Chapter Nine

As they rounded the corner to their abandoned nightclub, McEwan saw Ghoul frantically waving them down.

"Kat! Pull over!" Before Kat had fully parked the van McEwan jumped out. He ran towards Ghoul. "What is it, Ghoul? Did you find the kid?" Ghoul shook his head.

"No, Fingers," he said agitated. "I didn't find the little Acrobat, but I found this!" Ghoul held up the mud-splattered and tattered body of Elinore.

"Elinore! Where'd you find her?" McEwan asked excitedly. "Where?"

"A back alley about ten blocks south of here, on Claremont Avenue and Abbey Road."

"Show us! Quick! In the van!" McEwan said anxiously. The three piled back into the van and took off. McEwan was driving now. He quickly pulled an illegal U-turn, narrowly missed two cars, and took off tires squealing.

"Turn here," Ghoul said several minutes later. McEwan instantly banged a left, then came to a screeching halt. All three jumped out of the van and Ghoul hurried over to where he'd found Elinore. He pointed to a spot behind a dumpster. "Right here, Fingers," he said. "This is where I found the little Acrobat's stuffed elephant."

"I don't understand," Kat said. "Why would Elinore be behind a dumpster in an alley?"

"That's a good question." All three youngsters spun around, startled by the menacing voice. "Where's the boy, Fingers? You said you had him under your protection." Kat gasped in fear.

"Who *are* you?" She asked, terrified. McEwan sighed and shrugged his shoulders. He'd already been beaten too often in too short a time for it to bother him any more. It looked like another beating was on its way.

"Kat . . . Ghoul . . . meet the Batman!" McEwan said by way of introductions. "Batman, these are my friends, Kat and Ghoul." Kat and Ghoul nodded in greeting. Ghoul smiled and moved as if to shake hands, but McEwan stopped him. "Batman doesn't do handshakes."

"Where's the boy, Fingers?" Batman repeated. He looked like the angel of death as he moved towards them. McEwan swallowed, shrugged, and shook his head all at once.

"He ran away some time last night. We've been looking for him ever since. We've searched every inch of the neighborhood and--" Batman slammed him against the dumpster. "Oww-ww! What's that for?" McEwan asked slightly dazed. He felt his knees giving way and would've collapsed in a heap, except that Batman was holding him by the collar. McEwan's felt his feet being literally lifted off the ground.

"What happened, Fingers? Why did the boy run away? And Fingers, this better be good!"

McEwan swallowed. His gave Batman a stricken look, then turned away unable to face him. He shrugged helplessly and shook his head.

"My fault, I guess . . . 'cause I'm such a jerk . . . " Batman's grip tightened around his collar. He looked like he was about to slam McEwan again when Kat grabbed his arm.

"Stop it! Stop it! What are you doing? Dick ran away . . . it wasn't anyone's fault . . . or maybe it was all our fault! But Jamie's done everything possible to help him from the start! You can't blame him . . . you should be helping us find Dick! Not taking out your anger on Jamie. Why don't you slam us *all* around? Why don't you slam that bimbo Cunningham for placing Dick in the JDC instead of in a foster home?"

Batman held on to McEwan a few moments longer and then abruptly released him. Caught off guard, McEwan immediately crumpled where he'd been dropped. Kat crouched next to him.

"I'm all right, Kat. Just gimme a hand up, okay?" Kat nodded and between she and Ghoul, they had McEwan on his feet shortly. McEwan leaned on Ghoul for support. He felt like one big bruise. There were damage reports coming in from all quadrants: ribs, jaw, head, limbs. <Captain, I dinnae know how much longer I can hold her!> McEwan shook his head. Concentrate on what Batman's saying, he admonished himself.

"You say he ran away last night," Batman said. "About what time did you first notice him missing?"

"Around four a.m.," McEwan replied instantly. "I ran out as soon as I discovered him gone and I've been looking ever since."

"After Jamie left, I waited about thirty minutes, then woke the others and we all joined the search. I took the van, found Jamie, and he and I continued to search together," Kat said.

"Me and the other guys spread out through the neighborhood and looked on foot. We stopped people on the street and questioned them. No one reported having seen a little boy who fit the Acrobat's description," Ghoul added.

