Susan walked through the office.
Most of the staff inside had already fled. Only one computer was still on, its screen displaying a spreadsheet that had not been closed.
With a perfectly legitimate excuse to skip out early and give themselves time off, they would have been fools not to run.
Besides, had you seen that giant Sandman? The guy with horns on his head? The rock guy and the one throwing off sparks? What if those four got carried away fighting and accidentally knocked down the surrounding buildings?
As civil servants with proper government positions, they had comprehensive insurance, and fleeing first in a crisis like this was more in the taxpayers' interests.
As for the taxpayers hanging around nearby to watch?
Whether they lived or died was their own damn business.
Susan had only meant to give it a casual glance.
Then she stopped.
The spreadsheet had a long title.
"Budget explanation for the pilot program for tiered response of urban paranormal public safety resources"
Susan reached out and plugged the data reader into the computer's port.
A permissions warning popped up on the screen.
The reader flashed.
The permissions warning disappeared.
Susan's fingers slowly stilled.
She just had to do this to herself. She knew perfectly well what the government was like, yet she still could not resist taking a look.
Since she had already looked, she might as well look at a few more.
"Statistical report on damage caused by illegal activities by unregistered mutants"
Then more folders opened.
More than government deployments and budgets, they contained statistics on collateral injuries and losses caused by superheroes.
"..."
Reed said nothing over the comms.
He could see the files on his end in real time.
Only after a long while did Reed speak quietly.
"Spider wasn't exaggerating."