Free Falling, Part 5
By: C. Leuch
Traffic was mercifully light as Laura guided her mother-in-law’s car through the Gotham suburbs. Her apartment was now close enough that she could practically feel it, though she knew it was just her imagination. Ten hours in a car with Matt’s mom had felt simultaneously shorter than she had feared and longer than she could bear. She managed to sleep during the first three or four hours as they barreled through Ohio and into Pennsylvania, but once they hit Pittsburgh it had been time to swap seats, and Christy had spent the next few hours sleeping. The quiet in the car had afforded Laura a good opportunity to think, and her mind had wandered. What were her brothers and her dad experiencing at that moment? What could cause their problems in the first place? Was Lilly sleeping well? Thinking about her daughter made her heart ache, and led her to push the accelerator down a little farther than she might otherwise.
She had glanced at her companion more than once, wondering what had been going on in her head. Matt seemed to keep his parents at arm’s length, and although he loved them, she suspected that he didn’t feel he had much in common with them anymore. He called them every couple weeks to catch up on news, but the phone calls never seemed to last very long and never seemed to range outside of a certain subset of superficial questions. How’s the car? How’s the job? How’s the weather? He’d tell them about whatever new thing the baby was doing and they would tell him what his cousins were up to. Topics never ranged into deeper philosophical discussions of life or politics or what’s going on in the world. It was almost rote, and Laura never cared enough to listen in, not that they ever asked to speak to her. Before last night, she had met them a handful of times and was friendly enough with them, but that was really it.
So what had been a distant relationship was now much more complicated, and the way that Christy had reacted to Laura’s revelation had only made things more strained. It was almost as if Laura’s Kryptonian heritage had stripped her of her humanity in Christy’s eyes. Being a Superwoman meant that she wasn’t capable of love, that she couldn’t exist in a normal world. It was the exact opposite to Matt’s reaction, which was incredibly strange. Being stuck together in a car for ten hours should’ve given them every opportunity to talk things through, but they had exchanged very few words between the shifts of sleeping. After the last driver change, near the New Jersey border, Laura had stayed awake, even though she supposed she could’ve dozed off and avoided a fair amount of awkwardness in the process. By that time, the sun was blazing in through the car windows, and she tried to soak it in, even though something about it felt wrong. For a hundred miles, she had leaned her forehead against the passenger window and starred up at the sky as music played softly on the radio. The clouds looked almost pink, the sky a very dark blue, to the point of almost being purple, and the sun…it’s rays didn’t give her the invigorating feeling she was used to. Her side still hurt, her muscles ached, and the sun wasn’t helping. That was the key to it, she was sure. Theories went through her mind as the countryside passed in silence, and she kept waiting for Christy to ask if she could have a penny for her thoughts, but no such inquiry came.
Finally, reaching the outskirts of Gotham, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed her husband. It was a weekend, so normally he would want to sleep in, not that Lilly would allow that, but it was possible he didn’t sleep much at all, not with his mother aware of the family secret and racing toward their apartment. He didn’t sound too tired or weary when he picked up, not that she could glean much from a two syllable word like, “hello.”
“Hey,” Laura said quietly. There was no way to have a private conversation in the car at that moment, but that didn’t mean she was going to make it easy for her mother-in-law to listen in. “I’m just getting into town,” she continued.
He sighed audibly. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear that,” he said.
“I can’t tell you how glad I am to say it,” she replied.
“I can guess,” he said, a smile evident in his voice. “I would imagine that the, ah, mode of transportation is probably causing a few frustrations.”
Not to mention the company, Laura thought, but she wasn’t going to say it out loud. “All things considered, I think I prefer being able to shoot across the country in a few seconds flat.”
“I think I have a little violin here,” Matt said, and she could imagine his eyes twinkling in a completely adorable way. It didn’t make her want to smack him any less.
“I’m glad you can get some amusement out of all this,” she said, her voice taking on a pouty tone that was only half serious.
“I laugh to keep from crying,” he said, also only half serious.
“So where are you right now?” she asked, noticing a fair amount of noise behind him that could possibly be the television, although she doubted it.
