The Forgotten
By Jenni Debbage < jdse08662@blueyonder.co.uk>
Rated: PG13
Submitted: December, 2006

Hi readers,

This story begins with a major wham, though no one has died or
will die. However, I did feel I should give some warning of
trouble ahead for our favourite couple. I do believe in happy
endings, though, as I'm sure anyone who has read my earlier
stories will know. If you like an angsty A-plot, then perhaps
you'll enjoy reading this story.

The Forgotten will stand alone, but it follows the fortunes of
Lois and Clark and as they appeared in my last story, This Child
Belongs To You, though a few years into the future.

I do not own the main characters, but a few are my own
creations. 




Chapter One
Lost

The man awoke to nothingness, then a growing sense of confusion.
He thought he remembered pain, terrible pain, but he couldn't be
sure. He couldn't grab hold of what pain actually felt like;
couldn't grab hold of where he was or even who he was. He had no
sense of self.

He lifted his head experimentally and looked around the room.
That was good, because apart from a slight sensation of
disorientation and cold, he felt nothing. He knew nothing. 

The white concrete walls that surrounded him were
unrecognizable, and the thin pallet beneath his body was
similarly unfamiliar. 

He ventured moving a little further, levering his body onto his
elbows. For a moment his head swam alarmingly and he had to
fight the craving to drop back into unconsciousness. Refusing to
succumb, he allowed his senses to regain their balance and once
again took note of his environment. The half-seated position
gave him a new perspective of his cell.

Cell? Why would he think of a cell? And yet he knew without a
shadow of doubt that he was in a prison. There might not be
manacles round his wrists or ankles, but imprisonment was the
one thing he was sure of. Only he had no idea what he had done
or what crime he had committed to deserve such punishment. 

His gaze at last began to register the confines of his dungeon.
High overhead, a large neon light bathed the room in stark
whiteness. There was no window, no outlook onto the world
outside. A steel door was situated a quarter-way up the far
wall, reached by an open stairway, also in shining, polished
metal. The brightness hurt his eyes, and he closed them for a
few seconds until his faculties reclaimed some stability and he
was ready for some further investigation.

Letting his glance continue to roam, he found in the corner of
the room a utilitarian toilet bowl and hand-basin, which he had
some vague recollection of using in the past... but how far in
the past, he had simply no idea. He had absolutely no concept of
how long he had been here; of how he had reached here.

Did he dare stand? Somehow he thought that might be a 'bridge
too far' and yet he couldn't deny the unmistakable call of
nature. Thank goodness his jailers had the forethought to
provide him with basic facilities. Yet somehow he believed it
wasn't done out of decency or consideration for his comfort.

He allowed himself a moment, before hoisting himself to his
feet. Without a doubt, he hadn't yet acquired his sea legs, or
whatever the saying was, but, at least, he was able to take a
few tentative steps in the direction of the 'men's room.'
Actually, he felt he should hurry and he completed his journey
rather like a drunken man... and derived the same pleasure from
that fundamental release.

But his actions had brought another mystery to mind. His hands
had sought the normal zip, only to find one didn't exist... not
in the showy red underpants, and he'd been afraid of succumbing
to a humiliating accident before he'd found the desired opening,
under the briefs. He couldn't be sure, but wasn't the normal
fashion to wear briefs underneath a suit?

And just exactly what kind of suit was he wearing... or not
wearing as the case might be? The remnants of a skin-tight shirt
adorned his shoulders and arms, but most of his torso was
unclothed. The matching trousers, with their over-underpants,
seemed mainly to be intact, though his feet were bare. Added to
that puzzle was the notion that shiny electric blue with red
accessories didn't seem likely to be the in color for today's
modern man? 

Pain started throbbing deep within his skull, and he raised his
hand to his forehead, his fingers massaging the soft skin there.
That was strange; as his fingertips extended into his hairline,
he discovered a patch where the hair was rough and stubbly and
he could feel the traces of a small, ridged scar, as if the
wound was recent. He searched further over his head and found a
similar spot near the base of his temple. What had caused those
injuries? 

He frowned in concentration, but sadly, nothing came to mind. He
had no more answers to that question than he had to any of the
others that nagged at his conscious. And somehow his fashion
sense seemed far less important to the very big issue of what
was he doing here... and, more importantly, who was he?

*****

In the townhouse in Metropolis, Lois answered the interminable
questions with as much forbearance as she could muster. She
really shouldn't lose patience with the woman on the other end
of the line; after all, this was her mother-in-law, and Martha
was just as anxious and scared with the situation.

"Sorry, Martha, I have no fresh news. Superman was last seen
heading to help the inhabitants of a small village in North
Korea who'd been near the epicenter of the earthquake. All the
infrastructure was wiped out in the quake and no one could reach
them. Apparently Superman went out to reconnoiter the state of
the countryside before he carried in the other rescue
services."

"What about the Koreans' own military personnel? Don't they have
helicopters and such things?" Martha's voice was edged with
worry. It had been many days since anyone had heard from her
boy.

"They're on the ground now, Martha, but when Clark flew out, the
weather wasn't suitable for flying. Thanks to global warming or
climate change, the area was hit by typhoons, or monsoons, or
whatever they call them in that part of the world, right after
the quake. Superman was the only person who was airborne."

"Honey, how are you holding up? Jonathan and I have booked a
flight out tonight and we'll be with you first thing tomorrow
morning."

"Martha, you shouldn't. I know it's harvest time coming up and
you really are needed on the farm...."

"The farm be damned! This is my son, your husband we're talking
about. Not to mention our grandchildren. Our place is with all
of you."

Lois was on the verge of protesting, but to be honest, she'd
love the support of the woman she thought of as her mother and
closest friend. 

"OK, Martha, I really could use your and Jonathan's help.
Matthew is trying to be strong for me and his sisters, though he
really is missing Clark. There is only so much a 12-year-old can
do, and he relies on Clark to help with all these new powers
he's developing. Do you know, he's actually beginning to float
in a controlled way. Clark thinks it won't be long before he can
actually fly." Pride and worry warred in Lois' soul. "I just
pray Clark is here to see Matthew's first flight. Martha, what
will we do if Clark doesn't come home? How will we go on?"

"It's far too early to be thinking like that!" Martha's voice
was determined. For the sake of her much loved daughter-in-law
she buried her own fear. "How are the girls holding up?"

Lois and Clark's family had expanded over the years since the
New Kryptonians had brought them Matthew. Two years after their
son's arrival, the couple had decided to avail themselves of
Doctor Klein's borrowed knowledge to give Matthew a sibling. 

The whole family had been over the moon when, after a fairly
normal pregnancy, Lois had given birth to a baby girl. Sara Kent
was a happy, healthy baby who had given her parents very little
trouble throughout her formative years. Even today, she was a
quiet child, with a gentle sense of humor, causing Lois to
wonder if Bernard had included any of the Lane gene pool in her
creation. However, the question of Sara's mother was never
really in doubt, since physically she resembled Lois very much.

Then, long after Lois and Clark had thought their family
complete and Lois felt her child-bearing days were receding into
the past, she surprisingly found herself pregnant once more.
Only this time, the couple had conceived in the natural way.
They were somewhat astounded when they'd first become aware of
the fact, yet Bernard had run a number of tests and reached the
conclusion that Lois' earlier pregnancy had somehow altered her
hormonal and chemical balance -- Lois and Clark had finally
become reproductively compatible.

Whatever the reason, neither Lois nor Clark were prepared to
denigrate the gift of their special baby and they were thrilled
to welcome another daughter into their loving family circle. A
daughter, Victoria, who looked like Clark, but was in every
other way Lois' child, even at the tender age of four.

"Lois, Lois, talk to me!" Martha's anxious demand broke into
Lois' reverie. "Vicky and Sara must be breaking their little
hearts."

"I'm sorry, Martha, my mind is wool-gathering again."

"That's not surprising under the circumstances, sweetie."

"Sara is quieter than normal, if that's possible. She crept into
bed with me last night and we cried each other to sleep. Vicky's
different. I don't think she really understands what's happening
though. She keeps asking when Daddy's coming back, and she's
starting to fret when I tell her he's off covering a story.
Clark just hasn't been away from home for so long since we've
had Vicky."

A lump formed in Lois' throat and she jammed her fist against
her mouth to silence a sob, but she didn't fool Martha.

"Lois, honey, don't you give into despair. Clark's gotten
himself out of a lot of bad situations before...."

"But maybe, not this time, Martha." Tears were beginning to well
up in Lois' eyes. "We've always had this connection, you know.
In my heart, I always knew it, long before my head would accept
it... but it's always been there. And now...." The tears were
coursing down her cheeks, impossible to stop.

"And now?" Martha's question was whispered, realizing she didn't
want to hear the answer.

"Nothing, Martha." Though they were far apart, the silence in
both homes was palpable. "I've tried and tried to reach him, but
there's nothing there. Not in my my head or my heart. Martha,
Clark is just... gone!" 

*****

Another day, or was it night? The man had no way of knowing. He
only knew he felt utterly spent. Sleep came to him in snatches
and gave him no release from his weariness. There were no dreams
to disturb his sleep... no nightmares either. Strangely, he
would have welcomed even bad dreams; they would have been a
connection to something.

Above his head he heard the swish of the sliding door, followed
by the dual whirring of the cameras that scanned every inch of
his cell. A cell that was also a fish bowl, allowing every one
of his actions to be monitored. 

At first he'd been uncomfortable, knowing he was being watched,
but why fight what he could not change? Better to conserve his
strength for a time when resistance would make a difference.

Footsteps sounded on the stairway heralding the arrival of his
guard and his breakfast, so probably morning! His turnkey was of
Asian descent, as were most of the other personnel of this
facility with whom he'd come in contact -- except for the
doctors. 

Reaching the table, which had lately appeared in the cell along
with a single chair, the guard placed the tray down and waited.
He never spoke; probably that was against the rules, yet he
always stayed to see that the prisoner ate all his meals.

Now whether that was because the guard was ordered by his
superiors to take care of their specimen or the soldier's own
kindness, the man without an identity couldn't tell. Though he
thought he detected a hint of sympathy in the young soldier's
eyes. 

Dragging himself to the table, he forced himself to eat the
unpalatable food. According to habit, they would come for him
soon, and he would be injected with some unknown
yellowish-colored substance that made his head swim and his
stomach queasy. 

Then they would manhandle him from his cell to the only other
room he was aware of in this whole complex, which he'd deduced
was fairly large. Though the laboratory was only next door to
his room, the corridor seemed to stretch on to infinity. A
passageway with the same brash lighting and no windows. Just
like the lab where they did whatever it was they did to him once
they'd strapped him to that stainless steel table; where the
woman in the white coat would watch carefully as they
administered the final drugs.

He'd retain some sort of vague consciousness at the start of
their procedures, but thankfully his awareness faded into
blackness until he woke up back in his cell. Awoke again to the
feeling of numbness, with just a faint recollection of being
dissected like a frog. Yet that couldn't be the case because
physically he was still in one piece. Even the hair had grown
back over the scars, which were now healed.

That was a frightening fact in itself. It meant he'd been here
for some time for that to happen. Even the memory of the clothes
he'd been wearing when he'd first regained some sort of
sensibility was eroding from his mind. They'd been made of a
strange fabric and color, but it hurt too much to try to recall.
He couldn't explain it, but he understood that soon that memory
would be gone.

He was alone -- the way he'd always been afraid of, at least
that thought hovered somewhere in the vestiges of his mind -- in
someplace which was akin to a tomb. Perhaps he was dead.

*****

The black banner headline detailing the memorial service
screamed at Lois Lane - no, Lois Kent! She had never taken
Clark's name while he lived, so why should it seem so important
to her to claim it in his... death? And yet, she would cling on
to everything she had of him. If only she could cling to hope. 

There was no proof of his actual death. No body of either
Superman or Clark had been found, but he'd been missing for too
long. Nearly a year had passed since Superman had left to help
out with the earthquake in Korea and there had been not one
single sighting of him anywhere in the world since.

For a time, Lois had convinced herself that he'd been lying hurt
somewhere... perhaps had amnesia from a head trauma. Most people
considered the Man of Steel to be invulnerable, but Lois knew
differently. Who knew, maybe some kryptonite had dropped on
Earth in some remote part of Korea. What if Clark had stumbled
across the rock and hadn't been able to escape its deadly
radiation? 

She'd prayed that the multi-national search teams would find
him. Rescue missions had continued for months; missions to which
even the isolated North Koreans had opened their borders, but no
sign of Superman had ever been traced. When the operations had
been scaled down and finally closed, Lois had slowly lost faith
that Clark would be coming home.

If there was a very minute silver lining on the edge of Lois'
gray sky it was the fact that Clark's secret identity had never
been discovered by the public, thanks to Perry White's quick
thinking. Their old editor and friend had made it known within
days of Superman's, and thus Clark Kent's, absence that he had
given Kent permission to accompany Superman to the devastated
region to report first hand on one of the biggest and most
unexpected earthquakes the world had experienced in modern
times. The accepted conclusion was that both men had somehow
perished together -- human and Kryptonian, which was in a
strange way the truth.

Now, one year since the date of Superman's disappearance,
Metropolis's citizens were holding a memorial service for the
hero who had chosen to make his home among them. The ceremony
would take place in Centennial Park to accommodate the large
crowds, and where a statue of the Man of Steel would be unveiled
by no less personage than the President.

When the city's plans to honor their most famous citizen had
first been broadcast, Lois had been so afraid that she might be
asked to unveil the sculpture; after all, she had been one of
Superman's closest friends. Somehow she hadn't felt strong
enough to carry out that final act of appreciation, even for
Superman.

