Chapter 25
So far, my experience with flight was limited to being carried by Laserdream during the Leviathan fight, which I hadn't particularly enjoyed. I'd spent the whole time worrying that she would drop me, since she didn't have superstrength and kept adjusting her hold on me.
Flying in Glory Girl's arms brought a different kind of worry. While she had the strength to make it look effortless, I still wasn't sure exactly how much of a grudge she carried against me. If she dropped me, it would be on purpose. The whole time, I was acutely aware of my distance from the ground, courtesy of the bugs naturally present there.
Not to mention that it was just plain awkward and undignified, being cradled in her arms.
At least, she was fast, shortening my ordeal, and in less than a minute, the PRT HQ fell into my range.
I felt out with my bugs. The guards usually on the rooftop were gone, and the action seemed to be mainly in the parking lot, right in front of the building.
Clockblocker, Vista, Flechette and Weld were facing against a large, furry beast with bat wings, or at least, they were trying to. Weld was the only one still standing, the others on the ground, coughing so hard I doubted they could breathe. Even Clockblocker's helmet hadn't protected him from the flow of noxious gas that Genesis produced with every exhale.
"We can't go to the PRT HQ," I told Glory Girl. "The Travelers are there, and Genesis is producing some kind of gas that's incapacitating the others."
She set me down on a rooftop a few streets away.
"What do we do, then?" She asked.
"Give me a minute."
I sent bugs into the building through the trap leading to my workshop. From there, they crawled under the door to access the rest of our headquarters, heading for the armory.
At the same time, I directed bugs to the sub-basement and reached for the handful that were there already. They weren't the right kind to let me see or hear easily, but through their touch, I found people. Sundancer and Ballistic were in front of Trickster's cell, and they weren't alone. Piggot was there too.
"The Travelers are trying to free Trickster," I told an increasingly impatient Glory Girl, "but they have Piggot as a hostage."
"And we can't do anything because of the gas," she grimaced.
A contingent of bees arrived, carrying gas masks they'd found in the armory. A similar swarm brought gas masks to the other Wards, who hurried to put them on, save for Weld, who didn't seem affected by the gas.
Glory Girl smiled, the first real smile I'd seen on her since she showed up in class, then put on one of the gas masks.
I had to remove my mask to put mine on, but I wore a domino mask underneath anyway. I put my glasses on over it, and clipped my mask to my belt.
She carried me to the PRT HQ, setting me down on the roof before flying to assist Weld against what looked like a purple yeti with bat wings. She didn't hold back, like she had some anger to work through.
Then, Flechette recovered enough from her coughing fit to raise her arbalest and fire at Genesis, who exploded in a cloud of black smoke.
Meanwhile, Sundancer and Ballistic had forced Piggot to open Trickster's cell, and the group was on its way up.
"Incoming," I warned the others through the comms. "They're in the elevator, and they have Piggot hostage."
They rushed into the lobby, Clockblocker running forward, hand extended as Vista compressed the space in front of him. He made it just as the elevator's doors opened.
Before I could send enough bees to cover his face, Trickster exchanged Clockblocker for Vista at the last second, and he ended up tagging Flechette while Trickster punched Vista in the face. Clockblocker, Glory Girl and Weld rushed forward, and Trickster did a series of swaps in quick succession, until the Wards were all in the elevator, save for the frozen Flechette, and the Travelers were in the lobby, a safe distance away.
"Now," said Trickster, "You're all going to stay into the elevator and close the doors, and in exchange, we won't —"
His attempt to threaten Piggot's life was cut short when the knife Ballistic was pressing to her throat came flying out of his hands, spidersilk tying it to Weld's arm, whom I'd instructed to pull.
At the same time, I covered Trickster's head with bees to keep him from using his power again, but he calmly reached into his pocket for a cylindrical object and pressed the button.
In a second, the bees covering him and the other bugs I'd been using to keep track of everyone died. It was strange. They hadn't noticed a chemical smell like with conventional bug spray, just a pulse in the air coming from the device, and then they dropped dead. Some kind of tinkertech bug killer, maybe. I could imagine that Coil was paranoid enough to procure something like that.
I couldn't see what happened next, but as I peered down at the doors from the rooftop, I saw Genesis materialize in a new form, a griffin with a large bowl shape on its back.
