Chapter 7
November 18, 1947
Metro-Star Express
About 60 miles west of Keystone City
Sleep was proving to be a most elusive subject for Tess Mercier a little after two o'clock in the morning. The cause of her restlessness was Clark Kent. For the better part of two hours she had tried to get to sleep but her heart and her head refused to listen. Her heart was scolding her for not following through on what it had been trying to tell her all day; she was in love with Clark Kent. Yet, her head was reminding her to be the calm, logical scientist that she was. It knew that there was no such thing as "love at first sight". That was simple non-sense from fairy tales and other fiction that she had put behind herself a long time ago. Or, at least it had seemed so until today.
On an instinctive level, Tess accepted and acknowledged that she was undeniably and very strongly attracted to Clark. There was something about him that made her trust him, as well as making her feel safe whenever she was with him. But, that was part of the problem. Tess had tried so hard to maintain herself as an independent woman who needed no one to be able to stand on her own two feet. Now, in less than day, in fact in a single moment, she had met someone who was ruining all her plans and preconceptions about her life. She might not even conceive of the notion of giving up her career to settle down with someone and start a family. She realized that some of things would eventually come her way, but she refused to think that she would ever be willing to walk away from everything she had achieved simply for one man.
The galling thing was the fact that she knew next to nothing about Clark Kent other than what she had known as a child to go along with what she had learned earlier the day before. That was when the thought occurred to her that if she knew more about who he really was and what made him that way, then perhaps she could begin to figure out exactly why she was reacting the way she was when it came to the matter of Clark Kent, and hopefully come up with some idea of how to deal with it.
With that decided, Tess decided she would try a nightcap in hopes that would help her sleep. After pulling on the black silk and lace dressing gown over the matching nightgown that she had worn to bed, Tess opened the door of her cabin and stepped out into the hall. As she closed her door she could hear the distinct sound of a typewriter coming from the lounge. For a moment Tess hesitated from going down to the lounge worried that she might find Clark there and that was a situation she wasn't quite ready to deal with. Then gathering her resolve not to let fear of anything dictate her life, Tess proceeded down the hall and stepped into the lounge only to find, much to her relief, that it was Chloe banging away on her portable typewriter that she took with her whenever she traveled anywhere. Obviously, Clark had turned in as well, but that didn't explain why Chloe wasn't in bed getting some much needed rest.
Somehow sensing the presence of the other woman, Chloe briefly looked up and greeted her, "Good morning, Tess. Obviously you're having problems sleeping. Can I get you something?" she asked as she looked in the direction of the lounge's bar.
Looking in the same direction that Chloe had glanced at, Tess saw two of the stainless steel serving pots sitting on the warmer located on the bar; both of them had steam rising from them.
"I can offer you your choice of coffee or hot cocoa," Chloe continued. "Or do you want something stronger?"
At the mention of the hot cocoa, Tess immediately changed her mind about what it was she wanted to drink. "I think I'll try some of the cocoa," Tess replied as she moved to the bar and poured herself a cup. When she put the cup to her lips and took a tentative sip she was surprised that it wasn't as scalding hot as she expected it to be. In fact it was the perfect temperature for drinking, as well as the best cup of cocoa she had drunk in more years than she cared to think about.
"Mmmm," Tess sighed as she instantly felt a little better and somewhat more relaxed. "That is one of the best cups of cocoa I've ever had. I'll have to be sure to ask the train staff how they did it."
"They would be a little hard pressed to come up with that," Chloe said as she reviewed whatever it was she had been typing. "I made that from my mom's own recipe, which took her some time to get just right."
"Well, her efforts have been rewarded," Tess with a smile as she thought about cups of hot cocoa and her own mother. Those thoughts led her to utter her next words. "This is the first cup of cocoa I've had since my mother was killed during the war."
"I'm sorry," Chloe said as she looked at the younger woman with sympathy in her eyes as well as her words. "I remember the letter that Lex wrote to me telling me about his aunt being killed by a bomb dropped by an off course British bomber in 1942. I was saddened by her death. Even as a child I remember how kind and gentle your mother was. She was one of the best women it was my pleasure to know."
"Thank you, Chloe," Tess simply said in acknowledgment of her sentiments for her mother.
"But that isn't what has you up at this ridiculous hour, now is it?" Chloe asked as she set aside the pages she was reviewing so she could concentrate on Tess and whatever it is that is bothering her, even though she already has a good idea what it is.
