Chapter 183 – Association
(Syracuse Development Association Headquarters, Syracuse, New York)
Nicholas Hart was not an idiot. If he was, he never would have lasted long enough in this game to become the man known as the Agent. A fancy name for someone who was less ‘secret agent’ and more ‘information broker’. Oh, he’d done his share of spywork early on, though it was strictly local stuff, not corporate or international espionage. More like a private investigator.
That was helped by the fact that the number of people still breathing who knew he had powers could be counted on one hand. Sure, some people suspected it, since he had a way of sneaking up on people undetected, but there was never any proof. Especially since he made sure not to get caught on camera.
Of course, his powers weren’t really anything to write home about, especially since he got them from his grandmother on his mother’s side. Apparently, she’d been ‘adventurous’ in her younger days, and had gotten freaky with a spirit of some kind, and so her bloodline had a bit of ‘ghost DNA’, or whatever. Point was, he could block people’s perception of him. Not true invisibility, since he was still clearly visible to cameras and mindless creatures, but anything with a mind? They just… couldn’t see him, unless he wanted them to.
That perception blocking was second nature to him, so he could keep it up as long as he liked. But he had also learned to ‘push’ things a bit, working with his ghost DNA to temporarily become intangible. He could walk through walls, and other fun stuff like that, but it was tiring. Less than a minute, and he’d be gasping for air. Worse, something kept him from using it when he was already tied up or grappled, meaning he couldn’t use it to escape handcuffs or the like.
So, he had abilities that would have allowed him to be a great sneak-thief, maybe even a low-level hitman. But he’d focused on spywork, and dealing in information, building up a network of contacts and informants throughout the upstate area. Less danger, less risk, less heat, but the money was still good enough to keep food on the table and the lights on. He didn’t have extravagant tastes, so that was enough for him. Sports cars and diamond-encrusted watches just made you a target, anyways. If other crooks didn’t try and take your shit, then eventually the authorities would start looking into you. Being invisible socially was just as powerful as his actual invisibility.
Right now, he was in the Association’s main offices, going over the information about the old Neuroductions manufacturing plant that just got snapped up by Globalview Industries. Neuroductions had been a front for the villain known as Stepford, producing components for his ‘Wives’. A bad run-in with the Knights six years ago had forced Stepford to abandon the property, and move to Colorado. The property had been empty since then, until now.
“Nick! Good to see you,” Brenna ‘Doc’ Pena said, as she walked into the planning room. “I’ve been hearing rumblings from some of my patients, and thought you’d want to know what they’re saying. Even if it is just confirmation of what you’ve already heard.”
Nicholas looked over to Brenna and chuckled. “Well, I’m always happy to get outside confirmation of what my sources tell me, Doc. So, what have the street toughs been telling you?”
“It is about that old Neuroductions plant. The Battista family sent the Fox brothers to go scope the place out. The normal research, looking to see what kind of security the place has, so they can figure out what kind of ‘protection’ they can offer the new owners, or their staff. Should have been a normal deal, in and out, with no combat. Only, Caleb Fox found out the hard way that they had turrets covering the perimeter. Not stunners, either. Evan managed to drag him in to my clinic with a hole in his stomach the size of my fist, and some really nasty burns on half his body. Only reason he lasted long enough to get to my door was that his regeneration kept him from bleeding out, even if it couldn’t patch his wounds.”
“Shit,” Nicholas cursed. “That’s worse than I thought, then. I’ve found signs that Globalview is connected, somehow. The wheels in the Mayor’s office were greased hard to get the sale approved so quickly, and my people in the PD have been saying that there have been a few discrete offers to those who are already open to a bit of extra financing to ensure that anything that happens on the property doesn’t make it up the chain of command, and is quietly tossed out before anyone important can hear about it.”
Doc frowned. “That’s a serious problem, Nick. I don’t like that this group just came in and started setting up serious weaponry like that before they even finished opening for business. That’s the kind of thing that is going to increase visibility for the entire region. And visibility means more heat on everyone. We’ve worked hard to keep things at a level where the Knights don’t feel they have to have heavy hitters here, and none of the more kill-happy vigilantes decide to swing by.”
Jamar Gibbs, better known as the Cleaner, walked in, a frown heavy on his face. “Nicholas, good, you’re here. I just got off the phone with the owners of the new Globalview place you were looking at. They’ve been looking for ‘discrete cleaning professionals’ to have on retainer. Not really a problem, but they were very clear about not wanting any supers of any type on the payroll. ‘Pure human’ only. They don’t know I’m a super, even if a low-level one.”
“Pure human? For a discrete cleaner gig? That’s unusual, but not unheard of. Racists often want to keep the whole operation ‘clean’. Even the menial jobs. Especially if they’re the ones that are smart enough to know that the menial jobs get people into all the places that are mission-critical, even the high-security ones. No one looks at the janitors, or the people cleaning up the blood.”
Jamar nodded. “Except these ones clearly do. At least enough to understand the risks. Which means they could be trouble. Have you heard anything about them?”
