Chapter Three: "Of Bats And Men."

June 6/7th

The way Harvey heard it told, it all started with Gordon and Essen, they were driving downtown. Gordon was giving Essen a ride home but they hadn't gone far from the precinct when something happened that must've made Jim Gordon lose his concentration (Harvey had a pretty good idea what that might be!)

Whatever it was Gordon then had to swerve to avoid an oncoming truck. In so doing both Gordon's vehicle and the truck almost collided with an oblivious bag lady. It was at this point that Gordon left Essen to take the wheel and dived onto the truck to try and take control from the driver (who was later booked for driving under the influence.)

Whilst that was going on the Bat vigilante dropped from the sky and pushed the bag lady to safety. Gordon jerked the wheel steering the truck into a wall whereupon he blacked out momentarily. He awoke to find blood dripping from a large wound on his forehead and Essen with her gun trained on the Bat. But seeing as how things were between Gordon and Essen she relaxed her guard just long enough to glance over and assess Jim's health, and the Bat seized the opportunity to escape. Essen, unable to leave Gordon helped him to the car and called for back up.

Commisioner Loeb for reasons best known to himself (and probably his friends the Falcone's) called in SWAT. Captain Branden and his men had orders to kill and pretty soon they had the Bat cornered in a derelict building near Robinson Park. As the building was scheduled for demolition anyway Loeb saw no reason to be gentle. He arranged for the SWAT chopper to drop a bomb on the roof, with complete disregard for the handful of vagrants for whom it was the closest thing to a home that they had.

By the time Harvey and Wilson arrived as part of the deployment to manage the gathering crowd the building or most of it no longer stood and Branden and his thugs were making a sweep of what was left. Shots were fired from the basement; some broke the windows endangering the crowd. Harvey dived for cover as Officer Merkel was nicked in the shoulder; a grey stray cat scampering to safety was gathered up by a pretty bystander.

Part of the building gave way and Batman and a handful of SWAT'S spilled out onto the street.

From his vantage point on the ground Batman looked pretty rough to Harvey, he had taken bullets in both legs one of which had been bandaged by part of the cape. The belt was missing Harvey noted, and there was what looked like another Bullet wound above the right elbow. In spite of this Harvey was impressed to see the Bat draw himself to his full height and stare down one of the SWAT's. (A guy named Petit Harvey later found out.)

Then Batman spoke, "You're the one, who tried to shoot the cat." His voice was like gravel, and with that his fists were all over Petit like a rash.

The crowd were cheering as the dazed guys from SWAT stumbled into and over each other in their attempts to pursue the Bat. Then suddenly it all went dark and the screaming started again.

******

It was a swarm of Bats! They had come from nowhere. How the hell Batman had managed it Harvey couldn't even begin to guess. Under cover of the swarm Batman made good his escape on a police motorcycle.

Harvey was up and running, not because he was scared of a fluttering bunch of mice with wings, but for fear of being trampled under a panic-stricken crowd of both officers and onlookers alike. Unable to see where he was going it wasn't long before he fell over again but realised he must be lying in the rubble of the derelict building.

Sensing no one else around and that he was no longer at risk of being trampled Harvey lay still and waited for the chaos to die down. The Bats gradually trailed off following their master and Harvey and a few hundred others were left with multiple scratches and rodent bites. Harvey slowly got up but something in the rubble caught his eye, he raked his hands through the powder of crumbled masonry and pulled out the charred remains of a belt with pouches. Knowing full well he was tampering with evidence Harvey removed some vials from the one pouch that remained intact. Harvey had a hunch he knew what the vials contained he opened one to check. If he was right, then maybe, just maybe, he now had the edge required to deal with Vasily Kosov.

*****

Everyone in the crowd had to be vaccinated for bat bites, fortunately members of the GCPD were given priority and Harvey, having reached the end of his shift anyway, left Gotham General for a "serious soak and a coupla cold ones." He got as far as the parking lot when he saw a familiar figure flanked by a couple of thugs waiting by his ride.

"Hello Vasily," Bullock acknowledged.

"Hello my friend, I hope you haven't forgotten our little arrangement."

Bullock confirmed that he hadn't and went through the arrangements again verbatim.

"I hope that what you say is true," Kosov replied a cruel smile playing on his lips, "it would be a shame if a newly qualified Sergeant were to meet with an unfortunate accident."

"I wouldn't want that Vasily!" Harvey acknowledged.

"Ees good to hear! See you around comrade!" Comrade was pronounced dripping with sarcasm, Kosov moved off without a second glance over to his Merc and skidded off.

"Hey Bullock!"

Oh great thought Harv, turning to face his second unwelcome meeting of the night.

Arnold Flass just out of bandages.

"Interesting company you keep there!"

"Really? Well if you know what's good for you Flass I wouldn't think to hard about it!"

"Oh I never do, but it sure would be a shame if this all came to light before your official promotion to Sargent!" Flass smiled.

"Yeah," Harvey acknowledged as he moved across the lot to where Flass was standing. "And it would also be a shame if it came to light exactly what it was you really were doing at the Docks that night I saved your ass!"

There was an inch of air between them as they went eyeball to eyeball. "I know all about your little pension plan with Skeevers Flass, but I got a little newsflash for you I don't really care that much about it! But if you want I could start to develop concerns real quick!" Harvey paused to let that sink in. "You got your interests I got mine, why don't we just leave it at that?"

Flass looked at him long and hard then broke into a smile, "Hey easy big guy," he took a step back and held out his hand, "Your okay big man! Just yanking your chain that's all!"

Harvey shook the offered hand loosely, as if he had been asked to pet a snake.

"See you around Sergeant Bullock!"

Harvey smiled to himself, it wouldn't hurt for it to get round that he was in the Odessa mob's pocket, not that it would matter much after the twelfth. After all if the worse came to the worse he wouldn't be around anymore to worry about it.