But Lois' fears had been groundless. Either the Mayor had
thought to reserve the honor for herself, or the city fathers
had shown more sensitivity than was normal in this case. Lois
had just decided it was the former when the President's
intervention had put paid to all other considerations.

So now there was to be an official closure to add to the
smaller, though more intimate and loving, commemorative service
that Clark's family and friends had held for him just a few
months before. A time where Lois had said goodbye in public to
her husband, but never would she say farewell within her heart.

Clark would always be with her, and though she missed his
physical presence achingly every day, his love for her would
continue to be her shelter and her strength. She took comfort
from the knowledge that one day they would find each other
again, if not in this lifetime.

Often in the dark of night she would remember Clark's sadly
prophetic words. That it wasn't the years that mattered, but the
moments... and Clark and she had shared more moments of
enchantment, passion and tender care than she'd ever dreamed
existed in this world. Though to the outer-world Lois Lane would
continue on alone with her children, Lois Kent would forever be
linked to her partner, her friend and her dearest husband,
Clark.

*****

Chapter Two
Sentence of Death

Strangely, the long corridor seemed so much shorter this
morning, thought the woman as she obeyed the summons from her
superior. She'd been expecting the call to this meeting for some
time, had, in fact been dreading it. The General was not pleased
by events and life tended to get very unpleasant when he
believed he'd been let down by his subordinates. 

She'd dressed in a dark gray pant-suit and her auburn hair was
pulled back severely into a knot at the nape of her neck. Her
thick, silky hair was her best feature, but neither she nor any
of her colleagues cared much for appearances. In this facility
most workers tended to choose to blend into the background.

Being the chief scientist for the project, however, meant that
anonymity wasn't an option for her, but she did try to hide her
femininity. Normally the loose white lab-coat helped with her
cover, but there was no point in wearing it now -- General
Hyesan had ordered a halt to the clinical tests some days ago.

She slowed her march along the passageway, not exactly dragging
her heels, but not striding in her habitual fashion. How in the
world had she ended up in this underground bunker working on
this godforsaken experiment? Damaging a man, for he was a man,
despite his alien origins. And a good man who hadn't deserved
what had been done to him.

If she'd known what coming here would lead to, she would have
run as fast as she could in the opposite direction. But that was
easy to say with hindsight. At the time, she'd believed she had
no other option. There certainly hadn't been any other job
offers on her table. Besides, back then, she still believed that
her work would be for the good of mankind.

Now she'd learned that good intentions were not enough.
Certainly she'd had enough faith when she'd graduated from the
Sorbonne at the top of her class. Adrienne Ducos had been one of
the brightest stars the medical faculty had mentored for quite
sometime... almost as bright as her famous mother. Yet Adrienne
hadn't wanted to be like her mother. After all, she had killed
her mother! No, not exactly, but she had been instrumental in
her death.

Both her mother and father had been leading lights in Doctors
Without Borders, where they had been fearless campaigners, going
to all the main trouble spots in the world and trying to bring
order into chaos. They'd been so busy with their humanitarian
work that neither had minded the fact that they were childless
-- not until her mother had found herself pregnant at the age of
thirty-nine. 

At first, the couple hadn't believed they were to have a baby.
In her mother's line of work the hardships a woman experienced
often led to certain monthly occurrences disappearing for months
at a time, but finally her mother had to face the fact that she
was to bear a child. Unfortunately, the timing of the pregnancy
wasn't very convenient, as the would-be-parents were stranded in
the middle of a death struggle between warlords in an African
country where famine was also rife.

Michelle Ducos had felt she couldn't abandon the people who
relied on her for medical help and she stayed much longer than
she ought to. There had been a terrifying gun-battle between the
factions in which Michelle was caught, causing her to go into
premature labor. The mother had died, but the baby had been
saved and taken back to Paris, where she'd been raised by her
grandmother. Sadly, soon after Adrienne's eleventh birthday, the
old lady too had passed away, leaving the child to be shuttled
between various aunts and uncles. Phillipe Ducos had visited his
daughter rarely and young Adrienne had always thought that he
held her responsible for his wife's death.

Adrienne couldn't blame her present predicament on her
childhood, though. She hadn't been mistreated, nor had she been
extremely unhappy, but she had been a very lonely child. Even
today, she preferred solitude, and it was probably that
particular trait that had helped lead her to this place.

It was definitely her shyness that had prompted her to go into
medical research rather than medical practice. She had done the
usual training in hospitals and her father had hoped that she
might take over his role in the organization he'd supported all
his life, but Adrienne had always been fascinated by illnesses
of the mind and how they could be cured. Especially since her
greatest talent lay in the field of chemistry.

She'd been thrilled when she'd been approached to join one of
the research teams of a large pharmaceutical company, who were
working on producing drugs to control obsessive-compulsive
disorders. At that time, little did she know that accepting this
seemingly brilliant opportunity would lead to her downfall.

How could she have guessed that this seemingly reputable company
was not above cutting corners in procedures to increase profits,
and that the subjects on whom they were doing their clinical
tests were not always volunteers? Many of the patients were
orphaned children smuggled into the country from war-torn
Eastern European countries. Children who were traumatized or
suffering mental illnesses from diseases transferred to them by
their parents.

Just like her mother, she'd become so tied up in her work that
she hadn't stopped to think of the risks she was taking. All her
attention was wrapped up in the fact that progress was very good
and a range of medication could soon be available to alleviate
people's suffering. 

When the scandal of improper procedures had been uncovered,
Adrienne had not been completely shocked by the discovery.
Somewhere in her subconscious she'd suspected the wrong doing,
yet she'd had neither the will nor the courage to confront her
employers. In fact, her overwhelming emotion had been one of
annoyance that her research had been halted, and it had taken
some time for the fact to sink into her brain that she'd been
tainted by the criminal charges against her bosses. Truth was,
she was lucky not to have been in the dock alongside them.

Only she hadn't understood that back then. All she knew was that
she'd been very close to a breakthrough in her research and now
she had no way of continuing her work. For months she'd sought
other similar employment, but the moment it became known who
she'd worked for the doors were closed in her face. The
situation had been so frustrating! Which is probably why she'd
been so easily seduced into working for a government that was
regarded as evil by the Western world.

She had been so blind. Yet, it had taken her quite a while to
realize that. Though she couldn't hold herself completely at
fault for that predicament, as in the beginning the tasks her
employers had assigned to her were completely in keeping with
the work she'd wanted to do. It was only later that she'd come
to suspect that the range of drugs she was trying to perfect was
being used not to help cure people... but to control them.

Then just over a year ago she'd been recruited to oversee a
particular, highly classified project. Even her arrival at the
remote secret laboratory had set her senses on edge, and as
she'd stepped into the lift that had carried her to the bowels
of the Earth, she'd finally been forced to face up to the
possibility that she'd climbed into bed with the devil. 

But it was much too late to pull out. They would have killed
her... or perhaps worse. Under this regime she'd come to see
that there were situations worse than death. Besides, perhaps
she could in someway help this poor 'specimen,' as they were
instructed to call him.

Her steps had slowed to allow her time to think and compose
herself for the coming ordeal, yet she'd arrived at her
destination. Swallowing her fear, she knocked on the conference
room door and without waiting for an answer, walked inside.

The man who'd engineered this whole diabolical plan, General
Hyesan, was seated at the head of the table, his bodyguards
standing a step or two behind him. "Good morning, Dr Ducos, so
good of you to join us -- you are late!" the man growled, though
Adrienne had become accustomed to his harsh speech and refused
to be intimidated.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I was informed that our patient's
temperature had risen during the night and I felt he should be
checked over to see if he had acquired an infection."

"Patient, which patient?" 

Hyesan's lips set in a thin line of disapproval and his steely
glare almost made her cringe, but Adrienne swallowed down her
rising fear. "Sorry -- our one surviving specimen." 

She let her glance stray to the back wall of the room, where a
number of monitors displayed most of the complex. Hyesan had
known exactly where she was and what she'd been doing. The whole
area was covered by security cameras, from the fence with its
guard posts and the one singular building above ground to the
bottom level where the test subjects were housed, alongside the
operating rooms and treatment laboratories. The only rooms not
under surveillance were the General's own quarters, though there
were fewer cameras on the second level where the staff lived.

Until a very short time ago the monitors had displayed an
industrious work place, but now the complex was like a ghost
town. Over the past few days, Adrienne's own research assistants
had been assigned elsewhere and the soldiers had driven away in
their trucks and armored cars, leaving only a skeleton crew
behind. Why did you need lots of guards when there was only one
prisoner left to watch over and that man was in no condition to
escape? Besides, in the unlikely event that he did make a break
for it, they had kryptonite -- Adrienne hated the green glowing
type with a passion.

There was only a handful of personnel left in the whole bunker
and most of them were in this room, including the terrible
twins, seated side-by-side at the other side of the table. Well,
they weren't really twins, but they were terrible and Adrienne
had dubbed them that very early on in her acquaintance with
them.

"You shouldn't fuss over him so much. It's probably just a
reaction to the extra exposure to kryptonite." One of the duo
spoke up, the little one who reminded Adrienne of a weasel.

"Kryptonite! Why would you do that now?" she demanded, her worry
for her patient lending her strength.

"Because I ordered it done, Dr Ducos." Once more the man at the
head of the table addressed her, scorn sharpening his voice. "In
preparation for termination."

"Excuse me?" Adrienne was stunned by those words, even though
she was half-expecting to hear them. She allowed herself to sink
into the nearest chair. "But why?"

"Don't be so obtuse, Doctor. Even you are not so stupid to
believe that this experiment is anything other than a failure."

"General Hyesan, I still believe we have options." She leaned
across the table in supplication. "Please you have to let me
continue with my work...."

"No, I do not!" The answer was barked at her as Hyesan pushed
back his chair to stand. "We have tried every option, from
surgical to medication and nothing works."

Something snapped inside Adrienne and she heard herself
answering back. "I was against surgery right from the start. I
have never advocated the use of surgery to control brain
dysfunction."

"But why? We were successful," the weaselly looking Abelev piped
up again, ready to defend his work. "I am a brilliant
neurological surgeon and I had more success than you." His whiny
voice sounded like a petulant child. "I totally blocked his
memory of his past life. He has no idea of who he is or where he
came from." 

"That might be! But your efforts to control his reasoning and
emotions failed miserably. The cortex is still much too complex
to go digging around in with a scalpel ... and those
kryptonite-coated chips you placed in his brain almost killed
him." Adrienne reminded the man.

"You are wrong, Adrienne," the other of the 'twins' replied
consolingly. Adrienne considered him the lesser of the two
evils. "Immunology has been my field of expertise for many years
and I have made a study also of Su... this alien specimen. I
calculated exactly how much kryptonite we could safely employ to
render our subject malleable until such time as we completed our
conditioning. He might have reacted badly to the toxic-inserts
initially, but we did manage to stabilize him."

"Yet, Dr Janik, your conclusion that the specimen's body would
eventually become immune to those small doses of kryptonite
within his brain was incorrect," General Hyesan interrupted, his
forehead creasing in a caustic frown. "Even if we had managed to
condition him, as you say, Korea would not have acquired a
superpowered weapon, which was the reason for this whole
operation in the first place."

Janik, unlike his female colleague, was not in awe of Hyesan.
"We don't yet know that. Given time, I still believe in my
theory."

"Time is something you no longer have! And, don't forget, your
assumption that red kryptonite would change his character and
make him more aggressive was complete nonsense." Hyesan leaned
threateningly toward Janik. "Perhaps he was rendered useless by
the infusion of red and green kryptonite you injected him with.
You are incompetent, Janik, so take my advice, do what you're
told and shut up!" 

With hindsight, the immunologist had reached a similar
conclusion about his mixture of the two types of kryptonite, yet
he wasn't about to make such an admission to this madman of a
General. Janik fell silent, once more, hunching his shoulders
and shrinking, if possible, further into his chair.

Adrienne, however, found a sliver of courage and pleaded one
last time, though she already knew her request would fall on
deaf ears. "Please, General, please reconsider. Have the chips
removed. There are other combinations of drugs I can try."

Hyesan, gave a cursory study to the file lying open on the table
in front of him. "Dr Ducos, you've been testing your drugs for
fourteen months without success. It's my opinion that you ran
out of ideas sometime ago." At the General's words Abelev
snickered and Hyesan's angry glare turned on the still seated
surgeon. "You have no cause to be smug either, Abelev. You also
failed in your attempts to control the specimen."

The Korean General widened his stare to include all of his
specialists, and his voice was full of freezing contempt when he
spoke. "No matter what the three of you have come up with the
subject is incapable of obeying an order to either hurt or kill
even a fly. You may have reduced him to a nobody, but even
without his memories and identity he refuses to be anything but
a chronic do-gooder. When we try to manipulate him to destroy he
almost has a brain-seizure. He is utterly useless to me and my
plans for the future...."

Now, it was not only Ducos and Janik who were feeling
uncomfortable. Out of the corner of her eye Adrienne saw Abelev
blanch -- it gave her a tiny glimmer of satisfaction -- but the
General hadn't finished with them.

"Each of you have let me down and I have no more time to waste
on you or on this experiment." Hyesan flipped the file shut. "I
have been recalled to Pyongyang for a meeting with my superiors.
I will be gone for five days and when I return I don't want to
find any trace of this failed project within this facility.
Let's hope that my three geniuses in their fields have more
success as cleaners than they did as doctors. Get rid of your
files, your equipment, your drugs and your test subject."

Adrienne was so shocked by the implications that she blurted out
a question. "And Sup... I mean the specimen, what are we to do
with him?" 

