What's wrong with using a few tactics?

Click.

The tape reached its end. The recorder's play button struggled for a moment, then snapped up. Bob flicked his ash into a paper cup and nodded, his expression shifting. "That's enough."

"Is it?" Li Jie frowned in thought. "I feel like... there's nothing really substantial here."

"If you want to put Joshua in prison, this recording isn't worth shit. But all these little details came from conversations he had in extremely private settings. I can't even imagine how your friend Otis got hold of them."

Two streams of smoke shot from his nostrils toward the ceiling. "As far as Joshua's concerned, if we know even these things, could we already have evidence of everything else he's done?"

"Besides, we're not asking him to plead guilty. We just want his help overturning a conviction. And the mistake we're asking him to admit was only made because Fleck misled him with lies... Joshua won't dare take the gamble. Odds are he'll cooperate. But... Jay, Jay..."

He fixed his eyes on Li Jie's face and asked in a low voice, "You don't... have any recordings of me too, do you?"

"Of course not. What would I gain from recording you? I'm counting on you to shelter me from the storm." Li Jie leaned back against his chair, looking utterly devastated. "How could you think that of me? You've broken my heart."

"You're right... you're right. You wouldn't do anything that didn't benefit you." Bob took a hard drag on his cigarette, watched Li Jie for a while, then smiled again. "I'll take the tape to the prosecutor. Those two will work something out."

"That easy? Fleck hasn't confessed yet!"

"That depends on your skills. Just don't kill him." Bob waved him away. "Go on. You know where I stand now."

"Thanks, boss!"

After leaving the Chief's office, he went to Alan for the materials he had asked him to organize. Bob seemed to have taken a liking to the guy lately and had transferred him over with the title of temporary administrative secretary to help sort out old files. Every time Li Jie had seen him at the Police Department, he looked half-dead, or like he would rather be dead. Li Jie had even gone to a pharmacy and had several batches of restorative herbal tea prepared for him, lest his trainee actually drop dead at the Police Department one day.

Then he went to Otis and had him write an account of what had happened back then. Even if Fleck cooperated, there was little hope he would remember what had actually happened. He would just have to memorize it.

"Thank you, thank you, J... Jay!" Hearing that they were preparing to overturn his conviction, Otis clenched his fists in excitement. "Do you need my help?"

"No, you don't have experience with this. Leave it to me." Li Jie waved a hand. "You're not a professional at beating people."

The fluorescent tube in the interrogation room buzzed, casting a sickly white light over Flack Robinson's greasy forehead. He squirmed on the hardwood chair as though nails were sticking out of the seat. Then a tall figure walked in, glanced almost imperceptibly toward the second floor, and turned to lock the door.

"Uh... heh, Jay, oh, I..." He stood and forced a smile. "We're all colleagues. There's no need... no need..."

"Sit."

Li Jie smiled and pointed at the chair. He had used a record of recent offenses to bring Fleck into the interrogation room, then tossed the folder onto the table.

"Take a good look."

Those were records of Fleck's violations and crimes over the past few years. When nobody pursued them, they were nothing more than dust in the archives. But brought out into the daylight, they became a boulder heavy enough to crush him.

After reading just two pages, Fleck went deathly pale. Sweat rolled down his forehead as he asked in a trembling voice:

"How... how much do you want?"

"Money?" Li Jie scoffed, pulled another sheet from his pocket, slowly unfolded it, and pushed it under Fleck's nose. "Look at this."

It was a summary of the file on Otis's old case. But judging by Fleck's bewildered expression after reading it, he really did not remember a thing.

"What... what does this mean?"

"This is my friend's case. I don't want money. I want you to publicly admit that you used illegal methods to fabricate a case and force Otis Flanagan to take the blame for murder."

"No... that's impossible. Please, I'll give you however much you want." Fleck began shaking uncontrollably. He instinctively moved two steps closer, trying to grab Li Jie's hand. "If I admit it, I'm finished. We're colleagues, aren't we? He... what does your friend want? I can compensate him. Twenty... how about twenty thousand?"

"Wow, that's quite a sum. Unfortunately, there's only one thing he wants."

"Whatever he wants, I'll find a way..."

"Fleck, he wants his name cleared." Li Jie watched him expressionlessly. "I don't want to waste words. Either you admit to this one case, and maybe you get fired, or I make all your masterpieces public. Think about the people you screwed over. Plenty of them work for Falcone or Maroni now. Do you think they still remember you?"

"No... no, no, no... you can't do this." Fleck sobbed, tears streaming down his despairing face. He slowly bent at the waist, reaching with his left hand to tug at Li Jie's clothes. "Please, you... go to hell!"

He suddenly roared, a vicious gleam flashing in his eyes, and swung hard at Li Jie's temple. Li Jie shifted slightly to the left and drove a hook into Fleck's abdomen like a sledgehammer.

"Urgh!"

Fleck screamed and dropped to his knees, curling up like a cooked shrimp. He vomited violently, spilling undigested food mixed with stomach acid, snot, and tears all over the floor.

"Tsk, tsk. Disgusting. Trying that on me? Where did you get the nerve?" Li Jie shook out his wrist and grabbed Fleck by the hair. "You can refuse. I'll just send the folder to the newspapers and Internal Affairs in a bit. Your choice. Make it quick."

"You... bastard... you're... betraying... huff, huff... the other... other cops won't..."

"Ha! You know who brought the Eastern District Precinct that million-dollar donation from Bruce Wayne, don't you? But do you know how much more money is coming? Please, open your eyes and look at all that cash. Do you think those officers will sympathize with you, or support me?"

