Supremedalekdunn
The Dark Knight: Knight of Gotham #4
After a couple of minutes speeding through Gotham I make it to Officer Kenneth Baum. According to the GCPD’s records he’s a clean police officer. No known connections to Falcone or Cobblepot, which is rather uncommon for officers in the GCPD outside of Jim and his closest allies in the department. I can only assume that it’s because of his lack of associates that he deals with Darb instead of either of them. Then again everyone is so focused on trying to remove the people in the GCPD that are aiding Cobblepot and Falcone that Darb is near enough completely unwatched so it’s no wonder Officer Baum is dealing with him.
Why he’s dealing with Darb is irrelevant though. I’m not concerned with why he’s chosen to supply Darb with firearms, it’s more how he’s able to get his hands on these military grade weapons and who was the one that paid him to arm the Mayor’s killers. I park the Batmobile a block away from Baum’s location and traverse the rooftops to his location. There he is, exactly where Alfred said he would be. He’s in an old chevy corvette parked up with his lights off. A quick infrared scan shows that he’s on the phone. In an ideal world I’d be able to intercept his phone call and see exactly who it is that he’s calling but the batcomputer takes too long to successfully trace a call remotely and I don’t have time to waste tonight. The trail I’m chasing is already cold after I left the case to see Jason awaken so I’m playing catch up at the moment. Looks like we need to do this the old fashioned way.
I drop down from my perch on the roof and land on the roof of his car catching him by surprise.
“What the fu….”
Before he can complete his sentence I smash through the windscreen of his car drag him out of the car much to his horror. It happens so fast that he winds up dropping his phone and in between the swearing given out by Officer Baum I keep hearing the odd blurt out of his phone from the person on the other end. I reach over to grab it but Officer Baum thinks it’s a good idea to take a swing at me. He achieves exactly what he hoped to. His fist collides with the side of my cowl.
Big mistake.
I lift myself up and throw Baum at the nearby bin. Not everyday someone lands a punch on me. As he lets out his screams of pain I reach back into the car and pull out his mobile but by the time I manage to get my hands on it the caller on the other end has hung up. Damn, looks like I won’t be getting a trace on the call. Looks like I’m going to have to get Officer Baum to tell me everything.
As I walk over to him he tries to reach for his gun, he’s shocked when he finds it in my hands and not in his holster. I choose to start the interrogation off as painless as possible, Jim’s never a big fan when his officers come out of a conversation with me with broken limbs. I point the gun at him taking him by surprise. Clearly he’s aware of my rule or he’s just shocked to have someone pull a gun on him, both are perfectly viable options really I’m just not sure these days.
“What the hell are you doing with that?”
“What does it look like?”
I keep the gun pointed at him and he says nothing. Worse. He laughs. Guess he knows.
“I’ve heard the stories behind you. Especially the big one. You won’t kill.”
I pull the trigger causing a bullet to narrowly miss his foot by a couple of centimeters. He flinches, as you’d expect. Good. He’s clearly on edge given how much he jumped from me pulling the trigger, just what I need.
“Alright man alright! What do you want?”
“You provided Edbard Darb with the military grade weapons he supplied to the ones who killed Mayor March.”
“How do you know that?”
I say nothing and just stare at him, that's seemingly enough for him to piece it all together.
“Darb. That bastard. When I get my hands on him.”
<b.“You won’t. Not where he's going.”
“You didn’t….”
All I did was have the GCPD arrest Darb and they'll probably have him put in Blackgate for his smuggling operation. Baum clearly thinks I did much worse than simply leave him with a couple of broken bones. Rather than correct him I choose to go with it. Clearly the thought is racing through his mind, I can tell from how his right arm is shaking.
“Who bought the weapons from you?”
“What did you do to Darb?”
"The same thing I'm going to do to you if you don't tell me what I want to know."
I close the gap between he and I causing him to move his right hand behind his back. Clearly he’s reaching for his pocket knife I saw in his back pocket. I continue to close the gap and sure enough what does he pull out?
“Stay away from me! You hear me? Stay away or I off myself!”
Unexpected. Normally people threaten to kill me with the knife instead of threatening to take their own life, clearly whoever else is involved with this has him scared. Before he can put the knife to his neck I remove the clip from his gun and throw it straight at him knocking him back and allowing me to force the knife out of his hand.
