The Interview

"Alot of people died that day, Mr. Wayne." The visitor joined his host, looking out in the direction of where Gotham Towers once stood. "That you know. The Wayne Foundation Charity Hospital treated many people that day. Smoke and dust inhalation, exhaustion, stress...." Nygma's voice trailed off into the distance. "The human tragedy continues to this day."

Nygma noticed his host nodding thoughtfully.

"The economic devastation was pretty bad, too," Nygma added. "A great many people lost a great deal of money that day. As a result, many businesses were closing, or at least cutting back on staff to survive. This left many people out of work, many families in economic hardships."

"Yes. It was the first time in history that Wayne Enterprises considered lay-offs. Fortunately, we were able to recover, and lay-offs weren't necessary."

"But not everybody lost money because of that, Mr. Wayne. Some people made money. A lot of money." Nygma paused, looking at his host. "The collapse of the Gotham Towers was blamed on arson -- fires set by Gotham's new crime syndicate, the Mujahideen. It was the crime of the century, and it prompted the Mayor to declare Gotham's War on Crime, a war that we are now in the midst of. That War on Crime required new equipment, not just for the Gotham Police Department. Private security firms also saw a surge in business, and began placing orders for equipment. Other municipal services also required new equipment -- Gotham's Fire Department among them. Other cities also got into the act, joining Gotham City in its War on Crime." Nygma was now looking very intently at his host. "Wayne Enterprises has a division that makes security and police equipment, and even some fire equipment. That division isn't doing too badly these days."

Bruce Wayne sat back down, disappointed. "Yes, the city contracts were instrumental in helping us recover without lay-offs," Wayne almost sighed. He was beginning to feel like this had been a set-up: some hotshot reporter trying to link Bruce Wayne and Wayne Enterprises to organized crime. Perhaps the riddles were Nygma's way of making sure he would get in to see Mr. Wayne after he talked to Alfred in the park. "Our competitors aren't doing too badly these days, either," Wayne added.

"Indeed, Mr. Wayne, not too badly," Nygma agreed. Then he sat down again, and looked right at his host, intensely now. "Some of them, though, are doing a whole lot better than Wayne Enterprises." Nygma slowly rolled his head back, gazing high up on the wall, or perhaps toward the ceiling, a deliberate non-chalance, a theatrical effect to emphasize what he was about to say. "Unlike Wayne Enterprises, which lost money when many of its investments lost their value as a result of the events of that day, some of your competitors' investments made money. They had incredible luck in choosing which stocks to buy, and which to sell, and when. Some of them borrowed money to invest it, even though they had never previously borrowed money to make an investment. Some of those investments were risky -- options, futures. Then, after they got a tremendous return on their investment, they paid back their loans, and haven't borrowed money for investments since." Nygma looked back at Wayne. "It's as if they knew with great certainty that the arson was going to happen, and that it was going to be so devastatingly destructive."

Bruce Wayne was interested again.

Nygma leaned forward, and continued. "Tell me, Mr. Wayne. This skyscraper that we are in ... is it built to code?"

"Of course. My grandfather built it when my father was young. It was one of the first major construction projects of what would later become Wayne Enterprises. It has been maintained over the years, with ongoing, state-of-the-art upgrades. We request the fire marshall to periodically inspect it. The insurance company that we have it insured with inspects it periodically, too. It passes with flying colors. It was overengineered. It's considered one of the safest buildings in Gotham City."

"But, despite all that, there have been fires here."

"Yes, a couple over the years. But nothing major, and no one ever got hurt. We're proud of our safety record."

"And indeed you should be, Mr. Wayne." Nygma leaned back in his chair and smiled.

Just then, Mrs. Jones entered. "Your guests have arrived for the meeting, Mr. Wayne."

"Thank you, Mrs. Jones. Would you please have them taken on a tour of Wayne Enterprises. Have them see as much as possible. I'll catch up in a little while."

Mrs. Jones glanced at Mr. Nygma, wondering why he would take priority over the senior leadership of Wayne Enterprises' German operation and the German ambassador. "Yes, sir," she said, closing the door again on her way out.

Nygma looked again at his host. "It's a wonderful company you have here, Mr. Wayne. Wonderful people, and a wonderful safety record." Nygma smiled. "Not all of the other businesses in Gotham are as nice. Some of those businesses have a terrible safety record." He leaned forward again. "In fact, their skyscrapers can be real fire-traps. Many people have died in the fires that some of your competitors have had...." Nygma's voice trailed off as he leaned closer. "But none of their skyscrapers had ever collapsed because of a fire," he said conspiratorially, "until one day -- Bam! -- three skyscrapers collapse, all at once, all in the Gotham Trade Center, all within hours of each other. Then, never again."

