She didn't trust where she was. Certainly Gell had thought to turn off the cameras in this place, but she never trusted him while they worked together – she sure as hell wasn't going to start now. …And she had faith that her boys were working on it. She couldn't risk using the relic here; it was too light – too dangerous. However, she knew that her bond with it still gave her – enhancements, despite its current internal state.
She knew that she shouldn't fight Gell. But she couldn't deny that she wanted this to be a test between the two of them. …She had taken too much from crap from him to do it another way.
Her gun touched the ground at the same time his did. They never took their eyes off of one another. They slowly let go of their respective fire arm. Then they did the same thing again, as each had another holstered weapon. They righted themselves and kicked the guns to the side.
"You're not done," he pointed to her back, the artist's tube that rested there.
She slowly took it off. Then she bent at the waist and a little less than halfway down, carefully dropped it on the ground.
They each took a fighting stance – hers spoke of loudly of martial arts training while his spoke more of military training – and they began to circle one another.
As soon as Lex was out the door, he was put back on his feet. He was going to berate the man that had carried him. He turned and – came face to sternum. He knew the guy was big, and Lex was no short man, but this guy was a goliath – and had pectoral muscles bigger than Lex's head. Lex allowed his gaze to slowly rise to the man's face. The man's jaw was square and he was wearing sunglasses.
"Civilians have to clear the area," the man boomed.
Lex didn't say anything, but he was aware that Victoria had been escorted away by Metropolis P.D. When he didn't move, another man – dressed in the same as all the others that appeared to come with Rhone – came up to them. "Ace, is this guy a problem?" he turned to Lex, "Listen, Armani, this ain't no free show. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."
"I don't know who you are accustomed to dealing with…" Lex began angrily. He felt hands on his arms, Metropolis P.D. This was probably the start of damage control, considering the E.I.F. was involved.
Lex was flanked by two officers, walking down the large number of steps outside the museum. He heard the one that called him Armani rambling about all passengers putting their tray tables and seats in the upright position as the rest of the people filed out of the museum. What the hell was going on in there? Was she okay?
Griffin quickly positioned his head set over his ear and adjusted the microphone toward his mouth. Police cars were positioned on the steps of the museum, close to the door. At the make-shift command post – being run out of the back of a black Hummer – he learned that everything within a three block radius was sealed off. It was late, so evacuating the nearby office buildings wasn't a problem. Nothing got in that wasn't police or one of them. Civilians were being escorted outside that radius – everyone possible was being escorted out. This was going to be a bitch to fix. All those people – rich people, powerful people…
Something caught his eye, a bald man being escorted away from Awol – looking furious. The pale man looked at the museum; he wanted to stay in there with her. He didn't want to run and hide in his castle; he wanted to protect her… Griffin felt a tug at his heart. He would have done it for the one he loved, but she was gone… "Shit," he mumbled to himself as he reached for his ear.
"Mr. Luthor, you have to reach a safe distance…" the officer at his right was repeating that for the fourth time.
"…Let S.W.A.T. handle it…" the officer on his left was saying for the fifth or sixth time.
S.W.A.T? Lex thought bitterly as they reached the bottom of the steps. You lying pieces of…
"Hey!" someone was shouting from behind them. All three turned around, it was the guy that called Lex Armani.
The man in black caught up to them, "He's mine." He raised his hand to separate Lex from the cop that held his right elbow.
"There must be some kind of mistake, this civilian is…" the cop on Lex's left elbow emphasized the word civilian.
"Listen, Pork Chop, we don't make mistakes. This civilian needs to be debriefed, he's – why am I explaining myself to you? Go hand out some parking tickets or beat on a minority or something," he gave a quick wave with his right hand as he grabbed Lex's right elbow with the hand he had placed there previously. He turned and began to pull Lex back toward the museum.
Lex pulled his elbow away from the man; he could walk himself – despite what they all obviously thought. The man gave him a sideways glance at the gesture. "Where are we going?" Lex leaned slightly closer to the man. There was a dull roar to speak over with all the bustling.
"You can go back with the rest of them, if you want," he offered. They both knew the answer to that was no.
