FOLLOW ME
Chapter 4 - Electronic
The holiday season was fast approaching and the festive mood had already set down upon Gotham City. But for Barbara, the festivities would start only if she managed to find out the new vigilante who was terrorizing her. He wasn’t terrorizing the city. His days of theatrics were behind him. He was out to prove a point now. He was out to display something, not to the public, but just to her. And she was running out of time. She had just a day left to figure out what The Riddler’s last clue meant. And she was now hot on the trail of a new gang of hooligans who called themselves “The Jokers”.
“The kind of people that inspire youth!” she thought to herself, “Pathetic!”
“Anything yet?” asked the bat-phone.
It seemed so unlikely. The Batman himself couldn’t find a thing out from the letter. “Nope” she said.
At one point, Barbara thought she’d never find the clue out. She had been digging up all sorts of cases; drug dealers, mob bosses, gangsters who made up head to toe of mafia families. She was sure nothing ever fit.
She was sitting in her office, staring blankly at her computer and the wires that ran in and out of the CPU and suddenly, she remembered HARDAC (The Holographic Analytical Reciprocating Digital Computer).
HARDAC was a super computer located in the Cybertron Building and was created by Karl Rossum, head of Cybertron as a prototype and proof of artificial intelligence. However, from the long talks with Rossum about the pain he had felt about the deaths of his wife and daughter, HARDAC had decided that the most logical way to avoid that pain would be to eliminate the source of death itself: the mortality of humans. As humans, however, could not feasibly be turned immortal, the computer decided to replace all of humanity with androids, eliminating the problem from its flawed viewpoint.
It started off by creating robotic duplicates of Gotham's powerful citizens and law-enforcement as part of a master plan to eventually replace all humans with identical-in-appearance but otherwise flawless replicates who would "eliminate" needless death. It kidnapped the then mayor of Gotham, the police commissioner Jim Gordon (Barbara’s father) and other influential men including its own creator, Karl Rossum.
However with help from the then teenaged Barbara, Batman infiltrated Cybertron and managed to set off an explosive that critically damaged HARDAC and eventually destroyed almost the entire Cybertron building.
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| HARDAC in its original form |
HARDAC was never a villain. It was never a bad thing for society. But it had biased opinions. And thus became socially unacceptable. Both Barbara and the Batman realized this fact. And now, Barbara wondered whether Nygma had found remnants of HARDAC. There was only one way to find out, by going to the Cybertron building, or whatever stood there now.
She had to tell Batman about her hunch, but she had other work to do before that. She had an interesting set of people to meet, first up were The Jokers. It was the beginning of a new era of crime in Gotham. The crime in the city after Batman’s watchful protection had come to an end, almost. It wasn’t long before that appointment got over and the rogues were brought into custody of the police. She had just one more appointment; she was meeting the Gough twins.
They looked pretty much the same. Frail and old, just like in the video and just like the man she saw the other night. She could however, spot one difference between two, one of them looked slightly older than the other for some reason. She introduced herself to them and asked them to come into her office. They introduced themselves as well, and sat down in her office. And then she played them the tape.
“I know I’ve met one of you already. And you’re in this tape too.” She said. Only to be reciprocated by an uncanny silence.
“Let’s make this easy. The one of you who has never met me can walk right out of my office. The one who’s unaware of these letters can walk out.” She said, placing two letters on the table and she continued before either of them made a move, “Remember though, there’s DNA and a million other ways for me to find out. I’m just trying to make this easier for all of us. Unless, of course, you want me to assume both of you are involved and then continue this investigation.”
The twins looked at each other and one of them nodded and apologized. The other looked grumpy and irritated but got up and walked out.
“DNA?” the one staying back, the one who seemed younger asked, “You’d not find much DNA on that envelope. And you would have never found the difference between the two of us.”
“And you are...?” she asked.
“I am Dr. Steven Gough, professor of Computer Science at the Gotham University.” said Gough.
“Care to explain all this, Mr. Gough? I got threats from you and people have been dying.” Barbara calmly said.
“Yes, Miss Gordon. Indeed I delivered you those letters, upon a friend’s request, an old friend of mine who I owe much to. May I?” he said, asking for the letters. He opened the envelopes and saw the million markings made on the letters by Barbara, on pencil. And amidst all the markings, he saw the letter he had typed out himself. He was surprised how far Barbara had gotten in deciphering his messages. And as saw the letters, he could hardly resist the growing thought in his mind, “was she getting close to HARDAC?” He really hoped she was.
“So? This friend of yours?” she asked.
“I’m afraid he likes to remain anonymous at this point.” he said.
“Lives are at stake, Mr. Gough. You could be considered an accomplice for murder, you know.” She said.
“I’m afraid I see no threats in these letters, Ma’am! I can’t even fully understand what you’re trying to charge me or my friend with. Whose murders are we talking about here?” He said. She knew he was right. Nobody would consider those letters as murder threats. There wasn’t a single name on it. There wasn’t any indication to the deaths except the cryptic clues. A court would never accept such a long shot as enough evidence to convict anyone to be influential in murder of two people who had already been certified as dead by suicide.
“Never mind. Thank you for your co-operation though, Mr. Gough!” she said as she got up, shook his hands and showed him the way out.
Just like the letter said, Barbara had gotten nothing from the messenger. She had to make a move on the clue now.
She took the Bat-phone and told Batman about her hunch and also about her meeting with the Gough twins.
“Sharp work, Barbara!” he said and he coughed. She always wished he would talk more, but he was never the type. He was always curt and never said too much. She wondered if he was ill. She wished she could help the man who had been an incomparable knight in his days and he still was Gotham’s own legend. But she knew she could do nothing for him, for she had not the faintest clue as to who the Batman was. She would probably be the last person he would ever talk to, wearing his mask and taking up the role of Batman.
She took her car and drove across town, to the place where the Cybertron Building used to stand. She now found the building old and unused. She felt her hopes plummeting but she still carried on and went inside the building. She walked in through the corridors she had once ran out through, as the building was about to crumble down to its current state. She hoped there was something, some sense in her conclusion.
Just as she approached the main hallway and opened the master door, she heard a voice. A voice that she had heard years ago, when she was a spirited teenager; the voice of HARDAC.
“Hello Miss Gordon! Welcome back!” it said, “You are here a bit earlier than I initially thought you would be...”
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