"What do you mean he wasn't there!" I yelled at Commissioner Gordon.
"I mean he wasn't there. He was
gone, and the computer was gone. All we could find was this,"
she said, holding up a broken cable.
That's when it finally sunk in. I dropped down
into one of the chairs across from her desk with a thunk and put
my head in my hands. "I should have waited. That was… that
was so stupid! I know better than that," I snapped,
bringing my head up and slamming the chair with my fist.
My feeling sorry didn't even make a crack in her icy
stare. "No sense looking back now. It's done. Do you
at least have an idea what he wanted that particular computer for?"
"No," I said dejectedly, shaking my head.
"I guess we'll find out the hard way, then, won't
we?" she said, settling back in her chair with a cold, fake smile.
"Guess so," I answered sarcastically, picking up my
bag to leave. Wayne was outside in the waiting room. "Don't
say anything. I heard it all from Gordon," I said as we walked out
of the building.
"I wasn't planning to," he answered.
I slid into the driver's seat and started the car.
Wayne got in next to me. "I was just curious
if you noticed anyone following you last night," he said carefully, shutting
the door.
"No! Well, I don't think so," I said, doubtfully,
as I took off.
Wayne looked at me.
"All right. I didn't even think to check," I
admitted.
He nodded. "That's what I was afraid of," he
said, looking out the window.
I was scared. Mom, and Matt… if I put them in
danger… "What can we do?"
He sighed. "Not much."
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. I
blew it. All the way down the line. "And it's a mistake you
never would have made, right?" I found myself saying, with more venom than
I planned on.
He looked over at me, startled.
"It always goes perfect for you," I continued, even
though I didn't really know why I was attacking him.
He glared. "I wouldn't have been taken in by
something that elementary, no."
I almost swerved off the road.
But then he started talking again, still stern but
less angry. "But it never goes perfectly. No matter
how much experience you have or how well thought out your strategy is,
the unexpected can always happen. The important thing is to learn
from it."
"What if it costs me my family? My friends?
What if something happens to them because I was stupid?"
Bruce closed his eyes. "Bad things happen in
this world, Terry. One man can't prevent them all."
The discussion was over. I could tell by the way he was sitting. It didn't matter to him if I still had questions. Or maybe he really doesn't know everything. I turned away and put my eyes back on the road.
*******************************************************************
Daniel's employer was not having a good day.
"There won't be any mistakes! I've hired a professional!"
The individual on the other end of the line said,
noncommittally, "A professional. That can mean so many things."
The employer smoothed a loose strand of hair back
into place with shaking fingers. "He came highly recommended with
twenty years experience. His previous employer trained him personally."
"Who was this employer?"
Daniel's employer pushed a button and sent a picture
of the man in question to the other end.
The individual said thoughtfully, "Yes, I've heard
of this man. A true kindred spirit." The individual tapped
his chin with his index finger, and finally smiled. "You've outdone
yourself. I trust this professional's payment will come from your
end?"
"Of course," Daniel's employer said, the relief evident
in his voice.
"Then I don't have any problem with waiting another
day."
"Thank you."
The individual nodded, then held up a warning finger.
"But remember, I am not a patient man," he said before terminating the
connection.
The employer quickly dialed Daniel's number.
"How close are you to being done?"
Daniel answered smoothly, "I'm modifying the program
for the targets you requested now. It should only take a few minutes."
"Good."
Daniel hung up the phone, and kept working.
His fingers moved surprisingly quickly over the keys. Whether it
was from his genetic enhancements or his rigorous training, Daniel couldn't
say. He preferred to keep his training from the forefront of his
mind; it had been thorough, but also brutal. His previous employer
had never been considered a kindly man.
Daniel finished the programming, checked to make sure the Internet connection was secure and that the anti-detection measures were in place, then punched a button and leaned back to watch the supercomputer do its work.
******************************************************************
The computer in the bat-cave was going crazy with
alarms. Wayne hurried down the steps as fast as he could and sat
in the chair.
"What is it?" I asked, running after him.
