LXXXIII
All The King's Horses
"How many generals are left in the building, Mr. Okama?" asked Bruce of the Director of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency as they made their way to the briefing room.
"Sixty-two. Did you meet the nine old men downstairs?"
"I'm afraid they were dead by the time I arrived."
"Damn... Then that would make… fifty-three remaining on site. And six hundred thirteen still off site. They were good men, what happened down there, Wayne?"
"Brilliance burned away any semblance of morality. Lex Luthor was a sociopath… He had a plan to rule the world… and Luthor's redesign had far fewer people. The speech he gave in Gotham this morning was probably closer to the true Luthor than anyone ever knew."
"So what now, Mr. Wayne? There will be some that will declare your presidency unconstitutional. Others won't even recognize your authority. You're not even an elected official."
"True…"
A wi-screen alert suddenly appeared before Bruce. Since the morning, he had placed his call-notifications on level-one-permissions-only. That meant there were only five people in the world who could call him now. Of the five, two were dead...he was unable to remove Richard from his settings just yet, and Lucius had been murdered only moments before in an explosion of cranium.
The third could instantly appear before him anytime she wanted (and he wished the hell she would). Even so, he would never remove Raven from the list, even if she had never operated a wi-screen in her life.
That meant it could only be Barbara or Alfred and he would be overjoyed to talk to either right now. The image of Alfred appeared in the small digital screen floating in mid air before him.
"I'm sorry Director, I really need to take this… Accept."
"Master Bruce! I'm so thankful you answered. I'm afraid we have quite a situation at the house, sir. There is a General Johnson who says that if you do not provide access to the sub-levels, he will bring in a demolitions team! I'm afraid the entire estate is under siege by the army…"
"Is he with you, Alfred?"
"Yes sir, one moment..."
The dour face of General Johnson replaced Alfred's in the wi-screen.
"Wayne! I've been trying to get a hold of you for thirty minutes. Look, we can do this hard way or the easy way. I have orders from the president to seize all Wayne Industry assets. Including the ones here."
"General, I'm afraid there's been some late-breaking developments. President Luthor is dead. Have you received the memo about the newly appointed Secretary of Defense…"
"What in Sam Hell is going on Wayne?! That makes two presidents dead in two days… So Luthor really did declare you as the Secretary of Defense?"
"Made me swear an Oath of Office and everything. With Luthor declaring the War Powers Act yesterday, I suppose that makes it legal."
"I suppose it does… Mr. President."
"Then get your butt out of my house and back to the Pentagon, Tyrexius."
"Who the hell told you?... Never mind. We're on our way. Don't hold this against me, Bruce. I'm putting your butler back on."
A flustered Alfred came back into view.
"Is it true, sir? Lex Luthor is dead? How did it happen?"
"We played a life-or-death game of twenty questions… he answered wrong. Where is Raven?"
"Mrs. Wayne left with the man who crashed through the roof, her mother, and Miss Gordon shortly after she took your party to the Pentagon, Master Bruce… to assist Mr. Free in Kahndaq. I had assumed she was now with you."
"No. Call me immediately if you hear from her."
"Of course, sir."
The call ended. Alfred watched the military begin to pack up and leave the Wayne Estate – allowing him to finally breath a huge sigh of relief. Fortunately, they had seemed more concerned with getting into Master Bruce's private sub-levels than ransacking the mansion but had still left an incredible mess.
Once the military left the estate, Alfred calmly opened a wi-screen and logged into his after-hours trading account. He used every dime he owned and every ounce of borrowed leverage he could lay his hands on to make the business transaction of his life…
"Welcome back to American Business Today, I'm your host Charles Higgensworth. The story of the morning continues to be precipitous decline of the Wayne Industries share price. Since the news of the American army occupying Wayne Industries in Gotham broke this morning, this stock has fallen off a cliff! Everyone is selling for whatever they can get and there seems to be no takers.
Moments ago, we witnessed the share price free-fall through its original IPO price. It was thirty years ago when Martha Wayne re-branded her father's privately-owned defense corporation into a publicly traded entity. Currently, the stock has seen a 37,000% decline from where it opened Friday morning setting the NYSE record for dollar decline in one day.
It had fallen twenty-two percent late yesterday on unsubstantiated rumors that President Luthor would seize the company's assets in defense of the nation as part of his War Power Act declaration. With the army invasion of the Wayne Industries tower this morning, that rumor would now seem to be confirmed. Currently, the share price is forty cents and still dropping.
