The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn
Part Three: The trap is set
Dr. O'Shay almost always walked into his office at least thirty minutes after his Secretary and assistant Yuko Kisagri did. Yuko often used the time to read O'Shay's email, and prepare his schedule for the day. She prided herself on running the director's office effectively. Today he was a few minutes later than usual.
"Any important correspondence for me, Yuko?" O'Shay asked as he set his briefcase down under his desk and logged into his computer.
"Yes, there was a note from Zoran's school." Yuko answered. "It seems that she played hooky from school today, and never showed up for class."
"Impossible, I sent her on her way personally this morning like I always do." O'Shay replied. "Of, course she has gotten a little lost and sidetracked before, like the time she found a litter of kittens and spend all morning looking for their mother." He answered himself, scratching his head.
"Yes, I remember that." Yuko replied. "I told the school to call when she finally does show up. I guess there isn't any reason to call the police yet."
"Probably not." O'Shay muttered. "Anything else?"
"Yes," Yuko answered, "take a look at this."
"Hmm, this looks like an invitation to a technology conference in America." O'Shay muttered. "Just what I need, another boring trip!"
"Boring?" Yuko asked. "This is the prestigious Wayne foundation! They run many programs promoting the beneficial use of technology. Look at the short list of invitees on this list! This is not just a simple conference, Bruce Wayne is looking to interview technology centers for a contract! The Ministry could use the business, and the Wayne foundation is just the kind of partnership we've been looking for."
"I suppose you're right." O'Shay sighed. "Why don't you make my travel arrangements?"
"According to the schedule of events, they are looking at Marine research, and robotics." Yuko said. "I think maybe you should invite Reno to come along. Didn't he do some research on Marine exploration?"
"Yes, he built a robot Dolphin named Gideon." O'Shay answered. "You know, that's a good idea. Reno is a better speaker than I am anyway, and he loves to travel. I'll videophone him later today."
Zoran walked into the house to find Astro and Cobalt staring at her.
"Boy are you going to catch hell" Cobalt warned her.
"Yeah Zoran," Astro asked "Where the hell were you all day? Your teacher called home, and at Dr. O'Shay's office several times to inquire why you were absent from school."
"But I WAS at school!" Zoran protested. "At least I think I was. I remember walking there, and walking home from school. I just don't remember actually being there, or anything else in between."
"You sure?" Astro asked. "You're not lying are you?" Cobalt added.
"I don't know! I'm confused." Zoran said.
Astro put his hand on Zoran's forehead and looked her in the eyes.
"I believe you Ami." He said. "I hope Dr. O'Shay doesn't get mad though."
Cobalt saw Zoran was upset and wanted to cheer her up.
"Hey Ami!" he called to her from his room. "Come look at this!"
Zoran walked into Cobalt's room and found him pointing at his computer screen.
"See this!" he said. "There is a real cool Anime-Manga-Cartoon convention making its way around the world. It's going to be in the U.S. in Gotham City at the hotel United States later this week, and will get here to Metro City by the end of the year. They will be having a Cosplay party, and you can rent costumes on site."
"That sounds nice." Zoran said. "But that's over half a year away till it gets here. Those rental costumes will be kinda ragged by then."
"I guess so." Cobalt agreed.
Zoran sulked out of the room toward hers and shut the door.
Dr. O'Shay was relieved to find that Zoran was OK when he got home. Astro told his guardian that she was upset and didn't remember what had happened. O'Shay then decided not to mention the incident and hoped that everything would be OK for her at school the next day.
Later at dinner, O'Shay brought up his travel plans.
"Listen kids," he started. "I've got this seminar to go to in America in a few days. I'll be gone for a week with Reno, and Yuko has offered to stay here with you."
"Where exactly is this seminar?" Cobalt asked.
"It's with the Wayne Foundation in Gotham City." O'Shay answered. "It's the first time they've ever invited experts on robotics to exchange ideas with them. Yuko is hoping the Ministry might land a research grant from the foundation."
"Metro City?" Zoran asked. "What hotel is it in?"
"The hotel United States." O'Shay replied.
"Hey, Cobalt!" Zoran yelled. "Isn't that the same hotel that the convention is in?"
"Yeah it is!" Cobalt replied. "Same week too!"
"Can I come with you, Dr. O'Shay?" Zoran begged sweetly. "You can go to your seminar, and I can go to this Manga convention and attend a cosplay party!"
