Worm

by John Mccrae Wildbow

  “Just bad luck and good planning,” Tattletale said. ”Communications are down, no camera feeds, no radio. Phones too. No cell or satellite signals are making it out there.”

  “So we’re going to have to stick together instead of coordinating attacks,” Grue responded.

  “Trouble is,” Tattletale said, “They’ve already laid out their game plan, and it’s a toughie. Seven suits babysitting our territories and keeping us from settling back in. If we pick a fight like Ballistic did, then they deploy the Protectorate, the Wards and probably any unoccupied suits as reinforcements.”

  Nobody had a response to that. Dealing with just the one Dragon had been hard enough. Dealing with Dragon plus a contingent of heroes would be next to impossible.

  “Can Grue borrow her power?” Trickster asked.

  Grue shook his head, and the darkness around him seemed to expand a fraction. ”No. Don’t get much from tinkers.”

  “Then there’s Regent,” Trickster said. ”Or, more specifically, Shatterbird.”

  “Sure,” Regent said.

  “She might have a countermeasure in mind,” I said. ”She knows Shatterbird’s here. It could be as simple as the long ranged wind cannon thing she used to clear away Grue’s darkness. She could shoot Shatterbird out of the air the second she shows herself. Or any number of things.”

  “Try a larger scale detonation?” Trickster asked. ”See if you can’t wipe out a couple of suits at once, without revealing yourself?”

  “No,” Regent said. ”Don’t know if I can control the area of it if I push out too hard. It’s slippery… I’m not good at explaining this stuff. I can turn the dial to anywhere from one to ten, but for each number you go up, it goes maybe twice as far, maybe five times as far. The effect… I dunno.”

  “It gets exponentially more powerful, as you put more effort in,” I suggested.

  “Sure. Don’t know what that means, but sure.”

  Coil cleared his throat, “I’ve invested a great deal of time and money into establishing your two groups here in Brockton Bay, and I did it for precisely this sort of scenario. Again, the timing is unfortunate, but I still expect you to address this situation. You’ll want to verify whether Bitch, Ballistic and Genesis are captured or simply pinned down somewhere, rescue them if need be and dispatch Dragon.”

  There go my plans with Brian.

  “This may be just a smidge above and beyond the call of duty, bossman,” Regent said.

  “You’ll have access to all of my resources,” Coil responded. “But the previous orders about clearing out and establishing your territories by noon tomorrow stand.”

  “Or?”

  Every set of eyes moved to Imp.

  “Beg pardon?” Coil asked.

  “Hey, I’m in this for fun, for fame and money. Getting beat down and arrested isn’t any of those things.”

  “I see. I thought you would be more professional.”

  “Me?” Imp shrugged, “Hell no.”

  I could feel the tension in the air. There were fifty trained soldiers here. Men and women who could shoot and hit their target. If Coil gave the order, I wasn’t sure we’d walk away in one piece. Intentionally or not, Imp was pulling the chair out from under Coil at a time when he was already vulnerable and unsteady on his feet.

  Good.

  “Do the rest of you feel this way?”

  “The Travelers aren’t in a position to walk away. You know that,” Trickster said, “And we have to rescue Genesis and Ballistic if they need it. So no. We’re definitely in.”

  Tattletale, Grue and I exchanged glances. Tattletale’s eyes lingered on me for a long second. Was it up to me?

  “Honestly?” I said. ”I don’t know what call I’d make. This is pretty dangerous, as stuff goes, and we didn’t exactly sign up for this. I’d go in just to make sure Bitch comes out of it okay, but doing that and cleaning up this mess in the kind of timeframe you’re talking about? That’s asking a lot.”

  “You’ll be adequately compensated for the risk you face,” Coil said.

  “I figured as much. But I don’t want money.”

  “Ah. What do you want, Skitter?”

  “You know that already.”

  “I’ve already told you I’ll consider your request.”

  “I want a promise.”

