And you guys thought I'd dropped it.
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Jason turned and watched the television with Perry and Alice. The GNN news team wondered aloud at the absence of Superman. Then: “Superman!” The cheer went up from the firefighters as Superman landed and sought out the person in charge of the effort.
Jason propped the baby against his chest so she could watch the TV screen. “That’s Superman,” he explained to her softly. “He flies, and he’s real strong, and he’s friends with my mommy and our daddy. And when you’re older, I bet he’ll take you flying, too.”
“Superman’s taken you flying?” Alice asked.
Jason nodded. “I like flying.”
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Superman listened attentively as the plant’s senior engineer explained the problem. One of the main feed valves had cracked. It probably wouldn’t have been a problem, had the technician working to repair it followed proper, or even common sense, procedures. But something happened and the valve exploded into a fireball, killing the technician. Now the fire was out of control with most of the plant involved.
The engineer, Joshua Farger, had a schematic of the plant. “If we could cut the fuel supply here and here,” he said, pointing out the two valves in question, “We should be able to starve the main fire out and get the fire teams in to take care of the rest. But be careful,” he warned. “You mustn’t allow the oil to atomize or create a spray effect. With the air currents in the fire…”
“Venturi effect?” Superman asked.
Farger nodded. “Nasty piece of business. It’ll go off like a bomb.”
Superman nodded, peering into the inferno, looking for the two pipes Farger pointed out. “I see them,” he said and flew off, toward the refinery.
First, cool the oil enough that it became viscous, almost solid, while taking care not to cool the pipes so fast that they would crack even more. Then, flatten the pipes and seal them. The fire screamed at him. He’d forgotten how incredibly loud fire was, especially large fires. It threatened to overwhelm his senses. He spotted the first pipe and sealed it off. The second pipe was harder to find and it took several minutes. Finally, that one too was sealed.
The noise level hadn’t gone down. The fire was still raging all around him. Superman launched himself into the air then stopped only a hundred feet above the flames, using x-ray vision to assess the rest of the fire. Other feed pipes had also been compromised. He took note of the locations. The pattern didn’t fit – some of the spewing pipes could not have been damaged by the current fire. Sabotage? Terrorists?
A blast of cold to congeal the fuel source and cool the combustion. Then seal the cracked pipes, by warming the metal enough to make it flexible, flatten the end, and seal the end with laservision. Finally, after five minutes that felt like an eternity, the fire was out. There were still some hot spots, but the fire crews should be able to handle them.
He flew up, making one last survey of the scene before coming to ground beside Farger.
“There are still hot spots, so tell your people to be careful,” Superman told him. He peered at the schematic. “May I have this?”
Farger shrugged. “Sure, but why?”
“I saw some things, and the fire marshal will need to know about them.”
“Like what?” Lois Lane asked, walking up to them. She flashed her press card at Farger. “Daily Planet.” She turned back to Superman. “What did you see?”
“Good evening to you too, Ms. Lane,” Superman said.
She nodded at him. “What did you see?” she repeated.
He looked over at Farger. “Some of the damage I observed was not consistent with a single point ignition.”
“You’re talking arson?”
Superman shrugged, a small almost non-motion. “Sabotage, possibly.” He turned to Lois. “You realize this is going to be a criminal investigation.”
“I know that, Superman,” Lois reminded him. “No details until the fire marshal approves. By the way, have you seen my partner around, tall fellow, dark hair, glasses, trips over his own feet?”
Superman simply looked at her for a long moment. Long enough for Lois to start to feel nervous about joking with Superman.
“I think you’ll find him somewhere around the GNN camera crew,” he said finally. He looked over at Farger. “Let the fire marshal know I’ll check in sometime tomorrow.” With that, he disappeared into the sky.
“Does he always do that?” Farger asked Lois as more reporters arrived on the scene.
“Disappear?” Lois asked. “Yeah. He’s a busy man.”
“Must be tough,” Farger said. “Always looking out for everyone else, always on call.”
“It’s not easy,” Lois said. “But it’s what he does.”
“Lois!” Clark called out, trotting up to them. He pushed his glasses up his nose as he stopped beside Lois, watching her expectantly.
“Clark, there you are.” She looked up at him, smelling smoke in his jacket, in his hair. There was a dark smudge across his cheek. She reached up to brush it off and discovered the dirt didn’t want to come off that way. She grabbed a tissue from her purse, spat on it and started scrubbing the spot. “You are as bad Jason,” she commented. “Oh, this is Joshua Farger, the senior plant engineer.” She looked over to Farger. “My partner at the Planet, Clark Kent.” She turned back to Clark, satisfied his face was passably clean. She took his arm and led him away from the other reporters. “Okay, what have you got?”
“Five employees unaccounted for, presumed dead,” he told her. “And someone called GNN. The timing indicates they were contacted a good fifteen minutes before the emergency alarms went off.”
“Do they have any idea who called them?”
Clark shook his head. “Call was ID blocked, but apparently, the call was recorded.”
“Any chance we can get a copy?”
“GNN doesn’t want to share it with the police,” he told her.
“Think they’d share it with Superman?” she wondered softly.
He just looked at her.
She shrugged. “I had to ask.”
He sighed. “Actually, they might give Superman a copy of the recording, or the police might. According to Mark Hadwyn, Superman was specifically mention by the caller.”
“To stay away?” Lois asked. “Or to make sure he knew this was going down?”
“Mark didn’t hear the recording,” he told her. “But he was given the impression that the caller wanted to make sure Superman was on the scene.”
“Why would a saboteur want Superman here?” Lois asked.
“That is a very good question,” Clark said, looking over her shoulder at the group surrounding Farger. He absently reached under his jacket to rub the right side of his back with the back of his hand.
“Are you okay?”
He gave her a surprised look. “The place I got stabbed is hurting a little,” he admitted. “Funny, though, it hasn’t bothered me in a couple days. I figured it was healed up.”
“Maybe you should have somebody take a look at it?”
“Whom do you suggest?” he asked. “Our Met General isn’t exactly set up to treat my kind.”
“Maybe we should suggest it to them.”
