I doubted anyone believed what the three were saying.  At the same time, nobody here was in a position to walk away in response to this unconfirmed information.

I suppose not.

“Tattletale, see to the interrogation,”  Coil ordered.

“Okay.”

“That leaves the remainder of us to decide on a way of rescuing the others.”

Planning time!

“That’s enough,” Coil said.  He signaled his men.  “Take the prisoner to the coastline and find a spot to depart.”

Cherish was dragged off to a point further down the catwalk.  Her shouts reached us well after she was out of sight, “Your boss is screwing you!  All of you!  You have no idea how badly!  You’re cogs in his machine, and he’s only steps away from pulling it all together.  Get rid of the Nine, stage the final play with everyone in their proper spots, but then he doesn’t need you anymore!”

Man, her tactic when not allowed to directly manipulate people’s emotions really is super similar to Lisa’s.

And yeah. Coil is absolutely the kind of guy who would do it like this.

In Taylor’s case in particular, she’s supposed to prove herself as more valuable than Dinah in order to have him release her when his plans are finished, but when his plans are finished, if he doesn’t need Skitter anymore, how is she supposed to do that, even if she did a fantastic job while she was needed?

“Sowing dissension in the ranks,” Coil said.  He sounded remarkably calm given what Cherish had been saying.  “Nothing more.”

Yeah, right.

I mean, sure, it’s that too.

“Right.  She could be lying,” Trickster ventured.

You don’t sound so sure.

“She is.  Mostly,” Tattletale said.

…but you do.

Hm. I suppose she would know a thing or two about Coil’s plans, but it is possible for her to be wrong. She might be just wrong enough to still be working for Coil.

But she might also be right, in that Coil might not be as close to victory as Cherish is suggesting, or that he doesn’t need them anymore afterwards.

“We can talk about that later,” I told him, “My priority right now is Grue.”

Coil nodded.

Good, let’s focus on the here and now.

I glanced down at Cherish.  “Hope Bonesaw reinforced your teeth while she was fixing you up.”

Trust me, Cherish, Skitter just went easy on you. She could’ve brought a whole swarm of bugs down on you if she wanted to, but she wasn’t going to give you the satisfaction of such a big reaction.

“She did,” Cherish muttered, one hand to her mouth.

Heh.

I kicked her in the head once more for good measure, and then turned away, my hands raised to assure the others I was done.

Skitter has come a long way from the good girl who helplessly hid in bathrooms.

For better or worse.

“Can we talk without her in earshot?” I asked.

Coil nodded and gestured for us to leave.  His soldiers moved to Cherish’s side and gripped her arms.

Aw, I guess it’s the end of backstory hinting hour for today.

“No point!”  Cherish grinned, “I’ll know what you’re talking about.  Can’t keep secrets from me!”

She’s sounding more and more crazed as this chapter goes on.

“But you won’t be sidetracking us,” I replied.

“You failed, you know,” Cherish said, changing tacks.

Time to manipulate Skitter, huh?

I guess the failures she’s going to bring up involve both her territory and Dinah, and maybe some of the lives she tried to save along the way.

“When someone has an obsession like you do, it’s like a giant neon sign to an empath like me.  All it takes is for me to peek into Coil’s head, peek into the hearts of everyone else in this base, and I know you’ll never get what you want.  You won’t save her.  You can’t.  Window of opportunity is long gone.”

Yeeah, I think she’s right. At least as long as Taylor sticks to the method she’s been trying so far.

I jabbed her where the bullet hole was.  The strength went out of her legs and she fell to her hands and knees.  I stepped back, drew in a slow breath and then kicked her in the face.  She fell to the ground.

I was hoping for a simple “fuck you”, but this works too.

I like how calm and measured it feels, despite everything.

“Skitter.” Coil’s word was without inflection.  There was no admonishment or warning to it.  I took it as a reminder of where I was, which might have been his intent.

Yeah, probably.

“Tattletale.” Coil spoke, “Can you gather the rest of the details from her before we secure her offshore?”

“So long as she doesn’t get stupid and try to do something more than talk.”

Sounds good!

Cherish decided to speak up.  “Who’s next?  Who should I dish the dirt on?  Feeling homesick, Trickster?  Scared little boy pretending to be a leader.

Ooh, now this is an interesting one. Homesickness suggests that he can’t go home. Why? Would something at home lead to ill consequences, possibly involving Cauldron?

It’s your fault, you know.  She blames you.  Everyone does.

Who, Noelle?

I don’t know enough about her situation to say if it really is his fault, but it does seem like he feels responsible for it.

They’re even starting to hate you.”

Ouch.

And the sad thing is, I don’t know that she’s lying. There are definitely interpersonal issues in the Travelers, and Trickster’s behavior does seem to be at or close to the core of it.

There was no response from our prisoner.

“Hmmm,” Tattletale said.  “She’s cornered, and she’s probably contemplating something like suicide by cop.  Or whatever the term is when the other group aren’t cops.

Um. Suicide by foe?

