novelraw Chapter 104, Part 1: The Second Clown
Chapter 104, Part 1: The Second Clown
Chapter 104-01: The Second Clown
Boom boom boom!
With a slow, deliberate knock, the three of them simultaneously looked toward the door of the safe house.
"Who is it?" Harvey Dent asked in a low voice.
"It should be Wei, I only gave this address to him." As he said this, Gordon didn't even dare to chew the wafer, afraid of making a noise and disturbing the uninvited guest at the door.
Brock pressed Harvey down as he tried to get up, and grabbed the shotgun from the wall. He licked his dry lips.
Try your best to make your voice sound like that of a drunkard.
"Who is it?!"
"I am Wei," the voice behind the door said.
"Wei? How can you prove it? Why don't you tell me something only the two of us know?" Brock didn't believe him easily and clicked the shotgun into the chamber.
"You have a mole on the back of your butt!"
"Fake!"
"Stop being cheeky! Remember how you drew the cyborgs' fire for me in the sewers?" Fearing that Brock would kick open the door and shoot him, Qin Wei quickly changed his tune.
The iron gate of the safe house opened.
"My God, you weren't this disheveled when we were pulled out of Gotham's ass last time." Brock exclaimed sincerely, looking at the disheveled young man outside the door.
Qin Wei entered the room and plopped down in Brock's seat. To be honest, the cushion was still warm, which made him feel a little nauseous.
"This is all you're having for dinner! Aren't you hungry?"
Qin Wei pointed at Gordon's wafer biscuits, his Adam's apple bobbing. He hadn't eaten anything since morning, not even a sip of water, and after some almost shameless prompting, the wafer biscuits were pushed in front of him.
"Why be polite?" Qin Wei wolfed down his food.
"Is this what we're feeding our Gotham heroes?" Harvey said with a laugh.
"You're worried about others, but have you forgotten how long you've been eating compressed biscuits?" Brock quipped from the side.
Brock was actually worried about Harvey's health. He had been working tirelessly for so long, and finally made some progress. He didn't want to see Gotham's only righteous prosecutor end up in the hospital before sending the scoundrel to jail.
But Harvey only had eyes for Qin Wei.
He never imagined that a deal he made with a "conscientious Roman" two months ago would become the catalyst for this storm sweeping Gotham. Of course, it was precisely because he was in this line of work that he understood the price that had to be paid to start this storm.
Look at those bruises under the shirt collar.
"Thank you, Wei."
"Hey? Don't thank me, thank yourself. Without you, this evidence is useless to me. I can't exactly kill them all one by one, can I?"
After Qin Wei finished eating and wiped his mouth, he revealed the purpose of his visit: he wanted to find Alfred.
"Alfred! I'd completely forgotten about it. I found him; he really is in Gotham—..."
Boom boom boom!
Hum Yu~
Boom boom boom!
A buzzing knocking sounded at the door, and Gordon's phone vibrated simultaneously. He glanced at his phone on the table with a slightly wary expression.
Barbara's plane has already taken off. Who would call at this hour?
Harvey gave him a look, and Brock returned to the doorway, ready to face the danger.
The first thing the other party asked when the call connected was to put the phone on speakerphone. Judging from their impatient tone, the person on the other end of the line was probably not a good person.
"ELA23258, that's your daughter's flight, isn't it!" Before Gordon could answer, the man continued, "There's a bomb on board—you'll see on the news soon!"
Qin Wei helped turn on the TV, and sure enough, the news was reporting that a flight had discovered a bomb and had to return to its origin.
"It's too late, the bomb will explode in fifteen minutes!" the other party continued.
Qin Wei thought for a moment and said, "Why can't we lower the height, disassemble it, and throw it out?"
"A level—the bomb has a level—but that's not the point. Hand over what you have right now, or it'll be too late!!!!"
The deeper you listen, the more you can sense the tearful pleading in the man's voice, more so than that of a bomber.
He was more like a coerced person.
"You have someone with you? Who is he?!" Gordon also realized that things weren't so simple.
boom!
The gunshot, accompanied by a sharp buzzing sound, pierced everyone's ears, and the unexpected plot twist left everyone stunned.
A thud was heard on the other end of the phone, and the person in question finally appeared.
"Whew~ checkonetwo! Call is normal."
"Sheriff Gordon! Your curiosity killed a poor father whose daughter was on that doomed flight with lovely Miss Barbara."
"Who exactly are you?!"
"You can call me JOKER!"
Is it the Joker again? But is it really him?
Having dealt with the Joker twice before, Qin Wei was the first to notice something amiss. Instead of the signature maniacal laugh, the guy's voice sounded hoarse and heavy.
But he chose not to interrupt the conversation.
"The conditions remain the same: hand over what you've obtained, and we'll hand over the bomb's code with both hands. This is an absolutely fair trade."
"Then why didn't you choose to confront me directly, but instead dragged an innocent person into it!" Gordon's voice trembled violently. As a father, he deeply sympathized with the despair a man experiences before death.
"Then you'll have to ask that guy next to you, Gotham's amazing new hero. Hey kid, say something, let me hear your voice."
"The second Joker?"
"Hmm? Hehehehehehehe!!" The guy who called himself a clown laughed, a deep and forceful laugh as if he was trying to empty his lungs, like a rusty swing swaying in the wind. The laugh was truly chilling.
"Such a keen sense of smell! Ordinary people wouldn't easily distinguish us, but you did. Was it a verbal tic or an accent?"
