"Good grief." Roy Christner shook his head in disbelief as he looked around. "He managed to keep all this secret for nearly a decade? How the hell did he manage that?"
Next to him, Captain Henries of the BBPD shrugged a little helplessly. "We're not sure, aside from it must have taken a lot of work and liberal use of his powers. The information posted to PHO says he could pull that simulation thing to pick the best result from anything he had a choice of yes or no in, as far as I can work out, so I guess he just kept trying different things and rejecting whichever action didn't give the best results. It still seems unbelievable though."
"Damn right," Roy muttered. "Random chance should have tripped him up sooner or later if nothing else. The number of things he'd have to get lucky on…"
"I know. Even for a Parahuman power this is ridiculous. Thank god he was apparently nowhere near as smart as he thought he was or he'd have been President by now or something. Fuck alone knows what that would have been like but it would have been bad."
Both men shivered at the thought of the damage a narcissistic psychopath like Calvert had been, something his own documents proved beyond doubt, in the position of the President of the US. It didn't bear thinking about.
"We had a lucky escape," the mayor commented with disquiet. "And we don't even know who it was who called in the tip, or whether what happened was purely accidental or some sort of deliberate action." They kept slowly walking along the corridors of the formerly-hidden bunker, which was now teeming with investigators not only from the BBPD but the FBI, the PRT, who had not liked being told that no they couldn't take over and kick everyone else out no matter what they might believe, and even a group sent by the Governor to dig up anything that would lead to tracking down Coil's moles in the state capitol. Absolutely everything in the bunker was being dismantled down to the smallest screw, looking for evidence. Even though the perpetrator of this whole bizarre discovery was in the city morgue, they had to assume he'd had agents and informants all over the place and those people were still out there.
"No. Not a trace anywhere of who it was," Henries agreed. "We did eventually find out how they got out without either us or the mercenaries noticing, assuming that they were in this fucking place to begin with. We have to assume someone was here because the techs traced that tip-off to Coil's own fucking desk phone. Which is hilarious if I'm honest, but my god, it's like something out of a spy movie. The PHO update was done on his own computer too, they tell me." He shook his head in mild wonder. "Turns out there were not only the three entrances we knew about pretty quickly, including the hidden door they all came pouring out of, but two actual hidden passages none of the mercs had a clue were there."
"He didn't even tell his own people?" Roy stared at his companion, moving aside slightly to let a pair of technical operatives push a handcart piled with computer servers past.
"Apparently not. Like I said, it's like the asshole thought he was Bloefeld or something. Only thing missing is a fluffy white cat." The captain gave him a wry grin as Roy couldn't help snorting with humor. "Maybe it was the cat that turned him in… Whatever, the escape tunnels were incredibly well hidden from the inside, and it was almost an accident that we found the first one. Once we found that someone said that if he was working with the spy movie stereotype he probably had at least one more, so they went hunting, and sure enough found another one. So far that seems to be it."
"Where do they go?"
"One into a sewer that way," Henries replied, pointing back behind them, "And the other into one of the bigger storm drains that way." He indicated in a different direction. "We're pretty sure our informant skedaddled down that one. Don't blame them, the other way would involve wading through shit up to your waist, and it would take a fucking solid reason for me to do that. At least the other direction would only get you wet feet. The techs searched the entire length of the tunnel as far as the storm drain and found tiny traces that suggest someone went down it recently, but nothing at all to indicate who, or anything else useful. They did a damn good job of cleaning up after themselves."
"And I assume that once they got into the drain network there was no chance of tracking them?"
Henries shook his head. "Not a hope. No one even knows how many tunnels are down there these days. It's got to be tens of miles of them at a minimum, and half those aren't mapped at all. God alone knows what's actually hiding down there. After two hundred or more years of building and rebuilding it could be practically anything up to and including the service entry to fucking Narnia. It would take literally years just to search the parts we know are there never mind the rest we only suspect, and I can almost guarantee that's not the full extent of it either."
Roy nodded thoughtfully. He was well aware of the scale of the problem, as they'd had issues in the past with new construction running afoul of underground works that weren't on any map available. It had caused significant problems at one time or another, and cost a vast amount of money to deal with such situations. Every couple of decades someone pushed for something to be done about it, if only mapping everything so people had some sort of idea what they were doing, but even the most optimistic suggestions of how much that would cost were so enormous the idea always died quickly. It was as bad as if not worse than the old container ship in the bay.
"Most of what Brockton Bay is built on is Brockton Bay," he agreed with a sigh. "And up until fairly recently hardly anyone ever documented what the fuck they were doing."
"If anyone has anything even vaguely accurate for the older underground stuff it's probably the Dock Workers Association," Captain Henries remarked. "And even there I doubt they have all of it. No one does. So once our putative informant got that far, they were gone. Walk down the middle of the tunnels in the water and you don't even leave footprints. You could end up at the shore, or come up a manhole a mile away." He shrugged. "Complete dead end for that part of it. Unless they come forward we'll never know who it was."
"And they have little reason to come forward, I'd guess," Roy grumbled.
"Well, considering that the computer techs think that Calvert probably had north of about a hundred and fifty million bucks in various bank accounts they've found documentation for, and fuck knows how much more they've got no clue about, and all of that money seems to have vanished…" Henries looked amused as Roy grunted in shock, turning his head to stare at the other man. "We can't prove it, and the forensic accountancy team have already said they're probably never going to be able to trace most, if not all, of it, but I'm pretty certain that whoever called us helped themselves to a pretty decent payday. And there's those two missing drives, too, which could have been the key to who knows what fortune. My guess, and it is only a guess, is that whoever was behind that part of it seized the opportunity to confiscate everything they could lay hands on before vanishing. Might have been someone working for him, might just as easily been someone he was blackmailing, or kidnapped, or god knows what. We've got plenty of evidence to show that a minimum of a dozen people died in his fucking torture room, and some of the DNA hits have already turned up matches to missing persons in the CODIS database. Whoever it was might have had a serious personal grudge against the bastard."
