Chapter 115: Pay More
Rat-tat-tat-tat.
The moment the Humvee Tony Stark was riding in flew into the air, gunfire erupted, bullets pouring toward the other armored vehicles in a frenzy.
The armored Humvee carrying Tony Stark had its front end blown apart by the missile. Then with a thunderous crash, it slammed back down to earth, the hood belching thick smoke and flames.
Tony Stark's mind went blank.
Although he was an arms dealer, he'd always lived in a peaceful environment. He'd never imagined that one day a terrorist attack would happen to him.
Another missile shrieked in from the distance. Tony glanced at the soldier who'd passed out inside the armored vehicle and forced the door open with all his strength.
This Humvee could explode into a fireball at any moment under the bombardment. Tony had to get away from here.
Through bullets, explosions, and smoke, Tony Stark stumbled toward some rocks in the distance, hoping to use them as cover to send a distress signal.
He quickly pulled from his pocket a phone with half its screen shattered. Only then did Tony Stark finally see the text messages Batman had sent after his calls wouldn't go through:
"I'm Batman. You're in danger. Immediately take shelter in any available cover. Send a distress signal so I can find you."
Beep beep beep...
Tony Stark thought back to the phone call Colonel Rhodes had received before boarding the armored Humvee. His fingers flew across the phone's keypad.
But at that precise moment, a missile flew in from the distance, landing with a thud in the dirt beside the rocks where Tony Stark had taken shelter.
In the instant before the missile exploded, Tony Stark saw the words on its side: "Stark Industries."
The next second, the missile detonated. The violent shockwave hurled Tony Stark through the air. He hit the ground hard.
Even though he had body armor under his suit for protection, the metal shrapnel from the close-range explosion still penetrated it, gradually staining Tony Stark's white shirt red.
Batman couldn't establish contact with Tony Stark. His warning had come to nothing.
He needed to get into Stark Tower and find evidence that Obadiah was the mastermind behind all of this.
"The previous times I visited Tony Stark, his Jarvis AI only operated on the top floor, in Tony's private area."
"But that doesn't mean his Jarvis isn't connected to Stark Tower's internet. To avoid alerting them, I need to anticipate this possibility."
Batman didn't rush immediately to Stark Tower. Instead, he set about upgrading the Oracle AI integrated into his Arkham suit.
Due to hardware limitations like computer performance, even though the Oracle AI was ahead of Tony Stark's Jarvis AI in certain aspects, it still couldn't provide comprehensive assistance.
Batman needed to prepare in advance.
"Once Alice buys a building in Manhattan according to my instructions, I'll need to bring Alfred online."
Thinking of Alfred, Batman's constantly heightened state of tension eased slightly, but he immediately returned to the work at hand.
The Alfred AI would require massive server clusters along with even more massive cooling and power systems to support it—temporarily beyond what Batman could currently possess.
Two hours later, Batman completed the temporary upgrade to the Oracle AI.
Wearing the Arkham suit, Batman used his cape to glide from a high building into the top floor of Stark Tower, arriving at Tony Stark's private area without alerting anyone.
Using the workstation there to quickly locate Obadiah Stane's office, Batman then stealthily made his way through the ventilation ducts, dropping down from the ceiling of Obadiah's office.
Obadiah wasn't in his office at the moment. He was currently in a conference room two floors below Batman, conducting a board meeting.
"Obadiah used Hydra to snipe Eddie Brock and exploited the media pressure I created to lure Tony Stark into going to the Middle East for a missile demonstration."
"This would have happened eventually. The media storm I created just accelerated the timeline."
Batman hadn't yet collected any evidence that Obadiah might attack Tony Stark, but that didn't prevent him from analyzing and making deductions based on Ajax Security and the act of separately providing weapons to the Hydra agent who sniped Eddie.
"Bold hypothesis, careful verification" applied not only to scientific research but equally to seeking the truth in cases.
Batman's fingers flew across the keyboard, hammering away like a storm. The Jarvis AI showed no reaction.
Whether or not it had already taken over Stark Tower's network and security systems, at least in Batman's eyes it could now be ignored—the Oracle AI had launched an attack on it the very first second Batman entered the building.
As Batman operated, the computer screen flashed rapidly, each page remaining in Batman's view for no more than three seconds.
"If they weren't attacked on the route to the demonstration site, then they'll definitely strike on Tony's return journey."
"Ordinary terrorist organizations can't inflict serious damage on a fully armed armored convoy."
"But Obadiah is the power behind Ajax Security. If he's been planning an operation against Tony for some time, then the weapons in their hands are definitely Stark Industries munitions—possibly even including missiles."
