Lt. Maggie Sawyer's office was on the third floor of Metropolis PD HQ downtown. Superman loitered within a mile of the building, X-ray-telescopic-vision peering, for almost an hour before she was there and alone.

In that time, he stopped one mugging, scowled effectively at a guy who was about to slug his girlfriend, and rescued a kitten from a tree.

He also kept a long-distance eye on the Secret Service preparations. They still didn't look right, and he was getting seriously worried. The President of the United States was due to arrive in just a few days.

Finally, the Lieutenant seemed available, and Superman sped to her window. He stopped and gave himself a second before stepping collectedly onto the sill. Fortunately, the building was old enough to have windows that actually opened, and they were always ajar in the summertime.

"Superman," Lt. Sawyer said in a long-suffering voice. "Just what this day needed."

Clark Kent would have ducked and stammered at a greeting like that. Superman was made of sterner stuff. "I take it you've had words with the Secret Service," he guessed.

"They've had words with me," she snapped.

For a minute or two, the only sound was the angry slamming of file cabinet drawers. Superman had picked up the knack of not speaking just to fill awkward silences. It came in mighty handy when he wanted someone to tell him something.

"It doesn't make any sense!" Maggie finally exploded. "These are Secret Service Agents! I was looking forward to working with them! Seeing how they do things, you know?" Lt. Sawyer looked at Superman for understanding, and he nodded.

He knew exactly what she meant; he'd also been curious and excited about meeting the President's security teams. Clark felt kind of warm inside, too, that Sawyer would talk to him like this, like a person, like maybe even a friend.

"And it's not that I don't understand!" Maggie continued. "These are not 'innovative new safety precautions'! This is just plain nuts! Do they want someone to get him?"

Clark blinked. Now, there was an idea. Maggie stopped ranting around the office and looked thoughtful. "You don't suppose that's it, do you?" she ventured. "Like a palace coup?"

Superman crossed his arms and looked big. "That's not the American Way." Then he sighed. "It does make a certain amount of sense, though. Darn. Why'd they have to..."

He cut himself off before he could finish the unworthy thought, but Maggie completed the sentence for him anyway. "...Pull this crap in our town?"

He smiled at her, and it was the Clark Kent smile. He was so happy at the use of that 'our', because Maggie Sawyer had always been one of the cops who hated having Superman around. Oh, well. She'd never met Clark Kent but the once, and that was years ago -- he didn't recall having smiled much that day anyhow.

Maggie smiled back at him, ruefully, and that was neat, too. "Damned if I'm gonna let 'em get away with that here. How 'bout you?"

"I wholeheartedly agree," Superman said.

"That's that, then. Even the U.S. Secret Service can't take out a man Metropolis PD and Superman have sworn to protect. Why don't you go make yourself useful; I've got work to do." The words weren't that friendly, but she waved to him as he flew away

.

Clark Kent leaned over the archaic coin-operated pay-phone, counting rings. "C'mon, c'mon." No one was answering at home. Everybody must be busy outside in the fields. He glanced up and through a bunch of buildings to where the G-men (T-men?) were still fiddling around.

"Dang!" He hung up and tried another number.

"Lex Luthor."

"Lex! It's me, Clark. Do you think -- can you get a message to Buffy?"

"I can certainly try. She's not at the farm?"

"No one's answering. Tell her that Lt. Sawyer of Metro PD agrees with me about those Secret Service guys. It's like they're setting up for the President to be vulnerable to attack on purpose."

"Like a palace coup?"

"That's just what Maggie said! Lt. Sawyer, I mean."

"Hmm." Lex sounded like he was mulling over the fact that Clark had used the lieutenant's first name. Clark's face got hot, and he thought he might be in for a severe teasing, or even some real trouble, if Lex told Dawn and Dawn got mad. But what Lex said instead was "You hero-types really should carry cell phones."

Dawn tried again to twist her hair up into a bun. How the heck did Buffy and Anya make it look so easy? Must be a blonde thing. Exasperated, she stabbed a pencil through it, and it stayed up! Huzzah! Encouraged by this extremely minor success, she returned to the smoking ruins of her interdimensional transporter.

Several hours passed.

"Crap crap crappity crap," Dawn fumed.

"Very eloquent." Lex was lounging nattily in her lab doorway. She didn't know how long he'd been there.

"Just the brilliant young billionaire I was looking for!" she greeted him. "Hold that, wouldja?"

Lex obligingly held the awkward wire-harness in place while Dawn struggled with the connector. "Think you can get it working again?"

"Of course! Well, kinda. The detector didn't do anything too exciting when I put the power to it again, which my advisor said he appreciates. I think I fritzed some components. But if this doesn't -- stand back, huh?"

Lex stood back. Dawn flipped the power strip switch to ON. No flames, sparks, or smoke resulted.

"Hah!"

"Success?"

"Well, lack of catastrophic failure, anyway. It means I just need to get some fresh capacitors, maybe a new heat sink..."

She was interrupted by a loud POP! All the room's lights went out.

"Darn."

"Circuit breakers?"

"I hope."

There ensued a short interval during which the power strip was shut off again, and the circuit breakers were located and re-set. Lighting restored, Dawn stared at her apparatus in annoyance.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Lex said.

"Yeah, well, whatcha gonna do. The field of mad science is fraught with mishap."

Dawn heard the suppressed laughter in Lex's "That's very true," but she chose not to comment on it.

"I still have to get this working by Saturday –- end of the month milestone."

"Not to mention needing it in case of possible Death Stars."

Dawn rolled her eyes and blew her hair off of her forehead. "I wasn't going to mention that."