Gordon knew this damn robber was implying that the hostages he released might have bombs on them. The veteran detective knew this was a tactic commonly employed by robbers.
Many professional robbers would not take all the people in a bank as hostages at once, because too many people are hard to manage and would require more manpower to watch over. The scenes in movies and TV shows with dozens of hostages tied up and sitting on the floor are not realistic.
In reality, the number of hostages usually ranges from around 5 to 12, depending on the size of the bank and the local police force, as well as the intensity of media coverage. The more coverage there is, the fewer hostages are necessary; after all, media would still portray it as a disaster for five families to pressure the police.
Police pressure leads to better cooperation with their demands. As long as the hostages are eventually rescued, their job is considered satisfactory; whether the money is recovered is a secondary concern, which increases the robbers' chances of escape.
How to release these unnecessary excess hostages is also a technique in itself; these hostages can hold police attention for a while. Robbers typically release one after a certain period.
First, authorities must interrogate the released hostage to understand the situation inside the bank. Questioning is essential, and it distracts them. Second, they do not entirely trust the released individual and must check them for hazardous materials.
That's because some particularly cruel robbers make these people into human bombs. An explosion in a crowd would inevitably create massive chaos and further distract law enforcement.
Even just the possibility of a bomb on a person coming out could cause panic, and the police would have to put effort into calming people down, achieving the robbers' goal.
So, Gordon's response was very professional. He immediately blocked the exit for the released hostages and took those who had come out for isolation and inspection, keeping quiet about the possibility of bombs on them to prevent panic.
But this certainly caused troubles for the police, as hostages who thought they had narrowly escaped death were unwilling to be searched. They saw themselves as victims and questioned why they should be treated with such suspicion. Some, already having broken down under the high-stress situation, would make a fuss, drawing the reporters' cameras, and making it difficult for the police to conduct searches.
In some larger bank robberies, criminals have even slipped in with the hostages, and police, hesitant to conduct thorough searches, inadvertently provide robbers with a good escape route.
Shiller did not have time to plant bombs on people; his only intention was to ensure that not everyone on the second floor ran away. But to be honest, the second floor was not high enough to kill someone by jumping, at worst it might result in a sprained ankle. Removing the air cushion was insufficient to completely prevent hostages from jumping; now it was up to Gordon to act.
Gordon picked up the megaphone and went to the balcony where the employees were. He chose to calm the employees with his words, and to his surprise, it worked.
Mainly because Gordon, the police chief who had been steadfast in Gotham, truly led the Gothamites to a new and better life. He had been diligent in maintaining public order and never erred. The public's trust in him was extraordinarily high, even exceeding the trust level American citizens typically have in the American police, achieving a state of police-community kinship.
When Gordon told them to wait a bit before jumping, they actually waited, mainly because when Shiller broadcasted over the intercom earlier, they heard it too. If someone really had a bomb on them, jumping down and being taken to a crowd wouldn't necessarily be safe either.
After most people had returned to their rooms, Shiller began pondering his strategy. Even if these robbers indeed had a getaway car, it was probably parked far away, and the challenge was getting there.
Asking the police for a car like they did in the movies was unrealistic. Shiller would bet that if he dared to ask, Gordon would dare to load a row of bombs onto it. Then it wouldn't be where Shiller wanted to go; it would be where Gordon told them to go. This city always dealt with special situations in its own way. Journalists were used to it, and there was no public outcry to worry about.
Therefore, running away directly wouldn't work, or at least not by slipping out in plain sight. Shiller thought about it and indeed there was another way to leave the bank, albeit a bit troublesome.
Shiller again manipulated the surveillance footage and spotted two robbers attempting to leave the underground vault, likely noticing movement upstairs and wanting to investigate.
Stupidly reckless, Shiller thought. They didn't even know the position of the snipers, yet they dared to casually go upstairs, where they were likely to get a bullet in the head.
Shiller left the surveillance room and quickly walked through the corridor, waiting at the staircase between the first floor and the basement.
As soon as the two robbers with odd sacks on their heads rounded the corner, Shiller choked one, while the other was knocked down by a comrade who had just been thrown at him.
Shiller knocked out both men on the floor, checking their body types and the tattoos on them. He realized they might have been bottom-rung mob thugs and unlikely professional robbers.
Professional robbers have a few physical characteristics. First, they can't be too strong, or at least not everyone on the team can be exceptionally strong. One or two of them can be the muscle for heavy lifting, but the rest need to be agile for tasks such as picking locks or driving in pursuits. If everyone looked like Schwarzenegger, it'd be impossible to shrink down to avoid gunfire during a getaway, shortening their lifespan significantly.
Shiller removed the sack from one's head, and saw it was just a brown paper bag with a crossed-out face drawn on it, probably swiped from some breakfast shop.
