Pete looked up as the bartender changed the channel. He'd waited through the game in the hope of catching a news broadcast. He had no idea what the chances were that he'd find out anything about Lionel and Lex's disappearance, but he'd run out of any other options.
Fortunately, the others in the room paused conversations and drinking as the reporter droned, "More on the biggest news item of the day, the capture of Lionel Luthor and his son. The administration has released more video clips documenting this historic event."
Lionel was brought into the prison in a group, unkempt, head hanging, looking anything but a leader. Outside the military administration building, he emerged from the armored vehicle and stood between two officers. Kal-El next left the vehicle and a few moments later, two officers helped Lex out. Lionel didn't look at him but Kal-El watched him, then frowned and touched Lex's forehead with the back of his hand. His frown deepened and he quickly undid his cape and draped it over Lex's shoulders.
Lex stood still for a moment and then reached his hands up. The cape fell to the ground and one of the officers immediately scooped it up and handed it back to Kal-El. He wrapped it more tightly around Lex's shoulders and then said something to him and picked him up, carrying him towards an approaching stretcher. Lionel had turned his head but made no move to approach or speak to his son.
The reporter introduced a person in the studio. "Dr. Lesgow has been authorized to describe the two Luthors' physical condition, since obviously there are some questions about Lex Luthor's health and his ability to stand trial. Dr. Lesgow?"
"We're treating him for several things. First, he has very serious pneumonia. Coupled with that, he has a number of infected cuts that we're concerned about and some limited but persistent internal bleeding. He has several broken bones that didn't knit the way they should have and he's significantly underweight, but those are not, relatively speaking, as serious."
"There are rumors that his condition is very precarious, can you comment on that?"
"We can't comment, no."
"What about the elder Mr. Luthor?"
"He's in remarkably good health physically. The most serious physical problems we found were cataracts in one eye and we're already treating those."
The reporter turned back to the camera. "There you have the latest in the breaking story on the Luthors. For those just tuning in, Lionel Luthor was captured in a routine sweep of looters and he immediately led Kal-El's forces to his son's location. There is no trial date set and it looks as though it might be some time before that can happen. Join us at 9:30 for a panel discussion of what this will mean to government hopes for an end to domestic unrest and stay tuned for new breaking events."
The ragged ends of his bitten nails dug fiercely into the hand Pete kept hidden under the table, while he kept a casual expression on his face, the very mild frown of somebody who is following current events because enough people told him as a child that it's important.
One man with thinning tufts of hair on his head said out loud to the silent bar. "That's something else. I mean, we know that Kal had said that he wanted them both alive and unhurt, but he was acting like Baldie's mom or something."
"Yeah." That came from a younger man who spoke down into his glass. "More than his own father did. What a cold bastard."
"You gotta wonder..." The first man's voice trailed off.
"Wonder what? Whose turn to buy?" A blond man punched his biceps lightly.
"Naww, you know what I mean. You just...wonder. What's going on, really."
Pete wondered, too. He wondered how any of them didn't see that the film was spliced between when Lionel got out and when Kal-El and Lex did. He wondered if any of them were even capable of seeing that the cape hadn't fallen from Lex's shoulders when he tried to grasp it. Lex had pushed it off. And Pete wondered if anybody else seeing it had perceived that Kal-El had put it back on and held it back on him only by force.