"Money is the root of all evil, man!" Mad Stan gesticulates wildly as he makes this proclamation from the colonnaded lobby of the Rawlings Building. Normally the people arrayed on the street outside it – that is, the police positioned behind the semicircular blockade they have made with their cars and temporary barriers – would not have been able to hear his ranting. But since Stan demolished the bulletproof glass in the front doors and windows with a well-aimed grenade, they can hear him perfectly clearly.
Chief Barbara Gordon, watching with binoculars from behind a car at the midpoint of the police blockade, surveys the scene. The lobby of the building is a mess, filled with rubble and broken glass. She can't see any people in there – other than Mad Stan himself – but some of them might be buried beneath the rubble, or trapped in one of the stores that ring the lobby on three sides. The object of Stan's wrath seems to be the Rawlings Bank, which is at the far end of the lobby opposite the building's front door.
"…The whole country's sold out! Chucked their principles in the trash for cash!" He detaches one of many small grenades from one of the bandoliers he's wearing and tosses it at the police. Fortunately it's not a very powerful device, and it falls short of the blockade line. Some of the cars get a little dented, but that's about it. Barbara thinks he shorted it on purpose – she knows from experience that he has a very good throwing arm, and could probably land one of his little surprises behind the blockade if he really wanted to.
"Most of the people on the higher floors have gotten out," says Captain Burke, who is her second-in-command for this operation. Barbara's relieved that Stan didn't take out the causeways that serve the upper stories of the building, or this situation would be much worse than it already is. That's the kind of thing a terrorist would have done, but Stan's not exactly a terrorist – just a particularly destructive anarchist. He's going for attention and a lot of property damage, not a body count. Although he doesn't care how many people get damaged along with the property.
"What about the ones in the shops?" Barbara asks.
"Some of them have emergency exits. The people in those stores are already out of the building," Burke responds. He's got a portable computer rig with sensor gloves and a visor. The captain's fingers are fluttering over a keyboard that only he can see, something projected by the visor. Right now he's also looking at a three-dimensional architectural plan of the lobby, superimposed on the real world before him. "But some of them don't – the bank doesn't," he says, answering Barbara's question before he asks her. "They didn't want to provide a quick exit for bank robbers. People can still get out fast enough if there's a fire in the building, but…well, not in this situation."
"…Debt, interest, finance, it's all people can think about! It's too much!"
"Can any of them take the elevators or stairs to the higher floors?"
Burke shakes his head. "Negative. They'd have to go through the lobby to get to either." Barbara does not, as a matter of principle, swear in front of her officers – she makes a point to set a good example for them – but if she weren't so constrained she'd be saying some pretty nasty words right now. Stan is punctuating his speech with occasional small explosives, but he isn't tossing any of them into the shops or the bank, just around the lobby in general. If Barbara has her people go in after them, he'll start doing something more dangerous.
"…We're drowning in our own greed, man! There's only one way to stop the madness!" And then comes the familiar refrain: "Blow it up! Blow it all up!" Stan spins around and tosses a grenade into the bank. Barbara flinches as it explodes. The people who were in there when this ruckus started are probably hiding in the offices in the rear, where they will be safe for a while. How long she doesn't know, but it's probably going to be on the short side.
"Maybe we should get a S.W.A.T. team in from the roof," Burke suggests. "He won't be expecting anyone to come in that way."
Barbara's eyes go upward to the Rawlings Building's highest floors. If a team goes down by way of the elevator or stairs, they'll be vulnerable once they arrive at the lobby. If they split the team and send different people down different ways, Stan might still manage to hit some of them with a grenade. But it's the best available option. "All right," Barbara agrees, "Call in a S.W.A.T. team to…" She trails off as a familiar black craft appears overhead, on a course that will take it directly over the roof.
"Never mind," she says as relief floods through her. "The cavalry's here."
