Chapter Nine

Showdown

"Think he'll show up?" Black Canary asked her partner.

The two of them sat side by side on the rooftop of the Byzantium Theatre, backs resting against the wall of the cupola, waiting for Batman to join them. He had telephoned that morning ordering — not asking — them to meet him here tonight.

"Unfortunately. Much as I'd like to keep him out of our business, he'll show," Green Arrow answered glumly. He got to his feet and walked to the edge of the roof to check out the nearby opera house clock. In a more spirited tone of voice he added, "I'm sorely tempted to go on down there and have a look around that theatre myself. What?" he asked, at a look from Dinah. "I just said I was tempted, not that I'm going."

He still felt a bit like he was treading on thin ice with her. The fight they'd had last night had turned into a bad one, in spite of its essentially trivial beginnings. They had gone to bed angry, and slept as far apart as the confines of the double bed would allow. And though they'd patched up their differences this morning, something was indefinably different. From the moment Dinah had found the courage to put on that costume, their dynamic had changed.

It had been a long time since they'd worked together, and Oliver had forgotten how different it was from the routine they shared in their daily life. It had taken him several years before he'd finally got used to her being more of a wife than a playmate, and now it looked as if things might possibly be going back to the way they used to be. Whether the Canary's return was permanent or not, there would inevitably be repercussions and Ollie was, typically, trying to avoid thinking about those.

Think about the case. That usually worked. "What exactly did Bat Boy say when he called?" he asked, not for the first time.

Dinah answered patiently, "He said things are progressing, and to meet him here at 1 a.m. And then he hung up."

Green Arrow took his place beside her once more. "Sounds like he's just as bad on the telephone as he is in person."

"Mm. I just want to know what he meant by 'progressing'. Has there been a break in the case or not?" she fretted.

"Well, whatever he knows, you can be damn sure he's planning on keeping it to himself till the very last second."

"Says the man who never mentioned being implicated in wounding Johnny, and questioned by the police," said a deep voice, seemingly out of nowhere. He'd managed to sneak up on them again, but somehow neither of them was very surprised.

Green Arrow jumped to his feet. "Hey, pointy ears," he greeted Batman in a surprisingly affable tone. "You're late."

Batman glanced at the opera house clock, whose hands proclaimed it to be just under a quarter past one. "That clock is always fifteen minutes fast," he said.

Black Canary was in no mood for a replay of their previous meeting, no matter how friendly the banter seemed to be. "What did you mean by 'progressing'?" she demanded of Batman.

"The D.A. agreed to offer Johnny G. a deal in exchange for what he knows about Young's activities, and the police have issued a warrant for his arrest."

His companions exchanged a glance. The news was better than they had hoped, and Dinah fought to contain her enthusiasm. Obviously if they'd found him, Batman would have said so.

Green Arrow was thinking along the same lines. "Maybe we'll get lucky and find him before they do," he said, with a dangerous smile.

"Maybe," Batman agreed. "But remember what I said before about excessive force. You —"

"Yeah, I remember. You're the only one allowed to go postal on bad guys. I'll try to keep that in mind."

The Dark Knight ignored the taunt. "You're lucky no one took Johnny seriously when he said you were the one who shot him with an arrow," he said.

The other man opened his mouth to make a retort but a look from Black Canary silenced him. Giving her his best 'I'm a good boy...honest' look, he inquired mildly, "So, what's the game plan?"

Batman seemed gratified. "This theatre has a hidden room that's been out of use for years. I'd be willing to bet Young knows all about it."

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The Byzantium had been built in the late nineteenth century, and remodeled extensively during the 1920's, just before the Depression. Countless establishments, following the fad of the Victorian era, had been built with hidden rooms and secret passageways, but few still existed intact. The area tucked between the prop rooms and the east wall of the theatre had escaped destruction during the big renovation, but over the last few decades it had fallen into disuse and been largely forgotten.

