<<< Chapter Eleven >>>
Jimmy fidgeted on his couch. When he got tired of that after a long and boring fourteen seconds, he picked up the TV remote and started surfing channels. Twelve seconds of that sufficed, so he snapped off the TV and walked around his living room straightening various items on the shelves and the end tables which he’d already straightened at least six times that morning.
A knock on the door startled him, then the second knock, the coded one for the Dangerous Boys, sounded. He all but ran to the door and swung it open to see Raoul and Philip.
He stepped back to let them in. “It’s about time you clowns showed up.”
Philip frowned. “Ease off, Jim, we’re here now.”
“I wish you guys had come over sooner.”
“Sorry, Jim, but both of us had stuff to do,” countered Raoul.
“I told you this was important.”
“Hey, Jim, Phil already told you – “
“It’s Philip, not Phil. How’d you like for someone to call you Ra? Or maybe Ool?”
Raoul laughed at the joke so old it was almost a set routine.
Jimmy didn’t laugh. “Hope you dudes are thirsty.” He handed a soft drink to each of his visitors. “Here you go, guys. Not quite a classic Dangerous Boys meeting, is it?”
“Nope,” agreed Philip, aka Harry Potter. “Not the same without Rebecca and Morgana. And we don’t usually meet on Thursday afternoons, either.”
Raoul popped open his drink and took a swig. “Where are the girls, anyway?”
“They’re both safe,” said Jimmy.
“Safe?” asked Philip. “Safe from whom?”
“The killer who’s after all of us. You two have to get out of town now. Tonight.”
Raoul and Philip exchanged a bemused look, then Philip asked, “What do you mean, there’s a killer after us?”
“It’s Arianna Carlin! Somehow she found out about us and now she’s got us in her sights! She’s already killed a reporter at the Planet!”
“Who’s Arianna Carlin?”
“Don’t you read the papers, Phil?” Raoul cut in. “Lex Luthor’s mercenaries shot up her house a few weeks ago and she’s in hiding. She’s the criminal mastermind of the city, the Boss.”
“Name’s not – “
“Forget that!” Jimmy broke in. “This woman is a walking shooting gallery!”
“Man, I got no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Get the afro out of your ears! We’re learning more about her every day! She’s behind more than half of the high-dollar crime in the city, and now she’s killed a friend of mine! And somehow she found out that we were poking around in her business online! Now which one of you birdbrains hacked into that Cayman Islands bank?”
Philip put his drink down. “It wasn’t me, Jimbo, honest. I’ve been a good boy lately.”
Jimmy glared at him for a moment, then nodded and turned to his other guest. “Raoul?”
Raoul took a deep breath, then nodded. “I confess. I cracked it and found a bunch of transactions from that guy Nigel’s accounts. Copied them off to a hidden directory on my home machine and gave them to the DA. But I didn’t know about the woman you’re talking about, not then. How’d she find out I was in that system?”
Jimmy ran his hand through his hair. “We don’t know. Might have been a file access trigger, or maybe you tripped a silent alarm when you hacked in. We just know that she asked her people to find out about me and you, both by name. There’s no way she’ll miss the connection to the rest of the group. On top of that, my police source says that your info can’t be used to start an investigation because it’s stolen.”
“But I’m not a cop! Can’t they use things ordinary citizens give them without looking at it too close?”
“Not on something this big. We’re talking multi-state task force, FBI, IRS, and a couple more alphabet agencies chasing this maniac. And you pointed her right at us!”
Raoul’s face fell. “Man, I’m really sorry. I didn’t think it would get that heavy.”
“Well, it has.” Jimmy stomped to the far side of the room near the window, then turned to face his friends. “Look, we’re all in danger, you two more than me. This woman is crazy dangerous and she’s bound to make a try for you. I have the Daily Planet to give me some protection, but you guys don’t have much of anything.”
Raoul lifted his hands palms-out in a ‘peace’ gesture. “Easy, Jimmy, just take it easy. What do the police say we need to do?”
“Get out of the state, not just out of town. Go west somewhere, Chicago or farther. Your lives are in danger if you don’t go and go now!”
