11

BAD HISTORY

17 DAYS AFTER SURGERY

Bruce watched the video from his lenscam again. Though a brief encounter he wanted to remember every move the assassin had made. He was obviously augmented somehow and well trained. Likely Spetsnaz, Bruce thought. The Russian special operations unit was infamous for their brutal training and nearly impossible standards. Maybe a new metahuman unit attached to GRU? he wondered. Unlikely. GRU wouldn't do this on American soil. Over a hundred people are dead so far. While foreign intelligence services did operate in other countries, to have an assassin on a rampage of this degree would be too risky. The fallout could be war. Unless they're desperate enough to take that chance...

Bruce grunted, frustrated at the lack of data. He was generally good at filling in gaps in intelligence to form a relatively accurate theory, but was stumped here. He had looked for a connection between the victims, a common thread. Bulgakov had been a Soviet general that came up from Spetsnaz who defected to the United States right before the fall of the USSR. Bob and Julie Smith had both been geneticists at S.T.A.R Labs, but both were born and raised in America. No connection. The three men who had died at the hotel, Vasilev, Makarov, and Pavlov, had all defected from the Soviet Union within a year of the general. And all three were doctors. Possible connection. Many people defected around that time. Beals was an architect from Gotham. No connection. Except for the married couple and the three friends in New York none of the victims knew each other. Bruce wanted to read more on the files from the Russians, but the Soviet Union had lost many records during the fall, and many had simply not been transferred to the digital age. It was a puzzle with too many missing pieces.

Bruce decided to take a break and let his subconscious work. He moved on to his other issue: Jason Todd. After Bruce had fallen asleep again Jason had decided to leave the Cave and return to the East End. He felt trapped there and was uncomfortable. Alfred had given Jason a specially modified iPhone in case they needed to contact each other. There had been no contact either way. Alfred and Bruce had monitored the GPS signal to build a pattern of movement for Jason, but he had remained in the East End.

Bruce had gathered as much as he could on Jason from hospital records, school records, GCPD, and Child Protective Services. Jason was seventeen years old, the son of Eduardo Diaz and Sheila Todd, never married. Diaz had been born in Cuba, escaped to America with his mother and father at four years old, and raised in the East End. He'd dropped out as a junior in high school, gotten his GED, and joined the Marines where it was discovered he had a talent for electrical engineering. While in the service his mother had passed away from cancer. The father died a year later from heart attack. Diaz had a bright future in the Corps until a bar fight in Guam between his squad and some locals. A man had pulled a knife, and Diaz swung his pool cue in self defense, striking him in the neck and killing him. Diaz went on trial and because the knife was never found thanks to the victim's friends and he received a dishonorable discharge. Diaz returned to Gotham, and unable to find employment, he used his skills to commit robberies. He moved up in the criminal world, freelancing to groups who needed to get past security systems.

Sheila Todd had been born to a miner and his wife in a small town in Pennsylvania. Like Diaz she was an only child. According to the missing person's report her parents filed when she was fifteen her father had caught her holding hands with a boy he didn't like, causing a massive fight. She was gone the next morning. Hospital records showed that Sheila had several broken ribs and a collarbone throughout childhood, all attributed to falling while climbing trees. Bruce suspected abuse. Three years after Sheila left her mom shot her father before turning the gun on herself.

The first record of Sheila in Gotham was an arrest for solicitation at 16. A string of arrests after that painted a bleak story, one seen far too often in big cities. Bruce couldn't see how they met, but Jason was born when Sheila was 19, Diaz listed as the father. Records indicated they lived together for the next year, until Diaz was arrested and convicted of felony burglary. He went to prison and Jason remained with his mother for another year before she too was arrested and he was sent to his first foster home. Jason was transferred from foster home to foster home for the next five years. By his sixth year in the system Sheila had been released from jail and completed her court ordered rehab. After completing a parenting course required by the state she regained custody of Jason. Eduardo was released from prison shortly before Jason's ninth birthday. Diaz and Smith reconciled and moved in together.

Eduardo had found an honest job cleaning carpets for a friend's company, while Sheila had found work as a nighttime janitor in an office building. For over three years things remained the same while they both tried to live honest lives. After their fourth year together Eduardo had convinced Sheila to reconcile with her parents. It was then that she found out about the murder/suicide.

Sheila went into a depression and ended up back on heroin, with Diaz unaware. He found out after her dealer and several enforcers came to the family's apartment. Sheila owed a lot of money and had lost her job. Her dealer had wanted to sell her on the streets to make up, but Diaz had promised to come up with the cash plus interest. He called up his old contacts and found a job for a mystery man who needed to pull a heist for operational funds. That man was the long missing Harvey Dent. Diaz worked for six months for Harvey Dent, until he learned of Dent's plan to kill numerous cops, lawyers, and judges at Gotham's main courthouse.

Diaz had decided to inform the authorities, unaware his calls were being monitored by Dent's security. Diaz set up a meeting with a detective from the Major Crimes Unit. He never made it. On an anonymous tip his body was found two days later with two bullet holes in his forehead. Upon receiving the news from the GCPD Sheila collapsed to the floor and sobbed while Jason held her. Jason was twelve years old.

According to the intake report from Jason's next foster home his mother had told him that evening she was leaving to buy groceries. She never came back and Jason ended up back in the system. He ran away from his foster home and ended up on the streets, arrested a year later for solicitation to an undercover police officer. He spent six months in juvie before being sent to a group home. Six weeks after that the group home was busted for child prostitution from an anonymous tip. The sweet, elderly woman who ran the home had been pimping the kids out for over a year. Bruce remembered the case and it still enraged him. Jason had disappeared from the system after that, no arrest or CPS records.

Leslie had filled in the blanks from there. She told Bruce that Jason was known around the neighborhood, but nobody knew much about him. He had never joined any gangs, stopped selling his body and never sold any drugs. Nobody quite knew how he survived or where he slept. He would go to soup kitchens sometimes, and had received medical care at the clinic when needed. Every once in a while he would show up with cuts and bruises but wouldn't say where he got them. But Jason had built a reputation for being dangerous. It was known not to provoke a fight with him. He had been a regular at Ted Grant's gym since leaving his last group home. Once a gang leader had tried to get to a rival gang member who was staying overnight at the Thomas Wayne memorial clinic, which was a violation of a known East End code. The clinic was neutral ground for everyone. Jason had taken a metal cane and beaten the man and his two lieutenants as soon as they stepped through the door. Ironically all three ended up needing medical attention from the staff. There was no retaliation because the code had been violated.

Bruce sat back in his chair, staring at the main monitor, lost in thought. Jason had had it about as rough as he'd ever seen. But he had survived. He seemed to be smart and physically capable, but the kid was angry. Aimless. Obviously he was out for revenge against Harvey Dent. But Dent was smart and hired good help. Going against Dent was a suicide mission if you weren't fully prepared. Bruce set the thought aside and used the computer to call Alfred on his cell phone. He answered on the first ring.

"Yes, Master Bruce?"

"Get my wig out, lay out a suit," Bruce ordered. "I'm coming upstairs." Bruce's head had been shaved for the operation over three weeks ago. It would take awhile for it to grow back to it's regular length. Bruce had wigs prepared from his own hair for this very reason, knowing it was a very likely scenario. Always be prepared.

"Where are we going, sir?"

"The city. There's something I need to take care of."