Chapter 41: Infiltrating SHIELD
On the top floor of a sixteen-story building in Hell's Kitchen—outwardly dilapidated but internally luxuriously decorated—Kingpin stood motionless by the window, leaning on his cane.
"Boss?"
Behind Kingpin, a short man with brown hair and abnormally developed muscles called out.
Kingpin had been standing at the window for over ten minutes, his gaze piercing through Hell's Kitchen, staring at the sky above Manhattan's center.
There, a searchlight beam shot skyward, projecting a bat-shaped symbol.
"Walker, find Maddie's father. I need him to do something for me." Kingpin's broad shoulders turned as he addressed the short but muscular man.
"Maddie? The little girl you saw separated from her father on the street a few days ago?" Walker asked, confused.
Kingpin's voice was deep and gentle, his face bearing the warmth of a loving father.
"Tell him that if he doesn't want to lose his daughter again, he'll climb the Statue of Liberty tomorrow night and demand 'Batman' appear and reveal his true face. I'll pay him handsomely."
"I want to see if this guy is the demon from the rumors or just an ordinary person playing tricks."
"Don't expose me."
Walker lowered his head in acknowledgment and hurried away.
First there was the spandex-wearing guy calling himself "Daredevil" causing trouble throughout Hell's Kitchen, collecting criminal evidence on Kingpin's gang members and asking after Kingpin's whereabouts.
Then there was "Batman" dropping by Hell's Kitchen every few days to deliver Kingpin's people to the police station.
Walker knew perfectly well that Kingpin had been suppressing his fury, but to successfully gain absolute controlling interest in Oscorp, he wouldn't let anyone catch him at this critical moment.
"Three more days. At most three days and I'll have most of Oscorp's shares. Then whether it's Daredevil or Batman, they'll just be clowns."
Kingpin watched his subordinate Walker leave. His hand gripping the cane couldn't help tightening as his gaze continued studying the Bat-Signal over Manhattan.
Meanwhile, on Roosevelt Island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens.
"Very few people have actually seen Kingpin's true face. Only a handful within his entire organization earn his trust."
"All of Kingpin's external expansion orders and dirty money business instructions go through those few people, who then imitate Kingpin in passing orders down the chain. Finding Kingpin is extremely difficult."
"I've now gained preliminary trust from Kingpin, but if everyone else gets injured this time while I'm completely unscathed, that initial trust will shatter quickly."
Black Cat looked at the large man who'd passed out after Batman's violent interrogation. She crouched down, picking up the handgun the man had pulled from his coat, a trace of ruthlessness crossing her face.
Bang!
Pointing the gun at her own thigh, Black Cat pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The bullet didn't connect. Batman's timely grappling hook adhered to the gun, making the bullet graze past her the instant she pulled the trigger.
"You don't need to do that." Batman tossed the gun into the East River, walking before Black Cat with a low voice.
"But I can't let Kingpin suspect me..." Black Cat looked at Batman blankly, unable to think of a better way to fool Kingpin.
"I already thought ahead to this step." Batman turned toward one of the transaction buyers—the nose-ringed woman named Ellie.
She'd been the first to spot Batman standing like a statue in the darkness, even warning the others, though she now lay on the ground.
Black Cat approached Ellie suspiciously and examined her carefully, discovering she'd merely fainted and wasn't injured.
Batman had only knocked her unconscious without breaking half her bones like the others.
"So you'd already planned this?"
Black Cat asked in astonishment. She'd just stood up when the back of her head received a controlled chop from Batman's hand. Her body went limp immediately, collapsing into Batman's arms.
"I plan everything."
Batman said, looking at the unconscious Black Cat. Then one hand extended, pulling her recorder and camera from her sleeve and pocket.
These contained the criminal evidence Black Cat had deliberately mentioned about "Kingpin selling drugs."
Batman didn't completely trust Black Cat, even with her father's murder as motivation.
Currently, he only fully trusted himself. Evidence only felt secure in his own hands.
Not only that, Batman also took a micro-transmitter from his belt and hid it in the white fur collar of Black Cat's deep-V leather outfit.
Collecting evidence and finding Kingpin—Batman had been pursuing both simultaneously.
Only after completing all this did Batman use black webbing to bind the entire group, dumping them at the Queens precinct entrance.
New York's weather tonight wasn't great.
Dense clouds covered the sky, completely obscuring the moon. The pitch-black night made the illuminated Bat-Signal even more conspicuous.
Even with willpower as firm as Batman's, seeing the Bat-Signal gave him a momentary disorientation, as if transported back to Gotham.
But quickly, Batman's gaze refocused. He raised his hand—a strand of black webbing shot out, firmly adhering to a high-rise wall.
Without his cape, temporarily using Spider-Slayer's salvaged glider as replacement, Batman rapidly headed toward Manhattan precinct.
The Bat-Signal's source was Manhattan precinct—also where Batman planned to visit tonight.
He needed to review Dr. Octavius's case files and understand every development in Otto's case.
So Agent Coulson waited bitterly on the precinct rooftop while Batman never appeared, instead infiltrating the station.
Otto's case had just occurred—related materials wouldn't be in the file room yet. After hacking the precinct's internal surveillance to disable it, Batman headed straight for Captain George Stacy's office.
Sure enough, on George's desk, Batman found materials related to Otto's case.
Peter's vision let Batman easily read the records in the pitch darkness. They matched his own judgment:
"Otto's tentacles were controlled by chips, and the chips were destroyed precisely because the precinct used electric stun bullets on him..."
But one thing exceeded Batman's expectations. Besides the precinct's case materials, George's desk prominently displayed a file from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
The materials showed all victims' families had been properly settled. Otto was exempt from punishment for crimes committed without subjective intent, with two potential costs.
One: join the organization and serve it. Two: decline, but accept monitoring—equivalent to losing personal freedom.
This organization's authority exceeded Batman's imagination. They could compress legal procedures that normally took months or years into a single day's results.
"A multinational organization with enormous authority, possessing research rights to the 'Cosmic Cube'..."
A flash of understanding crossed Batman's mind. He understood why his previous CIA hack had yielded so little supernatural data—most of it was in this Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division's hands.
"Perhaps I should hack this mysterious organization to obtain more unknown information about this world," Batman thought.
Three floors above Batman, on the rooftop, Agent Coulson continued his bitter wait.
A head of garlic was clutched tightly in Coulson's palm, his hands already covered with garlic's distinctive pungent odor.
Crackle...
Batman didn't come, but Coulson's earpiece activated first.
"Coulson, give up."
"Why? I'm still waiting to meet Batman personally." Coulson asked quietly, confused.
"While you've been on the rooftop, that guy already hacked into our Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division's systems. We couldn't even stop him," the voice in his earpiece said.
"What?!" Coulson's eyes widened. "Director, are you certain it was him?"
The Director's voice was quite helpless.
"Yes. He reviewed all our internal data right in front of over a dozen senior network technicians, like we were naked prostitutes... He even left a blank file with a bat symbol to tell us who he was."
"The technicians couldn't locate him?" Coulson dropped the garlic, pacing the rooftop anxiously.
"He didn't hide his location at all... He's beneath your feet in the precinct, Agent Coulson," the Director said.
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