Chpt. XXV: Enigma

Dick rode his motorcycle through Coventry. He parked his bike against the curb of a street & shut off the ignition. He turned to the street sign & read the faded out address. "7869 Poser Avenue." Dick had spent the majority of his morning driving up & down the streets, checking different buildings along a five block radius of the address Jim Gordon sent. Very few were actually occupied buildings. None of them had been apartments yet.

Dick nodded and looked up at the building he had parked in front of. It was an apartment building that was run down with sketchy residents, questionable construction work & sent a brief wave of comfort to Dick. It alarmed him that this had brought his senses to a calm.

Dick stepped off of the bike and walked passed a beggar sitting beside the apartment entrance. Dick stopped and removed his wallet from his back pocket. He removed a five dollar bill from the wallet & handed it to the hobo, who nodded in thanks. Dick continued to make his way through the building.

Dick carefully crept his way through the old creaky lobby of the apartment. He glanced up at the stairwell of the building, then back to the lobby door. A few scraggly dressed men & women sat around, sickly coughing on one another. Some of their hair were falling out, while some scratched their skins so much that patches of the skin fell off.

Dick shuddered softly to himself, & walked towards the mailboxes. He scanned each name on the boxes, attempting to find some sort of clue. Dick noticed a peculiar name on the mailbox for the room 384. It read E. Nygma.

"E. Nygma," Dick thought to himself. "Enigma."

Dick shook his head. "Son of a bitch, you can't hide from me," he mumbled to himself.

Dick began to swiftly step up the stairs from the lobby to the first floor. He continued on to the second floor, then stopped at the third. He sped his way through the hall towards the door with the number 384 on it. It took Dick a few minutes, but he finally got to the door on his right. Dick stepped close to the door and quietly pressed his ear against it. There was a soft humming emitting from the apartment, but generally no noise.

Dick nodded to himself, readying himself for his breach into the room. He took a few steps back, stretched his legs out a little bit, and steadied himself. Dick took two long, strong steps towards the door, rose his leg up & kicked the door down with a fierce force.

As Dick busted through the door, he quickly looked up to check if anybody was ready to attack him. Instead, as Dick slowly stood up from the busted down door, he saw rows of desktop computers being operated in cubicle-like stations. There were eight users with four on the left & four on the right with the users facing one another. The apartment itself lacked actual furniture except for the desks & chairs that the computer users were using. The entire time Dick stood there observing the strange scene, no one had noticed him.

Dick slowly stepped towards the people on the computer. Each one had a large headset worn over their ears while they mindlessly tapped away on the keyboards. Their computer screens showed nothing but a black display with green codings that Dick didn't fully understand. He looked into the person's face closest to him. She was an Asian girl with straight black hair & pale skin. SHe had a small freckle underneath her right eye. Dick stepped close to see if she would react. She didn't.

Dick took a step back and began to walk to the next cubicle over, where a girl who looked exactly like the last girl sat. Same Asian with the same hair & the same skin & the same freckle. She was a twin.

Dick shook his head in amazement and continued to move around the cubicles. He had seen an Indian boy who couldn't have been older than 10 years old. Next to him was an absurdly boney albino boy, who kept coughing into his fist. DIck took a few steps away from him, then circled to the other side of the cubicles. The one farthest from the front door on the other side of the cubicles was a girl with short purple hair. Next to her was an obese Hispanic boy, struggling to work in the small confined space. Next to him was a young girl with thick glasses & blonde hair tied back in a pony tail. Next to her was a black boy with cornrows going down his head & an incredibly heavy breathing pattern. Maybe asthma. None of these people noticed Dick circling them.

Suddenly, as Dick took a few steps away from the computer cubicles, he bumped into something. He spun around quickly to find a tall slender boy standing over Dick. He didn't look too old, but he was definitely a little older than Dick. He wore thick dark framed glasses and wore a green t-shirt & dark jeans. Dick's eyes traced up & down the stranger's body & noticed a small tattoo on the inside of his wrist. It was a green question mark symbol.

The stranger smiled. "Like the ink?" he asked in a deep voice, holding his arm up to show the tattoo more clearly to Dick. "I love it. Can't explain why. I'm still trying to figure out why I love it. I love that kind of thing, don't you? When you know you should know something, but you can't exactly put your finger on it, so you're left wondering for a really, really long time? Sort of like being stuck on a level of a video game. You KNOW you should know how to beat it, but you can't really do it, & so you're stuck for a few days, which turn into weeks, months, then wouldn't you know it, you beat the game four years later. The best questions are answered later."

