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Amoroso (3/4)
A Justice League Unlimited Story
by BillA1
Copyright April 2007
Rating: (PG-13)
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CHAPTER THREE
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Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. - Much Ado About Nothing
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(The Daily Planet)
The pizza was lukewarm, but it didn't stop Lois from having a third slice. She sat at her desk with her chair facing Clark's across the aisle. Clark sat facing her.
"What I can't figure out is how Manheim knew that I'd been to Omiex," she said.
Clark glanced out the window into the night sky as he picked a piece of pepperoni off his pizza and ate it. "Maybe the receptionist or Keel's agent called Moxie and told him you were there." He paused, taking a bite of his pizza. Something wasn't right. "But calling Moxie and his showing up to intimidate you would only confirm to the dumbest of the dumb that there was a connection to Intergang and that he was hiding it." He shook his head. "Would you show up to deny something that no one has accused you of?"
Lois didn't answer and instead stared at Clark like he had a third eye. "Dumbest of the Dumb, huh?"
"Come on. You know what I mean."
Lois was thoughtful for a moment, then put the uneaten crust of her pizza down. "Okay, Smallville. He denied Omiex was part of Intergang," she said, "but he didn't deny he had a connection to it."
They were both silent. Suddenly Lois brightened. "I wonder exactly who Mercy Graves sold Omiex to." She spun her chair around to face her desk and started searching company records.
"Good question," Clark said.
"Well, duh. That's why I asked it."
It was hard for Clark not to smile, but he held his expression flat. "Hmm, look here," she said. "LexCorp sold the company to Steed International. Seems like your investigator isn't working for Omiex, Omiex is working for her company."
Clark stood. "And who owns Steed International?"
Lois typed a little more and then chuckled. "You won't believe this. Steed International is a wholly owned subsidiary of LexCorp. Graves sold Omiex to a company she owned."
"I guess Luthor made a good choice in choosing her to run his empire." Clark turned away from her as he mumbled, "Maybe one of the last good decisions he made."
Lois smirked. Suddenly, the smile fell off her face, "You know, I wonder if we've been asking the wrong questions."
"Huh?"
"Maybe it's not about who benefits if the insurance company makes a payout, but rather about who benefits if the businesses are destroyed."
Clark considered what Lois said, recalling the trash removal trucks at the site he met Venus Smith. "Yeah, like the people who do the demolition work and the trash removal." He paused. "I saw a trash truck at two of the sites today. I think the name was Trashex."
Lois shook her head. "No, that's not what I meant, but hold on to that thought. I was talking about the building owner, not the tenant. He's also insured and gets paid for tenant damages to his building." She shuffled papers around on her desk, before looking up at Clark. "Do you have that list of buildings damaged in the last month?"
Clark went to his desk and returned with the list of businesses Venus Smith had given him. Lois keyed in the first ten addresses and then leaned back. "I smell an Excalibur Award coming up. All of these buildings have the same owner, Manheim Holding Company. The legal owner is listed as Bruno Manheim, Moxie's dead son. Any bet that Moxie owns the rest of the buildings?"
"No bet."
Clark pulled a business card out of his shirt pocket, glanced at it and then dialed the phone.
After two rings he heard, "Venus Smith."
"Miss Smith," he said. "Clark Kent here. Sorry to bother you at this hour, but I may be able to help you regarding the payout problems you've been having. But I need some information that you can get for me quicker than I can get it by other means."
"Kent, make it quick. I have work I have to do."
"This won't take long. I know your company is making insurance payments to the tenants. Are you also making payments to the property owners?"
"No. That's not us. Anything else?"
Clark paused, thinking that she sounded unusually curt. He glanced at his watch and realized it was almost eight o'clock. "Can you give me the name of the insurance companies that paid the building owners?"
"LexCo Insurance."
"LexCo Insurance," Clark repeated. He watched Lois type in the name. "Who else?" Clark said into the phone.
"That's it. LexCo insured all the damaged buildings." She paused. "They've paid out more than ten million so far."
"Miss Smith, you've been very helpful. I'll keep you updated."
"Kent, remember our deal. Nothing I said in print." Smith paused before adding, "Thought you might like to know, however, that I've endorsed paying the Keel claim."
