Day 73, Thursday, 3:25PM, Littleton, Colorado
Superman floated peacefully several miles directly above Littleton's Bethany Evangelical Free Church as he observed the police investigation in the church's parking lot. Lou Mueller, Tony Vitale, Sean Williams, and Danny Devroy now sat cuffed in back of police cruisers. Their weapons had been bagged and tagged along with all other possessions from their pockets, including the kryptonite. Tanya Freedman was describing the ordeal to the officers on the scene while a forensic team processed the bus. The forensic team would process Lou's car at the impound yard later, after getting a search warrant. We got lucky this time, Superman thought. If the kryptonite had been in the bus instead of the car, things could have been much dicier.
He shifted his focus to the Fergusons' back yard, where a very nervous Jason was attempting to fend off questions from Tina and Stevie about his super-dad. That's a problem I really didn't need right now, Superman thought as he listened in.
"See, I told you he really knew Superman," Stevie reminded his sister. "He's Jason's daddy."
"It's supposed to be a secret!" Jason protested. "We're not supposed to talk about it!"
"Why not?" Stevie asked. "It's so cool!"
"Because of the bad men," Jason told him sadly. "They can hurt him if they have kryptonite."
"So, do you any super powers… beside super-dorkiness?" Tina asked condescendingly.
"I'm not supposed to tell anyone!" Jason complained loudly.
Superman scanned the house and saw Lily listening in at the window and realized it would also be impossible to keep the truth from her. At least she was not openly hostile to Clark Kent like her husband was. He reached behind his belt buckle and pulled out the toothpick-sized wand that held the wireless mike for his Kryptonian enhanced cell phone. Pressing the bump on the end of the stick, he issued the command, "Call Lois."
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Day 73, Thursday, 5:25PM, Metropolis, Daily Planet Newsroom
A wave of relief passed through Lois, as she saw Clark's name displayed in the caller ID on her phone. She flipped it open, and requested hopefully, "Please tell me that it's over and everything's okay."
"There are a few loose ends to tie up," he told her grimly. "Where do you want me to start?"
"Start easy," Lois insisted. "The hard stuff had me on the verge of a stroke for the last half hour."
"Some of it's not easy to discuss over the phone," he warned her, giving her a moment for that to sink in before continued. "Problem number one is Tina and Stevie. Remember me telling you that they recognized Jason's daddy this morning? And guess who brought them home this afternoon?"
"Oh, crap," Lois muttered.
"Right now, Stevie and Tina are double-teaming Jason, asking what it's like to… have the daddy that he has," Superman told her. "We're going to have to do something about those little chatterboxes."
"Same thing that you did to me five years ago…" Lois muttered sarcastically.
"That was the original idea, but it's gotten more complicated," he reluctantly told her. "Lily's been listening in on the kids, and I think the light bulb's gone off over her head, too."
"This is the easy stuff?" Lois joked nervously. "I hate to ask what the hard stuff is…"
"Well, problem number two is the kryptonite," he revealed grimly. "The Littleton P.D. has collected it as evidence from the crime scene at the church."
"What church?" Lois asked curiously.
"The hijackers took the bus to a church parking lot, where they probably planned on switching vehicles," he explained to her seriously. "Everything that they were carrying has been bagged as evidence, including the kryptonite."
"Maybe Tom can help with that," Lois suggested.
"Assuming that Lily and the kids don't share their new knowledge with him," Clark joked mirthlessly.
"I guess he was a little hostile," Lois noted sadly.
"A little," Clark agreed. "Problem number three may be an opportunity. From the looks of it, these guys are all local, since I found their fingerprints in the apartments listed on the Colorado driver's licenses in their pockets. Odds are that there is an east coast operative around somewhere as a liaison if not outright calling the shots. If I can find him, it may give us another clue back to Luthor."
"How will you find him?"
"With help from Luthor's physiological profile: When he learns that this attempt went south, he's going to want to chew somebody out. If that somebody is here, I may be able to filter out Luthor's voice from the background noise."
"Can you do that at the same time as you're dealing with the Fergusons?" Lois asked. "We really need to nip that in the bud before that chatter spreads beyond their home."
"I think so," he assured her. "I just have to concentrate a little bit harder… I'll go talk to Lily and the kids now. Maybe Richard can talk to Tom about securing the kryptonite."
"I'll ask him," Lois promised him. "Good luck."
