Web of The Weaver: Chapter 16

I ached as I got on the bus. All of me. I had all the aches.

I’d studied, working on books on unarmed fighting, how to do it, reading the instructions… and then went in the backyard and started practicing. I’d done it before, working with my quarterstaff and escrima sticks, but this time, I didn’t have the excuse that I had to get to other things. I could read with my bugs. I could type with my bugs…

And that meant I could work with my body. It turned out that jogging and exercising for a few hours wasn’t equal to what the SAS considered proper training. I didn’t have any jungles or mountaintops to practice some of the more “interesting” drills they used to get their 90 percent weed-out rate, but pushing myself for nearly two hours, not letting up, was about as close as I could come to it.

Then I fell into bed. Even my bugs were tired. I didn’t know how, but they were. And when I woke up the next day, forgoing my morning jog, just staying in until the bus showed up was…

A temptation.

One I managed to fight off.

But I wasn’t a brute. I couldn’t assume I’d never have to fight someone directly, or that I’d never be in a situation where I had to be somewhere fastand do so on my own two legs.

In school I didn’t have much trouble any more. I’d finished reading every book, and spent my time observing other people. Gladly was annoyed—he wasn’t permitted to be everyone’s friend anymore. The other teachers had adapted to the new order with varying degrees of grace.

Most of them, it seemed were happy that the school was quieter than it had been, although the requirement that they be at their doors between classes, instead of taking a break in their classrooms seemed to have raised some grumbles. I also knew that the principal worked late, which was important because I didn’t really want Mr. Gladly barging in on our talk.

As I sat in his class, listening to the problems capes caused law enforcement, mainly due to the fact that you never knew what a new cape could do, my bugs were tugging a burner phone through the gap between the false ceiling and the actual structural ceiling. After school, I would have them drop the phone as I left on the bus…and would be able to talk to Principal Thomas while I was far away, just another student going home.

And it gave me an excuse to remain still for a while because my legs stillhurt.

*****

Getting off the bus, I felt my phone buzz. There was a risk, but I didn’t want to threaten him, so I’d just left a note with the number (to another burner phone) and asked him to call it.

I was banking on curiosity.

I was right. The phone rang, and I walked down an alley, one that my bugs had already verified as being empty. A cluster of bugs emerged from the walls, their wings making an ominous hum that would change my voice.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Mr. Thomas. I am Orb Weaver.”

“Got that from the spooky voice.”

“Yes. I have some questions for you, if you wouldn’t mind.”

There was a pause. “Now, that depends on the questions. I hope you’re not asking about my students.”

“No. You seem to have them well in hand. You worked with Marquis.”

“I’m happy with my current career if you’re looking for a gang.”

I paused. His voice didn’t sound upset.  Then again, he didn’t just go up against the Teeth, but the Empire and the Nine. “Nothing so dramatic. I was going to ask, did Marquis’ organization ever face someone attempting to dismantle it from the ground up?”

“Now that’s a very interesting question. Why would a new hero be planning to take on the whole Empire?”

I blinked. “How?”

“Lung’s a one man show who runs everything directly, Merchants are gone, and the Empire is the biggest bunch in town. The ones who have to delegate more than anyone else.”

“Ah.”

“I’ll give you the answer, but you’re not going to like it.”

“Really?”

“Yep. Two solutions. First of all, make your people more afraid of you than the other cape. Nobody talks.”

That’s not a problem for me, I thought but did not say.

“And the second?”

“Kill you. The Empire doesn’t abide by the unwritten rules. People run around in masks and shit like that, but if they find you, they’ll wait until you’re not in a mask  and do a deniable hit.”

“Like New Wave.”

“Yep. Bigger bunch of idiots I’ve never seen. If the Protectorate wanted to, they might have been able to, but New Wave didn’t have Alexandria on speed dial as a deterrent.”

“They’ve infiltrated much of the city.”

“Sure. Even some who don’t knowingly work for the Empire. Quinlan for one.”

“What? Why?”

“Interesting you didn’t ask whohe was.”

