Broker
Chapter 293

With the introduction of the judges, the participating heroes split up to talk strategy with one another ahead of the event. Sonya, for her part, had a few more matters to take care of before she could properly enjoy the fruits of her labor. The first was meeting with a particularly prestigious individual who was waiting for her in the main observation fort just outside of the walls. The room was little more than a break lounge used by those who were assigned to the walls and already had the marks of numerous residents.

She spotted a small carving on one of the wooden chairs set up around the long meal table and smiled, running her finger along Snow’s personal symbol of a pixelated snowflake. She glanced up from it as the only other person in the room got to his feet. He was an older man with graying hair and a sharp wit in his eyes that brought a smile to her face. He grinned at her in return and extended a hand. “Sonya Chernovna, at long last!”

“President Narula,” she said fondly, taking his hand and squeezing it.

Analyze.

<You have acquired a new Product: People Before Pride>

It suits him.

“It has been two years,” he said, giving her hand a firm shake before gesturing to the chairs. “You acted so quickly for my people. Those weapons and  gear could not have come at a darker hour.”

She pulled out a chair and sat down. “I only wish I could have done more.”

“You did more than the entire world could manage at that time,” he said with a small nod. “This has not been forgotten.” He barked out a small laugh and gestured around himself. “Now we are here, and the time is right to cleanse our land of this stain.”

“I’ve brought a lot of sources of mana into your country, Mister President,” she said carefully, looking him in the eyes. “This won’t be as simple as just cleaning up a spill.”

He nodded. “I know. The surrounding region has already been evacuated, and my top heroes have finished closing the neighboring dungeons. Mana storm or no, this will be the end.”

She let out a breath of relief. “That’s wonderful news. It’s been a busy few days, and I could use a little more good news.”

He frowned. “Ah, yes, my representative told me about the vote to sanction you on the Indonesia deal and push you out of some of those countries. A no-travel ban or just a business restriction?”

“They slapped me with the no-travel ban. I hit back with a block from my services,” she said with a shrug.

“Rash,” he said with a nod, “but sometimes the harsher blow gets the point across, yes.”

She smiled. “Oh, the EU has laws about this kind of thing,” she said dismissively and waved her hand. “They’ll sue, Colin will countersue, and we’ll keep it going as long as necessary. I’ll pay a few fines, and they’ll come crawling back.”

He chortled. “Yes, that’s politics for you. It is a shame it has to go that way, but the Pandora Committee has gotten powerful in two years. The cretins that nepotism put into the role of Representative will be replaced sooner rather than later,” he huffed. “It’s no surprise they were put there first. Few took the Committee seriously in the beginning.”

“It changed quickly,” Sonya agreed, brushing back a strand of hair over her ear. “You didn’t make that mistake. I hear Representative Ansari is a hard woman.”

His expression went grim. “I saw its importance first hand.”

She looked down at the table. “Yes, you did.”

The two of them held a brief moment of silence before he pushed a slip of paper across the table towards her. She took it and looked it over briefly, furrowing her brows. “What is this?”

“That is an order I will issue after this matter is done,” he said with a big smile. “To award you with the Nepal Ratna and make you an honorary citizen of our nation. No matter what happens, you have friends here in Nepal. We will shelter you if the time comes.”

“Shelter me?” she asked incredulously. “No offense, Mister President, but I think-”

He held up a hand and winked at her. “Just watch the event today. You may be impressed with one of our young rising stars.” He paused, and his smile grew a bit wicked. “Also, if that bastard Ma is here, make sure he gets a front row seat in the viewing space.”

Her eyes widened, and she reached forward to squeeze his hand. “I think I’ve made a good friend today, Mister President.”

“Please, call me Ragav.”

“Then make sure to call me Sonya.”

–

Sonya’s next stop was much more anticipated than she’d initially expected. She wanted to meet with the judges and share a few words, but now she had many more reasons to see them. The lounge that had been hastily constructed for them was a lot nicer than the one that she had secretly met with the Nepalese President in. A large square room with a circular couch built around a heavy table laden with one of Amos’ new projectors. It was already displaying a steady feed of the grounds around the wall, the drones picking faces from the crowd for future association.

