Chapter 2070

In a temporary office converted from a guest room, Amanda Waller hurriedly took off her monitoring headset, turned her head, and roared at her subordinates behind her: "Notify the emergency security department immediately and have them suppress this! Hurry!"

The subordinate she yelled at looked blank; he didn't understand Amanda's order, so he instinctively repeated: "Suppress what?"

"Obviously the matter of Bruce Wei En and his strange little hobbies! Notify the major newspapers right now and tell their editors-in-chief to shut up!"

"But..."

Amanda seemed unable to bear it any longer; she slammed the headset onto the table, turned to look at another agent, and said: "Where is the Director? I want to speak with him personally!"

Before she finished speaking, the door was kicked open with a bang, and a burly black agent walked in, supporting the limping FBI Director.

Amanda looked surprised and hurried over to meet them. The Director collapsed into the sofa, gritting his teeth and cursing: "That damn Bruce Wei En, what does he want to do? I will make him understand how far out of line he is, and what price he will pay for his reckless behavior!"

"Amanda, our old friend, Editor-in-Chief Sowo, should still be in charge of the political section of the Washington Post, right? Call him immediately. For the next three days, the Washington Post will report in full force on Bruce Wei En's abuse and sexual assault of his adopted sons."

Amanda said nothing, let out a long sigh, walked to the table, and picked up the headset. The Director turned to look at her, his expression quite dissatisfied.

Amanda brought over the recording equipment and set it on the table with a bang. The Director looked at the headset in her hand with surprise, rolled his eyes, glanced at Amanda, and then impatiently took it and put it on his ears.

The monitoring headset played a recording from a hotel room. The sound inside was loud and sounded very irritable. Even through the headset, everyone could vaguely hear the last sentence echoing in the room.

"Believe me, when that time comes, I will absolutely use everything I've seen in the depths of Cat Getan to make everyone in this country look bad..."

The Director's expression changed from initial anger to confusion, then to shock, and finally to a hint of panic.

As if electrocuted, he whipped the headset off. His bulging eyeballs looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. He pressed his fist to his lips, coughed twice.

"Is he Jason Todd? I mean the child who looks younger."

Amanda sat opposite the Director, crossed her legs, nodded, and said: "Yes, Jason Todd was born in Cat Getan's poorest neighborhood. Both his parents died when he was about three, and he became a Cat Getan street urchin until he was adopted by Batman around the age of 10."

The Director's eyes widened again. He stared straight at Amanda and confirmed: "He lost his parents at 4, grew up independently in the Cat Getan slums, and wasn't adopted until he was 10???"

Amanda rolled her eyes and nodded.

"Hmm..." The Director drew out a long sound, flipped his hands in front of him, pursed his lips, covered his mouth with his hand, lowered his head, and then looked up at Amanda again.

"I mean, is it possible for us to have only the other orphan participate in the interview? I'm referring to the kid named Richard Grayson. His parents must have passed away later, right?"

"Ha." Amanda sneered and said: "Then how are you going to explain to the judge and jury why only one of the two victims in the photos appeared, and where the other one went?"

"Perhaps... perhaps... he is very ill, and the doctors believe his physical condition is not suitable for appearing in court..."

Amanda tilted her head, made an expression of sudden realization, then slowly spread her fingers and said: "Then may I ask which hospital can guarantee that Batman's assistant will lie obediently in a hospital bed, and which court can stop a young hero who fights crime in Cat Getan from breaking in during the trial?"

The Director stood up, lifted the back of his suit jacket, put his hands on his hips, and began to pace beside the sofa. He said: "Perhaps we can apply for a psychiatric evaluation for him. As long as we prove his state is not stable enough, perhaps we can avoid him..."

"You know, we don't have any psychologists who dare to perform psychiatric evaluations on Gothamites." Amanda shook her head and said: "We used this trick 12 years ago. To force the Wei En Group to make concessions on the maintenance of the Cat Getan Bridge project, we sent a team of psychological experts to inspect the operations of Arkham Asylum to ensure there was no patient abuse there."

"After they returned, the experts unanimously praised the place, because shortly after, they were admitted as patients, and we never heard from them again."

The Director pinched his temples with both hands and said: "Cat Getan has orphanages, right? Even if Jason Todd wasn't adopted from an orphanage by Bruce Wei En, this boy at least went there. The illicit dealings between the orphanage and the Wei En Group..."

"We used that trick 8 years ago." Amanda sighed, brought the water glass over to pour herself some water, and said: "A team of agents entered the Cat Getan orphanage to collect evidence. Five died in a gang fight, three died in a bombing, two were disposed of—only some tissue samples were found in the sewers—and one was caught by the children in the orphanage, who cut off his head..."

The Director stopped his pacing, thought carefully for a moment, held up a finger, and shook it: "Then the employees of the Wei En Group..."

"Are in the same boat as Bruce Wei En, and so are the shareholders."

"The manor butler or the tutor..."