Despite trying to appear in control of himself, Bruce Wayne found himself glancing now at Nygma, now at where the Gotham Trade Center had been.

"Do you know what was in those three skyscrapers of the Gotham Trade Center, Mr. Wayne? The Gotham Towers, and the smaller one?"

"Financial and insurance brokerages, investment firms, some government offices..."

"Exactly. While the fire was burning, while Gotham's firefighters were rushing up dozens of flights of stairs on their way to put the fire out, while the people trapped above the fire in the buildings were getting so desperate that they were jumping out of the building to their deaths...." Nygma was speaking faster now, as Wayne looked at where the Gotham Towers had stood, and Nygma paused. "While the newscrews were filming the crime of the century...." Wayne stood up and stepped towards the window, with Nygma right behind him. "The computers were hard at work, with record numbers of stock trades for record amounts of money whizzing through them."

Wayne looked at Nygma, picking up on where Nygma was going with his story: "Making those profits you were talking about...."

"Laundering money for organized crime..." Nygma continued, as Wayne looked back out the window, "...by the billions," Nygma whispered.

"Then, when the operation was done," Wayne picked up again, "they imploded the towers, burying the computers that the stock trades had been run through."

"And burying the government agencies that regulate stock trading, as well as law enforcement agencies that investigate white-collar financial crime!" Nygma added.

"With all the evidence of the crime buried in the smoldering rubble, along with the files for past improprieties. No evidence, no files, no more investigating agency -- no investigation...." Wayne's mind was racing, as one of the riddles he had received ran through his head:

I'm widely loved, despite being green;
In order to get me, even friends can be mean.
I corrupt, because I mean power;
Many use me to build their towers.
These towers rise very high from ground;
In order to get me, two were brought down.

Nygma certainly had Wayne's attention now.

"No investigation -- or so they thought." Nygma said, then sat down, as Wayne turned around and looked at him. "As the rubble was being removed, some of the computers were found, hardly in working condition." Nygma gazed at the ceiling again, thoughtfully. "But, a German firm contacted Gotham authorities, claiming to be able to read information from those hard drives."

"I remember hearing something about that. In all the chaos, we didn't pay much attention to it, but it was of interest to one of our divisions, because the firm that got the contract was a competitor. The German Embassy helped arrange it...." Bruce Wayne's voice trailed off.

Nygma smiled and nodded knowingly. "It was high-profile in the industry." Nygma leaned forward. "But, when your competitor got the hard disk drives, many of the drives were in much worse shape than they had thought. Even the new technology that your competitor was boasting of couldn't read some of the drives." Nygma was lowering his voice as he continued. "So they subcontracted some of the work out to one of their competitors that had an experimental technology that no one had ever heard of -- something developed for military intelligence that was only in the most preliminary of stages... an even newer technology that could read data from computer equipment that had been damaged in battle. A technology that could extract useful information off computers from ships that had sunk, planes that had been shot down, and tanks that had been destroyed...." Nygma was whispering now. "That competitor is Wayne Enterprises, GmbH, in Germany."

Wayne remembered another riddle he had received:

Bought new and thrown out unread,
What once was news is trash instead.
Found by another and read for good measure,
One man's trash is another man's treasure.

It didn't refer to a newspaper, like he had thought. It referred to those disk drives! And the people who had been in charge of that project and who had arranged it all were in the very same building with him right at that moment, touring the corporate world headquarters of Wayne Enterprises!

Bruce Wayne, the "Prince of Gotham", a martial arts expert with years of training from the best martial arts instructors money could buy, a physical fitness fanatic, an experienced executive with a secret, dangerous hobby... and he felt like a little boy, his heart pounding, his mind racing, taking it all in.

With a sudden calm, professional air about him, an uncanny sense of control, he turned to his guest:

"Mr. Nygma, I have guests waiting."

Nygma looked like an inflatable doll that had just had all the air let out of him, very surprised, anticipating -- no, dreading -- what must be Bruce Wayne's next comment.

"Would you care to join me for a tour of Wayne Enterprises Corporate Headquarters? We'll join the tour in progress. There you will have the opportunity to meet the senior leadership of our German operation and the German ambassador, who are also visiting us today," Wayne spoke professionally, with a certain degree of detached boredom, almost mechanically, as if he were the tour guide at the end of a very long day.

Nygma jumped out of his seat. "I'd love to!"