An Unexpected Ally

Of course it’d happen on tonight of all nights. Not any of the fast four when I’ve basically locked myself in my office at the GCPD. It had to be on the one night where I decide to relax for a couple of hours at the county fair. You really should have known better Jim. Things never go wrong when you’re prepared to deal with them, they always happen when you least expect it. Now it’s all about to commence and I’m trapped here in Gotham General waiting to be relieved by one of Bruce’s contacts so I can prepare for a coming terrorist attack.

 

This would never have been a problem of that brat of his hadn’t killed Lincoln. He might have been hesitant to grant me full authority to a claim of an incoming terrorist attack, but he would have at least given me more resources for if such a situation became a reality. For all I know, they could making their first moves in Gotham right this very second and there’s nothing I can do.

 

What the hell am I doing?

 

I’m getting angry over the fact that I’m here having to look after someone who’s just been in a fight for their very life, and here I am moaning because I have to stay and make sure she’s alright. What would you think if it were Barbra in that operating room? You’d be beside yourself praying she comes out alright. Hell, at least you have someone who’d be concerned if it were you that had to go onto that operating table. The poor kid’s got no-one.

 

Her mom’s been missing for months at this point, and her father’s a wanted fugitive. Even if he did come to make sure she was alright we’d have to drag his ass to prison. Might not seem humane, and to some people it wouldn’t seem right but that’s how the judicial system works. Probably doesn’t help him that he’s been running from the authorities and resisting in the first place, otherwise I could probably coax West into letting Mr. Brown stay under guard.

 

Then again, if I can’t get West to take the threat of a potential terrorist attack seriously, I doubt he’d actually give a damn about Ms. Brown’s condition. Hell, he’d probably say that the reason she ended up in such a state was because of him which I can’t fully deny. Would Ms. Brown have chosen to become the Spoiler were it not for her father’s actions? It’s impossible to say, I don’t known her full history. It’s possible the reason she became the spoiler was the need for an adrenaline rush.

 

She certainly wouldn’t the first person to become one of Bruce’s agents because of it.

 

Maybe her feelings for someone else led her to it. She certainly wouldn’t be the first there either.

 

I’ll have to ask her when she comes around and find out. But I’d put my money on her father being the cause.

 

Damn it. Where is Bruce’s agent?

 

SK: I take it you’re the friend I’m supposed to help out?

 

That voice. It can’t be?

 

I turn around to see the ever so familiar face of Selina Kyle. A well known cat burglar that operates across most of the state, though her activities are focused primarily here in Gotham. Her hair appears to be blonde for some reason which implies that she’s back in Gotham for either a job or she’s just trying to keep a low profile. She is after all, wanted for countless charges of robbery, including from the GCPD itself.

 

JG: Ms. Kyle?

 

SK: Ms. Goldstein please. Last thing I need is my mark learning that I’m more than the single blonde he had eyes for.

 

JG: Working some poor fool I take it?

 

SK: You could say that, or you could say I’m simply liberating something he’s spent a lifetime trying to hide.

 

JG: I’d really rather not know.

 

SK: Don’t want to get charged for being complicit in my actions?

 

JG: No, more because I already have enough reasons to arrest you, I just don’t want another one.

 

SK: Why? Will they not sit well on conscience?

 

JG: A bit. But also because I’m weighing up if what’s coming is serious enough for me to let you walk free.

 

SK: Well it was serious for him to actually ask for my help. If that doesn’t say things are serious, I don’t know what will.

 

She’s right. Bruce is always hesitant to ask Selina for help, though he has been known to do so at times when he needs to hear the rumours circling around the Gotham underworld. He wouldn’t have called her in had it not been seriously. Plus she probably wouldn’t have abandoned her target were it not important.

 

JG: Tell me about it.

 

SK: So how exactly am I supposed to help then, Commissioner?

 

JG: You can start by taking that smirk off your face.

 

SK: What smirk? I’m merely showing how happy I am to be able to do my service to help out Gotham’s finest.