The rear of the room had a kitchenette set up, and a doll was already at work preparing a meal for those who had decided to settle in right away. Only two of the judges were present when she stepped inside. Greg was sitting on the couch, watching the holographic monitors with rapt interest as he made small adjustments to the chunky gauntlet he had been wearing when he arrived. He glanced her way and smiled but didn’t get up right away, his eyes shifting to the spot to the left of the door.

Sonya turned to Lillian and met her orange eyes.

Lillian was still in full armor, her back against the wall and her arms crossed. Her eyes looked far more sunken compared to how strong she’d appeared when she did her speech. Still, her shoulders were strong and straight. She let out a sigh and gave Sonya a weak smile. “How’d I do?” she asked.

Sonya grinned at her and clapped her arm. “You were great. The spitting image of your teacher. Drill Sergeant is a good look for you,” she chuckled. “I bet Snow likes it.”

Lillian barked out a laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, she sure does.”

They both stood in an awkward silence for a heartbeat, and Sonya looked to the black bar on the hero’s shoulder. “Why don’t we sit down?”

Lillian nodded, and the two of them went over to join Greg, who slipped his gauntlet back on and leaned back in his seat, his easy-going expression turning stormy. Sonya settled in and took a deep breath. She could have done any manner of digging to find out what happened, but something told her she needed to hear it from them. She needed to have a genuine reaction. There are some things that are just impossible to fake.

“We lost Val,” Lillian said quietly.

Sonya sat up. She was expecting all sorts of bad news, but Val? “What?” she breathed. “What happened?”

“We were in Dharan when we got the news,” Lillian said. “They had to match him against genetics.”

Sonya swallowed hard and slumped back in her seat. Val wasn’t the biggest hero in the world. He’d chosen not to join up on Team Crusader’s adventures in favor of looking out for the little guy as a patrol hero. He was happy with his job and was doing a great job with his streaming. It even had the added benefit of showing ordinary people the kind of work heroes did, which encouraged more heroes to sign up. That young man was nothing but a net positive for the world. Who the hell could have done this? Why?

“Any word on the investigation?” Sonya pressed, her expression hard.

Lillian glanced at Greg. “Officially, no. There was an incident with a local named villain a few hours later, and they were arrested. Their powers are a match for the kind of…” She swallowed. “...the kind of damage done to his body.”

Greg’s expression hardened even more, and his fists turned into tight balls. Sonya watched his face and looked at Lillian. “It’s too clean.”

Greg was on his feet. “Damn right it’s too clean!” he barked. “No way a lowlife like that could take out Val! It’s impossible!”

“Greg,” Lillian said patiently, “she knows.”

Greg let out a breath and ran his hands over his head before sitting down. “Sorry.”

Sonya leaned forward and put a hand on his knee. “I’m with you guys,” she said. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.” She turned to Lillian. “You said ‘officially.’ What’s the unofficial word?”

Lillian looked at Greg again and then reached into a pouch on her belt. She pulled a small black case out and set it on the table between them. “Snow found this at the crime scene, the real crime scene. His body was moved, but some of his blood was found on top of a nearby building inside a shack. The rest was washed away by snow.”

Sonya picked it up and opened it. Inside was a tiny SD card barely longer than her fingernail. She took it up gently between her fingers and turned it over. “...Is this Val’s?”

“Yes, it's got his recordings on it.”

Sonya looked at Lillian. “Then you know who-”

Lillian shook her head. “Watch the last video.”

Sonya turned to Amos’ projector, and with a little work, found the spot where she could slip in a card. It slid inside, and after fiddling with the remote, she got the final video on the card to play. It showed his point of view as he flew through the air towards another location. There was no accompanying commentary, just the muffled rush of wind. He landed on top of a building and looked around before spotting a small shack. There was a figure standing inside but she couldn’t make it out. The image was distorted.

<”Hey! BRZZT! I was just about to go looking-”>

The image grew grainier and more indistinct. Parts of the building went missing. It was as if explicit detail was being scrubbed away in real time. She saw a second person standing across from the first, something connecting them, but it was too hard to tell. 

