It was the morning after. The Gibraltar Police had been to their hotel, taken their written statements, and agreed in the circumstances that the actions taken by the Balance in connection with the Power Corps to let them leave had been the best solution at the time to protect life and property.
They had ‘requested’ Akira’s crossbow (which he’d forgotten to remove after the fight), be securely returned to the Raft’s storage compartment for the rest of his duration on the island. Possibly, just as well, his skill with it wasn’t as good as he liked to pretend. If he wanted to retain it when he deployed, then, he admitted he needed to figure out how he got round the law on carrying (and using?) an offensive weapon.
Sam tried and failed to resist giving Akira a friendly ribbing and a sniggering “Haw, haw”.
It didn’t help that Young Sam had ‘acquired’ a small friend that morning; one of the Barbary macaques, a baby complete with a stuffed toy monkey it carried with it everywhere, had invaded Sam’s room the night before and for some reason had taken to cuddling in to Sam’s neck and didn’t seem inclined to leave.
Sam felt bemused by the little creature and had grown rather fond of his temporary companion. He’d never been able to keep pets at home or at University; nor was the BASEment really suitable for keeping animals.
The hotel management hadn’t been happy and had reminded the team that the monkeys were not tame and were a protected species but, in light of the teams attempt to protect one of the Island’s national monuments (St. Michael’s Cave), they would temporarily ignore it though the Department of Ape Management had been informed.
He did wonder why the monkey had seemed particularly fond of him rather than say Adam or Akiva.
Before he dwelt too deeply on ethics, family and subconscious paternal nature (or ‘over-thinking everything’ as Adam jokingly called it), he joined the others at the meeting, Barbary macaque in tow.
Whilst Akira tried to tempt the baby ape to him (and receiving only the offer of the ape’s toy for his illegal offers of food) Adam placed a flash drive on the table.
“As per S.O.P.” he saw Mary’s face and quickly explained, “Means Standard Operating Procedure.”
Sam’s face changed from a friendly grin to a more serious frown; he knew where this was going.
“As soon as I heard what was happening last night I activated Tinks – my drone? Anyway, I really should turn this over to the Police but it mainly caught what was happening at the end inside the cave and, well, Sam’s offer of employment to known mercenaries… I really don’t know what the Police would make of that part of the tape. I, ah, also deployed Tinks admittedly from a distance, when you were trying to work out who was trying to kidnap Bethany and I ah, basically have Dalton’s statement from the deck on tape. I’m not quite sure what to do with it or who to pass it to; Bethany?
Anyway, you needed to know I had all this stuff, what do you want me to do with it?”
The monkey snatched a bit of apple and its ‘baby’ back from Akira and scuttled round to the back of Sam’s neck whilst Adam was talking. Adam continued, “If we don’t hand it over soon we’d likely be guilty of withholding evidence yet if we do where does that leave everyone?”
Mary looks around the table. “For me what Sam said and did might have been illegal but it wasn’t wrong – and I can’t see how anyone else would find out about it if we don’t tell them. Do the authorities know that we run Tinks, are they likely to ask for this record?”
Adam shrugged, “I doubt it; we don’t advertise that we record and there isn’t any issue about the decision to let the Power Corps go in the circumstances, ah…” He looked at his tablet and smiled. “The case precedent quoted appears to be Chrono’s disciplinary hearing – in particular the decision to allow Disunity Jack to leave the scene rather than arrest and risk any further public injury”.
Sam interrupted “But Disunity Jack’s case was very different. Disunity Jack is a confirmed terrorist and endangered the public. The Power Corps actively tried to prevent unnecessary harm.”
The room momentarily went silent at the outburst. Adam picked up his tablet and began scrolling through some webpages.
Mary nodded at the flash-drive. “So if it becomes an issue we can argue that at least the first part of what Sam said, persuading them to stand down in return for their release, was in the best interests of resolving the situation and avoiding damage to bystanders and heritage?”
Adam nodded, “That’s my understanding and it seemed to be confirmed by the local Police. No, the only issue was Sam’s offer to hire them.”
Sam spoke up again, obvious feeling under attack for his decision. “They were good at what they did. I was impressed with what I saw in them, apart from the direction they took. When shit hit the fan, and it will and sometimes does, I would rather they had our back than attacking us, don’t you think?”
He looked pleadingly as he exchanged glances around the room. “Dalton has his unregistered Defenders, right? What’s the difference?”
Akira smiled “they haven’t broken the law?” Adam muttered “and they’re basically just private security and bodyguards?”