"You think it might have been someone seeking revenge or something like that?" Roy thought over the idea.
"It's one possibility, yeah. We just don't know yet. It's not even that there isn't any evidence at all. The problem is exactly the reverse, there's too much evidence. This psycho had his fingers into everything." Henries shook his head in anger. "He had agents in the BBPD, the PRT, the IRS, the state government, the state cops, the FBI… That's just from what we've found out in only five days. Various agencies including us have already arrested something like fifty people and that's going steadily up. And it gets worse… the amount of secret or classified documentation on his servers and in his filing cabinets is absurd. Almost none of it should have been in his hands. He had stuff that even the Governor didn't have clearance to handle. There's some very upset people from the Pentagon going through a lot of it in a secure room in my own station, and I guarantee this is going to have repercussions all the way to the top if only because of all the security holes it's highlighted."
They walked on in silence for a few tens of yards, Roy thinking over what he'd been told, while still looking around in amazement. This place just seemed to keep going…
Descending a flight of metal stairs, they resumed walking and after a second or two Henries continued, "As far as his actual cause of death, the ME is completely certain it was exactly what we assumed from the start, massive anaphylactic shock caused by a severe allergy to wasp venom. He found two sting sites, one on his neck and one on his balls." The man smirked as he said the last and Roy grinned somewhat sadistically too. "Plus evidence of trauma to the last location…"
"You mean?" Roy glanced at the other man, who nodded, still smirking.
"Yeah. Asshole punched himself in the nuts when he got stung. Pretty hard, according to the ME, when he stopped laughing. Bet that hurt."
"Serves the bastard right."
"Oh, no argument from me, or anyone else who's on the case. There are a lot of people who'd have loved to give him a kick there a few times, believe me." Henries shrugged. "Me included. But the upshot is that as far as the ME is concerned, death was from natural causes. No signs of any foul play, Parahuman shenanigans, or anything else. Tox screen came back negative for everything, no wounds, injection sites, or anything else other than the stings. And there was a dead wasp on the floor nearby, two more in the ventilation ducts for his office, plus we found a wasp nest right outside one of the disguised air intakes. The working theory is that the wasps either got sucked into the air vents and blown out in his office, or just went exploring, and he happened to come into contact with one in a bad mood. Or in other words, a normal wasp."
Roy chuckled. He knew what the captain meant. Wasps in his experience were always in a bad mood…
"We even considered the idea that someone deliberately released them into his office, knowing he was allergic, but as far as all the evidence shows it really was just bad luck on his part. I guess all that karma finally caught up with him in about the most ironic way I've heard of in years." Henries shrugged. "Lucky for us, not so much for him. And whoever it really was who called it in, they took advantage of the situation to take down his little empire and get themselves a nice little reward at the same time. Considering what could have happened, I'm minded to thank them and move on. A hundred million bucks or so is probably chump change compared to the damage he'd have caused in the long term."
"There is that, indeed," Roy agreed soberly. "I hate to think how many people would have ended up dead, or worse, if this lunatic had succeeded in whatever it really was he was after."
"No one knows, but any guess I've heard or come up with is horrible," the captain nodded. They arrived at the last flight of stairs and headed down. "One theory there's some evidence for but nothing concrete is that he was working on finding out the real IDs of every Parahuman he could locate. Luckily he only managed to get one before he snuffed it, as far as we can tell." Henries gave him a sidelong glance. "And only three people still alive know about it, two of them right here."
"Thank you for that," Roy replied quietly. "I owe you and the lieutenant a big favor. I won't forget."
"Hey, if it was part of my family I'd be just as worried, believe me," the cop replied just as quietly, with a shake of his head. "No kid that young deserves to get mixed up in the sort of shit this place was full of." They exchanged a meaningful glance, then mutually agreed to speak of it no more. Roy still had to work out what he was going to do about the situation but at least he didn't have to immediately worry about someone like Coil popping out of the woodwork and causing trouble. There would be time enough to talk to the PRT, if that became necessary, once they finally rooted out all the corruption that was coming to light like the things that live under a log when you flip it over. Right now, he was highly disinclined to involve them, if only due to everything else they were busy with, as was he.
It was both annoying and in some ways amusing to him that his suspicions of the PRT in general had proven right, although in ways he hadn't expected. The fallout of all this was going to cause some significant changes across the board, in ways he fully expected would be nothing like anyone had planned for. On the upside, with some luck that would result in a much better system for the city and everyone in it, which was his main concern in his job in the first place.
All thanks to a wasp. Who'd have ever thought that was possible?
At least it was a Wasp Of Normal Size. He wasn't sure he could handle having a WOUS as well as a HOUS running around… One of them was one too many as it was. And since Calvert hadn't caught fire then exploded, the HOUS wasn't involved, which relieved him considerably.
As they'd been walking along this third level corridor, the sound of some pretty serious tool use had been apparent, echoing through the whole place. It was steadily getting louder and now, when they reached one of the rooms marked as being a power control system, it became deafening. Putting his hands over his ears Roy peered in, seeing two very dusty men in overalls with BBPD EOD patches barely visible, wearing eye and ear protection along with filtration masks, operating a couple of small jackhammers. The power cables for these ran back down the corridor and disappeared into another room, and there were lights on stands set up around this one. Presumably it had been disconnected from the grid, evidence for this also being seen in how a couple of very substantial transformers had been unbolted from the floor and moved to the side. The input and output cables for them had been neatly capped off and also moved, leaving a patch of cleaner concrete under where the hardware had been. This now had a hole in the middle of it, which was being carefully enlarged by the pair of bomb squad technicians.
