Batman: Family #5 is an issue of the series Batman: Family (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 2003. It was published on November 27, 2002.
Synopsis for "Interrogation"
Freeway observes Sylvia Cassavetes who burnt through her paycheck from the Wintermint Lounge by drinking it all away. Two meth addicts corner Sylvia as she leaves the bar and walks down Avenue C. Freeway then notices Tim Drake coming to Sylvia's rescue. Tim uses his urban combat skills to disarm Sylvia's assailants. Tim then questions Sylvia about her connection to the recently deceased Roger Sloane. Freeway calls Celia while she was attending an opera. Freeway informs Celia that Robin has been asking questions about Roger Sloane and he has just rescued Sloane's ex-girlfriend. Celia figures Sloane might have made duplicates of his notes that would expose the Network's plan in Gotham and could have entrusted them to Sylvia Cassavetes. Celia tells Freeway to give Robin some room to further his investigation and to strike if Sylvia should hand off Sloane's notes to Robin.
Sylvia takes Tim to her apartment to find out what Sloane wanted to tell Bruce Wayne. She and Roger Sloane met while he was an investigative reporter for the Boston Post Herald. Sylvia was dating a mobster that Roger was investigating. Sylvia was a dancer who played in Vegas and Atlantic City until she came to Boston. Sylvia grabs a CD from behind a picture frame with her and Roger together. Roger had told her to get the CD to Clark Kent in Metropolis but she figures Tim would be the best person to hand it over to. Tim figures the CD is encrypted. Sylvia excuses herself to feed her cats but Freeway knocks her out. Tim recognizes Freeway as the same thug who stole the Batmobile a while back.
Tim throws Sylvia's cats at Freeway so he can make his escape. Tim then heads to the roof of Sylvia's apartment and takes on Freeway with his bo staff. The fight between Tim and Freeway causes Tim to fall off the rooftop and onto a passing garbage truck. Freeway chases after Tim and lands on the garbage truck. Tim tries to discard the disc and plans to recover it later but Freeway knocks out Tim with a gas pellet of Chloral Hydrate. Tim wakes up in an abandoned fashion warehouse with his mask removed. Freeway expresses how impressed he was with Tim's ingenuity. Freeway tried to match Tim's fingerprints with the FBI's database and came up with James Scott Westerberg, a car thief who died in Blackgate 5 years ago.
Freeway figures the best way to get answers out of Tim is by having Dr. Excess interrogate him. Dr. Excess introduces himself to Tim by giving him a run down of his resume. Dr. Excess' practices were criticized by the AMA. Excess was working for the US government during the Reagan administration by designing poisons for the special forces to use against the Sandinistas. Excess shows Tim a nanotech cocktail and will employ a Pavlovian method. The solution will attach to Tim's nervous system and it can either cause excruciating pain or immeasurable pleasure with the push of a button from Excess' remote. Tim pulls a lock pick from a fake fingernail on his left hand and unlocks the handcuffs that have him restrained around a column. Tim breaks free and knocks out Excess with a blow to the head.
Freeway engages Tim in unarmed combat and notices Lady Shiva's fighting style. Freeway knew Lady Shiva both professionally as well as intimately. He asks Tim if he knew a boy who was taught by Lady Shiva in Paris and challenged King Snake. Doctor Excess appears from behind and tries to inject Tim with his nanotech cocktail. Tim grabs Excess and throws him at Freeway which causes the the CD to fall from Freeway's pocket. The two of them falling backwards accidentally tripped the lights in the warehouse and everything went black. Tim arms himself with all of his gadgets that Freeway removed. Tim then puts the lights back on and notices that Freeway and Excess have vanished. Tim wonders why the two of them fled.
Tim heads to the Gotham University Hospital and asks Dr. Narayan to examine him. Dr. Narayan owed Tim a favor for saving her parents from the Scavengers during No Man's Land. Dr. Narayan does an MRI on Tim and finds a transmitter surgically implanted at the base of Tim's skull. Dr. Narayan removes the homing device and Tim plays a practical joke on Freeway. TIm returns to the Batcave and decrypts Sloane's CD. Both Tim and Bruce find some troubling intel about the Network.
Later that night, both Freeway and Bugg go searching for Tim hoping that Robin will lead them to Batman's base of operations. Instead the two of them find a rat with Tim's homing device attached. Freeway reports back to Celia about his failure. Freeway suspects Sloane may have made the connection between the Network's involvement in Texas, Santa Prisca and Stuttgart. Celia figures the Network will have to act fast with their plan to destroy Gotham by siphoning off Wayne Enterprises' capital and resources. Freeway assures Celia that the Network will go on the offense and remove the Batman as well as lieutenants from the equation. Celia then kneels at her son's grave and puts a bouquet of flowers.
Appearing in "Interrogation"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Doctor Narayan
- Sylvia Cassavetes (Single appearance)
Locations:
- Gotham City
- Batcave
- Gotham Cemetery
- Zephyr Building
Items:
Vehicles:
See Also