Chapter Summaries

Joseph woke in an Egyptian hospital after fainting from heatstroke and reunited with his father, Deathstroke, whose younger appearance made their relationship difficult to explain. Joseph warned Deathstroke that Schiller was dangerous, but Deathstroke left with Schiller to search for relics while Joseph stayed with his friends.

• Joseph remembered discovering his mind-control power at age seven and the fear that had made him avoid looking people in the eye, especially around his father.
• Joseph woke in the hospital and told Deathstroke to stay away; when Joseph met his eyes, his power caused Deathstroke intense pain but failed to control him.
• Joseph and Deathstroke argued about their relationship and Joseph urged him to avoid Schiller, warning that Schiller was a dangerous killer.
• Deathstroke told Joseph he would return after his work and left him in the hospital so others would not discover their connection.
• Deathstroke joined Schiller on the trip back to Cairo, and Schiller said Deathstroke was interested in him rather than psychology.

Deathstroke and Schiller discussed Joseph’s mind-reading and the strained father-son relationship it exposed, as Deathstroke considered what being a good father meant for someone living as an assassin. Schiller then described Deathstroke’s disastrous family relationships in other universes, prompting Deathstroke to stop the car and confront Orca.

• Deathstroke realized Joseph had likely discovered his mercenary identity as a child and had been frightened by the memories he read.
• Schiller explained that Deathstroke and Joseph were caught between Deathstroke’s role as a loving father and his true life as an assassin.
• Deathstroke admitted he had considered having another child but feared that child might someday discover his work and turn against him.
• Schiller told Deathstroke that versions of him in other universes had children who became his enemies, including Joseph, Grant, and his daughter.
• Schiller revealed that Deathstroke had also failed to resurrect his son and had killed his resurrected father, so Deathstroke stopped the car, drew his sword, and demanded an explanation from Orca.

Schiller explained to Deathstroke how his life as a killer and the rules of ordinary society could drive a wedge between him and his children. The chapter left Deathstroke considering how much the changing pressures on American middle-class families might have shaped his children’s lives.

• Schiller asked Deathstroke to get in the car and listen to why fathers and sons often became estranged across the multiverse.
• Schiller argued that Deathstroke’s children could not live outside social and legal rules as he did, so their paths were bound to conflict with his.
• Schiller used the example of an ordinary worker whose boss withheld wages to explain why lawsuits and public exposure could protect people better than violence.
• Deathstroke agreed that social rules protected ordinary people from powerful enemies, and Schiller said his children faced pressures he did not understand.
• Schiller described the rise of middle-class anxiety in the United States and how it spread through industries such as education and health care.

Schiller explained how Deathstroke’s work and absence had harmed his family and the society meant to shelter them, leaving Deathstroke to confront the damage he had caused. In Cairo, Schiller injured himself to draw out someone important to Khaywen and gain access to the mural.

• Schiller described how Deathstroke’s year-round absences and assassin work exposed his family to social pressure and undermined the rules that could protect them.
• Deathstroke admitted that he had realized he was more evil than he had thought, but insisted his family could live safely without him.
• Schiller pointed out that Deathstroke had brought Joseph into the situation after hearing his plan, and Deathstroke stopped the car as they reached Cairo.
• Schiller and Deathstroke entered the city despite martial law and learned that militants had set fire to an airport building.
• Schiller said they needed to find someone important to Khaywen and use that person to exchange for the mural, then shot his own palm to draw attention.

Schiller and Deathstroke tracked Khaywen’s mysterious contact to Lady Shiva, but she drove them out of the airport. They then searched for Hessinager at the Museum and found that someone had already taken him.

• Schiller learned that the woman he sought had been using a burned brothel as a contact point and had gone to the airport.
• Schiller and Deathstroke found Lady Shiva fighting terrorists at the airport, but she attacked them and forced them to escape.
• Schiller concluded that Khaywen might be keeping Hessinager at the Museum and went there with Deathstroke.
• Schiller found blood in the underground room and realized Hessinager had been shot and taken by someone other than Khaywen.

Schiller and Deathstroke negotiated with factions in Suez to draw Khaywen out and seize the stolen relics in the Egyptian Museum. Deathstroke created chaos in Cairo while Schiller led Big Beard’s men into the underground vault, where Khaywen appeared to confront them.

• Schiller deduced that Khaywen was monitoring them from a safe house and proposed going to Suez to find a ship.
• Schiller and Deathstroke boarded a ship in the Suez Canal and persuaded Big Beard to help take the museum’s relics in exchange for a chance to capture Khaywen.
• Deathstroke agreed to create a diversion in Cairo, while Schiller asked Big Beard to watch the mercenary and see who contacted him.
• Deathstroke’s actions plunged Cairo into chaos, and Schiller led Big Beard’s men past the cordon and into the museum’s underground storage room.
• As Big Beard’s men began taking the relics, Khaywen arrived and angrily confronted them.

Schiller investigated the stolen mural and learned that Hessinager may have taken it using a rented moving truck. He left a lead for a defeated gang, hoping they would find the mural and draw the killer out.

• Khaywen said Hessinager had taken the mural from his safe house, and Big Beard agreed to let Schiller take several appraised antiquities in exchange for the information.
• Khaywen led Schiller to the safe house and revealed that a moving company's box truck had been rented and returned at suspicious times.
• Schiller met Deathstroke, concluded they needed to make the killer act, and went with him to the Red Light District.
• The madam told Schiller that the airport gang was hiding in a nearby hotel after being routed.
• Schiller told the gang that finding the magical mural could earn them the Justice League's help, then gave them the moving truck lead.

Schiller and Deathstroke tracked the glowing mural to the Egyptian Museum, where they found Joseph guarding it and demanding that he and his father be allowed to leave. Their family argument turned into a fight that knocked the mural over, and a bright meteor then streaked southwest across the sky.

• Schiller used Batman's instrument to follow the Lantern energy back to the Egyptian Museum's Tutankhamun exhibition hall.
• Schiller and Deathstroke found Joseph beside the glowing mural, and Joseph demanded that they let him and Deathstroke leave with it.
• Joseph revealed that he had taken the mural to protect Deathstroke, while Deathstroke realized his son had chosen to stand by him.
• Deathstroke mistook Joseph's investigation of Lady Shiva for a visit to the Red Light District, and the three argued about it.
• Schiller tried to subdue Joseph, but Deathstroke intervened and grappled with him, knocking the mural over.
• The mural's light intensified, and a bright meteor crossed the sky and fell toward the southwest.

After a meteor struck near Cairo, Schiller and Deathstroke drove into the desert and discovered the Giza Pyramid Complex was trapped in a supernatural puzzle. They tried to manipulate the shifting pyramids into alignment, but their attempt remained unfinished.

• Schiller and Deathstroke found Joseph missing after the meteor's impact, then left the Museum to investigate where it had fallen.
• Deathstroke reflected on his family and resolved to apologize for concealing his criminal life and involving Joseph in the danger.
• Schiller and Deathstroke reached the Giza Pyramid Complex, where their car vanished and a sandstorm trapped them in a space where they could not move forward.
• Schiller and Deathstroke realized that some pyramids shifted in response to their movements and began coordinating to align them.
• After Deathstroke repeatedly disrupted the alignment, Schiller drew his revolver and threatened to shoot him if they failed again.

Schiller and Deathstroke navigated a series of pyramid puzzles, but the magic circle teleported Schiller alone into a sealed chamber. After Schiller’s personality switched between brute force, sleeping, and looking up answers, he crossed a beetle-filled passage and became trapped above a collapsing floor; Deathstroke arrived by smashing through the exit.

• Schiller and Deathstroke followed the pyramids’ shifting shadows and found a patterned disk that filled with liquid moonlight when Schiller used Deathstroke’s greatsword.
• The magic circle teleported Schiller to a sealed puzzle chamber while Deathstroke remained behind, unable to reactivate it.
• Schiller forced his way through the disk puzzles by trial and error, then switched personalities; Agent searched online for translations and used them to open the next door.
• Schiller walked through a passage as dung beetles crawled past him, then faced a collapsing-floor obstacle with floating steps.
• Deathstroke smashed through the exit as Schiller’s last step fell, and Schiller shouted for him to throw a rope.

Schiller and Deathstroke solved the tomb’s final puzzle, where Schiller shot down Khonshu’s apparition and learned to go to the far side of the moon. Back at the Egyptian Museum, Schiller altered his own fake mural to manufacture evidence for the new lead.

• Schiller and Deathstroke worked together to solve the tomb chamber’s moving-disk puzzle.
• A moonlit figure appeared, and Schiller shot it apart, revealing Khonshu, who told them to go to the far side of the moon.
• Schiller and Deathstroke left the pyramid and found police surrounding a small meteorite near the Giza Plateau.
• At the Egyptian Museum, Schiller chipped and altered his counterfeit mural with moon imagery and small figures, then presented it as evidence.
• Deathstroke realized Schiller could create a problem, solve it, and produce the evidence needed to claim the job was complete.

Diana examined the supposed ancient Egyptian mural and asked Deathstroke to bring in an expert to analyze it, while Deathstroke recalled how Schiller had arranged the forgery. The chapter ended with Diana sending Deathstroke to Carter Hall, unaware that Schiller was working to keep the mural from being exposed as fake.

• Diana noticed the mural's crude moon and unusual figures and concluded that someone had added them to convey a message about the moon's far side and aliens.
• Diana asked Deathstroke to find an ancient Egyptian art expert, and he agreed to go for cash reimbursement.
• Two days earlier, Schiller told Deathstroke that the mural was entirely fake and that he would handle the trouble while Deathstroke escorted it back to the Justice League.
• Deathstroke described the meteor impact near the Great Pyramid and said he and Schiller had found nothing unusual there.
• Diana gave Deathstroke the name and address of Carter Hall, manager of the Midway City Museum, and asked him to bring Hall to analyze the mural.

Deathstroke worried that Schiller’s artifact scheme would be exposed, but he discovered Schiller was working with Dr. Hall, the museum’s expert, to deceive artifact thieves. Schiller proposed supplying collectors with convincing fakes to protect genuine artifacts, and Dr. Hall considered testing the plan with “The Serpent of Phryne.”

• Deathstroke arrived at the Midway City Museum intending to find leverage over Dr. Hall, then saw Schiller enter the manager’s office.
• Schiller and Dr. Hall discussed their scheme to use a fake artifact to trick Khaywen and punish him for trafficking in Egyptian artifacts.
• Schiller explained that Hessinager had hidden the recovered mural in the Tutankhamun Exhibition Hall, prompting Dr. Hall to laugh at Khaywen’s incompetence.
• Schiller proposed making convincing fakes for collectors so genuine artifacts could remain available for research, and Dr. Hall admitted that thefts at the museum had become rampant.
• Dr. Hall said he could teach his child to distinguish real artifacts from fakes, and Schiller suggested testing the plan first with “The Serpent of Phryne.”

Schiller explained to Deathstroke how he had used a forged Egyptian mural to manipulate Khaywen, Hessinager, and the Justice League, while turning Deathstroke into the fall guy in Egypt. After a message arrived, Schiller armed himself and hurried downstairs, with Deathstroke following.

• Schiller told Deathstroke he was The Intermediary and explained that he had helped Dr. Carter Hall make a fake mural to lure Khaywen into a trap.
• Schiller revealed that he had used Hessinager to arrange the mural’s transfer and made its strange effects attract the Justice League’s attention.
• Schiller admitted he had arranged for Deathstroke to take the blame for killing an armed leader in Egypt, and said Joseph’s intervention had disrupted his plan to make Khaywen and Hessinager kill each other.
• Deathstroke questioned whether Dr. Hall would expose the plan to the Justice League, and Schiller argued that Hall’s attachment to Egyptian artifacts would keep him involved.
• After Schiller received a message, he switched personalities, drew a suppressed Glock 19, and went downstairs; Deathstroke followed while trying to move quietly.

Schiller and Deathstroke investigated an attempted break-in at Carter Hall’s private Art Museum and learned that the Halls were hosting a dinner party that evening. Schiller decided they would attend, beginning with buying Deathstroke suitable clothes.

• Deathstroke boarded a ferry in full gear, alarming the passengers, and changed into a stolen suit after escaping the police.
• Schiller surveyed Maple District from an office building and learned that the red-roofed building was Carter Hall’s private Art Museum.
• Schiller explained that an Egyptian Assassin had attempted to kill Dr. Hall and his wife, and Deathstroke guessed Schiller had hired him to prevent a successful assassination.
• Deathstroke asked a café boss about the break-in and learned that the police had found no evidence and that the Halls’ dinner party was still scheduled for that night.
• Schiller set a new objective to attend the party and took Deathstroke to a designer suit shop.

Schiller helped Deathstroke disguise himself and enter a private Art Museum banquet so he could protect Dr. Hall from an Assassin. Deathstroke blended in as a wealthy young heir and began considering whether his youthful appearance could let him build a new life with his family.

• Schiller chose a light-colored suit for Deathstroke and instructed him to enter the banquet, stay near Dr. Hall, and prevent anyone from killing him.
• Deathstroke entered the private Art Museum by charming the receptionist into giving him an invitation as Slade Wilson, a textile magnate’s son.
• Schiller entered separately in an artful disguise and reminded Deathstroke to keep close to Dr. Hall before leaving when Hall was about to arrive.
• Deathstroke mingled with the guests by acting like a shy, inexperienced rich young man, and he considered using his youthful appearance to start over with his wife and child.

Deathstroke used his new youthful appearance to pose as Slade Wilson at Dr. Hall’s banquet, then inferred a sniper’s plan and saved Hall from the shot. After another attacker targeted Hall’s wife, Deathstroke overheard the couple speaking an unfamiliar language and decided to have it translated.

• Deathstroke considered using a family-man disguise and a settled home life while continuing to work as an Assassin.
• Deathstroke approached Dr. Hall at the banquet as Slade Wilson, claiming an interest in ancient Egyptian weaving and keeping watch for danger.
• Deathstroke deduced that the attacker planned a long-range shot and knocked Hall down as the window shattered, then pulled him behind cover.
• After a scream from the rear hall, Deathstroke found Hall’s wife frightened and a fleeing attacker, while Schiller pursued another figure outside.
• Deathstroke heard Hall and his wife speak in a language he did not recognize, memorized the sounds, and planned to find someone to translate them.

After a failed kidnapping attempt, Schiller learned that the Halls were being hunted for two Egyptian treasures and helped them plan to use a strange mural to gain Justice League protection. The chapter ended with Schiller arranging for Deathstroke to meet the League the next morning and complete his mission.

• Schiller told Deathstroke that Khaywen had sent the captured attacker to kidnap Mrs. Hall, while the sniper remained unidentified.
• Mrs. Hall revealed that an enemy had stolen the Treasure Blade and was pursuing her and Dr. Hall for the remaining Gauntlet and Amulet.
• Dr. Hall explained that the Justice League had taken their mural after strange markings appeared on it, including a symbol that might relate to Egyptian occult matters.
• Schiller proposed that the Halls present themselves as experts on the mural, attracting Khaywen while securing the Justice League's protection.
• Schiller told Deathstroke to find the Justice League the next morning and complete his mission.

Deathstroke investigated the Halls after suspecting they were hiding something, then discovered they could fly and fight in armored costumes. When Joseph arrived and gained the Halls’ trust, Schiller revealed he had called him to Midway City, leaving Deathstroke furious and worried that Joseph could not handle them.

• Deathstroke had experts analyze the Halls’ conversation, and they reported that its language was unfamiliar but might include a word meaning “priest.”
• Deathstroke told Schiller he suspected the Halls were dangerous, then returned to their art museum and was attacked by Dr. Hall in golden armor.
• Mrs. Hall joined Dr. Hall, and the pair flew away after recognizing Deathstroke.
• Deathstroke told Schiller he would not take the Halls to Justice League headquarters until he learned what they were hiding.
• Deathstroke spotted Joseph at the art museum, where Joseph quickly won the Halls’ favor and went upstairs with them.
• Schiller told Deathstroke he had summoned Joseph, and Deathstroke pressed his greatsword against Schiller’s neck in anger.

Deathstroke investigated the Halls while Joseph helped escort them, then learned that they were reincarnated ancient Egyptians hunted by the priest Hath-Set. The discovery also made Deathstroke realize their supposedly fake mural was an authentic work of ancient Egyptian culture, and he began to suspect Schiller had caused Batman’s disappearance too.

• Deathstroke explained to Schiller that Joseph was too soft-hearted to become an assassin, while Joseph helped the Halls prepare to travel east.
• Deathstroke’s intermediary identified the Halls’ mysterious script as Late Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Deathstroke found an ancient Egyptian document in their study.
• Joseph told Deathstroke that the Halls were reincarnated Khufu and Chay-Ara, whose enemy Hath-Set had killed them and was now pursuing them again.
• Joseph explained that the Halls carried the Scarabs Amulet and Claw of Horus, which let them transform into Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
• Deathstroke realized the Halls’ mural was a genuine ancient Egyptian artifact despite being made with modern materials, then wondered whether Schiller had also caused Batman to disappear.