ORACLE DD Ch 10

The Falcone organizational structure is broken. GCPD has dozens of street-level distributors and their security locked up, as well as ten lieutenants and three Falcones. It’s not even a quarter of Aria’s people, but there are a hundred warrants out. Some targets have fled Gotham, and more are lying low. Business cannot take place, and most of Aria’s assets are frozen or out of reach. There’s evidence that some of her own people have taken this opportunity to loot her accounts.

Alberto Falcone would’ve been the one to step up next, and as soon as things started to happen, he was gunned down. That was probably the Russians. The Yakuza politely took Barbara at her word and acted discreetly during the long night of raids. The Russians capitalized on the relative chaos and hit several competitors. The Maronis did the same, but not as loudly as the Russians. There’s a sense of caution in the aftermath; the organizations still standing want to see how the dust settles before they commit to their next move, but all signs point to the Russians taking a big swing.

That’s the worst-case scenario. The Maronis are a familiar devil, and the Yakuza have never done well in the continental US. The Russians, meanwhile, have all the strengths of the Latin American cartels and none of their weaknesses. The prize is Aria’s supply network. The Falcone family is old and venerable, and has had plenty of time to cultivate strong business relationships. They were moving nine figures in product every quarter without ever going near Gotham Harbor.

Whoever gets Aria’s connections gets Gotham, and whoever runs that organization will effectively become Barbara’s counterpart. Barbara’s first choice is for that person to be Eiko Hasigawa, but she’ll settle for Salvatore Maroni. Fedor Maruchev is an unknown quantity. His actions in Gotham are known to a point, but no one knows anything about who he was in eastern Europe. It would also be unwise to completely dismiss the Salazar Cartel. They aren’t major players in Gotham yet, but Barbara has created conditions in which even an underdog might flourish.

For the first time, as she stoically allows the network girl to touch up her makeup, Barbara feels the house of cards begin to teeter. Her ability to retain and process information gives her an edge, but it doesn’t give her perfect judgment. Far from it. Change will not come without ambitious, aggressive action. But the more ambitious and aggressive things get, the more enemies there will be, and the more things can go wrong.

She wheels herself out to the cheery set of Good Morning with Gothan 5, with its big, fake window presenting an idealized view of the skyline under a blue sky.

Vicki Vale waits in a lilac pantsuit, looking pretty in a curated, TV way, but with the aura of a lion about to pounce. She typically has only a single TV segment each week; her real job is writing for the Gotham Gazette. Barbara would’ve preferred to do this with Summer, but she can’t wait until tonight. She has to address the city first thing in the morning.

“Mayor Gordon. Welcome.”

Barbara wheels over as Vicki sits in a blue armchair. “Good morning, Vicki.”

“Long night?”

“You could say that.”

Vicki looks serious. “Nine people dead. On your orders.”

There’s a lot packed into those two sentences, but they tell Barbara what she’s in for. No pleasantries. In fact, Barbara is only aware of seven fatalities. One police officer, one civilian, and five members of the Falcone organization. Now, there are quite a few of Aria’s people missing and it’s reasonable to think they probably got some licks in, so the body count will be higher. The question is, will those bodies be found? This is a trap; Barbara can’t argue with the miscount or ask who the other two are. She can show no doubt or hesitation, only righteousness.

“Vicki, I’m willing to take responsibility, and I accept the framing that these losses come as a direct result of an operation that I authorized, but I’ve never ordered anyone dead.”

“Are you sure? Because you all but put a target on Aria Falcone’s back.”

“It’s interesting to me that you’re worried about Aria Falcone’s safety instead of that of, say, Police Commissioner Viti Saxena, who was nearly killed last night—she’s only alive because Spoiler isn’t good at following instructions. But we’ll deal with that later. Or Officer Gonzalez, who died in the line of duty. Or Mary Sharpe. I have a lot of families to meet with today Vicki, and you’re worried about Aria Falcone? Someone who, incidentally, has been indicted for ordering killings?”

Vicki doesn’t like that one bit. By saying these names first, Barbara is taking her claws away. “Casualties of the war you started.”

