Kal-El's face was coldly contemptuous. "Because tricking everything out of you was easier and faster than beating it out." As if he sensed Lionel's awareness of the evasion, he dropped the chain and advanced on him. "Because you and everybody like you was always judging me and never saw anything. Because I'm so much better, stronger, faster, I'm the goddamn Superman, and all you and your type ever did was look at me like I was something somebody dragged in on their shoe and you wished they'd taken their shoes off before coming in. I'm the one who can rule the world." He broke eye contact and gestured brusquely at the uniformed men and women who had come in silently. "Go through it all, see if there's anything useful." He turned his back.
Lionel consciously called each muscle into control to keep from sagging. At least they wouldn't see an old man visibly weighted with his defeat. It was just as well that Kal-El stood between him and Lex because that sight might well be beyond his capacity for endurance. He impassively watched as they searched the basement room.
They wouldn't find anything that would be particularly useful to them. The small group had decided not to commit to paper or data anything that could harm them if it fell into enemy hands; the only intelligence they had ever written down was about Kal-El's own operations, building plans, troop postings, analysis of his intelligence operations.
"This is all," one of the uniformed men said as another put the last few papers and handhelds in a pile. Everything, Lionel realized, was of no more value. The carefully built improvised power sources, the hoarded medical supplies, food and clothing gathered for their own use and to share with the other groups, the weapons and weapon materials, everything that had been a coveted triumph was now a discard on the floor.
Kal-El turned to him again, a taunting smile on his face. Lionel thought his eyes flickered for an instant but he couldn't be sure. "Watch this," he said, quietly, and Lionel disciplined himself to maintain his stoic composure as it all burst into flames. Kal-El watched, equally silently, for a few moments, and then turned back. He pushed Lex ahead of him and two of the men seized Lionel's arms as they followed.
A soft, familiar sound gripped Lionel's attention, a breathy wheeze, followed by more, tighter and frantic, like the flapping of torn wings. Lex stumbled to the ground, coming into Lionel's line of vision, arm extended to catch himself but buckling as it touched the ground. Lionel wasn't able to pull out of the officers' grip but was able to draw almost to Kal-El's side as he stared at his prisoner for an instant, with an intent but remote look in his eyes.
Lex's abdomen contracted almost into contortion as his lungs fought to draw in air and his mouth gaped helplessly. Lionel had almost recovered enough capacity for thought to tell himself that this fairly quick suffocation from asthma was now certainly the kindest fate for his son when Kal-El abruptly crouched next to him and pulled the heavy collar off as if it were a foil wrapper. He lifted him up so that Lex's back rested against his leg, and put his mouth against Lex's, exhaling hard.
Lionel realized that the breath had briefly forced Lex's shut airways open as Lex raspily exhaled the depleted air from his lungs and gasped in fresh before they closed once more. Kal-El supported Lex's neck with a hand and repeated the process four times, staring fixedly with what Lionel guessed was his ability to see through solid objects, before Lex was shakily breathing on his own. Kal-El told him, "Right, now. In. Out. In. Out," pushing and releasing his chest. Lex's breathing steadied and his eyes regained focus. "Breath of life again, huh?" Lionel barely heard him murmur. There was another flicker of emotion over Kal-El's face but it passed in an instant and he hauled Lex to his feet and pushed him forward again.
Pete's senses were alerted by the distant smell of smoke and he pressed against a wall as he approached the building. He sent out hearing and sight like scouts, concentrating on each.
There were no unusual sounds; a light wind brushed against the deserted buildings and rustled both human trash and the city-dwelling plants that had started to flourish in cracks, but those were familiar and unthreatening, far too quiet to mask anything. He looked about for any unexpected movements or stillnesses, scanning from ground to horizon and back again, then side to side. Again, nothing.
Next, he looked for anything that had changed. Something had, something on the ground. As he edged closer to the building, he saw several tracks in the gravel-like debris. They converged in front, losing individual clarity, and dispersed again away from it. At least four vehicles, Pete was forced to conclude, had come to the building, stopped there, and left again. "This isn't good," he breathed, to hear the reassurance of a voice.
Not only did he have to watch for living observers as he slowly made his way inside, he had to be careful of cameras. If somebody had come, and if they had found their group's presence, they might well have left video cameras on watch. The slow pace he was forced to take gave his imagination plenty of time to churn up the nightmare possibilities. He had left Lex there and Chloe might have been there as well, depending on timing. He couldn't bring himself to hope that the vehicles had been friendlies.
The smell of smoke grew stronger the closer he got, though it was far from overwhelming, more like the remnants of a large bonfire. An unexpected reflection farther ahead caught his eye and he pulled out a laser pointer, shooting it obliquely to temporarily blind a lens. As he got closer, he saw that it was indeed a lens but his aim had been accurate. He kept the pointer in position as he passed it, dropping it only when he had turned the corner.
He finally let himself give up his cautious progress when he saw the doors open and smelled the smoke more clearly. He ran through the last corridor, his footsteps disproportionately loud, like rising drums on a soundtrack, stopping only when he saw the piles of burnt debris. He wanted to double over in pain as he saw them and the pain redoubled when he saw that everything was burnt, including the bedding in the back.
Things like this had happened and he knew far too many details. Finding a piece of metal tubing that retained some shape and strength, and pulling his shirt off and wrapping it around his hands to protect them from the heat, he started to spread the three large piles in order to uncover any human remains.
Pete took a deep breath as he finished. With each motion, he'd expected to uncover an arm, a leg, or perhaps a charred head. Instead, he had to deal with uncertainty. Almost without a doubt, Lex was in Kal-El's hands. He and Lex had taken to one another on sight sixteen years ago and had become closer with each contact. When Lex moved to Smallville, they'd become like brothers. And now, well, God alone knew what was happening to his best friend. Or to Chloe. It might also be that Lionel's disappearance was involved. If Lionel had been captured and either tortured into talking or this raid had been the second part of a plan that began with Lionel's capture, it meant that not only were their two leaders lost, but two men who had been part of his family for years and since the rest of the Rosses had died, nearly all he had left of a family.
Not sure how he was summoning the energy, he left the room and again blocking the camera, he sat to wait outside. Lana, at least, was fairly certain to return. Aside from wanting to see her safe, or possibly even Chloe or Lionel, he desperately wanted somebody to share his grief.