Whispers in Darkness
Monday, September 21st, 13:30
Bruce strode to his desk like a man on a mission. Flopping the phone open, he speed-dialed MetroTower.
"Shayera, Now." He barked at whoever was on the other end. A beep later he continued in the same manner. "He's in Kundistan, isn't he?"
"How'd you know?"
"Proximity. Smallpox samples exist because they used to be part of the cold war MAD doctrine – mutually assured destruction."
"Wow." She was baffled. "That is a mad doctrine."
"Indeed.Given that, there is another CDC Ra's could have robbed - The Russian one."
Shayera sighed. "Great, with their lack of funding for, we'll never know-"
"Doesn't matter." He cut her short. "He and I had a meeting there once. Have Q scout the northern mountain valley for signs of recent large convoy movements. Ra's travels in force."
"Q?"
"This will involve heavy garbage digging."
"Is that all?"
"Switch me over to Jonn."
A moment later, a deep voice of his telepathic colleague filled the room. "What is it Batman?"
"Take a look at these readings." Bruce typed a few commands, sending some charts to MetroTower.
Long, silent seconds later Jonn spoke up again. "These are from the Mars explorer?"
"Notice anything?"
"Cyclic patterns, at least two."
"The base cycle lasts 24 hours 39 min; the fainter one is a third of that, and the faintest is a little over the base cycle. I'm betting that the slow decline is part of a fourth one, even larger than the base, lasting little under two years Earth time."
"Martian day, moon-tides and year." Jonn answered deadpan, but there was a nervous echo in Wayne's mind.
"Imperium?"
"No." The Manhunter dismissed it. "Nothing like it." His voiced was almost hopeful. "Copper-webs. Massive single cell colonies."
"The base of an ecosystem." Bruce assumed.
A mental affirmation came as a whisper. "Native life."
…