Chapter 21
Asphalt and sulfur tinged with methane assaulted his nose, causing him to retch and almost lose what was left of the trail mix from earlier. The pounding of his head and the pain radiating from the back of his skull pulsated in time with his heartbeat. Even with the protective lining in his cowl, that blow was intense. Hopefully it hadn't cracked his skull. He quietly assessed the rest of his body as he came to, being as still as possible as not to draw his captors' attention. His toes and fingers wiggled on command; his limbs worked and didn't appear to be broken. Though he was bruised and disoriented, he was still functioning. Once he was assured he was ok, he focused on the tightness around his arms and chest. A thick, heavy rope was coiled around him several times, keeping his arms immobile. Catwoman's back was pressed against his, the rope looping around both of them and ascending toward the ceiling.
He slowly opened his eyes. They were dangling a good 50 feet above the glowing green sludge of the Lazarus pit. That explained the smell.
Catwoman groaned softly as she regained consciousness.
"Selina," he whispered. She groaned again. "Are you ok?" She was silent for a few moments, no doubt doing the same assessment he'd just done.
"Define 'ok'," she said. "Nothing is broken, if that's what you mean."
"Can you reach my left glove?"
"This is a bad time to hold hands," she said, her voice tinged with pain.
"There's a blade in there," he said, struggling to get a little slack. She worked her fingers to the inside of his glove.
"Gone."
"Damn it," he swore. They must have searched him before hanging them above the pond of otherworldly sludge.
"I still have a trick or two up my sleeve," she said, her claws working their way out of her gloves.
"How long is that going to take?" he asked as she started on the ropes.
"Let me worry about that. You worry about getting us out of here."
Suddenly, several masked League members entered the room holding torches. Ra's and Talia entered after them, a twisted version of royalty. Ra's walked to the edge of the cliff that extended over the pit and planted his hands on his hips.
"You have a knack for being unpredictable, Detective," he said, the admiration in his voice unmistakable. "I predicted that you would eventually deduce that I was responsible for the theft in Gotham. I predicted that you would come to confront me. But I never expected you would bring the thief with you. I certainly never expected she would steal the biotoxin while I had you held in the dungeon. Well played, Detective. Well played indeed."
"Unfortunately, it is all for naught. When we searched the cat we reclaimed the biotoxin." He gestured to the vial sitting atop a large control panel lining the rock wall. "I was going to keep you alive long enough to watch the beautiful havoc it will cause, but for obvious reasons I cannot allow you to live."
"What havoc?" Batman asked, stalling. Catwoman needed all the time he could buy them.
"Is it not yet obvious? Unleashing a biotoxin of this nature on the unsuspecting public at a well-televised event, such as the upcoming New Year's Eve celebrations would not only kill thousands, it would be the catalyst for additional global instability and international finger pointing. All I have to do is sit back and watch as all the nations of the world attack each other in the name of revenge." Ra's walked toward the control console as he spoke, the steady march of time evident in his labored steps.
"My God," Batman said, the pieces finally falling into place. "You want to start a world war."
"Millions of innocent people will die!" Catwoman said.
"No one in this world is innocent. Each person demands precious resources from our planet, which in turn fuels the destruction of our natural environment and pushes our population to unsustainable levels. Without diseases or war, humanity is like an unchecked swarm of locusts that consumes and destroys all in its path. Much like a forest after a prolonged drought, a cleansing fire is needed to restore the delicate balance of the ecosystem. This biotoxin is the match." His hand hovered over the switch that would send them into the pit. The "waters" of the Lazarus pit may restore diseased and dying flesh, but it has the exact opposite effect on healthy bodies. They'd be dead in minutes.
"You set up Catwoman and Red Claw. Why?"
"I targeted Red Claw because I believe her organization to be on the verge of greatness. However, her ideals are misplaced and what she fights for is oversimplified jingoism that has no place in my coming utopia. She and her organization must be eliminated."
"She didn't have to come to Gotham for that."
Ra's smiled a tight-lipped smile and shook his head.
"The Gotham Police were to kill Red Claw. Then it would only be a matter of time before the rest of her organization descended on your city to rend it asunder. It would have kept you too busy to stop me from unleashing the biotoxin. Unfortunately, the operative assigned to museum that night did not call the police quickly enough after retrieving the biotoxin. Her failure has been dealt with."
"What about me?" Catwoman asked, her voice loud to cover the sound of threads of rope snapping.
"Red Claw was supposed to kill you."
"Why?" Batman hissed. She'd gotten them enough slack in the ropes that his hands tingled as blood rushed back into his fingers.
"An additional layer of confusion. Plus - It would only give the Detective more of a reason to spend time taking down the rest of Red Claw's organization."
"My death was your insurance policy?" Catwoman asked, incredulous.
"I considered it a boon that the only thief good enough to get into the museum that night is also the only member of the Detective's so-called rogue's gallery that he has never imprisoned in Arkham Asylum. It is curious, is it not? Perhaps it is because your crimes do not warrant such a punishment? Or, perhaps, it is because he cannot stand the idea of a woman as beautiful as you stuck in that hellhole mascareding as a prison?"
Ra's hand hovered over the button.
"You don't have to do this, Ra's," Batman said, again trying to appeal to the man's better nature. A nature he wasn't sure existed.
Ra's looked to Talia, who had been standing at the edge of the cliff, her gaze fastened on Batman's cowled face the entire time her father spoke. She took her cue.
"You could join us, Beloved. Once the world has been cleansed, you could shape the coming Utopia into the society of your dreams. You could be its king. And I would be at your side as your loving and dutiful queen. We could rule this world together!"
"The society of my dreams doesn't involve the death of countless innocent people," Batman growled. Catwoman was close to breaking the ropes. Subtlety, he shifted his body weight so they began to sway.
Talia closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Do you not love me?" she asked, her voice soft, yet mechanical. As if she was saying anything to bring him onto their side. As if she was saying what she thought he wanted to hear.
"I could never live in the future you envision, Talia." Talia looked to her father. He nodded once.
"Goodbye, Beloved."
"Running out of time!" Batman hissed to Catwoman as he watched Ra's hand raise above the button.
"Two seconds!" she hissed back, struggling to get slack and not give away her activities.
"Don't have them!" he said, moving his legs so they swung in wide arcs over the pit.
"Almost-!" she said as Ra's hand came down on the button. The claw above them opened and they dropped towards the poisonous liquid below.