22

Chapter 22

Alea Iacta Est

Part Twenty-Two: Recruiting Assistance

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

Saturday Morning, March 12, 2011

The Apartment of Andrea Campbell

Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE

"What. The absolute. Fuck."

It had been quite some time since Emily had gone out into the field to attend a crime scene in person. She was only out here at all because Renick had personally called her—he handled the PRT building over the weekends—and she absolutely wanted to see first-hand just how badly the Empire had stomped on their own dicks. Despite the fact that she knew damn well Browbeat was entirely unlikely to embellish his account of the action—he possessed neither the inclination nor the imagination to do it in a believable fashion—she had to see the truth that lay behind the semi-coherent verbal report that Renick had passed on to her.

And boy, was it some truth.

Krieg was dead, shot by his own pistol. Night and Fog, snoring blissfully, had already been loaded into a van to be taken away, with two separate cameras pointing at Night and sending the signal to several different video feeds. The apartment itself was an absolute mess, though thankfully the woman who lived there (Emily already knew of her, from the debacle that had ended in Kaiser's death) had emerged from the incident unscathed.

Right at that moment, Emily was looking over the scene while the techs gathered what evidence they could. Intellectually, she could understand the basic sequence of events as garnered from the initial statements; the attack plan, as best she could see, should have succeeded. And it would have too, if the Thinkers hadn't done what they did best.

'If it wasn't for those meddling kids …' The phrase popped to the top of her mind, and she immediately squashed it. There was no way on God's green Earth that she was saying it out loud, ever, under any circumstances. Even the comment she had made was meant for no ears apart from her own.

She hadn't often seen the gangs go into all-out war mode, mainly because they knew damn well that doing this would usually open them up to another gang hitting them from behind while they were preoccupied with their first target. However, with Coil and Lung both off the board and with the surviving leadership feeling under threat due to their previous misadventures, it was easy to see why they'd decided to take the chance. And, as she'd already noted, it should have paid off.

"Armsmaster," she said more loudly.

The armoured hero, who had been playing a scanner over a broken section of drywall, looked in her direction. "Ma'am?"

"Is what you're doing essential to the investigation?" On one level, she knew it was all important to the investigation. On another, the chances of him finding anything that would materially change the outcome were minimal to zero.

"Not particularly, ma'am." He powered down the scanner and stowed it on his belt. "All indications are that everything went down exactly as Browbeat and Ms Campbell described. Was there something you needed?"

She gestured toward the door. "Walk with me. I'm going to need as complete a perspective on this shitshow as I can get, so I'd appreciate your input."

He nodded imperturbably. "I agree on all points so far, ma'am." As she headed outside, he followed along behind until they were out of earshot of any casual eavesdroppers. "Where would you like to start?"

"This shadow team." She frowned, thinking about it. "As a sidenote, has Browbeat indicated that they might be choosing a team name? We need to either officially call them the Shadow Team, or use whatever name they've chosen."

"Let me check." He fell silent for about ten seconds, then shook his head. "He hasn't made mention of it, ma'am."

"Shadow Team it is, then." But that wasn't what she'd wanted to talk to him about. "What's your analysis of how they pulled off such a complete ambush on the Empire, especially following the near-debacle in Purity's apartment? Also, why? If their Thinkers are as impressive as we've been led to believe, they could've stopped the plan dead in its tracks simply by dropping a dime to the PRT and giving us chapter and verse on its particulars."

Armsmaster smoothed his beard with finger and thumb before replying. "I believe the answer to the first question is simple. They don't have any auto-precogs, or they would've seen the first attack coming. However, once it was turned around and they were made aware of exactly how hard the Empire was willing to come at them, they had three options. Go dark, come to the PRT for assistance, or fight back."

It wasn't hard for her to follow his line of reasoning. "And their Thinkers decided that going dark or coming to us were not acceptable options."

"Doable, but not optimal," agreed Armsmaster. "So my analysis is that they worked out the Empire's plan to take them down, to a degree I would've found frankly implausible in any other situation except for the fact that they did it, then worked out their own plan to activate within that plan. To ambush the ambushers, so to speak. According to Rune, Aeglea claimed that Shadow Team knew of the Empire's plans before the Empire did."

"So if they had access to that level of foreknowledge," Emily persisted, "why didn't they loop us in on their plans? I'm finding it hard to believe that they don't know about Browbeat, given their other Thinker coups to date."

Armsmaster hesitated. "They … might not, actually. So long as he acts in good faith and doesn't do anything to screw them over, either betraying them to us or for any other reason, there's a good chance they'll never look that hard into him."

"Or," she retorted darkly, "they already know about him and they're stringing him along for the extra muscle while letting us think they're still ignorant about him."

After a moment, Armsmaster nodded. "So if they then used him as a conduit to ask us for help, that would be tacitly admitting that they know of his double-agency, and thus it would make things a lot more complicated for them." He tilted his head to one side. "The question is, how do we tell which one it is? Because on the surface, the two situations have an identical end result."