Batman multitasked, quickly finding the heavily encrypted Ajax Security logistics records hidden in Obadiah's computer.
These records stretched back seven years, with the most recent entry from just two days ago—the record for the rifle used to snipe Eddie Brock.
"The Hydra operative didn't carry weapons on the mission but needed to purchase them temporarily."
"This seems bizarre, but if I follow my earlier reasoning—that this Hydra agent's primary task was another operation, coordinating with someone inside SHIELD—then not carrying weapons makes perfect sense."
"Barbara, copy and organize all these records."
Batman spoke to the Oracle AI. He had no intention of reviewing and investigating these records on the spot—he'd let the Oracle AI handle that first.
Obadiah could return at any moment. Batman wasn't planning to move against him immediately.
Batman wasn't certain whether Hydra existed within Stark Industries, or whether anyone besides Obadiah Stane was involved in the channel through which weapons flowed to the black market.
Batman needed to take down the entire network, not just pull out this thorn that showed on the surface.
Besides, even if he arrested Obadiah now, it wouldn't mean much for Tony Stark, currently far away in the Middle East.
In Batman's view, he'd already accepted that Tony Stark would face danger. One of his purposes in reviewing these records included planning how to rescue Tony.
To Batman, investigating the weapons flow and rescuing Tony were the same task. According to his deduction, the terrorist organization cooperating with Obadiah was using Stark weapons. Rescuing Tony wouldn't just save a life—it was key to severing this weapons chain.
As Batman rapidly searched and copied all of Ajax Security's information, just as he finished and was about to leave—
Ding.
Obadiah's encrypted private email suddenly showed a notification for a new message.
Batman glanced at the office door he hadn't locked, used Peter Parker's superhuman hearing to confirm no one was in the hallway outside, then opened the email.
It was a video email. When Batman clicked it open, the screen showed four or five terrorists holding Stark Industries weapons. Between them, Tony Stark was tied to a chair, eyes tightly closed, lips pale.
His chest was wrapped in bandages. The carefully styled hair was now disheveled, his face covered in dirt and dust—he looked utterly miserable.
Behind Tony Stark and the armed men, a dark red banner hung on the wall, displaying ten rings forming one larger ring, with two crossed swords in the very center.
'Tony has lost too much blood. Just as I predicted, he was attacked and has now been captured by terrorists.'
Batman immediately assessed Tony Stark's condition.
"Obadiah Stane, this is Gulmira." A voiceover began, speaking not in English but in Pashto.
Batman didn't need translation—he was a master of languages himself.
"You didn't tell us that the target you wanted us to assassinate was this Tony Stark. You must pay a price for your lies and deception... The price for assassinating Tony Stark has gone up!"
"You need to transfer eighty million dollars to our account before we can continue our pleasant cooperation."
The video email lasted only a dozen seconds, but it boiled down to one sentence: "Pay more."
Without a second's hesitation, Batman immediately transferred—not copied—this email to the computer housing the Oracle AI.
After clearing all records related to this email and writing on the spot a program that would directly transfer subsequent emails from the Middle East to Batman's computer, Batman finally left.
Batman needed to keep that organization in a state of not receiving payment, thereby keeping Tony Stark alive.
For a terrorist organization motivated purely by profit, a living Tony Stark was far more valuable than a dead one.
Several hours later, in a cave in the Middle East, Tony Stark was awakened by the foul, damp cave air.
He felt intense pain throughout his entire body. His limbs were weak, his mouth and throat parched.
Tony Stark coughed a few times. Memories flooded back like a tide. He remembered everything that had happened before.
The missile demonstration, the ambush, Stark weapons...
Tony Stark looked at where he was lying. Not far away, someone had his back turned, shaving. On a rock near his head sat a grimy, blackened cup of water.
If this were before, he would never touch such a thing.
But now he was both thirsty and weak. Tony Stark didn't think much about it and rolled over, trying to grab the cup.
But halfway through the motion, Tony Stark felt something pulling him back. The cup toppled and spilled on the ground.
"If I were you, I wouldn't do that." The man shaving heard the commotion but didn't turn around, simply speaking up.
Tony Stark looked in confusion toward his other side. There was a wooden table with a car battery on it.
Two wires extended from the battery, connecting to Tony Stark's body, the connection points hidden beneath the bandages on his chest.
"Cough..."
Tony Stark felt somewhat helpless. Clumsily, he tore open the bandages. He saw what the battery wires connected to: an electromagnet hollowed into his chest cavity and installed there.
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