"Freeze!" a harsh voice called. The doors at either end of the room banged open. Perry stopped in his tracks. Two helmeted, goggled figures in body armor pointed very lethal-looking weapons at him. From both sides. Slowly, Perry raised his hands. Tense silence filled the room.
Then Superman chuckled. Perry saw that he was squinting, with that unfocused look he got when he used his special vision.
"It's all right, officer," Superman said calmly. "The threat is over. You can put up your weapons." He remained carefully still, Perry noticed. "Although we do need medical care."
The Special Crimes Unit officer swept the room with his gaze, stopping at the sights of Lex's dead henchman, Lex with a pool of blood at his head, and Richard lying unconscious on the floor, blood painting his hands, body, and surroundings. After a moment, the officer nodded his head and lowered his weapon. Perry put down his hands with a sigh of relief.
The officer reached for his com, said some phrases that Perry interpreted as telling the rest of the unit to stand down. Then the officer asked for a medic in a low voice. The policeman checked the dead henchman quickly, and then went to Lex. The smooth helmet face shield gave no clue as to the officer's feelings, as he sat by the unconscious villain. He stared at Lex coldly, making no effort to stanch Lex's bleeding,
"Lieutenant Sawyer!" Superman called out.
A petite figure entered the room. Perry recognized her as Maggie Sawyer, leader of the Special Crimes Unit.
"Glad to see you got Clark Kent's 911 call," Superman. "I knew you'd come through."
The blonde dynamo took off her helmet and shook her head. Her hair was cut short to fit in the helmet. "When he called us and told us that Lex Luthor was here….Looks like you didn't need us, Superman," she said tonelessly. She began walking to Superman.
"Oh, we did," Perry interrupted, surprising even himself.
"Lieutenant," Superman said, in an almost pleading tone, "Ms Lane has been injured." He dropped his head, pointing out Lois' unconscious form in his arms. "I'm going to get her to medical care. Then I'll come back and fill you in." Without waiting for the lieutenant to respond, Superman carried Lois out the door.
Perry heard the "swoosh" he'd come to recognize as Superman taking off. He met Maggie Sawyer's eyes in a moment of recognition. She was as irritated with Superman's quick exits as Perry was. Then she shrugged, and muttered, "At least he said he'd come back." She ran a hand through her closely-cropped hair, looking tired.
"Well, Mr. White," she said, "it's been awhile since you were this involved in a story." Her tone was even, and Perry reminded himself that Maggie Sawyer was a smart cop. Perry would do well to stick very closely to the truth here. The interrogation was coming.
"Likewise, Lieutenant Sawyer," he said, matching her in formality. "You've moved up in the world since I covered the crime beat." Once Perry had gotten sober, and back in the reporting business, he'd spent a lot of time with the cops. The street cops of the MPD, not the suits upstairs. Maggie Sawyer had impressed him then, even when she was a newbie, as a more-than-competent woman. He wasn't surprised to follow her career and see her get the Special Crimes Unit. He also wasn't surprised to see that Sawyer whipped the SCU into shape, to the point where other cities sent observers to try to duplicate her results.
Motion in the periphery of his vision caught his eye, and he turned to see Richard being ministered to by two members of the SCU. No one seemed to be bothering to take care of Luthor.
Perry suddenly felt extremely tired. "You mind if I sit down?" he asked. Not waiting for Sawyer's permission, he collapsed onto an armchair. The relaxation of the tension left him shaking in reaction. After a minute, Maggie Sawyer followed his lead, sitting diagonally from him. She pursed her lips to speak.
Perry beat her to the punch. "How'd Lex Luthor get out, anyway?" he asked. The Pit Bull rose.
Sawyer sighed and looked away. Obviously she'd had a hard day, too. "I don't know all the details, Mr. White," she began.
"Perry," he said. "We've known each other long enough for that." He hoped that Sawyer remembered that he'd always given her a fair shake when he was a reporter. And as editor, he'd insisted on the same behavior from his reporters.
"Perry," she replied. "Well, you can call me Maggie again." She caught Perry's gaze. "What are you going to publish here?" she challenged him.
"As little as possible," Perry said, startled into the truth. "You know me, Maggie. I'm a reporter. The last thing I want to do is to be in the news."
"OK," she said. "This is off the record, right?"
Perry nodded.
"Luthor must have had contingency plans in the MPD," she said bitterly. "The details are sketchy, but he obviously had inside help." She chewed her lip.
"Luthor was carrying what looked like a Metropolis Police Department issue weapon," Perry probed, when Sawyer had been silent for a few moments.
She sighed. "I know. He killed a cop on the way out."
Perry inhaled sharply. He didn't think Lex would stoop to that, just for practical reasons.
Maggie Sawyer continued. "We don't know if the dead cop is one that Luthor suborned, or if he just got in the way." Unhappiness filled her face. "We don't know how many moles Luthor had, or who can be trusted. But what this whole thing has proven is that he's got somebody – probably a lot of somebodies - there."
Perry considered her statement, and his face twisted sourly. He had always assumed that Luthor had spies everywhere, but to have it confirmed so blatantly….and now the MPD was going to be roiled, just at the time when they were needed most to keep order after the crystalquake. He nodded slowly.
Mentally, he gave credit to Luthor. Even when Luthor lost, he won. The MPD would be chasing its own tail. Given the fact that a cop had been killed, the inquiry would be intense. The brass couldn't let this go. Internal investigations were the worst kind. Perry spared a minute to consider the fear that your colleague was turned, the Stalinist-like interrogations, the guarded voices, the purges that might be coming…yes, indeed, Luthor had won.
Then his gut roiled at the thought of who at the Daily Planet might be Luthor's mole – there had to be one. Lois Lane worked there, and Perry couldn't imagine Lex Luthor not keeping an eye on her. In fact, how had Lex known where they all were? But tonight's actions had gone way beyond just simple spying.
He sat down, his mind whirling. Maggie Sawyer looked at him and nodded, seeming to understand what went through Perry's head. Then she straightened.
"OK, Perry," she said, "can you tell me what happened here?"
He sighed. Too bad he felt so tired. Perry figured he'd better stick closely to the truth. Cops developed a sixth sense when someone was lying. At least Perry knew himself to have an excellent poker face.
"Well," Perry began, "Lois and Richard invited Clark Kent and myself over for dinner tonight, to celebrate their story and Lex Luthor's arrest."
Sawyer's face grimaced.
Perry continued. "During the dinner, we managed to hear Luthor before he and his henchmen got into the house." Reportorial curiosity arose in him. "By the way, what happened to Lex's guys? I counted six of them."
Maggie smiled briefly. "We found five of them trussed up – their own guns were bent around them. They were waiting for us near the driveway."
"Superman," Perry said, smiling too at the image.
"Yeah, I've got to remember to ask him to take those off so we can get those guys in regular handcuffs," Maggie Sawyer said, obviously making a mental note-to-self. "Have you ever tried hacksawing through a bent gun?"
"No," Perry said, starting to chuckle a little.
"Well, I hope you never do," Sawyer said tartly. "It takes forever." She smiled too, just a bit, then said, "Go on."
Perry continued. "We all understood that Jason had to get away, so Clark Kent scooped him up and ran outside." All true so far.
"Why Clark Kent?" Sawyer asked, her eyes locked with his.
Good question, Perry, he told himself. Why Clark, when as far as Maggie knows, Jason's parents were both here? "Clark was on the same side of the table as Jason," Perry said. "He could get out the fastest." OK, it was lame, but it was true.
Sawyer shrugged.
Perry went on, "Luthor came storming in with his men. By then we'd made it to the den – here," he indicated their surroundings. "Lois and Richard keep a fairly well-stocked gun cabinet, and we were hoping…"
Maggie Sawyer only nodded. If she was thinking about the disparity in armament between a few handguns and rifles locked away in the gun safe versus the knockoff Uzis that Luthor's minions had, she didn't say anything.
"And," Perry said, "Luthor sent his guys out to look for Clark and Jason – he knew they were here somehow?" he made the last phrase a question.
"Surveillance equipment in the car," Sawyer confirmed. "Maybe that's what delayed them long enough for Kent to get away."
"Anyway, Lex sent his men out after Clark and Jason," Perry repeated, "but they didn't come back."
"The men, or Clark and Jason?" Maggie asked.
"Both," Perry said. "With what happened later, I realized that Superman must have taken Clark and Jason to safety, and then disarmed Luthor's men."
Sawyer nodded. "What happened in here?"
Perry swallowed. This was the tough part. "I killed him," he said softly. "I got the gun from the safe and shot him. I couldn't stop shooting." Despite his internal resolve, he found himself trembling. He'd never killed someone before, deliberately.