Young's latest production was not slated to open for another few weeks. The evening's rehearsal had ended several hours ago and the theatre was now utterly deserted, making this the perfect time for a little illicit prowling.

The three crimefighters made their way through the darkened theatre, conscious of the faint sound of their own footsteps, the only noise in the cavernous building. Followed by the others, Batman headed backstage and made his way to the back wall of the furniture storage room. He felt along the wall where it joined the exterior of the building, fingers groping confidently for a depression or lever of some sort. Finding the hidden catch, he pressed it and watched as the doorway slid open. His penlight illuminated an incredibly narrow hallway.

The trio made their way inside, single file in the confined space. There were two rooms, only slightly less cramped, opening off the hall. One held a desk with a fairly recent computer system, the longer one, running parallel to the hallway, was crowded with several filing cabinets. The cramped chambers had a stifling, airless feeling, but they were relatively free of dust.

Without a word, Batman turned on the computer and began a search of its files. Green Arrow preferred doing things the old fashioned way, and he and Black Canary perused the contents of the filing cabinets by flashlight. After a few minutes, he let out a low whistle.

"Gotcha," he said with a triumphant little chuckle. "We have got you by the balls this time, sucker. Check this out, baby!"

His girlfriend moved over to take a look at the file he held. "Yes! Very nice," she said approvingly.

"I aim to please," he replied with a grin. "You find anything yet?"

She'd been searching the cabinet with the oldest collection of files, some with papers dating back decades. "Nothing incriminating about our friend Young, per se, but the name Ballard sure crops up a lot in the old papers. Some of this stuff must have been what Mom was working from."

"Good girl. You got anything, Bats?"

A grunt was the only reply from the adjoining room, but their colleague seemed pleased by whatever he was looking at. They exchanged amused glances before returning to their snooping.

The three had been at their work for some time when Batman looked up from the flickering screen, expression suddenly alert. He reached out a finger and hit the power switch on the computer. The crimefighter crossed the room in rapid silence, but there was no need to check. The sound he'd half-heard a second ago was the hidden door sliding open. Two voices, one of them Young's, were now clearly audible in the narrow passage.

Green Arrow swore under his breath and shoved the top drawer closed as slowly as he dared, trying to make as little noise as possible. There was no need to advertise their presence any sooner than necessary.

"This way," Batman whispered urgently from the connecting door. He had his hand on the panel that opened the trapdoor into the prop room, waiting for his confederates. He slipped through the dark opening and disappeared from sight, followed quickly by Green Arrow.

As Black Canary was about to follow, she heard the voices just outside. The door started to open. Realising she wasn't going to have time to make it, she touched the panel she'd seen Batman activate earlier, then scrambled down and squeezed herself into the niche between the connecting door and the nearest filing cabinet.

->>> ————————>

With an almost inaudible click, the trapdoor slid shut behind the two men. There was no light at all inside the prop room, and only the faintest noise of muffled conversation from the space they'd just left. Batman realised what must have happened before his companion did. He risked the penlight, inspecting their surroundings in the light of its thin, focused beam.

Green Arrow brushed a stray spider web off his hood and looked around. The grin froze on his face for a second, then disappeared completely as he realised with a shock of horror that the two of them were alone in the prop room. Dinah hadn't made it out.

The archer made an involuntary lunge for the trapdoor, then stopped himself. He stood, breathing hard, fighting an almost desperate urge to go back in after her. Batman eyed him warily, not sure what the man might do or even if he should try to stop him if he tried something reckless. Their eyes met and the two men stared at one another for a long moment, then Green Arrow shook his head.

Numbly, he followed Batman out of the blackness of the prop room into the relative illumination of the backstage area. The oversized warehouse door at the back of the theatre had been left partially open, showing a gap of two or three feet. Young's car, an unassuming black Packard, was parked outside near the door.

"She'll be all right," Batman told the other man quietly. "She had to have been the one who shut the door. More than likely she'll have had time to hide."

