Coup De Grace | D. Wayne

[11] Break In

Red Robin had tracked the location of the garbage truck to Ace Chemicals factory which was close to Gotham's landfill site. Whereas the SUV that had been after Ember was tracked as well and currently it was parked in a warehouse on the factory's back.

Having both suspect vehicles close by could mean only one thing. Either the factory itself was being used as a hideout or the abductors were hiding in the warehouse.

The vigilantes decided to go after the warehouse first as it had more possibility of being used as a hideout. They closed in on the warehouse, Robin and Batgirl looking in through the clerestory window to see if people were inside or not.

Soon enough, they spotted gunmen inside but Robin stilled, catching sight of a familiar figure.

He was certain the man he had just seen was Evan Sinclair but the surprising aspect was that he wasn't tied up nor did he look injured.

Either he was involved with the captors or it was someone else who looked like Evan though Damian ruled out the latter option.

"Suspects inside, what should we do?" Batgirl conveyed it to Oracle.

"Red is on backup, you two break in."

"Copy that."

Robin gestured to her not to break in through any of the windows as he had found a duct through which they could stealthily sneak in.

Cautiously, Robin went through the duct first, able to hear the conversation going on inside more clearly.

"You were not supposed to scare her like that," he heard a voice but it was getting muffled due to the sound of restlessly pacing footsteps, "she gave the package, didn't she? There was no need to bring her here. At least not yet."

"We follow orders, you don't have a say in this."

Robin looked behind him to see Batgirl come in as well so he gestured her to keep silent, listening in on the rest of the conversation.

"At this rate, you all will mess everything up. Keep following your orders but don't blame me if it all blows up in our faces later. Tell him that I will not be responsible for the damage."

It seemed like the people down there were having an argument. That meant it would be easier for one of them to distract them and the other to look for Evan.

But Robin didn't feel so certain about Evan anymore. He felt that Tim had been right back when he had briefly mentioned that there was a possibility Evan was involved and was using Ember's concern for him by making her believe that he was at risk.

And if that was the case, then Ember was being tricked into their ploys for nothing.

He signaled to Batgirl that he was going to distract the others while she should look for Evan. She nodded and upon receiving the go-ahead from Oracle, Robin dropped out of the duct, taking cover behind the packed cartons.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Come out or I'll shoot."

Robin stayed silent, but the Batarang in his hand was beeping. At the right time, he threw it out and smoke engulfed the people who were threatening to shoot.

He took the momentary distraction to fight them off, tying them all up conveniently while Steph as Batgirl was searching the warehouse for the hostage being held there.

As the smoke cleared and all of the opponents were tied up, he felt as if something was still wrong. He had heard a car being driven off and when he looked out, that SUV wasn't parked out anymore.

"Red Robin, someone fled," he conveyed to Tim who was on backup.

"I know, I'm on its tail."

In the meantime, Steph returned but shook her head, indicating that she hadn't found Evan anywhere in the building.

By then Damian was almost convinced that the person who had escaped was Evan.

"No sign of the hostage," Batgirl conveyed to Oracle through her comm.

"Red is chasing the escape vehicle," Robin added, "send GCPD."

"Noted."

In the time it would take for the police to arrive, Damian decided to get some information out of the people they had captured.

"Who else was with you?" He asked in a low but firm tone.

"No one."

"That car didn't drive off by itself. Who escaped?"

No one spoke and Damian knew he had to resort to other measures. In one swift movement, a small dagger that he kept with him for emergency usage had slid up his palm and dug into the wood of the board dangerously close to the person's face who he had been questioning.

The man flinched, reluctant to meet the furious gaze of the vigilante.

"This could have pierced right through your eye," Damian remarked in a scarily calm tone, "now speak."

"We don't know who he is. We were only asked to capture him and hold him here until our boss gave us further orders," he quickly spoke up as Robin had taken out the dagger from the wooden board and it was twirling in his fingers threateningly.

"What is his name?"

"We don't know."

"Doesn't seem so by the way you were so casually conversing with him earlier. Is it Evan Sinclair?"

But the man shook his head, not recognizing that name. "No, we only know that he's working for the Blackwoods. That's all, we swear!"

The Blackwoods were one of the families being targeted by Ember's article. If the hostage or accomplice who had escaped right then was Evan and he was working with the Blackwoods then the situation had gotten a lot more dangerous for a mere crime reporter like Ember Sullivan.

She trusted Evan, she wouldn't hesitate to help him. And if Damian's assumption was right, then Evan was using her trust and loyalty to his advantage.

"And which crime syndicate is your boss connected to?" Robin asked, facing the other tied-up people as well, "I suggest you answer lest I resort to other measures."

"We don't know," another one of the tied-up henchmen replied, "we were offered twice the pay for this task so we agreed. We haven't worked with them before."

"Them? So there are two or more people giving orders to you?" Batgirl asked, noting the slight slip of the tongue.

"Yes but we have no idea who they are."

Damian felt at least one of them would know who the people were for whom they were working. Because even in the line of gangsters who worked on contracts, they couldn't just take up any task without verifying that they would not get double crossed.

He exchanged a glance with Batgirl and the two of them searched the hideout for anything that could be a clue as to what exactly was going on there.

All they could find were packed shipment cartons and upon inspection, they found the boxes full of arms and ammunition. It looked like the warehouse was being used for storing weapons and they knew whenever that large quantity of weapons was involved, it ended up in drastic consequences.

Either the Blackwoods and the Ranaldinis were planning to initiate a gang war to go against each other or they were working together to distract the vigilantes for something far more sinister.

Damian knew there was one person who could help them out a lot in both the cases. He had to get in touch with Jason and find out what he knew about those gangs.

***