"I imagine it would be as boring for you to hear the same lecture year after year as it'd be for me to give the same lecture year after year, hm?"
"Fair." She'd actually been wondering if he really was an expert in all those fields, or if he was just reporting the work of others. She still didn't have an answer, but if he was good enough at computers, she supposed the rest didn't matter.
"Dad," said Penny, "I was just informing the others of the progress of our investigation."
"Yes, I suppose we do need to get down to business," he said, and the cheer fell from his face. "Especially with what our investigation found."
Penny, likewise seeming sobered, looked away from her father's image and towards the group. "Your suspicion of foul play was completely correct," she said. "A computer virus infected the systems here."
"And when she says 'the systems', she means that almost every device in your town probably carried this virus at one point or another," said Pietro. "The virus was both hyper-specific and totally indiscriminate. It could spread to almost any machine, but it would only affect one specific kind."
"M-27 class motor controllers," said Penny.
"That's the type that controls our centrifuges," said Cam.
"Exactly," said Pietro. "Right from the start, this virus was targeting your machine shop, and nothing else."
"Define 'targeting'," said Winter. Cyber-security was a foreign tongue to her, but words like 'targeting' captured her attention.
"I'll get there, promise. The virus started by infecting scrolls, riding piggyback on every data transfer the scrolls made. Eventually, Cam's scroll was infected, too. Cam's scroll was set up to synch data with the master logger, and so the virus jumped to the logger, and from there to all your motor controllers.
"Every time the virus jumped to a new device, it checked what device it was on. When it found itself on an M-27, that's when it truly activated. It ran a program that caused the centrifuge to spin faster, much faster than it was ever designed to go. At the same time, it lied to the logger, saying that it was staying at safe speeds."
"I knew it!" said Cam. "I knew it was impossible to have a catastrophe with those readings!"
"I should not have doubted you," said Winter. Then, emboldened by all the new realities around her, she added as an experiment, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," said Cam distractedly, not understanding the import of what had just happened. Weiss did, though, and after a moment of looking thunderstruck, she gave Winter a tiny clap.
That clap had no right to affect Winter as much as it did.
"If the centrifuge was spinning too fast," said Cam, reviewing pictures of the machine shop, "then it would eventually fly apart."
Weiss nodded grimly. "And all that hot, flying debris struck the raw Dust being processed in the rest of the plant. That set off a chain reaction that blew the whole place apart."
"Precisely," said Penny. "In addition, the virus had code to erase itself past a certain time. That would have made it nearly impossible to track."
"Would have?" said Winter.
"We found three machines that lost power before the cut-off time for self-termination," said Penny. "The motor controller, the logger, and Mr. Cristata's scroll. Because those devices lost power, they lost their time reference, and the virus did not remove itself as scheduled. That meant it was still there for us to find.
"Both the motor controller and the logger were damaged. If we'd only had one or the other, we might not have been able to see the full picture. But we did have both, which gave us a full understanding of the virus' operations, while Mr. Cristata's scroll showed us how the virus got into these other systems."
"We had a little bit of luck going for us," said Pietro. "Though I don't mean to minimize anything my girl did. She gathered all the evidence we needed."
"Maybe, Dad," said Penny modestly, "but all of the analysis was yours."
"All of this means someone was targeting us specifically," said Weiss, as unwilling as Winter to let this devolve into a love-fest.
"That's right," Pietro. "They knew exactly what kind of motor controller you used and included only the code to destroy it. Although… it didn't have to be that way."
"Didn't have to be what way?" said Winter.
"I'm trying to think of a good analogy," said Pietro. "Your military background isn't quite something that I... Oh, I've got it. Think of a bomb, a type of bomb you develop to destroy a particular kind of building. That bomb can't just walk itself to the target, right? You need a bomber to carry it.
"Well, this virus is both bomb and bomber. The bomber is the code that gets it from device to device until it finds its target, and the bomb is the part that targeted and destroyed the motor controller. The thing is, you can put any kind of bomb inside a bomber. This same virus shell could be used to attack any number of devices. Other types of motor controllers, scrolls, loggers, mainframe computers, you name it. It just so happened to be used to go after you."
"But that means it could be used to go after anything," said Winter in realization, realization that seemed more dire the more she thought about it. "Or... or everything."
