Truth, Unmasked

Part 2

Within a half hour everyone who knew and loved Melody had been made aware of her disappearance. They were all gathered in the Batcave now: Damian, Tim, Dick and Cassandra, all of whom had been made Melody's siblings when the latter was adopted. Even Jason, who always ran in the opposite direction as the rest of the family, was there, masking his concern for his youngest sister with an expression of annoyance.

The Waynes were not, however, dressed in expensive suits or even casual streetwear. Each of them were dressed in full-body suits made of reinforced Kevlar, with strange logos emblazoned across their chests; logos that were easily recognisable to the people of Gotham as symbols of justice and hope.

Bruce Wayne himself stood before them, imposing in head-to-toe black. "Let's review the facts," he said briskly. He pointed to the 3D hologram projected from the table in front of him. A thin blue line ran over a map of the Manor's grounds, tracing Melody's movements before her disappearance. "Melody left the Manor at approximately 4P.M. for a ride on her horse. According to the security sensors, she went from the stables, across the garden, and to the pond. There the trail ends. The horse returned with an empty saddle at half past four in a panic. One of the stirrups was broken." The projection zoomed in on the pond; three red dots indicated the presence of three people. The timestamp read 16:45:45. "There were at least two other people at the pond at the time of Melody's disappearance. Titus tracked Melody's scent into the forest right beside the pond, but the scent ends about ten yards in. Right now all the signs point to a forced removal from the premise."

"Forced removal?"

"Kidnap."

"But who will want to kidnap Melody?"

"Some lowlife who thinks they can use Melody to demand ransom, I guess."

"But there haven't been any ransom demands—"

"Not yet."

"Are we just going to stand here and wait for those fuckers to bring Melody back? I will find them and then I will kill them."

This last was uttered by Jason, who cracked his knuckles as though he couldn't wait to carry out his threat of murder.

"I'm not saying I don't feel the same, Jason, but let's think rationally now." Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose, struggling to suppress the throbbing in his temples. "The first thing we need to do is figure out where on earth she is. When Melody came to us, I gave her a necklace with the Bat-symbol on it."

"You gave her a Bat-pendant?" Dick said in mock horror.

"I told her to keep the necklace on her body always."

"That I recall," Robin said. "She hated the necklace. But she obeyed."

"She did? Then let's hope she obeyed when she went to ride Yulong this afternoon." Bruce turned to the Batcomputer and began typing furiously. "I embedded a GPS tracker into the necklace so we would always know her location. I am activating the tracker now...We should get a pingback from it and know her location."

"That's some serious violation of privacy, B. Not cool."

A map of Gotham city appeared on the Batcomputer. Bruce pressed a key, and the screen zoomed into an area in the West. A red dot was pulsing in the centre of the screen, indicating Melody's position. Bruce swore when he realised where that was.

"She's in Chinatown," he announced. "459 Chestnut Street."

The address rang a bell of familiarity in Tim's mind. He frowned, searching his mental library of case files for memories of that location. "459 Chestnut Street...Didn't we solve a crime there long ago, B? Saved someone from dying or something?"