"I'm sorry, Zoran. I really can't leave you alone at a convention by yourself." O'Shay replied. "I can't accompany you at the convention because I'll be busy at the seminar conference."
Zoran grabbed Astro and backed him up to a wall. "You'll come with me, won't you Ani?"
Astro made a sick face. "I'd rather not!"
"OK then, I'll ask Cobalt to accompany me. I guess you'd rather stay home and watch Chi-tan!"
"Well, on second thought, maybe Chi-tan would be better off with Cobalt." Astro countered.
"I knew you'd see it my way, Ani!" Zoran replied.
Dr. O'Shay heard the entire conversation and laughed to himself.
Pinoko was suspicious of the official looking envelope that arrived in the mail. It looked like some sort of invitation to a wedding or something. She was extremely jealous and cringed when Sensei got within ten feet of another woman at parties. She was considering burning the envelope when Dr. Blackjack walked into the room.
"Ah, I see the mail is here!" He said. "Anything for me?"
Pinoko handed the pile of mail over to him, retaining only her Pokemon magazine. Most of the envelopes contained checks or bills which Dr. Blackjack quickly sorted out and filed. He finally came to the envelope that had attracted Pinoko's attention, and noticed that she was eying him while he opened it.
"I take it you want to know what is in this envelope?" he asked.
"It looked suspicious!" she smirked.
"Well, it is a request from the Wayne foundation to assist in some research." Blackjack said. "They are asking for me to perform experimental brain surgery on a terminally ill patient," he said. "They are offering me a sum of one million dollars for the work, with all expenses paid."
"Where is this?" Pinoko asked.
"The Wayne Foundation hospital is in Gotham City, in the United States." Blackjack said.
"I've never been there before." Pinoko said.
"Then I guess it will be your first time." Blackjack answered.
Bruce Wayne found it difficult to keep his eyes focused on the computer screen. Besides lack of sleep ruining his concentration, his bloodshot eyes kept tearing, and his nose kept running. Alfred knew that his employer was quite human. He was taking Jason's death very hard, and his emotions were running high. Who would have believed that Bruce Wayne would be crying his eyes out over the loss of another human being.
Though he had been at it for over a week, Bruce still hadn't found a solid link to the Joker's activities, though there was some evidence to tie him to the disappearance of Dr. Tenamann. His investigation into the doctor's research revealed that he was an expert on robotic A.I. and had been experimenting with linking human minds and machines. Bruce could not quite figure out why the Joker would be interested in that however.
When he tried to cast a net on the Joker's whereabouts for the past month, there was some evidence that the satanic clown had been out of the country for a few days, possibly in Japan or China. Nothing on news reports showed up from over there, except for a 5th page article with sketchy information about some madman being broken out of a mental prison. Bruce bookmarked that article, and kept looking for more concrete leads.
Alfred found mister Wayne asleep at his computer, and half carried him to bed.
"Thank god, he needs some sleep!" Alfred thought to himself. He was about to shut down the computer, when he noticed all of the open tabs on the browser. Alfred made himself a rather strong cup of coffee and started to look at the pages that Bruce had been reading on-line.
It didn't take Alfred long to put together a rather good document from the considerable bits of detail that his employer had missed.
"Master Wayne's mind isn't up to the task in his state." Alfred muttered to himself. "I'm no detective, but I can easily follow the leads that Bruce has stumbled over."
After a few hours of cutting and pasting, Alfred clicked the save button on the Word document he'd compiled and then printed out a hard copy. He left the document where Bruce would find it when he woke up. Yawning, Alfred then turned off the lights and went to bed himself.
The Joker felt like slapping himself on the back. "They took the bait!" he laughed to himself. His trap had worked out perfectly. Both the robot scientist and the surgeon had fallen for the Wayne Foundation invitations and had responded via his spoofed return addresses. In a few weeks he'd have all the pieces in place. Dr. Tenamann promised him that he'd be ready to make the transference as soon as the hardware was ready.
Dr. O'Shay picked Reno up from his apartment near the bay. He was busy by the dock saying goodbye to Gideon, when Zoran ran down to the waterfront to pet the robot dolphin.
"Hi Gideon!" she giggled. Astro remained by the car and waited. Zoran helped Reno carry his bags to the car, and Astro rearranged the luggage in the trunk so it would all fit. Reno got in the front seat next to the doctor, Astro and Zoran sat in the back.
