"We are one-hundred percent sure this is not breaking and entering, right?" Luke asked, his voice playing in everyone's ears.
"Kristen gave us a thumbs up," Laurel's voice was just as clear as it answered the man who sat only a few feet from where she was sitting in the Kate's apartment, "and she said she would decline to prosecute anyone if it ever got that far. Which it won't if you three are quick."
"And my dad said words to that effect," Barbara said as the four women stood at the back entrance to the Cook County medical examiner's building on West Fulton Street, just a short walk from the ME's main structure on the Near West Side, while Beth held a small black box up to the card reader that was displaying a steady red light. As secret missions went, this one was far from secret. They needed to keep it on the down low, but they also needed to keep it as legal as possible so that anything they might find could still be used as evidence. As a result, the list of people they had read in on what they were about to do and why they were about to do it included two additional names: James Gordon and Kristen Wolf.
It would not have been the first time, or the tenth, or even the twentieth, that Laurel, either acting solo, or with her sister Sara in tow, had run an op just like this. But all that experience did nothing to alleviate her impatience with having to sit idle while others did the work; others, she quickly identified, who had more than a passing experience with work of this type. She leaned back on the couch while she silently held her phone up to her ear and directed her question to the only other person in sight.
"Do I even want to ask how all of you know how to do something like this?"
"No, ma'am," was Luke's immediate reply as he looked at the laptop display and continued typing.
"You know Julia would have had this thing open already," Beth said playfully to the man who was taking only slightly longer to get the red light to turn green.
"Pipe down. There. Happy?" Luke asked as the green light finally appeared.
"Giddy."
They were in a short entrance way that led to a corridor that was dark, Cook County lacking the funds to install motion sensitive lighting. Kate had grabbed a couple of eye pieces (Trish swore that she didn't need one, and Barbara volunteered to guard at the outer door [she hated monocular eyepieces because they gave her a major case of vertigo, but she would never admit that fact to anyone]) and the trio navigated the dark path to the room that held copies of the original fingerprints of the unidentified men, as well as anyone who passed through the facility, in fire proof safes. The existence of the duplicates, and the containers in which the sat, was not exactly a secret, more like a detail that did not need to be widely broadcast. Those copies were stored away from the morgue itself so that in the event of a massive fire that destroyed the originals the information would not be completely lost.
"What do we do about the safe?" Kate had asked on the drive from her apartment. The smile that formed on her sister's face gave her sufficient warning that she had asked an obtuse question.
"That's why you brought me," Trish simply replied.
"You're going to beat the shit out of it until it opens?"
"Not so much."
"Jesus, how old are these fucking things?" Kate asked as she looked at one in a series of ancient fire safes. The one with the label indicating that is was storing information from the current decade simple said Mosler on the upper left corner of the door. At the center of the door was a dial about four inches in diameter with a simple metal handle positioned to its left.
"It looks like it dates back to World War 1," Beth added as she looked at the line of safes that ran the length of one wall and half of another, "they all do."
"Is it going to be a problem?" Kate asked Trish.
"No," Trish replied before squatting next to the ancient object, placing her ear to the door, and slowly turning the knob. It took roughly five minutes before she heard the final click and pivoted the handle downward. The door swung open easily despite its advanced age.
"Holy Shit." Kate simply said before addressing her next comment to Luke. "We're in."
"You're looking for John Doe 2022-04 and 2022-07," Luke reminded her as he glanced at the hand written note in Barbara's flamboyant cursive.
"Got it," Trish said as she searched the container before finding the folders that held the photocopied sheets. "These two."
"They got them," Laurel said into her phone.
"Christ, get a fucking move on," Jessica said, "We've been in their system too fucking long as it is. They're gonna notice us eventually."
"It's the night before Thanksgiving, and it's past Midnight, at least here it is. How many people do you think are watching?"
"I don't know, and I don't want to find out the hard way. Light a fire under them."
"Fine," Laurel replied before turning her attention to Luke. "Them them to step on it. Jessica is freaking out."
"Fuck you. I'm not freaking out," Luke could hear clearly from Laurel's phone.
"Done," Kate said thirty seconds later. "Sending you the images now."
"Hang on," Luke answered as he waited for the email to pop up on his display. It took him a minute more to open the appropriate attachments, crop them to size and save them as JPEGs.
