CHAPTER 24: Debriefing

The Batcave

" Money laundering, Bruce ? " asked a wide-eyed Clark.

" Yes. Lucas used several branches of Wayne Enterprises to recycle funds for the Chinese. Numbers don't lie. He did credit to his family name, though. He was a smart guy. He chose the subsidiaries carefully and distributed the money wisely among them. "

" Why did he stop ? "

" Fear of being caught in the long run. He used my companies for only two months. "

" How did he stoop down to this ? How could he put Chloe in danger ? Do you think Lex was involved ? "

" Lucas must have owed them a lot of money, and I suppose they offered him to write off his debt in exchange for a little favour. As to Lex, no, I don't think he knew what Lucas was up to. "

" But he's your partner, now. What better way to perpetrate the deed than being inside Wayne Enterprises ? "

" Don't let your resentment blind you, Clark. Lex entered the partnership the day Lucas was murdered and, being my main competitor, I had always kept tabs on whatever he was engaged in. I should have paid more attention to the little Luthor, though. "

" Have you got news from the CSI lab ? "

" Yes, they ran the saliva they got from the samples of lemongrass I gave Gordon through CODIS. There was a match- Chung Yang. "

" Yang as in the gambling house ? "

" Yes. Apparently, they don't trust outsiders to do their dirty work. Gordon and SWAT are raiding ' Yang ' as we speak. There's enough evidence to put them behind bars. Now, tell me, what did you find out when you tailed the mob representative that you saw leaving the gambling house ? "

" He took a private jet to Shanghai, so I followed him "

" Lucky bastard. With all the money at my disposal I can never avoid going through Customs. "

" Well, I have never thought of that, " said Clark with a smile. " Now... as I was saying... I tailed him, and a limo drove him to an impressive building downtown where he met with his boss.I overheard their meeting and they sounded pretty angry to me. It seems the bosses expected him to get the funds they'd been stolen. "

" So Lucas didn't give the money back to them ! No wonder they went after Lex. They wanted to frighten the young boy by killing his elder brother, and they ended up waking up a sleeping tiger. They don't know Lex Luthor at all... . Is that piece of information the only thing you heard ? "

" No. They were talking about the Manchurian Plain. "

" The Manchurian Plain, you said ? "

" Yes. They said they were delayed, that they had a schedule and that their clients were getting nervous. Then, a fat guy who seemed to be kind of a godfather, mentioned a name. I don't remember it exactly. Let me see... Da Hymn... no... Da Gingham. "

" Da Hinggan ? "

" Yes, that's it. Do you know him ? "

" It's not a him. It's an ' it '. He was talking about the Da Hinggan Range. This is getting more interesting by the minute, Clark. "

What do you think of this update ? Has it picked your interest ? Are you still willing to read more ?