The only thing that bothered O'Shay as they drove to the airport was the timing. That invitation had come rather last minute, as if the Wayne foundation added him as an after thought. He remembered how Dr. Tenma had once complained about Bruce Wayne being an autrobic, that he had been unapproachable on the subject of robots for as long as he'd known the man. Well, something had clearly changed his mind.
It was a long flight from Japan to Gotham City, with a change of planes in San Francisco. They nearly lost Zoran during the walk between terminals, she kept wandering off and Astro had to keep an eye out for her. "She's acting just a bit out of normal for her" O'Shay thought to himself, but he was willing to cut her some slack as this was the first time she'd ever been on a long plane trip before.
Finally, they landed at Gotham International Airport and made their way to the baggage claim area. Astro stood by the luggage conveyor belt and fetched each bag as they rolled down the ramp. He looked like a Himalayan Sherpa carrying all the luggage, but it was no effort at all for him.
Zoran spotted a man carrying a sign reading "Dr. O'Shay", and she tugged on her guardian's coat.
"Look, someone's waiting for us!" She told him.
"Hello." the man asked. "Are you Dr. O'Shay?"
"Yes, I am." O'Shay replied.
"I recognized you from your photograph." he said.
"Probably from his nose!" Zoran giggled. O'Shay gave her a look of disapproval, and Astro giggled.
"The Wayne foundation has sent me to take you to your hotel." The man continued, handing him his ID card. O'Shay scanned the card and nodded his acceptance.
"Thank you." He replied. "We were about to look for a cab."
The chauffeur lead them to a parked limousine, and opened the trunk. He relieved Astro of the luggage, carefully placing each bag into the back of the automobile. The ride to midtown Gotham from the airport took about an hour in what seemed like typical city traffic. The Gotham Island expressway was crowded, as was the Midtown Tunnel under the Gotham river.
As they got out of the stretched Lincoln Town Car, Zoran gazed upward at all of the skyscrapers. While not as modern as Metro City, Gotham's skyline was just as impressive. Across the street from the hotel, the Gotham State Building commanded its position in the skyline at over 100 stories tall, plus the tower of the television antennas on the tip of its spire.
Once inside the hotel, the receptionist behind the registration desk quickly found their room assignment.
"We have you in a four bedroom suite on the tenth floor." She smiled, waving to a bellhop who grabbed their luggage and placed it on a rolling cart. They road up in the elevator, and followed the bellhop down the hallway to their rooms. It was actually a pair of two bedroom suites joined by an interconnecting door that could be locked at either end, or left open. Each suite had its own kitchen area and living room. Dr. O'Shay and Reno set up housekeeping in room 1007, Astro and Zoran were given the keys to 1008.
Dr. O'Shay looked at the schedule of events that he had been handed. Most of the Wayne Foundation conference was scheduled to take place in the grand ballroom, and nearby rooms on the main floor of the hotel. The second and third floor convention center rooms were occupied by the Anime-Manga-Comic-Cartoon convention, so he knew where he'd be able to find Astro and Zoran later. The robotics conference was located in the penthouse overlook on the very top floor of the building. That was strange, unless Mr. Wayne was going to personally run that himself.
Pinoko dragged Blackjack through the terminal at Gotham International Airport. She spotted a Karvel shoppe, and she was hungry.
"They didn't have any yummy food on the plane, and I'm not going anywhere until you get me a parfait!" She complained.
Blackjack sighed and let himself be dragged into the ice cream shoppe. Pinoko gave the man behind the counter explicit directions on how to construct the enormous sundae, and they left the shop with her holding onto a large plastic cup filled to the brim with at least 7 different flavors of ice cream and syrup.
By the time they got to the baggage claim area, their luggage was already spinning around on the endless loop of the conveyor belt. Blackjack hailed a cab, and gave the driver the name of their hotel. The cabbie left them standing on the sidewalk next to the Hotel United States and drove off after Blackjack handed him a $100 bill.
They checked into the hotel and were given their room keys.
"This is a two bedroom suite, Pinoko" Blackjack explained. "You'll have your own room, so maybe you won't keep me up at night."
"That way I can talk to Hosuke-kun on the phone without disturbing you." She said.
"You better not run up a big phone bill." Blackjack warned her.
They took the elevator to the tenth floor and found their suite, number 1009.