"Again you are being incredibly dense, Dr Ducos. He is the only
test subject left in the whole complex. I want him exterminated
and his body destroyed. It shouldn't be an insurmountable
problem since he is no longer invulnerable and there is always
kryptonite if the task proves difficult." Hyesan marched to the
door, his bodyguards shadowing him, but before he left he turned
and directed a final menacing glare at Adrienne. "And since you
are Chief Scientific Officer on this operation, Dr Ducos, I
leave the responsibility of dealing with Superman, as I believe
you like to call him in the western world, to you. Do not fail
me on this or you will incur my wrath, and I can assure you that
by the time I finish with you, death will be a welcome state.
And that goes for all of you!"

He turned and was gone, leaving the three in the room silent and
quaking.

*****

It was late at night, but Adrienne couldn't sleep. She paced
back and forward in her room, her thoughts in turmoil. What was
she to do?

Following the discussion in the conference room, Abelev and
Janik had made it very clear to her that she was on her own in
the elimination of Superman. After all, they concluded, Hyesan
had made her personally responsible for that part of the clean
up. They agreed to destroy all their case-notes and dismantle
their respective operating theatres and laboratories. Then they
were off, before Hyesan returned, leaving the really dirty work
to her.

Not that she had expected any help from them, and she would be
glad to see them go, only this one time she could have used some
backup. She didn't believe she could kill anyone.... She didn't
want to kill anyone!

Adrienne might not be a clinical doctor, but she had chosen the
medical profession because she wanted to save lives, not take
them. And this man was the victim. He wasn't evil, or seeking to
hurt others. He didn't deserve to die.

Throwing herself down on her bed, Adrienne indulged in a fit of
self-pitying tears. Why had this happened to her? She didn't
consider that she'd done anything so terrible that she should
end up in such a dreadful dilemma. Only, honesty compelled her
to admit that she had been very naive.

No, it was much more than gullibility. She'd stuck her head in
the sand and totally ignored the warning voices in her head
telling her to stay well away from this country. Not to mention
the fact that she'd carried out some very illegal medical
research while here. She only had herself to blame for her
predicament.

A gulping sob tore through her throat, but she fished a
handkerchief from her pocket and blew her nose. Tears wouldn't
help, nor recriminations. If she was to survive this situation,
she had to pull herself together.

And maybe she didn't need to dirty her hands. General Hyesan
might have left with most of his entourage, but there were a few
guards left behind. Surely they would obey her order to kill the
specimen.

Adrienne bit at her lip for a second, seeing a ray of light
appear in her troubled world. She could order the soldiers to
kill Superman and get rid of the body; that was what soldiers
did for a living... kill people, wasn't it? 

Yet the light faded quickly, as she realized that she didn't
believe there was much difference in killing someone in person
and instructing it done. The result was the same, and Adrienne
didn't want Superman dead by anyone's hand.

But what could she, a shy, introverted research doctor do to
change the outcome of Superman's future? She pushed herself off
the bed and was back to pacing again, various escape scenarios
running through her brain. Yet Adrienne wasn't confident in her
bravery or her ability to carry out such a plan, and the
possibility of failure brought on visions of torture and death
for both the superhero and herself. 

"Stop! Stop thinking of failure," Adrienne whispered into the
quiet of her room, attempting to chase her fear away. 

If she were going to do this... and she had to concede that she
was seriously thinking of getting Superman out of here alive...
she had to start thinking positively. 

A furtive knock fell on the door to her room, causing her to
jump in shock. 

Who was calling on her at this late hour? No one had ever
visited her in her quarters before. Oh, my god, did they know
what she was plotting? Thankfully, her scientific, analytical
mind rescued her from a downward spiral of terror. How could
they know her intentions, when she hardly understood them
herself?

Smoothing down her clothes, and tucking her hair behind her
ears, Adrienne crossed to open the door a tiny crack.

"Adrienne, let me in, please... quickly." The hushed voice of
Janik came from the darkened corridor.

Adrienne eyes opened wide, but she stayed silent, too stunned to
speak. She had no idea what the immunologist would want with her
now? Although he'd never treated her with the same contempt as
his compatriot, Abelev, he'd never been exactly friendly with
her either. Apart from conversations when their respective
experiments crossed, he'd mostly ignored her. And, though she'd
conceded that Superman's exposure to the concoction of red and
green kryptonite was necessary for her medication to have any
success, she'd hated witnessing the superhero's agony at this
man's hands. 

Now that she was being honest with herself, she admitted that
she'd hated everything that had been done here in the name of
science. It had never been about science. Hyesan wanted to use
Superman's powers to shape the world into his vision. He had
simply viewed Superman as a means to an end; a weapon system
that had been a total failure.

"Adrienne!" Janik's voice sounded strained. "You have no reason
to trust me, but we have to talk... inside. The corridors are
still monitored."

She knew that to be true and without further thought she opened
the door to let him slip by her, praying she was doing the right
thing. Perhaps he had come to seduce her... though he had never
given any sign that he fancied her in that way. But soon they
would be parting company. Had he come here for a little sexual
dalliance to alleviate his boredom? He was certainly mistaken if
he believed she would allow him to....

"I'm sorry to intrude like this, but I'm not sure that I can
allow this... thing to happen."

Janik's words cut through Adrienne's thoughts of seduction and
rape.

"What thing?" she asked in confusion.

"Murder!"

So, not rape then. For the first time, Adrienne allowed herself
to study her colleague more closely. His face was pale and his
brow furrowed. Though she'd never considered him a tidily
dressed man, he certainly looked more haggard than ever
before... but she probably appeared very similar. 

"I know I've never given you any cause to believe what I'm about
to tell you, but I need you to trust me, if we're to succeed in
our plan." The man was almost wringing his hands together as he
spoke.

"What plan?" Adrienne forced her voice to remain neutral, still
unsure what Janik was meaning and afraid to incriminate herself
too soon.

"The plan to save Su... our specimen's life."

"You want to save him?"

"Adrienne, could you stop asking inane questions. I'm fairly
sure you're as distressed as I am by Hyesan's orders and we
really don't have time to tiptoe around each other. We only have
a few days to carry out this escape."

"I'm sorry! It's just this is so sudden, and I had no idea that
you felt this way." Adrienne had closed the door and was now
standing with her back to it. "Before, when Abelev was there, it
appeared you were all for it, though you weren't about to soil
your hands with murder."

"That was for appearances sake. The room was under surveillance
and I wouldn't trust that weasel, even if you paid me a
fortune."

At last, Adrienne allowed a small smile to turn up the corners
of her mouth as she heard Janik describe the surgeon the same
way she always did in her mind. Perhaps she'd misjudged this
man....

"Dr Ducos -- if you'd prefer I called you that -- like you, I
had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to work
with Hyesan, and believe me, I'm not proud of my involvement in
this whole affair. I would have gotten out, if I could, but we
both know what would have happened to any of us had we tried to
leave. But I can't stand by any longer and do nothing. I took an
oath when I became a doctor to uphold life, not to take it, and
so far I've managed to do that. At least, I've never meant to
kill anyone, but that's another story and one I'm sure you don't
want to be bored with."

Adrienne stared at her colleague, trying to calculate his
trustworthiness. A few seconds passed in silence until she
decided that it didn't matter much whether he was playing some
kind of twisted game; she'd made her decision and she couldn't
help Superman alone. "I'm sure we all have skeletons in our
pasts, or we wouldn't be here. You're right, though, the reasons
why we are here are immaterial now." She moved forward into the
room and pulled out the chair in front of her desk, inviting him
to sit. "So what have you got planned? Because I've been
wracking my brain and, so far, I've come up empty."

***** 

Chapter Three
Reprieve

While the new day was filled with anxious planning for the two
doctors, in another time zone a woman lay alone in a king-sized
bed, her eyelids fluttering tremulously in an uneasy sleep.
Though Lois had had many months to come to terms with her life
as a single mother, widowhood would never be a state with which
she would be comfortable.

Yet this was the role fate had bestowed upon her, and she had no
intention of changing it. No other man could ever replace Clark.
Lois was still 'in love' with her husband and always would be.
She had no doubt of that. But for her children's sake she had to
go on with her life; to get up in the morning, to eat and drink
to stay healthy, to do her job so she could keep a roof over
their heads... and to make her children's life as happy and
normal as was possible in the circumstances. 

But in addition to all this, she had made a promise to herself
that she would keep the memory of Superman alive and the work
they had embarked upon together -- to try with all they had to
make the world a better place. Clark was gone. Now Lois would
carry on alone for his dear sake. 

She had known life would be a difficult, but she'd never
expected it to be this hard.

Lois tossed and turned, and waking up plumped her pillow
exasperatedly. Inanimate cotton and feathers just weren't a
substitute for Clark's warm, muscled chest. She was just
deciding to go downstairs for a cup of oolong tea when a furtive
scratching on her bedroom door reached her ears.

"Come in," Lois said softly, though in the silence of the night,
her words sounded overloud. 

The door creaked open and a tiny white face peaked round the
crack. "Can I come in, Mommy?" a very young female voice asked,
yet the owner didn't wait for an answer as she propelled herself
onto her mother's bed in a tumbling rush. Victoria Kent never
moved anywhere slowly.

"What's wrong, Vicky? Can't you sleep?" Lois pulled her daughter
to her side, in a tender hug. Her children were always a welcome
distraction when she felt at her lowest. It was almost as if
they had a radar system that recognized her moods. 

"No, Mama." 

Oh-oh, that title spoke volumes. Vicky only used the word Mama
when she was tearful, believing that at five years old she was
now a big girl and should progress to Mommy or even Mom like her
siblings. 

Her baby's pain lifted Lois from wallowing in her own pit of
despair. It was only natural that her kids were going to miss
their father and it was up to her to console them in their time
of need, and if she found release in so doing, then Lois
couldn't see that as a crime. Contrary to Lois' worries of long
ago, she had bonded deeply with each of her children and
adversity had only drawn them closer. 

"I had a bad dream, Mama," her daughter confided. "Some very bad
people came and took Daddy away, and I couldn't stop them. I
tried and tried... I kicked and hit them, but they made him go
away. I couldn't save Daddy." Vicky's tirade ended in a
desperate sob. 

"Oh, sweetie," Lois whispered into Vicky's silky hair as she
hugged her baby tighter still. "It was just a bad dream...."

"No, Mama. Daddy is gone"

Lois could feel her daughter's tears on her nightshirt while her
own threatened to spill and soak Vicky's head. She swallowed
hard and sought for something comforting to say. "I know, honey.
Daddy has gone to a better place, but he has never left us."
Still holding Vicky loosely in her arms, she leaned back to look
into the childish face, streaked with tears. "I know you can't
reach out and touch Daddy anymore, but you think of him a lot,
don't you, sweetie?" She waited while Vicky nodded. "And you
talk to him. I've heard you." 

Vicky nodded again, but more doubtfully. "Is that bad?"

"Oh, no. I do it too." Lois gently stroked Vicky's hair. "All
the time."

"You do?" Vicky stared in amazement at her mother.

"Yes! I think we all do. Sara and Matt, too. You should talk to
Sara, but maybe not Matt. He won't admit to it. Boys are like
that. They like to pretend they are strong... and Matt feels he
has to look after us now that Daddy's not here...."

At that reminder, Vicky's bottom lip began to tremble and the
sobs that were drying up threatened to return in force. Lois
thought quickly, then went with her instincts. She took one of
her daughter's small hands and placed it on her breast.

"Do you feel my heart beating, Vicky?"

In the darkness, Vicky's eyes gleamed. "I hear it, Mama."

"Daddy is here in my heart, sweetie, and as long as my heart
beats, then Daddy's will too." Lois took their clasped hands and
touched them to Vicky's pyjamas clad chest. "He's in your heart
too, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is," Vicky announced with all the conviction of her
five years.

"And as long as you remember him, Daddy will never leave us.
You, my precious, are the best part of me and of Daddy. When you
were born, he was thrilled enough to burst. You must never
forget that. As long as we have each other, Daddy will be happy.
And I know one thing without a shadow of a doubt -- he loved you
so very, very much."

"I love him too, Mama. He's not here, but I still love him."

Now it was Lois' turn to nod and smile -- the wisdom of a child.
"And that's exactly how it is with Daddy. He loves you still."

"I think you are right, Mama," Vicky said very seriously, after
a second or two of reflection, then a tiny grin turned up
Vicky's rosebud mouth. "Can we have hot chocolate, Mama?" 

"I think that can be arranged, sweetie." Lois climbed out of bed
and pulled on her robe. "In fact, I think chocolate is just what
the doctor ordered, and maybe I could read to you for a bit
until you went back to sleep, Princess Tory. How about that?"

Vicky's brow drew down in a frown; she was not amused. "Mama!
Don't call me that. Princesss Tory is Daddy's name for me."
Vicky voice hissed on the s's. 

Which was true. Clark had followed Sam Lane's tradition of
calling his daughters his princesses, but Clark had meant the
endearment with all his heart from the very beginning. Vicky's
nickname, however, had developed a special meaning and it had to
be spoken with just the correct inflection... the emphasis being
on the s's. Of course, historically speaking there had been a
Princess Victoria who had become Queen of Great Britain, but
Clark's nickname was a play on words.

Since his role of Superman had tended to take him away from his
family a fair amount, Clark had always made a point of spending
time with his children at bedtime whenever he could, and Vicky
being the youngest had probably benefited most from this habit.
Metropolis had by then become a comparatively safer city than
when Superman had first taken to the skies.

