New York City, Waynetech Headquarters
The staff of Waynetech was noticeably nervous when word spread around the building that Bruce Wayne had landed for an impromptu visit. Rumors were flying, and like most workplaces, the water coolers were the office gossip hotspots.

"Why is he here? He never comes around."

"I heard it's some new project, military stuff. Something about an engine for a new aeronautics prototype. Lots of money involved."

"There's always lots of money involved when it comes to Bruce Wayne."

"But why is he here? Really? Shouldn't he be on some island somewhere taking nude selfies with Victoria's Secret models?"

"Relax Lester. The way you're going on about it someone might think you did something."

"Yeah? Like what Chavez?" Lester asked sharply.

"Nothing man, nothing. It's just a joke,eh? Just, take it easy man." Chavez said with his hands raised in surrender.

Lester stormed off, his co-workers watching his muscular form walking away from them."

"Jesus, that Lester guy is pretty intense eh?"

"Yeah. Must be all the 'roids."

"Roids?"

"Steroids. He takes 'em like sugar in his coffee. Can't you tell? He's built like a brick shithouse."

"Heard his wife left him. For his younger brother. He used to be a fat ass."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. Heard he took it pretty hard, so just go easy on him."

"Ok."

Upstairs...
Bruce sat with Lucius in the latter's office. He thought himself a neat person,Zatanna sometimes described him as borderline obsessive. But if Bruce was borderline, Lucius had crossed that line a long time ago. His was office organized down to the last detail. Not a pen out of place on his desk, files arranged neatly in the shelves. A drawer with folders from as far back as 1985 arranged in order of alphabet,date and importance, in that order.

He was going through that drawer now. He raised a file, marked Lester Williamson.

"This one?" he asked.

"Yes, that's the one. Go on and have a look through it."

"You have actual hard files. In 2016. On your employees."

"I'm a whiz with computers Mr Wayne, but the classic way just works sometimes. I keep detailed files on all my staff. Started looking into his a while ago. I noticed he asked for salary advances several times. He'd been hard up lately so I thought I'd have him checked out."

Bruce leaned against the drawer and opened the file. Lucius cleared his throat. Bruce looked up.

"Have a seat Mr Wayne."

"I'm fine where I am actually."

"Chairs are for sitting in Mr Wayne. Do make use of them."

Definitely obsessive, he thought as he slid into a chair in the corner of the office, next to a metal wastepaper basket that looked like someone had gone over it with a can of Mr Muscle.

For the next few minutes they sat in silence as Bruce read the file. To an outside observer it looked like Bruce was merely skimming over the words, so quickly did his eyes move over the pages. After a little while he set the file down in his lap and closed it with an air of finality.

"Send him in." Was all he said.

Downstairs

Lester had been sitting at his computer, stalking his ex-wife's latest boyfriend. He noted with some satisfaction that the man was much smaller in physical stature than he was. In fact, he didn't look like he lifted at all.

Satisfied, he opened his account and scrolled through his feed looking for any new discussions on the forum. He opened one that looked interesting. 'What supplements should I use when trying to cut fat?'
It was as he was doing this that Susan from accounts informed him that Mr. Fox wanted to see him about the Fisher account. "Be right there." He said, minimizing his pages and locking his account.

He opted to use the stairs instead of the elevator, sprinting up the entire way. When he got to Lucius Fox office, he knocked gently. "Come in." came the muffled reply.

"You wanted to see me sir?" He asked in the voice he used when he spoke to his superiors. Which was often, lately.

"Yes. Come in Lester. Have a seat." Lester strode in and planted himself slowly in his seat. He was fairly mature, perhaps in his late 40's. He wore glasses. His brown hair had a few silver strands in it but it still had a good deal of color left. His shirt and trousers hugged his fit body snugly.

"How much did he pay you Lester?" came a voice from the corner of the room. He turned his head and saw that Bruce Wayne himself was seated in a chair at the corner of the office. He hadn't even noticed he was there.

"I'm sorry?" Lester asked with genuine puzzlement on his face.

"Ok, lets try a different approach. Did Lex Luthor pay you to sell him the prototypes for the AI interface?"

Lester hesitated for just a second, but it was enough for Bruce.

"I'm sorry sir, but I don't know what you're talking about."

Bruce rose from his seat. He's taller than me, definitely lifts, Lester noted as he eyed Bruce warily.
"Ok. We can do that Lester. We can do the whole TV cop routine. If that's what you want, we'll do that."

"Again, I don't know what.."

"You know, when I went for one of those boring business psychology seminars in college, they taught us how to detect when someone was being dishonest. Can you guess what the first thing was?"

Lester was silent, his eyes darting from Lucius to Bruce, like a trapped animal weighing his options.

"Denial. When forced to own up to a lie, a persons first instinct is to deny it. Instead of simply saying 'no', the person gives statements of denial. 'I don't know.' Sounds familiar?"

"Look,with all due respect, I'm not going to sit here and have you accuse me and waste my time with these slanderous allegations-"

"And now we come to number two. Trivialize the line of interrogation by attacking the interrogator. People do this when they feel backed into a corner. 'Why are you wasting my time with this?' is the stock phrase. And just in case you forgot,it's my name stamped on your paycheck,Lester."

