Friday, December 10, 2004

99. Dick

(Still in lockdown. The batcomputer is temporarily--or perhaps permanently--out of commission right now. I'm only able to continue writing here because my home computer is not networked to the one in the Cave.)


Whoever this "H. S." is, he (or she?) sure knows how to push Batman's buttons. B and I still went out on patrols last night (I haven't really been that regular a guest on these missions lately--not sure why he hasn't been inviting me) but he was distracted the whole time, mulling over what could possibly have gone wrong with the security systems that would allow a hacker to start posting messages on the batcomputer. The reference to his actual hair color in H.S.'s last post really has him going--although he's trying to convince himself it's just a bluff. (If Bruce was a redhead or something and H.S. had mentioned that, that would be far greater cause for concern.)

Then there was that line where he claimed to have "taken" Batman's "new partner": naturally that led to about three solid hours of interrogation. Who had I been in contact with over the last three months? Had I fallen into any traps I hadn't told him about? What names in the criminal database had I had interactions with during my brief career as Robin? And so on, and so on--Christ, you'd think I was a suspect or something. (In B's mind, I think, everybody is a potential criminal. Everybody except his parents, that is.) Eventually he let me off the hook.

Right now B has a hunch this is all tied to the Riddler in some way, even if he's not sure how. Neither of us has heard from Nygma in weeks, though we do know he's pissed at B and jealous of me. Just how jealous is anybody's guess.