Besides, Victoria Kent had, very early in life, followed in both
her parents' footsteps and become an avid lover of storytelling.
As soon as she was old enough to make sense of nursery rhymes,
Clark had read her to sleep almost every night. His younger
princess had soon progressed to fairy tales, the more romantic
the better, and as soon as she could string even the fewest
words together, she had demanded of her Daddy a 'tory' at
bedtime.

Within no time, Clark had begun to adapt his youngest daughter's
name to Princess Tory and because it always drew happy giggles
from the little girl, the name had remained.... Only now, since
Clark's death, Vicky fanatically protected her pet-name as being
one shared only between her father and herself.

At Vicky's disapproving and crestfallen stare, Lois realized
she'd stepped over the line. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I forgot. That
was Daddy's special name for you." Her arm snaked round her
daughter's small shoulders in apology. "I didn't mean to upset
you."

Looking up at her mother with large sad eyes, Vicky decided her
Mama could be forgiven. After all, Vicky did love hot-chocolate
milk and, since Daddy wasn't around to read to her anymore, Mama
was the best substitute. "OK. Will you read me the story of the
Princess and the Pea?"

"I certainly will, honey, and we'll drink our chocolate in bed
too."

The little girl smiled again as the bad dream faded from her
mind, and while Mama told her the story, she would cuddle up
close to Mama's heart, where Daddy would always be.

Later, as Lois watched her child sleep, she drew in a deep
breath on a silent cry and closed her eyes. She wouldn't return
to her big empty bed tonight, but would spend the night with
Vicky. Step by careful step, she'd survived another day in the
rest of her life without Clark.

***** 

In the bunker, twenty-four hours had passed since Adrienne and
Janik had formed their unlikely alliance and Janik was back in
Adrienne's room for another brainstorming session. Aware of the
more lackadaisical attitude of the few remaining staff, they
hoped that the lateness of the hour would preclude their
discovery. If not, Janik suggested, with some embarrassment,
they could always fall back on the excuse of a lover's tryst.

Adrienne blushed rosily at his words, remembering what she'd
suspected was the reason behind Janik's first clandestine visit.
Which, when she'd had time to think about it, was a ludicrous
notion. The man's permanently doleful demeanour was hardly one
of a sexual predator, and, at this moment, their lack of
progress was making him look even more discouraged.

They still didn't have a complete escape plan and both were very
aware that the clock was counting down to Hyesan's return.
However, they had managed to formulate an idea which they hoped
would fool the General into believing they'd carried out his
orders. Yet the problem of how to get Superman safely out of the
bunker still eluded them.

The hero might have lost some of his bulk, but he was still a
large, fairly heavy man and not one who could be easily lifted
up the steep stairway of the cell by one slight woman and a man
who might be tall but was also very lanky. So far, with the
guards dragging him, Superman had managed to stumble from his
cell, only this time, he would be unconscious.... In fact, for
the sake of the cameras he would have to appear dead. Unless
they 'killed' him in the treatment room, which would, at least,
solve one dilemma.

But what would they do with him once they had gotten him out of
the complex?

"There's always Teo!" Adrienne suggested, having run out of all
other ideas.

Janik's gaze returned from contemplating Adrienne's wall. "Who's
Teo?"

"Teo is one of Superman's Korean guards. He's one of the few
left behind."

"What makes you think he'd help? None of the Koreans seem very
sympathetic," Janik said skeptically.

"But I think he's different. I noticed a while back that he
seemed to take more care of his charge than the other soldiers.
So I started watching him. He keeps the cell clean and makes
sure Superman eats his meals. Did you never wonder who provided
the cot in the cell, or the blanket that appeared on Superman's
mattress when the weather started getting colder? Teo gave up
one of his own blankets. Of course, he can't do too much for
fear of incurring Hyesan's wrath."

"I never knew that. You've obviously being paying much more
attention than I have," the immunologist admitted guiltily. "I
haven't exactly been very attentive of our patient, have I?"

Janik and Adrienne had individually reached the conclusion not
to continue using the degrading name of 'specimen.' 

"You haven't had daily contact with him as I have." Adrienne
offered an excuse, not wanting to see her co-conspirator stew in
a fit of self-blame, which wouldn't help their endeavour one
bit. "Anyway, after watching Teo, I decided to ask him why he
helped Superman...."

"You've spoken to one of the soldiers? You can understand their
language?"

Most of the important discussions on the treatment of Superman
had been carried out in English since the doctors were of
different origins. All three knew English fairly well, as did
the General, though he spoke with a thick guttural accent. None
of the soldiers, however, seemed to speak any other language but
their own.

"My father drummed into me the fact that I should learn the
language of the people I was working with. He thought I'd follow
in his footsteps, and believe me, I've been wishing recently
that I had. But, at least, I'm thankful that I took his advice
about the language. Not that I'm totally fluent, and I can't
write it... still, what I do know has been helpful...."

"I can see that, but what did you find out from this guard?"
Janik gazed at her with a growing sense of admiration. This
woman was not the timid little bookworm he'd thought her to be.

"Apparently, Teo comes from the region that was hit by that
earthquake. Before Hyesan managed to capture Superman, the hero
had helped out in Teo's village, rescuing a lot of the
villagers. Teo's family included. I'd stake my life that Teo is
against what's being done to Superman, but he can't speak up, of
course. Foot soldiers in this army can only obey orders,
otherwise they or their families would suffer."

"That's true. I've seen some pretty brutal discipline meted out
to soldiers who disappoint the General. But are you sure that
this Teo would be brave enough to want to help? I'd say the fear
of what could happen to his folks is a pretty strong deterrent.
If you get this wrong, our lives probably will be at stake!"

"I believe it's a risk worth taking. I think he would want to do
what he could, if we can convince him that no one will ever find
out that we helped the superhero escape or that he is still
alive."

"That's imperative." Janik's head nodded determinedly on his
thin neck. "I don't want to see Superman dead, but I don't want
to sign my own death warrant either. We get him out of here and
to someplace where Hyesan can't recapture him, but after that
he's on his own."

"I wish we had time to reverse the surgical process...."

"No!" Janik stood up abruptly, frightening Adrienne. "There's no
time for that, and believe me, it will be a much trickier
operation to remove those chips than it was to implant them.
They've been in his brain for over a year now; such surgery
could kill him and neither you nor I are capable of doing the
job. Besides, we don't want to see Superman back in the skies.
If the hero returns, Hyesan would know exactly what we'd done
and he's a psychopath. That man would take great pleasure in
hunting us down and killing us, and somehow I don't think he'd
make our dying easy. I'm sorry to disappoint you, Adrienne, but
I'm not a very brave man."

Adrienne stood too, and reached out to touch Janik's arm for the
first time ever. "Don't apologize. I'm not very courageous
either. If I was, I would have tried to put an end to this whole
nasty business long ago."

Janik, placed his hand on top of Adrienne's and gazed at her
with his habitually jaded expression, as if he were disappointed
in himself and his life. "There was nothing you could do,
Adrienne. There's no way you can reach the outside world from
this wretched country to let them know what's going on. Believe
me, you are expendable. If you'd objected, Hyesan would have
killed you and found a replacement. And, at least, you were as
kind to Superman as you could be under the circumstances. We're
both doing the best we can to help him survive, and that's all
we can do now."

"You're right, we can't undo the past." Her hand lingered for a
moment before dropping away, and when she spoke again her voice
was more business-like. "So, I should talk to Teo?"

"I can't see what other choice we have. We need help to get
Superman out of here, and maybe he'll even have some suggestions
about where we take Superman afterward. We're not very far away
from the Chinese border, but I have no idea how to get there."

"Then we have a plan. I'll ask Teo first thing tomorrow morning
and we'll meet back here tomorrow night...."

"Yes, but after that we have to move more quickly. Following
tomorrow, there will only be two days left. We want everything
sorted before the day of Hyesan's return. In the meantime, I can
start working on that supposedly lethal injection. Getting the
green color is easily done, but kryptonite has a certain glow...
I might have to use a minute quantity mixed with the strong
sedative. Oh, do you have Superman's current stats, like weight
and such? If I don't get the proportions right, I could end up
killing him by mistake."

Adrienne moved toward the door, realizing their plotting was
over for the time being. "It's good to be prepared and I'll get
his file to you tomorrow." She halted suddenly, as yet another
worry entered her mind. "What about Ablelev? We both know he
can't be trusted. He'd run straight to Hyesan, if he found out
what we're up to."

"I doubt that'll be a problem. It seems the little weasel has
needs that can't be 'scratched' in this prison. He's been having
to ignore them for months while the General was around, and
having a hard time doing so. He's informed me that since his
'clean up' is already done, he's entitled to some rest and
recreation. Apparently some of the soldiers are taking advantage
of Hyesan's absence and have agreed to take him down to the
local 'knocking shop,' where booze and women are plentiful, if
you have money and you're not too choosy. And it also means that
there will be fewer guards on camp."

"I always knew the man was a moron! I hope he picks up something
disgusting and painful," Adrienne said with feeling.

"Oh, I agree, but in this case the fact that he's a sleazeball
makes our life a whole lot easier."

Adrienne reached for the door, but her troubled eyes searched
her companion's face. "I wish I'd chosen a different life."

Janik smiled sadly as he went through the door which she'd
opened. "Me too! And thank you for Superman's file." He raised
his hand toward her, but let it drop without touching her. "Try
not to be too down-hearted, Adrienne. We'll succeed, you'll see.
Doesn't it say in the Bible that the meek shall inherit the
Earth?"

Adrienne returned his smile. "Goodnight." But as her colleague
started down the corridor, she called softly. "Janik, what's
your first name?" 

"Stephan." His voice came back to her out of the dim lighting,
and did it hold the echo of pleasure? "Till tomorrow, Adrienne.

*****

The light had dimmed automatically in the patient's small room,
which meant that it was night. The lack of brightness was almost
his only method of measuring time, that and the meals that were
brought regularly to him in the morning and again in the
evening.

There were still the drugs, of course. Twice a day the doctor
would appear with two guards who were ready to hold him down
while she administered the injection. He found that precaution
strange. Had he once objected to his medication so viciously
that they'd needed to restrain him? He didn't think he was a
violent person, but then he really didn't know anything about
himself, which must mean he was sick. Certainly, he now accepted
that those jabs, along with the treatments he received each day,
were for his own good. 

Yet his routine had changed. During the past few days -- he
couldn't tell exactly how many -- he hadn't been taken to visit
the treatment room. Which had to be a good thing. Maybe he was
starting to get better, though Dr Ducos appeared in his room to
give him his medication as always. He'd asked why he still
needed it, if his treatment was finished, but she'd simply
answered that it was necessary for his condition to remain
stable.

Briefly, he'd considered asking the doctor to explain what his
'condition' would mean for him in the future, but he was too
lethargic to listen to lengthy explanations. Besides, he tended
to trust Dr Ducos. She was one of the few of the medical staff
whose name he knew. She was, also, kinder to him than the rest
of the personnel, apart from Teo, perhaps, and she did seem to
genuinely care about his welfare. 

No, whatever was wrong with him must be a chronic disability
because he'd been in this strange hospital for such a long time
and he was still no nearer to remembering his past.

Sometimes he'd dream that this place wasn't really a hospital,
but when he awoke he could never hold onto his reasoning for
that suspicion. The only facts he'd been able to discover, since
he'd been here, was that he had needed surgery and follow-up
treatments to control some brain dysfunction he'd suffered. What
exactly those treatments involved he simply didn't know because
he was mostly unconscious for their duration, only waking up
much later to find either Dr Ducos or Teo looking after him.

It was all very confusing, but he had no concrete reasons to
doubt the little he'd been told. After all, his medical team
might not be very friendly, but they hadn't mistreated him
either... not that he could remember... and his personal orderly
and the doctor were nice people... in a distant sort of way.

Besides, the alternative to accepting what he now knew about
himself was unthinkable. Without some sort of anchor, he was
lost and totally bereft. He needed some sense of being... of
belonging, and no one else, neither family nor friends, had
stepped forward to claim him.

*****

But the nightmares had claimed him, and again that night they
came for him; vague outlines of people he felt he should know,
but their faces always remained in shadow, their presence merely
faint sketches on the pages of his empty mind.

A woman staring at him through the gloom. Perhaps the doctor,
for she was the only female he was acquainted with. No, this
woman had chestnut colored hair that framed her face like a
halo. If only his vision wasn't so clouded then he might
recognize her, but the only other feature he could discern were
her eyes -- eloquent brown eyes with a glint of tears mirrored
in their depths. Who was she, this sorrowing woman who haunted
his nights?

The snake-like hiss of his door opening and quiet footfalls on
the stair threatened to interrupt his dreams, but he turned his
back upon the unexpected intrusion. His spiritual visitor had
come to him many times in the past and always before, she'd left
him without revealing her identity. Yet he never lost hope that
just one time she'd step into the light and fill the empty
places of his life with purpose. This could be the night, and he
refused to allow reality to trespass on his unconscious
thoughts.

There was a hand on his shoulder, shaking him urgently, but
still he refused to leave his dreamworld.

"No, leave me alone," he mumbled into his thin pillow, as he
attempted to pull his blanket over his head.

"We can't," the voice was hushed, close to his ear. A female
voice, but this time it was the doctor. "Keep silent, say
nothing," she directed, but it was more of an entreaty than an
order.

At last, intrigued, he left his refuge of sleep, knowing that
with waking his ghosts would fade from his thoughts. He wished
he could keep hold of the dreams, but always they slipped from
his mind like desert sand through a sieve. He thirsted for
self-knowledge, but only the uneasy awareness that he'd had yet
another nightmare remained to taunt him.