The only question now seems to be whether Wayne Communications will be allowed to continue operating as a corporate entity or whether that will be seized as well. It seems like share holders are hedging their bets and dumping that stock as well, but not to the extent of Wayne Industries. In a surprise turn of events, we learned moments ago that the president's office had instructed all exchanges not to halt trading of Wayne stock.
Well that's interesting… It looks like the stock has leveled at thirty-two cents. There's a massive buy on the table! It could have been an algorithm designed for flash crashes that programmers forgot about or else someone taking an enormous risk on a ninety-million share purchase of Wayne Industry stock! That purchase effectively buys majority ownership of the company… if there's even a Wayne Industries left by the end of the day.
Hold on… We have news… The army has been spotted leaving Wayne Estate. It could be they got what they came for, or perhaps Bruce Wayne has been able to broker a deal with President Luthor. Nothing has been confirmed yet… And now we have news that the command has been given for all forces to exit Wayne Tower #1 and return to the Pentagon.
We may have just witnessed the trade of a lifetime or maybe not. Until we hear from the president's office, it's all speculation at this point, but it may be that the rumors of Wayne Industries untimely demise have been exaggerated."
At the Pentagon, Bruce Wayne entered the briefing room with the eyes of all fifty-three generals anxiously upon them. The tension in the room was so palpable that even the act of opening the door seemed to allow a rush of air escape into the hallway beyond. One of the generals spoke up as they entered…
"Listen Okama, you may be the Director of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, but that doesn't give you the right to corral us like this when the nation is in a state of emergency. And where is General Carmine, General Moldoff and the others?"
"Ladies and Gentlemen… I would like to introduce you to your new commander. I assume you've all gotten the announcement of Mr. Wayne's appointment by now. The floor is yours, sir."
"Thank you, Mr. Okama... These past two days have seen extraordinary events take place, the likes of which we have never seen. An American president has enacted the War Powers provision declaring martial law on a population of three hundred and eighty-nine million citizens. This morning, in one brief instant, eleven million innocent people were murdered.
For the first time in fifty-eight years, an American president was assassinated yesterday. For the first time in over two hundred years, the White House was also destroyed. And for the first time in our proud history, America has lost two serving presidents in two days.
Lex Luthor is dead.
After murdering all nine five-star generals as a science experiment, killing my former CEO Lucius Fox and placing the lives of myself and Talia al Ghul in extreme jeopardy, Lex Luthor received a bullet meant for myself from one of his LexCorp robots…"
"Hold on Wayne…" It was the same General again. "Are you trying to tell us there are robots wandering around the Pentagon?"
"Yes General. It's not common knowledge, but LexCorp has been building robots almost indistinguishable from humans for the past two years. Okama, I would suggest that you arm some of your men with EMP-cannons to tackle the three remaining robots - who I hope are still on the lower levels.
I know you are all aware that Mr. Luthor used his executive power to appoint me to the position of Secretary of Defense. With his untimely demise and line of succession, that makes me the acting president. This is not a position I intend to hold for long before elections are called. And I'm afraid our true enemy isn't so easy as the League of Assassins any longer…
I hope to God I'm wrong, but I have it on good authority that Satan himself will be touching down upon the Earth shortly… If I had to guess I would say it will be in Kahndaq, where eleven million souls were sacrificed an hour ago to allow his entrance. I'm not sure how to beat the devil, but I assure you, I'm going to do my damned best and all of you are going to help me."
"There are reports of a large, stationary cyclone over Kahndaq." It was one of the female generals this time.
"I'm going to bring up some screens to see if we can gather the latest intel," continued Wayne.
He made large wi-screens that the generals could view and tapped into the Wayne Communications satellites. There was indeed an enormous cyclone over the desert country of Kahndaq where no giant, black, weather disturbance had a right to be. The storm was so severe, it effectively blocked all attempts at surveillance as to what lie below.
There were however various security cameras in the dead country he could hack into, including at his own facility. It was on one of these cameras that they first saw it… a monstrous thing of tentacle, teeth and wing. And there were more than one of these horrors… Much more. There was a legion of unworldly things covering the landscape itself, an ocean of black terror undulating atop the desert sands.
A number of generals stared wide-eyed at the screens - the same question forming on their lips while blood fell from their complexions to nervous hearts. President Bruce Wayne answered the question before it could be given sound.
"They're demons... Ladies and Gentlemen, I regret to inform you that the world is being invaded by the forces of Hell…"
Author's Note:
Bruce knows that Trigon isn't really Satan. He's framing the situation in terms the public can relate to, without having to explain about Azarath. Trigon is very close in appearance and deed to Christianity's version of the Devil.
I will let the reader deduce which butler just added to his stock position to become a 73% majority owner of Wayne Industries…