A confused Kid Win stepped out of a car with his PRT liaison, back from his recruiting assignment, but he didn't have time to react before the other Travelers ran out of the building and climbed into the bowl. The creature took off flying, and with the pulses still coming from the device in Trickster's hand, there wasn't much I could do. At least it appeared to be short-ranged, and neither the bugs in my workshop nor the bees in their hives were affected.
I stepped into the elevator. By the time I arrived in the lobby, Flechette was moving again, and Piggot had called for an emergency meeting, so everyone came in, and we went down to our headquarters.
Once we were all installed around the table in the meeting room, Weld began.
"First, let's talk about the fight. It could have gone better, but it doesn't mean that everything went badly."
Clockblocker scoffed. "Then came to our freaking headquarters after nearly killing two of us, and not only did we not manage to stop them from entering, but they also got away unscathed and with what they came here for. I'd say it went pretty badly."
"Shouldn't the building have been put on lockdown?" Asked Kid Win.
"The Travelers pressured Dragon to back off by threatening my life," Piggot answered. "Same thing with the squads of officers who were getting ready to intervene."
"The question I'm asking," Weld said, looking at Clockblocker, "is how can we prevent this from happening again?"
"That's the second time we fight Genesis while she can produce some kind of gas to incapacitate us," said Vista, "though it was much worse this time."
"Thanks for the gas masks, by the way," Flechette told me with a smile. "Quick thinking."
I offered a nod.
"I think we have to assume that she'll do it again during any future fight we have against the Travelers," Vista continued, "especially since it's worked so well for them so far."
"Which means that we need to have gas masks readily available anytime we have to deploy against them," Weld concluded, taking notes. "Speaking of, Director, I was wondering how we would answer to what happened today, with Glory Girl and Apiary being grievously injured."
"I guess we can leave the Travelers for the Protectorate to handle in the future, since you Wards have proved that you couldn't," she answered. There was something odd about her expression, like she was pleased to knock us down a peg and didn't bother to conceal it.
"What about Coil?" Weld asked. "Ballistic all but stated that his boss wanted Apiary dead."
"That's above your pay grade," she said. "I'll see what the Protectorate can do."
In other words, nothing would happen, as usual.
"At least, if we manage to take one of them prisoner again, we know what to expect, and we can prepare for it," said Kid Win.
"True," said Weld, "and that's why it's so important to do a postmortem. Anything you'd like to add, Director? How did they manage to take you hostage?"
"They came to my office," Piggot said. "I was following the situation on the security cameras after the guards on the rooftop raised the alarm, so I knew they were coming and had time to lock the door and get my gun, but they knocked down the door and threw a flashbang grenade. By the time I came back to my senses, they had me hostage."
If she'd been following the situation, and if the guards on the rooftop had given her an advance warning, why had she not put the building on lockdown right away? I didn't dare to ask, but Clockblocker did.
"Putting it on lockdown would have prevented you Wards from exiting the building to fight them," she answered. "I thought that you would be able to stop them from entering, but I was apparently mistaken."
She offered a wide, sarcastic smile that struck me as odd. Piggot was usually more of a stern, stiff upper lip type rather than openly passive-aggressive with her body language.
"Anything else?" Weld asked.
"There's also the fact that pretty much every gang in town was up to something tonight," Glory Girl said, "like a coordinated distraction to keep patrol and the Protectorate busy and away from HQ. We should have noticed the pattern sooner."
"What would it have changed, though?" Asked Clockblocker. "Should we let them get away with their crimes without intervening just because other things are happening at the same time? Is one prisoner really worth the pain and suffering other criminals can inflict on civilians while our focus is elsewhere?"
"Several of those crimes were low priority ones, robberies and such," Glory Girl continued. "If we'd noticed what this was pointing to, we could have been here sooner, and the Protectorate could have prioritized to keep a few members here. It could have made a difference."
"That's easy to say in hindsight," Kid Win pointed out.
"Coil was behind this," I spoke for the first time, "which means that he most likely had Dinah run the numbers and tweaked his strategy in consequence until it gave him the result he wanted."
"Dinah?" Vista asked.