"Now you're starting to see the size of it," said Pietro. "Which is why I'll be filing a report about this for General Ironwood."
"As a matter of Kingdom security," said Winter. "Do you have that kind of access? Will the General listen to you?"
Mr. Polendina looked pleased with himself. "Let's just say that giving lectures to the general's kiddos is one of the easier assignments he gives me. I've got his ears, if I want 'em."
"That would be the simple part," Penny said. "The clean-up from this incident will be much more extensive. Many, many systems will have to be updated and secured to hold a virus of this type at bay. The CCT towers themselves might need down-time for updates."
That was almost unthinkable to Winter. She knew how often she looked to her scroll. The idea of not having global communications, even if it was just for a day (or however long an update might take)…
Pietro didn't disabuse her of the notion. "You're probably right, Penny. It really is a nasty piece of work, this virus. Whoever created it had an in-depth understanding of all the technical systems involved, and a frankly terrifying command of our security and how to bypass it."
"Does that tell you who it was?" said Ruby.
"I wish it did," said Pietro. "Off-hand, I can only think of a few people I know who could have written something like this, and one of them is dead. But it could just as easily be some clever person I've never met. It's not like they programmed the virus to write their name into the systems they corrupted, they were more professional than that." He sighed. "I wish I could do more."
"You've done enough," said Winter. "Get this information to the General and that'll do."
"It'll more than 'do'," said Weiss, growing excited. "With this, we can update our claim with our insurer. This was industrial espionage after all, and that gives us 100% coverage."
Winter saw how that made Weiss so enthusiastic. "Which means we can rebuild all the way back. We can buy all we need and get back to where we were." She looked at the image of Pietro. "Thank you for everything, sir. You've done us and Atlas a great service."
"Well, I'm happy to help the Kingdom, but I'm much happier that I helped my daughter's friends. You did a great job, Penny."
Penny made a pleased noise and bounced on the balls of her feet. She wore the largest smile Winter had ever seen on a person.
"We'll talk again later," said Pietro, and his image disappeared from the air as he cut the connection.
For a moment, everyone sat silent, letting the consequences of that discussion sink in.
Predictably, Yang spoke up first. "Everyone who thinks this is obviously Fall Dust trying to finish us off, again, raise a hand."
Everyone present did so. Winter was amused by the surprise the others showed when she raised her hand.
"Wow, even Ice Queen gets it this time," said Yang. "I'm impressed."
"I never said I didn't believe Fall Dust was behind these attacks. I only ever said that we can't prove it," said Winter. "And we still can't. Yes, Fall Dust absolutely has the resources for an attack like this, and yes, it is more than suspicious that they were poised to try a hostile takeover the moment the virus struck. But that's all still circumstantial."
"Ugh, I am so sick of that word," said Ruby. "'Circumstantial', seriously? That's a made-up word!"
"All words are made up," said Neptune.
Ruby's mouth opened, but no sound came out. Winter could almost see her tiny brain shorting out.
"Does that mean we're back to the 'sit here and wait to die' plan?" said Yang. "'Cause I don't like that plan any more than I did before, and we're a lot closer to dead now."
"Yes, but I think Cinder's losing patience with us," said Weiss. "Every time she makes a move that doesn't kill us, she gets more frustrated, and her next move is more blatant."
"Exactly," said Winter, giving her sister a nod of affirmation. "Which is why what Ruby did was correct."
"Yay, go me!" said Ruby with a small cheer. "Wait, what did I do?"
"You rubbed Fall Dust's nose in its failure," Winter said. "You added insult to injury."
Blake crossed her arms. "It wasn't long ago you were really upset about us antagonizing Fall Dust more."
"Well, I thought at the time we might avoid this vendetta," said Winter. "The situation's changed. Now we know Cinder will stop at nothing to finish us. In that case, our best hope is to encourage her to go overt. If we enrage her, she might get sloppy and move in the open, and we can finally get some hard evidence."
Yang's expression turned dangerous. "So now we're playing Poke-the-Ursa. I love that game."
Winter felt a flash of doubt—Yang approving of her plan made the plan seem worse—but Penny cut in with a sigh. "That sounds like fun, but I won't be able to play with you. I have to go back to Dad to help with the clean-up."