Nicholas chuckled. “Well, we were just talking about them. I’ve been looking into their financials, trying to see who the new owners really are. Doc just treated a couple of our locals who tried to scout the place, and were greeted by turrets with high-grade weapons. I was about to get Brandon in here.”
“Get me in here, why?” They turned to the door, and saw Brandon Fletcher, known as the Tactician, walking in, briefcase in one hand, and a letter in the other.
“Globalview’s new plant is looking like it is going to be a problem,” Nicholas said, before quickly going over everything they’d heard so far. “Everything’s pointing towards the new owners being ‘in the business’ in some way, but they definitely aren’t Guild, and if they’re one of the Families or other crime syndicates I’ll eat my hat. They don’t fit any of the normal ‘super-group’ categories. Which means they’re playing on a different scale than we are, and I’m getting increasingly worried that they are going to cause major disruptions to our business. Things might heat up, and badly.”
Brandon nodded slowly, putting his briefcase on the table, before looking at the letter again. “Well, that brings my news into a new light. I got this message at the law office, posted through the normal mail, postmarked in Brooklyn, but with a return address at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC.”
Doc whistled softly. “Bold fucker, putting the White House as a return address. So, who is it, and what did they say?”
“The letter claims to be from the villain Iceblade, and it is informing us that he will be stopping by this office, today, in about two hours. And yes, he specifically said the Syracuse Development Association office, naming each of us, and asked us all to be in attendance.”
If Nicholas didn’t know better, he could have sworn the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. He took a moment to think, and then said, “All right, no reason to freak out. Iceblade is one of the heavy hitters, and he has that Web Mistress with him. If Iceblade wanted us dead, the first clue we got would be him cutting off our heads. And I don’t think any of our operations have gotten close to anything he’s been part of. We even made sure to keep a lid on the locals during the alien invasion stuff, too.”
Jamar nodded, but his gaze was turned to Brandon. “You said the Globalview situation put the letter in new light. You think Iceblade’s coming here has something to do with Globalview, don’t you? Maybe they tried and touch something they shouldn’t have, like Axis did, a couple years back, when he ended up offing that Senator in the middle of the Capitol?”
Brandon took a moment to organize his thoughts, and said, in that careful tone he used when he was hypothesizing, rather than calculating figures or reporting facts, “Syracuse is too small-time for Iceblade’s normal activities. If this was New York, or London, or something like that, then there would be room for doubt. So, something must have changed, which is bringing him here. The only thing that has changed, since the System came online, is Globalview purchasing Stepford’s old factory.
“However, I do not believe that Globalview has done anything to draw Iceblade’s ire specifically. Not yet, at least. As with Nicholas’s point about him not being here to kill us, Iceblade enacting vengeance on a target has a distinctive profile, of overwhelming force with the only warning being for the second and later targets, seeing the first target fall. He would not be reaching out to us, but would simply go to the company, and slaughter everyone, regardless of the security systems in place.”
Doc took a calming breath, like she did when emergency patients came into her clinic. “All right. So, not here to kill us, and not on a campaign of vengeance against Globalview. So, if we consider things, maybe he is coming to get the local perspective? Even with Web Mistress in his corner, there’s only so much you can pick up on from the internet. Especially since Brandon’s been teaching our locals how to keep incriminating data off the cloud.”
“It is simply good sense,” Brandon said, with a small smile. “While true technopaths are fairly rare, hackers are not. And you do not need to be elite level hackers to penetrate most civilian firewalls. And while hacked materials may not always be admissible in court, they can give investigators an area to search, if they can come up with a legitimate cause for a warrant. And superheroes are more likely to focus on thwarting the villain’s plan first, and let the legal system handle the rest. Even if that means the criminals are released due to any evidence being from illegal searches.”
“Right,” Doc nodded. “But that means if Iceblade is looking at Globalview, he may be wanting the local perspective. And if someone was looking at the Syracuse supervillain scene, limited as it is, with Web Mistress doing the searching? The idea that we could hide from her, once she got a whiff of us? Not happening.”
Nicholas breathed out slowly. “Given everything, I think we can all agree that, if he wanted to, Iceblade could drop in on us without our knowing, and we wouldn’t be able to stop him. The fact that he sent us a physical message, through normal mail, giving us a specific time? That could be him being polite about it. He doesn’t have to set up an ‘appointment’, but we aren’t heroes who might have to make a show of trying to capture him, and we haven’t done anything to displease him, so he’s being polite. That fits with his profile, at least.”
Jamar clapped his hands. “All right, then. If we’re hosting Iceblade, then we do it right. I’ll start cleaning things up around here. Brandon, organize the information we have, while Doc orders up some food, and Nicholas gets in touch with his network, to make sure our locals keep away from Globalview, for the moment. Don’t want them getting caught in the crossfire, and exposing the others.”
Nicholas nodded. “Good point. Plus, making sure we warn the locals when a big fish is in our pond will make them trust us more in the long term.”