All the talk of cases. Case Twelve. I turned to the Old Man. I’d thought of him in the same way I thought of sinister and ominous things in the background, like the Slaughterhouse Nine. The Nine had even been a series of cases, with Siberian’s attack on the Triumvirate as Case One.

“What?” Tattletale asked.

“The first parahumans appeared starting in 1984,” I murmured. “Parahumans tend to trigger between ages eight and thirty, give or take a few years for the edge cases. In the nineties, there was talk and rumor of a gang leader gaining a lot of ground, once upon a time. The first thought was that he was a parahuman. He wasn’t. His uncle was. The man slipped away.”

A few heads turned.

“Given his age, he’d have triggered around thirty-two, thirty-three years of age. That was roughly thirty years ago. The portrait matches.”

“You know this how?” Prancer asked.

“She collects old case files,” Sveta said.

Little Midas tapped Snake-eater on the shoulder. The man stood from the cushioned bench he sat on. Not even facing us, the man at the bar raised his hands in surrender.

“Not putting up a fight?” Snake-eater asked.

“Too old to run. Never one to fight.”

“Do we need to worry about what he’s capable of?” Prancer asked.

“Have you had anything to eat or drink here?”

“Yes.”

“Then the damage is done,” I said. “You’ll live, don’t worry.”

“I’ve eaten and had a drink on a past visit,” Tattletale said. She tugged on her drink. “I’m good to go, right?”

I kept her from lifting it, my hand still over the top. “You probably don’t want to.”

She leaned back, letting go of the glass. “I have a headache.”

“You wouldn’t if you didn’t use your power for a hundred small ‘looking cool’ moments in the car,” Sveta murmured.

“Five at most,” Tattletale said.

“Explain this,” Semiramis told me, stern. “Explain him.”

“He’s the secret weapon the top people here were joking about,” Prancer said. He smiled. “Marquis, before he left. Lord of Loss before he was arrested—”

“He was released, but he’s being monitored,” Little Midas said.

“All the same. Loss tried to make sly remarks while they were a little too lubricated to be clever… this was worthwhile.”

“I know they talked about things. I want specifics,” Semiramis said.

“And you get your answers when you give us the details we need, open and fairly,” I told her.

Black 13.x

“Look lively, ladies, gentlemen, and genteel others, we’re firmly in yellow book territory. You’ve read procedures and protocols every night, but if you’re not feeling like you’re firm on this, you need to get your books out and refresh yourself while you’re on your A-game. Shout or put your hands up if you’re panicking, stand up if you’re panicking and your mouth and hands are busy!”