~***~
Terry starts to feel nervous again as the Rawlings Building comes into view. He's acutely aware that he doesn't have Wayne or even Max to help him. Although he's gone solo before, he's never been up against something this serious on his own. But, he reflects, there's always a first time. He tries to stop worrying and start thinking over what to do next.
First he circles around the building, taking in the police camped out in a semicircle in front of the main entrance of the building. He can't spot Commissioner Gordon from up here, but he knows she's present – after all, he's been monitoring police communications all the way here. After he's scoped out the place, he sets the Batmobile on course for the roof and rapidly enters a series of commands into its flight computer. Once he engages the autopilot, it will pass over the building, then fly around the area waiting for him to call it back. Terry hits the automatic pilot button, disengages his safety straps and reaches up to grab a lever above his head. He presses a button on it with his thumb, and a screen on the right side of the dashboard lights up, giving him a view from a camera on the underside of the Batmobile. Now he can see what's directly below him.
He's going pretty fast, so once the edge of the roof comes into view he pulls the lever, figuring that he will drop squarely on his target. The pilot's seat pulls back as the floor under his feet irises open. Terry slides out and falls five meters, landing right in the center of the roof. Then he starts scanning for a way down into the building. In a few seconds he manages to find a service door – an open service door.
Alarms go off in his head. There are two likely possibilities; one, somebody just came up here, or two, somebody just went down through it. And since he hasn't spotted anybody else up on the roof, he's going with number two. It's possible that Mad Stan got into the building this way, but that's unlikely. He's a very direct kind of guy, probably just blasted his way through the front door. Terry moves cautiously towards the open door and darts in, ready to fight if he has to.
There's nobody on the landing inside. Just a narrow flight of stairs going down and another door at the bottom, this one closed. As he heads down the stairs he hears the hum of machinery – this is probably where the elevator equipment is located, the big control boxes that change the magnetic currents on the elevator tracks to move them up or down. When he gets to the bottom and tries the door, he finds that it's already been unlocked. He opens it slowly so as not to make any noise and looks into the room beyond it.
When he sees what's there, he's not sure whether to be relieved or worried. Kitsune is standing by a bank of six elevators, her back to him (not very smart; she should be facing the door so she can see unexpected comers such as himself). She has her staff in her right hand. The fingers of the other hand are in the region of her ear, which means she's listening to a transmitter. She probably has one in that furry hood of hers, the way Terry has one in his cowl. He wonders if Natalie Milou is on the other end of the line, giving her instructions the way Wayne does with him. But the person she's talking to probably isn't anything like Mr. Wayne – otherwise he (or she) would not have allowed Kitsune to leave the door open on her way in or stand with her back to a potential entrance point.
She finally becomes aware of Terry's presence when he closes the door behind him, and she whirls around with her staff up in a guard position. He doesn't flinch, just stays where he is. After a moment she gets what seems to be an embarrassed look on her face – hard to tell, with the mask and all.
"Oh. Um, hi," she says, moving into a neutral position.
Last night, when Terry first saw her face-to-face, she didn't say very much. Her boss did most of the talking then. Terry wishes he had Wayne to help him through this awkward meeting, but he has to decide what's best on his own. "I suppose you're here for the same reason I am?"
Kitsune recovers some of her poise. "Yes. I didn't expect to see you here – I thought you only worked at night," she says.
"Mostly." He decides not to criticize her for her recent mistakes. If she's smart, she'll take the shock of his arrival as a lesson and be a little more careful next time.
She nods. "Well, anyway…I'm glad you came. Maybe we can help each other."
Terry thinks about that for a second. He still has his doubts about her, but he doesn't have a really good reason for refusing. He nods.
Kitsune smiles with relief. "Okay…you've fought this guy before, and I haven't. So I guess that means you call the shots." She looks at him expectantly.
He's surprised – and more than a little flattered – that Kitsune is deferring to him on account of his experience. After working with Wayne so long, he's used to being the rookie. This is a nice change, but it's also a little scary. Even while he's thinking about this, though, he's also cooking up a plan. "All right. Here's what we're going to do…"