The Web of the Weaver: Interlude 2

“I haven’t heard of any parahuman with those powers.” Kaiser glanced at Brad. “Or let me rephrase, any parahuman who can make spooky noises.”

Brad didn’t rise to the bait. “Anyone talking like that, while we’re all there, has a reason to not be afraid. I figured you wouldn’t want to risk pissing off the new Eidolon.”

Not that he was.Brad had replayed the conversation in his head, and he’d come to a conclusion. Whoever that guy was didn’t want a fight. Maybe he was worried about someone in the crowd. From what he’d said, he’d been hired to go after Skidmark, and that might include recovering one of Skidmark’s junkies.

But someone powerful enough to easily take them all down, wouldn’t have talked, not like that.

Which didn’t mean they couldn’t have killed the three of them. Hell, striking from surprise, Bradcould do that to just about any cape short of Lung.

So not powerful enough to ignore the Empire, or take three capes down with no risk, but…

“They’re after the Merchants. I say we let him have the shot.”

“Really.” Kaiser leaned back, looking at Brad. “Why? Skidmark offended us, which is why I sent you to chastise him.”

Yeah, and not kill. The Merchants were a non-entity, and the Empire could take them out in a lazy afternoon, but why bother? Just smack ‘em around and send them scurrying back to their holes.

And every time some black Merchant beats up an old lady or robs a store, we have more free publicity. Taking out the Merchants would mean the Empire would have more work to do when it came to motivating people.

“Because it’ll give us some idea what he can do. If nothing happens, then he was some no-name trying to boost his rep, and he’ll either take off, or I’ll deal with him. If the Merchants get taken out, we’ll know how, and that means we can know how to take himout if he gets out of line.”

Kaiser paused, then nodded, swinging his seat around to look down over the Brockton Bay skyline. Medhall was one of the largest buildings in the city, and Kaiser’s office was at the top.

Brad thought it was a stupid fucking risk to have meetings as Kaiser here, but hey, it wasn’t up to him.

“We have another issue,” Kaiser said. “The Hess girl.”

“Yeah, yeah, black bully—“

“Her family is off limits. Completelyoff limits.”

Brad paused. “Why?”

“That’s something you don’t need to know. I just do not want any action on our part.”

Brad shrugged. It was no skin off his back. That was more Krieg’s thing.

Almost as if he was reading his mind, Kaiser continued. “Krieg has some scripts up for some of our meetings. Sophia Hess was a brute, Emma Barnes is clearly unstable… But the third?”

Brad rolled his eyes. “What about the third, Jesus Max, I don’t keep up with high school drama.”

“Jewish. The kind of person who could take advantage of a brutish black girl and a mentally ill white girl. Who managed to stay out of the line of fire until she lost control over her minions as the Jews always will. Our friends in Europe should be happy, they feel we focus too much on the Asians here in the bay.”

“So she’s off limits as well.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Fuck, I’m not an idiot. If you want to use this, you don’t want some news story about how she got cut up.”

“Sometimes I think you’re wasted in the fight ring. But yes. The Empire will take no organized action against her. Now or when she returns to the streets, which should be relatively soon.” Kaiser chuckled. “After all, it’s been a few months and I expect the majority of the city has completely forgotten about it until we remind them.”

“Yeah, yeah, leave that shit to Krieg, I’ve got some more fights to organize.”

“Very good, oh, Brad?”

“Yeah?”

“I expect that when you next meet that parahuman you will know enough of them to make a more… persuasive argument for joining the Empire. That, or remove them. We don’t need another Lung.”

And it won’t be your fuck up if I screw up.Brad didn’t bother to say anything. The Empire was like any gang, and if you got pissed when life wasn’t fair, you were in the wrong business.

*****

Madison hunched over, the orange jumpsuit lose on her frame. She didn’t have any hair clips. They weren’t allowed in Juvie. She didn’t have any makeup. Her lawyer, well actually her parent’s lawyer, had told her to leave it off, to better show the bruise when the girl (Madison was certain was an E88 member) had slammed her to the ground in the shower.

It wasn’t like school. Being cute, the stuff she did to make people agree with her didn’t work.  And some of the other kids called her Race Traitor, until they learned that she was a Jew. The Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics didn’t care about her, and the Empire…

It wasn’t that bad. It was all Emma and Sophia’s fault. I just went along with it. Why isn’t Sophia here? Why does Emma get to go to a hospital? I said I was sorry!

But sorry hadn’t worked like it had before and now even her parents looked at her differently. Had quiet conversations.

Didn’t smile when they saw her.

“All Rise! Judge Marsdon presiding.”

Madison scrambled to her feet, before everyone sat down.

“So, we’re here for Madison Clements hearing. Prosecution?”

“Prosecution requests bail be denied Your Honor, due to the depraved nature of the defendant’s actions.”

“That’s a hard sell, given that your office did not demand the denial of bail for a defendant in an attempted murder case last week.  Defense?”

“We request she be released into the custody of her parents. Ms. Clements has no access to the kind of resources that would make her a flight risk and was not involved save as a bystander in the crime.”

“Well, that last is up to her trial to determine, and I’m not inclined to treat these charges as high-spirited hijinks.”