"Coming your way," Luke said as he attached the files to an email and sent it to the unofficial and anonymous DOTD email address.
"Files incoming," Laurel said into her phone.
"We're clear," Kate said as the three women joined their lookout and exited the building, making sure the door was securely latched behind them. "See you in a few. Don't drink all the wine."
"Copy," Luke answered. "Just waiting on confirmation on the files."
"Hang on." Jess said as Colleen uploaded the files.
batch processing two requests...
Colleen looked up from the monitor in front of her and nodded to Jessica.
"OK, it's running," Jessica said into her phone.
"Got it. We're out. Let us know."
Luke's mannerisms reminded Jessica too much of Malcolm. "Will do. Hey, you don't happen to have a twin brother somewhere do you?"
"No. Why do you ask?"
"No reason."
"It really isn't necessary," Julia was saying even though she was beaming at the idea of Bruce walking her home as if they were two high school kids.
"It's no trouble at all. Besides it's late, and I would have worried if I hadn't seen you safely home. I promise I won't wake anyone."
Their dinner had run several courses, which they had barely sampled, as they had only sampled the four different wines. Bruce donated the mostly full bottles to a table situated closer to the kitchen, and the two couples who were celebrating something and chose one of the more expensive restaurants in the city to do it. After that they walked the Magnificent Mile and talked about their recent lives, Beth's rebirth, Bruce's latest escapades (one of which had left him in a cast for two months), how it felt to step through a super cavitated bubble of exotic gravitons, and anything else that popped into their collective heads; anything but the attraction that they felt for each other, which seemed to increase as the distance between them decreased.
It took the two of them very little time once they entered Kate's home to realize that any concerns of waking up Kate or Beth were entirely misplaced.
Kate stood up and adopted the posture of a mother who just discovered her daughter sneaking into the house well past curfew.
"You are in big trouble, young lady!"
The remainder of the room's occupants were observing a moment of stunned silence at the appearance of the man who had stopped right next to Julia, the two groups facing each other like a modern day standoff.
Holy shit, that's Bruce fucking Wayne, Laurel thought.
Me likey, Trish thought as she got her first eye full of Kate and Beth's infamous cousin.
Yes! Luke thought, Julia Pennyworth for the win!
"What are you all doing here? I thought you were going out to dinner."
"So you thought the coast was clear for you to sneak your boyfriend in here?" Kate asked as she folder her arms across her chest and shook her head slightly.
"He's not my...what. is. the. fucking. point?"
Beth appeared at her sister's side to rescue her best friend and her cousin. "How was your evening?"
"It was wonderful up until a minute ago when we disturbed what appears to be a cabal plotting world domination."
"Nothing so dramatic. One of our inquiries paid off," Laurel said as she stopped next to Beth.
"Your father's guys found something?" Julia asked, her attention turned to Barbara.
Barbara was shaking her head as Beth replied. "No. Jessica found something."
"I know that name," Bruce said as his eyes traveled from Julia to Beth and back. "The woman from the warehouse, right?"
"That's her. Bab's dad put his own request in through Laurel."
Laurel stuck out her right hand. "Laurel Lance, Mr. Wayne. ASA for Kristen Wolf. It's an honor."
Bruce clasped Laurel's hand in his own. "You won't remember, but we met at the Governor's thing at the Shedd Aquarium last year."
Like I would ever forget that, Laurel thought, I thought you might not remember it.
"Of course I remember. This is my friend Trish Walker visiting from New York for the holidays."
"Just the one holiday," Trish answered as she reached out and shook a well calloused hand.
"Oh, for Christ sake, its just a saying," Laurel stated with half an eye roll, "you don't have to correct someone every time they say it."
Bruce gave Trish a nod. "I know you by reputation, of course; you and your colleague. I can't remember her name, the one that looks like Annelie Bodin."
For fuck sake, literally everyone in Chicago has seen that fucking footage.
"Her name is Sharon. Its a pleasure to meet you. Kyle Richmond complains about you all the time, which for him is the highest form of compliment."
"Bruce has been know to complain about Kyle right back," Julia said as she looked up and smiled at the face that was returning her smile from slightly higher elevation, "so I guess they're even."
We have definitely interrupted their plans for the rest of the evening, went through several observer's minds.
"So what's this big payoff?" Bruce asked as he scanned all the faces that were looking back at him.
"We have the three names that the CPD was looking for."
