As I headed to the residence of the first of the two men that Gordon wanted found there was a moment in which the Joker's laughter seemed to echo within the car as if I were right there in the bell tower once more. Hahahahah ahahahahh ahah aha aha ahahaha hahahhhaa ahahhahah!

The moment was so unnerving that I almost crashed the car on that very spot, but as soon as it came it was over just as quickly. I just missed a parked car as I regained control of the bat mobile and as I rushed past the air displacement from the bat mobile caused the other car's alarm to go off. I smiled then as I thought just how close that was and totally forgot what caused the near accident in the first place.

I gunned the car through the twists and turns all the way to the Dixon docks and the Brown Bridge. The first of Gordon's missing men lived right below the bridge. It was a quaint little brownstone building that somehow got cut off from sunlight when the bridge was built above it and it was also situated on the border of the Upper West Side and China Town.

I wondered about the crime in this area as it was close to the docks and the more disreputable parts of China Town. The building seemed empty and the neighborhood was quiet, but I nevertheless parked the car out of sight and got out. The shields activated as I walked out of range of the proximity sensors toward the home of the officer. The front door was most likely locked so I moved around the back and tried the back door.

I already had my lock picking tools in hand as I assumed the back door would be locked too. I was in luck though, because I tried turning the door handle first and to my surprise the door opened and as it did a myriad of scenarios ran through my head as to why exactly the door would be unlocked. The most likely of those scenarios was that Gordon's man had left in a hurry and not bothered to lock the door behind him.

Indecision had me standing there at the back door wonder just what I should do next, but in an instant I shoved the door open. It creaked as it swung and as it did I threw my back against the wall next to the door fully expecting someone to come bursting out of the house guns blazing. Seconds ticked by and nothing happened and I decided that my first assessment of why the door was unlocked was correct. Nevertheless, I cautiously peeked around the doorjamb just in case any surprises were waiting for me, but the house was quiet and dark inside.

Touching the sensor in my cowl, I activated the Infrared, Night and X-ray Vision lenses or INX so I could see better in the dark. The INX was something new and experimental Wayne Industries was developing for the Military combining infrared, x-ray and night vision technology. The goal of course was to mimic Superman's abilities, though I doubt if replicating his heat-vision would ever be possible. It was something new I just had to have and that night was as good as any to field test it even if it was for my own benefits. The Military would later do their own field testing of the INX and I would play dumb and pretend that I knew nothing of what they were talking about – the never ending role of Bruce Wayne.

I stepped inside the house and immediately the dark came alive as the night vision illuminated everything using the ambient light from outside. The infrared vision showed me that I had apparently just missed Gordon's man as feint heat signatures remained in different parts of the house. As for the x-ray vision though, that came up empty in fact it never activated, it could possibly be some glitch of a sort. Oh well, it is still a good idea, perhaps I can get it to work on my own, but that is a problem for another time.

Searching the house turned up only one lead, but I would have to check out missing officer number two's home before I made any assumptions. And so, I had to drive all the way back across town toward the City Hall District close to Grant Park.

It was late, well after midnight when I got to the officer's home. I parked the car in the alley and scaled the building to the roof then using the same decel-jumpline and grapple hook, I descended to the thirteenth floor where he lived. I know it seems like a lot of trouble but that's the price of being Batman and not affording to be seen. The officer's apartment had a small balcony and when I set my feet down saw that the light was burning. This surprised me as I had expected everything to be dark there too and when I looked through the glass of the double doors, which opened up onto the balcony, inside the apartment the scene that greeted me was something gruesome. There were two bodies on the floor, both were males, and one giant pool of blood surrounded both of the bodies.

I picked the lock on the doors and steeped inside taking care not to disturb the evidence. Searching the apartment turned up not a thing, but when I looked at the bodies once more I saw there was a note neatly placed on one of the bodies. I clearly made out the name Batman on the note, but I couldn't get to it as I would have to step in the pool of blood to retrieve it. Whoever set this up was really clever, because if I wanted to read the rest of the note it meant that I would taint the crime scene. There was no way to retrieve the note otherwise, but luckily the INX had another little feature, so I tapped my cowl to activate the zoom feature and zoomed in on the note.

The words on the note shocked me as I read: You failed BATMAN! You're a failure! FAILURE!

ϿɃϿɃϿɃϿɃ