Dick stood at the entrance to Winslow's laboratory, took a deep breath, and folded the stack of lists in his hands again.
"Turner... Harkness... Cliff..."
He read the names aloud, trying to psych himself up. Li Jie was right. These people weren't NPCs who would stand around waiting to be recruited. But he had at least one advantage: he had met Cliff before.
Back in that basement in Ohio, he had carried that complaining head on his back for nearly a mile.
The door opened, and Winslow's voice came from inside. "What brings you here, Master Grayson? Is Mr. Wayne feeling any better?"
"Ah, thank you for asking. He's doing much better, but he'll need a few more days of rest to recover completely," Dick replied politely. "Um... I'm looking for Cliff."
As he entered the laboratory, he spotted that familiar head immediately. This time, though, it wasn't sitting alone on a base. It had been installed in a new body, whose silver-white metal shell was turning this way and that in front of a full-length mirror.
"Look at this angle," Cliff told the mirror. "When the light hits it, the curve of the shoulders looks especially good."
But then he sighed. "Too bad it doesn't suit me."
"Hi, Cliff."
Dick walked over, cleared his throat, and straightened his back, trying to sound like a proper recruiter. "I need to talk to you."
Cliff turned around, his sensor array flickering as he studied Dick for a few seconds.
"Little Bird?"
A puzzled voice came from his speaker. "Why did you come alone? Where's the Sheriff?"
"The Sheriff is... uh... resting."
Dick decided to skip the unimportant details. "I came because there's something I'd like your help with."
"Help?"
Cliff repeated the word helplessly. "With what? If it's the kind of