Chapter 164 Long Easter (Part 4) _3

"Or, they could attempt to dig upwards, breaking through the hard ice layer before they can leave the underground,"

"But in fact, they're incapable of that, right?" Gordon perceived Victor's implied meaning.

"I'm not being arrogant." Victor put down his report, stating: "But the path of digging up is absolutely impossible. They could never destroy the ice layer I created. And as for digging downward..."

Shiller resumed: "With the size of Gotham City, it would take at least a year to dig a way out."

"Ultimately, this bunch of people rely on their conspiracies for survival. When it comes to physical strength, they probably can't even beat the thugs who often fight on the streets."

"The Talons they keep are assassins, not digging machines. Even ten times their number couldn't dig a way out."

"So, we kidnapped the Court of Owls?" Gordon pulled a funny face, commenting, "I thought they were a tough organization to deal with, but now they're completely trapped."

"So..." Gordon paused slightly, seemed to be still getting used to his role, he asked, "We're kidnappers now, asking them for a ransom?"

Shiller shook his head, "That's just a metaphor, detective, you didn't get the essence. We're not kidnappers, we're just defending ourselves legitimately."

"This group of terrorists, named the Court of Owls... yes, terrorists."

"They used large-scale weather disaster weapons, threatening the safety of all Gotham citizens and causing such great losses. Shouldn't we lawfully and reasonably claim compensation from them?"

Gordon glanced at Batman, who remained silent and showed no surprise to this statement. Apparently, this was part of their premeditated plan, and Batman was one of the insiders.

"Speaking of which, detective, how about the losses of the police department?"

"Oh... the police department didn't lose much, this isn't a mob gang war. We just helped to evacuate the citizens, then adjusted the traffic routes of the engineering team…"

"Really? Didn't these ruthless terrorists send assassins to attack you?"

Gordon looked at Shiller, testing the waters: "Hmm… did they send any? Oh, yes they did. They sent... two teams of assassins?"

"No, no, no, it was at least a battalion."

Gordon held his forehead, "That's too exaggerated!"

"They have been operating in Gotham for hundreds of years. If they don't have such manpower, how could they claim to be the largest and oldest terrorist organization in Gotham?"

"Alright, but..."

Shiller raised his voice, emphasizing every word, "The brave warriors of the Gotham Police Department fought a night-long battle with them, creating Gotham's undying glory with their blood! 3000 police officers fought fearlessly, half of them died after a night of bloody battle. The rest are all seriously injured. Their greatness should be remembered ..."

"But... The entire Gotham Police Department doesn't even have 300 people…" Gordon touched his chest, apparently feeling a bit guilty.

"No worries, Chief Gordon, we are the victims. We can claim however many we want."

Shiller suddenly changed the topic, asking, "How about the luxury apartments on Gamow Street?"

"Of course, they're very nice, in the outskirts of the South Rich Area, they can be considered A-grade…I was back then…"

Gordon was cut off like something lodged in his throat, his face reddened a bit. He looked at Shiller and stated, "I'm not that kind of person. You can't bribe me like this. I'm a conscientious cop…"

"Leave your conscience to those who need it."

At that moment, Mayor Roy rushed in enthusiastically. He was holding a walkie-talkie, his boots were muddied, clearly, he had just come from the streets, He said, "Guys! Good news! The casualty was very light…"

Roy said unbelievingly, "The Gotham citizens' emergency evacuation capacity is too strong. We issued a danger notice three hours in advance. Within three hours, almost all the citizens had evacuated to the safe high-rise buildings. This mobilization capacity, even Metropolis can't match, right?"

Roy sighed a little, "Such a big disaster, and not even 20 people died. Most of them were drunkards without consciousness or gentlemen high on drugs. Although thousands of people were injured, most of them were not seriously injured, don't even need hospitalization, a first aid kit was enough."

"You should see how many gang wars happen in Gotham every day." Gordon whispered, "Those who run slowly are already dead."

Shiller knocked on the table, annoyed, he addressed Mayor Roy, "You've come at a terribly inconvenient time. We were discussing the losses of Gotham City."

"How so? Isn't lesser damage a good thing?" Roy asked, surprised.

"Mayor Roy..." Shiller smiled at Roy, then asked: "...have you heard of the kidnapping?"

Gordon covered his face with his hands.

After ten minutes, Roy grabbed a tissue and violently blew his nose. The table in front of him was piled up with crumpled tissues from wiping his nose and tears. In a voice choked with emotion, he spoke, "… this inhuman tragedy has deeply saddened me! Hundreds and thousands of innocent lives were snuffed out, human civilization greatly destroyed!"

"These inhuman terrorists! They staged a massacre in Gotham City. The number of victims exceeded ten thousand. All the hospitals in Gotham are overflowing with injured. Countless citizens do not have access to medical treatment because we lack medicine. Oh, God, save us…"

Roy blew his nose again violently, weeping as he spoke, "This is the largest scale terrorist attack in Federation history! The souls of the hundreds of thousands of victims will forever nail the name of this terrorist organization to the pillar of shame, the Court of Owls!"

Gordon stared at Roy in astonishment. He never expected his acting to be this good.

"Do you think I should weep gradually or should I just explode with strong emotion at the beginning?" Roy grabbed another tissue and wiped his tears, "I think the latter should be more impactful."

"Let's go with that then. You'll open tomorrow's press conference. The reporters have been contacted beforehand, all of the biggest news outlets and media on the East Coast will be present. You'll have approximately 30 minutes to express these emotions."

Then Shiller clapped his hands on the table, drawing everyone's attention, "Alright now, let's contact the victims…I mean the culprits."

Finishing, he looked at Batman. "They should have a unique signal transmission device to contact the surface monitoring. If you could intercept the signal…"

Before Shiller had finished speaking, Batman interrupted, "Actually, I've already intercepted it and locked their location. I can communicate with them."

Batman looked at Shiller, "Do you have anything to say to them?"

Shiller showed a smile that sent chills down the spines of the others.

In the dark meeting room underground in Gotham, people wearing white bird masks were still gathered around the large table, but they had long lost their calm.

At that moment, a radio used for communication placed on the side cabinet suddenly emitted a few crackling sparks. Everyone turned their heads. When their eyes landed on the radio, a slightly hoarse voice emerged,

"I want to play a game with you."