Chapter 11: The Hit Part 3

I woke up in a cage. Talia sat in the corner across from me, her head hidden behind her crossed arms. I groaned as I tried to stand.

"I would stay seated if I were you," Came a voice from outside the prison cell. There was a tall, black man standing there with his hands in the pockets of an exquisitely tailored black and white suit. His face matched his suit- a square, clean-shaven jaw and hard but welcoming features. Welcoming, that is, except for a pair of eyes that were as cold and gray as the arctic. Behind him, Deadshot sat in a chair against a stone wall methodically cleaning several guns.

"The Black Bishop, I presume?" I asked.

"Oh, please, that is just a title and I hope to be rid of it soon," he replied amicably. "My name is Adam Waller, but you can call me Mr. Waller or 'Agent'"

"Agent, huh? C.I.A., then?" His accent was American, so I emphasized my own in the hope that I could get some more information.

"Oh no," Waller said with a laugh. "My division is far blacker than that. My team does work that is so under the table it may as well be underground. There have been several presidents who weren't even aware of it."

I shuddered at his flippant description of the nature of his organization. In my study under Ra's al Ghul I had learned the secrecy was power. No law was powerful enough to stop someone from doing whatever they want as long as no one ever knew that they did it. I tried not to let my level of intimidation show and asked instead:

"How did you know we would come through the front gates?"

"I didn't. I am actually quite surprised that you two came that way. I had a very carefully laid trap that involved you attempting to obtain access through the southeast corner and infiltrating the barracks. I even had 'Flight of the Valkyries' ready to play as we rained bullets down on you." To prove his point, he pulled out a cell phone with that very song pulled up.

"Then how were we caught?"

"Well, every carefully laid plan certainly has merit, but I would certainly not be so stupid as to leave the front gates unguarded," I grimaced as the weight of my foolishness dropped into my gut. The look on my face only seemed to arise a soft chuckle from Adam Waller. "Don't take to much offense, son. My organization is called 'Checkmate' for a reason."

I gave a half-hearted chuckle myself. "For a black-ops government operative, you sure are loose-lipped about your secrets."

"That is because you will be dead long before you ever leave this base." My stoic expression died quickly. Under the tutelage of the Demon's head, I had become used to threats, but within the gaze of Waller's cold, blue eyes, I saw no threat.

I saw a promise.

"Then what do you want with us?" I whispered. "Why bother keeping us alive?"

"Because you have the most valuable currency in the world: Information. I have heard a great deal of the League of Shadows, but the leader has always intrigued me. Who is this Ra's al Ghul? What gives him the authority to rule over this League? Do you know what I think?" I silently awaited the rhetorical questions answer. "I think he is no ordinary man. I think he may possess some sort of superpower. I want you to tell me everything you know about him."

So. That was what he wanted. I smiled at him. My shoulders even rocked a little from a humorless giggle. I sat back down and leaned my head back against the stone wall. I may know next to nothing about Ra's al Ghul, but there was no way that this 'agent' was going to get me to betray my master. Adam showed the first signs of frustration on his face as he pursed his lips and looked down at me through the bars.

"Yeah okay, funny guy. Have your laugh. That is about the same response we got from her," he tilted his head towards Talia. "But I was really hoping that you would be a bit more compliant. Let me try a different route. I know you have some American blood in you, and this is a matter of national security. What do you say to being loyal to your country?"

I was doomed, but the helplessness of my situation only made it funnier to frustrate Waller. "Tough luck, Agent. That hasn't been my country for years."

"Damn you!" He shouted. This drew the attention of Deadshot, briefly; who didn't exactly startle but aimed a deadly attention at me as he grasped his pistol tighter. "Listen, you wanabe Bruce Lee," Waller continued, pointing directly into the cell. "Forget your selfishness for a second and think! Everyone on the planet is ignoring the issue at hand here with superpowered beings, but I am not. Have you seen what goes on in the world? Do you know what is going on in Metropolis?"

I did know, actually. Nanda Parbat was remote, but Ra's' informants were global. We had heard of the Man of Steel who had been flying around Metropolis lifting cars, catching bullets, freezing rivers and melting metal with his eyes. It was an awe-inspiring display of power.

"I know about Superman. Isn't he one of the good guys?"

"For now, maybe. Until he changes his mind," Waller seemed to have restored some of his earlier composure. "You and I are both old enough to have stopped believing in 'good guys' and 'bad guys.' What is to stop Superman from one day pushing the moon out of orbit, or robbing every bank in one night, or slaughtering every member of the United States government and declaring himself king? Nothing. We can't do anything about it.

"And there are more of these powers popping up everywhere whether you know it or not. I know the consensus right now it to let things be and be happy that these gods among us are behaving, but I won't stand for it. I want deterrence. I want to be able to lift these men and women over my head as the saviors of humanity while having the ability to put them down if need be. Do you understand what is at stake? Will you talk to me now?"

