The Web of the Weaver: 13

I'm holding to my promise, because as far as i'm concerned it's not tomorrow until the sun comes up. 

****  

When I got up the next morning, my mind was literally buzzing with potential. I’d managed to quickly rig up a way to turn the pages of my book, and while I couldn’t read any faster, I found that I could keep track of as many books as had been able to test.

Dad was waiting for me at the breakfast table, and we ate in silence for a little while.

Odd. I know exactly what to say to Skidmark, but not Dad.

“Taylor,” he said. “Are you certain you want to stay at Winslow? I could try to get you into Arcadia.”

“Right now, I couldn’t keep up,” I told him. “You saw my evaluation.”

He winced. “I’m sorry.”

I tried not to get angry. Dad had been sorry, but that hadn’t translated into doing something. He hadn’t…

My bugs started to gyrate a little bit, but slowed up as I calmed down.

“It’s not a problem,” I told him. “I need to get ready and head out for school.”

“Do you want me to take you?”

I shook my head. “No, the bus is a lot better than it used to be.”

Dad just nodded. “Okay.”

I got onto the bus, checking everyone with a few bugs before I entered it. There was the normal crew from Winslow, who ignored me.

I ignored them, although I kept my bugs on a few of the ones who had been more friendly with Emma’s group.

The bus dropped us off at school, and I nodded to the new security guard as I went in. The teachers were moving around, but there was a sense of tension in the air.

People were talking about the announcement that the Merchants were no more.

“Gonna be the E88 taking over,” one student muttered. Another poked him in the side. “Nah, totally gonna be Lung!”

I didn’t frown, but they had a point. The territory might be nearly worthless but nearly wasn’t completely. Would Lung take it? He seemed to be more focused on the Asian parts of town, most of them established in the aftermath of the great Exodus from Japan. Leviathan had killed over nine million—but over twenty million had left their shattered nation. And as much as they didn’t like Lung, and it seemed like few did, he wielded his status as “protector” of the Asians of the Bay effectively. Every time the Protectorate made a coordinated move against him, they weren’t simply defeated, but were asked if they would keep the E88 out? It didn’t help much that the E88 tended to launch demonstration raids on ABB holdings when Lung was otherwise occupied.

There were places where it was unwise to go if you weren’t Asian, or at least Asian looking, and places where it was unwise to go if you were nonwhite—and while there were neutral regions, they were shrinking.

Which meant I had my new target.

The E88.

Lung was only one person, and Oni-Lee didn’t seem to do much save by direct command. He wouldn’t invade the E88 holdings, and the more the E88 was damaged, the more the Protectorate would be free to go after Lung.

I got to my locker and hesitated for a moment. It was a new locker. On a different floor, and my bugs were around me…

I looked to the right and left, even so.

Then I put my things in it, including a book on top. Dismantling Organized Crime. It was a book I’d seen at the library.

I’d be reading it while I was in school, bugs flooding into the locker moments after I closed it.

I’d have to find another, better way to read books than just one. After all, school was for education.

*****

I ended up being very bored. There was no way to change books in the locker, and I finished my selected book not long after lunch. In Ms. Knott’s class, I finished my project and spent my time browsing PHO.

There were a thousand rumors about the Empire and its capes, and if I cared to, I could find just as many contradictions. Even Hookwolf, for all that he was obvious, kept much of what his power could do secret.

I saw one “amusing” video of a cape with the ability to electrify his hands being beaten silly by Hookwolf… who had equipped himself with an extra large pair of bright yellow rubber boots while he ensured he touched nothing else that could ground him.

People were laughing, and the usual suspects got banned but…

He’s smart.He’d checked out his enemy beforehand, learned his power, and countered it. Sure, that wouldn’t help much against, say, Alexandria, but I could not depend on Hookwolf or any of the Empire being as easily fooled as the Merchants.

I spent the rest of the period going over some other things about the Empire.

Crusader was someone who was only seen in costume, never identified. There were rumors he was a stranger in addition to a Master, but he was, if not one of the Empire’s heavy hitters, a powerful swiss-army knife.  When the Empire’s capes were out, he was lurking in the back, ready to send swarms of ghosts to help them break contact. Businesses that irritated the Empire suffered accidents, men and women falling down empty stairs, and in a few cases dying in closed rooms.

