Superman and The Shadow Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 0.5 18/26
Rated PG-13
/ “text”/ indicates telepathic communication
*text* indicates bold
<text> indicates thoughts
{text} indicates over the telephone
Universal Locator designation Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 – Prime
Universal Locator designation Alpha 025 x Gamma - 086 x Tau 142 Alt 25 Shadow
Preeviously
Later, back at Lois’s apartment, Clark challenged, “You were taking advantage of the situation back there in the newsroom.”
“You are the one that said that you and Lois are affectionate. Because of this situation with Leigh-Anne and Jesse, our relationship was strained and I’m sure it was obvious to everyone in the newsroom. I felt that we needed to reestablish our bona fides. Besides … I was enjoying it.”
“The problem is that … I was enjoying it too. Perhaps a little too much. Sometimes, I find it hard to separate you from Lois and I am afraid that the longer this goes on, the harder it is going to be.”
“It has been a couple of weeks. How long will it take for this Tempus character to think he made a mistake?”
“Who knows. Another week, a month, a year…”
“In that case, I suggest that we simply let things happen naturally. I’m going to go change for my class.” She smiled to belie her words as she moved down the hall, “No peeking.”
Clark blushed at the thought that she actually wanted him to peek.
A few minutes later, she came out in just the spandex mini shorts and top. She struck a pose and asked, “Do you like what you see?”
Clark flushed and replied, “What’s not to like. You’re beautiful. Every bit as beautiful as Lois.”
She crossed to him and throwing her arms around his neck started a deep soulful kiss. As he wrapped his arms around her, all he could feel was the flesh of her naked back. His hands drifted down until he was cupping the cheeks of her buttocks.
She moaned into his mouth and she deepened the kiss even farther.
Coming to himself, Clark released her and backing away, said, “This is too fast. We need to give Lois time to get back.”
Striking another pose, right there in the very brief workout gear, Margot said, “Aren’t I pretty enough for you?”
He stepped back and said, “Oh, yes. Yes, you are, but so is Lois and Lois is my fiancée. I think it’s time for your class.”
Dejectedly, she said, “Yeah, my class,” as she turned away to get her gi.
And now:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 18 –
1995
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Universal Locator designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 – Prime
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Flashback 1993
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Deep under the city of Metropolis there were some long abandoned coal mines so old that didn’t even appear on subsurface maps. The rails of the coal trolleys created paths down the center of each tunnel. The signs of age were everywhere from the rusted rails to stalactites and stalagmites that had been formed by dripping water.
A discordant note was struck by the quiet hum of modern machinery. The hum was coming from an alcove off to one side of the main tunnel. This alcove had been specially reinforced and braced to withstand any possible earth tremor or quake.
A close examination by a mythical observer of the equipment wouldn’t reveal very much. Most of the equipment was in sealed containers of a bright, non-rusted metal. There were three boxes shaped eerily like coffins, seven feet long and three feet wide and deep. Pipes ran to each of them from a central device that filled most of the rest of the alcove. On the face of the larger unit was a very sophisticated clock that registered, not hours and minutes, but days, months and years.
As the clock turned over to May 07, 1993 there was a change in the sound within the room. The sound of pumps could be heard, if anyone had been there to hear it as well as the sound of liquid moving through pipes. Suddenly, a series of lights blazed into existence along the sides of the three boxes.
The next thing our mythical observer would have seen was the lids on the three boxes lever themselves open. As they did clouds of vapor escaped. If our mythical observer had been there he would have observed the contents. He would have been amazed to see three naked, apparently lifeless bodies, two men and a woman. Our mythical observer would then have noticed that each was in their mid-twenties, blond and and athletic. The woman was well proportioned and endowed and could have been a winning contestant in any beauty pageant. Slowly, as the vapor escaped, the temperature within the boxes increased and signs of respiration would have been noted. The three were alive!