"Welcome to my world," she said sourly. "My read on the situation is that they decided, possibly with Thinker help, that our assistance either wouldn't improve the outcome or might even make it worse. If, say, some of the Empire capes spooked and ran, they might keep coming back and attacking. Whereas right now, the Empire officially has zero capes."

"And Krieg's dead." Armsmaster's tone was thoughtful. "He was Kaiser's successor as leader of the Empire, so that raises a question. Was he killed deliberately to make a point about that position being fatal, or is it just the way things went?"

"Who killed him, again?" Emily hadn't had access to that part of the report yet.

"Ms Campbell, actually." Armsmaster's voice held a note of respect. "According to her, he dropped the pistol in the confusion, with Menja and Fenja growing too large in the apartment, and she took her chance."

"That's putting it mildly," Emily observed. "I don't even remember the last time someone knocked out a supervillain with a frying pan. Or with ground-up sleeping pills."

"Also according to her, she was coached in what to do." Armsmaster sounded at least a little dubious about this claim. "Shadow Team knew the Empire would come after her due to her connection to Kaiser. Why they would do this wasn't adequately explained, at least by Ms Campbell."

"And by the Empire capes? Did they have anything to say on the matter?" Emily knew it was a long shot at best. Smart villains rarely made any kind of statement to law enforcement without a lawyer present, much less statements that would directly implicate them in criminal activity.

"Before Victor told her to shut the hell up, Rune let slip that they suspected Ms Campbell of being a cape. She didn't elaborate, but the strong implication is that Ms Campbell is a member of Shadow Team, which absolutely gives them a motive to take her as a hostage."

"It really does. Did they fill in Browbeat on any other aspects of what they thought the Empire plan to be?"

"No, but adding two and two with Victor up on a building with a sniper rifle, I can only assume he meant to kill someone from a distance. Factor in the hostage aspect, and I suspect the idea was to lure Purity to the location to save her teammate, and kill her along with any other members of Shadow Team who presented themselves. Ms Campbell and her daughter were likely on the kill list as well, if only to get rid of inconvenient witnesses."

Emily tilted her head at the reminder. "Right, there's a daughter, isn't there? Where's she?"

"On a sleepover with friends," Armsmaster confirmed. "Yes, she has been contacted. Her friends' parents will be putting her up until everything settles down here."

Emily wondered exactly how long they'd been planning for this sleepover; it seemed suspiciously convenient for the situation. Then again, it was the weekend, and the previous information they had on the Campbell girl indicated a large friend group. The fact that she was also apparently Kaiser's illegitimate child was just the icing on top of a very weird cake.

The temptation to go back inside and view the scene again was strong, but she knew she'd seen everything she needed to. By the time Monday morning rolled around and all this landed on her desk , she'd be as prepped to handle it as she was capable of. "Before I go, was there anything else you've found out that I might need to know?"

"Only that there was another person here this morning, apart from Ms Campbell, Aeglea, Browbeat and the Empire contingent." Armsmaster gestured back toward the apartment complex. "Ms Campbell hasn't mentioned anyone, but she does not strike me as being particularly shy. It may be that she took advantage of her daughter's absence to indulge in a one-night stand." Even though he wasn't the most socially conscious person, he didn't sound as though he believed a word of it.

Nor did Emily; if she'd possessed hackles, that explanation would have raised them. "Not if she knew the Empire was due to attack. No: whoever was in the apartment was a member of Shadow Team. I'd bet my retirement pension on it."

He nodded slowly. "If I had one, so would I. And it was almost certainly a woman."

"Not that I'm saying it wasn't, but why do you say that?" She looked at him curiously.

"Because a man, however innocuously there, would put them more on guard. For all that the Empire have female members, neo-Nazis tend to be strongly right-wing, conservative, misogynist and reactionary. They would see an apparently civilian woman as being of minimal threat to them. Shadow Team's Thinkers would know that."

Emily could connect the dots just as easily as Armsmaster could. "You forgot homophobic. If the Empire thought this woman was sleeping with Ms Campbell, they'd accord her even less respect, out of sheer disgust. Thus, leaving them distracted and off-guard to whatever she intended to do."

Armsmaster shook his head. "Using their own prejudices against them. Sheer brilliance." He paused. "Do we have any indication that Ms Campbell might actually be a cape, or information on any putative powers?"

"None that I've heard of," Emily admitted. "The trooper who took her statement added in his notes that she possessed Endbringer-equivalent levels of sass, but the last I checked, that wasn't a power."

"She and Mouse Protector must never be allowed to meet, check," he agreed, deadpan.

Emily snorted in dark amusement. "We're on the same page, then. Keep the Deputy Director updated on anything you think we might want to hear about."

"Roger that, ma'am."

Saturday Evening

Hebert Household

Taylor

Under Dad's direction, Theo and I lugged the dining chairs into the living room. The sofa bed had already been transformed back into a sofa, and Dad's armchair would likely be claimed by Amy and Annette. Just as we were arranging the chairs, there was a knock at the back door.

"That'll be Amy and Vicky," I announced after glancing at the clock. "They're due about now."

"I'll get it," offered Theo, and headed in that direction.

"Cool," I said. "Leave the door open. Lisa will be along in a minute or so." Heading to the front door, I unlocked it then swung it wide open just as Andrea had her hand raised to knock. Behind her stood Annette and Janet, both of whom looked suitably impressed at my sudden appearance.

"You weren't just standing there and waiting for us to show up, were you?" asked Andrea.

"Nope. I rolled dice for everyone's arrival times. Amy and Vicky just showed up, and Lisa will be coming in the back door in about one minute. Dinah's parents are on the way to drop her off." I stepped aside to let them in. "What's happening with the apartment, and where are you going to be sleeping?"

"In the apartment, duh." Andrea shrugged. "Armsy was nice enough to fix the door after what the battering ram crew did to it, so we can secure the place. My bedroom got kind of busted up, but the mattress works just fine on the floor, and the sofa never got touched, so Janet's still got a place to sleep. We'll need to get repair guys in on Monday to fix the holes in the wall and stuff, but that's about it."

I had to give her props for equanimity; if I'd been through what she had just that morning, I was not at all sure I'd be bearing up nearly as well. Also, I'd never heard anyone call Armsmaster that, and I'd been living in Brockton Bay all my life. I was pretty sure that if she ever encountered the 'Halbeard' nickname on the PHO forums (I had no idea who'd come up with that one) she would instantly adopt it and make it all her own.

"Battering ram crew, huh?" asked Vicky, who'd just come through into the living room. "I think you might have mispronounced 'cavalry' there, just saying."

"Hey," Annette said, making a beeline for Amy.

"Hey." Amy put out her arms and hugged Annette. They held each other for a long moment.

"Oh, I'm totally glad you showed up when you did," Andrea conceded cheerfully enough. "Things were getting kind of fraught, right about then. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to gank them like I did Krieg."

"No, you weren't." Vicky shook her head. "I had to hit Menja, I think it was, pretty damn hard a few times before she went out like a light. The other one got a bit bigger so it took the both of us, but she trashed the room pretty good first."

Amy looked up from where she and Annette had their heads resting on each other's shoulders. "Hey, did you know the PRT's given us an official name?"

"Hey, Theo." Lisa strolled in through the back door. "Yeah, I found it today in a PRT memorandum. They're literally calling us 'Shadow Team'."

Vicky wrinkled her nose in the general direction of Lisa, who was grinning unrepentantly. "You suck. It was going to be a grand reveal and everything."

"More to the point," Dad observed with a sternly raised eyebrow, "we're supposed to be heroic. That doesn't involve hacking into the PRT for any reason."

"Meh, heroism's overrated," Lisa retorted impudently. "We're taking the trash out, and that's what matters. Besides, it was hardly even a hack. There was no access to confidential files or anything. I just wanted to know what they were saying about us behind our backs."

"So, what else did you find out?" asked Annette. "And maybe we should drop them a line with a better name. 'Shadow Team' doesn't exactly make the world fall to its knees in awe, just saying."

I shook my head. "It's the perfect name for what we are." A few dice-rolls had gone into finding out what names the PRT might slap on us, and I'd had no objection toward that particular one. Letting Lisa and Vicky squabble over revealing it to the rest of us was no great trial for me. "We're not in this to be famous, just effective."

Lisa shot me a look that gave me the distinct impression she'd figured out my minor subterfuge, but she didn't say anything. At that moment, I heard the Alcotts pull up out front, and I went to open the door again. I knew that so long as her parents saw me at the front door, they'd be happy to drop her off. Since she'd gotten her powers, they were getting along much better, which made her happy as well.

"Hi, Taylor!" she greeted me as she bounded up the steps to the open door. "It's good to see you. How's everyone?"

"They're all good," I reported. "Come see for yourself."

As she came inside, I waved to her parents and waited for a return wave before closing the door behind her and following her into the living room. Everyone had taken their chosen seats; as expected, Amy and Annette were sharing Dad's armchair. Dad, Andrea, Janet and Kayden were seated on the sofa, while Theo and Lisa had taken two of the kitchen chairs.

Dinah and I sat down on the last two chairs—Theo was holding Aster, who was burbling sleepily to him—and Dad cleared his throat, albeit quietly. "Okay," he said. "Results on the Empire bust this morning?"

Lisa put her hand up first. "Clean sweep confirmed, and the PRT is serious about holding them until they can be Birdcaged or transferred to other high-security facilities. Word is spreading through the underworld faster than it can be squelched. Some want to hold out as a non-cape gang, but they're haemorrhaging members on an hourly basis."

"Gesellschaft?" asked Kayden. "They've got a strong interest in the region. What's stopping them from sending in another cape or three to unify the local skinheads under the Empire banner again?"

Dinah fielded that one. "Theoretically, the PRT. In reality, us."

"Krieg wouldn't have held onto the leadership for much longer," Theo observed. "What's left of the Empire may be made up of neo-Nazis, but they're American neo-Nazis, and proud of it. I honestly don't know if they'll tolerate having outsider capes telling them what to do, shared ideology or otherwise. Personally, I'd bet against it."

Vicky snorted with amusement. "Meanwhile, nearly half the people in this room have either been involved with Kaiser, or are directly descended from him. If we were inclined to go that way, you guys would have more claim to the Empire than any of those jerks."

Annette's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Huh, you're right. Mom, can we—"

"Nope." Andrea shook her head. "We've already agreed that you wouldn't be taking over any evil empires to convert them from the inside until you were at least twenty-one."

"Aw, Mom," Annette groaned, casting doubt on my initial suspicion that Andrea had made her objection up on the spot. "Can't we make an exception just this once? How many other evil empires am I going to actually have a blood right to mold in my own image?"

"I said no, young lady." Andrea shook her head. "If I make an exception this time, what next? We've put these rules in place for a reason. Not until you're old enough to drink, at least."

Annette subsided, muttering something about 'totally stifling my potential', which Andrea seemed determined to ignore. Amy hugged Annette a little more closely and whispered something to her, making her giggle. I decided I didn't want to know. Besides, I had other fish to fry.

But just as I was about to speak, Dad cleared his throat. "Before we dislocate our shoulders patting ourselves on the back, it should be noted that Andrea and Janet came very close to being badly hurt or killed before Vicky burst in with Browbeat. It was my understanding that the plan had more of a margin of success than that. What went wrong, and how do we avoid it next time?"

Lisa took a deep breath. "I think … part of it might have been me. Or my power: if we can even be told apart."

Theo nodded. "That thing you were talking about, where it's got a tendency to downplay problems?"

"Yeah, that's the one." She closed her eyes and ran her hands through her hair. "I did my best to be as pessimistic as possible about the whole thing, but all I got was green lights from one end to the other. Even when I asked it the most stringent questions I could think of."

"Could it just have been a mistake on your part?" asked Andrea. "I mean, never attribute to malice blah blah blah stupidity."

"Could it? Sure." Lisa shrugged. "I've made mistakes before, but they've always happened because of bad information, a lack of information, or personal assumptions that were just plain wrong. I had good information and no need to make assumptions, and my power still downplayed how fast and effectively the Empire would react. Worse, it gave me an overwhelming sense of confidence about how accurate my analysis was."

Dad nodded seriously. "That's definitely something we're going to have to work on, going forward. Your power supplies very impressive analyses most of the time, but if it's going to put its thumb on the scale in situations like this, we'll need to figure out a way for you to reality-check your own assumptions."

"Yeah," Annette piped up. "Now, if only we had a couple of other powerful Thinkers around who could help you out with that."

There was a brief silence, then everyone turned to look at Dinah and me. Dinah shrugged. "Well, to be honest, we're not the best people for the job. That would be the non-capes in the room. The rest of us are just as vulnerable to the same power-influenced misconceptions as Lisa, just in a more subtle way. So we can't check her conclusions, because we won't see anything wrong with them."

"Huh," said Andrea, looking thoughtfully at Lisa. "That makes exactly as much sense as everything else about capes does."

I cleared my throat and waited until everyone was looking in my direction. "Not to change the subject, but I'm going to change the subject. While Gesellschaft infiltration isn't going to be hard to keep under control, we will have a bigger problem to deal with once word gets out."

Dinah's head came up as her power kicked in again. "Vicky, Amy, you'd know more about this than the rest of us. You lived through it."

The Dallon sisters stared at each other, then at Dinah. "Sh-shoot." Vicky changed the swear at the last moment. "You're talking about the Boston Games. You think that'll happen again?"

"Not in exactly the same way as it did back then," I said, "and not with all the same players, but yes. There are no major cape gangs holding territory in Brockton Bay right now, and there are enough power-hungry villains out there to absolutely make a concerted effort at turning our underworld into their own personal fiefdom."

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss," Lisa quoted sarcastically. "What should we do? I mean, I could talk to the other Undersiders and Faultline's Crew about presenting a united front against anyone trying to push in from the outside."

"Wouldn't be enough, just with them," Dinah said at once. "But with us lending a hand, in between smacking down any attempts to revive the Empire Eighty-Eight and feeding the heroes and villains information on where the bad guys are likely to show up, we should be able to keep things under control."

"Until the real next big problem shows up." Over the last few hours, I'd spent a lot of time rolling dice and noting down the answers, and there was damn little in any of those answers that I liked.

Some of this must have leaked through in my expression and tone of voice because Lisa paled, the freckles over her nose standing out sharply. "No. Don't say it. Not like that." Her voice was almost pleading.

"Don't say what?" asked Dad, eyeing me curiously. "Taylor, what's the matter? What's coming?"

I gave Janet a sorrowful glance before I looked back at Dad. Whether she liked it or not, she was going to have to take front and centre when what I'd foreseen came to pass. "Leviathan."