  He didn’t reply. Instead, he stared at me, his mask opaque, no holes for the eyes, nose or mouth. I had to read the little details, the movements in the raised portion of his brow, the set of his chin, the movements and tension of his fingers where he had his hands clasped in front of him. If I had to venture a guess, I’d think he was offended.

  “Then you have it, Skitter. Provided you deal with this situation in the next twenty-one hours and your team has reclaimed their territory, I will consider your end of the bargain filled. I’m hoping I have the rest of the Undersiders as well?”

  “I’m not promising anything until I get something too,” Imp said.

  “What would you require?”

  “My own territory.”

  “That can be arranged. Given how critical this situation is, are you content to discuss the matter after the situation is resolved?”

  “Come again?”

  “He wants to know if you’re okay with deciding what territory you get after the job is done,” Grue said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Grue, Tattletale, Regent?”

  “I’m with her,” Tattletale jerked a thumb my way. Grue nodded, glancing at Imp.

  “I’m not about to be left out,” Regent said. ”But maybe you could pony up a nice cash bonus?”

  I could hear the slightest of sighs from Coil. ”That can be arranged.”

  “Cool.”

  “Then that’s settled. I’ve been made aware that Dragon is also making a bid to claim, seize and lock out digital goods within the city. Victor has agreed to work with my teams and do what he can to minimize the damage. If there’s nothing else-”

  “There is something,” Tattletale said.

  “Do tell.”

  “That data we grabbed from the PRT offices. You crack it yet?”

  “Some. It’s badly degraded.”

  “I need it. As much as you can give.”

  “Done,” Coil said. ”I can show you the way.”

  “One other thing. You said we had access to all of your resources?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just how much money are you able to spare?”

  “We can discuss that on our way to the room where the databases are stored,” he said, firm. ”Undersiders, Travelers, I wish you luck.”

  He strode off with Tattletale following.

  Too easy, I thought. He made that promise too easily.

  But it was something.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  16.02

  “We’re not going to be able to take on Dragon without a plan,” Grue said, “A damn good one.”

  “You taking point on this?” Trickster asked. He stepped forward to unlock the gate and held it open for us.

  I knew Grue well enough that I noticed the delay before he responded. “I don’t have a plan, but I’ll take lead if we need it.”

  Was he hesitating? We hadn’t really asked a lot of Grue since he’d been taken by the Nine. Lisa had expressed concerns that he might be shaky if we put him under the pressures a leader had to handle, and the others had apparently agreed. They’d talked about nominating me.

  I wasn’t sure I was up for the role, but I was even less sure about having Grue calling the shots when he might shut down or get distracted at a crucial moment. I didn’t know what form his trauma might take in this kind of situation. Our side consisted of Trickster and Sundancer from the Travelers, with Regent, Shatterbird, maybe Victor, Grue, Imp and me. Grue’s own self-preservation or his feelings for Imp and me could cause him to play it too safe when we needed to make a decisive strike.

  “Actually-” I started to interject, but the words disappeared the secon
d everyone turned my way. Grue’s attention, in particular, was making it hard to be confident. I didn’t want to hurt him, and trying to figure out how to phrase things without hurting his feelings, raising a sensitive subject and actually saying what I wanted to say…

  We’d stepped outside. The half-finished building that loomed over the entrance to Coil’s underground base sheltered us, allowing intermittent sunlight through where plywood hadn’t yet been erected to fill the gaps. Patches of bright and dark. I turned and looked at Grue, trying to read him, to see if there was some clue about what he’d say.

  Regent spoke up, “Spit it out. Actually what?”

  “Can I?” I asked. ”Can I take point here?”

  When in doubt, keep it simple.

  “You have a plan?” Trickster asked.

  “Maybe. No, plan is the wrong word. Call it a strategy.” I was studying our group, assessing the tools we had at our disposal. “But it’s becoming a plan as I think about it, and I think Imp plays the key role here.”

  “Fuck yeah!”