Dick stared at the guy in pure confusion. The guy spoke ridiculously fast. "What?" he asked softly, utterly unsure of how to react.

The stranger laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry Richard. I should have already introduced myself. My name is Ed, I'm the head of Enigma Corporated." He held his hand out towards Dick.

Dick stared at the hand with a raised eyebrow, then up at Ed, then back at the hand. He shook his head. "You sent me back," Dick said.

Ed nodded. "Oh, shoot, you're right, I almost forgot I even did that! See, I had this whole elaborate scheme. I was going to help you figure out what you wanted to know: who blew up the coffee shop? But of course that answer was a given: Nolan Drake. The smug bastard has left marks all over the city, footprints that one can easily trace back to him, although nobody has been really doing a good job of that, considering the fact that the guy blew up a school not too long after the coffee shop. Anywho, with you on the case, I figured you'd go straight to your buddy down at the GCPD to track down my texts, which you did. Those boys in blue now have an encrypted bug in their servers thanks to their poorly trained technical team. I'll be using that to hack into their mainframe to gather intel on bigger issues while you're hunting down penguins and dragons. 'Bigger issues?' you ask. 'Like what?' Well, there's a few questions all of humanity wants answered. Some ask 'What is the meaning of life?' That's 42, of course. Others ask 'What does it mean to truly love?' That, I have absolutely no time for. I ask more important questions; questions all of Gotham wants answered. Who is the Batman?"

Dick stared at Ed, trying to put together all that he had said in the last 15 seconds. Ed stepped closer to Dick. "Tell me, Richard Grayson, who is the Batman?"

Dick stepped back from Ed, shrugging. "I don't know, man. I'm just here about Cadmus."

Ed laughed a maniacal laugh. "Don't lie to me, you inbred. I can end your very existence right here, right now. With the snap of my fingers, I'll have all of Gotham City's police forces tailing you, arresting the 'perpetrator' of the terrorist attacks that is Richard Grayson. I will release the great untold story of how a 14 year old orphan avenged his late parents by murdering a mafia leader in cold blood. I will release the location of the only human being that can account for your sins, sitting in her old retirement home down on 62nd. I can do it all, Richard. I can be God if I wanted to. I have the means to do it all, just like my father did all those years ago, may he rest in peace. I can control your fate, but I can also leave it alone if you tell me is who the Batman is."

Dick's heart pounded with rage. His fists became clammy and sweaty. This guy knew Dick. He knew his past. He knew his secrets. Ed had done his research. Dick shut the thoughts out of his mind. Nothing could get out. No secrets would be revealed. Dick had nothing to give the man. "Look, Edward," Dick started.

Before Dick could continue, Ed's eyes stretched wide open, creating an alertness that truly startled Dick. "DO NOT CALL ME EDWARD!" Ed began to take deep, heavy breaths as he spoke. "HE DIED, A LONG TIME AGO, IN THE HANDS, OF THE, BATMAN. HE WILL PAY, AND SUFFER, AND NOTHING, WILL STOP ME, FROM GETTING MY REVENGE."

Dick felt chills down his spine. This guy truly creeped Dick out. "Sorry, ok. Ed. Listen. You know me. You know who I am & what I've done. You know I can't tell you that revenge isn't good, because then I'd be a hypocrite. I understand that you want to take revenge on the Batman, I do. A lot of people don't like him. I personally am not fond of the guy either. But he's fixated on me. He's shown up to the most inconvenient times to bother me. But that's it, that's all he's done. I have no clue who the guy is."

Ed stared Dick down with a crazy stare. Dick noticed his eyes were sort of milky. Ed looked sick. His eyes were sunken, and he had dark circles below the eyelids. Ed nodded slowly. "I want to believe you, I do."

Dick cut off Ed before he could say anything else. "Look, please, just tell me about Cadmus. Then I'll go."

Ed eyed Dick suspiciously. Dick had an unsettling feeling in his chest. It felt as though his stomach had flipped upside down. "I am a beast of iron laying in a tunnel of darkness. I can only attack when pulled back. What am I?"

Dick shook his head. "No, dude, not right now."

Ed repeated the question. "I am a beast of iron laying in a tunnel of darkness. I can only attack when pulled back. What am I?"

Dick sighed. "Cadmus. Where can I find Cadmus?"

Ed stepped closer. As he repeated the question, his face became contorted & his voice raised louder & more aggressive. "I am a BEAST OF IRON! I am laying in a tunnel of DARKNESS! I can only attack when PULLED BACK! WHAT AM I!"

Dick shoved Ed away. "Back off, man!"

