Superman

by Matt De La Peña

  “No,” Lana said. “Lex is recording. We’ll take the footage to the cops, and they can come out here with the proper reinforcements.”

  Clark shook his head, repeating, “I’m going down there. Now.” When he stood up, Lana and Lex both grabbed hold of his arms. He easily brushed them away.

  But then Gloria stepped in front of him, saying, “Don’t, Clark! It’s suicide.”

  The desperate emotion in Gloria’s voice stopped Clark in his tracks.

  He took a deep breath and tried to think. The men inside this building had been taken against their will. They were chained to the floor, IVs forced into their veins and propaganda forced into their brains. They needed help. And Gloria probably knew some of them. Yet she was still telling him to wait. Maybe she was right. If he barged into the building now, people could get hurt. Maybe even killed.

  Lana or Gloria could get killed.

  Clark balled his hands into tight fists and growled soundlessly. Then he knelt beside the skylight and stared down at the men again. When his eyes had adjusted to the dim light, he picked up on more troubling details. Some of the men were older, some in their thirties and forties. Others hardly even looked eighteen. And the IVs were feeding a light green liquid into each man’s veins. It looked similar to the substance he’d seen Bryan inject at the gym.

  He spun around to Lex. “You’re getting all this?”

  Lex nodded. “Every bit of it.”

  There was a commotion near the small building. Men shouting.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Lana whispered.

  Clark scurried to the edge of the roof, where he saw three Mexican men being led from the smaller structure to the bigger one.

  Lex was suddenly beside him, aiming a tiny digital camera down at this new cluster of men. Lana was there, too, pointing at Lex’s watch. “Seriously, we gotta go. Now.”

  One of the guards looked up. Clark quickly backed away from the edge, pulling Lex and Lana with him. Gloria remained behind them, looking all around. Clark listened for movement. He heard the guards mumbling to each other below. Using his super-hearing, he could just make out some of what they were saying:

  “They’re not ready,” one said.

  “They have to be. We don’t have any more time.”

  “Should I increase the dose, then? Or wait on the improved formula?”

  Clark saw the beam of a flashlight pass over their heads. He was pretty sure they hadn’t been spotted.

  But had the men heard them?

  They quickly put their grip socks back on and readied themselves to climb down the side of the building. But just as Lana was turning around to descend the wall feetfirst, the top of a ladder swung into view and came to a rest against the edge of the roof right next to them. Clark’s stomach dropped as he heard someone beginning to climb the aluminum rungs.

  He pulled Lana away from the wall.

  Gloria was beside him now. “We have to go down the other side,” she whispered.

  Clark put a finger up to his lips. He quickly moved around the perimeter of the roof, peering down at every other option before coming back to Lex and Lana. The man climbing the ladder was closer now.

  “I got him,” Lex said, pulling out his dart gun.

  Clark watched Lex raise the narrow barrel and wait for the man to come up over the side of the roof. His hand was shaking.

  When the man finally emerged, Lex fired, missing badly.

  Before Lex could reload, the man had swung himself onto the roof. He bounded to Lex, grabbed the dart gun, and chucked it away.

  Clark lunged for the man, quickly taking him down. Within a fraction of a second, Clark had him in a tight sleeper hold. When the man’s body went limp, Clark gently set him on his back.

  Gloria stared at Clark, wide-eyed.

  “Come on,” he said to her. He motioned for Lana and Lex, too, and the four of them made a move for the opposite side of the roof. But in the chaos, none of them were able to use the grip socks correctly. They kept forgetting to slide right and tripping. “Take the socks off,” Clark said. “I’ll help you down.”

  Clark descended the wall using only his hands. When the others made it to the edge of the roof, he held out his arms, motioning for them to jump. “Gloria, you go first,” he said in a loud whisper. She hesitated, then dropped into his arms. He caught her, making sure he went to the ground once she was secure, so that it appeared to take a great effort.

  Then Clark and Gloria together caught Lana.

  And all three of them caught Lex.

  As they scurried off into the night, Clark heard a great commotion behind him. One of the guards had climbed into a jeep, started the engine, and peeled out after them.

  Clark led the group into a thick patch of trees near the other end of the cornfield. They hid there as the jeep sped back and forth a few times, shining a flashlight into the brush. But the man never got out, and eventually he headed back to the buildings.

  “They were all chained in place,” Gloria said angrily. “Did you see it?”

  “Disgusting,” Lana said.

  Clark slapped the ground, saying, “I know how we can nail these guys.”

  Lana turned to him. “How?”

  Clark felt a surge of energy just imagining it. “Tomorrow at the festival. In front of everyone.”

  Lex looked up from studying his glasses. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ll explain as soon as we get out of here.” Clark watched the jeep pull up to the smaller structure, where another guard climbed in. They started spinning around for another pass. “In the meantime, you’re up, Lex. Where to?”

