"It's not funny, Max!"

Terry glowered as Maxine Gibson all but rolled on the floor with laughter, tears streaming down her face.

"You're right, Terry, it's not funny," she said between laughs. "It's h-hilarious!"

"Slaggit," Terry grumbled as she cracked up again. "I go through the Dana Inquisition, and you treat it like a comedy special!"

"Oh, come on, Terr." Max made a big effort to control her giggles and she wiped her face. "You and me? Me and you? Together? That's hysterical!"

Terry looked offended. "Hey, thanks a lot!"

"Don't pout, McGinnis. It gives you wrinkles." Max sat up and patted her bright-pink hair back into place. "I wish I could've been there! What'd Dana say when you told her no?"

"When I told her 'no' to what?"

"When you told her no, you wouldn't date me," said Max. "What'd she say?"

Terry was quiet for a second. "Uhm … I didn't tell her no."

"Well, what did you tell her?"

"Uhm, just that, uh, you're a good friend and that you probably wouldn't go out with me in the first place, so it was beside the point."

The girl's eyes widened in horror. "You told Dana that? Terry, is being in the Bat cave cutting off the oxygen supply to your head and killing off your brain cells?"

"What? What'd I say?"

"Your girlfriend asks you if you'd be into another girl, and the only answer you have for her is that you don't think the girl would be into you?" Max gazed at Terry pityingly. "I'm surprised Dana didn't kick you right in your –"

"C'mon, Max!"

"Well, I would've if I were Dana," said Max. "Anyway, it's weird. I can't really see Jackie being a gossip like that. Sheena, either. They've been going to too many of Blade's slumber parties."

"Maybe." Terry shifted uncomfortably on Max's living room couch. "Anyway, you said you had info on that guy we talked about?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Hold on, I'll get my notebook."

Terry nodded and his mind switched to "Batman mode." Bruce Wayne had taught him that being Batman was as much about using his brain as it was about using his strength and the super-powered suit.

A few weeks ago, Wayne-Powers had produced a prototype of a microchip that was the talk of the technological world. Several days ago, the prototype had nearly been stolen. The culprit had not been caught, but Bruce had pointed out that the prototype had been delivered to Wayne-Powers the day the theft had been attempted, and only those working at the rival tech company FoxTeca knew that since they shared the same delivery and security company as Wayne-Powers.

Bruce was loath to believe that someone in the company founded by good friends of his would try to steal from him, but the evidence seemed to point in that direction. Since the would-be thief had not been apprehended and the security vids had not caught much, Terry had the idea that it might be someone currently at FoxTeca who was familiar with the offices at Wayne-Powers.

There was one man who'd been at Wayne-Powers in their emerging technologies division but had left to take a similar position at FoxTeca. The circumstances of his leaving was a little murky, and since Bruce thought he was barking up the wrong tree accusing anyone at FoxTeca, Terry had asked Max to do some recon on the employee.

"Okay, here we go …" Max tapped a few keys. "Name: Dennis Truevy. Was at W-P for six years. I got into his personnel file – the old man totally needs to hire me to encode the HR files, by the way – he resigned, but he'd been written up a few times for unexcused lateness and 'insubordination.' So I think the resignation wasn't exactly voluntary."

"Huh. FoxTeca hired this guy after he got pinched for insubordination?"

"Well, they may not have known, or cared. This guy was a hot shot. Or, at least he was. He slowed way down his last year or two at W-P. I think I know why." She tapped another key and pointed to the screen. "I ran his financials. He spent most of his salary at the racetracks and the casinos."

"And not winning, I guess. Losing big might mean that he owed someone big." Terry squinted at the screen. "Anything on how he's been doing at his new job?"

"Yep. Not setting the world on fire," said Max. "He's been on a couple of research teams but from what I can tell, he's been shunted to less and less important projects, which is the kiss of death in tech. He might feel that he needs to make a big score to keep his job. Swiping that microchip and trying to figure out how to make it just different enough so that Wayne-Powers can't sue could put his name in lights at FoxTeca."

