"No...two blocks...follow the...hold it..." Babs reached out switching the viewscreen to a different scene. "There." the image showed Black Canary in a small foreign town...perhaps in South America somewhere... near the edge of a rainforest. As Babs gave her directions she moved around a corner and came upon a group of guerrillas, about fifteen, with various models of armaments. As Dinah sprang into action against them Babs sat back, knowing that now it was all up to the female fighter and her job was done...for the moment.

"What's up?" she turned, actually managing to surprise the younger girl who was sneaking in the window. She smiled at Cass's consternation and waved at her computer screens. "You triggered my sensors on the roof." Cass smiled and shrugged. Tim had mentioned that sometimes he and Nightwing, especially Nightwing, would try to "surprise" Babs, always trying to get past her surveillance. But they were rarely successful. She managed to update her systems often enough that even Batman could not always get through undetected.

"Bored." Luckily her trip to the clock tower had been uneventful. She watched, intrigued, as the screen monitoring Black Canary showed her finishing off the last of the guerrillas. Her moves were...impressive. Batgirl had worked and trained with Dinah before. It looked as if she had learned some new tricks since then, though. Cass recognized some of the techniques... that one was definitely learned from Shiva... but could tell others were adaptations unique to the feisty vigilante now "kicking butt" in some steamy jungle. The terrorists were routed, either unconscious or fleeing into the protective camouflage of the forest.

"All right, O. I've done my part...you getting a reading?" Babs leaned forward tapping away rapidly at her keyboard.

"Good work, Dinah. Give me a second to bring the sensors online...got it!" She smiled triumphantly. "Ok, time to bring you home." Dinah seemed to know that Babs would have tapped into some sort of nearby surveillance equipment and she gave a theatrical bow and flourish.

"All in a day's work, my dear, all in a day's work." She emphasized her declaration with a very bad imitation of a British accent, then straightened and winked into mid air. Cass wondered about that for a moment, then realized that, though Canary may know Babs was watching, she wouldn't know where the camera was.

"All right, all right. Bravo, and all that. You want your plane tickets or not?"

"Do they come with a hot dinner, long bath, and a massage by an incredibly hot guy?" Babs rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I believe they come with an in-flight meal...you'll have to drum up your other requests on your own."

"Party-pooper." But she was smiling as she said it. "All right, see you later."

"Later, Dinah." Babs cut the connection and turned to another computer, entering commands and checking readouts. Once she was satisfied that no one else required Oracle's immediate attention, she wheeled her chair around to face her young friend. "So...?" She raised an eyebrow inquiringly, "What's new in your world?" Cass shifted uncomfortably, wondering how much Babs knew about Tim's disappearing act and whether or not she should confide in the older heroine. Even as she decided to keep quiet about the whole incident, she realized that her hesitation was giving her away.

"Nothing new. Boring stuff." She winced internally, knowing that she sounded too casual, and waited for the axe to drop.

"Mmm-hmmm." Barbara didn't seem convinced. "And so you wouldn't know anything at all about Robin?" Cass tried to affect an innocent look while stifling a groan. There was a reason that Oracle was "all-knowing, all-seeing"... she couldn't resist digging up new information. And that included gossip. Especially gossip. And should the gossip happen to be about one of the inner circle...one of her vigilantes...well, there wasn't a force on Earth that could stop her from ferreting out the truth.

"Robin?"

"Uh-huh. I overheard a very interesting conversation over the comm between him and Batman. You know anything about that?" her voice was overly innocent, smug, so Cass knew she had to tread carefully; Babs wasn't telling everything she knew and she was still digging for more information, so Cass needed to figure out how to keep whatever Babs didn't know yet a secret.

"No." That's it, Cass, short, sweet, and truthful. She pushed the treacherous voice away that said she wasn't being wholly honest...she didn't know about any comm call. She had left Tim in the cave, and that's all she knew. End of story. Except that Barbara the Interrogator knew her job and did it well. Having asked for information by way of referencing something Cass didn't know about, she had captured her interest and could now negotiate an exchange of information.

"Really?" Ooh, she was good. Now she was Shark Babs, circling in for the kill. Cass wasn't sure how Babs had connected her to Tim's dilema... maybe she was just that good, or, more likely, her name had somehow been dragged into that infamous call and now she would have to deal with Babs and Batman...but she could tell that Babs was confident enough in her sources to get the whole story out of her sooner or later. Probably sooner. She sighed and flopped down on the couch.

"What call?" Well, she didn't have to make it any easier on Babs...if she wanted to know about Tim, she would have to tell what had happened after Cass left the cave first! Babs smiled, knowing she had her victim firmly hooked.

"Well, I got a call from Batman asking for Robin's location...apparently he wasn't answering his comm." She waited, hoping Cass would comment but knowing that the younger girl had more self-control than that. She wouldn't break until she was ready. "So I pulled up the data and found his locator in your old cave!"

"So?" Babs swallowed a growl of frustration. She had to give Cass credit, she knew how to play the game almost as well as Babs herself. But Babs had been in the information gathering business a lot longer than Cass, so she was sure she would triumph eventually.

"So!? Cass, Tim was in your old cave! I know he didn't just happen to stumble across the cave and manage to get in all on his own! Come on, what's going on?" Cass just gave her a tiny smile.

"What did Batman say?" Babs glared at her.

"I asked you a question first!" She couldn't believe she was resorting to such childish methods, but she wasn't used to not being able to get whatever information she wanted. Cass just shrugged silently forcing Babs to sigh in resignation.

"Fine. Batman just told Robin to meet him at the old Barklay Ceramics factory. I don't know what they talked about after that, though I'm sure they did talk about something."

"Why?"

"It was..." she hesitated, trying to recall the incident and figure out what was going on on her own. "Batman's voice," she finally decided, "it wasn't right." Cass sat up straighter in concern.

"Imposter?"

"No, that's not what I meant," Babs smiled at the younger girl's obvious desire for a reason to get back into the costume early. "It was Bruce, I just... he just sounded off. Like something was wrong. And he was...angry. When he called for Robin's location he was angry at something, but I didn't really think it was directed at Tim. I did get the feeling that whatever deserved his ire was connected to Tim in some way, though. And since he was in your old hangout..." she trailed off, indicating that now it was Cass' turn to impart information.

"I..." Cass wouldn't meet Babs' eyes. "I don't think I can..." Babs frowned. She wanted to know what was going on. As Oracle she needed to keep her information updated to be able to help her field agents in dangerous situations. If this situation affected Tim's performance as Robin... but then she supposed that would be something Batman would have to deal with. As much as she needed that information she could understand Cass' reluctance to betray what was probably a trusting confidence.

"All right. I give... you don't have to tell me." Cass looked up in surprise mixed with a fear that she had angered her friend. But while Babs' body language portrayed frustration, there wasn't any animosity directed towards Cass. "Actually, I admire your discretion. It shows that you're trustworthy, which I'm sure Tim will appreciate, and in this business secrets are just part of every day life." Cass smiled, relieved to be off the hook.

"I..." she looked around, wondering what to talk about now that the whole gossip session had apparently ended. "Thanks for the books." She hoped that bringing the subject up wouldn't start Babs back on trying to teach her to read.

"No problem." A beeping and flashing light on one of her consoles caught Babs' attention and she turned back to the equipment, fully in Oracle mode. Cass smiled and sat back, deciding that if she couldn't be Batgirl tonight, at least she could watch the action here with Babs.


To be continued...