TOC Part 15 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JOURNAL ENTRY #16
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER, 1995
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We decided to have an engagement period a few months long. We didn't need time to plan a big wedding, but we did need to get some things settled first.
As it turned out, the one we were most worried about was the easiest. Aymee and Inez were thrilled by the news. Inez even asked us what had taken so long.
Other matters turned out to be trickier. Where we were going to live, for one. Gina, understandably, didn't want to move down to the sewers, but I wasn't too sure about moving away from the group and the Fortress. Gina pointed out that the "commute" wouldn't be too bad, and I did have a comlink in case of emergency. I'd still take a night watch every once in a while, too.
After that, we had to find someone to perform the ceremony. Someone who wouldn't ask too many questions of me. Someone we liked and could trust. That was tougher than we expected. Then I remembered something. Bibbo had used some of the lottery money to buy a ship for himself. Having spent so much time on or near the water, it was only natural. I figured that made him a captain. If we went out to sea with him, he could marry us. We didn't really have that many people to invite — neither of us had many friends, or much in the way of family — and getting married out on the water sounded pretty good.
I mentioned it to Bibbo, but he explained that the whole "captains can perform legal marriages" thing was a myth. I was disappointed until he told me that he might be able to do it anyway. A friend of his in a similar situation had gotten a special temporary license from the city, allowing him to perform a wedding on a specific day. Bibbo said he'd look into doing the same.
In the meantime, the Shadows had a few things to clean up. We took down a machine capable of generating storms and gave it to Hamilton to play with. Eventually, he used them to create the prototype stations for the global weather control system we have today. That took years, though. It was a much better use than its original designer had intended, or than Cadmus would no doubt have put it to.
A few weeks later, Lex Luthor's son showed up out of nowhere. He ended up nowhere, too. Somehow, he got trapped inside a computer and then set loose on the budding network known as the Internet. (You know, it sounds strange to write it, but at the time, it seemed almost run-of-the-mill. With all the things we saw back in those days, I don't think anything could have seemed odd or far-fetched.) Jaxon (or, as he preferred to be known, X) had even worked his way into the Daily Planet systems. Eugene, working with Phillip, had to work overtime on that one, but they finally managed to trap "X" in a simulation. Then, just to be safe, they'd isolated that computer, making sure it would never communicate with any other devices. Unplugging it would have been tantamount to murder, so they left it running in a quiet little corner.
Then we found out what the Lakes had been up to, but luckily Lois and Clark took care of that one for themselves. We had been working on it, but Clark, not surprisingly, was faster than we were.
Let me see... what was next? Oh, right. The thing with Clark's ship. Cadmus came up with this idea that they could use germs from Clark's ship to infect him. They gave the ship to Mindy so she could have Intergang's labs do the work. Phillip thought they were wasting their time. Between the cold of space and the heat of going through the atmosphere, nothing should have survived on the outside of the ship. Clark would, most likely, have been exposed to anything on the inside, either as a baby or when he'd encountered the ship in Bureau 39's warehouse.
Unfortunately, Phillip had missed two important things. First, the germs had left DNA (or whatever the Kryptonian equivalent of DNA is) on the ship, and Mindy was able to find someone who could work with that. Second, the things were Kryptonian, and they'd responded to yellow sunlight just as well as Clark.
Fortunately, it turned out fine. Lois's father, called in on the case, had done the perfect thing. He'd used Kryptonite. His theory was to take Clark to the brink of death, so as to starve the germs. Whether it was because of that or the germs themselves being even more vulnerable to Kryptonite than Clark (being smaller and weaker creatures than a full-sized person), it worked.