 

JG: Yeah well, this is only a temporary arrangement Kyle. Once this is all over I’ll be taking you in.

 

SK: So you like to keep promising, Commissioner. But given how many times you’ve made that promise and I’m still outside the confines of Blackgate, I think your bark is worse than your bite. So come on then, what’s so serious that our mutual friend would ask me to help you out?

 

JG: One of our friend’s….colleagues is in surgery.

 

SK: Oh dear. What for?

 

JG: A stab wound.

 

SK: It must be serious if they’ve rushed her through to surgery. Our friend wouldn’t send them to a hospital if it weren’t.

 

JG: She was stabbed with a katana. It pierced both sides of her body and she lost a lot of blood in the process.

 

SK: Do I want to know how?

 

JG: I doubt it. All you need to know is that it’s the reason why our friend has asked you to step in and replace me.

 

SK:…So I’m on babysitter duty basically?

 

JG: More or less.

 

SK: Isn’t this something for her parents? Not some stranger in a blonde wig.

 

So it is a wig. I couldn’t tell from this distance.

 

JG: She doesn’t have…

 

SK: Anyone, I should have known. They’re Bruce’s favourites are those ones.

 

JG: Not all of them are like that.

 

SK: True, the third one still has his dad right?

 

JG: Yeah.

 

SK: Good thing he was able to save him whole crisis at City Hall. I can’t remember, what was the cover story you gave to cover up the real reason he was taken?

 

JG: I don’t know what you’re talking about. The man was…unfortunately visiting City Hall at the time it was attacked.

 

SK: Ah, a professional to the end. You I mean. Not the idiot who stormed into City Hall guns blazing. There are so many other ways to get into City Hall without making such a disturbance. You just have to know the right person to manipulate.

 

JG: Do I want to know which guard you were able to convince?

 

SK: Maybe. Can’t promise you’ll want to know how I got him to give some tips about City Hall. Security guards have the most bizarre interests. Back in my day all they wanted was a pretty girl to talk to them to make their day less tedious. Nowadays they need someone to threaten to expose their deepest desires before they’ll help out.

 

JG: I don’t want to know.

 

SK: That’s probably for the best, as boy did he have some weird tastes.

 

JG: Can I trust you to behave here and keep and eye on her?

 

SK: I can promise the second part.

 

JG: And the first?

 

SK: A girl’s gonna do what a girl’s gonna do.

 

As she says that, she lifts the bag she was carrying onto the waiting room table.

 

JG: Brought something to keep yourself busy?

 

SK: In a manner of speaking. After all, if the poor girl was stabbed as severely as you say she was, I may be here a while. Last thing you two would want was for little old me to get bored now, would you?

 

JG: If any patients report anything missing, just know I’ll be adding it to your list of offences.

 

SK: You always think the worst of me.

 

JG: I’ve spent enough time chasing you to know that there’s almost nothing you wouldn’t do.

 

SK: I’ll do my best to behave of Mr. Policeman, sir.

 

JG: Stay out of trouble.

 

SK: I can’t make any promises.

 

As she says those words, she takes a seat in the private waiting room I was able to get us. I don’t exactly feel happy leaving Ms. Kyle on her own in a place where half the people aren’t able to keep an eye on her, but I have no choice. Hopefully the ends will justify the means. So with no other choice, I make my way outside the hospital and begin to call West’s office.

 

MW: Gordon? What’s so serious that you need to call me at this hour.

 

JG: I’ve had a tip off from my source Mr. Mayor. The attack is coming, and they’re target is the entire city.

 

MW: Gordon, we’ve talked about this. I don’t care what Batman thinks is coming, without hard evidence I’m not willing to put the city in to a state of…..what the hell? Gordon? Do you see that?

 

JG: See what?

 

MW: Wayne Manor. It’s….

 

I turn sharply to the hill that Wayne Manor sits a top and I see what I can only assume to be Bruce’s signal.

 

Jesus Christ, Bruce.

Done