Glory Girl

"Nope. Nuh-uh." Vicky shook her head emphatically, trying to dispel the chill that was spreading outward from her spine. "You're saying we're going to have to deal with two separate bunches of villains trying to waltz into Brockton Bay while we're still cleaning up after the last crop of assholes, all while Leviathan is bearing down on the place? Please tell me you're pulling all our legs. Because okay, fine, you got us good."

Taylor grimaced. "I truly wish I was. We've got two months until it happens, but it's got a ninety-six point four nine three percent chance of happening on May the fifteenth. People are gonna die, heroes and civvies alike."

"Unless they don't." Dinah frowned. "I just asked myself how we could improve on that three and a half percent chance of Leviathan not hitting here, and the best person for the job … is Director Piggot. We're going to have to loop her in on what we know, sooner rather than later."

"That's a bad idea." Lisa shook her head. "She's a hardass at best, and a closet anti-cape bigot at worst. If we tell her how we know this, she will want to grab the reins."

"Is that so much of a problem?" asked Taylor pragmatically. "I don't really care how we do it, just so long as we can actually get it done."

"The trouble is, if we let her take control just once," argued Lisa, "she'll have our number from then on. And the next time we have just a little trouble, it'll be easier to give in to her."

Dad cleared his throat. "In the Association, whenever I saw someone who looked like they were voting against their own self-interest, I made a point of finding out whose interests they were voting for, and why. Lisa, why are you pushing back so hard against letting someone stop a monster from wrecking our home?"

"Because my power says it's a bad idea," Lisa retorted. "It'll end up being far more trouble in the long run."

"Just to be clear," Andrea said carefully, "this is the same power we just established could be leading you to problematic conclusions, right? Why is it being pessimistic now when it was optimistic up against the Empire?"

Annette snapped her fingers. "It's not about pessimism or optimism, or even about the Empire or Leviathan. It wants things to happen. What's more likely to ensure more fun stuff for it to do? The Empire going down, or the Empire sticking around? Leviathan coming here, or Leviathan going somewhere else? If I'm right, powers don't care what you want. They push for situations where they'll be used, where they can do stuff. It's got to be why you hardly ever hear of capes just retiring and never using their powers again."

"Wait." Theo looked at her oddly. "Are you saying powers want stuff? That they're somehow self-aware, and that they mess with the way capes think?"

Vicky was still trying to fit her head around Annette's entire statement. The words were all technically understandable, but the order they were in just didn't make sense.

"Huh." Annette frowned thoughtfully. "I guess I am saying that, aren't I? I hadn't really thought it all the way through, but yeah, that's the gist of what I was trying to say."

"I have no idea where you're getting that from," Lisa declared, "but my power keeps trying to give me reasons why it's BS of the highest order. Which, considering what Andrea just reminded me of, I'm gonna take with a large grain of salt."

Andrea nodded. "As one of your unofficial advisers, hon, I suggest you do that." She tilted her head. "Theo, you're the one non-cape in the room who's had the most experience of living around capes from a young age. Would you say Annette's got a point? Do capes sometimes seem to do things for no other reason than to stir up some action?"

Put on the spot, Theo blinked. "Um … I … actually, that would explain most of the crap I've seen in my life, you know? I never really understood what drove most of the Empire capes to go that extra mile—no offense, Kayden, but it's true—until now."

"None taken," Kayden responded soberly. "I still don't really see it, but if you say you do, I trust you."

"Okay," Dad said thoughtfully. "My question is, how's Director Piggot supposed to make Leviathan not come to Brockton Bay?"

Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE

The evening was getting on; just as Emily was just considering microwaving something to eat—despite the fact that she'd been out of the field for ten years, home cooking was still not a skill she'd ever prioritised—there was a ping from her laptop. Immediately, she muted the TV and got up from her armchair. While she was technically off duty (just as much as she had been when she was looking over the Empire crime scene that morning), this could have something to do with the capture of the Empire Eighty-Eight, and no way in hell was she willing to let herself be blindsided in that regard.

However, when she sat down in front of the laptop and woke the screen up, it wasn't an alert from Renick. Instead, it was a notification that she'd been sent a private message on PHO by someone calling themselves Management. She frowned; if this was the same person as the one in Shadow Team, Browbeat had reported her as being a young teen at best. Still, his description of her capabilities had been nothing less than glowing.

The next question, of course, was 'what does Management want?'. The pessimistic side of her brain immediately threw up several scenarios, most of which centred around Browbeat being outed as a mole. Were they angry? Was Management calling to taunt her? Were they going villain?

There was only one way to find out. Ever cautious, instead of clicking the link, she opened up her own window to the PHO boards then accessed her private messages that way.

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To: Director_Piggot_PRT

From: Management

Subject: We need to talk

Hi,

This is Management, of Shadow Team. (Yes, we know the name. No, Browbeat hasn't told us.)

