SEL Chapter 36

Summer Gleeson looks radiant as she sits down on Good Morning, Gotham.

The hostess, Sally Scott, is often talked about as being the “Next Summer Gleeson” if she ever moves to evenings. Today, she wears another of her iconic hairbands.

“Welcome, Summer,” Sally says warmly.

“Thanks for having me.”

“I’m surprised you agreed to come.” Sally adopts a more conversational tone than she would with her usual guests; Summer is a colleague.

“Being on TV doesn’t make me too nervous these days, Sally. Are we doing salacious gossip?”

“Summer.” Sally gives her a sly look. “I would never. I want your expert analysis of the race.”

Summer tosses her hair. “Why should I talk about it on your show instead of mine?”

“Because you’re a nice person,” Sally says.

Summer smiles. “I am. I don’t have anything to add that everyone doesn’t already know. Barbara Gordon is taking a bruising, and the gap hasn’t just closed; it looks like we have Viti Saxena with a comfortable lead on the street if not at the polls. A couple of things come into play here. Both candidates have relatively similar platforms with similar problems. Barbara Gordon is working closely with Poison Ivy. This should align her with a harder left, but she’s also the daughter of the police commissioner and fairly tough on crime. This gives her a weird brand that doesn’t fit conveniently into our usual categories. Meanwhile, Viti Saxena is a good speaker and a solid DA, but a bland, bland candidate otherwise with a limp platform. She’s backed by Wayne Enterprises' money at this point. That helps and hurts her. It makes her look like a corporate mouthpiece, particularly for her wife. On the other hand, Barbara Gordon’s objectivity has been called into question as well. Understandably.”

“So, Viti is boring and no one trusts her. And Barbara is sexy, but no one trusts her,” Sally says succinctly.

“I wouldn’t put it quite like that. Both candidates have given the voters reason to doubt. Both candidates are also refreshingly candid political outsiders, which is something that Gotham desperately needs.”

“Who do you think has the stronger platform?”

“Stronger? I don’t know what that means. Barbara’s platform is idealistic, but potentially feasible if she can line up enough money and muscle behind it. Viti’s platform is more conventional and will come together far more quickly and easily. So, it’s stronger, but it has less of an upside for a significant amount of Gotham.”

“I think it’s an upside for the mayor not to be sleeping with Poison Ivy,” Sally says.

Summer laughs. “That’s fair, and I think a lot of people feel that way. From where I’m sitting, it’s Viti Saxena’s race to lose.”

SEL

Red ropes crisscross Viti’s nude body. Her wrists and ankles are bound. She bites the gag in her mouth and thrashes helplessly in the sheets as her wife thrusts two fingers in and out of her dripping pussy. Viti’s chubby cock bounces and bumps, swinging a string of precum.

Aki rolls her roughly onto her side and gets behind her, squeezing her tight and fumbling with her cock.

Viti whimpers as Aki enters her, then lets out muffled squeals of delight as things get going in earnest. Aki squeezes Viti’s pinched, bound breast and twists her fat nipple. Viti bucks against her.

Sheets rustle, and a pillow falls to the floor as a naked Tiffany Fox crawls across the bed.

“Shhhh,” she whispers, lying down on her belly in front of Viti’s cock.

Aki slows down to let Tiffany lovingly take Viti’s cock into her mouth. Tears roll down Viti’s cheek as Aki starts to fuck her again.

“Mmmm,” Tiffany moans, caressing Viti’s hip.

SEL

Steph sits cross-legged in Bruce’s huge chair in the Cave. She smooths her fluffy robe out and goes back to peering at the screens. Alfred works at another console nearby. Piecing together evidence of Aki’s activities as the Spider is tedious but straightforward detective work. Dates. Camera footage. Credit card records, phone records. Alfred must be bored out of his mind, but he never complains.

Steph focuses on her own task. The story goes that Bruce disappeared while he was on patrol. He was out there without the Car or any vehicles, taking one of his rooftop routes. Supposedly it had been Route Charlie, but that was difficult to confirm. Barbara, Dick, and others had investigated. They’d determined that he’d thwarted a small crime or two, and those spots were marked on the map. That seems to support the idea that he was doing some variation on Route Charlie through the Narrows.

