Racheal listened to the music coming in over her ear buds. The phone had a number preprogramed, a web browser, a music player and an 80’s metal album on it. She had downloaded her music off her computer and was listening to the latest Beyonce album. For some reason she couldn’t work up any anger at the mysterious woman who killed her boyfriend.
*
Bruce walked into clock tower, Barbara was about to say something witty until she saw his face.
“I need to find a reason to fire that woman,” Bruce growled.
“What’s going on?” Barbara asked.
“She was listening to music all day,” Bruce growled, “European 80’s metal bands. She is entirely too damn cheerful.”
“Well I have some bad news to cheer you up,” Barbara said, “I got the forensics reports. The reason the gun failed is because while the victim bought a fifteen-hundred-dollar gun he bought a three-dollar box of rejected remanufactured underpowered cheepo ammo. When he shot it, the primer popped out the back and jammed it up. But as for what killed him, the knife used was one of those spiral daggers but it also had a dispenser of concentrated Black Mamba venom. The stab in the guts was meant to get the venom into all of the blood vessels surrounding the intestinal track. He was dead in under a minute.”
“Was it painful?” Batman asked.
“I doubt it,” Barbara said as she walked over to the coffee machine, “Shock would have set in almost instantly.”
*
The Baroness looked in the mirror again, there was a kind of grim comedy to the fact that she was committing a major felony in the face of Scarlet, the trusted American agent. She waited for the local dealer, the message had been clear enough while hiding who she was and who she worked for. The white limo pulled up and the local freak got out.
“Ah, such a lovely creature,” Penguin squawked, “What can I do for you?”
“I need two hundred AKM pattern rifles,” Baroness, “None of those commercial semiauto ones. Real military full autos only. And I will need more in the future.”
“So your request said,” Penguin said, “And payment?”
“About a hundred thousand dollars in gold,” Baroness put the heavy bag on the floor she took a deep breath and made sure that she spoke in the American accent of her enemy, “Seventy Pounds. I will provide another four hundred and pounds in wafers on delivery.”
“Chickadee,” Penguin called.
Two ladies stepped out of Limo, one stood next to Penguin with a shotgun while the other walked forward and picked up the bag, she went about five steps then turned to the left and walked another five paces. Once there she put down the bag and looked in.
“Ozzy,” she pulled up a thin sheet of gold, “It’s real, looks like a mix of Swiss and Canadian wafers. No funny stuff here.”
“It will take a while to make the deal,” Penguin said, “How will we contact you?”
“Here,” Baroness put a phone on the floor, “My number is programed in.”
“Chickadee will be in touch,” Penguin said.
The three returned to the limo and Baroness went out the auto shop.
*
Miss Gates stood watching her daughter sleep. She couldn’t get the music from the office out of her head. She then looked at self-help CD Ana had given her earlier. If this was what Ana used to boast her confidence so she could smile down an angry Bruce, how could it hurt her to have a listen?