A/N: I'm so sorry it's taking me longer than usual to update. I've been bogged down with projects and I have finals all this week. So it may be a little while before the next chapter comes out. Thank you all for reading though, I always enjoy hearing from you. Please, read, review and enjoy.
Disclaimer: I own what is mine.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Outridges of Gotham City
Tahri shifted warily as he took in the sight of his current employer.
It was sadly obvious that the known torturer hadn't been expecting Manning to show up at his apartment. His frozen stance as he took in the ever-calm façade that was Todd Manning, as well as, his half-brother said it all. A feeling of unease grumbled in Answar as he stepped aside to let the two men inside.
As soon as he softly shut his door in place, he turned toward Manning. A light grimace coated his face, "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Everything has been pushed forward." Manning muttered lowly, "The Company caught on quicker than I thought they would."
Tahri's brow furrowed as he took in his employer again. It frustrated him to no end that he couldn't get a clear read on the man, but he did see something akin to distress dance in Todd's emerald eyes. His brother was more telling, however. Crane wore a resigned look as if he was waiting for everything to come to a end. Tahri felt his unease deepen as he realized that Crane probably had the right idea. If the Company knew what was going on, then it would only be a matter of time before they were all arrested or worse.
"How did that happen?" Tahri murmured as he crossed his arms.
Manning shook his head in dismissal, "Not important. Everything is in the process of being relocated. That means you as well."
"Excuse me?" Answar hissed.
"The Company may or may not have access to all of my brother's information." Crane interjected apathetically before either man could launch into a fight, "And that information includes where you and your little assistant live."
Muffled cursing sounded from the ex-terrorist while both brothers looked on unimpressed. Manning resisted the urge to roll his eyes, he didn't have time for all the semantics of this transaction. Plans had changed and he had things to get done. Shuffling slightly he pulled a card from his jacket and held it out to Answar.
"Here. This contains my new number." Todd stated his eyes cutting coldly into his subordinate, "Listen closely, I'm only going to say this once. Contact the Mayor; have him move his speaking event up. The one that's supposed to be in the harbor. I want it set for this upcoming Friday – that's three days from now. Gather your boy and whatever men, you can organize once that is done….Contact me. I'll have further instructions for you to carry out."
"And if the Mayor refuses?" Tahri questioned lightly as he held his employer's gaze.
Manning shrugged, "Then make him aware of all he stands to lose."
There was a brief silence as the two men considered each other, unaware of the appraisal that Crane was giving them from afar. Despite the revisions his half-brother was making to his plan, Crane was becoming more resolute in his feeling that everything was about to backfire on them. He mentally shrugged all he could do, and would do, was sit back and enjoy the show.
"Payment?" Tahri's voice growled casually.
This time Manning did roll his eyes, "The money will be in your account after the job is finished. Not a moment before."
Tahri sniffed disdainfully, but made no further comment. Manning wasn't about to listen to him anyway as he made his way back out the door.
Company Headquaters, Downtown Gotham
Audrey frowned as she stepped out of the taxi and looked at the looming building before her. Reed had told her that Jensen had moved headquarters, she just hadn't realized he had moved it to a proper security facility. A quick glance at the door told her just how secure headquarters had become as she realized she didn't have any kind of card-key to get in. Sighing, she dug into her jacket pocket and pulled out her phone.
"No, no don't bother." A raspy voice called out as a door a few feet to her left was flung open.
Audrey raised an eyebrow in amusement as Reed's head popped out and he waved her over. He looked exhausted, she thought as she neared her friend.
"What's going on?" She questioned as soon as Reed ushered her inside, "You were more than cryptic on the phone earlier."
"Found the person whose been screwing with our information. Got an address and everything." Reed began rapidly, he had been dying to tell her all of this since Charlie had order him to call her, "And why the hell did it take you so bloody long to get back to me? I must have left you a billion messages."
"You left two." Audrey stated dryly as she continued to follow the agitated man before her, "And I didn't get them until twenty minutes ago."
"Well, what were you doing? You always answer your phone."
"No, I don't." A flicker of a smile crossed her face before she remembered what she had been doing or more specifically who.
"You do realize we're going to have to leave this room at some point, right?"Audrey murmured amusedly as she felt Bruce's lips skim across her still bare shoulder.
"At some point, but not right now."He murmured back as he wrapped his arm firmly around her waist.
Audrey twisted her head to look back at the billionaire as she quietly enjoyed the soft plush of the bed beneath her stomach and comforting weight of Bruce above her. His hazel eyes whirled with distant satisfaction as they met hers and she had no doubt that her eyes reflected the same emotion. She twisted a little more and captured his lips in a lazy kiss before pulling away completely to reach for a shirt on the floor, only to have it thrown from her hand a second later.
"Bruce!"Audrey yelped reproachfully with an exasperated glare to match as she turned to him.
"I prefer you naked."He stated calmly if not smugly as his gaze roved over the smooth flesh presented to him.
She just rolled her eyes, "Oh proof that you're a guy."
Bruce's eyebrows shot up at that comment, "I think I've proven that I'm a guy several times over already or do you need a reminder?"
Audrey couldn't help but grin as his hands slid under her thighs to tug her closer. He grinned back when she tried to bat his hands away and only ended up pulling him closer.
"You're insatiable." She laughed, though she couldn't seem to stop touching him, herself, "And I don't know about you, but I am getting a bit hungry and we both need a shower."
Bruce hummed thoughtfully as he felt the rough patch of her bandage beneath his palm for a second, "You probably need to change this bandage, as well."
Audrey glanced down at the cloth before shrugging, "Should just take it off."
Bruce frowned at her, "It's there to protect your stitches."
"What stitches?" She kept her expression bland as his eyes flashed at her.
He had her bandage off before she could blink. His fingers gently glided over the pinkish-white new skin underneath. It was true, though, her stitches were gone. The faintest of scarring was the only indicator that the thread had once been there.
He glanced up at her unhappily, "And when did these come out? I don't recall Alfred mentioning that he removed your stitching."
"That's because he didn't." Audrey replied calmly, "I took them out a week ago because the top layers of skin had healed. I kept the bandage over it in case I moved to roughly and reopened the skin. The wound should have healed enough by now to get rid of the bandage."
"You still need to be careful."Bruce growled lightly as his attention drifted from the new scar to the older one he had noticed the night he and Alfred had stitched her up, "You don't know just how much of the tissue has mended."
She reached up and caressed his cheek, effectively drawing his brooding gaze back to her face. She smiled gently and slid her hand to rest at the crux of his jaw, "I'm fine. I knew what I was doing and if something hasn't torn these last few hours then I think it's safe to say that a good amount of my tissue has mended."
"You can't gauge it by that." Bruce replied, caught between exasperation and sternness, "We weren't exactly rough."
A smile tugged at Audrey's lips, "We weren't exactly gentle either."
Bruce rolled his eyes but couldn't deny her claim. He eyed the tender flesh again before skimming a chaste kiss over the area and then her lips, "Just be careful, will you? I wasn't joking when I said I liked you earlier."
"I think your fussing has proven that point." Audrey quipped drolly as she watched him stand from the bed to search for his boxers.
"I wasn't fussing." Bruce shot an annoyed glance at her but found himself smirking a second later as he noted her appreciative stare, "Apparently, I'm not the only one who prefers nudeness."
Audrey just shrugged unabashed as she continued to admire his form, "You were fussing, but I thought it was cute."
"Is that so?" Bruce asked distantly as he finally located the boxers and picked up the shirt he had thrown earlier. He tossed the shirt to her before placing his own garment on, "What do you want to eat?"
It had grown late by the time the two lovers had left her bed. Bruce had cleared out not long after they had finished eating and Audrey had wandered back to her room to clean up a bit. It was when she was picking up her dirty clothes that she noticed the flashing of her cell phone. After listening to the two voice messages Reed had left for her, she quickly finished changing and was out of the penthouse and on the sidewalk hailing a cab.
