As soon as Selene finished speaking, only the faint hum of idling medical equipment remained in the cramped room.
Yang Ming sat in his swivel chair, rubbing his fingertips over the ballpoint pen's plastic casing. Just as he was about to speak, ghostly blue characters flickered at the edge of his vision, and a mechanical voice struck his eardrums.
[Unexpected chain quest: Redemption of the Night Cat.] [Quest requirements: Cure Maggie Kyle's illness and recruit Selina Kyle.] [Quest reward: A subspace storage ring with a capacity of 100 cubic meters.]
His breath caught for half a beat. Yang Ming stared fixedly at the reward description. A subspace storage ring. One hundred cubic meters.
For an underground doctor who relied on a backpack to ferry supplies between two universes, this was worth far more than the million dollars offered by Gotham's richest man.
Antibiotics, surgical instruments, even large surgical lights and oxygen generators-he could transport all of them without leaving a trace.
His logistical bottleneck would vanish in an instant.
Scrap discarded by Stark Industries in the Marvel Universe, decommissioned military equipment from Wayne Enterprises in the DC Universe-with this ring, his business of profiting from both worlds could expand without limit.
Over the past three months, hauling two crates of penicillin had left purple-red welts across his shoulders and nearly given him a herniated disc.
Whenever he passed through that blue vortex gate, the changes in gravitational acceleration made carrying a heavy load sheer misery.
Now the system had dropped the perfect smuggling tool right in his lap.
One detail stood out: the quest requirements specifically used the word "recruit."
That meant he couldn't simply cure the illness, collect his payment, and leave. He had to establish a long-term employment relationship.
Keeping a future antihero at his side carried enormous risks, but the rewards were equally tempting.
Selene's stealth, intelligence-gathering skills, and familiarity with Gotham's underground pipe network were precisely the pieces he currently lacked.
For that ring, never mind recruiting a wildcat-even if the system told him to yank off Superman's cape, he would dare take a crack at it with his scalpel.
"Your sister's illness isn't hard to treat." Yang Ming tossed the ballpoint pen back onto the desk with a sharp clack.
Selene was still huddled on the inner side of the operating table. At those words, her body jolted.
"Two injections of a specially formulated targeted drug to block the inflammatory cytokine cascade, followed by two weeks of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in a sterile chamber to repair the damaged alveolar epithelial cells." Yang Ming leaned back in his chair, his tone returning to the clinical professionalism of an attending physician making his rounds.
"After that, she'll be able to run around in the sunshine like anyone else. She won't even cough."
Selene froze. The doctors at Gotham's public hospitals wouldn't spare Maggie a second glance. All they did was write up a few expensive bills and shove the sisters out the door. Yet this man had proposed a treatment plan with absolute confidence without even seeing the patient.
She knew the rumors about this underground clinic in the East End all too well. The Maloney Family enforcer who had nearly been hacked into mincemeat had been pieced back together right here.
If anyone could snatch someone from death's grasp, it had to be him.
Selene swung herself off the table, her combat boots landing on the concrete floor. Without the slightest hesitation, she bent both knees and dropped straight down in front of Yang Ming.
"Save her. Please, save her." Selene raised her head, her eyes frighteningly red and her voice painfully hoarse.
"As long as you can cure Maggie, I'll give you anything you want. Money, information, or my life-you can take it whenever you like. Attacking you earlier was my own stupid mistake. Do whatever you want with me."
For her only remaining family, the most untamable wildcat in Gotham's East End shattered every last scrap of her pride without hesitation.
Yang Ming lowered his eyes to the girl kneeling on the floor.
"Get up." He nudged the trash can beside his foot. "This is a clinic, not a mob headquarters. We don't do the whole kowtowing thing here."
Selene didn't move.
"Get up," Yang Ming repeated, his tone firmer.
"I don't need that dirty money you picked out of some scumbag's pocket. Do you really think Gotham's black-market money is that easy to take? Someone like Benjamin has the East End's largest smuggling network behind him."