"Aww, it seems like you just got here!" Ruby protested.
"Subjective time is a fascinating thing," Penny said. "We will have to talk about it more next time we meet."
"Promise me we'll see each other soon?" Ruby said.
"Promise!"
Ruby looked much cheerier. "Great! Alright, then, you go finish this virus stuff."
Before Winter could steer the conversation back, the warehouse door opened. "Misses Schnee," said Mayor Lief.
"Yes?"
"There's a ship coming in, requesting permission to dock."
Winter smiled. "Would that be the KAS Prudence?"
Lief gave her a look accusing her of cheating. "How'd you know?"
"Because I arranged for this a few days ago."
It was Weiss' turn to be outraged. "And you didn't tell me?"
Finally, Winter felt chagrin. "We weren't speaking to each other at the time," she said sheepishly. "And everything since then has been… intense."
"You don't say."
"The point is," Winter said, hurrying along, "that I reengaged with the skipper of the Prudence. It turns out that his bribe only required him to take his ship into the yards early. It didn't say anything about how long he was supposed to stay there. So he went in, gave the crew some shore leave, did some bare minimum maintenance, and came right back out again."
"And now he's here," said Weiss, her eyes lighting up.
"And now he's here," Winter concurred. "Which is why everything we stockpiled for our reexport business needs to go out the door post haste. We need to get every grain of Dust we can plausibly ship out onboard the Prudence."
"We don't have any labor to do that, though," said Weiss. "Our workers are all furloughed."
"Cristata said he'd be willing to work for free to keep this company alive," Winter replied, feeling unusually pleased with herself. "Let's see if he meant it."
Couriers were inefficient and expensive. Even with its needs for secrecy, the White Fang could rarely afford them, and used them sparingly.
Some occasions demanded it.
This information was too precious to be risked over normal CCT connections and too important to sit on. Sienna Khan herself ordered its delivery. Her will be done.
"For the Faunus," the operative whispered to himself.
Port Solitas was drawing into sight.
"You lying nincompoop!"
"Language, doctor," purred Cinder. "What has you so upset?"
"As if you don't know," said Watts, his face flushed and his mustache a-quiver.
"But what if I don't?" asked Cinder. "You've told me so often how little I understand, why, I've started to believe you."
Watts glared at her, but since he was doing so over a call, Cinder was able to shrink his image to make him look ridiculous. Madame's daughters had loved dolls—if an angry-faced doll had been in their collection, Watts in his fury would have resembled it. "You told me SDR had no cyber forensics," he growled.
"Which was true," said Cinder.
"Then you explain to me why this is happening," Watts raged at her. "Why, pray tell, has Ironwood announced upcoming shutdowns of the CCT towers? Why are his scientists whipping together a batch of security fixes to apply to the system?"
"Cybersecurity isn't really my field, doctor," said Cinder, relishing every moment, living for every grunt and snarl from that huffy man. "Perhaps you could fill me in?"
"Because something has spooked Ironwood into prioritizing updates," said Watts in low, slow tones. "A top-flight expert has made him aware of exploits so effective that he needs system downtime to guarantee they're fixed, lest someone take full and deadly advantage of them."
"Sounds very prudent of him," said Cinder.
"We don't want a prudent Ironwood, you nitwit!" Watts roared at her. "We want a fat, dumb, and happy Ironwood, blissfully unaware of the weaknesses in his fortress until I use them to jam knives in his back!"
"You're mixing your metaphors."
This time Watts wouldn't be distracted. "The only way he would know to fix those specific exploits was if he had evidence of someone using them. There wasn't supposed to be any evidence! You told me SDR couldn't do any cyber forensics, and you'd be bankrupting them and buying them out as soon as my virus did its work! Instead, his team is plugging all the holes I used as we speak!"
"I thought you were smarter than all of those 'tottering old fools', as you called them," said Cinder.
"I am, but designing, building, testing, and implementing viruses isn't something I can do in a day! Now I have to find other exploits to use. Half of my potential virus designs can't be counted on any longer. Some of my best techniques went into that one! This sets me back years!"
"How dreadful," drawled Cinder.
"And it's all your fault!" shouted Watts.
"I beg your pardon?"
