Chapter 1 - Ordinary Day
Harry leaned back against his chair and rubbed his eyes. He'd been working all morning on a report due the next day and he was nowhere than he was when he started. The boy from the mail room knocked softly on his door and then walked in, handing him his mail. "Thanks," Harry mumbled and then sifted through the envelopes. Bills, bills, bills they were all bills, except for a pink piece of paper folded neatly behind the pack. He threw the bills on his desk and unfolded the piece of paper, it was an office note, "All employees please take note, the waterworks for the 5th and 6th floors will be turned off from Monday the 25th to Wednesday the 27th, due to maintenance. Employees on those floors are advised to please use the toilets on the 7th or 4th floors. Signed general maintenance." "Hmpf, they're only a day late," He said to himself, crumpling the paper into a ball and threw it towards the paper basket, missing.
At that moment his door opened and a short scrawny man, with short dark red hair, wearing black rimmed glasses and a tie too small for his baggy shirt, walked hurriedly in. "Dexter!" Harry exclaimed throwing his hands into the air. "You know very well my name is Lionel, Harry," Lionel replies and dumps a long piece of paper, which had been trailing in the air behind him, on Harry's desk. "To what do I owe this honor?" Harry asks smirking as he stands up. "The scales have recorded two minor tremors in New Gotham, each one registering .95 on the Richter scale. Now normally this wouldn't even warrant a rise of an eyebrow if the second were hours apart, but it wasn't it was recorded an hour after the first," Lionel replied pointing to a seismic graph and then looking up at Harry. Harry had his arms folded, and was leaning against his desk listening to Lionel. He leveled his gaze with Lionel and said, "Your mother give you decaf this morning?" Lionel pushed his glasses up and glared at Harry, "No orange juice, what's your point?" "New Gotham is built on tectonically engineered plates, Lionel. First of all, they wouldn't have even felt those tremors and if these tremors were in fact warning signs of an earthquake, don't get you gonads in a knot, those plates can withhold a quake of up to 8 on the scale," He replied. Lionel stood up straight, "and I guess the fact that old Gotham was destroyed by a quake measuring 10.3 must have, just slipped you mind?" "The chances of that ever happening again are a million to one, c'mon Lionel, you're getting worked up over nothing, be a good boy, go eat your sandwiches your mom made for you ok?" Lionel glares at Harry once more, then picks up the papers and walks out, closing the door behind him. Harry waves Lionel off and plops into his chair, looking up at his screen he stares at the words written on the screen, "Controlling Acts of God - Earthquakes."
***
A moment afterwards, a tall and black form, which from the distance some belated passer might have taken for a phantom, appeared standing on the parapet, bent towards the Seine, then sprang up, and fell straight into the darkness; there was a dull splash; and the shadow alone was in the secret of the convulsion of that obscure form which had disappeared under the water.
Barbara sighed as she closed the book she had been reading and looked up. Her students were hunched over their desks either writing or biting on the back of their pens. Apart from the occasional sound of rustled paper and rummaging in pencil bags the classroom was quiet. It was times like these that allowed Barbara to reflect or relax. Today she had chosen to catch up on her reading, leisurely that is. It had been a long time since she had the opportunity to read a magazine, let alone a book. She looked down at the cover of the book, the letters colored in red, white and blue stared back at her. 'Les Misérables' was a Christmas gift from Alfred, "I do sincerely hope you 'take a hint' Miss Barbara," was what he said when he revealed the package, wrapped in silver wrapping and tied with gold lace, from behind his back.
Barbara's smiled broadened. Alfred had been constantly insisting that she take moments for herself and relax, "You have 3 young women who are capable of protecting the city on their own once in a while." He's always looking after not only her, but Helena, Dinah and Cris as well. Barbara shook her head slightly and then removed her glass and placed them down on the table.
***
Two men amble slowly along in a small underground tunnel. The one, Steadman, is wearing a blue overall with the top unbuttoned; exposing his greasy white t-shirt which barley fits over his beer belly. The other, Jules, is dressed in a white shirt, with a brown waistcoat over it and a black jacket over it, he's also wearing comfortable brown trousers and scuffed fancy shoes. Both are sporting white hard hats.
"What do you mean a crack?!" Jules asks as he feebly steps over some litter on the ground. "I dunno, a crack, you know where the wall starts splitting," Steadman replied. "That's impossible, this tunnel is not even a couple of years old," Jules mumbled as they reached the door. Steadman fumbles for some keys and then places the right one into the lock; he unlocks the door and then opens it. They are greeted by loud hooting and odd shouting here and there. Jules looks at the traffic jam slowly moving by through the underground tunnel. He then turns to Steadman and sees he's already walked off along a foot path on the side of the tunnel. He jogs up to Steadman and shouts over the noise, "If in fact it is serious, and we have to shut this tunnel down, do you know what kind of chaos there will be?" Steadman chuckles, "Yeah, big shit." They walk a little more and then Steadman stops. He points up at the ceiling. Jules follows his direction and then whistles softly.
