Chapter 14: Blowing Bubbles
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We followed the young soldier out of the shuttle. It was hard to tell in the dark, but we seemed to have landed in a wooded glen. It would have been quite charming if not for the heavily armed soldiers, tanks and heavy weapons all around us. I caught glimpses of other shuttles among the trees and heard a quiet humming noise above me that I recognized. I looked up and saw a squad of soldiers fly past, their armored suits not quite identical to the Team Lex goons I had fought in Metropolis. No doubt Luthor had licensed the technology to the HDC.
We were challenged every twenty yards or so by a patrol of heavily armed and nervous soldiers. We were careful not to do anything they might interpret as hostile and left it to the poor, sweating corporal to explain our presence. As a result, it took us several minutes to cover the hundred or so yards to the first guard post. It was built out of concrete and looked able to stand up to heavy cannon fire. It guarded a gap in a pair of high wire fences topped with barbed wire. A well-lit sign stated: "Warning: Electrified". Between and connecting the two fences I could see a web of trip wires. I wondered what sort of booby traps they were attached to.
The corporal saw the direction of my gaze. "They're not really electrified," he assured me, "that's just – whatchacallit -- misdirection. That's actually a sensor web connected to computer-controlled force beams. Anyone touches the fence or sets foot in there and whammo! I don't care if they're metas or not, they're clobbered."
He stopped and glanced guiltily at Batman.
"What if they're one of those super fast metas?" asked Batman as if curious.
Encouraged, the young man continued. "The sensor web tracks 'em and takes 'em out in the next defense zone. You don't want to be anywhere near there when it happens, though. Broad angle force beams – to make sure they hit 'em, you know? – will knock you clear into next week. You'll be lucky if all it does is knock you out."
The congressmen glanced at each other, but Batman just asked, "What about flying metas?"
"We got radar-controlled plasma cannon for that," confided the corporal. Realizing who he was talking to, he added, "uh, sir."
We had reached the concrete guardhouse. Beyond the fence, I could make out camouflaged gun positions covering us. More obviously, just inside the inner fence, a hover tank was parked almost blocking the gap in the fences.
I realized I had stopped chewing and guiltily started once more, ready to blow another bubble. I looked at the guard post and realized I could see no guard, nor any place for one; the guardhouse was a solid block of concrete except for what could almost have been an ATM.
The corporal walked up to it, took off his ID card, stuck it in a slot in the 'ATM' and put his hand palm-down on a pad. A thin red beam shot out and scanned him from head to toe. Once it was over, he retrieved his ID card and turned to us, grinning.
"Real fancy, huh? It checks your retinal print, finger prints and face against the information encoded on your ID card and both against the HDC central data base. If anything doesn't match, well, I wouldn't want to be you."
The two congressmen looked nervous, but I had more trust in Batman's – and Oracle's – abilities. I stepped forward, only sparing Batman a glance when the corporal added, "It checks for metas too. No shape-shifter is going to get by this system!"
Batman looked unconcerned, so I knew he had this aspect covered as well. Perhaps it was that, strictly speaking, I was not a metahuman: my powers were magical in nature and not due to the metagene.
As I put my ID card in the slot and placed my palm on the scanner, the corporal continued, "Alien, mutant, magic, it doesn't matter. This baby will catch'em all." He looked at Batman and, once more, added, "Sir."
The beam shot out and I stood still to let it do its job. No alarm went off; nothing happened. I retrieved my ID card as Batman said, "Sounds like a good system."
"Yes, sir!"
Batman went next. Senator Connelly followed him and Zabrowski, sweating but game, followed him. No alarms, nothing to indicate anything amiss. We squeezed past the tank and went on.
There were, if anything, even more troops, tanks and tension on this side of the fence. However, now we had a straight, well-lit path to follow and no one bothered us. A hundred yards ahead, I could see the next check point. There were no fences this time. Instead, the brightly lit signs stated: "Beware, Minefield!" Beyond the signs, flood lights lit the ground for about twenty yards.
"It really a minefield?" Batman asked.
"Yes, sir, but there's other things as well. Those broad angle force beams I told you about. As long as you aren't in the lit up area, they shouldn't kill you," he sounded a bit doubtful, "but you won't be waking up for a few hours.
"But if you should happen to be going through this checkpoint when they go off," he shrugged.
The corporal and both congressmen looked worried now. We hurried through the checkpoint. A hundred yards ahead, the path dove into a cut in the ground, ending at a pair of huge metal doors – evidently the entrance to an underground bunker.
"That it, corporal?" asked Batman.
"Yes, sir. Just the one last checkpoint, then I can take you to the Colonel."
"Very good."
We followed the soldier down into the cut. On one side, just before the doors, was another 'ATM'. We went through the procedure one more time and, prompted by a computerized voice, Batman held up his 'orders' to be scanned. They apparently passed muster, as the large metal doors started opening.
It took them some little time and we all got a clear view of how thick they were. The blast doors at NORAD headquarters in Colorado Springs, built to withstand a nuclear blast, could hardly have been thicker. I thought that even Kal would need some time to smash through them. We passed through, into a brightly lit vestibule ten yards on a side. At the far end were another set of blast doors, but what caught my attention were much smaller, normally sized doors in the walls on either side of us.
They caught my attention because, as soon as the blast doors behind us had closed, heavily armed soldiers poured through both doors, their weapons aimed at us. We froze and Batman waited until were in place surrounding us and had a moment to calm down before shouting, "What is the meaning of this!"
I noticed several of the soldiers had their guns aimed carefully and unwavering at my head. I smiled at them and blew a bubble.
"I am General Douglas Peabody of the Inspector General's office," bellowed Batman, "and I demand to see your commanding officer."
