Chapter 26
Bugs flew from under my armor to gather on the wall behind Piggot, forming the words 'Master-Stranger' with an arrow pointing at her.
Clockblocker reacted right away, reaching out to tag her just as she was about to call an end to the meeting.
"I really hope you're sure about this," he told me, "because otherwise, I'm getting the shit patrols forever."
Was I? There was no good reason for the real Piggot to answer the way she had. Combined with her abnormal body language and sudden desire to go along with Coil's plan, I couldn't see any other explanation. I'd read the files on every known parahuman in the city after joining the Wards — which had been quite sobering in Regent's case — and he was the only one capable of something like this.
"I'll take responsibility if I'm wrong," I said, "but Piggot knows my dad's in New York, and I was talking about a conversation that never happened. Not to mention that her body language was off, and that wanting to bring Chariot in as a mole doesn't make any sense. I think Regent's controlling her."
"So I wasn't crazy. She actually rolled her eyes at us?" Kid Win asked.
"Twice," I confirmed.
"What do we do?" Vista asked Weld.
"We'll restrain her for now, in case she's armed, then we'll ask the Master-Stranger passwords," Weld said. "According to interviews with people he controlled as Hijack, sleep revokes his control. I guess we'll find out whether this does the same within the next few minutes. Vista, can you please go get restraints in the armory?"
She rose from her seat and hurried around the table to leave the room.
Weld took out his phone, calling Deputy Director Renick to inform him of the situation, then Vista came back with an armful of restraints, and passed handcuffs to Piggot's wrists while Weld tied her to her chair with rope.
Clockblocker's power still hadn't worn off by the time the alarm announced Renick's arrival. He quickly joined us in the meeting room, two uniforms trailing behind him. He was unshaved and looked years older than he had when I'd first met him. The fact that he was still at the office at this hour hinted that we weren't the only ones pulling fifteen hours shifts since the Endbringer event.
"You're certain of this?" He asked, eyes wide after seeing the restraints around his frozen superior.
"No, we tied her up just for fun," Clockblocker deadpanned. "Figured it would be worth getting punished 'til the end of time for a few laughs."
"Apiary asked her a trick question after noticing that her body language was off, and she failed to give the right answer" Weld explained. "We suspect it's Regent, since he's the only known Master in town with the power to affect people."
"Not to mention that Coil is most likely behind this," I said. "I guess he figured if he couldn't get her fired and replaced with one of his puppets, he might as well make her the puppet."
Piggot resumed moving, huffing loudly like she was out of breath before looking down at the restraints around her.
"You figured it out," she stated. "Good. I was hoping someone would."
"Can you give us the Master-Stranger codes for this week?" Weld asked.
"Tournament-seven-five-horse," she answered without missing a beat. "Clockblocker used his power, I presume? That seems to have revoked Regent's control."
"It's possible that this is a trick," Weld told us. "We don't know Tattletale or Coil's powers. One of them could have figured out the password."
I didn't want to think of Tattletale being involved in this. It was hard enough to reconcile the Alec I knew with what I'd read in his file, I didn't want to sully my friendship with Lisa on top of that. I could imagine Grue and Bitch agreeing to what Coil had asked them to do, especially after seeing their reactions to Dinah, but Tattletale had to be working some kind of angle against him, even if it was in the long term.
The withered, brittle spring of forget-me-nots was still taped to the wall above my desk, an unspoken promise I couldn't bear to see broken.
Weld turned back to Piggot. "What did I tell you about Director Armstrong during our first meeting?"
"In the helicopter, you said that Director Armstrong in Boston was like a father figure to you after recruiting you to the Wards and getting you up to speed, and that you were planning to go visit him during the summer. You also said that you would step up to defend him if I were to put him down," she told him.
He nodded at the rest of us.
"Can you tell us what happened?" Renick asked.
"The Undersiders had someone with a Stranger classification waiting at my house when I arrived last night," she said. "A girl they called Imp, wearing a black costume and a grey mask with horns. Temporary rating of Stranger 5, appears to be able to escape notice at will."
