That’s one of the reasons it’s Pepper she’s taken with her to Hala, with her suit holding not only her but even Goose for the entire trip. On the planet she’ll attract more attention with it on than with it off and her in the right kind of garb, so it’s gone by the time they touch down, except one piece on her wrist which just looks like jewelry. Goose is squirming in her arms, probably ornery just from being cooped up for so long-and when Pepper’s someone else she likes, another reason Carol chose her for this.
“You can put her down,” Carol tells her, and Pepper drops the flerken in relief. She takes a curious look around, of course; she still hasn’t seen very many planets besides Earth. But she snaps to when Carol says, “Havi’s got everything in his sublevel flat. Though that door,” she points, “then third door from the right, down two floors on the elevator, and from there let Goose lead you. She knows what to do; you just have to get her in. Remember, you work for Tare Comms and Computing, your name is Finne...”
She stays on the street until Pepper’s successfully buzzed her way into the complex. Then she lifts herself back through Hala’s atmosphere, high enough so people on the ground can’t discern her shape. She flies so fast even those monitoring the radar likely won’t put the pieces together before she’s long gone. They probably wouldn’t try to do anything anyway; they know it’s not worth it for them.
That’s the thing now: after twenty-five years of fighting this battle, people know who Carol is. It’s why she’s just had to send Pepper into the lair of a dangerous militaristic faction, because she herself can’t pose as the IT support worker anymore. Instead, she has to do the job Pepper might actually have been better at. Once, in fact, she would’ve refused to do this on principle. But she learned long ago all the powers in the galaxy didn’t enable her to punch her way through everything.
Carol briefly met Devlu last year, before this whole shitshow started. Of all the Kree she’s met who genuinely want them to become a different people from who they’ve been, he’s always been the one most likely to be able to get something real done at the top, but he’s held no official power since about three weeks after Thanos struck. At the moment, as the empire struggles to hold on to half its planets, those who are currently in charge are tempted to let many of them go. If Devlu could get their ear, it might mean freedom for millions.
He’s alone when she finds him, listening to a newsfeed. His first reaction on seeing her is to shake his head and ask, “You finally came back now?”
She isn’t going to spend time trying to justify herself to him if she doesn’t have to. “Tell me,” she says, “how do the current members of the Provisional Council view Havi and his Return Warriors? More importantly, how would they feel if someone, say, you, showed them to be stockpiling weapons it’s illegal for them to have?”
He actually smirked. “They don’t like him, though I don’t know if they view him as a threat to they themselves, and mere weapons stockpiling wouldn’t convince them there. Still, it might be worth it, especially if we could also provide them with what they were planning to do with them.”
“I’m hoping for that as well.” Carol’s specifically directed Pepper to get everything off the computer banks she can, while Goose got a few of the weapons themselves. “But I have at least a few minutes, so are you willing to tell me more about how they’re feeling? I know everything the public does already.”
Devlu actually talks for longer than she wanted him to, and she keeps half an ear on the still running newsfeed; the slightest hint of anything happening where she left Pepper and she’ll have to take off. She wishes she could comm her, but there’s too much risk of detection. They’re almost certainly done, though, by the time he says, “and they’re all expecting something to happen soon, on the semi-anniversary. I’d think most people would be too busy with commemoration rites, though.”
“We can hope so,” Carol sighs. Her hand strays to the patch of her outfit over her heart, under which lies the photograph only Monica knows about. She stands up. “I’ll be back in a moment with everything. This has to go fast.” She wants all three of them to be off Hala before the Return Warriors discover any of their guns are gone. Once she might have hung around to fight them, but now she has no time.