I mentally kicked myself. “I have my sources.”

“I’m sure you do. Possibly homework as well. Before I answer your question, I want you to understand something, something very important. You say I ran with Marquis, that is true. And I’ll tell you. Keep your fight outside of my school. Most of these kids are just that. Kids. They don’t need to find themselves on the wrong end of Hookwolf, or get vaporized by Purity because a vigilante decided to make the school a battlefield. Remember Marquis’ rules about kids and targeting them and that includes choosing to put them in danger, even if you’re not the one with the gun.”

Huh. So that was what my principal sounded like when he was making a threat. Once again, I wondered what things would have been like if he’d been here instead of Blackwell.

“If I were to face issues around the school, hypothetically, you have my word that I would move the fight elsewhere, and I would not use the school. Now, about Quinlan.”

“Right, he’s not a racist, not consciously. He doesn’t think he’s harder on the Minority kids, it’s just that they’re louder, more violent. They don’t listen right.”

I blinked. That wasn’t…, but then I thought about it. Quinlan gave more… Gave more warnings to the white kids. More detentions to the rest.

“See, the Bay was different back before Kyushu. Going down, sure, but suddenly, you had all the problems with shipping and layoffs, and then at the same time, you get thousands of refugees showing up. And they’re willing to work for a song at a time when lots of people were losing their own job, and All Father jumped on that bigger than hell, and the Empire can be subtle when they have to be.  Quinlan grew up here and remembers all the white picket fences and the only Asian diner being a high-class sushi place you went to when you wanted to be exotic. Not this.”

“I am not certain how to deal with that.”

“Congratulations, you’re not stupid.  You pass, so I can give you some advice. First of all, the louder a guy talks, the less he knows. You grab a big mouth, half the time he’ll sell you a bill of goods just to make you go away. Secondly, the Empire is a bunch of… franchises. Not much contact between them. That wasn’t how Marquis did things, which was why things fell apart after he got Birdcaged. Even if you take out Kaiser, the franchises will keep running, maybe even growing.”  There was a pause. “Last thing. The Empire has connections outside the country.  Not certain who or how big, but a couple of times he was able to pull capes in. I have no idea what you can do, but keep in mind whatever you can do, he might find a counter and bring it in.”

“I will. What if I was trying to get you to take a stand against the Empire?”

“You’re not.”

“Why?”

“Cause if Kaiser wanted me dead, he wouldn’t need to fool around giving himself an excuse. He’s never needed that to kill someone. Now, I’m gonna hang up and put this phone in the garbage. If you need to talk to me, you know where I am.”

“Thank you.”

“Hope I’ll see you on the front page, but it’ll probably be the obituary.” There was a click, and the phone went dead.

That was interesting.  But now I had to go over and pick up my recordings of Mr. Green.

*****

“Look, I shouldn’t tell you this,” One of Green’s poker partners leaned down, looking around as their group broke up. “But if you know anyone who wants a new fridge…”

“Yeah?”

“New shipment, coming in. Trainyards, Thursday night.”

“The fuck, we’re getting involved in refrigerators?”

“Don’t be a moron. The Fridges are the cover. Kaiser’s gonna distribute them to the good people of the Bay. He’s gonna take what’s inthe fridges.”

“Drugs.”

“Got it in one. Not just drugs, but tinkertechdrugs.”

Green’s whistle was loud enough to make me wince.

“What kind of drugs.”

“Dunno, some performance enhancers for our troops, some stuff for the streets. But good stuff. Maybe be a test run. But we’re just in it for a fridge, and don’t blab, not unless you want Hookwolf to drop by.”

“Oh fuck no!” and with that, the conversation changed to other matters.

The Trainyards were a place where a lone parahuman could stumble on something. There would probably be guards, maybe capes, but I was a daughter of a dockworker, which gave me some passing familiarity with the train lines that had once served the docks.

I could go down there, get enough evidence and then just drop it off to the PRT and FBI. Kaiser would never know the source of his misfortune.

With that, I smiled. I’d have to get ready, but this Thursday was going to be very special…