Chapter 25: Cowboy in the Jungle
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
Total chaos. A street scene cast by Lubick and choreographed by DeMille. Thankfully, this crowd is still living in a two- dimensional world, so air passage is reasonably clear. If the local architecture lacks the over-arching spires of Gotham? Well, the tight scale more then makes up for it. Three swings and I'm directly over Prince Not-So-Charming.
I'll give the man points for courage, if none for brains. He's holding his ground. Right in the middle of the street. Walls on two sides and the fallen debris of what *was* A frame and canopy awning blocking the narrow road in in back of him. Perfect killing ground. Lucky for him, I don't kill.
Any way, he's not my first target. Or even my third.
The oldest, thinnest pirate - the one we assume is Xander Drax - is still visible. One of the royal guard has him by the neck. Big man. Very big. It will take some shaking to make him let go.
Mental note : make sure to hold back at least one batarang.
Our two other soon-to-be deities were behind him - and I don't see them now - so by logic they should be *under* the cloth. Certainly someone - several someone's - are under there, judging by the movement.
I flip back the far side and kick the first body I see. No need to bother with identities - it's all target. Even our 'rescuees' will be easier to handle unconscious.
I reach the girl first. She's rolling around with two of the soldiers, who are still trying to subdue here with actually doing too much damage. Chivalry lives. Of course, given that they were planning to rip he heart out and eat the remains, it apparently doesn't live long.
I clip them both. Miss Pirate makes a break for the side street.
I catch a black blur from the edge of my vision. Fine. The woman is Dinah's target. I have my own work.
By the fourth soldier, the royal guard has notices I'm here. Of course, Dick has also located me, so at eight to two I'd put the odds at just off even - in our favor.
Dick crashes through the remaining poles, bringing the last standing canopy down on Teplitzin and company. The prince is not hurt, but the screams distract his guard. Most of them turn back to rescue their boss, and the rest are easy targets. I don't waste any batarangs. It's simpler just to let Dick kick them in the head.
I focus my efforts at digging through the fallen mess of canopy and screaming Aztecs. Nasty. They are not organized enough to qualify as *resistance*, but a mad mob is always unpredictable, and thus dangerous. I want to grab our targets and get gone.
The heavy pirate is in there. The one who burned Dick. The man is striking out at random, too confused to notice me in the crowd of bodies. He goes down with a very satisfying thud. Savage will probably set the shoulder when we get him back to the City of Gold. For now? I secure him with a few twists of jump-line and pass him to Dick.
Now for the main party. Xander Drax has to be somewhere under that canopy with the Prince.
I don't bother to separate the lumps. Whatever's on top gets hit. The falling cloth seems to have dislodged most of the fancy headgear, so the royal retune turns into the royal roadblock with satisfying swiftness.
Once everyone is out, I go digging.
And find - nothing.
Drax has.. vanished. He should logically be somewhere under that cloth - except when I raise the cloth he's not there. Teplitzin, yes. His guard... yes. All accounted for. Drax? No.
Instead?
I end up face to face - or rather face to teeth - with the largest canine I've seen this side of the Gotham zoo. Canus lupis, and serious about it.
I could take the beast, but under the circumstances? The other way out is just as fast.
Dick has the other man.
I signal Dinah to give me the girl and go.
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
I hand the prisoners over to Renwick and focus on my own people.
"Jones?" I help him down from the tree branch where he has been watching the fiasco. "Did you get a clear view?"
He had the best chance to actually see something, although the original disturbance was out of his line of sight. We picked the highest tree, but it still wasn't much above the city walls. That's the problem with nature. It's never much higher then itself.
"Nope." Jones gestures with his binoculars. "Only a blur. Purple and black shape. Vaguely human, and riding a white horse. Carrying someone else."
Dick looks up from resetting his jumpline. "The horse sounds like..."
My glance at Jones cuts off the name. Not that the archaeologist hasn't heard it, at least in passing, but if he hasn't made the connection?
Dinah looks at Jones, then me, then Jones again. I know she'd like to defend 'her man', but she's too much of a professional to delude herself that *he* is. And while I can convince the world that the Canary is for hire by brainless billionaire adventurers, the Oracle most definitely is *not*.
After a moment she asks, "Will you tell Savage?"
"No." I answer. "Not just yet."