Weld took note of this.
Had the Undersiders already replaced me? It had been what, two or three weeks since the Endbringer came? How had they even managed to find someone else so quickly?
Piggot continued. "By the time I realized what was happening, I was already restrained, and then the other Undersiders revealed themselves. I initially thought they wanted to hold me hostage, and told them about my medical condition requiring hemodialysis every night, but they simply took the machine with me and brought me to a vehicle. At a secondary location, they tied me to a bed, gagged me and set up the machine for the night, and then Regent began trying to take control of me. Like our files indicate, it took hours of him firing up every nerve in my body before he could assume full control. Then, they left me there for the night. The next morning, and Regent took control again, much faster this time, and directed me outside to my car, which they had also brought. He had me drive to the PRT HQ, and since I was fully conscious, I can give you the coordinates of the building they held me at."
Weld nodded, taking notes. "Where is it?"
"Near Langfield and Charlbury, across from the Colson building."
"I'll send a squad," said Renick, raising a hand to his earpiece to relay the message.
Piggot waited for him to be done before continuing.
"Once I arrived here, he had me go to my office and lock it, before logging into my computer. He managed to guess my password after a few moments, presumably with Tattletale's help. Then, he had me download our internal database to a USB drive, as well as the content of my computer, phone and emails."
"Everything?" Renick spoke.
"Everything but the most secure data."
"Are our identities compromised?" Clockblocker asked at the same time.
"That would be part of the protected data they couldn't access," Piggot said. "He could have had me order Dragon to give it up, but I suppose that would have given away the show. Then, he had me leave the building to deliver the USB drive a few streets away to someone in civilian clothes, presumably one of Coil's mercenaries. When I came back, he had me sit at my desk, writing emails and making phone calls while pretending to be me for the rest of the day."
"Until the Travelers arrived," Weld concluded.
"Yes. They came straight to my desk, and he had me order squads to stand down, and Dragon, not to put the building on lockdown or deploy one of her suit. They brought me down to the sub-basement where Trickster's cell was, and used my biometrics to bypass Dragon's system and open the door. I suppose you know the rest."
"What happens now?" Vista asked.
"According to our files and what I've witnessed, once Regent takes control of someone, he can do it much faster in subsequent times," Piggot said. "We do not know the exact distance he needs to be from someone to use his power on them, but according to testimonies of people he controlled as Hijack, once he has control, he can puppeteer them from across the city."
"So Coil got what he wanted, one way or the other," I said. "Either we find out that you're compromised and you have to step down, or we don't, and Regent continues to puppeteer you to do exactly what Coil wants. Or maybe it was never meant to work in the long-term and he already got what he wanted with the stolen data."
"Yes," she said, looking fairly composed for someone in her situation. "My career in this city is effectively over. Deputy Director Renick will now assume leadership."
"We will have a helicopter ready to evacuate you shortly, and will make arrangements to find you a hemodialysis machine there," Renick told her. "Once you are safely out of Regent's range, you can do a full debrief about the orders he gave while passing for you, so we can try to limit the damage and gain insight into Coil's goals."
"Good," she said, nodding. "I wish you luck."
The two uniforms went to her and untied the ropes, but left the handcuffs on before escorting her out. Renick took her place beside Weld.
"So just like that, Piggy's gone?" Asked Clockblocker. "What's gonna happen to her?"
"Director Piggot will be brought to Boston for now, to ensure that Regent can't regain control over her and verify that his power did not leave any lingering effect," Renick answered. "As for the future, she will most likely be transfered to another department, though with the Shadow Stalker scandal as a legacy, I doubt she will become Director again."
I felt bad that Regent had used his full power on her, and it must have been horrifying to lose control like that, but I couldn't say I was sad to see her go. I resented the fact that Coil got what he wanted in the end, but as far as I was concerned, none of this would have happened if she had acted decisively against him as soon as I gave the intel on his base, so it felt a bit like karma came calling.