But around midnight, any trace of him had vanished. Cleanly. No locator signal, no distress call, no change to his biometrics; all the signals had just been lost.

The other investigators, like Dick—had ultimately concluded that the only way Bruce could have disappeared so cleanly is if he’d wanted to. The man had so many safeguards and backup plans that he was literally the only person on Earth who would know how to clip them all so neatly.

Dick and Kate had been out there quite a bit after his disappearance, and the Justice League had shown up as well: Clark, Diana, and J’onn. They hadn’t found anything, although it was a huge amount of ground to cover.

Alfred had hired Bobo, who had confirmed that Bruce had been at several spots, but been unable to draw any other conclusion. The theories that he presented in his report were mostly a list of the people capable of abducting the Batman. He’d theorized that there must have been some kind of bait.

Unsatisfied, Alfred had tried to engage Ralph Dibny, who had declined because he didn’t think he could do better than Bobo. Alfred had turned then to Slam Bradley, and Tim had returned to Gotham to help. They found the same evidence of Bruce’s presence in a few places, but there had been no way to determine where he’d been last. Slam had presented a different theory: that Bruce had not been ****, but rather that he’d either undertaken something secret or was taking a vacation.

People who knew Bruce challenged the idea of a vacation, but he had changed.

After Jason’s ****, Babs had walked out on the Family and hadn’t looked back until her recent stint as Batgirl. Bruce’s relationship with Dick had deteriorated. Tim had gone his own way. Alfred was a rock in Bruce’s life, but he had become more isolated, more burned out, and of course, his war never ended. Steph isn’t ready to rule out the idea that Bruce might have wanted a change.

Steph sees nothing that other, better detectives have not found already. Some suspected that someone with huge resources like Ras al Ghoul had been behind it, but then the things that had happened with Talia suggested that wasn’t the case. Steph considers people like Lex Luthor, who could potentially pull off such a ****. But then why not capitalize on it? Lex isn’t making moves in Gotham right now.

“It’s like someone just magically teleported him right out of there or something,” Steph says, waving a hand at the map.

“Indeed,” Alfred replies absently.

Steph frowns. “Hey, Alfred?”

“Yes, Ms. Stephanie?”

“Did anyone look into that?”

“I’m sorry? Oh. Ms. Barda was good enough to confirm that a boom tube was not used that night in the region.”

“Yeah. But what about something else. You know.” Steph turns in her chair to stare at his back. “Magic.”

Alfred matches her gaze. “You’re asking if this matter was investigated by someone who specializes in the occult?” His expression flickers. “No. No, indeed.”

SEL

“Oh! Jesus!” Vicki snatches a pillow to hide her groin as Helena climbs in through the window.

“You OK?”

“Don’t you knock?”

“Not if I can help it.” Helena draws herself up and shakes her hair out. She doesn’t care if Vicki’s sitting here jerking off. She can’t blame her; there’s not much to do in this apartment. “Listen. I need a hand.”

“You and me both,” Vicki mutters, glaring up at her. “I’d be going stir crazy in here even without this thing. I’m losing it, lady. How long do I have to stay here?”

Helena shrugs. “You’re holding a lot of dirt, Vicki. Dirt has value during the race. If I were you, I’d lie low until after the election. You can leave if you want, but I’m not babysitting you.”

Vicki sticks her tongue out. “I’ll stay. What do you need?”

“Here’s a burner. You know people. I need intel on the debate. I think someone’s going to try something, and I want to be ready. Security, venue. Find out what people are saying. Especially at GCPD. You have sources there, right?”

“I have sources everywhere. What do I get out of this?”

“I’ll owe you one.”

Vicki stares at Helena, blushing. “OK.”

“Thank you.” Helena turns away and leans on the windowsill, gazing out. Vicki’s eyes slide up Helena’s sexy boots and long legs to settle on her rear end, which her costume hugs quite flatteringly. Helena doesn’t care about being stared at, and if she actually minded it, she wouldn’t wear such a snug costume. Being objectified is the least of her problems. She has a pair of A-list out-of-town assassins already in the city, and the debate is coming up fast.

Should she set up on the debate so that she can instantly intervene if something happens? Or should she patrol in the plane? That will give her more flexibility.

Guard the debate?

Or patrol in the plane?