Floyd didn't want to answer the door. If he answered the door it would mean that there might be mail and that mail might need to be signed for and if that were the case then it would definitely have come from her. Could he sign it today? Did he have the strength? The door buzzer went off again. Floyd wondered how his name would be written on the forms. Would she at least do him the small courtesy of putting doctor in front of his name? Then again it probably didn't really matter. This was the final end. He had been sitting here day after day hoping beyond hope that maybe one day she would just come home. He wanted to believe that she still loved him. He wanted to believe that money wasn't the only thing she cared about. A small part of his mind was even hoping that it would be her using the buzzer but she would never do that. After all this time she wouldn't come back without calling, and even when she still lived here she only used the buzzer if she was carrying shopping bags.

The buzzer went off again and Floyd figured whoever it was, they knew he was home. In a way, the third buzzer was a great relief. The mailman wouldn't buzz three times would they? Carol wouldn't buzz three times. Buzzing three times was just rude. Only the police would do that. Then again, the police would probably just kick in the door and start shooting wildly. Now Floyd was curious. Who was at the door? His initial fear seemed childish now. It was just another example how the mind likes associate everything with what it happens to be spending time on.

Dr. Floyd went to the door and looked through the peep hole. On the other side was some green eyed teenager in glasses with a stupid grin on his face waving at the door as if knew for sure someone was on the other side. Well, it wasn't the mailman or a police officer or apparently any other calamity. It was just some little kid who was obviously lost. Had Dr. Floyd been reduced to this? His house was now the fake address girls gave out to nerds to get them to stop asking for a phone number. Opening the door, Dr. Floyd was about to let the young guy know where he could go when out came the magazine. He knew this would happen one day. They finally found him.

"Dr. Floyd?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Wow. Um. Could I ask you about this article?" said the young man at a frantic pace.

"I won't deny it. I wrote it. There, now you know. Anything else?"

"Can I look at your data?"

"Oh sure, let me drag it out and show it to any random person who comes and knocks on my door."

"I'm sorry. My name is Clark Kent. I'm a student at Smallville high."

Dr. Floyd just stood there looking at the young man who had the appearance of not even being old enough to be in high school and wondered to himself if he should let him see the data. What could it hurt? It would be great to be vindicated. It would really be amazing to let the truth get out. It would be ... a complete nightmare. He looked at this bright eyed young person and realized he didn't want to ruin their life. "I'm sorry, Clark. I'm not running a museum here. You can go to the university and make a request like everybody else."

"I did. They said they threw it all away."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"I was hoping still you had it so I could look it over."

Dr. Floyd puckered out his lower lip and blew air into his nostrils. "Well, this isn't exactly what I had planned to do with my day."

"I'm sorry. I can later come back if you need time for getting it all together."

"You better come in. No good you standing outside dressed like that. You're libel to get robbed in the time it takes me to pull everything out."

The young man was very polite and tried to make several compliments about the house while he sat at the dinning room table and waited for Dr. Floyd to get out the relevant documents from the file cabinet. Dr. Floyd just disregarded it all.

"You're obviously from out of town so I can't just let you leave with my copies. My old copy machine is broken so you'll have to take it down to the convenience store."

The young man just nodded as his eyes widened upon seeing the fat manila folder stuffed with page upon page of data come into view.

"Do you even know what all this is?" asked Dr. Floyd as a bit of an accusation.

"The data for the planet that ..."

"Do you even know who I am?"

"Dr. Edward Floyd."

"And?"

The young man just looked at him blankly as if he didn't know what he could possibly add. After a moment he said weakly "the person who found the planet?"

"Indeed. Discovering an exo-planet is no small feat. Now ask yourself, why the university would throw away my papers."

The boy just shrugged his shoulders.

"Does it not concern you that the most likely reason they did so was because they believe my work to be a sham?"

"Is it a sham?" asked the boy.

"Indeed not. But that was not my question. I made the data publicly available to be check and peer reviewed and the scientific community deemed it of so little interest that they threw my work in the garbage. What does that tell you?"