"You lied to me," said Watts. "You lied to me about the target, causing me to waste a perfectly good virus just to satisfy your vendetta. You're so obsessed with those Schnees, minute as they are compared to all the other companies, and then you failed to beat them anyway! They escaped you again!"
"So they survive a few more days," said Cinder, nonplussed. "By this time next week, the Schnees and all their friends will be dead or at the bottom of a Dust mine. Maybe even both," she added—now that was a lovely image.
"That doesn't help me," said Watts.
"As you delight in telling me, I don't work for you," said Cinder. "That virus of yours wasn't enough to finish SDR, but I can still get value from it. When Ironwood takes down global communications to patch up his security, it will leave Skjulte Perle alone and isolated, with no way to call for help. By the time communications are restored, it'll all be over."
"You knew my virus was going to be exposed?" said Watts. "No, no... You wanted it to be! You were counting on it!"
"I was fine either way," said Cinder. "Both paths led to victory. I'll admit, I'm grateful it turned out this way. There are some people in that town I very much want dead, and now I'll get that satisfaction."
"My viruses are central to Her Grace's plans," said Watts, growing even more indignant. "This isn't just about me, you've thrown her whole schedule in the garbage disposal!"
"Shucks," said Cinder in a voice that gave zero shucks.
"You'll regret this," promised Watts. "I'm on an airship now, on my way back to Her Grace's side. I'll tell her everything, and then she'll know exactly what you are."
"It's unwise to threaten me, Watts," said Cinder evenly. "You say you'll report me to Salem. But will you really?"
Watts frowned, and glanced at what had to be the airship's instrument panel. "Absolutely," said Watts. "I'll be there in a manner of hours, and I'll tell her myself."
"I don't think you will," said Cinder, more luxuriously than ever. "And you certainly won't be able to tell her from the airship. After all, Her Grace is technologically illiterate. She doesn't even know how to use a scroll. If she did," Cinder laughed, "she would have no use for you."
"I don't know what you're planning," said Watts, "but it won't work."
"Oh, Arthur," said Cinder, "it already has worked. The only reason I'm still on this call is that I've always enjoyed playing with my food."
Watts peered at her more closely, as if trying to divine what she meant, when a noise from the airship caught his attention. He turned, there was a moment of surprise, and then with a flash the connection died.
Watts' Aura was strong, Cinder knew. He could survive an explosion, even one amplified by the Dust that airship was carrying back to Salem. His Aura could withstand a fall from high altitudes. It could even withstand the hours of cold and exertion it would take for him to reach civilization from his crash site.
To be more precise, it could survive any one of those things. It would not survive two of those things. No one's Aura could survive all three.
Arthur Watts had faked his death by crashing a Paladin out in the tundra. How satisfying it was to Cinder to close that loop.
He really should not have threatened her.
Watts, in his pride in his techno-sorcery, had developed giant blind spots, blind spots Cinder could only too easily exploit. Watts had seen the one airship available in the hanger, plowed through its digital defenses, looked for more, and, not finding any, assumed that nothing else could be a danger to him.
Which meant he never found the purely analog bomb with its purely mechanical timer.
Cinder stretched and sighed in satisfaction, basking in the glory of revenge. Her only regret was that there would be no way to pluck a trophy from his corpse. That showy pistol of his had caught her imagination. It would have looked grand mounted on a wall. Oh well.
She would have to content herself with taking twice as many trophies from the wreckage of Skjulte Perle.
"Did you have to hit every single pothole between here and Skjulte Perle?" Blake griped.
"You know me, I can't do things the easy way," Ilia shot back.
"You should try it sometime. It's nice."
"Really? And what would you know about doing things the easy way?"
"…point taken."
This town was smaller even than Skjulte Perle, but it was much closer to Port Solitas, close enough that it was serviced semi-regularly by ferries. It had developed a reputation as the place to do the sort of business you couldn't do in Port Solitas. Normally, that would have made Blake reluctant to come here, but today it was just what she needed.
The women, having parked their van at the outskirts of town, made their way down the road towards the pier, where a small ship, barely more than a tug, was pulling up. "At least we got the timing right," said Blake.
Ilia made a noncommittal noise. Silently deciding it wouldn't make much sense for the two of them to go all the way down to the pier, Blake and Ilia took up station outside the restaurant that was the alleged draw of the town ("World-Famous Lutefisk!") to wait for the ferry to finish debarking.