"How's it going?" Captain Henries shouted, his hands over his own ears to block out the drilling noise which was fairly substantial. Both men looked over, then turned their tools off, relative silence falling abruptly.
Pulling his mask down with one gloved hand, the sergeant of the pair spat to one side, then wiped his mouth. "Nearly got this charge out. Best part of three hundred pounds of the fucking stuff. There's two more to go then we've cleared the whole place but we'll run another scan to be certain."
"Is it safe to drill it out like that?" Roy asked, knowing that his own security people had assured him the charges were completely inert which was the only reason they'd let him come in here in the first place, but finding himself standing next to twice his own weight in high explosives a touch unnerving anyway. The sergeant laughed.
"Oh, sure, this stuff is about as insensitive as it gets. You could jump up and down on it all day and all you'd get is tired. Needs a blasting cap and a booster charge to set it off and we got those out first thing. Now we're just removing the main charges. They were buried in the foundations years ago and there's no way to access most of it without digging up a foot of reinforced concrete." He hefted the massive drill. "Hence these. Noisy, but safe enough."
"And if we did manage by some miracle to set it off we'd never know," the other bomb tech chuckled, making Roy wince and the sergeant guffaw.
"Yeah. It would get much noisier for a very short moment, but we wouldn't care," he said happily, making Roy yet again certain that anyone who willingly worked with high explosives was completely bonkers. "But trust me, that's not going to happen. These things are as safe as it gets in this job."
"I'll take your word for it, Sergeant," Roy replied. "Do you think if they had been detonated it would have collapsed this bunker and taken down the buildings on top of it?"
Pushing his goggles up his forehead, the man eyed Roy. "Damn sure of it, yes. There were enough explosives in the foundations to turn this place into a big hole in the ground. Under critical infrastructure like this room, under load bearing walls and columns, right below the diesel tanks so you'd get a fuel-air blast on top of this stuff… Whoever worked out where to put it all knew their job. It would absolutely have collapsed the entire thing, and that would definitely have made at least two, probably four buildings up there end up down here." He pointed at the ceiling with one raised finger, then at the floor. "I wouldn't be surprised if it took out the entire fucking block to be honest. No way to know how they'd fall, it could easily have dominoed half the financial district if everything went right. Or wrong, depending on your viewpoint, I guess. That fucker could have killed thousands of people without much effort."
He spat on the floor again and pulled his goggles back into place, having met Roy's eyes directly. "Whoever offed the bastard did us all a massive favor I'd like to buy them a beer in thanks for. A lot of friends and relatives of mine would have ended up dead if this lot had gone up."
"You're not the first one I've heard that from, Sergeant," Roy replied after a few seconds. Another question struck him so he asked it. "I was told the explosives were disabled somehow. What caused that?"
"Apparently cockroaches like the taste of shock tube," the other man replied, shaking his head slightly. "Weird, but that's what it looks like." He put the drill down and moved to the side, retrieving a short length of bright yellow and very dusty plastic tube, around an eighth of an inch in diameter and a foot long, then handed it to Roy. Accepting it, the mayor studied the stuff. "This goes from the initiator at one end to the blasting cap at the other," the sergeant explained, while Henries peered over Roy's shoulder at the thing he was holding. "It's got a thin layer of energetic material on the inside, which propagates a very fast detonation wave when it's initiated. But if it's cut, that doesn't work very well." He pointed to one end. "We pulled it out of the cable ducts. It's been cut in hundreds of places, and partially cut in many more. As far as anyone can figure out cockroaches nibbled it. You can see how it's all ragged at the ends."
"Weird," Henries commented.
"Yeah, it's a new one on me too, but it is what it is," the sergeant replied with a shrug. "We found hundreds of dead cockroaches, lots of ruined shock tube, and that's about it. Almost all in places no one could ever get to without digging it up. We had trouble even getting at it with the endoscopes. Looks like the bugs just liked the taste of it and over the years they've been helping themselves. I've heard of ants that eat wiring insulation, so it's not unheard of, but it's still pretty weird. But his little going away present probably hasn't been viable for years although he'd have had no way to find that out without trying it. Doesn't change the fact the bastard put it in, though, because he clearly intended to use it if necessary." Smirking a little, he added, "I'd have loved to see his face when he pressed the button and nothing fucking happened though..."
Neither Roy nor Captain Henries could stop a laugh at the comment. Roy handed the piece of shock tube back to the sergeant, who replace it in his toolkit then picked his drill up once more and put his mask into position. "Good luck with the work."
Both men nodded, then the hammer drills fired up again. Roy and Captain Henries left, their hands blocking out the noise, until they were far enough away it was merely loud rather than deafening. "Christ, we dodged a bullet here," Roy commented uneasily as they headed back. His companion nodded agreement.
"Oh, fuck, yes. The man's right. Luck saved a shitload of lives just from that damned self destruct, never mind all the other crap we'll be digging up for the next year or more."
Captain Henries looked around at the walls and corridors, then glanced at Roy. "What's the city going to do with this place once all the evidence is gathered and it's been cleared out? Seems to me you've got yourselves a free Endbringer shelter if nothing else. He equipped the damn place with more gear than I'd have believed. Got to be worth something to someone."
