Detective Sonya Blade arrives in Gotham City to follow up on Kano’s arrest. She meets the city’s top cop, Commissioner Jim Gordon.
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It was after hours when Seattle Detective Sonya Blade arrived at Gotham police headquarters.
After a conversation with a mid-level commander, Sonya’s inquiry into Kano got the attention of Commissioner Jim Gordon. He was in the building working late but made himself available to the visiting detective.
Gordon didn’t look like what one would imagine as the city’s political face for law enforcement. He was more of an old-school gumshoe with his rumpled, off-the-rack suit, glasses, and graying hair and mustache.
Perpetual worry lines marred the commissioner’s face; Sonya could tell he’d seen many things in his years on the job. Lord knows what he could have seen in a city that needed not one but three masked vigilantes to keep a lid on crime.
Gordon’s concern and endurance in the face of it all endeared him to Sonya as someone she didn’t know but felt she could trust.
“You’ve come a long way for one man,” Gordon said as he held his office door open for Sonya. She entered; he offered her the chair in front of his desk while he moved to his seat.
“Kano and I have been through a lot,” Sonya replied, taking the seat.
Gordon sat and studied Sonya. “So I read. I’m sorry about your partner.”
Sonya’s eyes drifted to a framed photo on his desk. The photo showed a slightly younger Gordon (judging from the lack of gray hair) with two auburn-haired children, a boy, and a girl.
The girl, the younger of the two by a few years, seemed happy. The boy was rather glum.
Gordon noticed Sonya’s stare. “My children, Barbara and James Junior.” Taking the frame in hand and looking at it, he said, “Best picture I have of James. Wouldn’t know it from the look on his face.
“Barbara is always smiling. Only saw her sad twice. Once when her mother left, and once when James had to leave.”
Gordon stared at the photo for a moment longer before putting it back on his desk. “Any kids for you, detective?”
Sonya shook her head. “Married to the job, sir.”
“I used to be that way too. It’s why you don’t see Barbara and James’s mother in that photo with us.”
Sonya saw Gordon’s regret as Gordon continued.
“You get so wrapped up in the job, your fellow police officers become your family. A partner like a spouse.”
Sonya suddenly sat up straight. “Our relationship was strictly platonic.”
Gordon raised a consoling hand. “I meant no innuendo, detective. I’m just saying I empathize with your situation. And how that could affect your dealings with this Kano.”
Sonya relaxed her shoulders but maintained a professional demeanor. “I assure you, Commissioner, my intentions are purely professional.”
“Good,” Gordon said. “Gotham doesn’t need any more vigilantes.”
The Commissioner said the words with authority, but his demeanor said he was in on the joke. Sonya played it straight.
Gordon reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a pipe. He motioned with it to Sonya. She nodded. Gordon stuffed tobacco from a small box in the drawer into the pipe’s bowl.
Decorating the wall to Sonya’s left were Gordon’s many plaques of honor. They led to a partially open window large enough for a person to fall to their death. She wondered how the building inspectors allowed such a safety violation, especially in the office of the top cop.
The smell of freshly lit tobacco reminded Sonya why she was here and why that window remained open. But she had a question, since Gordon brought up the subject. “About those vigilantes, Commissioner.”
Gordon took a draw from his pipe. “Nothing I’m proud of,” he began, “but I admit Batman has aided us in cases more dire than what the police could manage. But as long as he works within the law —”
“Assault and battery?” Sonya asked, making sure her voice had no edge to it. “Breaking and entering?”
Gordon shot Sonya a glare. “Batman brought in Kano when you and your Seattle police couldn’t.”
Embarrassed at his harsh tone, Gordon turned from Sonya. She felt he didn’t mean the harshness but understood the defensive nature that caused it.
She also understood the origin of that defensiveness. Gotham was a hard town without many wins. If in his position, Sonya wouldn’t let the win of capturing an international criminal go either, despite how it got done.
Sonya let the air clear for a moment. “I didn’t mean to press you, commissioner,” she said in a soft tone. “Seattle has its vigilante too.”
“This Black Canary?” Gordon asked.