Philip shook his head. “Sounds great, but I don’t have any money to travel. And I just got my teaching assistant ticket and classes to teach at Metro University. I can’t afford to leave town.”
“The Planet will front you the money you need.”
Raoul shook his head next. “I have a couple of job offers of my own in the works, Jim. If I disappear, so do they. I can’t afford to leave town either.”
Jimmy gritted his teeth and hissed. “You idiots! You can’t afford to stay here! Arianna Carlin will find you and shoot you in the head! Or worse!”
Philip chuckled. “What could be worse than that?”
Jimmy opened his mouth to answer when he heard a scraping sound at his door. Jacked up with adrenalin, he grabbed his friends by their shirt collars, fell backwards, and pulled them down onto the floor behind his couch.
Before either of them could say anything to protest, Jimmy’s apartment door blew open and someone emptied an assault rifle into the front room. Several bullets ripped through the couch above their heads and slammed into the wall behind them, as well as others which buried themselves in the plaster and wood around the room.
His smoke alarm went off almost immediately, along with a special strobe light in the ceiling which Jimmy had installed as an added security measure. The alarm’s sing-song tone combined with the flashing of the strobe through the smoke of the explosion and the gunfire to create a surreal atmosphere.
The shooting stopped as abruptly as it began.
Philip had his face buried in the carpet and his hands over his head. Raoul was curled up in a fetal position beside him, breathing rapidly. Jimmy strained to listen, but the concussion of the explosion had created a high-pitched ringing in his ears.
There were no sounds of anyone walking through the living room – at least, none that he could hear over the siren and the ringing – so he risked a slow belly crawl to the end of the couch.
He got up on his hands and knees and peeked around the end of the couch.
Nothing.
He saw no one in the room, near the doorway, or in the hallway of the apartment building. He did, however, see a number of empty shell casings on the floor, along with the remnants of his front door.
He crept slowly to the shredded doorway and gingerly peeked out. All he saw was the heads of two of his neighbors looking out to see what had happened.
“Call the police!” he yelled. The man across the hall and three doors down wiggled the phone next to his head, indicating that he was indeed doing that very thing. The woman directly across the hallway, whose head was covered by a pink hairnet, seemed to be yelling something at Jimmy, but he heard none of what she said.
He stood, flipped off the security strobe and alarm, and leaned against the wall. The place was a total wreck. Every surface in the room was either peppered with debris or pockmarked with bullet holes.
He sighed. He knew he wasn’t getting his security deposit back, not after this party.
*****
Jimmy watched the officers go over his apartment with a fine-tooth comb. They catalogued every spent cartridge, every bullet hole, every burn mark, every piece of shrapnel, every shred of couch stuffing on the floor. They had even partially reassembled his front door in the hallway outside.
Philip was sitting on Jimmy’s bed, being questioned by the same scruffy detective he’d seen at Cat’s apartment a few nights before. Raoul was in the kitchen being debriefed by Bill Henderson himself. Jimmy had already given his statement to the attractive Officer O’Brian, the woman he’d met at Cat’s apartment, whose first name, he had learned, was Leticia. Now he and Leticia stood beside the ruined couch, waiting for the crime scene techs to finish their work.
“How are your ears now?” asked Leticia. “Can you hear me okay?”
“Yes. Still a little ringing, but it seems to be fading.” Jimmy shook his head and sighed deeply. “You know, I liked that couch. It was a good couch. Too bad Carlin had to shoot it up.”
“Are you sure it was Arianna Carlin, Jimmy?”
He shook his head again. “I didn’t see her, didn’t hear her voice, but I can’t think of anyone who’s that mad at me except her. She, or whoever she hired, just blew the door down and started shooting.”
“And you say that Dr. Carlin knows it was you – your group, I mean – that hacked into her offshore accounts?”
“Again, if it wasn’t her, I have no idea who else it might be.”
“Jealous boyfriend, maybe? Spurned girlfriend?”
He looked at her and almost smiled. “I wish it were that easy, but I haven’t had the time to date anyone seriously for more than a year. Closest I came was with Morgana.”
“Who’s that?”