“Oh, I brought Lilly over to the manor to play with her cousins and keep her from dwelling on the fact that you’re out of town. Then I got roped into the big investigation….”
Laura raised her eyebrows. “The one looking into what’s going on with our powers?”
“That’s the one, though there’s a lot more to it than that. The gang’s all here, the only one missing is you.”
Despite everything that had happened, the four hours of uneasy sleep she’d gotten in the car, the kink in her neck and the lingering aches from crashing to Earth, the thought of digging into a famous Kent family investigation made her feel invigorated, alive. She smiled. “I’ll be there soon enough. First though, I need to stop home and change. Maybe take a shower. Making an impact crater has led to dirt and sand getting into all sorts of places that they’ve never been before.”
He chuckled. “I didn’t need to know that.”
“So we’ll be there in an hour.”
“We?” he asked, and Laura glanced toward her companion, who looked for all the world as if she was ignoring their conversation.
“I didn’t think I could do 10 hours in a car alone after last night. Your mom came with.” There was a long moment of silence, and Laura felt like she had to keep talking to keep the awkwardness at bay. “I think Lilly will be glad to see her.”
“I guess it would be good to have someone here to watch the kids,” he said half-heartedly.
“We can talk more in person,” she said, knowing that a very long conversation would be forthcoming, at least as soon as they got some free time, probably once the investigation was over. He agreed, and with that, they signed off.
Laura smiled at her phone for a few moments before her thoughts were interrupted by her mother-in-law. “They’re not home?” she asked.
“No, they’re at my brother’s place.”
“In Metropolis?” she asked, and Laura balked for a moment. It had slipped her mind that there were more family secrets than just the knowledge of who Superman was. There was still the matter of Sam Wayne that needed to be discussed. No time like the present, she supposed.
“No, my other brother.”
“The one that died?” Laura looked at her and waited for her to make the connection. She didn’t have to wait very long. “Oh. Right. He’s a superman of some sort, too, then?”
“I guess you could say that,” Laura said. “It’s complicated. But he lives in Gotham, and he’s got a heck of a knack for solving tough cases. And he and Matt are practically attached at the hip these days.”
“Have I met him?” Christy asked. Throughout the conversation, her voice had been almost flat, as if she was making polite small talk, but the mention of Matt seemed to animate her.
“Sure. He was at our wedding. Actually, I think Matt went out of his way to introduce him to you. I think he wasn’t sure how you’d react to knowing he was friends with a big wig like Sam….” Introducing CJ to Matt’s parents and making it clear that they were good friends had been a test of sorts to see how they would handle celebrity…and secrets. Laura recalled Christy being rather flustered at the meeting, enough that they’d been reluctant to reveal any deeper secrets.
“Sam WAYNE?” Christy asked, turning to gape at Laura. In fact, she had taken her eyes off the road long enough that Laura was reaching toward the steering wheel by the time Christy finally regained her composure. “He…I was impressed by him, I guess. But I had no idea….”
“I mean, as far as celebrity goes, he’s small potatoes next to my dad and Jon. He’s not even a real Wayne.” Laura tried to smile, but she could see it was probably too much. She was used to dealing with the heavy issues in her life with light humor and understanding. Matt had told her once that his family was much more serious, but she had just figured that they just hadn’t had the right influences – after all, he had a well developed sense of humor and fun, and that couldn’t have developed in a vacuum. But, she admitted, it was possible that she was wrong. Defeated, she turned her attention back to the road, and gave directions through town to her apartment.
It was getting to be lunch time by the time Laura had finished showering and changing, so they indulged in some sandwiches while they were still at the apartment. Christy seemed reluctant to say anything more than absolutely necessary, and even small talk seemed to have flown out the window. Laura couldn’t recall ever feeling so uncomfortable in her own home, and she ate as quickly as she could, anxious to get to Wayne manor and pawn Christy off on someone else for a while, as awful as that sounded.
