TOC Clark hurried back to the Daily Planet and arrived in about the middle of Mayor Sharp’s televised press conference. Perry was still in the newsroom, watching the news conference on the television in his office.
‘Neither this city nor its financial institutions will cooperate with such outrageous blackmail. Furthermore...’ Sharp was saying. ‘The Metropolis Police in conjunction with state and federal authorities are following a number of strong leads and we expect to have this individual identified and apprehended in a very short time. Citizens are urged to remain calm...’
“Do you think he can do it?” Perry asked Clark.
“Can the Sound Man bring down a building like he says?” Clark asked in return. “Yeah, I think he can.”
“Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down…” Perry quoted softly to himself. The news conference on the screen ended with a flurry of frantic activity after one of the mayor’s aides whispered something to her. “Interesting…” Perry muttered, turning his attention back to Clark.
“Yeah, something’s going down,” Clark said. “And it can’t be good.”
A few minutes later the phone on Clark’s desk rang.
“The Sound Man just took out that abandoned building on Ninth and Grandview,” Jimmy’s voice announced without preamble. “And according to the cops I talked to, he’s threatening to take out the rest of the block unless the city gives in to his demands.”
“Jimmy, maybe you should get back here and let the police handle this?” Clark suggested.
“CK, I’m with the cops and they’re checking out the buildings in case there are people inside. It’ll make a great story and I’ve got some good shots,” Jimmy said. “Besides, I’ve got a good idea how he’s doing it.”
“Jimmy, be careful, okay?”
“Sure, CK,” Jimmy promised and hung up.
“Well?” Perry prompted.
“The Sound Man took down a building on Ninth and Grandview and is threatening to take out the block,” Clark told him. “Jimmy’s on the scene.”
“And Lois?”
Clark shook his head. “Last I saw, she was at the Stoke Club.”
“The Stoke Club?”
Clark nodded. “She was following a lead there.”
“And you?” Perry prompted.
Clark grinned at him as he got up from his desk chair and headed for stairs to the ‘library’ – a collection of overcrowded bookshelves filled with atlases and phonebooks, as well as other frequently used references. “I have my own lead.”
-o-o-o-
Lois waited impatiently for the elevator doors to open. She pulled her trench coat collar closer around her neck with one hand, rubbing her right temple with the other. Except for reinforcing her belief that Lenny Stoke was involved with ‘the Sound Man’ her visit to the Stoke Club had been a bust. She had managed to get Stoke’s attention. She had even got him alone at a table for a drink, although she was sure that if looks could kill, the looks she got from the security women and the groupies would have put her in the hospital at the very least.
Stoke had lived down to his reputation as a ladies’ man. She had told him her name was Linda but he couldn’t remember it, spouting off nonsense about fated meetings and instant connections and uncontrollable desire while peering down the front of her halter-top. She had pretended not to notice – the airhead she was portraying wouldn’t have noticed. She had even gotten close enough to him to plant the ‘bug’ she’d gotten from Jimmy.
Then Stoke was called away by one of the security people, a tall muscular woman with bleached blonde hair, a hard expression, and ‘Security’ tattooed down her arm. Stoke had asked her to stay, but as soon as he was out of the room, his security people ordered everyone out of the building.
“You too, honey,” one of the Amazon women had told her, grabbing her arm and pulling her from her seat when Lois didn’t move from her table.
“Lenny asked me to wait,” Lois had protested.
“And I'm sure he meant it at the time,” the woman told her with a sneer. “It happens, sweet-face.”
Then things went from bad to worse. She had planted the listening device on Stoke. It was small enough that it was unlikely he’d find it unless he was looking for it and she knew it had been working before she’d gone into the club. But it wasn’t working now – all she was getting was static.
The elevator doors opened onto the newsroom and Lois stalked to her desk. Her head was throbbing and she grabbed a bottle of aspirin from her desk drawer before heading to the water cooler.
“Nice nose ring,” Perry said from behind her. She hadn’t realized he was still in the newsroom. He chuckled as she plucked the ring from her nostril and dropped it into her coat pocket. He was still chuckling as she watched him head for the elevators.
She headed back to her desk only to see Clark hurrying down the stairs from the library. He had an open road guide in his hands.
“Oh, hi,” he said, noticing her.
