Even a Dog Wouldn't Take This Job

Oswald called Ririko back, pointed his gun at her head, and swept his sharp gaze over her.

"How exactly did you get into my room?"

There were guards outside his door, cameras in the hallway, and a keycard reader in the elevator, yet this woman who had fallen out of the sky had gotten into his private room and even taken a shower. It was unbelievable.

Ririko stood barefoot on the carpet, water still dripping from her wet hair.

Her gaze flicked toward the dark solid-wood bookcase behind him.

It stretched from floor to ceiling, every shelf packed with hardcover books with gold lettering on their spines.

Oswald followed her gaze and sucked in a breath.

Behind that bookcase was a concealed escape passage leading straight to the club's back garden-

Butch usually buried the bodies there.

This strange woman had not only come back from the dead, but also found her way up through the secret passage he had so carefully prepared?

Oswald drew his gaze away from the bookcase and settled it on Ririko's face.

"Well... so that's how it is."

Oswald's voice was shrill and threatening. "Now you know too much. All the more reason not to let you leave."

Ririko narrowed her slightly upturned eyes.

"You won't let me leave? What gives you the right?"

Oswald limped a step closer, his gaze sinister. "What gives me the right? I'm the boss here."

The corner of his mouth lifted as he put his gun away, having already made up his mind.

"Since you're not dead... you'll stay and work until you've paid off the car."

Ririko tilted her head. "Since when did I owe you money?"

Has this bird man gone crazy over money?

"I don't have time to argue about this." Oswald's smile vanished. "At your wages, working as a waitress at the club, thirty years should just about cover it... do your best."

Ririko had never met such a shameless man. He had unilaterally declared that she owed him money and decided she would work off the debt, without even calculating the interest.

There was a reason someone like him could thrive in Gotham.

Oswald took out his phone and pressed a button. Butch and a short, stocky henchman immediately entered the room.

Seeing Ririko standing alive and well in the room, Butch's brutal, cold face creased into a frown.

"Boss, did you dig her up?"

It was the only explanation he could think of.

Oswald stared at Butch. Although Butch had been brainwashed and was utterly loyal to him, his brain occasionally short-circuited, just as it was doing now.

"Do you think I have nothing better to do than dig corpses out of holes for fun?"

Butch had no answer.

After spending this much time working for Oswald, he found it hard to pass judgment on his unusual methods. Perhaps Oswald had some peculiar fetish...

In the end, he could only nod with an expression that said, "I don't respect it, but I understand."

Oswald was furious.

"Stop thinking nonsense. Take her to the staff quarters and put her to work as a waitress. And under no circumstances let her escape."

Butch accepted the order and walked toward Ririko.

During the exchange between master and servant, Ririko had been considering something.

Hugo and Harley were probably searching everywhere for her.

Hugo's Infatuation Value was still hovering at a dangerous level, while Harley was determined to destroy her "test subject" and erase all traces...

The Iceberg Lounge was hardly safe, but at least Hugo's reach would not extend this far if she stayed here.

She studied this newly risen Gotham mob boss. Lame, greedy, obsessive, with a trace of deep-seated inferiority-he seemed easy enough to manipulate.

"I want a private staff room," Ririko stated her conditions as though this were a job interview. "And employee benefits. Two days off a week. No, three."

Oswald tilted his head, trying hard to determine whether he had really heard those words.

Ririko raised her chin slightly, letting him get a good look at her face to make it clear that she deserved nothing less.

Oswald immediately looked away.

"You two." Oswald pointed at Butch and the stocky henchman. "How much longer are you going to listen to her nonsense? Take her away already!"

Butch stepped forward, signaling that she had to leave.

Ririko folded her arms, turned her face away haughtily, and walked straight out of the room.

Butch took Ririko to the staff changing room in the basement.

He retrieved a waitress's uniform from a corner of the room and handed it to her.

Ririko took it and unfolded it: a black dress with a small turned-down collar and a white apron, its hem falling below the knees.

"This dress is so frumpy. Who designed it?"

Butch cleared his throat. "The boss picked the style."

He turned and left the changing room. Ririko followed, carrying the black dress whose sheer frumpiness left her speechless.

They passed through a hallway piled with empty liquor boxes and stopped in front of a door.

Butch pushed it open and stepped aside.

The room was not particularly small, but apart from a single bed against the wall, its limited space was occupied by more than a dozen cardboard boxes.

Butch said coldly:

"You'll sleep here. As a waitress, you'll report to the kitchen at eight in the morning for prep. You'll start serving customers at noon and finish at ten at night."

Ririko looked at the rumpled bed, then at the cardboard boxes.

"You expect me to sleep in this kennel? And work fourteen hours a day? Even a dog wouldn't take this job."

Butch silently pulled a silver-gray bracelet from his pocket, grabbed Ririko's wrist before she could react, and snapped it on.

Ririko felt a chill against her wrist.

"No work, no food." Butch released her hand. "This bracelet tracks your location. The boss can see it on his phone. He'll find you even if you run to the ends of the earth."

Ririko discovered that the bracelet was custom-made. Short of cutting off her hand, there was no way to remove it.

Butch offered one final warning. "You'd better not cross Oswald. Business is all he cares about."

With that, he turned and left.

Ririko took a deep breath, stepped into the cramped room crowded with cardboard boxes, and shut the door.

Cursing the bird man, she began tidying the room.

Though she was being forced to work, the conditions here were clearly much better than at Arkham.

She found quite a few things in the cardboard boxes.

Complete makeup sets, unopened nail polish, two pairs of black heels in size thirty-six-exactly her size-and plenty of colorful evening gowns...

As she went through them, she actually felt the delight of opening mystery boxes.

From one box, she pulled out a dark green velvet slip dress with a plunging neckline, a tightly fitted waist, and soft fabric.

She held it against herself in front of a full-length mirror with chipped gold paint. Paired with her sultry face, the dress made her look far too beautiful to belong in a place like this.

She realized that the Iceberg Lounge, the most expensive nightclub on Gotham's Upper East Side, was a den where money burned.

Mob bosses, politicians, businessmen, and corrupt cops met here every night.

In his position, the money Oswald handled every day might not rival Wayne Enterprises, but it was still an astronomical sum she could never have dreamed of reaching before.

Ririko sat on the edge of the bed, a brand-new plan taking increasingly clear shape in her mind.

She needed to squeeze a hefty sum out of Oswald.

No-she needed to make him willingly lay the money at her feet.

Her experience at Arkham had already proven the power of the Mental Corruption System-

Even the arrogant Hugo had knelt before her.

Oswald was a man too, and every man had a weakness...

Besides, high society valued status above all else. A lunatic who had escaped from a psychiatric hospital could never get close to Bruce Wayne.

But what if she had money, assumed a new identity, and became someone of standing?

Political and business elites would bow before her, and restricted doors would open for her...

Those men in bespoke suits whom she had once only seen on the news would approach her of their own accord, extend their hands, and respectfully introduce themselves.

And she would smile as she shook Bruce Wayne's hand... leaving everyone else with nothing to do but look on in envy.

Ririko hung the dark green velvet dress on the hook by the head of the bed.

The things hidden beneath this iceberg truly were extraordinary treasures...