Interlude: Deputy Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown (Alexandria)
"...this is either outright stupidity or sabotage! I can't even count how many levels this fails on! The idea of making an agreement with the Butcher! This is even worse than making a deal with the Endbringers!" says Second Deputy Director Alan Gustaffson, fidgeting impatiently in his chair. "What was she even thinking?!"
"I see. And what do you say, Ms. Putri?" Rebecca turns her gaze to the woman. Third Deputy Director Maya Putri, of Indonesian descent, raises her eyes from her tablet and adjusts her glasses.
"I disagree with Alan," she responds. "Director Piggot acted within her authority."
"Do you even hear yourself? This is the Butcher. Okay, what could be stupider than the idea of throwing the Butcher into a fight with an Endbringer, huh? This is an apocalypse plan! What if an Endbringer kills her?! Need I remind you how the Butcher's power works? Whoever kills the Butcher becomes the next one! We're missing Leviathan or Behemoth who can teleport! Or Simurgh with the ability to always hit their target! An Endbringer with tactical thinking! Right now they just go straight ahead, but what if Tattletale's powers start directing them? What if instead of fighting capes on the battlefield, they focus their attacks on infrastructure? On vulnerable logistics points? On hospitals and supply bases?! No, the Butcher can't be allowed within cannon shot of an Endbringer fight! Within two cannon shots! Exile her to the other side of the planet!"
"How interesting you are, Alan," says Maya Putri, adjusting her glasses. "You sincerely believe that signing an agreement means the Butcher will fight Endbringers."
"It's an agreement..."
"About cooperation and observing the truce. And yes, the Butcher agreed to participate in battle. What does agreement mean – provided she actually honors it? Agreement to participate in Endbringer battle means – submission to chain of command, observing subordination, Alan. You of all people shouldn't need this explained. If the Butcher honors the agreement, we can order her to retreat from the battlefield to maximum possible distance, for example. Because she committed to following these orders during battle. And participation... many Movers participate in battle just providing logistics, healers work in hospitals, not everyone fights on the front lines. For every cape on the front there are two or three in the rear and you know this... no one forces us to use her in combat unless we decide otherwise."
"But... this is the Butcher!"
"You just have a block in your head. A wooden one. Get beyond your rigid thinking that if we get a strong cape, we must throw them at an Endbringer's face. Understand that it's better to have such an agreement than not have it. Hell, even if we take your viewpoint and assume that if an Endbringer kills the Butcher, it becomes the next Butcher and we need to keep the Butcher far away – even in that case this agreement is better than not having it."
"How is the agreement better?!"
"Because we can assume that one of the Endbringers attacks Brockton Bay, her current lair, and the Butcher might independently decide to engage the Endbringer in battle. And we have no agreement with her and it all comes down to the next Endbringer being the Butcher. However, if we have such an agreement, we can order her not to enter battle but retreat from the combat zone and help with rear support, for example. Or heal – she has such a set of abilities, as far as I remember." Maya Putri folds her arms across her chest. "Control is always better than lack thereof. If you have some tool, you can decide whether to use it or not. But if you don't have such a tool, then you're not the one deciding when and where to apply it. Because you don't have it. Don't have it at all."
"Who said the Butcher will even honor this idiotic agreement? It's just a scrap of paper, she'll throw it away and wipe herself with it!"
"And that's true." Maya Putri shrugs. "You know, your problem, Alan, is that you're ex-military, you take everything too literally. Agreements can be broken. The Butcher's history and reputation still gives us no reason for excessive optimism. However, the PRT's task comes down to saving civilian population and controlling parahuman threats. Parahuman Response Teams. The Butcher is exactly such a threat and our direct duty is to control her. Until now we couldn't do this. Not a fact that we'll succeed now either. But it's worth trying, isn't it?"
"Mark my words, this will come back to bite us..." the man grumbles. "Who will come to an Endbringer fight if the Butcher is there?"
"You're not listening to me, Alan," the third deputy director rolls her eyes. "Whether to throw the Butcher into battle or not – that's what we'll decide. Not her. If she honors her word and the signed agreement. And if she doesn't – then it's like it doesn't exist, so why the noise and screaming?"
