Snek is a Good Boy
Part Thirteen: Snek Eyes Means You Lose
[A/N: This chapter commissioned by Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
Afternoon of May 16, 2011
Offices of DC&H
Taylor
Mr Howe was a very self-controlled individual who I personally suspected could look a person over and estimate their monetary worth to within ten dollars. Throughout the entire process of gathering information for the lawsuit, he had always exuded the air of being on top of the situation at all times. I understood that giving this impression was specifically part of his job, but all the same, it had reassured me.
This was the first time I had seen him rattled. It was a surreal experience.
Pulling on a pair of white cotton gloves, he carefully lifted Shadow Stalker's mask out of the paper bag I'd been carrying it in and turned it over in his hands. "Oh, my," he murmured. "Are those electronics in the eyeholes?"
"I'm not sure," I confessed. "I'm pretty sure it's Tinkertech, and I don't want to make it break or blow up or whatever, so I haven't been poking at it."
"That is an undoubtedly wise course of action," he agreed. "While I have never met Shadow Stalker in person, I would agree without a doubt that this is a genuine article of superhero costumery." He set the mask down, then gingerly picked up the crossbow, still loaded with one of the tranquilliser arrows. I noted that his finger never went anywhere near the trigger. "Explain to me, please; how exactly did you come by these items, and what do they have to do with the case at hand?"
Dad and I glanced at each other. If we were to bring this into the main case, we would have to fill in Mr Howe on my powers and super identity. Fortunately, DC&H listed parahuman law as one of their specialties. At Dad's nod, I took a deep breath. "I am also a parahuman. Can you deal with that, or do we have to bring in someone else?"
To my relief, he took it better than being shown the mask and the crossbow. Carefully setting the weapon down, ensuring that it wasn't pointed anywhere near either of us, he interlaced his hands before him. "I am entirely capable of dealing with it, Miss Hebert. Kindly relate the story from the very beginning."
"Okay, then." I thought back, trying to decide what was relevant and what was not. "You know who Snek is, right?"
Mr Howe chuckled dryly. "Miss Hebert, I would venture to say that there are more people in the world today who know of Snek than there are who do not. I am not a fan of snakes in general, but for that particular reptile, I shall make an exception. Please, go on."
"Okay. Well, I've gone out in costume with him a couple of times, and he came by last night. We spotted some muggers threatening a bunch of girls, so I decided to intervene …"
Gradually, I led him through the events of that evening until we got to the point where Shadow Stalker escaped without her mask. In the process of this, of course, I had to explain that I went by the name of Lady Swarm. He accepted all this without a qualm, jotting down the occasional note.
"Very interesting," he said at the end. "You acquitted yourself well, I think. And you say that your body-cam recorded Shadow Stalker's face after Snek took her mask but before she fled, and upon examination of the footage, you discovered her to be one of your tormentors?"
"I did, yeah," I said. "Do you want to see?"
He held up both hands hastily. "Ah, no," he said, his tone apologetic. "While I
am permitted to act on behalf of those parahumans who willingly reveal their identities to me, that is one thing. If a known hero's powered identity is revealed to me
without their knowledge, I may not make any use of that information unless specifically empowered to do so by the Parahuman Response Teams."
"But she's not a hero," I said quickly. "Not acting the way she does."
Mr Howe tilted his head in acknowledgement. "True, but the public perception of her is that she
is one," he reminded me. "We have to prove otherwise, remember?"
Dad nodded, as though he'd half-expected this. "So, before we can fold this into the current case, we have to go talk to the PRT anyway? The people that Shadow Stalker more or less works for?"
"That is the situation in a nutshell, yes," Mr Howe agreed. "I agree that it would appear to be a system ripe for coverups and brushing such matters under the rug. In fact, a more cynical person than myself might even venture to suggest that it was set up that way in the first place on purpose. However, your course is clear; this needs to be taken to Director Piggot, to see if she can handle that matter in-house before we add it to the ongoing case."
"And if she stonewalls us, or tries to brush the whole thing under the rug, as you put it?" Dad and Mr Howe aside, I didn't have a great opinion of authority figures.
"Then we open a second lawsuit," Mr Howe explained. "One to be held behind closed doors, citing the PRT for criminal negligence in allowing Shadow Stalker to carry out her delinquent activities when she should by rights be under constant supervision." He paused at our looks of surprise. "Oh, didn't you know? She was considered to be a dangerous vigilante, and it was only due to someone speaking up for her at a legal hearing that she was shunted sideways into the Wards rather than remanded to juvenile detention."
