Family Ties Chapter 39 Information Exchange

Commissioner Gordon had experienced many unusual occurrences while working with Batman. No Man's Land was just one of the more obvious examples. These days, part of the problem lay in deciphering just who exactly was pulling the strings. In addition to the numerous allies of the Bat, Wayne and his people working on the corporate side of Batman Incorporated appeared to be calling some shots of their own. It was at least simplified in that Wayne kept Batman Inc a family matter; his children might be doing work and running errands perhaps better suited to older, more experienced people, but confidentiality was completely assured. Those kids certainly kept family business private from what he'd seen; which was quite a lot, what with Barbara and Dick spending so much time together over the years, and the frequent kidnappings, and Cassandra appearing, and Jason running off…

At least they seemed to know their stuff. Tim and Damian were quite likely the smartest children in their school, and were known to be fairly heavily involved in both B Inc. and other aspects of Wayne Enterprises business.

So it could take a bit of time to work out who was giving the orders. Sometimes, it was easier than other times. Like when Montoya came in, just before dusk, telling him Red Hood wanted to see him and was waiting at the back door, it was much more likely to be someone else's idea. Probably one of the Waynes.

"Commissioner Gordon," the young man said. "We have information regarding the raid two nights ago."

Red Hood found escort duty- not that sort of escort and you know it, so stop sniggering Dickie-bird –a bore, but understood it was necessary, and with his leather jacket covering the symbol on his chest, he was somewhat less noticeable, even with his helmet. After all, the differences between it and a motorcycle helmet were largely just a matter of the shape of the bottom and the lack of visor, just lens covered eye holes. And all the extra tech, but that couldn't be seen.

"I can give you a ride, or just guide and guard," Red Hood offered.

"There room for two on that bike?" Gordon asked, buttoning his trench coat.

Red Hood smirked. "Of course. Grab a helmet and let's go." The bikes they used at night were bigger and bulkier than the sleek ones the Wayne family favoured. They had three each; one stored in the sublevel of the Secret Annexe, one in the storage garage in the Batcave, and one in general use, usually moving between the cave, the Annexe, and one of the garages they had in each district. Red Hood's bikes were black, with red highlights and charcoal grey trimmings.

Gordon took one of the police force's helmets and moved over to the vehicle, swinging onto it behind Red Hood. The vigilante brought the bike to life, sending it forward and reaching the speed limit as quickly as possible. They all loved going fast, but moving violations in the presence of the Police Commissioner was such a bad idea he didn't even need to consult his voices. Bruce would bench him for a month.

Dickie-bird would find it hilarious, just not if it happened to him.

Arriving at the Tower, he guided the bike into a hard-to-see underground entrance. He came to a halt next to a specific patch of wall, pulled off one glove and slapped his hand onto a palm reader. Moments later, the basement door to the Secret Annexe opened.

Red Hood parked his bike and led the way to the ramps leading up (they'd say the ramps were to get the bikes up to the workshop on the third floor, but they really dated back to when Barbara was wheel-chair bound).

As they approached the fourth floor, the sound of an argument filtered through the door left ajar. "No, Dami, you can't drive. You can't reach the pedals and it's not legal anyway."

"What do you know, Drake? You just said you can't drive yourself."

Red Hood fully opened the door just as Tim growled back hotly, "Yeah, well, you try it with fingers in splints!"

Tim and Damian were glaring at each other in front of the Stupid Computer - and they'd really need another name for it, especially seeing as they'd hooked a keyboard up to it - while Batgirl and Nightwing watched impassively.

Red Hood pulled off his helmet and set it on the counter, leaving just his red domino mask. He flicked his eyes at his arguing brothers and raised an eyebrow. 'How long has that been going on for?'

Nightwing stretched his jaw slightly in a mock stifled yawn. 'Too long.'

Commissioner Gordon coughed, attracting the attention of the two youngest Waynes. The three vigilantes lined up just to the side as Tim and Damian, reputedly the ones in charge of Wayne's end of Batman Inc, assumed a professional demeanour.

"Commissioner, sir," Tim started. "We finished investigating the items seized in the raid night before last. Sixty percent gave no further concerns. They will be delivered to the HQ by morning to be returned to the Swift family. The others caused some concern. Damian, the file?"

Damian hit a few commands on the keyboard, grumbling under his breath. Gordon couldn't make out the words, but could hear Tim's hissed reply. "Well, Red Robin's in 'Frisco with the Titans until his leg comes out of the cast, so we've got to do this."

While a series of pictures came up on the computer screen, the vigilantes moved forward, setting out a series of statues and such matching the pictures.

"This is from a set of files I…recovered following my father's death," Tim explained. "From the smuggling business. We loaded the files into the system, but, well, I wasn't up for doing anything with them at the time, everyone else was busy, then it got forgotten. But as you can see, we now have some of the items detailed in the files. When we found that, we got curious and stumbled across Swift's financial records."

There was a tiny amount of awkward squirming Gordon only picked up on from his familiarity with the Bats. Damian took over, bringing up a list of figures. "Now, as you can see from this data," he started, and Gordon settled down to listen.

He soon found he had only half an ear on the eleven-year-old's voice, his eyes on Batgirl. Red hair, freckles, body shape, even something of the way she held herself reminded him of his daughter. And, well, Babs had been hanging around the Waynes since she was Damian's age…

Nah. She wouldn't be that reckless ('would she?'). Besides, it would put him in a very awkward position if he followed that chain of thought. Best focus on the report.