"There is no tutor; Bruce Wei En has an old butler." Amanda beckoned to the subordinate beside her. The young agent walked over and handed Amanda a file.

Amanda squinted as she flipped through it and said: "He was once the personal butler for Bruce Wei En's father, Thomas Wei En, and has served the Wei En family for over 40 years..."

The Director's eyes lit up instantly.

"That's him. A butler like that must hold many of Wei En's secrets. As long as he can testify in court... it shouldn't be a difficult task, right? We can afford any price."

But Amanda's next words were like a bucket of cold water, extinguishing the enthusiasm he had just ignited.

"Alfred Pennyworth, served in British MI5 during World War II..."

"You want to say he's a spy?"

"Later transferred to MI6..."

"Fine, a Soviet spy."

Amanda closed the file, turned to look at the Director, and said: "You know this isn't the time to consider personal grudges. If you want to blow up the matter of Bruce Wei En and his adopted sons, the microphone will inevitably be handed to Jason Todd, and Gothamites will say anything."

The Director gritted his teeth hard, limped back to the sofa, sat down, rested his hands on his knees, and said: "Yes, we all know there is a sewer there, and it must be full of filth and foul-smelling, but we can't just lift the lid and let everyone smell the stench just because no one knows about it."

Amanda snorted coldly again and said: "Be realistic. If we choose to let the situation develop, the hyenas from the major newspapers will swarm in and fill every space around Jason Todd and Richard Grayson with microphones."

"If these two crazy Cat Getan teenagers say something they shouldn't, New Jersey—this deep-blue stronghold—will explode, and you will be kicked into the Atlantic by a donkey."

The Director covered his forehead.

"Go..." he said weakly: "Go notify those media outlets not to report recklessly. We have to go talk to Bruce Wei En."

"Do you still not understand the current situation?" Amanda sighed deeply, set the water glass back on the table, and said: "Wei En is threatening us; he has targeted our weak spot."

She looked to the side and recalled: "As you said, everyone knows there is a cesspit in New Jersey, but there is one last fig leaf over this cesspit, and that is Cat Getan's economic development."

"For so many years, whether it's us, the military, or Congress, we have compromised with the Wei En Group countless times precisely because only Bruce Wei En has the courage to stir the shit and the ability to help keep the lid on the cesspit so the stench doesn't spread across the five continents."

"When people criticize Cat Getan, we say, 'Cat Getan isn't poor, they have money, so they just chose their own lifestyle; this is their freedom.' But we all know that is fucking bullshit!"

"All the genius politicians in the entire United States combined don't have a way to shovel the shit out, so we can only count on Wei En to cover it up."

"Wei En uses Cat Getan's criminals to threaten the people in Congress. It seems a bit radical, but we all know he is just negotiating terms, raising the price first to gain more initiative."

"We all know he won't really throw those criminals out, because if he wanted to do that, he would have done it long ago. But no one knows if he really doesn't want to be this fig leaf anymore."

"Leave Cat Getan, the vast world has much to offer. If Bruce Wei En decides to take another step, no one can stop him."

"So we had better not treat him with the idea that a little favor will make him stop." Amanda stood up, crossed her arms, and said: "Don't you think this looks like a trap?"

The Director looked up at her, stunned for a moment before his eyes widened again, and he said: "You don't mean to say that this is actually intentional on Bruce Wei En's part?"

"Deliberately leaving that photo there, revealing his identity and his relationship with his adopted sons—he knows there are plenty of people waiting to catch him in a scandal. Whether it's us or the military, we will definitely seize the opportunity to beat a dog that has fallen into the water."

"We will help him stir up the scene, work hard to promote public outrage, and let the whole world see Wei En's little tail."

"After the world's attention is focused here, he will then have his adopted sons reveal the darkness and injustice of Cat Getan's underbelly in media interviews, tearing the faces off us military and Congressional lords."

The Director's tone became increasingly panicked, turning into a scream by the end. He stood up with a jerk, then asked in a daze: "But why would he do this? What good does it do him to offend everyone?"

"He has offended everyone, but he will also become hugely famous, and he can also gain a massive wave of public favor."

"Cat Getan is rotten, but it is the Wei En Group that keeps Cat Getan from being both poor and rotten. When the time comes, his adopted son from Cat Getan's underbelly will tell a story about how much effort the Wei En Group has put into saving this city, and then share their heartwarming parent-child story. How many people do you think won't buy it?"

"But the media won't all..."

The Director couldn't continue. They could manipulate the media because Wei En didn't want to manipulate the media. But if Wei En wanted to, no one else would even stand a chance.

As the saying goes, there are few people in this world who wouldn't be moved by the Wei En Group.

The Director grabbed his hair hard and said: "What the hell is he doing? Could it be that he is just like those lunatics in Cat Getan..."

The Director's movements suddenly froze. He slowly looked at Amanda, and Amanda also looked up at him. Both realized they had deduced the same possibility.

Wei En wouldn't be trying to run for President, would he?!