"Sure you are," mocked a harsh voice. A short bandy-legged officer with Colonel's eagles on his collar came out from behind the soldiers. His belly was not as impressive as the 'General's', but he was working on it. He held a long sharp knife in his left hand.
"Well, you're in luck," he continued. "I am the commanding officer and I say you're a bunch of liars and traitors and spies for the damned metas." He tossed the knife in the air and caught it, negligently, in his right hand. I noticed that, for all his seeming nonchalance, he was carefully staying out of the line of fire.
"Colonel," the corporal interjected hesitantly, "I saw his orders. They …"
"Shut up!" roared the Colonel. "So far I've given you the benefit of the doubt: I assumed you're not a traitor, just stupid. Don't make me change my mind!"
The corporal shut up.
"I'd shoot you right now," continued the Colonel in a softer voice, "except that nancy pants Ross would have a cow. Tomorrow, after Congress has passed the Special Powers Act, I may shoot you anyway. The bleeding heart lawyers won't be able to bleat about your 'civil rights' after tomorrow. We'll be able to set a lot of things right, after tomorrow."
"Ross will still be President," Batman replied calmly. "I doubt his orders will change."
"Will he?" The Colonel walked around behind me, still handling his knife. "Maybe he will and maybe he won't."
Suddenly, my bubble popped, taking even me by surprise. I had allowed it to get too large and it popped with a crack like a rifle shot. Everyone tensed and for a moment I thought I would have to leap into action. But no one fired and, after a moment, everyone relaxed again. One soldier laughed, out of relief rather than humor.
The Colonel shot the man a look and the laughter cut off. The Colonel turned to Batman. "Good God, man, I know she's a looker, but couldn't you find someone less brain-dead?"
Batman cackled. "When you get to my age, about all you can do is look!" He grinned at the Colonel. "Besides, you tell your boys to put away their guns and you'll see what she can do."
"Oh, that," replied the Colonel dismissively. He had stepped behind me and I felt him slice the back of my blouse cleanly in two. The two sides parted, revealing the power suit beneath. The Colonel yanked something from the back of the suit.
"Without its power module," he told Batman, "that power suit is just so much dead weight. I'd like to see her take on anybody now."
Batman looked taken aback.
"Did you think you could sneak one of our own power suits past the scanners?" mocked the Colonel. "We were on to you after the first check point. I thought she was a meta at first, but the techs figured out the signal was really from the suit's power pack. Too bad. I could have shot a meta out of hand. But you're worse than metas, you're traitors to your species."
"Metas are human too," I told him quietly.
"Shut up!" He backhanded me and I had to lean away from it to keep from bruising his hand.
Batman blew out his breath. Only because I was looking for it, I noticed the miniscule blue and red speck fly out of his mouth. "So what are you going to do with us?"
The Colonel smiled. He thought he looked threatening, but not to someone who had seen the Batman do it.
"Colonel!" Another officer, wearing a headset and the double bars of a captain, stepped out from behind the soldiers. "Metas are attacking Belle Reeve! New orders. We are to send all the rapid response teams to help immediately."
"What!" The Colonel turned back to Batman, his jaw working. "Decoys," he hissed. "You were just decoys!"
He whirled about. "Lock them up someplace," he ordered as he stomped off. "Come on!"
The captain looked around. "Sergeant, take your squad and escort them to Secure Room 3. The rest of you, come with me." He and three-quarters of the soldiers followed the Colonel out of the vestibule.
The remaining soldiers closed in around us. The corporal who had led us looked around uncertainly.
"Corporal," the sergeant told him, "you'd best get back to your duty post."
"Yes, sergeant." He scurried away.
"Please come with us," the sergeant told Batman. He was a big black man with grizzled hair. He looked like he had seen a lot in his time, and not liked most of it. The state of his fatigues said he had had a long, probably hard, day.
"You realize," Batman told him, "that this arrest is illegal and will result in criminal charges against the Colonel and anyone who follows his illegal orders?"
"Yes, sir, I got that impression. On the other hand, I just got a direct order from my superior officer, who will bring me up on charges if I don't obey it. So I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. I hope you'll pardon me, sir, if I do what will keep me out of the brig right now."
"As long as you understand, this is under duress," Batman responded.
"I did pick up on that, sir. Now, if you'll come with us."
The sergeant was taking no chances with us. He opened the big inner doors and his men kept out of reach, with their weapons ready. I blew another bubble, being sure to pop it before it got too large.
The route to Secure Room 3 was long and circuitous; I memorized it anyway, just in case. We went in silence; evidently both Batman and the sergeant felt they had said everything they wanted to say. The sergeant did nod to us, once he had us settled in Secure Room 3; I felt he was thinking that he might be the one being locked up next time and wasn't too happy at the thought.
The door, I noticed as I entered, was more than a foot thick and looked to be high-tensile-strength steel. I wondered who or what they normally kept secure in this room.
The door slammed shut with a very final 'clang'. I looked about the room. It was an empty cube about twenty feet on a side; the walls, floor and ceiling – all painted white – seemed to melt into each other. The lighting came from ceiling panels. I suspected that Plexiglas at least as thick as the door separated the white lights from the white room. Other than that, the only things I could see were two video cameras, in opposite corners of the ceiling to ensure every bit of the room was covered, and an air vent near the ceiling.
Batman sat down and leaned back against a corner of the room, directly under one of the cameras. I sat down next to him. The congressmen were standing, looking uncertain.
"What now?" I asked.
"Got any more of that gum?"
I pulled out the package, broke off a piece and handed it to him. He popped it into his mouth and started chewing. A moment later, he blew a bubble.
The "pop" of his bubble bursting caused the congressmen to jump. They turned to look at us.
"Say," drawled Batman, "you ever hear the one about the lawyer, the architect, the doctor and the politician?"