"For the Butcher the agreement is just paper, but for us it's a document! What if people find out about this? The PRT's reputation..."
"The PRT does everything to end the Endbringer threat," Rebecca enters the conversation. "If Endbringers invade hell, the next day I'll make an alliance with Satan himself. We will cooperate with anyone capable of helping us contain and destroy this parahuman threat. That's our reputation. We'll do everything in our power. Today there are already about six hundred thousand parahumans in the world. Of them, those who can count themselves as heroes without lying to themselves – less than five percent. Five percent! If not for the Endbringer Truce Agreement – barely a tenth of the number that comes now would show up to Endbringer fights. And you understand this perfectly well." She catches her breath and sweeps her gaze over the monitors showing the deputy directors.
"Besides, if the Butcher doesn't honor the agreement – her reputation will collapse. The smart guys from the Think Tank believe that personal reputation is important to the Butcher... even if peculiar. However, one of her behavioral patterns is fearlessness. Refusing to obey commands during Endbringer battle will definitely be interpreted as cowardice and failure to honor commitments. And this will undermine her support among the Teeth and may lead to her being left alone. In both cases the PRT wins. As for her entering battle... that's another question. We'll decide it in due time, not now. Right now we have too little data to understand what result this might lead to. However, I want to note that now we have such an opportunity, while previously we simply didn't. Butcher Fifteen is a resource. Even if we ultimately fail at everything, that doesn't mean we won't try."
"I disagree with you. This whole thing smells bad and will eventually bite us in the neck. The press will make mincemeat of us. The Butcher will snap and kill hundreds of civilians, then get herself killed by an Endbringer and we're all screwed. But even worse if she suddenly takes part in battle first, survives, everyone rejoices like idiots, and she goes back to her old ways. What will we do then?" the man grumbles and turns in his chair. "Glenn! What do you say?"
"What do I say?" A portly gray-haired man shifts heavily in his chair. "I'll say that for fifteen years I worked as a negotiator in New York. The worst times, when all this Truce didn't exist yet and the Unwritten Rules didn't work. When banks were robbed almost weekly, and hostages were taken even more often. You know which ones were the hardest to deal with?"
"Fallen fundamentalists? Fallen? Or... cape psychopaths after first trigger?" Alan suggests. "I won't guess. Say what you want, now's not the time for one of your stories."
"Those who wouldn't talk," the gray-haired man replies. "You see, the most important thing in any negotiations is to start talking. Establish contact. If you've established contact – half the work is done. Then you start bargaining, they ask for a helicopter and to remove snipers from rooftops, turn on electricity and water, bring food from the nearby pizzeria, and you ask to show the hostages are alive, release children, women and elderly. You might argue, you might not reach common ground, everything might still go to hell and end in a bloodbath, but... if you're talking – you have a chance. There were guys who wouldn't talk. About anything. Didn't ask for anything, didn't take on obligations, didn't pick up phones and didn't call themselves. With them everything usually ended not just in shootouts, but more like meat grinders. Butcher Fifteen could have not talked to us. Previously the Butcher never made contact. And this is most important, Alan – that she started talking. I don't know where this agreement will lead, I don't know if she'll honor it, I don't know if we're capable of controlling her, but this is the beginning of conversation. It's like in a bank with hostages – you and she have different goals. Simply directly opposite. She wants to get out with money and hostages to guarantee her life, and you want to preserve civilian lives and put her forehead under a sniper's bullet, or force her to drop weapons and raise hands. But you're talking. That's what's important. As long as you're speaking, as long as you're communicating – everything is possible. And if we could sign an agreement with Endbringers – I'd be the first to vote for it. Because right now the scariest thing isn't their destructive potential, we have capes capable of enormous destruction, who are like weapons of mass destruction. The scariest thing about Endbringers isn't that. Because Lung alone could sink Kyushu if given free rein. But for all his quirks and limited mental abilities – you could talk to him. We all understand that essentially part of Brockton Bay was given to him to manage. If Endbringers said what they needed, if we could talk to them – everything would be completely different, Alan. So I think Emily Piggot did her job well. Not without rough edges, like this whole conflict between the Fifteen host and Armsmaster, but still."
