Justice League of America - Batman: The Stone King by Alan Grant Read Free Book Online

flicked off his flashlight and strained his ears, listening intently.
    From several places, he could hear the steady drip-drip of falling water. A distant rumble echoed hollowly–a subway train on the nearby downtown line. Apart from that, there was only silence . . . and it filled him with sudden suspicion. Why had the rats gone quiet? What were they doing?
    He could picture them–ten thousand rats seething with disease, yellowed teeth bared, waiting like predators just beyond the range of his vision. Waiting for Otis Flannegan, their human leader, to give them the order to attack.
    An ordinary person might have panicked then, gone running blindly in search of an exit from the awful darkness of this claustrophobic place. But Batman had lived with fear all of his life, and had come to treat it almost like an old friend. He never tried to quiet it, never ignored it.
    Batman knew fear for what it really was: a gift. A message from his unconscious mind, warning him to be alert to danger he might not consciously be aware of. Fear was a feeling to be listened to, heeded, and acted upon.
    Batman's hand slipped to his Utility Belt and popped open a pouch. Fortunately, he'd come prepared. Rats had extremely sensitive hearing in the high-frequency range; the sonic gadget he'd spent most of the daylight hours preparing in the Batcave should be enough to scare them off.
    He held the small metal box gingerly, unwilling to switch it on until absolutely necessary in case it scared Flannegan himself away, and began to move stealthily forward in the darkness.
    There was a sudden, high-pitched whistle, and Batman knew his fear had served him well. Flannegan used a whistle to control his rodent army. But even as Batman's gloved finger hovered over the sonic emitter's trigger, the rats attacked.
    There were several on a narrow ledge just above his head, which he'd failed to see in the pitch-black shadows. They launched themselves at him like tiny dervishes, eyes glowing red, their angry squeals filling his ears. One landed on his wrist, and the sonic emitter went spinning from his hand, splashing into the stream of muck and effluent at his feet.
    Batman wasted no time cursing his bad luck. He brushed two rats off his shoulder, and lashed out with a foot to scatter the small band nipping at his ankles. His costume was Kevlar-lined, impervious to inflictions such as rat bites. His cowl and mask protected his face, and gauntlets covered his hands. But the rats were present in such numbers, it would be only a matter of time before they bore him to the ground and found their way through his defenses.
    He squeezed the touch-sensitive barrel of the pen-light he still carried in his other hand, and saw for the first time the peril that he faced. Thousands of rats were streaming down the tunnel-side ledges toward him, a living river with murderous intent. And there, directing them in their charge, was the surreal figure of the Ratcatcher.
    Otis Flannegan's head and face were covered by a gas mask, its rubber hose snaking down to the oxygen canister fixed to his belt. He wore fisherman's rubber wading boots that came up to his thighs, and a gun butt jutted from the holster around his waist. In his left hand he carried a powerful work lamp; as he switched it on, the sewer was flooded with bright light.
    "This is my domain, Batman," the Ratcatcher exclaimed, and Batman could hear the mania that lay beneath the man's words. "And my little friends do not like intruders."
    As Ratcatcher's eerie whistle sounded again, Batman pulled his bola from a pouch in one long-practiced gesture. Holding it in the center, where its three leather cords were joined, he whirled it at full speed in front of him, careful to keep it low. The trio of half-pound lead weights at the end of the leather rope sang in the foul sewer air.
    Rat after rat dropped like stones as the spinning weights thudded into them, breaking bones and crushing skulls. But still the others came on,