Chapter 15: Hopes and Fears

            Helena Kyle slowly clawed her way out of the to her way too comfortable bed to find the source of the incessant ringing that had forced her out of the bliss of her dreams. She hammered a hand down on her alarm clock, realizing seconds later that the crunch that had followed had probably meant the demise of another alarm clock. Bleary eyed from a long night of partying after an uneventful patrol left her feeling like she really shouldn't do things like that.

A quick shower and dive through her closet later for clean clothes she was seated in her living room on the black couch flipping through the channels looking for something to watch, while she consumed her cereal. She wondered if she could get dinner at the Clocktower and maybe get Alfred to do her laundry.

She flipped onto a local channel, which was supposed to show some sitcom only to find a slightly pale speaker explain that the regular programming had been interrupted to bring news of the school hostage taking in New Gotham. Helena's finger, which had hovered to the next button, froze in place. She watched as the news show started showing pictures of the police arriving by some school from a helicopter. They showed people crowding behind cover of buildings nearby. And they showed corpses lying around outside. Then she heard the name of the place and her heart jumped into her throat.

It was Dinah's school. The speaker went on to say that they didn't know much yet except that there had been taken hostages and that there were already multiple confirmed casualties. Helena knew Barbara was still at work, and so wouldn't know anything was wrong unless she heard by some accident. She considered calling New Gotham High, but instead grabbed her Huntress costume, put on everything but her mask and headed down for her car.

Barbara looked out over her attentive class from a top her wheelchair and said, "Alright, we've been going through this book for a while now. Does anybody have any comments o…?" Suddenly the classroom door was torn open and Helena walked inside.

"Helena, what is going on?" Barbara hated being interrupted, but she did wonder why Helena would come here now. Her classroom filled with the murmurs of her students' confusion.

"Barbara, I need to tell you something. It's urgent," Helena explained and indicated that they should head outside. Barbara noticed the tone of anxiety in Helena's voice and nodded.

"Look at the text for a few more minutes just like you did in the break before class, I need to talk to my friend," Barbara told her class and drove out into the empty hallway to talk to the waiting Helena.

"Helena, what is wrong?" She asked hoping inside that it was just Helena having some problem with the oncoming anniversary of her mother's death.

Helena looked a bit sad as she explained, "Barbara I'm sorry, but I had to come and give you a heads-up now instead of later. There is some kind of hostage taking at Dinah's school. People have been shot. The police are there now, but I didn't… I don't trust them to guarantee Dinah's safety, just in case she hasn't gotten away."

Barbara felt ice-cold fear settle in her stomach like it was intense pain. "We need to get out there now. We need to find out if Dinah's safe. We must do something," she said with conviction and looked over her shoulder. Although everything in her screamed to just rush away this instant, she knew better from life experience. She forced herself to use reason instead of emotions. Helena looked about ready to leave.

"I'll just go dismiss my class, and then I'll go explain my absence to the principal. You go out to Dinah's school and try to get a handle on the situation. Don't go in though, wait for me there. I need to pick up some gear in the Clocktower," she explained. Helena looked at her for a moment then nodded and ran off. Feeling like time was slipping through her fingers; Barbara quickly turned her wheelchair around and headed back in to tell her class that they would have an unexpected free period.

Helena's black car skidded to a stop at the police barricade, where a huge crowd of people and teens were milling around, while the media was setting up what could best be described as a mobile broadcasting central the lawn of couple of local homes. On the other side of the barricade there was regular police, paramedics, SWAT and Helena knew that the federal agents couldn't be far away either. She backed up and drove down a side street to find a parking spot.

She considered if she should head up and join the crowd, while waiting for Barbara. Or if she should take a scouting trip around the school premises to probe what kind of set up each side had. Maybe she could spot an easy way in that she could later. She stared out the windshield for a moment, then got out and headed for the crowd to see if she could find Dinah among those who had gotten out.