"At the moment I honestly have no idea," Roy admitted. "We haven't really put a lot of thought into it yet, in light of everything else connected with this whole mess. Sooner or later we'll have to work that out though. You're right, it'll end up being city property if only due to unpaid back taxes and fines for illegal construction." He shrugged as the other man nodded. "It'll keep. We have more important problems to deal with first."
"Fair enough. I was just curious. Seems like a waste to just leave it to rot." After a moment he grinned, then added, "You could sell it to some super-hero group. 'For sale, former super-villain lair, one careless owner, minor wasp infestation. Guaranteed explosive free.'"
They shared a glance then started laughing, as they pushed the stairwell door open and went upstairs. A little humor was just what was needed right now, Roy mused as he chuckled, considering just how rare that was going to be as the full extent of the current mess came to light.
And it all tied into the Winslow thing, the Brockton General investigations, and all the other incredibly annoying problems that had leapt at them from nowhere since Christmas.
Living in interesting times, as the old saying had it. Too interesting, in his view, but he, like the rest of them, was stuck with it and could only do his best to handle whatever happened. It was the way of the world, after all. And at least only one person, who no one at all would miss, had died in the process, so it could have been so much worse.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lisa watched her team-mates, and if she was truthful with herself, friends now, stare at the cards she'd handed each of them. "What the fuck?" Brian queried as he examined the plastic card, then the printed statement that accompanied it. "Where… How… What…" His voice seemed to run out of steam, then he swallowed and tried again. "Where…?"
"Did the money come from?" she filled in for him, not even needing her power. He nodded dumbly.
"Let's call it a… severance bonus.. from the boss," she laughed. "He was very generous."
"Did he know he was being very generous?" Alec asked with a strange hybrid of suspicion and amusement.
"Well… He didn't actually complain about it," Lisa replied completely accurately, trying not to giggle like a crazy person.
Brian gave her a flat look. "Four million dollars each? The boss paid us off with sixteen million fucking dollars?"
"Nice of him, wasn't it?" she said with a broad grin. "It's completely above board as far as anyone is concerned. Taxes paid and everything. And we don't have to do any more crimes if we don't want to."
"Can we do crimes if we do want to?" Alec queried, his eyes glinting. Brian put his hand over his face and squeezed gently, sighing.
"Sure, if you really want," Lisa allowed, kicking back in the sofa and putting her feet up. "Nothing wrong with a little light thievery and corporate espionage, for example. Most companies probably deserve it."
"Don't encourage him to be an anarchist, Lisa," Brian moaned. "He's bad enough already."
"I need you to help me getting somewhere for the dogs," Rachel said suddenly, turning to Lisa. "You understand that crap."
Lisa nodded, smiling less madly. The other girl looked hopeful and for once, surprisingly cheerful. "That's what the money is for, Rachel. We can do what we want. No more working for an asshole."
Brian, who had been staring at the documents he was holding again, suddenly froze, then lowered the paperwork and fixed her with a hard look. "Was it Coil?"
"Was what Coil?" she asked innocently.
"The fucking boss. Was it Coil? Were we working for that lunatic?"
She shrugged. "Not willingly on my part. But yeah, the boss was Coil. He won't bother us again though."
"No, since the fucker is dead," the boy growled. "Did you do that?"
"Me?" Lisa put her hand on her chest with a grin. "Would I kill Coil?" He opened his mouth but she continued, "No, I didn't kill him. It's exactly what it said on PHO. It turned out he was kind of allergic to wasps, and he found out the hard way how fast that sort of thing can kill you dead. Very sad."
"Were you there?" Brian glowered at her somewhat suspiciously.
"I was... in the general area, yeah."
"Oh, for god's sake," he moaned, putting his head in his hands. "I hope to fuck you covered your tracks."
"Trust me, Brian, other than three mercenaries who got paid a fuck of a lot of money to keep their mouths shut, no one has a clue I was anywhere near that bastard when he snuffed it." Lisa shook her head. "We came to an arrangement, and they're going to quietly retire somewhere a long way away from Brockton Bay. And those guys won't talk, believe me. If only because if they did their friends would find out about it and they wouldn't be pleased to put it mildly. The cops won't find anything to charge those specific guys with other than being a minion, and that's hardly more than a fine these days. I made sure of that."
She felt quite pleased with herself, and it helped that the mercs in question were nothing like as vicious as many of the others were. Their crimes, while numerous, were not so serious she or Vespa had reservations about letting them slip through the fingers of the authorities, unlike some of the others. She'd have had to make alternative arrangements if it had been certain different possibilities, which she'd have done for her own protection and that of the others but wouldn't have enjoyed. And the three men were well aware they wouldn't get the other half of their money until they left the city and didn't come back, so that was further impetus to stick to the plan. Her own power was certain it would work as designed.
"I sure hope you're right about that," Brian grumbled. "Now what, though? What about Aisha? And this idiot?" He jerked a thumb at Alec who was currently browsing the web looking for the largest TV possible, while grinning to himself in a rather odd manner. "Rachel's got her dogs, you've got… whatever the fuck you do when you're not irritating me, but I've got responsibilities. It's the only reason I was doing all this in the first place. And he's a menace I don't want to let loose on the public."
"Don't put yourself down, Brian, you're a perfectly respectable criminal," Alec quipped, not looking away from the screen. Brian whapped him on the back of the head. "Ow."
"You earned that."
"I know. Can I have another? You're so good at the physical stuff!" Alec leaned back, resting his head on Brian's shoulder and smiling at him in a creepy way.
"Oh, Jesus." Brian dropped the paperwork on the floor and put his head in his hands.
"I feel rejected! Led on and abandoned! I thought we had something, Brian! Be honest, is there someone else?" Alec flopped over the much larger boy and made him yelp, while Lisa was trying not to fall over laughing and even Rachel seemed to be hiding a smile.
