The tinkering of a bell resounded as Selina stepped into an antique shop down Garner Lane. It was the only lead given to her by Tabitha, together with the name 'Bilco'. The owner of the store sat behind the counter, flipping through what looked to be a magazine of sorts through a pair of heavy degree glasses. "Yes?" he acknowledged her presence without even looking up. "Anything I can help you with?"
"I'm looking for Bilco, any idea where I might find him?"
The shop owner turned to her in freshly vested interest, lowering his glasses to end of his nose to observe her with raw sight. "How do you know this name?"
"I was given it from a ready buyer. Said Bilco's created a new drug. My buyer's interested to sample and possibly to purchase," Selina stated, lifting up the piece of paper on which the information had been scribbled.
He pushed his glasses back into place, subtly pointed to the staircase at the back of the shop, then slumped back in his seat, going directly back to his magazine as though there had been no exchange at all.
"Hm.. thank you," offered Selina anyway. She made her through the store and up the stairs. There was a door at the end of the staircase. She knocked once, then twice, before a voice came through it. It belonged to a female.
"Who's there?"
"Is Bilco in there?" Selina asked.
"Yes."
"Can I come in? I'm to retrieve a sample for my employer who's interested to buy."
"Who's your employer?"
"Tabitha Galavan."
A pregnant pause followed, long enough for Selina to wonder if the woman on the other side of the door had gone away, before the sound of a key being inserted into the door that stood between them, and the click of a lock disengaging. The door widened, and there stood before Selina a petite white woman just about her height, maybe a few years older than her, dressed up in a red jumper, blue jeans and large black rimmed glasses. She spread out her hand, offering it to Selina. "I'm Bilco," she introduced.
"Hey Bilco," replied Selina with a modest amount of admiration for what she'd heard Bilco had achieved - and that she was really a woman. She took that hand in hers and gave it a firm shake. "I'm Selina."
"Nice," Bilco replied, letting Selina into the apartment - which really looked more like a makeshift laboratory. A large bubbling chemistry set up occupied at least three quarters of the living room. A slept in mattress and a single table and chair occupied the rest. "I'm sorry, you'll have to stand."
"That's fine," said Selina, more curious about the contents in the apartment than offended by the lack of hospitality. "I don't plan on staying long anyway."
Bilco picked up a little lime-hued tincture from a wooden box on the table, and handed it to Selina. "There it is; my improvement on the drug named Viper. My version; I call it Venom. Tell your employer that she'll only get one shot. The next one is chargeable."
Selina held up the tincture as she carefully looked it over. "And you brewed up Venom all by yourself?"
"When I received the Viper formula, it was already dead close to distribution-ready. It took me some time... and many dead mice, to crack the final missing component. The resulting drug is the one that you're holding in your hands."
Narrowing an eye at Bilco, Selina had to ask, "And you're sure that this little thing is safe?"
Bilco nodded. "It's been tested on humans, and we haven't noticed any side effects yet. Of course note that it's still a work under progress. That's why I'm letting it go for half the price till a wider audience has sampled and nothing's happened to them as well."
Selina frowned. "That's a big risk for us to take."
"It's your choice. If you do take it up, I'd like to know the findings," Bilco offered, tucking her hands into her jumper pockets as she waited for a response.
"Fine, I'll talk to Tabitha about this and get back to you afterwards," replied Selina after some thought, then headed back down the stairs.
It was close to noon when Bruce arrived at the hangar. He had Alfred position himself on the rooftop of a nearby building, armed with a pair of binoculars and the transistor radio to inform him of impending danger. Between the last mission and this one, he'd politely requested Alfred to keep the channel silent, apart from emergencies. Alfred took it surprisingly well, agreeing to it quite readily.
Only when Alfred was in position did Bruce crack the lock on the only man-sized door leading into the warehouse and first make his entry.
Lindsey was right about the blimp - the gold and red balloon sat right in the middle of the large hall, tied down by six cables. A seemingly innocent enough sight, apart from what looked to be a number of ropes holding down a life-sized statue on the nose cone of the balloon. The statue, very much resembling a sleeping man in a trench coat and a hat, reaching out in both ways by outstretched arms - No, on closer inspection, the statue was an actual man! He was slumped over and held in place by the ropes that bound him to the blimp. And the man... he looked exactly like Harvey Bullock!
Taped to the door leading to the engine room of the blimp, Bruce found a note. He pulled it off the door and read it quickly, "Sending you the Captain of the G.C.P.D. Keep him strapped to the front to deter any attempts to shoot down the blimp."
Crushing the note within his palm, Bruce looked about for something sharp to sever the ropes. A tool rack of four axes offered that very function. And they sat just a short distance from the ropes that held down the blimp. He picked up one of the axes, and took it upon himself to scale the side of the blimp with the help of each support beam and suspension cable on the side of the blimp that offered him access to the sleeping Captain.
On arrival at the place the Captain was kept suspended, he began sawing away at the ropes that held him in place. Once or twice he thought about trying to wake the man. But there was always the risk Captain Bullock would wake to realise what was really going on, panic and struggle, causing the already loose ropes to loose their grip on him, causing him to fall a great distance to the ground and ultimately hurt himself. Bruce decided that it'd be much safer to leave him unaware, and instead, to tie a noose around his waist with recycled rope that had previously bound him. He would then lower the Captain to the ground with the noose slung around his middle.
As a concept all on its own, it sounded pretty much flawless. But it was quite another thing to try to execute the plan, especially with that bad shoulder of his. Instinctively, he relied more heavily on his other shoulder, but that only lent to a clumsy descent of Captain Bullock.
The Captain was midway to the ground when Alfred's voice rang clear over the radio hidden in his ear. "A van has just stopped outside the hangar, Master B. Someone's coming out, I think they're headed your way. Get out of there now!"
Bruce had heard Alfred, but Bullock was still on his way down to the ground. He couldn't just abandon the Captain. "I'll be out in a little while," he said, moving Bullock faster than before, groaning at each tug against his hurt shoulder.
"You've got to hurry up, Bruce! He's right outside."
Bullock had just hit the ground with a quiet thud when the door to the hangar opened.
Bruce fell completely silent, watching the scene from his perch above. How glad was he to have decided to lower Bullock to the side of the blimp facing away from the door. This would result in the Captain being obscured by the side of the gondola, and therefore not susceptible to what looked to be the Court's original plans.
Through the door walked in one of the escaped inmates.
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