Shiller initially wanted to put on the robbers' mask, but found that the DIY eye holes were entirely unsuitable. He had no choice but to take the gun off the robbers and then wake one of them up.
"Listen to me now, you see that second office in front? Go in and loiter by the window."
The man was somewhat dazed but, seeing the dark muzzle of Shiller's gun, raised his hands and said, "Alright, don't shoot. I'm going."
The person pushed open the door of the second office, which was a large office that originally seemed to be occupied, but because it lacked a balcony, anyone wanting to jump had run to other offices.
The robber walked to the window, while Shiller just stood at the door holding a gun, watching him. The robber walked past several windows, and just as he was about to approach the third window, Shiller yelled, "Stop."
Under Shiller's direction, the robber walked back and forth between the two left-most windows.
"Is this okay?" the robber pleaded. "The sniper will blow my head off!"
"They won't, at least not now," Shiller said. "Don't you even look outside? How can the sniper target you?"
Turning his head, the robber saw a huge plane tree outside the window. Although it was autumn, the leaves had not completely fallen off. The plane tree's leaves were inherently dense, and the bank's hired gardener, who was probably Pamela, had taken meticulous care of it, making the tree both large and lush.
Despite the robber's sheer panic, from the outside, his silhouette was barely visible amidst the leaves. More importantly, because the foliage was so thick, it obscured a clear view of the hostages inside; any stray shot could be problematic—hitting the robber might still be okay, but if a hostage were hit, that would be trouble.
Gordon's sniper orders were conservative, not to kill the robber at all costs. So the snipers also didn't dare act rashly, reporting to Gordon as soon as they saw the shadow of the robber.
Gordon went to the rooftop to assess the situation and found that, indeed, as the snipers had reported, with that tree in the way, it was quite difficult to take aim.
The people who had jumped down gradually began to describe what was happening inside, compiling their information. Adding to that the surveillance footage of the road before the incident, Gordon realized that this group of robbers was unexpectedly large, possibly six to seven people.
Robbers typically keep their group to five or fewer, as that many can fit in a single car for a getaway. Once their number exceeds that, they can't all leave in one vehicle. They had arrived in a group of four in a car and two or three on foot.
However, according to the staff who had jumped down, they had only seen one suspicious figure on the upper floor—in fact, this figure was Shiller, but the employees didn't recognize him and thought he was part of the robber gang.
Moreover, Shiller moved quickly, and the employees couldn't see clearly; they only said the man was quite tall with swift movements.
The robber that Shiller was aiming at happened to be about the same height as Shiller, around 6 feet 1 inch tall. He moved back and forth among the leaves, and both the sniper and Gordon couldn't see his exact build.
Gordon knew if the robbers were using the most traditional cutting method to open the bank's vault door, they would need quite a few people watching on the ground.
Unlike directional blasting, where you just press a button and rush in to grab the money, which requires long preparations, and highly professional skills, cutting is a process that doesn't need much preparation beforehand but takes longer to execute and involves handling more equipment.
Either the robbers had such skilled individuals among them, or they would simply kidnap a technician. Gordon guessed it was the latter, which is why there were so many of them.
And from the images on the surveillance cameras, these individuals didn't seem like professional technicians, but rather like mob goons who had a momentary lapse of judgment, making kidnapping even more likely.
Aside from assisting with the operation, they also had to watch the hostages, meaning that most of their men would be tied up. It was very likely that only one or two people were watching the hostages on the second floor, or maybe even just one.
If it was just one person, then it would be far easier. After the sniper took out the second-floor robber, they could storm in and rescue all the hostages. Without the robbers, the hostages certainly couldn't escape.
The problem now was that Gordon needed to confirm if there was only one robber upstairs because once firing began, they could only take one shot. If not all the enemies were eliminated with that shot, the remaining ones would surely harm the hostages.
At that moment, Shiller's deliberately lowered voice resonated through the broadcast again, still demanding police cooperation, only Shiller wasn't physically there—it was a recording he had left behind.
Gordon didn't know this; he thought there was still one in the surveillance room. That left five of them, plus one kidnapped technician, which meant four remained.
Either two were downstairs and two on the second floor, or three were downstairs and one on the second floor.
Gordon leaned towards the latter since, judging by the timing, they hadn't left yet, indicating that the cutting machine they were using wasn't very advanced and thus required more manpower.
One to watch the technician and two to operate the machine would make sense. If there were one watcher and one operator, the risk of issues was high; thus, it was more likely that only one robber remained upstairs.
Although not entirely certain, Gordon didn't lack the decisiveness to take a gamble at a critical moment. He immediately ordered, "Cut down the tree blocking the view, snipe the second-floor robber!"