He knew his lawyer would chide him for speaking so openly. Even though Luthor had invaded the home, and Perry shot in self-defense, the New Troy gun laws were arcane, complex, and in Perry's opinion, more harmful to the law-abiding citizen than the criminal. Metropolitans had been sued before by the very burglars who invaded their homes, or had been brought up on charges by the city or state law departments. Perry's sympathies had always been firmly with the frightened citizen who made a stand and fought back.
So, Perry decided to be open with Sawyer. And it wasn't like he could deny the shooting, anyway. The forensic evidence would clearly establish that Perry's fingerprints were on the gun whose bullets had killed the Luthor henchman.
What surprised Perry was his reaction. He'd thought about his story, and his legal defense, if it should come to that. But he'd never thought about how he was reliving that moment when the man had stood, shocked, blood coming from his chest, a stunned look on his face, just before he crumpled to the ground. The way his eyes had become blank as the life left them…..Perry suspected that he would never forget that moment. He felt soiled, dirty.
Sawyer only shrugged again. Perry spared a moment to wonder how she dealt with it. She saw things like that almost every day. The ordinary police officer wouldn't, but the SCU dealt with high-risk, tense situations. Perry understood now why so many cops turned to alcohol, or ate their gun. What he had done weighed on his spirit.
"Go on," Sawyer said gently.
Perry gathered himself. "The next part is all blurry," he said. "Heck, Maggie, I was here, and it all seems like a dream." Also true.
"That's….fairly common," she replied.
"Well, as best I can remember," Perry said, "Luthor figured out that his men were missing, and he called for Superman and threatened to kill Lois unless Superman came."
Sawyer raised her eyebrows, inviting him to continue.
"And it turned into a giant mess," Perry said, "and Lois got shot, and Richard got shot, and I shot the guy, and Luthor shot Superman – "
"What?" Maggie breathed.
"Oh, yeah," Perry said. "Luthor had kryptonite. Superman was vulnerable."
"Kryptonite? It's real?" the lieutenant asked. Then she said, "I guess it must be. I heard that when Superman was in Met Gen, the doctors removed some sort of knife piece from him. I wondered about that."
"Yes, it's real," Perry confirmed heavily. "Luthor had kryptonite set into a ring."
Sawyer glanced at Luthor, then immediately got up and headed over to Luthor's prone body. The villain breathed stertorously.
"Hey!" she cried out sharply. "Hey!"
The gaggle of medics and SCU personnel hovering around Richard gave her their attention.
"You mind telling me why no one's giving this man any medical attention?" the lieutenant asked pointedly.
Perry could see it now. Although Richard was now fitted out with an IV drip and was on a gurney, absolutely none of the SCU people had gone to help Luthor. The man lay on the floor, head bleeding, skull possibly fractured, blood all over his torso (all right, Superman's blood, but they didn't know that), and every single one of the SCU personnel had looked at him, seen that he was still breathing, and then gone to help Richard. That told Perry something about how the Metropolis Police Department felt about Lex Luthor.
Abashed looks followed Sawyer's declaration, and two of the crowd around Richard detached themselves from the throng and came over to Luthor. After some murmured consultation, they began doing paramedic-type things. Perry noticed there was still an air of – not leisure, per se, but more of an unhurriedness that contrasted sharply with the crisp actions and steady activity the SCU officers had shown when caring for Perry's nephew.
"Where's this kryptonite ring, Perry?" Maggie Sawyer asked. She'd come back over to where Perry was sitting and asked him quietly.
Perry began to answer, then was distracted as the medics and SCU personnel loaded both Richard and Lex onto gurneys and took them out the door, presumably to ambulances, leaving Perry and Maggie alone in the room.
"Uh, I took it off Luthor's hand and set it over there," he said, gesturing to the other end of the room.
Quickly, Sawyer strode to the end of the room and picked up the ring, still covered in dried blood. She began walking back towards Perry when a deep voice stopped her.
"Lieutenant, please," Superman said.
Perry looked up in surprise – he hadn't heard the characteristic whoosh of flight, nor had the usual wind of a super-speed entrance disturbed the den. Or maybe Perry was just tired. Superman stood at Perry's side, grimacing as Sawyer walked closer. Perry could see the Man of Steel trembling slightly. He caught a glimpse of Superman's cape – blood still stained it.
"Lieutenant, please leave that ring at the other end of the room," Superman repeated. "If you bring it closer, I'll have to leave." His voice was firm.
