Chapter 24

Alfred has an explanation for events of the past few days and the previous night

The owners of the gym take stock of events

The Batman shares information with Gordon and makes a suggestion

Sunday afternoon

'Look.'

Alfred sat at Bruce's usual seat at the desk in the basement, scrolling through the contact lens footage from the Batman's visit to the Pleasure Principle gym. When he got to the point he needed to, he slowed it right down. Sitting next to him, Bruce frowned, watching the tediously slow promo video – so slow it was like watching grass grow.

'What was that?' Bruce suddenly pointed to the screen.

'Let's see if I can go back.'

A few frames back was an image of Matty Rodriguez, with a smaller image of two men fighting superimposed on it.

'I never saw that.'

'You weren't meant to. There are loads of these, all the way through that film. Images of cops being shot, cops being attacked. And of this guy, getting damaged.'

'Subliminal images. That never occurred to me.'

'That's how she sensitized you to cops. That's why you couldn't stop yourself attacking Madison's partner.'

'So that's how she gets all those people to do what she wants. Video screens on every machine. And the seeds making it stronger.'

'And they go back, week after week, and get shown it all over again.'

Bruce stood up and paced, thinking.

'But the gym is trashed now. All of that evidence is destroyed.'

'You could ask Gordon if forensics found anything.'

'I don't think they know the connection. But it still doesn't tell us what she's planning.'

'But without the machines, she can't get her message out – can she? Does it matter what she's planning?'

'It might. We don't know the timescale. I assume the conditioning wears off, so she might have to go early.'

'Don't forget. They've got the seeds. You haven't.'

'I still might have to go back.'

'Well, that's for you to think about. Just don't look at any screens.' Alfred stood up. 'My work here is done.'

'And good work, too. Thank you.'

Alfred nodded. 'You're really getting the hang of this management lark, aren't you? Don't think I didn't notice what you were doing with that Jenna woman.'

'Sorry, did I not sound genuine enough for you?'

'You're all right. I'm just messing with you.'

'When aren't you?'

'Barrack room humour. You should know that by now.'

Bruce did know. Alfred was not very good at receiving compliments or thanks, not from Bruce, anyway. Alfred preferred the gruff, military, slap-on-the-shoulder way of expressing thanks. The British stiff upper lip, which could make him come across as grumpy sometimes. But he had his sensitive side, which only Bruce got to see.

Alfred set off to the elevator, and Bruce sat down to think, read back through his journal in case he had missed anything and draw mind maps and spider diagrams.

Monday

An apartment, in a block on the edge of the central business district

Allecto, Tiss and Megaera sat round a table, studying on their cells images of the wrecked gym. Not a machine left undamaged, not a screen unfractured.

'This can only be Cobblepot,' Allecto said. 'Someone has told him. Someone has spun him a line, and he has swallowed it, hook and sinker.'

'But who?' Tiss asked. 'Who actually knows anything, beyond the fact that we had a business arrangement with him?'

'Someone is starting to join the dots. Annoyingly.'

'Do you think it's the Batman?'

'I don't know.'

'He didn't do the one job we gave him. Rodriguez is still alive.'

'Shame. But Rodriguez knows nothing.'

'Unless someone identifies us. Then he can place me at the bar.'

Allecto and Tiss both turned their gaze on Megaera.

'Will she hold her nerve?' Allecto asked.

Megaera shook her head. 'This wasn't part of the plan. Martina getting arrested.'

'Bruce Wayne getting rescued by the police wasn't part of the plan,' Tiss said.

'She'll go to prison,' Megaera said quietly.

'Bruce Wayne, for reasons best known to himself, is paying for a brief for her. Quite a good one, from what I can find out,' Allecto said. 'If the brief doesn't manage to get her off on the grounds that she was coerced into what she did, then he will get the sentence reduced. The jury will see a vulnerable young woman, easily influenced by her elders. She'll be fine.'

'But it could still be years. She won't survive.'

'She still might give us up at the trial,' Tiss said. 'They'll ask her, or they will have traced her family tree.'

'There's always the risk the Wayne boy will remember my name. But I don't think so. I didn't register with him at all. But hopefully we will be long gone by the time he finds someone who does remember me,' Allecto said. 'We just need to hold firm. Otherwise – what was the point of all this? What would be the point of Martina's sacrifice?'

She reached out to pat Megaera's hand. Megaera kept her chin down, and didn't look at Allecto.

'I'm sorry,' Allecto said quietly. 'This is difficult for you, I know.'

'I need to see her.'

'You can't!' Tiss burst out. 'You can't phone her, either. You can't even ask her brief.'

'Why not? Why can't I speak to her brief? He won't know who I am.'

'He will, once you give him a message. Think about it. Oh, by the way, can you tell Martina her mother has been asking after her?'

'If I use my code name. . .?'

'Mercy, can we wait and see what happens?' Allecto asked. 'Afterwards, when all this is done, we'll work out how you can see her. Get you a false identity, and so on. I'm asking – please – just wait a bit longer.'