The final item of note would have been the symbol emblazoned on the inside of each of the lids - the Nazi eagle clutching a swastika.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Sometime later, the door of an old apparently abandoned garage opened and three individual, two men and a woman, dressed in clothes that were slightly out of style stepped into the daylight. At first they were dazzled by the bright sunlight, but their eyes adapted quickly. Across the street they saw a large crane lifting a billboard into place. The billboard was an advertisement for the
Daily Planet.
Looking around in wonder, the woman threw out her arms and said, “We made it.”
One of the men crossed to a newspaper dispenser and read the directions. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out a quarter and dropped it into the slot. When he tried to open the cover however; it resisted his efforts. In his frustration he jiggled the handle, but it still would not open. He muttered, “Some things never change.”
In a show of extraordinary strength, the second man approached and with a wrench, opened the cover and said, “There you go, Hank.”
“Thanks, Steve.”
Suddenly, the woman coughed, attracting their attention. With her eyes, she indicated a man watching them interestedly. Turning to the man, Steve asked, “What're you staring at, bub?” Thus accosted the man slunk away.
Hank divided up the paper and as he handed it out said, “Here you go Lisa. Some for you, Steve. Let’s see what’s happening, shall we?”
Hank read the headlines aloud, “Democrats and Republicans Deadlocked over Budget." Here’s another one, "Congress votes new pay raise."
Disheartened, Lisa dropped her arms to her sides and said, “We lost.”
Hank nodded and added, “And America won.”
Steve was the obvious leader of the trio. He declared, “But we will correct that. Nothing can stop
us.”
Suddenly there was a commotion and they became witnesses to one of Superman’s early rescues. One of the ropes on the billboard separated. There had been numerous passers-by among them a grandmother with her granddaughter. Unfortunately at the first shout, the little girl had dropped her teddy as her grandmother tried to pull her away from the danger, but she broke away and went back for her teddy. As she picked it up, she was directly beneath the falling billboard. Just then, Superman landed next to her and caught the falling billboard. As the little girl started up at Superman in awe, the crowd of spectators started to clap and cheer at the rescue as the grandmother came out to claim her charge.
Most of the spectators had seen, at least on TV, Superman perform rescues before, but not the trio across the street. The three stared in amazement and Steve muttered, “Gott im Himmel. Ein Super Mann.”
Hank nudged him and in an undertone said, “Speak English.”
The three watched, unmoving, until Superman flew off.
As he was disappearing from view, Steve repeated, “Super Man.”
The three are astonished at what they see – the crowd, most of them smiling, go right about their business, as if this were an everyday occurrence.
Hank asked, “What if there are more like him in America?”
Steve, set his jaw and replied, “Then that is just one more obstacle we must overcome. “
Lisa found herself strangely attracted to the flying man, but curiously, asked, “Why are his undergarments on the outside?”
All three tensed as a sleek black limo pulled to a stop in front of them. The rear door opened and a vibrant, tanned 64 year old man stepped out. As he did, he said, “Hail the New Reich. I'm Senator Truman Black. We've been waiting a long time. Won't you get in?”
They only hesitated a few seconds and then they entered the limo.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
End flashback
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It had been over a month since the adventure with Leigh-Anne and Jesse and faux Margot was beginning to think that this switch was never going to be straightened out. She continued with daily karate lessons and had progressed three levels and was now wearing a blue belt. She felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment in achieving this level of competency. The school that she was attending was different from the one Lois attended and in place of the brown belt they awarded a red one. It would be several weeks before she tested for her red belt. Because of the daily classes, she had progressed rapidly.
One evening, Faux Lois and Clark were in Lois’s apartment talking and she said, “My hair is starting to get a little too long. I like to keep it short so that it is easy and quick to deal with. Where does Lois have her hair done?”
“We’ll check Lois’s roll-a-dex when we get to work tomorrow. Have you been practicing her signature?”
“Yes. I think I can sign her name as well as she can.”
