Reroll

No, I didn't do anything to her. I had some minions locate the van while we were talking, and had another use that to trace the network connection back… woman's voice, and she's doing work from her home office. A lookup online of who lives at that address, and a few reasonable guesses got me there.

Mind, my minions didn't stop the hacking there.

My Computers skill specialist gives me an update, “She's placing a call on her cell phone…”

“Great! Patch me in on my armor's comm, please.”

“Hannah! Hi, sorry to impose sis, but I REALLY need to get out of the house. Like, right now.  I'm bringing hubby and Sammy…”

I interrupt, using an Alice voice, “I'm not planning anything, Ms. Bertrand.”

“What kind of scam is this?” That must be Hannah.

“Shut it Hannah, this is serious,” Secretary Director Amelia Bertrand rebukes her sister, “Okay, Alice, what do you want?”

“Peace, Amelia.”

“You threatened my family and hacked my phone and you claim you want PEACE!?”  At least there's negligible latency this time.

Yes. “I suppose it could be taken that way, for someone with a guilty conscience,” which I REALLY hope you have, “but tell me: How do you think Joe felt - freshly turned into a fish woman, then collected, repeatedly raped on camera, then kept as a cow for his milk?”

“She's just a stupid…”

“Corrupted? You know what that milk does to baseline humans… Joe offered us as much as we like after we set her loose.  Would you still have the same perspective if we dosed your son?  He'd live basically forever after that, and be perfectly healthy….”

“You….”

“Monster? Maybe.  But Joe was harmless. He didn't even have a chance to do anything. And how did your organization treat him?  Would you want your son treated that way?”

“Ah… what…” Hannah seems confused.

I fill her in, “Your sister is pretty high up in an organization tasked with hunting down people who have had a certain type of Event. Sometimes that is… close enough to the right thing to do: Events of that nature can turn people into ravenous rampaging beasts that are highly infectious, turning more people into the same if they're not quickly culled.  It can ALSO produce people that are… different, but okay, like Joe.  It can also produce people that can be an amazing boon to society, like me; I'm the Alice who does healings at hospitals… but her organization lumps us all into the same category and treats us as, at best, trained animals to be used and abused, vermin to be exterminated at worst.  I am just… shining a light in the dark corners right now: Trying to get your sister to understand.”

Hannah seems upset now, “Wait, THAT is why you never talk about work?”

Amelia clearly isn't ready for this conversation, “It's classified… I can't…”

Hannah's not giving an inch, “I know you, sis, that's a yes. Is Alice right?”

Ms. Bertrand tries to defend herself, “No! We don't abuse PEOPLE!!”

“Again, sis. I know you.  I know that emphasis. Everything she's saying is true, isn't it?” It's always good when family members know each other well.

The secretary director is silent for a while, and then very quiet, “Yes.”

“HOW COULD YOU?” Hannah's volume makes me cringe.

I interrupt, “I will go ahead and leave you to your conversation… Hannah, I apologize for intruding, but you have been most helpful; thank you.  Please see if you can talk the light back into your sister's heart.  Amelia, I'll call you tomorrow.  Take care, and sleep well.”  I mean, she's not going to sleep tonight: Few mothers would. But that might be the best thing for her.

I hang up to the sounds of some very unladylike cursing… and I'm not entirely clear which lady is doing it.

I take a breath to steady my nerves… which I don't actually have anymore, so it doesn't help.  And I have work to do.  I turn to my shadow minion running the computers for the moment, “What did we get?”

“Full access to her phone,” the shadow replies, “Time-based one time pass code secrets, saved passwords, bookmarks, contacts, call logs, text archives, GPS history, installed software… everything.  Oh, and I rooted it and compromised the firmware. We have full access until she gets a new one, or at least until someone re-images it entirely.  Her workstation is in a similar state; I'm in the motherboard firmware, and am downloading a RAM snapshot image and all open files now; if she doesn't pull the plug, I'll follow that up with a prioritized list that will eventually get the entire contents of her machine.”