I rolled my eyes. "Well,
that's a miscarriage of justice if I ever heard of one."
Dad had an intent look in his eyes. "Who spoke up for her?"
Mr Howe grimaced. "I would tell you if I could, Mr Hebert, but that risks delving into the specifics of a case that has little bearing on this one."
That was when I had my epiphany. "I bet I know," I said quietly. "If I say a name and it's
not the person, can you shake your head, please?"
"Just one name, please," Mr Howe decided. "This is edging into legally dubious territory as it is."
I nodded. "Sure. Alan Barnes."
Mr Howe locked his gaze on mine, and did not shake his head.
"Son of a
bitch," whispered Dad. "Taylor, how did you know?"
"She's been hanging out with Emma all this time, and who better to give her a glowing character reference than a lawyer who has a reason to help her out, such as her best friend's dad?" I shrugged. "As soon as I thought of it, it made perfect sense to me."
Dad nodded. "It does. It really does. Once this lawsuit is done with, I'm going to be asking Alan some very stringent questions."
"As is your right," agreed Mr Howe. "But until then, we have other matters to deal with. Allow me to suggest ways and means to approach Director Piggot on the Shadow Stalker situation …"
<><>
At That Moment
Elsewhere in the United States
Butcher
"Hey, Butcher," jibed Spree. "You hear about that giant snake killing an Endbringer? I thought those things were unkillable."
"Only 'cause I never tried killing one," Butcher boasted. "Not worth it."
"Not
worth it?" Hemorrhagia finished off her beer and belched. "Damn, girl. You need to fix your priorities. If we offed an Endbringer, they'd be serving us all the pussy, dick and cash we wanted on a silver platter. Not worth it, my ass."
"But we can
take all that, any time we want," insisted Butcher. "Endbringers are just doin' their own thing, like we are. I don't fuck with them, they don't fuck with me."
"Well, that snake certainly fucked with them." Vex used a couple of her force fields to slice meat off the leg of ham she was holding. "Chowed down on Leviathan like a Christmas turkey."
Animos nudged Reaver in a '
watch this' manner. "Hey, Butcher? I bet you can't kill the snake."
"Yeah," chimed in Reaver. "Just wouldn't be worth it. It'd piss off too many people. Besides, he's way too tough. I mean, I wouldn't blame you for backing off."
The
crunch as Butcher's beer can crumpled in her suddenly clenched fist was drowned out by the
fssss as the beer in it sprayed across the room. Slowly, Butcher sat up and looked around. "Fuckin'
what did you just say to me?"
"Ah, nothing, nothing," Reaver claimed, affecting innocence in the whole matter. "Just shootin' the breeze, is all."
"Yeah," Animos added. "I mean, you wouldn't really want the hassle, would you? Besides, I mean, fuck, the thing's gotta be sixty foot long."
Butcher gave them both an extremely unimpressed look. "Don't think I don't know what you two clowns are up to," she growled. "You're full of shit, both of you."
"You're totally right. You're absolutely right," Animos assured her. "But you know, I was just thinking about its teeth."
"Oh, hell yes," agreed Reaver. "Some of those are as long as your damn arm. Can you imagine how much more badass we'd look with some of those fangs hanging off us?"
Butcher opened her mouth, paused, then closed it again. "Let me see that fuckin' wannabe sock-puppet again."
"Here." Reaver had his phone open, and was calling up one of the many images of Snek with his mouth open. "Look at those things, huh?"
The teeth on the giant snake were indeed impressive, and Butcher thought about it. In the back of her head, a few voices counselled caution, but were shouted down by the rest. The consensus was almost unanimous.
It's just an overgrown garter snake. We can take it.
"Okay, fine," she conceded. "Let's go snake hunting. But
I get first crack."
Animos and Reaver shared a high-five. "
Fuck yes."
<><>
Saturday, May 21, 2011
PRT Building
Taylor
It felt weird to be walking down the sidewalk in broad daylight, wearing my Lady Swarm costume. The Saturday morning foot traffic around the PRT building gave me looks ranging from
'shit, it's a cape' to
'okay, it's a cape, but which one?'. I had vaguely hoped that someone would give me a sign of recognition, but it seemed the public was still in the dark about Lady Swarm.
