Chapter 295: Does he know

Although Quentin argued vehemently that they needed to start fanning the flames as soon as possible, Nolan remained unconvinced. Quentin had never been particularly fond of waiting when an opportunity presented itself, and the prospect of maneuvering the Justice League and the Light against one another had clearly awakened every scheming instinct he possessed. The plan was elegant in its own way, but elegance did not make it practical. They had too many unfinished projects, too many people depending on them, and too many opportunities to lose everything through impatience.

Dre was still in the middle of his trial in Star City. Every day the proceedings dragged on was another day the Underpass had to devote resources to keeping its people protected and its operations running smoothly. Gotham had its own problems, with the charity project and the associated construction still demanding attention, while the Metropolis branch of the Continental remained a work in progress. They had properties to secure, workers to hire, supplies to arrange, and an entirely new network to establish. Expanding too quickly would stretch their resources thin, and Nolan had no intention of building an empire that looked impressive from the outside but collapsed the moment someone applied pressure in the right place.

More importantly, the Underpass was in a remarkably good position at the moment. Batman was occupied with the Reach crisis and the Justice League’s increasingly complicated predicament, while Green Arrow had enough trouble of his own trying to cover multiple bases with the league heavy hitters gone. Neither had stopped investigating them entirely, but their attention had been diverted toward problems that could not be ignored. That alone bought the Underpass valuable breathing room. Ra’s, meanwhile, had not made any obvious moves to seize control of the Continental or force his way into their arrangements. Their discussions had been delicate, certainly, but Kieran had managed to make his position clear without turning the negotiations into a war. For now, Ra’s appeared content to wait and see what their relationship might yield.

Nolan was not foolish enough to mistake the absence of immediate hostility for genuine safety. Batman had a habit of returning to problems other people considered settled, and Ra’s al Ghul was hardly known for abandoning a pursuit simply because it had become inconvenient. Still, there was a difference between remaining cautious and deliberately provoking people who were currently too occupied to bother them. Quentin wanted to exploit the chaos immediately, but Nolan preferred to let the chaos do its work while they strengthened their own foundations. Information was valuable, but so was the time required to make use of it properly. There would be opportunities to feed Bruce and Ra’s carefully selected truths, to encourage suspicion between the right parties, and to turn the Light’s ambitions into an advantage for the Underpass. There was no reason to rush those opportunities before they were ready.

Young Justice was the one group Nolan continued to watch with particular interest. Unlike the older heroes, the younger team had fewer responsibilities tying them to a single crisis, and their members were capable of pursuing leads that the Justice League could not afford to investigate directly. They were also connected to Beth, whose recent encounter with him had left Nolan uncertain about how much she had told them or what she might eventually reveal. Even so, Young Justice appeared to have its hands full. The Reach invasion and the Light’s maneuvering had created enough confusion to keep the young heroes occupied, and a criminal organization operating beneath the notice of the public was unlikely to be their highest priority. Not when the fate of Earth itself was hanging in the balance.

Besides, Nolan had no desire to become the center of attention for a group of young superheroes who had both the time and the motivation to make his life miserable. He had already spent enough of his existence dealing with people who wore masks and believed that the world’s problems could be solved by punching the right person hard enough.

For the time being, patience would have to suffice.

A yawn escaped him as he pushed himself to his feet and stretched, raising both arms over his head before rolling his shoulders and twisting his back. Several soft pops sounded as the tension gradually left his body. He stood there for a moment, enjoying the relief, then shuffled across the room toward his bed. His mind still wanted to revisit the dinner with Lex, Quentin’s elaborate scheme, and the possibility that they could turn a conflict between two enormous powers into an opportunity for the Underpass. Unfortunately, his body had reached the point where it no longer cared about political maneuvering or the balance of power on Earth.

Tomorrow would bring another day of construction meetings, budgets, troublesome contractors, and a hundred little decisions that would determine whether their plans succeeded. There was always something that needed his attention, and if he allowed himself to become consumed by the grand game Quentin wanted to play, the ordinary work that made their ambitions possible would suffer.

Nolan climbed into bed, pulled the covers over himself, and closed his eyes. Whatever the Light was planning, whatever Lex Luthor hoped to accomplish, and whatever disaster the Justice League had managed to stumble into this time, it could all wait until morning.

For once, he intended to get a decent night’s sleep.

****

It had officially been forty-six hours since Bruce Wayne had last closed his eyes for even a second of meaningful rest. He had learned to function through exhaustion long ago, pushing his body beyond what most people considered reasonable and compensating with discipline, caffeine, and sheer force of will. Usually, that was enough. He could spend an entire night investigating a case, endure a day of meetings, and still find the energy to patrol Gotham after dark. But this was different. There was no familiar city beneath his feet, no cave waiting for him when he needed to withdraw from the world, and no convenient way to disappear into the shadows while he worked through the problem. He was on Rimbor, light-years from Earth, trapped in a legal battle that threatened to determine the fate of the planet he had sworn to protect.