Helena wandered through the crowds. There were already many worried parents, but some smart person down at city hall or maybe the police had begun collecting names and were trying to reunite parents and kids. Then she overheard one of the older teens explaining to a police man, "Yeah, the principal ordered all the 11th and 12th graders to go home. He said something about an accident. He had the 9th and 10th graders go over to the west gym… The teachers had to go to some room around there too. I only just got to my car, when they started shooting those the stragglers. I didn't see who fired, but it sounded very metallic… nothing like on TV."

Helena wandered on, but she felt a lump of fear in her guts. Dinah was a 9th grader. The kid was smart though, so maybe she had left… but then again she had been raised to trust authority so she might not even have thought about not going. She looked around, but quickly became very aware of the lack of really young teens and her hopes fell steadily to be replaced by a gnawing fear. It was a fear full of what-if. What if Dinah had been shot already? What if Dinah was a hostage? What if the hostage takers shot her as an example? What if they had explosives? She looked at the building secretly glad no one could see her now slitted irises hidden as they were behind sunglasses. She had to stop herself from growling with anger as she stood there and saw the police men pour themselves coffee and look at each other in confusion, while a few of them tried to get in contact with the bastards inside and negotiate.

Barbara Gordon's car stopped a good length from the crowds. She looked down each side of the intersection and amidst the many and illegally parked cars there she spotted Helena's car. She drove over and parked as close by as she could, but instead of getting out she flipped up her laptop, which was connected to a couple of other components on the backseat. It allowed her to remote access and to operate the entire Delphi system. Quickly she got access to the police network and started to worm her way into their systems out here. A few commands gave her access to all their encrypted radio communication, while another few commands gave her, a link to Helena's com. She put a small wireless headset on and asked, "Huntress can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Oracle," the reply came crisp and with only negligible delay.

"Okay, I have parked close to your car. Have you found her?" She tried to keep Dinah's name off air in case their communication got intercepted.

"No, and I got a whole lot of bad news for you," Helena said and began to outline the situation as she had gotten it so far. The facts about which grades were probably still inside, about the danger and ruthlessness the hostage takers had shown so far and about the little the police had managed to achieve so far. Barbara put a hand to her forehead and forced herself to breathe in and out, trying to banish the blinding fear of losing Dinah.

"Alright, if you haven't done it yet, try to do a complete tour around the school. We need to find a safe way for you to get in there… in case we have to go in," Barbara explained.

"In case, what the hell, of course I am going in there. There are a whole lot of hostages in there with ruthless killers," Helena explained.

"Exactly, a whole lot of potential casualties if just a single thing goes wrong," Barbara answered.

Helena remained quiet for a few moments, "sorry, I didn't think."

"It's okay Huntress, I feel the same urge to rush in there, but we can't lose our heads here. There is simply too much at stake," Barbara explained, while her nimble fingers worked quickly to gather as much information on the school buildings and possible criminals who would pull a thing like this.

"I'll head out now," Helena replied.

Inside the school Eric waited for his wife and his sergeant to finish setting up the communications system, while he was keeping a careful eye on his watch and toying with his cell phone. In the next room the now handcuffed teachers and administrative staff were under the watchful eye of two of his men, while a whole group of them were currently handling the scared kids in the gym. In a room near the roof one of his two snipers was keeping an eye on the police, while the other one was looking for any surprises coming from another direction. The rest were on patrol in the school to head off any surprises.

"We're up and running again," his sergeant replied as the communication system started to hum. He put a headset on and asked for a report.

"Squad two here, one of our guys has been hurt. He's being treated by our medic, but he won't be lending a hand for the remainder of the mission, Colonel," the leader of the second patrol unit reported.

Eric calmly recalculated his combat strength, pushed away the annoyance of losing people this early in the game and asked, "Did you determine who did it?"

"That's the weird thing sir. It looks like some kind of freakish incident. He looks to have stumbled on some kid trying to hide in a class, who then somehow managed to pelt him with the class furniture. He seems to have killed the kid before going down, sir," the lieutenant reported.

"Are we sure there weren't other parties involved," he asked to make sure, while keeping an eye on his watch. He was still ahead of his schedule by two minutes, so he could afford to talk.

