A/N: I added chapter 21 which was missing. Apologies :(
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After a moment of silence, Falcone suddenly burst out laughing. His laughter was filled with joy, and a sense of grandeur and ambition radiated from him.
"Incredible! The world has given rise to someone like that. If she'd been around in my time, Maroni would have paid whatever it took to hire her to kill me."
Sophia, still toying with the white cat's ears to make them resemble rabbit ears, corrected her father with little interest.
"Uncle Maroni couldn't afford her, Father. Deathstroke operates on a clear pricing structure—usually 30% of her target's total net worth. I've looked into the current bounty on Bryce Wayne, and that's just counting her public assets, not her Batwoman persona. Care to guess how much it is?"
"How much?"
Falcone was intrigued now, sipping his drink and turning to his daughter for the answer.
In their era, dealing with hired killers wasn't unusual. The cheapest solution back then was to hire some street thug, which would cost a few hundred dollars at most. He'd lost count of how many times he'd paid for someone to make a problem disappear in his youth—until his empire grew, and he no longer needed outsiders to handle his dirty work.
He was curious to know how much prices had changed in recent years, since he'd stopped bothering with such "trivialities."
"With Bryce Wayne holding an 80% stake in Wayne Enterprises and factoring in her real estate holdings, investments, and the inflation over the years, her estimated net worth is around 80 billion dollars. Deathstroke's price to take her out? 24 billion dollars."
Sophia laid out the staggering number on her fingers, concluding with a total that even made Falcone pause.
"Pff—" Falcone coughed, nearly choking on his drink, wiping his mouth as he said, "She sure knows how to set a price."
It seemed Deathstroke was not only highly skilled but also quite the capitalist—treating every human life like a commodity, ready to be priced and sold. If you couldn't afford her services, then you'd have to settle for some low-level thug. But if you had the cash, Deathstroke would deliver your target to the afterlife, no questions asked.
"So, by that pricing model, even if Deathstroke had been around back in our day, I'd have been safe. Sure, the family business didn't deal in physical goods, but our protection fees alone would have made me worth over a hundred million. Meanwhile, Maroni wouldn't have managed more than forty million. He'd be the one who should've worried about his neck."
Sophia finally reached her conclusion, and Falcone felt oddly unsettled. It almost sounded like he wasn't as rich as he should have been. And how did Bryce Wayne end up with so much money, anyway?
"How did Bryce pull that off? Neither the Wayne family nor the Kane family were ever that wealthy," Falcone asked, genuinely curious. Even in Asia's black markets, he hadn't seen that kind of money, and Bryce was supposed to be running a legitimate business.
Sophia shrugged. "She rode the wave of the information age, Father."
"And Deathstroke... does she even get hired with prices like that? I mean, she charges astronomical amounts for people like Bryce, but then she has low prices that regular people can afford?"
Falcone seemed perplexed by the wide range in Deathstroke's fees.
"Yep. She doesn't care who you want dead or why. She's all about business. Of course, the richer and more famous the target, the higher the price," Sophia explained.
Falcone pondered this, taking another sip of his drink. "But Barbara doesn't fit into that model. Deathstroke's target was Gordon, so why go after Barbara? No one paid for her to die."
Sophia thought for a moment but could only offer a guess.
"From what I've heard, Deathstroke can be very... emotional. When she's in a good mood, she'll kill someone for free. But if she's in a bad mood, anyone in her way is fair game. Barbara just got unlucky, I suppose."
"A lunatic. Yet another lunatic," Falcone muttered, shaking his head, clearly tired of Gotham's seemingly endless parade of maniacs. He was eager for his vision of a new Gotham to become reality. "Well, let Deathstroke perish alongside the old Gotham then. No one, not even her, can survive the toxic downpour. That should give Gordon some sense of closure."
"Indeed, Father. But it seems our other guests haven't arrived yet. Perhaps the storm delayed them," Sophia said, her tone becoming more serious as she placed the cat back on the floor.
"The League of Shadows delayed by a storm? That's one of the jokes you young people like to tell, isn't it? They're never late, especially when seeking revenge."
Falcone dismissed her suggestion, his tone sharp and authoritative.
"Activate all our monitoring systems. I want every shadow entering this city tracked. Once they set foot in Gotham, we release the toxin into the clouds. They won't leave the city alive."
Sophia nodded, her long black hair rippling slightly as she moved. The flames from the fireplace cast a red hue on her dark locks. Then she hesitated.
"Father... do you think Ra's al Ghul and Talia will both come?"
Falcone's expression became calm once more. Sitting straight in his chair, he clasped his hands together on his lap before speaking.
"They will. Once they know I'm the one behind their losses, they'll come. They know their League assassins are no match for me. You made sure Gordon left the clues for them, didn't you?"
Sophia smiled and nodded, gracefully pouring herself a cup of tea with the elegance of someone well-trained in such a task.
"Of course. Gordon thought he was clever, leaving those clues on his glasses, but I caught him in the act. I even double-checked to make sure the car's license plate number was correct before bringing him in."
"Good. When the League of Shadows realizes I'm the one who killed their people, and they follow Gordon's breadcrumbs into the city, they'll be walking right into our trap. We only need to ensure that Ra's and Talia survive."
Falcone's approval of her plan brought a smile to Sophia's face, but she still had one lingering question.
"Why leave them alive? Are you going soft, Father?" she asked, half-teasing.
"No, Sophia. Ra's al Ghul and Talia are too resilient to kill easily, thanks to the Lazarus Pits. Besides, the new Gotham will need enemies."
Falcone smiled, laying out his vision for the future.
"Without opposition, you, Gordon, and Bryce would be scattered, with no real unity. A deranged Ra's al Ghul, bent on destruction, will be the perfect foil to bring Gotham's defenders together. Gordon and Bryce will rely on the shadows—on you—more than ever."
Sophia glanced at Gordon. He seemed more lucid now, starting to come back to reality. She lowered her voice, almost whispering to her father.
"But, Father, are you sure Gordon will work with me?"
Falcone took another sip of his drink, his gaze lingering on the still-distraught Gordon.
"I had my doubts before... but now?" He smiled, confident in his plan.