Part 38: Paul Saunders, psychologist
Drumming her fingers on the table in front of her, Maya waited for her new psychologist. The lead head doctor said that he was gifted with hopeless cases. Maya figured he was only allowed to call her that because no one would believe her if she said any different.
"Hello, Ms. Benson. I am Dr. Sanders." The new doctor introduced himself as he walked into the room. He did not really look at her as he headed to his seat, but that probably had something to do with the transitions that had yet to fade.
A bit wary of the shaggy, redhead doctor, Maya slumped in her seat. "So, what do we talk about?"
"I can't tell you what you're thinking about. Just talk to me about anything, everything, nothing." The doctor smiled and Maya couldn't tell if it made her more nervous or more at ease. "What are you thinking about?"
"You make me nervous," she answered without thinking then realized that it would be quite a problem if she couldn't find a way to hide the knowledge she possessed that no one would believe.
The doctor drummed his figures suddenly. "You seem quite lucid today."
Not liking the accusation in those words, Maya glared. "Seem lucid. I am lucid. I'm not crazy like you think. I just got confused. How was I supposed to know that the visions weren't visions, and playing hide-and-go-seek is not socially acceptable?" Maya paused. "When did we play hide-and-go-seek? Were you there?"
Maya spoke to the doctor, but when she looked up she saw the assassin. He said, "Where? In the warehouse? The apartment? The club?"
"No," Maya threw herself out of her chair. Even though the doctor had returned to looking like a doctor, she backed herself as far away from him as she could. "Stay away from me. You can't trick me like Dinah. I know the truth I know what you are."
"What am I?" Dr. Saunders asked calmly.
"You're one of them. Your friend the vampire took my necklace. My source of power." Maya spoke all the words in such a rush as if explaining would protect her from the assassin.
Maya wasn't paying true attention to the doctor or she would have seen him stop drumming his fingers after she spoke of her necklace. Instead his fingers moved to a button inside his jacket. Moments later orderlies appeared. No matter how much Maya kicked and screamed, she was dragged away by the large men in scrubs.
Left alone in the examination room, Saunders removed his glasses and rubbed his temples. There was too much going on. Ms. Benson was difficult to diagnose and he was sure he was projecting his own problems onto her as well. He could feel his control ebbing away inside of him. A man without a destiny. Who decided who was destined for what?"
-x-
"Can you trace his phone again?" Oliver asked Chloe.
Chloe nodded, "As long as he had a signal I can get within 500 meters. If he is using it, I can find his exact location."
Clark nodded. "See what you can do."
Raising a hand, Dinah asked, "I am allowed any say in this?" No one answered her.
"What about Maya's necklace?" AC interjected into the protect-Dinah-offensive plan.
His concern caught Victor's attention. "Well, what do we know about the thief?"
"She's average height, has short red hair," AC answered as he was pretty much the only one who got a good look at the woman.
"Short red hair?" Victor asked remember the woman looking for a ring. "Maybe she needs a whole set." He activated his electronic eye and produced an image from the conversation. "The woman talking to Artemis, is she the red head?"
Taking a good look, AC nodded. Oliver glanced over as well. "That was the singer. I though you said the woman at the concert wasn't the red head?"
"She wasn't."
"We've already proven that we can't trust out eyes, except Victor's recording one. Most of us have been tricked." Dinah looked at each one of them as she spoke. "But now we know what he is capable of. And we're going to stop him."
AC looked doubtful and asked Victor, "Can you run the red head through a database? Find out who she is? We really need to know what is going on."
"You're thinking of coincidences again?" Oliver asked.
"Well we have a worldwide assassin after Dinah and a—" Chloe was interrupted by Victor.
"Lila Cheney is our red head. No official record, just she does have several that are sealed. Performer is her profession but she works for a corporation that is based in the Mediterranean." Victor cracked through several firewalls. "She is definitely getting paid for more than filing."
Oliver looked over Victor's shoulder as he looked over Cheney's work files. "Open the sealed files."
