Interlude: The Lawwoman

“We’ve partially evaluated Ms. Alcott,” Alexandria said. “I had a team meet her and Mr. Hebert at the airport, but she was confident she was safe.”

Which means that the problem is here. And inside the PRT and Protectorate.  Emily seethed at the thought. What it said…

“A thinker like you described would be very useful to any criminal group,” Armsmaster said.

Alexandria nodded. “Especially due to another thing. It appears The Investigator had an impact on her.”

“Oh?”

“She talked about ‘filling in the blank spaces’.” Alexandria paused. “That’s actually a fairly sophisticated ability, with many thinkers assuming they can power through until they get some training. Our testing showed that despite the limitation in how often she used her power, she was able to partially make up for it.” The parahuman shrugged. “Granted, not something she wouldn’t learn from the Think Tank courses, but unusual for an independent parahuman, especially one encountering an unusual power for the first time.”

“Something The Investigator gave her, while simultaneously planning to beat their unknown opponent.” Emily frowned. The Investigator had been a minor parahuman, helpful, less likely to set everything on fire, but not… unusually important.

Even the E88 mess had been largely Orb Weaver calling her in. And after that, she’d stuck to small crimes, a rare parahuman who knew her limitations.

And then the damned factory had blown up, and then, The Investigator had walked in, revealed a network that extended from the Birdcage to the outside, which shouldn’t be possible, and had managed to outwit an admittedly mentally unstable Master on his own ground.

And not just that. Aisha had been a failing student, with what looked like, according to the analysts, a budding case of oppositional defiant disorder, and then the same Investigator, although they didn’t know it at the time, had taken her in hand. Aisha was now a high-C, low-B student, which when you considered her family situation and Winslow, was a bloody miracle. In the aftermath of her most recent showing, Emily had reviewed their records.

“A teacher,” she murmured. “No. A motivator.”

“Pardon?” Alexandria asked.

““Besides. They think I’m the little black bitch who is hiding under her bed. Who’s gonna be a welfare mom by 17. So, whatta we say to that?””

““We say, we’ll be back for the ten-year reunion  with our new car and great home.””

“The Investigator repeating what she’d said in her personal identity, to Krewe after she triggered.” Emily paused. “Not just a goal, but a motivating goal…”

“Why wasn’t there more of an attempt to secure Ms. Alcott?”  Armsmaster said. “There was absolutely no sign of any parahuman involvement, although we were able to track the license plate.”

“A security company. They were paid for the use of their vehicle from an offshore account.” Emily shook her head. “We’re tracking it, but I expect it’ll be a dead end.”

“Even so, it will limit our unknown parahuman.” Alexandria paused. “I believe the Chief Director may be contacting you, but I’ve advised her to suggest that Mr. And Ms. Alcott relocate to LA.”

“That would be for the best.” Until we can figure out how we are so completely penetrated. Oh, maybe Dinah was overreacting, but Emily didn’t think so.

“Very well, I’ve got some other matters to attend to. Good day.”

“What are we going to do about Krewe?”  Armsmaster said. “She did violate procedure.”

“In a good cause. The fact that she’s open gives us some wiggle room. I’m more concerned with the fact that they backed off.”

“Director?”

“Would Lung back off so quickly? Kaiser?  They may have dodged them after the Diner, but our anonymous villain knew where they were then.” Emily frowned.  “Someone smart enough to back off, and not throw good money after bad? That’s dangerous.”

“And they have sources in the PRT ENE.”

“We’ll work on that. Colin, I want two seperate chains of information. The first chain is anything we have to hand out to the rest of the PRT. But I want a working group. You, Me, Assault, Velocity, and… Tenebrae.”

“He’s a ward.”

“For about the next six months, at most. More importantly, he has more experience in the criminal side of things. Also, he’s one of the few people that Krewe will listen to if we have to move them out of the city.”

“They might be targeted?”

“How many times has Krewe almost died in the last month?”

“I take your point, Director.” Armsmaster frowned. “There’s one villain in town who makes use of skilled mercenaries, the kind of people who would have a vehicle like that.”

“Coil.” Emily said. “We don’t know much about him.”

“Which is easily explained—if he has the degree of penetration into our security we fear.”  Emily shook her head. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Right now we don’t know it’s Coil and I don’t want to run down any blind allies because we’ve pre-decided our outcome.”

Making it dangerous for the PRT-ENE to secure Dinah wouldn’t be the work of one or two informants. It would need far, far more. Whoever it is, they’re dangerous.

“Right. You will head the investigation. Complete compartmentalization, Colin. This room is swept every day, but I’m not writing anything down, and nor will you. From this point on, you will communicate with your team, off books and off site.  You’ll report to me off site. As far as anyone is concerned here, nothing is going on.”

“And records?”

“You’re a tinker, and Dragon can maintain off site information. But for the purposes of this investigation, consider the PRT-ENE completely compromised.”

“And… Assault?” Colin frowned.

“Assault’s experience before he rebranded may be helpful.”

“Agreed. Director, two things. First of all, our bad luck with prison transports may have something to do with this.”

“I know. And the second?”

“The Investigator. Just because our enemy hasn’t gone after her now, doesn’t mean he won’t in the future. And any attempt here might trigger the thing we’re trying to avoid.”

“When I’m off site, I’ll contact the Chief Director about arranging for an emergency extraction if it becomes necessary.”

“Perhaps we could include her in our team?” Armsmaster asked.

Emily paused. A rogue… But it wasn’t like they were depending on Glory Girl’s ability to be discreet. Not to mention, given the way she’s been working, she might be finding out the same thing…

“Very well, but let her know—she isn’t to try and bring this individual in herself. Whoever it is is skilled and dangerous.”

“Understood.” With that, Armsmaster left.

Emily sighed, looking around her office, with the bustling people outside…and she had no idea who they could trust. As much as she hated it, she expected their mysterious attacker would have less chance of infiltrating the Protectorate than the PRT, by the law of averages if nothing else.

Nothing to be done for it. And the mundane work of the Bay didn’t stop as Emily picked up the newest list of complaints, these focusing on the singing, holographic, penis that Leet had unleashed on the Boardwalk on Saturday…