TOC Part 13 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JOURNAL ENTRY #14
MARCH - SEPTEMBER, 1995
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The rest of the year was pretty much more of the same. We picked up another recruit, or at least set the foundations to do so. Sarah Goodwin was a psychology student who, along with Jimmy Olsen and several others, had been the subject of a military experiment. Lois and Clark took care of that situation, but we realized she could be useful to us. We quietly encouraged her to pursue criminal psychology. Years later, with proper training and some experience, she joined up, providing analysis and insights.
There was also a case with a mind-altering drug Intergang had developed, but, for once, someone else cleaned up the mess. We did look into the case, since Lois had asked Bobby to check it out. Cat, looking into the Washington end of things, came across the cover story of the DEA agent in charge of the case. Not knowing any better, she told us that he was an FDA official. We knew better, but only because we'd seen him with Lois and Clark. We talked about it, and decided that Bobby should alert Lois to the cover story without letting on that he knew any better. So, he told her only that he'd heard Agent Scardino was with the FDA. Lois put the rest together on her own.
The DEA, led by Scardino, did manage to take care of the drug. They arrested those who were directly responsible and took their research. Unfortunately, they weren't able to get to Intergang, the organization behind the company which had developed the drug.
In the meantime, Cadmus had been up to something new. They armed one of their more attractive agents with pheromones and sent her to become Bill Church's nurse. Soon, he was hopelessly in love with her, and she pretended to return his feelings. She convinced him to go straight. Presumably having gotten the idea from vague glimpses of the Shadows, she even encouraged him to turn Intergang's criminal network into "The Church Group," a vigilante peacekeeping force.
It did confuse us when someone in the organization hired an explosives expert, but we couldn't connect that to anything else that was happening. Fortunately, Lois called Bobby about it, so we knew that side of things would get taken care of. Still... we weren't sure what was going on in the bigger picture. It seemed like Cadmus was trying to shut down Intergang in order to get rid of the competition. We weren't about to object. We learned too late that we'd been wrong. Mindy wasn't there to shut Intergang down. She was there to take it over.
With Cadmus's help, she neatly managed to get both Bill and his son arrested, then convinced Intergang's board to accept her as their new leader. She quietly toned down their criminal activities, and began directing them more and more towards Cadmus's original goal — getting rid of Superman.
In the aftermath of that, we realized that some of the Church Group members were genuinely good people with useful skills. Most of them had been nothing more than mercenaries, of course, but some had joined up because they wanted to make a difference. We carefully screened them, and secretly hired a handful to keep up the work.
We agreed that it wouldn't be right to keep using the name "The Church Group," but we weren't sure what else to call them. Alan came up with "The Baker Street Irregulars." He said it wasn't quite right, but that he liked it anyway. None of us had anything better, so we agreed. I took to calling them "The Bakers" for short, and that caught on.
The Bakers were kept completely separate from the Shadows, but it was still good to have a few extra hands doing the work. We even passed them a few assignments here and there (through their mysterious employer), mostly when we found ourselves tied up with something else.
Things were happening in my personal life, too. Gina and I had started casually dating that winter. Gradually, things had begun to get more serious between us. Then I watched Clark propose to Lois. He hadn't told her about Superman. As everyone knows by now, she figured it out for herself. That lack of trust really hurt their relationship. I thought about that. Then I talked to the group. A few nights later, instead of bringing Aymee and Inez to Gina, I brought Gina down to the Fortress.
We had a long talk. It wasn't easy for any of us. I had to risk losing Gina. Aymee and Inez had to sit through their mother's reaction to finding out what they'd really been up to. Gina, of course, had the worst of it. She had to deal with the shock of learning about her kids, about me, and about the group as a whole. She didn't take the time travel aspect of it any better than I had. Understandably, she wasn't too happy about her kids had been exposed to.
When she started to get used to the idea, however, she was very proud of what they'd helped accomplish. Seeing that they had a home and people who cared about them helped, too. So did knowing that they'd been kept safe for well over a year. Knowing that her kids had helped save Superman's life certainly didn't hurt, either.
She left that night, needing to get the kids to bed, saying that she wanted some time to digest everything. Given our crazy world, it was only reasonable. We knew, though, that we could trust her not to tell anyone. She had a good heart, and more, her own kids were involved. Letting the word out would only put them in danger, which was the last thing she wanted to do.
Aymee and Inez weren't allowed down the next day. We were disappointed, but not surprised. Bobby offered to get a regular babysitter to keep an eye on them, but Gina preferred to find her own.
I didn't see much of Gina for a while after that. I was tempted to keep an eye on her with the cameras, just to see her, to make sure she was okay, but I knew it was wrong. So, I did the hardest thing I've ever done. I waited.
To keep busy, I threw myself into the work. It was just as well, since it was about that time that Lois and Clark went on vacation to some exclusive island resort. That meant no Superman, especially since Lois made Clark agree to just be "ordinary" while they were gone. That left a lot more for us to do. He wasn't gone long enough for anyone to notice, but every situation he wasn't there to handle was one more for us to try to take on.
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