Gotham's morning fog was as thick as molten lead that refused to thin.
Rumble-
Twelve heavy bulldozers bearing the Wayne Enterprises logo lined up side by side, their tracks crushing the broken glass and discarded syringes littering Lake Street with a teeth-grating crunch.
Hundreds of construction workers in yellow hard hats poured onto the site, and a two-meter-high wire fence went up around its perimeter.
At the street corner, three black Ford SUVs pulled up without a sound.
"Ptoo."
Iron Teeth, the Maloney Family's East End boss, pushed open his door and spat his flavorless gum into a puddle. He rubbed the gold tooth set among his back molars, then pulled a baseball bat from the trunk.
"Boss, that's a Wayne Enterprises construction crew." A thug with a brutish face sidled up, staring at the heavy machinery with naked greed.
"How big a payday is this? I heard they're leveling these blocks to build a school. We charge the usual ten percent security fee, and we'll be set for life!"
Iron Teeth sneered and rested the bat on his shoulder.
"I don't give a damn if it's Wayne Enterprises. Anyone breaking ground in the East End pays the Maloney Family first-even God himself." Iron Teeth waved a broad hand. "Come on. Let's have a word with the contractor. If he won't pay, we'll blow up every excavator they have tonight."
More than twenty heavily armed gangsters swaggered toward the construction site's main gate.
The fog thinned a little.
Iron Teeth reached the gate and stopped dead.
The sneer froze on his lips. The bat slipped from his shoulder without him noticing and clanged onto his leather shoe. He didn't cry out in pain. His pupils had already shrunk to pinpoints.
An unmistakable sign, red lettering on a white background, hung