Just two things.

An invite from ‘Frannie’ to meet her at a different bar tonight. I managed to put her off, but I had to agree to fucking Wednesday night drinks, as she was getting really pushy and still could assign my ass to Killer Croc’s detail.

There was a missed call from Diamond, which I returned, resulting in a few more requests. I made it clear that she was going to make it up to me, but only when she was back home…which didn’t get me anything as she’d already agreed to it, but still made me feel good.

Intermixed within the requests was gratitude, complaints about her husband and the news that this was mostly resolved. To be fair, she also mentioned that they’d agreed he wouldn’t come, as this was a very liberal camp and showing up with a cop might not have helped their case. But that was so obviously an excuse, that she didn’t try to defend when I said he could have just showed up in civilian clothes. She agreed with that after a moment, giving me another +1 SP.

Finished that up and opened the text from Kianna.

I recognized this as a much longer dress that she’d chopped down and wasn’t wearing the shirt that usually went with it.

Genesis 2:18 Woman is made for man, as “a companion suitable for helping him.”

That made me smile. Then I sat down to think about next steps. I needed a lot of points fast. I could try going for Asa, but that was really risky.

A belated thought occurred to me and I checked on Bridgette.

Bridgette is horrified to discover that she’s aroused by the face-fucking she agreed to give Jimmy Sabatino in exchange for a better rate on cleaning her money and her new ID. Maybe she’ll take him up on his offer of an even better rate for letting him fuck her. He knows better than to betray her, so long as she’s still working for the Penguin, so there’s no real risk, except in a bit of embarrassment in changing her mind…

Fuck. A lead. Which was absolutely no good to me. I had no idea where Jimmy Sabatino did business or lived, just that he was, as the name implied, part of the lingering mafia presence in the city, which hadn’t been driven out by supervillains because they were useful connections to the broader, more mundane criminal world. The Penguin…I knew where he operated, everyone did. He was in the Iceberg Lounge…where cops, or ex-cops were really not welcome, unless they were dirty, apparently.

Which I wasn’t, as he had to know, if he was Bridgette’s boss. Besides, Bridgette's connections to Penguin were long suspected and not news, it's what they'd accused me of being part of, after all.

This was all leading the same place. I needed more information. I needed a source of information. Not just a few old buddies who wouldn’t freeze me out. Which meant I needed a true ally, or a target with an actual information network. The problem was, people with information tended to be protected.

The obvious target, as an attractive woman, who had wronged me was Renee Montoya, head of IA. But I’d never actually touched her and also…she was a good cop, it wasn’t really her fault. My partner was dirty. But she’d definitely know stuff and running into her wouldn’t be hard.

She was also hot as fuck, I had to admit. But she was also gay, putting aside any moral issues about that (though it’s not like I had to fuck her), any involvement with me at all would probably ruin her as a source of information.

I sat there and tried to think of other women who might have wronged me. I kept thinking of, then having to delete a large number of ex-teachers, babysitters and other people from when I was a kid, who’d been MILFS at the time and now were well into GIDLF territory. I’d have just left them in, in case they might prove useful, eventually, but unfortunately, the app also had a target cap, 16 for some reason, which unlocked the ability to pay to increase it, but I wasn’t spending 3 credits to get an extra four targets, not when I needed to save for this damn drink thing.

I realized I had two actual options. I could use right now.

Jewelz Blue, the HR rep/investigator who was the reason I had never gotten promoted in ten years of working for the GCPD. The bitch had made it her mission to get me after me and a friend of hers had broken up. She’d never found anything, but ‘no smoke without fire’ so I’d remained stuck. We’d shaken hands the first time we spoke, though I hadn’t touched the bitch since. I still didn't know why she hated me, the breakup had been mutual and my ex hadn't held a grudge, or anything.

(-53 SP)

And Skin Jackson, a local hacker/activist. She’d hacked the GCPD payroll system, dropping all our personal information everywhere. She’d been a minor at the time, so she was out now, a senior at some expensive private school, Gotham Academy, in the city which her rich family had bundled her off to as soon as she was released. At least, I thought she'd only been a minor at the time? I actually wasn't sure of her current age.

Helpful Hint: The app follows age of consent laws, so no one under 18 can be targeted.

I stared at empty space in confusion. Not that the app knew what I was worried about, that was obvious from the start. But...why would the app care? I did for obvious reasons...this was just more evidence that there was someone, or something on the other end of the app, with their own goals and morals, if rather different ones than most people.

But this wasn't the time for that. Back to Skin. She’d only got caught because she literally admitted it to the press when someone else started getting credit. I was one of the ones who actually arrested her, so I’d touched her. That last name--yeah, the rich family in question was the same one Andre was the bastard son of…unusual, but I guess there weren’t that many uber-rich Black families in Gotham…another child of a bastard heir though, not main family.

(-36 SP)

As I was considering, I realized something else…there was no announcement for Francine’s challenge.

I had to have selected it while I was fucking drunk! Shit.