Saturday, June 26th, 2009, 22:45
New Jersey
Gotham City
Financial District
The law offices of Morrison, Ketch & Associates occupied the fourteenth floor of a glass tower that looked like every other corporate monument in Gotham's Financial District. From the street, it appeared respectable, boring even. The kind of place where wealthy people went to make their problems disappear through creative interpretations of legal loopholes.
Malik crouched on the rooftop of the adjacent building, watching Selina work her way through the security system with the kind of casual expertise that made breaking and entering look like grocery shopping. She'd been at it for twenty minutes, her fingers dancing across a tablet connected to the building's network through a device that looked like it belonged in a spy movie.
"Security cameras are looping," she murmured, not looking up from her work. "Motion sensors disabled. We've got a forty-minute window before the next guard rotation."
"How do you know all that?"
"Because I've been watching this place for three weeks. Morrison has a very predictable schedule, his night security is lazy, and his IT infrastructure was designed by the lowest bidder." Selina's smile was sharp with satisfaction. "Rule number one: preparation matters more than skill. You can't improvise your way out of problems you could have avoided with better planning."
They'd spent the past week going over building schematics, guard rotations, and escape routes. Malik had memorized floor plans until he could navigate the office blindfolded, studied traffic patterns until he knew exactly when the streets would be clear, learned the locations of every security camera within a six-block radius. It was like preparing for the world's most dangerous exam.
"Ready?" Selina asked, standing up and checking the contents of her kit one final time.
Malik felt his heart rate spike as adrenaline flooded his system. This was it. Everything he'd been learning, all the training, all the theory, was about to become real. "Ready."
They crossed to the target building using a zip line Selina had set up between rooftops, Malik trying not to think about the fourteen-story drop beneath them. The night air was cool against his face, and Gotham spread out below them like a circuit board of lights and shadows.
Landing on the roof, Selina led him to a maintenance access that she'd already compromised during an earlier reconnaissance visit. The lock picks Helena had given him weren't needed yet, but Malik felt their weight in his pocket like a promise.
"Elevator or stairs?" Selina asked as they made their way through a maintenance corridor that smelled like dust and old metal.
"Stairs. Elevators leave electronic records."
"Good. What floor?"
"Fourteenth. Morrison's personal office is in the northwest corner, adjacent to the conference room. The files we want are in a safe behind the painting of some dead judge."
"And the safe?"
"Mosler double-guard, probably installed in the nineties. You said it would take you about ten minutes to crack."
Selina nodded approval. "You've been paying attention."
The stairwell was dimly lit and silent except for their carefully muffled footsteps. Malik found himself hyper-aware of every sound, every shadow, every potential threat. His training with Ted had prepared him for the physical aspects of this, but nothing had prepared him for the mental game. The constant awareness that discovery meant consequences he didn't want to think about.
Morrison's office was exactly as the floor plans had indicated. Expensive furniture, diplomas on the walls, photographs of the lawyer shaking hands with people who probably belonged in prison. The painting hiding the safe was a portrait of some nineteenth-century judge who looked like he'd never met a bribe he didn't like.
"Keep watch," Selina said, moving to the safe with her tools. "Anyone comes up here, you let me know immediately."
Malik positioned himself by the door, listening for footsteps or voices while watching Selina work. Her movements were economical and confident, each adjustment of her tools deliberate. This wasn't luck or natural talent. This was mastery earned through years of practice.
"What exactly are we looking for?" he asked quietly.
"Financial records. Morrison's been helping some very unpleasant people hide money they shouldn't have. Drug dealers, human traffickers, corrupt politicians. The kind of clients who pay well for creative accounting." Selina's voice carried distaste. "The files in this safe contain evidence that could put half of Gotham's worst criminals behind bars."
"So why don't we just give them to the police?"
"Because half the police are on Morrison's payroll, and the other half wouldn't be able to prosecute cases using evidence obtained through illegal searches." The safe clicked open, and Selina's smile was triumphant. "Sometimes justice requires working outside the system."
Inside the safe were dozens of file folders, USB drives, and what looked like account information for banks in countries that didn't ask uncomfortable questions. Selina photographed everything systematically while Malik kept watch, his mind racing as he processed what they'd found.
"This is bigger than just money laundering," he said, looking at some of the documents over her shoulder. "These guys are funding human trafficking operations, drug smuggling, arms dealing. Morrison isn't just helping criminals avoid taxes. He's enabling some seriously evil shit."