The trial had proven considerably more difficult than any of them had anticipated. The Justice League stood accused of attacking Rimbor, and the prosecution had presented enough evidence to make their defense an uphill struggle from the beginning. The circumstances surrounding the incident were complicated, the local legal system was unfamiliar, and the court seemed far more interested in assigning blame than understanding what had actually happened. Batman had spent much of the previous two days examining testimony, comparing records, and searching for inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case. He had found them, but each discovery seemed to lead to another obstacle. Witnesses changed their statements. Evidence that should have been readily available took hours to obtain, while potentially exculpatory information was dismissed on procedural grounds. The more he investigated, the more convinced he became that someone was deliberately manipulating the proceedings.

They had been set up.

The revelation was hardly comforting. The Light had orchestrated enough events on Earth to establish itself as a persistent threat, but its reach clearly extended far beyond the planet. Someone had anticipated the League’s actions, prepared a case against them, and arranged matters so that their ability to defend themselves would be restricted. The League had been caught in a trap that extended well beyond the moment they were mind-controlled into committing the alleged crime. Whoever was responsible had understood not only how to compromise the heroes but also how to exploit the legal and political consequences afterward.

"They got us good this time," Green Lantern said, sinking back into his chair. Exhaustion had worn down his usual confidence, leaving him with a weary irritation that he made little effort to conceal. "I’ve been through hostile negotiations, military tribunals, and more diplomatic disasters than I care to remember, but this is ridiculous. Every time we get close to something useful, another obstacle appears. We can’t even get a straight answer about what evidence the court will accept."

Wonder Woman sat beside Batman, her posture composed despite the strain visible in her eyes. She had endured wars that would have broken entire civilizations, but the helplessness of their current position weighed heavily on her. They were accustomed to confronting threats directly, to placing themselves between danger and the people who needed protection. Here, they were forced to argue for their own innocence while the consequences of their imprisonment grew more severe by the hour.

"The Light has proven itself a formidable enemy," she said. "If we cannot convince the high court of our innocence soon, the Reach will have the opportunity they have been waiting for. Earth is already vulnerable, and the longer we remain here, the less time our allies will have to prepare for what comes next."

"And without us there to help," she continued, her voice tightening, "the damage could be catastrophic."

No one challenged her assessment. The Reach had not come to Earth merely to wage a conventional war. Their invasion was tied to a broader scheme, one that had involved manipulation, infiltration, and the exploitation of humanity’s existing weaknesses. The League had spent years preparing for threats from beyond their world, yet the present crisis had left them divided, distracted, and struggling to understand the full extent of the danger. If the Light had arranged their predicament deliberately, then the trial was not simply an attempt to punish them for what had happened on Rimbor. It was another move in a much larger campaign.

Batman had been silent throughout the discussion, his gaze fixed on the collection of documents and projected records scattered across the table before him. His exhaustion was real, but it had not dulled the part of his mind that searched for connections between apparently unrelated events. The more he reviewed the case, the more he returned to a conversation he had almost dismissed at the time.

"Something isn’t right," he said at last.

Superman, who had been standing near the far wall, turned toward him. "We know that already. We were mind-controlled. The light made us do something we wouldn’t ordinarily do, and now they’re using it against us. The question is how we prove it."

"No." Batman finally lifted his head. "That’s not what I mean."

The others looked at him, waiting for him to elaborate. Batman disliked speculating without evidence, particularly when the stakes were this high, but the conversation had been gnawing at him since before their departure from Earth. He had initially treated it as another piece of the ongoing puzzle surrounding the Underpass, a potential lead that might help him understand Kieran Everleigh’s unusual rise in Gotham and Star City. In retrospect, the conversation had suggested something much more consequential.

"Before we left Earth, I spoke with Kieran Everleigh. He implied that he knew more about the Reach and the Light’s plans than he should. Not simply that he knew the Reach were dangerous or that the Light was involved in their activities. He spoke as though he understood that the current crisis was part of something larger, and that the League’s attention had been deliberately drawn away from Earth."

Hawkwoman let out a sharp breath, her irritation immediate. "This man again? How does Everleigh keep finding his way into these conversations? He’s a crime boss with a hotel chain and an organization built around the homeless. What possible reason would he have to know anything about the Reach’s plans?"