She’d rather die than have us turn her over to her teammates, so she’ll try a gambit like using her powers, knowing we’ll probably gun her down.”

Bonesaw really puts a scary spin on things.

“Got any ideas?” Trickster asked her.

“She liked the dead man’s switch for her suicide collar.  Why don’t we set up something similar?  Put a soldier on guard somewhere nearby.  We schedule it so he receives a note  from us every fifteen minutes.  If he doesn’t get it, he passes a message to the Nine telling them exactly where to find Cherish?”

Mmm. I don’t think that’d work. She could mess with his head and force him to not send the message.

I could see Cherish tense.

“How do we get a message to them without them killing the messenger?”

Good point.

“We can work it out.”  Tattletale shrugged.  She looked at Trickster, “You think Oliver could handle it?”

What, setting it up or being the guard?

Trickster nodded. “I’ll get him on thinking up some way to arrange this.”

Setting it up, alright.

“That’s a mistake,” Cherish smiled.  “Without my cooperation, you won’t find them.  You won’t be able to contact Imp or know where to look for her brother.”

Perhaps.

“Tattletale?” Coil spoke.

Ah, yes, time for Tattletale to work her magic.

“You already informed us on most of that,” Tattletale told Cherish.  She leaned against the wall.  “Your method of communication with Imp.  You’re planning on meeting her.  Afternoon?  Evening?”

Well that sounds like it’d require not getting tied to a bouy.

“As if I’m-”

“Late afternoon. Thanks.”

Ahahaha!

I love when Tattle does this.

“What?”  Cherish frowned.

“What time in the afternoon?  Four… five… six.  Six o’clock.  There we go.  Where?  Upper end of town or downtown?”

Poor Cherish has no idea how Lisa is doing this and she’s so confused.

“I’m not saying anything!”

You don’t have to.

“You’re telling me everything.”  Tattletale must be reading Cherish’s tells.  Her body language, eye movements, her tone and word choice.

Ah, yeah, that makes sense. And then the power fills in the rest.

“Let’s see, you’re meeting Imp downtown around six.  You would have made it a place where you could talk with her for a minute while you were out of sight of the others.  Bathroom?”

Sounds reasonable.

Cherish didn’t move a muscle.  Maybe she realized what Tattletale was doing.

She did seem to sort of catch on last chapter, without realizing how deep it went. Not that it helped her much.

“Bathroom, then.  Same building as the rest of the Nine?  Now we just need to dig up where they are, and you’ve got no cards left.  Unless you want to share that information in good faith.”

Lisa is awesome. It’s been some time since we had as good a showing of her power as this, and I honestly didn’t realize just how much I’ve missed it.

“But what about boats coming by?” Sundancer asked.

“Almost no boats on the water,” I replied.  “Coastline is a mess, thanks to Leviathan.  Ships can’t dock here.”

As if the Docks area wasn’t already an economic disaster zone.

And hey, Danny, how’s the ferry project coming along?

“Good,” Coil said.  “Then as soon as she is given some basic medical care, I’ll have my men take her out there.  I’ll need to work out measures to ensure she doesn’t escape.”

Sounds good.

I suppose it might also be worth leaving her some food and potable water if you want her to stay alive.

“So the little girl who wanted for nothing still found a reason to run away from home.  Spent life homeless on the streets.

Wait, no, this isn’t Shatterbird’s backstory. It’s Lisa’s!

Stealing and dealing for petty cash so she could eat.  What would make someone leave home like that, Tattletale?”

Good question. Perhaps (largely verbal) abuse? I’ve long suspected that Lisa was being demeaned in her youth, especially her intelligence. She was probably called “stupid” a lot.

“It’s a bit of a crazy idea,” I said, ignoring her.  “But what if we didn’t stash her in this base?  Or any of the others?  We put her anywhere in the city, there’s the risk that some unwitting John, Dick or Harry will come by, and she’ll get them to help her somehow.

What are you suggesting, then? The ruins of the old Protectorate HQ or something?

(I suppose that might not work, if they’re building the a new Protectorate HQ there.)

Can’t station guards on her, so… why not the water?”

I… actually think I might’ve been onto something.

The other options this could imply would be stranding her on a vessel out on the sea (too much risk of her drifting ashore) or putting her on the rooftops in the middle of Lake Heroic.

“A boat?” Ballistic asked.

“I could tell you a story,” Cherish said, “Little girl grows up with money.  Daddy pulls in six figures, maybe seven.  Massive house, I expect.  Maybe horses, a mercedes, indoor and outdoor pools…”

She’s just trying to distract them, I guess, but I do think this might be Shatterbird’s backstory.

“I was thinking about a buoy,” I replied, speaking over her.  “Could even rig things so she’s out of sight.  Cuff her to it, we can be pretty damn sure she won’t be getting free.”

Hah, nice. It’s got the best of both worlds between what remains of the Protectorate HQ oil rig (steady, won’t drift ashore) and a boat (small, not much room to do things, not likely to have random pieces of tinkertech lying around, not going to have PRT workers coming to rebuild or clean).

Also it’s kind of hilarious.