Chapter 7

The chiming of the doorbell called throughout the mansion. As Alfred walked to the door from across the hallway, he heaved a heavy sigh. He knew exactly whom was at the door and had even timed their arrival right down to the last thirty seconds. He opened the left side of the double doors and stepped aside. The man on the doorstep offered him a halfhearted smile. His dark complexion stood out in the brisk, chilly daylight. The top of his head was bald but his mustache was still thick dark. Clear frameless glasses almost invisibly sat on his nose. The man wore a long brown coat over a sweater vest and bowtie. It'd been nearly three years since Alfred had last seen Lucius Fox and yet it seemed as if it were merely the day before.

"Lucius," Alfred welcomed with a polite nod.

"Al, good to see you," he said as he stepped inside. "Though I must say, I was surprised to get your call, especially when you said it was about that computer." As Alfred closed the door, Lucius gave him a long stare of concern. "I thought you gave up on that."

"It seems I've changed my mind," Alfred replied. The concern on Lucius' face grew even deeper.

"Alfred, I think it's time you came to terms with this."

"Not yet," Alfred said, suppressing a smile as he stared back.

"Alright," Lucius sighed. "Fair enough. Through the library?" he asked, pointing down the hall to one of the closed doors.

As the lift in the cave descended to the second landing, Lucius was dumbstruck. Bruce stood at the end of the walkway with a fond grin on his face. As a child, he'd met Lucius Fox no more than five times, one of which Bruce recalled vividly as the day of his parents' memorial. Fox had hair and less of a gut back then but not much else was different.

"Mr. Fox," Bruce greeted.

"Bruce?" Fox gawked in disbelief. "How long has it been? Where have you been?" he exclaimed.

"It's a long story," Bruce replied. For a moment, Fox just stood at the end of the walkway and stared, the silence between them filled by the rushing of the waterfall below.

"I'm sorry," Fox said. "I only recognized you cause, well for a moment there, I thought I was seeing a ghost. Now I find, it's the son of that ghost." It amazed Fox just how much Bruce had grown, bearing close resemblance to Thomas Wayne, yet there was something so uniquely different about the man before him that he couldn't quite determine. "A little heads up would've been nice," Fox muttered, turning to Alfred.

"I apologize for the secrecy, Mr. Fox," Bruce said. "But it is necessary." Fox gave a cautious, sidelong look to Bruce.

"If you say so." Fox pressed on, stepping onto the hard rock floor of the landing. "So, what do you think of your cave?" he asked, changing the tone of the moment.

"It's exactly what I need," Bruce answered, stepping aside so the man could roam about freely. "But I need that computer operational. How long will that take?" Fox shrugged as he approached the large, dead computer system in the corner.

"I was nearly twelve hours of work away from getting her booted when Al pulled the plug," he explained. "Assuming nothing happened to her between then and the last three years," he added tersely.

"Actually, Mr. Fox, the computer can wait," Bruce said. "I called you down for something else." Fox turned back to Bruce with a puzzled look on his face.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I've looked into Wayne Enterprise's Research and Development files," Bruce explained. "I'm aware of some canceled government projects that developed into 'prototype' stage." As he spoke, he handed Fox a handwritten list on note paper. "I need access to these items." Fox adjusted his glasses as he looked down the list. As he scanned it with darting eyes, his head slowly shook.

"Impossible. Most of these items are sealed away in archival facilities overseas, one or two of them never made it to 'prototype' stage."

"What about full blueprints and schematics?" Bruce inquired. Fox paused to think.

"Yeah, most likely they're in Archives," he answered then paused again, fixing Bruce with another cautious look. "But why? What's this all for, Bruce?" he asked, waving his hands about the cave. Silently, Alfred stood in the back against the metal railing that edged the landing. His gaze darted to his master, curious to see what course he would choose to take.

"You were a friend of my father's?" Bruce asked.

"As a junior member of the board at Wayne Enterprise, yes I was," Fox replied.

"My father devoted every day of his life in helping people, in trying to support Gotham City," Bruce explained, his eyes drifting downward as his thoughts grew heavy with grief. "This is my way of continuing his work." Alfred continued to watch, his eyes now glued on Lucius' face. The man's expression had obviously softened at mention of Thomas Wayne and with each word spoken by his son, Fox grew less and less defensive. Another long, tense moment passed between the two men as they both seemed to remember the same memory of a great man.

"Well," Fox sighed. "The good news is that two of these items are in fact located on site at Wayne Enterprises. I'll see what I can do." Looking back over the list, Fox wondered to himself just how Bruce intended to put these items to use. The nature of each one however offered a vague image which created a cold dark hole in Fox's gut. The last thing he wanted was to attend the funeral of the third Wayne.