2. Review from thebibliophileshavethephonebox, "I forgot which Dingbat was doing the video, but he was creepy. Like, REALLY creepy."
"How do we know those two douches won't come after us for more money? They do know who we took. Is that really enough money to sate them?"
"They won't come after us because they work for the same company we do. They're probably off to snatch another kid or two and they get the same amount for each. They know if they come after us for a little extra on this job, they'll lose income for other jobs. We have nothing to worry about."
"Listen to Missy, John; she knows what she's saying." Alexandro said, focusing his attention on the road. Missy gave John a victorious smirk. "Missy, can you lead me out of the city and to the transfer point?"
"Yeah. You'll want to take a right onto the highway and follow it for a while. We get off on exit 13."
"Why so soon?" John asked, rechecking his work on the firmly bound kid hidden under a blanket on the floor of the back seat for the fifth time. Exit 13 was only about a half hour or so away from the city with the evening traffic. At the rate they were going, they might get there in less time, maybe a bit more because they weren't out of the city yet.
"Aww. Look at the nervous newbie." Alexandro teased. Missy rolled her eyes, and answered his question.
"We need to secure the kid further before he wakes, and shake off any cops. We only have until the girl wakes up and calls for help to switch vehicles without pursuit."
"How long is that? And I thought I did a pretty good job with the restraints. He shouldn't be able to get out of them."
"Maybe so, but we won't be able to stop anywhere for food or gas with him in the backseat. He's too well known. Someone glimpses in or he manages to sit up, and pish posh police after us before we get a good distance. Not to mention seat belt laws."
"Seat belt laws? Seriously?"
"Anyhow, the sedative should last another hour for both of them. That'll give us time to get out of the city and away from cameras. There's an isolated parking lot five minutes from the highway where we can make the switch easily. No cameras between the lot and the highway or on the highway. I didn't want to give him too much sedative initially, before I could observe his body type. I'll give him another, stronger one when we switch vehicles. Then, we'll have to be conservative with our sedatives. Just use them when he's super fussy. It's better not to let him know just how far we've driven to the first location while he can still find a way to communicate with Daddy."
"You've clearly thought this out, Missy." John noted. Alexandro gave a grunt of agreement.
"That reminds me, when we get to the location, I'm going to need you to remove all his clothes except his boxers, then tie him back up. We don't want anything that can be traced. We're meeting another grunt there. He'll hold onto the things and then add the video tape when we're done with it, and send it to Daddy. Did you find all the trackers?"
"Yes, Missy."
"Okay, good." She looked into the backseat and contemplated the sleeping boy's visage, which they'd left uncovered so that he could breathe easier, only covering it when they neared a toll booth. "We'll need to blindfold him too, and gag him. It's a long way from the transfer spot to the Marmin's shack. It would be near impossible to safely knock him out for the full ride, and if we did, we'd be delayed when making the ransom demands."
"Is it really considered a ransom when we're not giving him back, Missy?" Alexandro snorted. John looked curious as to the answer.
"Nah. More like forced funding." They all laughed.
"Is my script ready, Missy? I haven't done one of these before, you know."
"I know. It's almost done. I'll have it ready for you to read after the transfer." She pulled out a notebook and got to work writing. There was silence for a while as they drove. When they were passing exit 8, John spoke up again.
"Are you really planning to go all out in pretending to be a guy? It seems a bit extreme."
Missy snorted. "If the kid somehow gets free, I want them to be looking for three guys rather than two guys and a girl. It will be easier for us to escape that way. I just won't talk much this week." John nodded.
"How long will the new sedative last?"
"It should knock a grown, fit man out completely for three to four hours and keep him out of it for another one, so I'd say we probably have seven hours until he comes to." John nodded, deep in thought, and then went back to watching the sleeping kid.
Ten minutes later, the three shifted in anticipation as they pulled off the exit. John covered the boy's face again, and Missy quietly directed Alexandro.
"We're going to have to be relatively fast," she said to John, handing him a box for the clothes. "Untie him and start stripping him." He nodded, and started undoing the knots. She continued, "If you find something small that doesn't have a tracer, let him keep it for his personal item. They always like when the kids have one."
John took the tie and the watch off first, followed shortly by the kid's jacket. He found a small pair of red googles in one of the outer pockets. No tracer, so he put them on the kid's head. He neatly folded the jacket and tie. Before taking the kid's shirt off, he made a slash in the kid's arm, and dropped the blood over the shirt, drawing a skull face in blood using gloves. That would freak Daddy out. The slash elicited a small moan, and he watched, but the kid did not wake. That was a good sedative.
Satisfied, he removed the shirt, stopped the small wound from bleeding with the shirt, and added the shirt to the neatly folded pile in the box. He then moved to the kid's shoes, where he'd found and crushed a tracer earlier. Those and the socks were added to the pile. He was just undoing the kid's belt, feeling a bit weird at doing this, when they pulled into the parking lot. Missy and Alexandro got out to talk to the grunt, while he finished up. As he pulled the kid's pants over his feet, the kid began to wake more noticeably, much closer to consciousness.