“Morgana? She’s a musician and an amateur scientist. She and Rebecca Connors were working on a biology project for Becca’s undergrad degree about three years ago, and they invited Raoul to help them with the computer setup. He brought in Philip – he hates being called Phil – and Philip called me for help on the technical stuff.” He chuckled. “Turns out that the five of us together make one whale of a cracker-hunter team.”
“Cracker? Don’t you mean hacker? And aren’t those the guys who break into computer systems and steal data and erase peoples’ files?”
“No! Just the opposite. Those guys – the bad guys – are crackers, and us hackers – the good guys – go after them. We helped the FBI catch some computer-savvy bank thieves a couple of years ago, and just a while back we – that is, Raoul – penetrated Carlin’s offshore accounts and gave transaction dates and amounts to the District Attorney. He even dug out Carlin’s personal account number.”
“I hadn’t heard about any of that.”
“That’s because we didn’t want this – “ he waved at the apartment “ – to happen. I don’t know how she spotted us, but I figure she must have had a backtrace set up in the bank’s computer to let her know if anyone got into her account. I guess Raoul was so excited to get in the system he missed it. That kind of thing can be hard to catch unless you’re looking for it, and I guess he figured she felt safe enough out there.”
“So her offshore accounts are frozen now?”
He sighed again. “I wish. The DA has to make an arrest, then track the money independent of our hacking to make any kind of case using it. Mr. Riesman told us thanks for the info, now knock it off before we blow his case.” He shrugged. “I hope this jump-starts the investigation, because I don’t think I can take getting shot at very often.”
Leticia leaned closer and said in a low voice, “I think you’re doing very well, Jimmy. A lot better than your friends, in fact.”
Jimmy listened to the raised voices coming from different directions in his apartment. “Yeah, well, unfortunately I have more experience at this kind of thing than they do.”
A knock on the shredded door frame caught their attention. “Jimmy?” asked Lois. “Are you okay?”
He smiled in relief. “I’m good, Lois. thanks. Don’t come in, okay? This is still a crime scene.”
Leticia took a step toward the door. “Please identify yourself, ma’am.”
Lois flipped open her press pass and held it up. “My name is Lois Lane. I’m with the Daily Planet. I work with Jimmy and I was worried about him. I heard about this on the news, and I wanted to make sure he had a place to spend the night.” She looked around and grimaced. “You sure don’t want to stay here.”
Leticia said, “The city can provide a safe place for him, Ms. Lane.”
Lois put her pass away. “Given the level of carnage Arianna Carlin has spread around the past week, I suspect that Jimmy’s still in danger.”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s why the police department should provide a safe place for him.”
Henderson came out of the kitchen. “I thought I heard your voice, Lane. Knew you couldn’t stay away from a train wreck like this.”
“As I live and breathe, it’s Metropolis’ answer to the Dark Knight, all moody and brooding. Anything for publication, Bill?”
“Nope. And I won’t until we find Carlin.” He turned his attention to Jimmy. “Olsen, you didn’t leave town.”
Jimmy gave him a deadpan stare. “What gave me away, Inspector?”
Henderson almost snarled and all but leaped across the room. “I don’t like people shooting the citizens of my city! Especially when I told you to tell them to leave town! And as I remember it, I didn’t just ask you to leave, I told you to leave! I don’t want you idiots dead on my watch! I want you alive and breathing and working and paying taxes and paying my salary! Now are you going or do I have to arrest all three of you?”
Jimmy looked at Lois, who shrugged from the doorway. Then he turned to Henderson. “Okay, Inspector, I give up. Take us, all three of us, to your finest safe house.”
Henderson, who seemed to have gotten himself under control, frowned. “Can’t. The woman we have in custody already gave us two of our safe house locations, and we can’t be sure how many more Carlin knows about. We have to do something else.”
Lois looked around the room. “You know a good maid service?”
“Ha, chuckle, guffaw, and tee-hee, Lane. Not to mention giggle and snort.”
“You forgot the chortle.”
Jimmy was astonished to see Henderson fighting a smile. “Okay, Lane, I give up. What should we do with our three little lambs who have obviously lost their way?”