Clark tapped Lois on the shoulder. She looked up as he continued, "Thanks for that bit of information, too, Miss Smith. I know Mr. Keel will be happy to know you've recommended payment of his claim."
"Good," Lois said as Clark hung up.
His eyes narrowed. "Manheim has collected more than ten million dollars from LexCo. I'll bet Moxie's concern about Omiex was a red herring to keep us focused on everyone else but him. I think he's destroying his own buildings for the insurance, probably to finance Intergang."
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(The next morning - the Batcave)
Bruce was exhausted. Something was definitely wrong, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it, aside from Shayera being at his mansion.
He leaned back in his chair in front of the Batcomputer staring blankly at the screen.
"Bats. Pick up. I've got a problem." Flash, on the private channel just for the seven of them.
"Tell me what you think the problem is," Bruce said, radiating as much irritation at being disturbed as he could.
"Let me put it this way. I think I made a fool out of myself with Vixen." There was panic in his voice.
"As opposed to what you regularly do, I suppose," Bruce answered.
"Bats, I'm serious. I tried to hit on Vixen, like, really hit on her, and I don't know why."
"You don't? Weren't you the one who said she was cute? Or were you just referring to the doll?"
"Come on. I mean, I know why, but I don't know why. This isn't making any sense, is it?"
First Shayera, then Flash. "My place. Ten Minutes."
"I'm in Central City. I was thinking more like one minute."
"Be here in ten minutes. No earlier. Batman out!"
Alfred placed a cup of coffee in front of Bruce. "What about your ... guest, sir?"
"Get her up. Give her coffee and breakfast upstairs and then escort her down here in an hour. Flash was right. There is a problem. I just need to confirm what it's not."
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Alfred placed the serving tray on the nightstand. Then he threw open wide the window curtains of the guest bedroom. The sunlight streamed in, brightening the room. The woman in the bed lay on her stomach, her wings extended past the edge of the bed, past the edge of the covers.
Alfred approached and gently shook the bed. "Miss? Miss Hol? Time to awake."
The woman stirred and then looked at Alfred with a look of horror and confusion. "What the --? Alfred? What's going on?"
She turned over, glanced under the sheets and the look of shock deepened. "Where are my clothes?" she demanded.
Alfred remained calm. "Good morning, Miss. Your clothing is hanging in the closet. Your weapon is next to the sitting chair in the corner."
Alfred noted that she looked at the mace first before she looked at the closet. "Where's Batman?"
"Master Bruce is downstairs with a visitor. Miss, permit me to ask if you remember any thing about last night?"
"No," she answered too quickly. Alfred suspected she was lying.
"I thought not, Miss," he continued. "You seemed very -- disoriented last night." He lifted the cover off the serving tray to reveal pancakes, bacon and coffee. "Please eat. Master Bruce would like to see you within the hour in the cave."
"Yeah, I bet. I want to see him too," she said sharply as she picked up a piece of bacon and took a bite.
"Miss, let me ease your mind," Alfred said in his softest voice. "Nothing occurred between you and Master Bruce last night. He brought you up here and left. I stayed in that chair all night," he said pointing to the sitting room chair in the corner. "To ensure you did not harm yourself."
"And who undressed me?"
Alfred's tone didn't change. "I'm afraid you did that yourself in the Batcave last night when Master Bruce returned from his rounds."
The look of shock returned to her face. "Nugjat Maj!" she mumbled.
"I believe those were the very words you spoke last night," Alfred said. Neither he nor Master Bruce knew exactly what the English translation was for the phrase she used, but he could guess at its meaning based on her state of undress and the look in eyes.
Her eyes widened. "Oh, no."
Her crestfallen look confirmed his thoughts. "Rest assured," he offered, "your honor was not compromised. Now please eat and get dressed. I'll come for you in forty-five minutes."
Her silence was Alfred's invitation to excuse himself.
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"I tell you, Bats, before I knew it I was in Australia, and the only thing that mattered was that I had to see Vixen. I'm lucky she didn't kill me and I'm not sure GL won't."