As your projection team has almost certainly informed you, there are likely to be a couple of imminent crises due to hit Brockton Bay: specifically, a Gesellschaft attempt to revive or replace the Empire Eighty-Eight, and a general influx of villains attempting a replay of the Boston Games.

Just so you know, we are entirely willing to play bird dog for the Protectorate and other heroes to make sure the bad guys don't get what they want. However, we also need to talk to you about an even more stringent situation inbound to Brockton Bay (per Random) which can *only* be resolved via a cooperative venture between our team and your office, with your authority behind it.

Are you interested in a discussion regarding said joint effort? Please note: we have no desire to join the Protectorate or the Wards, or to go to work for Watchdog.

Awaiting your reply,

Management

Emily stared at the words on the screen. Relief had initially fluttered by like an upbeat sparrow at the friendly tone of the message, only to be smashed by the eagle talons of the unnamed third crisis. Management wasn't saying as much, but her tone very much indicated that it was going to be more problematic than the Gesellschaft incursions (which her people hadn't even begun to draw up projections about) or the potential reprise of the infamous Games.

It's the Nine, she decided almost immediately. They're coming back to Brockton Bay. She hadn't been here when they first hit the city, but she'd heard the stories. The Slaughterhouse Nine specialised in spreading terror among capes and normal alike, only leaving when they'd done what they came to do. Not on my watch.

Drawing a deep breath, she opened a text window and began to type.

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To: Management

From: Director_Piggot_PRT

Subject: Re: We need to talk

Congratulations, you've acquired my undivided attention.

I'll wait and see how we do against the Gesellschaft and other capes. If it seems like we need help, we may contact you.

Regarding the other crisis: it's the Nine, isn't it? What's your plan for dealing with them?

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To: Director_Piggot_PRT

From: Management

Subject: Re: Re: We need to talk

Good guess, but it's not the Nine.

It's Leviathan.

Random has him showing up here in mid-May, but (like I said) there is a very slim chance that we may be able to divert him elsewhere. And that's where you come in.

Emily sat frozen in her chair. The Slaughterhouse Nine, for the want of a better phrase, was a human-shaped target (mostly, anyway). Its members could be, and had been, killed. They were circumspect about attacking hard targets, never coming directly at a city that had the firepower and resources to track them down and enact that Kill Order once and for all.

Leviathan … was a crisis of an entirely different scale. Pun not intended, she thought grimly. When the Nine were done with an area, those that were left behind could bury the dead and mourn the fallen, then move on with their lives. Leviathan reshaped the landscape. Sometimes, after he allowed himself to be driven off, there wasn't even a city left to rebuild.

And he's coming here? Fuuuck.

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To: Management

From: Director_Piggot_PRT

Subject: Re: Re: Re: We need to talk

How certain are you about this?

What do you mean by 'divert'?

And what can I do that you can't?

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To: Director_Piggot_PRT

From: Management

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to talk

Random gives it a 96.5% chance of happening, most likely on May 15. Casualties will be higher than normal, especially after he collapses the aquifer. Between injuries and deaths, you've got a 77% chance of losing at least four capes from your roster, and an 84% chance of losing at least a dozen PRT troopers.

By 'divert' I mean reduce the likelihood that he comes here to the point that he doesn't. Yes, this will mean he goes somewhere else. It sucks, but it is what it is.

You are the highest-ranking non-cape in the city who can order capes around and make it stick. Not being a cape, you will also be immune to certain biases that they are likely to fall prey to.

Were it any other cape they were talking about, even a precognitive Thinker, Emily would've scoffed at the precise percentages. She'd never met a precog who could predict with both detail and accuracy what was going to happen more than five minutes into the future. But Browbeat had gone into detail about Random's capabilities, as demonstrated right in front of him.

She checked her calendar, and nodded grimly. May 15 was right in the middle of the projected window for the next Endbringer attack, and Australia was still reeling from the Simurgh's assault on their capital, so Leviathan was an understandable prediction for who. But the bald statement about the aquifer, and the projected numbers she would lose in capes and troopers, chilled her to the bone.

She found the notion of sending Leviathan to attack another city raised fewer qualms in her than she would have otherwise thought. In a sense, it was the trolley problem writ large, except that it was hundreds of thousands of people she was trying to keep safe. Also, she owed it to everyone to see if Endbringers could even be diverted. And if Random could predict Leviathan two months early, she could supply adequate warning to whoever he decided to attack instead.

When it came down to it, she didn't want to believe what Management had to say, but unless this was somehow all a giant con aimed specifically at her (and even if it was), then she needed to find out more.

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To: Management

From: Director_Piggot_PRT

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to talk

While I have no doubt about the existence of these biases you allude to, I'm not entirely certain how that translates into being able to make Leviathan go elsewhere. Care to fill in the blanks?

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To: Director_Piggot_PRT

From: Management

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to talk

The keyword here is conflict. Capes live for it and by it. Endbringers are attracted to places where there is already conflict, or where the attack would trigger more conflict than their mere presence would normally engender.

