Anatoli seemed very curious about what was going on with Shiller, but unlike Deathstroke, he wasn't talkative, just silently observing. As for Shiller, he had no intention of hiding anything; the first thing he did upon returning to the city was to load his gun, get a car, and drive towards the Red Light District of Cairo.
Upon reaching the Red Light District, he walked straight in, briefly exchanged a glance with the madam, and stuffed US Dollars into her cleavage. Shiller brushed past her and went upstairs, knocking on the door at the very end of the corridor. When the door opened, a dark gun barrel was immediately pointed at Lady Siwa's forehead.
"This doesn't work on me, boy."
"Someone manipulated you," Shiller said. "I think you know who it is."
Lady Siwa paused in her actions, then sighed softly, stepped aside to let Shiller in, closed the door, and said, "Hayven is too greedy; he wants too much. I just didn't expect him to dare make a move against me."
"When a businessman isn't satisfied with their current wealth, they will inevitably get involved in politics. The chaos in Egypt benefits neither you nor me. If you're not able to eliminate your former employer, I can help you."
"Are you asking me to trust an American cop?" Lady Siwa sneered.
"A regular American cop wouldn't appear here." Shiller tilted his head slightly. "I just need Hayven's location."
Lady Siwa hesitated slightly, and after a while she spoke, "Although I'm an assassin, I don't like killings beyond my control. Hayven shouldn't have tried to control me this way—he has a lover in Romania, he usually spends Ramadan there."
"I don't have time to go to Romania," Shiller said. "Make him come back."
"His most treasured possessions are his artifacts. He wouldn't risk moving everything out; some must still be left in Egypt."
"Where?"
"I don't know, no one knows," Lady Siwa shook her head. "He wouldn't tell anyone about it."
"Alright, I understand now." Shiller took out his phone and dialed a number, talking to the other end as he walked out, "Hello, Joseph?"
By the time he walked out of the small building, he had already hung up the phone and was driving to the address he obtained from Joseph. Meanwhile, while he was upstairs, Deathstroke was trying to subtly probe Anatoli—at least he thought he was probing subtly.
"When did you two meet?"
Anatoli was lost in his thoughts, not speaking. Deathstroke said somewhat helplessly, "What's your relationship? Why does he speak Russian? If you don't speak, I'll just have to guess myself."
Anatoli glanced at him, then said, "How can you act just like the stereotypical dumb American?"
"Cough, cough, cough..." Deathstroke almost choked on his own saliva. "If you don't want to answer, then don't answer, no need for personal attacks, right? I haven't offended you!"
"Ah, many people fall for your act," Anatoli said to himself. "Completely brainless American blonde idiot. I bet you play football too?"
Deathstroke opened his mouth, "That's discrimination, damn Russian. You can't..."
"Language logic sounds like a quarterback. 'Long pass! Long pass!' Glad to know you know more English words besides this."
Deathstroke had never hoped so much for Shiller to hurry back. Help!
Shiller didn't disappoint him; he quickly returned, driving towards another location, and stopped in a residential area on the outskirts of Cairo. This time, he picked up the revolver, and after a loud 'boom', the house on the ground almost seemed to leap into the air.
After blasting open the safe house's door, Shiller didn't pause for a moment, kicking over the nearby display stand, followed by several well-packaged boxes and a pile of glass cabinets, then raising his hand to shoot and shatter the chandelier.
Then it was on to the next safe house, hidden in the maintenance room of the underground water system. There was another one not far from the mayor's residence. Not even the one in the Rabbit Hole behind the villa was spared, almost all were obliterated.
Finally, he drove to another residential area, this one being the last, and the largest. In the previous safe houses, real and fake artifacts were mixed, mostly fake ones created to deceive auction houses with false appraisals, but in this last one, everything was genuine.
Hayven didn't keep him waiting long; before dawn, his hurried figure appeared outside the villa's garden wall. Shiller climbed over the wall, and the sensor light flashed on, illuminating Hayven's pale face.
"I..."
Bang!
The body fell silently onto the grass, only making a very slight sound. Shiller stepped forward and pulled out a dagger, pressing one hand against the chin, raising the head, while the other hand held the dagger, aiming in the direction of the genioglossus muscle and stabbing inward. Only when there was no reaction left did he withdraw the dagger, stabbing it into the soil before pulling it out, wiping it clean with the man's clothing.
Stowing the dagger, Shiller started searching Hayven's body, quickly finding the phone in his pocket, skimming through the message records, and stopping his gaze on the contact list's "Vice Director Sa'a".
Shiller returned to the car with the phone, tossing it to Deathstroke in the passenger seat, then said, "Help me arrange a meeting with him at the museum."
Deathstroke glanced at the draft message list Shiller had pulled up, and without asking too much, typed in Arabic and sent it.
Driving to the museum, as Shiller got out of the car, Anatoli suddenly spoke up, "Shit has a knife."
"Got it." His movement paused only for a moment, then he continued striding towards the museum.
The director's office is on the top floor, accessible by a direct elevator, but Shiller didn't take the elevator, choosing the stairs, and swiftly stepped into the fifth-floor office.
Not long after waiting there, footsteps echoed from the stairwell. Shiller pushed the door open and raised his gun. Bang.
