She shook her head.

I wasn’t surprised, she wanted me focused on Penelope, as that was necessary for our long term security. Well, my long term security. I didn’t make any final decisions, if nothing else, getting them in the app might be useful. Given their description, I’d be surprised if any of them were submissive enough to be easy targets, but then again, I wouldn’t have thought that about Romy either.

As Jasmine and I chatted a bit more about the people who’d be attending and this ‘Mr. Kane,’ she wanted me to help with. He was ex-military and ran one of the premier security companies in Gotham, Knight Security. I’d never heard of them, but that was because they exclusively worked for Gotham’s old money, which wasn’t exactly the circles I ran in.

I was surprised, most security companies in Gotham were fairly low end. Every so often a high end one would set up shop, get themselves punked by the Joker, or Penguin, or something and bail before their reputation took a bigger hit. Which was why most companies and people hired their own security, rather than outsourcing. So long as they didn’t brag about it, they likely wouldn’t be deliberately targeted and run out of town.

I guess being a ‘secret’ security company met the same need, most likely. After all, it’s not like they were being targeted for fun, it was a matter of reputation. For most of the supervillains. Joker, who fucking knew?

Anyway, as we were chatting, Diamond agreed I should meet him, so I could steal all his knowledge. I agreed happily, though from the description, I wasn’t at all sure we’d actually get along. Most serious folks viewed GCPD as a corrupt embarrassment…but I’d still get my handshake…

While we were talking, I also got a better view of the event. It was simple, an initial ‘pre-speech’ period where there were drinks and snacks (even if they called them hors d'oeuvres, which almost caused me to make an extremely dirty joke), then we’d have a long dinner, the first half of which would be encompassed by Alyce’s speech. Then we’d break for little deserts and more drinks, while we all mingled.

So, two ‘networking’ sessions and a meal. The meal we’d be at our own table, with a few other people, probably more charitable types, but Jasmine didn’t know exactly who. But during the networking, we’d be free to talk to whoever we wanted. If I could bring Diamond along to talk to Alyce and Penelope, I might be able to make real progress, thanks to Role Model.

But I admit, I was a little afraid of what the trained therapists would see in our interactions. A belated question occurred to me, “Why’s Mr. Kane coming to this fundraiser then?”

“Maybe he’s looking to establish himself? After all, he was Martha Wayne’s brother and inherited some cash. Maybe with Bruce Wayne wasting his time, money and name on every harlot in sight, he’s looking to make folks think he’s more of the heir? Not sure this’ll do it, Wayne goes to a bunch of these events, and buys plenty of plates for his bimbos.”

The reference to Bruce Wayne let me figure out who Martha had to be. I knew Bruce Wayne’s story, of course, parents killed, inherited Wayne Corp and billions of dollars and was Gotham’s most eligible bachelor, a role he enjoyed with the same gusto I would, though his handlers made sure that he still did enough charity work to have a pretty good reputation. And, honestly, having him fucking around, even in the worst of times helped Gotham feel like a normal city. And given how badly I’d reacted to being kidnapped once, he was a lot stronger than he looked. He must have been kidnapped a dozen times, but just kept being a party boy. Which might be a sign of how messed up he was, now that I thought about it, but that was just another reason to fix this city.

I was confused about something else though, “How does this raise any money? Do they like, pass the hat at the end of the night?”

Everyone looked at me in some confusion, except Andre, who was focused on driving. Jasmine explained in small words, that we bought ‘seats’ or ‘plates’ at the event for a few thousand dollars a seat, then we’d get a meal that cost like, maybe $50. Diamond did offer that frequently people do in fact pledge additional funds, if impressed.

The difference between our experiences was rarely so evident. When we needed to do fundraising, we held an event, sure, and maybe made a little bit of profit off the dinner, but then you passed the hat for cash, or you were like selling candy bars at a huge markup. I’d done a bunch of those in my school days. This was a very different world.

Which was only driven home when we arrived. It was obvious their excuse was an excuse. There was chauffered parking, but more critically, most of the people attending had their own cars and chauffeurs. We were the only group I saw with more than a pair of people getting out of the same car, universally from the back as their driver took off to wait for the evening to end.

We got a few odd looks, but Diamond’s flat glare silenced anyone and Jasmine was clearly a widely recognized figure as people were gathering around her before we even made it to the elevator. It was rapidly obvious that most of these people were rich, and could/would give money, but they weren’t organized about it and just gave out of their own personally funds, not with any sort of foundation or organization behind them.

Which made Jasmine the big fish in this little pond. The group skewed heavily female, and listening, they were mostly wives and daughters of rich men who did this as a hobby, or something to fill their day. There were a few snide questions about Jasmine's ex, which she crushed easily, then a few questions about me and I was introduced as ‘a man with a very interesting proposal to revitalize the lower city--who saved my life’ which put a lot of attention on me.

I told an abbreviated version of the escape, obviously leaving out the threesome and how I’d gotten in to pitch Jasmine on the idea. By this point we were in the complex of rooms which the fundraiser was being hosted within, the audience was a bit more evenly divided, though still skewing female. The men present were mostly either old enough to be retired, or young enough to clearly be the son of whomever they were accompanying. I noticed an older man, who fit the description of Mr. Kane was listening.

One of the other few men, younger even than me, probably someone’s son, snorted as I finished, clearly trying to show off for Jasmine, whose top he kept trying to look down, “Wow, so impressive, you managed to run away without getting killed.”