amaotonovel Chapter 3858 The Nameless Bat (28)
Chapter 3858 The Nameless Bat (28)
Chapter 3858 The Nameless Bat (Twenty-Eight)
"Agent Romanov? Agent Romanov?!"
Natasha heard someone calling her and forced her eyes open. The blinding light reminded her of the white light she had seen before losing consciousness—shining in through the rain-soaked glass, defying all laws of physics, both exceptionally cold and exceptionally gentle.
Natasha opened her eyes, and the instant she saw Schiller's face, she instinctively reached out and grabbed Schiller's neck.
Schiller didn't speak, only letting out a very low, breathy sound. Natasha snapped out of her reverie, noticing his furrowed, unusually sharp eyebrows and drooping brow ends.
“I’m sorry, Agent, I’m just not fully awake yet.” Natasha withdrew her hand.
“Do you remember what happened?” Schiller asked.
Natasha frowned, began to recall, and then said, "After my encounter with the president's security advisor, reporters stormed in, and I spotted a redhead in the crowd. I chased after her, and she told me her name was Lena Luther..."
"Luther?"
“Yes, she said she was Lex Luthor’s sister.” Natasha took a breath and continued, “We talked about what she had done before, I pointed out some suspicious points, and then…”
"Then what happened?"
“I realize something’s wrong,” Natasha said, turning to Schiller. “Where is Moon Knight now?”
"Remember when the Justice League was going to build a base in Gotham? Now all the Justice League members have gone to the site selection, and Batman seems to be planning to perform a magic trick for them."
"Magic? What magic?"
"To conjure a building out of thin air, using magic."
"Using magic? That means he really did obtain energy from Mount Olympus. The gods are dead?"
"Most of them were drained by Batman, but some remained on Mount Olympus. He plans to use the Justice League's power to deal with them, but that's a matter for later."
“I’m not going to joke around anymore,” Natasha said, staring seriously at Schiller. “How much do you really know about what’s happening in this universe?”
"Unfortunately, I don't know as much as you do, madam."
"Lina Luther has admitted that she took the photos from camera 14. Now there are only two possibilities: either she is lying, or Schiller is lying."
“I don’t think Schiller would lie about his professional matters,” Schiller said with certainty. “He might conceal some facts, or deliberately add some misleading statements, but he would never lie or say anything wrong in matters of professional importance.”
“But Lena is clearly not the kind of person he’s talking about,” Natasha said. “While I don’t have mind-reading abilities, I’m still a professionally trained Black Widow. Lena Luther is a very beautiful woman, and she knows how to use that beauty. There’s no way she’s someone who’s completely oblivious to sexual attraction.”
“That proves that something must have gone wrong.” Schiller remained calm. “Something must have caused a conflict between the facts and the judgment.”
“Should I believe you?” Natasha looked at him and said, “You are one person, you are definitely in cahoots. Any explanation you give could be an attempt to cover up his crimes.”
"You realized this before you even spoke, but you still chose to ask me. This proves that your doubts outweigh your distrust of me, and you need my help to analyze the situation. So let's skip the mutual probing and analyze where the problem actually lies."
Natasha opened her mouth, still somewhat unaccustomed to Schiller's realistic and decisive style of speaking and acting. The entire conversation moved at an incredible pace, making even someone like her, who hated wasting time, feel a sense of urgency that left her breathless.
That's the complete opposite of greed, that kind of pay thief. Natasha thought that if she were the head of the FBI, no, even if she were Nick Fury, she would want to give Agent Rodriguez a raise.
“How do you plan to analyze this?” Natasha asked.
"It's very simple. I'll ask and you'll answer, or you'll ask and I'll answer, until we match the questions and answers one by one."
“You ask,” Natasha said.
"Who emailed Lex Luthor?"
“Nobody,” Natasha said. “Because Lena Luthor is Lex Luthor’s sister, they don’t need to communicate by email. Luthor said he received an email with an untraceable source to help Lena frame Barbara, since only Barbara has that kind of hacking skill.”
"Okay. Who sent the email to the thugs who attacked our car?"
"Lina Luther. She knew that only the Gotham Police Department would investigate that thug's emails, and the police department's technical level was not high enough. They didn't need any sophisticated cover-up methods to make it impossible for them to find the source of the emails, and thus they would use the emails as evidence of the other party's high level of hacking skills, which was also to frame Barbara."
"Who killed Abedonis?"
"Lina Luther. The Abedonians were involved in the Atlantic Rim Reserve Fund established by her brother. Through this fund, she sowed discord between the Abedonians and ultimately provoked Mrs. Abedonians to kill Mr. Abedonians."
"Who orchestrated this conspiracy involving your affair with the president?"
"Lex Luther. He claims to have been instructed by the person in the email, but it was actually a conspiracy between him and his sister. He released the photos to undermine the legitimacy of the president's policies, thereby delaying the implementation of certain financial bills."
Who arrived in Gotham by helicopter in such a high-profile manner?
"Lex Luthor. He wanted to test Batman's attitude towards him and spread rumors that the president was against him to ensure that Batman wouldn't take action against him anytime soon."
Who kidnapped Barbara?
"Lina Luther. She took her from the clock tower and left her hair and footprints to mislead investigators, making them connect previous clues and believe that Barbara Gordon was the mastermind behind the whole conspiracy."
"Who stirred up diplomatic relations between the United States and Amazon?"
"Lina Luther. She managed to tamper with the president's schedule, bribed an intern on the security advisory team, and tried to pin it all on me."
“Very good. Of all the answers, only two names have now appeared: Lena Luthor and Lex Luthor. That means this is all a conspiracy by the Luthor siblings.”
"On the surface, that does seem to be the case, but there are some doubts. Now, let me ask you this: If you say Schiller wouldn't give wrong professional advice, then why isn't Lena the person he describes?"
“Because Lena Luther lied, or rather, she didn’t tell the whole truth,” Schiller said. “She did take the photos, but what did she use to do that?”
"Isn't it camera number 14?"
"Yes, but did she control the cameras through network intrusion, or did she directly enter Wayne Enterprises and control the cameras?"
"Wasn't it through Abidonis, the head of Wayne's information security department?"
"But you also think it doesn't look like a photo taken by Abidonis. Besides, as the head of the information security department, he's been in that position for so many years. He wouldn't be so clueless as to not even know the location of the cameras in the banquet hall, and would have to repeatedly adjust the cameras, even bringing out cameras from the nooks and crannies to test them. This is enough to prove that the person who took the photo doesn't understand Wayne Corporation, so it can't be an insider."
“You’re really confusing me,” Natasha said. “You still haven’t answered my question. Lina herself admitted that she took the photo, but it contradicts another conclusion you reached. How did this happen?”
“Think carefully,” Schiller said, looking into Natasha’s eyes. “How did she take those photos?”
"Camera number 14! I told you!"
"So who took the photo?"
"Lina Luther. She admitted it herself!"
"What method did Lina use to take these photos?"
"Camera number 14... Oh, no way. You're not trying to say something like 'the gun killed the person, not me,' are you?"
"Why not? Remember our initial guess?"
“You mean…electronic life?” Natasha frowned deeply. “You mean, even though the photos were taken by Lena Luther, the camera has its own thoughts?”
"Is this not possible?" Schiller said.
Natasha pondered in silence, her finger lightly tapping the bed railing. She said, "Do you think the Luther siblings knew that some strange creatures might have infiltrated their conspiracy?"
Schiller shook his head and said, “I don’t think they know. Although they are very intelligent, they probably don’t have the ability to discern a person’s character and state of mind from a single photograph. The oversight is too subtle for these self-important genius siblings to notice.”
“But I still don’t understand,” Natasha continued. “After the cameras took the photos, didn’t Lena Luther check them? Didn’t she notice anything wrong with the photos? And she just released them like that?”
"The world is a giant makeshift operation. Lena Luther claims she took the photo, but it's more likely she instructed Abidonis, who instructed his staff, who then instructed a new intern. The intern frantically searched through all the cameras but had no idea how to operate them. In the end, the camera automatically focused and took a passable picture. Everyone felt they had accomplished their task, so they simply handed the photo over to the newspaper."
"But if the photos are released and they see them on the news, won't they find it strange?"
"Like I said, not everyone has the ability to imbue photos with spiritual power. The Luther siblings are clearly very practical people. The photos were released, the public opinion was ignited, and people started speculating—their goal was achieved. Why should they care about the subtle differences in the poses of the two of you in the photos?"
“They’re really arrogant,” Natasha said.
“There’s another point of contention,” Schiller said, “regarding the diplomatic relationship between the United States and Amazon. Do you think simply changing the schedule could cause Batman to get his routine visit wrong?”
Natasha pondered, then her eyebrows furrowed slowly. She shook her head and said, "Absolutely impossible. Putting aside Batman's memory, his diplomatic team isn't just for show. Luthor might be able to bribe one or two, but not all of them? Didn't anyone warn him?"
“That’s the problem. None of Batman and his diplomatic team noticed anything was wrong. Admittedly, it was his mistake, but it’s not so easy to create a mistake like that. If Luthor could do that, they wouldn’t have had to go through all this trouble.”
"But the fact that Lena Luther used this to frame me proves that she must have known about it, and it is very likely that she did it."
“I’ll say it again, this was a conspiracy she devised, but that doesn’t mean she carried it out herself.” Schiller shook his head and said, “People like the Luther siblings are rule-makers from birth. How much experience do they have in carrying out the work at the lower levels? Don’t they just order their subordinates around?”
"From their perspective, success was a given, because they had devised a perfect plan with their intelligence. But from the perspective of us agents, it was clear that their plan would have faced numerous difficulties, or even been an impossible task. Yet everything went as they expected. Their pride and arrogance caused them to miss too many subtle anomalies, like a grain of sand falling on their coffin."
“Batman must have sensed it too,” Natasha said. “So even though he noticed something was wrong so early on, he didn’t take any action to stop it. He was more interested in knowing what was behind the scenes driving the plan than the Luthor siblings.”