More out of habit than anything else, Blake found herself slyly scoping out the area, making sure of her exits and escape routes. While she was doing that, her eyes touched on a large black bird sitting on the roof of the home opposite their spot.
"Caw," the bird said.
It was unlike any sound Blake had ever heard a bird make. She stared at it, cocking her head curiously.
"Caw," it said again.
"Ilia," said Blake, "why is that bird saying caw?"
"It's a bird," said Ilia without looking; she was peering down towards the waterfront trying to get sight of her contact. "Birds caw."
"I know birds caw," said Blake with a flush, "but this bird isn't cawing, it's saying the word 'caw'." Her frown deepened. "Is this species even native to Solitas?"
She'd nudged Ilia trying to get her attention, but when Ilia finally looked up, all she said was, "What species?"
When Blake turned to point out the bird, it was nowhere to be seen.
I'm being trolled by a bird, she thought to herself. "Never mind."
There was a beep on Ilia's scroll. "They're close," she said. "Any second n... No way."
Blake looked to see who had captured Ilia's attention. She recognized him instantly: Tyrone, formerly of the Vale Branch of the White Fang.
"It's a long way from Kuo Kuana," he said to them.
When Ilia remained frozen, Blake stepped up with, "It's not much further than the Vacuo coast."
Tyrone nodded. Sign and countersign, given and accepted: he truly was their contact. He was carrying both a briefcase and a backpack, and Blake found herself wondering which of the two held the data they were expecting.
"Can we stretch our legs a bit?" said Tyrone. "I've been sitting for way too long."
"Sure," said Blake; as excuses to get privacy went, that one was serviceable. She led the way back towards their van.
"Fancy seeing you here, Princess," said Tyrone lightly as they walked.
Blake glared daggers at him.
"Yeah, I know," he said with a grin. "It's not hereditary. Still fun to say."
"I didn't think I'd ever see you here," said Ilia, far, far past banter. "At least, not again."
"Me neither," said Tyrone, "but it turns out you saved my life."
"I did?"
They were past the last buildings of the town proper and on their way to where the road ended. Tyrone waited a delicately appraised amount further to take them out of plausible earshot before explaining.
"When Adam sent us out here to bust your company, it meant we weren't in Vale when the Princess's team busted him," said Tyrone. "By the time we got back to Sanus, most of the Vale Branch was broken, except for a few of Adam's hard core. He was trying to gather up who he could for one last big op, and he called for my team, too."
"But you didn't go," said Blake. "At least, we didn't see you when we attacked Adam's hideout."
"Well, that's because Sister Ilia here gave me just enough to think about. She made me wonder if Adam was really the Leader I should be following. So, when he called me, I decided to sit it out, and most of my Talon did, too. Good thing," he added with a crooked smile at Blake. "I hear you roughed up the rest of the Branch pretty badly."
"We just found the place," said Blake. "Some of Vale's Huntsmen did the real damage."
"That's not what I heard," said Tyrone.
"Well, I was there," Blake said crossly, "so maybe you should take my word for it."
"Fair enough." They had arrived at the van. Tyrone lifted his briefcase, set it atop the van's hood, and opened it. Inside were the clothes of a businessman, folded as tightly as possible to fit three days' worth inside. Tyrone stuck a single finger in behind some undershirts until he heard a clicking noise. He lifted the briefcase's false bottom, reached underneath, and grabbed what looked like memory cards for a scroll.
To Blake's surprise, he looked at her instead of Ilia. His tone had shifted to something quite formal. "High Leader Khan has learned that your team, along with Schnee Dust Reborn, saved twenty of our brothers and sisters from being condemned to servitude in a Fall Dust mine. She has decided, in her wisdom, that you've demonstrated your dedication to the cause of the Faunus, and so honors your request for the data on Adam.
"This data comes by way of the Chieftain of Menagerie," he went on. "The Chieftain asked me to pass along an additional message." Tyrone cleared his throat. "'And if my darling kitten could please call home once in a while when it's not the fate of the world at stake, that sure would be nice'."
It was a sign of Ilia's true friendship that she did not burst into laughter at hearing this. Blake's dad was two continents away and still finding ways to embarrass her. She sighed. "I promise to call him as soon as I have time."
