Sell you a Bridge chapter 19 (Patreon)

We didn't find any bugs or spies, though I wasn't sure if that meant  they weren't there or we just weren't good enough. Artemis said her dad  didn't really play defense much and hadn't bothered teaching her to  secure a building this size. She knew how to sweep a small apartment but  this massive place was a whole different beast. In the end we called  it, Reggie was feeling much better anyway.

We  met Reggie's mom, Claire, a very sweet lady who was unspeakably proud  of her son and tormented him by telling us every embarrassing story she  could remember about him. Callie helped and between the two of them I  realized any chance of Reggie becoming arrogant because of his power was  pretty much out the window. The next morning I drank my powder and took  my ninja lessons, today's lesson was using razor wire to set traps and  even slightly in combat which was pretty amazing. After that school went  by in a blur and before I knew it, it was time to meet with my dad.

I  would be lying if I said I wasn't both looking forward to and terrified  of the meeting. I did love my dad, despite his spotty appearance in my  life I believed he genuinely cared about me. But this time he was going  to be seeing the new me. He would see definite proof that I could be the  impressive son he always wished had taken him up on his offer to  inherit the Falcone name. My dad loved me, but he wasn't exactly proud  of me.  I made a quick shopping trip to the hardware store to pick up  some wire I could use, which was harder to find than I thought, before  it was finally time to go.

Artemis  was coming with me and Reggie wasn't. We still hadn't told him about  the Court's little visit since we didn't want to shake his new  confidence before the job, so having him around when we asked my dad  about them was kind of counterproductive. Especially since tomorrow  night was the big night. We took a cab to the warehouse dad had cleared  out for the meeting and Artemis put a hand on my shoulder "Hey, you ok  there? Dad's can be a rough thing to deal with, I get it. I can do the  meeting and just tell you what happens if you want?"

I  smiled up at my best friend and shook my head. We had known each other  for years, but only really been close for less than a week, but when you  go through the kind of things together we already had, discovering a  power, going on an adventure to a crazy blacksmith, meeting a talking  dog, you kind of just bond with someone. Five days or crazy will bring  you closer than five years of casual friendship. At least that was my  experience. Despite that trust though I needed to do this "I appreciate  that Arty, but no. I need to be the one to go in. You can follow if you  want but I have to be there."

Entering  into the warehouse was pretty nerve wracking, but I made sure to  maintain a calm appearance as I walked into the lions den. Artemis had  decided to wait outside so I was going it alone. I appreciated her  giving me the chance to do this on my own. My dad was sitting in the  middle of the place on a single comfortable folding chair with another  across from it. His bodyguards were standing back out of the light but  with my ninja skills picking them out in the shadows was child's play.  The only person in the pool of light nearby was a small girl. She looked  about fourteen and stood a bit behind dad's chair. My cousin, Kitrina  Falcone.

Kitrina  had pretty much the opposite problem that I did. If anyone found out  about me they would try to kill me and mom, but Kitrina was already well  known as a Falcone because her dad, my Uncle Alberto was a psychopathic  serial killer. Alberto Falcone had been the white sheep of the family  for years, at least to all appearances. He stayed away from the criminal  world and attended school. He got into Oxford, and grandpa had gone out  of his way to make sure Uncle Alberto lived a normal life away from the  family business.

Uncle  Alberto hadn't seen it that way. He saw grandpa's preference for dad to  run the family business as favoritism and had been silently seething  with jealous rage for most of his life. When he finally came back to  Gotham he'd long since lost his entire damn mind, despite being to all  outward appearances a loving father and brother. He single handedly  perpetrated one of the most terrifying criminal purges in Gotham  history. The Long Halloween. After the Batman caught Uncle Alberto and  stuck him in Arkham my dad took Kitrina in.

I  sat down across from them, nodding to them both "Dad. Kit. Good to see  you both." They looked pretty damn surprised by my appearance and  bearing. I was at the point by now that even clothes didn't hide the  muscle and I had the balance and poise of a master ninja. It was a far  departure from the skinny miserable kid I had been when they last saw  me. I wasn't a hulking beast or anything and I wasn't shredded yet, but I  was very obviously muscled now. I smiled at the surprise but continued  talking "Thank you for meeting me. I've run into a bit of a situation  and I wanted some advice. I was hoping you could weigh in on it."

My  dad's eyes were pensive as he looked at me. Despite genuinely caring  about me and loving my mother Mario Falcone was not an overly  affectionate man. He was fairly cold and reserved at most times, even  with me, or at least he usually was. Right now I could see genuine pride  on my dads face, the nerve I was showing, the gravitas, he considered  this version of me something closer to a true Falcone, I could tell. He  gave me a small smile "Present your case then, boy. You've certainly  made some changes, I'm curious to see what kind of trouble came with  that kind of shake up. Don't worry too much whatever it is, the family  doesn't abandon our own."