“Hi.” She fell into step with him as they both headed to their desks.
“How's the Stoke lead going?” he asked.
“I was so close,” she said. “Then I rammed myself right into a dead end.” She flopped into her chair and unbuttoned her coat. She was still wearing the short black leather halter and short shorts. Stoke had stared down her front, making her feel dirty. Clark was studiously watching her face.
“Clark, I've lost something...” she began.
“Your fashion sense?” Clark responded with a brief nod to her outfit.
“My edge,” she corrected. “When did it happen? Is it gone forever, like socks that go the dryer but never come out?
“Lois, you're babbling.”
“I know,” she told him. “See? I never babble.”
“Are you kidding?” Clark responded. He sounded amused. “You're a brook. But that's not the point – the point is you're the same reporter you've always been: dedicated, hard working, a little over the top sometimes... you could use a few more vacations, maybe a hobby, I don't know, even a life…”
She glared at him. Everything he was saying was true, but he didn’t have to look so happy about it. “Is this leading anywhere?”
“You're the best reporter in the city, Lois,” he said. He wasn’t smiling now “You always have been and you always will be.”
Clark always knew exactly what she needed. “Awww. Thanks. You really are a good friend. I'm sorry I got so wound up over a stupid award.”
‘Not even an award, just a nomination,” Clark reminded her.
“Exactly. How ridiculous,” she agreed. Then: “So, how's the Camden search going?”
He nodded to the open road guide on his desk. “I think I know where he is.”
“We do?”
“We?” he repeated. He was watching her as she moved over to his desk to peer at the map.
“Echo Canyon, interesting...”
“What is this 'we' stuff?”
“Didn't you just say I was the best?” she asked putting on her most innocent expression.
“Well, yeah…” he admitted.
“And who do you want for a partner, the worst?”
“Well, no, but...”
Lois buttoned up her coat and grabbed her purse. “Look, do you want to sit here and quibble or get out there and tackle our story?”
The elevator doors opened and Jimmy walked in. His head was down and he looked upset but his expression cleared a little as he caught sight of her and Clark.
“How’d the bug work out?” he asked.
“All I got was static,” she told him. Jimmy gave her a puzzled look.
“What kind of static?” he asked. “A schschsch noise or a whiney sort of noise?”
“A buzzing sort of whiney noise,” she said.
A thoughtful look came into Jimmy’s face. “AC hum? The receiver isn’t supposed to sensitive to AC hum.”
“But that’s all I got,” Lois told him. She shrugged and turned to head for the elevators.
“Uh, CK? Can I use your computer?” Jimmy asked.
“Sure, why?” Clark said. Lois stopped to listen.
“I wanted to write a few paragraphs up for Perry about that building coming down,” Jimmy explained. “The cops and the fire department got the other buildings evacuated.”
“Weren’t the buildings supposed to be empty?” Lois asked.
“You know how it is. They were supposed to be, but they weren’t. Some homeless people were living there,” Jimmy said. “And it looks like there was at least one family living in the basement of the building the Sound Man took down. According to the people I talked to, they had a couple little kids.” Jimmy’s eyes were bright with tears and his lower lip was trembling. “Guys? What sort of monster would bring down a building on top of little kids?”
“Just like you said, Jimmy,” Clark said quietly. “A monster.”
-o-o-o-
Two hours north of Metropolis lay the Kirby Mountains, a rough spur of the Adirondacks that stretched north through New England and into Canada. The Kirby Mountains were known for their wealth in coal as well as more precious minerals.
With Lois behind the wheel of her Cherokee, they had made the trip in under 90 minutes. They had turned off the highway half an hour ago and were now wending their way over rutted and unimproved paths that barely warranted the tern ‘road’ despite what the map said.
“Camden had a friend from the hospital, Noami Valdez; she didn't speak English too well but she told me about a place he liked to go...” Clark explained. “Canyon Del Sonido...”
“Canyon of Sound?”
“Very good,” Clark commented while mentally reminding himself that grabbing the door handle wasn’t going to help against either Lois’s driving or the condition of the road. “Anyway, Echo Canyon's famous for the way sound can bounce and carry for miles. It's a state park, no houses, no camping, but there's an old ranger station up here...”
Clark checked the map again. There were about a mile from where the map indicated the ranger’s station was. Lois stopped the Jeep. The road ahead was impassable.
“I guess we’re walking the rest of the way,” Clark commented as he climbed out of the jeep. He ignored the dark look Lois shot him.
He also ignored her muttered imprecations as she stumbled through the underbrush behind him. She had refused to stop at her apartment to change clothes, wanting to get on the road as quickly as possible. Clark was reasonably certain she was now regretting that decision.
“Ow,” she muttered as she stumbled against him once again. Clark stopped suddenly as he caught sight of the crumbling shack that must have been the abandoned ranger station.
“Shhhh.”
“Sorry, does my ankle shattering annoy you?” Lois muttered.
“Not me, him.”
A man in ragged clothes and a wild-eyed look in his face had stepped out from the trees behind Lois.
“Who?”
“The guy with the gun,” Clark said.
She whirled, stumbling back against Clark’s chest, one flailing hand knocking his glasses awry. A gasp escaped as Lois caught sight of the gun the man had aimed at them.
“Are you my appointment in Samarra?” the man asked.
“What?” Lois asked, straightening up and moving away from Clark.
“Are you death come to visit me?”
“No, we're reporters,” Clark said, keeping his voice low and calm. “And you're Doctor Camden, right?”
“You work for him,” Camden announced. “You're his assassins.”
“Oh, for God's sake, if we were assassins, would we be this clumsy?” Lois asked sharply.
“She's got a point,” Clark said, straightening his glasses. “Do you think we could go inside and talk?”
The inside of the shack was as dilapidated as the outside. There were signs on the walls and floor of roof leaks. The glass in the small windows had disappeared long ago. The only furnishings were a table with two chairs and a sleeping bag. A camp stove sat by the front door.
Clark took a moment to tell Camden about the attacks in the Metropolis. The man became more and more agitated as Clark spoke. Camden began pacing the floor, waving his gun around.
“He stole them,” Camden was muttering. “Doctor Carlin said he would and she was right and he killed her. He stole from her too, all her dreams, her ideas.”
“But Doctor Camden…” Lois began. Clark grabbed her hand to catch her attention. He shook his head at her. Camden was in no condition to hear the truth about Arianna Carlin.
“So those sounds that put people to sleep and blow things up…?” Clark prompted.
“Here, all from here...” Camden said, pointing to his own head with the hand with the gun in it.
“Doctor, be careful...” Lois said, taking a step toward him, hand out to take the gun.
Camden whirled on her, aiming the gun in her direction. “Don't touch me.”
Lois backed off. “Don't worry.”
“Calm down,” Clark said, stepping between Lois and Camden. “We're your friends.”
Camden eyed him. “He used that word, too. What does that word mean? Friends? I used to know...”
“Stoke lied to you,” Clark said. “He said he was your friend just to get you out of the hospital, then stole all your inventions, right?”
“No, my dreams! He stole my dreams and hers!” Camden shouted. “He wants to end my body and keep my dreams!”
“But Stoke is the Sound Man?” Lois asked.
“Thief, killer, destroyer...” he muttered, almost in tears. Clark doubted Camden even remembered that he and Lois were in the room with him.
“I'll take that as a yes. Ha! I knew it! I was right!” Lois exulted.
“We were both right,” Clark reminded her, keeping his voice low.
“Doctor Camden, what about that frequency that kills people? Was that your dream, too?” Lois asked, more quietly this time.
Camden was shaking his head. “Never wanted to hurt, no hurting... theories, play, circles in the air... but not Lenny. Lenny has the power.”
“What power?” Clark asked.
“The power, the power... it's all about power... doesn't work without power, where's he getting the power? I never found the power. But Lenny... he found the power. He stole the power,” Camden said, his words coming in disjointed gasps as he crouched in the corner of the room. “And he's coming... for me, for you, for everybody... and nothing can stop him. Not even Superman.”
-o-o-o-
Lois was tired, annoyed, and her ankle hurt as she drove her jeep through the dawn streets of Metropolis. They had managed to get away from Camden. Hopefully he wouldn’t do anything to hurt himself.
The news had announced that the Sound Man had made another extortion call to the mayor and had made more threats. He seemed to be laughing at them.