If I felt weird, Dad had to be undergoing an even more surreal experience, as he was currently wearing a jacket that gave him considerably more bulk than normal, and a cloth mask over his eyes. There was no way he wasn't going to be at the meeting with Director Piggot, and if he came undisguised, it would be too easy to derive my identity from his. I couldn't discount the possibility that the PRT had other means of figuring out who I was, but there was no sense in making it
easy for them.
Mr Howe, the third member of our little group, wore neither disguise nor mask. He knew my identity and Dad's as well, but even if the Director herself asked him who we really were, he was legally permitted (and required, unless we gave permission) to politely tell her to go to hell. Of the three of us, he seemed to be the most at ease, which meant that either his career had put him in some odd situations … or he was just really good at acting.
We approached the front doors, which slid aside smoothly to allow us entry. Mr Howe took point immediately, giving the guards a genial smile and approaching the reception desk. "Good morning," he greeted the lady behind the desk. "I'm Harold Howe, of DC&H. I believe my clients and I have an appointment with your Director in approximately twenty minutes?"
From the way her eyes widened, she knew the name of Mr Howe's firm. It wasn't a happy widening, which meant DC&H had history with the PRT, possibly on the other side of contentious lawsuits. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but at the very least we definitely had their attention now.
"Let me just check on that," she said, typing something into her terminal. "A few issues have come up today, and the Director may not be immediately available … ah."
Mr Howe raised his eyebrows. "Young lady, I do hope that is an optimistic 'ah'. If Director Piggot has decided to duck out of this appointment so as to avoid a problematic encounter with me, her wish will in no way be granted."
"No, no," the receptionist said hastily. "It looks like she knew she'd be busy, so she arranged for Deputy Director Renick to take the appointment in her stead."
"Hm." Mr Howe seemed to consider that. "We shall see how that goes."
With a look of relief on her face, the receptionist nodded. "Would you like to go up, sir?"
<><>
PRT Building, Conference Room A
Danny
The room was spacious, with a table large enough to seat maybe twenty people. Moreover, the chairs were actually comfortable. At one end was an impressively large wall-screen, while one side wall was taken up with a gigantic whiteboard. Mr Howe seemed to be content to go through his notes for the meeting, but Taylor kept stealing glances around the room. Interestingly enough, she was almost entirely ignoring the PRT guard who had accompanied them up in the elevator and was now standing near the door.
"Everything okay?" asked Danny, leaning in toward her. He lowered his voice for the question, but had no doubt the guard heard him anyway; the sound quality in here was amazing.
"Oh, sure," she said, keeping her voice down as well. "I was just counting the cameras. Six, if you're interested. And two extra microphones."
"Really?" asked Mr Howe, looking around. "I was always curious about that. One imagines that they would not build a room like this without cameras, but my eyes are not as good as they once were."
Danny had other issues in mind. "Are they live? Are we being recorded right now?"
Taylor didn't hesitate. "They're live, yes. Recorded? I can't tell."
"Well, that's good enough for me." Danny nodded to the body-cam Taylor was wearing. "Turn that on. If they're going to record us, then we're going to record them."
"Right." Taylor fiddled with it; given the entire lack of background noise in the room, the tiny
click was clearly audible. "Recording."
Mr Howe raised his head. "I'm curious. How can you tell that they're live?"
"Static electricity and magnetic fields," Taylor said at once. "Some bugs are sensitive to that sort of thing." She paused. "I could mess with them if you liked. Make sure that all they see and hear are bug butts and buzzing wings."
"As tempting as that is … perhaps not. At least not today." Mr Howe glanced at the guard. "We don't want to start this meeting off on an adversarial note."
Danny nodded. "Let's extend the Deputy Director the courtesy of believing that he's going to be acting in good faith today, and do the same." He, too, looked at the guard. "Where
is he, anyway? It's been nearly twenty minutes."
"There's three people coming right now," Taylor said. "Two are in costume, one's not."
True to her word, the door clicked open about fifteen seconds later. A man Danny assumed to be Deputy Director Renick—tall, greying, careworn—entered, followed by a costumed young man in a lion's head mask and another in a rust-red costume with silver highlights and a shield on his chest. The latter pair he recognised:
Triumph and Aegis.
Instinctively, Danny stood, along with Howe. It wasn't so much deference as a little harmless courtesy. Taylor followed suit, a moment later.
"Good morning, lady and gentlemen." Renick went to the head of the table and took a seat there. "Please, sit." He gestured to the two capes with him, and they went to the far side of the table.