"Dr. Floyd, I don't care if the university believed you or not. I just care if it's true."

"And you think you'll be able to see if it's true by looking at my data. Have you not considered that perhaps I faked my data? If you ask any scientist anywhere they will tell you that you should not believe anything I have to say."

"If the planet is there then I can look for myself."

"Oh, it's there. It's in the list of exo-planets but it has the unfortunate status of having been discovered by me and so it will hold little scientific interest from anyone of this generation."

"I know. I tried to find the star what the planet orbits but it isn't listed."

"Anymore."

Clark just looked at him puzzled.

"The star isn't listed anymore. Go look at the older star charts from before I made my discovery and you'll see it listed where it should be."

"They deleted it?"

"The official reason is that they only want to present to researchers stars of interest, and so 'minor' stars that don't merit anyone's time and are only a distraction from the more interesting stars are getting de-listed."

"That doesn't make much sense. It has a planet and if that planet has methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor in the atmosphere then it should very be interesting."

"Ah, I thought so too. But there are many who doubt that my findings are true and I will tell you officially young man that if you want to get into a good college and join any science program there then you had best not drop my name or even tell anyone that you ever met me."

"I don't care about that. I just care if it's true."

"You're too idealistic for your own good. The real world doesn't work that way."

"I just want to know. I'll keep it a secret if you want."

"Fine. Here, these are the coordinates." began Dr. Floyd as he opened the the folder and started to explain. "You can find the star with any descent telescope but if you want to see the effects of the planet then you'll need something bigger and some good math on your side. Luckily, this planet seems to have a very reflective moon circling it, and because of that, we can get a peek into the spectrum of its atmosphere."

The student seemed to skim each page at a faster and faster rate as if he was looking for something specific but didn't stop going through the pages until he reached the end. Then he turned back and went back to the middle section.

"What about this?"

"The radio transmission? It was interesting at first but I took a look at it and it's just static. Besides, I'm not sure it was originating from the planet and I can't investigate further because the transmission seems to have stopped."

The boy looked over the papers a bit more and then closed the folder and got up in a sign that he was ready to leave.

"Don't you want to make any copies?" asked Dr. Floyd.

"No, I think this is safer staying here with you. I need to do some calculations. Can I came back if I have any questions?"

"Sure. My door is open to you."

With that the boy left with a bit of bounce in his step. It was certainly an interesting visit and the highlight of that day but after a few days passed Dr. Floyd had almost completely forgotten about the young man who came to visit him. That is until a few weeks later when he got a call at about five in the morning.

The day before Dr. Floyd had had a very productive talk at a coffee shop. It had started tense but as pride subsided and the doctor was able to show his wife that he really was willing try she found that she couldn't stay angry at him. He had a new job where he would be able to do science and provide for his family under the condition that he not publicly publish anymore papers. It was a hard penance to accept but showing her that he was willing to give that up for her meant everything. He showed her that his family was more important than fame or recognition.

Dr. Floyd looked at the clock on the side of the bed and again the telephone rang out. He looked over to his side and his wife was there. He did not want her first night back home to be interrupted like this. He rushed out of the room and across the living room to get to the phone.

"Do you know what time it is? This better be important."

"Dr. Floyd, it's not static."

"What? Who is this?"

"It's Clark. Clark Kent from Smallville high. The transmission is not static."

"Slow down. What are you going on about?"

"Remember? I came by a couple of weeks ago to ask about the magazine article and the exo-planet. The transmission is coming from the planet, it's cyclical and it isn't static. I've got to show you. Can I came by?"

This was a lot to take in all of the sudden and considering his new situation, it wasn't really all that welcome. However, his curiosity wanted to at least hear what the boy was going on about.

"Listen, Clark, my wife is here now but perhaps later in the day. Besides, it's five in the morning. Think about that the next time you just decide to call me. And how did you get my number anyway?"

It was an interesting waiting game. Dr. Floyd had a touching breakfast with his wife and got word that their daughter would be coming by for dinner. Then his wife left for her job as Dr. Floyd got busy doing the scientific work for which his new company paid him. He was in the wonderful position to be able to do most of his work in his own lab at home instead of having to drive two hours to the company labs everyday.

Dr. Floyd looked up that clock and saw the hour hit ten. Carol would definitely be in court at that hour so any chance that she would suddenly come home was greatly reduced. Dr. Floyd didn't really know her schedule because he had never been in the habit of asking but she mentioned something about her client's court date and the courts opened at eight.

It was eleven minutes after ten when the doorbell rang. Dr. Floyd had been thinking up believable excuses for talking about his exo-planet with someone just in case his wife came home. College recommendation seemed the most likely but maybe his school had a school newspaper he could pretend to be being interviewed for. He had to check that emotion coming up from his gut. He did want to be interviewed. He did want to tell his story. He wanted to shout to the whole world that there was a planet out there with 99% chance of life on it and everyone was just ignoring it because it happened to be discovered by a scientist who lied about his research twenty years before. Twenty years. It wasn't even a big lie. Well, he liked to tell himself that but in reality it was a pretty big lie but it wasn't meant to be a big lie. Then again, perhaps no lie is meant to be a big lie. The more people hear the lie the greater the chance that someone will call it out.

Dr. Floyd had made it a point in his life to try not to lie about anything since then. He kept his head down and endured the scorn he received mostly because he felt he deserved it. He taught his classes, passed on most of his work to his colleagues to double check and publish if they felt like it, usually cutting his name out. He liked to tell himself that the truths of the universe were out there no matter who discovered them.

Then seven years ago it all changed. Seven years ago he happened to be looking over some of the data the university had collected when they had gotten permission to point one of the orbiting telescope satellites in a particular direction. Dr. Floyd had a hunch and if he was right then this would be one of the biggest discoveries of his life. He went to the astronomy department to see if anyone else was working on it but they all seemed oblivious to what was growing ever increasingly obvious to Dr. Floyd. He didn't really have enough data to speak out at first but he got some other telescopes to look at that group of stars again. Astronomy wasn't really his field but when asked he told them he was starting to take it up as a hobby. With each day that passed his blood grew more and more excited.

He was going to discover a planet. It was unmistakable. It had to be there. The more the data came it, the more it was confirmed again. He got one of the supercomputers in Europe to crunch the numbers and when the data come back it all fit. There was a planet there about 1.5 times the mass of Earth. It had at least one moon and it was in the Goldilocks zone.

Dr. Floyd's moment of great joy turned into one of the worst moments of his life. He didn't want to pass his work onto someone else for them to get credit. He wanted the credit. He had done the work by himself. When he had asked for help, no one was interested. If they doubted him, then they could go and double check it for themselves. He wasn't lying about anything. All his data was legit and they had to have known it. He wanted recognition for his discovery. He wanted to name the planet. He wanted to lead the team that did further study on the planet. He wanted to be treated the way any other person on the planet would be treated.

It didn't end well. His insistence on his position alienated the few friends he had at the university. Things escalated and eventually Dr. Floyd was shut out of all other research. They called him a thief who was trying to steal other people's discoveries. The astronomy association didn't want to list Dr. Floyd as the discoverer of the planet and didn't want to list the planet at all until someone else could confirm that it was there. Eventually it was confirmed that the planet was there and even amateur astronomers with large enough telescopes could collect enough data about the star to hint at it being there. They couldn't completely hide it so they gave Dr. Floyd a choice. He could force them to name him the discoverer of the planet, or he could keep his job. With a choice like that he wasn't even sure he wanted to keep his job. He had discovered a planet, surely another university would be happy to give him a position.

It didn't turn out that way. After leaving, stories of Dr. Floyd the liar, Dr. Floyd the thief, Dr. Floyd the insubordinate made the rounds among the scientific community and he found himself without work for an extended period of time. At first it wasn't so bad. He thought about writing a book and he had cash reserves. He wife had a very good income as well so it wasn't a great concern in the short term. The problems at home started when he began using his savings to do more research into the planet, which he had yet to actually name because the astronomy association couldn't be bothered to ever get back to him about it. His wife was furious when she saw how much money her husband was using up. At first she had supported him and was very much on his side but with each passing month and more and more money was gone to investigate a planet that no one else was interested in, it drove her to nearly ask for a divorce.

