Chapter Two


That night, Barbara lay awake in bed, questions swirling through her mind. Who is she? If she's anything at all like the original, she can't be much older than fourteen. She felt her maternal instincts rising up within her. Maternal instincts, she thought as she smiled quietly to herself. Before Helena came along I never knew I had them. I used to think that they were one of those things that only belonged to other people. Who would've believed it? I … Barbara Gordon … big, bad Batgirl … a mother!

Her curiosity killing her now, she propped herself up in bed and pulled her overbed table over to her. A laptop computer with a wireless modem sticking out the side rested on top of the table. She opened the case and booted the machine. With a few keystrokes, she switched the PC over to voice-activated mode.

"Computer," she said into the microphone that was embedded into the console. "Access Clocktower network. Login Oracle-four-one-one. Password Batgirl-mark-one." Login complete, the network screen appeared on the laptop.

"Computer," she commanded. "Display street map of Gotham Heights." A full-color street map of Gotham Heights appeared on the screen. "Access New Gotham City Police Incident Report Database. Plot locations of incidents on map. Geographic area: Gotham Heights. Search terms: cape, tights, superhero, caped crusader, mask. Time frame: Within past year." The map was suddenly awash with a sea of red dots scattered all over the map. A high concentration of dots lay in the southeastern corner of the map.

"Draw perimeter around highest data point concentration." The mass of dots that lay within the southeast corner was now inscribed within a small yellow rectangle. I know where you live, thought Barbara. Now, let's see who you are.


"OK, so what makes you think our Spoiler lives there?" asked Dinah later that day in the Clocktower Comm Center. The rectangle that contained the red data point concentration was magnified fifty times upon the overhead plasma screen.

Barbara turned towards Dinah, who was standing behind her with her arms folded across her chest. "Superheroes -- new superheroes in particular -- and serial killers have something in common," Barbara began. "They both tend to begin their careers by working areas close to their homes." Barbara then intoned to the computer, "Computer, cross-reference and correlate Gotham Heights street addresses with DMV registration records. Search for licensed drivers aged between sixteen and nineteen years old residing within defined perimeter area." A list of twenty names and addresses suddenly appeared of the plasma screen.

"OK, that narrows it down…" said Dinah dryly. "Sixteen and nineteen? I thought you said the original Spoiler was FOURTEEN. What makes you think our Spoiler's sixteen?"

"Computer, zoom out fifty times," Barbara intoned. The entire city of Gotham Heights was now displayed on the screen. Barbara pointed the cursor towards a cluster of random dots near the top of the screen. "See these?"

"Yeah…"

"This is about eight miles away from her home base."

"HER?"

"If our Spoiler is anything like the original, we're going to be looking for a woman. Anyway, it's too far for either a bicycle or a de-cel jumpline without her getting tired. Plus, seeing as how all the incidents are taking place in the wee hours of the morning -- long after the buses have stopped running -- it's unlikely she'd use public transportation. Ergo, she must have access to a motor vehicle ... and a vehicle of her own at that."

"If I may play Devil's Advocate here for a moment, couldn't she use her parents' car?"

"Unlikely. If she were ever stopped by the police, her parents would be notified…"

"…And her cover as Spoiler would be blown."

"Exactly," said Barbara with a smile. "Computer," she continued, "Search results list. Correlate licensed drivers with motor vehicle registration records. Purge list of all null matches." The list of twenty names was now reduced to three -- one boy and two girls. "Our Spoiler is among these finalists."