I, V, Gotham Legend

14. Negotiation

Harvey fired four shots but did not achieve the desired effect, but he did not feel discouraged. After all, he did not intend to attack anyone.

At this time, he was wearing an earphone on his ear that was specially used to keep in touch with a mercenary. He was playing with coins in one hand and holding a pistol in the other, aiming at the pile of sandbags.

Sasse hid behind a pile of sandbags. He couldn't see Harvey, and likewise, Harvey couldn't see him.

"How did you find this place? Are you a policeman?" Seeing that Harvey did not answer him, Sass asked again.

"Unfortunately, I'm not a policeman, but almost everyone in Gotham knows me. You can stick your head out and take a look." Harvey's abacus beads hit Sasse's face.

"Maybe I am crazy, but I am not stupid. Unknown man, if you are not a policeman, are you here to seek revenge? Or are you here to find this poor girl?"

It seems that Sass really hasn't recognized him yet.

Harvey thought the most urgent thing was not to let the killer think that the hostages were effective. He cleared his throat and made up an excuse: "The ventriloquist has fallen, and I am helping the new boss take over the territory."

"New boss? Haha, the situation in Gotham is really exciting. Can you tell me his name? I'm happy to serve the new boss." Sass accepted this reason.

"The new boss? He..." Harvey hesitated whether to say Maroni or other well-known forces like Big Bird, but his peripheral vision caught sight of the coin in his hand.

When he was a child, Harvey was often locked up in a small dark room and abused by his father. The most memorable time was also the last time, which lasted for half a year. He almost forgot the original memory. He only remembered that he was so hungry that he caught rats in the basement to eat.

The dark secret room became a lifelong psychological shadow for Harvey.

During that most difficult time, only the dual-phase coin in his hand accompanied him.

Therefore, when he grew up, Harvey carried this coin with him wherever he went. It was his first and longest companion, and also his lucky charm. As long as he had this coin, there would be no difficulties that he could not overcome.

Harvey tightly grasped the coin with human portraits on both sides and spoke confidently: "The new boss is called [Two-Face]. Unfortunately, he will not cooperate with disgusting perverted murderers."

"Hahahaha!" Sasse suddenly laughed. "You are really a policeman, right? Or are you some kind-hearted citizen with an overwhelming sense of justice who wants to save the little girl?"

Harvey frowned, he couldn't figure out what went wrong.

"Normal people might feel nervous when facing the threat of a gun. But I'm different. I'm never afraid. Therefore, I always think more calmly." Sass' tone was full of superiority. "So? [Two-Face]? Don't be ridiculous. The tone of your speech is exactly the same as those righteous politicians!"

Harvey gritted his teeth, tried to struggle again, holding the gun, and slowly approached the sandbags: "The boss thinks you are useless, so he sent me to kill you, you still..."

He tried to close the distance to scare Sass into abandoning the hostages and escaping.

"Puci!" However, what was heard was the sound of a blade piercing flesh.

"Ahhhhhh!" the girl screamed in pain.

"Damn..." Harvey stopped. His plan failed, but he still made the killer realize the role of the hostages.

"I told you, don't worry, I just pierced the little girl's delicate arm." Sass smiled proudly, "You probably can't see what I'm doing now, so I have to remind you that I'm holding this girl's shoulders and holding a pair of scissors on her neck."

Harvey felt cold sweat soaking his clothes, and he forced himself not to look at the window.

"I am always kind, Mr. Warmhearted. Now, you should move aside at the door and let me take the girl away. Otherwise, I can't guarantee what I will do." Sass threatened in a soft voice.

Harvey was silent, as if he was preparing himself mentally, then he sighed: "I understand, please don't hurt the hostages."

"You misunderstood something. I am the one who holds the initiative now. You are not qualified to negotiate terms."

The sound of metal shaking was heard, and the killer crawled out from behind the sandbags holding the girl. Harvey and Sass saw each other clearly at the same time.

Just like the information Harvey had read, Sass had a hairless head. Not only did he have no hair, he didn't even have eyebrows. His upper body was naked, and his bronze skin was covered with dense scars.

"Oh! Harvey Dent! It's really you!" Sass was very surprised, "I have reserved a seat for you. It's right here!"