"He said you'd say that," Tyrone went on with a grin, "and he respectfully requests that you make some time."
Blake felt her ears going flat. "Okay, fine, I promise!"
Still grinning, Tyrone extended his hand and deposited the memory cards in Blake's open palm. Then he turned and looked at Ilia. "I also have something for you," he said, to her surprise.
This time he reached into his backpack. What he pulled from there left Blake flabbergasted. It was a White Fang mask, but not Tyrone's. It had chameleon horns.
"Seeing as I never had occasion to hand this over to Taurus," Tyrone said, "I held on to it. Just in case."
"I can't believe 'just in case' happened," murmured Ilia.
Blake watched with a touch of concern as Ilia wordlessly fingered the mask. "You don't need that," she said. "That's not who you are. You've been able to go all this time without it."
"Maybe," said Ilia. "Yeah, I suppose. Still," and she put it in her jacket pocket, "it might come in handy."
"Speaking of coming in handy," said Tyrone, "I'm not scheduled to go back for another few days. Got any recommendations on what there is to do on this ice cube?"
"Hang around," Blake said. "Try the lutefisk. And keep your scroll on."
Tyrone raised an eyebrow at her.
"Did you think it was weird that Adam was going easy on Fall Dust?"
"Pretty weird, yeah," said Tyrone.
"You in the mood to even the score?"
"I could be persuaded," he said with a grin.
"Then stand by," said Blake, "because the opportunity may present itself sooner than you think."
Powerful knocks rang against the door of the hostel office. Ruby put the finishing touches on her message, hit 'send', and then called, "Come on in!"
It was Yang, and from her breathing and sweat it seemed she'd run to get to Ruby. "Hey," she said, "I just got off the scroll with Junior."
"Really? He must get up really early in the morning, with what time it has to be in Vale."
"Nah, it's the other way, he hasn't gone to sleep yet. Anyway, he had some news for us."
"Good news?" said Ruby hopefully.
"Ruby, the next time Junior gives us good news will be the first. He says he's getting lots of panicked calls for mercenaries and thugs and other low-level manpower from up in Solitas. And it's not just him, the calls are going out to the other Kingdoms, too."
"Okay?" said Ruby dubiously. "I mean, we're in Solitas, but it would take a while for any of those thugs to get here and be a problem for us."
"You're not getting it," said Yang. "All these orders are from different factions and criminals and organizations in Solitas. That means that the punks that usually work up here have all been scooped up, so the crooks are having to use imported punks for their usual nonsense."
Now Ruby's eyes widened. "Someone is putting together a whole lot of manpower for a big operation."
"That's what Junior thinks, and I agree."
"Darn it, Yang! I just sent my message to Uncle Qrow! You couldn't have told me this five minutes ago?"
"Well, send him another message. This is too important to sit on." Yang blinked. "You sent a message to Uncle Qrow?"
"Yep. Ilia told me the White Fang wanted to deliver her something. She said we'd really care about it."
"Ooh, intriguing," said Yang. "I love the mystery."
"Well, we're not taking chances these days, so I sent Blake with her."
"Good call."
Apparently this was just the day for emergency messages, because now it was Neptune's turn to charge into the room all full of urgency. "Hey, check this out!"
He threw his scroll to projector mode to show them the news article that had him alarmed. It said, "Collapse at the Lucky Strike mine."
"Doesn't sound very lucky to me," forced Yang.
"Is everyone okay?" said Ruby.
"I think so," said Neptune. "The way the article describes it, it seemed like they had a little bit of warning, enough to get their people and equipment out but not enough to keep the collapse from happening." His face darkened for a moment. "Though I'm not sure they would have mentioned casualties even if there were any..."
"Lucky Strike," repeated Yang, like it was hitting on a memory she couldn't quite grasp. "Who runs that one?"
"Fall Dust," said Neptune. "In fact, I think that was the mine that was gonna get those workers we liberated."
"Just in the nick of time," said Yang.
"There's more. Wanna guess what kind of Dust they mined at Lucky Strike?"
Was Ruby supposed to remember that? She wasn't sure if she'd ever heard it before, but even if she had this was annoying. She hadn't come on this mission to endure pop quizzes—she could have gotten those back in Beacon if she wanted them (and she didn't).
