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Batman realized it was Reverend Droll. "Feel free to come back anytime. I think the
church and the police can learn to work together."
Gordon didn't say anything as he stormed down the steps. Twelve police officers and
plainclothes detectives followed him from the church. There was no one else with them.
The door slammed shut behind them.
"Batman!" Gordon called when he saw him. "You missed quite a show. Though I
doubt you could have done any more than we did."
"There was no sign of Nightwing?" Batman asked.
"No. They stopped us from getting through to the interior of the church for close to five
minutes, and then gave us a very closely guided tour. Of course, we didn't find a thing.
There must be some hidden areas inside the church somewhere---rooms blocked off, that
sort of thing. I think your friend is still in there. But it won't do us any good unless we
know where to look."
Where to look? Of course.
"Commissioner," Batman stated flatly. "The original blueprints for this church are on
file with the building commission."
Gordon nodded. "Along with the plans of any major renovations. Oh, I see what you're
getting at."
"We have to find those hidden places before they can move their hostage to another one
of their buildings. Can we get in to the commission's offices at this hour?"
"Hell, when you're the police commissioner, you can get in anywhere." He glanced
back over his shoulder. "Well, almost anywhere. Let's go take a look, though I don't
know how in the world I'm going to get another search warrant to come back here. God,
I'd like to find something and put Droll away for a long, long time."
Gordon told a couple of his men to stake out the front of the church and report any
unusual activity. The rest of them returned to their cars.
Batman followed the commissioner back to City Hall. One way or another, he would
find a way to turn that church inside out.
20
Dick only got the slightest glimpse of the newcomers before he was rushed from the room.
But he saw who they were; he saw flashes of blue through the milling congregation.
"You have to get out of here," the voices told Dick. "They are enemies of the reverend."
"You can't believe their lies."
But Dick had seen the uniforms of the people who had run into the room, the people he
was being protected from. They were policemen. Were these the people Reverend Droll
was warning his congregation about---the police? Dick thought he glimpsed
Commissioner Gordon as he was hustled from the hall. If Gordon was there, Batman
probably was, too.
They were hiding from policemen. They were hiding from the people Dick had worked
with for years, and people who were Dick's friends!
He was rushed down a hallway he had never seen before. What he thought was a panel
opened before him. Dick realized it was a doorway. He was pushed into the room and
told they would fetch him in a minute. Then the door slammed shut, and he was left in the
darkness.
Something else had happened, too. Maybe it was the adrenaline from being hurried
from the room like that, maybe it was because he was left alone here, but for whatever
reason, Dick felt he was thinking more clearly than he had in a long while.
For the first time since he'd gotten here, he was away from the others and their constant
droning voices. Someone was always talking to him, touching him, never giving him a
moment to himself. He thought of that constant conversation, and realized, in a way, it
could almost be a form of hypnosis, like listening to some soft mantra chanted over and
over again. And the talk never ended, even when he was asleep. He had been skeptical at
first, but later---what did this subconscious mind get from this talk? Maybe that was why
he was so willing to accept all of this.
There may have been other things besides the talk. At the very least, the food wasn't
very good. They seemed to pick the stuff with the least nutrition possible. What if they
had put something into the food to make him even more susceptible? Here he was, a
seasoned crime fighter, who had battled some of the greatest villains Gotham City had ever
seen, and here this church had gotten him one step away from selling flowers on street
corners!
He couldn't fall under their spell again. He wouldn't eat anything else, nor would he fall
asleep, until he was out of here.
There was a soft knock on the door. Before Dick could say anything, the door opened,
and Sharon came into the room carrying an oil-burning lantern. The new light gave Dick a
chance to look around. From the ragged-edged molding that stopped just before the
doorway Sharon now closed behind her, it looked like the door was part of a false wall, and
that this whole space was once part of the larger room beyond.
"We have to stay quiet in here for a while," Sharon said in a whisper. "The Reverend
Droll will try to keep the forces of evil completely away from this part of the church, but
those who would destroy us have many devious ways. We have to be careful."
It sounded like the woman was reading from some terribly melodramatic book or
something. It certainly didn't sound like regular conversation. Yet Dick wouldn't be at all
surprised if she was repeating, word for word, what she had been told by one of Droll's
assistants. Only a few minutes ago he had been ready to believe things about the church
that were nearly as foolish-sounding. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]