Batman fired his grappling gun. The line shot across the gap between buildings and anchored on the warehouse roof with a magnetic clamp.
Thunk!
He swung across the space, cape spreading to control his descent. He landed on the warehouse roof in absolute silence, his boots designed to absorb impact without sound.
The first guard was ten feet away, facing the opposite direction. Smoking a cigarette. Completely unaware that death had just landed behind him.
Batman moved like a shadow. Three steps closed the distance. His hand came up and struck a precise point on the guard's neck. A nerve strike that would render him unconscious for approximately twenty minutes.
The guard collapsed. Batman caught him before he hit the ground and lowered him silently.
One down.
The second guard was on the far side of the roof. Batman circled around, using the rooftop ventilation equipment for cover. He timed his approach to coincide with a particularly loud section of the music from below.
Another nerve strike. Another unconscious guard.
Two down. Zero alerts raised.
Batman moved to the skylight NEXUS had identified as the optimal entry point. He pulled a glass cutter from his utility belt and worked quickly, creating a circular opening large enough to slip through.
He attached a grappling line to a rooftop anchor point and descended into the warehouse.
The interior was exactly as the intelligence had suggested. The third floor was divided into offices and storage rooms. Mannheim's operation ran from here: drug distribution, money counting, planning for the various criminal enterprises he controlled.
Batman touched down in a hallway. Empty at the moment. He could hear voices from nearby rooms. Guards talking, laughing, completely confident in their security.
That confidence was about to be shattered.
He moved down the hallway toward Mannheim's office. NEXUS's thermal imaging showed three heat signatures inside: Mannheim and his two bodyguards.
Batman paused outside the door and pulled two smoke pellets from his belt. He tested the door handle quietly. Unlocked.
'Amateurs,' he thought. 'Too used to being the most dangerous thing in the room.'
He kicked the door open.
Crash!
The door slammed inward. Batman threw the smoke pellets. They exploded, filling the office with thick gray smoke.
"What the hell!" someone shouted.
Batman was already moving. The first bodyguard was reaching for his gun. Batman's hand shot out and grabbed the man's wrist, applying pressure to a specific point. The gun clattered to the floor. A follow-up strike to the solar plexus doubled the bodyguard over. A knee to the face finished it.
The second bodyguard got his gun out and fired blindly into the smoke.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The shots went wide. Batman had already moved, circling to the side. He emerged from the smoke behind the shooter and delivered a precise strike to the base of the skull. The bodyguard went down hard.
Mannheim was at his desk, fumbling for a weapon in the drawer. Batman crossed the room in two strides and slammed the drawer shut on Mannheim's fingers.
Crack!
Mannheim screamed. Batman grabbed him by the collar and lifted him out of the chair, slamming him against the wall.
"Bruno Mannheim," Batman's voice was a growl, deliberately distorted by the cowl's modulation system. "Your operation is finished."
Mannheim's eyes were wide with terror. "Who... who the hell are you?"
"I'm Batman."
Outside the office, Batman could hear running footsteps. The guards had heard the gunshots and were responding. He had maybe thirty seconds before they arrived.
Batman zip-tied Mannheim's hands behind his back and threw him to the floor. Then he moved to the door, positioning himself beside it.
The first guard burst through.
Wham!
Batman's fist caught him in the face. The guard's head snapped back and he collapsed.
Two more guards came through together. Batman engaged them simultaneously. A low kick swept the first one's legs. An elbow strike caught the second in the throat. Both went down choking and gasping.
"There's someone in there!" voices shouted from the hallway. "Get Mannheim out!"
More footsteps. Batman counted at least six people moving toward the office.
'Too many to engage in close quarters,' he thought. 'Need to control the battlefield.'
He grabbed another smoke pellet and threw it into the hallway. Gray smoke billowed out, obscuring vision. Then Batman stepped into the chaos.
A guard stumbled through the smoke, coughing. Batman's fist found his kidney. The man went down retching.
Another guard fired blindly. Bullets ricocheted off walls. Batman used the muzzle flash to locate him and closed the distance. A precise strike disarmed him. A follow-up to the jaw put him to sleep.
Batman moved through the smoke like a ghost. The guards couldn't see him, couldn't track him, couldn't fight what they couldn't find. He struck from the darkness and disappeared before they could react.
Within ninety seconds, all six guards were down.
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