Chapter 4
© Dylan (Clay) Clearbrook
Leah Lane cursed under her breath as she pushed her way through the crowd of onlookers until she reached the cordoned off area before the entrance to the nightclub. In addition to the normal streetlights and flashing signs of places catering to the night crowd, the night was split with the constant strobe of red and blue lights from multiple police vehicles and ambulances.
While there was a steady stream of paramedics and cops, both uniformed and plainclothes, through the entrance of the nightclub, many more uniformed officers acted as crowd control, keeping both the looky-loos as well as possible family members of potential guests out.
Catching her breath, Leah looked around and found that she was separated from the main mass of other reports that were shouting questions and demanding answers from stone-faced officers who ignored them.
She turned to the person standing closest to her and was surprised to find herself standing beside a police officer wearing Metropolis DP patch on her shoulder. She instantly considered several questions she could and probably should ask…and rejected them all. Simply from the look on her face, this officer was not here in any official capacity.
"I'm sure that whoever it is, they are okay." She spoke softly, leaning close. "From the reports we've been able to get, there were only three fatalities: The owner and his wife and one of the assailants."
Startled, the officer turned to look at her, taking in her press badge. She opened her mouth and then, possibly seeing the look of true concern on Leah's face rather than the crazed look of a vulture circling in for a feast, she shut it and gave a sharp nod.
She took a breath, turning slightly so that Leah could read her name tag: Det. Maggie Sawyer.
"I knew the owner, Derick, and his wife, Geri." She spoke softly. "Another friend of mine helped to finance them when they moved up here from Kansas City."
Leah's mind went into overdrive as she went over the data she had hastily prepared before she had left her apartment. The Goldstiens had sold their Kansas City business and moved to Paragon City to open the Lone Star. Unfortunately, what could have easily been the seed money for an establishment in KC, where prices were lower and the cost of living not so high, was not quite enough. So Derick had gone looking for sponsors…and had hit pay dirt when he met…Kara Kent-Danvers!
And it was the reported presence of Kara Kent-Danvers and Rick Wayne that had drawn every reporter in a hundred mile radiance.
"Ms. Kent-Danvers and Mr. Wayne are already gone." She informed the officer quietly. She nodded her head at the still shouting gaggle of reporters. "Though I don't think they know that."
The officer gave her a sharp look.
"And how do you know?"
"I have a contact in the Paragon City PD." Leah answered with a shrug. The thought that she was talking to a detective of the Metropolis PD crossed her mind even as the words slipped out and she bit her lip.
Maggie gazed at the reporter. She had turned her attention back to the entrance of the nightclub as guests began to trickle out in twos and threes.
"Why aren't you over there with the others?" She asked.
"I'm a reporter, not a vulture." Leah responded, glancing over at the gaggle of reporters with a look of distaste. She waved a hand negligently toward them. "Look at them. All they are doing is shouting questions; first at the police and now at those people." She shook her head. "They don't give a damn what those people have gone through…they just want answers they can use in the news. Headlines and sensationalism. They are not seeing those people as people…merely stories. They aren't even looking."
"Looking?" Maggie frowned.
"Looking." Leah nodded. Without thinking, she placed a hand on Maggie's arm and inclined her head towards a group of guests just exiting. "See them? They are all scared…but you can tell by just looking at them…at the way they are acting, that they witnessed something extraordinary. They are frightened by what the council did…but relieved and elated to have witnessed one man take them all down…and saddened because he was not able to save the owner and his wife."
"You can tell all that just by looking at them?" Maggie glanced down at the hand on her arm and tried to ignore the shivers that the touch sent through her.
"It helps to have a bit of insight as to what actually went on," Leah smirked…and then seemed to realize that she was talking to a police officer. "Uh…I hope you aren't going to get my contact in trouble for talking to me."
"Not my department." Maggie smiled and then wagged a finger at the reporter. "But if you have a contact in the Metropolis PD, don't tell me." She started to add something more when her cell phone began playing the ringtone she had set up for Kara. "Excuse me." She whispered as she pulled her android out of a vest pocket.