  “Imp?” Trickster asked. ”Dragon can see her, can’t she? She’s the most useless person here. I mean, I know I’m not in any shape to fight, but at least my power does something.”

  “Fuck you,” Imp snarled.

  “No,” I said. ”We can definitely use her.”

  “Let’s hear the plan,” Grue said. I was relieved that there was no anger or irritation in his voice, nothing to indicate he was upset over my co-opting the leadership role.

  “The first priority will be making sure Bitch, Genesis and Ballistic are okay. I’m thinking the easiest way to do that will be to pay the heroes a visit at the PRT headquarters.”

  “Dangerous,” Grue said.

  “And it’s something Dragon will anticipate, I think,” I said. “It’s a safe bet to say she’s smart, even if the actual machines aren’t getting her full attention or if they’re dumber because their artificial intelligences don’t function at the same level as an actual human brain. She’s still organizing the suits, and she’s going to be able to anticipate that we might go for the most vulnerable elements of their operation, the local heroes.”

  “You’re thinking we go after them?”

  “We have to. The individual suits are going to be tough to take down, if not outright impossible. We can take down the local heroes and get leverage, information, or at least stop them from interfering when we go up against one or more of Dragon’s suits.”

  “Makes sense,” Trickster said. “Unless we’re putting ourselves in that worst-case scenario where we’re dealing with multiple suits plus the local heroes.”

  “It’s possible. Even here, I’m willing to bet my left hand that there’s going to be a Dragon suit parked on the roof of that building, or somewhere near by.”

  “And you’re thinking we use Imp?” Grue asked.

  I nodded. ”We can leave her there as a saboteur, maybe, or just have her in place to get information or methodically take threats out of action. But it won’t be that simple. They’ll have security cameras throughout the building. Which means we need to take them out if she’s going to walk around without a problem. Regent, can Shatterbird kill all the cameras and lights in the building without killing anyone? Nothing explosive.”

  “A gentle break? I’d have to be close. Closer if I don’t know where it is.”

  “And by ‘I’ you mean Shatterbird?” Grue asked.

  “Yeah. I can’t get that far from her though.”

  “I can probably find the location to target with my bugs. But getting Shatterbird in close means we need a distraction. So this is a two-pronged plan.”

  “The problem with that,” Grue said, “Is this is also a plan with a lot of steps, each dependent on the success of the step before it, as well as the success of the second ‘prong’. If we fuck up or run into a snag somewhere along the line, it falls apart.”

  “Yeah,” I said. ”And we’re going to be outnumbered and outgunned, even if we don’t count the squads of PRT uniforms that are going to be stationed in there. But I think we can use that to our advantage.”

  “Disguises?” Sundancer asked.

  “No. Not disguises. Let’s hurry. We’re working with a hard time limit, we have to travel on foot, and we’re going to be forced to stay out of the open as we travel.”

  ■

  Grue filled the area with darkness as we approached, and then cleared enough away for us to talk. With luck, it would help keep them from detecting us with any of the countless tools tinkers like Dragon, Chariot or Kid Win had at their disposal. Radar, thermal imaging, stuff I’d never even heard of.

  They had modified the PRT building since our last visit. The windows had been destroyed when Shatterbird had attacked the city, and were now filled with screens and plywood. PRT uniforms stood on the rooftop, observing the surrounding area. Trucks ringed the area, each with police officers, detectives in bulletproof vests and more PRT uniforms standing nearby.

  One of Dragon’s suits was perched on the rooftop of the tallest building in the area. The legs were long enough that the knees rose above the body, ending in four sharp points, and wing panels seemed to join each of the legs, like the flaps of skin between the legs of a flying squirrel. The actual body was low to the ground, with a long tail that had entwined from a point at the back of the rooftop to the front, caressing the corner closest to me. The head swiveled slowly from side to side, scanning for threats.