"Get off me you crazy bastard," Brian growled, pushing Alec to the floor.
"Was it good for you too?" Alec rolled over and propped his chin on his hands, fluttering his eyelids at Brian, who slumped and seemed to be wishing he was somewhere else. Anywhere else.
"I hate all of you," he muttered under his breath.
"No you don't," Lisa told him. "At worst we annoy you. It's what we're here for!" She grinned as he looked sideways at her, his eyes narrowed. "See? That look right there! It proves my point."
He just closed his eyes and sighed like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.
"Don't worry about Aisha, Brian," she went on. "I've got a plan."
"Oh, god."
"Is it a cunning one?" Alec queried with apparent interest.
"Oh, yes. So cunning it could run for mayor."
"Oh, god…"
"Does it involve crime? Because I could just go for a little crime right now." Alec thought, then shook his head. "No. Pizza. I mean pizza. Not crime. That's later."
"We could steal pizza," Rachel put in, making everyone, even Brian, stare at her. She flushed slightly. "I like pizza," the girl added in a low voice, looking away.
"We'll get pizza, Rachel," Lisa assured her. "I'll pay. But no, it doesn't involve pizza or crime."
"Meh. Not interested then." Alec rolled onto his back and stretched. "Sounds boring anyway."
"No, it's cunning, I tell you." Lisa smirked at Brian who was now eyeing her like he was expecting the worst. "The first step is getting you a real job."
"He's rich, he doesn't need a job," Alec pointed out. "Rich people don't work, they just parasitize the proletariat."
"And now he's a communist as well as an anarchist," Brian sighed, making Alec grin and Lisa snort. "Although for once he almost has a point. The wrong point, but a point."
"The job is step one. Respectability, that's the key," Lisa told him cheerfully. "We need to get you seen as a safe and responsible person. So job, a nice apartment, stability… All the things the various agencies want. Come on, it'll be fun."
"You're not the one getting a job," he protested.
"I'm not the one with a delinquent sister," she retorted. He grumbled but accepted the point.
"Now, what sort of job, that's the question," she mused out loud, tapping her fingers on her chin as she inspected him.
"Ooh! I know a strip club that would love him," Alec suggested brightly, causing Brian to groan again. Over his protestations, the other three started coming up with more and more outrageous ideas of what sort of job Brian was suited for, even Rachel chipping in occasionally and looking like she was enjoying herself in a somewhat deadpan manner. Lisa felt rather contented. Her friends had more than enough money to do whatever they wanted, she genuinely did have a plan on how to help Brian get custody of his irritating but amusing sister, and she was feeling that things were definitely looking up compared to what they'd been a few days ago. Not to mention she had a lot more than four million dollars carefully secreted away for a rainy day, even after laundering Calvert's money, paying off the mercenaries, and splitting the take with Vespa…
And there was also the data on the drives she'd taken too, which could well end up being more than worth it in the long run. But that was for later. Right now, she had a Brian to wind up, and pizza to get.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"What have you found out?" Max Anders demanded, looking around at his people. He particularly glared at Stormtiger and Alabaster, who had to his certain knowledge been conspiring together even after his warnings, and were probably going to cause trouble he'd have to deal with. Both looked back blankly although he was sure they were well aware of what he knew about their activities. And just as sure that they'd keep doing them anyway. He might have to arrange to have something done about them soon. Possibly an example should be made…
"Very little of any substance," James replied a little nervously, flinching when Kaiser snapped his attention to the man. "We're almost blind in most of the places we need details from, and this ruckus with that asshole Coil has caused even more problems. Even the few people sympathetic to our cause we still had on the inside are running silent, and I'm pretty certain at least half of them got grabbed in the last few days. It's hard to be sure, but the cops and everyone else are going through everything like an avalanche. It was bad enough following the whole mess with Brockton General but this most recent issue has turned the heat up to eleven."
"Yeah," Victor added with a nod of agreement, making Max turn his attention to the other man. "I barely made it out the last time I tried to get in contact with someone I knew at the PRT. I was about thirty seconds ahead of a whole squad of troopers with no sense of humor at all who snatched him right out of the bar and shoved him into an APC. All I got was a redacted report about the hornet, the one for lower security levels. Not much above the crap they give the Wards, although it's got a little more actual information in it."
"I managed to get part of the scientific report on the thing too, but nowhere near all of it. I showed it to our own scientists and they thought it was a joke at first," James put in. Max looked at him this time, listening carefully. "When they figured out it was real they looked like they were trying not to pass out. Then spent half an hour explaining almost hysterically why nearly everything in it was impossible in at least a dozen different ways, even taking powers into account." He shook his head in a sort of bemused wonder. "I learned a lot more about fluorine chemistry than I ever wanted to hear, and to be honest if even a small amount of what they said was right, I don't want to get within a mile of that fucking thing."
"That's more or less what the PRT report I saw said," Victor remarked, looking worried. Max transferred his gaze back to the skill thief. "It didn't give ratings that were more than speculative, probably since even the PRT doesn't really have a damned clue about what the thing is or what it's capable of, but it summed up to 'Do not approach, do not threaten, and for fuck's sake do not attack the Giant Hornet of Death.' He shrugged even as Max raised his eyebrows. "Honest. It wasn't quite in those words, but probably only because it was an official report. Reading between the lines the authors sure wanted to write that."
"I see." Max was concerned, as well as angry, but also very confused. Which seemed to be a common theme where the so-called HOUS was involved. "No indications of where it came from or where it went?"
