Sell you a Bridge chapter 116

Gotham Botanical Gardens November 6th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

We  cased the place before going in, obviously. Rather than bring everyone  it was decided Jim and I were strong enough that anything that could  bounce the two of us would probably just kill everyone anyway, and since  they only actually extended the invite to us we would go alone. Zee and  Artemis had been pretty pissed about that, though Reggie had been  distracted showing his girlfriend around the castle. So here Jim and I  were scouting the outside of this place to check on who was inside.  There were about thirty red dots in there on the map and we wanted to  find out which were real threats.

The  map sadly didn't really tell us anything about the dots. It did give us  names if we zoomed in enough, but honestly that wasn't as helpful as  one might think considering it gave us actual names and most powerful  people used a pseudonym. There was thirty people in there and aside from  Talia, Sportsmaster, and Cheshire we had no clue who literally any of  them were. Even Lady Shiva's name was listed as something different,  which I honestly should probably have assumed. Still with aura vision  and my stealth and shadow skills it was child's play to map the place  out.

It was a  good thing we did too, because the assholes had moved since we checked  the map, and I had to specially note the new locations. They could move  again but we were hoping once we actually entered it would stop them  from making any unnecessary movements so as not to draw attention to  themselves. I met up with Jim again outside the gardens. I double  checked my points, which were sitting at about three hundred ninety and  nodded seriously to him, then I passed over a small pad of paper. I'd  made the thing with my demonic power, trying to see what I could manage  while spending minimal points, and the results had been...not great, but  still usable.

He  took the sheet of paper and read over it. "Seems about right, though I  suspect your aura vision is not infallible, it seems you missed one or  two." He marked a pair of spots on the map. "I would imagine they're  senior assassins who have picked up some kind of concealment magic.  Remember Morgan, your abilities are a useful tool in your arsenal, but  the most useful tool you possess will always be your mind. Without that,  all the power in the world is absolutely useless. Hone your techniques  and perception even as you hone your combat skills. We are thieves, not  soldiers."

I  nodded, studying the map. I wasn't stupid enough to think it was a good  idea to ignore Jim. Part of why I'd agreed to work with him was that he  could teach me skills that I then wouldn't need to spend points on, but  more importantly, he could teach from experience. Even skill based  memories didn't integrate perfectly right away, I still needed to  practice and acclimate myself to them, a weakness my enhanced memory  eliminated when it came to actually learning things. Plus Jim was  awesome, he had so much more to teach me about than just the art of  quietly and invisibly stealing people's shit.

With  our scouting done we decided to finally head inside to our meeting. We  could handle anything they threw at us, and with detailed knowledge of  how they were dispersed through the gardens we wouldn't have to worry  about missing anything and getting sucker punched. Talia was standing  there placidly, Cheshire and Lady Shiva beside her, and I noted with  some glee that Sportsmaster wasn't around. When she saw us appear she  gave and slow smile. "Gentlemen, welcome, I'm so glad you could make  time to meet with me."

Jim  nodded, and I took a step back to let him deal with the negotiations.  He had way more practice dealing with supervillains. "We're happy to  make your acquaintance as well my dear, I must say, your surname may  proclaim you of the demon, but you're more of a fallen angel in my eyes.  It is a true rarity to feast my gaze on such a vision of loveliness." I  rolled my own eyes at that, because of course Jim would hit on the  immortal, busty, serial killer milf. In all honesty he might have been  doing it partly out of revenge for me comment the other night, but I  also knew he had other motivations aside from the large expanse of  surprisingly perky cleavage.

Talia  giggled, which made literally every person in the room that wasn't the  two of them gape, and actually flipped her hair over one shoulder.  "Gentleman Ghost indeed. I must say I share your...fascination. Your  exploits were legendary even when I was a girl. It's a pity we never got  a chance to meet before your untimely demise, though I admit I didn't  start hearing tales of your feats until some time after that. I feel at  ease at the thought of having such a powerful and respected ally, I do  so hope we can come to an arrangement."

Her  aura showed much less lust and excitement than her words and tone  implied, though oddly there actually was some of both. Jim swept his hat  off and flourished a hand in a graceful bow. "I too share such hopes.  Now, milady, why not share a few of your ideas for how we might both  benefit from such an alliance." His voice dropped an octave or two. "I  can assure you, should I find your offering agreeable, I would do my  utmost to ensure your...satisfaction." The sexual undertone of the  comment was obvious, and Talia averted her eyes, biting her lip in a way  her aura showed was pretty much entirely bullshit.

