35

Chapter 35: Feb 20, Dave edition

You'd like to say you slept the sleep of the well-fucked, but three people on a little dorm bed with two of them being tallish like you and Crystal does not give a lot of room, nor make for a super comfortable night. When this happens again—because seeing your girlfriend domme another girl was actually pretty fucking hot and you hope it happens again—you're using your bed.

Susan stirs as you get dressed and you kneel down and kiss her forehead. "I jog with Taylor most mornings, sometimes Crystal joins and sometimes she doesn't. Sleep in and cuddle with her for me."

You get a dry look from the short brunette, who has your girlfriend half-draped over her like a lumpy blonde blanket. "I have a choice?"

With a final chuckle and a kiss to Crystal's hair you head out to one of your apparition points. With Dave's spy knowledge you take a moment to check sightlines and realize that this generator outbuilding is really one of the better spots you could have chosen. A weak muggle-repeller makes you feel better about making sure no one else wants to use it as a hideout as you pop back to your apartment. You sling Taylor's backpack over your shoulders and really have to pound the pavement to get caught up to the highschooler. You give her the backpack while you're both walking and she asks where Crystal is.

In the backpack is also:

[X][Taylor] A Gryffindor hoodie

You'd stuffed a Gryffindor hoodie in the backpack, over top of a cheap cellphone that Crystal had set up with her phone number in it and a prepaid card, along with a handwritten letter from her that you tactfully didn't read. Hopefully Taylor will actually use the phone to keep in contact with your girlfriend, having someone to talk to has done wonders for the younger girl's stress levels.

"A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell," you comment, before starting to run again, "but let me say those pleather pants were an excellent purchase."

Taylor chokes on something—the realization she's jogging with a memetic sex god, maybe?—and refuses to meet your eye for the rest of the run. You may have also charmed your jogging shorts to be a little tighter than usual today, so it might be because you're dummy thicc and the clap of your ass cheeks keeps taking her attention.

In any case, once you get back to your apartment you shower and dress in your work clothes over at the lair before you scry good 'ol Dave.

…good 'ol Dave is knocked the fuck out at his condo on the southside. You thought you sensed that Coil was running his ass ragged. You also consider transfiguring your mouth a little wider so you can fit more teeth in to fit the evil smile you're sporting. He's completely defenseless against you.

Even though you know enough about Dave's security system from his own mind, you take the time to study his bedroom until you feel the certainty that you can apparate there.

So you do.

Dave is stunned and bodybound before you zip-tie his hands, then incarceroused for good measure. You conjure up a chair, stick his eyelid open, and start the in-depth brain dump.

Your first thought is 'Wow, Dave's an asshole', and the second is 'Wow, Dave and Coil are both assholes.'

Dave is one of two mercs that Coil employs that has knowledge of electronic surveillance and is the senior of the two. He's been sent out on a lot of missions to tap a number of people's houses or workplaces.

Coil prefers non-constant-broadcasting, audio-only surveillance as a general rule, just like the taps that Dave installed in your apartment. They would record a large amount of audio—a couple of days' worth—and only transmit it when an authorization signal was first broadcast to them. This has served well even against the E88's own counter-surveillance teams in most cases, and along with insider info from the PRT, probably from Thomas Calvert himself, has allowed the bugging of some of the PRT and Protectorate's people as well.

Dave personally has planted bugs in Hookwolf's apartment/gym, as well as Fenja and Menja's penthouse, and Victor and Othala's condo. He's even assisted in the planting of bugs around the ABB areas, but they've learned not to try and tap the living areas of any of the current ABB capes, as they're all destructive in their own ways—Lung has caused over ten sets of bugs to melt when he flies into literal smoldering rages, Oni Lee bugs get blocked by ash, and Ame-onna's have to be waterproof—and a lot of the ones claimed to be waterproof aren't. Various tea shops, restaurants, or mistresses' apartments have to suffice for them instead.

