Free The Dark Knight Rises by Greg Cox

Enterprises?”
    “I was not,” he admitted. “But it wouldn’t do him any good. Mr. Wayne retains a clear majority.” At that he fell silent, indicating that the conversation was at an end.
    Miranda departed, clearly disappointed not to have learned more about the company’s current prospects. Fox sighed. He appreciated the woman’s energy and conviction, but certain information could not be shared with anyone other than Bruce Wayne himself. Miss Tate needed to remain in the dark, along with the rest of the world.
    Returning to his own office, he found an unexpected visitor.
    “Bruce Wayne,” he intoned. “As I live and breathe.”
    Bruce rose to greet him, leaning on his cane. Fox couldn’t remember the last time the hibernating heir had visited Wayne Tower.
    “What brings you out of cryo-sleep, Mr. Wayne?” he asked. Bruce chuckled.
    “I see you haven’t lost your sense of humor—even if you have lost most of my money.”
    Fox just dismissed the accusation.
    “Actually, you did that yourself,” he replied. “See, if you funnel the entire R&D budget for five years into a fusion project that you then mothball, your company is unlikely to thrive.”
    “Even with—”
    “A wildly sophisticated CEO, yes.” He leaned forward, and gave Bruce the cold, hard truth. “Wayne Enterprises is running out of time. And Daggett is moving in.”
    Bruce accepted the gloomy prognosis without complaint.
    “What are my options?”
    “If you’re not willing to turn your machine on—”
    Bruce cut him off.
    “I can’t, Lucius.”
    “Then sit tight,” Fox advised. “Your majoritykeeps Daggett at arm’s length while we figure out a future for the energy program with Miranda Tate. She’s supported your project all the way, incidentally. She’s smart, and quite lovely.”
    Bruce rolled his eyes.
    “You too, Lucius?”
    “We all just want what’s best for you, Bruce.” It pained Fox to see such a remarkable man, who had already overcome so much tragedy, cut himself off from any hope of happiness. Bruce deserved better than the self-inflicted purgatory to which he had condemned himself. “Show her the machine.”
    “I’ll think it over,” Bruce said. That was more than Fox had expected, so he chose to leave it at that.
    “Anything else?” Lucius asked.
    “No, why?” Bruce responded. Fox smiled nostalgically.
    “These conversations used to end with some…unusual requests.”
    “I retired,” Bruce said tersely.
    Neither man needed to clarify. They had always understood each other with regard to Bruce’s former…pursuits, even if they seldom spoke of them directly. Plausible deniability had its advantages, at least as far as Fox was concerned.
    Nevertheless, he wasn’t finished.
    “Let me show you some stuff anyway.”

CHAPTER NINE

    Wayne Enterprise’s Applied Sciences Division was hidden away in a hangar-sized bunker deep beneath the tower, many stories below the business offices. When Bruce had first visited the facility, nearly a decade ago, it had become a graveyard for discarded prototypes and forgotten projects, left to gather dust out of sight, and out of mind.
    Only he and Lucius had seen the potential in the division’s extensive collection of high-tech castoffs. Together, they had turned the mothballed relics into an arsenal.
    Before it all went wrong.
    Now the bunker was a graveyard again. Bruce limped uncomfortably through the vast, cavernous chambers, inspecting Lucius’s growing collection of high-tech toys. A brilliant mechanical engineer aswell as a savvy businessman, Lucius had designed or overseen practically every item hidden away in the facility. He had been with Wayne Enterprises for decades, ever since helping to build Gotham’s citywide monorail system for Bruce’s father a generation earlier.
    Thomas Wayne had been a philanthropist devoted—along with his beloved wife—to making Gotham City a better place to live for all its citizens. Bruce sometimes feared that the