Mr Howe got himself settled again and beamed at their host. "Deputy Director, good to see you again."
"Mr Howe. I hope I'll be able to say the same about this meeting. You were somewhat vague, mentioning a problematic Ward …?" Renick let the question hang in the air.
"Yes, I did. But first, allow me to get the introductions out of the way." Mr Howe gestured to Taylor. "This is Lady Swarm; she's been on the news once or twice. And this gentleman is here on behalf of Lady Swarm, and can be referred to as John Doe."
"Ah." Renick gave Taylor a friendly nod. "Always happy to meet a new hero in the city. Has anyone suggested yet that you join the Wards?"
"We discussed it," Danny said firmly. "And we decided that it wasn't for her."
Renick looked a little taken aback by his no-nonsense tone. No doubt his experience was more along the lines of parents trying to convince their kids to join. "Thank you, Mr Doe. Any particular reason for that?"
"Yeah." Taylor kept her voice level. "Several. A couple of which also count as our reasons for being here today." She gave Renick a nod in return, given that he was unable to see her expression. "So, did we want to get this started?"
"Certainly," agreed Renick. "Just as a side note, Triumph is here as an obligatory member of the Protectorate for meetings like this, and Aegis is the current leader of the Wards."
"Understood." Mr Howe cleared his throat. "So, to commence. My client, Lady Swarm, was out on patrol on the evening of the fifteenth, and she encountered Shadow Stalker while in the process of saving a group of ladies from some muggers. Specifically, it was Lady Swarm doing the saving. Shadow Stalker was observing and doing nothing." He paused expectantly.
Aegis went to speak, then stopped and held up a finger. "Uh … can I say something?"
"You may," Mr Howe said graciously.
"Thank you. Shadow Stalker is kind of … well, I've never known her to back down from a fight. Just saying. Triumph?"
"Me neither." The young man, even when not using his power, had a deep and resonant voice. "She's very much a go-getter. Standing back and doing nothing doesn't sound like her at all."
"Thank you for those observations," Renick said, clearly pleased at the way the capes were defending their teammate. "What happened next?"
Mr Howe nodded in acknowledgement. "After Lady Swarm had subdued the muggers and sent fireflies to lead the ladies to safety, she invited Shadow Stalker—whose presence she'd already noted—down into the alley to talk to her. Shadow Stalker came down and immediately began shooting the
subdued and bound muggers with what I presume were tranquilliser arrows from her crossbows. Lady Swarm protested this, and an argument developed." He raised his eyebrows. "Those
are tranquilliser arrows, yes?"
"To the best of my knowledge," agreed Renick. "Aegis?"
The young hero nodded. "She uses tranquillisers, yes, sir."
"Good. We are once more on the same page." Mr Howe smiled. "During the course of the argument, Shadow Stalker made several statements and performed actions which call into question her status as a hero. Specifically, she said she was delaying the rescue to see if the victims would fight back; that she was going to claim the entire bust as her own because as a Ward she was untouchable; and that the lawyers available to the PRT would bury Lady Swarm if she tried to allege anything different. During this time, she directly threatened Lady Swarm with her crossbow."
"That's … a series of very damaging allegations." The statement from Renick sounded almost reflexive. "While I have nothing against you, young lady, do you have anything to back that up?"
"Aside from my unsupported word?" Taylor picked up the shopping bag she'd been carrying when she came in. "Because I'm pretty sure you'd accept hers. But okay, here, have some proof. You see, I wasn't out and about on my own. I was with Snek. He took this from her just as she was about to shoot me with it." She took the crossbow out and placed it on the table, making an audible
clunk. As with the time Mr Howe had handled it, she made sure not to point it at anyone. The sudden inhalation from Renick and both capes should have been amusing, but neither she nor Danny were smiling. "And then, when he said he was going to put her in a cell for Director Piggot to deal with, she made a run for it, but not before he snagged this." The mask followed the crossbow onto the table.
Aegis' eyes were wide behind his helmet visor. "That is
not the story she told about how she lost those things."
"Those are Shadow Stalker's, then? There's no doubt about it?" Renick suddenly sounded much less sure of himself.
"Short of actually taking them into Kid Win's lab and disassembling them, I believe so, sir." Triumph was just as taken aback. "I'd know them anywhere."
"Well, is Shadow Stalker in the building?" the Deputy Director asked. "I very much want to hear her side of this."