Ed reversed the shove & placed Dick in a headlock. Before Dick could react, he felt a cold metal piece press against his head. "A BULLET, MR. GRAYSON! THE ANSWER IS A BULLET!" Ed's voice began to reach high & low octaves, as though he were a strange cartoon character. Dick was truly frightened. "I'm sorry, but the way this game works is that you have to answer the riddle. But since you are too dull-witted to even hazard a guess, I'll ask you another question: WHO. IS. THE BATMAN!"

Dick swung his leg backward underneath Ed's groin & kicked high up. The psychotic riddler fell to the ground, clutching his groin with his free hand. His hand holding the gun weakly rose up towards Dick. Dick swung his leg back across the wrist of the armed hand, kicking the gun in the air. It landed several feet away. Before Ed could reach for the lost weapon, Dick threw his leg back and thrusted it against Ed's stomach, then his face. Ed Nygma was knocked out.

Dick steadied his heavy breathing & walked over to the gun. He picked it up & placed it in the back of his jeans' waistband. He turned back towards the room, where each of the computer hackers were staring back at Dick. Their headsets were finally removed.

"Uh," Dick grunted. He cleared his throat. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt any of you."

Each one looked silently down at Ed & back up at Dick. One of the Asian twins suddenly stood up & walked over to Dick & embraced him in a strong hug. She whispered something to his ear, but he couldn't understand the language she spoke. He managed to pick out the word arigato, which he thought meant "thank you."

Dick pulled back from the Asian girl & nodded. He turned back to the rest of the hackers. "I don't know what he did to you guys, but he won't hurt you again. I'll make sure of that."

The hackers silently glanced back at each other, & then slowly, one by one, each of them stood up and quietly left the apartment. As each one passed Dick, he nodded to them with a small smile. He watched as they exited the door and looked all around themselves, as though unaware of where they were this entire time. Had Ed Nygma kept these hackers prisoners? Did he drug them?

Dick sighed as he felt he had gained nothing from the afternoon. He had come to find out what Enigma knew about Cadmus. Instead, he found a mad man & his secret hostages, but nothing on the matter Dick was interested in.

"A-hem," called a girl's voice from the back of the room. The cough startled Dick. He turned towards the sound to see the purple haired hacker, standing beside her computer with her arms crossed. "That was dope," she said.

Dick blinked in confusion. He looked down at Ed's unconscious body & shrugged. "Thanks," he responded meekly.

The purple haired girl nodded softly. She waved her hand. "Harper," she said. "I'm Harper."

Dick looked up & down Harper's person. She wore a black leather jacket, fit for a woman's body. Underneath she wore a dark blue crop top & tight black denim jeans. She placed her body weight on her right leg and stood with her arms crossed against her chest. This girl had the appearance of a normal girl, or rather, one who wasn't held a prisoner staring at a blank computer screen. "I'm Dick," he called back. He slowly began to approach her. "So...what did Ed do to you guys?"

Harper shrugged. "He used shock therapy to get us to become his obedient slaves. He's been making us hack into several servers to leave encrypted messages. I don't know who those went to, & I don't really give a fuck either."

Dick nodded. He stood beside the computer, approaching her at a safe distance. "You weren't influenced by the shock therapy."

Harper shook her head. "Faked the whole thing."

"Wow," Dick said. "Impressive." He turned to the body laying by the door. "So why are you still here?"

Harper sighed. "Well, Dick, I'm a pretty good hacker. We all were. And I overheard Ed mention a guy named Drake."

"Do you know him?"

Harper scoffed. "He kidnapped my little brother."

Dick's heart skipped a beat. "Oh my god," he breathed.

Harper nodded. "Yeah. I know. I lost him a year ago, maybe. His name was...is...Cullen. One night, Cullen & I were roaming town trying to find a place to stay. Suddenly these big guys with guns come out of an alley & start beating me up. Cullen tried to run away, but then some guy comes out and grabs him. He starts screaming, & I hear the son of a bitch say 'Don't worry, Daddy Drake has you.'"

Dick shuddered. "Jesus Christ. I had no idea he kidnapped people like that."

Harper nodded. "Yeah. I was determined to find him. I didn't know where he had taken Cullen. I started sneaking to different places with wifi & hacked into surveillance cameras. I wanted to see if I could tail that Drake guy, but got nowhere. Ed found me from my different hacks, & he kidnapped me & brought me here."

"Hmm," Dick hummed. "So Ed tracked all of these people."

"Yeah," Harper said. "And I never got to find Drake, or my little brother."

Dick nodded softly. "Well, Nolan Drake has made a name for himself. He's already attacked the city on numerous occasions."