Sonya tried to conceal her look of surprise. “Didn’t know she’d made the circuit outside of Seattle.”
“I have my sources too, detective.”
From what little Dinah told her about her experience in Gotham, Sonya knew Batman must be Gordon’s source. Dinah said she had issues in Gotham. Did those issues put her on Batman’s radar, and, if so, how would it affect this investigation?
“What does your vigilante have to do with all this, Detective Blade?” Gordon asked.
Sonya omitted Black Canary from the report she filed with the Seattle police. They didn’t have the same tolerance that Gordon has for his vigilantes. But from this conversation so far, she felt she would do better letting him know all the facts — save Dinah’s identity, of course.
“You’ve read the file on Kano’s latest exploits in Seattle?”
Gordon nodded.
“What’s not in that file is that Kano allegedly set off that bomb in Belltown as a trap to attack Black Canary. I came to the scene to assist her.”
Gordon took this in. “And I suppose you’ve been working with the Black Canary, despite Seattle police mandates to the contrary?”
Sonya ignored the implication and said, “That’s how I brought Kano in prior to the bombing.”
“But your department doesn’t know of her involvement.”
Sure, Gordon looked the other way with his vigilantes, but would he extend that same courtesy to Sonya and hers? Especially when he knows she’s lying to her boss?
Sonya lowered her head in subservience and took her shot. “Commissioner, if Kano is in your town, I’d bet he came with a bunch of ninjas.”
Gordon stared at Sonya. “We seem to have a problem with ninja costumes showing up without ninjas in them — a detail left out of the media and the police reports.”
The commissioner’s begrudging tone let Sonya know she’d gotten his interest. She looked back at Gordon and asked, “Who did Kano attack?”
Godon shifted in his chair. “Gangster named Gamble.” Gordon drew more of the tobacco’s smoke into his lungs. As he exhaled, he continued.
“A few weeks back, Gamble’s rival, a piece of work known only as the Chechen, started harassing Gamble’s operations. Then your Kano comes to town, meets with two of the Chechen’s men and attacks Gamble’s theater.”
Gordon rubbed the bridge of his nose as he continued.
“Gamble will want to attack the Chechen out of revenge. With those two fighting, Black Mask and what’s left of the mob may flex. And this is all before the Penguin comes looking for his cut of anything coming into the city.”
Sonya leaned toward the desk. “Let me help, Commissioner.”
Gordon leveled his gaze at Sonya. “I talked to your captain.”
Sonya’s shoulders sank.
“He says he doesn’t want you snooping around Kano or White because of your personal connection to the case.”
Sonya looked away from Gordon. “Then why did he send me out here?” she said, not hiding her frustration.
“I was to deny your seeing Kano, writing it off to procedure or whatever,” Gordon said. “Meanwhile, you’re out of the city.”
Sonya gritted her teeth. “And out of his hair. As if hiding out from China White while recuperating from poisoning didn’t give him enough of a vacation from me.”
Gordon let her stew in silence while he pretended to enjoy his pipe. Eventually, he asked, “You say Kano was here on behalf of this China White?”
Sonya looked at Gordon. Was he throwing her a line? “I believe so, commissioner.”
Gordon drew on his pipe, exhaled. “I’m not opposed to letting a fresh set of eyes share intel on a potential threat to my city. But Kano is out of the equation.”
“With respect, commissioner, right now Kano is the equation,” Sonya said.
“I think you’d do better working with my detectives to figure out what your China White really wants with Gotham City.”
Sonya wisely pressed no further. Gordon was letting her play in his sandbox. If she could stop China White here, she could chase the criminal all the way back home.
She just hoped whatever strife lay between Dinah and Batman didn’t blow the whole thing up.
Sonya gets the go-ahead from Gotham’s top cop. But what was Black Canary doing while Sonya played diplomat? And why was that window open? Find out in the next chapters!
While writing this fanfiction, I used Green Ronin’s Mutants and Masterminds, 3rd Edition RPG, to leave some things to chance. Check it out!
Like this Birds of Prey fanfiction? Check out Mark’s original “Shadowdance” saga books!
