A. N. : On the one hand, the Dai Li is a repressive tool for an authoritarian regime, and its Agents are complicit in some really horrific stuff. On the other, I'm starting to feel kinda bad for them, what with how they're stuck with Ozai now, after getting their asses handed to them by the Gaang and Iroh. Anyway, time for a short Dai Li interlude.
Xia feels a headache coming.
It's not that he's never come up with plans himself – he has, many times, not like Long Feng could give anything more detailed than broad directives most of the time, not like he'd even bother to either, since he had a Palace to run.
Plans are made on the field, to find webs of conspirators from just the one guy and the intel Lake Laogai got from him, or to solve murders, or anything harder than the usual arrest disruptive elements.
Plans are not made in the middle of enemy territory, with barely anyone on hand to collect information, and the threat of death and destruction for all of Ba Sing Se if they fail.
Oh, and yesterday Han just explained in detail exactly what it is they do at Lake Laogai and how they do it, so that's something Xia has to take into account now.
It's a tool he can use. It's a tool he thinks has been used on him before, almost for sure.
Xia scratches the scar on his nose, sighs. The small crease, still here after decades because his nose never healed right, stings a little from the pressure.
His burns hurt more though. Wounds are fresher.
Ma Chu's tests – thank Oma for his rock and soil collection, seriously, next person to make fun of the guy's weird obsession will get to do Xia's paperwork for the next two months, at least – show that the deeper parts of Ba Sing Se's underground will barely be affected, even by fire hot enough to melt steel. The water might boil, though, since it's flowing through all layers. The upper tunnels will be unlivable in the moment, from the air heating up that much, but the structure will hold, and can be used in the long run.
The entire upper crust will still carry fire for days, weeks, or even longer after the Comet has passed. Seeds will burn in the soil in that time, and anything not harvested beforehand will die with the first flames.
The surface might be unlivable for a whole month, according to Ma Chu's approximations.
And then the famine will come.
Of course, Ba Sing Se has its reserves, food and grain, pickles and cured meats and fishes, and seeds, for the case of a few bad harvest years. But that's only worth anything if it hasn't been burned to ashes on the surface. The silos are made to resist floods and rot, not fire coming down from the sky. Unless everything is moved underground, there won't be anything left for the survivors.
All of that, without even mentioning the cultural artefacts and the archives.
Xia's always thought of the City as being made up of its people, but technically the Dai Li was created to protect Ba Sing Se and its cultural heritage. How do you choose what to save then ? Who to save ?
How does Xia get this info to Ming so that Ba Sing Se can prepare, if only just slightly ?
If someone's watching him, he really hopes they just think he has a headache. Or that his burns hurt. All of it is true, but he's supposed to inspire confidence to the Agents here, and holding his head in despair isn't exactly it.
It's not exactly great for looking like he's loyal to the Fire Lord either.
Well, not like anyone here's a mind reader, so who cares.
Putting the matter of Ba Sing Se itself aside for the moment, Xia makes a quick count of the various tools and people he has on hand.
People are easy – himself, Zhou, Yang Wu, Jingnan, Ma Chu and Min are all available for spy work. Wuyue is a maybe, depending on how much his face hurts that day. Shu still hasn't woken up. Han is decent enough for the Lower Ring, but Xia won't risk him here. That's six men, maybe seven he can use for information gathering.
Han – and maybe Wuyue – can collect and synthesize.
Han thinks the Fire Lord's future bride has potential. Xia remembers Han getting on with that pink girl in the Princess' entourage, and since he's about the same age as the bride, he might be able to get close to her and extract intel that way. Gain her trust. Get her to share her worries. Serve her tea.
The Head's tea, light stimulation techniques, subtle and heavy work. That's what Han called his toolbox. Xia needs him available day and night, so Wuyue will have to settle for collection.
Subtle work for the bride. Heavy work… the commanding officers are out of reach, vanishing them would bring too much suspicion. Engineers are away on whatever island, learning to fly balloons over the ocean and back, in the correct formations.
Middle management, then. Nobles stuck in the Caldera, who will just have… got up at night, for just a moment, if anyone notices their absence. Nothing suspicious.
Xia will need names and addresses. The type of flying formation, the timing of the attack, the distance between each airship. Type of communication between the units, and inside each one. Get Ma Chu to find an underground cave Han can work his miracles in.
He has a plan. Just one, with no backup. If it fails…
If it fails, all he can do is pray Ming will notice the soldiers leaving for the North, and understand what it means for Ba Sing Se. For himself.
Otherwise, Xia won't be able to bear it.