2

SETUP

GOTHAM CITY

Barbara drove her van into the underground parking garage of the office building she had her meeting at. She found a handicapped spot and parked. Barbara hated using handicapped spaces, but needed the extra space on the side to remove her wheelchair. She crawled to the back of the van, opened the sliding side door, set her chair on the ground and hopped in.

Barbara rolled into the lobby and went to the security desk. She presented her driver's license and received a visitor's pass from the guard. She made her way to the elevator and pushed the button for the twentieth floor. When the doors opened on her floor Ted Kord was already standing there waiting.

"Good morning," Ted greeted her, smiling. Ted Kord owned a defense contracting company that competed with LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises for government accounts not related to weapons. He was also the superhero known as the Blue Beetle and had been a member of the Justice League. He had worked with Batman and the rest of the Team on numerous occasions. "Welcome to your new office." He spread his arms wide and presented the space to Barbara.

"Oh God, Ted. It's gorgeous!"

Barbara looked around at the office. She had helped pick out the decor and design, but had left Ted and the construction crew to work without constantly checking on them. The office was decorated with contemporary furniture and art. The walls were all glass with frosted designs and the furniture was a warm cream color. Ted started giving her the grand tour.

"Okay, so this whole top floor is yours. Half of it's your office. The other half is a fully functional three bedroom apartment. I know you said you're not moving out yet, but we finished ahead of time and it's ready. Since you're not going to have a receptionist I decided to put a fridge with drinks here in your lobby slash waiting room. Clients can just grab what they want and see it through the glass door. Put a Keurig coffee maker here, too." He continued walking as she followed him through the lobby into the office space. "We have a meeting or conference room on your right there," he pointed to as they walked past. "And here we have your main space. Glass exterior walls with a beautiful view of the skyline, your desk, computer hub with the best hardware on the market."

"Ted, it's gorgeous."

"Yes it is. Too bad you're not going to actually use it." Barbara smiled. "Everything's set. I set up several dummy corporations for clients and backdated their filings in case anyone checks. As far as the IRS and the world are concerned they existed before your company did. Any issues come up you let me know. You are now officially a web designer and security specialist with an office and well paying official clients." He beamed with pride at his work. "You sure about the company name? 'Gordon Web Design and Security' isn't too creative."

Barbara laughed. "I saved the good name for the other thing. Ted, it's better than I pictured," Barbara said as she looked around. "I really don't know what to say."

Ted shrugged it off. "Just wait until you see the real space."

He led Barbara back to the elevator and got in with her. "Okay, Babs. I put in the security measures you wanted. It's ready to go. Wanna do the honors?"

Barbara took a deep breath and let it out. She was about to see the fruition of months of hard work and planning. In the last four months she had read and therefore memorized nearly every relevant book on computers and the internet available. Any information that wasn't publicly available had been acquired and sent to her discreetly by Alfred. She absorbed all material she could on the subject. Her speed reading skills combined with her photographic memory had allowed her to become one of the world's foremost internet and computer experts within months. Her new life was about to start.

Barbara punched in 1989 on the elevator, holding her finger on the buttons long enough for her fingerprint to be read. "Bravo Juliet Golf," she said for the voice print analysis. She looked up at the security camera for the retinal and facial recognition scans. After five seconds the elevator activated and rose one more floor. The doors opened and her jaw dropped.

"Not bad, huh?" Ted asked.

Barbara slowly wheeled in and looked around. The entire floor had been converted into what looked like a miniature Bunker or Cave. She saw a smaller version of the war room, a gym, full kitchen, and infirmary. On the left behind a clear polymer glass partition she saw something that made her literally gasp with glee. She knew it would be here, but seeing it in person for the first time was awe inspiring.

"Barbara, you're looking at your very own Titan supercomputer."

"Oh my God..."

The Titan was the world's most powerful supercomputer. It had a theoretical peak performance exceeding 20 petaflops (quadrillion calculations per second). It would take each of the world's 7 billion people solving 3 million math problems per second to match Titan's power.

