Chapter Six

Bruce

The Bat Motorcycle wove around the late-night evening traffic. Bruce kept his eyes peeled as he scanned the road for the black SUV. In his earpiece, Barbra continued to relay directions.

" You should be about two blocks behind it." She paused as her fingers continued to click the keys of her keyboard.

Bruce stepped on the gas while leaning forward. His cape flew behind him as the lights from the surrounding buildings blurred.

"They should have passed by the next traffic camera…" Barbra muttered. "I think they turned down an alleyway or they pulled over."

Bruce pressed his foot down on the brake, reducing his speed. The traffic, this time of night, was light. Scanning both sides of the street, there were no black SUVs anywhere. He coasted past one empty alleyway. He spent precious minutes driving up and down the block but did not find any trace of the SUV.

" Anything?"

"I've got nothing." He gripped the hand clutch.

"One of the vans passed a traffic camera eight blocks west of your location. Sending the coordinates."

Switching gears, he took off.

Bre-El

Shallow breaths, just take shallow breaths, Bre-El told herself. Her x-ray vision enabled her to see through the bag over her head. Two masked men sat in the back of the van with her and two other individuals from the gala. One was a balding cardiac surgeon she consulted on a recent case. His head leaned against the shoulder of a woman who looked young enough to be his daughter. Both were fast asleep. Bre kept her head against the back of her chair. A sweet smell radiated off the sack over her head. The bag must have been drenched in something like chloroform.

Shifting her gaze, she took note of the street signs and storefronts they passed. They were in a part of the city she rarely traveled through. The van slowed down and turned into an alleyway. They came to a stop before backing up into a garage. As soon as they were inside the building, the door closed.

The van's door flew open, "You have two minutes. Get moving." A familiar voice stated. The angle of Bre's head prevented her from identifying the owner of the voice.

One of the masked men muttered to the other one a curse. He then pulled the woman out of her seat. Handing her off to someone outside of the van, he went back and did the same for the bald man. Bre relaxed her body before he pulled her out of her seat. He cradled her against his body as he carried her to a large white van. As he moved across the floor, the garage door opened once more. Another van pulled in. From what she could hear, they parked next to the van they vacated.

A masked man ran past them. In his arms were several license plates.

Upon reaching the new van, she was handed off to another man inside of it. For the first time that night, she felt a whisper of heat pulsating from nearby. Thom-El. Earth's sun's heat radiated off him, causing her to want to reach out for him. She didn't dare move. That would alert their kidnappers that she was awake and would break their cover.

Once she was placed down on a chair, the masked man strapped her in. He removed the bag from her head, and then positioned it so that it leaned against her brother's shoulder. Bre watched the masked man leave. Over the next few minutes, two more couples were placed in the van and strapped in.

The door slammed and the passenger door opened. One of the masked men got in and immediately started fiddling with the radio. As they took off, the two men up front took off their masks.

"Are you all, right?" Thom spoke so softly that the human ear could not hear him.

"I'm fine, and you?" She gave his hand a squeeze.

"The same. Did you learn anything on the way here?" He returned the squeeze.

"No, they didn't talk. I recognized one of their voices. I can't place it." She sighed.

"They haven't hurt anyone. So, there is that. From what I can tell, they grabbed specialists and their dates." Bre could hear the wince in his voice.

That made sense to her. If the doctor didn't do what was asked of them, they could threaten their dates. "So, who do you think they want, you or me?" Neither one of them brought a date.

"I'm not sure. Maybe both of us. We'll find out soon enough."

Bruce

The second vehicle disappeared before he could reach it. Standing in front of his computer in the Batcave, he watched the footage that Damien had gathered. A clock sat next to the computer monitor, keeping track of the passage of time since the hostages were taken. It read "six hours and fifty-two minutes."

"I got the list of people who were taken." Barbra's tired voice broke his concentration. " It should be in your inbox."

"Got it." He clicked on the file. "Have you made any progress on the ice gun?"

"It's a match to the one that was stolen from the Police's Evidence Warehouse. I've gone over the surveillance footage. It cuts out at the time of the theft. I hacked into the cameras surrounding the building. I'll let you know if I learn anything new."

"Good. Get some rest, you've been at it all night." His vision blurred. When it refocused, the faces of the hostages popped up on the screen.

