"Hopefully you're not at risk anymore, Lisa, but you should probably stay here anyway," Taylor's father told the other girl when all three of them got out of the modified truck once it was safely parked in the vehicle bay. Lisa nodded at his words. She was holding the laptop from the truck under one arm.
"That's fine, Danny, it's not like I have anywhere I need to be," she replied with a quick grin. "And I've got a lot of information to look through and think about," she added, holding the laptop up for a moment. "Might help us make sense of what Coil was up to, and into, for that matter. He's got to have had other people working for him to have done as much as he did, and I'm completely certain he has moles in the PRT for a start."
"At least he's not the main problem now," Taylor commented with satisfaction.
"Nope. Thanks for that," her new friend laughed, making her smile. Her father did as well.
"All in a day's work for the agents of U.N.I.O.N., Ma'am," Taylor chuckled, bowing slightly. Everyone else who'd collected around them burst out laughing while Taylor's father sighed heavily, even though he looked amused.
"Don't start that right now," he said, shaking his head. "We have other things to concentrate on." Looking at his watch he nodded. "Should be easily able to make it to Carol's office in time if we leave more or less immediately."
"OK, Dad," she replied. Looking back to Lisa, she said, "When we get back we should probably have a look at his computers in the secure room. I grabbed everything in sight so with any luck there will be useful data hiding on them assuming you can get at it."
"Pretty sure I can," Lisa giggled, tapping her head. "It's really wanting to have a go and seems confident."
"Excellent," Taylor hissed in her best Monty Burns impression, tapping her fingertips together, which made Lisa nearly fall over laughing again. Lifting a hand in a wave, the taller girl followed her father as he headed for the exit, while behind them the rest of the crew got to work unloading everything, Matt and a couple of the others talking to Lisa for moment before the smaller group left in the direction of the cafeteria.
Feeling very satisfied with how lucky they'd been today, and pleased how well the whole operation had come together, Taylor put the mystery of Thomas Calvert to one side for now. He certainly wasn't going anywhere, and she was definitely going to inspect him and all his little minions extremely carefully before she let any of them out again…
After all, she now had quite a lot of experimental subjects she'd feel little to no guilt about working with, considering what they'd been doing and had done in the past.
Might as well make the best of the opportunity.
Emily nodded to herself as she looked around at the sound of Armsmaster's iconic motorcycle coming into the parking garage. Glenn, who was on the other side of the PRT SUV about to get in, followed her eyes over the roof to see the man pull up next to them. "Director, Mr Chambers," he said as he turned the machine off. "Who else are we waiting for?"
"Sommers," Emily replied, nodding sideways at Chambers. "And his two. They were printing off some final documentation."
"Understood," the Tinker replied calmly. He glanced to the side a few seconds later. "They appear to have finished, in fact." Emily looked in the same directly, as did Glenn, to see the three lawyers exit the elevator, Sommers in the lead. All three of them carried briefcases. Approaching, the legal people greeted them.
"Apologies, Director, the printer jammed again," Sommers said, sounding mildly annoyed.
"We seriously need an IT upgrade," she sighed, nodding her understanding. "Yet another thing on the list." Looking at her watch, she added, "We need to leave now to make it in time, so everyone get in, please." Pulling the driver's door open she got into the vehicle, wincing a little as she sat down. Suppressing the always-present discomfort caused by her long term illness with the experience of far too many years of pain, she slammed the door and waited for the other four to get in and put on their belts.
"I will meet you there, Director," Armsmaster said through the open window. He turned his bike on again and quickly left the garage. She started the SUV and followed.
"Mr Chambers," she said as she briefly stopped at the end of the ramp onto the street, glancing at him, then looking for traffic. "Please remember… Don't try any of the usual tricks I know full well PR is so good at. We have no wiggle room at all in this case, and one thing I am certain of is that Carol Dallon, Danny Hebert, or more likely both will see through them on the spot. And if we fuck this up now, we are absolutely screwed, you hear me?"
"I do hear you, Director Piggot," he replied with a sigh. "I hear you all too well."
"Just remember it." She met his eyes again for a moment, seeing he was annoyed but resigned as he nodded once. It was entirely understandable of course. Emily herself had gone right through rage and out the other side to a weird sort of calm, and only hoped that the people they were going to meet would be not too outrageously upset.
She rather doubted they'd be that lucky, all things considered. Not surprising, under the circumstances. If it had been her she'd have been completely ready to utterly fuck the opposition for everything she could possibly squeeze out of them.
Hopefully Hebert and Barnes weren't as vicious as she was, she mused as she navigated the vehicle through traffic towards a meeting she was pretty damn sure was going to be one of the more awkward ones of her career.
Taylor stood next to her father as they ascended in the almost entirely silent elevator, both of them wearing nice clothes. He was in the suit he reserved for important meetings with the city administration, and she thought it looked really good on him. Her mom had always said he gave the impression of being a skinny secret service agent when he wore that one and tended to both giggle a lot and try to get him to wear clip-on mirrored sunglasses. Her dad used to sigh at that, but always gave in sooner or later, which made both Taylor and her mom laugh at the result.
She sighed faintly at the memories seeing that suit brought back with almost overwhelming nostalgia for a moment, and her father put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed without looking at her. "I miss her too," he said almost silently, somehow knowing exactly what she was thinking.
