A man from the crowd behind me shouted his response. Lisa waved me behind the counter and led me through a door.
“Surprised you aren’t running this place,” I told her.
I guess either she is and part of the front it making it look like she isn’t (we know Tattle isn’t – or at least wasn’t – terribly concerned about secrecy of identity, based on Interlude 8a, so I could see her being fine with some of Coil’s employees knowing it), or she’s genuinely just working and living in a pre-established shelter, working with people who don’t know who she is. That said, Coil said she’d have pre-hired employees, didn’t he?
“Too obvious,” she answered with a smile. She threw one arm around my shoulders. “And this lets me be right at the center of things. Information from the people who are out there every day, watching.”
Makes sense.
“Good setup.”
“And it gets better, because I have this.” She opened another door.
Ooh…?
The room was small and it was hot with the running computers that were crammed into it. Six people were seated at different points in the room, each with their own computer. Two more computers sat unoccupied. The walls were scattered with photos, maps, printouts and post-its.
Yeeah, there’s no way everyone who works here, in the shelter as a whole, isn’t a Coil employee.
Black tape joined these elements together in a bizarre configuration that looked like part tree and part maze. All of our enemies were up on the wall: The Merchants, Fenrir’s Chosen, the Pure, the Protectorate, New Wave and the Wards.
I thought it was traditional to use red threads for things like this.
There were pages relating to something Lisa was calling Case 53. Dragon was up there, as was Scion.
Ooh, Lisa knows about Case 53 now. That could have some interesting implications – if Wildbow wants Upsilon to take on a more of a direct role later in the story, this detail could be useful.
The Slaughterhouse Nine were on a bulletin board, but Hatchet Face’s picture was crossed out in red marker.
Oh. Huh. Are they down to seven now? Although it’s also possible that they’ve got new recruits bringing them back up to eight or nine.
“Impressive.”
“I’d like to think so. With word-of-mouth and gossip from the crowd out there and the web info and the concrete data in here, I’m pretty in touch with all that crap.
No one is more in the loop.
Except it’s tiring. I’m feeling the beginning of one of those headaches I get when I use my power too much.
Ouch.
So you and I are going out for some fresh air.”
That sounds good to me!
Krixwell Liveblogs 