Chapter 1277: Saving People and Investigating Targo
Luke was very satisfied.
John was very good at solving cases, but his shortcoming was that all his talent went into this one thing, so he had no hope of being promoted.
The thought flashed through Luke’s mind as he went to the subway cars and opened them.
The pa.s.sengers inside were terrified, but they still struggled to get up and head for the door.
However, there wasn’t a scramble.
Batman was standing outside, and served as a psychological anchor.
The explosion in the subway tunnel had been a lot more powerful than in the subway station.
Without Batman, the people in the back half of the train would’ve been heavily injured or killed, while the pa.s.sengers in the front would’ve been seriously injured.
It was all thanks to Batman that n.o.body was heavily wounded or killed.
Of the 20 pa.s.sengers in the rear car, half had been thrown to the front by Luke, and the other half had seen him block the explosion with his body.
Batman’s dauntless rescue of people who had nothing to do with him shocked the pa.s.sengers.
Even though most of them weren’t Batman fans, they were overwhelmed with emotions and indescribable grat.i.tude.
However, Luke didn’t have time to enjoy their grateful gazes. After opening the doors to the two cars, he immediately ran to the other half of the train that lay in the subway tunnel.
There were even more pa.s.sengers inside. They didn’t know that Batman was here.
If a stampede happened in the narrow train during the chaos, there was very likely to be unnecessary casualties.
When Luke reached the train, he saw a lot of people trying to crawl out of the twisted, deformed doors, but the gap was irregular and small, and it took a long time for someone to come out.
A few people were smas.h.i.+ng the train windows, but the gla.s.s clearly wasn’t something that an ordinary person could break quickly.
Some were trying to open the subway doors, but were pushed around by the crowd, and couldn’t open them for the time being.
This was the predicament of captives in reality.
The best way for all the pa.s.sengers to escape wasn’t something that most people would think about. Even if someone responded properly, they would be unsuccessful under the mad efforts of everyone else trying to escape.
Luke didn’t say anything. He simply walked over to the platform close to the front of the train and broke the train doors open.
He pulled out a few people crowded around the doors and then walked in.
The crowd suddenly paused, and many people exclaimed, “Batman!”
“It’s Batman.”
“Batman’s here to save us.”
Luke’s blood-red lenses flickered, and his signature low electronic voice came out of his armor. “Everybody, make your way to the back of the train. There’s a way out here. Head straight for the exit after you leave. Don’t linger in the subway station.”
He had already grabbed two dazed pa.s.sengers and pushed them out of the car. An electronic voice rang out. “Don’t stop. Keep moving.”
He wasn’t the one who said the words; it was Alfred who continued to repeat them, and even deliberately slowed down so that the pa.s.sengers who heard the calm and cold tone didn’t feel any sense of urgency.
If it were anyone else, the pa.s.sengers wouldn’t be so obedient, but Batman was popular and influential enough.
In just a moment, the chaos of people trying to escape inside the train turned into a normal queue of people exiting the train. They poured out like water and ran for the exit.
Standing at the doors, Luke effectively prevented many people from blocking the way as they tried to force their way out.
He directly grabbed anyone who had such intentions and then stuck them back in line in order to maintain the smoothest flow.
Secondly, many people subconsciously picked up their pace at the doors.
This was a very normal subconscious reaction. It was the instinct of every living creature to get out of danger as soon as possible, and when they were nervous, some people would stumble into the seats or lose their footing.
Luke picked them up and stuck them back in line.
At that moment, it was as if Luke had turned into a proficient a.s.sembly line worker, and he accurately ensured that everyone smoothly exited the train doors.
Once the people exited the train, Luke didn’t care if they collapsed or gasped for breath outside. In any case, the subway station was s.p.a.cious enough, and they wouldn’t block the flow of people still exiting the train.
While his clone was using his Batman ident.i.ty to rescue people, Luke himself arrived.
But instead of going to the subway station, he turned off the police lights and put away his badge, before he went straight to a building not far from the subway station.
The bomb expert and suspected ringleader Targo was probably in this building.
The troublesome thing was that the building had more than 50 floors, and housed a large number of big and small financial companies, with employees and clients everywhere.
Trying to search this place would be near impossible.
It would create too big a commotion, and everybody in New York who was well-informed might find out before a search warrant was issued.
Furthermore, there was almost no chance of getting a search warrant.
Even FBI and Homeland Security could lock down the building only in an emergency.
Luke knew that Targo was here, but he couldn’t report it.
That was because the surveillance feed he had been monitoring was a confidential line which belonged to a private company. It was something he had set up earlier, and he couldn’t reveal this information channel.
Also, he didn’t plan to arrest this guy for now.
Now that the criminals were on the move, Targo, as their leader, would be in close contact with his men.
If he was caught, those people would quickly sense that something was wrong.
These were all terrorists who had proven their ruthlessness with ten explosives.
If their ringleader was really detained, they could simply threaten to set off bombs if he wasn’t released, and the police might have no choice but to comply.
This was why terrorists were more troublesome, since the choices they made at certain moments clearly differed from what regular criminals would do.
Those at the bottom in particular who had been brainwashed would be a lot more p.r.o.ne to acting recklessly if they lost their leaders.
As Luke mulled over this, he and Selina climbed the stairs.
They didn’t dare take the elevator. A normal person would take the elevator straight to the floor they wanted, and wouldn’t stop at every floor.
Security would always be the tightest around the leader of the terrorists; otherwise, it would be too easy to take the group down at the source.
This Targo wasn’t some uneducated criminal.
From Simon’s calls and the strong interference when trying to track the signal, these criminals were very vigilant and familiar with how the police and the FBI worked.
Luke and Selina couldn’t risk exposing themselves to the surveillance cameras in the building since it was very likely that the other party was also monitoring this place.
As they walked up the stairs, the red zones on the 3D model of the building projected onto their lenses turned green.
Little Snail had already ruled out most zones, and was unable to determine if Targo was in the remaining red zones.
The mini drones that had been released beforehand infiltrated these areas one by one.
These mini drones, which were as small as swallows, now had an optical camouflage function. They flew quietly inside the building without anyone noticing.