“Good.” He crossed to Lois’s desk and pulled out her checkbook. “This is the next step. We cancelled all of her credit cards and had new ones issued. We got you a replacement driver’s license. Now the credit card bills are coming due. You need to write checks to cover the bills.”
She smirked and said, “Oh, you mean that all that stuff wasn’t free?”
“No. the credit card system allows you to pay for goods and services with credit. The bank fronts the money, but you have to reimburse the bank.” He picked up a stack of bills that had accumulated on the desk. “These represent your expenditures this month. Now you have to sit down and write checks to pay off these accounts. Your paycheck is automatically deposited in the bank, so the money is already there.”
“I guess I had better do that now, huh?”
“Yes, it would be recommended. If you don’t you could ruin Lois’s credit.”
As she wrote out the checks, she contemplated the situation. It had now been over a month since the switch had occurred and personally, she felt that perhaps she was the beneficiary in the switch, after all, Clark was soooooo much better than Lamont. He couldn’t be hurt the way Lamont could. He treated her so well, bringing her treats from Europe, dinner from China or Thailand and … the flying! She couldn’t get enough of flying with him. It didn’t matter where or why, she just loved being up there with him, alone, just the two of them, in the sky, without a care in the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The next morning, Clark had picked up faux Lois a few minutes early and they had decided to walk to work. Faux Lois was adapting to her role as Lois Lane nicely and they were holding hands as they strolled along. They were approaching a music store and they were playing music
Sing, Sing, Sing over speakers at the front of the store. Faux Lois said, “Hear that? No that’s my kind of music. Lamont and I dance to swing all the time. That’s Benny Goodman!” They say that he’ll be playing Carnegie Hall next year! Uh, I mean, he played there in 1938. As that song finished they started playing a current country favorite Hank West’s
Big as the USA. They caught a line or two,
"My love for you is as big as the U.S.A.,
And I love you both in the same ol' fashioned wayyy,
I'll fight for my country and I'll,
fight for you,”Our mythical observer from almost three years ago would have recognized the picture on the poster outside the music store as that of Hank, one of the trio that had emerged from underground in 1993.
As they walked, Clark read the headline from the morning edition, “'
Four Indicted in National Intelligence Agency Scandal. By Lois Lane and Clark Kent.“ He squeezed her hand and added, “You’re picking up on this reporting job amazingly quickly. You’ve only been doing it for a few weeks and Perry is already sending you out solo.”
“I prefer to work with you, though.”
Faux Lois demonstrated just how much she was adapting to her new situation as they were passing a bridal salon. She spotted a dress in the window, she pointed first at one and then another and said, “Oh, look. Look. Isn't that adorable? Oh, and that one, I really like that one.
Clark still had his mind on the story and simply agreed out of habit before he actually said what he was thinking, “That's nice. Yep, I bet they're not too happy with us over at the NIA right now. Probably kinda ticked.”
As the weeks had passed, faux Lois had become more reconciled to her new position and was actually liking it. She couldn’t be sure that she would ever get back to Lamont and a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, so she had decided to make the best of the situation. She said, “You know, Clark, we should be booking a church
now. I mean, if you want to get married in a church. Or, we could go non-traditional; do it someplace else, but not too weird because I always kinda felt that really wasn't me.” She looked at him hopefully before she finished, “Unless it was you. “
Clark snapped out of his musings about the story and realized what she had been saying. He stopped and faced her, “You know that we haven’t given it enough time yet. You may still be going home, to Lamont and Lois may be returning. I haven’t given up hope yet.”
She pleaded, “Look at it this way. If I get a dress and we make the arrangements, then they are done when she returns. If she doesn’t then we go through with the plans. If she returns … well … maybe we won’t exchange places or maybe we will. Maybe she will marry Lamont. Did you think about that?”
Shaking his head, Clark replied, “She would never marry Lamont, at least as long as there is any hope of returning.”