He glanced at her then, before reaching inside his suit jacket and pulling out those same mirrored clip-ons, snapping them over his glasses. She stared at his face then her mouth started twitching with amusement.
"She'd have insisted," he commented with a small smile of his own.
"Yeah, she would have," Taylor agreed, shaking her head and grinning. Running a hand down her own jacket she took a breath. "I'm glad this fits."
"You look very good, Taylor. Very professional. Lucky you're so tall for your age."
Taylor looked down at herself, agreeing silently. She was dressed in a dark navy blue suit of her own, one of her mom's that had been reserved for university functions, and something she'd never worn before, over a button-up light blue shirt she'd had for years and not worn since shortly after the mess at Winslow kicked off. Most of her nice clothes, and despite what those girls had constantly said, she did have a fair number of them, had been relegated to the back of her closet in favor of hoodies and dark colored older stuff that both let her try to blend into the background and were less upsetting to get ruined when she didn't pull it off. Which had been most of the time.
Her mom's clothes fitted surprisingly well, all things considered, although the jacket needed a little adjustment across the shoulders if she was going to wear it again. She was nearly as tall as her mother had been even now, and was fairly sure she'd be taller when she was fully grown. On the other hand she had longer arms, and definitely had longer legs, making her feel gawky and awkward when she compared herself to her peers. Something they had incessantly mentioned, of course, which hadn't helped. Even so, when she'd looked as objectively as possibly at her reflection, she'd been a little surprised to discover she actually didn't look at all bad.
Lisa had claimed she actually looked very good, as had her dad, but she wasn't really prepared to go that far. Even so, it gave a better impression than her usual casual clothing did and under the circumstances she thought that was a good idea. One hand went back to check that her hair was still in the pony-tail she'd arranged it into, then dropped again. Nerves were making her fidgety, and she was all too self aware of that and trying to stop it.
It wasn't them that needed to be nervous, after all...
With a muted bing the elevator slowed to a halt and the doors slid open, revealing a wide corridor painted light green with a much darker green and very luxurious carpet. Directly opposite them was a sign, pointing out among other names that the office of Carol Dallon was to the left. Her dad headed that way with her at his side, their footsteps almost inaudible on the expensive carpet. Surrounding them was near-silence although she could hear faint sounds of people talking in the rooms they passed. Looking beneath she scanned the surroundings for a moment, seeing lots of people doing various tasks in the offices, most of which seemed to involve either talking or typing.
Rounding the corner at the end of the corridor they found a door with Mrs Dallon's name on it. Her dad put his hand on the handle, glanced at her, and when she nodded, pushed it open.
"Mr Hebert?" a dark-haired woman of roughly mid-twenties age asked as she looked up from the keyboard she was typing on.
"Yes, and Taylor Hebert, to see Mrs Dallon," he replied.
"She's expecting you. Please go through there, and turn right," the woman said, indicating a door on the right. "The conference room is directly in front of you at that point. I'll let her know you've arrived."
"Thank you," he nodded. "Have the PRT people turned up yet?"
"No, we're expecting them in about fifteen minutes though," she replied with a professional smile which vanished almost instantly.
He nodded again, glanced at Taylor, then both of them went through the door she'd pointed out. Moments later they entered a large room with a long table in the middle of it, a dozen or so chairs around the table. Four of them were occupied, Michelle in one with a pile of documents in front of her which she was leafing through. The DWA lawyer, who had left while they'd been grabbing Coil so she could go over the case with Carol Dallon again beforehand, looked up at them and smiled. Taylor smiled back.
At the head of the table a blonde woman in a very expensive suit was also looking at a document, but when they entered turned her attention to them, rising to her feet. Taylor recognized Carol Dallon from the TV without any difficulty, although most of her appearances there were in costume as Brandish of New Wave. "Mr Hebert and Ms Hebert, Carol Dallon. A pleasure to meet you both even under these circumstances," Mrs Dallon said as she walked over, holding her hand out. Taylor's dad shook it, as did Taylor.
"Thank you," her dad said politely. "I think we met once before, about four years ago? At a function here, as I recall. I came with my wife as a guest of Alan's."
"Ah… Yes, I remember, now you mention it," Mrs Dallon replied, nodding. "That was quite an entertaining night." She waved at the chairs. "Please sit. Director Piggot's group will be here shortly but I wanted to quickly go over what we're aiming at achieving here, if you don't mind."
"Of course," her father smiled, pulling out a chair for Taylor, who sat in it. He took the next one. "Hello, Alan, Zoe," he added, addressing the remaining two people who so far hadn't said anything. "How's Emma doing?"
"She's… not well, but the doctor thinks she's starting to show signs that are promising," Alan Barnes replied heavily. His eyes kept wandering to Taylor, and Zoe hadn't stopped looking at her from the moment she'd walked into the room. His mouth worked for a few seconds, before his head bowed. "I'm sorry, Taylor," he said in a very quiet voice. "More sorry than I can possibly express, and incredibly thankful that you are a far better person than either I or Emma are." Raising his head he met her eyes. "We owe you a debt I can't think how we can ever repay for what our family did to you."