"No it isn't. But what is your excuse for being out here?" Tess said as she looked thoughtfully into her cup.
"I'm just getting a head start on my article covering my trip on the Express," Chloe answered. "My editor, Perry White, is going to want this as soon as possible after we arrive in Starling City. So, I'm getting as much of it written before we get there. But, you didn't answer my question. What is bothering you, Tess? Would it be a tall, dark, and handsome individual we both know, and who you happen to be in love with?"
"Yes," Tess responded without even thinking about her answer before she had said it. As what she had admitted to sank in, a slow flush of embarrassment began to spread to first Tess' cheeks and then the rest of her face. "How did you know?"
"I don't want to toot my own horn, but I am very good at my job, which means I can be very observant when called for," Chloe stated as she reached for her own cup of coffee and took a sip before she continued, "Also, I've been around the block more than a few times with Clark where his relationships are concerned. You had all the signs of being attracted to him, Tess, which is something that happens to him more times than I care to think about."
"From the sound of that, Clark must have a whole harem of girlfriends," Tess said a bit petulantly as she seemed ready to start pouting about man she barely knew anything about.
Chloe smiled at Tess' reaction to that as she told her, "On the surface of things you would think that. Yet the truth is that Clark has only had one really serious relationship his entire life."
"At least until now," Chloe thought to herself.
"Chloe," Tess began in a hesitant voice, "was that relationship you mentioned with you by any chance?"
"No," Chloe said with a smile and chuckle. "Thank God, it wasn't me. That is something me and Clark will never be to each other."
"You mean there was never a time when you had hoped that Clark and you might have gotten together," Tess asked Chloe.
"Yes, I'll admit there was a time when I had hoped that Clark would be able to love me as much as I thought I loved him," Chloe admitted as her voice took on a nostalgic tone to it. "But that was when we were both just kids and I simply had a crush on him. And like most crushes it came to an end when reality set in."
"So, you and Clark never tried to have any sort of relationship other than being friends?"
"We did briefly give it a try at the start of our freshman year of high school. We went out on a few dates before the whole thing came to a screeching halt at the Homecoming Dance a couple of months later," Chloe replied. "Like I said, that was when reality set in."
"What happened?" an intrigued Tess asked.
"Towards the end of the night, Clark finally worked up enough courage to kiss me while we were out on the dance floor," Chloe told her as she started to smile at the memory. "Well, when he did kiss me there was absolutely no reaction, no spark whatsoever, like there should have been. Like I told Clark at the time, it was like I was kissing my brother. That was when we decided to just remain the friends we had always been. And that is decision I have never regretted, Tess."
"And there was good reason for it, even though we didn't know it at time," Chloe mentally reminded herself.
Tess was smiling by the time Chloe had finished her story her cocoa seemed to working magic in helping her relax enough to start talking to Chloe about what had been bothering her.
"Well, if it wasn't you, who was it then?" Tess inquired; unable to help herself wanting to know just who it was that had been the only one Clark had ever been serious about.
"It was someone that Clark met during our senior year at Metropolis University," Chloe replied. "Her name was Lori Lemaris. She was a foreign student who left the day before we graduated even though Clark had proposed to her."
"Why didn't she want to marry Clark?" a confused Tess asked. There were two things that baffled her, why someone wouldn't want to marry Clark, and the fact that the young woman's name sounded familiar for some reason. "Didn't she love him?"
"Oh, there was no denying the love the two of them had for each other. But, she had family obligations back home that she wouldn't, or couldn't, give up; even for Clark. So, that was why she turned down his proposal," Chloe said trying very carefully to tell Tess the truth without trapping herself into revealing too much of the truth. In an effort to change the subject, she asked, "You've really got it bad for him, don't you?"
"That's the part I'm having trouble understanding and accepting, Chloe," Tess confessed. "There is just no such thing as love at first sight!"
Chloe's chuckle at her statement caught Tess by surprise.
"What is so humorous about that?" Tess asked a little put out that someone she considered to be a friend was laughing at her.
"Tess," Chloe began to explain. "Something I learned from my mother, and have seen for myself, is the fact that the lucky few that it does happen to always seem to have the hardest time accepting they have found that one person meant for them. I'll admit that it doesn't happen to everyone. For the majority of the people in the world they have to be content to find someone that they feel a bond or connection to and settle only for that. And, most of them have a perfectly happy life with each other. And if had not been for one thing that might have been true for Clark and Lori if she had accepted his proposal, but in the end I know that it wouldn't have lasted."
"What makes you so convinced that would have happened," Tess asked.
"Tess, like I said before, I've seen Clark through every relationship that he has been involved in. Being able to look back on everything he went through, I now know that there was always that one little thing missing that would have made things perfect for him; that thing was you. Tess, you and Clark are a perfect fit for each other, and always have been since the first moment the two of you saw each other."
Seeing the disbelief in Tess' eyes, Chloe continued with her explanation.
"In high school, when Clark was the quarterback for our football team, he dated the head cheerleader, Catherine Grant. They dated each other for two years and everyone, including myself at the time, figured that they were going to get married sometime after graduation. But Clark never felt strongly enough about "Cat" to take the next step in their relationship. After Clark left for Met U, Cat and her family moved to Portland where her dad went into business with his brother.
"And with Lori, I knew that Clark was in love with her, but I always kept getting this feeling that there was something not right about the whole relationship. I tried talking to Clark about it and that caused one of the biggest arguments we ever had with each other. I realized that Clark was convinced that he was in love with her and I only wanted him to be happy. So, I made peace with the situation and we got past it, thankfully."
"Chloe, are you trying to tell me that Clark was never going to have a successful relationship simply because we met as children, and somehow formed a bond that links us together for the rest of our lives?" Tess said.
"I'm not trying, Tess, that is exactly what I am telling you," Chloe stated indefatigably before launching onto another line of thought. "Answer me this Tess, like any woman your age who is as attractive as you are, I'm sure that you have been involved in at least one relationship?"
"Yes."
"More than one?"
"Yes," Tess admitted.
"At anytime during those relationships, did you ever once truly feel like you had found the love of your life, that one person who seemed to fulfill you and make you feel whole?" Chloe asked.
Seeing that her cup of cocoa was empty, Tess stood up and went to refill her cup while pondering what Chloe had asked her. As she took a sip, thought very carefully about Chloe's question and reflected back on all the men she had ever been involved with, Tess couldn't help but come to the inescapable conclusion of, "No."
"In the few hours that you have been with Clark have you felt safer and more at peace with the world?" Chloe inquired as she attempted to drive home her point.
Tess' memory couldn't help but flash back to moment when she had looked into Clark's eyes earlier that morning and not recall the warm and secure feeling it gave her.
"Yes, I have. That is something I haven't felt since before my mother died," Tess realized; finally admitting the truth to herself.
"I think that you have given yourself the answer that you were looking for," Chloe told Tess.
"Did the same thing happen to you when you met Hank?" Tess asked wanting something else that she might cling to that would bolster her confidence in what Chloe had made her realize.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, it did," Chloe assured her. "It was our freshman year at Metropolis University. Clark had gotten an athletic scholarship to the school to play football, and on the first day of practice I stopped by to watch Clark work out. Hank, who came from the part of Metropolis known as Suicide Slums, had also won an athletic scholarship to play football and was on the team with Clark. I saw him and Clark talking together on the sidelines and when he introduced us to each other after practice was over I fell instantly love with him. It took Hank a little while to admit it to himself, but it all worked out in the end."
Tess sat there quietly for a moment taking in what Chloe had just told her. As she contemplated her words, Chloe was watching her carefully. Feeling that it could do nothing but help, Chloe decided to tell Tess something else that might help her where Clark was concerned.
"Tess, I am going to tell you something else that I think I will help you. Clark's parents were the same way as well when they met in college. According to what Martha has told me that with just one look she knew that Jonathan Kent was the man that she wanted to share her life with. Just like Hank, it took a while for Martha to get Jonathan to realize it. For two weeks she kept asking to borrow his notes from the economics class they had together before he finally worked enough courage to ask her out. After that nature just took its course. So, just to you give fair warning, you might have to be the one that pushes Clark into seeing what is right in front of him."
"Not if that kiss was any indication," Tess mumbled out loud.
"What kiss?" Chloe quickly asked when heard what Tess had said.
The suddenness of Chloe's question put Tess off balance for a moment, but she soon recovered enough to tell her what had happened after the two of them had been left alone after the others had gone off to bed.
After hearing what Tess had to tell her, Chloe knew exactly what it was that she needed to say to her newest friend.
