"There was a time I liked coming in here, you know." Bruce held his forehead as one of his elbows rested on an open bookcase. "Feels like the only reason left to come here is to try doing damage control on something else that's blown up in our face."
Stephanie sat on the same couch in Bruce's study Cassandra had, her hands clenched together and her eyes downward. "Am I—"
"No." The response was as gruff as it was fast. "You're not fired. Will all of you stop asking if you're fired? I've been over that with you once. Was it not obvious the first time?"
Stephanie shifted in her seat a little. "Uh, do you want me to answer that honestly?"
"All right, fine. Bad example." Bruce moved from his spot at the bookcase and began to pace. "I'm sorry, I'm on edge. Five children running around in power armor, no closer to finding out what Lipov's doing with his captives, Cassandra… I've been through worse, but I usually have some better leads by now. You chose a very poor time to pick a fight with a very influential radio personality."
"No, that's the thing," Stephanie said. "I think he's part of all this."
"I know you're upset about what Cassandra heard him say—"
"Bruce, I mean literally," Stephanie said. "I think he's literally working with Lipov and the Reapers."
Bruce stopped pacing next to a stern-looking bust of someone Stephanie did not recognize. The two initially shared the expression before Bruce's face turned in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"I didn't want to bring it up," Stephanie slipped her phone out of her pocket and shifted through. "At least not until I had all the proof I was looking for. But you wanna know why I did it, so I'll tell you." She paused and tapped the touchscreen. "Every time those Reaper guys attack some group of people and start kidnapping them? Gram's thrown a temper tantrum two days before."
Bruce's flinches were very innocuous, but Stephanie had gotten good enough to recognize them when they occurred. "This has happened consistently?"
"I paid for a membership to his website on my computer and favorited all the important rants in my app. Guess I'm glad you asked, because I feel like absolute trash marking all of these as 'favorites,' feels good to tell someone what was really going on." She handed the phone off to him when he held out his hand. "You gotta open the file to view the date. It's really unintuitive."
Without a word, Bruce scanned the items for their names and dates of release. His relaxed forehead wrinkled as she slowly took everything in. It was minutes of reading and rereading before he spoke again. "I'd need to check the exact dates of the corresponding crimes to know for sure… but just at a glance a correlation is possible."
"I was hoping if I confronted him I could get him to confess," Stephanie said. "Then maybe we'd have a lead for where Lipov and the others are hiding out and what they're doing with all those people they nabbed. But I couldn't get him to admit to anything."
After another flick through Stephanie's favorites list, Bruce turned to her. The two met eye to eye for the first time since she'd arrived. "Why didn't you tell me you were investigating this?"
"I was afraid you'd think it was a stupid idea." Stephanie broke eye contact and sighed. "Part of me still thinks this is a dumb conspiracy I just made up."
"Recognizing a connection where there may well be one isn't something to put yourself down about." Bruce handed her back the phone. "But you aren't equipped to handle this on your own right now. You and Tim don't even have a base. If you'd mentioned it to me sooner I could have helped you."
Stephanie looked to the corner and clutched one arm with the opposite hand. "I know. I know all of that… I'm sorry, Bruce. I'm just kind of used to you thinking all of my ideas are terrible."
Somehow, the glare Bruce fixed on her was both fierce and sympathetic. "I don't know what more you need to get out of that mindset. Is it something I'm doing? Some of your ideas aren't good, you know that, don't you?"
"Yes." It was a bitter pill for Stephanie to swallow. "I know compromising the Bunker was a bad idea. A bad, very expensive idea. And you would have pointed out every reason why and talked me out of it if I'd talked to you first."
"I'm not going to approve everything you bring to me, but I gave you that suit for a reason." Despite the firmness that remained in his voice, Bruce had certainly settled since they'd begun. "No more of these undercover investigations. At least not until you have a better reason than the one you just gave me."
For the first time since their discussion had begun, Stephanie let a little smile creep across her face. "Okay. I promise."
"I've been working on some new equipment that should help to neutralize the threat the Reapers currently pose," Bruce said. "I'm not in a position to tell you not to use them after you've overstepped your bounds, so try to make this the first step in regaining my trust."