Years had passed, and the Gotham Police Department had not only sufficient officers and proper equipment but had also significantly improved its technical methods. At least their cutting technology was far superior to that of the robbers. The equipment for sawing trees operated silently, and it wasn't until the tree crashed down that the robbers realized it had been sawn through.
He looked towards the door in some despair, but didn't expect Shiller to gesture for him to get down. The robber reacted quickly. Instead of crouching, he lay down on the spot, and the sniper's bullet flew by, barely missing his scalp.
The robber scurried out the door, but Shiller still pointed the gun at him and said, "Now go and tell the few accomplices under you. After they grab the money, they should rush out of the back door and storm into the underground sewer through the area shielded by that large tree."
Although the robbers were unprofessional, they weren't foolish. Knowing that the sniper missed, and to prevent the police from becoming angry and endangering the hostages, the robbers had to flee immediately; otherwise, it was certain they wouldn't escape because they hadn't taken any hostages in the first place.
Indeed, Gordon, seeing that the shot had missed without panic or discouragement, simply took out the walkie-talkie and said, "Attack immediately. Don't worry about the vault for now, go upstairs and rescue the hostages!!"
There was a series of crashes downstairs, clearly indicating the police had broken in. The robber, seizing the moment when Gordon was giving orders, took the elevator downstairs where several accomplices had already opened the vault door and were busy packing money.
The robber Shiller warned, who acted as their minor leader, quickly stopped several underlings still stuffing money into sacks and led them at top speed toward the back door upstairs.
Of course, they were almost immediately discovered by the police. The leader of the robbers shouted that he still had hostages, refusing to let go of the technician they had abducted, while the others rushed towards the back door.
The police, of course, knew they intended to break out, so another group lurking on the side of the bank immediately rushed over.
But the recently felled large Chinese parasol tree lay across the road, its thick foliage obscuring much of the view, making it impossible for vehicles to pass and difficult for guns to aim.
Initially, they could have circled from the other side to deal with the robbers, but these robbers didn't plan to run on the road at all; they rushed over and immediately opened the manhole cover, jumping in one after another.
By the time the police from the other side clambered over, the robbers had already fled without a trace through the sewer.
Even so, the police still had to pursue, and Gordon dispatched two teams of officers, one entering from this sewer entrance and the other driving to a further sewer entrance to perform an encirclement.
However, they also had no experience chasing people through sewers, so Gordon had to lead a team back to the station to find the sewer map, and meanwhile to visit Wayne Enterprises to check if the surveillance systems Bruce had set up in the sewers were still functional.
This case was extremely vile in nature, because prior to this, Gotham's situation had been relatively stable. But once someone opened up this loophole, allowing those with declining living standards to discover such a quick way to make money without paying a price, the situation would be completely out of control.
Therefore, Gordon decided to apprehend the fugitives with a thunderous approach, to deter those still lurking in the shadows, and naturally committed a large number of police forces to the pursuit of the fleeing robbers.
Just as Shiller had predicted, the robbed bank was almost ignored after the incident, with only two officers coming to check the condition of the main door, and the staff being sent home.
After everyone had left, Shiller walked up to the second-floor balcony. From there, he looked down and, as expected, saw a figure standing next to the fallen tree—it was the Joker.
To be precise, it was Beihan's Joker, the version of the character portrayed by Heath Ledger in the movies.
He held a remote control in his hand, smirked, looked up at Shiller, and suddenly displayed a vicious expression which then returned to calmness.
"Good afternoon, Professor. Please forgive me for greeting you this way... because you've given that Bruce Wayne a hell of a bad idea!!!!!"
Shiller, leaning on the rail, listened quietly to the Joker's rant. When the Joker finished, Shiller said, "First, I must tell you that the idea was not mine. I suffer from dissociative identity disorder. In layman's terms, that's split personality."
"My other personality has his own views on economics, and Bruce Wayne happened to strongly agree with these views and also had the capability to implement them. I deeply regret this."
The Joker just stared at him darkly, the muscles around his mouth tensing upward, creating a look that was serious and comical, and seemed both to laugh and to cry.
"Did you come here just to take revenge on me?" Shiller asked, knowing the answer.
Before leaving, Beihan had asked Greed for a business plan, which was fundamentally meant to address his own economic situation, looking to gain more substantial control in Wayne Enterprises while also building a little nest egg for himself.
The main content of the business plan was to profit from criminals by building private prisons and acquiring private hospitals, then combining medical parole with house arrest to exploit every last bit of value from the criminals.
Although it sounded somewhat cruel, Beihan's moral standards were not particularly high. In his view, exploiting the economic value of criminals was also a contribution to society.
