“My powerful friend hopes to change your mind about leaving,” he said.

She remembered ditching Batman on the roof.

“And how would he do that?”

“By giving you what you want.”

If only, she thought. “It doesn’t exist,” she replied.

“He says it does,” Wayne said, and he sounded certain. “He wants to meet. Tonight.”

For a moment, she wondered how Batman knew about the Clean Slate anyway. Then she realized that he must have been eavesdropping on her rooftop confrontation with Daggett.

“Why?” she asked.

“He needs to find Bane. He thinks you’d know how.”

She repressed a shudder at the mention. She’d had dealings with a lot of bad people in her time, but the masked mercenary was one of the few individuals who had ever truly scared her. Bane was the reason she had been packing.

“Tell him I’ll think about it.”

Wayne nodded and started to leave. She called out to him before he left.

“Mr. Wayne? I’m sorry they took all your money.”

He glanced back, seeing right through her.

“No, you’re not.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Blake rushed through the hospital, searching for the right room. A pair of uniformed cops, posted outside a closed door, indicated that he had reached his destination.

The cops recognized him and waved him through.

He found Gordon sitting up in bed, talking to Foley. The injured commissioner was still pale, and uncomfortably gaunt, but he looked much better than he had when Blake had dragged him from the sewers. A new pair of glasses rested on his nose. An oxygen mask lay to the side.

Apparently it took more than a few bullets to take Gotham’s top cop out of the game.

“Can we help you, officer?” Foley asked, scowling. He didn’t look pleased to see the young cop.

“John Daggett’s body was found in a dumpster an hour ago,” Blake reported. “I thought you might like to know.”

Gordon eyed him curiously.

“Why?”

“Because Daggett’s name is all over the permits I pulled to map the tunnels under Gotham.” He handed Gordon a stack of files, the relevant documents flagged with Post-Its. Foley gave Blake the evil eye, but the young officer ignored him and spoke directly to Gordon instead.

“MTA maintenance, sewer construction…”

Gordon looked at Foley.

“Where did you get to with the tunnel searches?”

“Remind me to tell the detail to keep the hotheads out,” Foley muttered, glaring at Blake. Then he turned back to Gordon. “We’ve had teams down there, but it’s a huge network.”

“Get more men,” Gordon ordered. “Work a grid. I want him found—”

“Yeah, yeah. The masked man,” Foley said. But he made it sound as if it was low on his list of priorities, especially now that Batman was back. “We’re on it,” he added.

Gordon leafed through the files, flipping through the pages and eyeing them hungrily.

“This is good work,” he told Blake, looking up from the files. “Lose the uniform. You’re working for me now.” He cast a sideways glance at Foley. “We could use some hotter heads around here.”