Web of the Weaver: 10

As the rest of the week passed, I spent time at Winslow, watching.  Some of the most arrogant students weren’t so arrogant anymore.

More rumors were swirling around our new administrator. Oni Lee had shown up and he’d kicked him down the stairs. He’d killed Night and Fog.

He hadn’t done any of those things. He hadn’t even claimedto do those things, but the rumor mill gave him power.

I took notes. Especially about the part how he never pushed it, never made claims that might call his power into question.

There were still some issues, he wasn’t a god, but the worst was going away, especially when a kid who supposedly was with the E88 got caught selling drugs.

In the old days, he’d probably be suspended. Expulsions looked bad.

This time, he wasn’t just expelled, he was arrested.

But there wasn’t an assembly. Which was…

I paused, as I scribbled away at my work in Gladly’s class. It was a lot more tolerable now that the trio were gone, but I still had a chair at the rear of the class, a wall behind me.

Why wouldn’t he?

Because he can’t stop all the dealing. Nobody could. It was like the antigang assemblies that everyone laughed at. By not making a big deal of it…

It’s like this is the way things are, and nobody knows how he found out…

Like me. Because who would be afraid of an upright frog in a coat?

I smiled as I got back to work. It didn’t matter what they thought about Taylor.

They had to deal with Orb Weaver.

And this Friday, I’d finish Squealer and Mush.

I’d continued my little patrols into Merchant territory, sometimes in the daytime coming home from school, sometimes at night. I knew their patterns, and I’d tagged Skidmark, Squealer, and Mush with bugs—and interestingly enough, my power could tell the difference between individual bugs. So if they came in my range, I knew who they were.

I’d also listened in, using my walkie-talkie bugs, and found something interesting. This Friday, Skidmark would be heading out of town to get some stuff, to replace the drugs I’d gotten rid of.

Squealer and Mush, at least according to my unknowing informant, would be remaining at their HQ. I smiled when I heard that.

This would be my big move. Not one, but two capes, and if they were Merchants, they were still capes.

And it’d cripple Skidmark.

And I had a plan to deal with both Mush and Squealer. Mush was a joke among the Merchants. According to the Merchants I’d listened to, he didn’t use as much heavy stuff as the others. They called him a lightweight.

I could use that.

I would use that.

After all, Dad had once told me that one of the main signs of someone about to jump ship was that they didn’t feel they got respect.

*****

Dad was at work. He’d be at work until at least ten. Friday’s were always busy, because you had people wanting laborers for weekend jobs. You might even be fooled into thinking the DA was a real union and not a glorified day laborer management organization.

That wasn’t fair. They were doing the best they could.

As I walked through the Merchant territory, I noticed rather fewer people on the street. My little moves evidently had had an impact.

But tonight, they’d be free of me.

I had more important goals. Finding their HQ had been easy. Easy enough that the police certainly knew where it was.

An issue for another day.

I paused by the corner, looking at the building under Archer’s Bridge. Under my feet, the sewers were alivewith insects, one reason I’d walked here. I sent them running up into vents, a few walkie talkies born along. I wouldn’t go into the building, after all, it was a Tinker’s lair. I knew Mush was on top, from the indistinct vibrations I got, watching TV. I’d have to wait until I got one walkie talkie up there, but right now, I could start with Squealer.

She was working on something that was large and rectangular. A bus, perhaps.

But my microphone was in place, and I could hear her cussing. Evidently, Skidmark had taken the good stuff, and she needed a hit. She turned to walk away from the vehicle, and I sent a tide of bugs into it, hiding so she couldn’t see. There were also a few smoke bombs.

“Hello, Squealer.”

Something fell as her body spun around. “Who the fuck was that!”

“Who do you think? After all, I did tell the Merchants what I was going to do. I just… decided to start with you and Mush.”

“You think you can fight us! We’re the Merchants, asshole!” She reached out, the tiny insects on her letting me track her. Probably going for an intercom. Time to stop that.

In the rest of the building, screams erupted as smoke bombs went off and my insects rose up in chittering, buzzing clouds, looking like demons. I didn’t want anyone to know what my power really was, so for the other gang members I started chanting in deep, faux Latin.

It worked, as Squealer hammered the intercom and only got buzzing in response.

“I think they’re busy,” I said, while I watched a tide of men and women fleeing their HQ. “They can’t fight me, you can’t fight me, Sherral Bailey…”

“I’m fucking Sq—“

“Sherrel Bailey, Sherrel Bailey, found a man and made a baby…” the words came around her, a chant. Underneath it, other insects made a sound much like a crying child. The druggie said nothing, but turned and ran for her bus.

I was prepared. Her scream was loud in my earphones as the mass of insects that filled the interior of her vehicle came spilling out, rising up, looking like a cobra with glowing eyes. Behind it, a smoke bomb was triggered, the rising smoke no doubt making it look even worse.

“Nobody believed, everyone lied, took her baby, and then she died…”

Not good rhyming. If I was going to do this again, I’d have to find someone better at it.

“I—“

“Sherrel Bailey died, didn’t she, Squealer? You ran here, and Skidmark gave you poison and it made you forget.” In the room above, I was having a different, more businesslike conversation with Mush. “You became everything they thought you were. He made you his…”

“I… No. Skiddie loves me! He took me in!” There was a difference in her voice. A whine. Suddenly Squealer sounded younger, even though her voice was still rough from smoking.

She darted for an exit, but my legions were surrounding her and she backed away.

“Did he offer to help you get your child back?” Now I was off the script. If Skidmark had been smart, he might have been stringing her along with promises, but I didn’t think Skidmark was smart.

“No… I… Kids are a buzzkill…” her words were breathless, repeating something she’d been told. Likely told again and again, whenever she had doubted.

“But you want your child back…”I continued buzzing. The conversation with Mush was far more businesslike. “Or don’t you…”

The next words startled me. There was no forewarning, no hesitation.

“THEY DIDN’T EVEN LET ME HOLD HER AFTER I’D HAD HER!” the shriek was raw, louder than anything else she’d said. And then she fell onto the floor and started weeping.

My bugs went still.

I had been intending to use this to force her to turn herself in. But she wasn’t even moving, just weeping and then moaning. As if somehow I’d broken every barrier she’d built up, hammered her down.

Like Emma.

I changed my plan on the fly. Nobody was in the building anymore, and I sent my bugs swirling around, a dark cloud in the dim light of the few functioning street lamps disguising me as I walked into the Merchant’s HQ. My feet were loud on the garage floor as I walked into it. Squealer made no sign that she knew I was here.

I spoke, and she twitched.

“I would never expose a child to Squealer. Would you?”

A moan answered me.

“But Sherrel Bailey? That might be a different matter.” She went still. “But that is up to you. I cannot tell you, for certain, that you will be able to get your child back.” The kid might be living with a loving family. They might be vanished, they might be dead. No matter the case, I wouldn’t promise something I couldn’t deliver. It wasn’t just a matter of rep, but decency.

“But I will tell you what you will do to make it more likely.”

“Wh-what?”

“I am going to call the PRT. You will remain here. You will turn yourself in, without resistance, and then, you will work to get off these drugs.” I reached over to her, unzipping a fanny pack and letting some syringes fall onto the floor. I crushed them with my foot. “Tinkers are important. Important enough that if you work with them, I believe they will work with you.” And I’d also remind them that they had Sherral and that the Merchants were on the way out, because of me.

In the building, the remaining stashes of drugs were being destroyed. Bugs devouring them, and then swarming down or carried if they died. There would be no signs left of how they were destroyed.

“Skiddie will be angry…”

I let my bugs speak for me. “Skidmark will have other problems…”while we spoke, my bugs were cleaning the concrete of the garage floor, cockroaches pulling up the grease… In a very special pattern.

When the PRT came, Sherral Bailey would be in the middle of a great web….

My web.

“Remain here,” I told her, and turned and walked, vanishing into the clouds of smoke and insects.

On the way out, I noted that Mush was leaving by the back entrance, heading for the hotel I’d suggested after I’d had a bundle of cash “appear” in front of his door, one with very good showers. I’d speak to him tomorrow.

I picked up the burner phone and called the PRT number, insects swarming around me in the little alley I’d stopped in.

“PRT, this is a recorded line. Is this an emergency?”

“This is Orb Weaver. The Merchants will soon no longer be a problem. Squealer wishes to turn herself in. Mush has divested himself of their company, and I will be dealing with Skidmark soon. You may pick Squealer up at the following address.”

There was a pause. “I see. Velocity and Miss Militia will meet you there.”

“There is no need. Also, I made a promise to Squealer that you may be better suited to fulfill.”

“That is…” the operator’s voice was cautious.

“She was raped as a child and her child was taken for her. Presuming she successfully deals with her addiction issues, I said I would attempt to at least arrange a meeting. I’m certain you will see your way to doing the right thing. Good day.” I hung up and put the burner phone down. I had no idea if the PRT had methods to track them, but I was gloved so they’d get nothing off the phone itself. I didn’t wait for the PRT to arrive.

That would be out of character for most of the people who lived here, and so I pulled my scarf down, and put my hat in my pack, and became just another homeless person making their way thru the city.

*****

Once I was back at home, I sat on my bed, thinking. My costume was safely hidden, and I’d taken two of the Merchant’s capes off the board.

But Squ—Sherrel. I’d used fear, and some would say that it was for a good cause. After all, if she got off the drugs she’d be better off.

But if she hadn’t? If she’d freaked, ran, killedherself?  Would being in a good cause be a justification?

I undressed and prepared for bed, still thinking of that.

I didn’t know the answer, but I did know that I couldn’t become comfortable with the terror I might inflict.

Because the next step after becoming comfortable with it would be enjoying it.

With that thought, I pulled the covers up over my body, the spiders in the basement continuing to weave more accessories.

I needed my sleep. I had an important meeting with a new associate tomorrow.

Hopefully, he had taken a shower.

*****

Worm and all associated characters is the Property of Wildbow