Strange Men In Black Suits
Chapter 8 of The Blue S
Inspector Henderson felt squeezed. On one hand was a shadowy government agency who had framed Supergirl for arson. On the other hand was Supergirl. She had arrived with Superman, causing quite a stir in the department.
"I can't do it, Superman." Henderson braced palms on his desk "I can't defy a court order. There will be no truth drug."
Superman, arms crossed, looked down in thought. "Then let's meet halfway, Bill. I'm not a doctor, but I could do it myself with instruction on dosage and technique."
Henderson stubbornly shook his head. "I can't just give it away. Every vial is accounted for in a special inventory." Nearby, Supergirl juggled his safe. She was one for action rather than diplomacy. If she dropped that thing . . . "Uh, Supergirl—"
Windows rattled, and the floor vibrated when she set it down. To Henderson's surprise, she levitated onto the desk, looked down at him.
"You needn't be part of the equation, Inspector. Just tell me where it is."
Superman lifted shoulders noncommittally.
"Are you sure, Supergirl?" Henderson jotted down a few items for her. "You've only just cleared yourself of arson. Do you want to be labeled a thief?"
She floated back down, accepted the paper. "When am I not in trouble here in Metropolis?"
Henderson nodded. "Okay, but you'd better work fast. I had a visitor this morning with a court order for the girl's release. I asked him to whom I was releasing her. He said it wasn't my concern. We've got twenty four hours to hand her over."
"Where's the ladies room?" From inside her cape, Supergirl withdrew a wig, dress, and heels. "I may do some damage while escaping with the goods, but no one will get hurt."
Henderson traded glances with Superman.
The Man of Steel closed eyes briefly and lifted brows. He was out of this. "My cousin is a type A go-getter."
Hours later, the duo were in the secret chamber designated for those in witness protection. Kara was once again in costume. She and Superman had a pass from Henderson, and were admitted by an unsuspecting guard.
Dressed in prison gray, the girl retreated behind the conference table, looking from one to the other.
Kara held up a syringe between two fingers. No words were exchanged between the former adversaries for a few seconds.
"So," the girl said. "It's to be poison?"
"No such thing," Superman replied. "Actually, your ride is waiting. But first, a few questions."
She wore a doomed look. "Truth drug." Seeing no way out, she sat down.
Kara moved to her side. "Just relax, 'Supergirl'." She made the injection.
Superman perused some data snatched by Kara in her escape from the inventory room, after which she'd made a new exit in a side wall. So far, no one had connected it with the two Kryptonians. "We'll give it time to take effect. It says here to start with easy questions. The harder the question, the more the resistance."
The subject had head back as if dozing.
Kara started with routine questions like name, age, place of residence. Then: "Why does the CIA want to discredit me?"
"Not . . .CIA."
Superman was equally surprised. "So we have an agency even more secretive than those people. That's scary."
More probing extracted the location of an abandoned Air Force base at the north pole, where there wasn't supposed to be any. But the girl wouldn't name her handlers, and passed out from the strain.
"That's that," Superman said. "Is it enough?"
Kara disposed of the syringe in her cape. "I'll handle it, Kal. You've got your crime fighting to do. I'll shadow whoever comes to collect her."
Next day, a patient Kara watched from atop police headquarters as a black limo pulled in. Curiously, two men in black suits emerged, wearing black hats and sunglasses. Kara waited until they returned with their agent, now wearing a paisley dress. They drove away, with Kara high above, alert for anything like a vehicle switch. At length, the car arrived at a two-story with an automatic garage door opener.
By the time she swooped in, her X-ray vision showed both car and house to be empty. She broke the garage door down and tore off one of the car doors. Nothing. Belatedly she noticed the hatch the car had parked atop. She flung the car aside, which smashed out the side of the building, and pulled off the steel lid.
Landing below in darkness, Kara took a moment to orient. Dim light filtered through cracks in the ancient masonry. This was an old underground rail system. It had tunnels branching everywhere. Her super hearing picked up nothing but the moan of wind through the system.
She'd been tricked.
She burst out the tunnel roof to stand in a side courtyard, where the limo lay on its side.
Stalking toward it, Kara looked inside on a hunch. Sure enough, it was equipped for remote control. The passengers had dropped through a convenient sewer tap on the street, using a hatch in the car's floor.
Kara clenched fists. "All right, you men in black. I'll see you at the north pole."
End chapter 8