Author's note: This chapter is a slightly revised version of what was posted here a couple weeks ago, after I got feedback from helpful friends who made me realize some plot points needed clarification. So the ending here is a bit different — I've essentially added one more paragraph. I've also retitled the whole story, because I was never satisfied with the original title. The new one, along with the quote, comes from the Emily Brontë poem "Remembrance." And now, on to Chapter 1 Redux!
The Empty World
Sterner desires and darker hopes beset me,
Hopes which obscure but cannot do thee wrong.
—Emily Brontë
= = = = = = = = = =Chapter 1: Excavation
It would be stupid for Dolman to run where he could be so easily found. But for all his scientific acumen, the man was a fool, Lex Luthor thought, and besides, where else could Dolman run to? He needed to go to the power source if he intended to use the device. To what end, Lex did not know, and really did not care. He had financed Dr. Shawn Dolman's research, provided the materials and access to the power required to make it work. That made the resulting invention Lex's. Dolman had no right to use it.
God knew what would happen if Dolman used it first. Lex couldn't risk the consequences. His plan, the crux of it on a piece of paper tucked in his breast pocket, was all that mattered. Reflexively, he touched his chest to feel the paper, a talisman, beneath the cloth. Dolman would not stop this, divert it, or otherwise throw a wrench into the works.
Lex himself would bring Dolman into line, no lackeys or hired thugs to be brought in. The project had been top secret from the start, and it was best to keep it that way, even with the effort at roping in the out-of-control physicist.
And so Lex headed to the deepest level of the old Smallville LuthorCorp Plant, to an underground room just off the abandoned Level Three. A powerful electrical source and Kryptonite — those were what Dolman's device needed, and what could be found below.
Lex moved as quietly as he could across the metal catwalk against the wall. The vast ground floor was nearly empty but for the remains of a crosswalk, an ancient relic from a time when Clark Kent saved Lex's life. For years it stayed there out of simple neglect of the locked-down, secret Level Three. Now Lex perversely refused to clean it up, leaving it a monument to lost days. If his father had known, he probably would have razed the Smallville plant before letting it house his son's sentimental rubbish heap. Lex had to admit that Lionel probably would have been right. Too bad. The plant was Lex's alone to do with as he pleased, and it pleased him to let Level Three rot, along with Lionel Luthor in the grave and along with Clark Kent's long-dead good will toward his former friend.
In a far corner, Lex descended stairs and found himself opposite steel double doors, which were closed, but not, when he checked, locked. Besides Lex, only Dolman had a key. Dolman was here.
Beyond the doors was another staircase, ill-lit and leading to a door that was ajar, with glowing green light escaping. Lex drew a gun as he softly pushed the door open.
The device — Lex had not even seen it completed until this moment — sat open, like a slightly smaller laptop computer, slim, black, unassuming. The plug that Dolman was just fitting into the green-glowing power box was more formidable. The physicist turned toward the device, but was stopped by the sight of his patron holding a gun.
"Trying to contact someone, Dolman?"
Dolman stood frozen a moment, then made an effort to recover. "No, no, of course not ... I had to bring it here to test it —"
"I am to be the one to test it, that was the agreement," Lex said coolly.
"I meant, not test it, but it was stolen from me, Superman took it, but I got it back, and I needed to check to be sure it wasn't tampered with."
"Superman confiscated it and you somehow recovered it," Lex said with disbelieving contempt. "You should have worked up a better lie. And I'm to believe you had to come here to check for tampering? Don't insult my intelligence. Hand it over, and I may not kill you. I'm thinking about settling for destroying your life."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Dolman held out protesting hands. "I've done you an enormous favor, you should at least hear that!"
"A favor."
"Yes!" Dolman said with the air of a salesman working a pitch. "The Chrono-etalon was stolen from me, I mean to say, from you, by Superman. I got it back, I ambushed him, waited for him and took him by surprise as he was leaving the Daily Planet after dark —"
"Hold it. Leaving the Daily Planet? In for an interview, was he?"
"No, he's that reporter, Clark Kent, you know that."
Dolman seemed to almost immediately realize he had let slip something he should not have.
Lex's voice was dangerously calm. "And what makes you so sure I know that?"
"You ... you gave me access to your files —"
"To select files regarding the effects of meteor rocks."
"— and I, perhaps accidentally, came across your files on Superman. Of course, it's all related. And you know his weakness is Kryptonite, the meteor rocks. I put it to use so that he couldn't derail this project, which I know is so important to you."
"You overcame him with Kryptonite."
"Better than that." Again, maybe Dolman was thinking he could yet get out of this. "Kryptonite bullets. I took him down with just one. I left him there, but I may have killed him. If no one has found him, I'm sure he's dead. I got rid of your greatest enemy. He is gone, out of the picture. No one can stop you now!" Dolman ended with a desperate flourish.
Lex nodded slightly as if considering the worth of such an idea, so tritely announced, leaving Dolman in hopeful suspense a while longer. In reality, Lex was weighing the veracity of the tale, and grimly determined that it must be the truth. Why else would the man expose his own guilt in pilfering private files? His surety that this would win Lex's approval was too genuine; the story too verifiable. No one could have found the body yet — Lex would have received word. The whole damn city would be in an uproar besides. Or maybe it wouldn't be for mere newspaper reporter Clark Kent. They'd have to make the connection, and Lex believed he was the only person who had managed to put it all together. Or if there were others, they apparently had kept the knowledge as privileged as Lex had.
Lois Lane had to know, Lex remembered. Once he got out of this hole in the ground, he would call her, anonymously, tell her where to find Clark. Maybe she'd get there in time ...
Lex's mind raced, rapidly leading him toward panic. But then he saw Dolman tentatively step up to the table where the device sat. The action snapped Lex back, and as the scientist touched one of the keys, Lex's panic exploded into fury.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Dolman's hands flew up. "Handing it over to you?"
"Step away!"
Dolman quickly complied.
A faint voice, barely audible, seemed to float in the air around them. If it was even real, Lex ignored it. It didn't seem important; it was incomprehensible through the roar of anger in Lex's head. He made an effort to return his voice to his customary quiet menace. "Not even considering the fact that you invaded my personal files, don't you think that if I had wanted Clark Kent dead, he would be?" he asked. "Now do you understand what favor you've done for me?"
And Dolman would pay. Lex had made his decision. As he aimed his gun at the scientist's head, dimly he registered that the greenish glow from the power box now appeared to be coming from the device itself. It seemed to have registered with Dolman, too, who said in a distracted, small voice, "That's not supposed to happen."
Lex's bullet hit the scientist's brain just as the green light overwhelmed them. A shockwave emanated from the device, blasting the two men back.
When the light dissipated, the device was still there, its screen dimly illuminating the dingy, dark power room. But the two men who had once been arguing over it were gone. Whether alive or dead, Dolman was in parts unknown. And over a thousand miles away from Level Three and Smallville, in Washington, D.C., Lex was asleep in his own bed, dreaming of a rescue on a bright fall day that had never happened.