red_detective (red_detective) wrote in newalliance, @ 2016-09-24 21:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | green arrow ii, nightwing, red robin |
Who: Tim, Dick, and Connor
Where: Gotham and New York City
When: September 25th, 2016
What: Dick goes to have a talk with Tim, and gets entirely side tracked
Rating: Low
Dick had promised to talk to Tim, so he had gone down to the cave while laundry was churning in a washer. He had started off awkward, thinking he could wing the conversation okay. He'd been wrong, and instead ended up stopping his mumbling about work and had been distracted by what Tim was really working on.
So now they were in a car together, driving toward New York after checking to make sure Connor Hawke was home. The problem was that Dick didn't know why Tim had a sudden interest in driving to see Connor Hawke, but he hadn't seen the other Arrow member for a while, and because he really needed to try talking to Tim, Dick had asked and been welcomed along.
So now Tim was driving the red Porsche Cayman, looking rather cheery while he listened to a mix of electronic music via bluetooth. Dick didn't ride passenger with Tim often. The few times he'd been stuck in the passenger seat it had been because he was sleeping. He still remembered going on a mission in one of the bat-aircrafts, and a much younger Tim jumping up into the seat, just so happy to be asked along that he was putting on the harness before Dick reminded him he needed to get garbed up in the Robin suit first.
Kids grow up... And it was only now that he was reviewing that memory that he realized just how much Tim had. Tim was 20 now, just as tall as he was, and he was losing a bit of the leanness of the acrobatic muscle. Tim was never going to have Dick's compact, powerful build, Jason's tall athlete's brawn, or Bruce's corded strength, but he had nearly lost the bird-boned, fragile looking structure. (Had they all been that way?) He wasn't thickly built, no, but he was fairly olympian and he was so sharp Dick didn't have problems admitting he couldn't keep up with him mentally.
Like now. "Okay, so, we're obviously not going for a mere visit, especially since you're skipping class for this. Mind walking me through this, Sherlock?"
"Sherlock?" Tim laughed quietly. "You know that makes you Watson right now, though that's no insult. Watson was always underestimated. So, let me ask you this outright. You told me a while back to keep track of certain natural deaths that didn't pass my gut check, right?"
Dick traced his memory back. "Right. Anything that looked like a natural death with a too-clean history. Why, did you find something?"
"No. But I did find a few interesting murders where the history looked a little squeaky clean for the victim. One in North Carolina, one in New Mexico. Both chemists. One did food testing and the other worked in a hospital lab. Both deaths looked like simple burglaries gone wrong. Neighbors and even one with roommates heard no shots, just scuffling on the latter."
"Silencer," Dick concluded.
Tim pointed his way with an acceding nod, eyes remaining on traffic. "I'll give you the profiles, but I didn't want to transmit them to you electronically just yet. I wanted to make sure my history trail on researching them was cold first."
Dick's brow scrunched up. "Why? You're one of the best hackers I know."
"Err on the side of caution. I don't want anyone to know they're snooped into just yet. So far looks like the snooping I did is in the clear. I almost thought about even planting something obvious, see who bit and came after the cheese, but decided against it."
"Because there's more."
Another nod. "Remember when we all took down that warehouse with our poor mutated dealer?"
"Yeah. We all worked fairly well together. Although, you let the guys get away so that you could put together some chemicals to save Biggie's life." Biggie was barely functional now, though, with muscles of goo. Tim had saved his life, keeping his heart from giving out from the chemicals, but he had no relevant information for them and would be on disability now.
"No, I put a tracer in their gas tank. So I know where the van stopped before it was ditched. It went to Chinatown. A neat little underground lair that quickly moved. There were buckets and... well, it was obvious there was human trade going on."
"A problem lately."
"Not as much of one anymore. New ownership of the major gang in Chinatown who is not a fan of human slave trade."
"How'd you pull that off?"
"Another time," Tim promised. "At any rate, the operations moved. I was sure that would flush them out. One of them happened to move to Jason's turf."
