Deathstroke stands on the roof terrace of the Midway City Museum, smoking. Suddenly, the door to the terrace opens, and Shiller steps out. Seeing Deathstroke smoking, he frowns.
"Oh, come on. The other you doesn't mind this." Although Deathstroke says this, he still puts out the cigarette, "Didn't you say you were the same person?"
"He doesn't mind; he just tolerates it," Shiller says, "You wouldn't smoke in front of Joseph either, would you?"
"I don't have a smoking habit," Deathstroke says, "Actually, I'm not addicted to anything. So, of course, I wouldn't smoke at home."
Shiller chuckles, "You really are a good husband, a good father."
"Praising me is useless." Deathstroke snorts coldly, "This play is starting much earlier than I thought, great inventor."
"That's only in your view. For me, the plan has always been arranged this way, no issues at all."
"Now that I've been dragged in, at least I should know what happened before you went to Egypt, right?"
Shiller walks to the railing of the terrace, turns around, and leans on it, saying, "Actually, this plan wasn't devised by me; it just borrowed an idea I used before. But given the urgent situation, I wouldn't ask him for a copyright fee."
"The mural is indeed fake. But initially, it wasn't created for the Justice League. Before that, Carter Hall, the manager of the Midway City Museum, was troubled by various thieves and artifact traders coveting the relics. He approached me, hoping I could help him solve this problem."
"Wait," Deathstroke stops him with a hand, then asks, "Who are you? Why did he come to you?"
"I thought you were familiar with me," Shiller smiles as he looks at him, "You often deal with people like me, don't you?"
"No," Deathstroke shakes his head.
"I'm the middleman." Shiller says.
Deathstroke squints his eyes.
"Actually, I'm an emerging middleman who has just done a few successful brokerage deals. My reputation partly thanks to you. If you hadn't taken the task of destroying the goods, I wouldn't have become the middleman for the world's first mercenary."
Deathstroke suddenly clenches his fist, "So it's you!!!"
"No," Deathstroke realizes, "The middleman for that commission was clearly..."
"Can you still reach him?"
Deathstroke slightly widens his eyes, "You killed him?!"
"Unfortunately, he has been summoned to his eternal rest."
Deathstroke chokes but finds it hard to blame Shiller. In their line of work, one always risks their life; if one dies, it's not on others but rather their own fault for not protecting themselves.
However, he thought that middleman was quite seasoned, yet unexpectedly, he also fell prey to Shiller's hands—a truly dangerous individual.
Although he hadn't noticed earlier, in hindsight, that commission was riddled with inconsistencies. Little did he know it would become the stepping stone for Shiller to solidify his reputation as a middleman, while the commission ended in failure, leaving him with nothing.
"Didn't you get paid by the Justice League?" Shiller seems to guess what he's thinking, "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have had the chance to earn Batman's money, would you?"
Indeed, Deathstroke thinks to himself. The Justice League is quite generous. Diana offered a price well above what a regular escort mission should have been. Deathstroke knows it's not because he's unaware of the market rates but because the other side wants to deter any trouble by hiring high salaries. And this strategy always works; Deathstroke indeed agrees not to implicate the innocent for the sake of money.
"As for why he chose me among so many middlemen and how he contacted me, I have my ways. In short, he wanted me to help him deal with those frequent visiting thieves and artifact traders. The most troublesome of them all was Hayven."
Shiller lightly sighs, "They were old classmates but completely different people. Hayven started studying this field just to make money without any limits. Whereas Dr. Hall is a genuine researcher; he has a deep emotional connection to Ancient Egyptian artifacts, hoping they wouldn't be sold or destroyed."
"These two are considered enemies despite the distance; they've had several confrontations. According to Dr. Hall, the loot from several successful theft cases eventually ended up in Hayven's hands. This infuriates him but leaves him helpless."
"Can't he go to Egypt and confront him?" Deathstroke asks, "He is a renowned scholar; can't he report him?"
"The problem lies in that. For some unknown reason, Dr. Hall can't go to Egypt. To be precise, he can't even show his face, can't let others know where he is."
"Sounds like he's hiding from enemies."
"You can understand it that way, but anyways, he can't personally oppose Hayven. That's why he's always at a disadvantage. And recently, theft incidents have become increasingly rampant, and he really can't tolerate it anymore."
"Let me ask you, are the rampant theft incidents related to you?"
"That's not for you to worry about." Shiller continued, "In any case, I had a discussion with him and finally decided to set up a trap for Hayven. This trap requires bait. Originally, I suggested he use a real artifact, but he was unwilling, so we had to create a fake one."
"You mean that mural?"
"Exactly, though it's not entirely accurate to say I created it. While I was responsible for the initial design, Dr. Hall played a significant role in the subsequent manufacturing and detailed polishing. Doesn't it look quite convincing?"
Deathstroke couldn't really tell. However, Hayven, being a museum director and having handled many real artifacts, couldn't tell either, indicating that this thing was crafted quite authentically, at least not apparent to anyone of a level below Dr. Hall.