High skill checks: Non-magical magic. “Great.  Keep digging. Please see if you can leverage that into cracking the rest of the organization's infrastructure.  I'd like to expose these people fully.  Please get what I need to do so.”

“Sure thing boss.”

I guess I'm a Hactivist now?  No matter.

I disconnect from my Library, and (because I used talents I don't normally bother with to make the illusionary minion I had handling the illusion on the ground) that causes that spell to terminate as well: There's no catching something that doesn't exist.

Betty is just staring at me, smiling, “Good job.”

Ed frowns, “I missed the good stuff, didn't I?”

As I collapse into my chair, Betty recounts what she saw, making me sound far more awesome than I actually was, and ends with, “And just think, he couldn't even talk to a woman at the spring formal. Now look at him!  How’d you do it?”

The Bluff skill kept me together while luck carried the day, “You were here when I gave the orders. I was just lucky I had the resources to pull it off.”

“More like unrelenting, persistent preparation,” praises Betty, “When was the last time you took a serious break? You've been chipping away at this problem non-stop in one way or another… and I think you may have just busted it open.”

“Yeah, well… can't let it go to my head. And there's a lot more to do,” I turn to Ed, “So, those bookings…”

“Ah, right… here…” Ed uses his comm for a moment, and mine dings with a message notice.  

Opening it… calendar invites, which I accept, “Thank you. And yes, I've sent inquiries to a few PR firms.  I also started a copper business to fund it all.”

Betty frowns, “Copper? That's not very valuable….”

I chuckle, “Which is why I can make a shadow that can actually mass produce it, yes. But it still has some value, and can be sold in large quantities to manufacturers, without drawing the kind of attention that gold, diamonds, or other high value items garners.  With basically no expenses, I figure I can undercut the importers and make a killing.”

“There's always someone watching the markets…” Betty is frowning a little.

I shrug, “Well… no risk, no reward. Worst likely case scenario I burn the fake ID I had a Shadow set up for it and try again.”

Betty purses her lips, “True enough, I guess.”

I take a bit to go over the invitations… these ones aren't live… which should be fine. I mean, the Inquisition knows I can't be arrested now, and they've tried simply shooting me… neither took.  I still plan to take precautions, however.

And I suppose Betty is right… I haven't taken time for myself in a while… “I'm going to go have a bath and relax for a while; goodnight.”

“Enjoy your bath,” Betty grins, “The jacuzzis in the tubs are excellent, as are the detachable shower heads… all kinds of exciting settings.”

I roll my eyes as Ed smiles and looks away… but neither of us say anything.

I fly across the void to my ship, head inside, and off to my quarters… the captain's quarters, of course…which are four times the size of others.  Seriously, my living room is a the size of a small dance hall… and has a stairwell leading up to a balcony overlooking the place.  Unlike other rooms on the ship, my quarters don't have simple projectors, but hologram projectors. They're not handling like in the actual Holographic Amusement Center, but if I want, say, a disco ball or crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling… I just have to ask the shipboard VI.

I head to the bath… hmm, heated floors… and find s the shipboard VI was listening, and filled it for me.  Nice… my “bath” is a good eight feet on a side, and four deep.  I climb in…and find I don't displace water.  Annoying… I pull out a shadow minion, possess it, and then climb in… that works well.

“Turn on the jets, please,” I instruct the ship, and it does.  Hmm… feels nice… they seem to protrude a little more than I would have figured… I duck underwater and take a close look at one of the jets: It's a central spout, surrounded by a torus with little slots all along the side, the entire assembly sticking out maybe an inch from the wall of the tub. I mean, it almost looks like… wait… no…

Experimentally, I tug on the jet, and the entire assembly comes loose…and keeps jetting water.  I feel a little suction on my hands when holding the torus… I think I get it: It's a small, self-contained pump with a battery, that holds to the side of the tub easily… I'm guessing with magnets, but who knows?

…which gives me a really naughty idea.

Let's just say I'm glad the ship has good soundproofing.