Must Love Hyenas

25: Too Easy

Harley and Joker had searched through the information provided by Bruce Wayne, looking for anything that might reveal the identity of Scarecrow and how he'd gotten a hold of Crane and his fear related chemicals. With their forces taking over everything in Gotham, Joker and Harley were very close to the completion of their plan. Only the Scarecrow could interfere at this point, and Harley wanted him removed quickly.

Joker had been forcedto handle a problem across town as one of the last gang territories was showinguncommon resistance and needed his direct attention. It fell to Harley and the rest of the gang tosearch the locations Bruce Wayne had found with a connection to Crane in thehopes one would lead to Scarecrow. AsHarley looked through the binoculars, she examined the building across the street.

The old factory, a trio of dormant smokestacks protruding from its roof, had been used in the production of plastics many years ago. The economic downturn responsible for leaving many buildings empty and boarded up in Gotham had also caused the factory to close down. The end had come so quickly, no one had been left to remove the equipment and supplies. Scarecrow had apparently moved in and taken everything left behind for himself, using it to mass produce Crane's chemical brew.

Patrolling inside the chain-link fence marking the factory's outermost border were three men in navy blue security uniforms and armed withautomatic rifles. Harley thought it wasa considerable amount of firepower for the protection of a closed factory. She suspected something more was going onbehind the closed doors and brick walls of the building. Turning her binoculars in a differentdirection, she activated a thermal filter and human shapes in bright reds andyellows appeared.

The interior of the factory had more than a dozen men. Despite not being able to see guns with her thermal enhancements on her binoculars, she could detect the manner in which the guards held their hands and arms, indicating they were holding weapons. She couldn't tell what type or capability they might have, but the guards movements confirmed, at the very least, rifles of some kind.

She quickly took a count of the numbers of enemies she could find and considered her options for dealing with so many potential threats. Because the rest of Joker's forces were busy taking control of the city or scouting other locations, she'd come on this mission alone. She knew it was very risky, but the added advantage was if Scarecrow thought he was unassailable at this time, Harley would have the element of surprise.

Harley considered the small amount of laughing gas she was carrying with her but rejected the idea of using it. Since Scarecrow was using a gas of some kind to make people afraid, he couldn't have any of his own people crumbling in terror while they were supposed to be defending his stronghold, so she suspected they'd be wearing gas masks, rendering them immune to the laughing gas as well.

Looking closer at thevarious thermal signals showing through the wall, Harley tried to figure outwhich one might be Scarecrow. Some shapeswere blurred because of the heat plume of an electrical generator. She disregarded all the people on patrol andthose stationary in a standing position as they were most likely on guard. A single person sat in a back room, theirmulti-colored image partially obscured because of both the distance and thematerials between her and the target.

Moving around to the other side of the factory without being seen, Harley checked the building again and found the same person still sitting. They were leaning slightly forward and moving their hands as if working with something in front of them. She didn't know if it was Crane or Scarecrow, but she had to find out.

Harley checked the rest of the building, doing a secondary count to be certain she'd noticed every person present and wouldn't be taken by surprise when she entered the building. The second count matched the first and convinced her she knew where all Scarecrow's people were located.

Waiting silently, Harley watched the patrols closely. She'd spied an opening in their patterned routes earlier but had been unwilling to enter without first checking things out. She could only hope the opening appeared again.

As one the guards outside the factory passed by the side gate in the chain-link fence, another of the guards appeared around the corner of the factory itself. The two guards nodded to each other, coordinating their efforts and making sure neither had noticed anything unusual. As they turned to head back the other way on their rounds, Harley jumped out of the tangle of bushes where she'd been hiding and raced toward the fence.

Running over the hood of a rusted pile of scrap iron formerly recognized as a car, Harley was able to jump from its roof to the top of a cylindrical storage tank. A leap from the tank allowed her to sail over the barbed wire on the top of the fence and land in a rolling tumble on a large patch of grass that had overtaken the parking lot during the past few years.

Sprinting toward the side door before any of the guards returned, Harley skidded to a stop before slipping inside. The guards watching the interior of the facility seemed more interested in protecting the equipment than checking doors and windows for possible intruders. Harley was able to bypass them with surprising ease, in fact, the simplicity of it started making her nervous as it was almost too easy.

The more her thoughts churned in her mind, the more she felt something was wrong. The car parked outside by the storage tank was very convenient, as were the holes in what was otherwise a strong security presence. Whether it was a trap or not, Harley had to know, so she continued toward the figure she'd seen sitting by himself.

The door between her and the unknown person inside was unlocked, and no guards were positioned nearby, setting off more alerts in her mind. Her hand was shaking slightly as she reached for the knob. Throwing the door open, Harley charged inside and had barely time to notice the dead man strapped to a mechanical rig to keep him moving, electrodes sparking as the current being delivered to the corpse kept it warm. The opening door had released a tripwire, and a dozen pressurized cylinders around the room spewed out a cloud of brown colored gas to envelope her from all sides.