Harry leaned back against his chair and rubbed his eyes. He'd been working all morning on a report due the next day and he was nowhere than he was when he started. The boy from the mail room knocked softly on his door and then walked in, handing him his mail. "Thanks," Harry mumbled and then sifted through the envelopes. Bills, bills, bills they were all bills, except for a pink piece of paper folded neatly behind the pack. He threw the bills on his desk and unfolded the piece of paper, it was an office note, "All employees please take note, the waterworks for the 5th and 6th floors will be turned off from Monday the 25th to Wednesday the 27th, due to maintenance. Employees on those floors are advised to please use the toilets on the 7th or 4th floors. Signed general maintenance." "Hmpf, they're only a day late," He said to himself, crumpling the paper into a ball and threw it towards the paper basket, missing.
At that moment his door opened and a short scrawny man, with short dark red hair, wearing black rimmed glasses and a tie too small for his baggy shirt, walked hurriedly in. "Dexter!" Harry exclaimed throwing his hands into the air. "You know very well my name is Lionel, Harry," Lionel replies and dumps a long piece of paper, which had been trailing in the air behind him, on Harry's desk. "To what do I owe this honor?" Harry asks smirking as he stands up. "The scales have recorded two minor tremors in New Gotham, each one registering .95 on the Richter scale. Now normally this wouldn't even warrant a rise of an eyebrow if the second were hours apart, but it wasn't it was recorded an hour after the first," Lionel replied pointing to a seismic graph and then looking up at Harry. Harry had his arms folded, and was leaning against his desk listening to Lionel. He leveled his gaze with Lionel and said, "Your mother give you decaf this morning?" Lionel pushed his glasses up and glared at Harry, "No orange juice, what's your point?" "New Gotham is built on tectonically engineered plates, Lionel. First of all, they wouldn't have even felt those tremors and if these tremors were in fact warning signs of an earthquake, don't get you gonads in a knot, those plates can withhold a quake of up to 8 on the scale," He replied. Lionel stood up straight, "and I guess the fact that old Gotham was destroyed by a quake measuring 10.3 must have, just slipped you mind?" "The chances of that ever happening again are a million to one, c'mon Lionel, you're getting worked up over nothing, be a good boy, go eat your sandwiches your mom made for you ok?" Lionel glares at Harry once more, then picks up the papers and walks out, closing the door behind him. Harry waves Lionel off and plops into his chair, looking up at his screen he stares at the words written on the screen, "Controlling Acts of God - Earthquakes."
***
A moment afterwards, a tall and black form, which from the distance some belated passer might have taken for a phantom, appeared standing on the parapet, bent towards the Seine, then sprang up, and fell straight into the darkness; there was a dull splash; and the shadow alone was in the secret of the convulsion of that obscure form which had disappeared under the water.
Barbara sighed as she closed the book she had been reading and looked up. Her students were hunched over their desks either writing or biting on the back of their pens. Apart from the occasional sound of rustled paper and rummaging in pencil bags the classroom was quiet. It was times like these that allowed Barbara to reflect or relax. Today she had chosen to catch up on her reading, leisurely that is. It had been a long time since she had the opportunity to read a magazine, let alone a book. She looked down at the cover of the book, the letters colored in red, white and blue stared back at her. 'Les Misérables' was a Christmas gift from Alfred, "I do sincerely hope you 'take a hint' Miss Barbara," was what he said when he revealed the package, wrapped in silver wrapping and tied with gold lace, from behind his back.
Barbara's smiled broadened. Alfred had been constantly insisting that she take moments for herself and relax, "You have 3 young women who are capable of protecting the city on their own once in a while." He's always looking after not only her, but Helena, Dinah and Cris as well. Barbara shook her head slightly and then removed her glass and placed them down on the table.
***
Two men amble slowly along in a small underground tunnel. The one, Steadman, is wearing a blue overall with the top unbuttoned; exposing his greasy white t-shirt which barley fits over his beer belly. The other, Jules, is dressed in a white shirt, with a brown waistcoat over it and a black jacket over it, he's also wearing comfortable brown trousers and scuffed fancy shoes. Both are sporting white hard hats.
"What do you mean a crack?!" Jules asks as he feebly steps over some litter on the ground. "I dunno, a crack, you know where the wall starts splitting," Steadman replied. "That's impossible, this tunnel is not even a couple of years old," Jules mumbled as they reached the door. Steadman fumbles for some keys and then places the right one into the lock; he unlocks the door and then opens it. They are greeted by loud hooting and odd shouting here and there. Jules looks at the traffic jam slowly moving by through the underground tunnel. He then turns to Steadman and sees he's already walked off along a foot path on the side of the tunnel. He jogs up to Steadman and shouts over the noise, "If in fact it is serious, and we have to shut this tunnel down, do you know what kind of chaos there will be?" Steadman chuckles, "Yeah, big shit." They walk a little more and then Steadman stops. He points up at the ceiling. Jules follows his direction and then whistles softly.