Part 9

Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade.
-- Country Joe McDonald, 1965

Dick persuaded Bruce to change lunch with Superman to dinner at Wayne Manor with Clark Kent and Lois Lane. He wanted to have Barbara look into LexCorp's aerospace division before they met with Superman, and he had also already made plans to meet Tim after school. So, Bruce finished giving Dick a tour of Wayne Enterprises' newest gadgets, and then the two men had lunch in the cafeteria.

After lunch, Dick stopped back by the clocktower to tell Barbara about the fighter discrepancy and Bruce's belief that Lex Luthor was behind it. She immediately began attacking the problem, muttering under her breath about nasty people trying to get her husband killed. Dick told her about dinner that night, and she nodded her head absently. Amused, he scooped her out of her chair, held her in his arms, and kissed her until they were both breathless.

"What was that about?" Babs asked, smiling.

"Just wanted to get your attention. Remember, we are having dinner at the Manor tonight with Clark and Lois."

"Maybe you need to 'get' my attention again," she murmured, linking her arms around his neck.

Dick obliged his lady by kissing her again, but finally he drew back, planting one more kiss on the tip of her nose. "I'm sorry, but I've got to go if I'm going to meet Tim when school lets out." He gently put her back in her wheelchair and kissed her lightly on the lips. "I'm not sure how long I'll be, but I'll be back before it's time to leave for the Manor."

As Dick pulled up in front of Gotham Heights High School, he recalled Tim's excited email after Jack Drake had finally agreed that Tim could go back to Gotham Heights for his senior year. Subsequent emails had revealed that it had taken Tim a little while to fit back in with his old friends, but he had adjusted. Now, Tim had just a few weeks to go before graduation.

The school bell and the mass exodus of students from the building cut off Dick's musings. He stood by his car, figuring it would be easier for Tim to find him since he was still wearing his uniform. Suddenly, he heard a loud whoop nearby. He located the source of the sound and smiled as Tim Drake came rushing toward him.

"Dick! Hey, man, it's great to see you!"

~~~~~~~~~~

"Babs tells me you're thinking of joining the Navy after graduation," Dick said, as the two young men sat at a booth in O'Shaunghnessy's slurping milk shakes.

"Is that what this whole meeting is about?" Tim asked suspiciously. He was still adjusting to the fact that he was now slightly taller than Dick. It just didn't seem ... proper, somehow. It had been amusing when he realized he was taller than his stepmother, Dana. It had been a little weird, but still fun, when he discovered he didn't have to tilt his head so much to look up at Alfred and Bruce. But somehow, he had just assumed that Dick would always be taller than he.

"I certainly wasn't going to come all this way and not see you, bro!" Dick replied, smiling. "So tell me, are you joining up?"

"Um ... yeah, I was planning on it."

"Why?"

"Huh? Why what?" Tim asked in confusion.

"Why are you planning on joining up? What do you want to do?" Dick asked matter-of-factly.

"I want to be a fighter pilot. Like you." Tim studied Dick's face, trying to read what he was thinking. He saw a flash of some sort of pain in Dick's eyes, but mostly the older man's face was unreadable.

"A fighter pilot, huh? Are you sure that's the best job for you?"

"Are you saying I couldn't hack it?" he asked, hurt by Dick's lack of confidence.

Dick smiled reassuringly. "No, of course that's not what I'm saying! I know you, Tim. If you decided you wanted to be a fighter pilot, then I'm sure you would make a very good one. That's not my point. Do you honestly think being a fighter pilot is the best use of your abilities? I mean, you don't even have a pilot's license!"

"Well, I figured my dad would freak."

"Tim, your dad has freaked before and that hasn't stopped you. Look, you yourself once told me that you weren't a pilot; why this sudden desire to be one now?"

Tim tried to keep his tone even instead of petulant as he replied, "I thought it was important for each of us to do his best to help win this war."

"Yes it is. That's why I'm asking. In my opinion, you're too good at computer and other tech stuff just to be a fighter jock like me."

"So you think I should be doing geek work," Tim said in disgust.

"Hey! Some of my best friends are 'geeks'!" Dick responded, not entirely in jest.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. It's just ..."

"... You want to do something more active than sit at a computer terminal. I know, man. Look, we each have to decide where and how our skills would be best utilized." Dick paused and smiled. "In my case, I realized that I could be more useful as a fighter pilot than stopping muggers in Bludhaven, and it was a pretty simple decision. In your case, you've got some different options to choose between."

"You mean college," Tim said disgustedly. He and his father had argued themselves hoarse about his desire to join the Navy, and his father's desire for him to attend some big prestigious university and major in business.

"It's not a dirty word," Dick replied with a smile. "One thing you might want to think about -- I checked with Vic, and S.T.A.R. Labs has an internship program for college students. For that matter, I think Wayne Enterprises does too. You could go to school and still be helping the war effort."

"S.T.A.R. Labs?" Tim asked incredulously, startled out of his funk. To work with some of the people and equipment they had would be incredibly cool!

"Yeah. In my opinion, people like Vic are worth at least fifty fighter jocks like me -- they're the ones who make it possible for us to fight this war at all."

"You think I could get into their program?"

"With your smarts, it should be a piece of cake! If you want, I'll talk to Vic and arrange for you to meet with him. He'll have to know who you are, though."

"That's okay," Tim said absently, thinking of the scenario Dick had raised. Finally, he realized Dick was watching him, an amused smile on his face. "Sorry. Zoned out for a minute there."

"I noticed."

"Okay, enough about me! So you're flying down to Houston next week?"

"Actually, I'm trying to get Babs to agree to a little mini-vacation on Padre Island this weekend. Then we could drive up to Houston, and she could fly back from there."

"Hey, that sounds fun! What's the holdup?"

"I think she wants to, it's just she's not sure she should take the time off. I'm about ready to indulge in a little kidnapping," Dick said in exasperation.

"I'll help! She needs the break. When were you planning on leaving?"

"Well, we've got dinner at the Manor tonight, then tomorrow's shindig with the Titans; so right now, I'm thinking of leaving on Thursday."

"How about if I volunteer to pinch-hit for her while she's gone?"

"That'd be a big help! I'll mention it to her." Dick looked at his watch. "And speaking of Babs, I need to get home to get ready for dinner, tonight."

On the drive back to the high school so that Tim could pick up his car, they discussed Dick's assignment as a flight instructor. Once in the parking lot, each was reluctant to have the time together end.

"Listen," offered Dick, "I can't make any promises yet, but I should think you'd be able to come down and visit me this summer. I'll let you know, okay?"

"Okay," Tim replied huskily. He clasped Dick's hand briefly, and then got out of the car. He walked over to his car, but before getting in, he turned around to wave at Dick. "See you later!" he said, attempting to sound cheerful. Dick waved in return and drove off.

Tim sighed. Sarah Fox's death had brought home to him that this war was real. That people he knew could be killed. He couldn't help but wonder if he would see Dick again.