"Take his money, and tomorrow an assassin will slip into the abbey, chop you and your sister into pieces, and feed you to the dogs. Benjamin can't pin this on me, but he has the means to track you down."
Biting her lower lip, Selene got to her feet. Of course she knew the risks of robbing criminals, but she had already run out of options.
"Gotham's waters run too deep." Yang Ming glanced over her worn leather outfit and laid out his bargaining chip.
"I need a runner who knows the rules down in the sewers and can get me prohibited medical equipment and information. A cat like you is just right. Work for me, and your sister's treatment is completely free. I guarantee she'll be cured."
Selene stood dumbfounded.
She had prepared herself for the worst. In Gotham, when a young, pretty girl fell into the hands of certain mob bosses or the wealthiest men, the price she paid was often more revolting than death. She had even rehearsed in her mind how she would endure those degrading demands.
And all he wanted was a runner and informant?
"It's... that simple?" she stammered, wondering if she had misheard him.
"What else did you expect? That I'd send you to assassinate Gotham's mayor?" Yang Ming stood and walked toward the glass medicine cabinet against the wall.
"I deal with all kinds of patients who can't afford to be seen in the light of day. I need large quantities of specialized drugs and equipment you can't buy on the open market. You're capable, and your stealth is first-rate. You're far better suited to this work than those muscle-brained idiots from the Maloney Family."
Selene's chest heaved. The boulder that had weighed on her heart for months had finally been smashed to pieces.
"Thank you... thank you, Dr. Yang!" She bowed over and over, barely coherent. "I promise, if you tell me to go east, I'll never go west. If anyone dares bad-mouth you, I'll claw their face to shreds!"
Yang Ming ignored her declarations of loyalty. He opened a hidden compartment at the bottom of the medicine cabinet and took out a silver aluminum spray bottle.
It was stock he had brought over yesterday from Hell's Kitchen in the Marvel Universe. Inside was a trace cell-activating agent developed by a laboratory contracted by Stark Industries. Originally intended to provide emergency relief to damaged organs during surgery, it worked wonders on severe asthma and bronchial spasms.
Yang Ming walked back and tossed the spray to Selene.
Selene scrambled to catch it.
"Two sprays into her mouth will get her through tonight." Yang Ming put his yellowed white coat back on. "Bring your sister here at daybreak tomorrow. Remember, don't alert anyone."
Selene gripped the cold little aluminum bottle as though she feared it might sprout wings and fly away. She bowed deeply to Yang Ming, then turned and stumbled out of the clinic, pushing open the rusty iron door and plunging into Gotham's thick, icy night rain.
The iron door swayed in the wind with a grating screech.
Yang Ming walked to the doorway and watched Selene's retreating figure disappear at the mouth of the alley.
This wildcat was certainly nimble, but Gotham's nights held far too many uncertainties.
Gang lookouts, thugs hired by Benjamin-any one of them could take her sister's life on this rainy night.
The system's quest explicitly required him to cure Maggie and recruit Selene. The reward was a storage ring with a capacity of one hundred cubic meters.
If the girl got clubbed over the head along the way, or someone stole the medicine, his storage ring would be gone for good.
"She really doesn't make things easy. I'd better follow her and take a look. If the quest fails, I won't even have anywhere to cry about it."
Yang Ming sighed and pulled a large black umbrella from the stand behind the door.
He opened it, and rain pattered sharply against the waterproof fabric. Stepping through the iron doorway, he secured the lock and slipped soundlessly into the shadows of Lake Street, following Selene at a distance.
Rain poured down, washing over the decaying buildings of Gotham's East End.
Selene ran fast, her combat boots sending water splashing from the puddles. She had stuffed the aluminum spray bottle into the innermost pocket of her leather jacket and held both hands protectively over her chest.
Getting from Lake Street to St. Mary's Abbey meant crossing at least three chaotic neighborhoods where gang territories met. It was extremely dangerous.
Normally, she took the rooftops or fire escapes, but today's rain was too heavy. The exterior walls were slick, making climbing far too risky. She had no choice but to stay on the ground.