Even so, we knew we had to prevent it from happening again. We needed to get the ship back. We knew that was going to be hard to pull off. The ship was large, and closely guarded. Worse, Cadmus had recruited Dr. Henry Leit about a year previously. Leit was a brilliant scientist who specialized in light. He'd managed to temporarily blind Superman. Setting up UV sensors to look around for any invisible people or objects was a simple matter for him. With his help, Cadmus had already gotten most of the cameras and bugs we'd set up to keep track of them (luckily, they hadn't been too concerned with finding our other ones around the city). We'd switched to more long-range (and somewhat less reliable) techniques for surveillance, but breaking in was another matter.
We thought of calling Clark (eventually), but realized he was still recovering from his ordeal. So, to do the job, we called in Lin Chow. She had the skills and experience to break into the facility, and her magical bracelets gave her superhuman strength and abilities. I went along to help, armed with a sonic stunner, another useful little thing Alan and Hamilton had developed from the Wall of Sound technology. I had one based on the Prankster's equipment, too, but the flash of light it made was too noticeable for most situations.
Lin went in first, stealthily. Ten minutes later, she appeared behind me, tapped me on the shoulder (almost making me jump out of my skin), and waved me in. She'd taken care of the guards and the cameras.
Even with the local security taken care of, we knew that we wouldn't have long before reinforcements showed up. We worked quickly. I was just able to lift the ship. Barely. If not for the enhancements Alan had made over the years, I wouldn't have been able to do it. Lin moved in and rapidly but smoothly and slid a dolly underneath it. We hurried out the door. We'd gotten around the corner and a little ways down a nearby alley when Lin stopped me. She signaled that she'd heard something from around the corner. Reinforcements had arrived. We hid in the darkness.
The troops, wearing goggles capable of detecting infrared and ultraviolet light, spread out to check the building and the surrounding area. One pair, working together, came down the street towards me, looking intently at every possible hiding place. I held my breath and readied my stunner. They came closer. Closer still. In another moment or two, they would be sure to spot me. I took careful aim, hoping that I'd be able to get them both before either one had a chance to report back to the others.
One of them fell to the ground, crumpling quietly into an immobile heap. At one point, I would have frozen, startled. By then, however, I'd had enough experience to know better. Not questioning my luck, I aimed and took out the other one. He fell next to his partner. Lin (whom I could have sworn had never left my side) stepped out of the shadows and over the two stunned bodies.
We'd bought ourselves a little more time. With any luck, we'd have at least a few minutes before the others noticed that a pair of soldiers hadn't checked in. That was good, but our options were limited. I couldn't move the ship without the dolly, but its wheels were too loud. The noise would bring the rest of the troops down on us in moments. A distraction might help, but I didn't want to risk leaving the ship.
A gunshot echoed through the streets. It sounded like it had come from a few blocks away, on the far side of the warehouse. "That should get you guys a little extra time," Phillip whispered into my comlink. "Now move!"
Lin tapped her ear. Phillip had spoken to her, too. She moved to the front of the ship, moved her arms through a series of flowing gestures which suggested she was preparing herself for something, put her hands under the nose of the ship, then looked up to me. I raised my eyebrows, but the meaning was clear. I went to the back of the ship, got a grip, and looked back at her. She nodded once. Together, we lifted the ship clear of the dolly.
It was a difficult load for me, and must have been for Lin, too, but somehow she managed to move gracefully. Luckily, we didn't have too far to go. Just down the alley was an open manhole cover. Carefully, we set the ship down beside it. There was no way the hole was big enough to fit the ship, of course, but that wasn't the plan. I reached down inside to get a heavy and cumbersome case we'd stashed below. Carrying it with us would have been too much of a hindrance, and we wouldn't have had enough time to set up the contents anyway. The kids could perhaps have helped, but the mission was too risky for them.
Together, Lin and I unpacked several interconnected bits of equipment from the case and attached them to the bottom of the ship, underneath its rounded hull. Crossing my fingers for luck, I pressed a button. The ship rose, smoothly and quietly, lofted by a force field made of controlled sound waves. It had become a stealthy hovercraft.
Suddenly, Phillip was speaking into my ear again. "Guys, I didn't want to interrupt you while you were working, but the distraction is over, and they've noticed their missing friends. You don't have much time before they come your way."