“Who bought the guns!”
“Ah fuck man what was that fo…”
“Who bought them!”
I grab hold of his uniform and vigorously shake him.
“I don’t know.”
I punch him in his left cheek. He spits out a small amount of blood as my fist connects with his. It's never best to start with the head when interrogating someone but if they're going to squeal immediately it's always a punch in the face.
“The name! Who bought the guns!”
“I can’t he’ll kill me if I talk!”
“Wrong answer.”
I throw him down on the floor and pull out my grapple. He wants to play games, but I’m not in the mood for games. I use the grapple to take both of us up to the roof and he quickly tries to escape, to no avail.
“Look man I want to help you, but if I do he’ll kill me!”
"He's the least of your worries right now.
I slowly walk up to him and stare him down. He’s terrified. I can see it in his eyes. Unfortunately he’s not given me the name so I have to press on. I come to a halt in front of him, he’s a nervous wreck but I need him to think he’s going to die, he won’t squeal otherwise. With that in mind I have no other choice. I kick him off the roof.
The fall would be enough to kill; fortunately for him I know Gotham and all its buildings. Including where the perches on each building, one of which Officer Kenneth Baum has just landed on. I jump down onto the perch and push him far enough off the perch so he’s only just clinging on to it. I have no intention of letting him fall but he doesn’t know that. As far he’s concerned I’m more than willing to let him drop to his death, which is good. It’ll make him honest. The fear of death does that to a lot of people.
“I won't ask again. Who bought the weapons!”
He starts breaking down in tears; clearly he’s terrified for his life.
“I swear you. I don’t know. Please I’m telling the truth!”
Damn. Dead end. Looks like he genuinely doesn’t know who bought the weapons from him. I walk over to him to lift him up but he interprets it as me coming in for the kill.
“NO! NO! I DON’T KNOW WHO BOUGHT THE GUN BUT I KNOW HOW YOU CAN TRACK THEM!”
I pause. Looks like there may be something here after all.
“Talk."
I bring myself to a halt and scan his heart rate. He isn’t in any position to lie but I need to be sure before I let him go.
“The weapons. I tagged them.”
“Tagged them?”
“Yes! I tagged them using a small tracking device hidden in the handle of each gun.”
His heart rate tells me that he’s not lying but it sounds far too advanced for a mere corrupt GCPD police officer to carry out. There’s also the question of how did he manage to acquire said tracking devices. Fortunately for me he’s not going anywhere until I help him up.
“What are the tracking devices you used?”
<I.“They’re small microchips I stole from the GCPD evidence locker. The same ones used by.."
Small microchip trackers? He’s using the tracking chips I gave the GCPD a year ago belonging to Elliot Caldwell aka the one who calls himself Wrath. I’ve been unable to turn him over to the GCPD but I’ve been able to give them all the evidence needed to arrest him should he return to Gotham. The trackers were found on every patrol car in the GCPD allowing him to know where every vehicle in the GCPD was at any given time. I handed in a device designed to trace these trackers for the GCPD’s use so they could trace Wrath if he ever returned to Gotham. Looks like Baum got his hands on that as well as well as the trackers themselves.
Clever. Baum clearly got his hands on the trackers and has reused them so he can track the guns he sells. Guess that explains how he’s viewed as the GCPD’s greatest homicide hunter. He sells them the guns and then uses the trackers so he can hunt down his clients and off them before they can rat him out to the GCPD. Clever system. He’s viewed as the GCPD’s finest and he keeps his pockets lined.
“Wrath.”
“Yeah, yeah him! That’s whose trackers I used!”
I’m impressed by how well he’s constructed this system for himself it’s a shame he’s wasted his potential really. But he’s a criminal, and like all criminals he needs to be punished for his crimes. I lift him up back on to the perch and he breaths a sigh of relief.
“Right. You know how to find the weapons, now please let me go.”
He thinks I’m just going to let him go? Clearly he doesn’t know me at all.
“If you insist.”
I push him back off the perch sending him flying down to the ground. Fortunately for him the perch he was just pushed from is directly above a set of bins of the pillow factory so he has a soft landing. A shame for him that I’ve got his confession recorded. But fortunately for me now that I have a way to track his weapons. Hopefully whoever killed the two gunmen will have kept the gun he used and the trackers will lead me right to him….
