She nodded.

“Come see me when you’re done.  I want to have a chat.  Nothing bad.”

Ah, maybe he does want to talk about Flechette and Parian?

Although maybe he just generally wants to have one-on-one chats with everyone, to see how they’re holding up.

She nodded again.  So Flechette said something.

You think this is about that whole death thing earlier?

She headed into the bathrooms, detoured into the adjacent girl’s bathroom with accompanying showers.  She kicked off her boots, removed her body armor, and hung the armor on one of the drying dummies.  She removed the dress and peeled off the stockings, and hung the clothes on a second dummy, where they would be subjected to a steady, gentle flow of warm air.  Her boots were placed upside down on the heating vent below the dummies, propped up against the wall.  She removed her underwear last, putting it in a basket with the rabbit Parian had made, and grabbed a towel.

Certainly sounds a lot better than the old Undersider bathroom.

Flechette nodded and followed Weld to the far corner of the room.

Vista went to get a sports drink from the kitchen in one of the alcoves.  Kid Win was sketching in a notebook.  If he was feeling inspired, it would be best to leave him alone.

Sounds about right. Let him focus on whatever just came to his mind.

She stood behind him at enough of a distance to avoid distracting him, and watched the comedy on the TV, sipping her drink.  She felt a hand on her shoulder, turned to see Weld.

o hai

Done talking to Flechette already? Maybe it had to do with Parian and he wants to hear Vista’s perspective on it.

Weld spoke quietly, “You look like you could use a shower.  Go warm up, then get yourself dry and in comfortable clothes.  Clockblocker is replacing you on your patrol, you can come with me in a few hours.”

Ah, never mind.

I guess the next visit to Plush Paradise is going to be Flechette and Clocky. Unless Clocky wants to patrol separately, which I think Flechette would be entirely okay with.

More alone time that way. 😉

The Wards watched in silence until the moment the elevator door closed.

“It’s really freaking creepy when Piggy acts human,” Clockblocker commented.  There were chuckles from the rest of the group.

Ahaha :p

Vista’s own titter was tinged with relief.  The crack was a sign that Dennis was putting out an effort, acting more like his old self.

The fun Dennis from Interlude 3, rather than the angry Dennis from 9.3. Good to see him again.

“Alright guys,” Weld spoke, clapping his hands together once, generating a muted clink, “We needed to be ready with a response in case Chariot replied, I’m sorry about interrupting your nights.  Lily, could I have a word with you before you head out again?”

Heh, I guess you can tell when Weld is in the audience at small concerts and such.

“He’s a tinker,” Kid Win pointed out, “He might be able to figure out he’s being watched.”

Good point.

“Admittedly true, but I have assurances from Dragon that the programs and devices she has put together are sufficiently discreet.”  She clasped her hands together, “Thank you, Wards, for your cooperation.  Your service since the start of the Endbringer event has been exemplary.  Trust me when I say I will find some way to make it up to you.”

Let’s just hope Chariot doesn’t find the documentation for those very devices and realize there could be some of those around.

Also I wonder what Piggot might come up with.

She moved to leave, stopped, “And Kid Win?  Good work.”

Kid Win smiled broadly.

Some capes would’ve just kept walking away, or never noticed that something was off in the first place. So yeah, good job, pal. 🙂

“I have no problem with it,” Weld spoke, “But I have no secret identity, no friends or family here to watch out for.  I totally, one hundred percent understand if anyone else has objections.”

It’s hard to have a secret identity when every part of your body screams “this is unusual”.

“Not a local or a long term member of the team, here,” Flechette said, “My vote probably shouldn’t count, but I’m okay with it, if it’s what the PRT needs to do.”

I mean, as long as you’d be facing the same risks as the others re: secret identity, I think it should count.

“Good,” Piggot spoke, “And the rest of you?”

Shadow Stalker was next to agree, followed by Kid Win, Vista and then a reluctant Clockblocker.

Kinda surprising that we’re not getting any comment on secret identities from Shadow Stalker, given what happened at the hospital.

Piggot offered them a rare smile, “Good.  For your information, the earpiece communication channel, the computers at this console, the spare laptops and the spare smartphones will all be continually monitored by a team upstairs.

Sounds reasonable.

Your own laptops and smartphones will be free of this prying.  This makes it doubly important that you do not lose these possessions or let him gain access to them.”

Ah, yeah, gotta be careful when you know someone on the team is looking for information.

…I wonder if Tattletale was extra careful about her stuff because of Taylor. Though it’s not like she wasn’t sharing loads of information anyway and generally acting as if expecting Taylor to be a permanent member of the team.

Kid Win whistled.

“Dealing with the relationships between team members is difficult enough to begin with,” Weld spoke, “And you want to add this into the mix?”

He has a point. As leader, he’d be especially responsible here, on top of everything else he has to deal with.