"Jamie and I had just decided that it was time to report it to the authorities when Ghoul here flagged us down," Kat added.

"Yeah, I found Elinore here behind this dumpster," Ghoul explained, "so I hurried back to the nightclub to report it to Fingers."

"Elinore?" Batman asked. McEwan held out the stuffed elephant. Batman took it. He studied it carefully, noting the stains, tears, missing left button eye, and escaping stuffing.

"It's the kid's . . . He's real attached to her. She's all he has left." McEwan felt tears begin to sting the backs of his eyes. "He's even more alone now, Kat . . . What'll he do without her?" McEwan finally broke down. Kat took him and held him in her arms.

"We'll find him, Jamie . . . I promise. Won't we, Batman? . . . Batman?" They all turned to where the Batman had been standing not a second ago. He was gone. Kat felt a cold fist clutch her heart. She hadn't known he was metahuman. "He's disappeared," she whispered. McEwan smiled . . . the Bat does it again.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go to the nearest precinct."

"No." They all spun around, again startled out of a year's growth. "I need you on the streets . . . in case the boy returns--" Kat angrily interrupted.

"He has a name, you know!" She said sharply. "His name's Richard . . . but he goes by Dick. That's what his parents called him . . . Dick! So why don't you big bad men stop calling him by these non-names you've all made up? He's *not* the Acrobat, the kid, or the boy! He's Dick . . . and as soon as you start to realize that he's a *person*, the sooner that maybe we'll know how to find him!" They all stared at her in mute shock. Kat felt her momentary anger dissolve quickly. McEwan smiled and held her to him.

"We'll do everything necessary to find . . . Dick . . . Batman," McEwan began. "Just tell us what to do." Batman nodded.

"First tell me everything else you know," Batman ordered.

"Like I said earlier, Zucco's placed a contract on the ki--" McEwan looked guiltily at Kat, "--on Dick's life. The Vigils and the rest of Zucco's goons are out looking for him." Batman nodded.

"Is there anything else?" McEwan began to shake his head, but Kat interrupted.

"Yes, Jamie. Remember those two creeps who tried to kidnap him earlier?" Kat turned to Batman to explain. She told him about the attack earlier yesterday by Mikey and Tommy.

"Mikey and Tommy?" Batman asked. "Shaved heads? Attacking cobras centered on their skulls? Nouveau sleaze look?" Kat nodded. "Michael and Thomas Gunther, two sexual deviants. Tommy has two priors for rape, and Mikey . . . Mikey is a known . . . pedophile." Kat gasped.

"Oh my God!" she cried.

"They were both released on parole from Blackgate a few weeks ago. Apparently, they were considered rehabilitated and therefore paroled for good behavior." Batman looked enraged. "Fingers, I want you and your friends to comb the streets . . . concentrate on Zucco and the Vigils. I'm going to track down Mikey and Tommy." Before McEwan could reply, Batman disappeared.

*****

Alfred cleared his throat politely.

"Your dinner, sir," he said, placing the covered tray on the table behind Batman. To Alfred's dismay, Batman didn't acknowledge the announcement. Alfred sighed and began climbing the stairs that led back to the Manor.

"Thanks, Alfred," a quiet voice said behind him. Alfred paused in mid-step and smiled. Not turning around, he murmured, "You're most welcome, young man," and kept climbing.

Batman paused a moment from his scrutiny of the electron microscope to take a bite from his dinner. Delicious as usual, but he barely noticed. There! What was that on the elephant's outer cloth covering? Batman quickly adjusted the powerful instrument to a higher magnification. Not satisfied, he pushed a few more buttons and tied it into the Batcave's Cray Supercomputer. As he waited for the Cray to run an additional spectrum analysis, he took another bite of his dinner.

While he ate, Batman again ran over in his mind the site where Elinore had been found . . .

****

After the kids had left, he'd returned to the scene and inspected it closely. No footprints . . . no scuff marks . . . no disturbance of any kind. If the boy . . . if Dick, he silently amended, had been taken, it hadn't been from here. Batman looked up. He fired a grappling hook. Seconds later, he was on the roof of a long-abandoned pawnshop.