"What's this dreg look like?" Terry asked.

He frowned when Max punched up a photo of a skinny-faced man with wispy hair and a hangdog expression.

"That's him? He's definitely not the guy who knocked out a guard and got past all sorts of security at Wayne-Powers."

"He could've hired someone to steal the microchip for him."

"If he's so deep in debt, how'd he get the creds? Muscle like that doesn't come cheap."

"Terr, loan sharks and gangsters are businessmen, too," said Max. "Maybe he convinced them that he could get their money but they had to donate the services of one of their goons to make it happen."

Terry thought about that for a minute. "I could buy that, maybe, but whoever it was knew just how to get around the security codes and the cameras. The typical goon doesn't even know how to spell camera, much less know just how to disable one."

Max was quiet for a few seconds. "There is another possibility. There is someone at FoxTeca who knows their way around and probably could finesse their way past security."

"Who?"

She looked at him and then back at her notebook. "The guy who started FoxTeca."

Terry's eyes widened. "Lucius Fox Jr.? Max, are you insane?"

"He used to work at Wayne-Powers, didn't he?"

"Yeah, back when it was just Wayne Tech. When that twip Derek Powers bought out the company, Fox and a bunch of other veeps got the axe."

"He's got knowledge of the product, and of the flaws in the W-P security system," Max pointed out. "His company is on the same delivery schedule and he had to put two and two together and realize that the increased security on the delivery route meant Wayne-Powers was transporting the prototype. And he has the money to hire sophisticated crooks to do the dirty work. You have to admit that all the evidence fits."

Terry rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Max, Bruce is gonna be having fits if I go to him with this. He already thinks I'm wrong about the FoxTeca link. Now I'm supposed to tell him that the son of one of his oldest friends is trying to rip him off? He never spelled it out, but he's dropped hints that Lucius Fox Sr. knew he was Batman. If that's true, then, he took Bruce's secret to the grave. I just don't buy that his son would be such a dreg."

"Terr, sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree," said Max. "Sure, Paxton Powers is a chip off the old isotope and is just as slimy as his father, but sometimes it doesn't go like that. Sometimes the son is an angel when the father was anything but. Sometimes it's the other way around. Lucius Senior isn't running FoxTeca – his son is. And the company is hemorrhaging red ink. They had a chance to get huge market share when the whole Derek-Powers-is-Blight thing came out and Wayne-Powers stock took a dive. But now the old man is about to buy out Paxton Powers and get his company back. When that happens, FoxTeca will be in deep you-know-what. If they get hold of this chip, they'll have some bargaining power on the market. For some people, it would be worth the risk."

Terry took a long walk around Max's living room. He knew that what she said made a lot of sense, but he also knew that Bruce would have his head if he went to him with this and turned out to be wrong. On the other hand, if Max was right and he kept it to himself, he knew Bruce would be just as angry, if not more so.

"Okay, well, we need more proof one way or the other," Terry said at last. "My money's still on that Truevy guy. And if he's that desperate, he might try again to get the prototype."

"But how? Didn't Mr. Wayne double down on security?"

"Yeah, but some of the shareholders went nuts after the first attempt," answered Terry. "They pretty much insisted that it be moved out of the Wayne-Powers lab. It's being transported tonight to a site a few miles outside of Gotham."

"That sounds ripe for Truevy or whoever to hit the delivery guys."

"Maybe, but they'll have a little extra security," said Terry, nodding toward his backpack.

"A guardian Bat angel, huh? Could be worse." Max grinned. "Let me know how it goes."

"If I can patch you in, I will," said Terry. "But Bruce might want to listen in on this one."

"Gotcha." Max watched Terry collect his belongings and shrug into his ever-present brown jacket. "Be careful out there tonight. And Terr?"

Terry turned around at the door. "Yeah?"

"For what it's worth, I hope I'm wrong," she said softly.

He nodded slowly. "Me, too, Max. Me, too."