Twigs and sticks snapped underneath the cold soles of dress shoes. Their owner moved with purpose, the steady rhythm of his footsteps accompanied by the sounds of the forest around him. Unheeded by anything that came across his path, he stepped over any stray logs or police tape that made any attempt to stop him from reaching his destination. His steps slowed as he finally broke through the trees. The clearing in front of him was a wasteland. It was littered with pieces of wood and old, rusted farming equipment. The man stepped over the head of an old pickaxe to reach his final goal.
He peered down the hole in the ground, not bothering to move aside the police tape and inspect it any further. Clearly, things had not worked out and he didn't expect there to be much he could salvage from this outpost. He didn't need to get himself involved in police matters.
The sound of leaves rustling caused him to look up. Standing on the edge of the clearing, red hair in a tangled mess, clothes covered in dirt was one Dr. Elizabeth Kane. The man frowned. "You could've dressed up a bit, Elizabeth."
"Sorry, it's hard to curl your hair when you're wanted for murder," she replied as she approached. "I see you took your time in meeting with me."
"I had business in London. Plus, we needed to wait until the local police were done searching the woods." He eyed the manilla folder that Elizabeth held tightly in her hand. A "C" was stamped across the front and he could see a part of a paper clip holding something inside. "Is that what we discussed?"
She handed him the file and he looked it over as she spoke. "Everything I had on her is in there. I couldn't conduct any tests but I can tell you that she's the one. You should've seen the abilities she exhibited when she escaped. None of it was refined but it was still incredible. I don't even think she realized she used her heat vision on me."
The man looked at the school photo on the inside cover. Her blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail but a few strands were falling out in the front. Black box-frame glasses rested on top of her upturned nose. Her dazzling smile shone almost as bright as her big, blue eyes and everything about her screamed 'sunshine'. "She has his eyes."
"Yes, she does. Now, are we going to discuss how we plan to deal with the mess the invest-" Elizabeth held her tongue, eyes trained on the gun the man was now wiping down with a handkerchief. "What're you doing?"
"Giving you a choice. You don't have a lot of options here Elizabeth. You could try to run, but you're wanted for the murder of two perfectly good kids so I doubt that'll last long. When you get arrested you could try to spill information on our arrangement to lessen your sentence, but we have plenty of evidence crafted to falsify everything that you could say about me. To the world, you're just a crazed scientist who quit her high-end job to go murder kids in a small town, and people like that don't have much of a chance in our society." He tossed the gun down at her feet and turned on his heel, not giving a second glance to the distraught woman he left behind.
Hands in his pants pockets, the man ambled back the way he came. He was almost to his car when a shot rang out through the forest. A smile played on his lips as he approached the black SUV parked alongside the dirt road. A second man popped out of the driver's side door and opened up the back seat for the man in the suit before returning to the front of the car.
"Where to Mr. Luthor?"
"Metropolis. I've got some work to do."