"Mr Wayne sir, I swear to God-"

"Moving on swiftly to numbers three and four. Bringing up religion as a way of embellishing the lie. 'As god is my witness' and 'I swear to God' are the two most common phrases used. Being overly polite. Addressing me as 'sir', hoping to get on my good side."

Lester fell silent, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Beads of perspiration broke out on his forehead, he wiped them with the back of his hand. He loosened his tie to let some air in.

"You've stopped talking, smart move. But your body is still speaking to me. In the space of 1 minute, you've fidgeted in your seat, touched your face and adjusted your tie."

Bruce held up 3 fingers like he was teaching a class.

"Moving anchor points, in this case your ass in that seat, bringing your hand to your head and grooming yourself by adjusting your tie, all textbook signs of dishonesty."

Jesus Christ? Who is this guy?Sherlock Holmes? Luther? Lester thought to himself. Still, he stayed silent. In his seat behind the table, Lucius was visibly impressed.

"Still won't talk? Ok. Let's talk about your problems. Problems that magically dissapeared a few months ago, when you committed the crime of corporate espionage."

Lester gulped then. Only when Bruce had said the words 'crime' and 'corporate espionage' did he realize the gravity of he situation he was in.

"Your wife left you. Took everything and then some. The house with the pool that cost you 15 years of your life busting your hump in the office. The Porsche Panamera you had just bought. The love of your teenage son and daughter. She even took your pitbull pup. Tough, I imagine."

Lester sat completely still, his face grey.

"You were in a mess. But you got a way out. Joined the gym, started working out and embraced the fitness life. Your wife-sorry, ex-wife- still wanted alimony though. You could afford it, barely. She took you to court, humiliated you a couple of times for delaying on the payments. Life sucked. You would have got back on your feet eventually, but you didn't want eventually. You wanted instant coffee."

Lester was speechless. His mouth suddenly felt very dry.

"You've been seeing your ex-wife recently. Nothing serious, but you two are sleeping together again. You've even got the Panamera back. But that's not all. You quite suddenly started making payments well before time a couple of months ago, right around the time those AI chips disappeared. You got yourself a sweet little bachelor pad on the Upper West Side too, where you've been screwing your ex-wife on a regular basis. This from a guy who was barely making ends meet this time last year. So either you're selling drugs or you're selling company secrets."

Bruce finished his elaborate presentation. Lucius was so impressed he almost burst into applause.

Lester's mouth opened and closed soundlessly a few times, his voice not making the sounds his lips were forming. He held his face in his hands.

"Please,please,please, don't take me to prison. I'm begging you-"

"You should have thought about that before you committed a crime." Bruce said sternly.

"I didn't know what else to do! Everything was going to shit, my whole life coming down around my ears-"

"Save all have our troubles. Every single one of us." Bruce replied stiffly. "Don't use them as an excuse to be a criminal."

Lester sobbed,taking off his glasses. "Please, I-I'll do anything you want me to.."

Took him all of 10 seconds, thought Bruce. "Tell us. Everything. Every. Thing."

2 hours later...
It was a very pleased(and relieved) Lester Williamson that left the office of Lucius Fox. He went straight to the bathroom and cried his eyes out, thanking a God he didn't entirely believe in for his gratitude. Then he cleaned up and resumed his 'work' at his computer.

Bruce and Lucius sat in the office.

"So."Lucius said.

"So." Bruce replied.

"Did you really learn all that stuff from a 'business psychology seminar'?"

"No."

"Didn't think so. Mind my asking where you learned it from?"

"I read a book by former CIA agents on the methods they used to detect dishonesty during interrogations."

"Really?"

"Really. It's on amazon."

"Huh." Lucius remarked. "It's amazing what information we have circulating out here."

"You have no idea." Bruce said.

"So what do you think he's using them for?"

"I have no idea. But I intend to find out. I never really liked Lex, he's always been a competitor, and there's all those rumors of his unsavory business practices. But a part of me had always hoped they were untrue."

"And Lester? Should we really just let him go? What's to stop him doing that again?"

"No. He's learned his lesson. Lester was just a man who found himself in a crappy situation and he chose the easy way out. Now that he's out of it and he's seen what it could have cost him in the long run, he won't do it again."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Anyone that goes back to the woman who left him for his little brother within months of their divorce isn't out to make a name for himself as a white-collar criminal. He just wants his old life back. We won't take him to the police. People like him just get ruined by the system."

"Is that Bruce Wayne or the other guy speaking?"

"Both." He replied without hesitation.

"You really believe that?"

"Yes. Is it so strange?"

"Frankly, yes."

"I just want to protect people from criminals. If I can help the criminals become better people along the way, or at the very least, stop them from getting worse, then I'll do everything I can to help. If they can't or won't be helped, well... I let those better equipped than I for such questions to grapple with them."

Lucius nodded with understanding. "You know Bruce, you're a good man. I know you don't hear that enough, what with the tabloids and the hate everyone has for the super-rich, not to mention the other stuff.. But you should know that."

"Thank you." Bruce said awkwardly. He moved on quickly. "We won't keep him on the workforce, naturally. We'll send him off with a sizeable retirement package after an appropriate time which you'll decide of course..."

Lucius nodded slowly as he listened to Bruce's instructions.
Yes, he was a good man.

A/N: Happy New Year everyone.

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