Laura drove to the manor, piloting the car to the garage, which was built into the side of the knob that the house sat upon. Their approach path probably meant a less spectacular view of the house for her guest, but at this point she was beyond niceties. She did offer a bit of commentary of where they were, and pointed out the various rooms and collectibles as they entered the manor and worked their way toward the living area. Finally, she could hear voices, and she practically ran toward them, rounding a corner to discover Lilly playing with her little cousin Kate, with Adam running in circles around them. So fixated was she on her daughter that she ignored the greetings from everyone else in the room. Lilly barely seemed to register her presence, though, until Laura was holding her, then she broke out into a grin, though it only lasted until she realized that her toy was now out of reach. Laura trailed some sloppy kisses across her face and down her neck, which brought some giggles, then took mercy on her and let her get back to playing.
The reunion now over, Laura looked up and finally took notice of the scene around her. The room she was in could be considered the family room, the most lived-in room in the house which also best reflected the personalities of its occupants. The kids were by a large toy box and kid-sized table and chairs, along with some other toy storage. On the far wall was a television, with a couple couches and a recliner set in a loose U-shape around it. A large grandfather clock ticked loudly against the wall opposite where the children played. On the recliner sat CJ, wearing a loose-fitting t-shirt and sweats. Although his face held its usual congenial half-smile, something about his complexion seemed off, as did his posture. He looked too gray, and she caught herself frowning as she regarded him.
“Are you okay?” she asked him, but before he could answer, she realized that it was entirely possible he was out and about at the same time she lost her powers the night before. She also noticed that he wasn’t rising to meet her, which only deepened her frown.
“I’m as okay as can be expected,” he said. “The sun is shining, I’m watching my kids have fun, and I’m finally able to think clearly again. All things considered, I’m just peachy.” He smiled toward Jen, who was standing next to him.
She walked closer to where he was seated. “So what happened? No offense, but you look terrible.”
“None taken – you should see how bad I look under the clothes. I, uh, stepped in front of a couple bullets before I was made aware of the fact that they don’t bounce off me anymore.” Laura felt a streak of cold run down her back at the thought of him getting shot. In his shoes, she would probably be glad just to be alive, too. “I heard about where you were when the power went out, so to speak,” he continued.
“About 40,000 feet over Indiana?” He gave a sympathetic look, and she raised her eyebrows. “Left a nice impact crater where I hit the ground.”
“So are you okay then?” he asked her, but then his eyes seemed to focus past her. “Hi, welcome. Please come in,” he said toward Christy, who was hovering out in the hallway, observing the interaction between them. He braced himself against the chair, preparing to rise and greet her, but he stopped when Jen put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head. Jen then rushed toward Christy, putting her hand out as she went.
“Hi, I’m Jen Wayne. You must be Matt’s mom? I think we met and Laura and Matt’s reception.” Christy shook her hand, and Jen guided her toward the children. “Lilly, look who’s here?” she said.
Laura took the opportunity to lean up against the arm of the couch next to where CJ was seated. “Matt told you?” she asked in a low voice.
“Whose yard you wound up in? Yeah.”
“I figured if I was going to pass out in someone’s lawn and possibly be unmasked, it would be best to have that lawn belong to family. Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
CJ smirked. “Not going well?”
“I feel like an exhibit at a zoo,” Laura said, her voice now barely audible. She watched as Christy seemed to relax in the presence of the children, pulling up a kid-sized chair and settling in while Jen grabbed a few toys. “Not that you’d understand. You won the in-law lottery.”
Usually CJ came back with a quip or tried to lighten the mood in situations like this, but every now and then he surprised her. “I would imagine it’s a lot for her to take in. Give it time.” She stared at him hard, but he just smiled at her, then looked back toward the children. “Besides, you gave her a granddaughter. If that doesn’t humanize you, I don’t know what will.”
On the other side of the room, Jen leaned down and gave her daughter a kiss, then tousled Adam’s hair and stood, heading toward Laura and CJ. “How was the drive?” Jen asked, taking up her spot next to CJ.
“Long,” Laura said.
“This is my sympathetic face,” CJ said, pulling a face that was so ridiculous that Laura had to laugh, even though she would much rather punch him.
“Yes, I now have a new appreciation for your completely mundane life,” she said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
“So, are you ready to get put to work?” Jen asked, and Laura nodded vigorously. “Okay, well, here’s what’s going on. Matt’s downstairs getting a laptop setup to bring to Clark, here.”
