They were in Lucius' office. Bruce's office, technically, thought Lucius spent most time here. Bruce had turned up, dutifully, for the bi-annual departmental heads meeting at WayneTech. Lucius had watched Bruce work the room, smiling and shaking the hands of senior technicians, biochemists, engineers, software-security experts, making just enough informed conversation with Lucius' chief systems engineer to impress yet not shock her. And then he and Bruce had retired here. Lucius doubted anyone else had noticed Wayne favouring his right leg as it recovered from whatever he'd subjected to it the night before.
"Can you do it ?" Bruce asked. All the easy charm from the meeting room was gone. It would seem like unfriendliness to a casual observer, Lucius thought. But it was the opposite. Bruce dis his friends, the people he trusted, the honour of not pretending.
Lucius smiled. It wouldn't be easy. WayneTech had been out of the arms industry for a while. Could claim the guns for testing materials when he made the order, he reasoned, and do all the prototyping alone.
"Why the change of heart, Mister Wayne ?"
Lucius, always the pragmatist, had long campaigned for a more offensively equipped Batmobile. Just in case, Bruce had resisted him until now. But ever since Joker died his employer had been... not aggressive, exactly. Lucius couldn't quite identify the change.
"Just in case," Bruce said, as he left the room.
No comments:
Post a Comment