"She was arrested twice for security reasons: was found inside a famous actress's hotel room without opening or unlocking the door, or setting off an alarm." Victor glanced over at AC. "Sounds like we may have found your teleporting thief."
Clark finished Chloe's earlier thought, "Assassins and thieves after one group."
"Smells fishy," Dinah concluded.
"Hey, it wasn't me," AC conjured a smile from Dinah at least.
Chloe glanced over at Oliver. "I found his signal. He's on the phone in a hotel on the corner of St. Mary's and Sloan."
"Bart, Clark, we don't know how long he's going to be there. Find him." Oliver knew they didn't have time to plan an attack the assassin was always two steps ahead of them, but that was going to stop now. As the two disappeared in blurs of color, Oliver looked to Victor. "Find a listing for Lila or anyone in her band then you and AC go and find her."
Dinah frowned. "Maybe we should concentrate on finding one at a time."
"No," Oliver shook his head. "There has been enough running around and sitting in the dark. AC is right; we need to know what is going on."
"Alright, the drummer for Dyson Sphere booked seven rooms at the White Boat Hotel down by the harbor." AC grabbed his cell and both he and Victor headed to the elevator.
Chloe brought each of them up on her screen and after several minutes she began to frown. "Oliver, the coincidences are piling up. All four of them are at the same location."
-x-
Darkness covered the water as Artemis followed the batman to the freighter. Once on board, she split off from him. She did not assume that he wanted it as such, but figured it best if they each search separately.
Upon turning the second corner Artemis found some more of the men responsible of collecting the women from the party. She fleetingly hoped that he found the captives as she realized that she had no weapons.
The three men facing her had already noticed her, so Artemis took the one with his back to her by surprise. Jumping she grabbed the top of the nearest container for leverage and shoved her heel into the man's back finally understanding the appeal of the heeled boots Dinah always wore.
The man knocked down the two men in front of him like bowling pins. With surprise still on her side Artemis took the gun from the fourth man by bending his wrist back towards his body. Ignoring his pain-filled grunt, Artemis frowned at the gun. It was sad that people created weapons that allowed unskilled fighters the ability to take a life. Guns were clumsy and artless.
The other three pulled their guns, so Artemis shot their comrade in the foot. The three guns disappeared again. All four men found their way into a storage contained. Artemis threw the gun in after them before shutting and locking the metal doors.
Pausing a moment Artemis looked around for a container that matched the one she saw in the warehouse. She banged on the first four that matched without an answer and the fifth did not call out but Artemis paused when she heard a quiet shushing sound.
Heading back to the front, Artemis picked the lock to the container silently wishing she'd listened to Dinah when she tried to tell her the faster way. The lock clicked just before the first bullet hit the container millimeters from her face. Crouching around the corner, Artemis knew she was pinned. She could leave but the woman in the container couldn't. She couldn't decide if she should blame Dinah, the bat or the assassin for her predicament as a hail of bullets cause many of the women to scream.
Artemis wanted to tell them that screaming was the opposite of helping at this point but instead she rolled her eyes. Taking stock of the situation, Artemis realized that she was once again weaponless—the heels did not count—and without means of communication.
Even weaponless, Artemis had an advantage. The containers were made of reinforced steel and therefore bulletproof. All she needed was a distraction and all this gunfire had to be attracting the masked crusader. Artemis peered around the corner and gunshots rang out, but nowhere near her. She was far enough in the shadow that they couldn't find her, which again was to her advantage. She saw the bat appear and returned to the front of the container as the thug had other things to attend to. Popping open the lock, Artemis pulled open the container her left arm protesting painfully. Ignoring it for now, she checked that the dark avenger had the thugs entertained. "Alright, come on, we need to go now." She held open the door and a few women moved.
"Wait, they are shooting people out there. We could get hurt." The same woman who had protested before spoke up.
Artemis nodded, but didn't sugar coat the scenario. "Yes, out here you might get shot, but in here you will starve to death. This barge will take weeks to get to sail to the Mediterranean. Do you see any food or water for that trip? Now, come on, there isn't time to discuss this."
