Within the Worm Chapter 8A

Chapter 8

The Rig

Emily hoped that something really bad hadn’t happened the night before, something that seemed likely when she found Miss Militia waiting for her arrival that morning. The only thing that gave her any hope was the fact that she hadn’t been woken up, which normally should happen for any A rank or higher emergency.

“What happened?” She grumbled out, nodding to her office as she walked past the costumed hero.

Militia got the hint, of course, and fell into step with her as they made their way through the halls.

“Magus pulled a girl out of school locker last night,” Miss Militia said.

Emily blinked, as that didn’t sound like an issue worth waiting for her to arrive, “And what did he do for his next trick? Rescue a cat from a tree?”

“The locker was filled with biohazard material and she’d been locked in it since first session yesterday morning.”

The dry delivery actually staggered Emily as she stopped and turned to stair.

“All day?” She asked, getting a nod. “packed with biohazardous material?”

“rotting used tampons, feces covered toilet paper, various other things not yet identified,” Miss militia confirmed.

“Was school… cancelled yesterday for some reason?” Emily demanded, trying to figure out how this was actually possible.

Miss Militia just shook her head.

“And no one let her out? All DAY?” Piggot’s temper was rapidly resulting in a blood boil and visibly rising blood pressure.

“That is consistent with her statement and the police investigation, yes.”

“What school?” Emily demanded, her voice losing all inflection as her rising temper just flatlined in an instant.

“Winslow.”

“Of course it would be,” She grumbled. At least this insanity didn’t happen at Arcadia, where most of the Wards were. “Get Shadow Stalker in, I want to know what she knows.”

“She’ll be in school now,” Miss Militia said. “Can’t pull her out without a reason.”

Emily grumbled, but nodded, “Fine. Pick her up after school, bring her straight here. Who’s the principal at Winslow?”

“Blackwell, Ma’am.”

“Fine. Start with her. In my office, in an hour. No excuses.”

“I’ll make the call.”

“Did anything else happen last night?” Emily asked with some trepidation, sensing that Miss Militia wasn’t done.

“I spoke with Magus,” Militia confirmed. “I can second Assault’s opinion of the young man. Talented, cheerful, competent… and, possibly a Tinker.”

That caused Emily to pause, “A tink… of course, that would explain the power range, wouldn’t it?”

“Possibly, though he defines himself as an Artificer,” Miss Militia said with a slight smile.

“Of course he does,” Emily sighed. “We’ll add that to the threat assessment, but no recruiting attempts even so. Not until we have a better psych evaluation and thinker support.”

“Understood, however I took a little initiative…”

Emily shot Militia a side eye as they arrived at her office an she let them both in, walking around to take a seat behind her desk.

“Do I want to know?” She asked archly.

“Nothing crazy,” Miss Militia promised with that damnable eye crinkle smile of hers. “I merely offered some minor material support if he wanted to come in for power testing.”

Emily stared.

“And he accepted?” She finally blurted, honestly shocked.

Miss Militia tipped her head, “To be precise, after pointing out that he was well aware of his own powers, he said that he’d be wiling to show us a bit of what he can do, if we really wanted him to.”

“Lovely,” Emily sighed. “Well better than nothing, I suppose. What did you offer?”

“Some materials he needed to connect his communications device to the cell network,” Miss Militia replied.

“That’s it?” Emily was surprised. “No weapon? Exotic power reactor? Some other insanely dangerous project? Just a communications link?”

“That’s all.”

“Huh. There is something off about this one.”

*****