Interlude: PRT

“I don’t believe she’s a thinker, at least not as some are seeing it.” Dr. Lori Manstern was an older Woman, actually a contemporary of William Manton, but where that vanished man had focused on powers, she focused on the minds behind those powers.

The fact that she was here spoke volumes about the importance of Taylor Hebert.

“Her abilities seem to say otherwise…” Armsmaster said.

“’Seem to’ being the operative word,”  Manstern said. There were several people in the office. Emily, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and by remote connection, Legend, Director Costa-Brown and Glenn Chambers.

It spoke to how important this meeting was that they had a 97 percent prediction from Oracle that it would go unobserved.

The new name had actually been coined on as a double meaning for Dinah. A description of her powers, but also a warning. She could see the future, but after all, the Oracle of Delphi had also seen the future when she’d predicted: "If you cross the Halys River, a great empire will fall."

It just hadn’t been the future King Croesus  had expected, Emily thought.

“I know the PRT ratings are shorthands, but especially for Thinkers, they are extremely loose and inaccurate. Some thinkers gain an ability that is restricted, vague or both. Spectrum sees danger as colors attaching to people… but they change as the situation changes. And he also cannot see danger as it applies to him. Our intelligence on what The Investigator said, at first assumed she might have something of the same, a Thinker ability focused on loss, either current or future. It quickly became apparent she was concealing her abilities, which shows that she’s also much more subtle than many thinkers, since a need to be seen as smart, to never be ignored, is very common among them.”

“That’s not her,” Miss Militia said. “She’s almost diffident in person.”

“Yes.” Manstern nodded. “Until something happens that requires her to drop her mask.” She touched a button and suddenly the big screen windowed out, and a voice filled the air.

“There is  wreck on Johnson street, evacuation transports reroute. Sims and Sixth street is starting to show congestion, rerouting…” the voice was fast, impersonal, calm…

The Investigator, handling the evacuation. The board was a recording of what she was doing on the keyboards, short commands sent out, places on the map indicated.

“At most, she was handling 12 different situations at once, giving orders, and looking to the future.”  Manstern said. “There’s no sign she was restricted by anything other than the fact she only has two eyes and two hands.”

“And right after that, she organized their personal evacuation, the evacuation of a shelter in cooperation with the Wards, and distracted Leviathan,” Legend said.

“Correct. Which is another rarity among Thinkers. They usually are either good at on the fly actions, or planned actions, but the ones who can effortlessly flip between the two is much rarer. And yet the Investigator seems equally at home ah, long-term investigations, such as with Mr. Timmis, and quickly slapping something together as with the confrontation between her and Tattletale.”

“So a general thinker?” Glenn said.

“Well, I have one last note from my research,” Dr. Manstern called up several images. Taylor Hebert speaking with Chris, and an earlier image of her in a library with Aisha. “In her first attempt at tutoring, her materials and lesson plans showed a…  hesitancy. She was learning, but it wasn’t any kind of thinker power giving her instant skill.  Then, with Kid Win, her lesson plans were far more confident, far more skilled, as if she had spent months on them, when only weeks had passed.”

Emily stared at the images. “She can do more than one thing at a time.”

“Correct, Director. I do not know if she has thinker powers that allow her to learn faster, but we have numerous examples of her being able to dedicate her full attention to several things at a time, and likely extending to reading or other methods of learning, so long as she has a sensory channel—and from her actions in Galveston… I expect she can separate out individual conversations.”

“But it doesn’t come with superspeed learning,” Armsmaster said. “Or likely physical skills… She was quite interested in training with the PRT.”

“Someone who is very bright, I wouldn’t rule out near-genius,” Costa-Brown said. “Combined with the ability to multitask like that… it explains her tools. At first relatively primitive, but getting better.”

“Not a Tinker,” Armsmaster said. “An engineer.” He paused. “And it makes sense, because Krewe has limited multi-tasking and she triggered in direct proximity to Taylor Hebert.”

