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Chapter 605: Borrowing a Knife to Kill a Hawk (2)

inside wayne manor's library, bruce had piled up a table full of various books. dick, holding a ladder much taller than himself, was still searching amongst the bookshelves.

as the ladder scraped past a shelf with a 'clicking' sound, dick exclaimed, "oh! here's a book i hadn't seen before!"

he then extracted a rather worn-out book from between two shelves. after dusting it off and blowing on the cover, he opened the first page.

running over to bruce with the book, dick said, "mr. wayne, look at this. there's something odd about this book."

bruce took the book and discovered that it documented local nursery rhymes from gotham.

every city has its own local tunes. although gotham isn't ancient, its history is intricate. this led to a unique musical atmosphere. in contemporary times, gotham's music scene might be dominated by gangster rap, but there was a time when divine melodies and nursery rhymes were widely known.

this book cataloged various nursery rhyme tunes, their lyrics, and the origin stories behind those lyrics.

most nursery rhymes globally are simple, with a few lines repeated, making it easier for children to memorize.

but one rhyme in this book stood out as peculiar: "the court of owls, always watching your every move..."

indeed, even the title of this rhyme was lengthy, hinting at its complex content. no line in this rhyme was repeated; singing it from start to finish was more challenging than reciting poetry.

yet, the book stated that this rhyme was once the most widespread in gotham, sung by nearly every child.

as bruce read, he could almost envision children in gotham's rain-soaked alleyways singing about the "court of owls, always watching...", with the glowing eyes of owls illuminating behind them.

bruce intuited the underlying issue but still looked at dick, handing him the book. "can you sing this for me?" bruce asked.

dick took the book, examining the lengthy lyrics and furrowing his brow. "i'll give it a try."

after focusing on the book for nearly 20 minutes, he managed to sing the rhyme, though with numerous pauses and stumbles.

apart from the complex lyrics, the melody itself was oddly challenging. while typical nursery rhymes have higher pitches suitable for children's voices, this song was notably deep. even for dick, who was almost past his voice-breaking phase, it was strenuous. for an adult, reaching such low notes would be demanding.

having spent some time with dick, bruce knew the boy was intelligent, picking up things quickly. but if dick took 20 minutes to grasp this rhyme, what about the other children of gotham?

in a city where survival was a daily struggle, no one would invest the time in learning a difficult song. yet, the book claimed this difficult-to-learn song was once a hit among gotham's youth. this anomaly intrigued bruce, urging him to believe that gotham's darkness was more profound than it appeared.

perhaps a shadowy influence had been impacting gotham's inhabitants from childhood, and the city they built, overshadowed by this dark power, came to be known as gotham.

"i'm not sure if alfred ever told you, but when he first came to serve the wayne family, it wasn't our first meeting. in our younger days, alfred, father daniel, and i had encountered one another."

"it was a strange adventure, all for the egg of a monster. in the end, we chose to place this uncontrollable egg beneath metropolis. do you know why we did that?"

batman remained silent, prompting falcone to answer his own question, "while investigating matters concerning my son, i discovered this pervasive dark force. that's when i realized that gotham wasn't the first city affected, and it wouldn't be the last."

"in that era, metropolis wasn't as secure. i made many friends there and came to understand certain things."

"i told you before, i didn't know they were called 'owls'. i only knew a killer lurked in gotham. without assurance that i could eradicate them entirely, i didn't dare delve deeper into understanding them."

"but dealing with the force in metropolis wasn't as restrictive. placing the egg there was essentially bait, hoping the metropolis owls would study it and bring destruction upon themselves..."

"the owls of metropolis..." batman murmured, his gaze drifting to the stormy night outside.

at that moment, the thunderstorm intensified. through the rain, a train from gotham journeyed through the dark hills, snaking its way towards another prosperous city. amidst this stormy night, the lights of metropolis shone brightly, acting as a beacon for the east coast.

in a dimly lit alleyway, two figures climbed over a wall. one of them reached the end of the alley and crouched down to inspect some marks. "found it. the two impersonators were dumped here."

his companion, a woman, adjusted her glasses. the reflection revealed her to be the same female doctor who had exchanged information with kayla during the day. she looked towards the mouth of the alley and spoke in russian, "valeria informed me that the two individuals bearing the philby badge weren't agents of the special branch."

"you should know that since the death of benjamin, the head of the cia's metropolis stronghold, valeria has taken his place."

"she has access to the list of cia agents in metropolis and its surrounding areas. additionally, she can check the personnel list of the special branch. and she didn't find these two names on either list."

the man responded in english, "this means besides the kgb, cia, and special branch, there's another force lurking here."

"the philby list has likely fallen into their hands." the female doctor, taking a deep breath, added, "the badge has been retired. whether the list is still useful or not, agent philby's life's work must be returned to moscow."

the man stood up, observing the mud on his fingers. with a pinch, the mud washed away with the rain. "there are enough players here. we don't need any more mysterious groups complicating things. so..."

a cold, direct command in russian echoed through the dark alley:

"find it... eliminate it."

how did schiller borrow the knife? (5 points)

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