Orb Weaver: Plague, Chapter One

Sitting in my empty house I was…

Nervous? 

It was odd, I’d never been concerned with the possibility of death, I’d fought the Empire, dealt with a master… But some part of a 15 year old girl wasn’t thrilled that Dad was all the way away in LA.

He would be there for at least a few days, talking with the PRT and staying with Dinah until her parents arrived.

So I had the house to myself. I’d gone out as Orb Weaver, continued working on a few businesses as “The Exterminator” including one E88 front.

The Exterminator, was a completely apolitical rogue, who did one thing, after all.

As Orb Weaver, I’d come upon a group of eighth and ninth graders, preparing for an initiation involving doing a smash and grab on a minority owned business. They weren’t serious members of the E88, just kids who had grown up with tales of their brave ancestors.

My bet was that the minute the shopkeeper screamed, they’d be off.

But, well, they might convince themselves it was a victory…

And Orb Weaver was not prejudiced. Great or small, I would make time for all who broke the law in the Bay.

After they fled, the stench of voided bowels in the air, I sent my bugs to check the bikes they’d left behind.

After all, a momentary bit of terror could be forgotten. But finding out that you were now being watched…

A few other crimes were stopped, mostly minor.

I had other thoughts on my mind at home.

Dinah. A powerful thinker. Someone who had infiltrated the PRT. A parahuman?

I started making some lasagna, making up for all the times I’d had to do with packaged stuff.

My bugs were working overtime and I’d been thinking. There was one figure in the Bay who made use of trained mercenaries, ones equipped with advanced hardware, sometimes even tinkertech weapons.

Coil.

There was little information about him. Even the vehicles had been rented, cash on the barrel, and no evidence that they’d been used before. Someone had wanted expendable assets.  I expected the PRT would have little luck tracking those purchases. Someone who had stayed under the radar as long as he had wouldn’t leave such an elementary risk to be exploited.

Not that I wouldn’t check further. You could always get lucky…

But…

I sat down once my meal was ready and put something on TV. The Investigator was well enough known that I might be observed and while the basement was more or less safe, and most of my bug related work was happening outside, or buried in the ground, there were plenty of tools that could peer through thin plaster walls.

And that didn’t include parahuman powers. Dinah could out me with a single question…

If she knew what question to ask.

A common issue for thinkers, from what I’d read.

I closed kept watching the TV, some Comedy about a look alike of Legend being hired for a swindle. My bugs kept running twenty screens, some books, some live data.

Coil. Was he the attacker?

He used mercenaries, the ones I’d encountered had been trained soldiers—mercenaries.

But… The only thing that said was that whoever had gone after Dinah was wealthy and had connections—and either could not, or preferred not to use parahumans. Granted if they had kidnapped Dinah, even mercs wouldn’t trigger PRT and Protectorate involvement, and would likely fly under the radar of the Think Tank.

And there was absolutely no lack of powerful agencies and governments that would love to have someone like Dinah. In the right hands, her power was an utter game changer. I had a vision of her sitting in some sub-basement, a political candidate handing her campaign plans and getting percentage estimates on which one would see him in office.

Or a terrorist group doing the same for attacks. Not just the possible success of any attack, but would the success have the outcome they wanted?

And many of those groups would have the resources to deeply penetrate the PRT…

But they wouldn’t be restricted to the PRT ENE.

Which was another point in favor of Coil, or another local group…  Or just the fact that whoever was looking to take Dinah was focused on the Bay.

Ninety percent chance she would be taken could be a fully infiltrated department—or a department with an already prepared group ready to attack it if they confirmed she was in there.

But if they were not a local group, they would focus on Dinah, or withdraw. So for my safety and her safety, it was best to assume Coil or otherwise, they had local ties.

I finished my meal and started to wash up the dishes.

So, there was one other way to find out more about our mystery man.

Dinah was not a loud cape. She hadn’t exploded from her school in fire, or stopped a car with a single touch, or anything else. So the best route would be to find out who had outed her—how she had been outed. Then I could follow that line.

And if someone thought I was getting too curious, they might try to deal with me, which would provide proof I was on the right track.

With that thought, I washed up and went to bed.

It was good to have a plan of action.

I was asleep almost before my head hit the pillow.