BAE Chapter 16

Barbara offers her hand to Summer with a big smile.

“I love Gotham Insider. Let’s set something up,” she says.

Summer looks pleased as Vicki’s eyes glint. There’s something predatory in her gaze, but she doesn’t look upset. It’s as though she savors the challenge.

“Sounds great, Ms. Gordon. I look forward to it,” Summer says graciously.

The lights in the ballroom flicker, interrupting everyone. The sound system suddenly buzzes. Barbara and the others all turn toward the stage, but this is still the social part of the party. The speeches and stuff are supposed to be later. Barbara had been hoping to miss all that.

There’s a screen behind the podium and a projector lights it up.

A smirking face appears that Barbara recognizes at once despite the purple mask that hides his eyes. The green suit and bowler hat are a bit of a giveaway.

“Great Scott,” Dad exclaims as the other partiers react with gasps and cries of surprise.

Barbara’s eye twitches. “Nygma,” she mutters.

“Good evening, everyone,” Edward Nygma, the Riddler, addresses the camera. “Welcome to my party. You probably think it’s Roland Daggett’s party, but that’s not completely accurate. The house belongs to the man who holds the keys. Speaking of keys, I strongly recommend against trying to leave this room. All but one of the exits are wired with explosives that just became armed. Don’t worry. There are signs posted outside so that no one tries to come in. For your sake, I hope that they listen.”

“Mother of God,” Dad murmurs, reaching for his phone. Barbara stops him.

“Don’t,” she says. “The signal could detonate the bombs.”

Dad shakes his head, then turns around, raising his voice. “No phones, people!”

Nygma is still talking. “I’m sure you’d all like to go home safely tonight. Ideally before the explosives go off. They’re also on a timer. The only way that any of you leave that room alive is if Gotham’s finest send their bomb squad to the correct door. There isn’t time for them to secure them all. If you want me to call the police because you can’t do so safely, you’ll have to do two things: first, connect to this WiFi network. Then use your online brokerage service to invest very generously in this stock symbol.” He gestures with his hand.

Barbara understands at once: Nygma’s going to use Gotham’s wealthy to do a flash pump on a foreign stock that Nygma is poised to dump. Markets are still open in other time zones. Nygma can easily find a way to clean the proceeds. It’s not the worst plan that one of Bruce’s old enemies has come up with, although it would’ve been smarter to just con some gullible people instead of pulling this publicly as the Riddler.

But that wouldn’t feed Nygma’s ego. There’d be no sport in it. Nygma’s not as open about it as the Joker, but he enjoys fencing with the Batman. Barbara wonders if Nygma isn’t trying to draw him out.

“Let’s say the value of my stock increases tenfold I’ll be satisfied,” he says. “Then we can get to the fun part and see if you live or die. If you aren’t generous—well, that takes all the fun out of it. When does a rich Gothamite really help the environment? When he’s compost.”

The Riddler grins.

“OK, people! Play ball!” Dad shouts, hurrying up to the stage.

“You! Gordon!” Roland Daggett shouts back, pointing at Dad. “You’re the police! Stop him!”

“I can about your safety, Daggett. Not your money,” Dad calls back, unimpressed. “My little girl’s here tonight. Give him what he wants. I’d do it if I had that kind of money. I don’t. That means it’s up to you.”

The guests get their phones out and connect to the Riddler’s WiFi. There’s no way that he isn’t giving them all malware, but that’s the least of their problems right now.

Barbara can’t risk her earpiece to talk to Alfred. There’s no realistic way to get into costume, and no one to fight in any case. This will have to be resolved without anyone dressed as a bat.

She has to make a choice. Nygma won’t let anyone out of here until he’s had his fun. There will have to be a riddle, and Barbara intends to make sure that it’s answered correctly.

Should she answer it?

Or make sure that Dad is the one who answers it?