"Kara! Are you…oh…" She paused and listened for a moment. "Right…tomorrow morning. No…no…you were right…she doesn't need to be alone right now. Thank you." She hung up and slid the android back into her pocket.
"Let me guess." Leah smiled. "Rick Wayne?"
"How did you know?" Maggie demanded.
"The first officers on the scene recognized them and processed them first to get them out before that horde descended on them," Leah responded., ticking off items on her fingers. "You didn't correct me earlier when I mentioned their names…You mentioned that you were friends with the Geri Goldstein and that another friend helped to finance them. Kara Kent-Danvers is on public record as having helped finance the Lone Star. You said the name Kara when you answered the phone. While not impossible, I would find it too coincidental for one person to have more than one friend named Kara."
"Ah." Maggie nodded. "Standard practice." She said, addressing Leah's first point. "People like that tend to draw crowds…getting them processed and out before the crowd gets too big makes the job easier." She shrugged. "And yeah…that was Rick Wayne. Kara is a bit shook up and he's taking her to Wayne Manor so she won't be alone since I am supposed to be on duty tonight." She sighed and turned to push back through the crowd. She was not surprised when Leah walked with her. "I just wish I could get a straight story about what went on in there tonight. Everyone says a single man saved them…but the details are rather sketchy."
"Er….I think I might be able to help in that." Leah spoke hesitantly.
"What do you mean?" Maggie stopped and turned to the slightly smaller woman.
"Keep walking." Leah hissed, taking Maggie's arm once again and urging her on. "Remember I mentioned my contact in the Paragon PD? Well, I might have gotten a copy of the videos from the Lone Star security system."
Maggie stopped again and looked at the reporter.
"We are going to have to talk about what is and is not appropriate!" She said and then gave a slight smile. "After we take a look at that video!"
The gentle knocking on the door was all it took to bring Kara to full wakefulness. There was a brief moment of confusion as she took in her surroundings before the events of the previous evening crashed back into her consciousness.
Instead of taking her home, Rick had brought her straight to Wayne Manor.
He had been the perfect gentleman. He had taken her cell phone from her purse and, after having her unlock it, had scrolled through her contacts until he found Maggie's name and called her.
Being a Metropolis detective, Maggie Sawyer had predictably heard of the tragedy at the Lone Star in Paragon City. It wouldn't be until some bright reporter went through the names of those present that it would be splashed on both tv and papers that the areas most notable playboy, Rick Wayne, and the reclusive CEO Kara Kent-Danvers had been guests at the time. Rick gave her the details and, after assuring Maggie that her friend had taken no injury, informed her that he was taking her to Wayne Manor so she would not be alone. He then gave her directions and told her that he would instruct the manor gate guards to let her in if she wished to come out in the morning after she got off duty.
Able to hear both sides of the conversation, though she didn't really pay attention at the time, Kara now wondered how Rick had known that Maggie was not going to be off duty until the following morning…Maggie had not mentioned it during their short conversation.
Pulling up to the front of the Manor, they had been met by an obviously concerned Alfred. Once Rick had informed the butler that Kara would be staying the night in one of the guest rooms, Alfred had instantly assigned one of the female house staff to look after her.
A quick use of her pentra-vision….what Kal had erroneously called X-ray vision…was all it took to see that it was that young woman that was now standing outside the door to her room.
"Come on in." She called out as she scooted to set up in the huge bed.
The maid…or whatever she was…looked as if she were barely out of her teens, yet she had the demeanor of a complete professional as she entered. Not surprising. From what she had seen of Alfred, she was pretty sure that anyone that did not meet his strict standards would not last long in Wayne Manor.
"Good morning, Ma'am." The young woman, Kara wasn't sure if she had ever been told her name, entered and pulled the drapes to let in the day. "Mr. Wayne has invited you to have breakfast with him if you wish before your friend arrives. If not, I can get something for you to eat here."
