Chapter 48: Boom

"Scrape, scrape, scrape."

The grating sound of a steel file echoed in the basement; fortunately, though noisy, the sound was not loud enough to disturb the people upstairs.

"Creak—"

The basement door was pushed open, and a beam of light from the stairs illuminated the dark space.

"Harvey, Harvey, are you down there?"

A soft female voice rang out; it was Harvey's Lady, Gilda Dent.

Harvey placed the file back on the messy workbench; the slightly yellowed hanging lamp and the workbench light illuminated Harvey by the table and the area on the desk, where various metal parts, bullets, gun components, and so on were placed crookedly; he looked up at Gilda walking down the stairs, and her face seemed somewhat uneasy.

"I, I saw on the news that you burned a lot of Falcone's money; I'm worried..."

"Worried I'll become like Richard Daniel? That's really unnecessary, Gilda."

The two talked back and forth in the basement; this had almost become the couple's daily routine recently.

Gilda's emotions were slightly agitated; as she spoke, she subconsciously buried her head in Harvey's chest, tears glistening in her eyes; as the wife of Harvey Dent, a fool who persisted in upholding fairness and justice in Gotham, merely waiting for him to get off work every day felt so agonizing and tense; in fact, starting the day after Richard was murdered, she had already cried out to Harvey like this.

Harvey Dent held his wife, slightly narrowing his eyes, his expression filled with affection and cold anger toward Falcone's deeds within Gotham City; the flame of justice in his heart seemed never to extinguish, burning endlessly.

"Ring-ring—ring-ring—"

"Darling, you go upstairs; I'll answer the phone first."

"Hmm, Harvey?"

"What is it?"

"Remember to come up later; there's a package addressed to you, it seems to have a combination lock; I can't open it."

"A combination lock? I'll be right up, darling."

After calming his wife's emotions, Harvey Dent sent her upstairs and, on the way, picked up the phone that had just rung.

"Hello?"

A clearly disguised electronic voice came from the other end of the line, making it impossible to tell whether it was male or female, old or young.

"Mr. Harvey Dent, the Roman greets you..."

Outside the door, inside a black car, through the pitch-black one-way reflective film on the car window, five silhouettes were silently observing the situation at Harvey's house.

"I say, did Dent's wife take the bomb inside?"

Boy Tang Ni held the remote control, appearing quite patient: "What's the rush? Wait until we confirm Dent has come out of the basement before detonating."

The hypocrite Kevin was somewhat curious: "So, what exactly has Harvey Dent been doing in the basement every day? It's been almost half a month, right?"

"Who knows?" Slippery Jimmy, with his hand on the steering wheel, chuckled twice: "Maybe he's preparing for the next one?"

"You mean..."

"Two shots took out an important member of the Falcone family; if it were you, would you not prepare for the next job?" Stoat Mickey spoke with sarcasm: "Our Justice Hero took so long to secure Johnny Viti's promise to testify in court, yet in just one night, that guy reconciled with his uncle Falcone as if nothing happened."

"In my opinion, whether you want to do something in Gotham, whether you're a good guy or a bad guy, using a gun is much easier than using the law—let him keep killing like this, and the Falcone family will soon be in a panic; the results of these two shots are worth a year of back-and-forth negotiations."

"I say, Harvey Dent seems to have appeared; yes, he's appeared." Duet Willie suddenly spoke up to remind them.

"Excellent, brothers; Jimmy, Tang Ni, get ready; after this job, we'll feast and drink our fill!"

"No problem, boss; just watch."

"Ready anytime, Mickey."

Thus, the group watched helplessly as Harvey Dent's figure walked out of the basement and flashed past the living room window.

"He's out, but his wife seems to be heading into the basement; what do you say, detonate now? Or wait until his wife goes down before detonating?"

"With the power of my bomb, as long as he's on the first floor, that bomb will blow him to smithereens; as for his wife—I'm too lazy to wait; detonate now."

"Alright—"

"Why aren't you pressing it?"

"I am pressing it! Why the hell isn't this button working?"

Under the gaze of his four teammates, Tang Ni frantically pressed the remote control in his hand repeatedly, but there was still no movement in Harvey Dent's house; at this moment, he subconsciously turned his gaze toward Mickey.

"Mickey, is there a problem with the bomb?"

"Impossible; screw you, I checked it this morning—"

"Boom!"

At this moment, intense flames and the sound of an explosion finally shot skyward, shattering the window glass in Harvey Dent's house; thick smoke and flames spread everywhere, and even several twisted and deformed iron nails filled inside the bomb flew out the window; this Gotham District Attorney, even if not consumed by the flames of the explosion, would be pierced into a sieve by the dense iron nails.

"See?" Mickey, the quickest to react, came to his senses and boasted proudly: "I told you, my bomb would at least go off—drive!"

The black unlicensed car started its engine and quickly disappeared around the street corner.

"I say, Mickey, why doesn't the power of this bomb seem like you said, blowing Harvey's house into the sky?" Kevin, having nothing else to do, had been paying attention to Harvey Dent's side: "Did you really screw up?"

"You bunch of idiots who don't understand explosives, don't casually question my bomb-making skills," Mickey cursed: "Wait until you see the news tomorrow, and you'll know my power."

—

"Harvey Dent is dead."

"The nails you bought—you know I will find you; it's only a matter of time."

The voice of the Bat in the darkness was cold and low, revealing no emotional fluctuation.

But in Mickey's ears, whether because the neon signs outside the window were too glaring or because his hangover had not yet cleared, he always felt that a pair of bat eyes in the darkness were staring coldly at him, always felt their voices were almost deafening, and always felt that in the next second he would be torn into pieces by these angry monsters.

The voice abruptly sounding from the room made his hair stand on end, and he could barely hold the wine bottle in his hand; he knew very well whose voice it was and very well what his fate would be; he had just deliberately chosen not to think about it.

"Aaaah—"

The screaming man leaped from the window and fell into the alley; he looked up in terror and could only see a terrifying giant shadow walking toward him step by step from the shadows of the alley.

"Bat-Batman!"

(End of Chapter)