We Were Born Sick • Gotham Fanfiction •

XXIV: Way Down We Go

"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold." -Helen Keller

~()~

"Bird?" Butch said, waving a hand in front of her face as they stood at the back of the van they'd driven there together in. After she'd left Harvey's office she called Butch back and he'd told her to meet at the club and they'd ride to the armory together.

"Yeah?" Bird asked, blinking her eyes and giving it away that she'd been zoned out for the last several minutes.

"Come on." He sighed, facing her. "Crunch time here, you gotta get your head in the game. This is a big job and a damn important one that you volunteered for."

"I got it." She replied, her tone snippier than she'd meant for it to be, as she pulled her hair back in a tight, high sitting ponytail and secured it in place with the band from her wrist.

He bit his tongue as he watched her wrap her hair into a tight bun and set it into place with some bobbypins. Fish had told him months ago to keep an eye on her, their boss felt like her loyalties might be aligned with someone else. He didn't see it that way, but he had picked up on how distracted she'd seemed recently and in his mind; her offering to handle such a dangerous task on her own was the equivalent of sending herself on a suicide mission –especially when it was clear that her thoughts were lightyears away.

Bird picked up the black ski mask and pulled it on over the top of her head, but didn't conceal her face with it yet. Zipping up the baggy black sweatshirt she'd chosen in hopes that from a distance it would be hard for someone to tell she was a female, she pulled the hood up on her head and reached down for the black leather archer glove she'd gotten earlier that day to protect her fingers from the bow. Once the protective glove was in place on her right hand, Butch handed her the one strap, cloth bag containing the arrows she'd need and she gave a small nod of thanks as she pulled it on so that the arrows would easily be accessible from reaching over her shoulder.

"I'm going to scale what's left of the old bridge to get a higher vantage point." Bird explained, as she picked up the explosive device and tucked it into her pocket.

"I'll stay over here, just in case someone tries to run this direction." Butch explained, before saying, "Hopefully it doesn't come to this... we'll be losing a lot of money."

"You're telling me." She breathed, pulling the mask over her face and looking around when she thought she heard the very distant sound of police sirens echoing in the open air around them.

"It's your call." Butch reminded her, "I'm just here as back up."

With a final nod, she turned and jogged in the other direction, heading towards the tall, crumbling remains of an old cement bridge on the edge of the parking lot next to the armory.
As she made her way across the pavement and up the collapsing cement structure, she noticed the truck was already in place and there was no sign of the Russians.

Once she was in place, she crouched down amongst some dry, dead grass and weeds that had made its way through the cracks in the structure. She made sure she had a strong foothold in the gravel and that none of the empty beer bottles left on the ground near her was going to be in her way.

She hadn't been there long when there was a loud sound of an explosion, followed by the sound of iron striking concrete as the door from the vault fell.
So far so good it seemed, once Nikolai's men got all of the money loaded and left from there to meet Fish's men at the secondary location it would be simple to take them out and bank the profits.