Tut the Magnificent…
Summary: A little reimagining of supervillain King Tut. A young genius, protégé of Gotham's prime benefactor, Bruce Wayne, distraught at the suffering in a place his hero Batman never deigns to frequent, has decided to help his people help themselves.
Part VIII...
Four years previous…
Hamilton County Women's Jail…
Daneil lifted the pages of the document on the table before her, glancing over…Then eyed the two seated before her across said table in the small conference room to which Officer Brooks had "escorted" her before handcuffing one wrist to a ring under the heavy table. Officer Brooks, and the slight blonde woman now beside her, calmly regarding her.
"Well, Ms Freedmont?" the blond eyed her.
"You want me to sign this? And it's a 'research protocol'. And if I sign, maybe you'll see I get a chance like Lucretia here?" she nodded at Officer Brooks. "Parole, some kind of probation, what?"
"Not parole…A complete new start…" the blonde smiled. "Call it a pardon…"
"Uh-huh…And who signs off on this 'pardon'? The governor? The President?" narrow stare.
"Officially Daneil Freedmont joins a special rehabilitation program and is transferred to the women's prison at Hamilton…Unofficially she joins our program and if all goes well, starts a new life…In time, after the program is successfully completed." The blonde noted.
"Shit, you must be joking…I'm supposed to sign this and hope, if I'm a good girl, I'll get out? What is this? You CIA or something? This some kind of shit like on You Tube? That's not the Lucretia I knew." She indicated Officer Brooks.
"Hmmn…A little of her, a little of what she wanted to be…" Officer Brooks smiled. "Daneil, this is a chance for you to become what you wanted to…"
"Rich and taking nothin' off nobody. That's what I want, honey." Daneil replied.
"We think there's more to you than that…But, if that's the case, it's not hard to give you that." The blonde noted.
"Oh, yeah? C'mon…Shit, I just busted out of Gotham State. I'm gonna get out if I sign this? What are you pulling here?" she frowned, peering over the pages.
"Officer Brooks clearly managed to evade her sentence…" the blonde smiled at Lucretia who grinned.
"Then this is serious CIA shit and the answer's no." Daneil noted, tossing the pages to the blonde.
"I promise you we are not CIA or NSA or FBI. As I told you, I'm Jennifer Jensen of Jensen Biotechnica and we have no affiliation with the Federal government."
"Well this is crazy shit and I'm not buying…"
"You prefer to go back to Gotham State?" Ms. Jensen eyed her calmly.
"I got out once, I'll get out again."
"Be a bit more difficult, especially without our help." Ms. Jensen smiled.
"Your help?" Daneil stared. "What are you talkin' about?"
"Ms. Freedmont, you must have been aware your escape was, even with your cousin's help, rather too easy…As was your arrest here in Hamilton, to you proper credit." Ms. Jensen smiled.
"Angie set me up?" hard stare. "That bitch set me up?!" grim rage…
"No, we did. But your cousin was working with us and she alerted us that you were considering an escape. We'd planned to help you do so, in order to have this moment but you got a little ahead of us. Fortunately you needed outside help and fortunately your cousin is a Hamilton resident."
"She set me up…" Daneil, coldly furious. "Angie, that bitch, sold me out…For how much?"
"To help you, Daneil. This was your only chance and she cares about you. As we do…" Lucretia cut in. "You're a Hamilton girl…"
"The fuck you say…" cold stare, folding arms. "And to hell with your contract or protocol or whatever…Get me a fuckin' lawyer! Now!"
"This isn't a legal situation unless you want to make it one." Ms. Jensen noted. "If you'd hear us out…"
"Get me a lawyer or if this isn't an arrest, let me the fuck out." Daneil glared. "What did they do to you, Lucretia, lobotomize you?" she frowned at the officer who sighed.
"They gave me the chance of a lifetime, Daneil. Which I took, praise Tut."
"Praise Tut." Ms. Jensen nodded. As Officer Brooks rose and stepped towards the door of the room, heading for the door.
"What the fuck is that…Tut shit?" Daneil fumed to Ms Jensen.
"It's the key to your new life, Daneil…" Ms. Jensen smiled.
"I've said no…Fuck off. Put me in a cell and get me a lawyer or let me go." Grim stare. "Why do you even want me? What is this?"
"You're the next generation, Daneil…" Ms. Jensen beamed. "Give us a chance to show you what could be yours…What you could be."
"The next what?" Daneil shook head. "Ok, I told you now and that's it." Grim look, arms folded. "So do I get my lawyer or what?"
AHHHH…She gasped…Officer Brooks backing away from her back where she'd just surprised her from behind, now pulling the hand she'd placed on her neck back…Minus what she'd deposited on Daneil's neck.
