Orb Weaver: Plague Chapter 14

Sorry, a bit late.

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Wacky John’s Park ‘O Fun was sounding as loud as always as I walked in. We’d arranged the meeting for two days after Tattletale had contacted me via the email. I’d spent my time profitably, doing research on Coil and his forces. Mostly trained mercenaries, no sign of any other parahumans and of course Coil’s powers were mostly unknown. Tattletale had promised information in that area with our short exchange.

I’d also researched her.

Which was why I didn’t have a smile on my face as I entered, a purse dangling from my shoulder. Unfortunately, one part of the plan had hit a snag due to PRT meetings. Aisha and Brian would be showing up a little bit later, so now I’d be speaking with Lisa first.

I didn’t tag anyone with my bugs as I walked in. I kept my expression neutral, but the only bugs under my direct control were some under the building, where I could push any expressions, and two bugphones, which I could use to access the Internet or other information, placed outside of the building.

 Lisa was standing with another teen, almost certainly Chariot, the African-American looking around nervously.

Heavy boots, likely include some method of getting out quickly. He also had a backpack. So, Lisa was ready to flee if need be.

Unless they were both incredibly stupid, I didn’t have to worry about offensive action. Someone starting a serious fight here would have Lung and Kaiser racing to see who got them first.

Then she waved at me and walked on over.

“I love the civilian getup,” Lisa said. “You know, I’m kicking myself for not noticing you when you first met me… Fun times, right?” Next to her, Chariot looked nervous.

“Flaunting my power doesn’t suit me,” I told her.

“You look pissed.” She frowned. “At… me. That angry over Madison?”

“No. Let us find a booth. I expect Aisha and her brother will be here soon.”

“They gonna try to arrest us?” Chariot said.

Once, I would have thought he was angling for a fight. But now I’d had enough practice. He was afraid, but like many his age, pretending to be aggressive was preferable to showing weakness. Fortunately, Chariot wasn’t E88 and there was no need for Orb Weaver to… demonstrate the error in that statement.

“No,” I said. “We’re here to talk. Under Truce. When it’s over, whatever is agreed upon, we’ll go our separate ways. First, before we talk, let’s get food.”

“You’re that hungry?” Chariot asked.

“No, we don’t need to stand out,” I told him.

“Oh, I knew that!” he said.

We went to the counter and I bought the food for everyone. I didn’t know if Chariot would notice, but evidently Lisa did. The custom wasn’t honored as much as it had been in the days when offering a meal also meant you offered protection, but the gesture still had weight.

When we sat down, the noise of screaming children providing all the security we needed, I looked at Lisa. “I spent some time checking out other areas you might have been. Would it surprise you to know that your face is on a wall at John’s Pizzeria?”

“Oh those jerks, yeah, they banned me. Why are you pissed—“ She shook her head. “You are really hard to read, you know that?”

“I try.” I paused. “As part of my investigation I found out why. Julia Wright, clerk.”

“Oh, yeah, the girl who made the crack about me getting acne—“

“The girl who nearly killed herself.”

“Wait, what?” Chariot asked.

“What are you talking—“ Suddenly Lisa’s face changed, going white. “Shit… oh shit.”

I didn’t say anything for a moment, but… She didn’t know. She didn’t know until I think her power provided… information? A conclusion?

“Explain it to me,” I asked her.

“She was bulimic, hiding it. Ashamed that she couldn’t control her urges…”

“And you revealed it before her friends, her workers, because she irritated you. You didn’t even think about the consequences.”

“I… fuck.” Lisa looked ill. She really didn’t. I expect she looked for the thing that would hurt worst…and used it.

“Our powers can kill. Can destroy lives. So my first requirement for any alliance is that you will not casually use them against those who cannot fight back.”

“Sometimes my power just… you know, slips the chain?” she said. The expression on her face gave lie to her light tone. “Is she…”

“I spoke with her. Told her that some people tried to help but didn’t understand how difficult it was and then I assisted her when she spoke to her parents.” I shook my head. “To them ,you are merely a blunt Good Samaritan.” Then I gestured at her. “Your boss, how much has he provided you in the way of Thinker training?”

“Zip and Nada. He likes my information to be…uncontaminated by outside sources.”

 I wonder if you didn’t go along with him a little too easily. I’d read the manual first, after all, one of a dozen, and a common issue for new Thinkers was assuming they didn’t need help. Equally, I had advantages she didn’t. I doubted Lisa had the ability to read a dozen books or more at once.

“Then allow me to offer you some help.” I opened the purse and pulled out a book. The cover had a stenciled title. FM-PRT235: AN INTRODUCTION TO BASIC THINKER THEORY. “This is not the most current volume, those remain classified, but it includes, as of four years ago, the common techniques the PRT and Protectorate used to train Thinkers in working with—and around—their limits.”

“You think I have limits?”

“If you could use your power with no limits, you wouldn’t need my assistance.”

“Point.” Lisa frowned. “Okay, cards on table. Coil didn’t exactly recruit me willingly. So I’ve got a metaphorical gun to my head and he always seems to be a step ahead of me. In fact, your little stunt with Dinah was the first time he lost—and the second time, I think, was our meeting with Madison, where I was actually supposed to see if I could get Madison to not go with the Protectorate—anything else was secondary, and then you showed up.”

“Recruitment was secondary to the main goal?” I asked.

“A nice bonus, but yeah. Then you screwed things up and then he arranged or sent the E88 after us.” Then she looked at me. “Just like he had a plant give the E88 the information that sent them after Aisha.”