“But there are so many things to do…”
“Invitations…”
“Catering…”
“The band.”
“I want a swing band. Oh, my God, we are so far behind.”
“On the bright side, we haven’t set a date and we aren’t going to, just yet.”
Faux Lois tried one more time, “We’re late on that too.”
Clark started to object, “Actually, I think it would still be a bit…” He was interrupted by the crunch of metal and the sound of a car horn going off. Looking around, he saw a car that had ploughed into a parked car. The driver was slumped over the wheel. He looked at faux Lois and then both of them ran to the car.
Clark was the first one there. Gently he reached in and placed his palm against the man’s chest and pushed him upright away from the steering wheel. As he did, the horn stopped sounding. “Sir? Sir, are you all right?” Seeing that he was remaining upright, Clark removed his hand and when he withdrew it, noticed that there was blood on his palm. He noticed that the man was drifting in and out of consciousness. He said, “Lois, call for help.”
He could hear faux Lois drawing in a deep breath to shout and stopped her, “Use the phone … in your bag.”
That stopped her and reaching into her bag, pulled out the cell phone. As she opened it, she said, “I’ll call an ambulance.”
Even before she was able to finish dialing, they heard a siren and saw an ambulance approaching.
The injured man protested, “Police. Call … police.”
Clark tried to reassure him, “Don’t worry, sir. Help is on its way.”
As it pulled to a stop, Clark noted that it wasn’t a municipal ambulance. Emblazoned on the side was “
SPEEDY AMBULANCE SERVICE”.
The man, even though he was in pain, was urgent as he said, “No! A bomb in the basement…”
Faux Lois asked, “The basement? Basement of what?”
As two ambulance attendants leaped from the ambulance and dragged out the stretcher, he managed to say, “Metropolis … Trade Tower
The attendants finally reach the car and open the door to remove the occupant. As they do, he recognizes them and in an agitated state shouts, “No! Help!”
The female attendant slapped a bandage on the apparent chest wound while the male takes his blood pressure.
The female attendant said, “It’s going to be all right, sir.” Then to the male she said, “Ned, we have a single GSW to the chest.”
Ned replied, “Karen, his BP is dropping … ninety over sixty. Pulse 120.” He applied the stethoscope to his chest and listened for a few seconds. “No rales.”
The man shouted, “No, don’t let them take me. They’re…”
Whatever he was going to say was muffled by the oxygen mask that Karen placed over his face. He continued to try to struggle against them, but eventually his eyes closed and they moved him to the stretcher.
Faux Lois tried to reassure him, “They'll take good care of you. They're taking you to the hospital.”
Hearing faux Lois, Karen added, “And we'll have you there in no time.”
Ned added, “That's right! Don't try to speak right now. Save your strength.”
As the man passed out, Karen and Ned loaded him into the back of the ambulance.
Clark looked at faux Lois and they exchanged a silent communication. He said, “Lois…”
And she replied, simply, “Go.”
No sooner had she said this than he ran off, loosening is tie as he did. She watched the ambulance as it pulled away and then she put up her arm and shouted, “Taxi!”
Almost immediately one screeched to a halt next to her, she climbed in and said, “Metropolis Trade Tower.”
Five minutes later, she had paid off the cab and made her way to the basement of the Trade Tower. She was picking her way around large pieces of equipment as she shouted, “Superman?”
She was rewarded by hearing, “Over here.”
She followed the sound of his voice and found him squatting on the floor in an open area examining something on the floor. “Find anything?”
Shaking his heads, he replied, “Nothing. I x-rayed the whole place. Nothing... except this.”
Faux Lois knelt down next to him and said, “I recognize that. It’s coal dust, Very common in my time for heating houses and large buildings. What would it be doing here? This is a modern building. I’m sure it never saw a coal furnace.”
“Exactly.”