"Do you want them alphabetically, or chronologically?" Barbara asked her father through the cell phone that sat in the middle of the group of people in Kate's living room.
It was approaching 2 AM, and yet no one had left, or gone to bed; even though the frequency of yawns was increasing. James Gordon had not even attempted to go back to sleep after Barbara had called to inform him that they were about to break into a building owned by Cook County. As a result, he answered his phone on the first ring.
"I want it on my desk first thing Monday, every scrap of what you have, biometrics included. For right now, just give me the highlights."
"John Doe 2022-4 is Oscar M. Floyd, 2844 Mulberry Avenue Hot Springs, AR. 42. Deployment Support Supervisor for Predovic PLC. John Doe 2022-7 while he was still drawing breath was Landon J. Thomas. 678 Webster Street Red Bank, NJ. 50. Senior Specialist, Biologics for Great Western Biotech. Finally, at least we hope, Randy B. Dunn 3690 Grant View Drive Milwaukee, WI. 46. Account Manager, Inside Sales for GMB-Skogmo."
There was silence emanating from the speaker of Barbara's phone as her father continued to write the information he had just heard onto a yellow legal pad. James Gordon took a moment to review what he'd scribbled before speaking.
"The last guy's sort of a local, but the first two...How do guys from Arkansas and New Jersey end up dead in the Chicago River along with a guy from Milwacky, spread out over a couple of weeks?"
Laurel had been thinking the same thing. "Good question. What, besides where they were dumped, did these three have in common?"
Barbara had made a hand drawn chart with all the information they had on the three dead men and she reviewed it before she spoke. "Not where they worked, not even the field they worked in. Predovic PLC builds and deploys magnet interfaces, whatever those are. Great Western Biotech is just what it sounds like. GMB-Skogmo is a multinational technologies company specializing in molecular diagnostics, applied testing, and academic research."
Luke's eyebrows raised slightly. "Those last two overlap, maybe the first one does as well?"
"Maybe. But how, or why, do they all end up dead so far from home? And how, or why, did IAFIS come up with bubkis when these guys are clearly in the system?" Bruce asked.
"They all needed background checks for their work. That's why their prints got taken. But none of them had criminal records to speak of. Would IAFIS have their prints anyway?" Julia asked.
James Gordon's reply had an air of authority. "They should. The FBI gets a shitload of fingerprint search requests for employment and licensing every day, and those go into IAFIS. If these guys submitted prints for their jobs, IAFIS would have gotten them, and would still have them."
"Then, yeah, how did Jess find them so fast, but the FBI didn't?" Beth asked
Commissioner Gordon's command voice was fully engaged when he spoke again. "We need to see the original cards for these guys. And we need to cross reference those with what you found tonight, and what was sent to IAFIS."
Barbara had likewise switched into work mode as she wrote quickly at the bottom of her chart. "I'm guessing none of that's happening before Friday, right? Unless you want to start waking people up."
"I don't see the need to get anybody out of bed over this. I'll have John start in on it first thing Friday. We need someone in Justice to review the info they ran for us on these guys."
Kate was nodding her head even though the police Commissioner could not see it. "My father's contact can do that. I'll ask him when we see him for dinner tomorrow."
"Today," Beth reminded her as she looked at her smart watch, which told her that their big Thanksgiving dinner was less than twelve hours away, "very much today."
Kate rolled her eyes as her sister displayed one of her particular OCD traits. "Fine. Later today."
James Gordon's voice switched back to casual mode. "Excellent. Please ask him to send me copies of everything they received from us. And thank him for me, and his guy in DC."
"I can do that. No worries," Kate answered as she shifted her gaze to her right, and the image of Bruce Wayne and Julia Pennyworth sound asleep on her sectional sofa, her head in his lap and his propped on his right arm as his left one lay across Julia's torso.
Kate let out a pronounced yawn which she covered with her right hand as James Gordon continued to speak. "Nice work everybody, really nice work. Tell your friends back east I said so. I'll fill Kristen in on Friday."
Barbara Gordon began to stretch idle muscles in preparation of standing up and donning her coat. "Thanks, Daddy."
"Don't stay up too late, sweetie. Love you."
"Love you too. See you tomorrow," she answered before ending the phone call and dug in her purse for her car keys.
"Today. Today, for Christ sake," Beth reminded her in an exasperated tone of voice.
"Whatever."