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Missy climbed into her mom’s car. It was cleaner than normal, oddly. She tossed her backpack next to her and traded one last wave with one of her childish friends before slamming the door shut.
“Hi, Mom,” Missy said as she strapped herself in. “Can I go to work today?”
“Sure,” her mom said. “I’ll drive you.”
In the front of the car, the engine turned on with a rumble. Smoothly, the car pulled out of its parking spot and started navigating the crowds of parents picking their children up from school.
“How was school today, Missy?”
A chill shot up Missy’s spine. That wasn’t her Mom’s voice. Missy looked closer at the woman driving the car. She didn’t know why she had ever thought the woman was her mother. Instead of her mother’s blond tresses, the woman had black curls falling over her shoulders. Their faces weren’t even similar. Even sitting down, the woman was clearly taller than Missy’s mother.
“Where is my mom?” Missy asked uneasily. Had she gotten in the wrong car? But no, the woman had called her by name and hadn’t been confused when she got in.
“Safe at home,” the woman said soothingly. “She’s sleeping, and when she wakes, she will think she drove you to your workplace.”
Missy slumped a little in relief. It did mean that someone had done something to her Mom, but at least they weren’t holding her mom hostage to force Vista to do something. Yet, at least. And it sounded like they wouldn’t.
“What’s this about, then?” Vista asked. “I don’t know who you are, but you can’t have done all this just to drive me to work.”
“You’re a shaker nine,” the woman flashed smile in the rearview mirror. “We were hoping to discreetly inquire about your availability for freelance heroic work.”
It took a few moments for Vista to process the larger words. But once she understood, she flushed in flattered pleasure. Whoever these people were, they wanted Vista to work with them. And instead of going to the Protectorate or the PRT, they had come to Vista herself, like she was an adult. If the work was truly heroic, they could have gone to the adults in charge of her. If it wasn’t really heroic work, Vista would refuse.
“No one’s ever tried to do something like this before,” Vista admitted.
“Well, their loss, I suppose,” the woman shrugged. Her eyes stayed mostly on the road. “I expect you aren’t familiar with how this goes, then. If it sounds good, I can detail what we want you to do, how much we will pay, and who I represent.”
“What if I refuse to work with you?” Missy asked. “Are you going to threaten me?”
“No,” the woman said reassuringly. “All I’ll do is drop you off, and you will be free to go on with your life as if nothing happened.” The woman met Vista’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Or you activate Master/Stranger protocols and cause a massive, avoidable panic. Up to you. Regardless, we will not retaliate. You can even ask us to never contact you again, and we will respect that.”
The woman seemed quite certain about everything she was saying. That didn’t mean she wasn’t lying, Vista reflected. But it was a much better sign than if she had started with threats.
“Okay,” Vista said. She tried to channel all her experience with adult language. “I’m willing to hear your proposal.”
“Wonderful!” the woman grinned briefly before taking on a more somber air. “Are you aware of the disappearance of Dianah Abbot?”
Missy’s eyes widened against her will. Not only was Dianah a classmate of hers, but she was Triumph’s cousin. She had heard rumors of how disturbed the whole family was. Triumph had taken a brief leave of absence, only to return and throw himself into his work, harder than ever. Gallant had let slip to her that Triumph was probably hoping to discover who took Dianah by taking down all the gangs. A fool’s errand, Vista thought. She couldn’t imagine taking down all the gangs and getting that information from them. The Empire was already half gone, and the heroes hadn’t gotten much information from them. And did Triumph expect to defeat Lung, after Lung fought the whole Protectorate on his own?
But maybe, it wasn’t necessary to take down all the gangs to get Dianah back. Maybe Vista could ensure these people did it for the Protectorate.
“Where is she?” Vista demanded. She winced and added, “sorry. Do you know where she is?” Better not to antagonize her only lead.
“Our spies have discovered her location, yes,” the woman said. She shook her head without taking her eyes off the road. “She is a cape. A Thinker, we believe. She was kidnapped and brought to a secret supervillain lair to work for him involuntarily. He won’t give her up easily. That’s where you come in.”
“Yeah?” Vista prompted, leaning forward a bit against her seatbelt.
“Our spies can get into the lair, but our larger troops will need your help to sneak in,” the woman explained. “Short of digging our way in, we need a way to get through the locked doors; your ability to widen the cracks into full doorways will be perfect. You would be part of a strike team to take over a couple of important positions before the main force takes down the army of mercenaries guarding the lair.”
“Army of mercenaries?” Vista repeated, raising her eyebrows in disbelief. She would have raised just one eyebrow, but she hadn’t figured out how yet.
“Perhaps ‘army’ is a small exaggeration,” the woman admitted. “But they are all trained and well equipped and there is over a hundred of them.”
“Who employs them?” Vista asked.
“Coil,” the woman answered. “The supervillain’s name is Coil.”
Vista went quiet. She had heard of Coil; there were mandatory meetings on current criminal organizations in the Bay. But his threat level had been far lower than kidnapping the Mayor’s niece or having over a hundred mercenaries implied. He was known to use mercenaries, but their numbers were estimated to be in the low dozens at most.
“After Coil and his mercenaries are defeated, we would admit Dianah to the hospital and take the lair for ourselves,” the woman continued. “You will receive four thousand dollars for your work. However, credit will lie squarely with us. You will not be able to claim any credit for taking down Coil or rescuing Dianah. You will have to do it for the sake of money or the sake of doing heroics without the recognition that commonly comes with it.”
Vista frowned. She wanted credit. She wanted to prove she could do adult things like fight and rescue innocents from supervillains. If she helped defeat Coil, it would prove she was more than the PRT treated her as, a threat in her own right. But if that wasn’t an option, it was better to save Dianah than to refuse to, especially considering Dianah apparently needed to go to a hospital. Even if Vista didn’t get any credit.