They looked at one another and then both headed out.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
When they return to the bullpen, Steve, the sports writer was reviewing a tape of an interview that the sportscaster of LSPN had done the previous weekend. The interview had been done in the locker room immediately after the Metropolis Tigers latest win. There was a lot of exuberant hollering and waving of fingers in the No. one sign as they zoomed in on the interviewer and the quarterback of the Tigers, Steve Law. He was responding to a question, “All I can say is, look out 49'ers! We're going to clean your socks!”
There were even more boisterous cheers in the background as Steve turned away. The camera centered on the sportscaster ad he said, “Well, whether Steve Law means 'socks' or 'clocks', the 49'ers had better look out because the long arm of the Law is going to the Superbowl!”
Jimmy and a newbie, Skip Wallace had been interested observers along with Steve. As the clip finished, Steve turned away and said, sarcastically “Nice speech, Steve…”
Jimmy reprimanded him, “Hey, don't make fun of him, he's my man. Steve can do no wrong.”
Skip loaded on, “He’s going all the way.”
Steve was unimpressed and replied, “In an alternate universe,” and walked away.
Skip, said, snidely, “What a dip.”
Changing the subject, Jimmy asked, “So, Skip-meister, how's Classifieds?”
“Ads are up six percent.”
“Whoa, be still my beating heart
“Did you get a chance to talk to Perry?”
“Yeah. He says there aren't any openings now, but as soon as there is, you're the man.”
Skip was exasperated, in his opinion he was qualified to be a reporter and wanted to move up He exclaimed, “But he hired two new reporters last week!”
Jimmy tried to mollify, him, but it was a losing cause, “I know, but they had lots of experience. Both of them.”
Sarcastically, Skip replied, “One of them used to work for 'Welding News'.”
Skip had Jimmy there and Jimmy started to almost physically squirm, however, his salvation was just around the corner. Perry poked his head out of his office and looking around spotted them. He shouted, “Wallace! You lookin' for a pay cut?! Get back down to your cubbyhole! And Jimmy, where're those shots of Lisa Rockford for the Supermodel article?! And the ones for the gourmet pet food piece?”
Jimmy jumped and shouted, “On my way!”
Perry shut his door and before Jimmy could escape, Skip said, “One of these days, he's going to be very sorry.”
Jimmy smiled in reply and said, “I hear ya.”
Before Jimmy could leave, Skip said, “You know that Hank West song: "Just 'cause you got a bigger salary, don't make you a bigger man?"
Think about it. And why are we 'doing stories on pet food when people are starving in Texas? It's un-American. And he knows it! “
Jimmy didn’t know Skip very well, but this outburst was strange and somewhat confusing. As he started to move away, he replied, “Uh... yeah. Well... I gotta put my smaller salary butt in gear. See ya.”
As Jimmy left, Skip stared at Perry’s door with hatred in his eyes.
A few minutes later, Perry and Senator Black emerged from the office and head for the elevators. As they walked, they both laughed, apparently at a joke that had been told before exiting. It was common knowledge that they were old friends. Perry pushed the button to summon the elevator and while they waited, Senator Black asked, “Now Perry, you sure I can't persuade you to skip school and play a little golf this afternoon?”
Perry laughed as he replied, “No can do, Truman. I've got this rabble to keep in line.”
“I think you’re just afraid to lose to an old man.”
“Would I lie to a U.S. Senator?”
The doors opened and as the senator stepped inside, he said, “You can't hide forever. See ya.”
As the doors closed on the senator, the other set opened to reveal Lois and Clark inside the car. They exited the car and headed down the ramp. Perry kept pace with them as they walked.
Deciding to tease them a little, he announced, “Listen up, everybody. Look who's decided to join us this morning.”
Trying to forestall him, faux Lois said, “Perry…”
But Perry persisted, “How 'bout a big round of applause for Lois and Clark! Let's give it up, people!”
Playing along there was cheering and applause throughout the newsroom.
Clark tried to mollify Perry, “Chief, we were on a story.”
Thinking that this was simply a ploy to cover a romantic tryst, Perry persisted, “I'll bet you were. You know, son, I was engaged once, too. We used to call it something different.”
At this implication, both faux Lois and Clark blushed which cause a renewal of the cheers and some wolf whistles.
In an attempt to mollify the crowd, faux Lois announced to the entire newsroom, “Someone said there was a bomb in the basement of the Metropolis Trade Tower, okay? Ask the police. Ask Superman. We're late because we checked it out.”
Serious now, Perry asked, “So, was there?”
Shamefacedly, Clark replied, “Well, no.”
Returning to his teasing mode, Perry said, “Well, that oughta be an easy story to write up. Short and sweet. Why, heck, I'll write it myself. You both probably have more important stuff to do, like ... plan a wedding, huh? Have you decided on what kind of music you're gonna have, yet?”
“Yes, Perry, I have … Swing. I want to get Glenn Miller. I can’t believe he’s still around after all these years.”
In an aside, Clark said, soto voce, “He isn’t. The band is, but he died in World War II.”
She gasped and replied, “Oh, no.”
Perry was disappointed and said, “Whoever you get, they gotta be able to play the King. The King puts people on the dance floor.”
Archly, faux Lois replied, “Not the way Swing does.”
Fortunately for faux Lois, Jimmy walked up just then with some glamor shots of Lisa.
Faux Lois plopped down at her desk and picked up the roll-a-dex. She started flipping through it until she found the hair dresser’s number and made the call. She made and appointment for the following day.
As she hung the phone up, Clark came over and sat in the guest chair.
Jimmy showed them the pictures as he said, “One supermodel, coming up.”
Faux Lois glanced at the photos and noting Clark’s interest, sagged in her chair. “Where do they make these people?”
Trying to mollify her, Clark said, “Lois, you are far better looking than Lisa Rockford.”
She looked at Jimmy and said, “See how well trained he is already?” Then she fingered her hair and said, “But, no, not right now! I need a haircut.”
Turning to Perry, Clark asked, “Chief, does Alice ever say things like that to you? I mean ...” He stopped abruptly when he remembered that he and Alice were separated. “Oh, I’m sorry Perry.”
Perry dropped his teasing tone and gave him a warm smile. “That's okay, Clark. Things between Alice and me may not be so great right now...” He started to get angry as he continued, “... particularly since I got my first call from her
divorce lawyer last night!”
Faux Lois, in an attempt to bring Perry back on topic, cleared her throat.
When she did, Perry returned to the topic and said, “But when we were engaged...” He actually smiled at the memory. “I couldn't remember a single story I wrote for six months. My feet never touched the ground. And I've never regretted getting married...” A regretful tone entered his voice, “I just regret that I haven't been a better husband.” He sighed and finished, “But you two'll do fine.” When he finished speaking, he turned and headed for his office with Jimmy following him.
Faux Lois said to Clark, quietly, “He’s so sweet. I wish I had known him as long as she has.”
Smiling, Clark agreed with her, “Yeah.”
Perry was on the threshold of his office when he whirled and shouted, “Hey! Who told you about that bomb?!”
Faux Lois replied, “A man in a car.”
Clark added, “He’d been shot.”
Back in editor mode, he shouted, “What is this, a wax museum?! Get me the rest of that story, or you're fired!” Entering his office, he slammed the door in Jimmy’s face.
Clark looked at faux Lois and said, “I think he's handling this Alice thing pretty well.”
Faux Lois replied with a wry smile.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
In the very Spartan setting of an underground bunker, Hank West, the country singer was absently strumming a guitar. If the guitar seemed out of place in the surroundings, it was made even more so by the way Hank West, the country singer was dressed. He was outfitted in a complete Nazi dress uniform straight out of World War II.
On TV monitors scattered around, tapes of Superman’s exploits were playing, more or less ignored by the principals involved. Hank was busy playing his guitar while Lisa was busy dressing down Steve. In a mocking tone, she repeated what he had said to the interviewer, “Clean their
socks? Clean their
socks?!” To prove that the monitors weren’t being completely ignored, She pointed at on and shouted, “
He is a super man! {b]You[/b] are a super
idiot!
Shamefacedly, he replied, “They barely noticed.”
To add insult to injury, without even looking up, Hank piled on, “He's right. It was just the sportscaster and fifty million other Americans.”
Lisa shook her finger in Steve’s face as she said, “We can’t afford the tiniest slip up!”
In a mocking tone, Hank added, “Maybe you should watch some Sesame Street; get the basics down again.”
Steve was fed up with their teasing, and shouted back, “I know English as well as you do! Besides, in two days we can drop all this stupid pretense, so what does it matter?”
Lisa was exasperated and it came out in her voice as she shouted back, “How can you be so dense?! For two years we've been recruiting new members from all across the country! “
Hank, in a sarcastic tone added, “Some are even college graduates.”
Lisa ignored Hank as she rehearsed their history to Steve, “
Fifty years ago one thousand of the chosen youth were sent here undercover from the Fatherland. Today they're captains of industry! Politicians! TV anchormen! Men and women of power and influence. They have waited five
decades for us to appear and lead them to the New Reich! They have spent
years preparing and planting backgrounds for us; pulling strings and smoothing the way so we could become an overnight successe and lead this country to the New Reich! They have made us what we are today.”
In a cynical tone, Hank added, “Celebrity freaks. Next stop, Barbara Walters. Or Oprah”
Lisa turned on Hank West and commanded, in German, “
Sei still!” which translates as “Be quiet.” She turned back to Steve and continued, “And now you want to throw all this away because you can't be bothered to speak correctly? You're a disgrace!”
Defensively, Steve said, “Stockdale was one of the chosen youth, and look how he wound up! An old man who loved this country more than he loved the Fatherland! He was going to tell the world everything until I found out and had him stopped!”
A man in his mid-thirties, dressed in a Nazi uniform entered and dropped off some papers, interrupting the tirade.
Hank broke the stalemate by saying, “Stockdale was found by Lane and Kent, the reporters for the Daily Planet. I'll take Voss and talk to them and see if Stockdale told them anything else.” He put on a fake southern drawl as he finished, “Sometime folks are a lil' more open 'round celebrities.” Then he looked significantly at Steve as he finished, “No more slip-ups. Now smile for the cameras.”
Steve started to give a heated reply, but stopped himself when Hank pressed a button. As the monitors shifted they each held a person of importance to the movement. Steve clicked his heels. And they each gave the stiff arm salute of the Nazi Party. They were all in their mid-to-late sixties: a four-star general, a distinguished TV anchorman, a prosperous woman banker and Senator Black.
Hank greeted them in German, “Guten tag, meine freunde.”
Senator Black replied, “Guten tag, Western Reich Fuhrer Von Hagen.” He didn’t waste any more time and cut right to the chase, “Where are we on the Superman situation?”
With confidence, Hank replied, “Since all reported attempts to kill him in the past have failed, I have decided to go with our alternate plan: Instead of trying to assassinate him, we will simply
banish him. Forever.”
Seemingly satisfied with this response, Senator Black said, Good. Once he's gone, the government and the banks will fall in line; and where the banks go, everyone else follows. Right, Cynthia?”
The woman on the monitor smiled and nodded her agreement.
Outlining the grand plan, the senator continued, “Then Canada and Latin America will be next. They're both weak.”
Steve added, “then Europe!”
The TV Anchorman asked, “What about Russia?”
Senator Black replied, “A joke. We'll crush them like we started to in Forty-Two. Then, we will assume our rightful place as world leader.”
Senator Black, the others on the monitors, Lisa and Steve all smiled, but Hank’s face remained expressionless.
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