amaotonovel Chapter 3857 The Nameless Bat (27)
Chapter 3857 The Nameless Bat (27)
Chapter 3857 The Nameless Bat (Twenty-Seven)
As Natasha roared, a bolt of lightning flashed past the window. Gotham's downpours always seemed to arrive at such inopportune, or perhaps too perfectly timed. The lightning illuminated the pitch-black ground floor, allowing Natasha to see the direction her attackers had fled.
She dashed out like lightning, fully utilizing the explosive power and physical advantages of genetically modified humans. Her linear acceleration was unparalleled; she almost grabbed her opponent's shoulder.
But the other person dodged with a nimble movement and then jumped down the stairs. Natasha ran after them. They descended the stairwell, running down countless floors, until finally, at a corner in a stairwell, the other person rushed into the stairwell.
Natasha didn't rush to chase after him. Instead, she stood at the beginning of the straight stairwell, raised her pistol with both hands, aimed at the figure, and said, "If you run again, I'll shoot. I believe you won't be like me, getting shot anywhere and acting like nothing happened."
“I did underestimate you.” The other person’s voice was lower and hoarser than I had expected, accompanied by a soft sigh. “You and that guy are really quite alike, completely beyond the realm of humanity.”
Natasha slowly advanced, gun in hand, until she was about two meters away from her opponent. She remained vigilant, the muzzle of her gun always aimed at his chest.
“Tell me what happened,” Natasha said. “Who are you? What did you do? Why did you do it?”
“Tell me your reasoning first.” The other person turned around, but her baseball cap was pulled low, the brim obscuring most of her face. Only the outline of her mouth and chin revealed that she was indeed a beautiful woman. Perhaps all beauties are alike; she did indeed resemble Natasha somewhat.
"You managed to rearrange Batman's routine visit schedule, making him miss his routine visit to Amazon, damaging diplomatic relations between the two countries, trying to make Wonder Woman distrust Batman, and sowing discord between them."
"Then, you lured Abedonis in some way, causing him to break the already strong alliance between him and his wife. You deliberately showed yourself to Mrs. Abedonis, letting her see your appearance, pushing her to the brink, forcing her to kill her husband, attacking me, and framing Barbara with testimony containing information about her appearance."
"Next, persuade Luthor to cooperate with you via email, providing him with the photos of me and Batman that you took using Camera 14. With the help of the Luthor Corporation, spread the photos to damage the president's reputation and let the media and the public know of my existence and doubt my identity."
"Then, Barbara was kidnapped, and her hair and footprints were left at her clock tower base, which reminded us of the previous hacking methods and the physical testimony given by Mrs. Abedonis, leading us to suspect Barbara."
“In order to rescue Barbara as soon as possible, we had to force you to show yourself. So I attended this party with the president, and you led me upstairs, making me think that you were waiting for me there to have a showdown, but the person who actually attacked me was the president’s security advisor.”
"After I injure her, you let the reporters storm in, have the security advisor frame me for the switch of my itinerary, and then, combined with my suspected KGB identity, solidify the charge that I am a spy, while also provoking Wonder Woman's displeasure with me. If Batman wants to protect me, the two of them may break off their relationship."
Have you noticed anything suspicious?
Natasha paused, then said, "Of course, there are two major points of doubt. First, regardless of what you wrote in that email to Luther, he shouldn't have agreed to cooperate with you so easily."
As Natasha finished speaking, the woman opposite her took off her hat. She did indeed have red hair and a beautiful face, but her appearance was unfamiliar; Natasha didn't recognize her at all.
“Let me introduce myself,” she said, looking at Natasha. “Lina Luther, Alexander Luther’s sister.”
“No wonder,” Natasha said, narrowing her eyes, “no wonder he was willing to cooperate with you, and even made such a high-profile trip to Gotham by helicopter. Was this something you two planned?”
Lina neither confirmed nor denied it; she simply said, "So, what's the second point of doubt?"
Who took the photos from camera number 14?
“It’s me,” Lina said.
“You’re lying,” Natasha said, staring at him.
Why do you think I didn't take the picture?
Natasha was speechless for a moment. She thought, because the psychiatrist's profile of you is completely inaccurate. Given the choice between "Schiller is wrong" and "the world is wrong," Natasha would usually be more inclined to believe the latter.
Lena is clearly not the asexual person Schiller described. She is very beautiful and knows how to use her beauty. Abidonis was very likely bewitched by her beauty. She is not a learner still exploring, but a master in this field.
Natasha felt confused, and suddenly, an idea popped into her head, making her feel a little dizzy.
Natasha recalled seeing Lena in the crowd; her demeanor was completely unfazed, unsurprised by her lack of reaction to the drugs, her lack of response to the pain of the bullet in her calf, and her ability to take down the security advisor in three moves. Lena Luthor was not at all surprised by the female agent's abilities.
Natasha recalled another of Schiller's words—"No one knows your true strength except me."
Yes, apart from Schiller, no one knew she was genetically modified. But what if they couldn't remove it?
Natasha turned to look at the rain outside the window.
