Again, thanks to those of you who have provided FDK so far - if you're reading this and you haven't, please...let me know what you think!
Table of Contents From Part 2: Jimmy was headed back to his desk when the elevator door opened, revealing his two friends' familiar faces. He ran up the ramp to meet them.
"Lois! Clark!" he called to them.
"Morning, Jimmy," they both replied, walking towards him.
"Don't get settled in yet. The Chief needs to see you right away. He didn't say what it was about, but I didn't like the look on his face."
Lois and Clark didn't look like they liked the sound of that much either. "Thanks, Jimmy," Clark said as they moved off towards Perry's office.
He watched them as they went inside. Perry motioned for them to shut the door. No, something was definitely wrong.
Now, Part 3... "Lois, Clark, I'm afraid I've got some disturbing news from a source of mine down at police headquarters. He read your article this morning about the Harrell kidnapping and figured we'd be interested to know that there's been another kidnapping," Perry informed them.
"You’re kidding! Do they think it's by the same person?" Lois asked.
"They know it's by the same person because it has the same m.o. The kidnapper slipped in and out of the house unnoticed with no signs of a struggle. Nothing was moved or taken, except for the little boy."
"Do we know who the little boy is?" Lois interrupted him.
"Yes, unfortunately, we do, in more than one way. The little boy is Matthew Scott, the one Clark wrote about yesterday who was rescued by Superman at the park." Perry noticed Clark's face visibly pale at the mention of the boy.
"And, once again, in place of the boy he left a note," Perry continued, picking a piece of paper up off his desk and handing it to Clark. "My source faxed a copy of it to me."
Clark's hands shook a little as he took the note from Perry. He began reading it out loud.
"You know, you really should take better care of your son. You don't watch him closely enough. First the park and now at home. You should not rely on Superman to do your parenting for you. Superman is not here to help. He is a threat. Soon everyone will see this, and those who choose to continue supporting him, to befriend this alien, will suffer the consequences. Superman is not your friend. He has his own agenda and does what he does to benefit only himself. He wants to be worshipped and honored. He wants what is not rightfully his as an alien to this planet. Your son will soon know that too. Do not accept further help from him or I cannot guarantee your son's safety."
Clark's eyes looked a little glassy. Perry felt a little emotional himself. He knew what good friends they all were with Superman. It hurt to hear people say things like this about him. Perry looked over at Lois. She, on the other hand, looked mad.
"Who does this monster think he is?" Lois demanded to no one in particular. "Okay. Perry, Clark and I will get on this right away," Lois said tenaciously. That was the Lois Perry knew. The one that just took hold of a situation, grabbed the bull by the horns, so to speak, and charged forward, determined to solve the problem.
Clark spoke up, his voice sounding sort of small. "Wait, Lois." He grabbed her arm as she started to leave. "Chief, we need discuss a couple of things with you before we head off to talk to these parents. We have other stories that we're working on and need to proceed with," he reminded them.
Perry watched as Lois' demeanor softened and she sat back down next to Clark, taking his hand in hers.
"Did you ever hear from Admiral Whalen?" Clark asked Perry.
"Great Shades of Elvis!" Perry exclaimed. "With everything else that's happened this morning, I completely forgot! I told him you'd meet him for lunch today down at Callard's. You're supposed to meet him there at the outside veranda at noon."
Perry's next thought managed to bring a slight smile to his face. "Oh, and, Lois, he says to bring 'Battleship' with you when you come."
Lois smiled half-heartedly at him. "He didn't lose enough to me the last time?" she asked him.
Perry smiled broadly at her, and Clark spoke up again. "I guess that about wraps up our whole day, then, after we take care of another errand I had planned for this afternoon."
"What other errand was that, Clark?" Perry asked.
"I had planned to call the Metropolis women's prison and see if I could arrange a visit to see a lady there named Clarice. She was incarcerated for her criminal activities as part of the SHARP group. I was going to try to see her this afternoon. See if she knows anything about the parole, if we can get her to talk."
"Well, it sounds like you two are going to be busy today," Perry remarked, looking at his watch. "Check in with me and let me know how things are going. Oh, by the way, the television crews have already been by the Scott home this morning. I think the story ran in the morning news and will run again at noon. But, if I know the two of you, you'll have enough information by the end of the day for a new angle on the story. See you back here later, I hope with some page one material."
**********
Lois followed Clark out of Perry's office. She opened her mouth to say something to him, but, without turning around, he started talking first.
"I'll be right back. I'm just going to run to the restroom," he said quietly. And with that he was gone. And Lois was left standing by her desk wondering if he really was going to the restroom. Or was that an excuse for him to *do* something else? She didn't have to wonder long, though. As quickly as he had left, he was back.
"Are you okay?" she asked him.
"Yeah. I'm okay," he told her. She cocked an eyebrow up at him in disbelief, and he broke down under her gaze. "No, I'm not okay. I'm really not okay," he said, sitting down on the corner of her desk and sighing heavily.