Deep under the building, my bugs went nuts. Aisha had puzzled it out. Lisa now had confirmation.

“I see.”

“Why the fuck would he do that?” Chariot asked.

“Chaos,” I told him. “Her brother would possibly go berserk, and in any case it would be another sign the PRT and Protectorate couldn’t control the city. It would…” I frowned. “Create Chaos. But the problem is, Chaos doesn’t benefit Coil.”

“It doesn’t?” Lisa asked. “Seems to be doing pretty well…”

“The PRT and Protectorate seem outgunned, but they also provide…” I paused. “Balance. No gang can go all out against the others. If Lung goes down, even as big as the E88 is, it becomes vulnerable because there’s nobody else to worry about. But if they cease to be an issue, it becomes a free-for-all all.”

“And that’s why he didn’t want them to get a hold of Madison,” Lisa said. “Because even just as a ward, a Brute 8 or 9 makes a heck of a beatstick to keep people calm.”

“But there’s no throne at the end of that road,” I said. “Forgive me for saying this, but the Undersiders couldn’t possibly stand off the other gangs in open conflict, let alone the potential response from the PRT. And yet, Coil’s activities have been noted for being planned… More often successful than unsuccessful.” Some kind of thinker power that lets you plan ahead…

“No,” Lisa said, shaking her head, a twitch betraying the use of her own power. “I don’t know, for certain what it is. He says he ‘controls fate’ and things just get lucky when we follow his orders. He’s been really careful about not giving me a look.”

“Which indicates that his power has weaknesses, substantial ones.” Well, that wasn’t much of a deduction—the number of Thinkers whose powers that didn’t have drawbacks could be numbered on one hand.

“He’s willing to see a child killed.”

“Krewe?” Chariot asked.

“Aisha, she triggered during the attack and since nobody can predict a trigger… Murder. Premeditated murder of a child. It is one thing to kill in anger, another to kill like this. Coil has no moral boundaries.” It should be obvious, but Chariot looked shocked. I looked at him. “So, I take it you have also been working for him?” It was a guess, but I didn’t expect Lisa would bring someone out of the loop.

“He, um like recruited me a year ago, I was…” Chariot shrugged. “Yeah. So I did stuff for him after I came down from Boston.”

“Then why this? He’s paying you, I take it—“

“Lady, he got me face to face with a super Brute and Crusader! Do you know what Crusader does to people like us?”

“I am aware.”

“And that chick—Locker Girl could take Leviathan on, they say!”

“And what do you hope for?”

“I dunno—if we can take him out, that’s gotta count with the Protectorate, right? I could get a gig with them.”

“Maybe.” I looked at him dead on. “It depends on what crimes you have committed.”

“I haven’t hurt anyone… I mean, not on purpose.”

Well, that’s not encouraging. Still, before her fall, the Protectorate was willing to give Sophia a second chance.

“You’re a transport Tinker,” Lisa said. “Trust me, they love transport Tinkers.”

“Very well. Welcome.” Not that I’d trust him entirely. After all, people looking for better options could always switch sides, depending on the offer. “Our first goal is to determine Coil’s civilian identity.”

“Isn’t that against the rules?” Chariot asked.

“The ‘unwritten rules?’ Those are merely customs, and Coil violated them, in both spirit and letter when he attempted to have Aisha murdered—and frame another gang for it.” I wasn’t about to go into how many ways the various customs of the Bay got violated on a regular basis. No sense putting the wrong thoughts in Chariot’s head.

“I—“ Lisa looked up. “Hey, Aisha and Brian are here.”

I nodded. I’d seen them via one of the mirrors, the ability to keep track of everything once again proving its use, but… Maybe Lisa didn’t notice.

Then she shot me a smirk.

Nope. She’d noticed.

I kept my face neutral. Smart, but loves to be seen as smart.

“Yo!” Aisha said, her hood up, even though it wasn’t cold.

“Fans?” Lisa said.

“A few—“

“Lisa, what are you doing here? And who is that?” Brian asked.

I blinked. “Aisha didn’t you—“

“I figured it’d be a surprise.”

“You said we were coming out to meet Taylor.” Brian stared at her.

“And I didn’t lie, because we need…” She looked around to make certain nobody was paying attention to us, then waved at the five-year-old sitting at a birthday table. Turning back to Brian. “The Investigator to chair the first meeting of the Secret Legion of Fuck Coil.”

Brian took a deep breath. Then exhaled it. “Great.” He said. “You know how Youth Guard has been talking about socialization?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, since they were talking about cutting some of our training time, and fuck that, since Kid Win can’t fall for shit on the mats, when you brought this up, I decided to be…” Brian sighed. “Proactive.”

“Pro—“ Lisa cut off Aisha.

“He invited the Wards.” She stared at him. “And Assault?”

“Youth Guard requires an adult member of the Protectorate or PRT to sign off on socialization exercises. Assault had a choice between this and writing readiness reports, so he came in civvies.” Brian’s look was a mixture of someone wanting to scream inarticulately or start laughing hysterically.

My bugs picked up a van entering the parking lot, and over it, a flying figure.

“Brian?” I asked. “Is Gallant currently dating Victoria?”

“Yeah.”

The doors opened and a group of teens and one preteen entered as an adult waved at them. They saw us and made a beeline for the table.

I glanced over at Lisa and Chariot. Lisa hid the book I gave her. Chariot looked like he was about to run or faint.

“If you’re going to assist us in dealing with Coil, you’ll need to exhibit grace under pressure.” I glanced at the oncoming group.

“Consider this your first training exercise.”