Now, things were better. The planet was behind him. Even though his further research had shown that of all the exo-planets discovered to date, this one had the best chance of having life on it, he was willing to just let it go. He would never live long enough to see anyone travel there and unless computer technology or telescopes got a lot better, there was little else that could be discovered about it. For the moment, he had to deal with the doorbell and the young person causing it to go off. Dr. Floyd looked through the peep hole and there again was the kid, so thin it look liked like a good gust of wind would knock him over.

"Hello, Clark." began the doctor when the door was open.

"The transmission is not static."

"You said that on the phone. What's going on?"

"I got recordings of it going back the last seventeen years."

"How do you know it's the same transmission?"

"It only occurs between November 7th and March 13th. It repeats over and over again."

"How can you tell it's repeating when it's just static."

"It's not static. It only looks like static. It's a message."

Dr. Floyd was beginning to shake his head. "I've listened to the transmission. I ran it through every filter I could think of. It's static. There is not repeating pattern, there no useful information. Every point of data in the transmission seems to occur at about the same frequency as every other point."

"It's meant to look like static but it isn't static."

"You keep saying that but where is your proof?"

"I decoded it."

"How?"

"The message is encrypted. With correct algorithm and guessing correct key I was able to break the message down so we will hear what actually it said."

Dr. Floyd could not believe what he was hearing. "Are you sure this isn't just something you dreamed up?"

"I brought the recording and the data. Do the calculation yourself if not believe."

It took Dr. Floyd over half an hour to go through the math and see that it was all sound. It all looked good but some of it started to go over his head. He'd need to put it through the computer to be absolutely sure. The young man who had by now clearly impressed Dr. Floyd of being a math genius patiently waited. When the doctor had finished and it was clear that the math would work the boy looked like he wanted to play the recording he had in his phone but the doctor stopped him. He got out his own recording of the transmission and tried to think of a way to apply the young man's formula and key to it. It was another hour before it was all set up correctly. Once again he listened to the raw recording and saw the various wavelengths displayed on his computer screen. Then he applied the formula and suddenly all the various waves flattened out and a pattern that clearly marked that of some sort of speech emerged.

"I don't believe it." said the doctor as the computer struggled to decode the message, taking between 10 or 15 seconds for each second of clear audio to decode. Dr. Floyd left the computer to make himself some coffee and perhaps take an aspirin. It felt almost as if the earth had moved under his feet. He wanted to start listening to the message but he didn't dare interrupt the computer until it was finished doing what it was going. He sat at the dinning room table waiting for the water to boil and stared off into space. He had not begun this day prepared for the gravity of this moment.

"Why is the message only sent for part of the year?"

"I don't know." answered the boy who had followed him from the lab.

"And you have a recording of what it actually sounds like?"

"Right here."

Slowly, Dr. Floyd reached out and took the cell phone from the young man. The small screen indicated that he needed to press button number 5 to play the audio. The doctor hesitated at first but then he pressed it and as he did the teapot began to whistle. Clark turned the gas of the stove off as he was closer and there in silence the voice of an alien began to come out.

Dr. Floyd was amazed. It was unlike any language he had ever heard before. The message was about two minutes long and then it changed. A new voice, even more alien than the first. It spoke for about two minutes as well and then another and then another. Each voice in succession spoke for about two minutes, and each one was using vastly different sounds. Dr. Floyd was just amazed at first but eventually his brain took a guess as to why each voice sounded so different.

"They're using different languages."

"Do you think so?"

"Listen carefully. The sound system used by each is different. This is the same message being repeated over and over again in different languages."

"What does it say?"

The doctor had to let out a laugh at that question. "I have no idea."

"Is the message for us?"