From the tone of his voice, so did Aegis. "She's on console duty," he reported. "She claimed to have been ambushed and beaten up when she lost the crossbow and mask, and she's been limping ever since, so I've had her on light duties."
"I see." Renick turned to the guard at the door. "Send word to have Shadow Stalker attend this meeting, as soon as possible," he ordered. "No other details than that."
"No weapons, please," interjected Mr Howe. "I would very much rather not find out what those tranquilliser arrows feel like first-hand."
The guard turned his helmet toward Renick, and he nodded. "Definitely no weapons."
"
Yes, sir." The guard began mumbling into his radio.
<><>
Taylor
I knew it would only be a few minutes before Shadow Stalker arrived, but time seemed to stretch on interminably. Dad put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a companionable squeeze, which served to calm my nerves somewhat. No squads of armoured PRT troopers seemed to be rushing through the corridors toward us, which seemed to be a good sign.
And then my bugs spotted her, stepping out of the elevator on our level. Even with their crappy eyesight and hearing, there was no mistaking the proud stance and the angry walk, especially when I added in my knowledge of Sophia Hess. But she wasn't coming to us as Sophia. With what I had to assume was a brand-new mask (and probably crossbows, elsewhere) she was all Shadow Stalker right now.
"She just got out of the elevator," I announced for the benefit of everyone else in the room.
Triumph and Aegis, who had been conferring in low tones, sat up and stared at me. Deputy Director Renick also raised his eyebrows. "I thought you were an insect-centric Master, not a Thinker?"
I shrugged. "I control bugs. Bugs go everywhere. Their sight and hearing is crap, but I can usually put together a picture when I want to."
"I … see." He seemed about to say more, but right then the door opened and Shadow Stalker stomped in. The limp Aegis had alluded to seemed to have mysteriously vanished.
"Okay, I'm here," she announced. "What's the big—holy shit!
You!" Dramatically, she pointed at where I sat with the mask and crossbow in front of me. "That's her! That's the one who ambushed me and kicked the shit out of me! Fuckin'
arrest her already!"
"Oh, come
on," I said derisively. "I never laid a hand on you, and you know it."
"Shadow Stalker," Deputy Director Renick stated firmly. "Lady Swarm here has made severe allegations regarding your conduct on the night that you lost your crossbow and your mask. Would you like to revisit your statement about that night?"
I thought I saw, through the eyeholes of her mask, a hunted expression. But even if she was indeed feeling pressured, she was a damn good actor. "Hell no, sir. Whatever she says, she's lying. She ambushed me and stole my stuff."
Mr Howe cleared his throat. "If I may, Deputy Director?" Reaching into his briefcase, he brought out a thumb drive. "I assure you, it is clear of any malware."
Renick gave him an austere smile as he took the drive. "I accept your assurance, but the regulations state that the room will be isolated from the rest of the building while playing media from outside the PRT. Let's see now …"
Reaching under the table, he must have plugged the drive in somewhere, because the screen at the far end of the room came to life. A few clicks and taps from Renick's end brought up the video, starting from when Snek and I had first noticed the mugging, and I'd told him to hang back. Even then, Shadow Stalker had been visible on the rooftop.
The camera on the faux pendant was good quality, and even in the low-light environment it got a sharp picture. Everyone else watched as the footage rolled through; I was more interested in keeping an eye on Shadow Stalker with my bugs. I didn't give a damn if she made a bolt for it, because that would immediately put her on the PRT's radar. But if she tried to hurt me and got Dad instead, I would have no mercy whatsoever.
It stopped just at the point where Snek scored her mask, leaving the exposure of her face ambiguous. There was a clear shot of her just a couple of frames on, but I didn't want to have that debate right now. Nobody there seemed to remark on it, which was good. Instead, Deputy Director Renick turned to Shadow Stalker, who had to be sweating bullets right now.
"Very well. The evidence does seem to be conclusive. What do you have to say for yourself?"
From my point of view, Shadow Stalker had two options: either to confess, or to make a run for it. She did neither. Pointing at me dramatically, she declared, "She's lying. Where did she get the footage from? It had to be computer generated."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, come
on. I'm wearing a
body cam. For crying out loud, stop lying."
Adamant, she shook her head. "You're the one who's lying. I'm being framed here." The sheer amount of chutzpah it took for her to deny the evidence before her eyes was breathtaking. If I didn't know for a fact that she was bullshitting as hard as she could, I would've been taken in.
