Orb Weaver: Plague Chapter 19

Rune was not very good at staying hidden.

Or maybe I was being unfair. The cache of “street clothing” was hidden from plain sight, in a little alley off 7th Street, designed to look like a loose section of bricks in a wall.

It just wasn’t hidden from my bugs.

Nonetheless, I waited for two days before I made my move, observing. It wouldn’t be wise to assume she had no other way to scan it, so I made certain to check the alleyway for any sensors or traps.

None.

While I did this, I collected my other compromised cameras, reading the data on them, as well as a few of the stores I’d managed to hack into.

Some were taking in more money than they should, obviously laundering fronts.

But that wasn’t my biggest find.

It was the fact that the Empire wasn’t just franchises—they were competing franchises. Hookwolf’s group didn’t tend to hang out with the “upper class” Nazis, for example, for all that they were very heavily represented among the Empire’s serious foot soldiers.

Hookwolf also had very good operational security. In fact, I had one image of him actually carrying receipts into an E88 affiliated tax agency…which conjured the amusing image of a grumbling, barechested, and masked Hookwolf trying to figure out what business exemptions he could claim for being a villain. But… It spoke to someone a lot more aware of the business end of things than many expected.

He, Cricket and Stormtiger are new arrivals—not people who have been with the Empire for generations. They are more used to living in places where the cops aren’t as subverted.

And Hookwolf was birdcage bound. There was little worse I could threaten him with… But equally…

Remove Kaiser and many of the old guard, I bet, wouldn’t want to tolerate a newcomer like Brad. Even presuming he stayed… Our last few encounters had shown an unusual amount of pragmatism for an E88 member. He might just take his friends and leave, rather than fight for a sinking ship. And I’d already started preparing the ground, after all.

In any case, two days passed, and I was confident I hadn’t missed anything. So while Rune showed off, I sent a stream of wasps, each one clenching a tiny bit of cotton in their legs, to go into the chamber and rub the pheromones on her clothing. No human would smell it…

That was what I had the moths for.

I didn’t hang around the alley—even with my range there was always the danger of countermeasures, but I didn’t need to. The moths I’d seeded, cold as they were, still reacted and I sensed them on my periphery, chasing after the target. I turned and paralleled the direction.

I also knew the layout, having spent some time memorizing every street and alley and soon my moths were tugging—and as I got closer, it was easy to triangulate where she was.

At the bus stop.

For a moment I had an image of a situation where the Protectorate, ABB and E88 all had to ride the same bus, and chuckled. But…

It’s the 7th and Federal bus stop. Every fifteen minutes there’s a bus here, but all buses on this line also stop at the 7th and Nelson stop—which is in range of this bus stop.

I cut through an alley, before walking slowly to the Nelson stop, sitting down, not bothering to look down the block at the other stop.

This close, I didn’t have to. I knew who was wearing the clothes I’d marked. My hood was up and my clothing was loose enough that nobody would be able to easily tell who I was.

I’d also, after using gait analysis on the E88 targets, worked to develop a different gait from Taylor/Investigator. A little slump in my posture, a slight drag to my left foot.

Maybe I was overestimating the Empire. But over was better than under.

The bus stopped down the road, and I just leaned back at my bus stop, waiting until the bus got here. Then I got on, fumbling for change a little bit, before I turned and headed back to the rear.

My target was sitting midway up the bus, alone. There were no minorities here—we weren’t in a safe neighborhood.

I just needed one quick glance, and nobody would think twice. Checking to see who was on the bus with you was a talent every Bay native learned.

I walked past her and sat in the rear corner of the bus, queuing up a playlist on my phone, my head down, staring at it.

But I remembered her look. Long blond hair, a face that would be pretty, save for what seemed to be a permanent sneer, and an athletic build. Several stops later, she got up, ignoring me and the bus driver and walked off the bus.

I didn’t follow. Literally every manual I’d read on trailing someone warned against doing anything that looked like you were following them. She was heading up into a middle class region, and I knew where the bus had stopped and the direction she was heading. Later tonight, I’d come around to track the pheromones to a particular house, but even if that didn’t work, I would spend the time before, going over images in this area.

Because I knew what Rune looked like, and her rough age, which wasn’t much older than…

Oh. Oh Yes.

Rune was commonly out when school was in. Which meant that either her civilian ID was truant…or had an alternate arrangement. I didn’t need to follow her into the neighborhood. At least not yet.

*****

Early the next day, I stood in an empty room, my swarm rising. I held out a burner phone, and dialed a number.

“Hello?” The voice was annoyed. “The office isn’t open y—“

“Patricia Blackwell. I have a job for you.”

The swallow was audible.

“What…what is it? I have the information for the nurses, but the Investigator hasn’t…”

“I believe other affairs have taken our time, but now that you mention it, you may send it to the address I am about to give you. I’ll let you know what to remove when the Investigator asks.”

