Clash in the Wayne Enterprises Boardroom!

Wayne Enterprises Tower. Top-floor boardroom.

The air felt as though it had been sucked from the room.

Iron Spike sat stiffly in an expensive leather chair, feeling like a monkey stripped naked and put on display in Times Square.

He stole a glance at the men beside him. Each sat rigidly upright, sweat beading on his forehead. Clearly, they felt even worse than he did.

At the head of the long conference table sat an older Black man with graying hair, gold-rimmed glasses, and a refined air.

He was Lucius Fox, the president of Wayne Enterprises.

His gaze was calm, yet it seemed to see straight through people.

Beside Lucius, a young man in an expensive casual suit lounged in his chair, idly twirling a pen.

Bruce Wayne.

Gotham City's most famous playboy and heir to Wayne Enterprises.

He looked utterly uninterested in the meeting. His gaze wandered, as though he were deciding which nightclub to visit that evening.

But Link, seated across from him, could sense the hawk-sharp eyes behind that devil-may-care mask. They had never once left him.

"Mr. Link," Lucius Fox said, breaking the silence, "I must admit, your company, Chaos Direction, is the most... unusual company I've ever seen."

He put particular emphasis on "unusual."

"You've been in business less than a month, yet you've absorbed Penguin's and Black Mask's operations one after the other. And now you've produced an urban security proposal that surprised even our Applied Sciences Division. I'm curious. How did you do it?"

The question cut like a scalpel, straight toward Link's deepest secret.

Every Wayne Enterprises technical director in the room stopped working and fixed an intent gaze on Link.

They didn't believe a gang boss who had risen through street shootouts could understand quantum encryption or predictive models of criminal behavior.

Even Iron Spike broke into a cold sweat for Link.

But Link smiled.

He leaned forward, clasped his hands on the table, and met Lucius's eyes before glancing at Bruce Wayne beside him.

"Mr. Fox, that's a good question."

"But the answer is simple."

He paused, then spoke one word at a time.

"Because we understand Gotham better."

"And we understand its darkness better, too."

The temperature in the boardroom seemed to drop several degrees.

The contempt on the technical directors' faces froze.

In Link's steady gaze, they saw something they had never encountered: an understanding of evil forged in blood and fire.

Lucius Fox's expression turned grave.

And for the first time, Bruce Wayne's twirling pen faltered, almost imperceptibly.

"Words alone aren't proof." Link gave them no time to process what he had said. He snapped his fingers.

Harley took the cue and plugged a USB drive into the conference system.

The enormous holographic screen lit up.

Instead of dry data and charts, it displayed a dynamic three-dimensional map of Gotham City.

Countless points of light blinked across the map, converging into streams of red.

"Traditional security systems are reactive. They only record crimes and pursue criminals after the fact. They're like cleaners trailing a patient around, mopping up the mess."

Link stood and walked to the screen.

"My proposal is proactive."

He swiped a hand across the display.

The map changed instantly as countless complex models and algorithms began to run.

"We gathered every crime report from Gotham City over the past twenty years, along with weather patterns, economic indicators, even negative sentiment on social media... Then we analyzed it all through a model I call 'Chaos.'"

"We can predict which Gotham City neighborhood has more than an eighty-percent chance of an armed robbery in the next twelve hours; which dock will host a contraband deal; even which building holds a desperate father who might take his own life after losing his job."

A wave of sharp intakes of breath swept through the boardroom.

This wasn't security anymore. It was... prophecy!

Lucius Fox adjusted his glasses, his eyes wide with astonishment behind the lenses.

This level of big-data application surpassed even Wayne Enterprises' most advanced laboratories!

"Prediction is only the first step." Link's voice held a hint of devilish temptation.

"Next comes intervention."

The screen changed again.

"We can alter the environment before a crime occurs, using nonlethal means. For example, if we predict a motorcycle robbery in a neighborhood, we can release a harmless slick vapor through the sewer system ahead of time, making the tires slip. Or we can send photos of a domestic abuser's adorable child to his phone just before he turns violent, awakening the last shred of humanity in him."

"At minimal cost, we can stop crime before it begins."

"That is my 'active defense' system. A system that uses chaos to fight chaos."

Link finished and quietly watched the others.

The technical directors were speechless. They stared at Link as if he were a monster.

For the first time, Bruce Wayne's devil-may-care expression stiffened slightly.

His grip on the pen tightened until his knuckles turned faintly white.

No one understood better than he did what this proposal meant.

The logic behind it...

It was a dark reflection of the principles he followed as Batman in his fight against crime!

Worse, it went further than he ever had. It was colder, more ruthless, and willing to do anything!

He used fear and his fists to stop crime. The man before him intended to use technology and psychology to manipulate and control the will of an entire city like a god.

In that moment, Bruce Wayne knew for certain.

The man before him was the most terrifying, most dangerous enemy he had ever faced.

He hadn't come to do business.

He had come to declare war on Gotham's order—and on Batman's very existence.