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Future Sins, chapter 3

"You're brooding over something," Conner told Max. "What is it?"

"I'm not brooding," Max replied. "I'm thinking about something."

"That's not really that different," Conner said. "What's on your mind?"

"When did you get so good at picking up on my moods? When did you become so good at reading me?"

"I'm not that good at it. It's because I've been around you a lot. You get to know someone after a while."

"Jonathan and Martha aren't as good as you are. They can't pick up on my moods as well as you can."

"I'm in contact with you more often. I see you all day at school as well as during the night. I've also been through stuff closer to what you have than they."

Max considered it for a moment. "That makes sense."

"Max, can you help with dinner?" Martha's voice came from down the stairs.

"I'm on my way," Max called out.

"Duty calls," he said as he left their room.

It was only after Max left that Conner realized Max had purposely changed topics to avoid saying what was on his mind.

At dinner, Conner was thinking about how he was going to get Max to talk about what was bothering him. Max was deliberately steering the topic of conversation as far from that as possible. In fact, he stooped to a tactic that Conner didn't think he'd ever use: he asked Martha and Jonathan about Clark when he was growing up. Like many proud parents, the two were only two happy to talk endlessly about their son. Conner knew some of these stories by heart already, and Max was encouraging them to be told for the umpteenth time.

After extending the conversation about Clark for hours after dinner, Conner figured that Max would have no escape before they went to bed, but Max seemed to fall asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. Conner tried shaking him, but it looked like Max had entered some sort of trance. Conner was getting a bit frustrated at being stymied.

The next morning, Max could only evade Conner until Jonathan dropped them off for school.

"What's going on, Max?" Conner asked. "You've been dodging me since yesterday afternoon."

"I'm not angry at you," Max assured him.

"What do you mean by that? I haven't done anything that would get you angry at me! Wait a minute...you're trying to divert my attention again, aren't you? Stop doing that and tell me what's going on!"

"It doesn't concern you," Max said. "It's better if you stay out of it."

"It's affecting you, and I want to help. If nothing else, I can provide a sympathetic ear or different view on things."

Max paused. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Max took a quick look around to make sure no one was listening. "The JLA doesn't trust me because of what that guy said."

"Are you sure it's not your imagination?"

"J'onn probed my mind. He then confirmed that everyone was concerned about what was said."

"Even Clark?"

Max paused. "Clark wasn't sharing his concerns with the JLA, but...I think he's torn."

"Why's that?"

"I don't want to say. It might have been an incorrect conclusion from something earlier."

"Don't you think he'd be dropping by more often if he was concerned? He could always find an excuse."

"He could. I've seen that his flight patterns have been altered to come closer to Smallville without actually coming here, as if he wanted to be in position in case somebody shouted for help."

"Where'd you get those from?"

"It's in the JLA's files. I review them when I arrive on the weekend."

"Look, you're concerned, but I think they'll get over it. Weren't you the one who said that he was a very biased source?"

"I hope you're right."

Later that night, Jonathan told them, "I think you boys need to clean up your room. I heard something shifting around there and think something must have fallen over."

Conner was a little annoyed at this request. The room was pretty tidy (mostly because Max was a neat freak). He didn't think that there were any piles that could fall over.

"I'll take a look at it now," Max said as he went up to the room.

Conner noticed a gleam in his eye. "I'll do the same."

When he got there, Max put his finger to his lips, indicating that Conner shouldn't say anything. He then started feeling around the bottom of what furniture they had. Conner watched this continue until Max picked something off of the bottom of one of Conner's desk drawers. It was something extraordinarily small, and it looked very discreet and hi-tech.

"This is an unacceptable security risk," Max said to the device before crushing it.

"What was that?" Conner asked.

"A listening device," Max replied as he checked their closet and light fixtures. "It was very well hidden."

"Who could have planted it?"

"There are a number of people who could have," Max said as he removed and crushed another device. "If you're asking for the most likely person, I have a candidate."

"Who?"

"Batman."

"Why'd he want to bug us?"

"You weren't the target. I was."

"Don't you think you're being a bit paranoid?"

"I've just found two, make that three, spying devices," Max said as he found and crushed another one. "I would not call this paranoia."

"I...you're right. What are we going to do?"

"We're not going to do anything. He should know better than to try this again; I'll be performing regular anti-surveillance device sweeps. It will become obvious that continuing is futile and a waste of resources and time."

"I'm talking about the root problem."

"There's nothing we can do. This will have to resolve itself."

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