“I wouldn’t ask you to do it if I didn’t think you could handle it.”

“What if we say no?” Clockblocker asked.

“If only one or two of you disagreed, out of fear of your civilian identities being used against you, I would propose splitting up your team’s schedules so you did not share any shifts with Chariot.  Ideally this would coincide with each of you returning to school, so your busy schedules could serve as sufficient excuse for why you do not cross paths with the boy.  

Hm. Still seems like a lot of trouble to go through for this.

Given how complicated this becomes, I would much prefer that all of you were onboard.”

Naturally.

“Which brings me to the primary subject of this meeting,” Piggot informed them.  “I would like to do the very same thing here, with Chariot.  He would work alongside you, quite likely see you unmasked.

…

When I suggested this, I was expecting Piggot to be the strongest voice against it, out of all of them. Wow.

You would socialize with him, and you would pretend not to know that he is passing on information to his employer.  For that, for the risks you would be undertaking, I require your express permission.”

Makes sense. She’s practically asking the Wards to give Coil (or at least that’s who they think is getting it) information about really sensitive things, including each of their secret identities. Given how intensely protective the PRT is with their heroes’ secret identities (judging by what happened when Taylor found out about Sophia), that’s quite the thing for Piggot of all people to ask. She must be seeing some really good opportunities to mislead Coil here, to be willing to take this risk.

“That,” Piggot spoke, “And there are prior cases of Coil using undercover operatives.”

Yeah. As I said, it does fit his M.O.

“Prior cases?” Weld asked.

“This doesn’t leave this room,” Piggot spoke.  Vista nodded alongside everyone else.  “We know there are three agents employed in this very building who are working for Coil.”

Interesting. So they’re aware of this, but not confronting those agents (assuming they know which agents) about it… so as to provide Coil with false information and not let on that they’re on to him, perhaps?

“Seriously?” Clockblocker asked.  “As in, right now?”

“Yes,” Piggot nodded, “We might have gone entirely unaware, but Dragon found that one face on our security camera footage matched up with that of a known soldier of fortune.  On investigation, we found two more.  Capable gunmen, each with a wide array of skills ranging from facility with computers to multiple languages.  Very much the type Coil would employ.

Huh, nice sleuthing.

We might have arrested them, but I spoke with people with higher credentials and clearance than myself, and we came to the unanimous agreement that it would be ideal to keep those mercenaries employed here.  It allows us to keep a close eye on them for knowledge we could use, and we occasionally feed them bad or misleading information, obviously with a great deal of consideration each time.

Moles can be pretty useful when you’re aware of them.

I suppose it’s true that Chariot did seem interested in money and resources.

Without waiting for Flechette, she marched for the elevator.  Flechette fell in step behind her.

Everyone else was sitting in the meeting room, except for Director Piggot, who stood with her arms folded.

I wonder if anyone but Kid knows what they’re here for yet.

“Thank you for being prompt,” Piggot spoke, “Would you please have a seat?”

Vista obediently sat in the chair closest to her.  Flechette found a chair beside Weld.

“Kid Win?” Piggot prompted.

I’ll take that as a no.

Well, Piggot might know the short version, and Weld.

“Here’s the deal, guys.  I went out to talk to Chariot, and there’s a bit of a complication.”  He tapped the screen of his smartphone, and the computer screen at one end of the table changed to show text from a series of emails.  “Chariot hasn’t yet agreed to join the team, but there’s evidence that he fully intends to join as a mole for an unknown party.”

That’s a pretty good summary.

“This evidence was assumed using legal methods, of course,” Piggot spoke.

Riiight, about that…

“Of course,” Kid Win grinned in a way that left no doubt for anyone present that he was lying through his teeth.

Hehe.

“We believe this unknown party is Coil.  There’s no other criminals in town that would really do this.

Hm, yeah, I suppose this does fit with Coil’s M.O. A sneaky maneuver that allows him a bit of control on the inside of one of the factions he’s trying to take down.

That said… maybe this is actually Taylor’s doing? I mean, there’s a reason I was calling it a Reverse Taylor, and we don’t fully know yet what she’s trying to do to accomplish her goal of making things better. Not sure how putting a mole in the Wards instead of joining herself would help her with whatever she’s doing, but it’s entirely possible.

Also “we” indicates Kid has indeed talked it through with Piggot and Weld already.

Fenrir’s Chosen aren’t that subtle, and they’re too racist to work with Chariot.  Purity’s group is, again, too racist.  The Undersiders aren’t well-funded enough.  It doesn’t fit the Travelers’ MO.”

How does this require being well-funded? It’s entirely possible that Chariot would be working with them of his own volition rather than because of being paid, or he could be getting paid in something other than money (a very Coil-like thing, admittedly). Besides, the Undersiders have a better financial backing than you probably think, though of course that takes us back to Coil again.