Batman 4 - Batman & Robin (19 page)

The two guards escorting her the length of the cell block weren’t affected the way the inmates were. But then, they’d probably seen a woman sometime in the last several months. Many of the men behind these triple-thick steel doors would have drooled over Gossip Gerty.

“I love you,” chortled a drooling specimen in a strait-jacket. “Let’s do dinner. And then breakfast.”

At one of the barred openings in the cell doors, all she saw was the glint of a mirror in an empty top hat. And a big, curious eyeball reflected in it, staring hungrily at her.

“Won’t you join the dance?” asked a voice from inside the same cell. A harsh, gravelly voice. “Or at least tell me, like a good little girl . . . why is a raven like a writing desk?”

“Hey, Buster,” bellowed another inmate, red-faced with indignation.
“I
ask the riddles around here!”

“Riddle me
this,
ya freakin’ nutjob!”

“Shut up, the whole two of ya!”

“Pay no attention to them,” said yet another of the inmates—a man with a dark, curly beard. His voice was that of a man used to being obeyed. “Open this door, my sweet. Free me from Hades and I’ll place you beside me on Olympus. We’ll make my wife Hera jealous as all get-out.”

Ivy smiled inwardly at their antics.
Good,
she thought.
Let them eat their hearts out.

Before long, she and her escort came to Mr. Freeze’s cell. By then, she thought, her henchman should have been well about his business.

The guards opened the door and let her in, then joined her. Freeze was standing in a circle of shimmering light in the center of the cell, eyeing all three of them warily.

The guards sealed the door with a special key and remained there. “Don’t mind us, ma’am,” one of them snickered. “Go ahead and converse as freely as you like.”

Apparently, there was no privacy to be had in a place like this.
Oh well,
she thought. She would create her own.

Ivy sized up the guards, then approached them. “I don’t mind you at all,” she told them.

She removed her hat and sunglasses, revealing her in tensely green eyes. The guards’ eyes opened wide in return.

“You’re not all that attractive,” she went on, pulling her hair out of its bun so it could fall around her shoulders. “Pretty average, I’d say. But your fantasies aren’t average, are they?”

Ivy began to saunter around the room. Little by little, teasing them, she shed her cloak to reveal her skintight green costume.

“Your fantasies are anything
but
average,” she continued. “The things you think about late at night when you’re all alone. I understand them. I want them. I
am
them.”

Her circuit around the room brought her back to the guards. They were thoroughly mesmerized.

“Men,” she sighed. “The most absurd of all God’s creatures. We women give you life, and we can take it back just as easily.”

Ivy took one guard’s chin in each of her hands. Then she leaned in close enough to plant a kiss.

“What if I told you one kiss from me would kill you?” she asked.

“Right,” said one guard.

“Whatever,” said the other.

“I really
am
to die for,” she remarked.

Then she kissed them, both of them, each in turn. There was a moment of pure, undiluted bliss on their faces. Then they choked, fell to their knees, and died horribly.

Freeze nodded from his circle of light. “Impressive.”

Ivy looked at him and smiled seductively. “Well, I, my most Unabominable Snowman, have been impressed by
you.
In fact, I propose a pairing. And in the interest of that pairing, I’m here to set you free.”

Freeze considered her. “An enticing offer,” he decided. “But what does the lady want in return?”

What indeed?
she thought. But this was neither the time nor the place.

“Let’s cool it for now,” she told him reluctantly. “There’s someone I would like you to meet.”

Ivy knelt and unhooked the key from the guard’s belt. Then she used it to unlock the door. It opened. Right on cue, Bane walked in, carrying Freeze’s silver thermosuit. Then Ivy sealed the door behind him.

“His name is Bane,” she said.

“Ah,” said Freeze. “A laundry service that delivers. Thank you, Mr. Bane.”

Bane didn’t answer. He just tossed the suit to Freeze through the boundaries of the cryonic field. Snatching it out of the air, Freeze began to pull it on eagerly.

“I love that belt,” Ivy told him frankly. “What are you, about a fifty big and tall?”

Freeze chuckled dryly. “I always go a size smaller,” he said. “Makes me look slimmer.”

He glanced at the various components of his suit, checking them off one by one. Everything seemed to be in order until he inspected his watchlike status display. Then his expression changed.

Ivy looked at the device herself and saw that Freeze was on auxiliary power. Dangerously low, no doubt.

Freeze opened his sleeve compartments. They were empty.

He muttered a curse. “They’ve confiscated my generator diamonds. I’m running on empty.”

Outside, they could hear the shouts of approaching guards. Soon, the flame of a laser torch could be seen cutting around the perimeter of the cell’s steel door.

Ivy hit the pump on Bane’s back. Milky white Venom flowed through his tubes and surged into his system.

Bane lifted his fists and tried to smash the wall farthest from the entrance. It didn’t break.

She shook her head. “Not good. Not good at all.”

They heard the shouts of more guards coming down the hall. Freeze reached for his holster—obviously out of instinct, because it was empty.

“No gun,” he muttered. “How disarming.”

Ivy frowned. What was the worst that could happen? she asked herself. “I wonder if I can get a cell with a view of the gardens?”

Freeze shook his head. “Don’t despair, dear Daisy.” Having said that, he left the shelter of his antithermic field and crossed to a sink protruding from the cell wall.

He turned on the cold water. Then, cracking his gauntlet seal, he caused cryo-gas to come hissing out.

