The Gotham Dock was built right at the mouth of the Gotham River. Due to terrain reasons, the areas near the Gotham Dock get severely flooded every time there's a heavy rain; it's a key area for flood prevention during the flood season.
The Gotham Dock is the original Gotham City. Most of the houses here are over a hundred years old, they can't be demolished, and it's very difficult to renovate them, let alone establish any perfect consolidation measures. So every year's flood prevention measures are just stacking sandbags; as long as the flood peak of the Gotham River doesn't overflow, it's fine.
Easy to say, hard to do. The docks are chaotic in themselves, making it difficult to coordinate actions. The sandbags usually stored in the coastal cliff bunkers are in an extremely tricky location, with only one narrow road leading up. Everyone drives their private cars to move them, eventually causing a traffic jam that can't be cleared.
When the Joker and Shiller got out of the car, they saw that the slope on the west side of the parking lot was full of cars. A red and a white car had collided, and two drivers were each holding a rifle while a figure in a red hood was trying to mediate between them.
The Joker got even happier, chuckled a few times, then swaggered over to Gordon's police car and said, "Looks like our commissioner is playing the role of a patrol officer today."
Gordon stepped out of the car, with a darkened face, then poked his head in to grab a police light from the police car. Instead of fixing the police light to the car, he directly unplugged the charging cord and walked up the slope with it.
Seeing the familiar red and blue light, the Gothamites pretended not to see it. Gordon only managed to garner their attention after firing his gun as a warning. He shoved through the drivers while shouting curses, finally squeezed his way to the scene of the accident, first snatching the gun from the driver of the red car, then using the rifle's butt to strike the driver of the white car down. Amid the cheers of the crowd, he shoved them back into their respective cars, enabling them to back up, finally clearing the slope congestion.
The state police chief at the back was dumbfounded upon witnessing the scene. The state police's authority is supposed to be greater than regular local police, but only in Gotham does he appear like a rookie compared to Gordon.
After clearing the road, the police placed barriers at the entrance, barring any private cars from passing through. This finally allowed the Joker to drive the truck over. It was also the first time the Joker experienced the sensation of police lining up to welcome him; he sat in the driver's seat, excitedly looking around, constantly changing his posture, occasionally honking in response.
Shiller didn't accompany him on the truck, but instead went to the entrance of the slope. He passed through the crowd, wanting to check out the side of the dock, but suddenly got stopped by someone.
A hand slapped onto his shoulder, and instinctively, Shiller spun around, twisting back, with the gun aimed at the opponent's head. The young man in a red hood let out a series of cries:
"Hey hey hey hey hey!"
Upon realizing who the opponent was, Shiller withdrew his hand. The Red Hood finally managed to straighten his body, and upon seeing Shiller's face, he exclaimed:
"God! I thought I was seeing things! Are you really Professor Shiller? How did you become so young?"
Before Shiller could answer, the Red Hood continued talking to himself, "I get it, you must be his counterpart. Your reaction just now was pretty good... Hey, don't walk away!"
Shiller proceeded towards the dock on his own. From this angle, he could see the mouth of the river; maybe it's because the hurricane warning came quite early, all the boats at the dock had gone to other ports, making the place seem empty, exuding an aura of desolation.
As Shiller turned to head back, large raindrops began falling. He hastened his pace but didn't leave by car; instead, he sat at a nearby bar and restaurant, ordered a signature seafood pizza and two fingers of whiskey, sitting by the window seat watching workers moving sandbags on the dock.
These workers are usually volunteering because their homes are nearby, and without flood prevention measures, their houses would get flooded. Some are hired by local shipping and engineering companies, along with police and some volunteers. Hundreds of people scattered at the river's mouth aren't easily visible.
Gotham indeed has volunteers; wherever disasters strike, that's where they'll be. But of course, they're not necessarily good people, merely akin to a grassroots community mutual-aid organization. They help when the nearby communities face issues, otherwise, it's hard to survive in such a harsh natural environment of a city.
The Wayne and Kane families naturally have their hands in the shipping business at the docks, so they also sent people over, even brought two flood prevention experts who are currently commanding the workers with their plans beneath them.
Shiller sat by the window, eating while observing the scene outside, his expression very focused, as if he were carefully watching, not merely passing time.
The Red Hood wanted to go in and find him but the work at the dock was overwhelming, and being a rare strong laborer, he quickly got recruited to stack sandbags.
Suddenly, Shiller's gaze fixed on a worker heading towards the truck bed. His steps were quicker than others, and his eyes weren't looking at the sandbags in the truck bed but rather at the front cab.
Shiller slapped some US dollars on the table, reached into his coat for his pistol, and briskly headed in that direction.
The Joker turned off the truck, pushed open the door, seemingly wanting to go down and open the truck bed's door. Just as he opened the door, bam, a shot hit his shoulder, had he not retracted quickly, the next shot would have without a doubt blown his head off.
Upon hearing the gunfire, Gordon immediately ran over, but his pace was much slower than Shiller's. With a bang, Shiller shot the person who attacked the Joker from behind.
The Joker, with a bullet wound on his shoulder, jumped down from the truck as if he were unharmed, walked over to grab the guy and took a look.
"I haven't offended him," the Joker set the person down and said, "Who would hire a hitman to kill a Madman?"
"And you," the Joker looked at Shiller, "You must know something. You knew someone wanted to kill me long ago. You didn't want me to touch the truck, to avoid me encountering a car accident. You watched the guy because you knew he was instigated by someone. Who is it?"
"Anyway, it's definitely not Batman." Shiller lifted the man up and glanced at him. He looked just like an ordinary dockworker, not a single distinctive feature. There might be an email sitting in his inbox, but Shiller couldn't be bothered to check it. Barbara had already told him that just the email wouldn't catch out any flaws.
"But he shot me," Joker continued to argue, "as the victim, do I not even have the right to know?"
Just as Gordon was about to speak, Shiller waved his hand, signaling him to step back. He looked into Joker's eyes and said, "Don't forget the tasks Batman assigned. He put you here to work, not to play cat and mouse with assassins. You go chasing after behind-the-scenes manipulators, then what happens to the dock?"
"Impossible," Joker sneered, "Batman's intention is for me and that guy to keep each other in check. Don't misinterpret it."
"As an agent, thoroughly understanding the employer's demands is a basic skill. You'd better not argue with me on this." Shiller picked up the spent shell casing from the ground and said, "I am very sure Batman just wants you to work well, not go after some behind-the-scenes manipulator whom you can't catch..."
"Says who!" Joker almost jumped up, "Batman must trust me; he knows best how capable I am! How could he possibly not let me chase the main perpetrator but have me here moving these boring sandbags?! You definitely heard wrong!!"
After saying this, he turned and headed toward the truck, saying, "Even if you point a gun at my head, I won't take back my opinion. I'm going to catch him now!!!"
He left without a backward glance, got into the truck, and with several times the previous proficiency, quickly reversed and drove off.
Gordon turned to look at Shiller, only to see Shiller slowly holstering the gun, with a slight smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
"Did you do that on purpose?"
"Of course. I'm not the Riddler, why would I intentionally hide it from him? Besides, I wasn't wrong. What can Joker do against electronic life?"
Gordon shook his head and said, "If you hadn't mentioned Batman, he might not have been so eager. But since you said Batman forbids him, he will go all out to bring that guy out."
He paused for a moment before continuing, "However, I really can't think of what he can do against electronic life. Never heard of Joker having hacking skills."
But Shiller gave him a glance, then turned and walked away. Gordon felt somewhat perplexed, but the rain grew heavier, and the wind began howling at the dock, leaving them little time. Gordon could only turn to get back to work.
In the base of the Oracle System, Barbara took several swigs from the water cup in her hand, leaning back against the chair looking a bit pale. Her originally smooth red hair fell in strands beside her ear, as she turned her head and sighed, fingers tapping lightly on the keyboard.
As if in response to her, the computer case suddenly emitted several beep sounds. Barbara muttered to herself, "What do you really want? You're crazy..."
With a crackle, the sudden lightning on the horizon illuminated a shadow by the window. Barbara gasped, turning the wheelchair to face the window. Suddenly, crash! The glass shattered, and a figure with a sneering face and green hair appeared at the window.
Barbara manipulated the wheelchair to back away, and the lights in the room suddenly went out. She felt her phone vibrate in her hand, and looking down, only one word appeared on the screen—"Run!"
Barbara clenched the phone, and then she suddenly realized the electric switch of the wheelchair was turned on, not needing her guidance at all, speeding around the table and chairs, through the living room, out the door, and onto the elevator. The elevator descended at a speed far above normal operation, flying down to the garage.
The wheelchair also moved unusually fast, but suddenly Barbara remembered she hadn't charged the wheelchair last night. She turned to look, indeed, the low battery indicator light was on, and the wheelchair's speed was slowing down.
Finally, the wheelchair drove itself behind a pickup truck. The parking lot lights went out, and the elevator stopped operating. Barbara hid behind the pickup truck, her palms sweating, wanting to say something, but the underground parking lot was so quiet, any slight sound would travel far.
Barbara dared not speak, so she slowly typed on the phone screen: "Is that you?"
The other party did not respond. Barbara bit her lip and typed another line: "If you don't speak, I'm going out now."
After typing this, she was about to manually wheel the chair away from behind the pickup when footsteps began echoing from the emergency stairwell.
"Don't go." Another message popped up on the screen.
Barbara's fingertips trembled, she inhaled deeply. Over the past week, she had tried every possible way to track traces of this guy, only to find nothing and ended up being dealt a counterblow. Now the Oracle System is almost completely paralyzed, and those surveillance cameras and communication terminals belonging to Barbara were unusable.
Yet unexpectedly, at this moment, the situation took a dramatic turn, with the elusive electronic life form suddenly appearing in front of her.
But the bad news was, Joker was hunting her down. Though unsure of what madness Joker was experiencing, with Batman absent from Gotham, today she might hardly escape unharmed.