Lois assumed an exaggerated thinking pose. “Well, aside from leading them in the Whiffenpoof Song, you might let them come with me. I think I can find them a safe place to be for a few days.”
“Good. As long as you let me know where they are, that is.”
Lois’s face morphed into a Cheshire Cat smile. “Why, my dear Inspector, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Another uniformed officer leaned past Lois. “Excuse me, please, ma’am. Inspector Henderson? We got a body down in the alley beside the building. A tenant found the deceased face-down on the ground when she went to the dumpster to take out the garbage.”
“I’m not done here. Call the precinct for another detective.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure it’s related to this case.”
Henderson leaned forward slightly. “What makes you say that?”
“The recently departed was wearing a ski mask, gloves, and a gray jumpsuit. He also had an empty AK47 under his right arm.”
Henderson’s eyebrows rose. “You’re right, that is interesting. Can you tell the cause of death?”
The officer shrugged. “Can’t be sure, but I don’t think the two small bullet holes in the base of his skull did him any good.”
“How small?”
“ME will have to extract them, but I’d guess a twenty-two or a twenty-five. Close range, too. There’s what looks like gunpowder residue in his hair and on the back of the mask.”
Henderson turned to Jimmy. “Looks like Carlin is trying to clean up all her loose ends. When did you say you three guys were leaving town?”
Jimmy looked at Lois. “First thing tomorrow morning, Inspector. I promise.”
“Tonight would be better.”
“Inspector?” Lois said. “I think I know just the place to park these three miscreants.”
*****
Arianna was furious. She’d risked everything to strike Olsen quickly. When she learned that the other two male members of the group tracking her were going to meet with him, she decided to hit the place with a frontal assault.
But the idiot she’d hired had botched the job. Instead of entering the room and making sure the targets were dead, he had simply sprayed the apartment with his assault rifle and run. He’d proven he was a waste of DNA when he turned his back on her. The only positive aspect of this job was that she didn’t have to pay him.
The biggest problem was that now she had to disappear again. And she was running out of rabbit holes to dive into. A quick mental evaluation told her that the closest and safest place was the parking garage across from Lex’ building. It was unlikely that the police would look for her there, and she’d have the chance to take care of these so-called Dangerous Boys at a later date.
No one had seen her near the dumpster, no one had seen her shoot the incompetent gunman, and no one had recognized her in scarf and sunglasses as she strode out of the other end of the alley. It was an eight-block hike to the garage entrance, then three more blocks underground, but there was a serviceable bed, a store of preserved military rations, fresh water, a small but clean bathroom with a shower, and a change of clothes waiting for her. She could remain hidden for several days, if necessary, and no one would ever know she was there.
Maybe she could arrange a final meeting with dear Lex, too.
*****
Lois leaned out her Jeep’s driver’s side window and tossed the keys to Perry’s fishing cabin to Jimmy. “You have dried food and fresh water, clean linens, a VCR with a hundred movies, and a state of the art computer with a satellite Internet connection. You boys be neat, okay? Don’t let anyone see you. And no fires!”
“Yes, Mommy,” whined Jimmy. “We promise to be good.”
“Don’t go there, Jimmy. I’ll tie your arms in knots behind your head if you do.”
Jimmy leaned down to Lois’ Jeep window. “Lois. I know what’s going on and how much danger we’re in. Raoul and Phil got shot at for the first time tonight. They’re too scared to do anything but keep their heads down, and I have my phone handy. If anything happens I’ll call you, then Henderson, then we’ll run for the hills through the back door.”
She tried to keep the mist from her eyes, but she knew she couldn’t. “Well.” She cleared her throat. “I just don’t – don’t want to lose anyone else.”
Jimmy put his hand on her shoulder. “We’ll be fine. Really.”
She nodded and turned the ignition. “Okay. See you in a few days.”
She drove away, but not far. Just over the second hill, she pulled of the dirt road under a stand of trees and stepped out. She listened, then looked around.
No one nearby.
A whirl of dust and starlight and Ultra Woman lifted up from the ground.
Her patrol route took in a ten-mile radius around the cabin. At four thousand feet, she could see further than that, and no one on the ground was likely to identify her, much less see her clearly. As long as she dodged low-flying aircraft she’d be fine.