"No, that's okay." Kara ran a hand over her head…and froze. Gone was her wig of long brown hair. Instead, she felt only her natural, short, blonde hair. "Uh…"
"You will find your things in the restroom." The young girl said, gesturing toward an open door. "Should I inform Mr. Wayne that you will be joining him?"
"Uh…yes…yes of course." Kara stammered. "Just give me a few minutes." She noticed that she was wearing a pair of cream colored pajamas and looked up at the girl.
"Mr. Alfred instructed that your clothes be cleaned…there were…stains." The woman gave a sympathetic smile. "Appropriate clothing has been furnished for you." Again she gestured toward the bath. She retreated to the entrance. "I will inform Mr. Wayne that you will join him for breakfast, Ma'am. I will return shortly to guide you to the Morning Room."
Kara waited until the young woman had closed the door behind her before jumping from the bed and racing to the bathroom.
The bathroom was damned near as big as the room she had slept in. There, at a vanity, she found her small purse lying beside a wig stand that currently held her brown wig. She glared at the wig, which no one should have been able to tell was a wig or even remove, as she dug through her purse. She withdrew a bracelet that most people would consider to be a Smart Bracelet.
She strapped the bracelet to her left wrist and waited while security embedded within it positively identified her before activating. She frowned when a small yellow light, that should have been green, appeared. The yellow signified that, although it had identified her, it could not make the connections it should have made. In this case, it should have instantly opened a connection directly to Kelex.
What the hell? Kara sat in the seat before the vanity. She had to think this through. There were obviously some gaps in her memory. She felt her face go red as she recalled the multiple glasses of wine she had consumed after they had arrived at the Manor. Rick had not tried anything funny. He had simply been there…holding her when she cried, listening when she talked. In fact, it had been Rick who had finally cut her off of the wine and….that is where things got fuzzy.
She dimly recalled him assisting her to the guest room...where he had turned her over to…Alysha…the young woman's name was Alysha. It had been Alysha that had removed her blood-stained clothes and furnished her with pajamas. But the wig….no…it had not been Alysha who had removed the wig. She felt herself blush again as she recalled ripping the wig off and throwing it across the room….with enough force to knock several pictures off the far wall in Rick's office. She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths.
She knew better than to drink too much. Since Terran and Kryptonian physiologies were so similar, any substances that could affect Earth humans were likely to have similar effects on her. Her Kryptonian body would simply metabolize the substances much quicker than a Terrans. The end result…it took a lot more to get her drunk…and she would not stay that way long once she stopped drinking.
She winced and rubbed her temples. On top of that, her natural quick healing seemed to do nothing for hang-overs!
Warned that Kara was on her way, Rick poured a small glass of something that looked vile and smelled worse from a sealed container in the middle of the table and, as soon as Alysha ushered her into the room, held it out to her.
"Don't smell, don't taste and for god sake don't sip." He ordered. "Just drink it."
Glaring, Kara took the glass and in one long draw, chugged the contents down. It took every bit of willpower he had for Rick to keep from laughing at the face and the sputtering that followed.
"What was that….shit?" Kara demanded when she had recovered from coughing and gagging.
"Alfred's personal hang-over remedy," Rick answered. "I wasn't sure if you would need it, but better safe than sorry." He held a seat out for her and seated her before taking his own seat across from her at the table. "I would have had it sent to you in your room, but I didn't want to risk you taking out your anger on the help." He gave a smile to show that he was joking…somewhat. "Give that fifteen to twenty minutes to work and we can have breakfast." When Kara opened her mouth he held up a hand. "No, right now you may not be feeling like eating…but you will be. Trust me."
He watched her as she closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. She had not, he noticed, replaced her wig. Personally, he found he liked the short pixie cut blonde hair better. It seemed to fit her better than the long brown hair.