Where is the lightning? Where are the dark clouds? All these things that should appear on a rainy day have vanished. She stood at the end of the corridor, looking at the heavy rain like a lonely, suspended river.
At this moment, the world begins to tilt.
Police cars weaved through the howling wind. The area in front of No. 12 Delhi Street was packed like sardines. Police officers in various uniforms, along with a seemingly endless stream of reporters, stood before that blue door, reporting on what could hardly be called news.
The news of the death was suppressed for 12 hours. Police raced against time to find the killer, but unsurprisingly, they found nothing. When the news finally broke, the Gotham Police Department was under immense pressure. Without Bruce Wayne to work with Gordon, this pressure was more intense than ever, forcing Gordon to halt his consideration of child protection measures and bring Schiller and Nimosini to the crime scene.
Of course, Batman's authorization was also part of his confidence. Since Professor Schiller and Batman didn't believe that having Nimosini at the crime scene would cause her any harm, Gordon could only follow their professional advice. At least, that's how he comforted himself.
Police cleared a path, pushing the reporters aside. Nemosini, completely covered up, followed behind Gordon. She showed no sign of tension from the bloody scene, only a frenzied excitement.
The crime scene was much cleaner than the red-light district. But this luxuriously decorated house was clearly unfamiliar to Nemosini. On her way from the front door to the second-floor bedroom, the young girl absorbed all her knowledge about the floor plan and decorating style. By the time she reached the bedroom door, she could practically have become a luxury home designer.
Gordon pushed open the door, but this time, the body hadn't been moved. This was likely because both of them were dressed, at least covering their private parts. For the first time, Nimosini was able to confront both the killer's body and the crime scene simultaneously. Clearly, this allowed her to unleash her full potential, a level of skill far beyond what she had previously displayed.
Schiller and Gordon stood guard at the door, one on the left and the other on the right. Nimosini went in alone and began to examine the crime scene, circling the body, carefully looking at everything in the room, and then standing still in quiet contemplation.
"How is it?" Gordon asked.
“He’s a copycat. His crime scenes have a unique quality, but that’s not what I’m talking about,” Nimosini said. “If you had let me see the first few crime scenes in their entirety earlier, these cases might not have happened.”
“I’m sorry, but if I had to do it again, I would do the same thing. You’re much more important than the mayor of Gotham,” Gordon said. “Can you spot the killer’s features?”
“I’m thinking about it,” Nimosini said. “The copycat is much more sophisticated than the killer manipulated by the Eden Killer. I can see that he’s trying hard to imitate, although he can’t do it perfectly, but he still adds a lot of distractions for me. I’m investigating.”
"Should we wait for the forensic team?"
“All the evidence is here,” Nimosini said. “Give me two more minutes. I’ll have something for you in two minutes.”
Two minutes passed quickly. As if counting down the seconds in her mind, Nimosini spoke at the very last second:
“It’s a bit difficult, but I can still see some things.” She began pacing around the body and said, “They weren’t killed during their encounter, but rather they were killed separately and then staged to look like the Eden Killer’s kind of crime scene.”
"The mayor wasn't stabbed to death, but strangled and then stabbed. The prostitute had her throat slit by the window and was then placed here."
"The murderer was over 1.85 meters tall, weighed no more than the mayor, and was not strong in the arms. He was wearing a suit and leather shoes. The suit was probably made of light cashmere, and the murder weapon was a silk tie."
“That’s too broad,” Gordon said. “Do you have any more detailed information?”
Nemosini stood there thinking again, clearly feeling the difficulty. He stood there for a long time with a frown before saying, "Right-handed, short hair, tall and slender, wearing an expensive suit... sleeves. The murder weapon was hidden in the sleeves."
She suddenly looked up at Gordon and asked, "Was the knife used to stab them found at the crime scene?"
Gordon shook his head and said, "No, no murder weapon was left at the scene."
“A kitchen knife? No, too wide. A dagger? Too short. An awl? Too thin.” Nemosini began pacing back and forth. Suddenly, she stopped in front of the corpse, walked over, reached out and opened the wound, pulling out a tiny fiber that was almost invisible, stained with blood.
"There was something on the murder weapon. What was it? A feather? Paper? Cloth?...A leather lining!"
Nemosini suddenly screamed, "The weapon pierced through the lined leather! Fabric fibers were pulled into the wound! A sharp, slender, double-edged tool! A..."
Suddenly, her body froze, and she turned to look at the door in disbelief, hearing a voice echoing in her mind: "...a letter opener."
At this moment, the rain and the night each have their own sharp edges, appearance and truth piercing each other. The two women's red hair is like a flame that has been ignited between the primitive and the modern millennia. A river spanning two universes pours down rain at both ends.
Standing at different ends of the corridor, Natasha and Nimosini turned around at the same time, the same familiar face reflected in their different pupils. Through the continuous rain, they heard their own and each other's inner voices, calling out the name sunk to the bottom of this damp and terrifying night: "—Schiller Rodriguez."
I've discovered you guys are really amazing; you even managed to guess Luther's sister!