Disclaimer – You recognise it, I don't own it.
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"Babs," Dinah looked at the red-head, "Are you okay? You're a bit off today."
"Tim's missing."
"Tim?" Zinda frowned, "That's Red Robin, isn't it?"
"Don't worry." Helena laughed, "That lad is tough. He's probably off investigating somewhere."
"I'll put money on the League of Assassins, again." Dinah put in, "Kid has a vendetta against them."
"No." Babs shook her head, "His blood has been found on torture implements."
"How long has he been missing?" Helena was instantly focused, "And where was the torture chamber?"
"A month. And the Warehouse District in Gotham."
"Shit." Helena breathed, "I hadn't… I hadn't realized I hadn't seen him… Sometimes he drops me intel."
"What do you need?" Dinah was blunt.
"I need this to be a bad dream. I need this to all be over… I need to know he's safe." Babs buried her head in her hands, "I can't find him. I don't know where he was. Or who he was with."
"Well, what was his patrol that day?" Helena put in, "I know Bats keeps everything organised."
"Tim has always been independent." Babs sighed, "He was patrolling solo long before anyone else was. We didn't realize that he had stopped reporting in to… Anyone. We don't know what he was working on… But they didn't… They weren't tor… tort… Hurting Red Robin… They grabbed Tim… Off the streets as far as I can tell."
"Who?" Dinah demanded, "Tell me who and I'll go get him. No matter where, Babs. You've got us. Tell us where. We'll bring him back."
"We don't know." Babs choked, "He got away five days ago. But he hasn't come back. We don't know if he got grabbed again or what. But my little brother is missing."
"Then we get him back." Zinda swore, "You've got your Birds, Oracle. Let us fly."
"We'll find him." Helena announced, "Wherever you need us to go."
"Just say the word, Babs." Dinah agreed, "And don't worry. He's tough. Really tough. He's a fighter. He'll hang on until we find him."
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"Okay, brat." Steph looked at the youngest Wayne, "What do you know?"
"Tt. What makes you think I know anything, Brown?"
"You knew about Project Padua. Bruce didn't. That tells me you've been in WE more often than he has."
"I have been working there for part of the school holidays. If I am to rule, I must first learn what it is I am ruling."
"Okay. Then how do we find out who Tim was having lunch with?"
"It is not on the schedule. I need to check his paperwork."
"Then let's go. Bruce can check with Fox. We'll deal with everyone else."
"I will not wait on you. Keep up, Brown."
The pair made their way into Tim's office, using the Bat-Clan secret entrance.
"Let's start." Steph started looking around the room, "I'm sure Tim has got a system."
"I do not know it." Damian stated, "Drake does not show me his paperwork."
"The police will have looked through the paperwork. We need to figure out how Tim got invited."
"It would have been a telephone invitation." Damian stated, "The police will have checked the electronic mail as well as the postal."
"Then Tim would have made a note about it."
"Tt." Damian turned away from the desk and moved towards the bookcase, "You can look for that if you want, Brown. I will pursue more profitable avenues of investigation."
"You've bugged the office." She sighed.
"Of course. However, I am unable to broadcast to a source, due to the high level of security. I have not felt the need to download recently."
"You mean, you haven't visited. Why bug the place, anyway?"
"I have to keep an eye on my investments. While Drake is competent, barely, at his job it is best that I know everything going on. Unfortunately, I have been busy with other investigations so I have been forced to leave the business in his hands."
"Well, what did it record?"
Damian removed a small device from underneath the small table in the corner. He quickly linked it up to a computer and plugged in a set of headphones. Steph sighed, realizing that Damian wasn't going to let her listen until it was done.
Instead she started looking around the office. She could easily tell that she wasn't the first to do so. Tim would never allow such disarray in his office.
She started pulling the papers into piles. Just neatening things up really. She wasn't going to try and sort them.
Looking through the drawers she found a notebook. Well, it didn't look like a notebook. It looked like a Cosplay Prop. But she'd played enough Zelda to be suspicious.
"Bingo!" She smirked when she opened it.
The first few pages had technical drawings on them, Steph didn't recognise what they were of. She flicked past them, looking for more useful information. A single torn page was one of the two things she was looking for, and she found it.
A pencil and some quick rubbing, she was looking at Tim's handwriting.
"Cus. McC." She read aloud, "Damnit Tim! Why couldn't you write longhand?"
She tore the page out anyway. The evidence would still be there for anyone else to find. If they knew to look.
"Tt!" Damian knocked his headphones to the floor, "He knew."
"Knew what?" Steph frowned.
"Drake knew that I had bugged his office. He turned off the device when he did not want me to listen."
"What did he let you hear?"
"He had a lunch meeting. It was booked for Cussler's with another CEO. I did not recognise the name. It was Mister Myers."
"Tim jotted down a shorthand. The first must be Cussler's, but the second… Hold on a moment."
Steph pulled out her phone, and hit a speed-dial.
"Steph, what have you found?" Babs spoke quickly
"Cussler's. Lunch meeting. A CEO Myers. Company might start M. C. C. Not certain on that."
"McCaffery Enterprises." Babs came over the loudspeaker, "That's a start. I'll find out when it was set for. And who was going."
"How long will it take?"
"Got the details… That's unfair."
"What?"
"Five of them verses Tim? This was a set up."
"They grabbed Tim?"
"Tt. If Drake allowed a collection of businessmen to capture him, then he does not deserve to be counted as a hero."
"I doubt they grabbed him. I can see who was going. No, they were trying to stuff him legally. They were trying to take advantage of him. They had the CEO, CFO and legal people."
"I would hope that Drake did not sign any documents." Damian huffed.
"That's presuming he even got to the meeting." Steph reminded.
