There were some seriously big heavy hitters of the League gathered in Wayne Manor tonight. Arthur Curry, King of Atlantis and Diana Prince, Princess of Themiscyra. The last time Lois had seen those two in a room together had been when Hades had gotten too big for his own boots and had tried to flee Tartarus. That had been four years ago, so seeing the two of them here, and at Bruce's call no less, must mean that something was up. Lois looked at Clark, and could see that he had come to the same conclusion. His posture was rigid, he remained standing, though he stood next to the seat Lois had decided to occupy.
Bruce looked at her and then at Clark, grey was starting to show in his hair, and lines were appearing under his eyes. He'd recently celebrated his forty-fourth birthday, Lois remembered it, it had been quite the affair, with lots of food and drink to be had, she'd been there in an official capacity of course. She would never know why Perry insisted on having her cover Bruce's social events. She shook her head to clear her thoughts as Bruce spoke. "Thank you all for coming. Clark, Lois, I'm sorry to drag you away from the festivities. I know you would rather have been spending time talking to some of the other parents." Clark grimaced and Lois grinned, they'd have done nothing of the sort. "Arthur, Diana, thank you for clearing your busy schedules. I wouldn't have asked you here if it weren't important."
"Get to the point, Bruce." Arthur grumbled. AC had been a jovial and boisterous young man, always making jokes and generally being the life of the party, then he'd learned more about his heritage, and the boy Lois had known in Smallville had disappeared. This grim and serious fellow who sat before her, was what had replaced him.
Bruce inclined his head and continued. "I've received credible evidence that President Matthews has been receiving bribes from several criminal organisations." Immediately Lois knew why she was here, she got her phone out and started making notes. Bruce smiled when he saw. "I've been keeping an eye on him and his people, every day at five in the evening, he leaves the White House and makes his way toward the docks. There without fail he has met two men, one wearing a white hat, and the other a joggers hat. They've talked for about an hour, and when they're done, the President leaves. After every conversation there's been roughly another four thousand dollars in his account logged in the Caymans."
"You've been keeping an eye on the President of the United States' accounts?" Clark asked incredulously.
Bruce said nothing to that, and kept going. "And as I am sure you are aware, two days ago the President and Congress agreed that Serial Four Businesses will be granted selling privileges within the United States."
"So, you think the men the President has been meeting are from Serial Four, and that they've been paying him off for a while now, so that when this bill was put before Congress, the President would have every reason to get it passed." Lois surmised.
"Yes. The President has just been re-elected, but mid-terms are coming next year, and he will want the house and senate both controlled by the Democrats, so as to ensure a smoother passage for his legislative agenda. Serial Four donate to several big campaigns on the trail, and have already managed to get the Senators for Iowa and New Hampshire to announce that they won't be running again." Bruce said. "Which means that friendlier candidates will be put up, making the President's life that much easier."
"In return for what though?" Clark asked.
"There is an arm of Serial Four that sells arms to all sorts, there is another arm that runs drugs." Bruce said.
"And they're going to be allowed to continue selling these things without fear of prosecution." Lois added, disgust colouring her tone. "I take it that you asked me here to do some digging of my own to see what I could turn up?"
"Yes. You and Clark both. The more information we have, the more protection we have." Bruce replied.
"You think that the President will get too strong?" Clark asked. Then he answered his own question. "Of course, with both houses controlled by the Democrats and with Serial Four essentially running point for him, nobody on the right side of the law would dare threaten him."
Lois took her husband's hand. She knew that he had never liked that these things happened. There were times she wished he would stop being the boy scout and use his powers as Superman to end such things. But then that would likely go against the law, at least the methods she'd want him to use would.
"That's all well and good, but unless these fools are going to start looking for Themiscyra or Atlantis I am not sure why Diana and I are here." Arthur interjected, his patience clearly running low.
Lois looked at Bruce, then at Arthur and said. "Serial Four isn't going to rest with just the States, they're going to look to expand even further. That means the water and that means finding lands that everyone thinks are just fairy tales. They will come for your homes and your people and they will have the might of the United States behind them."
"Lois is right." Bruce said. "Serial Four is already looking to get into oil and exploration. The President is going to announce a new bid for renewable materials contracts, all of which are going to go to Serial Four. They will take their ships and they will go looking for you, Arthur. You need to be prepared, and you need to make sure that diplomacy is used, not force."
"If they invade my waters, I will respond how I see fit." Arthur snapped.
"And then there will be war, which will benefit Serial Four even more. Please, Arthur, use that silver tongue of yours, and make sure that the people of Atlantis don't try and kill anyone." Bruce said.
"I will do my best." Arthur conceded.