Taylor had been quite deliberately, with the experience of far too much practice, suppressing her emotional response to the memories seeing him had brought back in a rush. It was really hard not to say something nasty, but she kept her temper. It wasn't actually their fault, she'd decided that some time ago. As her father had said, in a way it wasn't even Emma's fault, despite her former friend's actions towards her. Emma was mentally ill and the argument could be made not in control of her own actions. Had been made, in fact, which was the only reason they were here to begin with, but even knowing that intellectually and accepting it, emotionally it was very difficult.
She took a couple of deep breaths while everyone else watched her, Carol particularly examining her closely. "Thank you, Uncle Alan," she finally replied softly, deciding to use the way she'd grown up referring to him. His face changed very slightly, looking a little shocked but incredibly relieved at the same time although he hid both very well. Her hands were clasped in front of her on the table and she regarded them idly. "It would be easy to hate you all for not stopping Emma. But that would be letting Sophia win. And I will not let her ruin anything else of my life, or yours either. She's done far too much already."
Lifting her head she looked directly at him, seeing he was watching her like he'd never seen her before. "So I won't hate you. I can't hate you. You're family, same as you've always been, no matter what that little bitch tried to do. I don't know if I can ever be in the same room as Emma again, not right now, but even so I'm not going to spend my time dwelling on what's in the past. I'll move on, and with any luck Emma will one day get better. If that happens, I suppose we'll see what happens then…" She sighed, putting her hands flat on the table and deliberately relaxing her shoulders which had tensed up almost to the point of pain. "I just want this to stop and the people who should have made sure it never happened get shown very clearly why it should never have happened."
After close to ten seconds, he nodded his understanding. Michelle appeared approving and Carol seemed slightly surprised, but pleased too, when Taylor happened to glance at her. A moment later Zoe stood up and slowly walked around the table to stand looking at Taylor, who looked back, then also stood.
Zoe grabbed her in a hug and held her tightly. After a second, Taylor put her arms around the older woman, a little shocked and also inwardly mildly amused that she was now a good couple of inches taller than her. "I am so, so sorry, Taylor," Zoe whispered, almost crying, into her shoulder. "I should have noticed. I should have done something. You didn't deserve what happened. We should have stopped it."
Taylor could feel her shaking. "It's not your fault, Aunt Zoe," she said very quietly to the woman holding her like she was afraid she'd vanish if she let go. "I wish it hadn't happened too, but I don't blame you for what Emma did, and the more I think about it the more I can't really blame Emma either. I should have talked to you about it, really. Everyone made mistakes and we all screwed up, but ultimately it's Sophia's fault, and the ABB's for breaking Emma so much that Sophia could even get into her head."
She watched as Zoe looked up at her, searching her face with her gaze as if to judge the truth of her words. "The school and the PRT are really the ones to blame. If they'd done their jobs Sophia wouldn't have been able to do what she did, or Emma, or Madison, or any of the others. Dad's right about that. You guys are way down the list, believe me."
After a long pause, Zoe smiled a little sadly. "You are so much like your mom at times it's almost unbelievable," she commented, shaking her head. "Annette would be proud of you. Never ever doubt that. I am incredibly proud of you." Releasing her, the older woman took a step back as Taylor lowered her arms. "You've grown up into a remarkable young woman, and a much more mature one for your age than most people will manage."
"I'd like to believe I can think things through rather than just react to them," Taylor smiled, getting a small laugh in return. "Apparently that helps more than you'd expect."
"It does seem to," Zoe agreed, looking happier now. She went back and sat next to her husband, who nodded to Taylor, his expression a lot less stressed than it had been when they came in. Taylor also sat, her father taking her hand in his and squeezing it gently. When she looked at him she saw he looked proud, making her smile back.
"You have a level of wisdom unusual for your age," Carol Dallon commented after a moment of silence. "Unusual for many people, for that matter. I am genuinely impressed, Ms Hebert, especially having read the documentation of this entire affair. I take it you will have no objection to causing both Winslow and the PRT considerable trouble for their part in the whole thing, which you rightly point out is mostly their fault?"
"Not in the slightest, Mrs Dallon," Taylor replied politely, with a very dark smile. "It would be positively wonderful to do that."
"I thought you might say that," the lawyer replied, her own smile nearly as vicious as Taylor's was. She checked the time, then went on, "We have ten minutes left to discuss our opening demands. I have a number of suggestions which you may wish to consider, on top of what else you may want. Under the circumstances I think we probably don't need to hold back all that much…"
Taylor's father snorted with amusement and both the Barnes's chuckled. "Squeeze them until something creaks?" he commented, looking like he was expecting some entertainment.
"Oh, at least, yes," Mrs Dallon agreed happily. She opened one of the folders in front of her and removed a sheet of paper, sliding it down the table to them. Taylor's dad retrieved it and started reading, moments later snickering to himself. Taylor leaned sideways to get a good view and read as well, her eyes widening.
"They're really not going to like this," she mumbled.
"That's rather the point, Ms Hebert," Carol said, leaning back in her chair and looking satisfied as she toyed with an expensive gold pen in one hand. "An example, I think, needs to be made."
Taylor nodded, watching as her father turned the page over and read the other side. When they'd both finished, the small group spent the rest of the time until the PRT delegation arrived discussing their options and what they'd settle for versus what they'd ask for.
She was pretty sure the PRT wouldn't be particularly happy with either position, but to be honest she was well past the stage of really caring about their feelings in the matter.
