Selina maneuvered her way carefully through the mass of partiers, ducking behind drunk, scantily clad dancers to avoid the bouncers. She moved swiftly and almost gracefully past them when she saw Butch Gilzean sitting at the bar.
"Well, hey there Butch!" Selina called with false enthusiasm as she slid into the seat next to his and drew his attention away to what he was moping over.
"Jesus!" He hissed quietly as he turned his head to see Selina wearing a tight smiled and sighed. "Don't sneak up on me that. What are you doing here" He questioned.
"I need a favor - I need to get into Indian Hill." She said, Butch laughed at the teenager's businesslike attitude.
"You're too young to be here." He said and was about to wave a bouncer over, but Selina put her hand out to stop him.
"No I'm not. Look I have an ID." She said as she flashed Butch his own driver's license. Butch's hand instinctively reached for his now empty pocket and sighed.
"Just give it back." He grumbled, he was in no mood to being screwed over by a teenage street rat.
"How about this, I give you the wallet when you give me information about Indian Hill, sound fair?" She asked, Butch had underestimated Selina's skill and manipulativeness and sat back down.
"I don't know anything about Indian Hill." He said bluntly.
"Then find me someone who does." She retorted, her voice becoming quieter but harsher and more severe. Butch couldn't imagine why someone would want to have anything to do with Indian Hill, but he decided to give in.
"Penguin and Barbara were there, ask them." He said and Selina nodded slightly.
"Where can I find them?" She asked.
"Barbara's in the back, but she's sorta out of it, if you know what I mean." Butch told her, tapping on the side of his head.
"I'm sure I handle her. We go way back." Selina said as she slid Butch's wallet back towards him and slipped into the sea of people. Butch wondered where the two had seen each other before, but was distracted when he saw that Tabitha was talking with some gangster that sometimes operated as their informant. He caught a glimpse of Selina slipping into the back room, he shook his head before turning his attention back to Tabitha.
Selina shuddered as the rust on the side of the door made it close with a sharp dissonant creak, but she was sure the music from the club was loud enough that the sound would be drowned out before it got anyone's attention. She walked down the hall into a room where a disheveled Barbara, who looked vastly different from the Barbara Kean Selina had met, was holding a TV remote in her hand and unconsciously flipping through channels. Great, Selina thought, Butch was right, she's out of her mind; she took a deep breath and knocked on the open door to get Barbara's attention. Barbara came out of her trance and turned to look at Selina, her eye makeup looked smudged and as if she'd slept while wearing it for a few days; Barbara let the remote slip out of her hand without noticing.
"Cat." She greeted nonchalantly.
"Barbara." Selina returned, not entirely sure of what to do or make of the situation. "Uh, what do you know about getting into Indian Hill? It's below Arkham Asylum if you don't know." She said.
"Well, I got into Arkham when I tried to kill Dr. Thompkins because I was held captive by the Ogre and he killed my parents in front of me." Barbara spoke casually, which only increased the unsettling feeling building up in Selina.
"No, I mean like sneaking in." She said, Barbara nodded but remained silent and Selina wasn't sure if Barbara had even processed the question. A few moments passed before Barbara spoke up, after quietly mouthing a few words to herself.
"I think there's a laundry shoot off somewhere in an alley not far from where your friend burned. Halfway up the chute you should be able to find and air vent-much safer traveling through there than the halls." Barbara said. Selina tensed a bit when she mentioned Bridget, she was still not totally ready to deal with her friends death and her name sparked the bitterness she felt towards not only Gordon for failing to keep his promise, but also herself for putting her faith in a cop. Though, a small part of her always knew the promise was based around her hope that Bridget would be safe, and Gordon's promise would be hard, if not impossible, to keep.
"Thanks, Barbara." Selina said cautiously as she backed out of the room and left Barbara to stare blankly at the TV, the remote still left at her feet.
Selina left the club using the fire escape and scanned Gotham's skyline, it was in the shadow of the setting sun and the sun cast a golden halo over the city, but Selina knew that nothing could save Gotham from itself and the rainy and overcast weather was more suited to portraying the essence of the dark city. It did not take long for Selina to locate the laundry chute, right after Selina heard that her friend had accidentally burned herself to death, she went to see the area and would never forget the scorch marks left by Bridget's flame thrower and the exploding police car. She set up a few tall wooden boxes to help her climb up in the chute and she sighed when she saw that the chute had an very steep, but not quite vertical, angle. She braced her body for the climb and began to slowly move herself upwards. If anything comes down, I'm screwed, she thought moving a bit quicker when she found a way to balance herself. And Barbara was right, about halfway up the chute there was a metal grate that led to a horizontal air vent; Selina pressed her shoulder blades and back against one side of the chute while she placed one heel on the metal grate and delivered a few swift kicks to it before the grate opened up enough for her to slip through. She slid her feet and back around the chute until she was close enough to grab onto the grate and climb into the vent.
She was grateful that the vent was wide enough that she had more than enough space to crawl through without being compressed. She moved her hands and knees carefully to make sure no one suspected that something was in the vents, but she stopped for a second when she heard the sound of someone else trudging through the vent; she made her breath quieter and went to turn a corner when she ran into Edward Nygma.
"Riddle-guy!" She yelped in surprise.
"Gutter trash!" He said simultaneously.
"Gutter what?!" She hissed quietly.
"Sorry, gutter...diamond." He said. "What are doing here?" Nygma asked questioningly.
"Trying to break in." She admitted, and Nygma squeezed by her and laughed.
"How'd you get in here anyway? I'm looking to break out, and so should you." He told her, but Selina had made a promise to Bruce that she'd get evidence from Indian Hill to get Dr. Strange arrested.
"I tell you how to get out, and you tell me how to get in." She proposed, they looked at her for a tense moment.
"Why do you want to get in so badly?" He pressed.
"Doesn't concern you." She responded bluntly, Nygma shrugged and shook his head.
"Fine, fine. Go on and take a tour of the freaks." He said.
"I will, now how do I get there?" She asked, getting annoyed by Nygma's stalling.
"You seem to have forgotten our deal." He chimed, Selina sighed and told him about the laundry chute.
"Good, so here's what you gotta do. First drop down to the hall on your next right at 2:15, it's a shift change; can you pick a lock?" He asked. Selina smiled, this is far too easy. He finished telling her about the elevator and the hallway full of freaks, but Selina wasn't put off by his description. Before disappearing down one of the corners of the vent, Nygma turned his head towards Selina. "Trust me, you don't want to go down there." He said, issuing his last warning, but Selina ignored him and continued moving through the vent; Nygma shook his head, stupid street rat, he thought to himself.
Selina stopped to inspect the metal grate that led to the hallway Nygma told her about, she dislodged it and dropped onto the floor. She was surprised, but pleased, that the lock wasn't more well hidden; she was on her knees with her bobby pins trying to pick it as quickly as she could, in the back of her mind she was counting down the time she had until the new guards took their shift. Thirty-five, thirty-four, thirty-three… she sighed in relief once she felt the lock click and the wall opened up to reveal a secret elevator. Selina covered the lock and moved into the elevator, hoping that no one would hear it go down and suspect that something suspicious was going on. It opened to an empty hallway lined with doors that held the 'freaks' Nygma warned her about, she crouched down so no one inside the rooms would notice and stepped lightly down the hallway. She slid one foot around the corner, and cried out in surprise when someone yanked it forcefully and her body collided harshly with the floor. The man who grabbed her clenched onto a large clump of her hair and flipped her over onto her stomach, pressing her face into cold tile and digging one knee sharply into her back.
"Oh, you made one big mistake." He cackled as he stabbed a syringe into her neck.