Clark wanted to call the police with what they had. She wanted more information.
“I agree,” Lois was saying. “A tactical police team could infiltrate Stoke's place and pull his plug but come on, do we really have enough evidence to go to them?”
“Camden said…” Clark began. He was being obtuse.
“The Nutty Professor?” Lois scoffed. “Come on.”
Clark sat back in the passenger seat. He looked as tired as she felt. “All right, what do you have in mind? Something reckless, dangerous? The kind of fly by the seat of your pants plan guaranteed to get you killed? Superman’s not going to be flying in to the rescue, remember?”
“I remember,” she assured him she stopped the car across the street from Stoke’s club. “But, since Jimmy’s gizmo didn’t work… how’s your hearing these days?”
“Okay,” Clark admitted. “But are you sure Jimmy’s gizmo wasn’t working?”
“All there was was static,” she reminded him.
“Turn it on anyway,” Clark suggested. He was eyeing the club across the street and she followed his look. In the morning light, the concrete building looked dark, foreboding even ominous.
She pulled the tiny receiver out of her coat pocket and turned the miniature knob on the front to turn it on. Then she fitted the ear piece into her ear.
“Hang on, I'm getting something...” she murmured in surprise.
“Are the speakers set?” Stokes was saying.
“Two more minutes...” another voice said. “... and City Hall will be ready to fall.”
“Clark, what do we do...?” Lois asked. Things were spinning out of control.
Maybe I should have let Clark call the police. At that moment, the tiny speaker in her ear began to screech. She jerked it away.
“That’s AC hum,” Clark commented.
“It means something?”
Clark nodded. “Camden said ‘He stole the power.’” Lois watched as Clark lowered his glasses and his eyes went unfocussed – or rather he was focussing on something she couldn’t see. “Stoke’s people have tapped into the city’s main power lines. They’re accessing the vault from the building’s basement.”
“So if we could cut his power…”
“Exactly. We have to get into the club.”
“But no Superman?” Lois asked as they climbed out of the car.
“No Superman.”
“Pity,” Lois commented. “This kinda’ looks like a job for Superman.”
“Tell me about it.”
Lois couldn’t help put notice the glum note in his voice.
She tested the front door to the club. It was locked, naturally. Only fools, criminals, and farmers were up this early. She started pounding on the door with her fists while Clark stood out of sight.
After a long moment, the three female security guards appeared at the door. Lois had forgotten exactly how huge they were. The shortest one was six feet tall without heels.
“Hi. I just thought I'd give you girls a tip,” Lois began chattily. “Lenny told me he really likes his women to be... well... how should I put this? Smaller than your average milk cow? So if I were you, I'd either drop some poundage, or graze someplace else.”
The three women glared at her.
“I'm sorry, should I be using smaller words...?” Lois continued brightly.
-o-o-o-
Clark watched in silent amazement as the first Amazon lunged at Lois who sidestepped, grabbed the woman’s wrist and flipped her onto her back without breaking stride. He’d watched Lois practicing her Tae Kwon Do moves before, but it had never occurred to him exactly how proficient she really was.
The other two women came at her. She blocked, kicked and retreated, luring them away from the open door. He saw his chance and took it, slipping inside the building while the guards were otherwise occupied.
Clark hadn’t tested his super-speed for several days. He tried it now and found that although he wasn’t as fast as he had been before, he was much faster than a normal human. He sped through the backstage door and down the stairs into the basement.
The two men he’d seen with his x-ray vision were still standing over the power conduits, watching dials on the control console they had set up in the junction vault. The two men looked up as he stopped behind them then. There wasn’t time for niceties. He grabbed them and banged their heads together. He let go and they dropped to the floor, unconscious.
After a moment’s consideration, he grabbed the cables feeding the console and yanked. They came free with a shower of sparks.
Overhead, he could hear Stoke swearing at the loss of power.
Clark took a quick look around and found a spool of electrical tape. He used it to secure the two men before heading back upstairs to see what was happening with Lois.
She was waiting just outside the door to Stoke's music room. There was a triumphant gleam in her eyes. “I called Inspector Henderson.”
“Shall we?” Clark took hold of the door handle – it too was locked, but a quick twist of the handle opened the door. Clark slammed it open.