"No. Nothing. Best guess is somewhere in the Docks but we already knew that. No one's seen it since Hookwolf bit the dust. Fucking thing evaporated into thin air as far as anyone knows. Some reports of weird noises in the really beat up parts of that end of the city, but there are always reports of weird noises there. They go back decades. It's a fucking strange place at the best of times. So no way to know if they're connected to the hornet or not. Probably not in my opinion but honestly I'm mostly guessing."
"It may well have left the city," James commented.
"I hope it did," Victor answered with a look at him. "That thing is more trouble than I want to think about."
"We need to find it and kill it," Stormtiger growled, sounding like he was ready to jump up and try that on the spot. Max fixed him with a glare that did very little. "It killed one of our own. We need to avenge Brad."
"No fucking insect can take on the Empire and get away with it," Alabaster added helpfully.
Max sighed quietly, wondering if true belief in this sort of ideology rotted the brain, or whether a rotted brain was a precondition to holding the belief. They certainly seemed to correlate pretty damn strongly in his experience. Useful for his goals, sure, but fucking hell it could be hard riding herd on these fuckwits when they got the white supremacist bit between their teeth and ran for it…
"Victor just told us that no one even knows where it is," he said with deliberate patience, watching the two problem children of his little group. "So how, pray tell, do you plan on finding it and registering your disapproval? And even if you do find it, how do you expect to survive the encounter?"
"Yeah, even you're going to find it unpleasant," James pointed out to Alabaster, the younger man looking truculent at Max's words. "Trust me, if the science guys are right, and they were certainly worried enough for me to believe them, that thing's venom would literally make you explode, and burn, and suffer more pain than you can possibly imagine, all at the same time. Might want to consider that."
"I can handle it," the excessively white man replied carelessly. "I've had worse."
"I don't think you have," James murmured, eyeing his compatriot with a somewhat analytical gaze.
"We can take that thing out," Stormtiger persisted. "How hard can it be? It's a bug. We've got armor-piercing rocket launchers for fuck's sake! Those things will kill a tank! No giant bug is going to stand up to that. We find the thing, and blow it out of the sky from two hundred yards away. Simple."
Max massaged his temples with his forefingers, wondering what the hell these two assholes had taken. Did idiocy come in a nasal spray these days, or did you still need to drink it? "Firstly, do not touch my rocket launchers without my express permission," he snarled after a few seconds of vainly trying to find his calm place. "I went to a lot of trouble to get those weapons without anyone finding out, and I have plans for them. Plans that don't include either of you fools shooting them off like fourth of July fireworks, probably missing what you're aiming at anyway, and… I don't know, blowing up a busload of nuns or something knowing you two. Leave the rocket launchers alone!"
He glared at them until both lowered their eyes and nodded, although he wasn't even slightly convinced either meant it. But that would have to do for now. Resolving silently to make sure the guards on the special equipment armory were doubled, he moved on. "Secondly, while I am fully on board with eliminating the thing, we're not going to go running around raising hell while the FBI, the PRT, the BBPD, and for all I know the fucking CIA are all over the city like white on rice. We wait until they finish sticking their noses into everything and leave, got me? We do not need to attract too much attention from the wrong places right now. Especially after Eidolon got wiped out, because my guess is the Protectorate is probably looking for an excuse to throw their weight around and prove they're more than just the Triumvirate. Or Duovirate or whatever the fuck it is now. Do not cause them to think we're that excuse!"
This time he cast his gaze around the entire table, making sure every single one of his people were aware of how serious he was. Legend might have stepped down for now, but he had little doubt the man was still a serious threat given a good reason, and he might well be quite happy to have a reason to take out his grief on a suitable target. And Alexandria… That woman was a force unto herself at times. Some of the things he'd heard about her activities sometimes made him wonder which side of the hero/villain divide she truly was, if even a few of them were true.
No. It was not a good time to stick your head above the parapet. Way too many eyes watching, and way too many guns in the hands of people he couldn't control or predict. He hadn't got to where he was by being stupid, after all. One picked the time and location of one's battles if one had any choice at all in the matter…
The twins, one on either side of him, seemed to be listening, Crusader was nodding, Othala was paying attention too, and even Rune was obviously thinking while giving Alabaster and Stormtiger a somewhat pensive look. The girl had been in an odd mood since the news of Brad's death had first come to them, and he didn't know why. Nor did he particularly care as long as she followed orders, which she seemed to do.
"And thirdly," he went on after a long enough pause to drive home how serious he was, during which no one made a sound, "We have no idea where the hornet is. I don't know why I have to keep repeating that. 'Maybe somewhere in the docks' is hardly enough to go on even if the fucking thing is there. What are you planning on doing? Charging about shouting 'Come out and play, Miss Giant Hornet!' or something equally stupid?" His sarcasm wasn't even slightly hidden and both Stormtiger and Alabaster looked highly irritated, but neither seemed to quite have the inclination to retort although they obviously wanted to. "Just keep your eyes and ears open, and maybe we'll learn something useful, but right now we don't have the information or the freedom to act we'll need to deal with the damn thing. That goes for everyone." He looked around the table again. "Any information you find, bring it to me first. Rumors, sightings, anything. Do not try to handle it yourself if by some chance you see that thing. Bring me the information!"
Slamming his fist on the table and making Rune and Othala jump at the bang, he repeated more forcefully. "Bring me the information first if you find anything at all. I will decide what to do with it, not you. Any of you. Everyone very clear on that, or do I need to get more... vehement?" His eyes passed slowly over those of his subordinates. Even Alabaster looked somewhat cowed. Satisfied that at least for now they'd probably not become loose cannons, he nodded. "Good. We'll leave that subject as closed until further notice. Now…" He turned to James. "What other fallout can we expect from Coil's monumental stupidity?"
