A retired magician raises a bucket daily

Reed fiddled with the black communicator for a while, but he's always had a hard time with electronics.Communication equipment has evolved from a button phone to a smart phone, and he only thinks it is a fax machine, and he doesn't know how to use any game apps.

He checked the communicator, and there was no trace of magic inside or outside. It should be an ordinary electronic device, but he couldn't find any traces of the messages sent before, and he didn't know what to take this for a while. what to do.

Mistake.Should have said hello before letting them go.

Reed flipped through the address book and found a long-lost phone number. He paused for a few seconds, and finally dialed it.

The phone was connected after a few rings, and a male voice came. His English had an obvious German accent, but his tone was brisk, "Hey, Richard, I haven't contacted you for a long time. What can I do?"

"Benjamin, I want you to do me a favor. I have a mobile phone here and I want you to check the address of the text message for me... But you don't sound like you are in the United States?" A few words of French, and the soft sound of wine glasses clinking.

"Oh, we're here in France recently. What do you want to check? Do you want to send it over? But the express delivery in France is very slow, and you may have to wait for a long time." Benjamin seemed to have left the crowded place, and the surrounding was quiet After that, "Can that phone be connected to the computer? I'll try remote control."

The black communicator turned around in Reed's hand. He didn't see any plug interface, and the shell seemed to be one piece. "It seems...not."

"Well then," the blond German boy leaned against the railing, tapped his finger on the railing, and said with lowered eyes, "If you're in a hurry, I'll give you a URL, and you can go to that website and publish the information to track this down." Bounty."

"website?"

"Well, there are the world's top hackers on that website. Although the asking price is a bit high, they are all very capable guys with high professionalism, so you don't have to worry about their identities being exposed, and among those people, live There should be quite a lot of them in the United States.” Benjamin said.

Reed thought about it for a while and thought it was not bad, "Thank you then, I will treat you to dinner next time."

"Great," Benjamin smiled vaguely at the other end, "It's been a long time since I ate the meal you cooked, and I'm a little hungry just thinking about it."

"Okay, I have an appointment next time when I'm free."

Reed and Benjamin Engel met in England, and he and his three friends were all very powerful hackers.When Reed was renting an apartment, they were neighbors. Once Reed discovered that they were being harassed by a strange magical person, he helped them solve the trouble, and they became acquainted over time.A few years ago, Benjamin used to be a bit shy boy, but recently he has become more and more cheerful.

Benjamin's speed was very fast. A few seconds after he hung up the phone, a URL was sent to his mobile phone, followed by a large series of confusing numbers, saying that this was an invitation code, and only with the invitation code can he register.

Reed opened his laptop to find the website, and it took about half an hour to register an account for himself.

The website is divided into many areas, most of which are posts about sharing technology. He looked through and found the area where the reward was issued.

Reed consulted what others posted, and then tapped the keyboard to post a reward post: A hacker who can decipher various electronic devices is urgently needed, and the person is required to be in the United States, preferably in Gotham, and can meet in person.

He first paid a deposit of 50 euros, and the total bid was 150 million.

The price is neither high nor low. The most expensive reward in the post that Reid saw was worth hundreds of millions, but the request is very high. It seems to have something to do with the country's political circle. It has been posted on it for a long time, and no one dared to accept it.

Reid thought he would have to wait a long time, but while he was making a pot of black tea, he received a message from someone backstage.

Draper (Draper): Are there any other requirements besides these?

Beccaria (Beccaria): Are you fast?

Draper:  …

Draper: Quick.

Beccaria: Ok, you live in Gotham?Meet in person if convenient.

A window popped up on the page showing that his bounty had been accepted, and Draper sent him the address of a coffee shop in Gotham City, which said it was one o'clock this afternoon, booth A03.

The current time is [-]:[-] in the morning, so Reed ate lunch, went upstairs and left a hot instant sandwich on Jason's bedside table, then put on sunglasses and a mask, and drove with a communicator go out.

The address of the coffee shop is No. 442, which is considered a relatively remote place. Although it is located in the city center, it is difficult for ordinary people to find it in the depths of the small alleys behind the bustling commercial street.

Reed stood at the door of the retro-decorated coffee shop and re-confirmed the address, then pushed the door and walked in. An unknown folk song was playing in the shop, and the soft female voice was humming a low melody, with a fragrance The aroma of coffee surrounded him.The shop was a bit deserted, most of the seats were empty and few people were sitting. The owner of the coffee shop just stood in front of the counter and nodded slightly to him, then continued to do his own thing.

Reed looked around, and quickly found booth A03, which happened to be a seat by the window. A young man wearing a mask was sitting there. He opened a notebook in front of him, and his fingers were crackling and flying on it. He looked very sleepy, with black hair drooping listlessly, and obvious dark circles could be seen under the exposed light blue eyes, which were full of tiredness.

Internet addicted teenager?Reed only felt that he was very similar to the children he had seen in the Clock Tower before. They usually played games all night for more than a week. When they came to his class, they always showed this sluggish expression.

"Draper?" Reed asked him in a low voice, taking the seat in front of him.

youth......?Still a teenager?He looked youthful, wearing a black hoodie and light-coloured jeans.

"Beccaria." The young man looked up at him, then closed his laptop and motioned for Reed to sit in front.

I don't know if it's my illusion, but I always feel that when he pronounces this name, he has a little inexplicable smile, which is very ironic.

It happened that the boss brought the coffee ordered by the young man and asked Reed what he wanted.