The Dark Knight: Knight of Gotham #4
After a couple of minutes speeding through Gotham I make it to Officer Kenneth Baum. According to the GCPD’s records he’s a clean police officer. No known connections to Falcone or Cobblepot, which is rather uncommon for officers in the GCPD outside of Jim and his closest allies in the department. I can only assume that it’s because of his lack of associates that he deals with Darb instead of either of them. Then again everyone is so focused on trying to remove the people in the GCPD that are aiding Cobblepot and Falcone that Darb is near enough completely unwatched so it’s no wonder Officer Baum is dealing with him.
Why he’s dealing with Darb is irrelevant though. I’m not concerned with why he’s chosen to supply Darb with firearms, it’s more how he’s able to get his hands on these military grade weapons and who was the one that paid him to arm the Mayor’s killers. I park the Batmobile a block away from Baum’s location and traverse the rooftops to his location. There he is, exactly where Alfred said he would be. He’s in an old chevy corvette parked up with his lights off. A quick infrared scan shows that he’s on the phone. In an ideal world I’d be able to intercept his phone call and see exactly who it is that he’s calling but the batcomputer takes too long to successfully trace a call remotely and I don’t have time to waste tonight. The trail I’m chasing is already cold after I left the case to see Jason awaken so I’m playing catch up at the moment. Looks like we need to do this the old fashioned way.
I drop down from my perch on the roof and land on the roof of his car catching him by surprise.
“What the fu….”
Before he can complete his sentence I smash through the windscreen of his car drag him out of the car much to his horror. It happens so fast that he winds up dropping his phone and in between the swearing given out by Officer Baum I keep hearing the odd blurt out of his phone from the person on the other end. I reach over to grab it but Officer Baum thinks it’s a good idea to take a swing at me. He achieves exactly what he hoped to. His fist collides with the side of my cowl.
Big mistake.
I lift myself up and throw Baum at the nearby bin. Not everyday someone lands a punch on me. As he lets out his screams of pain I reach back into the car and pull out his mobile but by the time I manage to get my hands on it the caller on the other end has hung up. Damn, looks like I won’t be getting a trace on the call. Looks like I’m going to have to get Officer Baum to tell me everything.
As I walk over to him he tries to reach for his gun, he’s shocked when he finds it in my hands and not in his holster. I choose to start the interrogation off as painless as possible, Jim’s never a big fan when his officers come out of a conversation with me with broken limbs. I point the gun at him taking him by surprise. Clearly he’s aware of my rule or he’s just shocked to have someone pull a gun on him, both are perfectly viable options really I’m just not sure these days.
“What the hell are you doing with that?”
“What does it look like?”
I keep the gun pointed at him and he says nothing. Worse. He laughs. Guess he knows.
“I’ve heard the stories behind you. Especially the big one. You won’t kill.”
I pull the trigger causing a bullet to narrowly miss his foot by a couple of centimeters. He flinches, as you’d expect. Good. He’s clearly on edge given how much he jumped from me pulling the trigger, just what I need.
“Alright man alright! What do you want?”
“You provided Edbard Darb with the military grade weapons he supplied to the ones who killed Mayor March.”
“How do you know that?”
I say nothing and just stare at him, that's seemingly enough for him to piece it all together.
“Darb. That bastard. When I get my hands on him.”
<b.“You won’t. Not where he's going.”
“You didn’t….”
All I did was have the GCPD arrest Darb and they'll probably have him put in Blackgate for his smuggling operation. Baum clearly thinks I did much worse than simply leave him with a couple of broken bones. Rather than correct him I choose to go with it. Clearly the thought is racing through his mind, I can tell from how his right arm is shaking.
“Who bought the weapons from you?”
“What did you do to Darb?”
"The same thing I'm going to do to you if you don't tell me what I want to know."
I close the gap between he and I causing him to move his right hand behind his back. Clearly he’s reaching for his pocket knife I saw in his back pocket. I continue to close the gap and sure enough what does he pull out?
“Stay away from me! You hear me? Stay away or I off myself!”
Unexpected. Normally people threaten to kill me with the knife instead of threatening to take their own life, clearly whoever else is involved with this has him scared. Before he can put the knife to his neck I remove the clip from his gun and throw it straight at him knocking him back and allowing me to force the knife out of his hand.