"I will." Stephanie wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "Bruce, I… I've had to forgive you for a lot. Some stuff you deserved, some stuff you didn't. I know I can be the same way sometimes. I'm still so sorry about that."
"I appreciate you not putting yourself in a fight with another former Robin to get make that point this time," Bruce said. "Hopefully whatever Lipov is planning will be damaged if he doesn't have the Reapers at his disposal. He and that boy are formidable opponents, but they're not enough to pull off a kidnapping scheme."
"I'm looking forward to kicking those guys' butts again soon, so I hope you're almost finished."
The two sat in an almost satisfied silence for a minute before there came a buzz from a speaker installed in the corner. "Master Wayne," Alfred said. "You have an unexpected visitor."
Bruce frowned, stepped over to the speaker and pressed a button to respond. "Can you identify him from the camera at the gate?"
"No sir, that's not the issue. He slipped past the gate undetected."
A scowl of both anger and concern crossed Bruce's face. "Where is he?"
"Step aside." Together with the static came a slightly pained, disgruntled sound from Alfred as the second voice took over the speaker. "Let me in, Bruce. Someone's out to kill me, and if you don't protect me you're breaking your code."
The scowl shifted to fury in less than a second. "Alfred? Has he hurt you?"
"I don't need to bother with your butler, Bruce. Just tell him to let me inside."
"Don't move. I'll assess this myself." Bruce released his finger from the speaker and turned back toward Stephanie. "You don't need to see this."
"I'm coming along anyway." She pushed off the couch. "Knowing whatever any of us can will only improve the situation, right?"
"Be careful of that curiosity, it could backfire on you." Bruce stepped out of the study and head for the mansion's entrance. Stephanie followed a few steps behind.
When they came to the foyer, Bruce descended one of the two staircases to the front door. Alfred stood just to his left as he stood at the precipice. Stephanie remained at the top of the stairs and looked downward as he faced the man who stood just outside.
Stephanie didn't think she and David Cain had ever met formally, but she was sure he'd seen much better days. Even from her vantage point there were scabbed cuts across his face, one of his cheeks looked ballooned and purple and one of his eyes was blackened. He dressed in a torn peacoat and a ratty looking pair of slacks, as if he'd run in them through mud and rain.
"Evening, Bruce." Cain sneered as best he could with his battered face. "It's been a while."
Bruce glanced downward at the hands Cain held in his pockets. "What are you carrying, David?"
"Handgun. Really hoping that you'll let me inside so I won't have to use it."
"Is that a threat?"
"I'm not worried about you. I'm already a mess, you'd knock my teeth down my throat if I tried to attack you right now. Even assuming I could outmaneuver you, you got one of your protégés standing at the top of the staircase."
Stephanie double took. She didn't think he'd noticed her.
Cain tilted his head up. "Yeah, you. You're not so sneaky." He turned back toward Bruce. "She probably knows the setup of this place better than I do. She could slip away and alert the police, and that's just too much trouble for this old man tonight."
"Your former associate is looking for Cassandra as well. Why do you think you'll be safe here?"
"For God's sake, don't ask stupid questions. If he knew she was staying here, he'd have attacked this place already." Cain's forehead furrowed. "You remember when you were a punk kid on my doorstep, pleading me to teach you how to fight? Time to return the favor."
"You were just one of many."
"Maybe I should give Ducard a call, then we can all play catch up."
As if exhausted by Cain's insisting, Bruce slid the door open fully and motioned him to enter. Cain pulled off the peacoat and thrust it into Alfred's hands. "Hang that up."
The aging butler looked down at the garment in his hands, back up at Cain and dropped it on the other side of the door. "Terribly sorry, Mister Cain. The closets are all out of order."
Cain opened his mouth to respond, but Bruce stepped between him and Alfred. After a glare, he asked, "Cassandra here?"
"No," Bruce said. "I sent her out of town until his situation with Lipov passes."
"Until he kills me or I kill him, I suppose you mean. Then again, killing him didn't do me a lot of good the first time."
Bruce led him through the foyer. "You do have something I want." The two vanished from Stephanie's view into the parlor that sat between the staircases. "Tell me everything you know about Victor Lipov."
