*Chapter 41: The Nature of Humanity is ____*

Gotham City's been on edge lately.

Everyone knows Carmine Falcone, the big boss of Gotham's underworld, is pretty steamed. First off, Catwoman and Batman crashed his nephew's wedding, broke into his place, and stole stuff. Then, his company, Falcone Import, suddenly got the cold shoulder from every bank in Gotham. And on top of that, on Halloween night, someone offed his little nephew and torched twenty million bucks.

And they left behind a seriously ugly pumpkin as a taunt.

See? That's just how Gotham's focus is kinda weird. Out of a bunch of major incidents, they always zero in on the strangest, craziest, most off-the-wall detail.

Falcone's different, though. He cares more about his own face and the Falcone family's reputation. So, he put out a hefty bounty. But tough luck, after digging around, the only lead they got was that a "mysterious guy wearing an ugly pumpkin head showed up in the Diamond District."

And they couldn't even follow up on that, 'cause the Pumpkin Guy was only around for ten minutes before he vanished. The only reason anyone even remembers him is that pumpkin head of his was pretty hard to miss.

But Falcone wasn't having that result. He put serious money on that guy's pumpkin head. A whole week went by, and zilch. His authority was taking a hit every day, and his sister Carla, who's also a Falcone family leader, was yelling at him constantly, boiling mad.

"My Johnny! My son is dead! Carmine, if you can't figure out how to catch that damn Pumpkin Guy, I'll handle this my way!"

"Carla, we're the Falcone family, not some street punks. We don't just go around killing innocent people, and we can't lash out with random retaliation."

"Killing innocent people? Don't you think that D.A. Harvey Dent deserves it? How many of the family's operations has he messed up already?"

"This isn't about the family, Carla, we both know it. You only suspect him because he was in the parking lot at Johnny's party. But with his style, he'd be focused on bringing the mob to justice, not picking up a gun, putting on a pumpkin head, and breaking into someone's place to kill 'em."

"Oh, really? What a coincidence, huh? Just happened that Harvey Dent and Gordon were together that Halloween night? Just happened that there was a cop who could give him an alibi? Just happened that the ledger you lost is in his hands? Ask every family member who was outside the warehouse that night, they all saw him flipping through your ledger inside with their own hands."

"Enough!"

Falcone snapped, cutting off his sister's hysterics and her twisted logic. The authority he'd built up as the Godfather was on full display, his powerful presence forcing Carla to shut up.

"Whether or not Dent killed Johnny, we can't be sure. But Harvey Dent definitely has our ledger. If it wasn't a high-level snitch in the family, then he's the only one who could've tracked down that twenty million."

"And that Gordon! And that Batman!"

"Carla, I said, enough. I'm not repeating myself a third time."

The heavily jeweled woman in black was fuming but still followed the Godfather's word, sitting off to the side and sulking.

"Regardless of whether he did the thing with Johnny, he took our stuff, and he's gonna pay for it. I'll handle this."

-----------------

Nearly a week had passed, and Cody felt a little more relaxed.

At least the Roman didn't actually suspect him just because of an ugly pumpkin. That was a good thing. Though, thinking about it, no matter how you slice it, people probably weren't going to connect a new guy who just blew into town and started working at a local mob-run restaurant with a cold-blooded, untraceable psycho killer.

He had no motive, no way he could pull it off, and besides, nobody could even be sure the killer wasn't someone Falcone hired himself.

After all, his own nephew, Johnny, had planned to tell the jury everything he knew about the Roman before the wedding – extortion, bribery, murder, you name it. Back then, everyone figured Falcone would be desperate to shut his own nephew up for good.

But later, the Roman actually paid for Johnny Viti's fancy wedding himself, and on that day, Johnny Viti didn't show up in court to testify as planned. They looked all buddy-buddy, like one big happy family.

Contradiction? What contradiction?

But then again, could someone who'd threatened the Godfather really survive getting on his bad side? Who could ever guess what the Roman was thinking?

Still, just to be safe, he'd convinced Drake to move out of Gotham City with Mrs. Camilla. He even loaned him thirty grand while he was at it.

He was genuinely scared that one day Drake's enemies would come looking for revenge. That jerk was just too good at attracting trouble. It wouldn't be a big deal if they just showed up with guns looking for Drake, but Cody, who was living in the same place, really didn't want to get caught in the crossfire.

Anyway, he didn't have any urgent need for cash. Those major big-money loans that are super common for Americans – car loans, mortgages, student loans, credit card debt – he didn't have any of that.

Didn't go to college here, so no decades of student loan payments hanging over his head. Doesn't buy expensive stuff, never owed anything on credit cards. Renting a place in the East End, seems okay for now. He'll keep renting it after Drake leaves. And he already had a car – that one with the 'spirit ring' was pretty cheap.

Crunching the numbers, Cody actually had some money saved up besides that fifty grand. At least this month's rent wasn't on him.

Drake had pretty much emptied his pockets getting treatment for his wife, so Cody, sticking to his principle of making a buck where he could, gave him a high-interest loan of thirty thousand dollars. If he could make enough money and actually make it out of Gotham alive, then Drake would owe him...

"Wait, what was the interest rate again?"

Cody stared blankly, trying to recall the scene. Seems like they didn't actually agree on an interest rate back then.

"Crap! Lost money!"

"Beep. You have a new gig available. Please check it out."

"Oh, go screw yourself. Two out of three of those last jobs almost got me killed afterwards, and the third one almost offed me on the spot. If I ever take a gig your system gives me again, I'm a dog!"

"Task Reward: Advanced Cooking Mastery"

"Seriously? Still stuck on cooking, huh...?"

Cody grumbled, but his body was honest, and he clicked open the store to check the price of Advanced Cooking Mastery.

"Advanced Cooking Mastery

Price: $20,000

Note: Don't get your hopes up. Cooking that makes food glow is a different price."

"Thanks System Daddy, System Daddy is the best. Give me a kiss, mwah!"