"Yes, sir, we searched the room and at the time there was another man in hall too. There was no way out of that class room short of the windows and they were closed, sir," his man explained.

"Good, report in at the agreed intervals. Colonel Ronald, out," he said and switched off his headset mike. He lifted the cell phone and dialed 911.

"Hello, I would like to talk to the police. I am the hostage taker at the Fox High School. I will wait for you to put me through to your negotiator now," he said and ignored all questions that followed until he was put through to an urbane sounding guy, who greeted him in his most pleasant voice and inquired who he was talking to.

"My name is unimportant. Make sure your recorders are running please as I won't repeat myself… I wouldn't want your detectives to feel that they had nothing to do. What is important is that I am currently in control of the High School and that I will kill one person an hour with no exceptions until the following demands are met. First I want a deposit from the New Gotham City Government to account number 666-0000000 in the Swish branch of Citibank of exactly one hundred million dollars. It will sit there for an hour unobserved electronically and yes I have ways to know if it is observed anyway. Second I want two transport helicopters to land exactly 10 meters and 30 meters on field to the west of the gym an hour after the money transfer has been confirmed. 20 hostages will join us on our flight, but no pilots will. You will leave a ten person inflatable life boat on each helicopter as well. Now I will start killing more if anything goes wrong and make no mistake about my seriousness any delays will be met with retribution," he said and shut off the telephone and activated his mike. "Do it and throw that kid you killed in the main building out as well," he commanded.

Barbara looked at her monitor, while the last of the audio data file was being uploaded to Delphi, one of her windows showed a camera feed. A window on the top floor of the gym building opened. There was a sound of a gun firing. A body was thrown clear. Barbara gasped. Then a window was opened in the main building and something else was thrown out too.

She feared what the images could show, yet she still reran them frame by frame and had Delphi give her the images of the faces. She felt horrible, but she was relieved to find that the first guy had been Dinah's principal. Then the second body was analyzed and Barbara felt the burning of tears in her eyes. She recognized Joy's face even with the recent changes in make-up and clothing style. She found that she couldn't help shaking from time to time almost as if she was incredibly cold. "Oracle, those bodies… was Dinah," Helena's worried voice pulled her back.

"No… but one of them was Joy," she heard her voice, but it sounded hollow. She didn't hear Helena's replied curse.

Barbara looked down at her monitors and felt powerless. She looked down at her useless legs and for the thousandth time in her life cursed the Joker. She pounded a fist down on her thigh in anger, but felt only her hand hitting something else. She flexed her fingers, forming fists and relaxing them again. The building plans finally arrived on her desktop. Barbara quickly tapped the touch pad and began looking through them hoping to find some way in that the bastards could have overlooked. Of handedly she put Delphi at analyzing the local communication frequencies, while she was occupied.

Her clothes were beginning to stick to her skin and sweat continued to trickle down her body as she desperately and most important quietly tried to find a way out of the ventilation duct, she had climbed into. There was no way out to her except back up into the classroom only three or four yards back up. The ducts weren't the same wide open places she had been promised in action movies and Dinah felt like she couldn't breathe. Even worse the sensation of not being able to move constantly made her almost panic and only fear of discovery kept her from crying constantly or screaming out.

She had no idea, how long she had been stuck in the duct, but she couldn't hold out much longer. The ducts that crossed with the one leading up were so small that she could only barely poke her feet into the holes and her arms were pinned above her head. Any movement she made got the entire metal duct to rattle and echo. She had no idea how loud it would sound to people up in the school, and she was slowly growing too desperate to care. Patience Dinah, she thought and reminded herself, what sacrifice had been made to get her to this place. She forced herself to relax, but redoubled her effort to try and figure a way out.

The thought however of Joy's sacrifice made her flashback to the scene which resides in her memory like it was a crystal clear but yet strangely remote event. She could observe again and again, how the girl, who had never truly known her, had bravely or maybe foolishly stepped in between her and danger. Joy had suffered the consequences and now she was left here hiding like a rat in the walls.

"Come again Oracle, there was some kind of interference," Helena asked.