And so would those three young men.
The wind from her flight dried her tears even as she shed them. When she’d picked up the emergency call for Jimmy’s apartment, that shots had been fired, she feared the worst. Had Carlin succeeded in killing Jimmy, Lois would have begun her own search for the woman and not stopped until Carlin had been found. When she’d learned that Jimmy and his buddies were alive and unhurt, she’d almost driven off the road in relief.
She wasn’t sure she could have taken that blow. Cat’s death, her spying on the newsroom, her reporting to Perry and the DA, all conspired to knock a huge hole in Lois’ self-image. There was no reasonable doubt that Carlin had killed Cat for going to the police. And there was no doubt that Lois had completely missed any indication that there was a spy in the newsroom, much less that it was Cat.
She’d never have lunch with Cat again, never share tidbits of gossip with her, never watch her smile and make men jump over themselves to please her, never hear her unexpectedly deep and personal insights, never laugh with her again –
It was almost too much. Cat’s death and the revelation of her secrets had nearly broken her. It was worse than the incident with the three home invaders. Lois had trusted Cat, had depended on her friendship, and she’d never suspected that the other girl was giving sensitive and sometimes secret information to a mass murderer.
What else had she missed? Had she missed something about the people close to her? Was there something about Rebecca or Perry or Jimmy she should know but didn’t?
Was there something about Clark –
No. Clark was exactly who he appeared to be, either in the Suit or in civilian clothes. She would bet her life that anything she didn’t already know about Clark didn’t matter. He was a true hero and she owed him her life several times over. And the link they shared would have revealed his secrets by now, had he had any she needed to know.
Clark was honest and good and true. He was the best friend she’d ever had – Cat included – and she loved him. He –
Wait a minute.
Lex. She loved Lex, not Clark. Clark was a great guy and Rebecca was lucky to have him in her life, even if she kept trying to pull him away from being Superman. Becca loved Clark, so it was natural that she wanted to spend time with him.
And she had a date with Lex on Saturday night. This was no time to overturn her heart, especially when there was no one to turn to. Clark would be her friend forever, but that was all he’d be.
Her head was surprised at the flow of sadness from her heart at the thought.
Enough mental musings. She needed to focus on this sweep of the area. And if it remained as clear as it was so far, maybe she’d drop in and see Bob. She hadn’t spoken to the artificial intelligence for some time, and she knew he’d want to take readings or some such thing to check up on her.
Just once more around the perimeter, just to make sure.
*****
Bob? This is Lois.
<< Greetings, Lois. It is pleasant to converse with you. >>
Yeah, me too. I – I dropped by to let you take some readings from me.
<< While it is true that obtaining more physiological data from you would be a positive development, that is not why you are here. >>
Oh. Right. Would you believe – um – I dropped by for a review of my financials?
<< No. >>
Drat. Missed it by that much.
<< You are attempting to use humor to mask your pain. If you wish for me to surmise the probable reasons for your emotional discomfort, I am able to do so, but I prefer a more direct method in data input. >>
So you just want me to tell you, right?
<< Yes. >>
You sure you don’t want to guess?
<< While Clark believes that I could have some success as a ‘radio psychologist,’ I have no innate understanding of human emotions or interactions. They are too complex to be broken down into equations, and there are too many variables whose values and weights change from moment to moment in the same person, never mind from one person to the next. >>
So you don’t want to guess?
<< No. >>
Okay. I – I had no idea Cat Grant was spying on us for Arianna Carlin.
<< This is a true statement? >>
Yes. But she was also passing everything to Perry and the district attorney’s office, too, so I guess that makes her a double agent or something. And I also found out that the reason she was reporting to Carlin was because Carlin bought Cat’s gambling debt that she ran up in college, and she was also threatening her parents in Georgia. I took care of the bad guys in Georgia, but Carlin got to Cat and – and killed her.
<< May I have a moment, please? >>
Sure. Just don’t take too long.
<< >>
Um, Bob? Hey, Bob, are you still on the air?