The other man sighed heavily, then began talking, while everyone listened. Although Max noticed a little later with great albeit mostly hidden irritation that the pair of idiots weren't paying attention and were probably still trying to work out the most spectacularly stupid method of committing suicide possible.
You just couldn't get the help these days, he thought with annoyance, mentally tripling the guard on the special armory…
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
'That should do it,' Taylor thought with satisfaction, inspecting her work carefully. She'd used some of the random rubble lying around the old warehouse to fill in the gap in the wall just under the roof where she'd been coming and going through until her discovery of the tunnels, using drider silk to glue it in place and reinforce the whole repair job. From the outside it just looked like a damaged spot, but it was probably stronger than the rest of the wall. It had occurred to her that she could cover the entire inside with silk but that would be a lot of work and probably more trouble that it was worth. Even so she'd also patched the roof in several places, and made sure that none of the doors could be opened from the outside without taking half the wall with them. Her silk was dramatically stronger than the chain her dad had first given her, she knew that, so it seemed a sensible precaution.
The building was solidly enough built that even if someone did try to break through the wall, it would be quite a lot of effort, and considering where the warehouse was, it seemed highly unlikely that anyone would even bother. There were easier places to get scrap metal from closer to the populated areas of the city, after all, and few homeless people came this far into the ruined zone these days. And, of course, her range was now fully unlocked, meaning anything within a sphere nearly a mile and a half in diameter was within her purview, so it wasn't like much of anything could sneak up on her anyway.
It had turned out to be oddly anticlimactic to finally remove all the limiters on her ability when she'd decided she'd gotten to the point it wouldn't cause problems. Slightly nervously she'd let her power have its own way, the thing at the back of her head seeming surprised for a moment, then worried for a second, before it metaphorically shrugged and did what it had given up trying to do a couple of weeks ago. All that happened was that her range jumped that last two hundred yards or so outwards and then… just worked exactly the same only over a marginally greater volume.
Taylor had half-expected something odd, but in the end it was just that simple. She'd experimented for a while looking for anything else different but concluded what she got was pretty much what she saw. The range itself seemed slightly vague at the edges, wavering a little in and out by a few feet seemingly at random, and she'd examined this phenomenon for a bit, wondering once more if the 'limit' was actually a limit or just an arbitrary boundary her power had plucked out of thin air.
This seemed to be something of a theme, and it hadn't stopped her making it bend to her desires rather than whatever it had as some built in stopping point yet… She saw no reason that wouldn't be the case here either, but testing that aspect of it could wait for a while. She had other experiments to try first. Her own power seemed slightly apprehensive as she thought this and she laughed a little. "Don't worry, this won't hurt," she whispered to it as she descended to the floor again, landing on all eight feet with a series of slight clicks. "Just trust me."
There was a sensation of somewhat nervous anticipation combined with mild alien amusement and rather less mild confusion, which was a mix she was very used to these days. It was rather comforting, really. Like having a smart pet that really wanted to play but had no idea what was going on, yet still kept enjoying itself regardless.
Looking around she rubbed her hands together with the sound of chitin on chitin, smiling with glee. "I love this," she mumbled, moving to her main test area which now had several improvised tables set up, made out of random scrap she'd bent into shape and fixed solidly together with more silk. Two were rough benches, the tops only planks of wood that was only slightly smoothed, the other pair were much closer to an actual table as she'd located some sheets of steel that had been quite amenable to being squashed flat with the application of a lot of pressure. Making a mental note to get some real folding tables at some point, as while making all her own furniture was kind of fun, the aesthetics left something to be desired, she picked up her notes and flipped through the pages.
She'd filled more than two dozen notebooks by this point, with a mix of drawings, calculations, observations, suppositions, ideas for experiments, and general notes. It was quite a library she was building she thought as she looked over her list of things to test today. One that would probably severely puzzle most people even if they could understand half of it. Taylor had been forced to resort to the shorthand her mom had taught her years ago for quickly taking notes in class, and something she hadn't really used all that much in Winslow. There hadn't been much point in the end, since her notes got stolen anyway, so why bother putting in the effort? Even if the shorthand might have caused the thieves some trouble, she'd been so depressed she hadn't had the energy to fuck with them.
Rather regretting not doing so anyway just to screw their plans up, Taylor shrugged to herself. It was in the past and no longer relevant at all. Here and now, sometimes the ideas came so thick and fast she had trouble getting them all down on paper even with the speed she could write these days, and the shorthand had been an obvious solution. But it had required modification to convey a lot of concepts she'd have found nearly impossible to explain to anyone else without significant time and effort. Luckily her memory was seriously firing on all cylinders these days, thanks to the neural enhancements from her internal modifications and the addition of lots of interesting arthropodal upgrades. She was more than satisfied with the results and always looking for something new and interesting to add to the mix, or other ways to combine things she'd already picked up.
Like the improved armor, the fantastically versatile bioluminescence, and all the other useful tricks she'd learned over the last couple of months.
Stopping on one page, she studied the notes there, nodding slowly to herself. It was something she had to test sooner or later, definitely. As were some of the other things here. She'd been deliberately avoiding them for a while because she wanted to get her control ability to its limits first, and deal with some of the other ideas she'd had, but perhaps it was time?
"What do you think?" she asked Vespa, who was sitting on her shoulder. The hornet extension of her mind didn't have much of an opinion of her own, of course. She still felt a little guilty about that, although she knew logically there wasn't much of a reason to do so. Vespa was only one insect, one with a limited lifespan like most insects, and no mind to speak of in human terms. Although, at the back of her head, she had a suspicion that the limited lifespan part might be quite a lot less limited now than it had been… There was no easy way to be sure but Taylor had an idea that along with the massive increase in size, nearly tripling in length, the hornet might have a number of other fairly dramatic changes. Time would tell, of course.