Sonya forced herself not to hop to her feet. She’d seen this before. She knew this effect. So many times in the previous timeline. So many instances. There was only one person who could ruin footage like this that she knew of.

<”Kraven? BRRZZT, what are you doing?”>

A new face appeared for half a second before vanishing like air. There was an emptiness in the footage as if there should have been something present, but there just wasn’t anything. Then the clip ended with an error. <Card Ejected.>

“He saw something he wasn’t supposed to and knew he wasn’t going to get away,” Lillian said evenly. “He ejected the card so someone could find it. His last thought was making sure there was evidence.”

Greg was on his feet again, marching away from the couch. His hands opened and closed with barely restrained fury as Sonya took out the card and passed it back to Lillian. Lillian cradled it in her palm. “It’s too messed up to really serve as proper evidence. There are no faces, and if anything, it just confirms that Kraven was the one who did it.”

“But who was Kraven talking to?” Greg demanded. “And the other guy?”

Lillian looked over her shoulder at Greg before looking back at Sonya. “I have some questions, Sonya. If you can answer them.”

Sonya’s chest tightened a little as she leaned back and nodded. “Fire away.”

Lillian licked her lips and glanced towards the door before looking back at Sonya. “Did you hear about the guildmaster that got killed in Perth? Apparently he died fighting one of Ishtar’s people.”

Sonya frowned. Where is she going with this? “Yes, I did.”

“Ishtar’s agent was building something there,” Lillian said. “The aftermath was filled with broken stuff - buildings and things for investigators to sift through. They had cameras. Snow was following up on other instances of broken footage like this.” She held up the card. “The scenes from the fight are the same. There’s barely anything visible, just buildings breaking and blowing up. It isn’t even really that guildmaster’s style, but there was no other official explanation.”

Sonya crossed her arms, her foot starting to tap as nervous energy worked up it.

Lillian held her head. “Otis. I like the guy, don’t get me wrong. He’s always done good work, but something about him just screams wrong, and I can’t put my finger on it,” she said. “Then he goes on leave less than a day before the Perth thing, and Val died in a spot near his patrol route. I just- I need to ask you, seriously.”

Lilian looked up and met Sonya’s eyes. Say it. Do it.

“How much do you really know about Otis, Sonya?” she asked. “Is immortality the only power he’s hiding? Why is he so obsessed with Ishtar? Do you know?”

She looked back down at the ground. “Because right now I’m not so sure about the guy. My instincts are telling me this was him. Which is crazy. Guildmaster Bluestar is hard on him, but she’s also got a soft spot for the guy. It feels like he’s getting more famous every day, and New York treats him like he’s their darling, but I just can’t shake it.”

Sonya looked up at Greg, who was staring hard at a wall, deep in thought. He seemed to process Lillian’s suspicions before he took a deep breath and sighed. “He really helped me out during the camp raid, but looking back it does seem a little convenient how he showed up. Everything just seems to come up daisies for the guy. Hell, I’ve never seen him eat. It’s like he doesn’t eat normal food or something.”

That’s an interesting tidbit. I didn’t know that, Sonya thought. Perhaps I should observe more of Otis’ mundane habits. More importantly, though, she looked at the distraught Lillian, what do I say? How far do I go to give information without giving away everything? I need to be careful here. Fortunately, she kept talking after asking that direct question. Otherwise, given the moment, I might have blabbed. 

Movement outside the room forced her hand. She had to make a calculated move here. As soon as an outside party entered, this conversation would be over. This was a huge opportunity to set up a whole new angle of attack against that monster. She had to take it.

Sonya pressed her lips together and leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees. She stared at Lillian until the girl looked up at her. “Before I say anything, I need you to do something for me, Lillian,” she said in a hushed tone. “I need you to promise me you will be careful and that you won’t do anything before you have an entire deck of cards in your hand. Do you understand?”

Greg and Lillian went very still as Sonya met their eyes. “Both of you.”

They nodded.

She shook her head. “I need you to say it.”

“We understand,” they both said as one.

She smiled as the door opened. “Trust your instincts.”