Sniffing tearfully, Megaera (or Mercy) nodded miserably.

'So, getting back to business, what are we going to do?' Tiss asked. 'Cobblepot's not going to go to the police.'

'But he will come after us. He will want his investment back, and the return he was promised. The gym was just a warning. I don't think we have long,' Allecto said. 'Plan B. We can still get the messages out on smartphones. We just need to decide a timetable.' She opened her laptop. 'Let's check the Blades fixtures.'

Monday, late afternoon

GCPD headquarters

Jim Gordon took off his spectacles and pinched the bridge of his nose. It had been a long day. He had always thought he had been a good detective, but he was struggling with the problem of the – what had he called them? – the neural seeds. Kadar Dash, the doctor they had arrested, had been less than helpful. He genuinely seemed to believe that the purpose of implanting the seeds was to aid concentration, to help people get on in their careers. But he had no knowledge of part two of the process, no real idea of who was paying him. And now they were having to manage his withdrawal from a massive cocaine habit. Gordon had set fraud officers off on the trail of the company name Dash had given them.

Then there was the incident at the Pleasure Principle gym. Vandalism, but on a vast scale. His senior leadership team were divided on how to respond: whether to treat it like a major incident, or whether to let local detectives deal with it. Nothing was reported stolen, as far as the management could tell, just a huge amount of damage. Louisa Mendoza had been to see for herself, and reported she had the feeling that it was somehow personal, but in a way she couldn't explain. Personal – but not the work of one person. She did not like the coincidence of the credible threat reported at the Iceberg Lounge on the same night as the attack on the gym. Unpicking that, if he gave the go-ahead, would take time and manpower. If, indeed, there was anything to unpick.

Just when he was thinking longingly of packing up and going home, of dinner and flaking out on the couch in front of something mindless on TV, the last thing he needed was to become aware of a dark shadow in the doorway of his office. Sighing, he gestured to the shadow to come in.

'You said office hours,' the Batman said.

'I did, didn't I?' But he had already done an hour of overtime. 'Do you have anything for me?'

Nothing too complicated, hopefully.

'Dash has been no help?'

'Correct. We can charge him in connection with the deaths and injury to the time-served prisoners, which wraps up those loose ends.'

'If you have his patient list, you can charge him with assault for all of them. The seeds are not licensed for use in humans.'

'Really? Why not?'

'They can be activated but not deactivated. They will eventually cause strokes.'

Gordon shook his head. 'Unbelievable. Like we don't have enough to deal with. And we are no further forward on finding out who employed him, who has set all this up.'

'Or why.'

'Do you think there is a why, beyond the stated aim of improving people's performance at work?'

'Yes. There is. She is using subliminal images to condition people. Through video screens on the gym equipment.'

Gordon raised his eyebrows. 'She. You said she. Who is this she?'

'Her family name is Crowne. With an e. That's all I know.'

Gordon pulled a pad towards him and scribbled a note. 'Crowne. With an e. Okay, that's more than we had. And do you know why she's doing this?'

'I'm guessing here. The Crowne family had a dispute with the Cobblepot family, lost their fortune and were driven out of Gotham.'

'Cobblepot. He's the guy at the Iceberg Lounge. Correct?'

'Correct.'

'So when did this happen? I don't remember hearing about this, but then the rich . . . but Cobblepot's not rich – is he?'

'Who knows? Nineteenth century.'

Gordon dropped his pen and leaned back heavily in his chair. 'So you're saying she's come back, this Crowne woman, to right a wrong that took place over a hundred years ago? Where does she think she is – Sicily?'

The Batman shrugged. 'She also seems to have a beef with Wayne BioTech, if she's behind the theft of the neural seeds.'

'Lord save us from feuding founder families! Got any intel on that one?'

'Like I said. I don't even have her name.'

Gordon sat back up and began writing. 'So we can link the Pleasure Principle gym to the Iceberg Lounge.'

'Get your financial people on the funding of the gym.'

'Good point. My Head of Major Crimes smelt a rat about this attack on the gym. Looks like she was right.'

'Get forensics in there, retrieve any videos from the machines. Analyze them. You might get the why from that.'

Gordon nodded slowly. 'Do you think something is coming?'

'Yes.'

'What if we don't work that out from the gym search?'

'She say anything – the young woman arrested at the site?'

'No. She's on remand at Blackgate Women's now, but she won't say anything. She just cries a lot. They put her on suicide watch. I don't think she even speaks to her brief.'

'Can I make a suggestion?'

'She definitely won't talk to you. You'll scare the bejesus out of her. If you don't mind me saying.'

The Batman inclined his head in acknowledgment. 'But she might talk to Bruce Wayne. They spent three days together. If he had any sense, he would have tried to build a relationship with her. He's a familiar face.'

Gordon gave a puzzled frown. 'And he's paying for her brief, for some strange reason. She might feel obligated. But will he do it?'

'Ask him. Might short-circuit the whole process. We need to know what the Crowne woman is planning.'

'Okay. Leave it with me.'

When Gordon looked up from writing his notes, the room was empty.