"Because he has repeatedly demonstrated access to information he shouldn’t possess," Batman replied. "His organization has expanded through Gotham and Star City while avoiding several investigations that should have exposed its structure. He has anticipated moves made by people who have no obvious connection to him, and his responses to those moves suggest he understands more about the broader political situation than his position would normally allow. More importantly, he has held several meetings with Ra’s al Ghul, whose membership in the Light has been confirmed."

That earned a more thoughtful silence. Ra’s was hardly a man who entertained casual business relationships, and Batman knew better than to believe that his interest in Kieran was limited to the Continental. Whatever the two men were negotiating, it had been important enough for Ra’s to pursue a personal audience. Kieran, for his part, had emerged from those meetings without making any visible concessions, which raised another set of questions. Either he was a remarkably capable negotiator, or he possessed leverage that Batman had yet to identify.

"Wonderful," Green Lantern muttered. "So the crime boss might know something useful. How exactly does that help us? We can’t leave the planet, and we certainly can’t stroll into his hotel and ask him to explain the Light’s plans."

"We don’t need to go ourselves," Wonder Woman said. "Young Justice is still on Earth. We could ask them to speak with Everleigh, determine what he knows, and send us whatever information they uncover."

Batman turned toward her. "It isn’t that simple."

"Why not? Robin knows him, doesn’t he?"

"Robin can handle himself," Batman said firmly. "That isn’t the issue."

"Then what is?"

"Everleigh is manipulative, patient, and very good at making people believe they’re the ones directing a conversation. He understands how to identify what someone wants and use it to guide their decisions. If we send Young Justice to question him, we’re not simply asking them to collect information. We’re placing them in a room with someone who may have already anticipated why they’re there, what they’ll ask, and how he can use their visit to his advantage." Batman paused, his jaw tightening. "Everleigh doesn’t need to defeat them in a fight to get what he wants. He only needs them to leave believing they’ve accomplished their objective."

Hawkwoman crossed her arms. "You make him sound like a supervillain."

"I make him sound like a threat which he is. Just not our biggest threat, the man is an opportunist to his core he doesn’t hate heroes like most criminals."

"And yet," Wonder Woman said, studying him with an expression that was half curiosity and half reproach, "you seem remarkably certain that he knows something."

"I’m certain that he wants us to believe he knows something. Whether he actually possesses the information we’re looking for is another matter."

"That distinction isn’t particularly reassuring," Green Lantern observed.

"No," Batman agreed. "It isn’t."

Wonder Woman leaned back, considering the problem. She had met plenty of men who relied on charm and calculated half-truths, and she knew that Batman’s suspicion was not without reason. Still, the situation demanded that they consider every possible source of information. They were stranded on a distant world, fighting a legal battle that might decide whether Earth would have its greatest defenders when the Reach made their next move. If Kieran Everleigh knew something that could help them, refusing to investigate because he was dangerous would be little better than refusing to use a weapon because it might cut the person holding it.

"If only I could put the Lasso of Truth around him," she lamented. "We could settle the question rather quickly."

"You’d still have to get him to cooperate long enough to put it on him," Batman replied.

"Then perhaps Robin can manage that."

"Diana."

"What? You said he can handle himself."

For the first time in hours, Green Lantern gave a tired laugh. Even Superman’s expression softened, though the humor faded quickly beneath the weight of their situation. Batman did not smile. He was already thinking through the possible consequences of involving Young Justice, weighing the risks of sending them to Kieran against the risk of leaving a potentially valuable source untouched. He trusted Robin’s judgment, but he also knew that confidence could become a liability when dealing with someone who understood how to exploit it.

They could not afford to waste time, and they could not afford to make another mistake. The Light had already maneuvered them into a position where every hour spent on Rimbor made Earth’s situation more precarious. If Lex Luthor was using the crisis to secure political power, if Ra’s was pursuing his own agenda, and if Kieran Everleigh had somehow gained insight into either man’s intentions, then the Underpass might be connected to a larger game than Batman had previously imagined.

They needed to understand what that game was before it reached its conclusion.

"We have to win this trial first," Batman said, returning his attention to the records. "But winning the trial won’t solve the larger problem. We need to find what the Light intends to accomplish while we’re trapped here. If Everleigh knows something that can help us answer those questions, then we’ll have to find a way to obtain it without giving him an opportunity to use Young Justice against us."

"And if he refuses to help?" Superman asked.

Batman stared at the evidence for another moment, his expression unreadable.

"He won’t, Kieran can’t help himself. As I said he’s an opportunist."

Outside the chamber, Rimbor’s unfamiliar world continued without regard for the fate of Earth.

And somewhere on Earth, a man named Kieran Everleigh had a strange feeling when he woke up. A feeling that he made a mistake in goading Bruce with information.