He had been a bit startled at her reaction when they had arrived at Manor last night. It was not the reaction a normal person who had witnessed such horrendous events, but rather the reaction of a person who knew they could have prevented such an event in the first place. While she blamed the Council for committing the act, it was her own reluctance to act that had caused her anger. Anger and remorse that only worsened as she finished off bottle after bottle of wine. At that, Rick felt a bit guilty himself. He knew he should have cut her off after the first bottle…but instead, his natural curiosity had let her finish off five more in the time it took him to drink two glasses.
Kara frowned, noting the way he was looking at her and squared her shoulders.
"What happens now?" She demanded.
"Now," Rick started as he picked up his cup of coffee. "We eat breakfast and wait for your friend Maggie to get here. I called her this morning and arranged to send a driver for her…" he checked his watch "…in about an hour so she can drive your car home if you aren't up to driving just yet."
"That's not what I meant." Kara grimaced.
"I know what you meant, Kara." Rick paused and took a drink of his coffee, his eyes never leaving hers as he looked at her over the cup. He sat the cup down and regarded her for a moment. "Though we got out of there last night before the news vultures descended, they have already discovered that both you and I were present at the Lone Star when the Council struck. Some are even suggesting that one or both of us may have been their target. That it was a kidnapping attempt that went wrong."
"That…" Kara shook her head. "That's not what happened."
"No, it isn't." Rick agreed. "We just happened to be there when they decided to make an example of a business run by Jews."
"I can't believe this is happening." Kara rubbed her temples, her eyes closed.
"It's the Council, Kara." Rick said. "As far as they are concerned, World War 2 isn't over and won't be until every last one of them is eliminated or they are victorious." He paused as if considering whether or not to continue and then took the plunge. "Superman may have helped win the war against Nazi Germany, but even he could not totally eradicate the evil ideology behind it." He shrugged. "He may have been able to nip our current crop of Nazis in the bud if he had not been killed by that Kryptonite meteor, but we'll never know." He reached over and picked up a small bell sitting by his plate and gave it a ring.
Almost instantly servers appeared carrying plates filled with food.
"Enough talk." He nodded as the plates were placed before them. "You need to eat and then get ready to go when Detective Sawyer gets here."
Rick stood with Alfred at the entrance, watching as Kara's Mustang, with Maggie at the wheel, turned out of sight down the long driveway.
"I assume the reporters have been cleared from the drive?" He asked.
"As much as legally possible." Alfred nodded. "Once beyond the outer gates, there is not much the guards can do. I have, however, instructed them to make sure a lane is cleared so that the two ladies can depart without stopping." He turned to look at his onetime ward. "What happens now?"
"Now…" Rick scowled, "Now I think it is time I expand my activities beyond Gotham."
"I was referring to the young lady." Alfred raised one eyebrow, Spock fashion.
"That is up to her, Alfred." He turned back into the entrance. "I am not going to force her into a role she doesn't want."
"Perhaps I need to be more specific." Alfred drawled. "Will you be seeing her again?"
Rick stopped, his hand on the door handle and looked back at Alfred and then towards the now empty driveway.
"I am afraid that is also up to her." He answered, knowing as he did that he was failing miserably at hiding the tone of wistfulness in his voice.
Due to her schedule, Maggie was not able to stay with Kara as long as she would have liked. At Kara's insistence, she had driven to the Kent-Danvers Building. In the penthouse suite, she would be out of reach of reporters.
"So far none have been spotted around your home, but I wouldn't count on that to last." Maggie had informed her. Having known Geri, Kara knew Maggie was probably hurting as well.
The drive from Wayne Manor to the Kent-Danvers Building had been extremely quiet and Kara had been content to leave it that way until Maggie had pulled into the underground parking beneath the Kent-Danvers Building.
"Just say it and get it over with." She finally growled. Maggie pulled into the spot by the private elevators reserved for Kara, but the car into park and shut off the engine before twisting in the seat to look at her.
"Just what is it you think I am going to say?" She demanded. "I know you, Kara. Right now, the only person blaming you is you!"
"I could have saved her! I could have saved them both!" Kara yelled. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I could have saved her." She repeated in a whisper.
"Nothing is certain, Kara." Maggie responded after a moment. "But yeah, you probably could have." Kara's eyes grew wide at Maggie's words.
"What?" Maggie shrugged. "You want me to lie to you? You want me to tell you there was nothing you could do?" She snorted. "We both know that wouldn't be the truth, don't we?" She waved a hand towards the windshield and then rested that arm on the steering wheel. "You saved those kids and the cops at that bank heist…so why couldn't you do the same for Geri?" She didn't give Kara time to recover from the shock of her words before she plowed on. "I'll tell you why. Because you weren't ready for it: You were surprised and by the time the surprise wore off…it was over." She reached out and took one of Kara's hands.
"You are not your cousin, Kara. He felt the need…the calling…to become what he became." She went on. "Just because you don't feel that same need…that same calling…does not make you a bad person, Kara. You have spent years trying to be a normal person…not a supergirl. You act only when you feel you absolutely have to….when you come to the conclusion that help will not arrive in time if you don't. But every time you have acted you have had the luxury of time. Time to wait to see if the cavalry will arrive or if you have to be the cavalry. This time…this time you didn't have that luxury. The cavalry did arrive…but too late to save Geri."
"It was Rick." Kara whispered. "It wasn't a supergirl that saved everyone else…it was a millionaire playboy!"
"I know." Maggie nodded, causing Kara to look at her. She shrugged and, without telling her exactly how she had gotten a look at the security footage, told her what she had seen. "I saw the security videos. It didn't take me long to figure out. Before the Council goons enter, you and Rick can be seen at the table. Then, afterward, a bare-chested man wearing a cloth over his face like an old style bandit takes out the Council. The cloth mask is the same color as Rick's shirt. Then again later, both you and Rick can be seen…this time, however, Rick is wearing a different shirt. The video angles did not show exactly how he took the majority of the goons out, only how he took out the leader."
For a moment it seemed as if Kara would say something else, instead, she simply shook her head again and opened the car door, stepping out.
"Do you need to use the car to get to work?" She asked, shutting the door.
"No." Maggie got out of the car and walked around to pull Kara into a hug. When she pulled back, she put the keys to the Mustang in her hand. "I drove here and parked in the visitor parking. I figured you would want to come here." She gave a sad smile. "I had Rick's driver pick me up here." She put her hands on Kara's shoulders and held her out at arm's length. "Call me if you need me…promise?"
"Promise." Kara mumbled. She stood there and watched as Maggie made her way out of the private parking area before entering the elevator. Once the doors slid shut behind her, she turned and punched the button for the penthouse. She waited while the scanners she had installed confirmed her identity and then felt the subtle acceleration as the elevator moved.
When the doors opened into her private suite, Kara stepped out and paused. For a moment she considered activating Kelex to determine what had caused her inability to reach him while at Wayne Manor, then shook her head and walked across the plush carpet of the living room to stand before the floor to ceiling windows that gave a view of the Bay.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. She sighed and let her eyes wander over the bay toward the city of Gotham on the other side. She wasn't a hero like Kal had been. She was just a just a young woman trying to fit into normal human society…and now a young woman…a friend…and her husband was dead because she wasn't a hero!
She turned away from the window and made her way to the bath. There she removed the wig and ran her hands over her short blond hair. She leaned on the sink and gazed at the figure in the mirror. There were no red eyes from crying or drinking too much the night before. The healing ability bestowed upon her under Earth's yellow sun had already taken care of that.
Was she wrong? It was a question she had never stopped asking herself. Like Maggie had said, she had acted only when she felt she absolutely had to. Always before she had waited to make sure no one else was going to jump in and do what had to be done before jumping in herself.