Reluctantly, he allowed himself to be turned onto his back. The
bright ceiling-lights shone directly into his eyes and he
squinted at his unexpected visitors. Within a few seconds his
sight adjusted to the glare and the image of Dr Ducos came into
focus, leaning over him. Behind her two other men stood. He
quickly identified Teo, and the older man was vaguely familiar.
Hadn't he seen him in the room, occasionally, when he'd been
having his treatments?

Oh, no, did this mean they were about to renew the treatment
sessions? He hoped not. The treatment always left him feeling
weary and even more disconnected. And he'd been told that the
cessation of this therapy meant that his disease was under
control. Was that no longer true?

But, now that his senses were waking up, he noticed a slight
difference in Dr Ducos' manner. She never came that close to him
and she never whispered to him either.

"You have to trust us," she said, almost under her breath, as if
she didn't want the microphones to pick up her words, while her
position, bending over him, probably hid both their faces from
the cameras' view. "This isn't what it seems. We don't want to
hurt you."

Then she was pulled back and the man he only vaguely knew was
shaking him and saying stridently. "Out of the way, Dr Ducos.
You're always far too considerate of his feelings. He's only a
good-for- nothing layabout. Wake up, specimen! It's time for
another treatment. Your final treatment."

The man in the bed didn't like the sound of that, yet as the
male doctor gripped his shoulders, he noticed the doctor wink --
and he didn't think it was an involuntary action. No, he did it
again! Specimen, for that was the only name he knew was his,
wasn't quite sure he understood what a wink meant, but somewhere
underneath his perplexity, he did feel reassured. 

Dr Ducos interjected herself between him and the other doctor.
"There's no need for name calling," she threw over her shoulder.
"Let's try to make this as easy as possible."

Good! The man allowed himself to relax further as woman took
over again. He was familiar with this procedure, yet his feeling
of comfort fled as she beckoned Teo forward and he noticed the
syringe on the tray that Teo held. His eyes fixated on the
needle. Surely after all this time he'd be more used to having
injections, but there was something slightly different about
this particular hypodermic needle -- it glowed faintly green. 

And that set his nerves on edge. He decided green wasn't his
favorite color. But before he could muster some resistance, or
even voice his objection, Dr Ducos was sliding the needle into
his arm, the greenish-tinged drug disappearing inside his vein.


"Argh," he groaned aloud. "That hurt!" Normally, Dr Ducos was
very gentle when administering his medication.

"I'm sorry."

She sounded sympathetic while she rubbed his muscle to ease the
pain, and to ease the drug's progress through his system,
suggested a small wary voice in his mind.

"Can you stand? We need to take you to the treatment room." She
moved back again as she spoke, enabling Teo to offer him
assistance.

"Why? Do I need more treatment?" His voice sounded slurred even
to his own ears. He pushed himself up and swung his legs from
the bed, the usual dizziness from the drugs making his head
swim, but this time it was accompanied by a feeling of nausea.
"I'm sick..." he managed to grind out before his head started to
roll and his legs began to sag like an old, worn-out rubber
toy.

Teo's large hands steadied him and, immediately, the second man
was at his other side, propping him up. Between them they
supported him as he made a stumbling attempt to climb the
stairs. It took longer than normal and he was extremely grateful
for the gurney which waited outside his door.

Now there was a thing: a question popped randomly into his hazy
brain. Why did his hospital room have a flight of stairs?
Wouldn't it have made his treatment easier if the gurney could
have been brought to his bedside? Of course, under normal
circumstances he'd always been able to walk from his room with
just a little help, and he just about made it this time.... As
his legs gave out completely, he was manhandled onto the gurney.


The lights in the corridor were dim, or was it his vision that
was fading? Looking to the side he could still discern the
figure of Dr Ducos as she hurried along, but she did seem to be
wavering in and out of focus.

The little group about him swung the trolley into the treatment
room and somehow managed to transfer him to the surgical table.
He would have tried to help, but he felt a whole lot weaker than
normal, and he knew he was going to throw up, unfortunately.
This was different! What had they done to him, and what were
they about to do to him?

Stephan Janik noticed Superman's pallor turn from sickly green
to gray. "Turn his head," he demanded quickly of Adrienne. "Get
a sick-bowl, Teo. Hurry!" All of their plotting to save the
superhero would be useless if he choked on his own vomit first.


Some minutes passed while the patient heaved into the bowl, but
as soon as Stephan was satisfied it was safe to do so, he
gestured for Superman to be laid out flat again. Time was
running out.

They'd chosen to make their move at 4 am to be sure that those
not on duty or out carousing were fast asleep, but late enough
so the drive to the border could be made in some semblance of
light. There was still a lot to be done in the next hour or so
before they left the complex and Stephan steeled himself for the
ordeal. As distressing as their plans for the poor man might be,
it was better than carrying out Hyesan's orders. 

The immunologist had allowed himself to be seduced by the
promise of money and the scope to research projects which were
banned in most western societies. Like Adrienne he'd fooled
himself into believing that the end justified the means. Yet, as
he'd listened to the General's callous commands to dispose of
Superman, he'd found in himself a sense of morality which he'd
believed long dead.

For the first time in many years, Stephan rediscovered the need
to do the right thing, regardless of the consequences to
himself. Of course, he wasn't brave or foolish enough to
sacrifice his life for the cause, or for that matter, to allow
Adrienne and Teo to do so either -- hence the need for this
elaborate charade.

It was regrettable that Superman would probably be terrified by
what they were about to do, but, thankfully, he would soon be
unconscious. It would be easier to do what was necessary to a
comatose victim.... Stephan just hoped that his and his fellow
conspirators' acting abilities would be good enough to fool the
cameras and the General, who was sure to avidly watch the
recordings of the proceedings just as soon as he returned. That
knowledge sent a chill down Stephan's spine. 

There was no time, however, for misgivings, and he tamped the
feeling down with actions, beginning to strap the superhero to
the table. For the first time in many months, Superman resisted.
"Dr Ducos, don't just stand there like window-dressing, help me
here."

Adrienne's gaze snapped from her contemplation of Superman to
her fellow doctor. She shook herself and hurried to the table,
taking Superman's hand in her own and squeezing it, she hoped in
a comforting manner, as she slid his wrist into the thick
leather bonds. "Don't fight us," she instructed, her cold tone
at odds with her reassuring press of his hand.

Clearly, though, the man on the table was not picking up on her
unspoken message, since he weakly fought against the restraints.
Even in his state of disorientation, he seemed to be aware that
something was not quite right. If only they could explain what
they were about to do was for his own good, but Adrienne, too,
knew that was impossible.

Superman's frailty, however, allowed the two doctors to control
him easily, and they locked tight the bonds around his wrists
and ankles. 

"Dr Ducos, I believe the next phase is up to you." Stephan
stepped back to allow Adrienne access to the table.

Their victim started to relax. He had been here before. Soon Dr
Ducos would be inserting an IV tube into the back of his wrist.
Soon he would be slipping into a deep sleep where nothing
reached him, not even dreams. Soon, he would be waking up back
in his own bed, feeling sick and melancholy, but with Teo to
take care of him.

Only, not this time! It wasn't any type of medical implement
that Dr Ducos pulled from beneath a side-trolley. It was an item
of an entirely different shape and made of darker metal, which
glinted evilly in the glare of the overhead lights, as she
raised it toward his head. He'd seen the guards carry such
things, though this was much smaller. Yet it still looked clumsy
in her grasp. Perhaps, Dr Ducos was more at home with
hypodermics than guns. 

Immediately Superman tensed. His past and identity might be lost
to him, but he sensed he'd faced guns before. He knew such
weapons killed and maimed, but why should these people want to
kill him? What had he done that his doctors would turn against
him?

But you never were a patient, that tiny nagging voice reminded
him. You were always a specimen! Wasn't that what they called
you?

He'd allowed himself to be fooled by the caring manner of this
woman and Teo. Strangely, he felt no fear as he stared into the
barrel of the gun, held so near his face. His existence had been
a living death for a long time now... it mattered little that
this should be the end. If he had one regret, it was that he'd
never discover the true identity of his dream woman.

That final thought shocked him. He was still conscious and he
remembered that there was a dream woman! If only he could
picture her. Dying with her image in his mind would not be a
hardship.

But in his preoccupation with his dream, he failed to take
account of reality. He hadn't noticed the gun begin to shake in
Dr Ducos hand, nor that her aim had shifted slightly. He did,
however, hear her strangled cry.

"I can't! What if bullets don't kill him?"

That seemed like a very weird thing to say, the man in the
firing line decided somewhat distractedly. At this range he
doubted any victim would survive.

"Dr Ducos, that's crazy." The man in the white coat clearly
agreed. "The injection you gave him earlier contained 'green K.'
Even if he wasn't already vulnerable, he is now. And you know
you've been sticking him with needles for almost a year."

Listening to the conversation going back and forth above his
head, the man wondered what 'green K' might be. Somehow he
realized it was something that wasn't beneficial to his
health... just as he'd known instinctively that he hated the
color.

"Come on, Doctor! I don't want to hang around here all night
waiting for you to do what you have to." Janik's voice betrayed
mounting annoyance.

"I am trying. I've never done this sort of thing before...."

A silence engulfed the room, the four occupants remaining in a
frozen tableau, awaiting the deafening noise of gunfire. Then
Adrienne gave a gulping sigh, freeing the still figures.

"It's no use." She let the gun drop to her side. "I can't
kill... anyone. Let Hyesan do what he wants to me. I won't shoot
this man."

Superman let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding
and directed his attention fully back to the people in the room.
Perhaps he'd been reprieved, though he thought that unlikely...
and he was right.

"Women! Never could trust them to do a job properly," Janik
complained loudly. "I knew Hyesan was wrong to put you in charge
of the clean-up. What in god's name made you think you could
shoot him? I bet you've never used a firearm before in your
life."

"No," Adrienne admitted defensively. "But you probably haven't
either. Can you do any better?" She passed the gun to Stephan,
holding it by her fingertips as if the butt was contaminated.

"Put that away," he ordered. "Gunshot wounds are messy. I prefer
something with more finesse. After all, we're physicians; we
have other means of killing at our disposal. It's a good job for
you that I have a back-up plan."

The male doctor walked out of Superman's line of vision for a
moment, but when he returned, Superman was in no doubt that his
final moment had arrived. He didn't need to see the
injection-gun in Janik's hand, his body was already cramping as
much as it possibly could in his confined position. Through eyes
wet with tears of pain, he became mesmerized again by the sickly
green hue emanating from Janik's fist.

After one final feeble attempt to wrench his arm free, Superman
once again gave into the inevitable. He closed his eyes and
turned his head away as the injection was administered, trying
to ignore the pain, trying not to allow his killers the
satisfaction of knowing he was afraid. 

Then 'she' was there, a wraith-like figure in his fading
consciousness, watching him with a gaze full of sadness and
compassionate understanding, as if she shared his anguish. He
almost cried out to her, yet her name remained beyond his
memory, and it didn't matter anyway as he no longer had the
power of speech. She smiled, and his terror ebbed away -- death
would not seem so bad, if she were with him.

Around him the others waited nervously for the moment when the
drugs would take effect and they could begin the next phase of
the plan. Each of them were struggling with their inner dreads,
while hoping they were maintaining a calm exterior for the
cameras. 

Adrienne hated to see such a brave and good man brought so low,
and the knowledge she'd been part of Hyesan's horrific scheme
shamed her to the core of her being.

Teo was upset by what he saw, but growing up in this harsh land
had made him somewhat immune to suffering. Besides, he was a
simple soldier in an army where to disobey orders would mean
certain death for himself and his family. He was proud to be
given the chance to help the superhero he admired, but he was
taking a huge risk in doing so, and not just with his own life.
Teo totally understood the need for this pretense.

Yet, perhaps the most anxious of the three was Janik. The theory
he was following was not an exact science and he could only pray
that he'd calculated the correct doses of the toxins that the
Kryptonian could safely withstand. An overdose could be lethal,
and there was still more torture to come. All Stephan could do
to help was to work quickly and hope Superman would have the
stamina to come through his travail without incurring any
permanent damage. Or no more than they had agreed to inflict on
him, at least. 

Adrienne had been horrified when he'd suggested his addition to
the plan. Thankfully, Teo had agreed stoically. The soldier had
served under Hyesan's command for some years and knew exactly
what would impress the sadistic General. Between them, Stephan
and Teo had persuaded Adrienne to comply, though she still
hadn't been happy. Hell, he wasn't feeling very good about what
he was about to do! 

Which reminded Stephan that Adrienne was not following the
script. He took a chance and nudged her with his foot, which
wasn't exactly easy, since she was standing on the other side of
the table. He hoped the camera hadn't picked up his
surreptitious prompt.

The woman sent her colleague a challenging look, but at his
steady stare, she remembered she had a role to act out. "Just
what poison did you mix with the kryptonite?"

"I don't think you really want to know. I mixed up my own
concoction; something similar to the lethal injections used in
the United States. The green K is just to make sure it takes
effect on his alien physiology."

The commentary was for Hyesan's benefit, though the latter was
embellishment; without his powers, Superman reacted to drugs
pretty similarly to a human. Since the General had kept a very
close eye on the experiments over this past year, Stephan was
pretty sure the top soldier would be very aware of all the
medical details regarding his poor victim. 

In truth, there was only a very minute quantity of kryptonite in
the syringe, just enough to cause a reaction from the superhero,
but Stephen had used a very powerful sedative, plus nerve and
muscle relaxants. After all, it had to appear on camera that
Superman had died. If Stephan had done his calculations
correctly, his patient should remain totally comatose while they
carried out the rest of their plan. Once they'd smuggled him out
of the complex and they were no longer under surveillance,
Stephan would administer the stimulant and with any luck
Superman should regain his senses with nothing more than a giant
hangover... and one very painful extremity.

