PS mentions of my previous story, Lord of Soldiers in this chapter so you might want to give it a look.

Batman sat at his large screened computer just as he had before his confrontation with Kirill Zolner. The battle had got him paranoid and he had been neglecting his personal life to look at the screen. Both Alfred and Damian had been worried about him. At that moment Alfred walked in.

"Sir are you feeling well," he asked.

"I'm great Alfred," Bruce answered.

"I very much doubt that sir, since you've been looking at that screen for ten straight hours as well as your time in the streets," Alfred remarked. "You look even more sleep deprived than usual and you really ought to take a rest…"

"Shut up Alfred," Bruce exclaimed. There was silence for a moment. "I'm sorry," said Bruce. "But I have to. Zolner was just some nut from Russia and he managed to take so much out of me." Bruce remembered the stab wound to his arm that had after six months just healed. "The psychopaths on this file know me". "Think what they could do," Bruce finished.

"Sir locking yourself in a cave will not help," said Alfred. "You need some rest". "Sitting here like a rat will only hurt you," he advised.

"Fine," said Bruce. "I'll get a couple hours rest but then I'm going on patrol". "And don't even mention some stupid charity meeting that Bruce Wayne has to go to.

"Very well sir I'll cancel your appointments," said Alfred. And as Alfred exited the temperature in the room seemed to drop enormously.