New Wave was considered washed-up and useless for the most part until the last week or so, so no major watching of them were done. Plans have been made from time to time to surveil Amy, but the sheer amount of shit that would stir up if found kept Coil from ever actually going forward with it. At the moment, instead of active spying, a couple of long-range cameras record the backyards of both families' houses and are occasionally checked. Crystal's dorm is on the list of possible locations to bug, but both houses would be done first, and even with Warlock's appearance at the Pelham house it's not the first priority at the moment.

A number of the Merchants were also bugged, including Charles Shepard—Shaggy—as he owned a couple of businesses that Coil was angling on taking over at some point. Most of that blackmail is useless to the snakey supervillian now, and some of what Dave did yesterday was removing bugs so that when houses were raided by the feds there would be no evidence that someone else was poking their noses in.

There are also bugs planted in PRT and Protectorate higher-up's houses and workplaces, mainly to verify information that Coil gets through other sources—probably from Coil's real day job, honestly. One thing Dave has done was to repair some items in Piggot's house for real, and use that as a chance to get the exact model of the dialysis machine she has. Coil was very appreciative of that particular job, and Dave earned a bonus. You're sure that doesn't bode well for the PRT director.

The Undersiders aren't exempt from being spied on, with their Redmond Welding hideout being bugged, and bugging has been done to some extent on Lisa's apartment, Bitch's dog shelters, Brian's apartment, and even Brian's mother and father's places, if only for the blackmail material that could be gathered. Regent lives in the hideout, so he's covered already.

There are also a number of assumed civilians being monitored, including a number of people on campus. A number of 'Winters' including Derek, all of which are suspected of E88 ties, and 'Allen Ivers', who you thought you'd never heard of, but the image you get is of Thor. You really hope Thor isn't actually Empire, he was such a bro.

Dave's addition to much of this are the small video cameras he sometimes includes, as he's a voyeur of the worst type—he has plenty of video of various capes in and out of their masks and nude videos of a number of women both cape and not while they're showering or getting ready for bed. And while it is indeed sexual for him, it's also just something he desires. He doesn't really see anyone other than himself as worthy of keeping secrets from him, so he doesn't mind tapping and viewing otherwise private lives.

…in all, he's a vile human being working for a similarly vile human being. Coil seems to be having a bad time recently though, mainly seen in Dave's eyes in the fact that he's been kept incredibly busy since the fall of the Merchants. There's been the clearing of already-planted bugs, yes, but also new spying to be done on the people Coil has chosen to try and sow chaos as the reborn Merchants—Mush, of course, but also Trainwreck and a new cape pulled in from somewhere in the deep south called 'Ink'.

In fact it's gotten worrisome enough that Dave refreshed the contents of his bug-out bag and has ensured that he keeps a full tank in his car so he can get as far away as possible. It's not that Dave thinks Coil's operation is going down any time soon, but when the previously smooth, seemingly-invincible master manipulator starts to get irritable and suffer setbacks, it's best to make sure your own ass is covered as well.

He has a number of computers, and his blackmail is backed up both locally on various drives, but also as encrypted disk images on a couple of cloud service providers.

Dave, though, for all that he is in something of a special place in Coil's employ, is not one of the major movers-and-shakers. He has met Coil in person perhaps once (and that may have been a body-double), generally getting his orders via a video call while inside the base. Using his memories, you could apparate in to various areas, but you're not going to be able to get to Coil directly, and since the snake-themed villain always seems to just appear out of thin air it's likely there are passageways that Dave isn't cleared to know about. In addition he doesn't have direct access to the armory, server room, or mission control room, although he knows where all three of those places are. Coil actually has security measures in place, and they even seem to be generally followed rather than ignored. That… sucks.