"You're not going to tell me, are you?" Reed asked annoyed when all Audrey did was smirk at him.
"It's none of your business." She answered firmly before nodding to the monitor that Reed had stopped at, "What's all this then?"
As if suddenly remembering the whole reason he had beckoned Audrey to headquarters, Reed whirled around excitedly and began to give her a rundown of what he and Charlie had discovered that morning. Audrey stepped back and watched as he practically dropped into his desk chair and slid over to a computer. He had images and information on the monitor in seconds.
"Right so after I talked to you the other day I found some strange code in our database. Long story short, I traced it back here to Gotham. The guy who hacked in, his name is Todd Manning." Reed explained as he pulled up a personnel file, "He worked for the Company for five years as bioengineer."
"That would explain the compound." Audrey murmured under her breath while she tried to figure out why the name Todd Manning sounded so familiar, "You said worked?"
Reed nodded, "He was fired about a year ago for unauthorized use of funds…among some other violations. There's several complaints against him from his coworkers – saying he was single minded, surly and there were some inference that he may have been disturbed."
"Sounds like our guy. Do you have a picture?" Audrey asked as her eyes continued to drift over the monitor.
A second later the picture of a fair haired, green-eyed man appeared before her causing Audrey to freeze. It was the DiCaprio flight attendant, "Son of a bitch!"
Reed looked up startled, "What? You know him?"
"I met him." Audrey growled as she continued to stare at the photo, "He was my flight attendant when I came from Chicago. He even told me his name."
"Cor, he knew who you were all along. Knew who to keep an eye on." Reed muttered in disbelief as his eyes swung to the monitor, "He had you lined up as one of his victims long before you even knew all the facts of the case."
Audrey shook her head as she tried to find the words, but found herself dumbstruck. They had underestimated this man, severely. She tilted her head to the side as she stared into Manning's eyes, "Put the picture of Crane up next to him."
It took Reed a few quick key strokes and a photo of Crane appeared alongside his half-brother, but it was enough. Even with having one parent in common and the different coloring the men had, there was a definite family resemblance. It made sense to Audrey now, why Crane had seemed vaguely familiar to her.
Reed frowned and looked towards his friend. She was quiet and he could practically hear the wheels spinning in her head…that meant only one thing to him – Audrey was pissed.
"Charlie gathered a group and is currently raiding the address that I had of Manning. I tried to get in contact with you earlier so you could join." Reed said with a sigh, but was surprised when Audrey shook her head at him.
"No…It's better that I didn't go." She murmured lowly, "If someone other than Manning is there, then word would spread that I'm still alive."
"So what do you want to do?" Reed asked, "You're technically still the lead on this case."
Audrey paused for a moment as she thought things over, "I want to see every file on Manning, everything he ever worked on. When Charlie gets back I want to go over everything he's found….Hopefully though, he'll come back with Manning and all of this will be wrapped up."
"Here's to hoping."
Henderson and Malnick Trucking, Downtown Gotham
Maroni bit back a sigh as he looked over the paperwork for his legit businesses. After Batman had made his appearance a few years ago, Maroni had taken it upon himself to make sure that his illegal business was balanced out by legitimate work. It provided a nice pillow to fall back on whenever too many of his people were arrested. However, he had been neglecting this side of his business ever since the Artist had arrived in town and made himself a nuisance.
A burning thread of anger lit up in the mob boss at the thought of the serial killer. Grumbling under his breath, he reached for his glass of scotch before realizing the cylinder was empty. He did heave a sigh, then. Jessica had been pestering him about drinking too much lately, anyway.
"Boss?"
A sharp knock sounded at his office door as Maroni raised a brow at the voice of Louis Ricci. He had thought the man had gone off grid for a while, "Come in."