Dick nods, understanding what both of us have not said. I'll have Oracle check Walker out again. Just in case. For now? I don't think our host has to know about any new players. The game is complicated enough as it is.
"You say the rider was not alone?" I turn to Jones. "We have to assume he has Drax - whoever he is."
Jones stashes the binoculars and picks up his hat. "He had someone on that horse."
"Drax went under that awning - he didn't come out." Dick picks up his backpack, urging Jones back into the jungle. We are too near the city walls to hang around talking. "And I don't think he's the Shadow."
Dinah tightens her belt and follows. "Could Drax be hiding in the city? Could someone there have helped him vanish?"
I shake my head. Anything's possible, of course, but...
"I think he's have the brains to clear out." Dick says. " On his own or with help. He wouldn't say around for the barbecue."
True enough, although we didn't have time to search. If he is in the city, the locals will surely find him. Even outside the city, he would be on their turf. It doubt one untrained European could make his way back to Porto Chapac. Without rescue? Sooner or latter, he'll be headed back for that alter.
Dinah stops and looks back at me. "Bruce?"
I reach a decision.
"We pull back with the prisoners we have. Before Teplitzin has the brains to start looking over the other side of his walls." Not the happiest answer, but the one I need to give. "I value Drax's life - but not as much as yours."
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
It takes us six hours to get back to Captain Muwan and his troops. Less then I'd expected, considering that we were hauling prisoners, but for once the prisoners has the good sense not to make things harder. Apparently they caught on that - however nasty we might be - we weren't going to have them for lunch. At least - not just yet. Under the circumstances...
Renwick insisted we wait until we were back in camp to interrogate the prisoners. Seems Savage invented some truth serum. I tend to question such drugs, but for the locals? Even the supposedly sophisticated Americans?
I offer the JSA variant pentathol that Doctor Midnight came up with, it's not perfect, but it's about the latest thing available, no dice. They'll go with something the Doc thought up back in the fifties. Progress be damned. If Savage invented it, then it works. End of story. Savage is God.
Dick gives me a smirk, which I send back. How come *I* can't get that kind of devotion in *my* sidekicks? Oracle bitches about her working hours, Tim carps about my effect on his social life, and Dick takes a stupid job that is likely to get him killed.
None of *them* want to join me at Wayne Industries, and heaven knows I've offered.
Not even Jason. I suggested he go to Hudson University. Maybe get his MBA. He called me a fascist control freak who wanted to turn him into a mindless puppet. And a neurotic bastard weirdo who never wanted him to be happy. And a tin plated dictator with delusions of grandeur. Of course, I know now that really means he loved me. Alfred and Leslie assured me of that. That yelling at your father is just part of being a son.
Christ, I miss my boy.
I would have preferred to conduct the questioning myself. Preferably with a telepath. At the least with serious drugs. No chance. Well, I can live with that. This is their turf. Muwan and Littlejohn should know the best questions to ask. And, frankly, I didn't care enough to risk my cover. I had no immediate need for their information. Only two questions matter. Did they have the dagger? Did they kill the villagers? Muwan will get those answers out of the prisoners. Beyond that? Anything I want I can get from them later.
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
Dick and I listen quietly to Captain Muwans's report. Courtesy costs nothing, and the young man is trying. It's not his fault he's...well, he's human. And provincial. And not that well trained. And totally unaware of all of the above. But he *is* doing his job to the best of his limited ability.
The larger pirate was basically resistant. They use the word 'ignorant', but it comes down to the came thing. He didn't talk. The girl did. Not that it makes much difference. Neither of them tell us much.
We are too far into he jungle for a Xerox machine, but Muwan carefully recounts the interrogation line by line.
No, they don't have the dagger.
No, they did not burn the villages.
No, they do not know who did.
Yes, they do want the dagger.
Yes, they did attack the Amoza Rover Queen.
Yes, they did kidnap Dick and Dinah and the Captain and his wife.
No, they did not learn anything from them.
After about an hour of careful listening I ask my first question.
"What do you think she means by.. 'different suit'?"
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
Four hours later I'm finally having dinner with Dick. Boiled corn mush and coal-roasted snake. Not as well done as the food back at the main house, but it makes a nice change from lizard.
Jones joined us for a while, but decided that Dinah made better company. I don't blame him. After the way today went, Solomon Grundy would be better company.
Dick peels a wild banana and hands me half of it. "Drax didn't have the dagger?"