“I’m going to hack into a satellite,” CJ said, sounding a little like an overly excited kid. Laura supposed she would be excited if she could hack into a satellite, too.
Jen continued. “Jon and your Mom have been doing some digging, and they’re about 98% sure that the cause of your problems is a weather satellite that was launched a couple months ago and activated earlier this week. Jon is going to do some interviews with company brass, and while he’s there, he’ll be finding a way to get us access to their computer system.”
“Once we can find a way to get behind their firewall, it should be a cinch. I’m going to brick the thing and we can all get back to normal, the sooner the better. And maybe if you or Dad are Jon are feeling benevolent in the future you can retrieve the satellite for them so it’s not all for nothing,” CJ said.
“But that’s just the first part of what needs to be done,” Jen continued. “Why would someone program a weather satellite to create the right conditions to remove your powers? And who benefits from it?”
Laura nodded. “Just listening to news reports on the radio on the way in, it sounds like things are bad out there.”
“Right. So this is where it gets complicated. In Metropolis, Diane is making it her mission to interrogate the people they apprehend during this crime spree, to see what they know about how and why it started. I mean, the news hasn’t even noticed that you guys are absent from the skies, and why would they? It’s only been, what, 12 hours? It’s not unusual for you guys to take breaks that are a lot longer than that. Yet it seemed like both Gotham and Metropolis both exploded with crime almost as soon as your powers left. That can’t be coincidence,” Jen said.
CJ nodded. “We have Dick shaking down thugs here in Gotham, too, so between the two of them we hope to get some good information. Meanwhile, Mom and Jen are doing a deep dive into the background of the company that launched the satellite – who makes the decisions there, how do they get their funding, stuff like that. Bruce and Matt are going after the government agency that issues permits for space launches to see what they knew and if there was someone pulling the strings on that project.”
“So…is this a Planet story or a criminal investigation? Is someone getting a visit from Batman when it’s all said and done?” Laura asked.
“Yes to all of the above?” CJ answered.
“This can’t just be some sort of innocent mistake. There has to be some sort of ulterior motive to why everything happened. Whoever orchestrated this is responsible for injuries to you, Clark, and Jon, and is responsible for whoever gets hurt in the current crime spree. They need to be put to justice,” Jen said.
“I’m in,” Laura said. “But what do you need me to do?”
“Try to find a pattern to the crime waves gripping the major cities? Everything escalated dramatically around midnite last night….” Jen raised her eyebrows.
“Another angle is to find a connection between STAR Labs and the company that launched the satellite. If someone was able to make our powers disappear, they had to have some physical data that made them believe what they were attempting would work,” CJ said.
“Makes you wonder what else they might know,” Laura answered, and the three of them just looked quietly at each other for a moment.
The silence was broken as Matt entered the room, bringing squeals from Lilly. He was holding a laptop computer and some cords, but he detoured to give some attention to his daughter and greet his mother before continuing toward Laura, Jen and CJ. His eyes positively sparkled as he caught sight of his wife, and he unceremoniously dumped the equipment on a side table and approached her. They didn’t even greet each other before he pulled her toward him and captured her mouth with hers. Laura practically melted into him. Ever since waking up in that crater, through all the long hours on the road, this was the one thing she had truly been craving – the feeling of his lips on hers, his strong arms around her, the soft smell of his aftershave. His touch made her feel like everything was going to be fine, despite what her body aches were telling her, and made her forget about all the other problems she had been having.
The sound of CJ clearing his throat pulled them out of their kiss. “I waited 12 hours for this. I think we can get another minute,” Laura mumbled, then leaned into the kiss again.
CJ cleared his throat more insistently. At Laura’s annoyed look, he smirked. “Hey, the sooner I get to work on this, the sooner we can all get back to our normal lives,” he said.
Matt squeezed her hand and backed away. He then retrieved the computer and thrust it toward CJ. One end of a cord was plugged into it, catching CJ’s attention. “Bruce said no wifi,” Matt said, catching the cue. “You want to connect to the big computer, you have to do it through the LAN.” CJ sighed, a look of annoyance on his face. “Or, you know, go downstairs.”
