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***
A few days later, Atom showed up in town with his temporary girlfriend, Felicity Smoak. That meant I might be able to have some fun soon. After all, if I remembered correctly, Oliver was about to get into the league, and they were going to have a major conflict there. Even Barry will be involved, so I can't miss it. It's all good for me, and I'm gonna test out an idea of mine...
The Queen Bee, or whatever her name is, was pretty easy for them to deal with. Too bad she wasn't meta, so she was useless to me. Her computer skills weren't bad, and neither were her looks, but I didn't care about that right now. I didn't need her as an assistant, she was too much of a head case. Maybe after prison she'd get her mind right, but for now she'd have to think about her behavior. Luckily she wasn't completely useless, I liked her bees and was able to steal a couple of them during their fight with Atom. I'm not sure how to use them, but this kind of technology isn't on the market, so it could be profitable to possess. It's a pity I'm not an engineer, so I understood their device only superficially and only from a computer scientist's point of view, but how to connect to them and use them wasn't hard to understand. But unfortunately everything else was alien to me.... Too bad the bees were a bit messed up because of the Atom, so they need to be fixed... Well, I've got Hartley, maybe he can do something. If everything works out, we can create a few for our own use, and maybe rework the technology and start producing something similar to these bees. They're mostly good for good kills, but you could modify them and use them for something useful and make some money off of it. I don't mind taking over other people's businesses, but I'd like to start my own company, and in a world with superheroes and meta-humans, the best company is a technology company. Palmer became a billionaire with his designs, why don't I steal a couple of technologies from someone else and have my engineers make them. It would be nice, and it would make money.
With those thoughts in mind, I headed for Hartley's cell. I had to break down some walls and connect a couple of rooms, one of which led to an old toilet. The guy was almost tearfully asking for it, so I decided to help him out. He didn't seem to have escaped yet, which was good. I had thoughts that he might try to use the sewer to escape, but I decided to believe him. He wouldn't get far anyway. Besides, trust is the key to a successful relationship. If you don't trust anyone and shake all the time, you'll never get anywhere. He's got everything he needs now, even a TV and decent food and a warm bed. The only thing I won't let him do is go out. But if he does well, he'll earn that too.
*♪ Screep ♪
I opened the door and stepped inside the room. Hartley was sitting at a table, mixing something in test tubes.
«How's the work going? - I asked, looking at his desk.
Hartley put down the test tubes and said:
«It's pretty good, the helmet is ready, see for yourself.... - The guy took out the helmet and handed it to me.
Yeah, it looked great... Not one open spot and a lot of sharp corners, but that was for the best, it looked pretty nice. It was also surprisingly light, and felt very durable. I can't even imagine how good the armor would be.
Hartley smiled and said:
«Put it on, you'll be even more surprised.
I looked at him suspiciously, but decided to wear the helmet anyway.
*♪ Beep ♪
As soon as the helmet touched my head, it clenched slightly around my neck and clamped down firmly. But the most important thing was what appeared before my eyes. A perfect view, as if I wasn't wearing a helmet at all. There was a faint blurred redness at the edges of the view, but that was probably because of that red streak in the eye area.
I looked at Hartley and he nodded:
«Great, the lenticular spectrum works.
«What's that?
«Well, to put it in simple terms, it's a kind of special lens that helps to improve visibility. In helmets of this size it is very difficult to see, but thanks to this lens I was able to remove this disadvantage. I had to add some electronics to make it work properly, but it's not a problem. Unfortunately, it will need energy to work, but it's too small, and I was able to find a great power source. It'll last for decades, the power consumption is imperceptible. I'll build a few other useful features into the suit that will make it much easier to use. Of course, I won't make it electronically dependent, even without a power source you can still use it. It will just be less convenient, for example the visibility in the helmet will be worse again. Since it's a bit awkward to use the suit's functions on the buttons, I'll probably install a small operating system for the controls to make it even more convenient.
I nodded:
«Good work, but you don't have to write the program, just give me the whole system schematic and install it in the most secure part of the suit. I can write the program myself.
Hartley was surprised and asked:
«Are you good at this?
«Yes, the inner workings of systems, computers and networks are my specialty, you could say I'm a pro at it. But pretty complex stuff like this... - I pulled out a bee and handed it to the guy:
«Not clear to me. I understand the basic mechanisms and how to work with it, but I can't make an exact copy of course. That's for an engineer like you.
The boy picked up the bee and examined it:
«Hmm, not a bad thing, were they remotely controlled?
«Yes, the girl used a swarm of such things to kill.
Hartley grinned:
«Not bad, such fine detail, jewelry work..... and she's good.
I nodded:
«All right, you deal with it, I'll go.
Then I left and started preparing for the next case. Soon there would be a meta person of interest to me. Faceless, his abilities were coveted by me as much as the Weather Wizard's. If I could utilize them properly, I would have some very great abilities.... They would come in handy if I wanted to get rich or get the right technology and information.
***
When I had prepared everything, I decided to have a rest. But I was not allowed to enjoy my well-deserved rest and a drink for long, because suddenly someone called me. Only a few people knew my number, mostly from work, but when I saw the caller's number, I was a little surprised. Even though I had given it to her, I didn't think she would call.....
I picked up the phone and answered it:
«Hey, Caitlin, how you doing?
«Can we meet? There's something I want to discuss.
I looked at my watch, then nodded and said:
«Sure, come to Jitters in an hour.
«Okay...
***
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