Coil's power is inconsistent

“A valid point,” Coil conceded effortlessly. “Very well. Make whatever preparations you need. In meantime, I’ll see about finding a replacement.” Replacement? Tattletale wondered if she’d heard him right. “My condolences for Regent.”

What?

It…made no sense. Lisa tried to wrap her head around it, tried to figure out where the line had come from, but for the life of her, she had no idea why Coil would think Regent was dead. If they’d actually fought Lung, then maybe…

Something went wrong, she realized. She had no idea what or how, but for some reason, Coil had gotten a report or something that told him Regent had died.

This was an opening.

Carefully, Lisa cracked open the door to her power and let it trickle out.

[Show of power. Intended to imply resources you don’t know about.]

Right, right, that much was obvious. Coil had done that kind of thing before, too, like a reminder every now and again about who held whose leash.

[Received report. Report stated Regent died.]

More obviousness.

[Report conflicts with actual events.]

And she’d moved on into uselessness. If she wanted anything more, she’d have to knock Coil off guard. Lisa unstuck her mouth and said, “Regent is fine.”

A long silence followed, and for several seconds that felt like minutes, Coil didn’t say anything at all.

[Is surprised] Lisa’s power supplied. [Trusted source. Trusted source’s information. Trusted accuracy of information. Trusted implicitly that information would be accurate.]

So it was someone he’d thought would never lie to him, or else that person was in a position where they wouldn’t lie to him ([More likely] her power added helpfully, as though she hadn’t already known that that was how Coil worked). In her own experience, that would mean that either the person in question was somehow indebted to him or on his payroll, like Grue, or else they were being forced into it, like Lisa, and lying would be too dangerous.

Either way, the implications were enormous. A reliable source, somehow unreliable now? That could be any number of things, from simple human error to powers that conflicted with each other. Even still, Coil had never really been wrong like this, before, so how…

“I…see,” Coil said at length. “It seems there’s an error I need to correct.”

[Is not happy to be surprised] No duh, power. [Is intending on interrogating other agent. Will go to extreme methods to verify source of inaccuracy. Other agent likely to be tortured or killed.]

Whoa. Okay, this was serious. Coil was a scumbag, but in all of her experiences with him, what he usually relied upon was the threat of violence. Aside from the pistol he’d had her threatened with when he, uh, coerced her into his employ, the most he’d ever done was remind her that he had her on his leash. She’d never once seen him actually directly hurtsomeone before, like pull out the tacks and thumbscrews and make him talk.

If he was going to go that far, this must’ve really shaken him — but what, exactly, was the cause?

“I understand there was another parahuman at the fight — unaffiliated?”

Apocrypha. Of course he knew about Apocrypha, but if he was going to mention her, why not do it by name? Surely he had to —

[Does not know her name. Other agent was not in position to hear it. Other agent was too far away. Other agent did not see your conversation with her. Other agent did not see her conversation with Armsmaster and Miss Militia.]

Holy shit. That meant that he had no idea what her powers were.

“Yeah,” Lisa found herself saying. “A girl. About my age.”

And that meant that she absolutely could not let him know. Not unless and until he asked her to work up a full dossier, and even then, she’d specifically leave some parts out. The plan Lisa had already started concocting looked like it was even more likely to work, now, and there was no way she was going to give Coil more cards than she absolutely had to.

“And she survived?”

[Is trying to find discrepancies. Is trying to narrow down source of discrepancies. Is trying to verify level of accuracy of other agent’s report.]

A stab of pain lanced through her temples, but she ignored it.

Okay, then. She just had to be vague enough that everything she said was technically true, so that if and when he got more specifics from someone else, he couldn’t claim she’d lied to him at any point. The only other people likely to have any information about Apocrypha’s power were Armsmaster and Miss Militia, and provided they didn’t file a threat assessment for her with any haste, Lisa could keep the exact nature of her new wildcard’s powers a secret.

“Of course,” Lisa said. “Lung wouldn’t have gone down if it wasn’t for her.”

Technically true, the best kind of truth.

“Powers?”

“She’s a pretty high end Breaker,” Lisa fibbed. Again, it was technically true, too. “Not someone I’d want to face in a fight.”

Understatement of the year, there.

“Can she be recruited?”

[Wants her either under his thumb or out of the way. Willing to resort to bribery. Willing to resort to threats. Willing to resort to assassination.]

Shit. Not good. Not good at all. Did he think that Apocrypha was the reason why the report was wrong? Equally important question — was she? If he decided she was, then he might just get rid of her before Lisa was ready to try and throw him off, and if he attacked Apocrypha in her civilian identity, he might actually manage to kill her. If she actually was, then that made her even more valuable to Lisa.