"I don't know. Maybe they're just trying to say hello."

"Can we sent a message back?"

"I dare say we already have. What was popular on TV twenty seven years ago? That's what they're watching if they have any way of listening to us."

"Why do we only get the message for part of the year?"

"I don't know. That's a good question. If it were a natural event then there are lots of things to think about but who's to know why they turn the switch on and then turn it off."

Dr. Floyd made his coffee and then went back to the lab. His recording of the transmission was much shorter than Clark's and when the computer was finished it began to play a snippet of the same repeating message in different languages he had heard on Clark's phone.

"They're up there. They're really up there. I'd give you a drink to celebrate but I think you're too young."

"I don't like alcohol anyway."

"Good for you. You keep like that."

"Yes, sir."

"You don't have to call me sir."

"So, when will you publish it?"

This question brought Dr. Floyd back from his fantasy and into reality. Publish? No. He had no intention of publishing this no matter how groundbreaking it was. He looked over at the boy. He was smart obviously but he had no idea the sort of politics that went on in the scientific community.

"Do you know the story of Gregor Mendel?"

"German monk of the Catholic Church who discovered genetics."

"Indeed. The very one. Do you now what happened when he presented his findings?"

The boy shook his head that he didn't.

"We know Abbot Mendel today as the visionary who unlocked our understanding of heredity which allowed us to eventually discover DNA itself. However, in his lifetime he was ridiculed for his ideas and not by his fellow churchmen but by the scientists he sought to impress with the correctness of his research. To the men of science in Mendel's day, he was nothing but a religious nut who couldn't possibly have anything useful to contribute. It was only after Mendel died, years after in fact that university students, untainted by the knowledge that Mendel had been a monk looked at his work for what it was and evaluated it based on its merits."

"But that was hundreds of years ago not now. This is America. We aren't like that."

"And people haven't changed."

"I don't understand. We have proof of alien life. No one will be able to deny it."

"It won't matter."

"This is extremely important. You could win the Nobel prize for this. You have to tell someone. You have to write it up. The truth has to get out."

"Truth. Boy, let me stop you right there. No one cares about the truth. Everyday, my wife goes and tries to defend men in the thing that we laughingly call our criminal justice system and I can tell you squarely that even in that place where men and women swear on the bible to tell the truth, it is truth which is never allowed to enter those chambers. Guilty men are offered less punishment than they are due if they would only lie and say that they committed this or that lessor crime than what they actually did. Innocent men are forced to lie and say that they indeed committed a crime in order to avoid a much greater punishment, though they are due to be not punished at all. Government officials from the judge, to the police, to our elected representatives all commit crimes and we normal citizens find that it is increasingly impossible to hold any of them accountable for it. Even when we get one small glimmer of light shone on the corrupt, we discover that the only punishment a prosecutor will get for knowingly sending an innocent man to prison and execution is to lose his pay for a month. Police officers gun down innocent people in the streets and not only will they not be brought to trial, we can't even stop them from finding their next victim. The government can take your home and everything in it without asking or paying you a cent for it and all they have to do to make it legal is to accuse you of a crime, any crime. And they can keep your property even if later they decide not to bring you to trial."

"What are you talking about? That can't happen in America. We have the constitution."

"This is the truth about America. So any ideas you have in that brilliant little head of yours about truth or justice or America somehow being a good country, you can deposit them back in the dreamland they came from. This is the country of slavery, racism, abortion, and blind scientific ignorance. In the end you discover that in this country truth doesn't matter. Justice doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is other people and your connections to them. So, no, I will not be publishing anything. You can feel free to do so if you want to but I warn you. If you try to publish this they will investigate you. They will learn all about you and they will discover that you came here. They will find out that you spoke to me and they will brand you a liar and a fraud for life. If that is what you wan then go ahead."

The doctors words seemed to take a toll of the boy and posture slumped. "It can't really be that bad."

"You're right. It's worse."

"But we're not alone. We know now that we're not alone."

"We're not alone. I know it and you know it. That's enough for me."