Emily wondered if Taylor Hebert would realize what a compliment she’d been paid. When Armsmaster wasn’t tinkering or patrolling, he was studying, seeing how he could take mundane engineering skills and make them work with his speciality. His contempt for Leet had little to do with Leet’s explosions, but that Leet was content to not push himself.

“Presuming this is true,” Glenn said. “We have someone who we shouldn’t allow to get bored, if we want her to live.”

“I suggested she work with me to develop a software program to assist evacuation’s, based on her work in Galveston and my Endbringer software. That should occupy some of her time.”

“And we could think about transferring her—“ Costa Brown fell silent for a moment, then shook her head. “No, she’s attached to the Bay. I think we’ll circulate some wards through here, and ask Ms. Hebert if she wants to take up a part-time position to help train them.”

“If you can get Youth Guard off my back, Tenebrae can also help. He’s… very good at the dirty fighting end of things.”

“Well, that will solve our problems, until Taylor and Armsmaster finish the evacuation program and she writes the book on training parahumans…” Glenn said. “So… what’s our plan to find something to keep her occupied next week.”

Laughter ran around the room.

“I don’t think that will be a major problem,” Director Costa-Brown said. “By every account, she enjoys teaching, and we have no lack of Wards…”

And if she’s as good as she has been with Krewe and Kid Win, that’s actually worth more than just about anything else she could do. Emily knew that. A good PRT trooper could save one man. A good training officer could save a thousand via the ones he’d trained.

And the fact that training officers generally stayed behind the lines…

Well, a happy coincidence.

[hr]

Rebecca signed off the call. Fifteen minutes, and you’d normally wonder what was a big deal about fifteen minutes…

But nobody in that room really had fifteen minutes to casually waste.

Taylor Hebert. Manstern had helped put the last pieces of puzzle together. Long-term planning, coupled with an ability to think on her feet. And she’d said she was assisting Orb Weaver.

Who is the real leader in that relationship?  The fact that they seemed neutral or even hostile in their public interactions was likely a cover. After all, why kidnap someone who would just raise Orb Weaver’s Ire, but not force him to restrain himself?  No, it was clearly a public method of ensuring nobody thought they would have leverage… and after what had happened to Kaiser, that barrier was even firmer. Most would assume that Orb Weaver was angry because Kaiser had gone after one of his…but Taylor’s injuries made it likely they’d also assume that threats to Taylor didn’t do much to restrain Orb Weaver. Quite the contrary, in fact.

Could two capes have such similar powers?  No. Rebecca was certain Taylor had been the one who had orchestrated the downfall of the Empire, just as she had casually destroyed Coil's plan to claim Dinah. And utterly ruthless when pushed.  That applied to both Orb Weaver and Hebert. She’d been trapped with Kaiser, no allies, no guns on her, stripped to her underwear… and delayed things to give Orb Weaver a chance, shot one of the twins, used the most painful plant in the world to stay awake… And had hit Kaiser in his psychological weak spots, panicking him to the point where he was practically gift-wrapped for Orb Weaver and the PRT.

So ruthless that even Orb Weaver was concerned.

And now this. Rebecca looked down at the little slip of paper that had dropped through a portal.

Taylor Hebert must remain in the Bay.

Contessa. Nothing more, but then the more explanations, the bigger the risk she’d do something to interfere with the path. That had happened, more than once, too much information leading to someone doing something that shifted the path. They had finally worked out how to use Contessa’s power more effectively, and a lot of it involved being very specific… and then being very careful about introducing “Noise” into the system.

Also, Contessa got cranky when she had to redo things.

So as much as Rebecca hated it, she would accept that Contessa had a good reason and keep Taylor in the Bay, even if she would have been just perfect to help out with the absolute mess the Seattle Wards team had turned into…

And now it was time to deal with yet another disaster, this one having to do with a new parahuman warlord in Africa. Rebecca paused, made certain she had her “Chief Director” face and posture on, and turned to deal with the latest crisis of the day…