Note: This segue does not contain overt sexual acts, but sets up the chapters to come that do. Thank you for bearing with me while I try to propel the story along. Thanks. - BD
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The Parkview District was the center of Gotham’s industry during the industrial revolution, back when we clogged the skies with textile manufacturing and metalwork. Hundreds of warehouses and studios clogged the district employing thousands of workers. Its easy access to the docks allowed for shipping of these goods to other towns and countries. Though the harbor patrol tries its best, the docks are still used to import and export everything from drugs to human beings nightly.
My dad used to punch in and out from one of these places working 50+ hours a week back in the day these places were legit. He had about twenty kids to feed, from mom and other distractions he indulged during his former life as the classic door-to-door salesman. So because my dad couldn’t keep his pants zipped more than an hour at a time, I have a lot of brothers and half-brothers, a few half sisters all over creation. A generation of Anaxandros' carrying dad's faded genes...what a thought.
That's what I was thinking, believe it or not, as I woke up hanging by my bound wrists from a hook about fifty feet in the air. I recognized the smell of fertilizer and rotting wood, the stale smell of the Gotham River. I couldn't feel my hands except for a dull throbbing in my wrists and a burning, tearing sensation as the robe dug into my flesh. I thought back to dad and wondered what it was that I could go back in time and pop the old man before I got cursed with his bad luck.
Its places like this empty warehouse that are hidden from the usual routine inspection of the Gotham Police Department. It looks great in a Mike Hammer sort of way if you want to have a gunfight with the cops over a drug lab or a fugitive super-criminal. The point of it all is that no one will hear you scream here. If you are left here to die, no one will find the body until the rats are done with it. Part of the Parkview District is suspended over the Gotham River and countless bodies rest under the floorboards of this place with a lot of bones lining the bed of the river. The last time there was a manhunt in this part of town, they found fifty bodies...none of them being the one they were looking for.
Pleasant thoughts, huh? But, to be a good henchman, and get paid what I'm paid, you gotta know more about the game than the old "what will they do with me?" prisoner mentality. I could have just hung there until my hands popped off, but I knew it wouldn't be long before someone either started sniping me from below or I suddenly dropped into whatever mess was waiting in the dark below. No thank you, I like living my pathetic, degenerate life.
I managed to swing my way, building up momentum slowly, over to a catwalk lining what must have been the "large cargo" area of the warehouse. At first I was afraid of the sound of tightening and expanding hemp creaking like an old rocking chair, but even as it got louder and echoed in the empty warehouse, nothing came of it. No gunshots or yelling thugs with knives coming up the gangway....I was able to get to relative safety in about an hour.
I kept wondering what that poor schmuck was talking about when he said that the business model for the District was going to change. I mean, whores, guns and drugs are the staples in any criminal diet. What could possibly be worth more than that kind of high-mark-up, high demand commerce? As I made my way down the gangway from the catwalk I could smell a sweet odor overwhelming the lingering stench of fertilizer. As I stepped into the darkness, holding on to the railing for balance, I strained to see anything below the windowline now far above me. It was very quiet except for the sound of rustling leaves and the wind through tall grass. All that would be fine if we were out doors, but with no breeze on my face, I began to worry. I softly stepped down toward what had to be a door on the outside wall, watching the darkness toward the center of the warehouse and feeling the wall for a knob or frame....something to get me out of there.
As I felt my way down, my hand brushed against a warm, soft obstacle. I slid a hand around a soft, satin waist and found myself, once again, in the arms of Catwoman. She rolled me into her arms as if leading me in a tango and I found myself staring into glowing, yellow cat's eyes. She was close enough to kiss. She smelled fantastic. For a moment I forgot my fear and thought only of the early morning hummer...but then I felt the light pinch of her claws pulling me back to reality...