Maroni was further surprised when his boy didn't come in alone. A man followed behind him with a jagged scar lining his throat and jaw. It was the sky blue of this stranger's eyes that caught the mobster's attention though.
"Lou." Maroni greeted sharply, "Who's your friend?"
Ricci shrugged indifferently as he eyed his companion a bit suspiciously, "No idea. He found me, but he seems to have some information you may want, boss."
Interested, Maroni kept his focus on the strange man, "Is that so?"
The stranger didn't even flinch under the mob boss's hard stare. If anything his expression became even more unreadable, but he took the older man's focus as permission to speak, "I believe you're familiar with my boss…Tahri Answar."
Sean's keen eyes watched as the mobster froze at the name. He could practically feel the man's distaste for his employer from where he stood at the door. Silently, the ex-soldier hoped he could use that to his advantage…it was the reason he was here after all.
Maroni's eyes flicked over to his top drug pusher, "Out, Lou."
Ricci didn't seem at all surprised by his boss's command. In fact, he looked down right relieved of it. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the blue-eyed stranger did nothing but unnerve the hell out of him. Quietly, he slipped out the door and palmed his breast pocket for a cigarette. He was in dire need of a smoke.
"So what does Answar want now?" Maroni questioned bitterly, "Another stooge for his employer to experiment on…Oh, I forgot. He calls it art."
"Answar didn't send me. He doesn't know I'm here." Sean said softly as he noted the mobster's curiosity swivel among his heavy suspicion.
Maroni leaned back in his chair and silently appraised the younger man, "And why is that?"
"Let's just say he's no longer useful to me." Sean announced glibly. He didn't want to admit to himself that he had been working for the man who had tortured him…didn't want to admit that he hadn't remembered a damn thing until he had seen Audrey's old engagement ring. It hadn't even been Audrey that had triggered his memories, it had been the ring, "He tried to take someone very dear from me a long time ago and nearly succeeded a second time just a few weeks ago."
Maroni stayed silent at this declaration, though he could see the truth of the statement in the other man's eyes. A lingering pain reflected at him – it was an emotion that Maroni had become all too familiar with the past few months, "And you're here because?"
"Answar will be here tomorrow to gather a few of your men. He needs them for some assignment the Artist has planned." Sean said slowly.
Rage flashed through Maroni's eyes, "My boys won't work for him – I won't work for him. Your Artist already butchered one of mine; he won't do it to another."
"Good." Sean murmured, "I'm not sure what exactly the Artist has planned, but he's moved everything up. The authorities are getting close to capturing him."
"Again, why are you here?"
"Answar is beginning to suspect that I'm not as loyal as I should be." Sean explained, "He's right of course, but I need you to let our men go with him."
"I'm really getting tired of asking why." Maroni stated impatiently, his eyes narrowing into slits.
"The Artist doesn't really get his hands dirty. He's going to have Tahri set everything up once he has secured the service of your men." Sean replied calmly as he buried his own impatience, "Whatever instructions he gives your men, I want to know so I can give it to someone who'll take him and the Artist down."
"And why should I do this?" Maroni asked sagely, "There's no benefit to me."
Sean smiled then and the mobster had to admit that the action somehow looked wrong on the younger man's face, "I know about the file Tahri has used to get you to do what he wants. I will deliver that file to you…. Besides, I would think that you would want to take down the men responsible for killing your wife."
"My wife died from cancer." Maroni growled cruelly. His fists had tightened on the arms of his chair ready to strike at this stranger before him.
"The Artist knew that Tahri was using your wife as a tool before he gave him our file. It turns out that the Artist thought that your wife's health wasn't motivating you enough. He had her medication swapped out." Sean said coolly as he kept a careful eye on Maroni, "She should still be alive."
A chilling silence permeated the room as Maroni continued to glare at Sean. His mind racing- wondering- if what the man before him was saying was true. He knew he had been dealing with a monster…but his wife…Ria.
His grey eyes darkened with determination, "Tell me what you need."