"After the item was made, I contacted Hesingnag, pretended to want to collaborate with him to ship the item out of America. In fact, I knew he wanted to take it for himself, using his energy just to handle the formalities. His bosses are well-known arms dealers and the French Government; they have a way to get the legal procedures done quickly to ship the item out."
"Quickly?" Deathstroke caught onto the keyword.
"That's right, which is connected to another fish this bait is meant to catch—the Justice League. The Justice League is eager to find things related to the Power of Seven Lanterns, and I can make the mural exhibit certain anomalies to make them think it's a clue to the Power of Seven Lanterns, prompting them to investigate. But just as they confirm the mural indeed has anomalies, the procedures for transferring the artifact would be completed, and the mural would be directly shipped out. Naturally, they would send someone to pursue it."
"And just then Batman happened to have an accident; they're too busy, have no time to pursue the artifact, so they can only come to find you to chase it," Deathstroke shook his head and said, "If I had your ability to create work for myself, I'd be the cosmos' number one mercenary."
"Anyway, I was hired to go to Egypt to retrieve the artifact. But it was difficult for me alone to disrupt the Egyptian situation; a crucial part requires someone to take the blame."
"You chose me," Deathstroke said, "deceived me into going to Egypt through a commission, then you killed the leader of that armed force, and set me up as the culprit, allowing you to get away perfectly."
"It was a necessary move. To disrupt the Egyptian situation, that person had to die but couldn't be related to me. I needed someone to bear this infamy for me. You must admit, this further proves your world-class mercenary skills, doesn't it?"
Deathstroke indeed couldn't argue; at his level, killing a famous person could even increase his reputation. People would only think he took on a tough job, even in such a chaotic Middle Eastern place, as if it were uninhabited. This might even bring him quite a few Middle Eastern clients, helping him open up the market here.
"If your son hadn't come, my plan was to incite Hayven and Hesingnag to kill each other, eventually leading to both their deaths. However, Joseph's intervention had a better effect; Hayven seemed to have seen a ghost and wouldn't dare cause trouble for a while."
Deathstroke couldn't help but feel a surge of pride, although he didn't know what he was proud of. After all, he'd guessed wrong; Joseph not only had the ability to get caught up in a huge whirlpool, he could even become a trailblazer in it.
"That's about it," Shiller spread his hands and said, "I'm trying to persuade Hall to sustain this plan, so he will choose to continue endorsing the mural."
"That might not be certain," Deathstroke said, "If the person inviting him to appraise is the Justice League, he might not hide it from them and could reveal your plans."
Shiller shook his head and said, "He won't. You can't understand his feelings towards Ancient Egyptian artifacts. Think about it, if one day you could never return home again, and a bunch of thieves kept stealing your things for sale, how would you treat them?"
Deathstroke actually envisioned this scenario because he'd already prepared for the worst, which was never revealing his real identity, or never appearing before his family again.
He did this to protect his family. And if anyone dared take this opportunity to break into his home and harm them, not cutting these people into a bloody mist in three seconds would be considered slow.
"I don't understand," Deathstroke said, "Even if he's Egyptian and for some reason can never return to Egypt, what's it got to do with Ancient Egyptian artifacts? Is he supposed to have crawled out of the Pyramid?"
"How do you know he hasn't?"
Deathstroke was stunned, and before he could think it through, Shiller's phone suddenly rang. He saw the message content, froze, then deeply furrowed his brows.
Looking up again, Deathstroke realized Shiller had changed his demeanor. He was about to say something when he saw Shiller pull out a gun—not the revolver, it should be the equipment prepared after returning to America—a Glock 19 equipped with a silencer kit, usually referred to as "Quiet Little Pooch."
Deathstroke raised an eyebrow; as far as he knew, companies modifying this gun usually only allow individuals who can legally own this gun to acquire it, does Shiller really have a legitimate agent identity?
Silenced weapons are strictly controlled, and silencer kits rarely make it to civilian hands, and are also very rare in the black market. Those who hope to enter the hitman circle with just a silenced pistol often find themselves very disappointed. Market infiltrated silenced weapons are either very old or extremely unreliable. Compared to weapons, they seem more like bait deliberately released by law enforcers. Any mature hitman wouldn't depend on them; relatively speaking, sniper rifles or even grenade launchers would be better choices.
Silenced weapons aren't that easy to use; silencer kits severely impact firearm performance. Plus, relatively good silenced pistols require frequent replacement of friction pads, being too busy during emergencies. Aside from agents, almost no one chooses to use these guns.
Deathstroke had only seen Shiller use that revolver which practically couldn't be used at all, which was completely incongruent with his style. So much so that in the whole Egyptian adventure, he hadn't exhibited many agent-like qualities. Now, Deathstroke even somewhat anticipated seeing what a Shiller equipped with a true "agent weapon" would do?
In just a moment of distraction, Shiller was already downstairs. Deathstroke hurriedly jumped down. Shiller glanced back at him and said, "If you're always making such a commotion, don't follow me."
"Alright, I'll try to be quiet." Deathstroke shrugged, "I haven't done such delicate work in many years; you'll have to wait for me."