He grabbed the ropes, wrapped them firmly around the boy's ankles, and pulled up his mask, before opening the car door. "We need that new sedative," he said, just loud enough for the others to hear. Missy nodded and moved towards the car. She pulled a small bottle and a syringe out of her bag. She filled it almost completely, grabbed the boy's arm, and injected the liquid. He picked up energy for a moment, struggling slightly, although never opening his eyes, and then dropped back into his sleepy drugged state. Missy nodded to him and then turned back to her inspection of the transfer car, more specifically its open trunk.
"There's an independent heater in the back?" She asked the grunt, as John firmly bound the boy's arms behind his back with little give.
"Yessir. It'll keep working even after you turn the car off, although the kid probably won't even notice it's there. Should keep him cozy enough not to get frostbite."
"Good. The back's kind of banged up. Why's that?"
"You'll need a crowbar to open the trunk, so he won't be able to get out on his own. Nobody would expect you to be using a banged up old car to transport your ware. The company thought this was best for day one. Extra security."
"Alright. John, you finished?" She asked, turning back to her companion.
"Almost," he said, finishing up the gag. "Just need to get the blindfold. Would you like the honors?"
Missy snorted, but went over anyways. She took a roll of duct tape and wrapped it tightly around the boy's head, making sure to cover all possible angles of sight. Alexandro took the crowbar from the grunt and checked the trunk to make sure there were no sharp edges the boy could use for his advantage. He flipped the heater on. "Seems ready. Put him in."
John scooped the boy up, and brought him over, arranging the limbs so that he'd be relatively comfortable. He took a deep breath, and then stepped back. Alexandro instantly slammed the trunk closed, banging on it a few times to make sure it really wouldn't open without a crowbar.
They nodded to the grunt and got into the car.
"His stuff's in the backseat," Missy told the grunt before sliding into the driver's seat. She handed her notebook to Alexandro so he could read the script and work on adding elements of creepiness and danger to it in his movements and body language. Then, they took off towards the highway in silence.
Twenty minutes later, Missy said. "It's too quiet," and turned on the country music station.
"Seriously? Country?" John moaned.
"Driver picks the music, Newbie. Driver picks the music."
Story behind this chapter: Warning, it's a long one.
There are few people who I see as completely good or completely evil. I'm a strong believer in the gray area and the idea that just about everyone is inside it. The Dingbats are people doing a horrible task, but it's just that to them: a task. So, I gave each of them motives and roles. For Missy and Alexandro, this isn't their first job, yet this is Alexandro's first time in front of the camera. They don't often set up ransoms as they don't plan to give the kids back. The ransom is mostly to buy time to get down to Savannah (the port where they put Dick on the ship) and to get more funds for "the company" aka the bluemen aka the people experimenting on the kids. There used to be another person with them who did the last few ransoms, but he was arrested on an unrelated charge, so they have John instead. This scene also explains the fact there were five people attacking them in the alley, but only three Dingbats.
Here's a rough summary of the Dingbats' background.
Dingbat 2 (John) is the newbie. He ran out of money for college after having a falling out with his parents. John got drawn into the wrong crowd and got hired by the company for the job. He's incredibly uneasy and afraid of the consequences. He knows this is wrong, but has no easy way out. Easy over right, basically. Since he's new, the other two don't have him doing the ransom video in case he screws it up. They don't trust him much.
Dingbat 1 (Missy) has the most experience and is in charge. She's actually the one who pinpointed Dick as a potential target based on the requirements given to her for the company. She's the strategist, but is smart enough not to get in front of the camera. Missy's not even her real name. I haven't thought of her real name, but I can pull one out of thin air when/if it comes to it. Originally, she joined the company to stick it to her parents, and stayed when she found she enjoyed the thrills of crime. She's a sadist and hasn't failed a job in ten years.
Dingbat 3 (Alexandro) is also young like John, but was drawn into the mafia as a kid, so he has a lot of experience. He is only slightly less experienced than mostly acts as transport and grunt. His whole family is in organized crime, which is not that unusual in Gotham. They tend to do their jobs together since they met three-five years ago. He dropped out of high school to work fulltime and because he found it boring. He's NOT a pedophile. He just acts like one in the ransom video to freak Bruce out. Remember, they weren't ever planning to give Dick back, so whatever Bruce did wouldn't really have had an effect on what they did to Dick unless Bruce managed to find him before it was too late (i.e. one week later, already on the ship). At the same time, both he and Missy are major child traffickers, so take that as you will.
Why wasn't this in the story?
I didn't put too much thought into the Dingbats past their basic personality traits because, when I wrote the scene, I was still planning to keep the entire story in Dick's point of view. Therefore, only what he observed and used to tell them apart, as well as what motivated their basic actions mattered. That and they're quickly shoved to the background, basically unimportant after the first week. Batman will find them at some point, but they're like sand in the cracks, near impossible to catch especially. They left behind no fingerprints, no full visual, and no DNA. Basically, the police and League have nothing useful to find the Dingbats. Thebibliophileshavethephonebooth's review was what prompted me to write this scene and go more in depth into their background.
Focus on Logarithm/the rough voice from the dock. He's the important one.