Chapter 1428: Research on Manipulation (Part 11)

When washing up the next day, the farmer-like criminal walked to Bruce, who was brushing his teeth, and handed a toothbrush to Bruce. Bruce casually handed his own toothbrush to him, then saw a line of tiny letters and numbers engraved at the bottom of the bristles on the toothbrush he had exchanged for.

It was a very easy-to-guess Caesar cipher. After the code was spelled out, it read "Gate." But clearly, the information Bruce wanted couldn't possibly be placed at the gate. He quickly guessed that this referred to the corner at the southernmost end of the yard, a place where one could see a corner of the gate.

Sure enough, during yard time today, Bruce found the prisoner list he wanted in a crack in the stone pier there. There were only names and no data, but that was enough.

Borrowing the cover of the serial killers' crowd, Bruce quickly memorized all the names on it and then began to compare them with the information in his brain. As long as their names had appeared in any news reports or materials related to criminal cases, Bruce could immediately call up all relevant information in his mind.

And the crimes committed by the criminals in this maximum-security prison were all very serious, and most of them would make the news, so it didn't take long for Bruce to fill in the identity information of all the prisoners in his mind, including where they came from, their family background, what crimes they had committed, when they were caught, and when they were sentenced.

These were all pieces of information that news reports would mention, and Bruce had organized an extra intelligence file in his mind, including the weapons the criminals were good at using, special abilities, relatives who might still be alive, criminal methods, and personality weaknesses exposed during the trial, etc.

But not everyone could get data. There were several people on the list Bruce had never heard of, including Bane, so what he wanted to do remained a mystery.

And just after lunch that day, the sound of prison guards' footsteps and a man's cry of pain suddenly rang out in the quiet cell corridor. Bruce, who was leaning on the bed taking a nap, keenly opened his eyes and locked eyes with Bane the next second.

Bruce's instinct told him he had just done something wrong; he shouldn't have reacted so quickly. Sure enough, Bane's gaze became deeper, clearly raising Bruce's threat level by another notch in his heart.

The prison guard and a strange man were pushing and shoving in the corridor, mainly the guard hitting the man's arm with a baton. Bruce looked out through the bars of the cell and found that the man was not large, had a lean build, dark gray hair, and a thick, dense beard. He looked Latino, but it was also possible he was mixed-race.

The guard brought this man to the door of Bruce's cell, opened the door, and pushed him in. The bearded man spat on the ground, cursed a few dirty words in a local dialect, and then raised his eyes to scan the people in the cell.

When he saw Bruce, his gaze quickly skipped over him, but when he saw Bane, his gaze stopped, and then he revealed an inexplicable smile.

Bruce turned his gaze to Tan Da without changing his expression. A glimmer of hope appeared in Tan Da's eyes because this man looked even easier to bully than him, and he wasn't honest. Perhaps he would soon anger the Bandaged Murderer or that terrifying hulking man, and in that way, he might be able to escape a disaster.

All of Bruce's conscience was piled onto the blue-eyed Batman, and he was now the true embodiment of fear, feeling dissatisfied only because the fear Tan Da had been brewing for so long had weakened.

The bearded man walked to the center of the room with light steps and said, "Let me introduce myself: Miguel Felix Gallardo, from Guadalajara, Mexico. I do a little business in drug trafficking. The reason I was locked up here is that a while ago, I caught a federal agent, skinned him, pulled his tendons, broke his bones, bled him out, and tortured him for thirty hours before letting him die."

"These Americans say I'm inhumane, but I only returned to them a thousandth of the force they used on us, and they were crying and screaming that they couldn't take it. Ha, pretty funny, right?"

The drug trafficker named Gallardo spoke in a light tone, as if this wasn't a prison but his own home. Then he shrugged and said, "The country I like most in my life is the United States, especially their country's laws. I killed so many federal agents, yet they still couldn't sentence me to death and even found me a nice place to stay."

After speaking, Gallardo raised his head to look at the environment in the cell, then let his gaze fall on Bruce's face and said, "Hey, buddy, your outfit reminds me of the Day of the Dead. Pretty stylish."

Bruce immediately recalled the information about this Miguel Gallardo in his mind, but the first thing he remembered wasn't the news reports about his life and background, but the evaluation of him by his friend, Green Arrow Oliver Queen.

Back then, Oliver and Hal went to Mexico and happened to catch Miguel Gallardo. From their mouths, Oliver learned that his own family, the Queen family, had actually been engaged in the drug trafficking business between the United States and Mexico for years. This gave Oliver a great shock, so he abandoned the family business and devoted himself to Mexico, wanting to help the people there take back their land.

And what surprised Bruce was that Oliver's evaluation of Gallardo wasn't entirely negative. Indeed, he was an extremely cruel drug lord. Any agent who fell into his hands would experience inhumane torture. The latest reports on him in news channels were just a drop in the bucket. Gallardo's reputation for cruelty could be called unique among all Mexican drug traffickers.

But Oliver had analyzed Gallardo's personality for Bruce in detail. He was a hater of the United States. He blamed all the tragedies suffered by Mexico, the Mexican people, and himself on the United States.

