The Bat-Signal's beam pierced the clouds like a white finger, pointing into Gotham's night sky without pointing to anything at all.
"Master Bruce, I'm certain Miss Natalia will be safe. But if you cannot remain calm, finding her will only become harder."
Batman did not answer. He simply kept leaping and landing, bounding from one rooftop to the next like a bat driven truly mad. Gotham spread beneath his feet, his cape snapping in the night wind like a black mourning flag.
Among the countless city lights, any illuminated window might have concealed her face. He swept over the slums of the East End, over the shopping streets of the West District, over the beach by the port where the smell of preservatives still lingered.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Every time he landed, his eyes swept the streets, windows, and alleys below. Every time he jumped, he repeated that name in his mind.
Natalia.
That lunatic seemed to have evaporated, vanishing into the city's night with his Alice.
Gordon mobilized every officer he could, sending out two-thirds of Central Headquarters' force. Patrol car headlights swept through streets and alleys while officers went door to door with photographs.
But Halloween night was too loud and too chaotic. Children in bizarre costumes were everywhere, as were fireworks and screams. No one had noticed a short man and a woman who had been forced into a blue dress.
"Any luck?"
Li Jie drove slowly through the streets. By now, the little ghosts who had gone door to door shouting "trick or treat" were home in bed. Outside, sexy vampires crouched along the curbs, struggling to remove their spider-leg false eyelashes, while pirates braced themselves against walls and vomited. A few Marilyn Monroes with smeared smoky eye makeup stamped their high heels in the cold