Batman Arkham Knight (16 page)

“It’s funny because it’s true.”

The Joker took the camera from around his neck and powered it up.

“By the way, if it isn’t too much of an inconvenience, I mean with the shattered spine and all, do you think you can smile for the camera. You know, like you’re a good sport and all.”

He took the photos. Dozens of photos. Each more gruesome than the one before. Then he leaned into Barbara, on the floor, barely conscious as the pain overwhelmed her. “Just wait till your father gets home. He is going to be so furious about all this mess.

“Tee-tee-eff-en,” he chuckled as he exited.

* * *

Barbara had been left behind, unconscious in a pool of her own blood. For a long time the doctors weren’t sure she’d survive, but once they realized she was too stubborn to give up, they altered their prognosis. Barbara Gordon would live, but she’d be paralyzed for the rest of her life.

* * *

Suddenly Batman was there, in the house where it had all happened.

Barbara was lying unconscious on the floor, face down in her own blood. Batman looked up and saw the Joker grinning, as always, his hands covered with Barbara’s blood, scrawling a message on the wall.

This is what happens when you drag your friends into this crazy little game of ours.

He tried to turn away, but couldn’t. The Joker tipped his hat, walked past his transfixed nemesis, through the door, and shut it behind him.

Long after he’d gone, Batman could still hear the fiend’s demented laugh.

“Batman!”

He looked around the bloody room, but aside from the unconscious form of Barbara Gordon, there was nobody else there.

“BATMAN!”

The voice called to him again. Who was it?

* * *

“Wake up, Batman.
Snap out of it.
”

He shook his head, clearing away the illusions. He wasn’t standing in Gordon’s old apartment. Barbara wasn’t lying dead on the ground. But he was standing in the Clock Tower. James Gordon was next to him, shaking him, trying to snap him out of the fever that had taken him again. Gordon’s eyes were wide, and angry.

“What the hell is going on here, Batman?” Gordon demanded, a growing fury in his words. “Where is Barbara?”

His thoughts were again under his control.

“There’s something I need to show you,” Batman said, moving toward a Shakespeare bust that sat on a nearby table. He flipped the head back and a small camera inside it scanned his face.

“Identity confirmed,”
a mechanical voice said. The Clock Tower’s clock face transformed. Lasers created a holographic display that surrounded the two. Batman stared at the display, his thoughts going back in time. Gordon stared, as well, but there was no comprehension in his expression.

“Monitoring equipment?” he said. “All of Gotham City’s on that grid map.” He looked at one of the displays. “Barbara has been working with you, hasn’t she? For how long, Batman?
How long has she been doing this?
”

“Jim, she used to be Batgirl.”

* * *

Gordon closed his eyes trying to make sense of what he was hearing. When he opened them again, the insanity was still there.

“Batgirl?” he said. “
The
Batgirl? No. That’s impossible. Batgirl disappeared years ago. How the hell could she have been…” He stopped as he put together two and two—Batgirl’s disappearance coincided with the attack that left Barbara paralyzed.

“No. That would mean she’d been lying to me for years. That you’ve been lying to me, too. How? Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It wasn’t my truth to tell, Jim,” Batman replied. “That was Barbara’s decision. She thought if you knew you’d try to stop her.”

“Damn right I would’ve. My God, I’ve trained for this. You have, too. But I know Barbara’s history. She was a librarian, for God’s sake, not a soldier. She never fought anyone, not even in school.”

“She believed in your cause, Jim. Our cause. She wanted to be part of it. And she was good. She was very good.”

Gordon stared at Batman as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“She was good? That’s supposed to explain why the hell she became some kind of goddam vigilante? She was
good
?” For a moment Gordon forced himself to calm down. He looked again at Batman, and gestured around the Oracle room. “And this? How did this all come about? Wait. Wait. Wait. Tell me she was paralyzed. Tell me she wasn’t lying about that, too. Because if she was lying, I’ll never know if I can believe anything again.

“Please, for once, tell me the truth.”