Conversely, removing enough of the powder kegs from an area would make a city sufficiently less attractive to Leviathan that he would go elsewhere.

You'd think that by removing the Empire, the ABB, the Merchants and Coil from the board we would've reduced the overall cape conflict in the city, and you'd be right. For a short while, anyway. But we both know about the Gesellschaft ambitions and about the potential for Brockton Games, which when taken together will punch up the overall level of conflict in the city to a point beyond where the Empire and ABB had it. Especially if heroes are trying to force them out again.

If we put this to capes to solve, it would invariably end with more conflict than we wanted or needed: the bias I was referring to. I'm only able to convey this to you because my power is literally aimed at determining who the best person for a particular job is, and how to do it. Even though I've got all the answers, I couldn't pull it off myself, no matter how earnestly I tried. All I can do is appoint the best person (you) to the task and give you pointers.

TL;DR—you have two months to tell Brockton Bay to chill the fuck out, and make it happen.

Also, you can't tell any capes exactly what you're doing or why, because subconscious biases will invariably lead to pushback. Likewise, I'd keep what you're doing from the upper echelons, mainly because informing Chief Director Costa-Brown will lead to capes finding out.

So, what do you say?

Emily pushed herself back from the laptop, her mind whirling with the implications of what she'd just read. She had no idea if any of it was true—or rather, how much of it was true—but it all resonated deeply with her own experience in the matter. Capes sought out conflict and conflict sought out capes, the two truisms so deeply intertwined that it was often difficult to tell one from the other.

She desperately wanted for none of it to be true. For this just to be a juvenile prank and for Leviathan not to be due to hit the city. Being the regional Director held enough responsibility for a lifetime; if she was reading between the lines accurately, there were few people she could even confide in about this, much less trust to help her get it done.

But there was far too much at stake, and there was too much circumstantial evidence regarding Management's reliability to safely assume it was anything but genuine. Which meant that she was going to have to pull on her big-girl panties and step up to the plate.

Oddly enough, the repeated insistence that capes should not be told about this reassured her more than she'd thought it would. Ever since the Ellisburg debacle, she'd held the not-so-secret opinion that capes should never be trusted with any truly serious matter, and that mindset had been borne out more than once. The idea that Shadow Team was coming to her to save Brockton Bay, not some spandex-clad ninety-day wonder, made her feel obscurely better about the whole thing.

Sitting forward again, she poised her hands over the keyboard while she thought about how to phrase her answer.

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To: Management

From: Director_Piggot_PRT

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to talk

I still have questions, but these mainly cover execution and other minor details.

Otherwise: I'm in.

Hebert Household

Taylor

"Whoo, haha." Looking and sounding as giddy as I felt right then, Dinah sat back from Lisa's laptop with a broad grin plastered across her face. "She's going to do it. We're in business, people."

"Meh, I always knew she was going to go for it." Lisa, apparently going for a 'too cool for school' act, leaned against the doorframe with her arms folded.

Taking advantage of her height, I hooked my arm around Lisa's neck and applied a moderate level of noogie. "Yeah, but it's still great that she is."

"Hey! Pfft! Lemme go, you beanpole!" Lisa squawked and flailed, then stepped back once I released her, previously-neat hair now all over the place. Trying to get the tangle back into some sort of order with her hands, she glared at me. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to get a French braid just right?"

"Not really." I grinned at her. "Now ask me if I care."

"So, it worked?" asked Theo from the doorway. "It's really going to happen?"

"Well, we're not totally behind the eight-ball anymore," Dinah said carefully. "Though a lot can happen in two months, just saying."

I rolled my eyes. "Trust me, I know that one. So, you've got all the notes I made?"

"I do." Dinah took up the first one. "Empire capes need to be shipped out of town as soon as possible, so any Gesellschaft infiltrators can't just let them back onto the street. Likewise, the transport of Lung to the Birdcage needs to be expedited before he can break out."

There were a lot of these notes, but I had faith in Dinah to pass them onto Director Piggot in such a way that our mutual goals would be satisfied. It wasn't going to be easy, but at least we had a fighting chance now.

Author edit: there were questions elsewhere, so I made this little addition to the chapter.

Director Piggot, PRT ENE

Emily breathed out a long sigh. One small step, as they say. Let's hope we can stick the landing. She leaned back in her chair, trying to wrap her head around what she'd just agreed to do. What she'd just committed the PRT to do, whether they knew it or not. Unpleasant thoughts began to intrude, and she tried to argue against them, but her best logic failed against unforgiving truths.

"Uggghhhh ..." she groaned, sitting forward again. Why me? Reaching for the mouse, she clicked on the 'Compose new message' icon.

Tattletale

Lisa was about to shut her laptop down when a ping indicated that another private message had just dropped into the inbox. "Oh, that doesn't sound good."

"What do you mean, it doesn't sound good?" Annette peered at the laptop. "All those pings sound the same to me."

"It's the timing." Lisa sighed with aggravation. "She just thought of something."

