Profession

Breakthrough

I woke up about an hour later, feeling like I'd forgotten something, then sent a coded message to Aunt Barbara, explaining the situation and asking her for backup. Feeling better and knowing that as a former superhero herself--Batgirl and Oracle--she'd immediately grasp the importance of the project and undoubtably have tricks I didn't know and wouldn't think of. Her experience would be invaluable... and frankly, I was hoping she'd volunteer to take over the search in the Gobi so I could concentrate on Afghanistan. She wasn't League, never had been, but she knew the players.

I had just gotten back to sleep when Jon tiptoed in and cuddled up. I always slept better with him.

When I woke up, I had a coded message from Aunt Barbara, who didn't have time to take on either search--rats--but had some very helpful suggestions on ways to increase safety and speed, and gave me the use of a small server site so that in the unlikely event I was discovered, my hacks couldn't be traced back to me. She had a few of these disposable setups around the world still; this one was physically located in Tunisia. Another message, uncoded, was from Diana, and asked me to call when I could. So I did.

Diana sounded absolutely flattened with fatigue and grief; she had enormous black circles under her eyes and her skin was pale, eyes red like a traffic light. Shit, that reminded me that I wanted to knit her some baby goodies. Family tradition, Grandma Alex and Uncles Steve and Bucky always knitted up a storm when babies in the extended family showed up. In my attic at home, I even had the blankets, sweaters, booties, and caps that had been made for me. She was holding off on the official announcement of her pregnancy until after the funeral and she'd begun to get a firm grip on the reins of government. She'd worked closely with her father, so it wasn't as hard as it could have been, but it was still quite a challenge.

"Crispy said that you're working with him and 13," she said diffidently.

"Yeah, I feel an obligation to help where I can. And this is looking like a family problem. We need to help clean it up."

"I kind of wish he hadn't asked you," she said, sighing. "I don't want you to be dragged into things like this just because we're friends." She paused and looked away. "Crispy would like to schedule a meeting with you and your grandfather."

"Just a short one, see where everybody is, divide responsibilities, that kind of thing," the prince said, his head popping into the screen from the side. He was also looking subdued, tired, and grieving. We quickly set up a meeting in his office in Buckingham palace for that afternoon. If Grandpa couldn't come, I could update and take notes. Diana's attention was called away. "Di will try to stop by too. I hope so, she could use a friend. We're all busy, she's having trouble sleeping, it's chaos here." I nodded.  We hung up, and I got my day started. After my shower, Jon got up and we went downstairs for breakfast. John fed us, and Clark and Uncle Steve too, who was looking refreshed and peppy. It's that supersoldier serum. We trooped over to Grandpa's after eating heartily.

They hadn't finished breakfast yet, which worked for me. I accepted Alfred's offer of coffee and started to look through the information I'd uncovered. I shuffled through my data, making notes by hand like I preferred to; Uncles Steve and Bucky's preference for fountain pens had rubbed off on me--and by the time Grandpa Bruce started barking questions around, I had some things to think about. "Do you have anything?" He sounded a little dubious.

"Ye of little little faith, Bats," I said breezily. I'd started running things through Oracle's server in Tunisia, and it sped things up a lot. I wanted to get hands and eyes on it someday. Grandpa B looked grumpy, but Grandpa D smiled. "I have all sorts of goodies. And I'll have more this afternoon; Grandpa and I are going for a meeting with 13 to exchange information and divide responsibilities."