The Doctor Is In

Birds of a Feather

   I've just returned to my room when the phone rings.

"Hello?" I answer.

"Natalie? It's Amanda, I was just calling to ask how you're settling into your new job."

I lean back on my bed, "Amanda, you never call unless you need a favor, cut to the chase."

She chuckles, "You know me well."

"But you are aware that I'm not allowed to leave the island while on duty?" I ask, as I walk over and lock my room door.

"That's why I need you for the job." she explains, "Do you still have your weapons?"

I pull out my briefcase from under the bed. Opening it to reveal my neatly folded clothes, I reach under the sleeve and pull out a small silver parcel. Placing the parcel on the bed, I put my right index finger on the fingerprint identifier and a bright blue light scans over it before the parcel lock snaps open.

"You confiscated my daggers after I completed my last assignment. Otherwise I have everything else." I tell her, looking over the contents, "And you know the daggers are the most important part."

"I'm aware. I'm sending you the daggers right now as we speak."

I pick up the mask hanging on the small hook on the hood of the case, feeling the smooth fabric in my hands, "What exactly do you want me to do?"

"I see you've discovered the secret passageways those criminals have been using as a revolving door." she says coldly, "Now that their get-out-of-jail free card is gone, they're conspiring a mass takeover of the asylum so that they can rebuild it."

"And you want me to stop it?"

"No." her tone is authoritative, business-like, "A takeover of Arkham can only be stopped by one person..."

"Batman." I realize.

"Yes, and this will be the perfect opportunity for us to finally nail him down once and for all."

My brain mentally stops for a moment, “Wait...you don’t want me to take him out do you?”

“Heavens no, he’s far too useful.” Amanda clarifies, “I just need you to get a tracker on him, the way you do everyone else.”

I reach under the neatly folded outfit taking up most of the room of the parcel and feel around until my fingers find a rounded glass vial. I take it out and examine it,

“I’ve got just enough for one more job.” I tell her, shaking the bright blue crystals drifting at the bottom of the vial, “Also, do I really have to go under that silly alias you gave me again?”

“Absolutely. We can’t risk having your cover blown, so you’ll have to dye your hair again, and cut it short.”

I sigh, “Alright, I’m fine with that, but could you at least have come up with a better supervillain name than Trickstress?”

“It...it was the best our team could come up with at the time. Do you know how oversaturated the criminal career is now? We had to come up with something that wasn’t already taken.”

I roll my eyes, “Hopefully I’ll never run into Trickster from over in Central City. He might sue.”

“Well, I trust you understand your assignment.” she completes, “The daggers should arrive within the hour. Waller out.”

Does she always have to say that? Amanda and I met in college, and we both started working for the US government at the same time. Over the years, especially after she established Task Force X, she’s called in more than a couple of favors, the crazier being me donning a fake supervillain identity to go undercover. I put away the parcel’s contents and stick it back in its hiding place. I feel my stomach growl for the first time today, I haven’t had anything to eat. I leave the room and walk down the hallway to the stairs. I remember when I first came into the manor there being some kind of dining hall, and if they have doctors stay here for so long they have to have some place for them to eat.