After Vixen told him how he behaved, Wally had done what he did best and he'd taken a run to try to clear his head and figure out what had happened and why. His conclusion after twenty-three laps of the planet: no idea.
"So, why come to me?" Bats said.
Wally's head hurt. "Because I don't know why I did what I did and I sure as hell can't go to anyone else to find out. I was hoping maybe there was something wrong with the ear pieces like when Luthor got control of the girls via a subsonic frequency."
"That's not it."
"You already checked?"
"I checked."
Wally let out a sigh of relief, then smirked. "Wait a minute. You were affected too, weren't you?"
Bats frowned. "Something affected us yesterday. We need to find out what. I want you to contact Lantern, Superman and Diana from the orbiting watchtower. Got that? From the orbiting Watchtower communication room using the private channels. We'll meet back here in two hours."
"What about Shayera?"
"I'll contact her," Bats said. He turned back to his computer console.
A wide grin crossed Wally's face. "I see."
"Shouldn't you be moving?" Bats said without looking up.
Wally smirked and zipped out the cave.
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Shayera came down the stairs escorted by Alfred. Bruce continued to enter data into the computer.
"Will you being requiring anything else, sir?" Alfred asked.
"Yes, delay my Paris trip until tomorrow morning, Alfred."
"Yes, sir."
Alfred turned to leave, but stopped when Shayera tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Thank you." Alfred offered a quick smile and then left.
Alfred was near the top of the stairs when Bruce spun his chair around so he faced Shayera. She lowered her head to avoid his eyes as she said, "Alfred said I made quite a fool of myself last night."
She looked up in time to see Bruce's eyes widened in disbelief. "Well, he didn't say it in those words," she corrected. "But he implied --"
"That you were amorous?" Bruce interjected. "Lecherous? Lewd? Lustful? Stop me if you hear one you like."
Shayera frowned. "I got your point. Just how big a fool did I make of myself -- and don't you dare answer on a scale of one to ten."
"It wasn't just you. Something has affected all of us. Thankfully, the effects seem to be temporary."
"All of us? That would explain Diana."
"Diana?"
Shayera shook her head as she took out her earpiece. "She was in my ear for hours yesterday. I do remember turning it off before coming here."
Bruce's expression was flat. He knew what Shayera was saying, but he didn't want his face to betray him. "How much about last night do you remember?" he asked.
"I remember coming here and then not much else. According to Alfred, I took my clothes off in front of you when you came back from your patrol."
"Not quite," Bruce said. "You were already naked when I first saw you."
She lowered her head again and sighed. Bruce paused to consider just how big a fool he would have made out of himself if he'd found Selina last night.
"I knew something was wrong when I saw you here last night," he continued. "It was clear you weren't yourself. So I gassed you with knockout gas."
"You what?" Any embarrassment she had was replaced with anger.
"You weren't happy about that either, but I didn't want you running all over Gotham underdressed. Let me see your earpiece."
Shayera handed Bruce her earpiece. He noted her mouth was drawn into a tight line, her brow furrowed as he placed the earpiece on an oscilloscope and then handed it back to her. "It's clean."
"What were you looking for?" Shayera paused. "Wait. I got it. You wanted to make sure it wasn't receiving a signal besides ours."
Bruce nodded. "Put it back in your ear." He waited for her to do so, then said, "When I give you the signal I want you to say: 'I'm on my way.'"
Shayera's eyes narrowed as Bruce pressed his earpiece. "Batman to Shayera. Meet me at my place in one hour."
He nodded at her and she parroted: "I'm on my way." Shayera pointed to her earpiece. "Why?"
Bruce turned back to his computer. "Where you are is nobody's business but ours. To the others it will sound as if you are on your way here and not that you spent the night here."
Shayera smiled. "Thank you. I don't know what else to say except --" She frowned and put her finger in air signaling: wait.
Then she sighed deeply. "Yes, Diana, I'm on my way to Batman's place. Yes, Diana, I can talk to you when you get here. Yes, Diana, I promise. Okay." She turned to Bruce and frowned.
"Amazon trouble?" he smirked.
"Real funny. You sound like you're jealous."
Bruce frowned. "Not jealous, but it confirms what I thought."
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