"Bad move for them."
"Very. Jason handled them in Jason-fashion. One of the bodies matched the description of the observers we saw at the warehouse. I didn't make the connection until recently, though."
"Okay. So that connects."
"And more. Jason had a visitor, a person who claimed to be Steve Rogers." Tim held out his phone and unlocked it with a few strange voice commands and thumbprint, then handed it over to Dick for him to scroll through the pictures pulled up. They were small on the screen, but Dick could see the papers, if not in great detail. "He was uncoding that in his living room when Jason happened on him."
"... It wasn't Steve Rogers, right?"
"Actually, likely, but Jason doesn't think so. Which means..."
It took Dick a few seconds. "He wasn't dressed up. If he had his shield and the outfit, Jason wouldn't have questioned."
"So he wasn't there on official business. Assuming it's Mr. Rogers, and with HYDRA being involved I can't dismiss that possibility, he wasn't there on SHIELD orders."
Tim was watching him sideways, still driving easily, and damn, Dick felt slow. Then finally. "He didn't trust SHIELD with either the information or with Jason's place."
"Somewhat. He had the wrong place, according to what I found out from Jason the other night, so it could have been the former or he didn't trust them with whose place he thought it was. By the way... I gave him one of Ma Kent's pies."
Dick made a playful gasp. "The apple pie! Dang it, I thought Dinah and Sin ate it! It was you who made it so I didn't get any!"
"You got a berry pie. Don't complain."
"I wanted the apple, too."
"See there's a word for that. Greed. Anyhow, Jason gave me the papers in a trade for pie and figuring out what I know of the papers and codes. And I figured out quite a bit. Someone's been toting these around for a bit, reworking the codes, because it's not just a code--it's formula too. Something else old fashioned that they're doing that's making them hard to trace." He glanced to Dick meaningfully before looking at road again.
Dick frowned, then squint at the images. "... These are folded. Snail mail?"
"Exactly. Not the easiest thing to trace the origin of. But the orders are clear enough. So I did get to send Jason after them. Some of them slipped away. Some didn't. And they fried their equipment."
"... Did Jason...?"
"No, he was good. I have to sneak him more of Ma's cooking for that. But he learned that HYDRA is a fan of cyanide pills."
"Jesus on a cracker..."
Tim looked grim. "Yeah. Thankfully they hadn't 'restocked' on test subjects yet, so there was none of that. Jason put them on the run. That works in our favor. Now we watch for equipment. They have no choice. Someone is driving them to produce, and they're being determined about it."
Dick nodded, looking over the images and thinking. Then, "Okay, so what's the next step?"
"Who do we know that works with Captain America?"
"Doh! Connor."
Tim smiled now. "There you go. Now, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Huh?" Oh. Right. Then Dick shrugged, realizing that he had been obvious in the Cave, so he dove on. "Um.. actually, this. You working so much."
Tim raised a brow. "This coming from you." When Dick didn't come back with something immediately, the pause was all Tim needed to know. "Oh, this isn't from you. Okay, so who put you up to it? Let me think... possibilities. Alfred, who would have just said something to me first before resorting to you. Or... No, wait. Surely not."
"Look, it doesn't matter who put me up to it, the thing is I wouldn't be talking to you if I didn't think they were right. You have been really hard on yourself and driving yourself into almost Batman obsession."
Tim nodded slowly. "I... will take it for what it is. It's not insulting, just consideration toward my well-being. But Dick, you know better than to try to throw me off a case. The scent went dead, but now it's not." Tim smirked. "But I threw an erratic factor into my thinking and a radical at them. There's a connection here, and if my hunch is right, Connor is going to confirm it."
"... So we're cool?"
"We're cool, and yes, I'll try to do something else after this. I think I'll have to wait anyhow. I don't know everything. Heh. I can't know everything, and I'm going to do my best to be okay with that for now. There are other players in this game that are subtly affecting our city. I have to see what turns up in the data." He turned into the long driveway toward the Manor.