Oliver also admitted that the United States indeed had an unshirkable responsibility, and the CIA, which condoned or even actively engaged in drug crimes, was even more to blame. But Gallardo just used this reason to feel at ease while committing cruel acts. That kind of cruelty didn't entirely come from hatred; it came more from himself.

Simply put, without the United States, if he hadn't been born in Mexico, he would still be an anti-social person. It was just that his extreme ideology played a partially positive role in Mexico's armed struggle.

Gallardo's propaganda about the CIA's crimes shocked many Mexicans who hadn't yet awakened. He had cooperated with the CIA, so he knew many inside stories that were well-founded and made perfect sense. After he published these messages, many Mexicans were filled with righteous indignation, which enhanced their acceptance of armed struggle.

One sentence from Oliver left a deep impression on Bruce—anyone in this world could judge this cruel executioner, except for the United States, because that would make this devil a true hero of Mexico.

But now, Gallardo had accepted judgment and come to prison. Bruce could already imagine how some Mexicans would view this trial.

Populism was very interesting. People with this emotion could always cross all moral and even humanitarian bottom lines. Bruce was very clear that if Gallardo provoked public sentiment through populism, then what Oliver was doing would definitely be stigmatized. Great ideals would be pulled down from the altar and touted as one nation's revenge and hatred against another, which was absolutely not what Oliver wanted to see.

Gallardo had to die.

Within two short seconds, Bruce had already sentenced Gallardo to death in his heart. His thoughts raced as he began to calculate other things. First, was it a coincidence that Gallardo appeared here?

Absolutely impossible, Bruce judged. Amanda could arrange for Bane to come over and kill him, so she could also arrange for Gallardo to come over. But the question was, how did Amanda intend to deal with Gallardo?

Bruce deduced from the beginning. Now his identity was Elliot. Amanda wouldn't let Elliot go because Elliot had killed the entire family of the farm owner, Belica.

Amanda's experience was exactly the same as Belica's—both had their entire families killed by a serial killer, leaving only one daughter. This would definitely trigger some bad memories for her. She would vent the hatred she felt for the serial killer who killed her family on Elliot and wouldn't let him leave the prison alive.

So, she got Bane from somewhere and was successfully fooled by Bane's brute disguise, not putting him in a special prison but throwing him into this cell and ordering him to kill Elliot.

In Amanda's plan, Bane should have successfully killed Elliot, but Bane didn't make a move on the first day he arrived here, nor on the second day. This exceeded Amanda's plan, so she made another move: she let Gallardo in.

Reasoning by this logic, Amanda didn't want to use Bane to kill Gallardo. After Bane disobeyed her order and didn't kill Elliot, what Amanda would do was definitely urge Bane, not throw in another target she wanted Bane to kill.

Then a conclusion could be drawn: Gallardo, who was put in at this time, was used by Amanda to urge Bane.

Did Gallardo also reach a deal with Amanda? Would he talk to Bane? Would the two of them want to kill Elliot together?

No, that wasn't right. Bruce suddenly had a flash of inspiration: Amanda wanted Bane to take Gallardo and break out of prison. This was the reward Amanda gave Bane.

Amanda thought she could hold Bane, so it was highly likely she used freedom as a reward. She put Gallardo in to remind Bane to kill his target quickly, and then he could take Gallardo and regain his freedom.

Then, why Bane?

Bruce raised his eyes to look at Bane, and then he heard this hulking man say to Gallardo in Spanish.

"When I was in Pena Duro Prison, I met one of your subordinates. He described you as a god and a devil."

"You come from the Caribbean?" Bruce asked aloud.

"Yes, I was born in the Republic of Santa Prisca." Bane's tone even carried a hint of nostalgia, appearing too calm, as if he had a happy childhood just like any ordinary person, leaving Bruce unable to judge what his background was like.

"Who did you meet?" Gallardo asked.

"I forgot."

Bane stood up from the side of the bed, seemingly just wanting to stretch his body in the center of the room. He said in a conversational tone, "I was only locked up with them for a very short time, and later I was moved somewhere else."

"Oh, really? I hope they don't change my cell." Gallardo spread his hands and said, "I quite like it here."

"Yes, it's quite nice here, as... your graveyard."

"Crack!"

Gallardo's neck was twisted and broken.

Bane let go, and Bruce saw a kind of darkness that made his heart tremble emanating from behind this strong man. It had nothing to do with his powerful body, but came from his soul and thoughts.

"Buzz—Buzz—! Level 1 security alert! Level 1 security alert! Level 1 security alert!"

Bruce immediately stood up from the bed, faced the wall, covered his head, and crouched down, while saying rapidly, "The gap between the inside of the shock collar and your ankle can fit a finger. The weak point is at the buckle about six millimeters to the right."

Bane didn't even move. It wasn't until the armed security personnel rushed in that he slowly raised his hands. Bruce, crouching by the wall, heard Amanda's angry tone coming from the intercom.

"Take him to the special confinement cell! Without my order, no one is allowed to let him out!" ===== CHAPTER 1429 =====