In terms of sheer power, she was every bit as powerful as Superman had been. Of course, the extent of Superman's powers had, over the years since his death, been somewhat exaggerated. Yes, he was strong. Strong enough to lift an ocean liner…but not strong enough to move the moon out of its orbit (even if he had been ignorant enough to try such a feat). Yes, he could fly…and he could move damned fast….but not fast enough to turn back time. At her fastest, she had clocked herself at just over Mach 5, or Hypersonic, and she could not imagine that Kal had been able to move any faster.
Nor had Superman been as invulnerable as the legends made him out to be. That much she knew from the records Kelex had kept of Kal's injuries…and her own personal experiences. Of course, weapons during the 40's and 50's had not been anywhere near as powerful as the weapons of the modern age. While he might have been able to shrug off being shot with an old-style machine gun, today's armor piercing rounds would have bruised him every bit as much as they did her. It might take a hell of a lot of power to actually pierce her skin…more power than most weapons had, but there was no denying that some of the more powerful weapons packed punches that HURT! No. While she might be extremely tough, total invulnerability was a myth. Just like the myth that with super hearing, Superman could hear a bug crawling on the other side of the Earth. Or could see the inhabitants of other planets in far-off galaxies with vision powers. Okay, the heat vision wasn't a myth….but Kara had yet to figure out how that worked…it just…did. Never out of control like some of the movies had portrayed. It was something that did NOT occur accidentally. It took concentration and practice. As far as the super hearing and the other vision powers…..yeah…they were extremely enhanced. But again, nothing that was always on. These took concentration and practice just like the heat vision. And the range was limited. If she concentrated, she might be able to hear sounds from around Metropolis…but there was no way she could filter out all other sounds to the exclusion of a single conversation.
Her eyes could focus so that she could see in both the telescopic and microscope ranges, but even that had its limits. She could look up and, on a clear night, make out details of the various Lunar colonies, but only the larger structures. Going the other way, she could see what an average person could see through a very good microscope, but no…she couldn't see into the atomic or subatomic ranges. And as for her Pentra-vision…she could not see through walls or buildings and get a clear-as-day vision of what lay on the other side, especially if there were no light on the other side. Unless the lighting on the other side was bright enough, the best she could get was a vague shape of an object.
Pushing away from the sink, Kara stripped out of the clothes borrowed from Rick and stepped into the shower, turned the faucet to its hottest setting, and then leaned against the wall, allowing the water from the overhead rain showerhead to cascade over her. She stood there for several moments before soaping down and rinsing off and then washing her hair.
Stepping out, she toweled off and, after hanging the towel on the towel rack, pad into the bedroom. With a sigh, she sat on the foot of her bed, staring at the floor. Finally, she squared her shoulders.
"Kelex!" She called out. As if merely waiting for her command, a section of the bedroom wall slid open to allow the entrance of the elongated, tear dropped shaped remote that served as the 'visual' representation of the Kryptonian super-computer to enter.
"Welcome home, Mistress Kara." The tone was high pitched yet decidedly male.
"Kelex, run diagnostics on my wrist com." She ordered.
"Diagnostics complete. Nothing is wrong with the unit." Was the almost immediate response.
"Incorrect, Kelex." Kara shook her head. "For several hours the wrist com was unable to establish communication with the main system. Search the logs to confirm."
"Confirmed." The response was slower this time, almost as if Kelex were surprised. "Contact with the wrist com was lost…" the voice cut off only to resume instantly. "Mistress Kara, after performing a trace, contact with the wrist com was cut off when you entered the grounds of Wayne Manor last night and was restored the instant you departed the grounds. Further analysis shows that this was not the first such incident. It appears that contact with the wrist com was also lost during your first trip to Wayne Manor the previous day.''
"Yet cell phone reception was not hindered." Kara mused.
"It appears that Wayne Manor resides in the center of a null zone that I cannot penetrate. I have also been able to locate another such null zone…this one located on the Peregrine Peninsula." Again a pause. "This was…unexpected." Had it been under other circumstances, Kara might have found it amusing that Kelex sounded almost indignant that any technology on Earth might thwart him.