With a last warning glance at Glenn, Emily took a breath and pushed the door to the conference room open, stepping through and looking around. Like the rest of the law firm's premises, the room was very discreetly giving off the air of expense and good taste, with a hint of intimidation. The long polished wooden table in the middle was surrounded with chairs, one of these apparently being intended for Armsmaster as it was clearly much more solidly constructed than the rest.
Carol Dallon obviously had prepared her setting well. Which certainly fitted her reputation.
The rest of her group filed in behind her as she took a few more steps, Armsmaster's power armor causing the only footfalls that were audible on the carpet due to the weight of it. Even the obviously preposterously expensive material wasn't quite up to muffling a quarter of a ton of titanium alloy Tinkertech, she idly mused as she assessed the six people who were waiting for them.
Carol Dallon she of course knew all too well, and saw the woman was watching her with interest, her eyes flicking over the rest of her party before returning to Emily. She also recognized Alan Barnes, and by implication the woman sitting next to him giving her a rather hard stare would be his wife Zoe.
The other three people were someone who was obviously also a lawyer, one that gave the impression of looking forward to what happened next based on the very small smile on her lips, and the Heberts, Danny and his daughter Taylor. The man was tall, thin, with a receding hairline and the somewhat bland face of an accountant, but in the black suit with his eyes behind mirrored glasses, his gaze was oddly intimidating.
His daughter, on the other hand, had her eyes completely visible behind round glasses, and for a moment Emily rather wished they weren't. There was a look in them of sharp intelligence and a distinct lack of amusement which made her suppress the urge to flinch. It was not a friendly impression. And coming from someone who was only fifteen, it was more than a little concerning. The girl was tall and slender, giving hints that when she finished growing she'd be someone to watch, and was also wearing a suit. The look, in Emily's opinion, fitted her rather well. She wasn't going to say so though.
"Director Piggot, and Armsmaster," Carol said as she got up and approached them. "Thank you for being punctual. And Mr Chambers." She gave the head of PR a look that made it clear she wasn't entirely approving of the man, which didn't surprise Emily at all. Many people, herself included, didn't approve of Glenn Chambers, who was a manipulative son of a bitch a lot of the time which of course was why he was generally so good at his job. Hopefully he'd remember her warning and keep that part of his personality under control. If not she might have to hurt him.
"Mrs Dallon," Glenn replied politely, although Emily noticed with inner amusement that he was sweating lightly. "These are my legal experts Sasha Forrest and Kyle Davids. I believe you know Lee Sommers?"
"We've crossed swords once or twice, yes," Carol replied, glancing at the PRT lawyer who looked momentarily mildly amused. She shook hands with all of the new arrivals, then gestured to the free seats, making the introductions between everyone else in the process. Shortly they were all sitting down, Armsmaster having inspected his chair carefully first and seeming satisfied with it.
"Would anyone care for coffee or other refreshments before we start?" the Dallon woman asked. Both Heberts, and the Barnes too, requested coffee, as did Sommers, Emily decided she was in the mood for some tea on the basis it might keep her calm and she had an idea that was going to be hard otherwise, and everyone else went for water. Carol's assistant brought everything a few minutes later. While they waited, all the lawyers busied themselves with looking through documents and getting notebooks out. Alan and Zoe Barnes were talking very quietly to each other, too quietly for Emily to make anything out, Armsmaster seemed to be calmly waiting, and the two Heberts were simply sitting there watching her group with apparent interest, saying nothing.
Emily noticed that Glenn didn't look very comfortable, and glanced at Taylor Hebert to see the girl inspecting him like he was an intriguing curiosity, which he apparently didn't like. But he also didn't seem to want to say anything, which if Emily was any judge was privately amusing the girl, so he just sat there and looked a bit worried.
She hid a tiny smirk of her own. In her personal opinion he needed to be made uncomfortable. His opening comment when he'd arrived was still fresh in her memory…
Once everyone had a drink, Carol took a sip of her water, put the glass down again, and cleared her throat. "Well, then. Director Piggot, you requested this meeting. Would you like to present your case? We're all very interested in seeing what you feel it appropriate to propose considering how… unfortunate… this entire affair is. In other words, what do you want to achieve today, and what do you feel you are willing to do to achieve that?" She folded her hands on the table and looked at the PRT group with bland attention.
Carefully preparing her thoughts, Emily glanced at Glenn, beyond him to Armsmaster who was listening carefully, and at her own lawyer, who seemed to be doing the same thing and nodded once to her when he met her eyes. She cast her gaze across the faces of the Hebert and Barnes people, then very faintly sighed. Leaning forward, she tapped the document she'd put on the table when she sat down, the one that had a copy of the lawsuit in it. "Ideally I would like this to go away," she said, noticing out of the corner of her eye that both Chambers' lawyers winced a little. Sommers if anything seemed amused.
"I'm sure you would," Carol replied with a tiny smile. "However I think opinion may differ on our end."
"Obviously," Emily nodded. "I don't expect your clients are feeling very forgiving to the PRT at the moment, and to be honest I understand exactly why." She hesitated, wondering if it would be better to try to talk around the problem, or just resort to blunt honesty. Looking at Danny Hebert, then his daughter, who was silently staring at her with an expression so professionally blank it was a touch worrying, she finally decided that there was absolutely zero mileage in beating about the bush.
"I'll lay it on the table. The PRT cannot afford to have the involvement of our former Ward in this unbelievably stupid sequence of events become public knowledge. The effect on general morale would be catastrophic, and giving particularly the Empire Eight Eight a perfect example of propaganda I absolutely guarantee they would take every scrap of advantage of could well, quite literally, cost lives." She looked around at them all, returning her attention to the two Heberts after a moment as she was fairly certain it was them she had to ultimately convince. They were the lynchpin of the whole situation, Taylor particularly as it was her who had been most directly impacted by Sophia's idiocy.
"I realize that sounds overly dramatic, but I can assure you that unfortunately it very much isn't. The gangs outnumber us significantly and have a lot more resources than I'm even slightly happy about. This city is constantly balanced on a knife edge at the best of times and it would only take a small advantage to one party or another to see yet another violent outburst that might potentially end up with a full blown gang war. Handing that monster Kaiser anything that he could twist to his own ends, which I have no doubt at all he would immediately do, could and would end badly for everyone."
She sighed as Taylor studied her, then glanced at her father, her face still completely blank in a way that Emily genuinely envied. It was one hell of a poker face. Her father most likely taught her, as he also wasn't giving even a hint of his thoughts in his expression. "If this gets to court, and Miss Hess's crimes and identity as Shadow Stalker become public knowledge, my own job and that of the PRT and Protectorate ENE, and the BBPD, will instantly become far harder than it already is, which I doubt I need to explain would not be a good thing in any way at all. We're all stretched far too thin as it is and I very much do not want to see just how bad one unbelievably stupid teenager could manage to make the current situation."
Pausing for breath, and to take a sip of tea, she assessed her audience. Both Heberts still hadn't shown a flicker of reaction, but the Barnes's were looking at each other. Carol was frowning thoughtfully and didn't seem to disagree with Emily's explanation if her expression was anything to go by, although she also didn't look entirely satisfied. Putting the cup down, Emily resumed. "Mr Chambers was sent here specifically to try to prevent what I just described from happening, primarily by one way or another convincing you to drop the case to avoid the PR hit and everything the fallout of that would cause."
The man next to her started to say something and she gave him a look that caused him to pale slightly and stop immediately. "My own opinion is that the methods proposed by my superiors to stop the information escaping into the wild are, at best, flawed. We all know what happened, and we know that you know, and so on. Your documentation makes it abundantly clear that ship has sailed, despite the remarkably roundabout way in which it does so. You already knew Sophia's cape identity or I wouldn't have taken the approach I did. I can only assume that you probably know nearly as much about her activities as I do, since I'm damn sure the police are fully aware of all of it. They'll never admit it but I'm not an idiot, and reading between the lines of the reports I've seen proves that as far as I'm concerned. And I suspect that via one channel or another they have in a completely deniable manner passed that information on to you."
For the first time Danny Hebert showed a change of expression, that being a very brief, very deliberate, and very small smile, which vanished instantly. But it confirmed to Emily that he definitely knew a lot more than he should have. Neither Carol or the DWA lawyer looked even slightly surprised by what she'd said, nor did the Barnes couple. So. yeah, they certainly knew all of it, or at a minimum enough to be extremely awkward if this didn't work.
Taking a breath, she finished, "What this all boils down to is that I asked for this meeting to essentially find out what you want in return for not divulging the role PRT personnel played."
Glenn made a sound of protest. She slowly turned her head and fixed him with a hard look and after a moment he wilted a little. Next to him his lawyers looked appalled but didn't seem to feel it was a good idea to comment, although she was inwardly sure they were very much not happy with her raw honesty.
Tough. They weren't the ones who had to deal with this insane city.
Carol, who had been making notes as she spoke, leaned sideways to very quietly talk to Michelle behind a raised hand. The younger woman nodded a couple of times, before doing the same thing to Danny, his daughter turning to watch and listen. Alan and Zoe Barnes got up and huddled with them as well, the group discussing things in a whisper for thirty seconds or so and finally appearing to come to an agreement. Both Barnes's went back to their chairs, Zoe putting her hand lightly on Danny's back for a moment as she passed causing him to look at her and nod slightly.
"Just so we are all clear about this, you are not suggesting that the case against Winslow or the other defendants is involved in your request?" Carol queried. "You are only concerned about the status of Sophia Hess coming out in court, which would likely happen even if we went after her civilian ID and ignored the cape one."
"Correct," Emily replied immediately. "As far as I'm concerned you are fully justified in nailing everyone else to the wall for the appalling way in which both Taylor and Emma were handled. If it was me I'd be looking to utterly bankrupt the assholes. Trust me, if Hess wasn't a Ward, I'd stand back and wish you all the best for whatever you intended to do to the little bitch."
"Director…" Glenn got as far as that word before she raised a hand and cut him off.
"Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of stepping away and letting that happen, for the reasons I've explained," she added, scowling a little.
"I see," Carol commented, making another note with a glance at the others on her side of the table.
"I have a question, Director Piggot," Taylor said quietly, making everyone look at her. Keeping her attention fixed on Emily, who nodded to her, she went on, "Is Sophia going to face justice for what she did to me, and to Emma, if we don't go ahead with the case against the PRT? Or is someone like him…" Her eyes flicked to Glenn for a moment, then returned to Emily, "...going to move her to another city, give her another cape identity, and let her keep right on going with her life?"
Glenn shifted uneasily in his seat, making the girl stare at him for a second.
Emily chuckled wearily. "I'm sure that my superiors would prefer that to happen, Miss Hebert, as much as I'd like to deny it. That is essentially why we ended up with the girl to begin with."
"Director Piggot," Glenn snarled.
"No. You were warned about Hess, and this is the result of ignoring that warning," she snapped, glaring at his furious face. "Face facts, she's burned every trace of good will she could possibly have had. No third chances."
He didn't look even remotely happy, but he stopped again. After staring at him a little longer, she returned her attention to the Hebert girl, noticing in passing that Sommers seemed to be enjoying himself, while the Image department lawyers were certainly not doing that but didn't appear to know what to do about it. Armsmaster had a slightly approving smile under his visor, which was unusual but welcome. He definitely felt she was correct, as far as she could tell. "No, Miss Hebert, Sophia Hess is not going to be a part of the PRT or Protectorate again. Her crimes are far too serious for that to be allowed, even if I was callous enough to ignore what she did to you and Miss Barnes. Which, while I am in many ways not a nice person, I am not. She'll face a federal judge in closed court, be convicted of numerous felonies, and likely spend the next thirty years in prison."
"How many people did she kill?" the girl asked almost casually.
Emily studied her, then looked at her father, before glancing at Carol Dallon who really didn't look all that pleased. Not surprising knowing the woman's ideals. "More than one," she admitted. It appeared that their information really was about as complete, and as damning, as she'd feared it was. Or Taylor had made a very accurate guess. The girl sighed and nodded, not seeming particularly shocked in either case.
Danny looked at Carol, who returned the gaze and nodded. She turned to Emily. "We drop the PRT aspect of our case. Sophia is only referred to in passing, as the instigating factor of a drug arrest that provoked the lawsuit against Winslow and the other defendants. It will take some careful work and a suitable judge, but we did put some effort into arranging things in the initial phase as this was one plausible reaction on your part. I expect if required your legal team can aid us in that."
Emily glanced at Sommers who nodded without saying anything.
"We also arrange a suitable non disclosure agreement covering the real identity of Shadow Stalker, purely to avoid danger to her family who we have no argument with, and due to your stated worries about the ramifications of her ID becoming known to the public and the gangs. That's a standard document so easy to do."
"Agreed."
"Additionally we have a separate binding agreement that my clients will refrain from mentioning Sophia Hess's involvement in this affair, and any connection to PRT malfeasance enabling or disguising her actions, again for the purposes of avoiding the likely damage to public confidence and the risk of gang propaganda if such a thing becomes known. I personally don't like it, and neither do my clients, but we understand your points are valid and have no wish to make a bad situation worse."
"That's acceptable," Emily nodded, wondering when the hammer would drop.
Carol raised a finger. "This agreement is invalidated if the information so embargoed becomes known via sources other than my clients. In other words, they'll keep their mouths shut as long as your side doesn't leak it. Additionally, if your superiors, for reasons that I have little doubt none of us would agree with, do decide to do as Taylor suggested and have the extraordinarily bad judgment to put Sophia Hess back into the field under a different identity, the agreement is rendered null and void." She smiled grimly. "Just in case, and because I've had all too much experience with some of the more questionable decisions the PRT has been known to take in the past. We don't want our good will to be turned against us."
Glenn was quietly fulminating next to her, looking like he'd very much like to add to the proceedings but didn't quite know how to do that. It was darkly amusing to her considering his reputation and profession to see him unable to come up with the right words…
"I can see your point, unfortunately," Emily sighed. "Agreed."
Looking at her clients, Carol seemed satisfied so far. "Excellent. That's what we will do for you. Now, what you will do for us."
Oh, look, there it was, and by the whistling sound it was a big hammer headed her way, Emily thought with resignation.
"You use the influence you have to transfer Taylor Hebert to Arcadia High School as soon as feasible."
She didn't have to even think about that one. "Agreed."
"The PRT pays any and all costs of Emma Barnes's therapy and medical requirements, for life."
That was more painful, but in all honestly entirely reasonable. And compared to the amount even the ENE branch had available, not really that large an issue.
"Agreed."
"Finally, the PRT pays the Hebert family and the Barnes family the sum of one point five million dollars each, in partial recompense for the mental anguish and provable harm caused by the actions and inactions of PRT staff towards both parties."
Emily winced. That wasn't as bad as she'd been expecting, but it wasn't good.
"Out of the question," Glenn growled. "That's an absurd amount of money to…"
"My apologies, Mr Chambers, I seem to have misspoken," Carol cut in, glancing down at her notes even as Emily turned a furious glare on the idiot next to her. "I meant to say two million dollars each."
"Are you insane?"
"Actually now that I look more carefully I've got two point five million written down here," the lawyer commented mildly, tapping her finger on the page in front of her then raising her eyes to look directly at him. "For now."
He took a deep breath, then Emily grabbed his arm and squeezed. Very hard indeed. "Stop talking, you damned idiot," she snarled. "Before you make it worse."
Turning to Carol, she much more pleasantly said, "That's a fairly significant sum, Mrs Dallon."
"It's still well within a typical legal settlement range should a case of this nature go to court," the lawyer replied evenly. "You are obviously aware that the chances of us winning are very high, if not guaranteed. The courts take great interest in this sort of suit and have historically tended to award rather substantial payments. Both due to the public perception of Parahuman associated criminal activities being qualitatively worse than the non-Parahuman version, and in a case of this nature where it is made more complex due to the involvement of those very authorities whose remit it is to prevent such things, as an impetus for educating the people involved as to why they should make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen. Should we be forced to ask the courts for a judgment, I would expect a figure of possibly ten to twelve million dollars would be levied based on precedent when we won." She looked at Glenn, then back to Emily. "Each," she added with a faintly smug look. "Plus costs."
"Davies VS PRT, 2007, the final settlement was sixteen point nine million," Lee Sommers put in calmly. "I can think of a number of others. Mrs Dallon is most likely correct in her assessment of the probable outcome of a court case."
Carol nodded in acknowledgment of his comment. After a short pause, she continued, "Obviously I would prefer not to take that route for very similar reasons to your own. You are completely correct that the outcome could be… unpleasant. But at the same time I have a duty to my clients to ensure that they are not left wanting due to the negligence of the PRT, which has had a serious and ongoing impact on their quality of life and overall well-being."
"Five million dollars is ridiculous," Glenn sputtered, apparently incensed enough to ignore Emily's instructions. "It's not as if anyone died, as bad as the whole situation is. Surely a much lower fig…"
"Mr Chambers?" Taylor politely interrupted him, causing the man to stop mid-word, then turn his head to look at her. "What's your earliest memory?"
"What?" Chambers said after a few seconds, seemingly thrown enough by the question which seemed to have no bearing on the current subject that he couldn't come up with anything more useful. Emily reflected that while he was normally the one in control of any discussion about his own field, if you got him out of his comfort zone he definitely seemed to have trouble coping.
"What's the earliest thing you can remember?" the girl queried, studying him.
"I… don't understand your point, Miss Hebert," he finally replied, looking confused.
"My earliest memory, the first thing I can consciously recall, is from when I was… perhaps three or so? We were at the beach. It was a hot day, and the sea was calm and cool. We had a picnic. Hot dogs and bacon sandwiches, with a barbecue Dad still has. Mom was there, of course, and Dad too." She was looking at her hands on the table, and at this point looked up to meet his eyes, her face calm but finally showing some hint of emotion, that being gentle nostalgia. "I remember Emma too. We were looking at the rock pools and a crab got her toe when she stepped on it. She screamed, then fell in, and I had to pull her out and call Dad to get it off. He was laughing, and after a while Emma and I saw the funny side and laughed too. Dad carried her back to the barbecue and I ran in front."
She sighed very faintly. "It was a really nice day," she murmured. "We had fun." Her eyes sharpened and focused on his face, as he looked at her with bemusement. "My earliest memory was about Emma. She was there for my entire life. Right up to the point that the ABB, a gang your organization has never managed to stop, broke her. Right up the point your Ward destroyed my friend. My sister. Sophia turned someone who was family into someone I don't recognize, someone who spent nearly eighteen months torturing me every single day I was at school. My best friend, the girl I've known for as long as I can remember, was turned against me by a person who is called a hero."
Taylor was looking at him in a manner that made Emily wince. It was the gaze of someone who was unyielding and very, very angry, but covering her emotions with an iron control that was frankly terrifying in someone so young.
"The money, as far as I'm concerned, is almost irrelevant. It's useful, but it's only money. It won't bring my Emma back. It won't fix Uncle Alan's and Aunt Zoe's daughter. It won't make Anne's sister right again. But what it will do, I hope, is make your people think very hard indeed the next time they find a Sophia. I want them, you, to remember what your little half-feral psychopath did to innocent people who never did anything to her purely because she's got some bizarre mental hangups that the PRT should have noticed and done something about. It's five million reasons to try harder next time. Do you understand?"
He slowly nodded, his gaze fixated on the young woman like he was scared to look away. Armsmaster was watching her intently and had a set to his mouth that made Emily think he was both startled and highly impressed. She certainly was.
No one said anything for a few seconds. Eventually Taylor added, "I don't want to make your jobs any harder, but I'm not going to allow Sophia to get away with what she did, and the PRT is mostly the reason she did get away with it for so long. I live near the Docks, Mr Chambers. You may not realize what that means to someone from Brockton Bay, but I expect Director Piggot does. I grew up surrounded with people who the PRT has not really done very much to help. We're not rich enough, I suppose. We already have a pretty low opinion of the PRT for reasons I think are mostly valid. Please don't make that opinion go any lower."
She rubbed the corner of one eye with a finger, a slight hint of a tear glistening on it for a moment. "Sorry," she apologized, looking around the table, everyone regarding her. "I didn't mean to interrupt, but I needed to say that."
Her father put his arm over her shoulder and wordlessly hugged her, while Zoe Barnes who was sitting on her other side put her hand on her head and stroked her hair for a moment, looking rather proud.
"The budget of the PRT is over sixteen billion dollars a year, Director," Carol said after a long pause. "Five million dollars is a rounding error, despite what Mr Chambers seems to believe. Although as Ms Hebert has so well said, it should be a high enough figure to concentrate the mind quite adequately. While I don't have any evidence that this case isn't a one off, I also don't have any evidence that it is, and perhaps a financial motive might do something to prevent similar occurrences in future."
"My branch gets an annoyingly small quantity of that sixteen billion, I assure you," Emily sighed. "Too small in all honesty. However, despite that, I think we have no choice. My superiors will be less than happy but we'll agree to the sum."
Glenn twitched but when everyone looked at him he suppressed whatever it was he'd been about to say. He was still looking at the Hebert girl with a somewhat confused and thoughtful expression, while hers had gone back to complete blankness.
Emily really envied that level of control. And wondered if she'd actually learned it at the hands of Sophia fucking Hess. It wouldn't have surprised her, to be honest, although it was depressing to consider. Like everything else to do with the damn girl.
"The Chief Director will be apocalyptically furious about this," Glenn muttered almost inaudibly. Emily sighed faintly and ignored him as they started to discuss the exact details of the various legal documents that would need to be drawn up. He was probably correct, but right now that was far down her list of things to worry about.
When they walked through the front door, Anne was waiting for them. "How did it go, Mom?" she asked Zoe as the woman took her coat off and hung it up, then removed her boots. Alan came in after her and closed the door before doing likewise.
"We settled," Zoe replied, following her eldest daughter into the living room and gratefully sitting on the sofa. Anne sat next to her, looking at her with interest, as Alan went into the kitchen. Moments later she heard the coffee machine get switched on.
"That's good. Isn't it?" Anne asked tentatively.
"It's good," Alan confirmed as he came into the living room too and slumped into his chair with a sigh. "It could have been bad, but thanks to Taylor, it's good."
"What did Taylor do?" Anne queried curiously. Zoe chuckled.
"Proved that she's got a hell of a way with words, and was probably the smartest person in the room," she replied. "She shut Glenn Chambers, who's the head PRT Image guy, basically the one in charge of PR, down completely when he got difficult. It was amazing to watch. I'm so impressed with that girl. Annette would have been proud of her, she really would."
"So what was the end result?" her daughter asked after a moment's thought.
"An NDA about Sophia's real identity, which is more or less the standard PRT one, another one specifically covering what happened and what she did, which Carol's people drew up, Taylor goes to Arcadia courtesy of the PRT, Emma's therapy is paid by them for life, and a cash settlement to keep us happy," Alan commented, shaking his head a little. Anne put a hand over her mouth in surprise.
"Wow. They really wanted to make this go away, didn't they?"
"More than you'd believe, yes," Zoe nodded. "They're going to handle dealing with Sophia. She's a federal employee and what she did is so serious that she's basically going away pretty much forever."
"Good. I hope that bitch rots in prison," Anne growled.
"She's not going to be a problem again, that much I'm pretty certain of," Alan said. "The girl should consider herself lucky that she's not headed for the Birdcage, but it's unlikely that would happen due to her age for a start. But she won't enjoy the next twenty to thirty years." The coffee machine in the kitchen beeped so he got up to make the drinks, leaving the room.
"You'll need to sign the NDAs too, Anne," Zoe remarked, looking at her daughter. "It will take a day or two to get all the paperwork finalized, but Carol will drop by with it when it's ready for a signature from all of us, then take it to the PRT."
"Yeah, fine, I can do that," the young woman nodded. "How much was the settlement?"
Zoe grinned. "Two and a half million each minus Carol's fee. We get two point four million out of it."
Her daughter paled, nearly falling off the sofa. "Two point four million dollars?" she croaked.
"Yes. It's not a fortune but it's enough that we won't have to worry about money again unless we do something very silly."
"Holy shit." Anne looked absolutely stunned, accepting a mug of coffee from Alan a moment later when he came back in a somewhat absent-minded manner. She sipped it, lost in her own thoughts, while Zoe leaned back and tried to relax after the stress of the meeting. Her eyes met Alan's and she smiled, getting a tired one back from her husband.
"The best part of the entire thing was finding out that Taylor still considers us family," she said to him. He nodded wordlessly, his face lined and worried but with an overlay of relief. She felt exactly the way he looked.
"How's it going?" Taylor asked from the door. Lisa looked up at her new friend, who was leaning on the wall having come into the office Kate had let her use while she worked on her laptop.
"That took longer than I expected," Lisa said, studying the other girl, who looked tired but not unhappy. "So they settled, then."
"Yeah. Got everything we wanted, and nearly two and a half million dollars as well."
Lisa's eyes widened a little. "Hell. They were serious about it."
"Very. But as long as they keep Sophia away from me and this city, I've got what I want out of it. I've got more important things to think about than that little bitch. And I'll be going to Arcadia so I'll never have to think about Winslow again." Taylor smiled, making Lisa laugh. "Emma's medical bills will be paid by them too, so hopefully Uncle Alan and Aunt Zoe can get her all the help she needs to get better."
"You think she will?"
Taylor shrugged in a somewhat weary way. "I have no idea. I hope so, even if we're never friends again. I don't like to think of her like that. I guess time will tell."
"Guess so." Lisa nodded. "Well, that part is done, at least. Want to do something completely different?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," Taylor replied with a grin, perking up noticeably.
"Great. I found some really interesting things on the internet that I traced back to our dear friend Thomas, and it's given both me and my power some ideas about what might be on his computers and how to get into them. I think we should find out if I'm right."
"U.N.I.O.N. is ready for action once more, in that case," Taylor giggled. "Shall we move down to our secret room and see what happens?"
"I think that's an excellent idea, Agent Gimme," Lisa snickered, closing her laptop and standing up. Moment later the pair were headed to the shielded room and a date with a very large number of confiscated supervillain's computer servers.