She didn't count, but Artemis assumed all the women followed her. Starvation never seemed like a pleasant way to die.
She had them led them around the far side of the container where they were protected from bullets, but now they were as far from the on ramp as they could get with a dozen armed men between them and the only way off.
The cape had disappeared again. He wasn't usually the distraction. If it had been the guardians with her, Artemis would have taken the route nearest to the shooters, even without weapons they had the advantage over them. But she wasn't with her friends. She was with twenty off half-hysterical women in ball gowns. There were trophy wives and powerful women used to getting their own way. Artemis would bet that not a one had been in a real fight.
So instead they headed around the container moving from behind one box to the next. It worked well until the container across from where the shooters perched. Their path was in shadow, but several women including Artemis were dressed in pale colors or sparkles.
Orchestrating the women in an order that wouldn't get anyone killed would be tricky. Thankfully black was still the most fashionable color. Half the women where dressed in full length, dark-colored dresses. Artemis sent them across with instructions to wait.
Glancing out Artemis took a risk and sent across the four dressed in dark, but sparkly dresses, when no bullets responded she sent the three women in dark, short dresses. That left six including herself. But one of the shooters was staring at the opening carefully. "Any of you fast runners?" she asked over her shoulder.
"In heels?" the loud one scoffed, but two others nodded.
Artemis looked them in the eye. "If they see you, the rest of us won't be able to make it across. So run fast."
The shooter turned to speak to the man on his left. Artemis sent the two runners across. The opinionated one ran also and she was as she claimed not a gifted runner in heels. Several bullets followed her across the path. Clipped by one she shrieked as she was pulled to safety by the women on the other side.
Artemis looked out and saw that two of the shooters were heading down from their height. "Go," she whispered knowing that a whisper could carry as far as a shout. She held up four fingers. "Turn and head for the ramp."
She saw several heads nodded. Two of the women helped loud mouth to her feet. And she cried out again. Artemis wanted to slap her. In fact she planned on it, if she survived this. The sound brought the men faster as they were now certain of their prey's location. Artemis started to do math. She needed to give the women time, protect the woman left behind with her and not get shot herself.
She planned on waiting until the two gunmen were between her and the lofted shooters, but a black shape appeared behind the snipers and Artemis took a chance. For just a moment the men on the ground would not have a good view of the path due to a fork lift. Hoping that the batman would prevent the riflemen from riddling her with holes, she put herself between the last two women and the threat while they ran.
Counting the containers, Artemis sent the woman down the ramp after the others. Hopefully they were smart enough to find a place to hide or at least a phone. Artemis crouched between two boxes and waited for the two men following them.
The first ran by without seeing her; the second caught sight of her from the corner of his eye, but not in time. Artemis grabbed his wrist and smashed his head into the nearest object, metal container. By the echo of the sound either the metal was empty or the man was going to be out for a few days.
The sound was loud enough for the first shooter to hear and Artemis wasn't surprised when he turned around, but she wanted to lead him away from the other women. She ran back through the containers and in between the rows until she found two stacked incorrectly. She climbed onto the first where there was enough of a ledge to hide. Soon enough the man came running, Artemis jumped down and kicked him. He rolled several feet and stopped just short of falling off the ship. He stood and Artemis prepared to stop him from going after the gun lying on the hull between them.
She didn't have to though as a gun shot rang out. The man fell backward off the ship. Artemis turned around, but couldn't discern a figure in the shadows of the ship.
After several moments, red and blue lights began to sparkle on the shore. There were blocked as a figured dropped to her side. "I think it's time for us to leave. I'll take you to Wayne's place."
"My job is done. I have no need to speak with him." Artemis responded.
"Pardon me, did I give you the impression I was asking?" He paused for a moment and turned his head parallel with his shoulder. Artemis had to admit that he appeared fairly menacing in backwards profile with the police lights in the background.
She still narrowed her eyes when she said, "I'm sure Wayne will be thrilled to see me."