"Just imagine what we could learn from them. Just imagine what the message says."

"Clark, I know how you feel. Let me give you a little insight. The ones who made the message. They're probably just like us. I don't know if they look like us but whatever they are, they are bound and limited by their biology just as we are limited by ours. They could probably learn just as much from us as we would from them. They aren't angels or spiritual beings in the way that the new age gurus preach about aliens. They don't have any answers for you that your pastor can't already give you."

The doctor and the young man spoke a bit more about the message and in the end they both made a promise not to tell anyone about the message but that they would record their findings and quietly put them in the university library just in case anyone else went searching for the truth. Clark didn't want his name attached to it at all, and Dr. Floyd for once was indirectly taking credit for the math the young man had produced. Eventually they were ready to say their goodbye.

"One day, maybe the world will be ready. One day, maybe you'll be famous enough to let everyone know you did this and they'll believe you. Maybe when I'm dead."

"I really wish we knew what the message said."

"Keep listening. Maybe. Maybe you're smart enough to figure it out."

And with that the doctor waved goodbye to the boy as he walked down the street to the bus stop. Dr. Floyd was now no longer a true scientist but rather one of those people who kept secrets. He would make sure that when he died the secret would get out somehow but for the rest of his life he didn't want any more trouble. It was a shame that humanity liked to hold itself back. Who knows were they would all be if only Newton and Leibniz had been able to get along and work together instead of sabotage each other.

Even with a secret of monumental proportions in the closet, life was getting better and better for Dr. Floyd. Carol was home every night now and with summer vacation coming soon the kids would be free until the next semester. It was about a month after Dr. Floyd had heard the voice of an alien for the first time that a knock came to the door during dinner time. Dr. Floyd and his wife were sitting down to enjoy something called "sukiyaki" that was meant to be eaten with chopsticks.

"Ed, your boss is here." called the doctor's wife to him while he tried to figure out how to turn off the propane powered cooking device that was on their table.

Dr. Floyd came to the door and reached out his hand to his superior. "Mr. Martinez, please come in. We were just about to have dinner."

His boss interrupted him. "Dr. Floyd, I need you to come with me."

The doctor looked at him confused for a moment and then looked over to his wife. She encouraged him to go along and told him it would be fine. "Ok. What's up?"

"Mr. Luthor is changing planes in Los Angeles but he wants to meet you before he head to his big meeting in China."

"Oh. Ok. Well um ..."

"There's not time for getting ready, just get in the car. We have to go."

The car ride to the airport was a tense one with the doctor fidgeting with his clothes to try to make himself look a bit more presentable. They arrived, went through security and had to wait for just a bit for Luthor's jet to arrive. The jet was only landing long enough to get fuel and do a safety check and then it would be taking off again. Dr. Floyd was brought on board and Mr. Luthor himself greeted him.

"Edward! Can I call you Ed?"

Feeling a bit star struck, Dr. Floyd just nodded and smiled and tried extra hard not to look like an idiot.

"Wonderful. Ed, have a seat. Don't worry, I won't bite. Won't you have a drink?"

"Actually, I gave it up."

Mr. Luthor smiled. "I like that. A brilliant man but also humble enough to conquer his demons."

Dr. Floyd just nodded and smiled and wondered why he had been brought out here. Then again, a man like Mr. Luthor was rich and powerful enough that maybe this was just one of his personal habits that no one bothered to tell him was annoying. Maybe Dr. Floyd's name just came up on a list of people who hadn't been with the company for very long and then he was chosen at random to meet the big boss.

"Now, then Ed. You're probably wondering why I wanted to set up this little meeting."

"Just a little bit."

"The software guys were looking over the monthly audit of research resources used and they came across something they think is of great value. They came directly to me with it and when I looked at it I had to admit I was impressed. I asked for follow up details but they couldn't give me any."

Dr. Floyd just listened to the story and tried to figure out if he was somehow in some kind of trouble.

"The reason they couldn't give me more details was because they had come to me about your work without consulting you about it. Well, I immediately felt that going over your head like that was wrong. You deserve to be in the loop and benefit from your discovery."