Taylor said nothing; instead, she rolled some dice and scribbled on a piece of paper.

"Are you going to answer it?" asked Danny.

"My power says it can be left until later." But despite the vague conviction that it wasn't hugely urgent, Lisa didn't move the mouse to dismiss the notification.

"Which could be a ploy to make life more interesting later," Andrea mused. "All in favour to answer now?"

"Aye," Annette said, echoed closely by Theo and Danny.

"All against?" asked Danny.

Nobody said a word. Once more, Lisa felt as though she ought to, but when she suppressed her power, the feeling faded away.

"Looks like the ayes have it," Andrea announced cheerfully. "Let's see it."

Lisa obediently clicked the notification, and it unfolded.

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To: Management

From: Director_Piggot_PRT

Subject: I have more questions

One: If we can divert Leviathan away from Brockton Bay by doing this, is there any way we can make him go back to sleep instead of attacking another city? How deep an insight do you have into his motivations and what makes him tick?

Two: Exactly how reliable are Random's predictions in all this? I don't mean to give offense, but we're banking a lot on something I know very little about, right now.

Three: What are your backup plans in case this doesn't work?

Four: Just as a hypothetical, what are the chances of actually ending Leviathan if we didn't reduce the conflict in the city but instead fortified the place with every armament known to mankind, and made it into one gigantic trap?

Five: You are aware that if he sheers off because of our actions, another city is going to take it on the chin, right? How comfortable are you with that?

Taylor

"Called it," I said, picking up the note I'd been writing and dropping it alongside the laptop. Point by point, I'd outlined the gist each of her follow-up questions.

Annette rolled her eyes and bopped me on the shoulder with her fist. "Of course you called it, you dingus. That's literally your job. Now, how best to reply ..."

"That's your call, Mr Hebert," Dinah interjected smoothly. "Old Union man and all."

"Hm. Thank you." Dad stepped forward to stand next to Lisa. "Okay, exactly as I say. Ready?"

"Ready," she reported, fingers poised over the keys.

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To: Director_Piggot_PRT

From: Management

Subject: Re: I have more questions

We have indeed considered all those aspects. In order of your asking:

One: Our Thinkers have been over all available records of Endbringer attacks, which are unfortunately thin on the ground, given that any foolhardy idiot who's pointed a camera at them has usually died. Random has predicted that Athena might get more insights once she has real-time line-of-sight visuals of an Endbringer in action, which would be unfortunately too late to aid in diverting him from wherever he was at the time.

It would be ideal to figure out a way of telling him to go away and leave everyone alone, but our insights into Endbringer motivations do not extend that far as yet. Random says that she can't learn what she needs to know until she learns what she needs to know.

I don't know what that means, either.

Two: Random's predictions are either a percentage number, to five significant figures, or it gives a definitive fact. Her power is so precise about being precise that it literally won't let her lie about predictions she's about to make. I've never seen them go wrong, and I've helped test them quite stringently.

Three: Our backup plans will be evolving as we get more information and can use that to get more information again, but the basics will be: Delay, fortify, protect, divert from vulnerable locations. If I can be placed in charge of the defense of the city, we might even be able to make a good showing of it.

I have just been told that if Leviathan comes on shore, we'll "fight like we're the third monkey on the ramp to the Ark, and brother, it's starting to rain". Which is kind of appropriate, yes.

Four: No. Do not do that. That is a Very Bad Idea. Random has just rolled a bunch of dice, and is looking particularly grim. Tagg in particular will use the entire city (and its population) as a throwaway resource if it will help kill Leviathan ... but it won't. No amount of escalation on the part of the PRT will achieve that. I've just been told that Leviathan is not showing his full strength. None of them are. The very best outcome of this sort of thing would lead to Leviathan breaking off early, but by the time he does that, three-quarters of the population of Brockton Bay will be dead, half the city permanently under water, and more than half the heroes and PRT personnel likewise casualties. And if Tagg gets to use his nuclear mines, a radiation hazard offshore for the next fifty years.

Five: We're aware of it. It's not something we're happy about, but we've talked it over in exhaustive detail. One of the reasons we're going with this is that Brockton Bay is uniquely vulnerable to Leviathan's particular brand of fuckery, so basically anywhere else would be preferable.

Random will be running the numbers on a daily basis, and the moment we get a line on where he might be going instead, we'll be able to provide you with options to feed to them about potentially lessening the impact. Even twenty-four hours will be enough to get most vulnerable citizens away from an area, and a week will allow a city to almost completely evacuate.

Oh, and wherever he chooses to go, our Thinkers and heavy hitters will be coming along to participate. We're not just sending him away for someone else to face.

Hope that helps.

- Management

Director Piggot

Slowly, carefully, she read through the long message. Parts of it made her raise her eyebrows, especially the part about Tagg and nuclear mines. The man, she knew, would absolutely use them.

Once she came to the end, she nodded and typed three words into a reply post.

Yeah. It does.

End of Part Twenty-Two