"Coil might try the same thing again with you," I pointed out.
"I'll place my family in protective custody outside of the city," Renick answered, "and will temporarily move to the base full time, to minimize opportunities for them to get me. I will also work out a password system with Déjà Vu to give us an advance warning in case something happens anyways."
"What about Coil?" I asked. "Are you going to actually do something against him?"
"I do believe that he is a much more pressing priority than Director Piggot had made him, especially after today's event, both with the Travelers and with Regent. That being said, the main problem in dealing with him is that he remains largely underground and acts almost exclusively through subordinates, on top of having a precog warning him of any move we make."
"What if we could find his base?" I asked, thinking of the map I religiously filled in after every patrol. I hadn't found anything so far, but it only meant that I kept narrowing down possible locations.
"Hopefully we will, and I think it would be sensible to have a plan of action ready for that eventuality," he answered, "especially since with a precog at play, time is of the essence."
"And the Thinker warnings?"
"I've been Director for less than five minutes, so I'll have a better idea of how to handle the situation and what resources we can dedicate to this once I've gotten up to speed on everything and had some actual time to think about it," he said. "But I believe that we have no choice but to take action, as soon as we can locate him. Seeing as he appears to be growing bolder with every move, I wouldn't be surprised if he purposely unleashed the cause of the warnings upon us, and leaked the fact that we were aware of it and did nothing to further discredit us and possibly force another change of leadership."
"What Thinker warnings?" Vista asked.
Renick turned to her.
"After Apiary switched sides, she gave us intel about the location of Coil's base in hopes that we could mount an offensive to rescue Dinah Alcott. When we consulted Thinkers about it, they warned us of potential damages on par with an Endbringer attack if we moved forward and attacked his base."
"And you still want to attack his base?" Clockblocker asked, disbelieving.
"We'll try to find a way to minimize the damage, but if the chips are going to fall no matter what, I'd much prefer for it to happen on our terms than on his, especially if he's planning to set us up with another lose-lose situation."
That was good. Much better than Piggot's "out of sight, out of mind" policy. I didn't want to get my hopes up before seeing concrete results, but it was a good start.
"Until we can locate Coil," he continued, "we'll try a strike team strategy against the teams working for him, with the Protectorate responding in force whenever they show themselves. I'll request some more transfers to fill our ranks and allow us to keep the offensive pressure until they are either driven off or in custody."
That was less good to hear. I couldn't help but think about the Undersiders, and despite everything, I didn't want to see them arrested.
"What about Chariot?" Kid Win asked. "Are we still bringing him into the Wards as a double-agent?"
"Of course not," Renick answered bluntly. "We know this is what Coil wants, and for that reason alone, we cannot allow it to happen. Not to mention that he has already made attempts on Apiary's life twice, and bringing a known mole into the fray would just be too risky. No. We will offer him a place on another team, with incentives to move to a different city, but it seems unlikely that he will accept if he has already committed to working for Coil."
"So we can probably count him in our opposition," Weld concluded.
"Probably. However, between him, the Undersiders' new member and Dinah Alcott, it raises the question of how Coil manages to find all these new capes before we do. We work with hospitals and the police and have a few agents combing through records for potential trigger events to coordinate visits, but knowing that we still have moles in our ranks, I wouldn't be surprised to find one there, diverting our attention away from potential triggers while handing the information to Coil."
"What can we do about it?" Weld asked.
"I'll ask for out of town agents to take over these tasks for now. However, they won't be able to make visits, and to keep the information from reaching potential moles, I'd rather entrust this task to you Wards."
"So we have to squeeze in hospital visits on top of everything else?" Clockblocker asked.
"I know the current situation is stretching everyone out too thin, but as a reprieve, we'll also be adjusting your patrolling schedule to leave the patrols past curfew to the Protectorate."
"It's because of the Nine, isn't it?" Vista asked.
