We didn’t stop there, though. We weren’t asked to watch. At the end of the hall, there was a wider area that resembled a police bullpen or the cubicle zone of a computer startup—a lot of desks and computers. Heroes were gathered, watching the interrogation on a monitor. Some were huddled around computers.

Theo led us to one system, and brought up a recording of the interview.

Dinah Alcott was speaking, sounding annoyed or upset. She wore a nice suit-dress with a wild pattern to it, and a similarly patterned cloth as a blindfold. “You can’t trust her. I’ve run the numbers, I can’t see past her but I can see everything around her, and I can at least see things that have yet to happen that are right behind her point of influence, understand?”

“Barely,” Miss Militia said.

“Not at all,” Gary said. He was a big guy, one hand wrapped around one fist. He looked entirely out of place, like a grown man with a fear of kids sitting in a kindergarten.

“Contessa is doing things that have nothing to do with saving lives or what you explained with what she did after being released. She sent a Harbinger to kill the Number Man, and when she did, she set off events that messed up everything I was working on with Gary.”

“What were you working on?”

“Me. We were in contact,” Gary said. “I didn’t realize the extent of it. I had a few eye-opening moments in a row and then she reached out, we talked.”

“I put him in charge of the movement and I showed him some fundamental truths,” Dinah said. “I put in years of work to help with things, to keep things from boiling over, and it’s been destroyed because she did something and she’s still doing it.”

“It’s manipulation to a degree that’s… very uncomfortable to think about, and makes me second-guess…” Gary said. “But I like the attack on the Mayor even less. I despise Jeanne Wynn, but that’s not the kind of change I wanted.”

“And he’s not in charge anymore,” Dinah said. “It’s all about the violence now, fighting back, it’s going to blow up, and I can’t stop it if I spend five days asking myself questions—I checked, it’s really not an option. This is the catalyst for the disaster you’re anticipating, and it’s her. Infighting to distract your capes? Her. Just like you said she had you do to distract and scare off Teacher.”

From Within 16.3