Superman's breathing became laboured as if each single breath
was dredged up from the very depths of his soul. Thankfully, his
eyes remained closed, though at this point he was probably still
semi- conscious. A gentle smile turned up the corners of his
lips, transforming the haggard look of his face. 

The others had never seen him smile before during his
incarceration, and the knowledge broke Adrienne's heart. Here
was a man who deserved to smile at life. She prayed that in this
moment he had found a safe haven... one that brought him some
happiness... if it were fleeting.

The painful breathing stuttered and the body on the table gave
one last convulsive jerk as the cocktail of drugs caused the
nerve-endings to freeze -- the smile slowly faded, and yet a
faint trace of peace lingered on Superman's face. Stephan placed
his fingertips to the superhero's neck, searching for a pulse,
while his fellow conspirators waited anxiously. They'd trusted
the immunologist's expertise, yet they'd both known the very
thin tightrope he'd been treading -- Adrienne more than Teo.

"He's dead," Stephan stated baldy. "Would you care to confirm,
Dr Ducos?"

Adrienne's frightened stare locked with Janik's. Superman was
dead! Had all their scheming been for nothing? Had she placed
her faith in the wrong man? No, this was part of the plan. She
had to believe it.

"Adrienne, pay attention!" A mocking grin spread over his face.
"I feel, since we're now partners-in-crime, so to speak, that
first names are appropriate." 

She gave herself a mental shake, fully aware that it was crucial
that she hold up her part of the act, and, so far, she decided
she hadn't been doing a very good job. 

"Sorry, Dr Janik." She stressed his formal title. "It's hard to
believe that we killed someone who's supposed to be
indestructible. So many people have tried, in the past."

"Even the mighty fall if you have the knowledge and the correct
tools. It's a pity I can never record my findings, though,"
Janik reflected with a disgruntled grimace. 

Again Adrienne wondered if her trust was misplaced, or if
Stephan Janik had missed his calling on the stage. She stretched
her arm out, willing it not to shake, and followed Stephan's
instructions. Beneath her fingertips, Superman's skin felt cold.
For interminable moments she waited... seeking... sensing....
There it was... a pulse, but so thready, and slow that only a
medical person would find it. 

Adrienne had been brought up a Catholic, but she'd long
forgotten her faith, until now. She'd been praying, silently,
unceasingly till she had felt that pulse. Now her elation gave
her the courage to continue.

"I confirm that Superman is dead," she said, her voice steady
and strong.

"Good. Now perhaps we can move along to the next phase," Stephan
suggested helpfully, relieved that Adrienne had not broken down,
and also that her apparent calm manner meant that she was
actually confirming the opposite of her words. He'd been afraid
that detecting Superman's pulse was only wishful thinking on his
part.

"Yes, let's dispose of the body. Teo, help us get him down to
the boiler-room."

"Wait, don't be too hasty, Adrienne. There's something I need to
do first." Stephan picked up a scalpel from the trolley by his
side and held it under the lights.

"What do you mean? What are you doing, Dr Janik?" Adrienne
demanded, staring as Stephan spread Superman's fingers on the
table -- as the wicked blade nicked the skin of his middle
finger. She knew this was part of the plan, and she had agreed,
but the thought of it made her feel sick.

"We're cremating the body in the incinerator along with the rest
of the stuff we have to destroy. By the time we're done there
won't be anything left but ashes, so I thought General Hyesan
might like a souvenir -- like a trophy! OK, it's a little small
to hang on the wall, but I'm sure he'll find a spot for it."

"You disgust me, Janik!" 

"Don't be so squeamish, Adrienne," Stephan replied on cue, and
deciding to stick to his choice of her given name. "You're in
this up to your pretty little neck, just like the rest of us."

Janik had begun his amputation, and Adrienne didn't have to
feign distaste. Stephan had explained last night why this had to
be done. Of course she'd objected at first, but when the usually
silent Teo had backed him, she'd known she'd lost the argument.
Much as she hated to admit it, they did have a point.

The boiler room was also covered by CCTV, so unfortunately, the
body they cast into the flames would need to be shrouded by a
sheet. It would be possible to make the swap in the narrow
anteroom leading to the basement which housed the furnace... the
only place where the snooping lens had long since broken down
and no one had thought to repair it. In fact, a body of similar
height and build to Superman, which Teo had appropriated from
the village cemetery, was already waiting there, suitably one
finger less. 

Just yesterday, three local men had been killed in an accident
when their ancient truck had veered off a mountain road into a
ravine. A tragic incident for the victims and their families,
but one which the conspirators had philosophically accepted as
timely for their needs. 

The villagers had been grateful for Corporal Teo's assistance,
first in retrieving the bodies and later burying them. The young
soldier was fairly well known in the village for being of a
kinder disposition than the rest of the men in his battalion. So
the fact that one body had been spirited away had either gone
unnoticed, or was stoically ignored. The villagers had learned
to turn a blind eye to the happenings at the camp on their
doorstep and most would be likely to protect Teo, if the need
arose.

Yet Teo wouldn't need protection if General Hyesan was convinced
that the body being thrown into the flames belonged to his
'specimen.' The fact that he'd see the recording of Janik
cutting off Superman's finger, an action which would appeal to
his base nature, followed by a fortuitous slip of the sheet as
the body disappeared inside the incinerator, allowing a hand
minus a finger to be displayed, would hopefully dispel any doubt
in the General's suspicious mind. People tended to believe what
their eyes told them.

If Superman's death appeared so unimpeachable, then Hyesan would
never contemplate searching for him. Adrienne had been
persuaded, yet it didn't make the reality of the deed more
acceptable.

Stephan was working quickly and expertly and she forced herself
to remember her lines. If this was to be done, it had to be done
convincingly.

"Why don't you just cut off the finger with a machete? He's
dead. He won't feel a thing."

"Tut-tut, Adrienne. I already told you -- I'm a doctor, not a
butcher." Stephan never once looked up. Within minutes he'd
finished his task and Superman's middle finger was dropped into
a bowl of embalming fluid. "There it's done. Now we can get him
down to the basement. I want to get some sleep tonight."

The gurney was brought back to the operating table, the
restraints unfastened and the body transferred by Teo and
Stephan. Before they had a chance to move the trolley, Adrienne
had retrieved a pristine white sheet from a nearby cabinet and
tucked it securely round the supposed corpse, shielding it
completely from the camera's view. She was particularly careful
when she reached the injured hand, but she had to concede that
Stephan had done a proficient job, amputating the finger cleanly
from the bottom knuckle. There was hardly any blood, though she
suspected the drugs Superman had been given were partly
responsible for that circumstance. They would treat the injury
as soon as they had their patient out of this hell hole.

"Ever fastidious, Adrienne," Janik sneered at her actions. "You
worry me, you do! However did you get involved in this business
in the first place? Just remember to keep your prissy little
mouth closed. Hyesan wants this kept secret, so make sure you
don't go crying to world the truth about the death of its hero.
Even Hyesan's superiors would probably baulk at being implicated
in that can of worms. They'd throw him to the wolves, and he
knows it. So if you don't want to end up like this poor b*****d,
you'd better grow a thicker skin."

It didn't take much acting on Adrienne's part for her to look
horrified. "I know all that! I just don't like seeing our work
of the past year wasted. The new combination of drugs would have
worked. I should have been given the chance to prove it."

"Forget it, Adrienne. It's history. I'm sure if you ask the
General nicely he'll find you some new lab rats to play with.
Now can we get this show on the road. I'm tired and I have a
date with a bottle of vodka before I go to sleep."

*****

Chapter Four
Escape to Nowhere


The rest of the program to free Superman from his prison seemed
to go without a hitch. Just before sundown, of what was now the
previous day, Teo had brought the anonymous body into the
compound in a large container which held the laundry. All of the
camp linen, plus the personnel's uniforms and clothing, were
taken twice weekly to the village women for washing -- a
circumstance Teo had been able to utilize to the rescuers'
advantage.

By employing his knowledge of the cameras' routine sweeps of the
bunker and a number of blind spots in the cameras' range, Teo
had succeeded in conveying the poor man's remains to the
boiler-anteroom in the bowels of the complex. Once there,
Stephan had removed the correct finger from the body, using as
much care as he would have done with a living being. Later, for
the sake of authenticity, he would smear the stump with some of
Superman's blood, using the contents of the only vial he hadn't
destroyed. 

Stephan was still surprised by his enthusiasm for thwarting
Hyesan's orders. Since embarking on this project, vodka had not
been his constant bedtime companion. And the reason was not only
that he needed a clear head to carry out the risky plan, but the
fact that he had found in Adrienne Ducos a fellow crusader
and... perhaps a friend? 

Was it possible they could be more than friends, if they ever
got free of this repressive regime and Hyesan's insane schemes?
By staying to save Superman, both he and Adrienne had given up
the chance for their own escape. They couldn't afford to take
any action which might alert the General's suspicions. Their
only option was to stay and make their report on Superman's
death, even if it meant remaining in the Korean's employ for the
foreseeable future.

At least, they would be together.

Mind you, Stephan had no idea if that fact would please
Adrienne. Until a couple of days ago, she'd linked him with
Abelev and despised them both. Now she tolerated him, probably,
because she needed his aid, but he had noticed a certain warming
in her manner toward him. Whether this thaw was enough to give
him hope he had no idea, yet the very fact that he was
interested in a relationship with a woman was startling. For
some years he'd considered himself an embittered, middle-aged
reprobate. Only now he wanted more for himself... more for
Adrienne... and, at least, freedom for the man they had wronged.


To that end, Stephan tidied up and bandaged Superman's injured
hand while Teo pushed the trolley with the substitute body into
the boiler room. In full view of the CCTV cameras, the soldier
hefted the sheeted corpse onto his shoulder, apparently
inadvertently letting an arm with a bloodied hand fall down his
back. Seconds later, with some physical effort, he tossed his
burden into the maw of the furnace, and lifting a large spade,
he casually stuffed the cadaver further into the fire. 

Teo watched for some time as the greedy flames lapped at the
edge of the sheet, quickly blackening the material. Then he
added to the fire stacks of the doctors' paper files, old
video-tapes and discs which had been earmarked for destruction
and which, hopefully, would aid the conflagration. It was
imperative that no body parts be left for identification by the
time the General and his entourage returned. The three were
confident, however, that with a little extra tending of the
incinerator, nothing but ash would be found inside... should
Hyesan feel the need to check.

When Teo judged that the cameras had filmed enough of the blaze
and a sickly sweet smell of burning flesh mixed with plastic
began to irritate his senses, he closed the huge door, latching
it shut. Finally, he checked the dials to ensure the furnace
would burn at its hottest temperature, then left. He'd monitor
progress later, when he returned from their proposed foray into
the wild forests. 

They were on the final stages of the rescue, but only Teo, who
was more acquainted with the remote terrain their route would
take them through, understood that the hardest part was yet to
come. The two doctors apparently believed that the worst was
behind them, but thankfully, Dr Ducos and Janik had yielded
responsibility for the journey into his hands.

At least dawn would be breaking soon -- a night drive through
the treacherous countryside would be nigh on impossible -- and
once they closed in on the border, they would have to go on
foot. Teo just hoped that Janik was correct and that Superman
would be sufficiently recovered to manage the trek. Teo knew his
own strength, and like any young man was unconsciously proud of
his capabilities, but carrying the superhero over such rocky
tracks might be too hard a task even for him.

But first they had to get out of the complex. The plotters had
argued about the means of their leaving. Adrienne was all for
transferring Superman into the laundry basket and smuggling him
out in that, but the next delivery to the village wasn't due
till the morning of the next day. How would they explain Teo
driving the truck away at dawn? And waiting for the normal run
wasn't an option. Besides, with only a handful of staff left
behind, would Hyesan even believe that the laundry trip was
necessary?

Especially since they'd agreed to burn Superman's bedding and
his few pieces of furniture as extra fuel for the incinerator.
The General had ordered all traces of the superhero's stay in
the bunker obliterated, so it was pretty safe to assume that he
would accept that decision without objections.

After much wrangling, the tiny escape committee agreed they
needed another exit plan and once again Adrienne and Stephan
were grateful for their newest recruit's intelligent and
observant nature. Indeed, since bringing Teo on board, both had
wondered if the guard had already contemplated rescuing his
hero. He'd certainly jumped at their offer to help spirit
Superman away. 

In the time Teo had spent stationed at the complex he'd explored
its layout extensively. Actually, Corporal Teo had been one of
the advance guard who'd arrived with the General to reconnoiter
the premises. When Hyesan had satisfied himself that the old
'cold war' refuge was remote enough for his covert experiments
on mind control, he'd issued orders for the bunker to be
modernized expeditiously. The fact that Teo was amongst the
soldiers who'd liaised with the local builders was now very
beneficial to their cause.

The bunker had been built in the 1950s and the original plans
had incorporated an emergency stairwell for access, in case a
power failure would render the elevators useless. However, with
more modern technology and highly efficient generators installed
in the bunker, Hyesan had instructed that the staircase be
blocked off. The contractors had left this job to last, and
running out of time and money, behind the heavy steel doors at
both top and bottom of the stairs, they had built brick walls.
On the surface these walls looked adequate, but were not exactly
secure, due to substandard cement work.