~~~~~~~~~~

"It's Luthor, all right," Barbara said confidently as they sat around the table at Wayne Manor.

"Are you sure, Barbara?" asked Clark. "I know Luthor's done some pretty despicable things, but surely even he doesn't want us to lose this war!"

"I know it seems a little odd, but everything points to him. There's definitely some 'creative' accounting going on there. The good news is that I don't think the government will have any problems holding LexCorp responsible for the fraud; the bad news is that I don't think there's any way they can tie it directly to Luthor." She grimaced slightly in exasperation. "He's covered his tracks really well, and while I've found some links, there's no way they'd be admissible in court."

"So you don't think it's possible someone else in LexCorp is setting Luthor up?" asked Lois.

"If someone else was trying to set him up, I'd think they'd do a better job of it," Barbara replied, smiling. "There're definite discrepancies between the manufacturing cost of the new Barracudas as reported to the Navy, and the manufacturing cost in LexCorp's internal files, but I'm still trying to find where the extra money ends up." She frowned in thought. "I'll keep looking. There're some coded files I'm still trying to figure out; I'm hoping there's something useful in them -- there's certainly enough security around them."

"So, in any event," summarized Bruce, "you expect the government has a good case to bring some sort of charges against LexCorp. Good."

"I'm sure they'll also be hit up with civil suits from the families of pilots who died after the new model was supposed to be introduced," mused Lois.

"That, of course, assumes the Navy will make any of this public," Dick commented dryly. When everyone else looked at him in shock, he continued, "Well, think about it -- we're in the middle of a war, and now the public finds out that the Navy didn't realize it was being defrauded of millions of dollars. Doesn't exactly build public confidence."

Lois asked indignantly, "How can they hide something as major as this?"

"Simple," Dick replied cynically. They don't charge LexCorp with anything, but instead claim LexCorp has broken a contract clause and must now pay a penalty. Or they use the 'broken clause' as an excuse to throw the project open for bids again. The words 'defraud' or 'embezzlement' are never mentioned."

"Are you saying Luthor and LexCorp could walk on this?" Barbara asked.

"I'm saying that it's possible. And, to be quite honest, I don't really care." Again, everyone looked shocked. The anger that Dick had felt that morning slipped into his voice as he continued. "What I'm most concerned about, and what I think the Navy will be most concerned about, is that in all likelihood, the Navy's representative at LexCorp was going along with this. That's the person I want to nail."

Clark and Bruce exchanged glances. Clark then said, almost tentatively, "But Dick, Luthor's the big fish, here. It's possible they could finally make a case against him, if the officer agreed to cooperate in exchange ..."

"No!" Dick sliced his hand sideways through the air in negation. "There is no way in hell they'll let him or her walk on this!"

"Dick, we have to think of the big picture," tried Bruce.

"No, Bruce! You need to think of the big picture!" Dick took a deep breath and tried to speak calmly. "I don't think you understand -- so Luthor stole some money, big deal; whoever this officer is, if he is guilty, he's betrayed his oath, and he's betrayed his fellow pilots. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to work a treason charge in there somewhere."

He looked at the people at the table around him. He almost smiled in amusement at the identical dumbfounded looks on everyone's faces, although he was pleased to see a thoughtful expression begin to appear on Barbara's face as she considered what he said.

"Look, folks," he continued, "in my current line of work, we call your current behavior, 'target fixated.' Even if you could get the officer's testimony, you'd be asking a jury to choose between a former United States president and a suborned naval officer. Who would you believe? Not to mention, even if Luthor were found guilty, I doubt he'd ever serve any prison time." Dick sighed. "I expect Luthor to act like the slime that he is. That's why the Navy has representatives at its contractors. What I don't expect is for officers charged with protecting the Navy's and their fellow pilots' interests to betray them. It comes down to the difference between a contract and an oath."

** End Part 9 **