"You should take your own advice." She yawned. "I have a couple more things I want to do before heading to bed."

"Understood. Good night." He ended the call. Refocusing on the images, a frown crossed his lips. Ronnie and her new husband were among the missing. Each doctor and their date were taken. The only exception was Dr. Royal. He recognized the auburn-haired woman from the bar. At first, he thought that she was married to the other Dr. Royal. But then he noticed that their birthdates were the same.

Bruce sipped his ice-cold coffee. A wince crossed his lips. Setting the cup back down, he attempted to find a connection between the various doctors. Each one was a specialist in their field. It was obvious that they were taken because someone needed serious medical attention. It was also telling that the group did not hurt anyone at the gala, nor did they steal anything from anyone.

Barbra

Resting her hands on her upper back, she attempted to stretch her muscles. In front of her, about a dozen screens filled the wall. Each held different pieces to their current puzzle.

"Things were much easier for you when all you had to do was throw a Batarang, ugh?" Dick's voice caused her to flinch.

Spinning her chair around, she faced her ex-boyfriend. "We all have to grow up sometime." Her eyes narrowed when she saw he was not alone. The other two former male Robins stood behind him. "What brings you into my lair?"

"Word travels fast," Tim smirked, "especially on the Internet."

Jason gave the other young man the side eye. "Batman has a doppelganger. We wanted to let you know it's not any of us."

Barbra held back an eye roll. The three of them were ruled out within five minutes of analyzing the footage. The doppelganger almost matched Bruce's physical dimensions. He was about an inch too short and another inch too broad. To the naked eye, they appeared identical. They even had the same chin. "Good to know. Why are you telling me and not him?"

Tim rubbed the back of his head. "You know how the old man gets when he's on a case."

Dick remained silent, letting the other two speak for him. Barbra knew well enough that he rarely spoke to Bruce since their fall out. Heck, he rarely spoke to her even though they came to an understanding after the Joker shot her. A sigh escaped her lips. It was the middle of the night, and her tolerance for bullshit was wearing thin. "If you're worried about him kicking your asses, he won't. He might not say it, but I'm sure he would appreciate the help. There is a lot of evidence we were able to gather, but there is also a lot we don't know."

The boys exchanged a look. Dick nodded slowly. "You've been at this for a few hours. Let us take a crack at it."

Teenage Barbra would have reacted negatively to their united front. In her adolescent mindset, she would have thought they didn't think she could handle it. Present day Barbra knew better. Taking a bullet in her gut made her realize how proud she was and that more can be accomplished as a team than by herself. "You're right."

"I am?" Dick raised a brow as his eyes widened.

Barbra pursed her lips. He really thought she was going to fight him on this. "You are. I'm going to eat something and take a nap. If you need anything, you know where to find me." She maneuvered her wheelchair out of their way. "Pull up a chair. There are a few around the conference table."

"Dibs on the computer." Tim ran over and grabbed a chair.

Jason joined him. "There are access points for each of us."

Barbra watched them for another minute. They focused on dividing up their work before getting started.

Bre-El

Getting "kidnapped" was starting to wear on her. They spent about an hour driving around Gotham. Eventually, they pulled into a recently abandoned Doctor's Park. She passed it on her way into Gotham General Hospital and even parked in its lot when she was running late.

Their captors placed them into patient rooms by pairs. When they were finally alone, Thom sat up and cracked his neck. "Want to leave?" He flashed her a grin.

"Of course. But…" She frowned, "we can't. Not without stopping whatever is going on."

"I wasn't being serious, Bre." He raised a brow. Standing he took in his surroundings. "I'm actually curious to find out why they brought us here." He bounced on the balls of his feet as if he were waiting to open his birthday presents.

"I'm not surprised by that." She climbed to her feet, wishing she felt the same way as her brother. "They didn't need to kidnap us; they could have asked."

"Like that would have gone over well with the other doctors. Especially with how crazy the insurance companies are getting." He started to look around, opening and closing empty drawers.

"They must have money. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to pull any of this off. I doubt they care about insurance companies." She used her x-ray vision to scan the room. The built-in furniture only contained garbage from the previous practice. When she tried to look beyond the room, she couldn't. "There's lead in the walls."