“She was paralyzed, Jim, and still is,” Batman said softly. “That wasn’t a lie. After the Joker’s attack, after she recovered, she was angry. She wanted to prove that even confined to the wheelchair, she couldn’t be kept down. She asked me to help set her up. I knew she’d be safe here, in the Clock Tower, off the street.

“Using the cameras spread across the city, she was able to monitor Gotham City and report to me whenever anything was amiss. For the past few years she was Gotham City’s guardian angel. And because of her, a lot of crimes were stopped before they got out of hand.”

“I… I don’t know what to think,” Gordon said. “Wait a second—you said Scarecrow kidnapped her. Is that because she was this Oracle? Or Batgirl? Was she kidnapped because of you? This is your fault?

“This is all your fault?”

“Jim, I swear to you I don’t know why he took her. But I don’t think it’s because of who she was. I’m the only one who knew.”

“Yeah. Right. Only you. Not her father.”

“She’s an adult, Jim. And she told me not to say anything. She made her own decisions. I chose to accept them. But you don’t have to worry. I’ll find her.”

“You’re telling her father not to worry about his only daughter? Meanwhile, she’s been working for you for goddam ever, and you never thought, not once, to tell me. To warn me that my only daughter was risking her life every night I thought she was safe in the library.”

He swung at Batman, hitting him hard in the face. But Batman didn’t react—just took the punch.

“Goddam it, I thought you were my friend,” Gordon said. “How
could
you?”

“I am your friend. But I’m also Barbara’s friend…”

“Shut up!
Shut the hell up.
I should never have trusted you.” He felt as if he would explode. “I’ll find Barbara on my own. I don’t want to see you ever again.”

Gordon started to leave then turned back.

“Stay out of my way. And when I find her, stay out of Barbara’s way, too. Stay away from my family. You and I are done.”

* * *

Batman was alone in the room. He wanted to go after Gordon and try to justify what he had done, the decisions he had made, but he knew there was nothing he could say that could adequately explain to a father why his daughter was missing.

Instead he tapped his comm and contacted Alfred—told him what happened. Alfred listened and waited for Batman to stop.

“Master Bruce, I sympathize with both of you. But I fear there might not be a way to smooth this over. At least not until Ms. Gordon is found and safely recovered, if that’s even possible.”

“So what do I do?” He felt uncertainty, and it was an unwelcome thing.

“There’s not much you can do, sir,”
Alfred replied
. “Forgiveness will either come in time, or it won’t, but whatever the commissioner decides, it’s out of your hands now.”

“He’s one of the best people I’ve ever known, Alfred,” Batman replied. “To disappoint him… it’s crushing.”

“And for him, as well, I’m sure,”
Alfred said.
“I’m so sorry about this, but the commissioner is a man who believes in truth and justice, and yet he’s learned that those he trusted most have betrayed him. Add to that the realization of the fact that the daughter he cherishes has been taken by a madman.”

“I have to make things better between us. I can’t let this fester.”

“That may be what you feel you have to do, but now’s not the time. Do your job. Find her. Stop Scarecrow. Save Barbara Gordon. Then whatever will happen will happen.”

“Holding back’s not going to be easy, Alfred.”

“I know, sir. But when has anything worth accomplishing ever been easy?”

Alfred was right. He always was right, even when Batman couldn’t bring himself to admit it. He needed to push beyond his fight with Gordon and get back to work. The rest would take care of itself.

The Arkham Knight had been here, in the Clock Tower. Batman had seen it on his comm link. The Knight took Barbara, but left her wheelchair behind, as if to prove a point. She was unconscious and even if she wasn’t she still couldn’t walk, so that had to mean the Knight or one of his men carried Barbara to a waiting vehicle.

“Computers,” Batman said. “Show me the security camera feed from the last two hours.”

“Which cameras shall I activate?”

“The ones facing the access ramps. Show me the rear cameras on monitor screens one and two, then the sides and front on monitors three through nine. Play everything at once. I’ll keep track.”

“Accessing.”