Sasse pointed to his waist, where there was an inch of smooth skin.

Harvey didn't say anything. The light from the corridor shone on the side of Harvey's face, making half of his face sink into shadow.

The window was closed with wooden boards, and Harvey could not see what was happening outside. He glanced at the window, then slowly backed away, getting farther and farther away from the door.

Sass held the girl hostage and made her stand in front of him, facing Harvey like a shield.

He stared at Harvey's face tauntingly with a victorious smile, and his feet moved very slowly, as if he was deliberately provoking him.

The exit was on the side. Sass walked past the closed window with the girl in his hands still trembling.

Although he couldn't see the girl's face because she was facing away, he could guess the look of fear and disillusionment on her face. He had seen it countless times.

However, just as Sasse passed the window, he suddenly noticed that Harvey had opened his arms, as if to welcome something.

"What? You want me to leave the child to you?" Sasse almost laughed out loud again.

"She'll be here soon," was all Harvey said.

"What..." These words set off alarm bells in Sass' heart, but before he could do anything, he felt a huge force on his side like being hit by a truck, and then the world was spinning.

The pain instantly paralyzed the nerves in his waist, causing him to lose all strength. Sass felt himself hit the wall, and then fell weakly to the floor.

Everything went dark before my eyes, I felt dizzy, nauseous and wanted to vomit, and the pain in my abdomen was so severe that it made me faint.

What’s going on…someone’s attacking us?

Sass felt blood flowing from his waist and something else, but the severe pain had made him lose his sense of smell and he could not smell the sweetness of his own blood.

Sass has always been gifted. He does not know fear and can always stay awake in times of crisis. Therefore, he forces himself to fight the instinct to sleep, which is something only he can do.

He opened his exhausted eyes and raised his head with all his strength.

The censored world became clear again, and Sass saw the familiar door frame. It seemed that he had left the room successfully. Through the door frame, he could still see the scene inside the house clearly.

Harvey Dent, who was in the room, was holding the girl. He seemed to take a big step back, obviously affected by the impact.

There was a big hole in the boarded-up window, and moonlight poured into the room, illuminating the lower body of a person lying on the ground, wearing only familiar red pants.

Sass reached out and touched his waist in disbelief, and he felt the same feeling he had touched countless times before.

"No..." He widened his eyes and looked at his intestines spilling all over the floor.

NO15. Something of value

This is my intestine? I have this? I can actually leak this stuff?!

Sass looked at his lower back in disbelief. The pain left him without the strength to even roll over.

He recalled his long career as a killer. He had taken out the organs of countless people. Even the most respectable people had their internal organs dirty and ugly.

No matter how strong or tough a person is, he will die after his internal organs are taken out.

And now, this smelly, fishy and disgusting stuff is flowing out of my body!

As if it was a last burst of energy, Sass's arms moved again, and he struggled to crawl into the house, towards the moonlight, towards his lower body.

The deaths of countless people he had brutally murdered flashed back to his mind, and he couldn't imagine that one day he would become like that.

I won't die. How could I die? I've lived so long...

Seth stretched out his hand, as if to touch the moonlight that came in through the hole in the window.

His fingers hit the door frame and blood left a trail under him.

Sass finally stopped before entering the house, despair frozen on his face.

At the last moment of his life, Victor Sass finally understood what fear was.

Harvey put down the girl in his arms. Her white dress was soaked with smelly blood, but fortunately she was not injured.

Harvey looked at Sass's miserable death. Although he felt humanitarian sympathy, he was more relieved.

He looked again at the broken hole in the wooden board covering the window. It looked as if it had been pierced by a missile.

But as a bystander, he still knew what happened. It was just a bullet that penetrated the wooden board.

A fluffy blue head poked in from the hole in the window: "Is there no one else?"

Harvey didn't expect Valerie to come in from here: "Is this the third floor?"

"It's faster to come in from here." Valerie said, and the window she was holding on to shook a little, and then part of the wall was pushed into the room.

She leapt through the widening gap, and Harvey was shocked to see the blade on her arm retract into her flesh.

Not long ago, Valerie was cleaning out the ventriloquist's men in the apartment across from this old house.

