Hopeful Idiot
Chapter 24: Interlude
Wednesday – in an undisclosed location while Lois is in Africa
The Wayne party and mass breakout happened Saturday evening.
Ra's al Ghul began to investigate Alexander "Lex" Joseph Luthor, per Hope Kramer's request, on Sunday morning.
By Monday, Ra's was beginning to wonder why Luthor had not been investigated by his organization as a possible target previously.
On Tuesday, Ra's was grimly understanding how far-reaching Lex's reach truly spread across the globe.
Now, Wednesday, the Leader of the League of Shadows watched a news recording where the very young heir to Lex Luthor's holdings gave a speech. Ra's held an old picture one of his Shadows had uncovered. He paused the recording.
Ra's had wondered why Hope had directed him to Luthor when the man died close to a month before as a consequence of the Metropolis ricin poisoning. Now, as he held up the picture and looked between the two images side by side, he made yet another grim realization.
His daughter was looking over his shoulder and her voice was as harsh as his face. "One of Luthor's subsidiary projects is genetics."
Ra's nodded. He carefully put down the picture and hit play. It only took another few hours for him to be satisfied with his findings. Several phrasings and all physical mannerisms of the new Luthor were identical. "It's still him."
Whether the man had managed to find a way to deage himself or perhaps some realistic remote-operated robot that his older mind could drive, it was still Alexander Joseph Luthor inside that young body.
Ra's sat back, steepling his fingers under his chin, as he began to contemplate all that which he now knew.
Hope sent out scathing emails to various individuals in her misguided attempts to achieve better results, because the woman was young enough that she did not yet understand how the world worked. She still believed in an ideal and her emails were an attempt to improve what she observed to be flaws. She had confirmed that she had sent many such emails, not only to himself and Bruce Wayne. Ra's had no doubt that one such would have been addressed to Superman.
Ra's had personally witnessed Hope get whisked away by the Man of Steel after the party. The encounter Saturday had obviously been pre-arranged. Hope did not trust easily or often. Which meant that not only did the pair know each other, they knew each other extremely well…
Meaning that Superman had managed to capture Hope Kramer's heart where he himself and Wayne had failed.
Lex Luthor was obsessed with Superman.
The hero had no doubt warned his new lover of Luthor.
Hope investigated, because the woman could NOT keep her nose out of anything that caught her attention, and understandably became concerned. When she happened to meet Ra's at the party, she took advantage of the situation and decided to see if she could manipulate Ra's himself to her advantage. Though he doubted she would consciously admit that her last-second comment had been condoning murder, Ra's was still mentally congratulating her on the psychological leap.
(There was a reason he kept in touch with her after all. If he could ever get her to admit certain key details, she would readily join his organization and the world would become a much better place. However, she was still young enough to believe in idealism…but she would not stay so young forever. He was patient. He'd wait; especially for a mind like hers.)
"Father?" Thalia interrupted, holding out a small stack of paper. "The five escapees from the prison break Saturday and their current locations."
"You take care of it," he ordered. He had more important things to do.
"As you wish," she gave a nod, then continued, "Read the top file."
Ra's blinked at the command but took the papers and scanned quickly through the information. Then he got to the relevant bit that had alerted his daughter and frowned.
One of the escapees had gone directly to the nearest Luthor-controlled compound, arriving at 0716 hours. He had a personal meeting with Lex at 0918hrs. The man had been found by the side of the road at 1112hrs by the local police, alive but catatonic. He had been on the way to the nearest hospital and was declared dead at 1120hrs. All of which had occurred Sunday.
Ra's al Ghul was not a stupid man by any stretch of the imagination.
His eyes went to one of the televisions that constantly played news media. He remembered that there had been a small interest story about the Wayne masquerade, but Lois Lane had NOT been the one presenting. Nor had she been referenced in any manner, as a cowriter or attendee.
The escapee had witnessed Hope with Superman that night as well. He had gone to Luthor to exchange information for either protection or monetary reward.
Luther was not stupid. Ra's was surrounded by evidence proving the man's intelligence. Luther killed the informant to keep the knowledge to himself alone: that the redhead Superman saved was NOT Lois Lane.
When Thursday rolled around and Ra's read the newest report on Lex Luthor's dealings, he grimly acknowledged that Luthor was thorough. Luthor would understandably doubt the word of a know-nothing former employee that was stupid enough to get caught and go to jail. The man had gone ahead with a different plan, but changed it slightly to include Lane's attempted kidnapping. No doubt to record the event.
The next logical step would be to have a comparison kidnapping. Thus, Luthor could have both recordings side by side to analyze and draw conclusions.
The question now became…how long would it take Luthor to find Hope?
+++++HOPEFUL+IDIOT+++++
I don't like this chapter at all, but I can't seem to make it any better. So short and sweet, but at least you get something after so many months...
Got any ideas that you'd like see happen? I'm taking requests!
Posted: 11.30.2021