He had originally targeted Black Boss and had not intended to harm the Joker, but at that time the Joker had just robbed a bank. He wanted to go to the prison to make a deal with Scarecrow to continue striking at Batman, but he ended up in Beihan's hands.
It was, in a way, a fortuitous event. The test version that Beihan was using to verify the feasibility of the obtained business plan was based on a 1:1 restoration of the plan's layout. Greed was not mild in his approach, so much so that he quite literally had that unfortunate group lying in an ambulance for days and nights, unable to enter a hospital or a prison.
So, before the Joker could teach Batman a lesson, Batman taught him one first: I have money, I am impressive, and I can capriciously change the rules of the game.
Joker wasn't angry about the injuries he sustained, he was just angry that Batman saw it that way and acted on it.
Joker had always been despicable, framing himself within a set of game rules with his morality, while Joker took advantage of his own amoral methods to break those rules for an advantage. But once Batman started breaking the rules too, Joker would become furiously embarrassed.
But facing Bruce Wayne, Joker was initially enraged, but before he could find an effective method for revenge, he realized that this wasn't Batman's own idea—Batman had a mysterious aide-de-camp.
Beihan actually hadn't hidden it at all, having participated in Battleworld, Shiller's renowned name couldn't really be concealed. Joker had heard of it, but he hadn't expected Shiller, this so-called mastermind behind everything from alien invasions to knocked-over trash cans, to really live up to his legendary reputation.
Joker hated the person who influenced Batman more than the adapted Batman himself, and it just so happened that the Prime Universe's Joker wanted to form Joker's Gang upon learning about Mad Laugh's existence, and he sought him out.
Joker agreed to the Prime Universe Joker's request to join the gang, but the condition was that he had to come to Shiller's universe.
The Prime Universe Joker said it was a bit difficult as that universe was quite special, not just anyone could enter. After some bargaining, the Prime Universe Joker still agreed, and the way he sent this small favor over was by directly finding Bruce.
As everyone knows, Bruce has a bit of a Joker collecting fetish. He had just lured Phoenix over before, and now, with Phoenix on a global tour and Bruce himself incredibly busy, he warmly welcomed the idea of another Joker coming to visit.
But what he hadn't anticipated was that this Joker wasn't here to play with him, but to find Shiller.
"You want to be an ordinary person, right?" Joker said, hands stuffed into his crumpled trouser pockets. "Otherwise, you could just move all the people out of the bank."
"Then Gordon would know it was me," Shiller shook his head and said, "Every paranormal phenomenon in this city is assumed to be my doing, so that's why I'd rather be an average Joe."
"No no no, of course not," Joker shook his head vigorously, specks of saliva flying from his lips as he spoke, "You think you have the ability now to handle all the trouble ordinary people go through."
"But that doesn't include getting caught up in a bank heist."
"Then what you should do is just like the other employees, wail for your parents and jump down from the upper floors to break your ankle."
"But if I did that, Gordon would only think I was feigning distress. Since they're already prejudiced against me, why can't I just get away on my own?"
"Do ordinary people get away using that method in the face of prejudice?" Joker scoffed coldly, pointing out incisively, "They would make futile arguments, unable to convince anyone, and then just get misunderstood and face more trouble because of it."
"I don't think ordinary people are all idiots."
"They are, and yet you plan to join them wearing that damned human skin of yours, enjoying their peaceful and dull lives while not letting go of your desire for control, satisfied by your ability to influence others."
"Everyone has talents, don't they?" Shiller said. "Must I be a completely worthless ordinary person and live a failed life?"
"But your talent comes from your morbid state; that's the real reason you can't be an ordinary person. Are you really content to give up both talent and morbidity to become a truly foolish, ordinary person who expects no trouble and can't control anything?"
Shiller suddenly paused, then his gaze became unfocused before slightly sharpening on Joker's face. He spoke slowly, "If we disappear one day, it's not because someone gave up on us, but because we got what we wanted, what Shiller wanted."
"Is it really what Shiller wanted? Or did someone say Shiller wanted it, and you believed them?" Joker said.
Shiller fell silent and didn't answer; after a while, he came back to himself. The state he was in when he said that last line vanished, and he just looked at Joker and said,
"What I really want isn't determined by what anyone says, but by how much each person who wants to change me has paid for it."
"Some people hope I can be an ordinary person, and they've put in countless efforts I've never seen in my life for it. Since I didn't really want anything to begin with, why shouldn't I accept that?"
"And you, what you hope I become isn't something you've paid for; you've just moved your lips. Why should I give up that for what you're offering?"
"Because what I'm saying is right, of course."
"Do you think I'm Batman? Right and wrong have never mattered; I've never lived by the truth."
"Isn't it sad to live for others' expectations?"
"Comedy was never the savior of tragedy."