“No, this is fine,” CJ said, flipping open the laptop while Matt went and connected the cord to a nearby ethernet port. “Feels very last millennium, though.” Jen went toward a table in another part of the room and grabbed a notebook and pencil, then brought it to the table next to CJ, along with a cell phone.
“All set?” she asked, and he nodded. “Well, I suppose we should get back to it.”
“Should we take the kids?” Laura asked him, and he shrugged.
“As long as they aren’t bothering me, I’m fine,” he answered. The children appeared to be playing happily with Matt’s mom at the moment, but Laura knew from experience that things with kids could go south really fast, especially with strong-willed ones like theirs.
“And what are we going to do with your Mom?” Laura asked Matt in a softer voice.
“I’ll talk to her,” Matt said, though he sounded reluctant. “She seems to be having a good time with the kids, but I need to let her know what’s going on and what to expect out of us. If she wants to help, then I will welcome it. If she wants to observe, I’m not against that. Otherwise?” he shrugged. The implied conclusion was that she was free to leave, that nobody was going to insist that she stay, but it was up to her.
Laura watched Christy play with the kids for a moment, then nodded. Christy might not be the best travel companion, and she might not have her head right when it came to the family secret, but she had left her home behind to help Laura out, and she had been patient during the whole ordeal. Just by helping with the kids, she was doing them an enormous service, and if she got enjoyment out of it, even better. Laura wasn’t going to complain if she did decide to stay…it might even be nice. “Come one, let’s get to it,” she said to Matt, taking his hand.
***
As the sun streamed into the guest room window, Jon awoke from an uncharacteristically deep sleep and greeted the world with a purpose. Today, he was going to get to the bottom of what was going on with the weather satellites launched a few months earlier. If he was extremely lucky, he might be able to eliminate the problem, though that would require some help. Fortunately, he had a plan. First things first, though.
His first stop for the morning was the kitchen, where he put on a pot of coffee. It seemed he had awoken before Cruz, though the coffee aroma seemed to work its magic, and soon he joined Jon. They worked together to prepare a hearty breakfast, and while they ate it, Jon laid out what he had proposed for the day. As soon as they were done, Jon would be calling up Orbital Technologies, the company in Houston that developed the satellites, and scheduling an interview with the highest ranking executive that he could, though realistically it would probably end up being with their media relations person. Second, he would need to see about getting some work clothes. The borrowed outfit that he had worn to bed were the only clothes currently available to him, apart from his ruined super suit, and they were a far cry from professional. Cruz had a comprehensive wardrobe of plaid shirts with piping and mother-of-pearl inlaid buttons, but they would be small on Jon, and they weren’t exactly his style. So he would need to find a men’s shop that could set him up with a nice shirt and tie, along with some slacks and an all-important pair of glasses. And since he didn’t bring his wallet with him during hero work, it meant all his credit cards were in Metropolis, and he would need to bum some money in the meantime.
“I’ll pay you back, I swear,” Jon said, expecting some resistance from his father-in-law. It was hard not to be aware of the fact that Cruz and his wife lived in a working class neighborhood and had to keep to a budget, though that didn’t necessarily mean that they wanted for anything. It felt odd borrowing money from anyone, least of all his father-in-law, but Cruz was very gracious about it.
“I know you’re good for it,” he said, bringing a small smile to Jon’s face.
Jon paused and looked at his hands, working up the courage to ask the next question. Their discussions the night before had been eye-opening, to say the least. They had transformed Cruz from a virtual stranger to a confidant, and he hoped that meant that he had earned a new level of trust, since he was going to need to lean on that trust if his plan for the day was going to succeed. “Would you be willing to go to Houston with me today? What I was hoping to accomplish there goes way beyond an interview.”
Cruz’s eyes went wide. “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think I would be any good at hero stuff….”
Jon smiled at him. “This isn’t hero stuff. It’s what my mom would call guerilla journalism.” At his confused expression, Jon continued. “The interview will be real enough, but it will mostly just be a pretense. It’s an excuse to get behind closed doors so we can figure out how to shut down their satellite.”
Wide-eyed again, Cruz didn’t speak for a moment. “So what would my role be in this?”