He was too impatient to sit, so he stood and paced the room, sweeping his eyes back and forth between the monitors. As the footage was revealed everything seemed normal.

“Play it at two times normal speed.”

Still nothing out of the ordinary appeared. With the exceptions of residents who lived on the lower floors, comically speeding in and out of the building, there was nothing that surprised him.

At the seven-minute mark the rear camera picked up a shadow. A moment later a small truck pulled into view.

“Computer, play at normal speed.”

The rear doors opened and a moment later the Arkham Knight and four gunmen climbed out. Batman watched the Knight laser through the security lock, wave at the camera, then hurry inside. The Knight knew Batman would be going over the video.

Who the hell is he, and how does he know so much?

“Computer, access interior security cameras, same time frame. Focus on the private elevator.”

“Accessing.”

The holo flickered. He saw the Knight walk into the elevator and glance up at the cameras, knowing exactly where they had been hidden.
How?
He waved again, then leaned against the back wall as the elevator slowly made its way up to the Penthouse suite. The Knight took out his gun and waved it for Batman to see.

“Computer, access penthouse security cameras, same time frame.”

The image switched to the interior of Barbara’s penthouse. The elevator door opened and the Knight and his men rushed out. Barbara was ready for them—she must have been warned when the elevator was breached. Her tasers took out three of the four mercs, but the Knight’s armor protected him and he rammed into her. Unable to fight back, she spilled out of the overturned wheelchair.

The Knight looked up to the cameras—once again he knew exactly where they’d been placed—then stepped back so Batman could watch him taser Barbara into painful submission.

He then hefted Barbara and carried her back to the elevator. Before he got in he turned to the merc who was still standing and gestured. The merc nodded as the elevator door closed behind the Knight.

“Computer, show me the private elevator on monitor one. Show me the exterior of the building on all other monitors. All the same time frame.”

“Accessing.”

The armored figure carried Barbara to his truck. The camera’s position enabled Batman to see what occurred. The Knight placed her in a rear passenger seat, secured her there, then once again waved. A few minutes later his men climbed into the back, three of them still needing the fourth to help them, and closed the door behind them.

The truck took off.

“Computer, tag the truck then feed the information to the city’s street surveillance computers. I want to track where it’s going.”

“Gotham City street surveillance is no longer functioning. System failure occurred. Cannot access information.”

“Not functioning? When did that happen?”

“Accessing. Unable to determine exact time of system failure.”
Yet Batman knew when it had occurred.

“It was when the Knight got into the truck. He wanted me to see him take Barbara away, but he also wanted to make sure I couldn’t follow him.”

“Awaiting further instructions.”

Batman didn’t answer. He stared at the monitor, replaying Barbara’s abduction. He saw the truck move off to the corner then turn right, out of sight.

By now he could be most anywhere.

“Awaiting further instructions.”

He replayed the scene, again and again. “Computer, tighten the image on monitor six. Zoom to three hundred percent.”

“Accessing.”

The Knight could be out of the city by now. Batman wished he had demanded that Barbara leave Gotham City when she called to say she was staying.

“Computer, tighten to four hundred percent on quad four.”

“Accessing.”

“Computer, freeze. Print it out and send me a digital copy.”

“Complying. Awaiting further instructions.”

He stared at the screen and saw a unique set of tire treads moving off and rounding the corner. The truck was built for hauling heavy equipment and required special reinforced tires for that purpose.

“Computer, scan those tire treads into your database. I’m pretty sure I know what they are, but let’s be one hundred percent certain.”

“Accessing. Tires are Amertek D60s. Awaiting further instructions.”

“I’m on my way to the Batmobile. Upload that data to its computer and set it to track. The Knight is clever, but he can’t stop me from finding Barbara.”

“Complying. Awaiting further instructions.”

But there was no one to give it any new commands. Batman had already left.

* * *

He kept his eyes on the Batmobile’s computer screen. The tread pattern was interpreted as a green glyph that moved along the highway. The onboard computers tracked and followed as the Knight’s path led south.

He hit his comm and connected to Alfred.