Somewhere deep inside, I'd figured that bringing the evidence, both physical and digital, would be the end of it. I knew that Renick had believed me, but the rock-solid assurance in Shadow Stalker's tone was shaking that belief ever so slightly. He looked over at her. "So, what's your side of the story, Shadow Stalker? How did your encounter with Snek go?"
I tried not to let the frustration well up inside me. They were actually going to
listen to her bullshit? Her casual dismissal of my body cam as evidence? What did I need to have in order for them to just
accept what I had to say?
"Hah, he wasn't even there," she said boldly, angering me even more. "Why would something as powerful as that even go near someone like Lady Swarm? He's a hero. She's not."
"Snek. Was. There," I gritted, trying not to shout.
She sneered at me. "Prove it."
There was a
thump-thump-thump on the doors. Puzzled, Renick glanced in that direction, and gestured for the guard to open them. When he did, Snek poured himself in through the open doorway, smiling as broadly as he ever did. He still wore his cute little hat.
"Hello, buzzy-bug girl!" he said happily. "Hello, buzzy-bug girl father. Hello, sshadow girl. Ssnek hass come to help."
"Hi, Snek!" I got up and went around the table to give him a skritch behind the jaw, just where he liked it. As I did, I noted that Shadow Stalker had backed all the way off. "It's good to see you."
"Iss good to ssee you too, buzzy-bug girl. Masster sspell tell Ssnek you need help. How can Ssnek help?"
"Oh, wow." He'd come here just to help me out? Snek really
was a good boy. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Ssnek iss eating bad men. Chassing Butcher. Will catch anyway. Head sstart makess more fun. Ssnek help?"
"Ah, yeah." I gestured to Deputy Director Renick. "This is Mr Renick. He's shadow girl's boss. Can you tell him what happened when we met shadow girl?"
"Ssnek can do that." He turned his immense head toward Renick. "Hello, misster Renick. Ssnek iss with buzzy-bug girl when sseess bad men with ladiess. Alsso sseess sshadow girl sitting on roof, not helping. Buzzy-bug girl sstopss bad men, helpss ladiess. Sshadow girl comess down, sshootss bad men with twang-arrow weapon, buzzy-bug girl sstopss her. Sshadow girl pointss twang-arrow weapon at buzzy-bug girl. Ssnek takess weapon, putss in not-eat place. Ssnek deccidess that sshadow girl iss bad persson, belongss in ccell, but sshadow girl runss away. Ssnek getss massk before sshe goess."
The Deputy Director blinked. "Well … that does seem kind of straightforward. Shadow Stalker?"
"He's lying!" she blurted desperately. "They're all lying!"
"I really don't think Snek knows how to lie," I said. "I mean, just
look at this face." I gestured at Snek's broad, honest visage. "Is that the face of a liar?"
Snek suddenly
blurred forward, twisting as he went. There was a
snap and a cut-off yelp from Shadow Stalker as Snek's head disappeared into another portal. Then he pulled back, minus Shadow Stalker, looking rather pleased with himself.
"… what?" asked Aegis. "What happened? Where did she go?"
"Ssnek ssmelled sshadow girl wass about to run, sso Ssnek put her in prisson ccell for misster Renick and blue ssuit lady," explained the giant snake in a rather matter of fact tone. "Sshe ran one time, but not two timess."
"Oh. Right." Renick blinked and shook his head. "I suppose that will definitely have to do."
"Doess buzzy-bug girl need more help?" Snek looked up at me. "Bad men sstill to chasse. Iss fun."
"Ah," said Triumph. "If you're fighting Butcher, don't kill her, please. Killing her means she infects other people with what makes her bad."
Snek nodded. "Ssnek will remember. Will take to Masster to fix. Thank you, cat head boy. Goodbye, buzzy-bug girl, buzzy-bug girl father."
"Bye, Snek," I said. "And thanks. You're a good boy." I gave him a hug, and a snoot-boop for good measure.
"Buzzy-bug girl iss welcome." Snek wriggled backward out of the room, then pulled the door shut with his multi-branching tongue.
Cautiously, the guard opened it again and peered out. "
It's gone," he reported.
"Yeah, he does that." I dusted my hands off. "So, are we done here?"
Deputy Director Renick shared a resigned look with Mr Howe. "Yes. I suppose we are."
And so, I knew, was Sophia Hess.
End of Part Thirteen