Diana nodded as well, she rarely said anything unless she felt it needed to be said, that was one of the reasons that Lois liked Diana Prince, she knew when to speak. Something that some diplomats could learn. An idea came to Lois then and she said. "What about the UK? I don't think the President or Serial Four would dare try anything in British Waters if they knew that such a thing would not be welcome. The President and Congress might see that government as weak, but the American people know the value of that alliance."
Bruce pondered over what she had said, whilst Clark took her hand and squeezed, smiling. They both knew that a word from the Palace and whatever nefarious plans Serial Four might have had would be scuppered for a time. "Clark, do you think you could?" Bruce asked.
Clark nodded. "I'll see what I can do. I am sure Her Majesty will be happy to put the boot in." Lois snorted, she'd met the Queen once or twice before, and given Clark's connections, through his parents' she had a very good idea that the Queen would be more than happy to oblige.
"Very well then." Bruce said. "However, Serial Four might not stop. They will have learned a thing or two from how Intergang worked. And how it failed. They will have planned for almost every sort of thing that we could throw at them, and so we must make sure we have every piece of information possible before we make our move."
"Who exactly runs this thing?" Lois asked.
Bruce raised and lowered a shoulder. "I do not know. None of my searches have turned up anything. I thought that the Pulitzer prize winning Missus Kent would know where to look for such a thing."
Lois smirked. "Well if that was the other thing you wanted me to do, you could simply had written an email, you know."
Bruce shook his head. "Too risky, I don't know who's watching the servers. Dick found someone trying to trace Oracle's activities, two nights ago. They claimed to be working for Serial Four."
"So, they're looking into you, as well?" Lois asked.
"Now that you mention it, someone did do a sweep of some of the accounts Atlantis holds on the land. Someone named James Faust was the one responsible for the searches." Arthur said. "I questioned him and he said he didn't know who had paid him the money, simply that he'd been paid to look into the accounts we held."
"You got rid of the accounts?" Lois asked, it would make some sense, who knew what sort of stuff the Atlanteans kept in their vaults, still for a King to do it, well that did look suspicious.
"Yes, I didn't want anyone else to come looking around. Especially not Matthews. The man does not understand the borders between the surface world and mine. He has refused to understand them." Arthur replied.
"A smart move." Bruce replied. "Matthews and Serial Four will look for any reason to move into unknown territory."
"Then perhaps we had best gather as much information as possible before they get the chance to do anything more." Diana said. "I shall contact my mother and alert her to what is happening. I will also speak with William Trevor, he will know whether the Senate is as behind the President's agenda as he seems to think they are."
Lois made a note of that, it still took her by surprise that Diana knew so many influential people on the Hill. Then again, Wonder Woman had been around for a very, very long time. "Mister Trevor's friend Mister La Brie has links to Luthor Corp, perhaps they might also be someone we should look at." Lois suggested. She had never quite understood Lex Luthor, but he and Clark were friends, and she suspected he knew that Clark was Superman. Regardless, Lex would never want some group like Serial Four coming in, not only were they unethical, they were a threat to business.
Bruce shook his head. "No, not yet, Lex Luthor is getting close to President Matthews, I think we should keep him distant from anything we do here. The less he knows the better."
Clark frowned. "You can't truly think that Lex is in on whatever it is that the President is doing, can you Bruce? He was the one who helped expose his father's role in Intergang."
"Clark's right." Lois said. "Intergang was one of the biggest threats to International Security to be discovered in years, and with Lionel Luthor locked up, things have gotten a lot safer."
Bruce didn't look convinced. "We still don't know who was supplying Intergang, or why they decided to start operations in the first place. Lex providing the evidence needed to lock up his father and Mannheim was great, but he hasn't provided everything."
"What do you mean he hasn't provided everything? How many documents do you want him to produce?" Lois asked.
"It's not about the documents." Bruce replied stubbornly.
"Then what is it about?" Lois demanded.
"It's about the fact he waited for so long to come forward. It's about the fact that we still don't know whether he provided every single piece of information. And yes, it is also about the fact that he's getting close to President Matthews." Bruce replied.
"I think there is also some justification in being cautious about Lex Luthor, mainly because he is a businessman first and foremost." Diana said. "And I know you and he are friends Clark, but there are some things that even friends don't tell one another." She gave Bruce a pointed look, at which Lois could have sworn he blushed.
Before the matter could be pursued anymore, Lois felt her phone beep, she pulled it out and looked at it. "Clark, we've got to go. Jonathan's done."
Clark nodded, helped her stand, they said their goodbyes to the others and then made their way to the car. Once they were inside and the car had started moving, Clark spoke. "What do you think?"
"I think Serial Four sounds an awfully lot like Intergang. And I want to know why." Lois replied.