The Bunker
Bruce slowly stripped off his armor when he returned to the bunker that night. Frustration practically dripped from his every pore as he settled in front of his desktop. Patrol had been useless. Nothing had gone on during the night. No muggings, or drug deals…just nothing. He knew on some level that he should be grateful for the quiet, but Gotham was never quiet. He had the unyielding feeling that this quiet was only the calm before the storm. Something big was going to go down soon and he wasn't sure what.
A quick glance at the computer's clock told him it was only half-past two. He grabbed a pair of sweats and pulled them on. He had come back much earlier than usual and he wasn't sure if he should just go back to the penthouse or not. Almost unconsciously, he began to pull up his case files on the Artist, unwillingly to give up for the night. Though, suddenly he wished he had Audrey's laptop. She had more information on the case than he did. Sighing softly, he slumped back into his chair and clicked through the information he had gathered.
His eyes roved over the pictures of the crime scene. He briefly studied the poses of the victims before he began to look in the background. There had to be something he missed, a part of Bruce couldn't believe that the Artist had gone through all the trouble of posing his victims without there being some sort of subtext. Audrey had mention it being a signal to the Company that someone was taking revenge, but Bruce had the feeling it was more than that. He clicked thoughtfully on different sections of each picture highlighting and bringing anything he saw as interesting into zoom. It wasn't until he perused the photos a third time that he noticed something odd.
Every victim had been staged in a different area of the city. Miles apart from each other. It was this distance that had baffled the police. Normally serial killers stayed to a centralized location and then worked their way out…their own hunting grounds. Cecilia had been posed across the street from a courthouse. Field had been posed on the roof of a building. Bruce quickly checked the address…The building next door had been a police station. He silently shook his head, as he suddenly felt less competent about Gotham's police force. Elkin had been posed down in the business district. Sullivan though had been posed in the warehouse district. If Bruce remembered correctly, it had taken the police a few days to discover the man's body. The last victim had been found in a city park.
Bruce bit his lip as he sat back and looked at the collective addresses. A niggling thought in the back of his head told him that the Artist was saying something with these locations. But what?"
"Another long night Master Wayne?"
Bruce blinked as Alfred's voice penetrated his thoughts. He turned swiftly to see the older man making his way over with a mug of coffee, "What are you doing up so late?"
Alfred raised an amused brow at his charge, "It's almost eight o'clock."
Bruce paused for a moment before he glanced down at the computer's clock again and found his guardian to be right. He couldn't believe that he had spent all night staring at the computer screen. Sheepishly, he rubbed at the back of his neck suddenly feeling wearier than he had in hours.
Alfred noticing his charge's sudden drop in energy smiled gently, "I take it this coffee is mine now."
"Oh yeah." Bruce replied sagely though a smile twitched at his own lips, "I'm gonna head up and get some rest."
"Hmm, good idea." Alfred said quietly as he watched Bruce stretch and rise before handing him a coat, "By the way, Miss. Audrey isn't home."
The billionaire frowned, "Where did she go?"
Alfred shook his head in exasperation, "No idea. She left long before I woke up. Her things are still in her room, so I'm assuming she is coming back at some point today."
Bruce's frown only deepened, "She's supposed to stay out of sight."
"I'm sure she's fine." Alfred replied stoically, though mischief twinkled in his eye with his next comment, "Unless of course, you did something."
The dry stare the older man received in return only made him grin. Bruce sighed internally as he realized that Alfred was only beginning with his teasing.
A/N: Special Thanks to: KingPress, Adauki, shadow-dog18, DancingMagpie, Raefhn, Yaba, and Tears of a Dark Moon for reviewing. Really appreciate it you guys. I would also like to thank, Saela, Sarcasm, Liquified Fire, HibariLover, Katara Melody Cullen, Marcus S. Lazarus, iggy4eva, darknessjewel, Tears of a Dark Moon, 555LordBacon666, TykiPyon, and megggaroni for adding this story to their favorite's list. : )
Thanks again everyone. Please, don't forget to review.