“No. I ended it. I was so tempted by the idea of peace when Aria first came to me. Peace like Mayor Hill had? Have we thought at all about the cost that comes with doing business like that? Are we thinking about the hardworking Gothamites who can’t get a building permit, who can’t get a place in line, and can’t have their grievances heard because people like Aria Falcone monopolized Mayor Hill’s privileges? You’ve probably thought about how much money Mayor Hill took from the Falcones, but did you think about what you paid? The amount of taxpayer dollars that went into these sweetheart deals is appalling. The people of Gotham were being robbed blind. Did you ever hear of the Thomas and Martha Wayne Bristol Community Center? Me neither. It doesn’t exist. That didn’t stop Hill from earmarking sixty million dollars to build it. That money’s gone, collected by a Falcone shell company. That’s your money, Vicki. Gotham’s money. And now Aria Falcone has a third yacht somewhere while we have people who can’t make rent and can’t afford groceries. Have things gotten easier for Gothamites over the years? Of course not. The war on the people of Gotham has been going on for as long as I’ve been alive. As nice as it would be to make some kind of point about standing up to criminals, that’s not my job. My job is to make life better for the people of Gotham, and it’s not pretty, and it’s not easy, and it’s not going to come for free, but that is what I am going to do. We are set to crack down on the fraud, waste, and **** that went with Mayor Hill’s willingness to do favors for organized crime interests. We are set to seize more than half a billion dollars in assets from the Falcone crime family, and every penny of that is going to be accounted for and spent on affordability in Gotham, starting with childcare costs. And I’m not stopping there, Vicki. You think organized crime’s going away because GCPD took down one family? Of course not. The rest will fill in, but it’ll be different this time because they will have an actual reason to respect us. But Gothamites can’t eat respect, and they can’t pay their heating bill with it. I can’t get rid of organized crime, but in Gotham, the estimate is that there’s six to ten billion dollars in revenue with these people in any given year, and I think that’s conservative. They aren’t just going to stop pushing Gotham around; they’re going to pay their fair share.”

Vicki can’t help herself. “You’re going to tax the mob?” She knows she’s made a mistake, and she knows she’s lost on this subject—not that she was trying to win. It’s unlikely that Vicki actually disagrees with Barbara’s position, but she has an obligation to ask the hard news questions, which Barbara can respect. But Barbara can’t let herself take even a small bruise for decorum. Not now. She must play offense at full strength at all times. Anything less will be disastrous.

“Isn’t it about time someone did?” Barbara replies.

Vicki faces a difficult choice. She wants to ask how Barbara plans to do that, but that means fully ceding the topic and control of her interview. She chooses to try to keep the initiative.

“A story partly broke this morning. A Wayne Enterprises employee claimed to have footage of you in intimate relations with Dr. Pamela Isley and Dr. Harleen Quinzel—one former and one current inmate of Arkham Asylum.”

“Partly broke?”

“The employee claimed to have footage but wasn’t able to produce it.”

That’s because Barbara was able to hack his devices and brick them just in time. That will make a meaningful difference, but considerable damage has already been done.

Barbara smiles. “What are you asking, Vicki?”

“Are you sleeping with these women?”

“No. But we do have the occasional wild hookup,” Barbara says.

Vicki takes that well, but there’s still the slightest hesitation. Barbara will always have the advantage if she continues to do the unthinkable by being both honest and transparent. She gives Vicki a look. “What are you, some kind of prude, Vicki? My job is stressful.”

“No, Madame Mayor, I am not, but revelations like this dovetail with the pre-existing concerns about Poison Ivy’s level of involvement with Wayne Enterprises. It’s been said before: how do we know that Poison Ivy isn’t running that company? How do we know she isn’t running you, and by extension, this city? I think a lot of people in Gotham are glad to see you taking a stand against the mob, but are we supposed to forget about Poison Ivy? Is this Mayor Gordon vs the mob or is Poison Ivy just getting rid of her competition? And what about Bruce Wayne? He’s back in Gotham; it’s his company, Madame Mayor. But he’s refusing interviews and there hasn’t been one peep from him about how you all but seized Wayne Enterprises and used its resources to catapult yourself into the mayor’s office. Wayne’s never been very involved in the running of the company or local politics, but he’s never been silent, either. And isn’t controlling powerful businessmen Poison Ivy’s favorite way to get what she wants? Powerful women too, I guess.”

ORACLE

Aria Falcone seethes, her face lit by the TV. Her eyes are sandy. She can’t sleep, and can’t let her guard down. She’s lost almost everything. She grips the phone in her hand so tightly that it hurts as she watches Barbara Gordon, all cool composure, holding her own against Vicki Vale.

She isn’t sure how she can get out of Gotham alive. She doesn’t have enough money to be confident that she can buy passage. She has enough, perhaps, to order one last job.

ORACLE

Barbara keeps her smile in place. She was never going to beat Vicki into submission, and she has already won by ramming her economic message through. That’s the part that Gotham will care about, if there’s any justice. But Vicki’s not content to let Barbara go without drawing blood first. She’s playing the Wayne Enterprises angle hard. The truth of the situation is so complex and nuanced that it cannot realistically be communicated in this format, and voters can’t handle complex issues anyway. It has to be simple, and Vicki is forcing the issue into those terms. Either Poison Ivy is seizing control of Gotham, or Bruce Wayne’s failure to keep control of his company allowed an opportunist like Barbara to take his family’s legacy and wield it as she pleases.

Defend Ivy?

Or defend Bruce?