The sound of the silenced pistol was very faint, about as loud as the door closing, but what resonated down the hallway was another kind of metallic clash. Shiller sidestepped the slash of the blade, raised his gun for another shot. Bang!
In the early morning light, at the end of the corridor stood a dark-skinned man in a suit. In his hand was a brilliantly shining treasure sword, with an opulent gemstone-encrusted hilt, clearly not a product of this era.
"You..."
Bang! Bang! Two more shots. The treasure sword was not a shield, unable to block bullets at all, one bullet hit the shoulder, and the man grunted, bringing the sword forward again.
Shiller sidestepped another slash, kicking at the man's side, making him stagger. Bang!
A shot straight into his waist and abdomen. The man clutched his left side, doubling over in pain. Shiller gave another kick, sending the sword flying out of his hand. Bang!
The man slowly collapsed, looking at Shiller in disbelief. Shiller walked over to pick up the sword and said to him, "Has Shit. Prince Hu Fu sends his regards. Traitors shall find no peace."
Shit's eyes were filled with an astonishing hatred, but as his life ebbed away, he gradually lost strength. The treasure sword flickered with a trace of light, seemingly interfering with the path of his soul. Shiller did not intervene, only stepping forward once more to finish him off with a dagger.
"Alright, let's go back." Shiller opened the car door and then said.
"So you went back to Egypt to cut off all future troubles?" Deathstroke turned his head and asked.
"No," Shiller glanced at Anatoli and then replied, "I wanted to persuade him not to act against the Justice League."
"How do you plan to persuade him?" Anatoli asked with folded arms.
"The target of your intimidation—Batman—is currently not present." Shiller said, "They came to you to ask for your help in finding Batman."
"Where did Batman go?"
"That is exactly what I want to talk about," Shiller sighed and said, "An arrogant student has caused a massive problem, and Batman's disappearance is related to him."
"So it really was your doing?!" Deathstroke exclaimed first. Although he had some suspicions, hearing the news was still surprising.
Shiller cast a somewhat disdainful glance at Deathstroke, as if questioning Deathstroke's comprehension abilities. When did he say it was his doing?
"Wait for Arrogant to tell you personally," Shiller said. "Once I send you back, my mission is complete. You should be able to meet him soon."
"Will he tell me about your situation? Or will Greed?"
Shiller sighed, "Alright, what do you want to know? Rather than waiting for those two to twist my story, I'd rather tell you myself."
"How did you become an agent?"
"I was specially recruited."
"Of course. You weren't going to the Spy Academy and taking a test to get in. I mean, why did they want to recruit you specially?"
"Probably because they valued my talents."
"Hard to believe they'd actually recruit someone truly talented. Never heard of it."
"They needed someone to do the dirty work."
"I get it, you have dirt on them."
"A minor oversight."
"That doesn't quite add up," Anatoli raised an eyebrow, "Who caused the trouble?"
"Consider it Greed."
"So you were created to take the blame."
"No," Shiller said, "You don't really think I'd use my talents to contribute to the American law enforcement system, do you?"
"Oh, so you were created to cause trouble," Anatoli squinted, "You're a top agent."
"Yes, but as you said, becoming a top agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation isn't about achievements. If you manage to eliminate all your competitors, you're naturally the only choice."
"Seems you killed quite a few of your own," Anatoli remarked. "And then?"
"And then what?"
"What happened after you returned?"
"I took on quite a few contracts; you could say I became well-known, receiving unanimous praise from Batman." Shiller paused, then continued, "But inevitably, I brought some internal conflict habits with me and took down a few Batmans."
Anatoli laughed and said, "That's real talent."
The two of them conversed entirely in Russian, but since Deathstroke was familiar with Eastern Europe and spoke Russian, he could understand the gist. However, when they switched to Chinese, he was utterly confused.
"Looks like you had quite the time playing around there," Anatoli said.
"It was alright. Attending classes on weekdays, going to church on weekends, and just taking revenge in between. After graduation, I wanted to pursue further studies, but fate played a joke, and I became an agent."
Anatoli snorted, "You attended classes to create an alibi, went to church to handle corpses better, and planned to become a professional killer after graduation. Becoming an agent was just to kill legally."
Shiller turned his head and said, "Seems like you won't believe anything I say."
"Because you have no credibility," Anatoli looked at him and said, "Letting morbidity run everything results in this. You must have felt suffocated in the country?"
"I don't know; I'm just an ordinary agent." Shiller decided to end the topic, but after thinking for a moment, he added, "But soon I got back on track and returned to the field of teaching and educating."
"Just to have a more respectable identity to mingle in the upper class, obtaining more confidential information from the organization, forcing them to have you crash-land."
"Yes. But what I mean to say is that if I had remained an agent instead of becoming a professor, Arrogant wouldn't have stayed at Gotham University, and I wouldn't have to bail out his troubled student at this time."
"Then I'd rather help him fish out the student."
"With your promise, I feel relieved," Shiller said, "Now, multiple important universes' Batmans, along with Black Death Emperor and Multiverse Darkseid, are hanging on the Origin Wall. I'm at a loss here, it's up to you now."
Anatoli's movement froze, "The Origin Wall?"
"How about it, do you think my career plan has improved?"