"Where did you go just then? Did you?" she said meaningfully, making the flying gesture with her hand.
"No. I just splashed some cold water on my face. Although, that thought did cross my mind. It might be nice to get some fresh air."
"Why don't we get some fresh air together," she said. Then, at his inquisitive look, she continued, "Let's get out of here and grab a coffee at the corner shop. We don't meet with Admiral Whalen until noon. We have plenty of time to take a breather, get our notes together, and form a plan before we need to head off to the Scott home."
Clark didn't argue with her. Lois stood up and took his head in her hands, kissing him tenderly on the lips. "Come on, partner, we can do this together," she said, encouragingly.
Clark's loving brown eyes thanked her for her strength and support. She grabbed her purse and had started to get up when her phone rang.
"Daily Planet, Lois Lane."
It was her doctor's office calling about her appointment tomorrow morning. Lois grimaced. In light of everything that had happened already and how busy they were going to be today, she really wanted to cancel. But, ironically enough, as she listened to the lady on the other end, they were the ones calling to cancel. Her doctor had to go out of town tomorrow. Lois repeated what the woman had said to make sure she had heard her right.
"So, my appointment for tomorrow is cancelled, but you can get me in today?" she asked. "Well, I have a pretty full day scheduled..." Lois trailed off because Clark was making hand gestures and trying to get her attention. "Can you hang on just a second? Thanks," Lois said, covering the receiver with her hand and looking up at Clark.
"Lois, you need to go. Don't put this off. If they can get you in today, then go."
"But we have so much to take care of today. The appointment would be for this afternoon when we're supposed to meet with Clarice. Are you sure?"
"Yes. I've got enough reasons to not sleep well at night right now; this would be one less reason. You need to get this checked out," Clark told her.
She wasn't looking forward to the appointment, but she had to admit she'd feel better to get it done and behind her. She took her hand away from the receiver. "Yes, I can make an afternoon appointment. One o'clock? I'll see you then. Tell her thank you for squeezing me in today."
One o'clock? That was going to make their lunch appointment with the Admiral a tight one, but she'd manage somehow. Clark was right; it would be good to get this done. Lord knew they had plenty of other things to worry about right now.
**********
"Thanks, honey," Lois said, accepting the cup of coffee from Clark as he got into the Jeep.
They had decided to take their coffee to go and talk in the Jeep on the way to the Scott's home. They couldn't really talk as openly as they needed to in the coffee shop, anyway. Lois set her coffee down in the cup holder, crossed her arms, and looked at him expectantly. He sighed. She wanted him to *talk* about this, and what he was feeling, and she obviously wasn't going to move until he did.
"What do you want me to say? That I'm upset? Frustrated? Hurt?" he paused briefly. "Afraid? Well, then yes. I'm all of those things. I'm having trouble dealing with this particular problem. It's not something I can meet head on. This person, whoever he is, is turning the help I give to people against them."
"That's why *you* aren't going to solve this problem. *We* are going to solve this problem, together. It's what we do best," she told him gently.
She continued on in her take-charge voice, "Here's what I think. I definitely think that the leader of SHARP is playing at least some part in all of this. It's way too coincidental that all of this started happening just when he was about to be paroled."
"Yes. But, the kidnappings started before he was released."
"Right. Which means he has an accomplice helping him. Obviously, it can't be Clarice, since she's still locked up, but maybe she knows who it could be. I also think that, whoever the kidnapper is, he must have some way of tracking Superman."
"Tracking Superman? I don't think so. I mean the only time anyone has ever actually tracked me was when Diana Stride tagged me and tried to get her story."
"I had forgotten about that." She paused, remembering. "How was it you and Superman were seen at that press conference together?"
"My mom had this holographic art display equipment. We used it to create a holograph of Superman. Mom and dad ran it for me while I went as Clark."
Lois nodded her head, smiling. "Okay. But if someone isn't tracking you, then they must be following you."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because they know of each rescue, what happened at the rescue, and where the people live."
"Yeah. But they could have read about that in the paper. We don't supply the address, but it would be easy enough to get."
"Well, I would agree with you if we were only talking about the Harrell kidnapping because that fire happened several days ago. They would have had plenty of time to read the article, do their research, and make the kidnapping. But not with Matthew. Clark, yesterday's rescue piece wasn't in the paper until this morning. The kidnapping happened sometime last night. So, unless we've got the kidnapper working for us at the planet, they couldn't have gotten their information from our story. And the incident at the park happened so fast that there weren't any camera crews. It wasn't even a big enough story to make the evening news. No, I think that whoever this is was actually present for the rescue. Somehow."
Clark thought about what Lois was saying. He just didn't see how anyone would be fast enough to follow him around unless they had tagged him somehow, and that just didn't seem plausible either. But he agreed with her. It did seem like the only way they would have known about Matthew, in time for the kidnapping to take place, was if they had been present at the rescue.
If he made any further rescues...*if*? Now they had him second-guessing himself. *When* he made another rescue, he would have to keep his eyes open.
