"If you don't want your daughter Maddie to disappear again, calm down and listen to me."
In Hell's Kitchen, Walker—one of Kingpin's few trusted subordinates, dressed in a black suit—had searched extensively and finally located Ivan late at night. Ivan was Maddie's father, the little girl Kingpin had encountered on the street a few days earlier, who had become separated from her dad.
Other matters could be delegated to underlings, but the fewer people who knew about this, the better, so Walker had to handle it himself.
Ivan was jolted awake from his sleep, his eyes widening in terror. He instinctively tried to shout for help, but a hand clamped over his mouth and a dagger pressed against his eye kept him silent.
Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced to his side; his wife lay motionless on the bed.
"Don't worry, I didn't kill her. I just knocked her out."
Walker—short but muscular, clad in a suit—pressed his knee against Ivan's chest, shook the dagger in his hand, and said:
"Tomorrow night, I want you to climb to the torch of the Statue of Liberty and jump off."
"But before you jump, when the police come to rescue you, you need to demand, 'Have Batman come personally and reveal his true face.'"
"After it's done, there will be a bank card in your home with enough compensation for your family to live comfortably for ten years without working."
"But if you don't do this... you might live, but you'll never see your daughter again."
With that, Walker gestured with his eyes toward the foot of the bed and grabbed Ivan's hair, lifting his head slightly so he could clearly see what was there.
"Wuwu—"
A whimper came from the foot of the bed. Only then did Ivan spot his daughter Maddie, her hands tied behind her back and her mouth taped shut, crying tearfully on the floor.
His daughter bound, himself threatened by a dagger, and the large sum of money Walker promised... Ivan had no choice but to agree. He could only nod slightly, a mix of sobs and forced laughter escaping him.
Walker seemed quite satisfied with Ivan's cooperation:
"Oh, and you need to write down the phrase 'Have Batman come personally and reveal his true face' on something beforehand, lest the police can't hear what you're saying—after all, the Statue of Liberty is 92.99 meters tall."
He released his hand from Ivan's mouth and sheathed the dagger.
"Can you let my daughter go? I promise to do as you say!" As soon as he could speak, Ivan pleaded desperately.
Walker ignored Ivan's pleas. He tucked Maddie under his arm and was about to leave through the window, but Ivan suddenly changed his tune, no longer begging for mercy, but asking for money:
"Can you leave me some money first? ...I can't afford the boat fare to the island."
The Statue of Liberty is located on Liberty Island in the Hudson River, accessible from Manhattan only by boat.
Walker turned back in surprise, then reached into his pocket. After fumbling for a while, he realized he didn't have a single cent on him.
"Give me a few minutes," Walker said, pushing off the windowsill and jumping out, taking Maddie with him.
Only then did Ivan realize that the window, which he had clearly closed from the inside, had been opened at some point, allowing Walker to silently knock out his wife and threaten him.
Thinking of his wife, Ivan quickly turned his head to look at her, and after carefully checking and finding no signs of injury on her, he breathed a sigh of relief.
But his daughter, taken by Walker, made the breath he had just released catch in his throat again.
Looking at the dark night sky outside the open window, Ivan felt that his life was as desperate as the night itself.
"Robbery."
Walker left Ivan's house, turned left and right into an alley, and said to a homeless man slumped on the ground.
"I..."
The homeless man looked in astonishment at the short, muscular man in a suit, clutching the struggling little Maddie under his arm. Just as he was about to say something, Walker had already revealed the gleaming dagger.
He jumped in fright, not daring to say another word, and tremblingly pulled out a few coins from his pocket.
Grabbing all the coins, Walker ignored the homeless man's desperate pleas behind him and turned to leave, heading straight back to Ivan's house.
"Don't forget what I told you." Still entering through the window, Walker threw all the coins onto Ivan's bed. "Your daughter is in my hands. Whether you want to call the police or try to escape, I advise you to think before you act."
With that, Walker, with little Maddie tucked under his arm, climbed out the window again.
Ivan, heartbroken, picked up the coins from the bed. Just as he resolved to jump from the Statue of Liberty tomorrow.
Bang!
A muffled thud came from outside the window, followed by Maddie's cries and the whooshing sound of fists and feet colliding.
Ivan no longer cared about the coins; he scrambled to the window, only to see two figures fighting outside. His daughter Maddie was thrown onto the ground nearby, crying and twisting her body toward the window.
By the time Ivan clumsily climbed out the window, the two figures had already decided the outcome.
Walker, dressed in a suit and muscular, lay motionless on the ground, while the other person limped over and crouched beside the crying Maddie.
"You, who are you?" Ivan bravely approached Maddie, looking at the man with a pair of horns on his forehead and dressed in a dark red battle suit, and asked.
"Daredevil."
Daredevil untied Maddie's bound hands and unsealed her mouth, then stood up and said.
Ivan hugged his daughter Maddie, his gaze fixed on Daredevil's leg, where Walker's dagger was clearly still embedded:
"You... your leg..."
Daredevil looked down and pulled out the dagger. He seemed unconcerned about his injury, instead asking Ivan:
"Do you know this guy's background?"
Daredevil was in the vicinity, planning to bust a criminal hideout, and his keen hearing had led him to discover Walker robbing the homeless man, and he had followed him all the way here.
Ivan subconsciously shook his head.
"Repeat everything he told you," Daredevil's voice was a little hoarse.
Ivan dared not refuse. The constantly bleeding wound on Daredevil's leg reminded him that he was facing someone as dangerous as Walker. Ivan could only grit his teeth and begin to repeat:
"He said, 'If you don't want your daughter Maddie to disappear again...'"
Ivan's voice suddenly stopped. Just as Daredevil was about to urge him, Ivan finally spoke:
"I know... because I was afraid of being scolded by my wife, I never told anyone about my daughter getting lost and disappearing from me. Only the person who helped me find Maddie knew... He told me his name, he's Wilson Fisk!"
"He's Kingpin," Daredevil said to himself.
At the same time, in the abandoned shipyard, Batman meticulously displayed Black Cat's voice recorder, camera, and various criminal evidence he had collected.
The evidence he currently possessed, including Kingpin's gang's kidnapping, gun trafficking, and "cigarette" (drug) trafficking, was already sufficient to meet with the lawyer willing to take on the case against Kingpin.
However, completely bringing down Kingpin still carried a risk of failure; more direct evidence was needed.
Moreover, compared to Kingpin, the underworld emperor who controlled Hell's Kitchen, the Green Goblin, who had escaped, was even more dangerous. A series of recent murders were all linked to Norman Osborn.
What's more, just tonight, news of the Manhattan Police Department being blown up appeared on the late-night broadcast, which was very likely the Green Goblin's doing.
Facing the Green Goblin, who possessed a glider and sharp green blades, the priority of the Bat-cape was elevated to the highest level.
Even without transportation and the Batcave, Batman with his cape would be able to unleash power far exceeding his current capabilities.