I withdrew my phone and called Tattletale.
“That was fast.”
“It’s not the Nine. Decoys.”
Yep.
I stared at them. The disguises had been rushed but thorough. Jack and Bonesaw had clearly changed clothes with the people in question, and Bonesaw had whipped up something approximating Mannequin’s armor for one of the men.
Because she didn’t know Mannequin is supposed to be dead.
“Call Coil, get medics here. It’s Bonesaw’s work, so he might need to call on some expert surgeons to undo whatever she did. I’ll use my bugs to mark out the traps that Bonesaw set up inside.”
Sounds like a good plan. Let’s help these poor fuckers.
So was Cherish making sure Taylor would go in there so that she’d find out about this? I don’t imagine that would be out of compassion for the victims, though.
“On it.” She hung up.
Paralysis, compulsive movements. Puppets. Decoys. Had this been Jack’s attempt to make me betray my morals? Setting up decoys with the idea that I’d attack first and check later?
Makes sense. He might’ve taken some interest in that now, since he failed to do that a couple chapters ago.
If I’d gone with my first impulse and tried to kill them, I’d have seven civilian deaths on my hands.
Which raises the question of why you didn’t go with your first impulse. What gave you that gut feeling? Or rather, who?
“Help is on the way, guys. I’m sorry about this.”
“Thank you,” the twenty-something woman I’d guessed to be Cherish spoke. The others were mute.
I see. They needed one of them to be speaking because all of them screaming or none of them talking would be even more suspicious.
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