A Demon's Drink {Book Three-Kat}

Chapter 39

“I know.”

“Um, Batman,” Robin frowned. “We have a problem.” The Caped Crusader left my side to join the Boy Wonder’s. I looked around the room and found a little trail of water leading to the east wing of the building. “There are people on the inside of Arkham working for something with intense technical knowledge. He, or she, were able to hack through all the security we set up here and delay all cameras while killing all motion sensors… from inside the asylum.”

“Can you find where it originated?” Batman looked toward the Lane, probably expecting it to be from Nigma; unfortunately I feared he was wrong.

“I would guess it came from solitary confinement on the east side of the complex.” I pulled my gun and started toward the door where the intruder’s water trail led. Pulling my walkie-talkie from its place on my shoulder, I radioed in for back-up. “This is Commissioner Gordon requesting any available units to move to Arkham Asylum. There has been a break in with indications toward a breakout of a solitary patient. Both individuals are to be considered highly dangerous and require immediate re-capture.”

“We can go after her.” Robin stepped up only to be stopped by his mentor.

“No, this is a police affair that we should not be around for. However,” he gave me one of his solid looks. “It would not hurt if we were to stay nearby. Commissioner Gordon,” he nodded.

“Thank you,” I nodded in response. Batman turned away but Robin still seemed to be fighting an internal battle. “Son, I know that there’s probably more to this than either of us know, but Katrina has made her decisions.”

“What if she’s not the one making them though?” He frowned at the door behind me before joining Batman and disappearing to who-knows-where.

It wasn’t long until a S.W.A.T. unit showed up. I led the team through the door, following the trail of water until it ended near a trashcan; converse lay on top of the other miscellaneous things. The fact the trail nearly died off was not a problem given the hallway only led to a single door at the end of the hallway. Sirens started to go off all over the asylum and we were just at the mouth of the corridor. We approached the door as it burst open and a form flew through it and out the window.

Voices started yelling out orders to each other. Running the rest of the way to the window showed me nothing but a violent storm and security guards, S.W.A.T. and police running around outside in a frenzy. I ran back into the main lobby only to be greeted by Batman, Robin, and now Nightwing. The three of them were arguing over something as the police ran down each corridor to ensure that all the other inmates were in their cells.

“Who was taken?” I interrupted their dispute for a moment and was met with a collective grimace.

“Bartok. He engineers technology specifically for criminals. Robin and I put in Black Gate ages ago, but he pled inanity and was moved here. The last warden put him in solitary after managing to build a small creature from a guard’s confiscated radio.”

“Do we know who broke him out?”

“Yes,” Robin glared at the screen behind him. I turned to see a frame frozen on Katrina’s grimacing face. It looked like it was taken after she fell or smashed her way through the roof. “And if she’s the one that got him out I’d be worried about who Bartok is working for. Katrina’s strings have been pulled by Ra’s al Ghul for a while now. The idea of a nano-tech genius, among other things, working for The Demon is more than troubling.”