After they said their good-byes, Lois joined Richard in his office. He'd retreated there after it became obvious that Jason was out of danger. Knocking on the door, she informed him, "The worst is over but we'll need Tom's help tying up some loose ends."
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Day 73, Thursday, 3:30PM, Littleton, Colorado
Lily Ferguson felt a headache coming on as she grappled with the obvious facts revealed in the children's conversation: Jason's real father, the mild-mannered man who had spent the day with them at Tiny Town and shared dinner with them in their house… was Superman. She remembered the tabloid rumors romantically linking Lois with Superman years ago, and all the coverage of her when she and Jason visited the Man of Steel… no, visited Jason's father… in the hospital. The difficulty with that was that he had also replaced Richard both as Jason's daddy and as the man in Lois Lane's life. Though her heart ached for Richard, she had found Clark Kent to be a good man. Her husband hadn't seen that, however. He saw no further than the open would on his friend's heart. Lily continued to ponder this complication while her children continued to press Jason for details on life as Superman's son.
"So can you fly like your daddy does?" Stevie asked excitedly. "Can you move at super-speed?"
"Children," a deep voice from the yard interrupted. "Surely you can find more interesting things to talk about. I hear that Spider-Man is pretty cool."
The three children looked over in surprise to see Clark in the yard. He was dressed in his suit pants and white dress shirt, but this time missing the jacket, tie and glasses. As he walked up the stairs to the deck, he saw Lily looking at him through the window and motioned for her to join them outside. "It seems that we've all had an exciting afternoon, haven't we?" After hearing a chorus of uh-huh's from the children, Clark tried to explain, "It's very important that you understand why you need to keep what you've learned about me to yourselves. If the wrong people find out about it, it could become very dangerous for my family."
"But you're Superman!" Stevie declared. "Nothing can hurt you!"
Clark let out a deep sigh, "If only that were true. I have some very wicked enemies who know how to hurt me with kryptonite. A couple months ago, one of them nearly killed me and I spent a few days in the hospital. I think that same man may have been behind what happened on the bus today."
"We promise not to tell anyone, Mr. Kent," Tina assured him politely.
"I appreciate that, Tina," Clark told her. After a moment's pause, he continued, "You've also got to be careful where you talk about this. You never know when a bad man could be listening in. Will you promise me that you won't bother Jason with questions?" Both Ferguson children reluctantly agreed.
Turning to Lily, Clark told her, "It seems obvious that you figured some things out from what the kids were talking about." As Lily nodded her confirmation, Clark added, "I don't suppose I have to tell you how… uncomfortable things could get if Tom found out about that. He's not exactly a fan of my civilian identity."
"I won't tell him, then," Lily promised him. "I owe you that much after you rescued my children… Clark, I can see that you're a good man. I could see that last Saturday. But Tom can't see past Richard's pain, not yet. He can be a bit stubborn that way. I don't think he'd do anything vindictive if he knew, but…" Lily trailed off, not sure how to articulate that difficulty that she knew her husband would have with that revelation.
"Tom's a good man, too," Clark told her sincerely. "They both are." Lily nodded, and after a momentary pause, he added, "May I speak with you privately? I believe I may have a solution to this problem, but I'd rather have your consent before proceeding, especially after the way that you've taken Jason into your home and your hearts." Lily nodded, and motioned for him to follow her into the house.
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Day 73, Thursday, 5:55PM, Metropolis, Newton Steelworks, Suicide Slum
A tall solitary figure moved about inside the abandoned Newton Steelworks plant along the border of the Highville and Metrodale boroughs of Metropolis, along the edge of the area known as Suicide Slum. The plant had been abandoned for years, but had seen a lot of renovation work in the past few mouths, most of which was in the office space along the west side of the building. The new construction effectively isolated three thousand square feet in that section from the larger manufacturing section of the plant. The walls and ceilings were covered with a sandwich of OSB plywood and lead, while a continuous covering of twelve-inch long stiff foam cones covered the walls, ceilings and doors, which prevented sound waves from penetrating those surfaces. The existing single doors had been replaced with double doors to accommodate the swing of the cones. The last of the renovations had just been completed, supplies delivered, and Lex Luthor was moving in.