Dave, along with the rest of the hired muscle, have been told that the endgame of all of this is complete control of Brockton Bay. The hows and whys were never really touched on, but from the missions the other guys talk about, people have put together a theory that Coil or a Coil-backed patsy will be put forward as a Mayoral candidate on a 'clean up the city' platform in a year or two. So, pretty close to canon Coil's plans, just off on the position of power. Dave doesn't know everyone Coil employs, but there are at least four twenty-man teams of mercenaries, although not all of them are in-base at all times, and some are on missions that may not even be in Brockton Bay itself. As to how many additional mercs there are in positions like Dave's, he doesn't know, but it would certainly put the total over a hundred, possibly closer to one-fifty.

Dave is going to be back in the base later today to get verification that the bugs he planted—including yours—are working. When he reports they didn't work, he may or may not be told to plant them again—it's not the first time the Tinker-derived designs have screwed up for one reason or another.

There are a number of ways you could take this, including using this information to sneak in to Coil's base, discussing it or turning it over to New Wave or Templeton from the PRT, or even trying to turn Dave into a mole with mind control.

It's probably best that you make some plans. Dave had a long night and isn't expected in until early afternoon. It's currently only 9am.

Yes, there are more important things you could be pulling out of Dave's head, but seriously, what the fuck is going on with Thor?

…well, it appears that it's not so much that Thor is Empire, but he is Empire-adjacent, because of Erica, Derek's sunglasses-wearing cousin.

Who happens to be Othala.

It appears that Erica tried sounding Thor out about joining the E88 and was roundly rejected, but kept coming and visiting him. This was found out because Victor found out and there were a series of arguments between the two about Erica's emotional affair and Joseph's (Victor's real name) actual affairs.

Yeah, it's easy to see that whatever happened to them in canon-Worm, they're not at the stage where there's actual love there. Apparently Thor's room has been bugged because Erica talks to him about various interpersonal issues within the cape ranks of the Empire (with all the references to the cape parts left unmentioned). Erica has also apparently chased away at least two possible girlfriends of Thor's. Thor has tried to convince Erica to leave the gang (he apparently thinks she's a drug dealer or some non-combat role) to no avail, and seems to carry something of a torch for the one-eyed woman even if he's obviously tried to move on from it. Dave loves listening in to the recordings, he considers it an incredible soap opera.

Coil only has had a couple Protectorate capes bugged—Velocity and Dauntless, and a number of the support staff that could be considered 'Protectorate' employees instead of general PRT staff. There were apparently order to bug Assault and Battery's house, but those were cancelled without warning and have never been repeated.

The non-cape spying is generally boring, only turning up the occasional extra name that some of the more HUMINT-focused mercs can try to lean on to get another mole. The only other non-cape related thing that Dave has gleaned is that apparently Piggot has managed to transfer all the fuckups and general troublemakers to be under the Protectorate umbrella rather than in the PRT, so when the capes themselves have issues they have few people in their part of the organization that are able to actually offer competent help.

Dauntless and his wife are on the edge of divorce—she doesn't want to be a cape-wife anymore, thinks that his job is interfering with him connecting with their daughter, and the love has just generally gone out of the relationship. That, again, has been turned over to HUMINT to see if there's anything on either side that can be manipulated—his wife having a sharp divorce lawyer could throw the up-and-coming cape for a loop and impact his performance in operations.

Velocity is being monitored because he's a total man-whore. His learning of Chinese has led him to a number of places in the local Chinatown, including massage parlors. There's been an increasing number of 'one night stands' that come back to his place and leave with their 'taxi fare' paid for. Dave doesn't know if the ABB has twigged on him yet, but if not and he continues at this pace it's only a matter of time.

Tattletale is not actively monitored 24/7, and bugging spaces that she's going to use is done very carefully. When putting recording devices in her apartment it was done when the apartment manager had scheduled actual maintenance (the fact that maintenance was done may have been influenced by bribery, but the work needed to be done in the first place), and the HVAC upgrades were done legitimately by licensed technicians. That Dave happened to be appointed as the supervisor by the apartment manager was completely coincidental, of course. There are a number of monitoring devices hidden in ductwork and behind drywall. The Thinker is smart or paranoid enough not to disclose anything particularly incriminating over the phone, but any time that audio is recorded by the bugs it goes directly to Coil himself.

Dave managed to place one camera in Lisa's bedroom that he has pulled video from a handful of times. Nothing titillating, but it's not surprising from someone as fucked up as he.

Supposedly—it's not his area—there are additional presence trackers that are used for her to verify a general location for her so any attempts to leave the city would fail.

There is a small sub-squad that has at least one person available to track down the Thinker if she goes rogue and tries to escape. Supposedly they have access to some of the very limited amounts of containment foam and non-lethal weapons, but he's seen them bringing the bagged girl in with live weapons more than once.

All of the mercs have been informed that Tattletale is a Thinker and nothing she says should be trusted unless verified by Coil first.

Even with all of this, she is kept as segregated as possible from the majority of people that work in the base, and frequently isn't even brought to the main base, instead meeting Coil in one of the satellite bases that are generally used to store vehicles.

Speaking of bases, there are multiple bases that Coil's organization uses, but the rest are either shared spaces that are largely used for vehicle storage, or similar small spaces that are used in drug distribution or corporate espionage. The 'main base' that was originally supposed to be an Endbringer shelter or something similar has been extensively modified. Access is controlled by badges and camera or in-person security, and even within the base itself areas are further controlled by the access level of one's badge, as well as additional biometric identification for some locations like the armory.

The base has multiple entrances, some used for vehicle arrival and departure, and some walk-in entrances. Dave assumes there's entire sections he knows nothing about in the base—he already knows he doesn't have access to any of the power generation or life support sections, and there are some oddly-shaped rooms that only make sense if you assume there are other passageways.

All entrances open into a wider room with a security checkpoint where one needs their badge to get in. Depending on the entrance, there may also be actual guards, or perhaps just cameras with a turret or two. Supposedly those are non-lethal sandbag rounds, but no one who knows has said for sure.

The vehicle entrance has parking for the different cars, vans, and military vehicles that are used—regular cars for trailing people, white work-vans with a multitude of vinyl decals to blend in, and PRT-like vans if things ever get heavy.

Inside the base itself there are a number of barracks rooms, some of which people live in full-time, and some of which are used only when getting ready for some operation or for crashing if it's been a long day. Food and drinks are available in a number of areas even if there isn't an actual cafeteria.

Typically there are roughly 50 people in the base, although many of them would be resting, preparing for some other mission, or doing administrative tasks. All employees have some familiarity with guns and should have at least basic training on how to handle themselves in an emergency.

Dave is aware that Coil's group deals in the drug trade—actually the Merchants were their main competitor—as well as providing muscle for capes elsewhere.

Security has been on a medium to high alert since the Merchants were taken down. Everyone was briefed on Warlock's existence, and you have been mentioned as a Mover, minion Master, and Shaker. Current engagement rules are to put you down hard and fast if anything resembling hostility is found, and to disable, drug, strip, and keep unconscious if you can be ambushed. You get the feeling that Coil doesn't like you very much.

Browsing through the rest of his memories of the base itself tells you that there's enough surveillance and security to make moving around irritating—you're invisible to the cameras he's aware of (video and IR), but you'd be locked out of any areas that might lead to Coil himself.

You could get in via following Dave or apparating into a corridor and try to mind-control someone with higher credentials, or you could try getting in and just busting down doors or transfiguring new doors. There's also the option of tracking down Thomas Calvert and dealing with him, either alone or after trying to recruit Tattletale to your side. All of this could be done with or without the support of New Wave, Quin Calle, or the PRT. Or you could just sit back and monitor the situation, perhaps prodding Dave to realize that bugging your apartment didn't work, and having him show back up to create evidence of a break in for you to use.