Batman 4 - Batman & Robin by Michael Jan Friedman Read Free Book Online

of dropping the matter. “When we get home,” he said, “we’re going to have a little interpersonal communication workshop. Just the two of us.”
    Robin sighed and flash-melted the other ice bonds, one at a time. Batman rubbed his wrists, finally free.
    “So,” said Robin, changing the subject, “is it kind of cold in here or is it just me?”
    Batman glanced at the altimeter again. They were at twenty thousand feet and still ascending. Ice was forming everywhere. He imagined he could feel it stiffening his joints, thickening his blood.
    But there was no time to dwell on that. He still had time to save the city—if he hurried.
    “We’ve got to make sure this rocket doesn’t turn Gotham into a crater,” he said. He looked around and thought for a moment.
    Then he whipped out a bat-shaped charge from his Utility Belt and threw it underhand at the ceiling, where it stuck fast. An armed light on the charge began to flash green.
    “Now what?” asked Robin. “We call a taxi?”
    Batman turned to one of the doors and gripped a handle marked CAUTION : EXPLOSIVE BOLTS . Divining his plan and apparently approving of it, Robin smiled and grabbed a similar handle on the opposing metal door.
    “Watch the first step,” Batman advised, keeping a straight face.
    Robin nodded. “Surf’s up.”
    Simultaneously, they pulled the release handles and leaped onto their respective capsule doors as the explosive bolts blew them into space. At the same time, the light on the Batcharge turned red.
    As the wind whipped past him, Batman glanced at the capsule and counted to himself. When he reached “five,” the capsule exploded above them in a thunderous, blood red flare.
    Sizzling debris rained down on them. But he and his protégé managed to avoid it as they skyboarded downward on their capsule doors.
    So much for making a crater out of Gotham, he thought. With luck, the remnants of the capsule would drift out to sea on the wind, where they wouldn’t hurt a soul. But his work still wasn’t done.
    Below them, Freeze was zigzagging to earth, the diamond called the Second Sun of the Sudan in his hand. And to Batman’s chagrin, he had a rather healthy head start.

    Freeze wasn’t expecting a sudden explosion in the starry heavens above Gotham. But as soon as he heard it, even before he looked up and saw its fiery aftermath, he knew what it meant.
    He had underestimated Batman. Again.
    And Robin as well, it seemed. Somehow, both the crime fighters had survived and were coming after him. On . . . he grunted appreciatively . . . on the doors of the obliterated capsule, of all things.
    Still, Freeze wasn’t perturbed. He still had his cryo-gun. And his wits. With both those very formidable weapons in his arsenal, he was confident he would yet carry the day.
    It wouldn’t be easy. It never was with those two. But in the end, Freeze would triumph.

    Batman negotiated the wind currents with apparent abandon, his cape fluttering behind him, taking chances that might have been ill-advised under other circumstances. But unless he sped up the pace of his descent, he wouldn’t have a prayer of catching up with Freeze—who had already dropped below the tops of the city’s highest skyscrapers.
    Robin was right with him, taking the same chances. But then, the boy had been a trapeze artist. His entire family had been comprised of trapeze artists. Working without a net was second nature to him.
    The canyons of Gotham yawned. Lights flickered dizzily, impossibly distant but getting closer all the time.
    Throwing his weight to the left, Batman avoided a turret as he plummeted after Freeze. Then he threw himself the other way to avoid the point of another building. Back and forth, down and down, closing the gap with each breathtaking twist and turn.
    But would it be enough? Would they reach the villain in time to get the museum’s diamond back? Batman gritted his teeth, knowing there was only one acceptable response to those questions.
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