As Nightwing and Batman entered the building for the second night in a row, Nightwing made a mental note to check the computer systems of Vance Laboratories to try and find out what the Society of Shadows was looking for. He didn't get to speculate much past that, because they were greeted by two ninjas and a familiar woman fully-clad in leather. One of the ninjas ran straight for Nightwing, and without a moment's hesitation Dick flipped off of the wall and slammed his feet straight into the warrior's chest, sending the ninja reeling. A couple of well-placed punches to the ninja before he could recover and he was out cold. The other ninja trembled slightly as Batman simply gave him a cold stare, but held his ground. With an awe-inspiring leap, Batman spread his cape and practically flew in the direction of the ninja. The ninja ran toward Batman, but stumbled to the floor and gave a weak cry as Batman enveloped him in his cape. A few moments later, Batman released the ninja who was clearly unconcious.
"Talia. What a pleasant surprise," quipped Batman sarcastically. He seemed dissapointed.
Talia
was the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul, and aided him in many of his
nefarious plots. Her greatest weakness was probably the mutual
attraction that Bruce and Talia held, which saved Batman's life on
multiple occassions. She was easily one of his most dangerous foes
because Batman could never really tell where her loyalties lay or what
her true motives were, as her love for her father and Bruce often came
into conflict. This danger was compounded by the fact that Ra's Al Ghul
and Talia were aware of Batman's secret identity, and logically the
rest of the Bat-clan as well.
"Hello, Beloved," Talia said lightly. She didn't seem to be too willing to share any information.
"What are you doing here?" Batman queried.
"Father's business"
"What kind of business?" asked Nightwing
.
"Nothing
wrong, I assure you. Actually, its quite the reverse: Let's just say
that father is trying to correct previous mistakes"
"Then why does correcting previous mistakes involve the death of innocent men and women?" asked Batman harshly.
"Beloved, you do not understand! Father was not responsible for those attacks!" She drew up much closer to Batman, and gave him a sly stare. "I swear to you, I'm telling the truth. For your own sake, please stay out of this conflict"
Talia reached up and gave Batman a passionate kiss, and Batman seemed to instinctively embrace her and return the favor. Talia motioned to leave, and Batman did not stop her.
She whirled around and muttered, "Thank you." As she went through the door that led to the exit of the building, Nightwing began to try to follow her but Batman extended his arm in front of Dick, stopping him in mid-stride.
"Bruce, you're letting her get away"
"I believe her"
Talia whirled around and smiled at Batman. As soon as she was out of earshot, Nightwing glared angrily at Bruce.
"What was that for? Do you actually believe her"
"I planted a tracer on her," he calmly responded. "Hopefully, she'll lead us straight to Ra's Al Ghul where we can thwart whatever new scheme he's concocted"
Dick seemed considerably calmer, but he was still slightly miffed. While he should have been reassured by the tracer that Bruce planted, he had a sneaking suspicion that had the suspect been anyone else, Batman would not have let them go.
"Well, I've got the lead that I was looking for, and I've got a few other cases to work on so I'm returning to the Batcave. Need a ride?" Batman asked.
"No thanks. I think I'm going to spend some time on the Vance computer systems"
Nightwing quickly infiltrated the Tech division and cracked the password to Vance's primary database. If Vance Laboratories had something unique to offer or was involved in the strange business that had been occuring recently, it would be clearly apparent in their research schematics or budget readouts. He scanned the research schematics first, and even after cracking all of the hidden files there did not to seem to be anything that might be useful to a group like the Society of Shadows, so he checked the budget readouts. He finished scanning all of the files in the budget directory, and cracked the only hidden file that was present. After inspecting the hidden file, he noticed that Vance Laboratories recieved large payments from an unknown source on the same days that they "donated" large volumes of equipment such as vehicles and boat engines to an unidentified recipient.
After doing some more digging and cracking on the related project files, he found that the cash was coming from an individual named Enrique El Gancho, a man who was formerly accused of organizing one of the largest South American smuggling operations in the history of modern civilization. The charges were dropped when no connection was found between Enrique and the smuggling operations that had occurred. Nightwing figured that whatever the Society of Shadows wanted with Vance Laboratories started with Enrique El Gancho, and he resolved to find out what that was. Bruce had kept his own lead, so it was about time that Dick had his own.