I was stunned. This kind of information gathering- finding weak points, back-ups, and strategies to keep your opponent from gaining the upper hand- was all too familiar to me. He has also highlighted a threat that I had foolishly not considered up to this point. Yes, I understood him perfectly, but I was still bound by my loyalty.

I shook my head.

"Very well. Let it not be said that I am an impatient man," Waller straightened and adjusted his suit jacket. "You have until morning to willingly give me the information. Otherwise, I will have to find... lower means of extracting information."

Waller immediately left the room. Deadshot stood up to follow, but took a moment to look me in the eye and wink before leaving.

It was quiet in the cell. Talia maintained her silence and I was hesitant to disturb her. It was my fault that we were stuck here. I should have reacted! I should have- could have- fought back the guards at the entrance, but the bats. The damn bats. I shook my head- this train of thought was getting me nowhere. First order of business: escape.

"Where are we?" I wondered aloud to myself.

"Underground," Talia said. I spun around at the sound of her voice. Her head was still hidden by her hair and arms, but I could hear her well enough. "At least two hundred feet. The walls are concrete and the bars are galvanized steel. There are three guards posted at all times outside the door. I counted the footsteps during each guard exchange." That was Talia. Always analytical, gathering as much intel as possible at all times.

"How are you," I asked. I couldn't accurately remember the fight and I didn't know if she had been hurt.

"Angry," she replied.

I felt the knife in my stomach twist. I had failed her. "Talia, I-"

"-At myself!" she interrupted. Her head whipped up and her eyes locked in on mine. They were bloodshot and crazed. "You were incapacitated. I should have left you behind. The mission is first! The will of Ra's al Ghul always comes first!" Something broke in her expression then, and I saw weakness in her eyes. Something I had never seen in her before. "But I stayed behind. I tried to save you when I had ample opportunity to escape. I was stupid, and I failed my father!"

Talia's head dropped out of sight. I was at a loss for words. I tried, vainly, to say something that could bring her comfort but my mind refused to find any word that might be useful. Soon, though, I heard a noise coming from across the room. I realized it was Talia chuckling softly.

"May I tell you a story?" She asked after a few moments of chuckling. I nodded my head and decided to wait to evaluate her sanity. She smiled in response, but then stared through the wall to recount the tale. "It is a true story, as far as I am told. My father used to tell me about a king. The king had a vast kingdom and a great deal of wealth, but he was becoming old. He had no legitimate sons, and no illegitimate ones that he would trust with the kingdom, and his health was failing.

"He spent a vast fortune searching from horizon to horizon for someone to bring him what he desired: immortality. It took months, but there finally appeared a solution. And alchemist and his wife from southern Sudan claimed that they had developed a formula that would give the king what he wanted.

"Immediately when the king emerged from the pit that the alchemists prepared, his body was restored to the prime of his youth. The king was exultant and paid the alchemists grandly. His kingdom also encountered great success as he reentered the merchant trade and war with neighboring countries. There came a day when he was so bold that he sought to take the alchemist's wife, but she spurned his affections. The king, determined that such a jab to his pride not go unanswered, ordered her executed.

"Time passed and the effects of the pit wore off. Once again, the alchemist was called on to perform his miracle again. He assured the king that he could perform the task alone and another pit was constructed. When the king emerged, however, he was covered in boils and burns that killed him in minutes. The guards searched far and wide, but they could not find the alchemist. I have never understood the story until this day."

The silence that followed her story landed like a hammer on an anvil. I struggled to keep the conversation going.

"The alchemist- his wife died, and he wanted to avenge her, right?"

"It was stupid!" Talia cried. "That is what I never understood. The alchemist could have been rich, lived in peace, and started a new family. He even had the potential to live eternally like the king, but he abandoned it all because of his dead wife. He loved her and it made him stupid." Talia looked me in the eye and I could see rivulets of tears streaming to her chin. "And- and I think the same thing is happening to me. I think I love you, Detective."

Talia did not have the face of someone in love. Hatred filled her eyes and her mouth was pulled into the shape of disgust. I understood completely. This was a matter of loyalty. For Talia's entire life, she had known to whom she owed allegiance. Ra's al Ghul, her father, was everything to her and she would do whatever he asked without question. Now, though, she had another man in her life. No matter how she tried to fight it, these feelings were real, and every new order from her father would now be met with a mental dispute. Will these orders endanger me? What will he think of me if I follow these orders? Now her loyalty would always be in question, even if it was only from her own doubt.

"I promise you," I said in the most solemn tone I could muster. I looked her dead in the eye though her gaze burned. "I will never put you in a situation where you have to choose between me or your father."

Her face, though still wrought with emotion, seemed to soften a degree. Satisfied, I turned around, grabbed the bars and screamed as loud as I could.

"Guards! I'm ready to talk!"