Oracle and the Network
6.0 Reformatting
The apartments in Metropolis were set up with the usual Oracle methods, with money moving through numbered accounts and foreign banks. Not that Babs was doing anything illegal leasing suites for her agents, but she didn't want anyone tracing the money back to her. Charlie and Cassandra were both staying with Babs in her base, but Zinda and Helena both needed their own places.
Near Suicide Slum Oracle bought out a abandoned building, and through various cut-outs was having renovated. It would be a combination second headquarters and jumping off point for operations in that part of town, especially if they set out to seriously clean up the crime there. It wasn't as bad as Gotham's Crime Alley, but it sure as heck wasn't good.
Cassandra Cain entered the room near silently, watching as Babs worked, data flowing across multiple screens. "Cross check data on Cameron Chase," Babs murmured, "collate files on Global Peace Agency." Noticing Cass has arrived Babs smiled wryly as she ordered, "Oracle, save and quit search. Stand-by mode."
"You call the computer Oracle?" Cass asked as Babs rolled out of the computer lab, the two walking into the kitchen then out to the living room.
"Sort of," Babs answered, "I refer to the new AI as Oracle, so that it learns to respond to it in low level usage."
"Like when the AI is giving information to super heroes," Cass nodded thoughtfully.
"I'm not entirely certain I like using a AI to field some Oracle calls," Babs admitted as she opened up as single serve orange juice and drank it, "but the volume is getting so much I needed to do something."
"Hmm," Cass nodded slightly.
Barbara looked up at her seriously, "Are you all right with being my escort today? I don't expect trouble but..."
"It's fine," Cass smiled slightly.
The final arrangements for the meeting were made a few days ago, and now it was nearly time. Cass and Babs left the headquarters and went to a local Italian resturant, one that Babs had discovered when they had first moved to Metropolis. They settled into a corner table and ordered, then patiently waited for their guest.
She arrived like any secret agent would arrive, quietly and covertly. Her hair was brown this week, cut in a pageboy style, but she had kept her face mostly the same except for hiding the cybernetic eye. Sasha Bordeaux pulled out the chair and sat, smiling coolly.
"You didn't need the bodyguard," Sasha nodded respectfully towards Cass.
Cass looked around her calmly, "And you didn't need the four... make that five agents, ma'am."
Barbara raised her eyebrows, "I thought you wanted this private?"
"You can never be too careful," Sasha said, smiling faintly. She made a small gesture and her people quietly filed out, moving so that it looked like they were leaving on their own. "So," she said, "you called, I came."
"And thank you for that," Barbara said.
Cass somewhat tuned out the next bits of the conversation, listening with half her attention as Oracle explained her Network concept and how it could benefit Checkmate to participate. Instead Cass focused on the people around them, 'reading' their stances and movements.
"We're being observed," Cass murmured to Barbara quietly, "a table near the window. I don't recognize her."
Barbara covertly looked as she ate a bit of pasta, "Not someone I know." She looked over at Sasha, "She's at your back. Can you see her in a reflection?"
Sasha shifted her gaze, catching a reflection in the counter. "Damn it," she muttered softly.
"What?" Babs asked flatly.
"She's White Side Checkmate," Sasha said flatly, "I assume she's tailing me on his own initiative, I don't see Mr. Teriffic authorizing my being followed."
"Lovely," Babs said sourly. "How do you want to handle this?"
"May I?" Cass asked.
Sasha hesitated as she looked over at Cass in her seat beside Babs' wheelchair. "You aren't going to kill her, are you?" she asked.
"No," Cass shook her head, "I won't even hurt her."
"Go," Babs nodded.
Gracefully Cass got up and walked across the cafe, then calmly sat across for the agent, a woman who looked visibly alarmed. "Yes," Cass said calmly, "you were spotted."
"Oh crap," the woman moved to reach for something under her jacket.
"Don't," Cass cautioned her, "from this position I can disarm you seven different ways. Five do serious harm, and at least one results in you eating through a straw."
The woman paled more, if that was possible. "I am so fucked," she sighed.
"Who are you?" Cass asked her coolly as she waved down a waitress, "And why are you following Sasha Bordeau?"
"I...," the woman started as the waitress dropped off two menus.
The lady studied Cass, and Cass studied her back. It was as if it was written on her face that the woman knew she would have to talk, either here or back at Checkmate. Moreover she hoped a fellow low level operative might reveal things to her, if they did talk.