"Dinah Alcott," I answered. "A kid precog he kidnapped from her home during our bank robbery, who can give precise probabilities. He hooked her on drugs to keep her compliant."
"And you helped him with that," it came out more as a flat, disbelieving statement than a question, but I answered it as such.
"We didn't know about it at the time. He just said that he wanted us to do something big at a specific time. When we found out, I quit the Undersiders over it, since they were okay with it or unwilling to act, and then Leviathan arrived."
She frowned, observing me, as did Glory Girl.
"Point is," I continued, "if we were to respond differently than we did, he would have picked a different strategy until he found one that worked out the way he wanted."
"So basically, anything we do when he's involved is pointless," Clockblocker concluded. "Got it."
"She doesn't give absolute certainties," I countered, "and I don't know what percentage he sees as good enough to go through with a plan, but there's always a possibility for things to go a different way. And the numbers aren't set in stone. When he introduced Dinah to us, he asked her about our chances if we went up against Kaiser, and her numbers began falling, either because I realized what was going on and wanted to rescue her, or because of the Endbringer coming."
I caught sight of Piggot rolling her eyes, which was another odd thing, very unlike her. I kept my eyes on her after that.
"I think we were caught shorthanded because we expected them to target the transfer, and were planning to mobilize then," said Weld.
"Might be why Coil had them target the building instead," I said.
"Which means that we'll have to be doubly prepared anytime we manage to capture someone who works for Coil." He wrote something down on his notes.
"If we're done discussing the Travelers," said Piggot, "there's another thing we need to talk about. Kid Win?"
"Here's the deal, guys," he said. "I went out to talk to Chariot, and there's a bit of a complication."
He tapped the screen of his smartphone, and the computer screen at the end of the table turned on, showing a series of emails.
"Chariot hasn't yet agreed to join the team," he said, "but there's evidence that he fully intends to join as a mole for an unknown party we believe to be Coil. Fenrir's Chosen aren't that subtle, and they're too racist to work with Chariot. Purity's group is, again, too racist. It doesn't fit with Faultline's crew, and the other villains in town all work for Coil."
"That," Piggot spoke, "and we have found other spies working for him in our ranks. They've been arrested, but we suspect there might be more."
"So what?" Asked Clockblocker. "Are we going to arrest him too?"
"That would be a wasted opportunity," Piggot answered. "I want to bring him into the Wards as a known double-agent. It would allow us to keep a close eye on him for information we could use, and occasionally feed him bad intel to share with Coil."
"If I may, ma'am, Coil has already made two attempts on Apiary's life," Weld said. "How do we know this won't lead to a third?"
"I'll ask Déjà Vu to keep an eye on the situation," she said. "As long as she gives the all clear, there shouldn't be any surprises."
"Déjà Vu's power shorts out with intensive use," Weld pointed out, "and Coil might engineer other distractions to keep her busy like tonight. Not to mention that dealing with the relationships between team members is difficult enough to begin with, and you want to add this into the mix?"
"What if we say no?" Clockblocker asked.
Piggot rolled her eyes again, so the first time wasn't a fluke.
"I think you're perfectly capable of handling this," she spoke in an annoyed tone. "And I'm not asking. This is an order."
Something about this bugged me, no pun intended. It didn't make sense for her to purposely bring a mole into the fray after agreeing to flush out the other spies for my safety. It didn't make sense for her to go along with what Coil wanted, knowing that he was looking to get rid of both of us. I highly doubted that Chariot's sole purpose was to gain information, given that Tattletale could do that too, and I couldn't imagine what kind of concrete intel there was to be gained by going through with this.
Then there was her strange body language, with the eye rolls and sarcastic smiles, so unlike her, and I couldn't dismiss them as a coincidence. Given the resources at Coil's disposal, that he was looking to gain control of the PRT, and that he was ready to go to extremes to get what he wanted, it all added up to one uncomfortable theory.
I decided that there was little to lose by testing it.
"I'm fine with it," I said, "but I was wondering. You never got back to me about whether I could go visit my dad in Boston for a few days at the end of the month. I don't mind doing double shifts to compensate the missed time."
"I don't see a problem with that," she said, confirming my suspicions.
Piggot knew that my dad was in New York, not Boston, which meant that it wasn't her speaking.
It was Regent.