Chapter 20: You learn Something New...
"Welcome to MedCorp! I'm Dr. Alisha Tucker, I'll be giving you the tour today, Ms. Grayson." An overly excited lady greeted me. I was currently at MedCorp's Gotham office, getting a tour, holding up my end of a deal I made with Bruce.
"Dr. Rogers was pleased to get your call. She wanted to be here herself, but she was needed at our main offices." Dr. Tucker explained to me.
"It's my fault for taking so long to respond. I got distracted with Thanksgiving and helping my grandfather out."
"I understand. It can take a couple of days to get back into the swing of things. Shall we begin?" She asked.
"Yes please!" I almost cringed at my fake enthusiasm.
"This is our data storehouse. It holds a piece of MedCorp's privatized data cloud. MedCorp ensures client security and has never had a breach. Each of our offices hold a portion of our data for optimal security." Tucker droned on an hour later.
"Is it a good idea to be telling people about that?" I asked. Not that I really cared and about MedCorp's security. She had just shown me exactly what I came for. I could feel the file shark that Bruce had given me in my pocket. This room potentially held answers to questions about the microchip and maybe even my mother.
"Normally this isn't part of the tour, but Dr. Rogers was very specific in what she wanted me to show you. It seems you made a good impression on her." Dr. Tucker admitted.
"I guess." I shrugged. I had no idea why Victoria would care about me other than my connection to Bruce. And that really wasn't that big of a deal with how long Bruce had been retired.
"Anyways, lets move on. This isn't very exciting." She chuckled. I waited until another fifteen minutes into the tour before I made my move.
"Where's the bathroom?" I asked her.
"Down the hall across from pharmaceutical lab. Do you need me to show you?"
"No thanks, I think I remember." I pretended to head for the bathroom until I was out of sight, and then made my way towards the data room. I made sure no one was around before ducking in.
The room was full of servers and data terminals and it took a minute to find the one Bruce told me to steal from. Of course it was it the farthest corner from the door, making my job that much harder. Unfortunately the terminal wasn't on. It took a minute to turn on, me gradually becoming more paranoid about being caught every second. The last thing I needed was to explain to Commissioner Gordon why I was stealing from the world's biggest medical company. I don't think she'd be very understanding of my situation, especially after telling off Terry about that Curare assassin last week.
The terminal finally finished turning on. I took the file shark and placed it on the terminal like Bruce showed me and waited for it to load the files. Dr. Tucker probably thought I got lost. I could work with that.
"I've got to do one last check in here and then I'll be on my way out." I heard a voice at the door. Slag it! The shark wasn't done loading yet! In a panic, I flung myself under a near by desk. I could hear the man checking the servers and terminals, slowly coming my way. I swore my heart was going to beat out of my chest with how hard it was beating. He finally reach my terminal.
"That's odd," He mused. Shit. He found the shark, I was slagged. I was definitely going to blame Bruce for this. Him and his stupid deal. It was so not worth this.
"Thought I turned it off already? Oh well." The man said to himself and turned it off. Great. If he turned it off before the file shark was done I would have to start all over. And I had already been gone way too long. Dr. Tucker had to be suspicious by now.
The man left and I clambered out from under the desk. I checked the shark, praying it had finished downloading. Thankfully it had. I kissed the tiny metal rectangle before I left the room.
"Sorry it took so long. I got a call from my dad. He's moving to Gotham and wanted me to do some stuff." I lied. Technically it was only a half lie. Dad had called earlier to tell me I had to stop by the gym tomorrow to let in some movers.
"No problem. Let's continue." Dr. Tucker said, completely clueless.
"Here." I slapped the file shark down next Bruce. He didn't even turn from the bat-computer. "I held up my end of the deal. Your turn." I demanded. He took the shark without a word and loaded the files.
"Bruce, we had a deal." I reminded him.
"I'm aware." What was his problem? And where was Terry? He was usually around the cave by now.
"Where's Terry?" I gave up trying to hold him to his end of our deal. He was too preoccupied with the MedCorp files.
"Out trying to catch Blight."
"Again? That dreg has been really active lately. And your not monitoring him because?" Every time I'd ever been in the cave while Terry was out as Batman, Bruce was right there watching his every move.