Lex felt some of the tension roll off now that his Suicide Slum apartment could be forgotten as an unpleasant memory. No more irritating and nosy neighbors with poor taste in music. He could finally shout to his heart's content in the secure knowledge that he would not be overheard by the flying man in tights. Since arriving in Metropolis, he'd been coordinating his outbound calls with the news channels' live sightings of Superman out of state. That would no longer be necessary. The only downside was that the lead shell surrounding his new quarters created a Faraday Cage that blocked all electromagnetic penetration, including cell phone and wireless broadband transmissions. With his PDA phone offline, he'd have to use the Internet SoftPhone on his laptop.
Lex finished hooking up the last of his electronics and turned on the television, just in time for the six o'clock WGBS news broadcast. "Welcome to the WGBS Evening News," the newscaster greeted. "In our top story tonight, Superman stopped a school bus hijacking in Littleton, Colorado earlier this evening…" Lex Luthor's head snapped around to the large plasma television at the name of the city. They wouldn't have… Lex thought. They better not have… Lex scrutinized the video shown from the news helicopter in Littleton, recognizing it as Bethany Church, the location that he'd selected for the first vehicle transfer. As the newscaster filled in the details, Luthor recognized point after point of correlation with his abduction plan. The fools screwed it up, Lex fumed. They weren't supposed to do it yet, not until I had a distraction for Superman in place.
Lex's temper was boiling over as he accessed the Internet Phone application on his laptop. When Ricky answered it, Lex shouted into the microphone, "What part of stick explicitly to the plan did you not understand?"
"Um, you mean Mueller's screw-up this afternoon?" Ricky asked nervously as he sat on the bed in his Days Inn guest room.
"He's not the only one out there!" Lex reminded him. "What the hell happened?"
"Well, sir, um… we've been going over the plan on a daily basis," Ricky reported anxiously. "Everyone knew what they were supposed to do, and I've repeatedly made the point that we had to coordinate with things going on back east."
"Well, it doesn't appear that you got that point across!" Lex challenged.
"You can't enlighten the unconscious, sir," Ricky countered. "Mueller's been complaining about stakeouts without being able to run the A/C, and I guess he got impatient. I think he left me out of the loop because I'd get on his case whenever he starting glossing over the details in the daily meetings."
"And you didn't feel the need to inform me of this weakness?" Lex accused. "We're going to have start over from the beginning now! He's probably already got the kid out of there."
"Sir, based on the initial reports, it doesn't sound like Mueller stuck to your plan," Ricky told him submissively. "If he had, they'd be reporting a different story tonight. It's just as well that we're rid of him."
"Damn right we're rid of him!" Lex declared. "Where do you think he screwed up, besides disregarding my timeline?"
"Well, sir, the big thing is the kryptonite," Ricky told him. "It seems clear that it wasn't on the bus. I think Mueller wanted to keep that for himself, which allowed the Man of Steel to secretly empty the bus, and see who else showed up when it reached its destination. For whatever reason, he just let the local police handle those final details. He probably didn't even realize that Mueller was carrying kryptonite."
"Anything else?" Lex pressed him, his temper abating slightly.
"Well, from the sound of it, Superman was on the bus almost immediately after it turned east on Caley," Ricky pointed out. "How did he know where the boys were supposed to take the bus? Either they spilled it when he pressed them on it, or they blabbed it to the driver, instead of waiting until they got there like they were supposed to."
"And how do you think Superman got there so quickly?" Lex inquired irritably
"It's like I said before: he's a concerned parent keeping a close eye on his boy," Ricky told him. "He's probably familiar with the slightest details in his son's environment, and noticed the bus turn east when it should have turned west. A peek inside with X-Ray vision revealing three armed men was all he needed to jump into action."
"How do you suggest we overcome that?" Lex asked curiously.
"Sir, if I knew that, we'd already be finished," Ricky offered meekly. "I'll have to rely on your guidance for that answer."
"We're going to need new stakeout teams," Lex informed him curtly. "I'll send you a list of names, and I want you back in Metropolis immediately."
"Yes, sir, I'll head back right away," Ricky promised as Lex hung up the phone. Ricky made sure the phone was off, and flopped back on the bed in relief, confident that his explanations had placated Lex Luthor. "What a bastard," Ricky muttered under his breath.
"Yes, he is," a deep voice agreed from the balcony.
Ricky looked over at the Man of Steel hovering outside the balcony. "Get your butt in here before someone sees you," he commanded gently as he sat up on the bed. "We've got a lot to talk about." Surprise momentarily flashed across Superman's face before he complied with the command, and shut the balcony door behind him.
Author's Notes:
As usual, I have to thank htbthomas for the beta.