I  couldn't help but smile. Cold or not dad took care of his own, as  evidence by him taking in Kit. My cousin gave him a soft smile as she  heard the comment. Their relationship was pretty good from what I could  see the few times he'd brought her to our meetings. You would think I  would be bitter about my dad raising her, but honestly I was the one who  made that call so it didn't bother me. I just hoped that quiet  confidence didn't shake too much when I told him who I was mixed up  with. If their stupid rhyme was to be believed the Court was old and  pretty scary.

I  considered asking Kit to wait outside or asking him to send the guards  away, but neither one was likely to get resolved any time soon so I just  leaned forward across the gap between us and muttered. "Beware the  Court of Owls." Any trace of a smile dropped off his face like a steel  door slamming shut as he heard what I said, but not before I caught a  glimpse of what I thought might be actual fear. That...was not  reassuring. I'd never seen my dad afraid. I hadn't been entirely sure he  was capable of that emotion. He'd always been this unshakable figure to  me.

He  turned to Kit and the guards. "Everyone out." They all froze, staring  blankly at him. "Did I fucking stutter? Get out! Wait outside. Keep an  eye on Kitrina." He turned to Kit "Wait for me in the car, it should be  safe with all the extras I paid for. I need to talk to my son." She  looked unsure and a bit hurt but nodded and headed outside. I was sad we  hadn't gotten to talk, it had been a while. My dads eyes cut back to me  as soon as they were gone and he slumped in his chair, reaching up to  rub his temples. "Boy, of all the things in your life you could pick to  not half-ass for once this was not a great first selection."

I  winced, both at the casual dismissal of pretty much my whole life and  his tone. "So I take it they're bad news? I got a visit from one of  their weird little assassins. A friend of mine got mixed up in some kind  of heist for them and called me for help and apparently even knowing  about it means I'm being press ganged. Not that I wasn't planning to  help anyway, but I admit the idea of being forced to do something under  threat of death kind of pisses me off." I had really wanted to punch  that Talon in the dick.

He  let out a bark of laughter "Son, I don't know what the hell happened to  you but I like it. The Court is a problem. Theoretically if we  marshaled all our forces we could maybe take them on, but aside from  most of their members being kind of a secret the ones we do know are  some of the most powerful people in the city. Your grandpa will go  pretty far for family, but I doubt he's willing to set off a full scale  war between the criminal element of the city and Gotham's elite unless  they actually kill you. As much as it rankles I'd say just pull the  heist. I can maybe put you in touch with some people who can help you  formulate a plan. Where's the job supposed to be?"

I  breathed a sigh of relief "Thank god. I have some tricks but I know  jack shit about thieving. It's some big manor house on the edge of town.  Shadowcrest? Kind of a pretentious name if you ask me but hey, no one  ever does." I'd been expecting at least a smile at the bad joke, but my  dads face just went a shade or two paler. I groaned "Oh god, what is it?  is that like Batman's house or something? I knew they wouldn't set us  up to raid some random rich guy's mansion. I can't think of anyone else  in Gotham but the Batman edgy enough to name their place Shadowcrest."

He  just shook his head "First off, no one knows where the Batman lives. If  they did it would have probably been blown up at least five times by  now. Secondly no, that place is even worse. Do you know anything about  magic?" I shot him a quizzical look but shook my head. He sighed again,  returning to rubbing his temples. "That house is infamous. People have  been trying to rob it for years. There's been several attempts and they  all ended badly. It's owned by Zatara, the League's resident wizard."

I  winced "Well. Fuck." That was bad. My ninja skills would help me  through security well enough but I had nothing for magic. And it was too  weirdly specific for me to easily find a spam email for it. Magical  burglary sounded like it would be expensive even if I could. "We have to  get this weird knife from there. If we don't my friends family is going  to die, hell they said me and my family would die too. Not to mention  my best friend Artemis and her family." I somehow suspected they might  be in for a bit of a fight with that one, but still, bad news.

He  let out another laugh "We might not be willing to go to war over some  stupid job, but Zatara won't kill you or anything. If you fuck up and  they try to make an issue of it we'll step in. They won't push things  too far. We wouldn't have the leverage to help your friends though." He  looked pensive "I might know someone who can help. A guy in town who  does job's for the family and for me personally. He's never taken a  crack at Shadowcrest and it's definitely his cup of tea. I'll set up a  meeting for later tonight, he prefers night time meetings." I gave him a  confused look and he smiled for real this time. "You ever heard of  Gentleman Ghost?"