Chapter 10.6
(Part 5)
***
You step out of the swirling vortex several feet away from Director Uriel's secretary's desk, dragging Aisha through with you in order to ensure she doesn't immediately run off. Not that Aisha's likely to bolt - you've noted an increased willingness from her to at least follow the Director's
direct requests since her upgrade - but you'd rather not chance having to waste time chasing after her if you're wrong.
Mister E silently pads through the portal behind you, allowing you to mentally shut the portal down... and causing Miriam's expression to go from 'mild surprise' to 'unamused glower' as her eyes drift from the two of you to the giant black cat. And now you're curious as to the story behind
that, but you probably don't have the time for it right now.
You blatantly glance at the row of international clocks along the wall her desk is against, then look back to the Director's ever-ruffled secretary. At least she appears to have combed her wild red mop of hair
slightly today.
"Good afternoon, Miss Miriam," you say politely, bowing your head just enough to be cordial. She's helped you enough these last few days to have earned at least that much. Beside you, Aisha grunts and nods her head, allowing you to continue. "Could you let Director Uriel know we've arrived?"
"A-ah?" she blinks, turning back to you before giving you a frazzled smile. "Y-yes, good afternoon, Tatsu! And… Who! Just-" she pauses after her greeting is accomplished, then glances to the four full-kit guards in the waiting room's corners and waves at them to put their raised rifles and shotguns away while making a distressed hissing noise. You somewhat follow her example and greet them as well, simply keeping your smile genuine as you give them each a light wave in turn.
… at least they didn't shoot you this time, though unlike before you
did wait a few seconds between opening your portal and going through. Luckily Lord Grasp wasn't with you then (much to his own dismay, and why he's on your shoulder
now), and all it took was a quick hop over to Prayer to get the bullet wounds healed up, so you weren't too put out about it; really, you counted it as a lesson learned for
everyone.
Once the guards relax enough to point their weapons away from your group, Miriam sighs and looks back to you with her haggard smile. "The Director said for you to head in whenever you arrived," she admits, the hand not filled with papers tapping a button on her desk phone in a sequence that you suspect is cluing the Director into your approach. "Go on in!"
You thank the stressed secretary and tug Aisha along with you to the door, open it and- make a surprised squeak as the big, black form of Mister E smoothly glides under your and Aisha's joined hands in order to slip into the room ahead of the two of you. Aisha grumbles as she uses her off-hand to swat his tail before it flicks her in the face as he passes, and inside the Director's office you hear Chevalier clear his throat in surprise while Director Uriel sighs tiredly.
On your shoulder, Lord Grasp nods approvingly. You're… going to have to review what he's been teaching Mister E, aren't you? Ugh.
More work.
Director Uriel's thick-carpeted, faux-wood-paneled office still looks like it was torn right out of the 1950's, complete with weird golf and bowling trophies on one side and a full bar on the other, despite all the 'security upgrades' that you heard Taylor helped install. Or maybe it still looks the same
because he got her to help? That feels more likely.
Director Uriel glances away from the computer screen on his desk just long enough to meet your and Aisha's eyes, then grunts.
"Tatsu, Who. Sit."
Chevalier - still in his full silver-and-gold plate armor - turns from where he is sitting in one of the two 'big people' chairs in front of Uriel's massive mahogany desk and gives each of you a nod… then looks to Mister E as the horse-sized saber-toothed cat immediately claims the second reinforced chair and begins a staring contest with him. Rolling your eyes, you let go of Aisha's hand as the two of you take the two normal-sized leather chairs in front of the Director's desk.
Uriel himself looks…
healthy, at least, but you're pretty sure that's only because he isn't like Director Piggot and actually lets Prayer heal him every morning to keep his crazy workload from making him sick. Still, the bags under his eyes are probably permanent by now. He's also back to wearing his PRT trooper armor (except the helmet, which is hanging on his chair behind him), so that's… probably not a good sign for why he called the two of you in immediately after school got out.
He stops typing just after Aisha snorts at something she finds funny, taking his hands away from the keyboard as he turns fully towards the four of you, though his eyes focus on
you first.
"Of the four new capes you spotted and talked to, two are on the line right now with their parents, talking with Miss Militia and Erasmus. Good work."
You blink, but unlike Aisha you manage to control your frown. "I thought Erasmus was transferring to Las Vegas-"
"He returned this morning - they rejected his transfer request," Uriel waves away, glancing at Chevalier, causing the armored hero to shift in his seat and clear his throat awkwardly. "Can't imagine why."
A slow grin spreads on Aisha's face. "Hey. Lemme do a patrol with him. Welcome him back home, you know?"