"Looking at what I can see, he did." Babs replied, "But I can't see anything more than that."
"We'll go check it out." Steph declared.
"No." Babs countered, "I'll get the Birds to check it out. You've got eyes on you. If you disappear off the radar for too long, the police will get suspicious. Best you head back to the Manor."
"Have the police got anything new?"
"Nothing to narrow down his location. I think we've managed to overtake them."
"Tt. That is to be expected."
"Keep us updated." Steph finished the call.
She then quickly started dialling again.
"Good afternoon, thank you for calling Cussler's. How can I help you today?"
"Hi," Steph bit her lip, "Um, this is a bit embarrassing. I work at Wayne Enterprises. My boss, Mister Wayne, the CEO, is looking to have a lunch meeting somewhere and he told me to organise it at that 'wonderful place' he went to last month. Only he didn't tell me where he went. And I can't figure out his handwriting. His PA is still on holiday. I'm just the temp. If I screw this up I'll be fired. Please, did he go to you last month? I think he said it was a lunch meeting with McCattery, McCallery…"
"There was a table of six reserved for McCaffery. Young Mister Wayne was present. You may wish to check if he is recalling the place where he ate the salmon dish."
"Thank you. Is there anything else I could use to help jog his memory?"
"The other members of the table kept forgetting that he was underage, and thus unable to drink. A fact young Mister Wayne kept reminding them of. Indeed even if he was able to drink I would have not approved of the wine."
"Why not, Sir?"
"One should never drink such a full-bodied wine as the 1997 Cabassaou Bandol Domaine Tempier with such a delicate dish as salmon."
"Thank you so much." Steph even managed a little catch in her voice as if she was holding back tears, "I'll check with Mister Wayne and then I'll get back to you if it was Cussler's he meant."
"Happy to be of service."
Steph hung up triumphantly.
"Well, he made it to the lunch." She grinned at Damian.
"How did you know that he would assist you?" Damian frowned.
"It's called being female and young." She shrugged, "If you know what you're doing, you can usually find an angle. He was probably the Maître d' or Sommelier. Slightly arrogant and stuck-up. He wanted to prove he was superior to me. So I made sure he could."
She headed towards the back exit once again, texting Barbara as she did so.
Damian paused for a moment, to plant a new listening device, before following her.
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"What are you looking at?" Diana asked, spotting Clark at the Watchtower's main station.
"The spreadsheets."
"Which ones?"
"The League of Assassins ones."
"Why? Bruce keeps those updated." She leant up against the chair he was using.
"I just wanted to check… Have you realized just how much time Tim has been saving us?"
"Because he seems to enjoy taking down the League every week or so… It's quite handy. Someone keeping a lid on Ra's Al Ghul. Makes him easier to deal with."
"It's hundreds of hours."
"Why are you looking at that? It's not really important. It's just handy."
"Because I was hoping to find a clue."
"A clue to what?"
"Where Tim is."
"What do you mean? He's in Gotham… Or San Francisco. He's been spending quite a bit of time there… According to Cassie."
"No. He's not. Didn't Bruce tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"Someone's kidnapped Tim. They're torturing him."
"Who?" Her voice lowered in tone.
"He doesn't know. No one knows where he is. He got grabbed about a month ago. Bruce doesn't know who or where. There's just abandoned torture implements with Tim's blood on them. And a failed escape attempt."
"Failed?"
"He's not reappeared anywhere. Bruce has checked all of the safe-houses in Gotham. And I know the Titans have checked everywhere they can think of. Plus, he apparently had a bad leg. So he can't move quickly."
"No. That's got to be wrong. Cassie would have told me."
"You sure? Kon only asked me to look a week ago."
"Why didn't you say anything then?"
"Because I didn't think it was anything serious."
"And now you know it is."
"I swear, Diana, Bruce was nearly in tears. I haven't seen him like that since Damian… And before that Jason's…"
"It was that bad?"
"Diana, this is Tim! His son! And they're human. Not like us."
"They never have been. They've always coped. We've never coddled them."
"Bruce wouldn't let us… But that doesn't stop me from worrying about them."
"He is capable. They are all capable. Bruce trains them well."
"They are still human. What we shrug off could kill them."
"They know the risks. They are good soldiers in the battle."
"But they're not soldiers."
"Timothy knew what he was getting in to. He was the first hero who became a hero, after the death of his predecessor. He knew the risks."
"Don't you care?"
"I care for him as a fellow warrior. However I will not diminish his achievements or his bravery by coddling him or deciding that he was unaware of the risks he would face. I do not wish him to die, but what you are doing isn't helping."
"I've got every system looking for him." Clark motioned at the computers, "I'm trying to figure out where to look in person."
"I presume Bruce has Gotham."
"Of course."
"Then we split up the rest of the world. If we involve the Flash, we can check the world in minutes."
"And still miss him… But it's a better plan than anything else. The computers will continue looking for him on any cameras, and update us if they find anything. If that fails… I don't know… I'm not sure Bruce will survive losing another son."
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Please Review.
I write stories because I can't draw. I have all these images in my head that I cannot reproduce. So I try and describe them with words. If anyone else would like to try to translate what I have written into what they think I saw in my head, they have my permission. I only ask that I be notified of it, so that I may look and go "OOoooh!".
Many thanks to my reviewers:
Rehabilitated Sith – That would be telling. But there's a few clues dotted around.
Inthenightguest – Sorry, you're going to have to wait.
randy57 – Bother! I can never keep double-barrelled names straight. Thanks for the head's up.
APercival – Glad you're enjoying this. I'm still having issues writing action, so I like to work up to it. And yes, Psalm 78 is important. But it won't be explained for a while. As for the Titans? My interpretation. But thanks for the feedback.