Oliver stared into the murky interior of the building, anguish written on his face. "And what if they find her?" he responded, just as quietly.

"Unless I'm completely wrong in my estimation of her," Batman said confidently, "she'll still be fine."

Green Arrow nodded, seemingly in agreement. Abruptly, he slammed his fist into the palm of his other hand violently, then his shoulders sagged and he let his arms hang down at his sides. He appeared limp all over, but the impression was deceptive. Batman noticed that his hands were still clenched into tight fists.

Every nerve in Oliver Queen's body was screaming at him to go in and rescue her. His mind was barely managing to override the impulse, telling him he could only make things worse by charging in.

And even if he didn't screw things up, she'd never forgive him. A large part of their battle last night concerned her belief that he didn't trust her to take care of herself anymore, or maybe he never had. He could still hear their angry words in his head.

"All I said was you're out of practice. I remember how good you used to be, but you're not used to the streets anymore. You need somebody to watch your back."

"Oh, yeah. Defenseless little females always do, right?" Dinah answered bitterly. "We all need a big strong man around to protect us. That's what it all boils down to, isn't it? You have to treat me like some damn porcelain doll because you don't trust me to take care of myself."

"Nooo way, lady. This has nothin' to do with me not trusting you — I think this is all about you not trusting yourself. You're afraid you're not up to it anymore, and you're using me as a scapegoat."

It was admittedly a low blow, but the truth was he did trust her...didn't he? And although it was the last thing he wanted to do, this was the moment he had to prove it to them both.

Only...he wasn't used to having to worry about her anymore.

———————— -

In actuality they spent less than ten minutes waiting in the sweltering alley, but to Oliver's anxious mind it felt like an eternity.

At length the sound of footsteps was heard from inside the building. Whoever it was was walking at a normal pace, making no attempt at stealth. Good. More than likely that meant Dinah hadn't been discovered, because if they'd found her their natural assumption would be that she probably wasn't alone, and they would have come looking.

Green Arrow brought his bow forward the instant the sound reached his ears, grabbing an arrow from his quiver. Batman threw his cape back and flattened himself against the wall next to the open door.

It wasn't their target. It was a younger man, dark haired and good-looking in a vacuous sort of way, completely unlike the usual gangster flunkies in appearance, but he might have had the word "henchman" stamped on his forehead all the same. He didn't utter a sound as Batman looped a muscular arm around his throat, rendering him unconscious. A second man joined him on the ground soon after.

Cary Young strolled out of the building a moment later, slowly flipping through the pages of a thick file folder. The sight of it came close to panicking Green Arrow. What if he'd gone into the second room? That was the only possible place Black Canary could have found to hide, and there certainly wasn't much cover in there. Batman, who was less personally involved, was calm enough to realise the file was more than likely the one he'd spotted inside the desk and hadn't had time to give more than a cursory glance while checking the computer files.

The producer was considerably startled to find himself facing the business end of a very nasty looking arrow.

"You've reached the end of the line, mister," the hooded figure holding the weapon said to him.

Young looked around frantically, taking note of his bodyguards lying incapacitated on the ground. The two costumed men looked like they meant business. His voice steady, he tried to finesse his way out of the situation.

"Hey. Guys," he said agreeably. He closed the folder, careful not to make any sudden moves, and held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "I think you boys have the wrong idea. I don't know why you're after me, but I can assure you, there's been some mistake. I'm strictly legit."

His peripheral vision caught a glimpse of movement from one of his men. If he could just keep their attention until his associates woke up he might have a chance, he thought.

"Like hell you are," growled the guy with the arrow aimed at his skull.

Young took an involuntary step backwards, and saw the finger tighten on the bowstring. He looked at Batman in supplication. It was widely rumoured among the Gotham underworld that the Dark Knight didn't kill, but he couldn't be quite sure about this guy. At this moment he looked capable of anything, and besides, look what he'd done to Johnny. He was finally starting to understand what his underling had been so afraid of.