Lex reached his right hand toward the man he was walking with. The man looked at it for a moment as they walked, before finally shaking it. Lex could tell that the hesitation wasn't because the man didn't know what to do – like when he did chivalrous things for Rhone – it was more out of distrust. "Lex Luthor, I appreciate what you are doing here…" he introduced himself.
The man responded, "Awol, and I'm just following orders."
The coat rack guy? Lex slowly withdrew his hand. "Rhone's orders?" Lex asked.
"No," Awol said with a sideways glance, "As soon as the last person was out, we lost contact. She probably took off the head set for this."
"For what?" Lex asked.
Awol shook his head, "Do you always ask so many damn questions?"
Lex gave him a pointed look as they approached an open-backed black Hummer with a number of monitors and electronics in the back. A man was standing with his back to them, his head down, looking at a monitor. Lex noticed that he was dressed in black, but not like the others. He was wearing a suit, an expensive suit…
"Here he is," Awol said as they came up behind the man.
The man turned, Lex's eyes were wide – the new money. He should have known. He wondered what Gell had revealed when he ripped open this man's shirt and what had dug into Lex's forehead, now there was only a few shreds of medical tape on his perfectly toned chest. It must have been some sort of microphone or surveillance device; that was how they knew to come here.
The man had his hand to his ear, "Then dispatch the chopper and find him." He removed his hand and allowed his attention to turn to Lex.
Lex took the initiative and held out his hand, "Lex Luthor."
He took it without the hesitation that Awol had. "Griffin," he said simply. Griffin turned and started to pull something out of the vehicle.
Lex raised his brow, The Griffin – The Always on the Phone with Rhone, Griffin.
"…Who…?" Lex didn't know how to ask. He didn't realize how horrible it was to be one of the people that got put behind the fences, one of the people that didn't get any information, one of the people left to wonder. He felt much better in front of this hi-tech Hummer, the potential of getting information as it happened.
"With Rhone out of touch, I'm in command," Griffin answered.
"Then I guess I owe you…" Lex began.
Griffin turned and with both hands, reached for Lex's head.
Lex instinctively jerked back.
Griffin gave a nervous and embarrassed look that said "oh, the bald thing." He held out his hands, showing Lex one of the hands-free headsets that the members of the E.I.F. were wearing.
Lex took the headset, "Thanks." He didn't specify if it was for allowing him to be here or if it was for the headset. Lex put the set on his head, occasionally someone would speak over it. From what he could tell, it was all people checking in, reporting locations, and other people saying things like "confirmed." It sounded like they were pursuing someone.
Griffin moved to the side and put a hand on Lex's shoulder to pull him closer to the Hummer. He felt Lex stiffen at his touch, but pointed to one of the five monitors that displayed crisp black and white images. They each showed a different angle of the museum hall Lex had come out of. On one of the screens, Rhone and Gell were circling one another. He had his fists in front of himself, like a boxer. She had open hands, one in front of her – elbow bent – and the other behind her in a similar position. "Your father must enjoy the museum, he spares little expense protecting it," Griffin said referring to the high resolution of the image on the monitor.
Awol snorted behind them. Lex and Griffin turned to face him.
"And why aren't you at your post?" Griffin asked.
"Griff…" Awol started.
"Rhone put you at the door," Griffin said.
"Are you kidding? You know that it's gonna be like – like Morpheus fighting Neo in there." Awol sounded as though he was appalled that it was even implied that he couldn't watch.
Griffin leaned close to Awol, "I'm taping it."
Lex had turned back to the monitors. They were still circling. What the hell were they doing? They were just looking at one another. He saw Awol leave out of the corner of his eye.
Griffin was beside him again. "It's nothing against you," Griffin said, referring to Awol's obvious distaste for Lex. Lex gave Griffin a look that allowed his skepticism to show through. "Your father…" Griffin began.
Lex let out a loud sigh as he put one of his hands in his pockets. "What are they doing?" Lex asked, pointing to Rhone on the monitor.
"Probably talking about old times, how they are going pound each other, affirming that this is a fight to the death…" Griffin was still looking at Lex.
Lex turned to Griffin with look of disbelief, "A fight to the death? What the hell is this, some kind of medieval…?"
There was movement on the screen and both men instantly turned their attention to it.