This  entire thing was a game to them. Jim wasn't an uncontrollable horn dog  and Talia wasn't a horny fan girl, and they both knew it. They had  assumed roles, masks for the duration of the negotiation to disguise  their real intentions and goals. The largest factor in any negotiation  was value, the value of your assets versus the value of what you wanted.  You could overcharge the shit out of someone for something they wanted,  but you might have to basically give away something less valuable to  them.

As long as Jim was playing  the sex fiend Talia wouldn't be able to figure out what was truly  valuable to him. Pretty much everyone here knew he wasn't actually that  invested in clapping them assassin cheeks (though I doubt he would say  no, the whole Black Widow vibe is much less scary when you're already  dead) but no one aside from possibly me knew what he WAS invested in.  Talia was employing the same strategy, and Jim had already warned me of  such. This negotiating tactic was just a natural extension of the habit  of wearing masks that most powerful capes had.

Of  course as the negotiation went on and things were won or lost, facades  would be discarded, feints revealed to win points. If Talia gave Jim  something valuable for nothing, revealing that victory would weaken her  position and put her in a worse headspace for the next exchange. Talia  started soft, throwing out some bait that would effect everyone. "Well,  for one we wanted to discuss the food situation. As you may have  noticed, restaurants and similar businesses have remained unmolested for  the moment. Mostly this is because ingredients need to be used, and  hoarding them all would simply be a waste. Allowing the eateries to  remain allows the powerful players to keep track of population  movements."

That  we did know, I'd been confused about the logic of not hoarding the  food, but Jim said it would be a short term benefit. Aside from tracking  people, she wasn't mentioning the major benefit of the eateries, debt.  All the major factions had captured their nearest food suppliers early  on, and while they stayed out of the management and kept them from being  molested, they made sure to reinforce the idea that anyone who ate  there was receiving a favor from that faction, and would be expected to  pay it back.

Granted  it was mostly one or two of the more moderate gangs who had bothered.  Penguin was protecting most of the upscale places, and Dad and the  family had gotten a piece of the pie, along with the Maroni's. It said  something about Gotham that within a few days of being trapped in a  magic bubble the organized crime element had already sized and portioned  out the food service places. Jim, knowing all this, simply shrugged.  "I'm afraid I haven't kept abreast. Food is such a...mortal necessity.  My apprentices are expected to feed themselves, as any thief must, but I  find I care little otherwise."

Talia's  aura flickered with annoyance. That was a hard stance to take for  almost anyone but Jim, and she hadn't been expecting it. Still she  recovered quickly and without much visible sign of her irritation. "Ah,  true, but I'm sure such a...capable Gentleman wouldn't reject a request  from a lady sadly still beholden to such banal needs." Her flirty tone  was still there, but colder now, less fan girl more femme fatale. I had  to admit, half threat half proposition was a new one by me but damn did  she pull it off.

That  said, this wasn't going anywhere. Jim had brought me along in case  something like this happened, he knew the benefit of the uninitiated,  and when I started seeing signs of an hours long back and forth with no  real hope of any useful outcome I did as I was told, and flipped the  table. "Ok, this is annoying. If you two want to fuck do it on your own  time, but you didn't bring us here to tag team you, You had a legitimate  reason for this meeting, and nothing as abstruse as "an alliance"  though I doubt you would be against it. So tell us what the hell you  want or we're leaving."

I'd  like to say all the impatience was faked, but honestly watching them  flirt was pretty boring. I wouldn't have snapped if it wasn't part of  the plan but I still didn't enjoy being set dressing. Lady Shiva's aura  flashed with anger, and Cheshire seemed surprised and amused but Talia  just rolled her eyes. "Young people are so impatient." She shot Jim a  teasing smile. "I'm sure you and I can negotiate the terms of the over  arching alliance later, in a more...private setting. For now, our  impatient young friend is correct. We do have something we require your  assistance with. It pertains to the coming food shortage."

She  gestured to one side and an assassin I'd already known was there  materialized, bowing and offering a briefcase before vanishing into the  dark without so much as a thank you from his boss. She turned it to face  us and popped it open, revealing a large pile of fairly sizable gems  lying on a bed of black velvet. "As you can see, we aren't barbarians.  We weren't expecting you to work for free, even should we have come to  an...arrangement. We wish to hire you to do a job. It's well within your  area of expertise. A theft from a secure facility. We simply want you  to steal something different. Or more specifically, someone."

She  closed the case with a smile. "So in the interest of the expedience  young Random requested I will speak plainly. We are going to be running  out of food soon, and we need to combat that before it becomes an issue.  The Amazons will have brought their own methods of feeding their  soldiers, though we don't know what those might be. We have to seek  other answers to our problems. To that end, we want to hire you to break  into Blackgate Penitentiary and free Pamela Isley, with whom we have a  working relationship." She grinned wolfishly at us both. "Assuming of  course, you're up to the task."