Chapter 248: Chapter 162: The Long Easter (Part Two)_1
It was another rainy night. On the flooded roads, the fast vehicles passed in flashes of light. Gordon, wearing his rain boots, quickly descended the stairs, shaking hands with Shiller, who was walking up. With an exaggerated tone, Gordon said, "Thank God, Professor, your arrival couldn't be more timely!"
"Let's talk inside."
Gordon pushed open the door to the station. Before he could usher Shiller into his office, a young officer approached him saying, "Boss, the interrogation rooms upstairs are all filled. There was a fight between a drunkard and a scar-faced man. It took three of us to separate them. The African American with the band tattoo is acting crazy too. We don't have enough manpower to oversee all these criminals..."
Gordon sighed and said, "If we catch any more people, there's no need for interrogation. Just lock them up immediately."
Gordon led Shiller upstairs. He walked briskly ahead without turning his head back and said, "These people have all gone crazy lately. The crime rate in Gotham today is twelve times higher than usual, and our interrogation rooms and jail cells can no longer hold them."
"I don't know what's going on. Everyone's temper flares up so easily." After reaching the corridor, Gordon pointed to the end of the hall and went on, "Those two in the interrogation room fought over a pack of cigarettes. And that couple in the room to the left pointed guns at each other over a quarrel..."
"I thought this was just a typical day in Gotham," Shiller said, following Gordon up the stairs.
"That used to be the case, but ever since the logistics system took over, these kind of idle people became rare. I wouldn't expect to see them again."
He sighed, "However, it's not surprising. With the severe waterlogging on the city roads, logistics have basically stalled. Everyone's idling at home."
"But you still think it's abnormal, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't have called me here."
"Exactly. Even if Gotham was rotten to the core before, it shouldn't spawn so many psychotically aggressive people overnight."
"Right now in the office on the third floor, there are two people convulsing all over, one foaming at the mouth, and another already talking nonsense."
"Our officers subjected them to alcohol and drug tests, yet the results showed no issues. They just seemed to fall sick suddenly."
Standing at the entrance to his office with his hands on his hips, Gordon told Shiller, "Had it not been for that lad named Cobblepot falling ill last time, I wouldn't have made the connection. But their symptoms are similar, so I had to ask you to come over. What is this all about?"
Shiller frowned, pushing open the office door. He saw several people huddled in a corner, just like Cobblepot had been, soaked to the bone, convulsing uncontrollably and mumbling incoherently.
Shiller shook his head and said, "I suspected as much. It's the aftermath of getting soaked in the rain."
Gordon didn't catch what he said. Just as he was about to ask again, Shiller interrupted him, "Never mind that for now. Send them to Arkham. Just as you suspected, this isn't normal. I need to run more tests."
By the time Shiller arrived at his office in Arkham Psychiatric Hospital, heavy rain had started to fall outside the window, merely four hours after the last shower.
Shiller walked over to the window, watching the raindrops splatter against the railing outside the glass, reflecting a faint glow. He quietly counted in his mind. The thunderstorms were becoming increasingly frequent. From occurring every other day two weeks ago, they were now occurring daily. Today alone, there had already been three bouts of heavy rain.
He left his office and knocked on the door of the adjacent ward. A voice came from inside, "Come in."
Shiller walked in to find Batman and Cobblepot standing on opposite sides of a table dotted with a map of Gotham City. After entering, he said straightaway, "It seems that our plan has upset them."
Cobblepot laughed grimly. Batman's mouth twitched, and he said, "It gave me a new understanding of the despicable extent of human tactical planning."
"If it weren't for this method, even if you caught their tail, they would only hide deeper and not expose themselves."
Batman sighed, his thoughts drifted back a few days.
Evans, Batman, and Cobblepot had speculated about the Court of Owls' method of monitoring the Living Hell, which was the water wells. But this was still just speculation and needed further verification.
Batman planned to infiltrate the Living Hell himself, but Cobblepot rejected him, believing that he should not interfere in his own territory.
Batman was skeptical as always, he didn't trust Cobblepot and decided to take matters into his own hands.
A stalemate ensued until, with Evans' mediation, the two agreed to operate separately. Cobblepot investigated the North District, and Batman the South District, with both doing their own thing without interfering with each other.
During the reform of the Living Hell, all six wells in the South and North Districts were filled in. But, instead of sealing the well from bottom to top, they constructed beams about three meters from the surface and poured concrete over them to make a ground level, leaving the well intact below the three-meter depth.
Meticulously, Batman found an entrance to a sewer drain and planned to dig a passage to the bottom of the well from underneath.
But Cobblepot, being a non-technical outsider, had a wider perspective. He once again enlisted the help of Tire, Red Truck, and Rocket, to form a small team to conduct the investigation in their unique way.