"I might have found the perfect way into the basement of the school. There is an old tunnel system below the school left from an Old Gotham building, which they just slapped this place on top off. You should be able to break up into the school basement at a certain spot I'll point out to you. From there you're going to scout out the main building first," Barbara's voice explained in her ear. Helena didn't feel ready to charge in yet.

"That didn't sound like a complete plan," Helena replied.

"It wasn't. The police are sure the crooks have their own encrypted communications system. I got into it a few minutes ago. By the time you're in the basement I'll have enough voice samples to imitate the patrols that are going through the school and you should be able to take them out one by one with my guidance. Once that is done, you'll get rid of their snipers on the roof. By then according to the police schedule the money will have been transferred to the account. That is when it gets difficult," Barbara said as if the first part would be a cake walk.

"Really and pounding through concrete is easy," Helena replied already wincing at the thought.

"I'll feed the police the correct frequency and decryption key for the hostage takers network and plant messages that should get them moving. Meanwhile you'll drop the little gift our butler is coming over with right now into the gym and take out the people in there freeing the hostages. When the kids are secure, you'll wait around for the police before making a clean getaway," Barbara explained.

"What kind of gift are we talking about?" Helena asked.

"He is bringing a couple of your dad's small gas and flash bombs," Barbara explained. Helena couldn't help flinching at the mention of her father.

"I'll be right over," she said and ran back towards the cars leaving the anxious and very outraged crowds to worry, who would be killed next as the fourth hour was about to be over, while a beautiful red sunset graced the sky.

Helena looked again at the small collection of grey and black globes that her father's treasured butler had brought over, while she ran through the old tunnel she had accessed through an old boarded up entrance. She didn't wonder where Barbara had found information about this place. Barbara had been active back during the great quake and had maybe used this tunnel for some business or kept an old map around. "Left at the next intersection," Barbara's voice suggested.

"How long before the next one gets it?" Helena asked.

"The latest deadline passed two minutes ago. They were right on schedule," Barbara explained.

"I'm gonna kill them," Helena muttered.

"Huntress, don't even think about it," Barbara said sharply, "it's not fair I agree, but don't make me worry about you too… please." Helena had never heard Barbara beg like that.

"These guys have doomed themselves already. They're gonna get tried under the terrorism laws. They will probably get the fast track on execution row and god have mercy on them if they're put in contact with the prison population… a lot of criminals have children too. There is no way no how those bastards will get out of this alive," Barbara explained.

"Good," Helena said knowing that Barbara wouldn't have been able to tell her this or even speak if the latest victim had been Dinah.

Dinah couldn't stand it any more. She experimentally tapped the metal walls with her fingers. It sounded like there was some kind of give in them. Maybe she wasn't surrounded by solid walls. She considered her options. She could go back to the classroom. But she had already a couple of times heard noise from upstairs indicating that somebody still checked the room from time to time. She could stay, but she was constantly verging on panic and it was incredibly hot and dry as well. Finally she could try to punch a way out of her predicament, but that might alert the patrolling madmen to her hiding place. There was a noise overhead again. She held her breath and forced herself to stay still. Half a minute later the noise disappeared again. She slowly let out her breath but tried to stay quiet for a minute afterwards.

It was getting darker. Soon she wouldn't be able to get even the little light filtering in through the classroom grate overhead. She couldn't bare that thought. Dinah looked straight ahead at the metal seam of a section of duct. She pulled in as much strength as she could and tried to focus it to not form a shockwave but a solid centralized and fast blow on the duct in front of her. She felt almost as if the heat and nervous energy in her body drained leaving her feeling like she had just sprinted up a hill. She released the pent-up force.

There was a massive tearing noise. Suddenly her world seemed to tilt and swing in the opposite direction of her massive push. Dinah was surrounded by the shrieking of metal, when she was suddenly dumped unceremoniously out of the duct.

She looked around and found herself on a dusty collection of pipes running through a crawlspace in the basement. Above her there was a torn and bent section of duct amongst the pipes running up through the building. Dinah felt it might be wiser to move away in case anyone had heard anything. Up the tunnel she could see a faint light. Dinah began crawling forward.