"Aisha, no-!"/"Who,
no-" both you and Chevalier sigh at the same time, the frown evident in his voice matching your own, only for the two of you to be cut off by Uriel raising his hand for silence. Your reactions halted, the Director raises an eyebrow as he slowly glances between an all-to-eager Aisha and Mister E - who has stopped staring at Chevalier and is now staring at
him…
hungrily.
Closing his eyes, he leans back in his padded leather chair and sighs. "He's not slated for neighborhood patrols right now, he's too useful keeping things in the relief camps running smoothly. He was the one who helped recruit almost all the Wards that were here before you all transferred in, and I'm making sure he's going to at least be observing when these new four come in for the song and dance."
Cracking open one eye, he levels it at Aisha… and shrugs. "We're the good guys. Keep that in mind."
You cough lightly in your hand and glare at your fellow Alchemical, hammering in the point wordlessly that
he means no stabbing unless you catch him in the act.
Aisha's gleeful expression shifts as she considers this, eventually settling on a more knowing grin as she shrugs in return. "Eh, sure. I've got better things to do, anyway."
The local Protectorate leader sighs and clasps his armored gauntlets in front of him while leaning forward, his voice growing serious - heavier than you think you've ever heard from him before.
"Unfortunately... you're not wrong," he pauses, waiting for Aisha's smile to dim before tilting his head to Uriel. "Director?"
The veteran PRT Director closes his eyes again for a few seconds, then draws in a long, tired breath before bringing his right hand up to his phone and tapping one of the buttons with the blinking lights next to it.
He lets out the breath in a weary sigh. "Rebecca, you want to do the honors?"
You control your reaction as a confident,
familiar voice comes through the speaker.
"Very well, Martin," Alexandria's voice echoes out, her tone grim. "Tatsu, Who. And your…
familiars. I am Chief-Director Costa-Brown. Normally I would say that what I am about to reveal to you would not leave this room, but I am fully aware that your…
Assembly... keeps no secrets between each other. If Vajra and Weaver have not received this information by the time you speak with them next, ensure that they know they are not to disseminate this any further. Am I understood?"
You sit up a bit straighter in your chair, and note out of the corner of your eye that the room's atmosphere has even caused Aisha to still her light fidgeting.
"Yes, Chief-Director."
… you elbow Aisha in the shoulder.
"Uh-... right. Yeah, sure."
Both Uriel and Chevalier give Aisha unimpressed glares, and for once she actually looks a bit sheepish. You will cherish this memory forever.
The PRT's Chief-Director makes a brief grunt of acceptance through the phone. "Good enough. At 2:15 PM today, five of the seven most-recently-revised Endbringer attack modeling programs simultaneously began showing erratic predictions for Leviathan. The deep-sea monitoring net had not detected any movement from Leviathan since all three Endbringers went 'dormant' following Behemoth's attack on Brockton Bay, so a deep-sea drone was dispatched to secure visual confirmation of its current status."
Uriel leans forward, taps a few keys on his keyboard, then reaches up with his other hand and spins his monitor around to face the four of you.
Filling the screen is a single image, revealing the pitch-black abyss of the deep sea contrasted with the murky grey sea floor lit up by the camera drone's onboard strobe lights.
And a dark - almost black - stone replica of the second Endbringer, its hunched, reptilian form detailed well enough that you can almost
feel it looking directly at you through the camera.
Beside you, Aisha opens her mouth but the Chief-Director continues before she can get a word out.
"Upon discovering Leviathan's disappearance, the few PRT Thinkers capable of even marginally piercing the Anti-Thinker effects surrounding the greater Philadelphia area were contacted. Through careful questioning, we have determined two things: that the weather patterns that have kept the low pressure systems in your area are unnatural, and that the amount of water falling from those pressure systems is more than what should be up there."
You swallow. Well…
that explains why the rain's been so bad these last few days, at least.
When the Chief-Director doesn't immediately continue, Chevalier clears his throat.
"You said the modeling programs are giving different predictions for Leviathan? Do any of them show it attacking us?"
Alexandria gives a quick grunt that you interpret as her way of 'nodding' over a purely audio medium. "All of them do, but at wildly different times - some a week from now, some give us months. The new information given by our Thinkers will hopefully help to narrow this window down, but for the moment we are operating under the expectation that - given the obvious trends of the last few months - Leviathan will either attack upon Weaver's return to Philadelphia or whenever a new member of Weaver's Assembly is brought to the Brockton Bay Crater for…
processing."
There a brief grinding from Chevalier's gauntlets tightening, but Aisha's loud snort of amusement drowns that out quickly.
"Right, so… basically what we were all expecting anyway? What's the problem, then?"
***