"Uh… Lightning?" she guessed blindly.
"Plant Dust," Neptune said triumphantly. "And some other kinds, too, but Plant is the big one."
Ruby blinked at him.
"You know, the same kind of Dust this place produces!"
"Oh. Oh!" Ruby blinked as it all came together. "You mean Fall Dust was using Lucky Strike to attack SDR!"
"Exactly. The reason the mine collapsed is they overworked it—they were doing room-and-pillar mining, but they mined through their pillars too fast and didn't get their supports built in time. They were rushing."
Neptune scrolled to another part of the article and highlighted it. "What no one could figure out was why Fall Dust would overwork a mine producing a kind of Dust that's already selling for cheap."
"I'd say its price was… rock-bottom," Yang cackled.
"Because over-producing was how Fall Dust kept Plant Dust cheap, as their way to throttle SDR," said Ruby. "But… but if that mine is gone now, prices will come back up, at least a little." Inspiration struck. "Neptune, what's the date on the article?"
"Today."
"Er, not what I meant. What day did the mine collapse?"
"Uh…" Neptune scanned through again. "Three days ago. Fall Dust kept a lid on the news for as long as it could."
Ruby crossed her arms. "That would be the day Fall Dust tried to buy out SDR, and before someone started buying up all the hired muscle."
Neptune looked back and forth between her and the article. "You lost me."
"Fall Dust wants to kill SDR. Cinder knew she wouldn't be able to control prices and kill them that way, and her hostile takeover failed. So now she's gonna kill SDR the old-fashioned way, and she's putting together a small army to do it."
Neptune's eyes widened. "Well! That's, um, terrifying."
Ruby reached for her scroll. Yang chuckled. "I bet you have a much longer message to send Uncle Qrow now, huh?"
"Nope. We've gone way beyond messages." Ruby flicked her thumb across and raised her scroll to her ear. "This time I'm calling him."
Ilia was burning with curiosity. Blake was perusing the data they'd received from High Leader Khan, but she was doing so wordlessly, and Ilia couldn't very well look over at the data while she was driving across this gods-forsaken terrain. She couldn't do anything but marinate in her impatience as she waited for Blake to finally say something.
They were almost all the way back to Skjulte Perle when Blake finally turned off her scroll and looked out into the distance.
"Wow," she said.
"Could you be any less specific?" said Ilia in her frustration.
"It's just... a little overwhelming." She gave Ilia a fierce look. "We have to get this information to Professor Ozpin! And probably General Ironwood, too!"
"Hold on there," said Ilia in surprise and alarm. "The High Leader sent you information in confidence and your first reaction is to give it to General Ironwood?! A guy who has never once leveraged his position for the sake of the Faunus? Who, whenever he gets the slightest pushback from the Dust companies, bends over and takes it in the-"
"I know, I know," said Blake in pain, "but General Ironwood is the person with the power to act on this. We'd need his help to go after Fall Dust."
"Fall Dust?" said Ilia, puzzled. "I thought this was about Adam... No."
"Yes."
"You can't be serious."
"I'm serious as a heart attack."
"Adam Taurus was taking orders from Fall Dust?!"
"From Cinder Fall specifically," said Blake. "There are call records here that prove it. He also had insider information on where and how weapons made with Fall Dust's help were shipped. That's how the Vale Branch got its hands on so much heavy weaponry, like the Paladin my team fought last semester. And I don't understand all of the spreadsheets and the stuff about the money, but it sure looks like there was money sloshing around between the two of them. If even I can tell that this information ties Adam and Cinder together, I bet Neptune or a real professional could prove it beyond a doubt."
Ilia felt her heart sinking. "And that's where you think General Ironwood comes in," she said. "Because he would be the one to crack down on Cinder."
"Yes," said Blake.
"I'll admit that makes sense," said Ilia, even though the words burned her as they came out of her mouth, "but I still can't trust Ironwood, and definitely not enough to give him that. It sounds like this package includes all the White Fang's insider information, our structural information. How we communicate, our chains of command, how the Khanate directs the Branches, and all sorts of data about how we handle and hide our funds."