None of the officers had ever thought to test the security of
these barricades, relying on the fact that above ground a high
barbed-wire fence ran round the whole perimeter of the camp.
Guards patrolled regularly, plus the area was scanned by CCTV.
Besides, none of the locals would have any inclination to
approach Hyesan's lair and, certainly, none of the inmates would
be in a fit state to find their way to the hidden stairwell.

Teo had always been aware of the botched job, but he'd said
nothing, wanting to protect the villagers from his commander's
rage. These people barely scraped a living for themselves in
this harsh wilderness and didn't need the added worry of having
a high-powered General breathing down their necks. Now he was
grateful that he'd kept silent and even more thankful that the
entrance to the staircase was in the ante-chamber to the boiler
room -- the one place with the broken surveillance camera. 

It was a situation which hadn't gone undetected, either, by a
few of Teo's enterprising comrades who didn't mind taking a few
risks to sneak out of the camp to enjoy a little recreation at
the local bordello, a pastime of which Hyesan would not have
approved. The perpetrators had known the need for strict
secrecy. In fact, they might have been the reason the camera was
defunct in the first place, but that didn't really matter to Teo
and the two doctors, since they could make full use of this
undercover way out.

Sometime in the past, these guards had loosened some of the
bricks to make holes in the walls... just enough for a grown man
to squeeze through. When they'd return to the bunker after a
night's recreation, they'd carefully replace the bricks so that
their officers wouldn't find out what they were up to. But that
wasn't quite true. Teo knew of one officer, at least, who had
used the exit a couple of times along with the other soldiers.

It didn't take much effort for Teo to widen the opening in the
shoddy brick work with some cautious use of a sledgehammer, a
tool he'd taken openly, during the day, from the basement
cupboards to break up the equipment in the respective doctor's
labs and would soon employ on the furniture in Superman's cell.

Now Teo carefully pushed the extra bricks aside, so that like
the other soldiers, he could repair the opening later.

"How many people know about this?" Stephan inquired as he
watched Teo work, waiting for Adrienne to communicate to the
corporal.

But it seemed a translation wasn't needed. Before Adrienne
finished, Teo answered for himself.

"Not many! And no one tell.... They be too scared. They be hurt
if General ever knows this." 

The doctors exchanged amused glances. Both had speculated
privately that their helper understood some English. He'd often
reacted too quickly to a conversation between themselves, not
needing to wait for a translation. Yet he'd never spoken in
English before; hadn't actually said much at all, so his words
did surprise the two. Teo's accent might be thick and he didn't
appear comfortable with the unfamiliar tongue, but the fact that
they could converse would certainly make the next few hours
easier. 

Yet, Adrienne couldn't hold back the question that sprung
immediately to her lips. "You speak English, Teo? Why have you
never let on?"

Not stopping in his task, Teo glanced over his shoulder at the
woman. "No speak English good... know some. Bad things happen to
Teo if General Hyesan know. Teo no speak inside." He jerked his
head in the direction of the heavy steel door which they had
closed behind them.

"That's OK, Teo, neither Dr Janik nor I will ever give your
secret away," Adrienne smiled as she spoke, throwing Stephan a
glance, encouraging him to join in.

"No, of course not. We're all in this together -- like the three
musketeers, and we have to watch each other's backs!" Teo looked
puzzled at the strange phrases and Stephan explained. "Sorry! We
all have to take care of each other... make sure Hyesan never
finds out what we've done."

Teo nodded, saying nothing, but his expression showed great
relief. Speaking the language of the hated western world was
strictly against the rules for a private soldier, and he was
adding to his treachery by aiding and abetting Superman. He
wasn't afraid for himself. A soldier risked death many times,
but he was terrified for his family's sake.

Once the hole was deemed large enough, the three manipulated
Superman through the space, and started to climb the four
flights of steps. Not exactly an easy task, but made easier by
the fact that the top of the gurney lifted of its base to be
carried like a stretcher. Nevertheless, it was an extremely
weary and out-of-breath threesome who reached the outer door.

Stephan grabbed the lever which operated the opening mechanism
for the bulkhead door -- this, after all, was the entrance to a
fallout shelter and the metal was thicker than the door below.
He yanked with all his strength, but to no avail.

"I guess this is where superstrength would come in handy,"
Adrienne teased, hoping to relieve the tension. 

Clearly, Stephan didn't see the lighter side. "The darned thing
can't be rusted in place if these other guards have been using
it." He tried once more, throwing his entire weight behind his
effort. "Teo, maybe we should have gone with the laundry
basket."

The bolts screeched, echoing in the cavernous stairwell. "Man!
That's loud enough to wake the dead." Stephan gave up on his
efforts. "You'd think your partying friends would have oiled
this door."

"Not friends." Teo's head shook back and forth emphatically, his
hands gripping one of the older man's arms to move him aside. 

"Relax, Stephan, there are no microphones in here to pick up the
sound." Adrienne's eyes scanned the concrete hallway at the top
of the stairs just to make sure. Now that they were almost out
of the bunker, she felt strangely elated... tired, perhaps, but
mentally alert. They'd come further than she'd ever dreamed
possible and she was starting to believe that the gods were on
their side. "Didn't you remind me that the meek shall inherit
the Earth?"

"Yeah, but in this godforsaken country more often they get
trodden in the dirt!" Stephan countered, for the moment not
sharing Adrienne's optimism. 

Finding it difficult to understand the references in the
conversation, Teo gave a dismissive shrug and stepped between
the two doctors to attempt to release the locks. The corporal's
muscles bunched beneath his uniform and within seconds the door
groaned once more then swung slowly open, allowing the ghostly
glimmer of pre-dawn to seep onto the landing.

Three expectant stares searched the flat landscape of scrub and
boulders. Roughly 50 yards away they could barely make out the
line of barbed wire fence, but in between there were few bushes
to create shadows -- no places to hide. Stephan's anxiety
notched up another level.

"How are we going to get past the patrols? We're not exactly
going to be able to sprint across that distance carrying a
stretcher."

Once again, Teo shook his head. "Guards gone... none in...
lookouts...." The soldier looked a little nonplussed, before
reverting to his own language to explain to Adrienne, leaving
Stephan to stew in frustration.

"What's he saying?"

"Hush!" Adrienne ordered. "I can't listen to both of you." 

There was a short verbal exchange in Korean while Stephan tried
to curb his impatience. He'd just about reached the end of his
tether when Adrienne turned to him.

"The towers have been unmanned for weeks and with only two
guards on the gate tonight, there should be no patrols about
now. The plan was that one of them would go round the grounds at
midnight, and again just after dawn. The soldiers have no idea
what we're up to and they don't believe anyone would want to
break in, so they decided to relax a little. The others have
gone with Abelev into the village, including the remaining dog
handler. Seems he likes to have a good time. In fact, he's the
soldier who found this way out. Neither of the remaining guards
trust the dogs, so we don't have to worry about our scent being
discovered later. Besides, the dog handlers usually give this
place a wide berth, not wanting to give the secret away. Teo
also says they aren't planning to return until morning. They're
taking full advantage of Hyesan's absence."

"When the cat's away, the mice will play," Stephan said with a
chuckle, which soon changed to a moan. "Great! Then there's a
chance that we'll bump into them now or on our way back in."

"No! According to Teo they won't be back till much later, and
this time they took a jeep and went out through the gates. Their
friends on duty will turn a blind eye in expectation of the
favour being returned someday."

"Good God, are all these soldiers corrupt?"

"Looks like quite a few," Adrienne concurred. "That's probably
what you get when you keep your men on too tight a rein. We
shouldn't complain, though. They've made our job easier!"

"Oh, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. But what
about the cameras?"

"The cameras scan the grounds more than the gates. Hyesan has
faith in his men's loyalty. Not that there's any fondness
between commander and troops, but he does have faith in their
belief in self-preservation."

"Seems his faith is misplaced, but if the cameras scan the
grounds how do we get the stretcher over there without being
seen?" Stephan gestured with his chin toward the fence.

Once again, Teo interrupted and Stephan had to shut up and wait.
Moments later, Adrienne translated the message for his benefit.
"There aren't too many cameras and this place is at the edge of
their range. Teo knows the timing of the sweeps and is confident
we can get across the ground in time, but we have to hurry.
There is a jeep hidden in the woods beyond the compound
boundary. We have to reach the river and get back here before
the others return from their party."

"Humph, I thought this place was impregnable. If I'd known about
all this coming and going, I might have escaped long ago."

"Oh right!" Adrienne sounded skeptical. "And just where would
you have gone? We're living in a camp in the middle of mountains
covered with trees, and in an alien country. You don't even
speak the language. Without a guide you'd wander around lost for
days... weeks. And if you didn't die of exposure, Hyesan would
have you brought back and flayed alive. He might need us, but he
despises us. You might not have noticed, but I'm sure he'd enjoy
having an excuse to torture us. Hyesan might be an arrogant sod,
but he's right in surmising that only a fool would risk escaping
from here."

"I know you're right," Stephan conceded quietly, determinedly
straightening to his full height and grinning ruefully. He was
over his moment of panic. "I guess we are crazy fools. But let's
get this job done and just hope that he never finds that
excuse."

Teo made them wait a few more minutes then he stuck his head
around the door frame, peering into the gloomy light with his
infrared binoculars. Immediately he'd satisfied himself the
camera had swung in the opposite direction, he picked up his end
of the stretcher and gestured for Stephan to do likewise.
Adrienne, as planned, would steady the unconscious superhero on
what might prove to be a bumpy ride.

The group made their way outside, laying the stretcher down in
the shadow of the wall while Teo closed the door. Then wasting
no time, Superman was picked up again and the three jogged their
way as speedily, yet as carefully, as possible across the stony
ground. It wouldn't do to stumble or drop their cargo. The
camera lens wouldn't swing back in their direction for some
minutes, but there was no time for errors.

When the stretcher-bearers reached the fence they were both
gasping for breath, though Stephan was in more trouble than his
younger colleague. The man they were carrying might no longer
have his powers, but Stephan wished that the onetime hero had
lost more weight, or that he himself was in better shape. Maybe
he'd start taking better care of himself, if they ever were free
of this mess. Who knew, maybe Adrienne might find him more
attractive if he was fit. 

The million-dollar question, though, was whether they would
succeed in getting out of here. On the other side of the fence,
Stephan could see a shrub-covered bank which sloped steeply to
the encroaching trees. Over there lay the safety of cover, but
how were they to reach that goal? He'd expected to find a hole
in the wire; a cut-out panel which could easily be removed and
replaced, but the stretched wire seemed intact. 

Obviously the men who used this route were fit enough to climb
the fence, but he doubted that he or Adrienne could manage such
a feat... and there was absolutely no way the stretcher could be
manhandled over such a high barrier. 

"The camera!" Adrienne hissed in his ear.

Stephan and Adrienne gazed up at the pylon which held the
camera. The all-seeing eye was returning to the concrete
structure they'd left behind. It crept along the wall toward the
door, carrying on till it reached the far corner of the
building. Very shortly, it would be arcing across the open land
toward the very spot they were occupying. They'd be caught like
rats in a trap and all their meticulous planning would have been
in vain. 

"Go, quick!" Teo's voice was little more than a whisper but
heavy with authority, while he made a grab for Adrienne's
waist.

Taken completely by surprise, Adrienne couldn't suppress a
scream, quickly muffled by Teo's hand as he pushed her down into
the earth.

"What the heck?" Stephan managed to grind out before he too was
being shoved into a gully among the rocks.

Neither of the two doctors had appreciated that they'd been led
to a particular point where a few boulders rested close by the
fence. Rocks hardly big enough to hide a child, let alone an
adult, but rocks that overhung a cleft in the ground leading
under the wire; a makeshift path to the outside world which had
probably been caused by heavy rains during the last typhoon
season.

The camera was sweeping ever closer as Teo passed the stretcher
down into the high-sided ditch where his fellow conspirators
helped its progress. Quickly, the corporal dived head first for
cover, his boots disappearing from view with just seconds to
spare.

Once more the three lay perfectly still in the leafy trench,
hardly daring to breathe, while above their heads the CCTV
searched the terrain directly outside the compound perimeter. In
the total silence they heard the whir of the technological
watchdog as it began to repeat its habitual journey. 

After a few moments, they were galvanized into action,
slithering and sliding down the length of the small ravine and
into the tree line. From there it was only a matter of a short
walk to the stashed jeep and five minutes later they were loaded
up and driving north for the river border with China. 

All three were too exhausted to feel a sense of relief. Their
escape from the camp had been too close a call, but at least
they were on the last lap. Which brought nearer the need to
revive Superman and both doctors were all too aware that this
procedure was little more than experimental.

The mood within the confines of the jeep was extremely somber.
They were racing against time. Teo had estimated that the
round-trip journey should take about two to three hours, not
counting the time it would take to get Superman fit enough to
cross the border, which meant they'd have to smuggle themselves
back into the camp in daylight. Of course, if they got caught,
they could always excuse themselves by saying the doctors had
needed a drink after carrying out Hyesan's orders successfully.

Adrienne was sure Hyesan wouldn't doubt that she might want to
get plastered after murdering Superman. He believed she was a
spineless fool. Very probably he'd accept that Stephan would
join her. After all, the General was likely aware of Stephan's
nightly libation habits. So it shouldn't take too much trouble
to convince Hyesan that they'd bribed Teo into guiding them to
the village. 

The ideal situation, however, was that they could sneak back in
without discovery... and surely that scenario wasn't too much of
a stretch. Abelev and his companions might not have returned, or
if they had, those who could would probably be sleeping off
their hangovers. The soldiers on the gate would be looking
forward to being relieved -- also by a couple of those who'd
spent the night outside. Either way, those guarding the gate
shouldn't be patrolling too zealously. 

