Behind the Mask

Chapter 7

Bruce Wayne ran a calloused hand through his hair. Exhaustion was evident on his face as he sat at the Batcomputer in full Batman garb minus the cowl. He’d spent the whole day taking down Amazo with the League and wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed. But as it was, Batman’s job was never done. The robot was currently being packed up into two separate vans, heading for a secure location and Batman would soon have to go and check how the job was coming. There were also multiple files up on his Batcomputer, all of which really deserved his attention, but were currently being neglected.

Bruce sighed, reaching for a mug on his desk filled with now-lukewarm coffee. He’d have to ask Alfred to refill it. And to make sure Dick was in bed. The boy needed more sleep than he was getting, what with school starting soon and all. Patrols always made it hard for him to get seven or eight hours a night and often he ran on less than six when school started up. In the summer is was easier and they both usually stayed up well after midnight, sleeping in late the next day, but Bruce knew Dick needed to get in the habit of going to bed earlier before the school year started. Hopefully Alfred would come down soon and Bruce could talk to him about it.

The vigilante-dressed philanthropist turned his attention back to the screen, the light making his eyes ache. The two files that caught his attention the most contained information about Cadmus and a picture of a teenaged girl dressed in black. The second was new, recently created after Dick had told him of Robin’s run-in with the ex-assassin-in-training on Gotham’s streets. He’d already dug up as much information as possible after the first encounter with Sportsmaster’s apprentice, but it hadn’t been much and he hadn’t dwelled on it for long. Once she’d come into the light once more, this time on the right side of the law, Batman had dug even deeper and created a new file with her labeled as a potential hero. He desperately wanted to find out more about her, especially since she had the nerve to go crusading around his city, and whether or not she could be trusted, but the other file held far more importance in his eyes.

It was labeled Cadmus, though all evidence to this point showed that it really had nothing to do with Cadmus at all. Every lead Batman had found led to a dead end. Every villain he interrogated, every thug he intimidated all claimed they worked for Cadmus, yet upon arriving at the lab, there was nothing. Guardian had no idea what Batman was talking about. There were no records or anything. It was as if whatever they did to Robin had never happened.

Bruce took a sip of the coffee, scowling slightly at the coolness of the liquid, and brought the Cadmus file to the front of the screen. He strained his eyes, desperately trying to find something he might have missed before, something that would explain why someone wanted Robin. He’d have to talk with Penguin later, see where that led him. Probably just another dead end, but what else could a man do? Even a man who crusaded around Gotham as a bat.

Tomorrow Robin’s team would have a mission: they’d be guarding the shipments of Amazo’s parts as they crossed the country and he didn’t want a kidnapping attempt to get in the way of the mission. Robin would be relatively alone, with probably only one other teammate, most likely Superboy if Batman knew Kaldur, and he’d virtually have no one to back him up if someone attacked him. Superboy was still naïve, and sticking to the mission was about all he could handle at the moment. If someone were to threaten Robin, they’d have no trouble separating the two without Superboy even aware of the absence of his team mate. Then Robin would be alone to confront whoever was hired to get this time. Batman was exceedingly confident in his partner’s abilities, but he didn’t really want to take any chances.

Bruce scrolled slowly through the file, nothing jumping out at him. He’d been on this case for a little over two weeks, since the kidnapping attempts started, and he’d really made no progress.