"So," Dick said once he and Gil were seated in his office. "Raya told you about Watkins escaping Arkham?"
"She did." Right after handing him a file on a dead body here in New York connected to a killer that made Watkins seem tame in compare. Gil didn't say that part out loud. He was sure Dick had been the one to give her the file on Horacio Caldera. Him or her uncle, Jim Gordon. "Do you know how it happened? When?"
"Specifically, no." Dick pulled a tablet from his messenger bag that he passed to Gil. "We do have Arkham footage showing Watkins being escorted from his cell last evening around seven."
"Why?"
"An appointment with his therapist, Dr. Wong is what we were told."
Gil frowned as he turned on the tablet. "Were his appointments commonly at that time of night?"
"They were typically held in the morning."
"Why was it at that time last night then?"
"Well." Dick grimaced, warning Gil he wasn't going to like whatever he was about to tell him. "There was a bit of an incident at Arkham yesterday morning that put them on immediate lockdown."
"When isn't there an incident at Arkham?" Gil asked drily.
A grin tugged at Dick's lips. "Well, incidents do tend to occur at Arkham about as often as Malcolm not doing something that requires ice packs, stitches or a trip to the hospital."
Gil only had to glance at the whiteboard JT hung after Bright got bitten by a poisonous snake to see it had been precisely one day since his last accident. The kid being sidelined hadn't prevented him from getting into trouble.
Not surprising given the kid's track record.
"Who tried to break out this time?"
And don't say the Joker, Gil added as a phone rang outside his office. The last thing any of them needed was the Clown Prince running amuck.
"More like being delivered, actually."
One brow winged up. "Delivered?"
"Waylon Jones," Dick said. "Or as most people know him..."
"Killer Croc." Another dose of trouble they didn't need. "He's been secured then?"
"For now."
The blasé way Dick spoke might have seemed odd to someone else. As if Dick didn't care. Gil, though, understood it wasn't a cavalier attitude so much as him accepting people broke out of Arkham despite all the measures put in place.
"Watkins." Saying the man's name was enough to have Gil seeing red. "Do we know when he got out?"
"We know he never returned to his cell after his therapy session." Dick raked a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. "The surveillance footage never picks him up again after he enters Dr. Wong's office."
Gil frowned. "Could his therapist have aided in his release?"
Something else that occurred at Arkham Asylum at an alarming rate. People thought he was joking when he called the Gotham justice and mental health systems a revolving door. The sad truth was Gotham had more of a problem keeping their criminals in than New York, Chicago and LA combined.
Course, they also had a different class of criminals than Gotham did.
Their serial killers had boring names like the Surgeon, Junkyard Killer, and Carousel Killer.
Gotham had criminals like the Scarecrow, and Mad Hatter.
The Joker.
A class of criminal all to himself.
"I might have thought so if they didn't find Dr. Wong in a maintenance closet a little while ago."
Gil didn't need to ask if the doctor had been found alive. The expression on Dick's face confirmed he wasn't. Just what we needed, he thought as the surveillance footage started to play. Another body.
As if they didn't have enough of them piling up.
Eve, Eddie Smith, Horacio Caldera, now an Arkham doctor. How many others will die before we can put a stop to it?
Given Endicott's host of assassins, a Talon, and John Watkins back on the loose... the numbers could hit double digits easy.
Gil's stress level, as well as his blood pressure, shot up a few degrees. He took a deep breath before focusing on the security footage. Not even the grainy footage hid the man's smirk. Incarceration had obviously not changed Watkins any. There was no evidence of remorse or regret for his actions in his step.
The man kidnapped Bright, held him for fifteen hours in the room he and the kid's father used for their murderous hobby, and inflicted psychological tortures the likes of which Gil didn't even want to imagine. Yet there the man was, leisurely strolling down the corridor without a care in the world.
The guards who walked beside Watkins, however, were another story. They kept their heads lowered so the cameras couldn't get a clear shot of their faces. Deliberate, Gil decided, eyes narrowing into thin slits. They know if the cameras can't capture their faces that we can't use facial recognition software to identify them.
Facial recognition wasn't the only way to identify them, though. Gil hadn't forgotten the good ole days where detective work required time, patience, and a keen eye to spot minute details.
The first guard was on the taller side with thick arm and leg muscles. Helpful given they work in a physically demanding place. The other guard, though, was completely opposite in terms of size and build. A woman, Gil realized with a burst of surprise. It's a woman walking beside Watkins.
That made no sense, though. Women weren't allowed to work either the ward housing the male population or the intensive treatment area where the more dangerous inmates were isolated.
At least, he thought they weren't allowed to work those wards. Policies could have changed. Well, guess there's one way to find out.
"Does Arkham have their female guards working the ward where Watkins is housed?"
"No, they don't."
He turned the tablet so Dick could see the image on the screen. "Then why is there one escorting Watkins from his cell?"
"Oracle and I wondered the same thing."
"You figured out it was a woman, too?"
Dick nodded. "Oracle pointed it out soon as she saw her."
