There was nothing behind the hidden door.
Not even a single scrap of wastepaper.
Karl stepped inside, came back out, and rubbed his eyes.
The sight of that completely empty, brightly lit room genuinely surprised him.
"Hm?"
"Something's wrong here."
Karl frowned and stepped forward again.
He ran his hand across one corner of the hidden chamber.
There wasn't even a trace of dust.
Clearly, a large number of things had once been stored here, but someone had cleaned the place out very recently.
Staring at the empty room, Karl knew the situation was unusual.
Penguin hadn't killed Loeb the previous night, but he certainly hadn't stopped keeping him under surveillance.
That was only reasonable.
Loeb had operated in Gotham City for many years. If he ever found an opportunity to secretly send word to someone outside, it could cause serious trouble.
His cell phone and every other means of communication had therefore been confiscated.
The following day, Cobblepot had personally arranged for men to escort him to the police station for his farewell ceremony.
Throughout the entire process, Loeb shouldn't have had any opportunity to contact the outside world.
More importantly, according to Killer Croc, Loeb had never revealed anything about his hidden room.
Thinking about it carefully, Karl could understand why.
This secret cache was probably Loeb's final piece of leverage.
If he revealed it to Penguin, he would lose the last thing he had left to bargain with.
There was no reason for him to do that.
"If it wasn't Penguin, then the only person with both the motive and the ability…"
"Could it be Harvey Dent?"
The thought suddenly crossed Karl's mind.
Harvey certainly had the ability.
And Loeb's habit of controlling police officers through compromising information was hardly some great secret.
It wouldn't be surprising if Harvey knew something about it.
The possibility made even more sense when Karl considered that Constantine was working alongside him.
Constantine had even learned a mirror-scrying spell.
If he had used magic to locate this place, that wouldn't be surprising either.
What worried Karl now was how far Harvey had already gone.
More importantly, there had also been material hidden here that could be used against Karl himself.
If something like that had fallen into Harvey's hands, the situation could become troublesome.
Karl hurried out of Loeb's office and rushed downstairs toward Gordon's office.
There, he found Gordon's longtime partner, Bullock, sitting in a corner with one leg crossed over the other, reading a newspaper and drinking coffee.
Bullock was an old hand at the Gotham City Police Department.
Whenever anything happened inside the department, he was usually among the first to hear about it.
Karl suspected Bullock had been the one who told Gordon about his meeting with Falcone the previous night.
"Where's Constantine?"
Karl got straight to the point.
"Have you seen him?"
"You owe me one."
"Now it's time to pay me back."
When dealing with a seasoned cop like Bullock, there was no point beating around the bush.
Years ago, Karl had gone alone into the slums to rescue Gordon.
That had also helped Bullock.
So Karl had no problem calling in the favor now.
"Huh?"
Bullock looked puzzled.
"Why are you so worked up over something this minor?"
"I'd tell you even if you didn't owe me anything."
"It's not exactly a secret."
"Last night, Constantine called in the Police Inspectorate."
"He said they needed to be ready in case Loeb's departure triggered unrest."
Bullock shook his head with exaggerated admiration.
"I have to say, they were incredibly dedicated."
"In the middle of the night, they filled their vehicles with fuel, stayed awake, and remained ready to move at any moment."
"Truly inspiring."
"Constantine led them out of here about two hours ago."
The moment Karl heard that, he knew something was wrong.
If they had genuinely been preparing for possible unrest in Gotham, then their actions might have made some sense.
But Loeb had already stepped down.
Falcone had left Gotham as well.
So why had that group suddenly rushed out now?
There was almost no chance of a major riot breaking out at this point.
More importantly, they had deliberately filled all their vehicles before leaving.
If their destination had been anywhere within Gotham, that wouldn't have been necessary.
Gas stations were everywhere.
That could only mean one thing.
Their destination had always been somewhere far outside the city.
A remote location in the countryside.
Constantine and his men hadn't been waiting for trouble to break out in Gotham.
They had been waiting for Karl's people to make their move.
They must have guessed that Karl would eventually locate Loeb's hidden cache.
Rather than wasting their time interrogating Loeb themselves, all they had to do was secretly follow Karl's men and let them lead the way.
They were scavengers waiting in the shadows, letting someone else do all the dangerous work before moving in to seize the prize.
At that moment, Harvey Dent's voice came from behind Karl.
"Oh?"
"Isn't this Arkham's newly reinstated chief?"
"Congratulations!"
Harvey approached with a warm smile.
"That position should have been yours a long time ago."
"Still, better late than never."
"I've arranged a meeting for you."
"It's about time you introduced yourself to everyone in the department again as chief."
Meanwhile, Captain Boomerang had already reached the farmhouse with his men.
They pushed aside the terrified farmer and the women inside before spreading through the building like a pack of wolves.
They searched every room.
What they found was ugly.
Many officials who appeared respectable and morally upright had scandals hidden among Loeb's records.
There were all kinds of compromising materials.
For example, a fresh-faced female employee working at headquarters reception had apparently given Loeb a recording involving herself and—
"Boss! We've got a problem!"
"The Police Inspectorate is here!"
"They've surrounded the entire place!"
"Looks like they're preparing to storm inside!"
Captain Boomerang was stunned.
He might not have understood every detail of how the police bureaucracy worked, but he knew exactly what the Police Inspectorate represented.
Even when ordinary police officers were carrying out an investigation, the Inspectorate could directly intervene.
They possessed authority capable of overriding virtually every level of the police system.
In other words, if those people broke in and took Loeb's secrets, Captain Boomerang wouldn't even have the authority to stop them.
He immediately shot to his feet and pulled out his phone to contact Karl.
At the same time, he snapped at the man who had delivered the warning.
"Nonsense!"
"Do you really think I need you to explain something that simple?"
"What I want to know is how those inspectors got here so quickly!"
"We've been outside the city for nearly two hours!"
"And they arrived only a little later than we did?"
After listening to Captain Boomerang's brief report, Karl fell silent for three seconds.
Then a single word left his mouth.
His tone was cold and absolute.
"Burn it."
(End of Chapter)
[100 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter]
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