"I can't tell you who I am, but I go by Eve Winter," Eve said after a moment. She frowned, "My immediate superior was Katrina Armstrong, who was investigating Barbara Gordon before she disappeared. I want to find out what happened to her."
Back at their table Barbara and Sasha were listening in via the microphone Cass was wearing on her shirt collar. "I should have expected this," Sasha admitted with a frown, "Kat was always good as building loyalty with her teams."
"I was wondering where Katrina was myself," Babs admitted with some frustration, "I've been looking for her myself."
Sasha tapped the table with a finger, her expression thoughtful. "This is top secret," she fixed Babs with a gaze, "understood?"
"Yes," Babs agreed. Not that she was promising to keep quiet, of course, but she was admitting she understood. You had to choose your words carefully, with spies.
"After her run in with your organization," Sasha said, "we had to punish Kat for acting without orders. But we also couldn't step on her hard, without admitting to certain parties that you and the Birds of Prey existed."
Babs nodded slight, "I see."
"So we dumped her in a safe house, one off the grid, and put her under house arrest. She'll stay there until we need her for another op, or her 'sentence' ends," Sasha said.
That made Babs frown, "You're telling me she's in a government run secret prison?"
"No," Sasha shook her head, "she's in a very nice apartment. No room service she she has to cook, but..." She smiled faintly as she added, "If it helps, I have talked with her in person and she is okay with her punishment."
Barbara looked at Sasha over her glasses like some angry school teacher, "You can't be serious."
"I am," Sasha answered firmly. She smiled faintly, "What you have to understand is that Katrina is a patriot. She willingly serves her government and believes in things like duty and honor. She knew what could happen if she flubbed an operation and was fully prepared to accept it."
Babs sat back, knowing that what Sasha was saying was true from her own experience. "And you didn't send her after me, back then," she asked, wondering if she would get a different answer from the agent this time.
"No, I didn't," Sasha said promptly, "but I do think the orders originated in Checkmate." As Barbara jerked in surprise she continued, "I think they came from the former Black King, Amanda Waller. Something she set in motion before she was removed."
"Waller...," Barbara muttered, knowing it was entirely too plausable. When Waller was running the Suicide Squad she had found out about Oracle, and they had even worked together. "I'll look into it myself and get back to you," she offered even as Cass returned to the table.
"Eve will meet you outside," Cass told Sasha, "I think she won't run."
"Thank you," Sasha told her, wondering what Cass had told the agent to make her so meek. Frankly, she wasn't sure she really wanted to know...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"I can't believe you're actually making me go back to school," Charlie sighed as Helena helped her register at the high school nearest to their base.
"You're a minor living with Babs," Helena shrugged as the black haired woman watched the busy office with teachers, students and parents milling around, "If you want her as your legal guardian, she has to put you in school."
"I was kind of surprised by the guardian thing," Charlie admitted.
Helena patted her shoulder gently as she said, "Babs wanted to do it earlier, but with everything that happened..."
"Ooh yeah," Charlie grimaced.
First, the Birds had broken up, then the Calculator went batshit crazy and tried to kill Oracle and her online friends, then there was Darkseid's attack on Earth. They were all lucky to be alive, after facing down the ultimate god of evil and his Anti-Life equation, whatever the hell that was.
"You okay with splitting time between here and Gotham?" Helena asked curiously.
"I think so," Charlie nodded.
With a new Batgirl turning up in Gotham Babs felt a responsibility to keep a eye on her, even as she was running this new Network. Personally Charlie was looking forward to meeting the new Batgirl, from what she could learn about her days as Spoiler. She might even suggest to Babs that they bring this Batgirl onto the team, too.
"There we go," Helena picked up the bundle of papers, the two of them walking up to the registration desk. "Miss," she smiled at the secretary, "we're applying for a late admission?"
"Thank you," the blond haired woman nodded as she flipped through the sheets. "Looks like everything is here," she smiled at Helena then at Charlie, "Welcome to Metropolis Central High."
"Thanks," Charlie smiled. 'Hopefully this will go better than my last time at school,' she thought to herself ruefully.
"Cheer up," Helena laughed as she patted Charlie's shoulder, "now that the hard stuff is done, let's get some lunch."
"Okay," Charlie grinned as the two hurried out.
To be continued...
