Sell you a Bridge chapter 31

Wayne Manor, July 9th 2010 7:15 PM EDT

I was a bit skeptical of Jim's plan. Admittedly I doubted Dick would  have time to keep an eye on me with such a good show going on, but this  seemed wildly dramatic and ostentatious. As I had that thought however I  remembered that this was exactly Jim's style. He purposefully got  caught on big flashy jobs to misdirect the League away from his real  thefts and lower his perceived threat level. This was exactly the kind  of thing he would do to draw heat off himself, so of course I should  have assumed he would do the same for me.

I slunk back a  bit with Annabel still behind me, sticking closer to the wall we weren't  the only ones doing so either, there was a blonde guy I recognized from  passing in GNB though he was wearing a ridiculous prussian military  costume and a huge fake mustache and beard. He was standing with his  back straight in front of a portrait of himself in the same outfit that  he'd clearly hung there himself based on the Matisse poking out from  behind the corner of a nearby table. His eyes were glued to Catwoman,  though not to her face, and he was weirdly calm for such a chaotic  situation.

He was such an odd sight he managed to distract  from Jim's theater and I sidled along the wall to get within speaking  distance. "Hey man, are you ok? Standing like that for so long can't be  good for your back, and this place is getting robbed. Shouldn't you  like...hide? Also I know it's rude to ask but what the hell is with your  outfit?" I felt bad for Jim, he was putting on this big show and his  apprentice wasn't even watching it, but this guy was just so weird and  out of place I felt almost compelled to ask.

The man  snorted "I am Ferdinand, The Royal Archduke of Grand Fenwick. These are  my traditional military garments." I was pretty sure Grand Fenwick  wasn't a real place and weirdly he wasn't speaking with an actual  accent, just a really clipped formal tone that sounded like he was  trying really hard to seem pompous. I just stared at him. He stared  stoically ahead for a minute before he stopped and looked around before  glaring at me, dropping the formal tone "Kid can you just be cool?  Please? Just for like ten minutes can you be cool? Please? Just...ok?"

I  put my hands up in surrender and inched away from the man taking my  girlfriend with me. We gave each other odd looks but just shrugged it  off. It was Gotham. Some people were just weird. Jim and Catwoman were  still putting on their show, Catwoman had to be in on it because she was  swing by the chandelier on her whip and narrowly dodging the howling  ghosts Jim was hurling at her by such a slim margin every time she  couldn't possibly be pulling it off if he wasn't helping her.Everyone  had kind of calmed down as they "did battle" and I saw some of the  teenagers subtly begin taking bets.

I knew I should stay  here and play this out. Act the innocent. But this place was a fortress  and the ancestral home of the wealthiest family in the city and I was an  apprentice thief. I'd have had more luck resisting actual heroin. I  leaned over to whisper to Annabel. "Hey it looks like they aren't  involving civilians but there was some ruckus when they showed up, I'm  worried about Arty and Reggie, I'm gonna go check and see if they're ok  if you feel alright with me leaving?" Once I was clear I could slip off  to case the place with my ninja moves and if Annabel ran into Reggie or  Artemis I could just claim I couldn't find them.

She  seemed a bit reluctant to let me go but finally after looking around  and spotting a friend she bit her lip and nodded she reached out and  squeezed my arm gently "Ok, go check on them, but be careful ok? Even if  they aren't fighting in a way that could injure you I don't want you to  get trampled or something." She leaned up to give me a quick peck on  the lips and I smiled and promised I would be careful. I walked away  into the crowd but as soon as I was out of her sight I slipped behind a  pillar and melded into the shadows.

Making  my way out once I didn't have a corporeal form anymore was much easier,  I slipped back past Annabel, and wandered by the Royal Archduke of  Grand Fenwick who was assuring a girl I recognized as one of the seniors  from the academy that a night with him would be "Legendary" and  regaling her with his exploits during the franco-prussian war fighting  alongside a man named Barnabus Von Stinsmark who he described as a bro  of great wisdom and cunning. Considering that war took place in the  early eighteen hundreds I was personally doubtful, but the senior, whose  name I remembered was Ashley, seemed very impressed.

I  made it over to the crowds and slipped through them tracelessly  actually doing what I told Annabel and checking on my friends. Artemis  and Wally were making out behind a water feature in the gardens and  Bette was dragging Reggie around to talk to her relatives, a surprising  amount of whom were at this thing because apparently Gotham's upper  crust are basically the noble houses from Harry Potter with no magic and  with less stupid names. The whole thing took me about ten minutes, and  drained five of the thirty five or so points I had because increasing  movement speed in shadow form pretty much doubled the cost every time  you sped up.

Finally  I made it out into the hallway and I slowed down, combing through the  place to look for anything interesting. I checked the Library, the  Gallery, even the Kitchen, and there were plenty of valuable first  editions and paintings but nothing worth breaking into this fortress  for. Finally I stumbled on something that might be worth taking. an  original Thomas Tompion grandfather clock. I actually took corporeal  form to run my hands over the thing, admiring the beautiful  craftsmanship.

Jim had made me  memorize scores of books on rare antiques and valuable goods. He said a  thief's catalog of knowledge was his life blood and I should be  expanding it every day. As I ran my hands over it though I noticed  something odd. It was stuck. I felt along the edges and found a fucking  seam. I stepped back, absolutely furious at this nonsense. Who bolts a  fucking clock to the wall? Aside from ruining the damn things value it  was just unnecessarily paranoid. I huffed and walked away from the damn  thing. The idiots hadn't even seated it right, I could totally pry it  away from the wall without too much effort, but it would wreck the thing  so what was the point.

The  rest of my sweep was a bust. Well, except for an actual bust I almost  took. The thing was a roman portrait bust of one of the more obscure  emperors, but in the end it was too heavy to be worth it. I couldn't  resist taking SOMETHING though and stopped back in the library to pocket  a signed first edition of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman worth a cool  three hundred k. It was small enough to fit in my suit's inner pocket  and I couldn't not take anything after all this annoying nonsense. I had  to work hard to get it though because I couldn't leave shadow form. The  whole inside of the place was wired with cameras.

After  my lap I was headed back to the Ballroom when I suddenly froze.  Something was watching me. As in, it could literally see me right now,  even hiding in shadow. I rose up from the darkness, taking a human form  but using my original cloaking skill to wrap the dark around me and hide  my now corporeal body from view. A low voice rumbled from the hall as a  shape stepped into the moonlight cast by the nearby window. A beautiful  woman with long dark hair and a red silk martial arts top with a  diamond shape cut out of the front. "Well, well, well, I came here to  make off with one of Wayne's treasures, who knew that would be such a  popular objective tonight."

One  of the most useful abilities I got as a ninja was my danger sense. It  was the same sense that told me I was being watched, but it was also  more than capable of detecting threats to my life. This woman was a  giant blaring warning sign of threatening to my life. I slipped a hand  in my pocket, running my fingers over my shuriken, but responded calmly  in a casual tone "Apologies, I wasn't aware I would be stepping on  anyone's toes. I haven't taken anything from here in any case, the  security is too tight, so our missions don't conflict. Still, I don't  think my trip was wasted I was feeling let down by all the mediocre  artwork, but now that I've seen true beauty the evening can be  considered a rousing success."

I  did my best to mimic Jim's cadence and mannerisms without doing his  accent. The woman laughed, her shining white teeth gleaming in the light  of the moon "What a little flatterer. But I suppose it's not easy for  someone your age to train to such a height in the craft of infiltration.  A pity you aren't a few years younger, you would make an excellent  match for my daughter." I tensed at her casual revelation of my age. I  didn't think she had seen me, maybe she could tell by my voice. She  chuckled again "Relax, little shade, I have not peered through your  disguise. You gave me ample information about yourself to deduce your  age."

I  cleared my throat, embarrassed that even through my cloaking she could  read me that well and wishing I'd brought my damn mask. Why had I  decided to come snooping. The woman smiled at my nervous silence and  waved a hand. "Off with you boy. I'm here to retrieve and item from the  manor's owner for my mistress, not to catch interesting little thief  boys. Take your ill gotten gains and be gone from this place." My hand  twitched and I barely stopped myself from reaching to check if my jacket  was bulging. Swallowing heavily I turned and walked back out into the  darkness. I didn't know who that woman was, but she scared me. I was  never coming back to this fucking manor again.

I  popped back up in the Ballroom and met up with Artemis and Wally and  Bette and Reggie before dragging everyone back over to Annabel. I  expected her to have questions about why I was gone so long but she just  looped her arm with mine and laid her head on my shoulder. Jim and  Catwoman were both gone, and Reggie had apparently made a tidy profit  betting on our mentor. As we made our way out of the party after  scarfing some more apps and mingling a bit more I heard a voice call out  to stop me. "Hey, Morgan, I didn't notice you around."

I  turned to see Dick Grayson hurrying up with a redhead I didn't know but  who looked slightly familiar. He grinned at me "Some party huh? Night  was a little wilder than expected but people seem to have had fun so I  guess I pulled it off." He have me a wide smile with what looked like a  tinge of suspicion around his eyes "I didn't see you in the Ballroom  earlier, I was looking for you to say hi. Guess we just have to catch up  next time." He held out a hand and I shook it saying goodbye and  thanking him for inviting me to the party. It was hard not to feel smug  about making off with a three hundred thousand dollar book right under  his nose, but I gave it my best shot. It didn't work.