"Neither did Teplitzin," I answer.
"Then why the parade?"
"Just an answer to the challenge to his authority." I take a bite. The fruit is undersized, and dark red, but very sweet. I wonder why they don't cover these in chocolate, rather then the lizards. " Having trespassers on his turf make him look weak. Never a good thing for a living deity." Or for any other politician, I add mentally, but I imagine godhood somewhat ups the ante. "He needs the political reinforcement if he plans to take the City without first having the dagger."
Dick finishes his in one bite. "Which you are *sure* he doesn't have?"
"It would have been evident at the front of the processional. Or so both Jones and Littlejohn tell me."
"They agreed on something?"
Dick clutches at his chest, pretending shock.
I take the opportunity to pull off another of his bananas. These really are tasty. I'll have to have Alfred see if we have them in Gotham. Surely one of the specialty groceries has to carry them.
"It had to happen sometime," I answer.
"So even if Teplitzin can't kill the Jaguar God?"
I stand up, stretching. I need a nap. I need a jaccuzzi. I need a massage. This has been a long day, and dirt does not make a good mattress. I'm going to feel that fight in the morning. "He'll still hope to take a shot at the City of Gold. It's just less of a sure thing."
Dick gives me his best Aunt Harriet imitation. "Young people nowadays. No respect for religion."
I stifle a snort. With difficulty. Even when I'm furious at the world, Dick knows how to cheer me. Or at least give me something positive to buffer the gloom, even if it's only one of his dreadful puns.
"How about whoever it was back in the city?" he asks, finishing off the last of his corn mush. "Could they have it?"
I shrug. Anything's possible. A thought which, under the circumstances, makes me thoroughly uncomfortable.
"Get Oracle on it." Dick urges. "If anything moves in this green hell, she can..."
"I have a better idea." I check my people. Jones is over with Littlejohn. They both look furious, so I assume it's nothing important. Most likely some argument over some irrelevant point of history. Dinah is with them and she's *not* upset, which tends to back the point. At other times I might take her with me, but under the circumstances? It's not worth attracting attention. "You keep an eye on Renwick and company." I tell Dick, shooting a thumb at the crew. "I'm going to take a walk."
END CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
Total chaos. A street scene cast by Lubick and choreographed by DeMille. Thankfully, this crowd is still living in a two- dimensional world, so air passage is reasonably clear. If the local architecture lacks the over-arching spires of Gotham? Well, the tight scale more then makes up for it. Three swings and I'm directly over Prince Not-So-Charming.
I'll give the man points for courage, if none for brains. He's holding his ground. Right in the middle of the street. Walls on two sides and the fallen debris of what *was* A frame and canopy awning blocking the narrow road in in back of him. Perfect killing ground. Lucky for him, I don't kill.
Any way, he's not my first target. Or even my third.
The oldest, thinnest pirate - the one we assume is Xander Drax - is still visible. One of the royal guard has him by the neck. Big man. Very big. It will take some shaking to make him let go.
Mental note : make sure to hold back at least one batarang.
Our two other soon-to-be deities were behind him - and I don't see them now - so by logic they should be *under* the cloth. Certainly someone - several someone's - are under there, judging by the movement.
I flip back the far side and kick the first body I see. No need to bother with identities - it's all target. Even our 'rescuees' will be easier to handle unconscious.
I reach the girl first. She's rolling around with two of the soldiers, who are still trying to subdue here with actually doing too much damage. Chivalry lives. Of course, given that they were planning to rip he heart out and eat the remains, it apparently doesn't live long.
I clip them both. Miss Pirate makes a break for the side street.
I catch a black blur from the edge of my vision. Fine. The woman is Dinah's target. I have my own work.
By the fourth soldier, the royal guard has notices I'm here. Of course, Dick has also located me, so at eight to two I'd put the odds at just off even - in our favor.
Dick crashes through the remaining poles, bringing the last standing canopy down on Teplitzin and company. The prince is not hurt, but the screams distract his guard. Most of them turn back to rescue their boss, and the rest are easy targets. I don't waste any batarangs. It's simpler just to let Dick kick them in the head.
I focus my efforts at digging through the fallen mess of canopy and screaming Aztecs. Nasty. They are not organized enough to qualify as *resistance*, but a mad mob is always unpredictable, and thus dangerous. I want to grab our targets and get gone.
