The next second, a swarm of guards surged into the exhibition hall, heading straight for Phantom Thief Kid without a word.
"Quick! Catch Phantom Thief Kid!"
The sudden turn of events left Gordon stunned for a moment.
Bang!
In that instant, Kid threw an object onto the ground with blinding speed. A dense cloud of smoke erupted, shrouding his entire body.
The exhibition hall was vast and open, not an enclosed space. The smoke only lasted a few seconds before dissipating completely.
But Phantom Thief Kid, who should have been in the center of the encirclement, was gone.
"Am I seeing things? Did he just... vanish?"
Everyone present stood frozen in place.
The smoke had cleared so quickly that it was impossible for Kid to have run out of the hall. Furthermore, his white suit was so conspicuous—how could no one have noticed him fleeing?
Yet the fact remained: not a single person in the hall had seen how Kid disappeared right before their eyes.
"What are you standing there for!"
While they were dazed, Gordon marched over, his face ashen with rage.
"Go after him! Now!"
The guards, who had rushed in with such confidence, hurriedly scrambled back out.
"You few, stay here!"
Gordon called over the squad leaders, furiously reprimanding them for leaving their posts.
"Didn't I order you to seal all museum exits? Who told you to come here? Now the exits are unguarded! Kid could escape from anywhere! What the hell are you thinking?!"
The squad leaders were stunned, looking at each other in confusion.
"But... Sir, didn't you personally order us to concentrate all manpower here to arrest Kid? You even said to avoid damaging the museum's collection and not to fire recklessly."
Gordon laughed in anger. "When did I give that order? I—"
His voice cut off abruptly, his expression changing drastically.
"Did you see me give the order with your own eyes?"
He remembered some painful past experiences.
"No, Sir. You ordered us over the radio."
I see.
Gordon relaxed slightly. It seemed Kid wasn't a shapeshifting metahuman like Clayface1. He had likely just used a voice modulator to mimic Gordon's voice...
"Wait! If it was over the radio, I should have heard that order too!"
He hurriedly pulled out his walkie-talkie to inspect it. Strangely, it appeared undamaged. It turned on normally and could switch channels. It didn't look tampered with.
Gordon thought for a moment, switched to the channel for the Team Two Leader standing in front of him, and called out, "Team Two Leader."
"Team Two Leader!"
The voice came through immediately.
But it didn't come from the Team Two Leader's radio.
In that moment, even the dullest person knew something was wrong.
The group looked around, searching for the source of the sound. Then, in unison, they turned their gaze toward the glass case of the Goddess's Tear.
Or rather, to the spot where Phantom Thief Kid had just been standing.
A black walkie-talkie, identical to the one in Gordon's hand, lay quietly on the floor.
Gordon's message to the Team Two Leader hadn't been received by the leader; it had been received by this radio.
"Don't tell me..."
Suspecting the worst, Gordon switched to Team One's channel. The signal transmitted to Kid's radio again!
Furthermore, any messages the others tried to send to Gordon also rang out from that radio on the floor.
"This is my radio."
Gordon picked up the device Kid had left behind, a storm raging in his heart.
His radio had been swapped by Kid from the very beginning. Every deployment order he gave was transmitted to Kid first, and then Kid relayed false orders to the police squads.
That was why Gordon never heard the command to gather everyone, issued by Kid in his name.
"But when did he swap it?"
No matter how hard Gordon thought, he couldn't figure out how Kid had made the switch.
"Unbelievable. This is simply unbelievable."
As he pondered, Gordon suddenly felt something was missing from the scene.
"Has anyone seen Curator Zack?"
Meanwhile, on the third floor of the museum's second wing, two people arrived at a room labeled "Archives."
One of them was Curator Zack, who had been in the Gem Hall just moments ago.
"Phantom Thief Kid has already fled with the Goddess's Tear. Shouldn't we issue an APB immediately? Is it really necessary to check here?" Zack asked hesitantly.
"Of course it's necessary, Mr. Curator. After all, Kid might have created a realistic fake to make us think he fled with the real one, drawing all our attention to the pursuit. That would allow him to search for the Goddess's Tear here without hindrance."
"As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest place. We cannot rule out the possibility that Kid is using this tactic."
A calm male voice sounded behind Zack.
"The Archives... doesn't seem like a good place to hide a gem," the man said, scanning the room.
"Indeed, it's not exactly a hard-to-find secret location. But as you just said, the most dangerous place is the safest, Commissioner Gordon."
Zack revealed the man's name.
It was Jim Gordon!
Moments ago, when the guards flooded the hall and Kid deployed the smoke bomb, the chaotic scene had dazzled Zack. Suddenly, he felt someone pulling him away. If he hadn't heard Gordon's voice, he would have thought he was being taken hostage by Kid.
Afterward, Gordon told Zack that he needed to personally verify whether the Goddess's Tear had been stolen. When Kid showed them the gem, they were at a distance. Even a professional appraiser couldn't guarantee the authenticity of a gem from that far away.
If the Goddess's Tear was still safe, they needed to move it immediately to prevent any loss to the museum today.
Zack felt Gordon made a lot of sense, so he led him to the gem's hiding spot.
He dug out a small metal safe from a pile of old files. After entering a password and using a key, he finally opened it.
Seeing the gem sitting safely inside, joy washed over Zack's face.
"Commissioner Gordon, Kid really was lying to us! I knew he couldn't know the Goddess's Tear was hidden here."
"Yes. Now, please hand the Goddess's Tear over to me. The GCPD will protect it," Gordon coaxed.
Zack intended to agree readily, but he suddenly felt a strange sensation. The hand he had extended pulled back.
"But... hasn't Kid already escaped? It doesn't seem necessary to take the gem back to the GCPD now..."
Mid-sentence, a wave of intense drowsiness washed over him. Zack's body swayed, and his vision went black.
The gem slipped from his hand.
Fortunately, a white-gloved hand caught it just in time.