Chapter 15
“Be safe,” Mel said, drawing Tim, Harry and Damian into a hug and stopping them from rushing out of the door. “You’re still kids.”
“I’m going to get her back,” Tim let himself be held for a second longer in Mel’s warm embrace before he shrugged out of it. “I promise.”
“Just promise you’ll come back too,” Ruby said firmly, stroking Tim’s cheek.
“I will protect them,” Damian said, one hand on his sword.
Harry opened the balcony door and stepped out, closely followed by Tim and Damian.
“See ya soon,” Mel said, staring directly at Tim.
“See ya,” Tim nodded. He crawled over the balcony, pulling himself onto the roof. Ignoring the heaviness in his chest, he jumped the gap between buildings and in a few seconds was on the ground next to Dick’s motorcycle. Someone was already there, trying to jack the tires off the bike.
“Back off,” Damian growled, pointing his sword at the man’s neck. The man did not argue.
Tim kicked the motorbike into action and raced off, knocking over a bin and spilling garage across the road.
“Where are we going?” Harry yelled over the sound of the wind.
“There’s a reason Batman has never found where Black Mask operates,” Tim shouted back, spinning around a circle, “he hasn’t been using the warehouses in Crime Alley. We’re going to Bristol.”
It was infuriating, retracing the same paths they had crossed earlier. Amelia had been dragged away at five twenty-five. It was now just before six. What sort of detective was he? Every minute that passed could be the difference between life and death for Amelia. In the security footage, it didn’t seem like Black Mask wanted her dead but he still had on idea what he wanted. He should never have allowed himself to get distracted by Dumbledore. He should never have allowed himself to sleep when Amelia was in danger.
Up ahead, the roads turned from rough, pothole littered streets to wide, clean roads surrounded by tasteful shrubberies and trees. The air became clearer and the lampposts brighter in the dimming afternoon. The residential mansions gave way to bouquets, speciality delis and after an agonising ten minutes multi-story corporate buildings. Drake Industries consisted of a central office block surrounded by warehouses, all in different shades of white with the DI logo in golden letters across the top of each building. Given how little time his parents spent in Gotham, they sure liked to have their name on everything.
Tim stopped the bike in a shadowy park corner opposite Drake Industries, out of sight from any of the security cameras. If Black Mask really was around here, he didn’t want to lose the element of surprise. In the shelter of a tree, he drew out his laptop and with a few keystrokes accessed the security cameras around the warehouses. He added a quick loop over the current footage but he didn’t dare leave it at that.
“Damian,” Tim said cautiously, “don’t freak out or anything.”
“Why would I-.”
Tim concentrated on his magic and let it sweep over his body. He channelled it into his hand and tapped Harry, Damian and himself on the head. Damian shuddered.
“What was that?”
“It felt like a disillusionment spell,” Harry held up his hands in front of himself, “but I can still see you.”
“I’ve been experimenting,” Tim said. “We’ll be able to see each other but no one can see us. It doesn’t work for as long though. I haven’t got it to last more than thirty minutes.”
“Really?” Harry exclaimed. “That’s incredible. We have to-.”
“I’ll show you later,” Tim blushed at the compliment but he couldn’t afford himself to get distracted talking about magic. He turned to Damian.
“Is there any way we could leave you here and you wouldn’t follow us?”
“You will not last long without me,” Damian stuck his chin in the air.
“Put this on at least,” Tim shoved the invisibility cloak at him. “You have a panic button, right and a comm?”
“Of course I have one. I am not an imbecile,” Damian took the cloak and admired the shimmery fabric. “I won’t have full body motion if I wear this.”
“Keep it on you at least,” Tim didn’t have time to argue with the stubborn six year old. “If anything happens, you are to hide or run.” Damian tried to interrupt but Tim cut him off. “Hide or run. I don’t care that you can fight. I won’t see you get hurt.”
“I will not,” Damian held the cloak to him. Tim ruffled the kids hair, wondering if he was making a terrible mistake. Is this how Bruce felt whenever one of his kids refused to stay in the manor?
“Alright,” Tim breathed out slowly. “Stay close.”
As they went to cross the street towards the warehouses, Mortimer flapped down from above and looped around them. The sight calmed Tim somewhat.
The first three warehouses Tim peered into just appeared to be filled with the typical storage crates one would expect. He unlocked the warehouse doors with a silent alohomora and slipped open the boxes, finding only electronics. Tim was beginning to think he had made a major miscalculation when he entered the fourth warehouse and noticed that the interior was slightly smaller than the previous buildings. From the outside it was the same size but inside the right-hand shelves only held nineteen boxes across and not twenty. He noticed that there were far more security cameras in this warehouse than the others.
Treading silently on the concrete floor, he approached the right-hand wall and knocked softly on it, pressing his ear against the corrugated iron. Not hearing anything unusual, he moved up the wall until the sound changed.
“Look here,” Harry pointed down at a box directly opposite the section of wall Tim was examining.
“This box is not covered in the same amount of dust,” Damian nodded. He held out his sword and pushed the top of the box off. Harry caught it before it could hit the ground and Tim bent forward to look inside the box. He was a little disappointed to only see a five digit keypad on the bottom, attached securely to the metal shelf under the box. The entrance to the Batcave through the broken clock was much cooler. He shook himself out of the thought. This wasn’t time to criticise this warehouse’s security system but if he was going to make a secret lair…no Amelia could be dying. This was not the time.
Thousands of possible combinations ran through Tim’s head but before he tried any of them, an idea formed in his mind. He built his magic back up and held his hand directly over the key pad. “Alohomora.”
Rather than unlocking it, the spell caused the keypad to spark and the screen above the red letters went black. It was like Tim had left off an EMP blast. Tim supposed there might really be something behind the whole magic and electricity doesn’t mix. The wall beside Tim slide open to reveal an elevator, just wide enough to fit the three of them. Harry seemed hesitant to follow Tim and Damian into the tight space but stepped between them before the doors shut.
The elevator descended with a grind of metal on metal and the three of them were briefly plunged into darkness. Blue lights flickered on after a second and they waited in silence as it lowered further and further into the ground. When the doors opened with a ding, Tim looked out to see three men staring into the elevator. They were all dressed suits but the guns on their belts distinguished them from the typical businessmen that Tim had met at the company. None were staring directly at any of them reassuring Tim that his disillusionment charm worked but it didn’t make them intangible. Quickly, Tim dodged around them, pulling Harry and Damian with them.
They found themselves in a white corridor, the walls blank and clinical. There were doors every few metres. Checking to see that no one was watching, Tim stuck his head through each one. There were a few storage closets but most of the doors led to well stocked labs. He saw men and woman in white coats and PPE, holding syringes and vials of different coloured liquids. The sight made him shudder. What were his parents doing here?
As they went deeper into the underground compound, Tim felt sicker and sicker. The simple white doors changed, becoming heavily barricaded metal structures with a suspicious number of locks. He had to use multiple alohomora to peer inside and what he saw made his stomach churn. There was no doubting what they were. The rooms contained nothing but a single toilet and bed, nailed to the floor. They were all empty but the dots of red on one of the mattresses told Tim that they hadn’t been for long. None of the rooms had any windows.
Down the corridor Tim heard a high pitched scream. He broke into a run, Harry and Damian close behind him. Tim didn’t even need to say alohomora. The door in front of them burst open and they rushed inside, Damian with his sword raised and Tim clutching his knife.
Amelia lay in the middle of wide room Tim recognised from one of Kinsey’s pictures. Her wrists and feet were tied and her red mini-skirt and blouse were ripped, dark in places from wounds hidden by the fabric. A man in a black, skull shaped mask loomed over her, crushing one of her hands beneath his heel. There was a camera set up beside them, recording the whole thing. The sound of the door flying open made the man pause and turn towards Tim.
It was Black Mask.