The Empire might be thuggish, but they clearly didn’t waste their capes. Both Crusader and Hookwolf knew what they were doing and how to maximize their capabilities.

Were the others like that?

It would be wise to assume that they were.

But a business like the Empire had to make money. And no matter how organized they were, the capes weren’t numerous enough to do it. They needed baselines to work with them. I needed more information about them. I couldn’t just go wandering through like I had with the Merchants.

Supposedly, according to PHO the Empire didn’t have any Thinkers.

On the other hand, I doubted they told PHO all their tricks.

The bell rang, and I got up along with the rest of the class. I needed to call Mush after school, to make certain he wasn’t backsliding. But first, I needed to call someone else.

*****

“Sheila Cho speaking.”

“Hello, Ms. Cho. I take if you found my gifts amusing?”

“Well, taking down the Merchants isn’t the same as taking down Accord, but yeah, my boss liked ‘em. Skidmark getting wheeled in was page one.”

“Excellent.”

“You want something.”

“I have enjoyed my time with the Merchants, but now the time has come to seek… larger prey.”

Cho was silent. I knew that she was thinking about how she could benefit from it.

“What prey.”

“The Empire.”

“Whoah, hold on there. Sure, you took out the druggies, wonderful, you’re hot shit. But the Empire is a different matter.”

“Perhaps. But they still must go. And you can assist me in this.”

“What, get killed?”

“No.” I paused. “I have no intention of meeting the Empire head-on. At least not right now. But I do need information. Information that a crime beat reporter can get.”

“What, Hookwolf’s shoe size?”

“No. The Empire’s street-level operatives are regularly arrested. I cannot obtain their records. You can. In fact, as part of your job, you would be expected to.”

The pause was longer.  She was thinking about it.

“Crossing the Empire is a good way to get dead. You know, accidentally pushed down the stairs—“

“By Crusader, yes. But you won’t be doing anything. I won’t reference you, or write anything you say down. You have full freedom to choose to publish the information I give you, or not, if you feel it will endanger you.”

“Why the Empire?”

“Because I have no evidence that Lung would feel the need to rampage over the neighborhoods the empire once ruled. He would simply expand his criminal Empire. You know, as well as I do, that the Empire’s goals are not just to make money. If Lung leaves, they will see it as cause to start a crusade.”

“You think you can beat Lung... after?”

I laughed, my insects chirring ominously. “We will have to see, won’t we?”

“Is there anything else you want me to do?”

“Yes, actually. I notice that you haven’t written much about Squealer, other than the news on her capture.”

“She wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“I would like you to change that.”

There was a pause, then her voice came back, full of suspicion. “Why?”

“The PRT talks about heroes as a glorious thing, villains as evil. How much room is there for a sexually abused girl? I would like you to do a two-part human interest story—the first part about Squealer. How she sent from a girl who earned first place in her sixth-grade science fair to… Squealer.”

“Why?”

“Perhaps because I do not want her to be demonized. Perhaps because it may show others in her position that they are not alone. You could, for example, end it with ways to seek out help.”  I paused and shook my head before my bugs started speaking again. “Behind the glamour, being a parahuman can be very lonely. Perhaps the PRT could also help you by suggesting…”

“You want to make it difficult for the PRT to just chuck her into a hole.”

“And if they are considering rebranding her, your story could… help ease her path.”

“Hah, if you think the PRT is gonna pay back any favors?”

“I’m not doing them a favor. I’m just doing a good deed.”

“Sure you are. Fine. But I’m gonna tell you flat out, I’m not your hit-lady. I’ll do stories on the Empire, but they’re my stories, and I’ll choose what to run and what to hold.”

“Very well.”

“You know, the number of people who say they’re gonna stop the Empire and the number of closed-casket funerals in this town tend to have a high correlation.”

“Then I will have to be cautious.”

“Your funeral.”

After the call ended, I looked around the room. I was reading two books, one on electronics, one on stage magic. I was working on a place downstairs, where, when dad was asleep or not home, I could set up six books at at time to read.

And now, I’d have to use the last of my money to pick up some micro cameras, officially sold to watch over cheating spouses and dishonest workers. But I needed them for a different purpose.

The Empire’s capes were deadly. But they didn’t collect the money,  patrol the streets, recruit new members—not in the vast majority of cases. That was left to the rank and file.

So before I went after the trunk, it was time to prune the branches and kill the roots…