"The subway explosion, the riot at Olympus hotel, the coffee shop explosion, then Gotham Academy."

"He's gone way too far," Dick said. "But I'm going to stop him."

"Cadmus," Harper said.

"Yeah, I need to find Cadmus. I find them, I can stop them from providing Nolan Drake with anymore weapons."

Harper glanced down at her computer. She slowly looked back up at Dick. "I can find them."

Dick raised an eyebrow. "Can you really?"

Harper nodded. She sat down at the seat in front of the computer. She began to type away, exiting the black & green screen & open up a desktop screen. Harper began to type away on a GPS server. Dick watched as the GPS shifted across the map rapidly, but then slowly began to fix itself at a point.

"Grayson!" Dick heard Ed call his name. Dick reacted swiftly, removing the gun from the back of his pants & aiming towards Ed. Ed was suddenly up on his feet & charged at Dick. Dick shot a full round of bullets, grazing Ed's shoulder, then shooting his stomach. Ed fell to the ground and began crying in agony.

Dick turned back to Harper. "People might start showing up soon," Dick said.

Harper nodded, staring at the computer screen. "Yeah, yeah," she mumbled. "Almost there."

Dick watched as Ed began to crawl to him. His body was bleeding out, leaving a red crimson trail across the hardwood floor. Dick took a small step away from the slow crawling menace. Dick turned back to Harper, who had suddenly began writing down numbers on a sticky note. She handed the note to Dick. "Come on, let's go," she said.

Dick took the note & grabbed Harper's hand & led her across the room, but before they could get far, Ed's wrapped his hand around Harper's ankle. She yanked her leg hard, but Ed wouldn't let go. Harper kicked Ed's face with her free foot, knocking him out. Dick & Harper ran through the apartment.

As they ran through the halls, different residents began poking their head out of their doors. "Pipe down!" One old cranky man yelled. "Quit with the fucking banging!" cried an old lady.

Dick & Harper continued to run down the stairs of the apartment, but then finally found their way out onto the street. Dick heard police sirens wailing through the streets. He cursed silently to himself & led Harper down an alley.

Suddenly Harper yanked her hand away from Dick's grip. "Okay, I'm good now," she spat harshly.

Dick turned & looked at her with a puzzled look. Why had she suddenly become cold? "Okay," he said softly. He looked down at the note that Harper had handed him. "So what's this?" he asked, looking at the numbers.

"Coordinates," Harper answered. "These are the coordinates to Cadmus' base. It's located somewhere out by Metropolis."

Dick nodded. "Metropolis," he said to himself.

"You realize that Cadmus is a military base?" Harper asked. "You won't get in there easily."

Dick nodded. "I know. But I'm a hell of a fighter."

Harper shook her head. "Your fists are nothing compared to advanced military weapons. That base is top secret; who knows what they have in there?"

"Okay, fine," Dick said. "So what do you suggest I do?"

Harper bit her lip, staring Dick down. She seemed to be conjuring up a plan. "Well," she started, "first you need backup. Going in alone is certain death. Go in with a few people to cover you. You're also going to need blueprints of the place in order to know exactly where you're going."

Dick nodded. "Okay, that makes sense." He glanced down at the sticky note that Harper gave him. He ripped it in half and stuck the half with the coordinates for Cadmus in his pocket. He held the other half in his hand and nodded to Harper. "Do you have a pen?"

Harper raised her eyebrow. She pulled one out of her pocket and handed it to Dick. "Why?"

Dick began writing his phone number on the ripped sticky note. "I'm giving you my number. If I'm going to pull this off, I'm going to need someone to help me along the way."

As Dick handed Harper the pen & phone number, Harper shook her head. "No, man, nuh-uh. No way. I'm not getting sucked into this. Nope, no way."

Dick rolled his eyes. "Harper, you're a smart girl. You know what you're doing. You said it yourself, I need backup. I can get someone else in the field with me, but I want you to be my eyes & ears."

"Like...a spy with an earpiece?"

Dick shrugged. "Sure, yeah, like a spy with an earpiece."

Harper sighed, shaking her head. "You're fucking crazy, you know that?"

Dick nodded. "Yeah. Every now & then I get the feeling that I've totally lost my mind. But...I think it's a great feeling."

Harper sighed softly. "Okay," she said. "I guess I can help. But I want a guarantee I won't be hurt."

Dick's mind traced towards Cheyenne & Barbara. He felt his heart sting for a brief moment. Dick shook the feeling off & nodded. "I promise you, I won't let you get hurt," Dick said, immediately wishing he hadn't made a promise he wasn't sure he could keep.