“Rude not to knock,” Stoke said. He was sitting behind a complex console, the emergency lights casting eerie highlights into his face. He glared at Lois. “I guess the girls were right to not trust you.”
“You're the one who needs to learn some manners,” Lois told him.
“Do I?”
Suddenly, the lights on the console came back on. Stoke grinned. “No, I think you're the one with a bit to learn. For instance, if you rely on power, always have a backup generator,” Stoke told them. He indicated a tall cylindrical device set in the corner by the door. Lights played across gauges on the top.
“You’re obviously not my usual fans,” Stoke stated conversationally. “Who are you?”
“Lane and Kent, Daily Planet,” Lois answered, hands on her hips. Clark stepped away from her, toward the generator.
The head Amazon ran into the room gun in hand. The woman took only a moment to assess the situation, turning her gun on Lois and gesturing for Clark to move away from the generator. Clark chose not to comply. The woman grimaced, taking her attention off of Lois for a fraction of a second.
That was enough for the smaller woman. A spin-kick knocked the gun out of the Amazon’s hand, sending it flying. The Amazon reached for Lois, but Clark was there first. She tripped and went down hard as Lois and Stoke both dove for the gun.
Lois managed to get there first. She had the gun, rolling away from Stoke as she aimed for the generator. Four shots rang out and four neat holes appeared in the generator’s control console. The room went dark again except for the emergency lighting.
Stoke charged at Lois, grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards his body. Despite her attempts to break free, he twisted the gun out of her hand and put it to her head.
Clark stepped forward. Lois shook her head, a slight move that someone else might have missed in the near-dark. Her heart was racing.
Clark considered their options – his speed was nearly back and x-ray vision was finally back as well. He had a suspicion that heat vision had returned but he hadn’t had a chance to test it. He still felt heavy – no levitation, no flying, at least not yet.
He hoped Lois wasn’t planning on doing something foolish. She wasn’t invulnerable.
Stoke grinned at him. “Darling, please,” Stoke murmured to Lois as he pulled back the hammer on the pistol. She froze, eyes wide with fear. Stoke pulled his free hand away from her and held it up, gloved palm outward. Clark hadn’t had a chance to look at the gloves before. They were made of a chain-mail-like material and the gauntlets reached half-way up Stoke’s forearm. Clark couldn’t see what was hidden in the gloves – there was lead in the mesh.
Stoke flexed his fingers and a strange, high-pitched warbling filled the room. The air around Lois and Stoke seemed to shiver like the air above a flame but there was no heat.
Clark reached out a hand to touch the air. He could see through it, but it felt solid.
“Surprise,” Stoke said. He pushed Lois into the chair at the console. She sat down hard, glaring at Stoke. “As you can see, these gloves aren't just an affectation,” Stoke continued. “Little something I dreamed up called the Wall of Sound. A sonic barrier so dense nothing can get through it, not even Superman. Pity he’s dead. I’d love to have seen his face when he fell on his face trying. And there's no plug to pull – independent power supply.”
The Amazon had managed to climb to her feet.
“Get him out of here my dear,” Stoke ordered. “Then get downstairs and hook us back into the city main…”
Clark didn’t budge, even though the Amazon had grabbed his arm.
“You've got five seconds,” Stoke warned. “Five, four, three, two…”
Clark allowed his shoulders to slump as the Amazon pulled him out of the room. Behind him, he could hear Lois murmuring “No…”
-o-o-o-
“I know, darling, but really, you'll see,” Stoke said as his chief security woman led Clark out. “I'm much more fun than your fuddy-duddy partner.”
“Look, Lenny, this is…” Lois began.
“Oh, come on, you're not going to say something tiresome like, 'You can't possibly get away with this,' are you?”
“Well...” Lois admitted.
“Just keep those happy little greeting card thoughts to yourself, hmm?” Stoke said. He cracked his knuckles as he began pacing the area around the chair. The ‘wall’ moved with him but he stayed close enough to her that she stayed inside the barrier.
“You know, they never did find his body,” Lois said with a calmness she didn’t feel.
“What?” Stoke asked, giving her a puzzled look.
“Superman… They never found his body.”
“Darling, your Pollyanna attitude is really quite tiresome.”
Then even the emergency lights went out.