“Who bought the guns!”
“Ah fuck man what was that fo…”
“Who bought them!”
I grab hold of his uniform and vigorously shake him.
“I don’t know.”
I punch him in his left cheek. He spits out a small amount of blood as my fist connects with his. It's never best to start with the head when interrogating someone but if they're going to squeal immediately it's always a punch in the face.
“The name! Who bought the guns!”
“I can’t he’ll kill me if I talk!”
“Wrong answer.”
I throw him down on the floor and pull out my grapple. He wants to play games, but I’m not in the mood for games. I use the grapple to take both of us up to the roof and he quickly tries to escape, to no avail.
“Look man I want to help you, but if I do he’ll kill me!”
"He's the least of your worries right now.
I slowly walk up to him and stare him down. He’s terrified. I can see it in his eyes. Unfortunately he’s not given me the name so I have to press on. I come to a halt in front of him, he’s a nervous wreck but I need him to think he’s going to die, he won’t squeal otherwise. With that in mind I have no other choice. I kick him off the roof.
The fall would be enough to kill; fortunately for him I know Gotham and all its buildings. Including where the perches on each building, one of which Officer Kenneth Baum has just landed on. I jump down onto the perch and push him far enough off the perch so he’s only just clinging on to it. I have no intention of letting him fall but he doesn’t know that. As far he’s concerned I’m more than willing to let him drop to his death, which is good. It’ll make him honest. The fear of death does that to a lot of people.
“I won't ask again. Who bought the weapons!”
He starts breaking down in tears; clearly he’s terrified for his life.
“I swear you. I don’t know. Please I’m telling the truth!”
Damn. Dead end. Looks like he genuinely doesn’t know who bought the weapons from him. I walk over to him to lift him up but he interprets it as me coming in for the kill.
“NO! NO! I DON’T KNOW WHO BOUGHT THE GUN BUT I KNOW HOW YOU CAN TRACK THEM!”
I pause. Looks like there may be something here after all.
“Talk."
I bring myself to a halt and scan his heart rate. He isn’t in any position to lie but I need to be sure before I let him go.
“The weapons. I tagged them.”
“Tagged them?”
“Yes! I tagged them using a small tracking device hidden in the handle of each gun.”
His heart rate tells me that he’s not lying but it sounds far too advanced for a mere corrupt GCPD police officer to carry out. There’s also the question of how did he manage to acquire said tracking devices. Fortunately for me he’s not going anywhere until I help him up.
“What are the tracking devices you used?”
<I.“They’re small microchips I stole from the GCPD evidence locker. The same ones used by.."
Small microchip trackers? He’s using the tracking chips I gave the GCPD a year ago belonging to Elliot Caldwell aka the one who calls himself Wrath. I’ve been unable to turn him over to the GCPD but I’ve been able to give them all the evidence needed to arrest him should he return to Gotham. The trackers were found on every patrol car in the GCPD allowing him to know where every vehicle in the GCPD was at any given time. I handed in a device designed to trace these trackers for the GCPD’s use so they could trace Wrath if he ever returned to Gotham. Looks like Baum got his hands on that as well as well as the trackers themselves.
Clever. Baum clearly got his hands on the trackers and has reused them so he can track the guns he sells. Guess that explains how he’s viewed as the GCPD’s greatest homicide hunter. He sells them the guns and then uses the trackers so he can hunt down his clients and off them before they can rat him out to the GCPD. Clever system. He’s viewed as the GCPD’s finest and he keeps his pockets lined.
“Wrath.”
“Yeah, yeah him! That’s whose trackers I used!”
I’m impressed by how well he’s constructed this system for himself it’s a shame he’s wasted his potential really. But he’s a criminal, and like all criminals he needs to be punished for his crimes. I lift him up back on to the perch and he breaths a sigh of relief.
“Right. You know how to find the weapons, now please let me go.”
He thinks I’m just going to let him go? Clearly he doesn’t know me at all.
“If you insist.”
I push him back off the perch sending him flying down to the ground. Fortunately for him the perch he was just pushed from is directly above a set of bins of the pillow factory so he has a soft landing. A shame for him that I’ve got his confession recorded. But fortunately for me now that I have a way to track his weapons. Hopefully whoever killed the two gunmen will have kept the gun he used and the trackers will lead me right to him….