"Now you're beginning to understand why I do what I do." Selina finished photographing the last file and began replacing everything exactly as they'd found it. "The legal system is designed to protect people like Morrison and his clients. Money buys immunity, connections buy freedom, and innocent people suffer while guilty people profit."
"So we steal from them."
"We redistribute resources from people who abuse the system to people who need them." Selina closed the safe and repositioned the painting. "There's a difference."
They made their way back through the building using a different route, Selina's paranoia about varying their patterns now making perfect sense to Malik. The files they'd photographed represented millions of dollars in hidden assets and evidence of crimes that would shock even jaded Gotham residents.
Back on the rooftop, waiting for the all-clear signal from Selina's surveillance equipment, Malik felt something he hadn't expected. Not guilt or fear or regret, but satisfaction. They'd taken something valuable from people who deserved to lose it. They'd gathered evidence that could be used to protect innocent people from predators with expensive lawyers.
"How do you feel?" Selina asked, packing up her equipment.
"Like we just did something important." Malik's voice carried surprise at his own reaction. "I thought I'd feel guilty about breaking the law, but I don't. I feel like we just evened the odds a little."
"That's because you understand the difference between legality and morality." Selina's expression was approving. "The law isn't justice, Malik. It's just rules written by people with power to protect their interests. Real justice sometimes requires breaking those rules."
They made their way back across the rooftops, and Malik found himself thinking about environmental factors in criminal development, about Dr. Sanchez's concerns, about the academic papers he'd been writing. Tonight had transformed those theoretical frameworks into lived experience.
Breaking into Morrison's office hadn't felt like crime. It had felt like research. Information gathering. A practical application of everything he'd been learning about how power really worked in Gotham.
"What happens to the information?" he asked as they reached their starting point.
"Some of it goes to journalists who specialize in investigative reporting. Some goes to federal prosecutors who aren't on Morrison's payroll. Some gets leaked to the families of victims who deserve to know what happened to their loved ones." Selina's voice carried satisfaction. "And some of it gets stored for future use when we need leverage against people who think they're untouchable."
"And the money? Morrison's clients have millions hidden in those accounts."
"That's a conversation for another night. But let's just say that wealth redistribution can take many forms."
Later, back at their apartment, Malik sat at his desk supposedly working on homework but actually thinking about the night's events. The academic framework he'd been developing for understanding criminal behavior suddenly felt incomplete. He'd been analyzing crime from the outside, treating it as a social phenomenon to be studied rather than a tool to be used.
Tonight had changed that perspective fundamentally.
Selina appeared in his doorway with two cups of tea, settling into the chair across from his desk like she had something important to discuss.
"Questions?" she asked.
"A few. But mostly I'm trying to figure out how tonight fits into everything else I've been learning." Malik accepted the tea gratefully. "Dr. Sanchez keeps talking about the dangers of developing too much understanding for criminal behavior. She's worried I'm losing perspective on right and wrong."
"And what do you think?"
"I think right and wrong are more complicated than most people want to admit." Malik's voice carried certainty that surprised him. "Morrison and his clients are destroying lives for profit, and the legal system protects them because they have money and connections. We gathered evidence that could help their victims get justice, and we did it by breaking laws that were written to protect predators from consequences."
"So?"
"So maybe Dr. Sanchez is worried about the wrong thing. Maybe the question isn't whether I understand criminal behavior too well, but whether I understand justice well enough to know when breaking the law serves a higher purpose."
Selina's smile carried pride mixed with something that might have been sadness. "That's a very mature perspective for someone who just turned thirteen."
"Is that good or bad?"
"It's necessary. But it's also dangerous." Selina set down her tea, choosing her words carefully. "The line between justified law-breaking and rationalized selfishness is thinner than most people think. Tonight we gathered evidence that could help victims and expose corruption. But it would be easy to convince ourselves that any theft is justified if the target has more money than they deserve."
"How do you know the difference?"
"By always asking who benefits from your actions. If you're helping people who can't help themselves, if you're fighting systems that protect predators and punish victims, if you're redistributing resources from those who abuse power to those who need protection, then you're probably on the right side." Selina's expression grew serious. "But if you're benefiting primarily yourself, if you're justifying actions that harm innocent people, if you're becoming the kind of person who takes because they can rather than because they should, then you've lost your way."