To her credit, Blake showed she understood. "Information about how the whole White Fang operates, not just the Vale Branch. Information that could be used to unmake the White Fang."
"That's why High Leader Khan was so reluctant to share that data. She's risking the White Fang itself. And you can be sure Ironwood will see that, too," said Ilia, her faith as firm as bedrock. "To him, this data is a weapon, and Ironwood loves him some weapons. He won't hesitate to pull the trigger."
For a moment the only sound was the bouncing and crashing of the van over the rough, glacially scoured terrain. Solitas really was the worst.
"We'll go through Professor Ozpin, then," Blake said at last.
Ilia gave Blake the side-eye. "Ozpin? Like, on the Vale Council Ozpin? Headmaster of Beacon Ozpin?"
"He's the person who sent us here," Blake said pointedly. "When we started poking into the Vale Branch, he didn't just look the other way, he bent a few rules to help us, and he made sure there were fallbacks in case we got in over our heads."
"Well, that explains why you trust him," Ilia said, "but not why I should trust him."
Ilia couldn't get a good look at her out of the corner of her eye, but if she knew Blake at all, Blake was struggling to say something she wasn't proud of. At length, she said quietly, "He knew who I was from the start. He knew I was one of those Belladonnas. He even contacted my dad a couple of times. I think he knew how much it mattered to dad, especially once we signed up for the Vytal Tournament. I was going to be on screen at the tournament anyway, and it was better that someone tell my dad before that happened.
"But he never made me do it. He never pressured me about being a Belladonna in any way. And when I lied to his face about both that and about my fight with the Vale Branch, he didn't press, even when he knew better.
"What I'm trying to say is that he knows the value of discretion, and he doesn't mind keeping secrets. I think, if we redact some of this data, and ask him to pass to Ironwood only the essentials, only the conclusions, that we can trust him to conceal the sources. Ironwood may not trust us without knowing the full provenance of the data, but he'll have to listen to Ozpin."
"You really think so?" said Ilia.
"Honestly?" said Blake. "I'm not sure. My little open secret is small potatoes compared to this. But I don't know what else to do. I have to trust someone, even when it's hard. And this is hard! You and I both have trouble with authorities, especially human authorities."
"With good reason," hissed Ilia.
"With good reason," Blake agreed. "The MPs in town have been a great refresher about why I joined the White Fang in the first place." She took a breath and held it, as if that would help sort her thoughts. "But, if nothing else, Ozpin is above average when it comes to the Faunus, and we already have relationships with him we can lean on. If we can't trust him, I don't know what authority we can."
Ilia chewed over Blake's words in her head. Blake had a point: if they came to Ironwood with only a redacted version of the data, obscuring where it came from, there was no chance he would move against one of his precious Dust companies. He would have too many doubts about the data's origins, especially coming from a rival Dust company. They needed someone speaking on their behalf.
"Do you think he'd take Winter's word for it?" she asked tentatively.
"Why would he?" asked Blake.
"She was one of his favorites," Ilia said, shrinking a little at the admission. "She was on the fast track to command before she left to help her sister with SDR. She still has a weakness to him. Do you suppose he has a weakness to her?"
"Maybe," said Blake slowly, "but that that just changes the problem. If he orders her to tell him the provenance of the data, do you honestly think she could say no? Could she refuse him directly?"
Ilia winced. "I don't think I want to put her to the test."
"Neither do I," said Blake. "So. Ozpin?"
What a gruesome question with only bad answers. "We'll talk about it back in town," said Ilia.
"Which won't be long," said Blake with annoying accuracy. "I'll call ahead."
Ilia grunted noncommittally. These trainees sure did love to stay in contact with each other. It was not what Ilia was used to—she could go days, even weeks without contact when she was on solo ops. It got awfully lonely, sometimes.
She was not jealous, thank you very much.
It occurred to her that she didn't hear Blake making her call. She glanced over and saw Blake staring at her scroll, quickly swiping through something that wasn't the call function.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Oh," said Blake with a start. "It's just… I was trying to figure out what's going on with this."
She held up her scroll where Ilia could see and put her thumb below an all-caps, all-encompassing banner, the likes of which Ilia had never seen.
CCT SYSTEM RESET UPCOMING
STAND BY FOR MORE DETAILS
Next time: The Bluntest Instrument