"Someone is attempting to access secured areas of
businesses around the city," Wayne snarled, fingers flying across the keys
faster than I had ever seen him go.
"Can you track it down?" I said, worried.
"No. They're only making one attempt at entry
before jumping to another system."
I started to feel sick from trying to read the stream
of alerts popping up on the screen. Who… "The supercomputer,"
I groaned, mentally kicking myself again.
Wayne nodded, picked up the phone, and called Commissioner
Gordon.
"He's getting in!" I yelped, as the words "Unauthorized
Entry" flicked up and disappeared. I reached for the keys, but I
missed which system he had gotten into.
Wayne pushed me away from the keys. "She's notifying
the administrators," Wayne snapped.
More and more alerts started flashing "Unauthorized
Entry." "Not good," I murmured.
"Look for company names and give them to me," Wayne
said, waving his finger at the screen.
I started saying names as fast as I could, trying
not to blink or listen while he repeated them into the phone. After
a few minutes, they started to get blurry. I lost my concentration
for a sec.
"McGuinness!" Wayne snapped, his face purple.
I opened my mouth to say the next name, when the stream stopped and popped up with a new screen that said "Kill Switch Activated" in bright blue letters. We both stopped to stare at it. A second later, the power went out.
*************************************************************
Daniel's employer sat at the desk with a single lamp
on. The office wasn't completely dark; the late afternoon sun still
shone faintly through the window. Careful eyes watched the lamp as
it flickered once and went out. So far, so good.
The employer hooked up the old battery pack to a portable
notebook on the desk. A few keystrokes and a password gained access
to the overseas bank accounts Daniel had set up under assumed names.
The employer ran down the list of names, checking to make sure the correct
amount of funds was in each one. The employer smiled and let out
a sigh of relief. Perfect. The debts were paid off, Daniel
had his money, the family was safe, and that blackmailing creep had no
more power over him.
"Daddy?" his daughter called from upstairs.
"Coming, Dana," Mr. Tan said, shutting down the computer and walking upstairs.
*************************************************************
I could hear Wayne shuffling around in the dark.
A light clicked on. I couldn't really see his face in the dark, but
I could tell he was mad.
I started shifting from one foot to the other as he
glared at me. I could feel my palms sweating. "Well, I guess
I'll get changed and go patrol," I said, picking up my bag and turning
away.
"Go home." I stopped. His voice was "one
step away from murder" hard.
I started to make some protest that sounded lame,
even to me.
"NOW!!" he yelled, standing up and holding
his cane over his head. He was shaking with rage.
I got out of there as fast as I could.
It was almost dark when I got home.
"Mom, I'm home," I called, tossing my bag on my bed.
The place was quiet. Too quiet. "Mom?" I peeked into her bedroom.
No one there. I turned back around.
Something jumped out of the bathroom. "Yah!"
I yelled, trying to fend it off.
"Gotcha!" Matt yelled, shining his flashlight under
his face.
"You little twip!" I yelled, grabbing at him.
He jumped out of the way, laughing. "The power's
off," he said, like it was the most profound thing in the world.
"No, you think?" I said, pushing past him to my room.
He bounced after me like a little gremlin. "You
were supposed to watch me. Mom's going to ground you when I tell
her."
This is usually the part where I threaten him, but
I couldn't think of anything good this time.
He darted past me as I tried to slam the door and
jumped on my bed.
"Hey! Get out of my room!" I snapped.
He flopped down and crossed his legs.
"I don't believe this," I groaned. Even my little
brother's running circles around me.
"Did Mr. Wayne fire you?" he asked, bouncing up and
down on the bed to make it squeak.
"Matt, get out."
"Well, did he?"
I guessed I wasn't fired, since I still had the bat-suit.
But I wasn't going to tell the twip that. I leaned forward and looked
him in the eye. "If you don't get out of here in two seconds, you're
making your own dinner."
He stopped squeaking. "But all I know how to
make is Monster O's," he whined.
"That's the point," I said, standing up straight and
crossing my arms.
"All right," he grumbled, leaving.
I sat down at my desk.
He peeked back in. "What am I supposed to do?"
"I don't know. Make up ghost stories or something,"
I said impatiently.
"Can I tell 'em to you?" he said, hopefully.
"Yeah. After dinner. We'll set up a tent."
"Shwayyyy," he said, leaving.
"And the monster got closer. And closer," I
said in my best spooky voice, leaning forward.
Matt was staring at me saucer eyed. The flashlight
made shway looking shadows on the sheet we strung up between two chairs
as a tent. "Does he get them?" Matt said.
"Wait a sec, and I'll tell you. The kids were
hiding under the bed, trying not to make a sound. They could hear
it breathing as it got closer and closer and closer. It stopped right
by the bed and sniffed. Then, suddenly…"
A bright light came on, blinding me, and noise blasted
through the living room. Matt screamed and jumped up, spilling
ice cream all over the carpet and knocking over the chairs. The sheet
fell on top of him. "Get it off! Don't let it eat me!" he yelled.
I pulled the sheet off him.
He wiggled away, panting.
"The power's back on," I said, in the same tone of
voice that he used when he told me it was off. I reached for the
remote and turned the TV down. Ice cream was dripping off the chairs
and the sheet. "Aw, jeez," I said, wiping some off my pants.
"It's your fault. You're in charge," Matt said
quickly.
"You're helping me clean this up," I said firmly.
I went to the kitchen and got a bucket and couple of sponges. I flipped
channels to Gotham News Network and listened while Matt and I cleaned up.
"…Catching the person or persons responsible for this
high tech robbery is a daunting task for Gotham City Police, since today's
power outage effectively erased any record of the transfers at this end."
I stopped cleaning and listened.
"It's impossible to determine exactly how much money
was stolen from the various corporations, but sources close to the investigation
tell us it could be as much as one billion dollars. We will bring
you more details when they become available."
"One billion dollars? Wow," Matt said, impressed.
"Not wow," I grumbled.
So that's what Black costume was after with that supercomputer.
Not information, or sabotage, or anything like that. Just money.
"In other news, Paxton Powers escaped from Gotham
prison earlier today when the power outage combined with a faulty release
mechanism caused his cell door to open," the TV went on.
Just when you think it can't get any worse…
I saw Matt sneaking away out of the corner of my eye.
I grabbed him by the back of his shirt. "Nice
try."
He went back to cleaning with a sulk. I wiped of the
couch, thoughtfully. Black costume had to be behind them both.
It was just too much of a coincidence. But who would break Paxton
Powers out of prison and mastermind a robbery all at the same time?
I thought about it all night and the next morning
on the way to school, but I couldn't come up with anyone who liked Paxton
enough to give him the time of day, much less break him out of jail.
I was going to call Wayne and get his opinion, but I figured he was still
mad at me. But that was just fine. I made the mess, and I was
going to fix it.
I walked up to the front of the school. There
was a Gotham City Power van parked outside the building. The school
was still dark.
"Look at that. We show up, and they're not even
ready to get going yet," Max complained, coming up beside me.
"They're still on the old circuit breaker system.
Have to push those back in before everything comes back on," I said.
Max was about to say something else, when the lights
flickered on inside and the first bell rang. "Gotta jet," she said.
I watched her go in, with Dana and Chelsea right in
front of her. I started to follow them at a safe distance.
I paused and glanced at the windows. That's weird; the lights are
still flickering. Wait, they weren't flickering; they were sparking.
"Stop!" I yelled, running toward the building.
The fire alarm started shrieking, and a second later
the school went dark.
There were people running everywhere.
Max came out, pulling Dana with her. "Look out!"
she yelled.
I dove out of the way as something hit the ground
next to me with a smash. I covered my head with my hands as I was
showered with glass.
"Are you all right?" Max said.
"What happened?" Dana said at the same time.
I looked up. "Someone took one of the third
floor windows out of the frame and dropped it," I said.
"That's the chem lab," Dana said, pointing.