"A glass of iced Americano, thank you." He took off his sunglasses and mask, and smiled slightly.

The young man in front had also taken off his mask, took a sip of coffee, and squinted his eyes a little leisurely.

He seems to have put on makeup.Reed thought that the vampire's observation ability was much stronger than that of ordinary people, and he could notice some small details that ordinary people could not.The young man has well-shaped eyes, but the makeup on his face weakens the features of his face.

However, he could understand that, after all, he was a top hacker, and face-to-face transactions meant that they left the countless firewalls and springboards behind the network and were directly exposed to reality.Appropriate disguise is very necessary. Even Reed added a confusion magic to himself when he went out, so that in the eyes of others, he is an ordinary face that can be forgotten at a glance.

When Reed watched the man in front of him, Tim Drake watched him too.

He saw what happened between Bruce and Jason last night through the surveillance cameras. Bruce asked him to help with the identity of Chared Christian, and he did find out something.In order to confirm whether this person is a threat to Gotham, Tim hacked into Reed's computer through Reed's editor, and used her email to find Reed's IP address.

It's just that he didn't expect that he just started investigating, and he discovered that Reed's IP appeared in that secret Internet forum-you know, he has been up all night for three days, and he has only slept for less than five hours in total. Coffee, he should be able to fall asleep and sleep, but he has to run out on a rare and precious Sunday morning to get this done.

It's all Batman's fault.Tim tried to raise his heavy eyelids and thought, who asked Bruce to draw a family portrait without Jason, and now he even has to sneak around to investigate his boyfriend.

However, the Reed in front of him looked very different from the photos he found. At least this look would not be the type Jason liked.Maybe it was the vigilance of magicians, Tim speculated, changing their appearance through their weird little spells.

After all, he is still a little confident in his computer skills, and it is impossible to find the wrong person.Besides, everyone's appearance has more or less bright spots, and generally has a certain facial features or temperament that can be remembered by people, but Reid looks too mediocre now, and this kind of personality can be seen at a glance. The forgotten face is enough to explain the problem.

Red Robin put down his coffee, "What do you want to check?"

Reed took out the black communicator and gave it to him.Tim pulled himself on disposable rubber gloves, pressed on them, and checked.

"I want to know the messages received by this communicator before and where they were sent." Reed asked, "Can you find out?"

"...It's troublesome," Tim searched carefully, and finally found the access under a certain button, he said while connecting to the computer, "and I don't guarantee that I can get back the previous message .”

Red Robin shrugged, "Basically, this kind of equipment will be completely formatted every few hours. Unless there are new text messages, I can directly locate their location, otherwise it can only be used as a decoration."

New news... Reid thought, those people were ordered to take Jason away, if the other group found out that they didn't go back, would they send a message to urge them?

He wasn't sure whether the group of people would use other things to confirm the contact besides this communication device, but considering that the man in black said that they hadn't met much before, Reed only had a vague guess— —the mark left by the demon on their souls.

He didn't kill those people, he just washed away their memories, and he didn't touch the brand. If they just used this to confirm whether anyone died, then they probably don't know that these three people failed.

"Well, I'll give this to you. Once you receive any new news, you will notify me, and then check directly, and tell me the location." Reed took his coffee and swallowed slowly. The coffee tasted surprisingly good, he thought, maybe he could come here to write manuscripts in the future.

"May I ask why you're looking into this?" Tim asked. "Of course, it's okay if you don't want to."

"Oh," Reed thought for a while, "seeking revenge."

"..." Tim raised his eyebrows, he didn't expect him to say it so bluntly.

"Why, your moral bottom line does not allow you to take this kind of job?" Reed asked.

Tim shook his head, "I understand, then let's exchange contact information so that I can contact you conveniently."

"Okay," Reed nodded, "Your name is Draper?"

Tim showed a standard smile that was tried and tested in the regular meeting of the Wayne Group, "Alvin Draper."

"Then... Beccaria?" He stretched out a hand, "Good cooperation?"

"Pleasant to work with."

Reed said goodbye to Draper, bought some fruit and vegetables at the store, and was going to go back to fill his empty refrigerator.

Leftover pasta and bread wouldn't last for days, and he wanted something home-cooked.

But when he got home, he found that the house was extremely quiet.

Reed blinked, always feeling something was wrong.

He went upstairs and opened the door of Jason's room. The bed was clean and the quilt was neatly folded at the end of the bed.

"..."

Wait, what about people?

What about a mobile blood bank as big as him?

It was still here before going out, why did it disappear when I got home?

Reed sniffed the increasingly shallow scent of Jason in the air, always feeling inexplicably lost.

He slipped on his slippers and sat down on the sofa in the living room looking a little lost.

Even if you want to leave, at least say something.

he thinks.

His eyes fell on the granite coffee table, after a while he slowly straightened up, reached out and picked up a post-it note on it.

'I'm going out for a while. ' is a beautiful and unrestrained line of characters.

The signature on the back is 'Jay'.

Reed raised his head numbly, as if he finally realized that something was wrong, and re-examined the surrounding environment.

He has been very busy these two days, so naturally he has no time to tidy up the house. It stands to reason that the room should look a little messy, but now that he observes it this way, he finds that the whole room is actually very tidy. It was piled up on the sofa before. Some of his clothes were organized in an orderly manner and placed where they should be placed. This place looks like a suite in a hotel, and he just moved in as a resident.

He actually cleaned the room again?

Jason said that housekeeping was his original intention.

It turned out to be true?