And four thousand dollars was hardly a consolation prize. It was far more than she normally was allowed to spend on her own in a year. Earning it in a single night, taking down a supervillain, would be pretty cool even if she couldn’t tell anyone about it.
“I can handle not taking any credit,” Vista finally decided. “But I want to know why.”
“That’s fair. If you are willing work with us, rather than being unwaveringly hostile, we will have a vested interest in protecting your career which could be negatively affected by association with us.”
Vista frowned, a little confused.
“I can restate that more plainly, if you’d like,” the woman offered.
“No,” Vista shook her head. “I like being spoken to like an adult.” She also liked that the woman had given her the option, rather than just smoothing over the interaction by restating everything automatically. “You’re saying that if I act friendly to you, you’ll want to protect me from… getting in trouble with my bosses? And them knowing I worked with you would get me in trouble?”
“Exactly,” the woman sounded pleased.
“Thanks for not talking to me like a child,” Vista said. The instant it was out of her mouth, she regretted saying it. She didn’t even know who the woman was! But she was admitting to her weakness? She was so stupid!
“It would be pretty hypocritical for me to treat you like a child, considering you’re older than me,” the woman said, her voice warm with amusement.
“I’m older than you?” Vista repeated.
“Yep,” the woman confirmed, still looking like an adult.
“How old are you?” Vista asked.
“Couple of months, at this point,” the woman said casually. “My siblings and I grow up fast.”
Vista just gaped at her for a few seconds before her brain put it all together.
“You’re from the Silken Web,” Vista breathed. “Piggot suspects a biotinker with a spider theme, but they can make humans, too.”
“Oh, I do actually fit the spider theme. Look a little harder at my face,” the woman said reassuringly. “And Mother isn’t a biotinker.”
Vista looked at the woman’s face and realized, with a shock, that she had eight eyes. Four of them, two pairs, were human-looking. One pair was right where Vista would expect them, and the second was set into her temples. On her forehead, four little black spider eyes glittered like cut obsidian.
“How the hell didn’t I see that?” Vista demanded. She looked around the car. She had thought it was her mother’s car, though cleaned, but now she realized that it felt and smelled new. Not to mention there was small amounts of webbing stretched across the car’s ceiling. “You’re a stranger, aren’t you. The Silken Web can make capes.”
“Not quite,” the woman said. Her eyes in the normal place kept eye-contact with Vista while her other human two focused on the road. “But close enough.”
“If… your mother can make more of you, why hasn’t she?” Vista asked. “Why haven’t you taken over all of Brockton Bay?”
“Mother wants respect more than fear,” the woman answered. “It’s hard to garner respect from inside a quarantine zone.”
Vista opened and closed her mouth. It made a twisted sort of sense. If villains took over a city completely, there would be a lot of people moving away. If a giant horde of giant spiders took over a city, there would be an evacuation and a quarantine zone. There had already been some discussions about that, according to what Aegis had told her. But since the spiders were exclusively targeting Nazis, and otherwise not initiating hostilities, it had been deemed currently unnecessary. It sounded like the leadership of the Silken Web understood that and were working to avoid it. Probably for the best. Vista didn’t want to have to abandon her home.
“Plus, I was a bit of a fluke,” the woman continued. “I was supposed to look like Weaver. And Weaver was a bit of a fluke, too. She turned out looking like as expected, but… our whole egg sac had big personalities.”
Vista choked out a laugh. Now that Vista thought about it, the woman did have a resemblance to Vista’s fellow Ward, though she lacked Weaver’s entirely human face or her massive spider back half. If the PRT’s suspicions were correct, as the woman was suggesting, and Weaver did come from the Silken Web… Well, considering Weaver had abandoned her sisters to go be a hero, ‘big personalities’ was not an exaggeration.
“What’s your name?” Vista asked.
“Albert,” the woman, Albert, answered.
They pulled into a parking spot about a block away from the PRT HQ. For a bit, they just sat there, Vista not making a move to leave, and Albert not shooing her out of the car. Vista went over the conversation in her head. Knowing Albert was a Stranger, she wasn’t entirely sure the Silken Web needed Vista to take down Coil. Couldn’t Albert just sneak in on her own? And considering Vista suspected she had extended her power over the car they were in, Albert might be able to sneak the soldier-spiders of the Silken Web in as well. So why were they trying to get Vista’s help?
It related, Vista suspected, to their efforts to not get Brockton Bay quarantined. Working with a hero, even if they didn’t admit that, would give them a heroic contact. Once Vista had worked with them, she would be less likely to fear them and more likely to respect them. Maybe they would try similar things with the rest of the Wards and even with the Protectorate. So, Vista couldn’t trust the image they projected to her. But she could probably trust them not to hurt her, and to follow through on their side of the deal.
And, maybe, if she worked with them, they would listen to her. Both Vista and the Silken Web shared at least one goal: keeping Brockton Bay from being quarantined. Vista might be able to convince them to become heroes or at least not as evil as they might otherwise become.
“How would I get in contact with you, if I wanted the job?” Vista asked.
Albert shifted, turning around to pass a business card to her. To Vista’s confusion, it was for an ice cream shop.
“Go to that roof, alone,” Albert explained. “One of us will meet you there.”
“What time?”
“Whenever you feel comfortable. Though preferably within a week’s time.”
Vista put the card in her pocket and opened the door. She slid out, dragging her backpack with her.
“Have fun at work,” Albert called after her. It sounded exactly like something her mom would say.
“Thanks,” Vista responded automatically.
She slammed the door shut. Moments later, the car engine turned back on and it pulled out of the parking spot.
Vista walked away, towards the HQ.
She already knew she wouldn’t raise the alarm.