“Ah, may we approach the bench, your honor?”

“Come forward, Prosecution, you can join the party.”

Madison strained to hear what they were saying. She was good at listening. It was how you kept up on the newest gossip.

“My client has already been assaulted once and her religious identity puts her at risk…”

“It’s a bruise, hardly worthy of a get out of jail free card…”

The judge’s voice was a little louder. “If she’s found guilty she won’t be getting out of jail any time soon unless your office has changed its mind on trying her as an adult, but I prefer my defendants to be alive for trial.” The two lawyers came back.

“Ms. Clements, I have decided to grant you bail under the following restrictions. You will remain at your house, save when in the direct company of your parents. An anklet monitor will be fitted on you. Any medical, legal, or spiritual meetings taking place away from your property will be cleared with this court in advance. You will continue to complete school assignments brought home.” He paused. “And this last is veryimportant, so I expect you to listen.”

“Y-yes, your honor?”

“You will have no contact, not directly, not indirectly, not via carrier pigeon, with Taylor Hebert. You will not speak to others regarding her. If anyone speaks to you about her,  you will report it immediately. You are to have no contact with Sophia Hess, and Emma Barnes, along with a list that will be provided to you and your parents. Failing to meet any of these conditions will result in the immediate revocation of bail and your return to juvenile hall. Do you understand?”

I can’t go back there, I can’t!  “Y-yes Your Honor.  Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. I don’t want to have to cancel a trial because the defendant got killed.”

Madison didn’t know what to say as she left the courtroom. She was going home to her room and her bed with the ruffles, and stuffed animals, and her own clothes.

But her parents weren’t smiling, and they still weren’t quite looking at her.

*****

Sheila Cho checked the parking garage as she headed to her car.

I probably should have asked why they were willing to pay me more as a new hire.  But she didn’t want to spend ten years covering the fashion page. So the crime beat on the Gazette. She’d done her initial work in New York, and how much worse could Brockton be?

A lot worse, which is why I’m checking to make certain nobody’s waiting for me. Oh, the big names never went after her. Even in the Bay, Lung murdering a reporter might get the wrong kind of attention, but she suffered a very statistically unusual number of robbery, and mugging attempts to say nothing of one attempted rape by an ABB after she’d pissed off Lung.

I wonder if the nickname of Dickless stuck with him? She’d kicked him a few too many times in the crotch after she’d pepper sprayed him. Most guys couldn’t keep a high C note going that long.

But there was nobody around, and the swastika carved into her right front fender was from last week.

She opened the door and…

The lights at the far end of the garage faded out.

What the fuck? Grue? No, he’s with the Wards now, and after Shadow Stalker, I bet they’re not letting him moonlight.

Not that she officially knew about Sophia Hess’ night job, but well, it was a pretty badly kept secret, especially for someone with sources in the PRT.

Sources that keep trying to feed me stuff to spin things a certain way, but I can read between the lines.

Still, she closed the door and looked at the growing shadows. “If you’re here for a job interview, that’s my boss’s job.”

There was a chuckle, and then the darkness withdrew, revealing a slim figure, a hat and scarf concealing their race, the long coat making it hard to see if they were a woman or a slim man.

“I thought we should talk here, privately.”

“About what?”

“You’re a crime beat reporter, Ms. Cho, I could make use of the information you can obtain in my operations to deal with crime in this city.”

“Uh-huh. What is it, thinking of muscling in on Lung’s territory?”

“No. To start, I intend to eliminate the Merchants, but I need information to deal with them in a way that… keeps the gang from rising again.”

“The Merchants?” She frowned. “Why?”

“They are small time, but they do a good deal of harm, and they are… vulnerable.”

“What do I get out of it?”  the figure made a motion and a USB stick landed at her feet.

“A record of a minor confrontation between the Merchants and the Empire and a… new cape.”

“You.”

“Perhaps.”

“What kind of information do you want?”

“Sherrel Bailey, Adam Mustain, Squealer and Skidmark. Their histories stop before they get to the city. I would like you to find out where they came from, ideally why. As much information as you can gain and I will… compensate you with the full story of the total destruction of the Merchants.”

“Hah. I’ll believe it when I see it…” She paused. “But, how about this, I can always use the information for a retrospective, so I get it, and if you don’t do anything with it for, oh, two weeks, then I’m free to use it in my own story.”

There was a pause, then the figure nodded its head.

“Agreed. There is a PHO account on the USB stick. I will be waiting.”

“Give me until the weekend, I’ll know how much I can get and how hard it will be to get more by then.”

“Very well, Ms. Cho.”

The lights started to fade out, something like a dense, dark fog filling the end of the garage the cape was standing in. A low hum filled the air as the garage became almost pitch black. Then, slowly, the light came back and the fog vanished…

Leaving Sheila alone in an empty garage. She bent down and picked up the stick. She had an isolated laptop she used for this.

“Well, not as overtly hostile as my last meeting with Lung, but still creepy.”

But it was time to go home and nuke a pizza. It wasn’t like she had a lot of boyfriends. Getting a rep for telling stuff the E88 and ABB didn’t like to hear played hell on people’s willingness to try for a second—or first—date.

With that cheery thought, she left.