"I still disagree. Idiotic venture," the man grumbles. "We can't guarantee... we can't guarantee anything! That the Butcher won't get inside Behemoth or Leviathan, that she'll even honor this stupid agreement, that she won't devour some journalist during a press conference after an attack. God knows what she might do! The Butcher's powers weren't the simplest to begin with, and now she can control insects too! In her hands those are real combat nano-drones! She'll give us hell yet, mark my words!"
"We're all discussing the worst-case scenarios here," says Maya Putri. "Why isn't anyone talking about the best-case scenarios? We've discussed what happens if the Butcher doesn't obey the agreement, what happens if she does obey, what happens if she encounters an Endbringer and becomes Endbringer-Butcher... but what if this agreement is a sign that the current host won't go insane and will follow rules established by the PRT for the Truce? If she starts cooperating? Seeks opportunity to gain Rogue status instead of Villain?"
"Next you'll say she'll go on our payroll. Iron her shirt and come to the office by nine. Butcher Fifteen, junior PRT operative. Or will you put her in accounting?"
"Why not? From a legal standpoint, the host has no established crimes yet, no court decisions regarding Lung and the Butcher's murders have been issued. Formally she's not yet a criminal. Could well be excessive self-defense. If she behaves well – we'll leave her alone and moreover – offer cooperation. Unofficial, under the table, but still. We have connections with all former Butchers' families, I think that would interest her. We have opportunities to make her life better... or worse. Isn't that grounds for starting communication?"
"When did the Butcher ever go to negotiations with authorities..." Alan doesn't give up. "That never happened."
"Exactly. That never happened. And now – she didn't just come, but with a lawyer. Pattern change suggests we need to change our perception too. But in which direction? Maybe toward increased danger and executing the plan to put her in medical and parahuman coma, or maybe actually hire her. I just had a secretary position open up." Maya's voice sounds dry, but the corners of her lips lift slightly, signaling the last phrase was still a joke.
"Any more questions?" Rebecca sweeps everyone with her gaze. "No. This case isn't put to vote, the decision to accept the Brockton Bay division director's report and approve the concluded agreement was made by me alone. Everyone present has the right to appeal it by filing a complaint to the Chief Director of the PRT. The meeting was purely informational. Meeting adjourned." The monitors before her go dark and she leans back in her chair, closing her eyes. She sits like that for several seconds, then opens her eyes and dials a combination on the keyboard. Listens to the rings. Finally – someone picks up on the other end. There's a click, creak and some echo that always accompanies calls on secure lines.
"Yes?" A muffled voice sounds from the speaker. The monitors show black emptiness, only audio is on.
"It's me," Rebecca says. "Heard that Fifteen appeared in your city."
"Everything's under control," comes the reply. "She's just a girl, she'll be easy to control. Heightened sense of justice, cynicism, cruelty... very reminds me of someone from the top brass. Allusions suggest themselves..."
"Are you sure you can control her?" she asks, leaning forward and clasping her fingers in front of her. "After all, she is Butcher Fifteen."
"If she's capable of dealing with Butchers, then I'm capable of controlling her," the voice responds. "It's not that difficult. She's attached to one of my employees, has sentimental attachment to her school, to her father, and that's not all. She's inclined to violence and cruelty, but she needs moral justification to do it. Revenge or restoring justice – the simplest motives. I'll give her what she needs. I have such capabilities."
"Good. Don't screw up." Rebecca presses the key, cutting the call. She knows Coil can't stand when conversations are cut off like that. Ironic that Coil himself came to them exactly like that – as a person wanting to fix system flaws. With heightened sense of justice and revenge. And they gave him such opportunity. Path to Victory became slightly closer, barely perceptibly, but still closer. Coil and his methods of maintaining order kept the city in fragile equilibrium. It never occurred to anyone that only in territories Coil controlled were drugs not sold and crimes involving violence not committed – all those robberies and attacks. And no one questioned how a cape without combat abilities could hold such huge territory, fighting off Empire Eighty-Eight with their bunch of combat capes or a monster like Lung. Simply because no one knew enough about Coil.
"Door me," Rebecca drops and straightens. Time to talk about the future.