<< Yes. Thank you for being patient. I had not accessed all of the information you have just given me, since it was not released for national publication. I was aware of the murder, but I was not aware of the intricacies of the ties binding Ms. Grant to Dr. Carlin, nor of her importance in yours and Clark’s lives. Now that I know where to look, I am able to read Metropolis’ police and district attorney’s files to gather all the pertinent details. >>
Huh. Never knew you could get caught with your variables down.
<< If you mean that you are surprised that I do not have all existing information in the world ready for immediate retrieval, please remember that I am a finite artificial being. I cannot know everything. >>
I see. Then maybe I shouldn’t ask you what I came here to ask you.
<< You are more than welcome to ask, but I may not know the answer. And if the question involves human inter-personal relationships, it is likely that I will not be able to provide a satisfactory response. >>
Okay. Let me try anyway.
<< Please proceed. >>
Here goes. Do you think – no, can you calculate that Lex Luthor and I should get married?
<< This is not a matter for numeric calculations, Lois. This is something you must decide for yourself. I can ask you questions which are designed to guide you to your own answer, but I cannot supply the correct response. I can advise you, I can point you in a general direction, but I cannot give you a definite answer. I know of no machine intelligence which could do so. >>
Hmm. Okay. Why don’t you ask me some questions and see what happens?
<< Very well. Please respond without considering your answer. If, for example, I say the name Lex Luthor, what impressions come to your mind? >>
Rich. Good laugh. Powerful. Great dance partner. Likes music and plays a pretty good blues piano. Inspires loyalty in his employees. Good-looking in a slightly rugged way. Nice guy, too. Did you know Rebecca plans to go back to work for LexCorp when she’s recovered just because Lex is her boss?
<< I did not, but that is not germane to this discussion. >>
Is that enough of an answer?
<< Yes. Please respond in the same way to the name Perry White. >>
Oh, Perry? He’s the greatest boss ever. He’s firm but not mean, demanding but fair, and at heart he’s a great big pussycat.
<< Thank you. Now please respond to the name Rebecca Connors. >>
Ah, Becca. She’s cute, perky, brilliant, friendly, ambitious, determined, a little bit sneaky, has great hair but isn’t vain about it, loyal to her friends, and – well, she’s just a darned nice girl.
<< Thank you. Once more, please respond to the name Clark Kent. >>
Wow. I – uh – Clark’s the greatest. Friend, I mean. In the world. He has all those powers and won’t use them for personal gain, which is totally cool because not even I could stop him if he went all Darth Vader on us, and he helped me figure out how to control mine when I got them and he never got jealous or anything and never resented me getting some of the publicity he’d been getting because he sure could have and –
<< Thank you, Lois. I believe you have an answer to your question. >>
Huh? What answer?
<< The question of whether or not you should marry Lex Luthor. >>
But you haven’t told me what I should do!
<< No. But I believe you have. >>
Well, yeah, maybe I’d understand all that if you came with a decoder ring! What am I supposed to do?
<< I do not often advocate that humans follow their hearts. Too often, humans are focused on their own desires and needs to the exclusion of the desires and needs of other people, and those desires are often not conducive to civilized behavior. But in your specific case, you wish to know if you should wed a particular man. I cannot give you the answer. You must find that answer within yourself. >>
In other words, I should follow my heart?
<< In this case, yes. >>
You’re a big help, you know that?
<< I have assisted you to the limits of my programming and my design. I regret that I cannot go beyond these limitations, as I am not human. >>
You could have at least given me a name!
<< No, I could not. I am unable to supply that data for you. The only concrete advice I can offer is that you should not compromise yourself when and if you marry. This course of action is a serious one, a course guaranteed to bring you both joy and heartache, and that assumes that you marry a man as committed to you as you must be committed to him. >>
But – but that’s just common sense! Who’d miss something that obvious?
<< If the divorce statistics of this nation are to be trusted, it is sense which is far less common than you assert. I can tell you no more, Lois. I wish you well on this, your own personal quest for a life mate. >>
Oh. Then – our conversation is over?
<< Not if you wish to continue. But I have exhausted my store of counsel for you on this subject. I have nothing more to offer. >>
Okay. Then – I guess this is good night, huh?
<< Good night, Lois. Have a pleasant flight home. >>