"Get used to it, Kelex. Your programming has prejudiced you into believing that Kryptonian Technology is the end all. It isn't." Kara stood and moved to her chest of drawers to find panties and a sports bra. "Can you tell what is in the second null zone?"
"Portal Corps." Kelex answered instantly. "A subsidiary of the Tesla Corporation, Ma'am."
"Portal Corps. Huh." Kara stepped into a pair of faded jeans and pulled a t-shirt with a KISS logo over her head.
Portal Corps was the entity responsible for ending the debate about whether or not alternate universes existed…by confirming their existence! It was also one of several institutions currently at odds with the United States Government. Simply because it refused governmental oversight and employed an extremely well armed and well-trained security force one hundred percent loyal to the Tesla Corporation to back up its refusal.
"I would do a search for other similar sites," Kara told Kelex as she pulled on a pair of sneakers. "For now, passive scans and analysis only."
"Very well, Ma'am."
"That's all, Kelex." Kara waved the remote away and watched as it returned to its niche in the wall.
"What do we have here?" Tina McIntyre studied the data that was displayed on her computer screen. She started to type a new command and then stopped.
"Ma'am?" Adrienne Keller, Tina's executive assistant stepped up by her desk to glance at the screen.
"The security grid just reported a ping, Adri." Tina mused.
"The government again?" Adrienne frowned, shaking her head.
"I don't think so." Tina looked at the screen. "The system reports the ping as coming from an unknown source. If it had been a known government agency, it would have been recognized as such." She paused, glancing again as new data appeared. "There it is again. It isn't an intrusion. More like a passive scan." She flipped back to the previous page of data. "It is almost as if this first was an accidental ping." She sat back. "I think someone out there accidentally discovered our security field in passing and then came back for a closer look. They are not being aggressive. Merely checking us out."
"Forgive me for being alarmist, Ma'am, but isn't the fact that they can detect our system at all a bit…disconcerting?" Adrienne ventured.
"Possibly." Tina agreed. "But then, we never even considered the possibility that the system would remain undetected forever. The Government detected it years ago…so what's to stop anyone else?" She pushed back from her desk and stood. "We also know of two other groups that have detected the grid." This last was said through the tight lips of anger.
"So you don't believe this detection is from the Malta Group?" Adrienne asked, knowing full well which of the two groups Tina had mentioned was the cause of the anger. The other had not, as of yet, proved to be a threat.
"No." Tina shook her head. "This isn't Luthor's style." She took a breath. "We can't assume that no one else has detected the grid. It is always possible that we have been detected without our system being aware of it."
She took a moment and then stepped around her desk to look at the six large monitors that lined three of her office walls. There were two monitors on each wall, each labeled to indicate where the live feeds that fed into the monitors originated.
It was here that Tina kept in touch with her beginnings at Portal Corps. As the Senior Director, she spent way too much time playing politics and pushing paper rather than getting down and dirty in one of the six Portal Hangers housed within the three buildings that made up the Portal Corps Campus.
Though her daily routine allowed little time for her to delve into the mechanics of the giant portals depicted on the monitors, portals she herself had been instrumental in refining and developing, she always felt better when she took the time to check in on her 'babies'.
"Anything new?" She asked her aide.
"Nothing." Adrienne stepped up beside her. "According to the Lead Techs, all six of them are being recalibrated…again."
"Tell them to stop." Tina decided. "They've been trying to recalibrate for three months…and getting nowhere." She gazed at the monitors and sighed. "Something has happened. I don't know what, but it is obvious that the worlds those portals connected to are no longer there. Stop trying to recalibrate and tell them to start new scans." She considered for a moment and then returned to her desk.
"While we are doing that, let's also see if we can determine if someone has been able to circumvent our security and is actively blocking us."
"Yes, ma'am." Adrienne nodded and exited the office.
Once in the hallway, with the office door closed behind her, she closed her eyes and leaned up against the wall by the door.
Tina McIntyre was closer to the truth than she realized.
To be Continued…..