I could see people standing in front of the window,
screaming and waving frantically.
I started running toward the building. "I'm
going to go help," I yelled over my shoulder.
Dana yelled something, but I ignored her.
I ducked behind a dumpster and changed into the bat-suit,
and then I took off and did a quick circle of the building. There
was still a stream of people coming out. No way was I going to be
able to do a classroom to classroom; I'd never be able to fight my way
in. I flew straight to the lab. People were climbing out on
the window ledge to make room for everyone else huddled in a two-foot space
around the window. Almost a whole class; guess everyone decided to
show up early. I grabbed the two nearest people, one under each arm,
and flew them down to the ground. As I set them down, I saw Black
costume skittering up and into the lab. I had a sinking feeling in
the pit of my stomach, and I flew up back up to stop whatever he was about
to do as fast as I could. We met at the window. One of the
students was riding piggyback with her arms around his neck.
"What do you think you're doing?" I snapped, grabbing
his shirt.
"The longer you fight me, the less time we have to
get these people out of here!" he snapped back, shoving me.
I couldn't argue with that, so I let him go and took
the next two. We fell into a rhythm, and pretty soon we had the lab
evacuated.
By the time we finished, fire crews were already working
on pulling the last few people out of the building, and the paramedics
were starting to show up. A few people had breathed in a little too
much smoke, or had bits of debris fall on them, but no one was seriously
hurt. The big fire had been in the chem lab, with a few small ones
in a couple other classrooms. Black costume set the last person down
next to an ambulance and stood staring at the building with his arms crossed.
I stepped up behind him.
He turned and looked at me. "I had no idea the
circuits would overload when reset. It wasn't my intention to hurt
anyone."
He sounded like he meant it, but he could still
be faking. This could all be just part of some plan I don't know
about yet. "Is that why you helped me?" I asked, a little suspiciously.
He stared again, and shook his head as if to clear
it. "I don't remember why I helped you. After all, I wasn't
paid to do it, and I usually only remember what I was paid to do," he said
slowly, his head bent in thought. Then his head came up with a start,
and his arms uncrossed. "I usually only remember what I was paid
to do," he repeated, like he never realized it before. Like something
had kept him from realizing it before. Then he clutched at
his stomach and doubled over with a groan.
I reached out to help him, but he pushed me away and
took off running.
I started to follow him, when I heard Dana yelling.
A couple of firemen were trying to keep her from going back inside the
building. "You don't understand! My friend went inside to try
and help, and he never came back out!"
"Miss, we checked the building. No one's in
there," one of the firemen said.
"I'll handle this," I said, stepping up.
"Whatever you say," the fireman said, pulling his
buddy away with him.
She fought me harder than she had fought them.
I turned her around and held onto her arms.
"I'm all right, Danes," I told her, just loud enough
so only she could hear.
I knew she recognized my voice, because she stopped
wiggling and stared. I couldn't tell if she was in shock or mad or
what. "This is what you've been doing?!" she said finally.
At least she kept her voice down. Kind of.
I could see Max out of the corner of my eye, getting
her wrist bandaged and giving us her undivided attention.
"Well, yeah," I said cautiously, with an apologetic
look and a shrug.
She stepped back out of my reach, wiped the tears
off her face and said, "You're in big trouble, buster," before walking
away.
I started to go after her, but Max jogged up and put
her hand on my shoulder. "Give her time," she said.
I yanked my arm away and started after Dana, but she
turned around and fixed me with a "Don't even go there" look, so I backed
off. Max watched me as I came walking back, with a sympathetic look
on her face. Maybe I shouldn't have told Dana. But it
just, I don't know, came right out. At least she won't tell anybody.
I think.
"So, who was that guy you were talking to? You
two seemed pretty chummy," Max said, trying to change the subject.
"Not quite sure," I said, activating a heads up display
on the suit. The tracer I planted on Black Costume was blinking strong
and steady. "But I'm going to find out," I finished, taking off.
You know that rumor that this is a crossover? It'll come up in the next chapter.