  It wasn’t the drone ship. Good. That would have been disastrous. But I didn’t know what this suit did. The feature that caught my eye was the wheel. As big around as the suit was long, the spoked wheel ran through the shoulders of the suit, jutting straight up. It rotated slowly, arcs of electricity occasionally flashing between the center and the edges, killing any bugs that settled on the spokes and leaving a heavy scent of ozone in their wake.

  I described the general shape for them.

  “Anyone recognize what Skitter’s describing?” Grue asked.

  “That’s not the one that came after me,” Sundancer said.

  “It’s in my territory,” Trickster said. ”Maybe she picked it to come after me?”

  “How do you counter a teleporter?” I asked.

  “With that thing, apparently,” Regent commented. ”So we’re dividing our group?”

  “Yeah,” I said. ”I’m tracking you guys with my bugs. Take your time getting into position. Better to take a bit longer than to alert them too early. Grue’s with me. Trickster, Imp and Sundancer stay here, keep out of sight at all costs. Regent and Shatterbird, you stay here in the darkness for cover until we make a move, then head out and circle around. When we’re all in place, I’ll let you know.”

  Grue and I headed out, navigating through back alleys and side streets, detouring far enough away that the curve of the road kept us out of sight of the officers stationed by the intersection, with my swarm to check for any bystanders and Grue’s darkness to keep us off the armored mech’s radar. I used my bugs to start tracking the people inside the headquarters.

  Heat and humidity were my allies here. The main floors had open areas with desks and areas with blocks of cubicles, packed with officers working elbow to elbow. They’d worked long days, judging by the heavy taste of the sweat on their skin, and they’d let food pile up. With the general warmth of summer, bugs were secretly thriving. Some vegetable mush had leaked from the trash can to the bottom of a bin, maybe spaghetti or some pizza sauce, and maggots were happily devouring a meal there. Small flies had amassed where the trash hadn’t been promptly cleared away, and piles of paper offered a home to the enterprising spiders that wanted to devour this growing population of pests.

  I’d worried I wouldn’t be able to get my bugs on everyone present without alerting them. It wasn’t a problem in the end. A small number of maggots could be delivered by a fly, dropped into the midst of an officer’s shoelaces, the pocket of their pants or the holster of their gun. From there, it was easy enough
to keep track of where they were moving and what they were doing. Counting the bodies, checking the various people inside, I could tell that Bitch, Genesis and Ballistic weren’t present. Nobody matched their build or style of dress, in costume or out.

  On the third floor the three local members of the Protectorate were in the company of the Wards, a pair of PRT uniforms and the woman I took to be the Director. Triumph seemed to be okay, I could sense the general shape of Miss Militia, as well as Assault. I didn’t spot Prism, Cache or Ursa Aurora. That was good.

  All of the Wards were present, too: Weld, Clockblocker, Flechette, Kid Win, Vista, and Chariot.

  We had two big guns. If we were willing to be monsters, to go all out, it would be a fairly simple matter to hit them with Shatterbird to slow them down, use Sundancer’s sun at maximum power, tear the building apart and incinerate the residents before everyone could clear out. It wouldn’t even be hard.

  But what was the point if we went that far? I was in this to save Dinah. It didn’t do any good if I ruined the lives of a hundred Dinahs in the process – the daughters and sisters of the employees here, fathers, mothers and other people who did nothing to get caught up in this war.

  “This spot good?” Grue asked, stopping.

  I looked around. We didn’t have a view of the building, but we did have a view of Trickster. Which is what we needed.

  “It’s good. One minute while I fill them in.”

  “Feel confident?”

  “Wish I had time to practice this before trying it in the field,” I replied.

  “Yeah,” he answered.

  I used my bugs to spell out the various information they needed. The presence and location of the armored suit, the general number and location of the enemy forces and the floors they were currently on. It took me a few minutes to spell everything out and verify that they understood.

  The plan called for a distraction. Sundancer would take the lead on that. I signaled the go-ahead, and she created her orb, shoving it down through the road’s surface. However many thousands of degrees it was, it melted through pavement and bored into whatever pipes and drainage spaces were beneath the roads.