BAE Chapter 90

“Your curiosity isn’t my priority. The shareholders are. If you want to talk, make an appointment. And try to keep your clothes on this time,” Barbara adds, brushing past Aki to step into the elevator.

Lucius is waiting in his office with coffee.

“Late night?” he asks dryly as Barbara slurps eagerly.

“You know how it is.”

“To a point.” Lucius leans against his desk. “Either you’ve won Ivy over or she’s getting ready to take us for a ride.”

“What happened?”

“She wrote me an email. You know what she’s capable of. You can imagine what she could do if she stopped trying to save the world and started trying to turn a profit,” Lucius says, stroking his chin.

“Can’t we do both?”

“She seems to think that we can. She made a few modest proposals for famine reduction, cultivation of… well, she’s very clever. Agriculture is a complicated business for us mortals, Ms. Gordon. But Ivy can make anything grow anywhere. You’ll have to read it for yourself. She sold the hell out of these ideas.” Lucius shakes his head. “And she’s good for it. You’ve seen it.”

“The board already leaked it? That’s why the stock’s up?”

Lucius nods. “And you’re the link between Ivy and this company. You just became one of the five most important people in this building.”

“You’re worried that she doesn’t mean it.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Of course.” Barbara puts her coffee down and starts to pace. “Aki was waiting for me downstairs.”

“She’s only here to get Wayne money into her wife’s campaign. Doesn’t mean that she has nothing to offer,” Lucius adds quickly, shaking a finger. “She has enormous influence with the board. More than you realize. More than I realized until recently, and I don’t quite understand how she’s done it.”

Barbara twitches. “I can imagine. She’s aggressive behind closed doors. So, Dr. Isley is playing ball. Or at least pretending to.”

Lucius nods. “We have to be very careful.”

“I’m always careful.” She smiles at Lucius, who looks worried. “But not as careful as you. That’s why I have to back off. We need to distance Barbara Gordon professionally from Dr. Isley and these proposals.”

“That is the opposite of what we should be doing. This is your chance to wrap this company around your finger. Bruce and I did what we could, but we didn’t have Ivy. We didn’t have you. It can be different this time,” Lucius says, crossing the room to her. “Wayne money can make a difference in Gotham. But I can’t steer this company alone, and you and I are the only ones here who give a damn about anything other than the stock price. I can’t do this without you.”

“And we can’t keep Ivy’s trust with only business. I can’t get close to her as her boss, and it exposes the company if it gets out,” Barbara counters. “But if I’m on some other project, a personal relationship between us becomes positive PR instead of negative. Then I’ll be free to try to show her that maybe humanity doesn’t need to be exterminated.”

“A personal relationship? What if she finds out your secret?”

“What if she thinks she’s being used and turns this building into that movie about killer plants?”

Lucius scowls. “If our proposals fail because we don’t have enough clout with the board, that’ll only teach Ivy that working with us is a waste of her time. This is a moment, Barbara. You have the name recognition. You have the momentum. You will not get a second chance at an appointment to an executive position like this, even if Aki doesn’t come after you out of spite. You can be more than what Bruce was. Bruce failed because he didn’t exist. He was a joke. There was only the Batman. He threw money at me and at the city, but all his passion and intellect was…” Lucius throws out a hand in frustration and turns away, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Well, you know where all that went. Gotham doesn’t need Batgirl.” He looks over his shoulder. “But it might need Barbara Gordon. Barbara Gordon is real and she actually cares. I don’t think you have any idea how much of a leg up that can give you.”

“I heard Jack Ryder talking about you. He wasn’t wrong, was he?” Barbara asks as she heads for the door.

“Gotham is home to some of the poorest people, but it’s not a poor city. Between the city and Wayne’s money, we could have housing. UBI. Single-payer healthcare. But it takes more than money.” Lucius points a finger at Barbara. “It takes power. And we don’t have that. Bruce’s parents had it, but he let it go. Right now, I see a path to getting it back. It’s narrow, but it’s real.”

Barbara hesitates with her hand on the doorknob.

“Why’d you back Bruce for all those years if you didn’t believe in the bat?”

“What was the alternative? I told him how I felt. He knew. That’s why he kept giving me more and more of the company.” Lucius snorts. “A part of him was afraid that I was right. Or afraid that he was wrong.”

“And now you’re trying to give it to me.”

“The commissioner. The mayor’s office. Wayne Enterprises. Imagine what we could do if all three of us were on the same page.”

“You want me to be the company’s rockstar and then back your run for mayor?”

“I’m not running for anything,” Lucius says firmly. “But maybe you could. Or we back Viti Saxena. She’ll do anything to get our support. You could write her platform. That’s what Aki wants to sell you on.”

“Corporate money manipulating politics. We’re supposed to be the good guys, Lucius.”

“Barbara, there are hungry people out there who don’t give a damn if it’s the good guys or the bad guys who can help them get a roof and something to eat,” Lucius says, raising his voice.

Barbara swallows.

“I’ll think about it,” she says, then leaves the office.

She finds Ivy looking almost unrecognizable. She wears jeans and a tee under a lab coat. Her hair’s in a bun and there are glasses perched on her nose. This is Pamela Isley as she was before Poison Ivy. The only difference is that her sleeves aren’t rolled up because she has no access to plants. She’s seated at her computer, hunched over and working as Barbara steps out of the elevator.

Ivy looks up.

“I did something impulsive,” she says bluntly.

“I heard,” Barbara replies, heading over to her.

Ivy gets to her feet and Barbara stops about ten steps away. It’s awkward, but this is Poison Ivy and the original Batgirl. They both know how to keep their cool. They’re on camera and audio is monitored, so they both have to be careful. Barbara’s going to be honest with Ivy no matter what she does; lying to her is too dangerous.

Should Barbara distance herself from Ivy professionally to try to build a personal relationship?

Or work with Ivy professionally to build up their power and influence?