Chapter 2094: Knight's Terrifying Night (36)_1
"Lieutenant Williams, have you arrived at the designated location?"
The voice on the phone sounded slightly anxious. The man called Lieutenant Williams furrowed his brows, unsure of how to explain the current situation to his superior.
The positioning wasn't wrong, but they didn't see any equipment. Just as Williams was about to speak, his superior lowered his voice and said, "Alright, David, forget about the damned military gear, do you understand what I'm getting at?"
Williams deeply furrowed his brow, the unique weather-beaten skin of a Caucasian American creased, each line etched with confusion.
"Do you know how Duncan was promoted? Alright, let's not talk about that. All you need to know is, in two hours, there will be a congressional inquiry about the Gotham disaster. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bruce Wayne will attend, and there will be a press conference later."
"Whatever it takes, make Bruce Wayne shut up! David, after hanging up, proceed immediately. I want to hear good news from you within an hour!"
The call was hung up, and before Williams could react, a heavy look flashed across his forehead, seeming to struggle internally. But his subordinate had already approached him.
"What do we do now, boss? I'm sure someone interfered with our positioning signal. Our communication tech is crap. Should we request support from headquarters?"
A struggle flashed across Williams' eyes, then he waved his hand, indicating for everyone to get in the vehicle and said, "The mission has changed, we have to…we have to make a trip to Wayne Manor…"
The vehicle bounced toward the end of the road, but before making the turn, a truck was blocking the road.
In an instant, everyone on board grabbed their weapons, but then a stretched limo drove up and parked next to the special forces vehicle. Behind the bulletproof glass, a chubby man with a hooked nose smiled at them.
The military wouldn't put all its eggs in one basket. After discovering Bruce Wayne's real plan, they urgently dispatched a 28-man special squad to Gotham.
This number wasn't what the surgical operation to erase traces required; this squad was complete with combat personnel, logistics personnel, and signal soldiers — not one less. Three trucks with sufficient supplies, the most advanced weapons, and standby air support.
It can be said that if it was any other place, the squad would be enough to occupy a city. The military, in order to control the situation in Gotham, were throwing caution to the wind. If the previous missile bombing had worked, they would have certainly deployed their favourite strategy of air raids.
The vehicle drove straight, the soldiers inside had grim expressions. They weren't green, stationed not far from Metropolis, they knew how dangerous Gotham was.
Suddenly, a horn sounded from the leading vehicle, a loud bang was heard, followed by slightly panicked screams.
The driver of the final military vehicle got down to find a huge tree root blocking their path.
Just as the engineer wanted to clear the obstruction, a candy-coloured smoke bomb with streamers exploded, knocking everyone in the front over.
A figure holding a large hammer stepped out of the smoke. Harley Quinn spit out her gum, touched her nose and said, "Aha, right on time."
Poison Ivy stood on the roof of a building and looked down at the madness below. Harley Quinn, leading the Joker Gang, and the military personnel were going at it back and forth.
It was almost time. Poison Ivy descended from the ancient tree and called out to Harley Quinn. Then, using the vines, she bundled all the soldiers into one vehicle.
The ground forces lost contact, and the air forces certainly couldn't stand by. However, the situation in the city was too weird, and they only dared to send drones to investigate.
The drone came, but it couldn't transmit any signals back before crashing into the Gotham Bridge.
It'd be a fool's errand to send more troops in. Deploying fighter jets would risk losing pilots. More importantly, after all the turmoil, the military still hadn't gained any useful leverage against Bruce Wayne by the time the inquiry began.
With things having come this far, they couldn't get any concrete evidence, but the military had a favourite trick, and that was creating a scene and blaming others.
The light turned on, the heavy door was pushed open by the assistant, and a stern-faced, well-dressed Bruce Wayne strode toward his seat.
The moment he appeared, the entire venue fell silent, everyone instinctively sensed that something was off with Bruce Wayne today.
The oppression brought on by a man who had spent half his life crafting a persona to instil fear was terrifying. The person who came wasn't Bruce Wayne, but Batman.
With stakes so high, one step forward meant changing Gotham's future, and one step back meant the dissolution of Wayne Enterprises.
Finally, there was a situation where he couldn't use any civilized external pretense, or his playboy image to bluff his way through. What else could Batman possibly do, if not take the stage?
Batman stood at his seat and the whole room focused on him.
"Mr. Bruce Wayne."