"I'm afraid you're too good a subject and this project is too essential to take 'No' for an answer, Daneil. Can you hear me?" Ms. Jensen asked.
"Yes." Daneil, blankly. Staring…
"Sign the document, please. Where I indicated before…As soon as you're able." Ms. Jensen told her. Daneil staring at the pages Officer Brooks had just placed back before her on the table. Lifting pages and signing in several spots with the pen the officer had placed by the sheets.
"Thank you, Daneil. Lucretia will take you to Processing…Congratulations on completing stage one." Smile.
"Stage one confirmed completed, no adverse indications. Praise be to Tut." Daneil murmured, nodding at the last words. As Officer Brooks unlocked the handcuff and indicated she should rise, Daneil rising.
"This way, sweetheart." Lucretia urged her, leading her to and out the conference room door. Ms. Jensen watching after them. "This is a new beginning for you…Don't worry." The officer telling Daneil as they went out, Daneil listening blankly.
"Please note subject Freedmont has been secured and enrolled at stage one…No contraindications…" Ms. Jensen told a small pocket recorder she'd pulled from her coat pocket and placed on the table.
…
Commissioner Gordon's office, present day Gotham…
"You know that Frankie V took over, or tried to, after we nailed ole Carlo…In Carlo's name, of course…"
"Of course…" nod. "How could I forget…" Wayne eyed Gordon.
"Touching loyalty. But things were going downhill in Hamilton, there was Sister Kate's revelations, a new city government, the wholesale clean out of the police force before that..."
"I remember. And I remember the five-days war…When Dave Redman and fifty innocent people were killed by Valenti's and the other mobs trying to stop the Hamilton Six from testifying." Bruce sighed.
"And his wife became the crusading mayor six months later…" nod. "And the testimony by the ex-mayor, poor ole Otis and those six members of the old City Council who'd suddenly found Jesus…Or Tut. And risked their lives to defy the mobs and the cartels."
Bruce eyeing him. "I remember Jensen's group was big then…And that some of them were killed at the time."
"And all this on poor Frankie's watch…Carlo on one side, resentful and chaffing even if he'd actually agreed to Frankie's elevation…The rising good citizens of Hamilton on another. backed by earnest billionaire reformers from the large city to the south…" smile to Bruce's look… "…And the testimony of Sister Kate and other brave people, very surprising ones in some cases, finding voice even at their own expense in terms of jail time…And his rivals, in poor shape but still ready to waste blood and treasure fighting each other. And, to complete the square…" Gordon noted. "Some lunatic in a funny suit, choosing this time of all times to pay visits to our small brother city."
Bruce, wry grin…
"It was overdue…"
"So is your time on the West Coast and in Europe…Heck they've still got real Nazis there."
"I just wanted to help a bit. James, we discussed this…Then and recently. Batman didn't trigger the Five Days. I'd never have fought the mobs in the streets. They were afraid of the people not me."
"Fine. And I agree." Gordon nodded. "I merely bring up the lunatic vigilante to make the point that poor and somewhat limited Frankie was hard pressed after his united effort with other criminal organizations failed. Lacking the finesse of dear ole Carlo who always had the proper and elegant solution at hand…i.e., 'Kill 'em all…Except police, pols, or anyone from the Feds…' Carlo had a fine sense of the possible, for all his homicidal tendencies…"
"I agree he didn't give the order to attack the witnesses. He'd nothing to lose from their testimony and he wouldn't've wanted to louse up the deal with Witness Protection…He'd've burned."
"Always the practical man, Carlo…"
"Ok…So? Poor Francis Vallenti…A rough situation for any Mob lieutenant. Well?"
"Well…Frankie'd done his best under the circumstances but found the odds against him. Worst of all, after the Five Days led to a massive increase in state and federal police and FBI support for the new city government, he kept finding his own men, staunch boys of the past, and his girls…Perhaps less reliable but generally dedicated to the goals of the organization in their own interest…Continually deserting ship. Abandoning the lucrative profession of crime for the simpler life in some cases, others turning themselves in for punishment…A few, reasonably placed, offering information…Snitching, if we may use the word…To the legal authorities."
"Does happen. Especially when things aren't going so well for crime and the workers' hearts aren't in it." Bruce noted. "They saw the writing on the wall…"
"It does. But not generally with fellows and ladies of this caliber…Dear Frankie found himself increasingly isolated and even, as he told me, menaced. He was convinced some of his old mates were acting deliberately to bring down the organization, I mean completely. And was sure that on at least one occasion, a faithful lieutenant had intended to assassinate or in some way, assault him."
