"Miss White? Aren't you going home?" I blinked as I looked up from my computer screen, my concentration breaking. Mr. Hillard, the manager of Gotham First National Bank was standing in my doorway. Looking around through the glass walls of my office I noticed that the sun had started receding below the skyline.
"Working late yourself, aren't you?" I asked, smiling. He chuckled.
"No rest for the wicked, my dear." I rolled my eyes. Mr. Hillard was the farthest thing from wicked. He was a kindly old man, less than a year from retirement. He treated me like the daughter he and his wife never had. If he had it his way I would marry one of his three sons and make it official.
"I just want to check a few more things on the system before I head out. Something seems odd," I told him. I was in charge of system security at the bank. Basically I kept hackers out of the computers.
"Well, don't stay too long. If you get scared I can send Matt to check on you," he said, winking. I rolled my eyes. Matthew Hillard. His oldest son, and the one closest to me in age. Apparently the son I was being set up with this week.
"I'm sure I'll be all right," I assured him, "Now go home before your wife sends him after both of us." Mr. Hillard waved goodbye as he headed for the elevator. I turned my attention back to the computer screen. Something wasn't right in my system, that I was sure of, but going through thousands of line of code would take hours. I sighed, and leaned back in my chair. This would take all night. I could leave it for tomorrow, but I had a feeling that it needed to be done as soon as possible.
I sighed. Not just a "feeling". Ever since I was a child I had known what was coming. I remembered my mother telling me I had the gift of premonition, just like my namesake: Cassandra. When my parents died in a car crash I had buried my gift; refused to use it. If it hadn't been able to save my parents, then it shouldn't help anyone else. It was selfish, I know. But by the time I came to realize that my gift had grown weak. Now the most I got was intuitive feelings, and such a feeling was telling me that I needed to get back to work.
I jumped as I heard a car backfire somewhere outside. I was perfectly safe inside the bank, but I wasn't naïve enough to believe nothing at all could happen. This was Gotham after all. Super criminals ran rampant through the streets. No one was truly safe. The only place worse than Gotham was Bludhaven.
I shrill beep began emitting from my computer. The system alarm. I heard my phone go off in my laptop bag. Anytime the system was being hacked a message was sent to my phone. I got to work immediately, typing commands into the computer rapidly, trying to see where the breach was.
"Where are you?" I muttered. An alert popped up in the corner of my screen: SYSTEM OVERRIDE ELEVATOR SHAFT 1. What? Someone was in the elevator. Access to the floors above the base level were restricted through the use of a key card. After hours you needed a key card as well as a code that only certain employees had. I stood up from my desk and moved so I could see the numbers lit up above the elevators. Slowly they climbed, each time making me more and more nervous as they approached my floor. Finally, as I knew it would, the elevator stopped on floor ten where I stood, rooted beside my desk in fear.
Almost as if in slow motion the doors of the elevator slid open, and several men with guns ran out, scanning the floor. I forced my body to move, and duck down behind my desk before they spotted me. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. My brain was in full panic mode. I pulled myself into the alcove beneath my desk, and curled up as tight as I could. Maybe they wouldn't see me. Maybe they would take what they wanted and leave.
But what could they possible want up here? The vault was on the second floor, not the tenth. There was nothing but offices up here.
"Which one is it, boss?" I heard one of the thugs ask as they fanned out around the floor. I pulled myself tighter into the shadows beneath my desk. Please don't see me.
"How should I know? Do I have to do everything around here?" a loud, harsh voice said before cackling. I looked down and saw the strap of my laptop case lying partway beneath the desk. If I could get to that then I could turn on the alarm system. Maybe scare the criminals away. I slowly started reaching for the strap. I could hear the men outside my office, on the opposite side of the desk. I had to be fast. I took hold of the strap and tugged. The laptop case toppled over to the ground with a thud. The noises outside my office stopped.
"What was that?" a different thug asked.
"Find out," the high, harsh voiced man said with a growl. I could barely breathe. I pulled the laptop case slowly, centimeter by centimeter. I might have gotten away with it if another alert hadn't gone out over the system and paged my cell phone. A cold white hand closed around my wrist before I could even blink, and dragged me out from under the desk to my knees.
"What do we have here?" the harsh voice said in glee, cackling maniacally. I gasped as I looked up into the face of the infamous Joker, "A busy little bee, hard at work. Bad timing for you, unfortunately."
"Please don't hurt me," I whispered.
"Now why on Earth would I do something like that?" he asked, feigning shock. Pulling me up roughly, he shoved me down into my computer chair and leaned over me, "Well, I suppose killing is kind of my thing, isn't it?"
"Boss, I think this is it," one of the thugs said, coming up behind the Joker.
"Well, this might be your lucky day after all!" Joker said delightedly. He sat on top of my desk, and looked down at me, "See you happen to be just the little lady we're looking for. I need you to do me a little favor."
"Wh-what… what kind of favor?" I asked, begging my voice not to betray my terror.
"Its simple really," he replied. Hopping down from my desk, he pulled me up from my chair and wrapped an arm tightly around my shoulders, "All I need is for you to override your little security measures and get me and my boys into the vault downstairs." I shook my head emphatically.
"Th-that's not my system. Another company runs the security for all the First National vaults. I only handle security for this bank," I explained. The Joker's eyes narrowed.
"That's not what I wanted to hear," he growled. Pulling a handgun out of his pocket he shoved me towards two of his thugs who pinned my arms behind me, and pointed the gun straight at my head, "Shame. I could use someone like you in my organization." I closed my eyes as his piercing laugh echoed against the walls right before a loud crash sounded. My eyes snapped open to see a dark mass taking down two henchmen to the side of me. I looked down to see the Joker crawling towards the door, his handgun gone. The two thugs holding me dragged me over to my now broken floor length window and held me out over the edge. The dark mass stopped its destructive path around the room and for the first time I realized it was Batman.
His piercing blue eyes met mine across the room. He seemed calm and collected while horror emanated from every pore in my body.
"Stay back, Bat!" One of the thugs yelled, "Or else we drop the girl!"
"Let her go," Batman said, his voice low and menacing. My body was shaking like a leaf. I was sure he could see it. The thugs chuckled.
"If you insist!" I felt them both release my arms and immediately I was falling backwards, the wind whipping around my body.
This is it. This is how I am going to die.
It was as if everything was going in slow motion. I saw Batman leap out of the window behind me, barreling towards me at high speeds. My hands reached towards him of their own accord. I felt his arms slide around my waist and pull me towards him.
"Hang on," he said before grabbing something from his belt and pointing it upwards. My arms wound around him tightly and I burrowed my face in the crook of his neck. Suddenly we were soaring upwards, away from the bank. He landed on top of an apartment building across from the bank. He released me and I slid the length of his body before my feet hit the ground.
"Thank you," I breathed. I couldn't believe it. I had been saved by the legendary Batman. I had almost thought he was a myth.
"Go home, and try to stay out of trouble," he said briskly. I bristled. I wasn't a child. Before I could retort he had jumped off the roof and was gliding back towards the bank. I could hear sirens in the distance approaching. I didn't see any sign of movement from inside the bank. I assumed Joker and his men had fled. Dropping me out of the window was just a diversion. What kind of people were these psychos? I took a deep, steadying breath. Looking around, I saw no entrance into the apartment building below.
"What the hell am I supposed to do now?"