Salvation

36

Adelaide stayed huddled in a corner, she was shut in a dark room. There was no light, nothing. Leaning her head back she shut her eyes and listened to the sound of silence. If silence had a sound, she was listening to it right now. She didn't know how long she'd been in here. Shortly after her conversation with Oswald she got grabbed and flung into this space. She had been told though that she would be needed shortly.

That didn't fill her with confidence at all. Rubbing her eyes she let out a yawn and ran her hands through her hair. Shutting her eyes again her ears perked at the sounds of locks and keys outside the door. Wherever the door was, she didn't know. As soon as she had got flung in here she crawled to the nearest corner and hunkered down. The door slid open and the light flooded into the space. It was so bright and blinding that Adelaide had to hide her face in her jumper. Screaming when she got scooped up again she kicked and punched the man who was carrying her.

"Oh come on darlin', we've not mistreated you at all have we? So why must you start misbehaving now?" Oswald's smug voice spoke evenly from somewhere in the room.

Adelaide looked up and narrowed her eyes at him. He smirked and nodded, Adelaide's glare got cut off because she was ungracefully dropped to the floor. Her head impacted against the cold flooring with a thud, groaning lightly she lifted her head up. Her eye didn't want to focus, but when it did it landed on blood splatters. Reaching up she put a finger to her head. She had cut it open from the impact.

Looking up she frowned, Oswald looked down at her. "You've been locked away for a night and a mornin' and you already look half mad. I wonder how you would deal with being in Arkham for years?"

"What do you want?"

"I want you to say hello," Oswald nodded, Adelaide got pulled to a stand and shoved into a chair. A bright light got suddenly shone on her, her eyes squinted and shut. Her vision was bad anyway, let alone with having bright lights shone at her. "This is how it's gonna go down, darlin'. You're gonna talk, we're goin' to record, we'll send this off to Harv, and well...he'll stop being an annoyance to me."

"And then what?" Adelaide hung her head, her hair curtained her off from the light. "You'll just let me go?" Oswald laughed. That was all the answer Adelaide needed, opening her eyes slowly when her head got yanked up she squinted at the light again. "What do you want me to say exactly?"

"Improvise. Heck! Do an award winnin' breakdown if ya have to. I don't care." Adelaide stared blankly down at herself and heard a click. Frowning and looking up she eyed up the umbrella being pointed at her. Getting the message Adelaide swallowed and looked back at the bright light.

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The few people who were in the room jolted when there was a gunshot. None of them looked to the body as it fell backwards and thudded to the ground. Harvey seethed at the television screen. The faint image of Adelaide looked out at him. Even leaving her well enough alone caused her to be dragged into this. Sure, Harvey had provoked Oswald slightly by taking over parts of the city which were his. He stayed well away from the Iceberg Lounge though. Harvey didn't want any part of that seedy awful, and slightly boring, place.

"Sir, what do we do?" A voice questioned, Harvey looked up at the man, his eyes briefly flicked to two others who were dragging the dead body out of the room.

"We go."

"Sir, we don't know where he is."

"I do." Harvey stood up. "Where would that greedy little man go? Where is the most obvious place?" Harvey frowned, the men surrounding him looked confused. Harvey groaned and slapped a hand to his forehead. "Fat lot of good you all are, we should have it in mind to shoot you all now." With this said he stormed out of the room with the group following closely behind him.

It was a cheap shot if anything, not just taking Adelaide, but returning to that place. Oswald was in the decommissioned building which he previously worked in. That seemed like a life time ago. The building got closed down when the company ran into problems. Harvey guessed having him previously working there helped cement it into failure. It was a short walk down darkened streets until he reached the building. Harvey looked up at the building with mixed feelings. He remembered each corridor perfectly, there was only one room he was heading for.

There were no guards on the lower levels, nodding his head Harvey watched as three men ran up the stairs. Seconds later there was gunfire. He watched as one of his men fell to the floor dead. Letting out a thoughtful noise he backed out of the building and walked around the side. Oswald may have just moved in for this one moment, but Harvey knew this building perfectly. Where his office was there was a fire escape platform right next to it. Who needed to go in through the front door when he could just climb through the window?

As soon as he reached the top of the ladder he peered through the window. Oswald and four of his men were standing looking at the door. They weren't paying attention in his direction. Reaching out he pushed the window up silently and climbed in. Reaching into his pockets he pulled out his firearms and aimed them at the men's backs, not Oswald's though. No, he was going to get his own special attention. Pulling the triggers, the semi automatics fired quickly, the four men fell with thuds and landed in their own blood.

Oswald let out an odd gurgled noise and aimed his umbrella at him. "You know what the problem is with close range weapons?" Harvey asked while his hand crushed one of the smaller man's. Oswald screamed. "You have to be at long range to get the best effect, not about fifteen paces away." Harvey twisted his arms, the umbrella fell out of Oswald's grasp. Kicking it to the side, Harvey placed a gun to his head. "Where is she?" Harvey asked darkly, Oswald laughed and waved a hand at him, Harvey pushed the gun more against his temple. "Where?" Harvey was about to ask again if a black object didn't hit against his arm throwing his aim off. Turning he looked up at Batman. "You."

"Put the guns down, Harvey."

"No." He retorted and fired off bullets in his direction, Batman's only option was to jump away from the windowsill. When Harvey looked around Oswald had ran out of the room. "Get back here!" He shouted angrily and groaned when he was suddenly kicked to the side. "You idiot, I'm not here on my will. He took her, Batman. I'm here for her, that is all." Batman let go of his shirt collar and stepped away. "Haven't you got someone to go after?" Harvey stood up and brushed himself down.

"No." Batman answered. "The police will get him."

Harvey looked up at him slowly. "We're going back to prison?"

"Yes."

"Hm, we'll see Batman, we'll see."

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(Edited: 22/Jan/2020)