Chapter Seventeen
Several days had passed, and Jessica stood in front of the Harrington Hotel, the location of the Libertine function. Vivian pointed out Mister Hamilton because he was on the news for passing a bill that had to do with cleaner drinking water for Gotham. Jessica didn't trust the man, and knew exactly what he had done to the inhabitants that lived underneath Fifth Street. If he controlled the water sources in Gotham, she felt that he could kill everybody in the city as easy as he killed the people living underneath Fifth Street.
Vivian told Jessica that Mister Hamilton was the guy who favored Ronnie; and when she followed Mister Hamilton later that night, she heard him mention the Libertine function had been changed to the Harrington Hotel on the edge of Gotham. He had stopped at a fancy bar in the middle of town that catered to the higher class of Gotham's elite class, and Jessica slid into the bar with a fake ID. She had walked past the bar on several occasions, but didn't know it was a gentleman's club. The people working the bar seemed younger than eighteen-years-old, but she wasn't sure. The girls wore more makeup than needed, and had high-heels, but looked extremely young. Mister Hamilton hugged the dance floor where a young man danced seductively for him, and Jessica couldn't believe what she was seeing. She looked away from the dance floor while the young man danced.
After the dance, the old man retreated to the back of the bar, and talked to an older man with a white beard. An old music machine stood next to his booth, and a young lady sat on top of it that looked like Vivian. Jessica turned back to look at her a couple of times to ensure it wasn't Vivian.
The older guy was skinny, but he wore a black, Kung-Fu uniform, and had two small Asian boys with him, and Jessica assumed the Asian girl on the music box was part of the group too. The makeup of the group looked incongruous to the norm of the city, and the way the old man clung on to the kids didn't seem right.
"How much for the boys?" Mister Hamilton said in a throaty voice. "I don't want the girl. Just the boys."
"Five thousand," the old man said.
"For both?" Mister Hamilton asked.
"Yes. Seventy-five hundred if you take the girl."
Mister Hamilton looked the girl over, and shrugged his shoulders. "Cut her hair short, and I can do something with it."
Jessica slammed her hands on the table, and walked out of the building. The cold air hit her face as soon as she walked outside, and the GOD glove sent negative thoughts through her mind. She wanted to kill the man, but knew that it wasn't a good idea. She could have easily retreated into a dark alley, and waited for the man to exit the club, kill him, and fly home. But if she did that, she ran the risk of being videoed. That would be the end of Radiant Wasp.
Rumors floated through Gotham about the murders like the stench of a dead carcass, but none of the cops made a move on the Libertines. Everywhere Jessica went in the city, people were talking about the deaths of all the kids who lived underneath Fifth Street. For the first time, the residents of the sewer were popular, and had a voice. The sex crazed Libertines owned Gotham, and everybody who mattered affiliated themselves with the group on some level. It pained Jessica because she knew the Libertines would victimize others since they had gotten away with molesting children so easily. She cried about it. She looked down at her hands, and doubted her abilities to make a dent in the Libertine's way of life. They had so much wealth that they could buy the Justice Corp if they chose. Everybody knew the Justice Corp worked for profit, and Mister Hamilton had a lot of money. She flew to his large house, and circumvented his security in order to see what he was doing with the kids. She peeked through a window in the back of the house, and saw the girl sitting on a sofa watching television. He had shaved her head almost bald, and she looked frail, weak. She could hear Mister Hamilton's voice, but didn't know exactly what he was saying.
"I got a buyer for you," he said when he walked into the room with the little girl. "You're going to make somebody a fine toy."
Jessica backed away from the window, and flew into the air at a high rate of speed. She felt anger overtake her entire body, and all she could think about was killing the Libertines. The anger overtook her and it started feeling like she was descending into madness. She knew exactly what she needed to do. The power to make others comport to her will was a part of the gloves' powers.
It was a large building, a building that took up a city block. The hotel stood on the fringes of Gotham City, and all the guest checked in under an anonymous name. There had to be at least two hundred grown men in fancy suits, big cars, and all the wealth of Gotham in one location. Every one of the men had at least one child with them; some two.
A large burly man with a bald head pulled up in a fancy car with three kids surrounding him. Jessica's GOD glove appeared on her right hand, and pretty much forced her to approach the guy. The glove had a golden glow to it, and his eyes became fixed on the glow. She looked down at the kids, and said, "Get the fuck out of here." The kids did what she said without hesitation, and ran down the street as fast as they could. She knew exactly what the glove wanted her to do, and she tried to resist it. When she lowered her hand, Mister Hamilton broke free from the trance, and went for his guns that he kept underneath the driver's seat. He moved fast for a big man, but as soon as he rose out of the car with a pistol in his hand, the glove took control of his mind, and ordered him to kill all the grown people inside the Hotel. The glove shot a golden ray into Mister Hamilton's forehead, and he fell to one knee, sullying the knees of his nice suit. He crawled over to his fancy car, grabbed the rest of his rifles, and some extra boxes of ammo. Marching into the Hotel, Jessica walked away after she heard the first shot fired. The kids came running out of the building, but none of the adults followed. No matter how far she walked, she could still hear the screams of the men as Mister Hamilton gunned them down indiscriminately.