Chapter 56: Firefly
"How can emptiness be so heavy?"
- Unknown
...
In the Gotham Natural History Museum, one of the thirteen major exhibition halls is the Library Exhibition Hall, where there is a collection of natural history related literature from countries all over the world, with over 250,000 books.
The Library Exhibition Hall is located on the west side of the Cultural Exhibition Hall, and the distance between the two halls is very close.
On the third floor, there is a staircase that connects them.
Similar to the Gotham City Public Library, the Library Exhibition Hall has very few visitors, with only a few police officers passing through the corridor.
Above the ceiling of the corridor, Dean kept crawling forward, and his movements were light and fast, and he barely made a sound.
Dean was wearing a black, skintight suit that blended into the darkness.
In the sky, two helicopters were circling between the thirteen exhibition halls, and a round of searchlights swept around every corner.
Dean carefully avoided the helicopters' searchlights as he crawled forward.
Fortunately, there were only two helicopters, and their searchlights didn't cover a large area, so Dean had plenty of room to move.
After a short while, he reached the end of the corridor.
At this moment, Dean was lying between the third and fourth floors of the Cultural Exhibition Hall.
He chose to move on top of the corridor at the risk of drawing attention from the helicopters because there was a ventilation duct on the wall between the third and fourth floors of the Cultural Exhibition Hall.
This vent led directly to the exhibition hall, where the Dragon's Egg Ruby Necklace was displayed.
This ventilation duct was located at the top of the corridor.
Dean opened the ventilation duct and continued to move forward.
...
Meanwhile, in a smoking area in the museum
The gloomy man with a cigarette in his mouth who never lit it was still there, lighting one match after another once it went out.
He repeatedly lit new matches one after another without lighting the cigarette in his mouth.
There were about a dozen people smoking in the area. They kept their distance from the gloomy man, not wanting to get too close.
"What's the deal with that guy? I think he's almost used up a whole box of matches, but he hasn't lit that cigarette until now."
The group hiding in the corner of the room glanced at the darkened man and whispered to each other.
"Who knows, maybe there's something wrong with him; maybe we should call the hospital."
"Shh... don't let him hear you. If you guessed right, this guy is definitely a dangerous person, and I don't want to get killed by a lunatic."
Just then, the door of the smoking room suddenly opened.
"Oh, I didn't expect so many people in here."
A short and fat man in a tuxedo with a pointed nose walked in.
As soon as everyone saw this person, their hearts skipped a beat, and a look of panic appeared on their faces.
A sense of fear spread through the crowd.
In Gotham, no citizen can stay calm when they see this strange-looking man because his name is Oswald Cobblepot.
They couldn't even move, afraid they had angered the king of Gotham's underworld.
"I'm sorry to disturb your smoke break, but I need to have an important discussion with this gentleman, so could you all step aside, please?"
Penguin said with a friendly smile to the people in the smoking area.
"No problem! Mr. Cobblepot, we'll leave now."
When hearing the Penguin's words, the smokers quickly fled the room.
Only the gloomy man and Penguin remained in the room.
Clearly, the gloomy man was the one Penguin had important business to discuss with.
"It's not time yet."
The gloomy-faced man suddenly spoke out of nowhere, and Penguin immediately understood what he meant.
"But it's almost time, Lynn. I came here to let you know that you can start preparing, like putting on your suit."
Garfield Lynn, codenamed Firefly, was a supervillain who faced Batgirl during her debut battle.
He had recently escaped from Blackgate Prison.
Since his escape, both the GCPD and Batgirl have been looking for Firefly, and they have come up with nothing.
Firefly seemed to have vanished into thin air.
But they didn't know that Firefly and Penguin had actually made a deal.
"Let me confirm one last time, I'll get $500,000 as promised once I take down Phantom Thief, right? I need to hear it from you personally."
Firefly asked emotionlessly.
"Please forgive me, Mr. Cobblepot. In Gotham, breaking contracts is as common as eating and drinking, but you are different. I've heard about your reputation, but I need assurance."
"You're right, Lynns. There's almost no trust in Gotham, but there are a few exceptions in the world. I'm a trustworthy businessman."
Penguin promised Firefly.
"I promise you, once you eliminate Phantom Thief, I will pay you $500,000 in clean cash."
"Thank you for your generosity, Mr. Cobblepot, but I have one final thing to ask."
Before Firefly could even ask, Penguin seemed to know what he wanted to ask and gave an answer.
"I already know what you want to ask, my people have made all the preparations, and you can go wild with your abilities without any worries."
Upon hearing this, a slight smirk appeared on Firefly's lips, revealing a sinister smile.
"Happy hunting, Firefly."
After a while, Dean quietly removed the iron fence from the top of his head and climbed up from the ventilation duct.
This is a somewhat empty room with lots of red pipes and water valves, but no one is inside.
"Hmm? What's that?"
Dean looks at some of the pipes and feels that something is not right...
...
Boom!
There was a sound of thunder, and the dark clouds in the sky seemed to have finally finished charging and began to rain.
At first, it was still light rain, but it soon got heavier and heavier, so people in the square had to open their umbrellas.
Those who didn't have umbrellas either shamelessly asked people around them to share or rushed to nearby halls to take shelter from the rain.
In the Central Exhibition Hall on the top floor of the museum.
Dick stood by the window, looking at the sudden rain outside with a serious expression.
"It's less than five minutes until midnight. How will the Phantom Thief steal the necklace?"
At this final moment, everyone is fully focused.
The dozen or so SWAT officers who surround the Dragon's Egg Ruby Necklace are all focused on protecting it.
Five minutes pass by in a flash.
It's midnight!
...
A/N: Give me more stones and someday I will release more chapters!
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