Tattletale nodded.

“That’s huge,” I said, “Do you know how much I could use something like that?”

Just as long as it doesn’t fuck her over, it seems incredibly powerful, especially for stuff like monitoring her territory.

“Why can’t you now?” Trickster asked.

“Bugs sense things so differently, my brain can’t translate what they see and hear into something I can process.  It’s all black and white blotches, high-pitched squeals and bass throbs.”  I paused.  “Imp’s perfectly fine, by the way.  At least, I can’t find her, but nobody’s reacting like they found a spy in their midst.”

Nice.

“She’s a bit of a rebel, but she’s not stupid,” Tattletale said, “Trust her to hold her own.”

She can be kinda rash, I think, but Tattletale is right. She’s not stupid.

“I wouldn’t trust myself to hold my own in her shoes,” Grue told her.  “Christ.  Skitter, can you send a few bugs over that way, tell me if she’s in one piece?”

Might as well, if it’s within range.

I nodded, while Trickster slapped his forehead.

“The bugs,” he said, “I could have told Genesis to stick around while you scouted, wait, no.  Why send Imp if you have the bugs?”

Because while she can access the bugs’ audiovisual senses directly, that’s not something she can do without risking sensory overload.

I suppose Trickster thinks that’s what she’s doing when she uses the bugs to scout out places.

“I can’t see or hear through the swarm, really.  Not well enough to listen in.”

“You did once,” Tattletale told me.

That surprised me.  “When?”

Wait, what?

Is she talking about the one time we’ve seen Taylor look through the eyes of the bugs, right before she met the Undersiders for the second time? Or has Taylor been doing this without realizing it?

“After the fight with Bakuda.  You were doped up, hurt, you had a concussion, but you were able to tell us the kind of music someone was listening to, and he was way out of earshot.”

Oh right, that!

I can’t blame Taylor for forgetting anything that happened during that time.

“Seriously?  And you didn’t tell me this?”

Grue shook his head.  “Just speaking for myself, I had a lot on my mind, between you and the others being in rough shape and the ABB setting off bombs across the city.  I completely forgot until just now.  Sorry.”

That’s fair.

“Let’s hope,” Grue agreed.

Trickster said, “We just sent Genesis back in a more discreet form to listen in.”

Ohh, nice! Good idea!

“Imp is staying behind as well,” Tattletale informed him, “So we’ve got redundancy there.”

Oh my cod, well played, Wildbow.

I hope either Taylor or Trickster goes “Who’s Imp?” or something like it.

“Christ,” Grue snapped his head from one side to the next, as if he could spot his sister that way.  With a note of alarm in his voice, he asked, “Imp’s still there?”

Apparently so!

I really love the subtlety of this – Imp wasn’t mentioned at all in the previous chapter, even when going over who were in each boat, suggesting Taylor had forgotten about her again and her power was active. I didn’t catch on, but it was absolutely possible to do so, not because of what was there, but because of what wasn’t there.

Come to think of it, the Undersiders – except maybe Tattletale – have no idea how personally significant the Slaughterhouse threat is to the Travelers yet.

“Thought he might.  Doesn’t it make sense that he’d assist us by being one himself?  I get the impression he likes the control it affords him and the amount of information he can get this way.”

Looks like Taylor at least is on board with my interpretation. 🙂

“Maybe,” Grue conceded.

“We should focus on where we go from here,” I said.

Sounds about right.

“Agreed,” Trickster called out.

Genesis had finished disappearing, and Trickster was walking over to our group, followed by Sundancer and Ballistic.  He extended a hand for Grue to shake, then turned to Tattletale, me, Regent and Bitch to do the same.  Bitch didn’t take his hand, turning away to focus on her dogs instead.

Rude.

So did Genesis just basically leave?

Trickster took the snub in stride.  “If nothing else, I’m glad we get a chance to talk.  Unless things get a lot worse from here, I’m hoping we’ll all be working side by side for a little while.” 

This seems like a good opportunity to get to know the Travelers better. 🙂

Tattletale only offered an apologetic half-smile and a shrug to that.

I tried to help her out.  “Look, we do know that Coil is smart, he’s proud, and he’s at his best when he’s managing his enterprise.

I suppose so.

Being cooped up, he’d be hit hard in all three areas.  Limited tools to work with, limited access to his people, and he’d be less powerful in a way that everyone would be aware of.”

Ah, yeah, that’s true. By putting himself on the Undertravelers’ side, he’d just needlessly put himself in the same awkward spot as them, while also weakening his position even more.

“That doesn’t excuse how thoroughly he just screwed us, without even trying to help us out.”

Fair. He did seem to actively argue in favor of the unfair terms, even.

I shook my head. “I don’t think he’s completely screwed us over.  We know Coil’s got at least one undercover agent, Trainwreck-“

…who is also on the other side.

That actually weakens my argument about him feeding them information. He could feed them information he himself got from his undercover agents, though by being in there himself, he’ll be privy to stuff that’s only between the leaders.

Tattletale interrupted to say, “He’s got a whole lot more than one.”

Yeah.

“Fuck!” Grue swore the second his boat hit land.

Yeah, fuck sounds about right, Grue.

“Let me guess,” Regent remarked to Bitch, “He’s been swearing since we left.”

I may have been imagining the boats wrong. I would’ve thought they’d hear it in the other boat. Then again, though, motors are loud.

Bitch nodded.

Hehe.

The Travelers had already arrived.  They stood in a huddle by the water while Genesis disintegrated into several vague floating body parts.

Lakeside discussion? I’d be down for that.

“Coil just bent us over and fucked us,” Grue said.

“I dunno,” Tattletale answered.  “That might have been the only way for him to play things, with the way his power and operations work.”

Yeah, and with the possibility of him feeding them information like I mentioned in the intro post.

…come to think of it, the way Tattle phrased that might prompt Grue to ask about Coil’s power and, due to anger, not accept “I’m not allowed to tell” as an answer.

“That would do a hell of a lot more to ease my concerns if I had any idea what his power was.”

This counts for the first part of that prediction. He’s asking implicitly.