"No." To Black Widow's surprise, Batman flatly denied her suspicion. "I am not Hydra, either."
"Then why do you care if a Hydra agent lives or dies?" Black Widow froze for a moment.
"I don't," Batman's voice remained low and commanding. "What I care about is that now that I have successfully found and rescued you, I want to know when Hawkeye will complete the task I gave him."
"You—" Black Widow's mouth opened, but only a single syllable escaped before a realization struck her mind like a bolt of lightning across the sky.
In the flash of that insight, all her previous doubts were instantly resolved.
Since Batman was neither Hydra nor a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, yet he knew about the prison known as "The Cube" (Code D-4)—and even knew about the Hydra operative "Crossbones" held there—what did that imply?
It meant that the Tesseract data discovered by the scientists at The Cube had been tampered with, and the person who did it was Batman!
When Black Widow had been stealing Tesseract data from the Adirondack Mountains base, the mysterious figure operating almost simultaneously with her had also been Batman!
Ant-Man and the Wasp were clearly guarding "The Big House" (Code D-2) in secret for S.H.I.E.L.D., yet they had arrested Black Widow the moment they saw her. The reason? Nick Fury had personally contacted them to claim Black Widow was Hydra.
From Nick Fury's perspective, he knew perfectly well that Batman wasn't a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and was more likely to be Hydra.
Therefore, he used this method—effectively pinning Black Widow to the Hydra camp—to force Batman and Black Widow into contact. He wanted her to serve as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mole by Batman's side!
Under the glare of these revelations, every mystery was illuminated.
Black Widow began to notice numerous flaws she hadn't even paid attention to before:
While inside The Big House, she had never once been placed in manacles.
There was no way to contact the outside world from within the Ant-Farm, yet Ant-Man would always inexplicably bring her a cup of coffee. He would let her finish it and never take the cup away.
It was because Ant-Man knew that, sooner or later, Black Widow would break the coffee cup and use a shard to pierce her own foot, using the stimulus to trigger her return to normal size.
During the mission to capture the Hulk a month and a half ago, Black Widow had secretly reported to Nick Fury that the International Security Council had ordered the Hulk be sent to The Cube.
It was Nick Fury who had then issued the order, seizing the opportunity to lock Hawkeye in The Cube. The goal was for Hawkeye and Black Widow to work together from the inside, leading Batman into the trap step by step.
All of this—even if Batman's two infiltrations into Pym Technologies had exceeded Ant-Man's expectations—was orchestrated for the sole purpose of putting Black Widow in direct contact with Batman!
The mysteries in Black Widow's heart were thinning, but a new question surfaced:
"Wait, did you just say Hawkeye told you to rescue me?"
Batman didn't speak, and Black Widow couldn't even figure out where the man was hiding.
"Where is he now?" Black Widow asked again.
"Yokohama, Japan."
A look of confusion crossed Black Widow's face. What was Clint doing in Japan?
But she quickly recalled what Batman had said: "He rescued Black Widow, so when would Hawkeye finish Batman's task?"
Clearly, those two had met long ago without her knowledge and had reached some kind of cooperative agreement.
Nick Fury's entire layout was just to get me close to Batman... when did he first discover there was a person like this in New York? Black Widow asked herself.
A few seconds later, she reached a conclusion: It was definitely before she and Clint Barton had delivered Bruce Banner to The Cube.
Just as the "Daywalker" had barely begun hunting vampires in Japan before being picked up by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s massive intelligence network, S.H.I.E.L.D. had likely started investigating Batman the moment he began operating in New York.
What a cunning old fox. Nick Fury, you son of a bitch! Black Widow cursed inwardly.
In a flurry of thought, Black Widow sorted out her situation.
Now she was by Batman's side while Hawkeye was in Japan. With one on the inside and one on the outside, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s plan had officially commenced.
Natasha, the Black Widow, stopped using deep breaths to make her chest heave.
She knew that against a truly powerful opponent, seduction was often ineffective.
What she needed to do was gain Batman's trust as much as possible—unreserved trust. The kind of trust where, even if Batman were wounded in a fight with Hawkeye, he would drag his scarred body into Black Widow's arms.
Thus, Black Widow spoke:
"You've already met Hawkeye? Since he didn't treat you as an enemy, it seems S.H.I.E.L.D.'s perception was wrong. Perhaps we shouldn't be enemies, but allies."
Yokohama, Japan. Headquarters of the Dark Wind Group.
The katana in the hands of Ronin—Clint Barton—had hacked through so many bones that the supposedly indestructible blade was now riddled with countless notches.
However, there were no corpses lying on the ground around him at this moment. Instead, only a man named Kenji Oyama lay sprawled there.
"Spare me, spare me! What do you want? Just say it and I'll give it all to you!" Kenji Oyama's legs shook violently. He couldn't stop pleading as he looked at the man before him, whose samurai attire was tattered and whose blade was chipped and dulled.
Kenji Oyama didn't even know how many of the Dark Wind Group's thugs that blade had pierced through the throat or how many heads it had claimed recently.
He only knew that no matter how battered the sword was, its tip was currently pressed firmly against his heart. One slight push from the stranger and he would be dead on the spot.
"I need all of the Dark Wind Group's trade records," Ronin said. "I'm only giving you one chance."
"I'll—I'll give them to you!" Kenji Oyama agreed hurriedly. Trade records were nothing; even if Ronin demanded his wife and daughter right now, he would have complied without hesitation. "Just don't kill me!"
"I promise you," Ronin said, glancing at him.
"The server holding the trade records is located in a wine cellar in the Hanamachi district. Here is the key." Kenji Oyama carefully reached out to pull a pendant from around his neck.
"You're lying to me." Ronin didn't even look at the pendant in Kenji's hand. He pressed the katana harder, the tip already puncturing the skin of Kenji's chest.
"I'm not! I'm not lying!" Kenji Oyama struggled desperately, but as the stinging pain radiated from his chest, his crotch grew wet, and a hint of a sob entered his voice. "The server is in the wine cellar! The key is the specific latitude and longitude coordinates of the Dark Wind Group headquarters!"
"Thank you." Ronin's voice softened slightly.
"No, thank you. Thank you for sparing my life, I—"
Kenji Oyama couldn't finish. Ronin's blade had already skewered his heart, twisting left and right to turn the heart that was beating wildly a second ago into a mess of shredded meat.
"I said I'd only give you one chance," Ronin said.
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