Mary went to lift her pipe and remembered the ‘no smoking in public places’ rule and instead reached for the flash drive. “So we might only need to ‘lose’ the bit where he took their contact-details..? “
Adam shrugged. “Any edit or deletion would be pretty obvious and could potentially be recovered by a forensic techie. I’m sure Annie…” He went quiet for a minute in contemplation then continued “any good hacker could remove the data cleanly and permanently but its ah, not something I can do and be sure it couldn’t be recovered… So, can I suggest we don’t hand over the recording?”
He looked around the room, focusing primarily on Sam.
Sam stood from the table and spoke with his arms and hands as much as with his voice. “It was my decision and I’m the one who did the talking. Being a ‘hero’ means taking responsibility, even if that means collateral damage or accidents. I wasn’t thinking of the consequences at the time. I Don’t think you should hide anything, brother. Don’t edit it, don’t delete it. Just hand it over. I’m not being a martyr over this but if we can’t do what we think is best at the time to save innocents… If it goes to court, let’s see what a judge and jury think and pray the whole system hasn’t succumbed to corruption just yet.”
He looked Adam in the face. “As I said before it’s not the same as Disunity Jack, he was a terrorist, they might be criminals but they don’t kill indiscriminately – they did their best to keep civilians out of it.”
Adam’s face grew red and angry – that was a face he knew; one that declared his brother was about to take no prisoners.
“Sam, you’re right Disunity Jack killed indiscriminately and the Power Corps don’t; no, however they are paid assassins and mercenaries who do what they do for money, not ideology! You ever study the cold case files, HeroNet or Trouble Alerts on them? How about talking with Aura as to why she was so competent during the escape from Carpathia yet panicked and just ran from the Power Corps last night?” He let his comments sink in and continued in a quieter voice…
He turned to Mary, “Ma’am I believe your first mission involved the Power Corps kidnapping a comatose young woman?” Mary nodded, knowing where this was going.
Adam continued, “That young woman was kidnapped by them and given to the Seminarium where they tortured her and finally succeeded in merging her with a storm elemental to make Calypso. You of all people should know about how that felt.
The reason Aura was terrified of the Power Corps was because they were responsible for kidnapping her – killing her mother and leaving a young corpse as a replacement for her before burning the house down. That way no one knew she was still alive. I honestly don’t know if they were involved with the kidnapping of any of the others.”
He turned his tablet towards Sam. On it was a webpage from HeroNet listing the eight members of the Power Corps. “27 confirmed assassinations, mostly of people whose only crime was someone wanted them dead and had the money to hire the Power Corps.” A tally beside it showed a further 9 collateral deaths – a post note stated that their death toll was likely higher but these were the one’s confirmed.
“Sam, you’re right they’re not terrorists who kill indiscriminately but they are still murderers. When they fired a rocket at Akira last night, it wasn’t intended he survive the experience. I’m not criticising your decision nor do I doubt that if you ever use them it will not be for the best of intentions but don’t assume others will agree with you or not assume the worst…”
Suddenly realising that the others were present, he turned red and blushed.
Akira sniggered at Sam and whispered “Haw, haw”.
Mary smiled, “We still back your call last night Sam but let’s keep that between ourselves at least for now, eh? If for no other reason that the Police would expect you to hand over the location of their dead drop.”
Adam continued, “Thankfully the Dalton recording is a separate data-file so that can be treated independently but what do you want me to do with it?”
Mary continued, “As for showing the tape to Bethany, well, she already knows the basic facts, if she wants to see them for herself I can’t see the harm in that – but then she may not need to, that’s up to her. But the fact that we have that part on record too means,” she frowned in thought, “that if we did have to make our record public then we would also be identifying Dalton as an international criminal and a danger to the public, perhaps a legitimate target for law-enforcement, Carpathia or no Carpathia, and certainly a prime suspect should anything in the future happen to Bethany. That could be useful. Damn! What the Balance needs now, besides tech support etc. is a team-lawyer!”
Sam spoke up “I hear that. Did you have anyone in mind? Surely the Challenger’s have some good staff on hand or possibly Bethany knows someone?”
Adam smiled “Can I suggest we file a copy with Superintendent Cunningham at least?”
Sam smiled once again “Yes, lets.” Sam scratched the monkey upon his shoulders idly. What he wouldn’t give to live a simple life right now.
All the others also agreed with that particular suggestion.
Akira was sure he also needed to discuss at some point what he’d seen on the BBC Worldwide TV channel that morning. Dragon’s Gate, Wessex – a local businessman had been found strung up across the gates and burnt to death. He was sure it had something to do with the gang war and protection racket that Pseudo-Annie had mentioned previously. Something to look into when they got back? Possibly best not to raise it now though.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 