But even if they were apprehended, all might not be lost. To
protect their own backs, the guards might agree to keep quiet
about the doctors' supposed recreational trip to the village.
The ordinary soldiers should have no reason to doubt that
explanation, since they too went AWOL on a regular basis.
Certainly, they wouldn't be too keen to have the General
discover they'd been sneaking out of his camp in direct
disobedience of his orders.

There was no way Adrienne, Stephan or Teo could be sure of the
outcome of the next few hours, so they sat silently as the
vehicle bumped over the pot-holed track and prayed in their own
way for salvation.

*****

Far removed from the Korean jungle, Lois Lane shut down her
computer mid-afternoon and packed up her things to head out of
the Daily Planet newsroom. This evening, her eldest daughter was
to compete with the school's gymnastic team and she'd offered,
along with some other parents, to help with the team's
preparations. 

Lois had learned in a very hard school that her family was the
most important part of her life and she didn't take for granted
a moment of the time she could spend with them. And this was one
competition she wouldn't miss being a part of for anything in
the world.

When Sara, their 'quiet' daughter, was seven years old she'd
pleasantly surprised both her parents by joining gymnastic
classes. Yet, for some months after her father's disappearance,
Sara had lost all interest in her passion, ignoring her
teammates and becoming almost a recluse. Lois had understood,
but had worried so for her child. It had been such a relief
when, suddenly, Sara announced she'd had a change of heart,
deciding Daddy would want her to continue. 

In the ensuing months, Sara had worked hard to achieve the
required standard to regain her place on the team while doggedly
suppressing her budding superpowers. Lois smiled gently,
remembering her daughter solemnly telling her that she didn't
want to use her 'specialness' to give her an advantage over her
teammates. Clark would have been so proud....

Her hands stilled, as once again she was reminded of her
husband. Lois might be learning to live without Clark, yet there
wasn't a day went by, not even a moment, when he wasn't in her
thoughts. Only a few nights ago, she'd told her younger daughter
that she still talked to Clark, and that was true.

At work, she'd find herself having conversations with him inside
her head as she worked through a difficult investigation, except
she didn't do too many exposes these days. But, when she did,
she'd try to recreate the easy ebb and flow of ideas between
them which had led to Lane and Kent nailing so many
prize-winning stories....

Within her personal life, she always tried to see any problems
that arose from his point of view, letting him guide her when
the going got particularly tough. And she always made time to
talk to her children about their father. To let them know how
much he loved them.

No, it wasn't unusual for Lois to think about Clark... but on
that afternoon at the Planet, she was extremely shocked to feel
he was thinking of her. Lois' breath caught and she
instinctively opened up the connection which had been lost to
her for too long. For over a year, she'd felt no sense of his
presence. Indeed, this had been the one unforgiving factor which
had convinced her that Clark was dead.

Yet for a moment, as the city room of the Daily Planet went
about business in its normally chaotic fashion around her, Lois
was transported to another world by the shade of her husband
reaching out to her once more. In her heart, she sensed a shiver
of his panic, followed by a strange sense of peace... a final
coming home. Whatever was happening, and Lois couldn't be sure
just what that was, Clark was finally at rest. 

"Lois?" Jimmy's voice sounded close by, rising anxiously over
the hubbub of the bullpit. "Is everything OK?"

The interlude had passed, and again Clark's presence retreated
into memory, into that special place in her heart where he would
always remain, entwined forever in the very sinews of her being.
He would never truly leave her -- how could he when he was the
other half of her soul?

"Yes, I'm fine, Jimmy," Lois said, not really sure if this were
true.

"For a minute there you looked like you'd seen a ghost."

Lois shrugged. "Something like that. I just got one of these
feelings when you think someone is walking over your grave."

"Right," Jimmy grinned. "Never did understand where that saying
comes from, or what it means."

"Me neither, but I have to rush. Got a hot date with Sara this
evening. She's representing the school at a gymnastic event for
the first time since... since she went back...." Lois' voice
faltered and she returned to gathering up her things. "The coach
asked for volunteers to help keep the kids focused during the
final training session." 

"Hey, why didn't you say. I'd like to come too. CK would have
been so proud."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

Jimmy's grin softened in understanding. "So that's where you
went to...."

"Yes." Sudden tears sparkled on the tips of Lois' lashes,
threatening to fall. "Oh, Jimmy, just when I think I'm doing so
well, I get all emotional again. I have to be strong for the
kids, but sometimes thoughts of Clark hit me out of the blue and
I end up a quivering wreck."

"And you wouldn't want it any other way," Jimmy reminded her,
helpfully snagging a tissue from a box on her desk and passing
it to her. "Well, maybe not the quivering wreck part, but you
wouldn't want to forget him... would you?"

"No! Definitely not. Clark is kinda unforgettable."

"You just miss him, Lois, and if it makes you feel any better, I
do too... we all do. He was one of a kind."

They'd had this conversation before... a number of times. Often,
when they were working late on a story, they'd end up talking
about CK. The things he said and did, some funny, some sad...
and those crazy ties he wore.... 

Maybe not so often late at night now, as Lois tried to restrict
her work, as much as possible, to normal 9-to-5 hours. Her kids
had lost one parent and Lois was going to make sure they didn't
lose another. Yet Jimmy was determined to be there for Lois
whenever she needed him. 

"And just so you know, Lois, I think you're doing a great job.
Clark would be proud of you too."

Lois reached out a hand to her friend. This past year she'd
discovered people cared for her more than she'd ever
suspected... and that was also Clark's legacy to her. He'd
taught her the value of letting people in.

Jimmy clasped her hand for a second, then started to draw her to
the elevators. "You're gonna be late if we hang around here
jawing about old times. And hey, tell Sara good luck from me.
Oh, and where is this competition being held? I'll try to look
in if I get off work on time."

"It's at the Superman Foundation Hall," Lois said, stepping into
the elevator. "Starts at seven. I'm taking the kids for dinner
first, though Sara will probably settle for a green salad. She's
nervous and I doubt it would be a good idea, anyway, to tumble
about on a full stomach. Her grandparents will be there too...
and Perry and Alice." 

"I better not miss out if the whole family are showing up...."
Jimmy's voice tailed off as both quickly realized just who would
not be there. 

Lois and Jimmy exchange a sad smile. Sometimes it was those
little perceptions that caught you unawares.

The doors closed as the car started to move down to the lower
floors, leaving Lois alone. Desperately, she closed her eyes and
directed her senses inward, to search again for that special
connection to Clark, but this time she met with only silence and
darkness. Had she only dreamed she'd heard his voice... saw his
dark eyes staring at her, filled with love in abundance... felt
that wondrous sense of belonging that she would never share with
another?

The elevator arrived at its destination and Lois was hit with a
cold deluge of reality. Staffers spilled into the car; a couple
of young reporters rushing up to the newsroom to finish off
their stories before deadline, a photographer anxious to reach
the darkroom so his shots could make the next edition and a
researcher loaded down with stacks of files. She felt their
energy, their eagerness... and part of her regretted that she no
longer shared that consuming commitment. The Daily Planet would
always be the only newspaper she could ever work for, and she
was grateful to have something to fill her days, but it was no
longer the hub of her universe.

What had Mrs Church said all those years ago? 'A store couldn't
boil an egg'? Mindy had been correct about that... and Clark had
been great in the kitchen... amongst other rooms.... 

Lois forced her way out against the tide, deciding to take the
single flight of stairs to the parking garage. If she didn't get
a grip here, she'd be dissolving in a flood of tears and she had
no intention of crying in front of her colleagues. They'd seen
enough of that when Clark had first gone missing. Reminiscing
about Clark, and knowing that memories were all she had left,
often made her melancholic. 

But she was not a wallower. She had to concentrate on the
good... and Clark had left her so much of the good. The greatest
of his gifts to her were his children, and they were waiting for
her to pick them up after school. 

Drawing strength from a love that would never die, Lois walked
with a lighter step toward her jeep.

*****

Chapter Five
To Endure

The journey toward the border passed uneventfully, though on a
couple of occasions both Teo and Stephan had to get out of the
vehicle to clear the track of felled tree limbs. Thankfully, no
obstruction was too large or unmanageable since the jeep was
fitted out with a winch and tow chain, which proved to be
invaluable. Once again, Adrienne and Stephan were grateful for
their young friend's forethought in choice of transport.

While the two men dealt with the outside complications of their
drive, Adrienne stayed in the cabin of the jeep, watching over
the unconscious Superman. She sat with his head in her lap,
smoothing her hands gently up and down the cold skin of his
arms, hoping to warm him. Yet more than that... she was willing
her human touch to keep him alive.

So still and pale was he in the shafts of early dawn light, that
she checked frequently for his illusive pulse, her heart beat
racing once or twice, when it had taken her some seconds to find
that one small sign that he was still in the land of the living.


Stephan had chosen to wait till the journey was halfway over
before reviving the superhero. It had been a difficult decision
to make. On the one hand, he didn't want to wait too long in
case Superman would not be physically fit enough to cross the
border on his own, but the opposite scenario was just as
problematic. The prospect of keeping an aware, and perhaps a
scared patient calm in the confines of the jeep was not
something any of the three were looking forward to.

However, the deed could not be put off forever and, all too
soon, Stephan injected the antidote into Superman's bloodstream.
For long moments the rescuers waited.... Outside, the sounds of
the forest greeting a new day hung in the heavy, humid air. Yet,
in the interior of the jeep, silence reigned. 

Suddenly, like an awakening giant, Superman reared up, gasping
for breath, his body trembling in aftershock. Adrienne and
Stephan instinctively drew back, while Teo watched with
compassion from the driver's seat.

"Don't try to move too much," Stephan advised, easing closer and
risking placing a hand on his patient's shoulder. "You're safe
now."

"Safe?" The superhero gazed in confusion at the three people
around him.

"Yes," Adrienne answered gently. "Don't be afraid. We're here to
help you. Do you remember me?"

Superman turned to study the woman by his side. "Dr Ducos, is
that you?"

"Yes, that's right." Adrienne spoke as to a child. "And do you
remember Teo?" She pointed helpfully to the soldier who was
resting his folded arms along the back of his seat.

"Teo? Yes." Superman dragged the words out slowly, his voice
feeling strangely detached from his brain. "He looks after me."

"That's correct. And this other doctor is Stephan Janik."

After a searching look at the man kneeling nearby, Superman
shook his head. "I don't think I remember you. My head aches."
So he hadn't died, after all. A person wouldn't experience this
much pain in death. Would they? And yet, he'd been sure he was
about to be killed.

Why did he think these people were trying to kill him? Nothing
seemed clear. His hand went up to push through his hair in his
habitual gesture of stress that his family would have recognized
immediately, but to which he was now totally oblivious. 

Stephan spoke up. "Your head aches because of the drugs we had
to give you to get you out of the complex safely."

"Complex? You mean the hospital?" Superman looked totally
perplexed.

"Yes, that's right. But I'm afraid it wasn't really a
hospital... or not a very good one." Stephan added, trying to
move the conversation along as quickly as possible. They didn't
have time for lengthy explanations.

"Then why was I there?" Superman shook his head, but decided
this was a bad idea as it only caused the pain to increase.

Stephan sent Adrienne a glance that pleaded for assistance.

"It was a laboratory, and we didn't know it was a bad place."
Adrienne hated lying, but there was no way they could tell this
man the truth -- both for their sake and for his. "At first, we
thought they wanted to help you. We wanted to help you. That's
why we got you out of there when they started to do certain
tests on you."

Somewhere in the depths of Superman's psyche her words resonated
with dread. He couldn't remember where or when he'd heard them
before, he knew only that he'd always been wary of laboratories
and tests....

"Yes, they wanted to treat you like a lab rat," Stephan jumped
in, realizing that they'd caught the man's attention. "We
couldn't allow that to happen. Especially since you probably
have a pretty good idea of what happens to lab rats once their
usefulness is over."

Superman's nerves frayed even more as the man continued talking.
He didn't really remember the details, but he did believe he'd
been in terrible danger and it looked like these people were
willing to help him... not kill him. He had no one else to
trust... nowhere else to go.

"They wanted to kill me?"

"Yes! I'm so sorry." That came from the woman who was now
stroking his back comfortingly. "We should have tried to do
more...." 

"We couldn't stand by and let them kill you, so the three of us
decided we had to get you away from the bad guys." Stephan
added, though bile rose in his throat as he acknowledged
inwardly he'd been one of those bad guys. One day he might be
held accountable for the terrible things they'd done to this
exemplary man, and it would only be what he deserved. But not in
this country, and not in Hyesan's court... and he was adamant
that neither Teo nor Adrienne should face what he knew would be
the General's warped idea of justice.

"Will they come after us?" Superman asked urgently, another
possibility rising up to horrify him.

"No! They don't know we've left the complex," Stephan offered
some reassurance. "And hopefully they never will. We smuggled
you out. And, with any luck, they shouldn't be looking for
you... ever." He paused. How did you tell someone they'd
become... nonexistent. "They think you're dead."

"They do?" Superman frowned, trying hard to concentrate on the
explanation, but it wasn't easy when his brain felt so sluggish
and he still hadn't a clue where he was or even who he was.
"Why?"

"No other... way for us...." This time the stumbling words came
from the front of the vehicle and all eyes turned toward the
soldier. "I no talk English... much, but you... hear doctors."
Teo pulled at his earlobe, emphasizing his words with actions.
"They help. I help you!"

Somehow, coming from Teo, Superman found that reassuring. The
orderly had shown him many kindnesses when no one else would.

"We're trying to take you somewhere safe, but you have to help
us." Stephan spoke