"He left on his own. If he needs help he'll call." He said, focusing on the files. I highly doubted McGinnis would ask for help. He was a lot like Bruce in that way.
"So did I steal anything useful?" I peered over his shoulder to look at the screen.
"It looks like a list of rejected projects. It goes back to at least the 1980's." Bruce scrolled through decades worth of rejected project files.
"Do you think there's anything from Roger Tech?" I asked.
"It's all from Roger Tech." Bruce explained.
"Holy crap. How long were they around for before the merge?"
"MedCorp set up Roger Tech in 1977 and Victoria disbanded it in 2026 when she became CEO."
"So this is like 40 years of projects. And Dr. Tucker said they only store a piece of data at each office. Even if whatever project my mother was working on was rejected, it might not be in here." I sighed. I almost got caught for nothing.
"No." Bruce said.
"What do you mean 'No'? You can't steal data that isn't there."
"MedCorp database is interconnected. You just have to know where to look. I set up the shark to search the entire system, not just what was stored in Gotham." Of course he did. I should've know by now Bruce was the most thorough person on the planet.
"So your telling me I'm a rejected project?"
"If someone were to do human experiments, which is illegal, where would you hide any record of it?" He asked me.
"I wouldn't. No documentation is the best way to get away with it."
Bruce gave me a reprimanding look.
"What? It's true! The best way to get away with something is get rid of any proof you did it." I defended.
"But a company like Roger Tech or MedCorp is so big, they can't keep track of anything without documentation. They have to keep track of it somewhere. Its just a matter of where."
"Are you speaking from experience?" I teased. I'm pretty sure I received a low-key bat-glare for that.
"Years of investigating LexCorp and other corrupt companies." Bruce explained. "It's going to take the computer awhile to sort through this."
"So now will you hold up your end of the deal?" I responded with my own stern look.
He handed me a file. I skimmed the case file from Nightwing's final mission, the only new information was that Bruce and Dad had been following leads for a week before finally finding the Joker's hideout and Alfred.
"That's it? A impersonal case file is your way of telling me your side of this story?" I held up the file. "Is this how Bruce Wayne felt about it, or is this Batman's side? Because I didn't ask about Batman. How could you not visit him! Your son was in the hospital and you didn't bother to check on him?"
"Dick had made it abundantly clear before that he didn't want or need my help."
"He was in the hospital! He's angry you never visited him or apologized! You two are both being immature about this! Holding grudges and your pride for over twenty years is so childish! I can't believe I..."
"Bruce! I found something that might help us catch Blight and stop Powers." Terry burst into the cave. I turned to back to Bruce.
"This isn't over. Your part of our deal isn't completed. I'm going to do my homework. Tell me when the computer finds something." I stormed out of the cave.
It annoyed me that Dad and Bruce were both too damn stubborn to admit they were wrong. Things would be so much easier for the whole family if they got over it. If The oldest two members couldn't get along, what hope did the rest of us have? I barely saw any of my Aunts or Uncles, and didn't even know about one until two months ago. Our family was dysfunctional to begin with and Dad and Bruce's animosity towards the past didn't help. It was tiring to be in the middle of. I just wanted it to end.
Tuesday night found me at the gym, directing delivery people and movers all over the apartment.
"This is the last box, Ms. Grayson. Where do you want it?" A mover asked me.
"What's it labeled as?" I asked, flipping through a book for school.
"Jamie's baby stuff." I looked up at him. I didn't even know Dad had any of my baby stuff. And since I knew I was a year old by the time he even knew about me, I just assumed he didn't have anything like that. Apparently I was wrong.
"Um, put in the loft with my other stuff." I told him. He nodded and went off towards my room.
"Just sign this and we'll be outta here Ms. Grayson." The head mover handed me a tablet to sign and then they left. I restrained myself from bolting to my room to look in that box. The curiosity was eating at me. What was in that box? Did Dad forget about it, or was this another secret? Did it have a clue as to who my mother was? Or would it leave me with even more questions?