Lois had already put the Jeep in drive and was headed off to their next appointment. The interview with the Scott's. Clark wasn't looking forward to it.
**********
Lex Luthor's bunker had a lot of different rooms and areas in it. It had been big enough to house two-hundred people and had enough space to hold supplies for three years. They had more than enough space to work with. Even so, they had ended up staying pretty much in the one room that Lex had originally turned over to them to use. Now that he was gone and practically no one knew about the place; they could spread out. But, for now, what they were using was adequate.
These thoughts came to Aaron during that period when you are first waking up, still in a dreamlike state. He sat up, stretching, as he tried to clear his head. After he brought Matthew in to deliver him to the Great Leader, he had managed to catch a few hours of sleep in the bunker. He felt rejuvenated.
He might have slept longer if the sound of a voice hadn't brought him out of his sleep. It was the Leader speaking. Aaron could hear his voice coming from the next room.
"You fear Superman. Superman is bad. He is not human. He will hurt you. Don't go near him. Don't even listen to him. He is evil. You fear Superman. Superman is bad..." the Leader continued repeating on a loop.
While the Leader talked to the girl, Lydia, he would flash pictures of Superman, poses of him in public or flying, so she could relate the image of him with the words that he was telling her. The images weren't really necessary. As long as she *knew* who Superman was, the words took hold. Aaron and the Leader both felt, though, that the pictures might help with the longevity of the memories.
They had been prepared for their experiments before they even had possession of the equipment itself. Their Lex contact at Fort Truman had been able to leak a lot of valuable information and results to them.
They had learned that the government's research indicated the subliminals didn't have lasting effects. It would wear off the test subject, sometimes in as little as a few hours. It was only a prototype, after all. One thing was certain, though. The younger the test subject was, the better the sublimination seemed to work on them, and it also lasted longer. Which was why the Leader had eventually decided to use children.
Now they had the actual machine, the *subliminator* was what the reports called it, and had begun doing their own tests. They also had copies of the reports that had been filed on the project. The results on the adult test subjects indicated the effects of the subliminator were so mild that it reconfirmed their assumption that they needed to stick with children. With children the results were more than adequate. The minds of children were so malleable and easy to mold.
With Lydia they had tried a small kitten in their first test on her. They had asked her what her favorite animal was, and she had told them kittens. So, they had used a few phrases and pictures to persuade her to be so afraid of the harmless animal that at just the sight of one, she would faint.
It had worked perfectly. For the three days that she had been held here, she continued to faint each time she was shown a kitten. But each day the response time before fainting was longer. It was clear that, even with children, the effects faded. However, they lasted substantially longer than the effects on the adults. Who knew? With the children, maybe a small bit of the programming would remain permanently? All the better. It certainly wouldn't hurt their cause to have a few children grow up feeling animosity towards Superman.
The thought made Aaron smile. Yes, the more people who grew to distrust Superman, the better; even if some of them were children. After all, it wasn't like they were harming the children. They had been very careful to make sure the experience wasn't traumatic for the kids. That was not their goal after all. They simply needed time to program the children, and then they could be released back to their parents.
They had needed to keep Lydia a little longer since they were doing more extensive testing with her. Her results had shown them what worked the best. The other children wouldn’t have to stay so long.
There was only one little kink in their plans so far. From their own test data and the government's reports, one thing was clear; the test subjects had to speak the same language as the person giving them the subliminal messages. They had to hear and comprehend what was being said to them. First of all, you had to have their name so you could address them specifically. But then, they also had to understand what you were telling them to do.
The reason this presented a problem for them was because of one test subject in particular, a baby. According to the data in the reports, children under the age of about two didn't seem to respond as well to sublimination. Was it because they had a more limited vocabulary? Or because their memory didn't retain the information as well? That was unknown at this point. All he knew was that the results were very limited on babies.
However, there was one baby they were going to use the sublimination on, regardless of how limited the results were. They were going to try anyway; the Leader had been adamant about that. In fact, later this very evening, while the Leader worked on their second subject, Matthew, he would be making the attempt.
But he was getting ahead of himself. First, he needed to attend to the other items on today's agenda. He was going to be busy. He had a few errands to do during the day and then later in the evening he would be delivering Lydia back to her parents. Then they would get to see some real results. The Leader was pretty certain that Mr. Superhero wouldn't be able to stay away for long. He would want to check on her, and Aaron had to make sure he was there to document what happened. It was risky, but important.
Aaron listened; he didn't hear any more words coming from the room. Maybe it was time for a test run. How would Lydia react when she saw Superman? Aaron looked skeptically at the Superman outfit he had rented from a costume shop. He didn't have what it took to fill the thing out, but that didn't really matter. All that mattered was that the girl thought she was seeing Superman. The room would be dimly lit, so she wouldn't be able to see him too well. It should suit their purposes fine. They had to get this testing finished up and get her back to her parents, but they also had to know it was going to work. It was time for Superman to see himself as someone's nightmare rather than a hero.
**********
To Be Continued...