"Seriously. I'm strictly a legitimate businessman. Anything else you might have heard is just rumours. Professional jealousy. I've made a few enemies here and there, and they spread all kinds of stories about me. You know the kind of thing a gay man has to put up with."

Which would normally be exactly the right tactic to use with a liberal like Ollie, but he wasn't buying it. Not from this sleaze. "You're some piece of work, you know that?" he told the gangster, shaking his head in disgust. He hated having his deeply held beliefs used against him, even inadvertently.

"That doesn't make you guilty or innocent," Batman interjected.

Thanks to the debate, the delaying tactic was working. The dark-haired young man was climbing to his feet slowly, shaking his head woozily. Given the threat against his boss, the crimefighters figured the situation was under control and neither made a move in his direction, though Batman was careful to keep the young man in his line of vision.

"What makes you guilty," Green Arrow took up the refrain, "is ordering some flunky to kill a sick woman you never even met. Somebody who never did a thing to you personally."

Cary Young looked him straight in the eye. "I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," he replied smoothly.

"Liar!" cried a feminine voice from inside the theatre.

Before Young had time to even look around, he felt something small and hard hit him in the back with considerable force, propelling him violently to the ground and knocking the breath out of him. Papers spilled in all directions as the folder he was carrying hit the pavement. He landed on his knees in front of Green Arrow, who was looking at the spot where Young had been standing a second earlier with a huge smile on his face.

The gangster turned to see what sort of fury had just attacked him. Strong for her size, Black Canary grabbed hold of his lapel and yanked him to his feet. "You lying S.O.B.!" she shouted.

He made the mistake of giving her an unctuous sort of smile, preparatory to launching into his 'this is all a big misunderstanding' speech, and she smashed the heel of her hand against his nose. Young covered his bleeding nose with both his hands and stared at the little spitfire in shock.

"Bitch," he spat, and went for her.

Thanks to his background with Ballard's people he was a much better fighter than most soft, middle-aged theatrical producers would have been. He was a few inches taller than his opponent and considerably heavier, although that shouldn't have weighed greatly in his favour in facing a trained martial artist. He was a dirty fighter, but Dinah knew all the tricks of the street. Even out of practice she should have wiped the floor with him.

But her anger was getting the better of her. Blinded by her own fury, for a moment she seemed in real danger of losing until her training reasserted itself and she regained some control over her emotions.

"Let her," ordered Green Arrow, when Batman moved to intercede. His eyes never left the combatants, and he covered the fight closely, bow at full draw. The Dark Knight watched him through narrowed eyes and realised he was starting to actually like the guy.

Unknown to the crimefighters, another of Young's men was at that moment completing his own inspection of the property. He rounded the corner and gave a muffled shout as he saw what was going on. Some sort of costumed female was engaging the boss in hand to hand combat, while Batman just stood and watched. He launched himself at the Dark Knight, and the two men went down together.

He was no match for Batman, who quickly had him on his feet, administering a pummeling he was going to remember for quite some time.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Young's dark-haired lackey decided he was recovered enough to join the fray. Stumbling only slightly, he headed toward Black Canary, hand reaching for the gun under his coat. The man shrieked in pain as an arrow went through his arm.

Batman growled in irritation. "I warned you before..." he said, landing a punch on the latecomer's jaw, "...about the use of excessive..." He delivered a left hook to the head. "...violence!" he finished up, grabbing the man's lapels and flinging him, barely conscious, onto his hysterical colleague.

With one final high kick to the chin, Cary Young went down. Black Canary stumbled over to her friends in triumph.

"My hero," Ollie said proudly, holding her by the shoulders. He grinned down at her.

"Heroine, if you don't mind!" she corrected him with a shaky laugh.

"You know that Bats is going the get all the credit, don't you?" he pointed out. Even now Batman was bundling up Young and his cohorts for the police.

Black Canary nodded. "I know," she said, finding she didn't really mind all that much. "But everybody here knows what really happened."