BAE Chapter 103

Even as Barbara begins scrolling through the feeds, the sounds from outside her office and the flashes of images on the screen paint a chaotic picture. There’s no time to slow down and try to pick up any audio. There’s shouting and shooting. Barbara knows the building well, but not perfect. Several floors are the academy, several are dedicated to various detective sections, and the lower part of the building is mostly facilities relating to the patrol officer ****. There’s a lot of stuff in this massive, gothic tower.

The assassins all wear the orange jumpsuits of jail inmates, but their movements and physiques make them easy to distinguish from the normal inmates.

There’s blood on walls and dead police officers in corridors.

Barbara sees suppressed pistols in the hands of agile assassins pushing through the halls. Someone didn’t just let them out; they armed them.

Unsuppressed gunshots sound like distant thuds through the walls and floors. Even for a whole crew of Ras Al Ghul’s best, GCPD is a well-hardened target. Everyone here is armed as well, but these fanatics aren’t afraid to die. Bodies in orange are scattered among the bodies in blue.

It’s difficult to be too precise, but Barbara switches feeds rapidly, making what inferences she can. A lot of assassins are heading downward, but there isn’t much underneath lockup. Mainly the garage.

Most of the others are headed up, no doubt to this very floor. A few more are already past it though, barreling up the stairs toward the upper levels; they no better than to bother with the elevators. The upper levels… that’s various detective offices, major crimes, the Commissioner’s office. The roof.

Barbara stops scrolling, spotting two familiar figures: Maggie Sawyer in jeans and a sweater and Renee Montoya in khakis and a white blouse, tearing down a hallway with their guns in hand. They obviously know; the Commissioner must have shared the details of Barbara’s suspicions with them. Renee and Maggie are heading for the Evidence Room, but the assassins are already up here: Barbara has just seen several of them emerge from the north stairwell.

That’s it. Time is up. She can’t even stop to change into her costume; lives are on the line.

Barbara snatches her backpack from the floor and kicks the office door open, straight into an assassin who had his gun up.

Maggie stumbles around the corner and the assassin’s bullet blows away a piece of the drinking fountain. If Barbara had waited a second longer, Maggie would have a hole in her head. Barbara kicks the assassin in the chest, sending him spilling to the floor. Another one grabs her as more tear past. The cops just aren’t ready for the speed and agility that these guys have.

Barbara crashes to the ground as Renee and Maggie open fire. Blood flies, but Barbara has her own problems. She breaks free and headbutts her attacker, punches him in the face, and stomps him in the groin before flipping off the wall and kicking another one off his feet. He smashes through the window in the Vice office. Barbara rolls out of the way as bullets snap into the white plaster behind her, filling the corridor with dust. She reaches the shooter and disarms him, only to take a fist to the gut. These aren’t her standard goons; any one of them is a match for her.

He grabs her for the hair, but Barbara doesn’t share all of Bruce’s scruples. Her hand finds the fallen gun and she puts a bullet in his foot, then flips it over to slam him in the head with the handle. She ejects the magazine, clears the chamber, and throws the gun at the guy coming out of the stairwell. He ducks and throws a letter opener. There’s no shortage of guns lying around on account of the dead cops, but some of these assassins are probably more comfortable with daggers and throwing stars.

**** on dust and gunpowder, Barbara catches it, kicks the man into the wall, and slams the letter opener into his palm, pinning him there.

She looks up breathlessly to see two situations unfolding at the other end of the hall:

Renee Montoya is facedown, trying to pick herself up. Behind her, an assassin raises a pistol, aiming for her head.

A few meters away, Maggie struggles in the grip of a man who has her shoved against the wall, one hand around her throat and the other holding a knife.

Barbara’s only one woman and she’s not in costume; she has no gadgets to help her.

Save Maggie?

Or save Renee?