There were all sorts of ramifications to the whole fusing process she was still working on, and probably would be for quite a while.
At least Vespa seemed to have stabilized at her current size now, as did most of the other creatures she'd merged with when she unmerged to check on them. Jumpy was only a little larger than she'd been the last time she'd investigated a week ago and the growth appeared to have basically stopped. Impy hadn't grown at all since the last time. And her firespider had also topped out. The crabs were still slightly increasing in size as were some of the others things, like the limpets, but they were quite a bit more recent, so she felt reasonably sure they'd all end up stopping whatever process was making them get larger quite soon. It seemed to last about six weeks or so as best she could determine.
Her own strength and other enhancements, on the other hand, was still going up slowly and steadily. At this point she wasn't sure if it was directly connected to whatever made the other creatures grow, or something different.
There were so many things about her powers that were still a mystery, she thought with a small smile, including to her actual powers as far as she could determine. Once again she wondered if she'd somehow broken them… It didn't really matter as she was more than satisfied with the result and so was whatever it was that lived in the back of her head, but that didn't stop her having many questions. With luck maybe one day she'd get answers. For now, she'd just enjoy the results and keep bending things to see what happened.
"OK. Yeah, let's try this first and see what happens." With a nod, she put the notebook down and turned to her Master power. Selecting a few of the relevant arthropods nearby, she got them heading towards the tables with effortless ease. While they climbed the legs and arrayed themselves on top, she made more notes on a different pad, even as she was considering how plausible it would be to work out some way to use one of her creatures to type on a keyboard… Perhaps by enlarging another spider or two, they could work a laptop?
Taylor wrote a few lines on a different page, then flipped back. Yet another experiment. There seemed to be an infinite number of things to put on the list…
"All right, let's see…" She inspected the bugs set out in front of her, patiently waiting. "You. Step forward, volunteer."
Smiling as the wolf spider she'd chosen marched forward a few steps, she flew Vesta down to stand next to it. "Right, then… Will this work, I wonder?" she murmured, putting one front leg of the hornet body on the spider's abdomen and watching closely even as she prodded her Changer ability. It seemed confused and she pushed harder. "Come on… You know you want to. Stop being difficult."
The sensation of a barrier grew stronger, causing her to glare at something that strictly speaking wasn't really there, but was real enough inside her own head. "We've talked about this," she chided it. "And you know what's going to happen whether you want it to or not, so why not just cooperate for once?"
The other part of her power was watching with interest and bafflement, appearing resigned. She pushed even harder and there was a sudden sense of something snapping into a new configuration, causing her mind to twitch sideways then back. "There we go. That wasn't hard, was it?" she happily commented. "And wow, by the way."
She'd more or less expected this to work, even in the face of the thing in her head's skepticism. It was staring now, she could feel it. "Told you it would work," she chuckled, as they both examined the results of her test.
The much, much larger flying hornet with eight legs that was now filling a considerable part of the table wasn't quite as large as her super-hornet form but it wasn't that far off. Perhaps two thirds the length from stinger to mandibles. The abdomen was a hybrid between that of the spider and Vespa's original one, and there were eight rather than six legs, of course. "Seriously cool," she commented, moving her newly enlarged second body around to peer up at her drider form. "I wonder…"
A moment later the Vespa spider-hornet said, "Yes! It works!"
"I said it was cool didn't I?" she replied through her original mouth.
"Yeah, you did. You're right. As usual."
"Thank you. Thank you very much."
"And so modest too."
"I am, yes."
"I thought you were."
Taylor giggled through two mouths, waving two pairs of antennae happily. This had real possibilities…
"Great. Now, the next question is how far can I push it?" she mused as she picked up the notebook and started writing.
"No idea. Why not try it and see?"
"Worth a shot."
"Yeah. Dad's going to freak again."
"Oh, yes. So very much."
Highly amused at her new trick, she started picking out other creatures to see what the results would be.
Rather remarkable, as it turned out.
And her power was, yet again, mightily baffled and completely incredulous yet still fascinated by what she was managing to pull off by dint of not accepting no for an answer...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Stopping dead, he stared in horror at the horrifically much too large hornet that climbed out of a manhole and waved at him. "Hi!" it said. "Sorry, don't mind us, we were just passing through."
Frozen in shock, he watched as a second much too fucking big hornet, with slightly different coloration, also emerged from underground, a long way from where he'd decided he'd never set foot again. This one said, "Nice night for this time of year, isn't it?" as it put the manhole cover, which weighed at least a hundred pounds, back into place. Moving it in its front legs as easily as if it was made of styrofoam.
Both of the insects lifted off with a deep hum, then flew away towards the hills to the north. He watched them go, unable to say a word, until they were out of sight.
"No. Fuck this. I am out of here." Turning, he hastened on his way. He had plans to make and staying anywhere near where fucking Asian hornets the size of large dogs were breeding underground were not part of them.
"I don't care if they are Asian, there are limits," he muttered as he walked as fast as he could without breaking into a run. "There could be thousands of them down there…" Finding himself sweating despite the chill air, he walked faster still, giving every manhole cover and drain he passed a wide berth.
The whole time he could almost swear he could hear deep underground a deep hum and a rustling sound, like insects moving past each other…
"Fucking Brockton Bay," he moaned as he kept looking around, waiting for the horror to burst forth. It was inevitable and he wanted no part of it.
It might be time to get very, very drunk again, though.