I entered my loft/bedroom. I had to admit Dad out did himself on my room. It had a loft which held a desk and reading area, like the one in his office. I had a view towards the harbor, something I never got in NY. The main floor of the room would eventually be were I slept and hopefully had my own living area. I was still working on convincing Dad that was a good idea.
I climbed my way over stacks of boxes and piles of unassembled furniture. Where could that box be? The guy wasn't in here very long, so it couldn't be too far from the door. Ah! There it was. I ripped it opened, the anticipation getting to me. Inside there was an old stuffed animal I vaguely remembered, some pictures from my first gymnastics meet, a couple medals from meets. Clearly Dad had added things to the box. I smiled when I found a picture from my first day of kindergarten, Anni and me hugging each other, smiling big at the camera. She would get a kick out of that. I looked through some more old pictures, reading Dad's descriptions on the back. I came to one of me sleeping in a crib. It couldn't have been too long after Dad took me in. I turned over to read the description, only to find different hand writing from Dad's.
Jamie napping after a long day of play at the lab. Summer '23. It said in neat script. My mother had taken this one! I searched for more pictures from her and only found one. It was from an ultra sound.
It's a girl! Little Jamie Valentina. She is going to help change the world. May '22.
Oddly optimistic for a woman who gave me up. There wasn't much left in the box. Just file disks of boring required documents, like vaccine history, proof of citizenship, name change file... adoption records... what the hell? I grabbed the last three disks in the box. Name change, adoption, and birth certificate. I could justify the name change disk, depending on what last name I was given, but adoption records? Dad wouldn't need to adopt me. At least I was pretty sure he wouldn't since he was my father.
I picked up my birth certificate disk. I didn't know I even had a physical copy. Now everything was uploaded into a government database directly from the hospitals. Parents only got one for nostalgic reasons. This little disk held the answers I needed about my mother. I went back to the dinning room where my laptop was, finally ready for some straight answers.
And of course Anni would choose that moment to call me.
"Hey Anni. Whats up?" I greeted, hiding my impatience.
"Jay, I have something to tell you, but you have to swear on your life not to tell anyone."
"I won't. I promise."
"I'm serious Jamie. If you tell anyone, we could both be in trouble." It had to be serious if she was using my real name.
"What did you do?" I asked, extremely concerned now. I was usually the one making her promise.
"Promise me first."
"You have my word. I won't tell a soul." I assured her. I heard her take a deep breath.
"My dad has been calling me."
"What? When!"
"He started the week before Thanksgiving. He didn't want me to worry about him. He calls once, maybe twice a week."
"Anni you have to report him. Who knows what he's been doing these past few months."
"I can't! And he said he's been lying low, moving around a lot. Jay, he trusted me. I shouldn't even be telling you this, but I couldn't keep it to myself anymore. I'm just so relived he's okay."
"Is this the good news you mentioned at Thanksgiving?" I asked.
"Part of it. That's another thing I wanted to tell you, and got it confirmed today. If I keep up my focus study in nursing for the rest of the year I can be a certified nursing assistant!" Now that was something I could be excited about for her.
"That's great Anni! Um, what does that mean exactly?"
"I assist the nurse." She laughed. "It's not much, but if I continue through senior year, I can get a few college credits out of the way."
"Going to a prep school had to pay off at some point."
"Thankfully." She laughed. I heard a door slam in the background. "I got to go! I'll talk to you later! Bye!" She hung up. That was odd.
It made me nervous that Anni was so blinded by her love for her dad that she couldn't see how terrible of a person he was. He was going to take advantage of her trust and it would ruin her. I couldn't bare to see her faith in people destroyed again. I should tell Dad what Anni told me, but I promised I wouldn't. Speaking of parents, I turned my attention back to my birth certificate. Maybe I could call Anni with my own news soon.
I inserted the disk into my laptop and waited for it to load. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the name for my mother. Clear as day was the name Victoria Rogers. I had met my mother already. But that wasn't the only surprise. Richard Grayson wasn't my father.
Congrats to anyone who called Dick not being Jamie's biological father! I've been dropping hints forever about it. But did you guess Victoria was her mother? And Anni isn't being very smart about her dad.
I've been waiting so long to get to this part of the story and now we're here, I'm so excited!
Have a safe and happy Independence Day to my American readers!