Free Batman 3 - Batman Forever by Peter David Page B

did you just say that?!
    For his part, Batman seemed to have lost interest in her. Actually, that might not have been the case; it was entirely possible that he hadn’t any interest in her in the first place. All business, he turned to Gordon. “Two-Face?”
    Gordon nodded. “Two guards down. He’d holding the third hostage. Didn’t see this one coming.”
    “We should have, though,” said Chase, trying to insert herself back into the conversation. “The Second Bank of Gotham . . .”
    “On the second anniversary of the day I captured him,” said Batman. It was hard to tell whether he’d figured it out on the way over or had just realized it now.
    Chase had never had any sort of lengthy intercourse with a man behind a mask, unless one counted that time she’d spent two weeks at hockey training camp dealing with a suicidal goalie. It was disconcerting. All the little things she sought to help her “read” people were utterly absent. It was like staring into a black hole. She pushed gamely forward, saying, “How could Two-Face resist? Uhm . . . Chase Meridian,” she prompted, when Batman didn’t shake her outstretched hand.
    He still didn’t, instead merely staring at her as if she were some new strain of bacteria, or perhaps a rare animal who’d popped up at a zoo one day.
    It made her feel very odd. She never thought she would encounter a situation where a man dressed like a six-foot bat could make her feel unusual.
    Gordon piped up, sounding slightly regretful, “I asked Dr. Meridian to consult on this case. She specializes in . . .”
    “. . . multiple personalities,” Batman interrupted. “Abnormal psychology. I read your work. Insightful.” He paused, then added, “Naïve. But insightful.”
    “I’m flattered. Not every girl makes a super hero’s night table.”
    Dr. Meridian was the expert, but for all Gordon knew, Batman had similar credentials in civilian life. So Gordon addressed the question to both of them: “Can we reason with him? There are innocent people in there.”
    Chase shook her head. “Won’t do any good. He’ll slaughter them without thinking twice.” She didn’t seem to be aware of the irony of her comment about “thinking twice.”
    If Batman noticed it, he chose not to say anything. “Agreed. A trauma powerful enough to create an alternate personality leaves the victim . . .”
    “. . . in a world where normal rules of right and wrong no longer apply,” Chase picked up.
    “Exactly,” agreed Batman.
    “Like you.”
    Batman looked at her inscrutably. It was impossible for her to be sure, but it seemed—just for a moment—as if there was the slightest hint of a smile on his mouth. But if it had been there, it was gone just as quickly. Feeling the need to fill in the gap, Chase said, “Let’s just say I could write a hell of a paper on a grown man who dresses like a flying rodent.”
    “Bats aren’t rodents, Dr. Meridian. Same phylum, Chordata. Same class, Mammalia. Different order, though: Chiroptera, not Rodentia. No sharp front teeth for gnawing.”
    She inclined her head slightly at the correction. “I didn’t know that. See? You are interesting. And call me Chase.” She turned to look at a bustling group of SWAT members. “By the way, do you have a first name? Or do I just call you Bats?”
    She looked back to see his reaction, but he was gone.
    That was when she heard the crash. A crash that sounded as if the world were exploding.
    The building shuddered under the impact, but Two-Face seemed unperturbed. Instead he raised his voice and shouted, as if addressing an audience in an ancient coliseum, “Let’s start this party with a bang!”
    From outside there was a grinding of motors, the whoosh of air, and this time when the wrecking ball struck the building, it didn’t merely quiver. Instead the wall exploded inward, cement and plaster raining down and the massive ball swinging to within inches of Two-Face.
    He didn’t even glance at it, instead