Li Jie's cold chuckle echoed through the cramped room. "Who do you think let me sit here and have this little 'heart-to-heart' with you? The light in Chief Bob's office is still on." He straightened, his shadow falling over the beaten dog on the floor. "What do you think... the boss wants?"

When he emerged from the interrogation room feeling thoroughly satisfied, leaving Fleck inside to memorize the process by which he had fabricated the wrongful conviction, Alan hurried up to him.

"Sir, a large number of bodies were just found in the waters of Miller Bay in the East End. The count is already fifteen. Our patrol officers arrived first, but Central Headquarters has taken over the case."

"Isn't that a good thing? If someone else is taking the blame, we don't have to worry." Li Jie patted his shoulder. "What's fifteen? Maroni's dumped more people than that into the Gotham River in one go. The fish there are especially fat. Stop trying to handle everything. You look like you escaped from the ICU."

"I can't help it. The Chief gave me too many files." Alan shook his head in despair. "Seriously, I think I'm going to die... wait, sir, that isn't what I came to tell you. You'd better look at this scene report. It's really a little... strange."

"Forget that for a moment." Li Jie tucked the report under his arm, pulled over a chair, and sat down with Alan. "Remember, your superiors will always give you more work than you can handle. Think working yourself to death to finish it means you're done? Wrong. They'll just think they can squeeze more out of you."

He poked the trainee officer in the chest. "Go tell Bob to give you either more money or more people. Otherwise, you might need four hundred years to finish sorting those files."

"Uh... well..."

Alan was clearly hesitant. Li Jie pulled the pen and badge from Alan's pocket and slipped them into his own. "You're now confined for one day for doubting your superior. Hurry home and get some sleep. If you drop dead here, you'll disgrace the Eastern District Precinct's proud tradition of slacking off."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

Alan nodded, stood, saluted, and headed out. Li Jie tipped his chair back onto its rear legs, leaned against the wall, and opened the report.

"...the deceased were all young women, fully dressed... strange smiles on their faces... no signs of violence, suspected suicide..."

Fuck. What goddamn lunatic has crawled out of the woodwork now?

Li Jie threw down the report on the spot. He couldn't wait for Bruce the moneybags anymore. If Bruce had too much fun, he wouldn't bear to throw away a single one of these figurines when the time came.

This was no ordinary lunatic anymore. They had to come down hard!

He charged upstairs, taking the steps two at a time, and pounded on the Chief's office door. The Chief was smiling as he talked on the phone, and Li Jie's sudden entrance startled him.

"I'll get back to you later."

Bob hung up and asked with a frown, "What happened? Trouble with Fleck?"

"No, he's dealt with. But boss, you'd better look at this." Li Jie handed him the report. "It just happened."

"What the hell is this..." Bob took the report, lit a cigarette, and began reading. "Mass suicide? Something's off... if they were junkies out of their minds on drugs, they'd usually tear their clothes to shreds... did the stock market crash recently? Impossible. My stocks are still going up... I'm guessing... some bullshit cult ascension thing has cropped up again?"

He exhaled smoke. "But Central Headquarters has it now. What's it got to do with us?"

"Boss, you've really opened my eyes." Li Jie stared at Bob, dumbfounded. "You're fucking nothing like I imagined."

"I like money, but I'm not stupid. I'd been a cop for nearly thirty years before you came along. I still remember those Order of the Solar Temple bastards in Europe a few years ago, and that bunch in California last year... damn it, they even bought new Nikes." Bob smiled smugly. "You haven't seen enough yet. Tell me, what's going on?"

"Brilliant!"

Li Jie gave Bob a thumbs-up. "Boss, we can't just wait around for departments like the Major Crimes Unit at Central Headquarters. This happened in the East End, after all, and Wayne Enterprises just gave us a huge amount of money. If another group dies, even just one or two people, Mr. Wayne might think his donation went down the drain. We need to 'show' that we're taking this very seriously."

"Second, haven't you noticed? Gotham's getting more and more lunatics, and now cults too. They're not like the gangs. They don't want business or territory, just destruction. We need to crush them before they get started. Otherwise, once they snowball, things could get completely out of control."

"True." Bob considered it for a while. "From that hot-sauce-spraying Clown, to the Cloaked Figure, to this... cult. Fuck, scamming a bunch of idiots out of millions without breaking a sweat. I hate that kind of thing more than anything. We have to come down hard!"

"Wise decision, boss!"

"Tell me, what's your plan?"

"Send out the officers and increase patrols, especially in the wealthy neighborhoods and the Commercial District. Set up more roadblocks for checks. Even if it's just for show, our officers can manage that." Li Jie mulled it over, then said with some hesitation, "I have another idea..."

"Let's hear it." Bob watched him with the cigarette between his lips. "Your expression tells me it won't be anything aboveboard."

"Well... these lunatics are destroying order in Gotham City. If order collapses completely, officials and ordinary citizens won't be the only ones suffering..."

"You want to get the gangs involved?" Bob looked intently at Li Jie. "That's a dangerous idea, and a dangerous method. If someone leaks it, just imagining the newspaper headlines should send a chill down your spine."

"But catching these lunatics is too dangerous. Especially those cultists. They usually don't fear death and don't have a brain in their heads. Our people could end up dying somewhere without a sound just trying to gather information." Li Jie pointed outside. "Sure, they're all pretty rotten, but they're still our colleagues. Dangerous work like this... should go to the scum on the streets. It doesn't matter if they die."

Bob tapped his fingers lightly on the desk. Only when the entire cigarette had burned down and the ash fell onto the desktop did he snap out of his thoughts and speak quietly to Li Jie:

"Be careful about it. Anything that shouldn't be left behind goes to the bottom of the Gotham River afterward."