For Kimiko, the news split down the middle.
The good half: her brother was alive, and Compound V had turned him into a supe too. Whether trading human for supe actually counted as good fortune was a separate question, but at least it meant he could hold his own.
The bad half: he had crossed over to the other side.
"I want you mentally ready for this," Jude said. He closed his laptop. "When we get face to face with him, there's a real chance it goes one of two ways. You two recognize each other and it's a reunion. Or it isn't, and you end up fighting."
If. If he's really been brainwashed.
Kimiko stared at the closed laptop, her fingers curling against her palms. She kept turning it over, hunting for some version of events where her brother still made sense. Maybe he had no choice but to stay. Maybe he didn't know where she was, and that was the only reason he never came looking. But their village had been wiped off the map by Shining Light itself. Their parents were killed in front of them. What could possibly be strong enough to keep him inside an organization like that, after everything it had already taken from him?
Maybe he stayed for her sake, somehow. Trying to track her down himself, protect her from a distance. But if that were true, why hadn't he ever come for her? Why hadn't he stormed wherever she was being kept and demanded answers?
There was no amount of sitting and turning it over that was going to produce an answer. Only seeing him face to face would settle it.
"Location I've got puts him in the Philippines," Jude said. "Commercial flight, that's ten-plus hours. Your paperwork won't survive that kind of scrutiny, so flying's off the table. I've got another way to get us there. You, me, and Frenchie. We move fast. There and back before anyone notices we're gone."
Frenchie exhaled, his shoulders dropping. That was exactly the arrangement he wanted. He had grown more than a little protective of Kimiko lately. Or, more honestly, he had started falling for her.
"The three of you going alone?" Butcher asked.
"Could send more, but somebody's got to stay on the base and keep eyes on Vought. See if they make any moves while we're gone."
M.M. shrugged. He had his own reason to want a few days at home. He still owed his wife and daughter some real time, and vanishing to the Philippines on top of everything else wasn't going to go over well on the home front.
Butcher didn't add anything. He had his own business to attend to.
"One thing before I go," Jude said. "Nobody goes anywhere near Sage Grove without me. Wait till I'm back before anybody does anything stupid there. Get yourself fried by one of Stormfront's lightning bolts and there's no bringing you back from that."
He gave a short wave.
Kimiko blinked. She pulled out her phone and typed out a quick message. Now?
"Right now. Fast there, fast back."
Inside Vought's own walls, a very different search was underway.
"Anything from the search?"
Madelyn and Homelander together in the security department was rare enough to turn heads. A few hundred staff monitored a wall of screens wired straight into both the NYPD's criminal database and the city's civilian records. As one of the largest superhero corporations on the planet, Vought enjoyed a level of access most companies could only dream of. Every bit of it was, technically, legal.
"Yes, ma'am. We've got a hit."
A tech reached over and hit enter. A face filled the screen. Southeast Asian, unremarkable, eyes flat and empty in a way that made the whole image feel wrong.
"Joseph Aquino. Filipino national, twenty-nine. Confirmed Shining Light Liberation Army, joined at twenty. Tied to several of their overseas attacks. Last confirmed sighting was with the group that smuggled into the States." The tech hesitated. "To be precise. Last confirmed sighting was yesterday."
Homelander's face hardened as he studied it. "Anything since?"
"...No, sir."
"Then find him. Dig three feet into the ground if that's what it takes." Homelander rattled off instructions. "Cross every street camera you've got against checkpoint logs, hospital admissions, the works. And that car, that beat-up Chevrolet, I want the model and the plate both run down."
"These people left a trail a mile wide. They don't just vanish."
"I know. I know." The tech answered in a small, careful voice. For good reason. Homelander loomed just behind his chair. His eyes were bloodshot. A thick vein stood out along his neck. The tension radiating off him made every person in the room desperately want to be somewhere else.
The tech had no idea what had happened. He didn't need to. Homelander's mood told him everything.
After a few more minutes, Madelyn turned and walked out. Homelander fell in behind her without a word.
Back in her office, she picked up the phone and dialed Ashley, Vought's talent director.
"Where's Superman right now?"
"Just wrapped a job, ma'am. He's on his way back to the Tower."
"Give him something urgent. Get him moving on it immediately, and make sure he's not back in this building for at least the next few hours."
She hung up. Homelander spoke before she even set the phone down.
"After that facility got hit, I talked to our people there. They mentioned one of theirs had gone missing around that time. Didn't think much of it then." His jaw tightened. "Now it looks like that missing one was Aquino."
"Not your fault," Madelyn said. She sighed. "The arrangement was simple. We paid them, gave them a limited supply of Compound V for our own testing purposes, and that was supposed to be the end of it. No side projects. And of course, the idiots went and dosed their own people with it anyway."
"Bunch of fanatics who think the only problem with their bombs is that they're not big enough. Never mind whether the bomb kills the guy holding it." Homelander's eyes narrowed. "No idea how many of them it killed trying. But it worked on Aquino, at least. Gave him something."
"I doubt it stopped at Aquino." Madelyn kept her gaze steady. "If they were reckless enough, there's no reason to assume he's the only new supe they've made."
"So what's the play?"
"Shining Light's gone dark on us as of yesterday. They know we're compromised, and they've stopped pretending otherwise." Madelyn's voice stayed level and businesslike. "I've already sent the coordinates for their base in the Philippines to your phone. I need you to make a trip out there. Handle it, and come home."
She paused. "If there are other test subjects on site, don't worry about whether they're still useful to us. Deal with them too."
"One more thing. Get a photo when you're done. I want something for the press by the time you're back. I've already squared it away with the Philippine government, so nobody's going to get in your way out there. Do the whole thing yourself. Clean. Efficient."
The corners of Homelander's mouth pulled back into a slow smile.
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