"I will keep them busy," Lin whispered to me. "You go."
It was as good a plan as any. I nodded.
She vanished.
I pushed the ship. It moved, sliding easily on a bubble of hard sound. I maneuvered it along a prearranged route, down darkened streets and forgotten alleys.
There were more gunshots behind me. I tensed, wondering about Lin.
"Take it easy," Phillip told me. "She has them good and confused. They're not aiming anywhere near her. She's fine."
I blew out a breath I hadn't quite realized I'd been holding, then started moving again.
I'm not sure how long it took me, moving through the darkness and the eerie quiet and trying not to jump at every little disturbance, before I made it to our chosen hiding space. It was an abandoned construction site. There had been some kind of trouble with the building that was supposed to have occupied the lot (or maybe it was with the company that was trying to build it, I'm not sure), and Bobby had managed to buy the land cheaply through a company he secretly owned. It looked quiet and unused, but it was filled with security equipment. Cameras and other sensors kept track of everyone who came within a block of the lot. Holographic projectors backed with speakers were ready to create a wide range of illusions to deter any casual visitors. Force fields, stunners, immobilizing goo, and a variety of other traps awaited anyone more determined.
I stashed the ship inside what looked to be an ordinary mound of construction dirt, but which actually contained a hollow reinforced steel shell heavy enough that I could barely lift it. That was partly due to the layer of lead which formed the outline of Superman's S shield across the top of the shell underneath the dirt. After I got the ship inside, I closed the shell and locked it into place. Doing so activated yet more security measures, including a device which would send a heavy electric current through the shell if it was moved without authorization. When Phillip reported that all the lights were green, I smoothed out the dirt near the opening, then made my way to a sewer entrance hidden in the back corner of the lot. Once underground, I breathed a sigh of relief. It hadn't been easy, but we'd done it.
Unfortunately, we'd tipped our hand with Lin. They'd be more ready for her next time. Still, it had been worth it. There was no way we wanted to let any other bad guys get their hands on that ship.
Of course, that still left us with the question of what to do with it. Clearly, it belonged to Clark, but how could we contact him?
We considered doing what we always did when we needed to channel information to the outside world — using Bobby. It seemed risky, though. We didn't want to connect him with us or any mysterious business. Instead, we sent Dudley to break into the Planet's mailroom, where he dropped off an anonymous envelope addressed to Clark.
Inside the envelope was a note and another sealed envelope. The note asked Clark to pass the envelope along to Superman without opening it himself. We thought it was better not to admit that we knew his secret, and the kids were amused by the instructions, which would be very difficult for Clark to follow truthfully.
Inside the second envelope was another note.
Dear Superman,
We have your old globe stand. We're holding it for you. If you want it, look for the sign near the bay that only you can see. Landing nearby will alert us. Alarms will be deactivated and a console will appear when we're reasonably sure it's you. Your password can be found in microprint somewhere on this note, and it must be entered within one second. Sorry for the runaround, but hopefully you understand the need for caution.
Your landing may attract notice to the area. Please be prepared to take the item with you the first time you enter the site. We don't want to risk it falling into the wrong hands again.
Some FriendsWe figured the lead shield would be obvious enough on an x-ray sweep of the area, but hard for anyone else to see. We were right. We saw him fly out over the neighborhood, then pause, looking intently at the ship. He landed a few blocks away, hiding in the shadows, then stared at it through the (unleaded) side panels of the shell. Then he checked the rest of the site. We weren't sure what he was looking for, but there was no Kryptonite anywhere in the area, and, despite the security, nothing which could prevent *him* from zipping through, smashing his way in, and zooming off with the ship. After a while, he nodded, then flew off. Apparently, he was satisfied the ship was real and secure, but not ready to claim it. We didn't like having to reveal so much of ourselves, but we were honored by his implied trust and approval.
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