The heavy pirate is in there. The one who burned Dick. The man is striking out at random, too confused to notice me in the crowd of bodies. He goes down with a very satisfying thud. Savage will probably set the shoulder when we get him back to the City of Gold. For now? I secure him with a few twists of jump-line and pass him to Dick.
Now for the main party. Xander Drax has to be somewhere under that canopy with the Prince.
I don't bother to separate the lumps. Whatever's on top gets hit. The falling cloth seems to have dislodged most of the fancy headgear, so the royal retune turns into the royal roadblock with satisfying swiftness.
Once everyone is out, I go digging.
And find - nothing.
Drax has.. vanished. He should logically be somewhere under that cloth - except when I raise the cloth he's not there. Teplitzin, yes. His guard... yes. All accounted for. Drax? No.
Instead?
I end up face to face - or rather face to teeth - with the largest canine I've seen this side of the Gotham zoo. Canus lupis, and serious about it.
I could take the beast, but under the circumstances? The other way out is just as fast.
Dick has the other man.
I signal Dinah to give me the girl and go.
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
I hand the prisoners over to Renwick and focus on my own people.
"Jones?" I help him down from the tree branch where he has been watching the fiasco. "Did you get a clear view?"
He had the best chance to actually see something, although the original disturbance was out of his line of sight. We picked the highest tree, but it still wasn't much above the city walls. That's the problem with nature. It's never much higher then itself.
"Nope." Jones gestures with his binoculars. "Only a blur. Purple and black shape. Vaguely human, and riding a white horse. Carrying someone else."
Dick looks up from resetting his jumpline. "The horse sounds like..."
My glance at Jones cuts off the name. Not that the archaeologist hasn't heard it, at least in passing, but if he hasn't made the connection?
Dinah looks at Jones, then me, then Jones again. I know she'd like to defend 'her man', but she's too much of a professional to delude herself that *he* is. And while I can convince the world that the Canary is for hire by brainless billionaire adventurers, the Oracle most definitely is *not*.
After a moment she asks, "Will you tell Savage?"
"No." I answer. "Not just yet."
Dick nods, understanding what both of us have not said. I'll have Oracle check Walker out again. Just in case. For now? I don't think our host has to know about any new players. The game is complicated enough as it is.
"You say the rider was not alone?" I turn to Jones. "We have to assume he has Drax - whoever he is."
Jones stashes the binoculars and picks up his hat. "He had someone on that horse."
"Drax went under that awning - he didn't come out." Dick picks up his backpack, urging Jones back into the jungle. We are too near the city walls to hang around talking. "And I don't think he's the Shadow."
Dinah tightens her belt and follows. "Could Drax be hiding in the city? Could someone there have helped him vanish?"
I shake my head. Anything's possible, of course, but...
"I think he's have the brains to clear out." Dick says. " On his own or with help. He wouldn't say around for the barbecue."
True enough, although we didn't have time to search. If he is in the city, the locals will surely find him. Even outside the city, he would be on their turf. It doubt one untrained European could make his way back to Porto Chapac. Without rescue? Sooner or latter, he'll be headed back for that alter.
Dinah stops and looks back at me. "Bruce?"
I reach a decision.
"We pull back with the prisoners we have. Before Teplitzin has the brains to start looking over the other side of his walls." Not the happiest answer, but the one I need to give. "I value Drax's life - but not as much as yours."
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
It takes us six hours to get back to Captain Muwan and his troops. Less then I'd expected, considering that we were hauling prisoners, but for once the prisoners has the good sense not to make things harder. Apparently they caught on that - however nasty we might be - we weren't going to have them for lunch. At least - not just yet. Under the circumstances...
Renwick insisted we wait until we were back in camp to interrogate the prisoners. Seems Savage invented some truth serum. I tend to question such drugs, but for the locals? Even the supposedly sophisticated Americans?
I offer the JSA variant pentathol that Doctor Midnight came up with, it's not perfect, but it's about the latest thing available, no dice. They'll go with something the Doc thought up back in the fifties. Progress be damned. If Savage invented it, then it works. End of story. Savage is God.
Dick gives me a smirk, which I send back. How come *I* can't get that kind of devotion in *my* sidekicks? Oracle bitches about her working hours, Tim carps about my effect on his social life, and Dick takes a stupid job that is likely to get him killed.
None of *them* want to join me at Wayne Industries, and heaven knows I've offered.
Not even Jason. I suggested he go to Hudson University. Maybe get his MBA. He called me a fascist control freak who wanted to turn him into a mindless puppet. And a neurotic bastard weirdo who never wanted him to be happy. And a tin plated dictator with delusions of grandeur. Of course, I know now that really means he loved me. Alfred and Leslie assured me of that. That yelling at your father is just part of being a son.
Christ, I miss my boy.
I would have preferred to conduct the questioning myself. Preferably with a telepath. At the least with serious drugs. No chance. Well, I can live with that. This is their turf. Muwan and Littlejohn should know the best questions to ask. And, frankly, I didn't care enough to risk my cover. I had no immediate need for their information. Only two questions matter. Did they have the dagger? Did they kill the villagers? Muwan will get those answers out of the prisoners. Beyond that? Anything I want I can get from them later.
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
Dick and I listen quietly to Captain Muwans's report. Courtesy costs nothing, and the young man is trying. It's not his fault he's...well, he's human. And provincial. And not that well trained. And totally unaware of all of the above. But he *is* doing his job to the best of his limited ability.
The larger pirate was basically resistant. They use the word 'ignorant', but it comes down to the came thing. He didn't talk. The girl did. Not that it makes much difference. Neither of them tell us much.
We are too far into he jungle for a Xerox machine, but Muwan carefully recounts the interrogation line by line.
No, they don't have the dagger.
No, they did not burn the villages.
No, they do not know who did.
Yes, they do want the dagger.
Yes, they did attack the Amoza Rover Queen.
Yes, they did kidnap Dick and Dinah and the Captain and his wife.
No, they did not learn anything from them.
After about an hour of careful listening I ask my first question.
"What do you think she means by.. 'different suit'?"
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
Four hours later I'm finally having dinner with Dick. Boiled corn mush and coal-roasted snake. Not as well done as the food back at the main house, but it makes a nice change from lizard.
Jones joined us for a while, but decided that Dinah made better company. I don't blame him. After the way today went, Solomon Grundy would be better company.
Dick peels a wild banana and hands me half of it. "Drax didn't have the dagger?"
"Neither did Teplitzin," I answer.
"Then why the parade?"
"Just an answer to the challenge to his authority." I take a bite. The fruit is undersized, and dark red, but very sweet. I wonder why they don't cover these in chocolate, rather then the lizards. " Having trespassers on his turf make him look weak. Never a good thing for a living deity." Or for any other politician, I add mentally, but I imagine godhood somewhat ups the ante. "He needs the political reinforcement if he plans to take the City without first having the dagger."
Dick finishes his in one bite. "Which you are *sure* he doesn't have?"
"It would have been evident at the front of the processional. Or so both Jones and Littlejohn tell me."
"They agreed on something?"
Dick clutches at his chest, pretending shock.
I take the opportunity to pull off another of his bananas. These really are tasty. I'll have to have Alfred see if we have them in Gotham. Surely one of the specialty groceries has to carry them.
"It had to happen sometime," I answer.
"So even if Teplitzin can't kill the Jaguar God?"
I stand up, stretching. I need a nap. I need a jaccuzzi. I need a massage. This has been a long day, and dirt does not make a good mattress. I'm going to feel that fight in the morning. "He'll still hope to take a shot at the City of Gold. It's just less of a sure thing."
Dick gives me his best Aunt Harriet imitation. "Young people nowadays. No respect for religion."
I stifle a snort. With difficulty. Even when I'm furious at the world, Dick knows how to cheer me. Or at least give me something positive to buffer the gloom, even if it's only one of his dreadful puns.
"How about whoever it was back in the city?" he asks, finishing off the last of his corn mush. "Could they have it?"
I shrug. Anything's possible. A thought which, under the circumstances, makes me thoroughly uncomfortable.
"Get Oracle on it." Dick urges. "If anything moves in this green hell, she can..."
"I have a better idea." I check my people. Jones is over with Littlejohn. They both look furious, so I assume it's nothing important. Most likely some argument over some irrelevant point of history. Dinah is with them and she's *not* upset, which tends to back the point. At other times I might take her with me, but under the circumstances? It's not worth attracting attention. "You keep an eye on Renwick and company." I tell Dick, shooting a thumb at the crew. "I'm going to take a walk."
END CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE