Revenge (Batfamily) - Sequel to Brother In Arms

Chapter 13 ~ Briefing

So this is one of those awkward in-between chapters with tons of dialogues but I hope you'll like it anyway ^^

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The very next day, the whole family gathered together at the Batcave to discuss what they knew. Kyle was there too. He had brought Nala and the Belgian shepherd was playing with Titus on the other side of the cave, barking and chasing down each other happily. Tim and Damian had spent the whole night on the road to be present as well. The both of them were standing just in front of Bruce, Tim with his arms crossed over his chest while Damian was casually leaning against one of the cave's walls not far from him. Dick, Kyle and Jason were sitting on the iron stairs in front of the place where Bruce parked the Batmobile. The latter clasped his hands loudly in front of him. "So, let's recapitulate the whole case. Who wants to start?"

Tim straightened up and unfolded his arms. He took a few steps forward to meet Bruce's side and face his brothers and Kyle. "So, Damian and I discovered a link between a company called SystemLabs and the terrorists. Also, the barrels contained a derived version of the Sarinide, as I already told Dick. It wasn't simply an explosion. They failed their attempt to infect the population." Tim opened the cardboard envelope folder he had in his hands and gave to each of his brothers a piece of paper with a lot of data on it. "I analyzed a sample of what was inside the barrels Damian and I found in-."

"Isn't that some of Scarecrow's shit?!" Jason asked, staring at Tim with wide eyes.

Tim nodded. "They managed to mix his fear toxin with the Sarinide and a few other components that aren't to be put aside. It wasn't supposed to be only an explosion."

"It was a fail attempt to contaminate the population, hence the green cloud..." Dick gasped.

Damian all of a sudden moved away from the cave's wall to stand just next to Tim. "Drake and I obviously talked about it during the drive back. Chicago was only their test site and fortunately for everyone, it didn't work as well as they had planned. The explosion sure caused a great loss, but it could have been much more significant if the gas and the toxins had worked out as they had initially planned."

"So..." Kyle frowned, "What's gonna happen now?"

"Well," Dick jumped on his feet, "Jay and I interrogated Ren Hirano yesterday-"

"Ren Hirano?" Kyle cut him off, turning his head in Jason's direction with a frown. "Isn't that the guy who sells us our weapons?"

"Yeah about that uh... We're gonna have to find a new guy," Jason replied pursing his lips. Kyle stared at him and sighed.

Dick cleared his throat. "So, Hirano told us about that woman we all know, Najma Raza. She is the one who paid him to get the barrels."

"Hold on," Bruce frowned, "Najma Raza? She's behind all of this?"

"Yep," Jason replied, folding the paper Tim had handed him a few moments earlier. "There's no one good in this freaking city. However, I don't think she's the head of the terrorist organization. More like one of their pawn."

"And I agree with Jay on this. Also, Hirano told us she was hosting a charity gala in two weeks here in Gotham. If we manage to sneak in the gala, then maybe we could interrogate her."

"Yeah, but you're just forgetting one teeny tiny little detail," Jason snorted while he stared at Bruce. The man straightened up and nervously readjusted his tie. He sent a death glare at Jason, earning only a smirk from the young man.