And I wasn’t about to hint that in all the chaos, I’d let the search for whoever was outing Dinah fall onto the back burner. Orb Weaver, after all, knew all and would never turn red like I was.

“But I have another… small job for you. You have access to home school records, correct?”

“Y-yes.”

“Send them to me. Junior and high school aged students only.”

“I—I can’t do that!”

“Are you… changing the terms of our arrangement?”

“Look… they’re kids. I can’t just expose them to y—“

“You were not so charitable in the past,” My bugs rumbled, a little deeper.

“Yeah, and look where it got everyone!” she hissed, actually showing anger…

Too little and too late for me. I took a breath, my bugs rumbling. But not too little or too late for the next Taylor… Unless I crushed this defiance out of her, and convinced her taking a stand was a bad idea.

Which I would not do. I would use another tactic.

“I am not in the habit of explaining myself. But very well. I am seeking the identity of a girl who is in danger from her association with the E88. I see the lines of her fate extending down through the days and years, and unless action is taken to help her see the error of her ways…”

“You’re not going to hurt her?”

“I will not physically harm her,” I said. “But she has fallen in with evil men, and breaking those chains is not easy for those who have willingly accepted them. I will promise you, this: Every action I take will be to help her, and to strike off the chains of those who would enslave her. But the final decision is hers.”

There was a pause.

“Okay, do you have… a part of the city? It will make it easier.”

I gave her three neighborhoods. I would wait a few days. Either way, I won, only this way would be more efficient, give me more time to work on other things.

“I’ll have it for you by tomorrow.”

“Very good. Thank you.”

*****

With that, I started to head to school. Time to work with tutoring—

My official phone rang, and I flipped it open.

Armsmaster?

REQUEST MEETING AT PRT: 9:10. ARE YOU AVAILABLE?

I quickly texted back. YES. REASON?

The answer was not one I expected:

ENDBRINGER RESPONSE.

I WILL BE THERE.

Endbringer Response…what the hell?

I shook my head. Whatever it was, I was important. Nobody tossed the term Endbringer around casually.

I sent a note to the attendance office that I would be late today, and turned to face the PRT building.

This was going to be interesting…

*****

Walking into the PRT building in my Investigator uniform, I was ushered to an office, where Armsmaster and Director Piggot were sitting.

“Hello,” I said. “What is this about the Endbringers.”

“First of all Investigator,” Piggot said. "You know that we keep information about how various parahumans work.”

“Of course.”

“You seem to be fairly good at keeping track of several things at once. Does this extend to more abstract information?”

“To… some degree,” I said. I had to be cautious here. We were veering entirely too close to questions that might make people think about Orb Weaver. “Why?”

“First of all,” Armsmaster said. “This is absolutely not for discussion outside of this room.”

“I understand.”

“The Protectorate, notably myself and Dragon, is working on a tracking system to provide early warning for the Endbringers. We are hoping that it may give us as much as an hour, perhaps longer.”

I sat back. That was…

Every major Endbringer fight, with the exception of Behemoth, had next to no warning. Heroes attacked as they showed up. There was no organization, no time to make any…

“That would be incredible…but why me?” I shrugged. “I have no particular…”

“All parahumans capable of fighting the Endbringer would be moved in, teamed up.” Director Piggot said. “It finally gives us the chance to go into a fight with a plan, instead of a mob, but there’s a problem. The extra warning means that people who would head to a shelter might decide to try and get out of the city. And an hour’s warning won’t help if everyone gets jammed up on every road trying to run out.” She shook her head. “Worst case, it would see the death toll skyrocket.”

“And adult Protectorate members, along with any rogues or villains, can’t waste the hour with crowd control,” Armsmaster said. “They need to use it preparing to attack the Endbringer.”

Ah. “Wards.”

“Wards and others who can’t fight the Endbringer ,but could be used for pre-attack evacuation.” Director Piggot frowned. “It’s been agreed that Wards and non-combat parahumans who volunteer will be used in the first phase—and then withdrawn no less than ten minutes before landfall. This isn’t to get more bodies to throw at Leviathan, it’s to keep the butcher’s bill down.”

“And I believe that your capabilities would be very useful in organizing and providing command and control for this operation. You’ve proven yourself in a number of situations, you don’t panic, and I believe you can handle the information overload.” Armsmaster paused. “Needless to say, you’d be working with Protectorate and PRT staff while handling this.”

Not ideal. But Vista could open roads and every other one of the Wards have their own abilities and… Again, it came to society’s respect for a cape. Just by being there, they might reduce the potential panic.”

“I accept,” I said.

“Very well,” Director Piggot said. “But there is one other thing we have to do.” She pushed a paper across the desk at me.

“A form for Dad.”

“Endbringer fights are dangerous. We hope that won’t be the case with a pre-landing evacuation missing, but for this? You absolutely need to have your father sign on.”

I nodded.

Well, Dad, I’m not breaking my word here. Even if I do end up in a fight, Leviathan isn’t a parahuman…

Yeah, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to lead with that…