A Daughter of Gotham.

Part 3. The Art of War.

September, 1984.

Nadia had learned the trick to a man's heart was to find out what kind of woman he was looking for, then become that person.

Learning about Bruce was easy. Every twit she knew from her school was dying to gossip about him. Usually with gossip there would be a problem discerning rumours from the truth.

But with Bruce, Nadia quickly learned, the more incredible the rumor, the more likely it was to be true.

She learned that Bruce was enrolled at the Old Gotham Military Academy. It was expected that he would graduate one year early. After graduation he planned to enlist in the Air Force, to become a pilot like his father and grandfather before him.

After this he planned to enlist in NASA.

Bruce wanted to walk on the moon.

He joked about some day becoming an action star in Hollywood, after he returned. What other star could claim those credentials? He would be bigger than the others combined!

Bruce excelled at math and science. Even as an early teen he had often been invited to speak publicly on the future of computers.

He was a war buff, having studied in detail every major battle in history. His favorite book was "The Art of War."

He was an athlete, but hated sports. He preferred to compete in swimming, diving, and running. He was a boxer, wrestler, and sometimes fenced.

Nadia learned that "Bruce" was not his real name. It was a nickname he had been given as a child, because of his love for Bruce Lee.

Nadia went by a nickname as well. The name "Nadia" was just what her parents called her. The name on her birth certificate was something else.
She had seen it once, but forgot what it was.

As for her last name, she planned to change it to "Wayne" as quickly as possible.

Nadia discovered, to her delight, that Bruce's birthday was December 5th, the day after her own. He was almost exactly one year younger than her. She took this as a sign; that even the stars were aligned to bring them together.

Learning all of this gave Nadia the direction she needed. She now knew the person that she had to turn into. After a couple of weeks of study and practice, she became that woman.

She was ready.

The next time that Bruce saw her (again at the food court, in front of the image of her mother), Nadia made sure to be wearing a Bruce Lee shirt.

It was a black, short sleeve t-shirt that she had designed herself. It featured a close up of Bruce Lee's face looking straight at the camera. Over her left breast she had stitched a white two inch image of Bruce kicking his foot straight forward at a 90 degree angle. Over her right breast she had red stitched a 2 inch Chinese symbol for a dragon.

This Nadia wore as she sat at her table in the food court, waiting for Bruce. She wasn't eating anything because she didn't want him to see her eating. Instead, she pretended to read the copy of "the Art of War" that she had brought with her.

Bruce took the bait the moment he entered the food court and saw her.

Again he had his entourage of twits with him; pawing him and laughing. But they stopped at once when they saw Bruce notice Nadia sitting alone at her table. When he left them behind to speak to her, they didn't care for that at all.

"Hey, I like the shirt," he told her when he was close.

Nadia tried to act surprised.

"Oh, this? Yeah, I had one of my father's designers make it for me."

"Wow, it's really cool. I like that picture of him. He looks thoughtful and wise."

Nadia agreed. "Yeah, this is my favorite picture of him. He was so handsome. You can tell by looking at him he was not a fighter in real life."

Bruce was surprised, as she knew he would be when she said it.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "Bruce grew up on the streets of Hong Kong after the big war. He fought against gangs all his life."

"No, he didn't," Nadia teased. "That was all marketing. He was a dancer. I know, my mother was a dancer, too. I was too, before I got expelled. I know ballet when I see it."

Bruce laughed, incredulously. "You're out of your mind," he told her.

"Look at his face," Nadia insisted. "That face has never been hit outside of a ring or on a mat. Now look at my face. My face looks like a fighter. See how crooked my nose is? A bunch of girls jumped me at school one time, and broke my nose."

Bruce was surprised. "Why did they jump you?" he asked.

Nadia answered, "It was over a guy that I wasn't even interested in. He kept talking about me, and one of them got jealous and jumped me from behind, and the rest joined in."

Bruce sat down in the empty chair next to her. He moved in close to her, to look at her.

"Your nose looks fine to me." He told her. "In fact, you're the one who looks too pretty to have ever been in a fight."

It was exactly the words she had planned for him to say. But still she could not help blushing.

"Well, there is a plastic surgeon in Sweden that I thank for that."

"What about me?" Bruce asked with a smile. "Do I look like I have ever been in a fight?"

"I don't know," she said, pretending to think it over. "You have a pretty handsome face. I would guess that you have been in one fight. Two at the most. Am I right?"

Bruce smiled again, then shrugged. "A few more than that. But that's close enough," he answered. "Hey, I have a home theater, and I have all of Bruce Lee's movies. Would you like to come over some time and watch a couple?"

Nadia's heart skipped a beat, but she tried not to let it show.

"Yeah, we could do that sometime. Do you have 'Game of Death'?"

"Of course I do. That's my favorite."

Nadia knew that it was. "Oh, really? It's mine, too."

She pulled up her purse. Inside she had made sure to bring a pen and paper. "Let me give you my number. I think I have a pen in here somewhere."

She rummaged for a minute, then "found" it, along with a couple of "scraps" of paper.

Writing on one, she told him, "The top number is my home number. The bottom one is for my car."

When she handed him the paper, he looked to see what she had written. "Wow, you have pretty handwriting."

It was such a simple compliment, but Nadia couldn't help but to blush again. It was unexpected. "Thank you, Bruce."

He took the pen and the other piece of paper from her. "I'll give you my home number, but my car phone is screwing up on me. I haven't had time to fix it."

As he wrote, Nadia stole a look over at the girls Bruce had come in with. They were all still milling around where he left them. All were staring daggers at her, hating her for the attention she was stealing.

Nadia smiled back at them, and winked, an imitation of Bruce's "I have you now" wink.

Turning back to Bruce, she told him honestly, "I'm happy you happened across me. I'm really looking forward to watching 'Game of death' with you."

Taking the paper with his home phone number from him, she placed it safely between the pages of 'the Art of War'.