Bullets and Brainpower

Selina Kyle V

Jim Gordon's P.O.V.

"You didn't call the Gazette," Harvey says as we head to the shop, "but did your girl call? Or Cassie?" I sigh.

"Yeah," I say. "Barbara."

"I knew it."

"I didn't know she was gonna call them," I say. I sigh. "I'm kind of glad she did though."

"Why?" I look over at him.

"They took Cassie." His eyes are wide.

"You kidding?" I shake my head. "Cassidy Alexandra Gordon, the cocky, underage street fighter, let herself get kidnapped by a woman with a pen?" I nod. "She really has changed." I nod again. "Seriously, though, you gotta control your girls."

"I kind of like 'em the way they are. Barbara at least. I'm still trying to get Cassie to listen to me."

"These high-class temperamental broads need firm handling, trust me." I look over at him.

"Trust you? On women?" He nods.

"Damn right. All varieties. From house fraus to movie stars. I love them all. Now, you, let me guess, high school sweetheart then a bunch of hos overseas only made you sad. And then there's Barbara." I nod.

"Pretty much." he shakes his head.

"You, my friend, are a monkey riding a racehorse."

Cassie Gordon's P.O.V.

I wake up leaning against something hard. I manage to pry my eyes open and see Selina sitting next to me.

"Welcome back to the Land of the Living," she says. "Wasn't sure you were gonna wake up." I groan and close my eyes, leaning back on the window.

"Ah, hell," I say.

"Remember what happened?" I nod.

"Creepy lady, poisoned pen?" She shrugs.

"Something like that." She looks up toward the front of the bus, then back at me. "Okay, I have a plan." I sit up, listening closely. "Whenever we get . . . wherever we're going, we're gonna hide under the seats. Hopefully, she'll be dumb enough to miss us, and then we can sneak off the bus and figure it out from there." I scoff.

"That's your plan?" I ask. "Figure it out when we get there?" She glares at me.

"Do you have a better idea?" I think about it and shake my head. "Well okay then." The bus lurches to a stop soon after we stop talking, and in the crowd of people getting off the bus, Selina nods at me, and we each get under a separate bench toward the front of the bus. I can hear the woman talking outside the bus.

"Funny thing," she says. "By my count, according to the sheet they gave us, we're two short."

"Me too," some guy says. "Maybe there's one on the bus." We hear someone come up the stairs, and I look over at Selina.

"Shh," I whisper. The woman walks down the aisle, and I roll out from under the bench. We quietly stand up and tiptoe down the stairs. We look around and roll under the bus. Soon enough, the woman walks out and heads towards a man.

"Nope," she tells him. "Weird. Must be a miscount someplace." Me and Selina crawl out from under the bus and run behind a giant crate that fortunately hides us until we reach the door on the other side of the room. Beyond the doorway is a large room full of crates, and there's one worker who doesn't see us at first. I reach into my pocket, hoping they didn't take it. I smirk when I feel the cool metal and pull out my pocket knife. It's not much, but it's something. I walk forward, and he turns around. He goes to say something, but I rush forward. He dodges my knife and pulls out his own, swinging it at me. I back up enough to minimize the damage, but not enough to keep the blade from cutting my stomach. Selina reaches around him and scratches him, and he screams. He runs out of the room, and we quickly hide behind one of the crates before the lady comes in, Selina helping me run. I peer around the corner of the crate, but jerk back in place when I see the gun in her hand. We hear the woman's heels getting closer and climb up onto the crate. The woman walks beneath us, and I hear a small Clink. Selina had dropped her locket. I look over at her with a blank expression on my face. At least I didn't drop mine, I think. The woman looks up at us.