Jon explained his plan, at least the parts he had worked out, and gradually Cruz’s expression morphed from tentative to resolute. “If this works, it means everything can go back to how it was. I know I don’t necessarily need my powers to get back home or to heal, but… flying back in a plane won’t be the same as flying myself. I won’t be the same,” he finished quietly.
Cruz nodded slowly. “I think maybe you don’t give yourself enough credit,” he said. “You’re still you whether you can fly or not. And the you who doesn’t have powers can still do some incredible things, if your plan is any indication.”
“I know,” Jon said with a soft smile. Cruz definitely understood now. “But the me who can fly can do exponentially more. Besides, there’s just something being able to go up and touch the clouds….” He sighed wistfully and turned to look out the window. Little, puffy clouds floated by in the violet sky, and for a moment he indulged memories of this neighborhood as seen from the sky. Silence seemed to stretch out for minutes, though in reality it was probably only a matter of moments, before Cruz finally spoke again.
“Yeah, I’ll help. Sound like it could be fun.”
As soon as they were done and the dishes were picked up, they headed toward the bathroom to change the dressing on Jon’s burns. Cruz then left for the men’s store, armed with a sheet of paper stating Jon’s shirt and pants sizes as well as his preferred fit. Alone in the house, Jon took the opportunity to make several phone calls. The first was to set up his interview, which he scheduled for right after lunch. Next, he called his brother to set his plan in motion. Upon initially answering the phone, CJ seemed a little out-of-it, as if he had just awoken for the morning. As Jon started explaining the theory behind their power loss and how he proposed to remedy it, though, CJ perked up considerably.
“The company probably has all their satellite control systems hidden behind a very robust firewall,” CJ said, and Jon could tell that he was writing something down. “I’m not too concerned about it potentially not being connected to the internet, because everything is these days. But they won’t want foreign governments or terrorists hacking their systems, so it will be locked down tight.”
“So…I can call you once I’m inside with access to a computer and you can tell me what to do?” Jon said, uncertain. “I can type command prompts into the computer to help break down the firewall.”
“That would work, I suppose,” CJ’s voice was thoughtful. “But I think my preference would be to introduce a little trojan horse as a first step, just to soften things up. Do you have a USB drive?”
Jon looked around, opening a couple drawers to the computer desk. He actually found a couple of AOL discs in the drawers, but no USB drive. “I have my phone and a USB cord,” he said. Who needed USB drives anymore when phones could serve the same function?
“That’s no good,” CJ said. “The computer would need to install a driver to recognize the phone. Besides, your phone points right back to you, so it’s terrible for stealth operations.”
“We can pick one up, then,” Jon said.
“You have a little time. I still need to put together my little virus.”
“Well, don’t take too long. My in-laws don’t have a laptop, just an ancient desktop, and I need to leave for Houston in an hour.”
They agreed to get in touch again soon, then Jon hung up, immediately calling his father-in-law’s number and asking him to pick up a USB drive while he was out. Once that call was completed, Jon called his wife to check in on things. He supposed that he shouldn’t have been surprised to hear that she had volunteered to help with the investigation into what was going on, but that didn’t stop his eyebrows from rising when she told him what she was doing. “You can’t imagine the scope of it all,” Diane said. “Just the sheer amount of crime, and all at once. Normally safe parts of town have become dangerous, and normally dangerous parts of town are war zones. And no matter how many people we throw at the problem, they always have more.” She sighed. “I really wish you were here.”
“Me, too,” Jon answered softly. “But I’m doing what I can to get back into action.”
“I know you are,” she said. “And my dad?”
“He’s been very gracious,” Jon said. “And understanding. I think the last few years, he’s just been trying to feel us out, not willing to push too hard or ask too many questions that might lead to embarrassment. With me getting hurt, though… he rescued me, and at that point the confrontation that we’d been avoiding for so long became inevitable. And now…I think we understand each other.”
“That sounds…very mature,” Diane said, though her voice said she wasn’t convinced.
“He’s going to help me and CJ hack a satellite,” Jon continued, and was greeted with silence on the other end of the line. “And yes, I know I’m a bad influence.”
“I’m just…this is my dad we’re talking about, right?”
“It is. I’ll re-introduce you to him once this is all over with.” He laughed gently, thought Diane didn’t seemed quite so amused. He decided that changing the subject was probably the best approach. “So, uh, have you found any pattern to the crime spree?”
“Not yet,” she answered quickly, her tone now businesslike. “The people we’ve snagged so far all seemed to be small potatoes. For some of these guys, once they see the chaos, they feel like they have to join in. The bigwigs, the people who are behind this, are laying low right now. But the message they’re sending – that they are in charge right now and not the cops – is loud and clear.”
Jon grunted, feeling frustrated. Under more normal circumstances he would be out there, helping. Maybe, if he was successful today, he would be able to join in the effort before anyone missed him. “And how’s your mom taking her forced exile?”
“She’s enjoying the kids too much to mind,” Diane said. “I’m actually grateful she’s around, given how badly they need me here at work. I don’t feel so much like I’m abandoning them right now.”
“We’ve been lucky,” Jon said, marveling at how everything had worked out for them. Burns aside, it had been a positive experience. “Imagine what could’ve happened if your dad wasn’t curious about my other job, or if this happened without an instant babysitter around.”
“True,” Diane said. “And all this is certainly giving me a new appreciation for my folks. But something tells me that we would’ve found a way. We always do.”
“In large part because of the people we have in our lives,” Jon answered. Diane liked to think of herself as being capable of taking on any challenges that came her way without help, and by and large that was true. But Jon knew that so much of the good in their lives came from the people they surrounded themselves with, and the influence they had on their lives. They wouldn’t be together if not for CJ and Jen’s interference; Diane would not have kept her sanity in the early years of the twins’ lives if not for generous help from his parents. Every time Jon got in a scrape – from being lost in time to being stalked by crazy fans – he persevered with the help of friends and family. This was no different. He tried to help her see how blessed they were, how much fuller their lives were thanks to the others that they shared it with, and he was pretty sure that she understood. But that didn’t stop her independent streak.
“We have each other, and that’s most important,” she said softly, and he couldn’t disagree.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said, his voice filled with intensity. As he was about to say more tender platitudes, he heard keys being inserted in the door lock, and he knew his time alone was done. “Hey, your dad’s back. I have to go. Love you.”
“Love you, too,” she said, and with that, she hung up.
Jon was just putting down the phone when Cruz entered the house, his hands loaded with bags. Jon stood up to help him, and together they took out the business attire – a nice shirt, a pair of khakis, a tie that was subtle but still had enough of a pattern to make it interesting, some socks, and a pair of shoes. Jon tried it all on before they took off the tags, and it all seemed to fit well enough. Putting on the glasses and running a comb through his hair, he finally felt like himself. Cruz nodded his head in appreciation of the transformation. “There’s the guy I know,” he said, bringing a smile to Jon’s face.
He held out his bandaged hand, the only outward sign of the problems he’d had the night before. “More or less,” Jon said.
“Ready to go?” Cruz asked. Jon nodded at first, then remembered something. Holding up a finger, he stopped himself, then reached for his cell phone, autodialing his brother. CJ confirmed that he had been able to come up with his computer virus, though just barely. There seemed to be a lot of noise behind him, and CJ confessed that he was working from the living room, where his kids were playing with Laura’s daughter, which made for a lot of noise. It also made concentration a little more difficult, although the lack of superpowers took the edge off some of the loudness. In any case, he put the file out on a file transfer site and emailed the link to Jon, who used Cruz’s computer to transfer the file to the USB drive that Cruz had purchased.
“Insert the USB drive into any computer in the building, and it will get to work.”
“Any computer? Does it need to be unlocked, or logged in or whatever?” Jon asked.
“It has to be on,” CJ said, deadpan. Jon was clueless enough about the advanced workings of computer viruses or programs that he had a hard time telling if he was being made fun of. At this point, he didn’t care.
“And then…?”
“Probably give me a call and let me know that you’ve put things on motion. Then I can see if I’m getting anything, and let you know if there’s anything else you need to do.”
“Okay. Appointment is after lunch here. I’ll call you then.”
