Outsiders

The crows

It shouldn't have surprised Kate when Jacob found out. She'd been cautious, but even that was never enough to let things slip past her father. He had finally pieced it together in the aftermath of Sophie being taken. His focus had been hijacked by months as the Crows collected whispers of a new organization setting up shop in Gotham. It was a result of this obsession that Sophie became a victim of a botched search.

Jacob was beside himself with grief when he learned she'd been nabbed. Memories of a warehouse years earlier flooded his mind, and he made a commitment to see this one end differently.

He'd come to see Sophie as a surrogate daughter of sorts. While she'd never replace Kate or Beth, he felt a paternal bond to her as she moved through the Crows. There was also the factor of being Kate's ex that made him keep a watchful eye on her. She'd joined the Crows immediately out of Point Rock, and carried the heartache into her first few months as a Crow. That she even joined straight out of school was an exception intended for Kate, and, when she'd left the Academy, Jacob had no intention of making an offer to anyone else. That was, until he ran into her on campus when he returned to help Kate move out. They'd interacted only a few times, but he already held her in high regard: if Kate approved, and she had managed to put up with his daughter for three years, that deserved consideration.

She was sharp, detail oriented, and had the dry humor reminiscent of Kate that appeared without fail to call Jacob out when he was being particularly bullish and irrational. This no-nonsense approach to leadership was a quality that quickly lifted her to his second in command. It was an unprecedented move, but she was an atypical hire. His strategy for years had been to surround himself with brawn and leave decision-making to him, but he quickly discovered that the two balanced each other out: he was often quick to draw from his years in the field while she preferred a more diplomatic approach. That they respected each other helped with the worst of confrontations which were often met with raised voices of disagreement, but never once had they not been able to find common ground.

Until recently. They'd had spats before but had never not met compromise. That had changed with the discovery of a new crime syndicate making Gotham its new home months earlier. This underground group became known as the Religion of Crime, and it sent Jacob on a warpath to uncover anything and everything about them. The vetting process to hire new Crows had been sidelined to bulk up 'for war' as Jacob put it. The timing was noteworthy as many from the task force had begun to retire. Even for the hired gun, there was only so much of Gotham a Crow could take before being drained and stepping down.

The task force hadn't been this slim since its creation, and Jacob took the threat of the Religion of Crime to forgo traditional training and background checks. It was the first time he and Sophie left the table at complete odds, and the impact of the decision swept through the force in no time. Unproven and questionable hires introduced the flavor of corruption that the GCPD had spent years fighting to detain. This made Sophie's job all the harder as Jacob took the increased quantity as a reason to pursue each and every lead.

Chaos ensued. The Crows were no longer focusing on everyday Gotham needs and instead spent nights leaping from one abandoned warehouse to another. At one point Sophie and a squadron spent three nights navigating the sewers to check on a tip. It turned up empty, much like every other piece of intel that had been found.

Finally Sophie demanded a split in the task force.

"We can't keep this up; we can't exist only for this. We haven't made a single arrest in weeks."

"Don't you understand? This could be the downfall of Gotham."

"You sound mad, sir," Sophie scowled. Jacob had taken to expressing these ambiguous claims that, to Sophie, sounded like nothing more than a conspiracy theory. "We keep chasing these leads that end up nowhere. We need to reorganize and refocus our energy on verifying intel. The task force is burning out, and we have nothing to show for it."