"Hardly unusual." Bruce shrugged. "As for acting against Carlo…Better offers from up-and-coming organizations?"
"No, actually. No offers. You know that after the initial surge of support and outrage, things settled down once more and people outside Hamilton lost interest, as always…"
"I remember…But the crackdown was a wedge, Jim…"
"Which dear Mayor Redman made good use of, I grant you…But she quickly lost those extra resources and was left on her lonesome, with the same police force formerly notorious for being the most corrupt in the state. Even her husband on the take…And I know he was, Bruce. You couldn't remain a cop in Hamilton then without taking something. Either on the take, off the force, or dead…That was the rule the mobs enforced. Though I will concede he was a decent man and probably hoped to do good by staying." Gordon eyed Wayne calmly. "I was glad we didn't have to send him to prison with some of the others when the federal investigation began, after the five days."
"Iris loved him, Jim. I think that says he was a good man, fundamentally."
"I think so too. Well…Despite the quick loss of interest, first the mobs and cartels, then Carlo's team's remains went down, nothing. In Hamilton, a hotbed of Mob activity, their little local 50's Cuba, the Mob, the cartels, everyone, finished, out."
"Or went underground…" Bruce eyed him. "I've worried about that myself, tried to keep tabs."
"That was my own and the feds' first thought, naturally. Which was why, when dear Francis, rather hapless by then, offered his own services to us, we jumped at the chance."
"Frankie? Your informant?"
"Lets say…He felt safer in Uncle Sam's and Aunt Gotham's protective embrace…"
"And his singing bore fruit?"
"Some…But more interesting was the fact that it seemed that his team, battered and down, was being kept alive, artificially."
"Artificially?"
"Even Frankie, limited as the dear boy was, came to sense it but we noted it first…His team should have buckled what with the defections and what he was giving us, but somehow…Team Valenti kept alive, on life-support, really…A pale shadow of its former self."
"Could he have been using you? Information that kept his group going?"
"We gave him nothing…But more important was what his group was reduced to…Almost no violence, except in keeping the few other organizations trying to poke back in, out. Minor drug trafficking, to long-term users only. Frankie was quite put out that new customers were not being enrolled. Even the prostitution and numbers rackets dried up…"
"Isn't that typical, regards the violence? And Hamilton wasn't crime free, despite the crackdowns, I can testify to that." Bruce insisted.
"Carlo…And dear Francis…Were firm believers in the big stick and its frequent use. And, after the collapse of the other organizations, Frankie found his orders to apply such were often ignored, at least with regards to the non-criminal citizens of Hamilton. Only other criminals seemed to find themselves on the receiving end, till Team Valenti closed down, nearly two years ago. And sure, petty crime, a few serious ones still occurred but without organization and on a declining scale. And Bruce, with the best will in the world, granting Iris Redman everything she's due, Hamilton just didn't have the resources to close Frankie down, let alone all the groups vying for a piece of the pie, once the feds and state left again."
"I've been surprised by things there too, Jim…But people can rise, take their streets back…"
"Sure." Sigh. "But this quickly? The syndicates driven out and shut down in six years? Bruce, we both know there's only three ways that could happen…They go underground or they find new and more profitable territory after devastating the place or…Someone unusual destroys them."
"Are you asking me?"
"No. You'd tell me…And I doubt even you, alone, could have done this."
"And you haven't felt like telling me about all this…?"
"Like you, I hoped it was natural…That's where whoever is involved was especially clever, keeping Team Valenti going on life-support. We assumed, till Frankie came to us, they'd succeeded in driving out the weakened competition while all were under pressure. We overestimated Francis, I suppose." Gordon sighed. "I should have guessed sooner, perhaps I wanted to believe in miracles too."
"All right. Some group's gone underground and let Valenti's boys go on as cover, after taking some of their people…But something's changed that you're calling me in."
"Calling Bruce Wayne in…A man who has won love and support in Hamilton…"
"Well?"
"Whoever's been letting Francis survive decided it was no longer profitable to do so." Gordon noted quietly.
"Dead?"
"Yeah…Despite what should have been fairly effective protection. Though he had been living a more or less free existence."
"Then he knew…Something…"
"We have to assume so…Yes." Nod.
"And did not tell you, though might have decided to…Triggering his death."
"Sadly, we'll never know…Though we do have his assassin and her story…"
"Her?"
"Frankie's favorite girl, Alice Ducree. She claims she got tired of his slapping her around…"
Bruce eyeing him.
"When a girl like Alice decides to off a fellow like Frankie…About thirty minutes after he calls me to arrange an important meeting…" Gordon, quietly.
"
