Batman sat at a chair before his massive supercomputer and marshalled his thoughts. He had before him a list of all the known facts of this case, such as they were. The Batcomputer was among the most powerful machines on the planet, surpassed only by the Justice League's main computer, but even it could not make sense of things.
One: Someone was poisoning the narcotics in Gotham City. Two: they used a so far unique neurotoxin which killed the victim in a spasm of agony, lasting between fifteen and twenty five seconds. Three: The bodies displayed no signs which might link them to a known Rogue (i.e no smiles, no terror, etc). Four, the poison was estimated to have reached approximately thirty percent of the drugs in Gotham, a percentage which seemed to be rising. Five: All major criminal bodies seemed to be equally affected.
Reaching for the keyboard, he called up a report that Oracle had made on Robin and Azrael's findings on the pier. They had discovered a small boat unloading a cargo of premium grade cocaine from South America. After a brief battle with the crew, they had called in the GCPD to inspect the cargo. Surprisingly, approximately thirty percent of the cocaine had already been tainted with the neurotoxin. The police believed that the drugs had been tainted not at their port of origin, but at some time in the last forty eight hours, while the ship was in international waters. This dramatically altered the case. Interpol, the Coast Guard and the FBI had all come to Gotham and the pressure for a solution was mounting.
Batman called up a different file, one containing a list of still-viable theories and routes of inquiry. The list was narrowing, as new facts rendered some theories obsolete, but he still felt no closer to a solution than he had been a week ago. He decided to look over the current list and see what ideas that sparked. There wasn't much to see, only four items.
'One- Killings are the work of a non-criminal who seeks to eliminate drug users from the city.' That could still very well be the case- last year in Central City an Episcopalian preacher had killed sixteen drug dealers before the Flash had caught him. However, Flash had stumbled across the arrest while the killer had been trying to dispose of a body- it had been pure luck. Batman knew that, in a city the size of Gotham, a killer working with care and discretion could evade capture indefinitely. Since this theory provided him with no possible actions other than watching and waiting, he mentally dismissed it.
'Two- Ra's Al Ghul is using Gotham to test some new scheme. Given the Demon's Head and his genocidal plans, this was a perfectly viable hypothesis. The League Of Assasins had as it's goal nothing less than the cleansing of the world; he doubted they would balk at killing a few dozen individuals. But, at the same time, it didn't seem to fit. Why target so small a percentage of the population, when it would be just as simple to strike the city as a whole? It made no sense, and unlike most of his enemies, Ra's could be depended upon to be coldly logical. Reluctantly, he erased this from the list.
'Three- One of the Rogues' That hadn't panned out so far; neither Poison Ivy nor the Joker had proven to be involved. Of all the Rogues, they were the ones most likely to be behind such as scheme- the random killings would appeal to the clown, the chance to avenge the forests to Ivy. But the Joker had denied involvement, and normally the clown boasted of his crimes. Ivy had likewise proven innocent. That left Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter, and neither of them gravitated towards this sort of mass killing. The Hatter generally focused on either controlling people or reenacting Alice In Wonderland, while the Scarecrow preferred to frighten not kill. All of which meant that, unless there was someone new in town, this too was unlikely.
'Four-Killings are unrelated to Gotham, but rather originate in South America. Perhaps one cartel is tainting the products of another'. That might account for such drugs as cocaine, heroin, and other imported drugs, but it left no explanation for the deaths related to locally made narcotics. Batman discounted this theory as well.
Batman frowned as he gazed at the screen. So far, all his best theories seemed unlikely or unsolvable. He was right back where he started from, with no theories or leads. He knew the answer was there, he could FEEL it, but it continued to elude him. Unbidden, a memory popped into his mind, one from his first training trip.
It had been during the latter part of his training, when he had finished honing his body and had begun to focus on his mind. He'd started in London, learning the fine art of investigation from a variety of teachers- mainly former members of Scotland Yard and MI-6. One of his teachers had been a former intelligence analyst by the name of Sir Thomas Strande and it was him that Bruce thought of now. Sir Thomas had been a short, stout man, then in his late fifties, who had left MI-6 when he felt they were getting to soft on the Russians. The old man had been a fanatic Cold Warrior, and had spent several decades defending the West in a shadow war that most people had never heard about. For thirty years he and his opposite in the Kremlin had dueled in the streets of dozens of cities- agents had killed, kidnapped, blackmailed and spied on one another- until the slow end of the Cold War sent them both into retirement.
At the time that Bruce met him, Sir Thomas spent most of his days in his garden. Contrary to the popular stereotype, the old spymaster had no interest in flowers- indeed, he referred to roses as being good compost- but rather spent his days tending his prize-winning vegetables. Yet the old mind remained as knowledgeable and deceptive as ever, and it was for this reason Bruce that had chosen to learn the art of counter-intelligence from Sir Thomas.
One evening, early on in their studies, Bruce had asked the old man how one could deduce the enemies plan in order to counteract it. Sir Thomas had taken a large pull from his pipe, and leaned back in his leather chair before responding. "There are many ways to sniff out your enemies intentions, Bruce m'boy. You can tail his agents, or try to intercept his communiqués. But the easiest way to guess a plan is to observe the situation and simply assume that the plan is working. Then, you work backwards from there"
Batman shook his head and brought himself back to the present. 'The simplest way to guess a plan is to assume that it's already working'. With a scowl, the Dark Knight realized that he hadn't really LOOKED at what was happening in Gotham- he'd been too focused on the killings to see the overall effect. Batman rose from his chair and headed for the Batmobile. It was time to see what was happening in his city. As he moved, he triggered his OraCom and told Oracle to have Robin meet him in Crime Alley as soon as possible. He needed someone who would follow orders without question (thus eliminating Nightwing and Azrael) but who had enough experience to act on their own initiative (which eliminated Batgirl). That left Tim.
A half an hour later, Batman and Robin stood on a rooftop in the middle of Gotham's infamous Crime Alley. Batman was briefing his partner about their goal- to observe the city and determine what effect, if any, the killings had had on the populace at large. Robin stood, shivering in the bitter cold of the winter night, as his mentor instructed him to keep his eyes open, and to note everything and anything that seemed out of the ordinary. When the instructions were completed, the Boy Wonder voiced a question that had been bothering him the whole time.
"Why here?" he asked "I mean, I know this is a hotspot for criminals, but it isn't the drug center of Gotham anymore"
Batman almost felt like smiling at that- he knew what his partner really wanted to ask, and respected Tim's discipline and judgement in NOT asking. Every member of the BatClan knew that Batman- Bruce- was tremendously uncomfortable in Crime Alley, the site of his parents murder. He patrolled there with the same assiduousness that he did everywhere, but it was hardly a place he liked to be. Why, then, did he want to start the search there, when there were at least as many dealers in, say, Chinatown? Dick would have asked- not directly but he would have asked. Discretion and subtlety had never been Dick's strong points.
"Regardless of where the drugs are" he said in a neutral tone "This is where most of the deaths have occurred. More than fifty five percent of the victims identified so far came from Crime Alley, so here is where we begin our search. Now, let's go." With that, the Dark Knight fired off his grapple and swung away. A moment later, his partner followed him, as they began to search for some clue as to the enemy's plan.
