But why? he wondered through the pain. To what purpose?

“I will show you,” Bane said, “where I’ve made my home while preparing to bring justice to Gotham. Then…I will break you.”

A mercenary tossed a detonator to Bane. His men backed away, seeking shelter in side tunnels and alcoves. Catwoman watched anxiously from the other side of the grate. She covered her ears.

Bane pressed the button.

The charges went off, causing a controlled implosion high above their heads. Thunderous echoes rocked the chamber, hurting Batman’s ears. The ceiling caved in and rubble rained down into the sewers, splashing water everywhere.

Artificial light poured down from above, revealing the lower levels of Applied Sciences.

It can’t be, Batman thought in horror. Then realization struck home. We were under Wayne Tower all this time.

The bottom had dropped out of Lucius Fox’s secret weapons storehouse. Dangerous prototypes lay scattered about like treats from some deadly, high-tech piñata. A tumbler, its desert camouflage of little use in these dismal catacombs, landed atop a pile of rubble. Loose papers and bits of ash wafted down through the jagged gap in the ceiling.

“No,” Batman murmured weakly.

“Your precious armory,” Bane confirmed. “Gratefully accepted.” He swept his gaze over the fallen spoils. “We will need it.”

To wage war on Gotham?

Bane’s men clambered up into the violated bunker. They moved efficiently, ransacking Applied Sciences even as security alarms blared stridently. The mercenaries set up a bucket brigade to hand the stolen goods from each man to the next, down into the tunnels. The other tumblers were hauled toward the gap.

I can’t let this happen, Batman thought. I can’t…He staggered to his feet, swaying unsteadily. His cracked cowl slipped, and he tasted blood in his mouth. His head was swimming. The entire chamber seemed be spinning around him, and he felt sick to his stomach. Through the fog, he recognized the symptoms of a serious concussion.

Nevertheless, he raised his fists.

Bane turned back toward him.

“I wondered which would break first—your spirit…”

Batman threw a punch, but didn’t come close to connecting. Bane lunged forward and lifted his foe high above his head. Batman tried to twist free of the grasp, but could not get away.

He had nothing left.

“…or your body,” Bane concluded.

Savagely, Bane brought Batman down onto his knee, forcibly bending the Dark Knight’s spine backward. A horrific crack echoed throughout the lair.

Catwoman gasped out loud.

At that, Bane dumped Batman onto the ground, to lie helplessly in the puddles. He crouched and tugged the cracked cowl off his victim, exposing the battered and bloody face of Bruce Wayne. Then he beckoned to his men, who picked up the limp, unresisting body and carried it off into the tunnels. Bane held onto the cowl as a trophy.

Standing triumphant beneath Wayne Tower, he contemplated the hollow, empty eyes of the Dark Knight’s cowl.

Forgotten for the moment, Catwoman slunk away into the shadows.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE