Chapitre 682: Chapter 465: Those who were once great (Last part)_2
Just as he reached the fourth floor, Bruce noticed some telltale signs. There were hardly any ordinary residents here, but there were abundant traces of activity.
Upon ascending one more floor to the fifth level, his confusion deepened; it was filled with a mess of inexplicable items.
It seemed as though someone was deliberately guiding a person upward, Bruce deduced. However, he was sure that he was not the intended target, as those traces had already been inspected. Besides, he thought this wasn't a cleverly devised trap; at least, he was certain he wouldn't fall for it.
As he crossed the hallway, turned a corner, and was about to head towards the stairwell, he saw a body sprawled on the floor of the middle platform of the stairs—it was Benjamin.
Bruce's eyes narrowed as he ascended the staircase and began examining Benjamin's body. Judging by the wounds and the condition of the blood, Benjamin had been dead for only a short while, killed by someone very skilled, with a single fatal shot.
From the surrounding circumstances, it seemed Benjamin might have been ambushed. Bruce found it hard to pinpoint the perpetrator since none of the party guests were capable of killing Benjamin.
Yet apart from those guests, the only ones capable were people from his own line of work, or other agents.
Considering this, Bruce conjectured that maybe internal conflicts among the agents had led to Benjamin's death, and the most likely person to have done it was Benjamin's second in command, Kira.
With this thought, Bruce continued upward, dart at the ready in his hand. Upon reaching the sixth floor, he found only one room whose door was open, the light spilling from it splitting the corridor in two.
As Bruce edged along the wall to peer into the room, Kira in the center of the room spotted him. "Come in, Mr. Wayne," she called.
Realizing he had been detected, Bruce no longer attempted to sneak around. He walked in, still on high alert, Kira took a position opposite him and said,
"Mr. Wayne, I have some unfortunate news to share."
Bruce remained silent, but Kira paid no attention to his demeanor, continuing, "Just recently, for reasons of my own, I killed that idiot Benjamin."
"The motive and methods don't matter..." As Kira spoke, she moved to the back of the table, pulled a file from a drawer, and tossed it onto the tabletop.
With a "thud" sound of the file landing, Kira continued, "I found this in Benjamin's briefcase. It holds personal information about your butler. Would you like to take a look?"
Bruce's gaze fell on the thick file on the table. Judging by the thickness of the papers, he estimated the volume of the content, then stood silently, unmoving.
Kira flourished the pistol in her hand, saying,
"Unlike that fool Benjamin, I have no intention of antagonizing Wayne Enterprises. Waiting here for you, I simply wanted to do you a favor by giving you this file. I hope you won't hold against me the actions of previous agents."
"That's all. You can peruse at your leisure. I will take my leave now."
"Oh, and it would be best not to try to stop me with your dart. Communications were just restored a moment ago; my satellite phone is now connected. If you try anything, headquarters will know immediately."
With that, Kira strode past Bruce and exited the room. When she had descended one floor, she entered a room on the fifth floor where an exasperated Alfred was waiting.
About ten minutes prior, Kira had brought Alfred to the room where Benjamin stashed the file. Walking behind the table, she retrieved the file folder, scrutinizing its contents.
"Oh, sorry, I've been curious throughout, but Benjamin was always on guard, so I never got the chance to look. Would you like to see it?" she asked.
Alfred shook his head, replying, "When you reach my age, you won't want to review your CV; it's all skeletons in the closet."
Hearing this, Kira instinctively glanced at the "emotional" section of Alfred's personal data, filled with a long list of names.
"Alright then, regardless, let's dispose of this as quickly as possible and pretend none of this ever happened."
Alfred shook his head, "No need to go through so much trouble. Given Bruce's wisdom, if he really suspected me, he would've thoroughly investigated this information a long time ago. Therefore, it doesn't truly matter if these documents are destroyed."
Resigning herself to the situation, Kira placed the files back on the table, then said,
"Even if you have a good relationship with Bruce, from what I have observed, he is a very typical American, one who instinctively suspects everything."
Seeing Alfred's stoic demeanor, Kira sighed as she moved to face him, "Before, you taught me many things, you were a brilliant teacher, whether in a professional or a personal capacity, I hope you can keep living peacefully."
Noting Alfred's reluctance to discuss the subject, Kira persisted,
"I need to be sure, that Little Wayne does not suspect you, or better yet, that he also feels for you, that it is not only you who's giving everything. Otherwise, one day he will hurt you."
Kira extended a hand and pushed Alfred, "You wait downstairs. I want to see what will happen when Little Wayne sees this file. If he dares to betray you, I will shoot him."
Kira and Alfred shared a mutual affection and consideration. He would take care to guide Kira, directing some of his affection towards her. Faced with Kira's kindness, Alfred found himself unable to reject her outright.
So, after Kira handed the file to Bruce, he stood behind the desk, staring down at the mass of documents. From his angle, he could only see the first page, displaying Alfred's basic information.
Bruce stepped forward, picked up the file, aligned it properly on the desk, and pulled out a lighter.
As he watched the paper slowly burn into ash, Bruce turned to look outside the window.
Behind him, the first page that contained the line, "KGB - Military Intelligence Section 6 Agent: Alfred Pennyworth", completely vanished in the flames.
While Bruce stood window-side, watching the snow falling from the sky, he thought about whether his butler had seen larger and more beautiful snowfall in the Northern Kingdom.
"There is something, however, that I would like to confirm." in the room at the fifth floor, Kira, touching her chin, posed a question hesitantly, "Of course, if it can't be discussed, you can ignore my query."
"There's nothing we can't discuss. Currently, your rank is higher than mine."
"It's not very important, but about the 'Philby List', you know, it's difficult to convince those idiots to change their minds, I need to ensure that you've hidden it properly. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if we lost it."
"Initially, I did hide it away, but then, wanting to sever ties with my past, I decided to return everything to their original owners. So, I contacted Moscow, asking them to retrieve the list from a precise location."
"After delivering the list, they sent an agent to fetch it. Currently, the list should have already been returned to Moscow."
"Back to Moscow?" Kira frowned intensely and spoke earnestly, "That's impossible. I have been constantly communicating with Moscow. If the list was returned earlier, why would the scandal regarding Philby's body be such a heated topic?"
Alfred too furrowed his brows, stating, "I am certain the communication between Moscow and I is reliable; no third party involved. As for the whereabouts of the list…"
He shook his head, "…I have no clue as well."
At this time, under the manor, Shiller successfully manipulated Gray Mist, prying open the safe.
Upon opening the safe, he wasn't greeted by the Dionysus Factor Reagent as he had expected, but an unremarkable file folder instead.
Above the file, an emblem with a sickle, hammer, and red flag was flashing brilliantly.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone