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Gotham is full of CCTV cameras, remarks most every visitor to the city. Some are private, installed by anxious business owners, but most were paid for and are maintained by the tax payer's dollar. And they are almost everywhere, practically all seeing and all hearing, on every street corner and every junction. Of course, kids throw rocks at them, serious criminals cut their power and even the Batman occasionally disables one to maintain his privacy but the city always buys more or has them repaired. [i]It's strange[/i], thought a junior aide in the Mayor's office as he reviewed the budget, [i]but the same company has been responsible for supplying all our cameras for over ten years. They're cheaper than anything else on the market, rarely break down and they have complimentary maintenance at a reduced rate for five years after the initial purchase. It almost sounds too good to be true... I should probably look into this.[/i]

That was three weeks ago. The aide attempted to look further into this problem, perhaps arranging an interview with the owner of the company or having some of the GCPD covertly look into the business to make sure it was on the level, but he was tragically killed in a car accident just hours after mentioning this discovery to someone else. His replacement was a studious sort who looked at numbers and didn't think about people or real-life and therefore didn't see anything wrong with one company having a monopoly on Gotham's eyes and ears. The company itself was called 'Aknadah Incorporated' and was, on paper, owned by a man called Andrei Augustin. He was an American citizen born and raised but his family were originally from a small Slovakian village, or at least that's what the system would tell anyone researching him. In that village, a strange twist of history and language meant that they spelled many Slovakian words backwards when compared to the rest of the country. And the Slovakian word for Riddle just happens to be Hádanka.

So, in a basement room surrounded by glowing monitors showing different views of Gotham's streets, the Riddler grinned a self satisfied grin and finished yet another 'impossible' crossword book. He'd kept his little ace in the hole well guarded all these years, fending off corporate takeovers and marketplace competitors from his cell at Arkham or wherever he happened to be hiding in Gotham and never letting anyone who noticed this slight flaw in Gotham's safety net live too long. Even the Batman hadn't noticed it yet, which Eddie thought was odd, given how obvious the clues he'd left for him were. Still, it was probably better that the Bat not try to remove his CCTV cameras, for how else could Nigma keep watch on the city to find the perfect people to bait his traps?

A computerised beep interrupted his musings, signalling that one of the searches he had set running hours ago was complete. Rolling his chair across the floor to the flashing panel, Eddie hit the play button. A familiar voice issued from the computer. "[color=lime]There have been no credible sightings of the Batman for [3 days] and [3 nights]. This is [highly suspicious]. All CCTV footage has been scoured, all social media feeds have been scanned and all Police reports intercepted to bring you this report.[/color]" Some years ago, Eddie had synthesised his own voice and programmed the computer to use it so he wouldn't have to suffer getting information from anyone else. But three days and three nights? That was unusual.

"[color=lime]Computer, search for mentions or sightings of the Batbrats in the same time space.[/color]"

This time, the beep came only a few minutes later, the computer having already reviewed the information and merely needing to search its own memory. "[color=lime]There have been sights of [The 4th Robin, the violent one]. There have been no sightings of other known affiliates.[/color]" Now that was very odd. When Batman normally disappeared for a few days, he'd make sure there were a dozen of his pestilential brood waiting in the wings to swoop in and pick up where he left off. [i]Could he be off mourning the passing of the clown prince of crime? I always wondered if he didn't somehow need that pasty faced palooka for balance[/i] Eddie thought as he idly surveyed a mugging through one of the city's many cameras. [i]He could be dead, better have some of my people check out the local dive bars and see if anyone is bragging about killing the bat. But I would've heard, he's not the sort to go quietly. Maybe he's been kidnapped? I heard murmurs that the league of assassins were in town, preaching their short sighted, self regarding, egotistical dogma about purging the earth of criminal scum like the unimaginative broken records that they are, maybe they've gotten a hold of him? I'm sure I can have eyes on their regular safe houses within a few minutes.[/i]

With a smile and a whistle, Eddie set to work sending messages to his informants and information gatherers. They were everywhere from the police station to the Iceberg Lounge and knew their business well. Of course, each one had only a scrap of information that would lead any who tortured them no further than a throwaway email address or unregistered phone. Just because he used human operatives, didn't mean the Riddler had forgotten how utterly useless the vast majority of the human population were.

[i]Where are you, Batman, where are you? Ready or not, here I come...[/i]