Chapter 16: Barbara Wants to Catch Phantom Kid

”How much longer?”

Inside the collection hall, Gordon asked Aaron, who had stepped aside.

”About two hours or so, if that teaser letter is deciphered correctly.”

Gordon pondered for a moment and then asked, “How are the shore arrangements going?”

”Don’t worry, sir, the nearby shore has been fortified, there are no exposed gaps, I can guarantee that not even a mosquito could escape if it tried to fly in.”

”Do you think… Kid will really fly in from the direction of the ocean in a roundabout way?”

Gordon’s eyes manifested a degree of confusion, “You do not know enough of Kid’s disguise; he pretended to be you in front of all of us that day and no one could tell that he was any different from you.”

”He even has identically imitated your voice tone realistically. If it wasn’t for the fact that I heard his distinctive voice when he presented himself as Phantom Kid, I would have even thought you were Phantom Kid.”

”This… sir, but doesn’t he have gliders? Using one to fly should be the most convenient. I mean… can he still dive in this situation? Our men are all spread along the sea, there is no way he can come if he is in a boat.”

Aaron laughed dryly, he had not been able to see the fabulous disguise technique because he had been knocked out by Mathison, and could only hear all sorts of absurd claims from his colleagues.

To be fair, Aaron was reluctant to believe in such things, the technology of simulating human skin masks was not really rare, many spies or agents used them. Unless they were of advanced quality, the disguise would look fake.

How could a thief have such latest technology? It was unlikely that a thief could own this technology.

”Aaron, is this collection hall connected to anything like a ventilation duct or downpipe?”

Gordon suddenly asked.

”Yes! There are thirteen ventilation ducts and five vents in the collection hall, located in these parts…, which are not connected to sewers.”

A voice emerged, but it wasn’t the voice of anyone present. More importantly, it was a woman’s.

Aaron turned his head to look at where the voice was coming from, only to see a red-haired female student wearing glasses approaching. Her left hand was dragging her laptop, while her right hand was manipulating the keyboard.

”Barbara? Jim, is it really appropriate to have your daughter here? It could be dangerous after a while!”

As soon as he saw the girl, Aaron’s brow frowned and stopped his formality, he started addressing Gordon as a friend.

”Rookie!”

Ignoring Aaron’s rhetorical question, Gordon yelled towards the outside of the collection hall. Blake heard the shout and immediately came running over.

”Any instructions, sir?”

”Get two more teams of officers over here and keep a strict watch on the five air vents in the pavilion, we can’t rule out the possibility that Phantom Kid would sneak into the collection hall from there.”

Blake saluted and then went down to arrange the men.

”Barbara, didn’t I tell you not to follow me here?”

It was at this point that Gordon looked at Barbara’s dissatisfied face.

”I want to catch Phantom Kid!”

Barbara grunted and walked around both Gordon and Aaron and headed inside the collection hall.

”That child!”, Gordon said with a headache. 

   He didn’t know who Barbara was imitating. She had been interested in all sorts of cases, and a large part of the reason she had thoroughly studied hacking was to break into the police database and go through the various case files, and gather information.

Mathison knew exactly what Barbara was doing this for, and Barbara had told him herself.

Eight years ago, when Barbara was just a young girl in junior high school, she was almost killed by Two-Face. It was not a very memorable experience.

  Yet Barbara was an extraordinary girl, and after that incident, she learned one thing, and that was that Gotham’s superficial beauty was no more than hypocrisy.

Barbara is one of the very few people who had seen Harvey Dent’s true face with her own eyes. How could the gangster families that had been established in Gotham for hundreds of years be so easily swept away when even a man that righteous could go down the wrong path?

Unfortunately, the majority of people are so deceived by the current circumstances. Even her father, Gordon, had to go against his will and do his best to maintain a “peaceful society” by telling lies.

Often, she even despises her father, she doesn’t understand why Gordon doesn’t tell the truth, why he doesn’t tell people who the real killer is and who saved Gotham by defeating the Joker.

Barbara admires Batman, looks up to him, and wants to fight crime like him too. Except that women are naturally weaker in combat than men, so Barbara chose a different path, that of wisdom.

She never spoke of these plans to outsiders, including Gordon and her brother, with the exception of Mathison.

As to what surprised Barbara, she always thought for no reason that Mathison was different from the others, that he was the only one of his peers who would listen to her describe how great Batman was. The others thought Batman was just a wanted criminal under various influences.

However, whenever Barbara said she wanted to be Batman too, Mathison always smiled oddly and then inexplicably said “to be Batman, you have to have his powers”.

And when Barbara wondered what Batman’s powers are, Mathison just smiles mysteriously and doesn’t say a word.

When Phantom Kid appeared, and actually gained a lot of admiration, Barbara was determined to catch him, to set out his case as her debut battle.

Once she did so, she was not ready to follow Phantom Kid for the rest of her life. Only by the time she realized it, it was already too late…

Anyway, Barbara came to Daggett’s private collection hall, fully ready to fight, she wants so badly to prove herself!

”Jim, remember to protect Barbara, I don’t suppose you want to recreate that incident from the past?”

Aaron looked at Barbara’s back as she walked into the pavilion and said in a deep voice.

”Looking at the way Phantom Kid did his last crime, he doesn’t look like a vicious criminal who would actively hurt people.”

”Jim, we can’t trust the character of a criminal, maybe he didn’t hurt anyone last time because we knew so little about him and he was able to tease us easily, but this is different, it’s hard to imagine what Kid would do if he was pushed to the edge.”

”You’re right, I’ll look after my daughter and I won’t allow anyone to hurt her unless I’m dead.”

Gordon said with a firm gaze.

”The layout of the collection hall seems a little too simple, doesn’t it look as if it was constructed to be similar to that of a library?”

Meanwhile, Mathison had infiltrated the collection hall in disguise, It didn’t matter who he was pretending to be this time, what mattered was that he could now explore the police set-up openly.

But the situation inside the collection was somewhat unexpected. Daggett, the owner of the gem, was not even here. He did not even put his secretary or assistant in charge, as if he had no regard for the Phantom Kid.

”That’s interesting, in this case, either he really trusts the GCPD completely or he’s left behind a backhand, which makes it inconvenient for him to be here.”