Batman reached up and put on his night vision goggles, the latest equipment in his crime-fighting arsenal. More advanced than the old military grade starlight scopes, the NVGs literally turned night into day. Batman flipped the on-switch and the night turned green. As he studied the area immediately above the spot where Ghoul had found Elinore, Batman adjusted the NVG's magnification.

There! Definite scuff marks where the pebbles that littered the roof had been displaced. Batman reached up and touched another button on his NVGs. The miniature imaging digital camera prototype that the nascent WayneTech division of Wayne Enterprises had designed began taking NASA-quality photos . . .

****

Batman again studied the photos while he waited on the spectrum analysis to be completed. The scuff marks showed clear signs of a struggle. The boy . . . Dick . . . hadn't gone without a fight. He noted the dark spots that he'd already determined were bloodstains. But whose? he'd wondered. It was O-positive, same type as Dick and the Gunthers. DNA analysis quickly eliminated it as the Gunthers'. It was Dick's. In sudden fury Batman slammed his fist on the table, rattling his dishes and knocking over his glass of Perrier.

"God, don't let me be too late," he whispered.

"You aren't, sir," Alfred said above him, clearing the dinner dishes. "You must have faith." Batman slowly looked up, and nodded imperceptibly. 

At this moment, the Cray indicated completion of its analysis. Batman projected the findings to the wall screen and studied his findings. There was an unusual chemical compound on the cloth that could only be found in a one-quarter mile radius of Gotham City, over by an abandoned housing development located on the grounds of the old Thorne Chemical Plant. Apparently, there had been so much ground leakage from the factory that the area was saturated with an abundance of poisonous chemicals too dangerous for humans, or any other lifeform.

The Environmental Protection Agency declared the grounds an environmental disaster area and ordered it closed off over five years ago. Rupert Thorne had been indicted on Federal charges for toxic waste dumping. The ongoing Federal EPA Superfund for toxic waste disposal was supposed to have cleaned up the mess, but 175 million dollars later, the area was still polluted. Today it was considered a dead zone . . . the chemical equivalent of a Chernobyl nuclear disaster! If the Gunthers were holding Dick there, they were *all* in danger!

Batman immediately started for the Batmobile.

"Good luck, sir," Alfred said.

"Thanks, Alfred." Alfred stood there long after the roar of the Batmobile's powerful engines died out.

"Bring young Master Richard home, sir."

****

"Okay, guys, this could be real dangerous . . . so, if you want to back out now, do it. Staying means any one of us could wind up dead . . . like Lucky." McEwan reflected on Lucca's nickname. In the end, his luck had run out. "Ghoul, you in?"

Ghoul looked away, ashamed. As always when anything dangerous came up, his first instinct was to run and hide. But he had to help the little Acrobat. He'd carried him twice now. He'd never had a little brother and taking care of Dick had been real special. He was such a great little guy.

"Fingers . . . I--" Ghoul hesitated. McEwan dropped his eyes disappointed, but nodded his head in understanding.

"That's okay, Ghoul. I understand. Look, would you mind continuing to look for him? I mean, avoid the Vigils and Zucco's zoot suits, but keep an eye out for Dick?" Ghoul nodded his head. The single overhead bulb cast an almost reverent halo around his blond head. His handsome features made him look like a recruiting poster for the Avengers. Just give him a red, white, and blue costume and shield, McEwan thought. The Return of Captain America!

Montana spoke up.

"When do we leave? The sooner we do this, the sooner we get Dick back!" McEwan smiled gratefully. Count on Montana to want to get into a fight.

"So, where do we start?" Jay Dee asked. "We've been searching all day and no sign of the kid--" He caught Kat's look. "--uh, I mean, no sign of Dick. So--?"

"I think Kat knows where to start, don't you, Kat?" McEwan asked. Kat looked confused and shook her head. "You said it yourself . . . Blade threatened the Chu's that he'd torch their drugstore if they didn't pony up the money. It's still early . . . there's a good chance that the Vigils haven't made their scheduled appearance yet." He looked at the others who were nodding in agreement. "Let's go!"

Chapter Ten

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