The first stage of the plan we developed was to plant a bug in Miss Decibel's private library, where she'd retreated to after discovering that Salim's three associates had been liberated. Originally, Salim was going to do it given it would likely require his climbing skills to pull it off...but Deik-Beck had volunteered. After demonstrating how he'd adapted the Cooper Family invisibility technique into an active camouflage that could render him completely invisible to any and all detection save touch, and how he could move quiet enough that even sound can't give him away, Dad gave him the job.
I expected him to be able to do the job on his own relatively quickly and without incident. Surprisingly, he was gone longer than anticipated...
Deik-Beck had absolutely no trouble infiltrating the private library while invisible. It was child's play to leap from rooftop to rooftop before scaling the wall to the window. The stonework of the era was full of microfractures to the point of having visible cracks and chips he was easily able to sink his legs into for climbing.
Once inside, he saw that Miss Decibel was completely distracted by her own music and plotting, completely oblivious to all around her as her classical tunes filled the room. Her back was to him.
He went over his inventory. Three vases that would broadcast rock and roll when set up to distract her and get her out of her office so he could plant the bug without her noticing. One carving of Le Paradox - who Miss Decibel apparently was sweet on - that contained the bug and would blend in with her office decor. ...one needle soaked in prehistoric knock-out venom, potent enough to KO a T-Rex. The same dose on Miss Decibel would be instantly lethal.
It would be so easy...
Why is this even a debate? She is an enemy. Enemies should be killed.
Coco would not like.
She wouldn't even have to know! The elephant dead, the needle disposed of, her safe and brain ransacked, we could go after Le Paradox without problems!
Not Cooper way...
Oh don't give me that! Henriette didn't even hesitate before killing someone if they were in her way, and would kill to deliver a message! This era is, if anything, even more brutal!
We should be better...
Why? Give me five good reasons why we should be better, why we shouldn't take the easy way to get what we want, clear the obstacles for the others, and achieve our goals?
One, because is easy way. If Cooper way was easy way, would not be Master Thieves. Would not be legend.
Silence reined within Deik-Beck. ...the legend is important...
Two, belong Coco. If kill, Coco responsible. Paris. Venice. Clock-La.
The memories came back, even those where Deik-Beck as Deik-Beck were not present for. What the rage had done to Coco when she conjured her golems...when she had inflicted the curse on Clock-La, giving her exactly what she wanted...how she had reacted when Deik-Beck had obliterated the boat - and goon - who had been trying to kill Carmelita.
Three, if kill to save life bad, kill to make easy worse. What benefit kill here?
What benefit? She is the enemy! As long as she lives she will continue to be an obstacle we must work around! There was a pause. She will continue to be a threat to Coco.
Four, might need her later, the response came, ignoring the last point. Can use live, useless dead.
...I concede the point that it's rather hard - not impossible, but difficult - to get viable use from a corpse.
Five, disappoint Coco.
Really? That's your final defense against killing? Raucous laughter echoed within Deik-Beck, not exiting the metal being to influence the world around it. I only care that my legend, a part of the Cooper legend, is eternal! Why should I care if the pony I used to get close enough to act is disappointed in me? Why should I care how she feels about something she won't even know about?
Why do you care?
Hesitation. Confusion. Rage. What do you know? You are just a mask I wore to get close to them! You...you don't even exist unless I will it! How are you able to color myour thoughts as though we were equal? How are you alive?
Coco love.
Frustration. Doubt.
Remember love?
...sorrow.
Hate chip broken. Eternal without it. Still define hate?
...regret...
Be better?
...why? You...you are alive independent of me...somehow. Why do you care if I am better? You don't need to try to be better. You can just be better, without my burden of sin...without my colored perceptions of right and wrong, of power and weakness, of ends and means. Why are you trying to...redeem me? To save me?
Coco love.
...I am a monster. I...I'm using her. I'm...not worthy-
Be better. Be worthy.
Derision. Disdain. ...hope. You think I can?
Made me.
Silence.
Mission?
Deik-Beck calmly made his way around the library, placing the three vases with the transmitters inside in out of the way places to make it difficult for Miss Decibel to locate them and shut them off. Once all three were placed, they were activated remotely and began to blare rock and roll throughout the library at incredible volume.
Miss Decibel let out a shriek of rage as she began to rampage through the library in search of the source of the music, shaking the structure with her stomps and trumpet blasts.
Catharsis. Schadenfruede.
Better?
...better.
Deik-Beck silently moved in to place the bug statue on Miss Decibel's desk, then slipped back towards the exit.
Wait.
Deik-Beck turned and watched. While the transmitters had been placed in out of the way places, they had been designed so that, if broken, they would dissolve into meaningless bits of metal and pottery shards. They had also been placed deliberately precariously...and as Deik-Beck watched, the shaking of the building Miss Decibel caused with her rampage resulted in the vases slowly tipping off their precarious posts, disassembling the mechanicals, and falling to crash and burst apart on Miss Decibel's head one after the other, leaving her dazed and slumped over, clutching her head. "Ooh..."
Smug satisfaction. Much better...
Be good! More fun!
...I think I can accept being an anti-hero...
Deik-Beck silently left the library, making his way back to the Cooper Hideout.