That didn't surprise Gil given who Oracle was. The former Batgirl had made quite a name for herself in the intelligence community. Even he had retained her services a few times over the years.
"Did you or her find a reason for why this woman was escorting Watkins from his cell?"
"No." Dick blew out a breath. "And I reached out to Aaron Cash to ask him why she was there and he says she shouldn't have been down there."
"Did he have an idea about who she is?"
"Afraid not." Dick leaned forward set a file on Gil's desk. "Oracle ran a check on all the female security guards and found nobody who matched this woman's general description."
"So, she could be how Watkins got out of Arkham."
"That's our best bet at this point, yes."
Gil went back to watching the security footage, hoping the woman would do something, anything that'd help identify her. He thought he found what he was looking for a few seconds later. Gil leaned forward in his chair and rolled the footage back to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
He wasn't.
"She isn't familiar with the asylum's layout."
"What?" Dick sat forward. "What do you mean she isn't familiar with the asylums layout?"
"Here, watch." Gil passed the tablet to Dick. "The male guard corrects her when she goes to lead Watkins in the wrong direction."
A frown formed between Dick's eyes as he watched the footage. "We were so busy trying to get a scan of their faces to do facial recognition that we missed this." He set the tablet on the desk. "It explains why we didn't find anyone matching her description in Arkham's staff directory."
"Did you have Oracle check into the male guards?"
"Not at the time, no." Dick's brow furrowed. "We figured it was another dead-end given how the woman didn't match anyone on file."
"I wouldn't put it past Endicott to have Arkham security working for him." Gil picked up the file and opened it. "He was able to get one of his assassins into Claremont." Where he failed to take care of Martin Whitly and ultimately lost his life. "This man could be our way of identifying the woman."
"And connecting one or the both of them to Nicholas Endicott."
Gil itched to make that connection so he could clap a pair of cuffs on Endicott.
"We need to run background checks on all the male security guards and staff. Patients, too," Gil added after a momentary pause.
"Batman is already doing that." Dick's lips twitched. "You know what a paranoid cynic he is."
"In this instance, I'm glad he is." Gil leaned back in his chair. "Endicott was enough of a problem on his own. Knowing he's also connected to your Court?" He let out a breath heavy with frustration and fatigue. "Let's just say it adds complications that were not needed."
"Believe me, I know."
A smile tugged at Gil's lips. "You deal with this level of complicated every day."
"I can handle the regular insanity." Dick sat back with a sigh. "It's part of the life and I accepted that when I took up the mantle."
As a police officer and a crime fighter, Gil added silently. Dick Grayson didn't choose to combat crime in one part of his life. He combated it in both parts of his life. Something he admired and respected given how he dedicated his own life to fighting bad guys.
"Family is involved this time, though."
Dick nodded. "Making things more complicated."
"Does Batman have any reason for why the Court has started going after firstborn children?"
"Raya didn't tell you that part? No, of course, she wouldn't." Frustrated amusement coated Dick's tone, burned in the depths of his eyes. "She's getting more and more like Batman all the time, I swear."
"Raya is like Malcolm in that regard. Doles out tidbits of information as they become relevant." Gil's nerves, already frayed at the seams, bunched as he prepared himself for whatever Dick had to tell him. "Now, what didn't she tell me?"
That he'd blister her hide for not telling him about later.
"The Court is killing all firstborn children in order to fulfill an ancient prophecy."
Nothing was ever simple. Least of all when one of the clandestine organizations operating in Gotham was involved.
"What prophecy?"
Not that Gil wanted the answer.
"'And he, the Destroyer came to let loose his anger and hate, destroying the universe, and all with it.'"
"And who is this Destroyer?"
Not that he wanted that answer, either. He hadn't ever shied away from the hard truths or answers. No matter what Dick told him, he'd face the situation as he always did: head on.
"A demon created at the dawn of time." Dick's expression was as grim as his tone. "A destroyer of multiverses called Barbatos."
There wasn't a lot at this point Dick could tell him that'd shock him. A demon coming to destroy the universe?
Well, it was at least new.
Something, though, told Gil there was more to this than a demon coming to destroy the universe.
"Okay," he said, steeling himself. "What else aren't you telling me?"
A small grin wreathed Dick's face. "Sure you want me to tell you?"
"No," Gil admitted with a small smile of his own. "But tell me, anyway."
"Batman found something in an old journal that eluded to there needing to be a final sacrifice in order to bring Barbatos here."
Ritualistic killer, Gil thought. Right up Bright's alley.
If he was allowed to work the case.
"What is it?"
"A broken man must extinguish the fire of the burning muse."
"What broken man?" Gil's brow knit together. "And who is the burning muse?"
"Batman believes the broken man is Malcolm." A shadow passed through Dick's eyes. "And the burning muse is Raya."
"Malcolm killing Raya? Not gonna happen." Gil's fingers tightened on the arm of his chair. "Not on my watch."
A/N: Hello, all! Hope this finds you well!