Unlike Batman's opt for their rich style, this group didn't have such sturdy equipment, and didn't even have night vision goggles. It was unrealistic for them to figure out the original structure of the Living Hell in the complex sewer system. But being outsiders, they had their own methods.
This story starts with the old drug trafficker who provided them with a map.
If there's one thing Gotham isn't short of, it's bizarrely resourceful drug traffickers — precisely like moles digging an underground network.
In Gotham, indeed, no amount of cops can put a stop to the illicit trade, but the biggest threat invariably comes from others in the business.
These things inevitably need to be stored and transported, and if a rival gang uncovers your storage location or transport routes, then you can say goodbye to your precious stash.
To avoid this, most drug traffickers operating in the Living Hell have their transport routes.
The old drug dealer was no different, he collaborated with other big bosses and gained control over most of the underground passages in the Living Hell.
They didn't use the surface, but shipped their goods directly through the underground tunnels, thus avoiding detection by the gangs in Living Hell and reducing the chance of getting robbed.
When the Living Hell underwent reforms, most of the underground passages were destroyed by the foundation supports, but a few still remained usable. Cobblepot got hold of this information and discovered the bottom of the wells even quicker than Batman.
Their guess was accurate, of the five wells in the North District, the bottom of three wells connects to a secret room, and the rooms are interconnected leading to a larger meeting room.
When Cobblepot discovered this, he didn't rush in, but instead, he notified Batman.
Batman, who was better at infiltration, felt around the peripheries of these rooms, and after investigation, he found evidence of recent activity, unlike the huge meeting room discovered earlier.
Batman thought, their predictions were indeed correct, if the Court of Owls has been operating here for decades, it wouldn't completely abandon its Gotham territory, even due to some accidents causing emergency relocation, they would leave some personnel to guard other bases.
After days of surveillance, Batman discovered that the underground of Living Hell seemed to have become a new base for members of the Court of Owls.
In line with the Gotham principle of participants sharing information, Batman told Shiller about the situation in a brief overview. Yet, Shiller seemed to have been prepared ahead of time and came up with a plan that was completely exasperating but potentially effective.
As Shiller said, it wasn't difficult to catch the tail of the Court of Owls, or even invade their base. But if they do not succeed at once, they would slip away, hide even deeper, and this hide-and-seek game would never end.
So, they needed a plan to make them come out proactively, expose them even more, to create an opportunity for a win.
Shiller's specific plan was this: he deduced that even if the Court of Owls was hiding underground, they would need to rely on an energy source for lighting and communication.
So, where did this energy come from?
Though they didn't rule out the possibility of the Court having independent power facilities, according to Shiller's understanding of the Court of Owls, they are like a tumor living off a healthy organism. It's more likely that they infiltrated their men during the Living Hell's renovation and drew a line from the energy system of the Living Hell to supply power to themselves.
So, Shiller had Gordon bring in Little Sly and then Cobblepot took Little Sly for a tour around Living Hell.
Indeed, Little Sly quickly discovered that a power line was routed incorrectly, and following this line, Cobblepot found the energy pipeline for the Court of Owls' base.
Aside from the power source, there were other pipelines, and the ones above ground were cleverly hidden and unguarded.
And Shiller's ultimate plan was to, simply, dump feces.
Connecting the sewage treatment pipeline of Living Hell with the supply pipeline of the Court of Owls, the whole sewage system of Living Hell would be connected to the pipeline of the Court of Owls.
The result of this, of course, is quite straightforward. In Gotham, there's no place with a higher population density than the Living Hell, making it the best place for feces production.
"Those excrements flooded their base, turning it into a massive marsh gas pool."
Even Batman was struggling to keep his composure as he said, "And judging from the scene, some people didn't manage to escape in time when things started dumping…"
Batman took a momentary pause, seemingly trying to suppress the nauseating images his imagination was conjuring up. Afterward, Batman rather honestly said, "Although it is disgusting, it is effective."
"You said before that they have trained many assassins, and if I was to break in alone, I have no certainty of defeating them all."
"Even if I could defeat them, if they managed to pin me down while setting the assassins loose, then the residents of Living Hell will suffer."
"Living Hell is the most densely populated part of Gotham, no matter what havoc the Court of Owls cause there, it will result in a significant number of casualties. For that, we need to drive them out of there. Even though this involves… But when they are fleeing, they certainly won't have time for murder."
Shiller looked at Batman, the corners of his mouth still downturned, giving off an aura of solemnity.
Shiller thought, perhaps this is where Batman's uniqueness among superheroes lies. Although the tendency towards personal heroism is inevitable, he is willing to make personal compromises in favor of tactical victories, rather than always seeking to show off his strength.
Faced with a lowly tactic, he wouldn't stand on the moral high ground and condemn it, but rather analyze and judge it rationally. Perhaps this is the basic competence of a tactical master.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone