Hijack
Day 73, Thursday, 2:35PM (Mountain Time), Denver, Colorado
The sweat pouring off of Ricky Hernandez as he sat with Ian Gregory at the bar inside the AMF Broadway Lanes bowling alley had nothing to do with the warm day outside, and everything to do with the frightening situation that Superman's family would soon face. He continued to empathize with the Man of Steel as one father to another, and did not want Luthor to succeed in nabbing the boy. He hoped he'd come up with a solution over the weekend that could be explained to Lex without him becoming another one of the madman's late former associates. Unfortunately, he had run out of time before coming up with a solution.
In stark contrast to Ricky, Ian was practically giddy with the prospect of the easy money. All of the risk was with the first team. If they made it to the bowling alley, they were home free. Ian described a dozen ways in which the earnings could be squandered on various pleasures. He only quieted slightly when the two entered the lounge a moment earlier, wisely avoiding discussion of how he came into his windfall, but still describing all the pleasures that the money could buy. After ordering two beers, Ian looked over to him noticed the layer of sweat, and commented mockingly, "You'd think a Mexican could handle the heat better than you do!"
"I'm Puerto Rican, not Mexican," Ricky informed him irritably. "And you might want to try avoiding stereotypes next time."
Ian held up his hands in mock surrender, as he replied, "Take it easy, I'm just making conversation, you know. What's got your panties tied into a knot?"
"Lou's being too impatient," Ricky answered curtly, sticking to his complaint from Lou's apartment. Lowering his voice, he whispered, "If he screws this up, the boss will take it out of our hides in blood. People who disappoint him tend to have a short life expectancy."
"Are you always this paranoid?" Ian asked derisively. "Stop worrying! Think of all the women you can get with the money."
"I'll stick with the one I've got, thank you," Ricky replied firmly.
"Just one?" Ian inquired mirthfully. "Doesn't that get boring after a while?"
Ricky glared at him as he answered, "You obviously wouldn't understand. Rosa and I are very happy together." Or we would be if we could get Luthor out of our lives, he thought.
"Man, she's got you wrapped around her little finger, even programmed you what to say!" Ian chided him. The man then launched into a dissertation on the benefits of polygamous short term relationships. Ricky clenched his jaw but held his tongue as the revulsion at his associate grew. "And never, never let them know where you really live… unless you want to get hit up for child support or something like that," Ian continued, while Ricky silently lamented his involvement and prayed for a solution that would spare the boy without him or Rosa facing Lex's wrath.
--
Lou Mueller swore silently to himself as he observed the solid row of cars parked in front of Moody Elementary school. He stopped his Ford Focus near the south end of the school and looked over his shoulder as he spoke to Danny. "Change of plans: Danny, you'll get on the bus now… we know from surveillance that it's not locked. Hide where the driver won't see you. I'll be parked at the church around the corner. Have her pick up Sean and Tony there."
Danny protested, "I though I was supposed to jump on the bus after her, and that we weren't supposed to improvise." Danny had changed into a bus driver's uniform on the way, and was still tucking in his shirt.
"Too conspicuous, and there's nowhere to park here, now go!" Lou hollered. Lou pulled away as soon as Danny got out, in search of his elusive parking spot, while the other man meandered slowly toward the bus before darting around and sneaking in the open front door. He crouched down in the row behind the bus' stairwell, and readied his gun for the unwary driver.
--
Ian's lecture was finally interrupted by a beep from Ricky's PDA phone, the tone indicating an incoming Instant Message. Ricky's scowl turned into a small smile as he saw it was from Rosa. "What's that?" Ian questioned in confusion.
"A message from my fiancée," Ricky answered shortly, as he looked at his watch and noted the time of three o'clock. "She usually sends something before she leaves work for the day." He rotated the PDA ninety degrees to the side, slid out the mini keyboard from underneath, and started typing his response as he turned to conceal the message from Ian.
"Man, she has you trained good, doesn't she," Ian taunted.
"It just takes a minute or two to keep her happy on her ride home," Ricky attempted to explain and he typed in the short message. "She likes to know that she's loved."
"Nobody ever explained it to you, did they?" Ian mocked. "You treat them like that, and they start expecting it."
Ricky shook his head as he closed the IM application, put his PDA away and stood up. Where does Luthor find these scumbags? he thought to himself. Aloud, he curtly told the other man, "It's about to start. We should head out."
"It'll take them at least another fifteen minutes to get here," Ian countered. "Do you want to wait in air-conditioned comfort with a cold beer, and bake in the heat?"
"I thought it was comfortable outside," Ricky declared.
"Suit yourself," Ian replied. "You can wait out there if you want to, I'm staying here." Ricky reluctantly sat back down on the barstool and silently prayed for Jason's safety.
--
The children on the bus from Moody Elementary school began their after school journey in their typical manner with meaningless chatter on their favorite subjects. Some mocked the substitute teacher they had that day, others argued over their favorite television shows, and of course, the usual debate over which superhero was cooler: Superman or Spider-Man.
From their seats near the middle of the bus, Jason and Stevie were actively arguing that Superman was better. As the school's resident expert on the Man of Steel, it was only natural for Jason to be his advocate, and Stevie idolized him as well. Billy Meijer from the second grade class argued for Spider-Man. Jason pointed out that Spider-Man couldn't fly, while Billy argued that Spider-Man didn't have to worry about kryptonite. Tina Ferguson rolled her eyes from the back seat of the bus. "Boys are so stupid," she complained to her friend Cindy. "All they talk about is Superman."
None of the children questioned the excuse that a second bus driver was 'learning the route', nor did they notice when the bus turned east on West Caley Avenue instead of west. It wasn't until they approached the Littleton Baptist Church around the corner that Jason noticed anything unusual, and then only because his watch started vibrating against his wrist.
The watch had been styled after the popular Disney children's watches and was emblazoned with the familiar Mickey Mouse icon with his spread arms indicating the time. Though its special features were hidden under normal circumstances, they were now apparent as Jason looked at the watch. Mickey's eyes glowed green, and a green arrow projected against the glass face pointed to the source of the problem, moving from one to three o'clock as the bus drove past the church. A horizontal bar was also projected against the glass, with the left quarter now shaded green to reflect the strength of the kryptonite. As Jason looked at the gage, he recalled his mother's instructions.
"If Mickey's eyes turn green, that means there's kryptonite nearby," she had told him. "If that happens, you get away from there. Try to get away without revealing your powers, but if it comes down to it, go ahead and go super. Just get away from the kryptonite."
Jason looked up from his watch as he tried to figure out where he had to go to get away from the kryptonite as the bus stopped at the church, and two more men boarded. The other children finally noticed that something was different, though nobody guessed what the new passengers had in mind. Jason also thought it unusual, but was more concerned with the kryptonite. As the green arrow shifted around to six o'clock and the green bar shrank to a tenth of the gage, Jason relaxed, confident the nice lady driving the bus, Tanya Freedman, was taking him away from the kryptonite.
--
Day 73, Thursday, 5:05PM, Metropolis, Daily Planet Newsroom
Clark always suspected that Perry White was a softie behind the gruff exterior, though it had only been in the last week that his editor had willingly showed him the kind man behind that façade. Richard and Lois had seen that side of him in the context of family gatherings, but even for them was it surprising to see this side of him at the office. None of them were quite sure what to make of that. "Well, I never thought I'd say this, but maybe in this case, no news is good news," Perry suggested hopefully.
"I doubt that Lex Luthor has decided to take a vacation," Lois countered grimly. "Wherever he is, he's up to no good."
Perry pinched his lips together and nodded in agreement. "I wish I could do more to help you with this situation…" he started. "It's not right."
Before Perry could continue, Maggie Gonzales knocked on the office door before opening it and peeking in. "Sorry for the interruption, but there's a woman on the phone for Lois. She say's it's an emergency."
"Did you get her name?" Lois asked curiously.
"She said her name was Ixchel," Maggie answered. "I'm assuming that's an alias." Clark and Lois both looked at each other wide-eyed before turning back to Maggie.
"Does that mean something more than ancient Aztec gods?" Richard asked.
"It's the alias used by a very reliable anonymous source who's been posting tips on the hotline website that they set up on Luthor," Lois explained. "It's because of her that they've picked up about a third of the Luthor stakeout teams, but she never called the press directly before. It's always been sent to the hotline website… I'd better take this."
"Go. Do what you need to do," Perry told her, as his guests quickly exited his office.
"I'll transfer it to your desk," Maggie informed Lois cordially as she returned to her desk.
"Lois Lane, Daily Planet," Lois answered into the receiver.
"You got to get an urgent message to Superman!" the woman insisted.
Lois looked over at Clark as she replied, "Well, it's not like I have a phone number for him. He usually just shows up when you need—"Lois stopped short when she saw the sudden look of panic on Clark's face. His hearing had picked up the unique signal of his son's signal watch. He quickly made his way to the elevators, leaving Lois to wonder what emergency was calling him this time.
"Well, you better figure something out in a hurry, because Lex Luthor knows that his son is in Littleton, they're trying to grab him off his bus right now, and they have kryptonite!" the woman informed her.
The color drained from Lois face and she felt herself grow faint. She blinked back the unshed tears that suddenly formed in her eyes before she opened and closed her mouth several times as she tried to get a word out.
"Hello?" the woman inquired. "Are you still there?"
Finally breaking free of her paralysis, Lois responded weakly, "Um, yeah… Can you hold a minute?" Lois placed the woman on hold before she had a chance to respond, and pulled out her cell phone.
"What is it?" Richard asked, worried by his former lover's expression.
"Jason," Lois answered quickly as she selected the number for Kal-El. When the beep indicated that she was connected, she urgently said, "I really hope that you're heading to Littleton to get Jason, because according to Ixchel, Luthor knows he's there and is going after him right now! He's got kryptonite, too, so be careful." Lois remembered that when his voice mail beeped, Clark was still listening in real time but was unable to answer. She trusted that he would bring their son home, but still found the lack of immediate verbal feedback unsettling. After a moment of silence, she added, "Call me when he's safe."
Lois felt the wave of panic rush over her as she considered the situation. She looked up at Richard as she heard him mutter, "Oh, my God." After what seemed like an eternity, but was in reality less than a minute, Richard pointed to Lois' desk phone and meekly asked, "Is she still on the line?"
"Yes," Lois answered meekly, finally shaking her momentary paralysis and pushing the panic to the back of her mind. "Give me a second to pull myself together." After a moment, Lois picking up the phone and tried to calmly continue the call. However, the emotion remained readily apparent in her voice. "Ma'am?" she inquired. "We've sent someone for him. Why did you wait so long to call about this?"
"We didn't know that he'd be going after him today," she responded defensively. Before Lois had a chance to respond, the woman compassionately added, "I'll be praying for the little boy." Once the line went dead, Lois dropped her head in her hands for a moment and finally wiped away the tears that had escaped from her eyes.
"I'll call Tom," Richard offered, pulling his cell phone from his pocket as Lois raised her head. "If Superman gets tripped up by the kryptonite, maybe the local authorities can help."
Lois nodded weakly as she jiggled her mouse to wake up her computer and typed in her password. "I'll find the bus," she declared as she double-clicked the Reynolds Security icon on her desktop. Richard looked over her shoulder with curiosity as he placed the call to his friend.
--
Day 73, Thursday, 3:05PM (Mountain Time), Littleton, Colorado
Lou Mueller smirked as he followed the school bus as a slight distance, gloating to himself over how smoothly the abduction was going so far. No sign of Superman, not that he ever really thought that was a risk. Still, he liked the idea of having kryptonite to keep the Man of Steel at bay. He had even decided to keep that rare substance with him in the chase car instead of sending it on the bus with Danny, as Luthor had instructed. Lou enjoyed his reverie, oblivious to the Kryptonian as he suddenly appeared one thousand feet above him.
Superman scanned the bus below him, as the men inside drew their weapons and ordered the children to be silent. They were starting to tie them up with plastic tie-wraps as he slowly descended. He stopped abruptly at one hundred feet above the bus, as his vibrating belt buckle indicated the presence of kryptonite. He reached behind his buckle and pressed a switch, which immediately projected a holographic heads up display eighteen inches in front of his face. The text and graphics before him was a monochrome beyond purple, beyond the range of human vision. In the display, a small circle indicated Jason's position in the center of the bus, while a small inverted triangle revealed the location of the kryptonite in the blue Ford Focus that trailed several car lengths behind it. Text at each target confirmed relative distance and the effective exposure from the kryptonite. He determined that the driver of the focus was part of the plot, and quickly set upon a course of action to eliminate the treat to the children.
Superman zoomed up and the sky in an imperceptible blur of motion, and circled back to the bus from the east, immediately pulling himself tight to the side of vehicle, as he forced open the doors. A heartbeat later, the three hijackers were tied up and deposited in one of the seats, and the plastic tie-wraps were broken free from the limbs of the few children that they'd managed to tie up. Superman calmly asked the driver, "Did they say where they were taking you?"
Tanya had lost her ability to speak as she recognized the man crouching down beside her, and her eyes shot wide like saucers. Her arms went numb, and Superman had to reach over and grab the steering wheel to keep her on course. Behind him, the children's voices erupted in chaos as they recognized the superhero on the bus. It wasn't an uncommon reaction, but he didn't have time for it now, and spoke firmly to try to shake Tanya out of it. "This is important. I need to know where they were taking you so that I can draw their friends into a trap. Did they tell you?"
Tayna nodded, and forcibly blinked before she found her voice. "They said to go to the Bethany Church parking lot at Caley and Broadway."
Superman nodded. "Do that then, but keep the speed slow and the front door open so that I can get the kids off the bus before you get there. Just try not to tip off the car following behind you by going too slow." Turning to the back of the bus, he told the kids, "There are more bad men following us. Before I can take care of that, I need to get all of you off the bus. I want everyone to get your things together, and be ready when it's your turn." In a blur of motion, he was standing beside Jason and Stevie. "You two are first."
As the Man of Steel picked up the two boys and their backpacks, he saw the flash of recognition pass across the Stevie's face as he faintly whispered, "Mister Kent."
I probably should have expected that, given their reaction this morning, Superman thought to himself. That probably means that Tina will recognize me, too. Aloud, he whispered to Stevie, "Keep that to yourself." A moment later, the three were gone in a blur of motion. Superman accelerated to blinding speed in front of the bus before circling around the neighborhood, and setting gently down on the deck behind the Ferguson house, as Lily looked up from the book she had been reading.
"Wh—What's going on?" she asked in surprise. She knew that Superman was bringing Jason to and from their house every day, but she rarely saw him, and certainly never with Stevie in his arms.
"There's no time to explain," he told her apologetically as he scanned the house. Spotting what he was looking for, he added, "I'll need paper and pen to write it down." Superman sped into the house, reappearing in a blink of an eye as he handed Lily one of the two folded pieces of paper he held before he again disappeared into the sky.
--
Officer Paul Davies had just finished wrapping up an accident report on Littleton Boulevard, and was resuming his patrol through the neighborhoods as he headed south on Windemere Street. The day had been uneventful, with only a few traffic citations and a fender bender, which he was grateful for. That calm came to an abrupt stop as he saw Superman land directly in front on him and motion for him to stop. As the Man of Steel sped around the car to the driver's door, he told him insistently, "I need you to get some unmarked units to the parking lot behind the Bethany Evangelical Church at Caley and Broadway. I don't have time to explain it, but I wrote it all down. I'll be counting on you." Paul's eyes opened even wider in shock as he read Superman's note and the Man of Steel flew off in a blur.
--
Day 73, Thursday, 5:10PM, Metropolis, Daily Planet Newsroom
"What do you think he's up to?" Richard asked Lois in a whisper as he looked over her shoulder. Lois had pulled up a security application which tied into Clark's Kryptonian satellites and locked on to the GPS in Jason's watch. That had originally given them a bird's eye view of the bus, but now the scene before them was Jason, Stevie and Tina drinking juice on the Ferguson's back deck.
"Now that he's got those three out of harm's way, he's probably trying to figure out how to rescue the rest of the children from the bus, and stop the men who tried to take him," Lois suggested. "That's what he does." Richard stepped back as a chirp alerted him to an incoming call.
"Hello?" Richard inquired into his phone. "Really…. Well, that explains a few things… I understand. We won't reveal anything until you give us the all clear… Thanks, again. Bye." As he put away his phone, he stepped back up behind Lois. "That was Tom," he revealed. "Apparently the Denver area police bands are buzzing with activity. The big story there, off the record, is that Superman has recruited assistance from the Littleton PD, and they've set up a trap for the bus hijackers. Superman's been sneaking the kids off the bus right under the nose of one of the thugs who is following the bus."
"Did he say anything about kryptonite?" Lois asked apprehensively.
Richard shook his head, "If they know about it, they're not saying anything."
--
Day 73, Thursday, 3:20PM (Mountain Time), Littleton, Colorado
Lou Mueller sang along to Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll blaring from his radio as he followed the school bus across Broadway, and pulled into the Bethany Evangelical Free Church parking lot behind it. He sneered arrogantly as he considered how flawlessly their plan had worked. The bus turned around and stopped, and Lou pulled his car up along the right side of the vehicle, expecting his crew to jump out with the boy. It was only then that Lou noticed that the bus appeared almost empty. He could only see Danny, Tony and Sean seated behind the driver's seat, but nobody else. What the—? he thought. Something's not adding up here. Against his better judgment, he got out of his car and ran up the stairs into the bus. "What the hell happened?" he demanded.
"Superman happened," Danny explained simply.
Lou charged back down the stairs only to be challenged by a dozen policemen and women standing behind unmarked vehicles with their weapons drawn. "Police! Get down on the ground and spread your arms and legs!"
--
Ricky was sure that his head would explode if he had to listen to the more of 'The World According to Ian.' The man's presence was almost enough to make him physically ill, due mostly to the knowledge to how twisted and unrepentant the man was. He didn't take the hint when Ricky tried to steer the conversation to the game on the television, and continued to drone on. Ricky's latest tactic was to try to tune him out, and focus on the game between the Meteors and Rockies. He normally stuck with his Mets, but he could root for the Meteors if he had to, especially if it helped him to forget about the company. It was the bottom of the fourth, two men on base, two outs and a full count. Just as the pitch came, the broadcast was interrupted by breaking news, to a chorus of jeers from the men in the bar.
"An attempted school bus hijacking in Littleton has been thwarted with help from Superman…" the newswoman reported. The scene on television was a helicopter shot over the church parking lot that showed the school bus, along with a rather familiar blue Ford Focus and a plethora of unmarked cars and police cruisers. Ricky recognized Lou Mueller in the shot, as he was led away.
Finally, something got him to shut up, Ricky thought as Ian fell mute watching the news flash. He was relieved that the news probably meant that Superman's son was safe, but worried over Lex's likely reaction. Given that the man was a news junkie, he probably wouldn't have long to consider that before facing the Lex's tirade. "Would you look at the time?" he said casually as he looked at his watch. "We really must be going." Ricky gave Ian a small nudge to move the very distressed man out of the bar.
Once they got outside, Ricky explained in a very insistent tone, "I wasn't joking when I said that those who fail the boss have a very short life expectancy. Lucky for us, Lou got impatient and left us out of the loop. It's his fault. We were just watching the game, weren't we?"
"Um, yeah," a suddenly nervous Ian agreed. "Just watching the game."
Author's Notes:
We tie up the loose ends from this chapter next time.
Thanks again to htbthomas for the beta, and for the record: I like Spider-Man, too.