Connor had known they were coming from Tim's phone message, so he met them at the door and welcomed them in, pat at Dick's shoulder when he was hugged. "Yes, hello. Come on in. I'll make some tea."
"Tea will be nice. Something decaffeinated," Tim said. "Cause Dick is going to sleep on the way home. Since he works so much."
"I am?" At Tim's eyebrow raise at him, Dick mumbled. "Whatever. I guess I am." Fair's fair.
They chat about nothing much, just catching up, then Tim pulled something out of his pocket, setting it on the table and pressing a button. There was the most subtle electronic pop in the air, more felt than heard. Tim asked how work was.
The green eyes looked from the device to Tim, thoughtful. Being careful on how you answer, but you caught on what the bug nullifier does, it looks like. Good man. "It's not so bad lately. Quiet," Connor said.
"Captain's not in, huh?"
Connor opened his mouth, looking sideways. Then realized that motion alone just gave him away, because his smile was a little more abashed toward Tim. "I suppose you saw the news."
"Assassination attempts are hard to keep quiet sometimes. But more concerning that he's not back yet. Yet.... You don't seem super worried."
Connor smiled a little. Collected, calm, green eyes watching Tim across from him. "You're going to find out things even if I don't say anything, aren't you."
"Especially by what you don't say," Tim said cheerfully, both hands on his tea as he sipped.
"All right. I'll go get the letter then."
Dick looked up from his own tea, at Tim as he passively sipped and at Connor as he stood, all quiet flow and left the room on his bare feet easily. "What letter?" Dick whispered. Tim said nothing. "You're as bad as Bruce sometimes! Nope, don't smile. That is not a compliment right now."
But Connor was coming back, handing over the letter. Tim looked the envelope over, then pulled the single sheet of paper from the contents. He showed Dick it briefly, smiling, eyes sparking with the happiness of someone who just made another confirmation. "Cap's got very neat cursive," Tim noted. Then he read it. He gave a nod, then handed the letter to Dick to read. "So he is being super cautious. Using snail mail and being vague. Interesting how another old organization is currently using the same method." He looked to Connor. "I hope you can be more subtle with others at SHIELD than you were with us just now."
"Honesty is working best. Someone did ask me where he was and there's no guile to detect when I say I don't know and haven't talked to him, but I was sure he was fine."
"Good. And you know the person who asked?"
"Not well at all."
"That's fine. Just keep them noted and try not to act suspicious of them. We'll talk to the boss lady. Or more, Dick will."
"Who's the older brother here?" Dick asked.
"Who needs to relax, some, Dick? Anyhow, Connor, I'm going to see if James will stay at the hideouts. It's good that captain is worried about him, so until he's back, think that's going to be best. His apartment is likely not secure at all."
"I appreciate that. If I check on him, it would just hint that I got a message somehow, and I wanted to see if Mia could keep an eye on him."
Tim nodded. "That will work well." Tim stood. "I will talk to her tonight over the coms. Not that I think this place isn't safe. Just being over cautious." He took the device off the table, clicking it off.
"She'll be home from her project soon, you know. You can stay for a little if you want."
Tim seemed to consider it, then shrugged with a smile. "Nah, but tell her I stopped by and thanks for dragging me out. Helped clear my head a lot and was just the thing I needed. Also, tell her thank you for her concern, and that I'll try to take a bit of time tonight. Now I gotta get back home and see if I can get my brother to sleep some. He's been up way too long."
Dick swat Tim on the shoulder as he came up. They said farewells and got in the car, Tim driving again. Dick was silent for a few minutes, then flung his hands up in frustration.
"Why am I the one who has to tell Hill she's got a HYDRA mole?"
Tim only rolled his eyes up playfully. "Dick. Go to sleep." Once Dick grumbled and did kick his seat back to do so, it left Tim to think. The letter was new. Mia had surprised him a bit as well. Good move, Mia. I got the message... Interesting.