"Tess, if there is one thing I have learned about Clark and every male member of the Kent Clan, it is the fact that they are hard-headed and stubborn in equal proportions," Chloe began knowing just how true that was since her father no different than any other male member of his family. "Clark may realize that he has some very strong feelings for you, but knowing him the way I do he is going to do everything he can to keep from doing something rash that both of you might 'regret' later."
"Those were just about the same words that he used," Tess said confirming what Chloe suspected.
"Figures," Chloe mumbled, knowing her cousin just a little too well, before continuing. "Listen Tess, whatever happens, when you feel the time is right do not, I repeat, do not let Clark's fears stop the two of you experiencing something miraculous. You're just going to have to trust me on this; I know that the two of you were meant for each other."
Chloe's words rang with a truth that touched Tess' heart, but her head still would not let go of everything that was causing the dilemma she had regarding Clark. Until she was able to reconcile her heart and her head she knew she would never be able to believe deep within her soul.
"Chloe, what you have told me has me starting to believe that it just might be possible, but why did it happen today instead of earlier? Shouldn't I have realized that Clark was the one meant for me?"
"Tess, in the last 19 years, how often have you thought about Clark?"
"From time to time, I guess."
"The answer is really very simple, both of you had to grow up and experience what life had to offer before either one of you were ready to know the truth of what it is that is happening to you," Chloe pointed out.
"Okay, I'll give that I maybe in love with Clark, and I know from everything I've seen him do today that he is basically a good man; one worthy of my admiration," Tess told Chloe. "But, I still really don't know all that much about him. I feel that if you were able to tell me about him and what he has been up to since we were children, then I might be able to understand him a little better. And…"
"And, if you know something about a problem confronting you, then you feel you might be able to find a way to deal with it," Chloe finished for Tess after picking up on her line of logic.
"Yes," Tess agreed, "that was what I had been thinking. Chloe, will you tell what you know about Clark?"
"Oh this is going to take some real fancy footwork," Chloe thought herself since she was the only one outside certain Kent family members knew who as much as there was to know about Clark Kent. After thinking about it for a moment, Chloe thought that it might be possible that she knew more about Clark than even his immediate family.
After taking another moment to think about it, Chloe told Tess, "I'll tell you what you might call the semi-official story of Clark Kent and his family."
"Why only 'semi-official'," Tess asked.
"Tess, wouldn't you say that everyone, and I mean everyone, has parts of their lives that they don't share easily with anyone," Chloe responded with her on question to make her friend understand where she was coming from.
"Yes," Tess replied acknowledging the truth of Chloe's statement; everyone had secrets that they kept, and that included herself.
"Okay, so you will understand when I say that I know a lot of things about Clark, and it's not my place to tell them to you. It would only be appropriate for him to be the one to tell you himself when he is ready," Chloe told her. "As long as you understand that, then I'll try to do my best to tell you what I can."
"I understand, Chloe," Tess said.
"Okay, I'll start by asking you what you remember about Clark and his family," Chloe asked.
"Well, let me think," Tess replied as quickly dredged up her memories from her days in Smallville. "The Kent family was one of the largest families in Smallville. Clark's father, Jonathan, was the mayor when we left Smallville. He was also supposed to have been some kind of hero during the First World War. His mother, Martha, was a local artist and he had one younger sister whose name was Linda; and I only recently learned that she went on to become Lady Blackhawk. I am still hoping to get some sort of explanation about that and the fact that she is married to Oliver Queen."
"Don't worry, I'll get to Linda Evelyn Kent Queen in a moment," Chloe promised. "You are correct in saying that the Kent family is one of the largest in Smallville. It just might be possible that they are one of the most extensive families in the whole state of Kansas. I was at the Kent's Thanksgiving reunion last year and there were more than two hundred uncles, aunts and cousins that showed up, and that wasn't everyone that could have been there.
"Starting with Clark's father, Jonathan Kent was a highly decorated pilot that served first with the French in the Lafayette Escadrille, and later with the American Army Air Corps once they got in the war. After the war, he started one of the first crop dusting services in the country, as well as seeing to running his own farm trying new crop-raising and irrigation techniques. It was in the mid-20s that he was talked into running for mayor, and since then his political career hasn't faltered. He is now serving his second term as a U.S. Senator in Washington.
"Tess, do you remember drought that hit the mid-West during the Depression that resulted in what was called the "Dust Bowl"?"
"I do remember reading about it," Tess admitted.
"Well, those new crop-raising and irrigation techniques I mentioned were used by all of the Kent and the Ross families and allowed them to weather that whole disaster with only minimal losses. When things finally began to improve, the Kent and Ross families were in a position to buy up a lot of the abandoned and bankrupt farms around Smallville. By that time Jonathan was serving as a state senator, so when our local congressman died suddenly our governor at the time selected Jonathan to serve out the rest of his term. It had been Jonathan's foresight about farming and legislation that he had fought for in the state senate that made him best person for the job. That was how Clark's father stepped onto the national political stage. Jonathan finished out his appointed term and then was elected to another. In 1938 he ran for the open Senate seat and won; he was re-elected in 1944 to his second and current term as the junior Senator from Kansas.
"Now, Martha comes from the Clarks of Metropolis; one of the oldest and most prestigious families of the city. She was an art student at Metropolis University and that was where she met Jonathan and fell in love with him. Like Clark, Jonathan had received a scholarship to play for the school's football team, the Bulldogs. Her decision to marry Jonathan really upset her parents, at least at the time it did. That breach began to heal itself when Jonathan's accomplishments during the war and in business after that proved to Martha's parents that their son-in-law was not just a simple farmer's son who had stolen their daughter from them. After Linda was born, Martha began slowly get back into doing her art. In the last fifteen years she has become one the most celebrated artists in the country."
"That's why a couple of those paintings in Clark's office looked familiar," Tess said. "Now that I know that, I remember my parents had some of her paintings in their collection."
"Martha has also provided all of the artwork whenever it was used in any of Clark's stories or for the covers of his books," Chloe added. "Now, we come to Linda. Linda was something of a miracle. You see Tess, at one time Martha was told that she would never be able to bear children. That was why that when they found Clark abandoned in one of their fields in 1915 they adopted him."
Seeing the look of surprise on Tess' face, Chloe concluded, "I take it that you didn't know that Clark was adopted, did you?"
"No, I never heard anything about Clark being adopted," Tess confessed.
"Not too surprising, members of the Kent clan can be very protective of its members," Chloe explained. "They never made a secret about it, but they also never really talk about it, either. As far as anyone in the family is concerned, Clark is just as much a member of the family as any of them that were born into it. Tess, just so you know, Clark is not the first person to be adopted into the family. There have been quite a few relatives that have been made part of the Kent family down through the years."
"Does Clark know who his real parents are and what happened to them," Tess asked.
"Okay, this is definitely one of those areas I have got to be careful about," Chloe thought to herself.
"Yes," Chloe began as she chose her words carefully, "he does. He learned everything about them only a few months ago. But you are going to have to wait until Clark tells you about them himself."
"I take it that this is one of those areas that you can't tell me about," Tess concluded.
"I'm afraid so, Tess," Chloe replied. "This is unquestionably one of those things that Clark has to tell you about, not me. And Tess, you needn't worry about it. I'm sure that is something that he will do sometime in the very near future."
"Alright," Tess agreed. "You were telling me about his sister."
"Yeah," Chloe said as she started back in with her story. "Like I said, because of Martha's condition the news of her becoming pregnant was seen as something of a miracle. The doctors still to this day don't know how it happened."
"Even though she has never admitted it to me, I still suspect that my mother had something to with that 'miracle'," Chloe mentally reminded herself. "That wouldn't be that surprising since Martha became pregnant with Linda less than three months after we arrived in Smallville. Anything for family, right?"
"When Linda was growing up she was the personification of the word 'tomboy'. She went nearly everywhere with me, Clark, and Pete, and would've gotten into far more trouble if her brother had not been there to bail her out of it. Sometimes I think she did it just to see what Clark would do.
"Like her father, Linda was drawn to flying. She learned to fly when she was only ten, which was even earlier than Clark did it. Like both her parents she was very smart; in some ways even smarter. She graduated from high school at the age of sixteen and earned a doctorate from the Metropolis Institute of Technology in aeronautical engineering by the time she was twenty. She had barely started working for an aircraft company owned by Luthor Enterprises when the war started. Eager to do her part during the war like father had done before and her brother was doing at the time in China, Linda decided she would become the first female member of the famed Blackhawk Squadron. Linda sharpened her piloting and combat skills before joining the Blackhawks under the name of Linda Blake; Blake was her maternal grandmother's maiden name. Despite their rules forbidding female members, after Linda had saved them a number of times, from threats like the Scavenger, they made her an honorary member, and she adopted the name Lady Blackhawk.
"In late 1942, while working with the Blackhawks to develop their next generation of aircraft, she met an old friend of her brother, Oliver Queen. Once they met and began working on what they called "The Flying Flapjack" it wasn't long before they discovered that they were in love with each other. They were married three months later in early 1943. It was shortly after that when the Nazis finally discovered the location of Blackhawk Island and attacked it with a chemical weapon launched from a U-boat killing nearly everyone on the island. Of the original Blackhawk members the only one to survive the attack was Weng Chan.
"It was after that the Seven Soldiers of Victory were formed specifically to keep such an occurrence from happening on American or British soil. Of course, there was no way that Linda and Weng Chan were going to be left out of that. If there was one thing they wanted it was to get some payback on those responsible for killing their friends. Linda was part of the Seven Soldiers until late 1944, which was when she discovered that she was pregnant. Linda spent the last part of the war working for at Queen Industries aircraft division as a designer and project manager. Nine months later Linda gave birth to her and Oliver's son Conner Roy Queen, on August 10, 1945.
"Now, getting back to Clark," Chloe stated. "In school, he was always one of the top students. He worked with me on our school newspaper, the Torch. He was also one the school's top athletes. He, Pete Ross and his cousin, Whitney Fordman, led our baseball and football teams to the state championships every year; winning two championships in football and one in baseball.
"Because of what he had done on the football and baseball teams, Clark received a full athletic scholarship to Metropolis University where he was a member of the school's football and baseball teams while he majored in journalism and physics. Clark also participated in the university's ROTC program and obtained a reserve commission in the Navy. And, it was at Met U that Clark met and became friends with Lex, Oliver, and Hank. All them played on the same teams and became friends.
"Upon graduating, Clark applied for active duty within the Navy and was accepted due to his grades, but also due to the fact that by now Jonathan Kent was a U.S. congressman representing the state of Kansas. Because of his father's position within the government, Clark was assigned to be a naval aviator with the Marine Corps and was trained at Pensacola, FL in 1938-39. After serving aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise for more than a year, Clark was assigned to flight instructor duty at Pensacola in early 1941.
"Six months later, Clark was recruited by a representative of the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO) which was later called the American Volunteer Group (AVG), or even better known as the Flying Tigers. That representative had been Oliver Queen who was looking for pilots to man the squadron that Claire Chennault himself had promised him he could have if he could find enough men for it.
"Oliver's sales pitch was so good that Clark resigned his commission as a 1st Lieutenant in the Marine Corps in August 1941, and by the time they celebrated Clark's twenty-sixth birthday the two them were doing it Rangoon, Burma. It was during his birthday party that Major Oliver Queen, who was now Clark's commanding officer, announced to all of their squadron mates Clark's promotion to captain. For the next eight months Clark served as Oliver Queen's executive officer of the AVG's 4th Pursuit Squadron that was known to its members as "The Royal Order of the Queen's Knights"; or more simply to everyone else as "Queen's Knights". During his time with the Flying Tigers Clark was credited with 11 confirmed aerial victories and even made the cover of Life magazine.
"When the AVG was disbanded in July of 1942, Clark opted to return to the states and seek reassignment with the Navy. When Clark reported in to the Navy Department was given the chance to volunteer for special duty with the Office of Strategic Services, and spend the rest of the war doing things that he hasn't spoken much of even with the war being over for two years now.
"But he did tell me about one them," Chloe told Tess suddenly remembering it. "It was his first mission for the OSS and it actually involved someone in your family, Tess."
That bit of news surprised and confused Tess, as she asked, "What do you mean?"
"You do know that Lex was one of the pilots that were part of Doolittle's Raid on Tokyo," Chloe asked.
"Yes, I remember the letter Uncle Lionel sent to us telling us about that. He was exceptionally proud of what Lex had done," Tess said recalling how animated her uncle's letter had been when he told her and her father about it. "Lex was the only pilot who didn't lose his plane because he landed it in Vladivostok."
"Which he did in violation of his orders not to land in the Soviet Union," Chloe informed her. "I got that bit of the story from Clark who got it from Lex himself. Truth of the matter was that Lex started having minor mechanical problems shortly after his plane had left the Hornet that caused him to use up his fuel at a faster rate and cut down on his range. By the time they dropped their bombs, Lex's navigator had calculated that they were not going to have enough fuel to make it to China. So, not wanting to land somewhere that would put his crew at risk, Lex opted to head for the only safe place he knew they could reach, which was Vladivostok. When he arrived he and his crew were interned by the Russians since they were not at war with Japan at that time."
