"She really likes you." Alfred said as Bruce hopped out from the gigantic and technologically impressive Batwing and took off his cowl.
Alfred leaned into Bruce's face as he passed, noticing the bright red lipstick that stuck out around Bruce's stubbled face. He decided not to mention it. With a master as stern and brooding as Bruce Wayne, some levity was always needed in the cave. Bruce walked straight over to the plexiglass suit chamber and executed the suit separation. When he stepped out, he finally felt the thickness of lipstick on his lips and wiped it away.
"She's a distraction." he said.
"Maybe that's what you need. Take a break from beating up felons and breaking bones. Was that really necessary by the way?"
"Is this going to be a nightly activity now? Judging my techniques?" Bruce asked.
"Breaking bones to always get information is a very poor technique. Gets old. Torture isn't known for being the best interrogation tool."
"It's one of the quickest. God. You and Selina should stage an intervention together."
"You're so bloody stubborn, Master Bruce. You're lucky my killing days are over."
Alfred watched Bruce slick his short hair back and prepare a fresh dossier on Roman Sionis. Bruce activated a program that auto filled a lot of information on the man; his birth certificate, any civil or criminal offenses, and facial recognition scans. Bruce watched the information fill the computer screen and started searching for connections by looking up crimes committed by former or current employees of his business.
"You really think he's part of the Mob? Or even leading it?" Alfred asked.
"Possibly. He's rich enough to have influence. And our little encounter in the study doesn't help his case. He wants weapons to fight Black Mask and end the gang war. His man told me there's a shipment coming in tomorrow at midnight and it's not more rhino horn. He's getting desperate for ways to pay for his weapons. Those diamonds were probably his last chance to have enough. Whatever is coming at midnight won't be good. I need to be there. Set up ahead of time." Bruce said.
"Desperate times..." Alfred replied.
"Roman is dangerous. He doesn't know how to hibernate anymore. Too much tension on the streets."
"I know. There's a volcano right in the middle of Gotham and he keeps tossing fire into it."
"He tried to use Freeze's tech and now he wants Wayne Enterprises to help develop God knows what. I have to stop that cargo ship from coming in or we could have a third party waging war. That's the last thing I need."
"What the hell happened?" a booming voice yelled from the inside office of the abandoned Queen Industries warehouse.
The metal walls banged loudly when a fist collided with the metal and two of the Black Mask's men flinched with surprise. They looked at each other and backed up from the closed door. Inside, the Black Mask roared loudly and started kicking the side of his desk, denting it and tossing all of the contents off of the top. His partner, smoking a cigarette by the dusty window while trying to get his head away from the debris of papers, broken plastic, and anger pouring from his associate. Brock sucked in a deep ball of smoke and shot it out through his teeth as he waited for the temper tantrum to end. Black Mask kicked his trash can until the heavy duty plastic warped and finally snapped. Brock crossed his arms and stared at Black Mask.
"It seems that Javier couldn't keep his mouth shut. I'm sorry, but I tried. I'm just one man." Brock said.
"How many did he talk to? Estimate?" Black Mask asked, wiping the sweat from underneath the matte black ceramic two-piece costume that kept his identity a secret.
"At least ten people. Hoodlums are telling their drug buddies that some loot is going to be at the docks. It's going to be a shit show. It's going to be us, Sionis, and a bunch of idiots. Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? We'll have another window once they leave the docks. We can get a choke point once they try to cut onto the interstate."
"No. We have to do it now. We can't risk them running off into the sunset." Black Mask replied.
Brock shook his head and looked out the window, seeing the broken up skyline of Old Gotham. The abandoned factories resembled the skeletons of giants, dead and half buried in a forgotten land. The one remaining factory, a smelting plant along the Industrial District, pumped out black smoke from a brick chimney that swirled into the dark orange skies and vanished into a stringy mist. Every time he road into Old Gotham to meet the Mask, he felt sickened, literally. The toxins floating in the air turned his stomach and made his eyes glassy. He needed to smoke just to surround himself with a tobacco force field. But, the Mask's men and the Mask himself were immune to it. It made them crazy. They didn't feel remorse or much pain for that matter. Mostly, all they felt was rage.
"Any new recruits?" Brock asked as he finished the cigarette.
"Three more. Two mercenaries and a former Penguin guy. I had Alexis fill them in."
Brock stopped moving. That toxin feeling stirred in his stomach once again. He hated Alexis. The big, bad bodyguard who tried to one-up Brock whenever they went on operations. The stupid dyke who was constantly vying for Black Mask's approval and always working to convince Mask that Brock wasn't needed. He fought the urge to insult her but paused, only nodding briefly and pulling out a cigarette. Black Mask looked at him and laughed. Brock slowly slipped the brown cigarette out of the 24 package and raised an eyebrow.
"Since when do you smoke, man?" he asked.
"Always. You're just too busy throwing shit around to notice."
"What's crawled up your ass?"
"Nothing. Just nervous about tomorrow."
"I feel like the tide is about to turn. We have enough men finally. We have the weapons and Sionis doesn't know what to do. He's rushing. We've cut the brakes off the hype train and he's trying to make a sharp turn. Things are changing, Brock. I can feel it." Black Mask said, motioning a turn with his hands.
"You're the boss, boss."
"Alexis also found out that the ship is hooked with biometrics and a full security force. Whatever is on there... it's something more than just guns and some bullets."
"How does she know?"
"She used some satellite images and studied the ship shape. She has connections inside Wayne Enterprises-." he began before Brock scoffed.
"Oh, who doesn't?"
Black Mask frowned at his partner and crossed his arms before continuing.
"The ship is coming from a port just off of South Africa. The South Africans have beefed up their technology after the Amazo attack. They are armed with EMP devices and a specially trained security team trained by Israeli commandos and Russian operatives."
"So how in the hell are we going to take them out?"
"We have an EMP cannon too." Black Mask said with a smile.
"Where?"
"In the basement. It still needs some work. I need a guy who knows this stuff like the back of his hand. Someone who did this kind of work. We don't have the smarts and can't afford to pay some scientist off to help us. I remember you talking about your old team. That Ward guy. The one who worked at Amertek."
"Oh. Dick Ward. I don't know, boss. He got wrapped up with some bad shit when I left. F.B.I. took him and his family under witness protection. I won't deny that he'd be the guy to get through those biometrics but he could be in another country for all I know. We'd never find him and if we could, it would never be before tomorrow night."
Black Mask walked over to his messy desk and scooted a broken CD case off of his laptop. He opened it up and quickly pulled up a picture that was pulled from security footage. On screen, Brock saw an older, grayer Dick Ward walking through the shopping center of a small town. He leaned in and looked back at his boss in disbelief.
"How'd you find him?" he asked.
"Alexis is a genius with Google."
That acidic feeling sizzled in Brock's lower abdomen again.
"He's alive. And he lives 20 miles out of town."
"That's it? What does he do now?"
"Farmer." Black Mask laughed.
"How humble for a former thief." Brock snickered.
"So,"
"How's a reunion sound?"