Freeze glanced back over his shoulder at Ivy. “What a boon is cold, for it allows a thing’s true potential to be revealed. Take simple water—soft, pliant, ever so yielding. But freeze it and it grows resistant. Powerful. Harder than steel itself.”

He aimed his gas jet at the spigot. One by one, the pipes around the room began to freeze, to frost over, to bulge—the frozen water within them finally splitting the metal. And the whole effect rushed headlong toward the stone wall opposite the door.

All at once, the wall began to crack. To crumble. More and more, until great chunks fell out of it, revealing the starry night sky outside Freeze’s little cell.

Ivy took a step toward the opening and saw that they were in a turreted tower, far above the black and mysterious Gotham River.

“I hate heights,” she groaned.

On the other side of the cell, the door flew off its hinges. The guards wouldn’t be far behind.

“You’ll hate prison more,” Freeze advised her.

She supposed he was right. Holding her nose, she jumped.

As far as she could tell, Freeze and Bane were right behind her, plummeting toward the fast-rushing waters below.

B
ruce was walking with Alfred through the expansive first floor of Wayne Manor, shutting off the lights that hadn’t already been shut off. He glanced at the man who had been mother and father to him, and it hurt him to think that man was in pain.

Alfred must have noticed his scrutiny, because his eyes slid toward Bruce. Along with his brows, they formed a question. “Sir?”

The younger man answered it with a question of his own. “Are you all right, Alfred?”

The butler thrust out his chin. He had to see that his jig was up—that there was no further possibility of hiding it. “As well as can be expected,” he replied stoically.

Bruce sighed. “Alfred, I know you’re sick. I can get you the best doctors. Anyone you need.”

His friend—his oldest friend—shook his head. “I’ve already seen the best doctors, sir.” And then: “A gentleman does not discuss his health. It’s not civilized. I hope I’ve taught you that much, Master Bruce.”

Bruce bit back a bitter smile. He knew better than to push Alfred when he was in this frame of mind.

Silence, as they turned off the lights in the living room. Then in the home office. And the parlor.

Finally, they got to the stairs. Bruce’s room was on the second floor, Alfred’s on the first. It was where they parted company.

“Will there be anything else?” the butler asked dutifully.

“A question,” Bruce replied. “Alfred, have you ever regretted your life working here?”

The older man looked at him—and smiled. “Attending to heroes? No, sir. My only regret is that I was never able to be out there with you.”

“Not all heroes wear masks,” Bruce reminded him.

“I suppose that’s true,” Alfred agreed.

The billionaire put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Alfred,” he said, “if I’ve never told you . . . I just want to say . . .”

“Yes?” the butler prompted.

Bruce swallowed, fighting tears. For all his willpower, for all his inner strength, he was unable to speak the words.

He found himself looking past Alfred for a moment. Looking out the window, into the distance.

What he saw was not the dark of night, but the light of day. And a game. A boy—young Bruce, himself—was playing hide-and-seek with his middle-aged manservant. Alfred disappeared behind a hedge and then appeared again. And the boy laughed.

Remembering where he was, Bruce turned back to Alfred. “I want to say . . .” he began again.

But before he could finish, he heard footfalls—someone running. A moment later, Dick sprang into sight. He spoke three words.

“Freeze has escaped.”

Bruce went to the window and craned his neck to gaze in the direction of the city center. He could see the Bat-Signal shining against the clouds in the night sky.

His
signal.

“Come on,” he told Dick. He would speak to Alfred later, he promised himself. “Let’s go.”

Freeze sat in a limousine filled with flowers, Ivy ensconced beside him and Bane at the wheel. As they drove by the Snowy Cones Ice Cream Factory, he peered out between roses and chrysanthemums. The place was surrounded now by a police perimeter.

“My reserves are exhausted,” he complained. “I must have the gems that power my suit.”

And that wasn’t his only problem. Nora was inside the factory, too.

Ivy glanced at him. “You
are
looking unseasonably hot. Let’s go inside and grab your rocks.”

Suddenly, they saw the Batmobile arrive, tires screeching. Batman and Robin raced inside the factory.

Damn,
thought Freeze. “In my weakened state,” he said miserably, “I am no match for the Bat and the Bird.”

“You leave Batman and Robin to me,” said Ivy.

Freeze looked at her, unable to conceal his skepticism. She smiled.

“Trust me. Vegetable magnetism.”

Freeze nodded. After all, she seemed so confident.

“Fine,” he said. “While I retrieve my diamonds, you and Meatloaf will bring my wife to your lair. She’s frozen in—”

Ivy’s demeanor changed suddenly. She seemed to be . . . a tad jealous.

“Hold it,” she told him. “Stop the music. You never said anything about a wife, frozen or otherwise.”

It only confirmed what Freeze had suspected—that the green woman wished to engage him in a love affair. But to Freeze, such a thing was unthinkable. He loved his wife no less now than the day they were married. And if it meant walking over the bodies of a thousand Ivys to bring Nora back, he would do that without hesitating.

Moving quickly, he grabbed Ivy by her throat and smashed her back into her padded seat. Bane turned to stop him, but the green woman shooed him away with an extraordinarily casual gesture.

“You will rescue my wife,” Freeze grated. “Without her, the world has no beauty. No reason for me to go on. When I have found the cure for the disease that robbed her from me, when she is warm in my arms again, I will repay you for your efforts as you see fit.”