"Stop talking nonsense and let's talk about the deal." Qin Wei noticed that Gordon was not in a good mood and took the initiative to take over the conversation.
"Hehehehehe! It's okay, we can continue talking. Let me see, there are still 12 left."
minute!"
The clown reminded Qin Wei that time was running out, but the latter didn't listen. He couldn't let the madman dictate the conversation.
"Let me guess, why do you need someone to make a phone call when I'm around Gordon? Is it because you think I understand you guys, and that the Joker, this ungrateful bastard, isn't trustworthy?"
"Hey! You're just as smart as he said, a troublesome opponent. But kid, let me give you a piece of advice,"
Keeping up with Joker's way of thinking is not good news; it means you're not far from going crazy.
"What, afraid I'll go crazy too and steal your jobs?" Qin Wei rolled his eyes, unmoved by the clown's offensive words. He glanced at the clock on the wall; ten minutes left.
"Okay, okay! Actually, I wanted to tell you that this deal is completely trustworthy. You guessed it, if it were me, I would have blown up the plane after getting the stuff, but Joseph is different. He's a man of his word."
Under Qin Wei's unhurried tone, the clown became the first to lose his patience.
The sound of licking lips came through the receiver.
"My deliveryman has been waiting outside for five minutes. Hurry up and give him the package. The code word is 'Who's outside?' Oh, and it'll take at least five more minutes to contact the plane. If you don't want to watch the plane explode on your screen, hurry up!"
"We can't give it to him!"
Harvey Dent slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly, his face flushed and his breathing rapid.
"James Gordon! Don't forget the beliefs that brought us here. Greta is gone forever, James Gordon. If you want to cleanse Gotham, you have to be prepared!"
Harvey's words seem reasonable, but they contain a major flaw.
"Slow down your breathing." Qin Wei pressed his palm down, gesturing for Harvey to sit down and calm down. "Let me ask you a question. If I gave you a chance, a chance to save your wife—to put it more bluntly, your wife is on this plane—would you take it?"
Qin Wei tapped his fingers lightly on the table, posing a probing question.
Harvey Dent was speechless for a moment.
"You can't force others to lose something just because you've lost one yourself. Remember your identity as a prosecutor, Harvey."
You can be despicable, you can be cunning, but you absolutely cannot waver on the trolley problem.
"But this is something you've worked hard for—"
Harvey wanted to argue further, but Qin Wei refuted him with a single sentence:
"I am a gang member."
Qin Wei's meaning was simple: he could have blood on his hands, but Harvey, who represented the public security, procuratorate, and judiciary, could not.
Harvey rubbed his forehead and fell silent. He had indeed been blinded by anger. The thought of handing over the hard-won evidence made it impossible for him to remain calm.
"Vote now. Raise your hand if you agree to the deal."
Apart from Qin Wei, the other three raised their hands.
"You disagree?" Harvey asked, somewhat surprised.
"Of course I disagree," Qin Wei explained patiently. "Those are things that my friends and I risked our lives to retrieve! The lives of these guys on the plane can't be more important than theirs."
"Then why are you still trying to persuade me?"
"A pure and innocent knight of light is more important to me and to all of Gotham than evidence." Qin Wei pressed Harvey's shoulder.
Their eyes met.
Qin Wei understood that relying solely on gangs to rule Gotham was unrealistic; he needed an equally powerful law enforcement and judicial system to check and balance the gangs. Harvey was the only choice.
Boom boom boom!
The knocking continued, and the increasingly impatient frequency indicated that the other party's patience had run out.
Who's outside the door?
Qin Wei held up the documents and gave the coded message.
"Anyway, they're not your parents—"
The door was kicked open with a loud crash, revealing a pizza shop employee standing outside, his voice hoarse with fear at Qin Wei's menacing aura: "This—I—he—made me say that!"
Qin Wei finally understood: there was no secret code at all, only a hellish joke prepared by the Joker for Batman.
Of course, he didn't forget to carefully rub the pizza vendor's face to rule out the possibility that the other person was a clown in disguise.
Only after the young man stumbled and disappeared into the dark street corner with the brown paper bag containing the evidence did the clown on the other end of the phone slowly read out the bomb code.
"Hello Batman!"
Qin Wei was not about to let them get away so easily. There was a signal tracker stuck in the paper bag. The moment Gordon learned from the news that the bomb had been defused, a heavy roar rang out from the street corner.
The Batmobile has arrived.
"Sheriff Gordon, get me the surveillance footage from the recent blocks."
"I know! But it will take time—"
"I'm leaving it to you. I'm going to go after her!"
Qin Wei seized the opportunity and leaped forward, crashing solidly into the front of the Batmobile.
Boom!
The brakes slammed against the brake pads with a screeching sound that seemed so abrupt in the quiet night. The Batmobile slowed down slowly, awkwardly leaving one tire sticking out on the steps.
"I still need to practice more!"
Qin Wei scrambled to his feet, wiping the mud off his body, and climbed into the cockpit amidst the stunned gazes of everyone. Thankfully, none of the photography-loving blue-clad guys secretly recorded anything.
The Batmobile sped along, turning a corner at an empty street corner, its blinding headlights startling a flock of crows.
Qin Wei frowned, parked the car on the side of the road, and walked towards the place where the crows had gathered.
A corpse lay on the ground, its skin appearing pale under the car headlights.
Qin Wei forced himself to turn the corpse over despite the discomfort. Apart from the eyes that had been pecked away by crows, a smiley face had been drawn on the dead man's lips with blood.