Jon shoved the USB drive in his pocket, then hit the road with Cruz. Their time in his truck this time around was much less awkward. Cruz asked Jon about some of the higher profile stories that he’d worked on in the past, and Jon asked Cruz about his time as a teacher. The long drive seemed to pass in a matter of minutes, and as they entered Houston, they stopped for lunch. As they ate, Jon pulled out his phone and showed Cruz pictures of surveillance cameras, and talked about what to look for once he was in the office. He also gave tips on various ways of obscuring his actions from the cameras, tips learned from many hands-on experiences and advice from his mother. Finally, they pulled into the parking lot for Orbital Technologies. As Jon exited the truck, he ran his good hand through his hair, then grabbed a small notebook and pen he had found at Cruz’s house. Once his father-in-law had circled around the front of the truck to stand beside him, Jon handed him the USB drive. “You know what to do?”
“Distract the receptionist and shove this into his or her computer,” Cruz answered confidently. Jon had worried that the operation might cause him to be shy or tentative, but to the contrary, Cruz seemed to be enthusiastic to take on his part in the operation.
“You know what the USB port looks like, right?” Jon asked after a moment. Cruz’s enthusiasm waned momentarily, and Jon pulled out his phone, pulling up a picture of the port. “You may have to unplug something else first,” he said. “A keyboard or mouse or printer or something. Not the worst thing in the world, just remember to plug it back in again.”
Cruz nodded and smiled, then placed the drive into his pocket. “Sounds easy enough.”
“Well, just remember to stay alert. And…” Jon handed his cell phone to Cruz. “Call my brother just as soon as you put the drive into the computer. He’s in there under Sam Wayne…it should be the last number I called.”
Cruz looked thoughtful for a moment, then reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and handing it to Jon. “In case I need to get a hold of you,” he said. You never know…”
“Good idea,” Jon said, then pocketed the phone. He turned toward the building and absently pulled his glasses down his nose out of habit, before remembering that he was without powers. He sighed and pushed them back up again, wishing very strongly that he could muster even a little bit of x-ray vision. It would helpful to know the building’s layout, the location of surveillance cameras, and the nature of the security measures, among other things. He felt like he was flying blind, but… he was no less disadvantaged than his mother was when she undertook missions like this one, and he liked to think he had all her smarts and at least some of her cunning.
“Frustrating, isn’t it?” Cruz asked, and Jon gave him a knowing smile.
“Yeah. But frustration won’t get me anywhere,” he answered. “With a little determination, though, we can change the world.” Cruz’s smile was the widest that Jon had ever seen, and it filled him with confidence. They could do this, he was positive. “Come on,” he said, and with that, they approached the building.
Once inside, they headed toward the reception desk, with Jon introducing himself, and describing Cruz as his Uber driver. “Seemed silly to send him away when I was just going to call again in a few minutes,” Jon said, giving more information than would normally be necessary, in part to make the receptionist a little uncomfortable. It was all part of the plan, discussed during their drive, and Cruz was more than game to hold up his end of the charade.
“He’s a good tipper,” Cruz added, and the receptionist nodded, quickly dialing the lower level vice president that Jon would be interviewing.
“Well, you told those stories about your poor grandchildren. If I could help you help them….”
The receptionist smiled weakly as Jon and Cruz continued their conversation and delved into the finer points of Cruz’s supposed personal misfortune, her eyes quickly giving away the fact that she wished she could be anywhere else. By the time Jon was summoned back for his interview, the receptionist was checking her watch or glancing at her phone every few seconds. Cruz just leaned on her counter, earnestly rambling on about increasingly private aspects of his life. Jon would do his best to draw out the interview, and he silently wished his father-in-law good luck in holding up his end of operation. Before disappearing behind closed doors, Jon captured Cruz’s eyes with his own, smiled, then glanced toward the security camera. Cruz kept talking even as he followed Jon’s gaze, nodding almost imperceptibly.
“You have to hear about this case of salmonella my wife had. You’ll never want to eat potato salad again,” Cruz said as he turned his attention back toward the receptionist, and Jon had to fight to hide a smile. He closed his eyes for a brief moment and took a deep breath, clearing his mind and refocusing his attention on the task at hand. Jon then turned his attention toward his job, and the very real interview that awaited him.