"I'm sorry. Mr. Luthor..."

"Please. Call me Lionel."

"I'm not sure which part of my research you're talking about."

"Oh. Forgive me. You must be working on so many different projects. I can only hope we see more of these kinds of things in the future."

Dr. Floyd was still waiting to hear about what exactly he had been called out here for. Mr. Luthor produced a printout from a drawer that was part of a desk that was built into the side of the plane. On it was the equation the Kent boy had used to decode the encrypted alien message.

"I have to say I was already delighted to know that we had the discoverer of a planet outside the solar system working Luthor corp. but I had no idea that you were such an expert with cryptography."

Dr. Floyd swallowed hard. "Oh, that. I wouldn't really call myself an expert. I had an idea and I just wanted to try it out. It's very much alpha."

"What was the idea?"

"To see if a message could not only be encrypted but also disguised as something … um … boring like static."

"Another layer of protection beyond encryption to hide the message completely."

"Not completely but … um … this isn't illegal is it?"

Mr. Luthor laughed. "No. Of course not. This is how breakthroughs are made and why the private sector will always win out over the ivory towers of the university system. Please Ed, continue."

"I did a trial run on a gibberish message and it seemed to work but even knowing the key it takes a lot of computing power to encrypt the message as well as decrypt it. In the end, it seemed impractical to continue with the research." Dr. Floyd sent up a private little prayer that this explanation would bring the conversation to a halt.

"Perhaps for conventional computers but Luthor corp produces custom encryption circuits. With your permission Ed, I'd like to get a team of guys working on this. This could be a very important new product for us. I've looked over your contract. I think you'll find that you'll receive quite a bit of financial compensation."

Dr. Floyd was in a tight spot. He knew good and well that the equation wasn't his. It felt wrong to sell it. It felt wrong to accept money for it. But even if he protested he had no way of stopping Luthor corp from using it now if they wanted it. It would be better to just play along. Dr. Floyd shrugged his shoulders. "I work for you." was his way of admitting he had no choice in the matter.

Mr. Luthor smiled as he obviously approved of this response. "Excellent. Ed, I can see big things coming your way. What would you think if I offered to make you head of one of our R&D departments in Metropolis?"

"I'd be flattered but … Lionel, I'm still trying to patch things up with my wife."

"Say no more. Family is the most important thing. But let's keep in touch. When you're ready, you let me know."

The meeting ended on a high note and Dr. Floyd was feeling pretty good about himself and the way he had been able to dodge talking about the deeper aspects of the equation. He was also feeling crummy about essentially stealing Clark Kent's equation but if he was going to be compensated to the tune of the types of numbers Mr. Luthor had been throwing around then Dr. Floyd hoped he be able to make it up to the boy if he ever met him again.

For the next year a small, quiet thing happened that Dr. Floyd was completely unaware of. It would not be revealed for several years to come but the United States government was in the habit of listening to every phone call, reading every email, and tracking every website anyone ever visited. The government was able to break any level of encryption out there but even they didn't notice at first what was going on. Step by step, slowly but surely, Luthor corp dropped off the map. They were still everywhere doing business in almost every major b2b industry but if you were a government agent assigned to listen to Lionel Luthor's you'd assume that he just didn't make them anymore. He didn't use email anymore and he didn't surf the web anymore. It was as if he got rid of his phone and his computer and did all of his correspondence through the mail. From the government's point of view, it wasn't that Luthor was now using stronger encryption that needed to be broken into. It was as it he just stopped communicating all together.

The more the government looked into it, the more frustrated they got and so they eventually got a judge to issue a secret search warrant to plant a bug in Mr. Luthor's phone. It was designed to pick up anything that went over that phone wire and transmit it to government agents. Back at headquarters they placed a call to Luthor once they knew for sure that Luthor in his office. This was their control to make sure their bug worked. It apparently didn't since all they got back a was static. Five different bugs they planted in Mr. Luthor's office and each time all they got was static.