Although he was accepted because of his talent, Sass was essentially a dangerous person. The ventriloquist arranged a large group of thugs around him to drive away the citizens who strayed into here.

Since no one wanted to stay in the same house with someone like Sass, they occupied nearby apartment buildings and even built warehouses, which made it easier for Valerie and Harvey to act separately.

At Harvey's request, Valerie did not kill anyone, but they still agreed to get rid of Sass.

After eliminating all the enemies in the apartment building across from the old house, she set up a sniper rifle and determined Sass's location through the camera in the special headset on Harvey's ear.

Since Sass was very close to the hostage, Valerie deliberately hit him a little off-center. Even so, the power of the Nekomata still cut Sass in half, and even caused the hostage to be blown away and fall into Harvey's arms.

"You're not going to prosecute me for murder, are you, Prosecutor?" Valerie blinked and looked at Harvey.

"What are you talking about? Didn't you just come in?" Harvey was very sensible.

Valerie nodded in satisfaction, then looked at the girl who seemed to be still alive on the table and the half-dead body of Sass: "It's really unimaginable, although it's not the first time I've seen a madman who likes to torture and kill."

But compared to the Joker who commits crimes openly, this kind of person who secretly satisfies his sadistic desires is more creepy.

"You are..." The little girl in front of Harvey saw Valerie's face clearly, and an indescribable expression of surprise appeared on her heartbroken face.

"It seems you know me. Have you seen me on TV?" Although she didn't want to be mistaken for a hero, Valerie still smiled gently at the girl's heartbroken face. "Don't worry, the bad guys are dead as hell."

"I..." The little girl wanted to say something, but her lips just trembled, as if something was stretched and broke. Grievance, fear and dread overwhelmed her at the same time.

Valerie looked at the girl in silence, tears streaming down her tender face, but she couldn't even utter a sob.

Poor child, it’s a pity that Valerie is not good at comforting, so she can only leave the girl alone.

"I just heard what you said... Two-faced, right?" Valerie looked at Harvey's handsome face, "Are you really going to join the gang?"

"I was just lying to him. I will never go along with the evil forces." Harvey said righteously.

“…Watch out for your little face, don’t let it be disfigured.” That was all Valerie could say.

"Disfigured?" Harvey didn't quite understand. What does this have to do with the topic they were just talking about?

"It's nothing, I just hope you can keep your original intention." Valerie decided to take care of Dante if she had time in the future.

After a brief exchange with Harvey, Valerie approached the dining table and put down the tied body of her twin sister.

The wounds of the corpse had been sewn up, and she was wearing clean clothes, so she looked no different from an ordinary girl.

But Valerie's expression suddenly became strange. She noticed that the wound on the girl's neck looked a little familiar. It was not that she had seen it before, but it seemed more like she had heard of it.

She walked into the room with a frown and started searching through all the drawers and cabinets.

"What are you looking for?" Harvey asked puzzledly.

"Would you keep something you got ten years ago until now?" Valerie asked as she rummaged through the items.

"Ten years ago? If it was really valuable, I would still keep it."

Harvey's coin has been with him for seventeen years.

"Yes, if it's valuable." Valerie found a cross pendant from a pile of knives at the bottom of the cabinet.

It looks very old, with signs of being repeatedly rubbed, but it can also be seen that it is often taken out for maintenance.

Valerie seemed to understand why Batman asked her to find Sass.

During the month they spent together, Valerie heard Helena talk about the childhood trauma that changed her life.

When she was eight years old, the killer broke into her home and tortured and killed her parents and younger brother.

Helena described it very clearly. The killer stabbed her brother repeatedly with a knife, even though he was dead.

The twin girls also had marks on their necks from repeated stabbings, making it look as if their heads were about to be cut off.

Valerie silently looked at the cross necklace in her hand. The gold-plated edge on it was almost worn off.

She remembered Helena telling the end of the story, in which the killer did not find little Helena who was hiding in order to escape quickly, but only took her father's necklace as a trophy.

"Helena didn't come..." Valerie muttered softly in a voice that only she could hear.

After thinking for a moment, she added the adverb "fortunately" before this sentence.

NO16. Let me enlighten you

In the private KTV box, Batman held down Rhino's head and threw the strong man out like he was swinging a sack.