It was also one of the largest computers in the world in physical size. Nearly the size of a basketball court, it used two hundred cabinets the size of a refrigerator that needed as much electricity as small town. Twenty four inch pipes criss crossed the space and ran forty two degree water through them to cool the massive machine. Anyone spending more than fifteen minutes in the room with the supercomputer had to wear earplugs or risk permanent hearing damage. The din in the room didn't come from the computer's forty thousand whirring processors, but from the fans and water pipes cooling them. If the dull roar surrounding Titan were to fall silent, those tens of thousands of processors doing those thousands of trillions of calculations would melt right down into their racks.

"Oh my God," Barbara repeated. It was better than what the Team used. And it was all hers.

"Babs, trust me you have no idea how difficult this was to get and install. I had to get Booster and Skeets to help."

"What about the power source?"

Ted Kord grinned. "That was harder than getting the damn thing. I own two other office buildings and a production warehouse near here. Cleared the office buildings and warehouse and installed multiple massive generators in each and tied multiple trunk lines to here. Top of the line security at all of them. Everything is shielded and soundproofed, this place included. You'll have access to any system you want now. NSA, CIA, FBI, JLA, all of them. This is my masterpiece."

"What was the total cost?"

"Expensive. And highly illegal. You sure you can cover my tracks on this?"

"It'll be done today," Barbara said with a smile. "You're getting everything back and it won't even show that it happened. And the best part is Lex Luthor is going to pay for it."

"How's that?"

"I get a percentage of every penny he makes."

"His people won't notice?" Ted asked cautiously.

"Not when I'm done."

"Love it. Okay, got some some other stuff to show you. Follow me." Ted walked with her over to the computer hub. There were a dozen monitors and six keyboards attached to a massive three sided desk. "So, check this out. You now have your very own satellite locked in a geosync orbit above Gotham. I had one of Kord Industry's sats decommissioned and leased to your company. You have your own personal eye in the sky. And the best part is it's linked up with some other stuff."

Ted started typing on a keyboard and brought up a picture of his new invention, a micro unmanned aerial vehicle. It was a matte black saucer the size of a Frisbee. Four rotors surrounded the body and were encased in protective disks.

"I designed this for the Department of Defense, but got outbid by Luthor. This thing is whisper quiet and has infrared, thermal, night, and regular imaging on it's camera. It's linked up to your sat and can tag objects. Once an object is tagged your sat will keep track of it as long as it's in view of the sat. Tag as many as you like. It can also tag to deliver a payload from a larger weaponized drone. I couldn't attach any weapons because of the weight. There is an explosive charge imbedded in case it falls into enemy hands. And the best part is it doesn't need fuel or an external power source. The rotors act as a perpetual motion engine. You have unlimited range with this."

"What's this speaker looking thing?" Barbara asked pointing to the top of the UAV.

"That actually is a speaker. When we field tested this birds kept attacking it. The speaker emits a sonic pitch to drive them away. It triggers automatically when infrared speakers detect the birds. The thing is smart, too. Plug in a waypoint and it will automatically go there and wait in a holding pattern. It avoids power lines, antennae, you name it. Fire and forget."

"This is perfect," Barbara said as she clicked on the specs and began memorizing them. "I'm more mobile than I thought I could be. How many of these do I have?"

"As many as you need. One more thing. I had the building declared an historical landmark because of the clock. I own the company that does the maintenance. You're covered on that now as well."

The building they were in was one of the oldest in Gotham. It had been built during the thirties and was topped off with a gigantic clock for the entire city to see. The Gotham Clocktower was the city's very own version of Big Ben.

"Ted, I really can't believe you did it. You'll get your money back with interest but I really can't thank you enough."

"Let me take you to dinner?" Ted asked.

The question surprised Barbara. She had known Ted for years and he had never shown any interest in her. He was also eleven years her senior. He knew everything about her, including the attack. Why would he ask me out knowing about that?

"Ted...I-"

"It's just dinner, Babs. To celebrate. Just dinner."

Barbara relented. She hadn't been out socially since the attack. All her time had been spent in physical therapy or studying. She had isolated herself too much for too long. It was time to rejoin the world.

"Dinner sounds great. I just have one request for here."

"Name it."

"I need a double parking space."

"Wow, all this and I forgot a simple parking space. Okay, done. I'll designate the two closest to the lobby for you."

"Nope. I want them to be as far away from the elevator as possible."

Ted smiled. This chick is badass.