Ririko arrived at the meeting place she had arranged with Fish Mooney, the mouth of an alley beside an abandoned gas station.
Less than ten minutes later, a battered black sedan wobbled around the corner.
The car stopped in front of Ririko, and the window rolled down. Fish Mooney sat behind the wheel with a cigarette between her lips.
"Get in."
Ririko looked down at the car, her expression freezing. "Where are your men? You're not planning to fight Bane like this, are you?"
Fish Mooney took the cigarette out of her mouth and tapped it against the edge of the window.
"We're going to rescue people. The fewer of us there are, the safer it is. Besides, bringing more people would just give Bane more punching bags."
She put the cigarette back between her lips and glanced at Ririko. "Suit yourself if you don't want to get in."
Ririko stood at the mouth of the alley. She had no other choice now.
She had wanted to ask Clark, but he had replied that he needed to send an alien octopus threatening Earth off to meet its great-grandmother. He couldn't get back to the Milky Way in time and wouldn't be able to help until tomorrow at the earliest.
But by tomorrow, Bane would probably have dismantled those two men's skeletons and turned their bones into ornaments.
She took a deep breath, opened the door, and got in.
The car headed toward the Old Factory District on the Lower East Side. The roads grew narrower and narrower until it finally stopped at the end of a cramped alley piled with abandoned shipping containers.
Fish Mooney killed the engine. The surroundings fell quiet, leaving only the occasional distant bark of a dog and the sound of wind sweeping over sheet metal.