Dozens of believers in cheap white robes formed a loose circle. At its center, a tall, thin follower known as the Guide waved his arms as he preached in a rhythmic, rising and falling cadence.
"...Brothers and sisters! Look at the city beneath our feet! It is sick, rotten! Sin breeds in every alley, and despair gnaws at every good soul!"
His voice echoed through the cavernous warehouse, drawing a low murmur of agreement.
Finn kept his head bowed and his cap pulled low, trying to memorize every word the man said and every face around him.
A few days earlier, he had received orders directly from above-find a way into an organization called the Eternal Church and learn who they were and what they were planning.
Mr. Cobblepot would reward anyone who found their exact hideout with twenty thousand dollars. Catch their leader, and he would add a bonus three times that amount.
So that was eighty thousand?
It was a sum he ordinarily would never have dared dream of, and all he had to do was quietly ask around. Of course, catching some unlucky leader would take a little luck.
Finn had spent several days wandering idly around the city, but unfortunately came up empty. Everyone thought these people had already vanished without a trace, yet he happened to find someone preaching near a stretch of farmland on Gotham's outskirts.
God bless!
He glanced at the believers sitting beside him, dressed in clothes as shabby as his own. Their faces were haggard, their eyes a mixture of confusion, fanaticism, and hunger for a full belly. Most had joined just to receive two free loaves of bread and two bags of milk each day.
Phew...
Finn let out a quiet breath and glanced at the night outside the window,