Chapter 4 – Inque's Discovery
"Will she be all right? That was a lot of solvent," Inque heard someone – Batman, she thought – say.
An older, somewhat familiar voice answered, "She will recover. Now tell me what exactly have you been doing, Terry McGinnis."
Terry McGinnis. Inque stayed very still, pretending to be unconscious. Perhaps she could learn more. She was lying on something soft – a bed or a long couch. She sensed three separate presences in the room – one standing somewhat protectively over her, the other two close together, a few metres away.
"You know very well the kind of damage she has done, and likely will do," the old man's voice continued. "You should have captured her. At least you brought her here." Inque bristled but kept up her pretence. She knew who he was now.
"She saved my life," Terry retorted.
"There is more to it," Bruce Wayne insisted. "You –"
Inque decided that she had heard enough. She stirred, making the movement as obvious as possible. The third presence made itself known. A dog growled. Startled, Inque opened her eyes and sat bolt upright. Terry had just put his mask back on.
She ignored him for the moment and looked around. She was in a small bedroom. Wayne Manor, then. A black dog stood beside Bruce Wayne, hackles raised.
Batman – whom she now secretly knew as Terry – stared at her as if he had never seen her before. He was wondering how much she had heard, probably. Then she thought of what Bruce Wayne had said. She had best be off.
"Why, Mr. Wayne," she said, in a way that was taunting but not enough so to be challenged, "thank you for saving my life. Excuse me, but I have some things to attend to." She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up.
The dog pounced. Reacting out of pure instinct, she morphed, shooting out of the shut window in an alarmed arch of black, shattering the glass. She took off across the grounds, slipped through the gate and made for the city.
Terry ran to the window when Inque suddenly crashed through it to get away from Ace. He had seen Bruce's slight gesture. He had sicced the dog on her. "Inque!" he shouted, to no avail. She was already out of the manor grounds. She had heard the part about capturing her. He was certain now.
"What did you do that for?" he snapped as Ace settled back into a crouch at Wayne's feet.
"You stood there and let her get away," Bruce Wayne chastised him in a low, angry voice.
Terry made an impatient sound. Bruce till held that his duty was to help capture all criminals, whatever he felt for them. He tried not to think about Melanie. He had no idea what he felt towards her anymore. "I'm going home," he said. "We can talk about it tomorrow."
Inque slipped into an office building. Being late at night, there were no staff around, except one. He was typing away furiously at his computer. On a deadline. Nevertheless, Inque approached from behind and whacked the guy over the head. He crumpled. She took over the computer.
"Let's see," she muttered to herself. Her fingers flew nimbly over the keyboard, typing in "T-E-R-R-Y M-C-G-I-N-N-I-S" into the search engine. There were only two hits. The first hit was a high school enrolment list. High school? Inque thought. She selected that one.
The page was a list. She selected his name. It took her to another page. The page told her that Terry McGinnis was seventeen, and a senior at Hamilton High. There were his address and contact details as well. There was no photo, though.
"Let's see …" She returned to the search results page and selected the second one. The online diary. She read the entry. After a few paragraphs about school grades and cheerleading, she found what she was looking for. "Another thing messing me up is my boyfriend. Hs name is Terry McGinnis, and he never seems to have time for me anymore … ever since … well, ever since he started working for this Bruce Wayne person. He's busy almost every night, and his excuses are getting lame … and I don't see much of him in school … I wonder if he's seeing someone else …" Bingo. There was mention of Bruce Wayne.
Inque checked the author's profile. The diary belonged to Dana Tan, a student of Hamilton High. There was a photo. Dana was a pretty Asian-American girl with shoulder-length black hair. Very pretty. Inque sniffed irritably, then checked herself. She closed the window and cleared the history before leaving.
When Terry got home, the house was dark except for a light on in his mother's room. He tried to sneak past, but Mary McGinnis, who was sitting on her bed reading, happened to look up, and caught him.
"Terry, you're home," she said with a slight smile. "A strange woman came looking for you earlier. She was pretty, and dressed in black clothes with blue swirls over them. Her hair was the same. And she had on some kind of coloured make-up that made her skin look pale blue. Do you know her? She didn't give her name."
Terry froze. That sounded too much like Inque. "Yes, I know her," he replied slowly.
"Who is she?" his mother pressed him.
"Someone from school … she likes to do unusual things," he lied. "I'm tired, Mother. Mr. Wayne had a lot for me to do today."
Mary smiled understandingly and released him. He hurried to his room, took a shower, and collapsed on the bed. Inque knew who he was. He was tired, though, and soon fell into a troubled , restless sleep.