"Yes," Renick stated. "We've confirmed today that the Slaughterhouse Nine are in town. Director Piggot wanted to keep you Wards out of it, but I believe it is better for everyone to be informed."
"Great," said Clockblocker. "Just great. Things just keep getting better."
"This is above your pay grade, and you are not to engage them in any manner," Renick continued. "If you see them, run. But I'd like us to have a refresher course anyways, especially since you don't have access to the files on the S-class threats."
He thumbed his phone, and the screen changed to a picture of a relatively attractive man with dark hair, a trimmed beard and a mustache. He wore a white shirt, partially unbuttoned to show his hairless upper chest.
"Jack Slash. The leader. Blaster. He can extend and project the cutting edge of a blade. Likes to talk and get into people's heads, and likes to set up twisted games with his victims."
The image changed to a woman, naked and painted in alternating stripes of jet black and snow white.
"The Siberian. Brute, of the "don't worry about the number, just run" category. Invulnerable, implacable, so far unstoppable. Killed Hero, injured the invulnerable Alexandria, tangled with the Triumvirate a half-dozen times and always came out on top."
The image changed again. A girl, barely older than Dinah, with impeccable blond ringlets and a dress and apron stained with blood. She was pictured with a mechanical construct the size of a dog, with spidery legs ending in surgery tools.
"Bonesaw. Tinker, specialized in surgery, but with a wide enough range to include anything from robotics to biochemistry. Has been known to capture parahumans and experiment on them."
A shiver ran down my spine at the prospect.
Next was a dark-haired, brown-skinned woman with a helmet of colored glass forming a beak over the upper half of her face.
"Shatterbird. Shaker. Wide scale silica kinetic. She is known to use her power to announce the Nine's presence in a city. We have to expect that it will be the case here too. A team has already started boarding up the building's windows from the inside, and Armsmaster has soundproofed the Wards' panic room to store and preserve sensitive equipment. Kid Win, rather than going out on patrols for the next few days, you will assist him."
I made a mental note to ask Maureen about the composition of my mask's lenses, and to message Lanaro that I needed some contact lenses. At least the aquarium and terrariums in my workshop were all made of plexiglas.
The next picture showed a massive creature with six legs, its body black and iridescent and its limbs forking at the joints. I'd come across stories about him when I'd been researching possible superhero names for myself. It wasn't pretty.
"Crawler. Changer, Brute. Adaptive regeneration. Anything that doesn't kill him makes him stronger, literally. Our last reports indicates that his armor can withstand the blast of a small nuke, that he is surprisingly fast and agile, and that he has a caustic spit."
The next one was humanoid in silhouette, but looked artificial. Standing taller than the others, the body was in pieces, each section wrapped in a hard white shell, with loose chains and ball joints between the limbs' sections, in a way that reminded me of the third body from the crime scene we'd checked out earlier in the day.
"Mannequin. Tinker and collaborator of Bonesaw. Formerly Sphere. Specialized in closed systems sustaining life. Has performed extensive body modifications to rid himself of weaknesses. Likes to go after tinkers and people who try to make the world a better place."
The image was replaced with a young woman, in her late teens or early twenties, who looked almost normal, save for the vertical row of cigarette burns on each cheek and the faint glow to her eyes.
"Burnscar. Shaker. Pyrokinetic who can teleport through fire. Relatively new to the team compared to the other members."
Next was a stocky man with a shaved head, whose face looked like it was more scar tissue than flesh.
"Hatchet Face. Trump, a power nullifier who likes to hunt down parahumans."
Renick turned off the screen.
"You may have noticed that there are currently only eight of them. We suspect that they will try to find candidates to fill their vacancy. Usually, they will nominate a handful of parahumans, then submit them to a series of tests, and the survivor joins them. Again, we have no reason to expect anything different here. Questions?"
Stunned silence was the sole answer.
That was a lot to process. Some of the most fucked up parahumans on the planet, wreaking havoc in our city. Hopefully we wouldn't encounter any of them.