LVIII
A Visit to the Hospital
Lex Luthor, along with twenty hand-picked, heavily-armed secret service agents, crowded the hallway on the top floor of the Inova Fairfax hospital in Washington, D.C. He had dismissed the previous guards standing outside of Secretary of Defense's private room and had arranged this little rendezvous very quickly and quietly. The true investigation of the League started now.
Taking four of his most trusted men, he entered the room, turning to issue a command to the men standing outside the door.
"Anyone who attempts to enter this room in the next 20 minutes… execute them." His men nodded.
The rotund form of Secretary of Defense O'Neil lay on the bed in a blue hospital gown, various monitors beeping around him. He seemed genuinely surprised to see the acting president.
"…Lex? This is a surprise!"
"Yes, with the events of this morning, I had a few questions, Chuck." Luthor set down the briefcase he was carrying and lifted the man's medical chart from the foot of the bed.
"No need to worry Mr. President. No heart attack… figure it was just gas. Go figure, huh? God works in mysterious ways, I guess. I'll be cleared for work tomorrow. I know there's a lot to do. We've got a nation to put back together."
"Oh, I was never worried Mr. Secretary. I just wanted to see which medications they had you on, that's all. Apparently very few." From the hospital window, Luthor looked out across the evening skyline of Washington D.C. "Great view you have here, Chuck. Far enough away, but close enough to see the flash. Quite a show this morning."
"I was as shocked as anyone when they told me…"
"I highly doubt that." Luthor opened his briefcase and carefully brought out a syringe filled with an ominous, yellowish liquid. "I wasn't flipping through your chart out of concern, Mr. Secretary. Certain medications cause unfortunate interactions with… this." Luthor tipped the syringe's needle upwards and gave a tiny squeeze to eliminate any air bubbles. He was cautious not to get the spilled drops close to him.
"Luthor… c'mon. You can't think that I had anything to do with… what happened?!" There was panic in the fat man's eyes.
"Strap him down, gentlemen." As his men strapped Secretary O'Neil to his hospital bed, Luthor continued…
"In my hands, I hold the Hoffner truth serum. I'm quite sure you've never heard of it, very few people have. A work of pure genius, created by a neurochemist far ahead of his time. I've eliminated the unnecessary bits… twenty-four hours was such a long time to wait for someone to die. And there will be no insanity, you'll simply fade into a peaceful coma, after you tell me everything you know about the League of Assassins. Our little discussion begins in…" Luthor injected the syringe into the IV port,"…two minutes."
"You sick bastard! I'll never tell you anything!" spat the bound man.
"Yes… you will. You see Chuck, I know someone sabotaged the security on our early warning systems this morning. And I know that someone was you. You allowed David Cain just to drop right on through. I take attempts on my life very seriously."
"I've only seen the light. I'll be dead within sssekonddsss, Loootthherrr..." Their captive wheezed the last two words through a throat suddenly drawn tight.
"Hold him! He's having a seizure!"
Luthor watched as the Secretary's mouth curled into an eternal smile...Mocking him. The fat man's neck muscles tightened like guide wires and his back began to arch in a death throe. Luthor's truth serum was now coursing through O'Neil's frontal and temporal lobes - making resistance futile - but dead man tell no tales.
And the Secretary of Defense was dead.
"Pack him up, gentlemen. I will need a full autopsy. It appears he died of some neurotoxin other than mine." Luthor packed up his syringe and made for the door.
No one had seen the HI-MEMS bedbug deliver its deadly charge or heard the sixteen secret service agents outside the door suddenly drop like flies…
Author's Notes:
Secretary of Defense Chuck O'Neil takes his name from Chuck Dixon and Dennis "Denny" O'Neil, two of the better known Batman writers.