"Uncle Lionel's letter mentioned that and that he had tried nearly everyone he knew in Washington to put pressure on Russians to let his son and his crew go. He said that there was one last person he thought he could turn to for help," Tess told Chloe. "He never said who that person was, but whoever it was it worked because less than two months later Lex and his crew walked into the Chiang Kai-shek's headquarters in Chungking."
"That person was the junior Senator from Kansas, who past the request along to his son."
"So, it was Clark that got Lex and his crew out," a dumbfounded Tess surmised.
"Like I said, it was Clark's first mission for the OSS. All he was supposed to do was go in and ascertain exactly where Lex and his crew were, and what sort of condition they were in. He had accomplished that when he got word that they were going to be moving Lex and his men to another location deeper inside the Soviet Union, which meant they were not intending on letting them go anytime soon. Well, Clark being Clark, he wasn't going to let that happen to his friend. So, Clark decided to take action, which meant that he disguised himself as the NKVD colonel sent by Moscow to take charge. Well that started a two month odyssey across the Soviet Union, Mongolia, and into northern China before ending, as you said, in Chungking."
"I never heard any of the details of what had happened. I was just glad that Lex was alive and well," Tess said.
"All of us were," Chloe added before remembering. "That was also how Lex found out the truth about Clark."
"But it did cause some feathers to be ruffled," Chloe commented. When one of Tess' eyebrows rose in curiosity, Chloe explained, "The Russian were not happy that the OSS had sent an agent into their country to retrieve Lex and his crew and started to file an official protest over the whole matter. At least they were until Clark brought to light certain information regarding Soviet agents that were working here in the United States. With pressure from Jonathan and some other lawmakers, Roosevelt smoothed things over and the whole matter was dropped."
"That is something else I never heard about," Tess told Chloe.
"Not too many people have," Chloe conceded. "Now getting back to Clark, like everyone who fought in it, the war left its mark on him. The brutality of the Japanese towards the Chinese, and what he saw later, disgusted Clark. While he would never intentionally seek the death of those causing the destruction and death, he was now far less concerned about the fate that befell them as a cause of his actions. As always, his main goal has been to protect the innocent.
"With the war over, Clark mustered out of the Navy and the OSS with the rank of major. After that he returned to Metropolis to continue with something he had been doing since his senior year in high school; writing fiction and selling the stories and books to various publishing houses across the country. Clark had kept up his writing all through the war, and by the time it was over, he written over two hundred short stories and articles for a wide variety of genres of fiction and non-fiction under a series of different pseudonyms.
"Several of his articles I was able to get published in the Daily Planet. It was because my Chief Editor liked them so much that I tried to convince Clark to come to work with me at the Daily Planet just like we had done on our high school newspaper, the Smallville Torch. But Clark politely turned me down. He had something else in mind.
"Clark has written more than a dozen novels, and while they will probably never be compared Tolstoy or Fitzgerald, they have been very popular. That fact is borne out since Hollywood has bought the movie rights to nearly every one of them so they can be turned into movies. It was this fact that many of his books and short stories were detective stories that made Clark decide to his private detective license and open his own detective agency. That would allow him the freedom to continue his writing and be able to help other people who couldn't help themselves. And in the last two years Clark has become known as the best private detective in Metropolis by solving cases and performing services that no one else could or would, so long as it was never illegal.
"And that is pretty much it in a nutshell as to what Clark has been up to since you last saw him, Tess," Chloe said before quickly adding, "At least what I can tell you. I hope that helped some."
"Yes, I believe it did," Tess said before she suddenly couldn't resist the urge to yawn.
"I would say that shows that you're ready to try again to get some sleep," Chloe stated with a smile knowing that her words and her mother's cocoa were going to help the young woman sort things out for herself once she got some sleep.
"I have to agree with you," Tess replied as she stood up and walked towards the bar to leave her empty cup there. "I think I'll be able to sleep now. Thank you, Chloe, good night"
"You're welcome, Tess, and good night," Chloe returned to her work and Tess headed back to her cabin.
Tess was still a little concerned about the contract that Vincent Edge had put on her. But there was nothing she could do about at the moment so she filed it away in the back of her mind to deal with it at another time.
She really didn't have to worry too much about it because Chloe had already called in a couple of experts who specialized in dealing with the sort of bums that made up Intergang.
Chicago, Illinois
Top floor of the Metropole Hotel
At a little past four o'clock in the morning it was not surprising that the two thugs of Hugo Mannheim were more than a bit drowsy as they stood guard outside the door of the suite of rooms where their boss always kept his latest mistress. The single, muted ding of the elevator bell was barely enough to snap them back to complete alertness as the elevator doors began to slide open, but no one step out. Instead, an eerie, smoke-like fog filled the elevator and began to quickly spread throughout the hallway.
Upon seeing what was pouring out through the elevator doors, the older of the two thugs began to breakout into a cold sweat even as Al Hogan murmured to himself, "No, it can't be him. He ain't been seen since the war started; not since he killed old "Boss" Mannheim."
"What the Hell you talkin' about, Al," Eddie Castellanos asked in a nervous, quavering voice as the fog quickly closed in around them cutting their visibility to only a few feet. Eddie's quickly mounting panic was caused by what was happening and the fact that it was making his older partner, who had never shown any hint of emotion – especially fear – in the three years that he had known him, react the way that he was.
Before Al has a chance to answer Eddie's question a grim, mirthless laughter began to reach their ears. Within the surrounding fog, it sounds as though it is coming from different places that are constantly shifting. After a few moments the laughter begins to change in pitch and tone as takes on a more maniacal, cackling quality that only furthers unnerve the two Intergang thugs.
As suddenly as it had started the haunting sound ceases, leaving the two men quivering so bad in fear that neither has thought to draw their weapons, and still don't move even as two figures begin to emerge from out the foggy smoke. The taller of the two was a man dressed in a black suit, a black floppy slouch hat, a long red scarf that covers the lower part of his face, and a black cloak that is lined in red that somehow is billowing out as if blown by a breeze that doesn't exist in the windless hallway. What little of his face that is exposed appears to be sinister and gaunt, with an aquiline nose sticking out above the red scarf and fierce, blazing eyes that bores into the souls of the men in front of him.
The other figure standing close to the first was a bit smaller and slighter in stature while the clothes it was wearing left no doubt that it was a female. The woman appeared to be in her mid-to-late twenties with wavy black hair that fell halfway down her back and looked out at the world through a pair penetrating jade green eyes. She was wearing a figure clinging, blood-red dress whose skirt hung down to just past knees and had a slit on each side that reached halfway up her legs allowing her a goodly amount of freedom for her legs. The pair of blood-red high heels on her feet added enough to her height to make her taller than the two trembling men standing in front of her, which only added to the feeling of intimidation that Al and Eddie were experiencing.
"Well, well, well," the man said in a haunting voice that seemed to call from beyond the grave, "Allen 'the Shive' Hogan and Eddie Castellanos. Fate has finally brought the two you to face the justice you both deserve. Between the two you, more than fifty people have died; many of whom were innocent victims of your crimes. For both of you time has run out," the man growls menacingly as the intensity of his glare at both of them increases for a moment.
At first nothing seems to happen, then both of them notice an odor as been added to surrounding smoke; a bitter, almond-like smell. Al is the first recognize it as he screamed out, "Cyanide!"
Both men began gasping for air and quickly went into convulsions. In a matter of moments the two men lay dead were they had both been sleeping in their chairs on either side of the doorway they had been guarding in a hallway that was perfectly clear of any kind of smoke or fog. Neither one of them had uttered a sound.
As the man and the woman stood over the two prostrate figures sitting, the woman turned to the man saying, "I really do wish I could learn that trick from you."
"Well darling, is not that I haven't tried to do that over the last forty years," the man replied. "This was a far more compassionate end than they ever gave their victims. Now, I think it is time that we pay that little visit to Lil' Hughie and convince him to cancel those contracts like Dr. Fate asked us to do. Are you ready, my dear?"
"When haven't I been ready for something like this, my love," Madame Xanadu said as she took her husband's hand and they began to walk towards the double doors that the recently deceased men had been guarding. As they approached the doors both of them took on an intangible quality before they began to phase through them.
Just before they passed into the other room, the man stated, "I wonder if Hughie is going to pee in his pants like he did the last time the Wraith paid him a visit?"
Not long after real screams of terror and cries for mercy were mingled with the grim, cackling laughter of the Wraith as they echoed down the hallways and into the rooms of the top floor of the Metropole Hotel.