  “This way,” Lex said, and the three of them sprinted into the cornfield, crashing through stalks until they arrived at a small clearing, where four brand-new four-wheelers sat.

  “Our escape,” Lex called to the others as he climbed onto one of the machines and started the engine. Clark, Gloria, and Lana followed his lead, and soon they were racing from the back of the Jones farm, Clark’s mind still stuck on the image of all those men strapped to chairs, their brown faces angled toward the screen, IVs pumping a light green liquid into their bodies.

  Clark was horrified that something like this could be happening right here in Smallville.

  And he vowed to stop it.

  He turned toward Gloria as he rode. He wouldn’t give up until every one of those men was free.

  They dropped off the four-wheelers near the rusted tractor and got back into Lex’s car. As Lex drove them home, Clark reviewed his plan. The following morning at the festival, they would take Lex’s footage and broadcast it for all of Smallville to see. Then the local police force would have no choice but to believe them.

  “And how are we supposed to do that?” Lana asked.

  “When I was walking over to meet you guys at the library,” Clark explained, “I saw the workers building the stage. They were putting up two big screens, which I’m assuming will broadcast whatever is taking place onstage. We’re going to hack the feed.”

  Lana shot him a skeptical look. “And I suppose you have secret hacking skills I don’t know about.”

  “Not me,” Clark said, turning to Gloria. “But I know someone who does.”

  Her eyes grew big. “Me?”

  Lana pounded the dash. “I love it. Can you really do this, Gloria?”

  “If it’s a standard HDMI connection,” she answered, “then, yeah, I guess I could probably figure it out.”

  “Interesting idea,” Lex said, touching his glasses. “I got over six minutes’ worth of footage. We’d just have to figure out where to start it from. Or…I guess I could edit it down tonight.”

  “I’d leave it exactly the way it is,” Clark said. “I don’t want anyone thinking we tampered with evidence.” He turned to Lana. “But what if we sp
lice in pieces of your interview with Corey? Then we could prove that he’s complicit, too.”

  “If I can get him to say anything worthwhile,” Lana said.

  Clark scoffed. “If Corey has anything to say, you’ll get it out of him.”

  Lana nodded, staring out the front windshield. Then she met eyes with Clark in the rearview mirror. “I can’t believe we’re actually going to use the celebration to expose these assholes. It’s brilliant.”

  They all agreed, and Clark turned to Gloria. “You okay?”

  She shrugged. “What we just saw out there…it made me physically ill.”

  The look in Gloria’s eyes devastated Clark. His plan had to work. There was too much at stake.

  Gloria took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I take it back,” she said. “No matter what kind of AV they’re using tomorrow, I’ll find a way to hack the feed.”

  Clark squeezed her hand. “I know you will.” Then he touched his suit under his regular clothes. We’re going to pull this off, he told himself. Because they had to. There was no other option.

  “I still don’t completely understand what Wesco is doing with those men,” Lana said. “But they had them chained to their chairs.”

  “They tore them away from their families and friends,” Gloria added.

  “It’s obviously about race,” Lana said. “We know that much, right?”

  Lex shook his head. “That’s naive,” he told Lana. “It’s about money. And power. It’s always about money and power. Remember that.”

  “Maybe it’s both,” Clark said. “Think about it. They’re using people who are different from them. People they view as vulnerable, expendable.”

  “They know some of us can’t just go to the police,” Gloria added. “Which makes us easier to prey upon.”

  Clark could feel Gloria’s words in the pit of his stomach. Because it could just as easily be him chained up like that. If they knew what he really was.

  “We won’t let them get away with it,” Lana said.

  Clark and Gloria nodded, and Lex said, “We get this right, it’ll be a public takedown of epic proportions.”

  “And since Mankins is a nationally known corporation,” Lana added, “I’d be shocked if there weren’t at least a few media outlets from outside of Smallville at the event.” She glanced back at Clark. “It’ll be a national story. Plus, we’ll be doing it peacefully, right, Clark? No violence.”

  Clark nodded. But his mind had drifted back to what he’d seen on the Jones farm.

  “Clark?” Lana said as Lex pulled up to the foot of his driveway. “You okay?”

  He looked at her. “I just want this to work.”

  Lana glanced back at Gloria. “We’ll make it work.” She opened the passenger-side door, got out, and flipped the seat forward for Clark.

  Before getting out, he turned to Gloria. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

  “Let’s go,” Lex said.

  Gloria ignored him and reached across the seat to touch Clark’s cheek. “Bye, Clark.”

  He climbed out of the car, then watched as Lana got back in and Lex’s car pulled away.

  Instead of going straight into the house, Clark went down to the crater near the old barn and sat with his head against the lip, his usual spot. He pulled out his phone and checked to see if Bryan had texted him. Nothing. Clark slipped his phone back into his pocket and thought about Gloria and what they’d all just seen together, and then he looked out over the crater before him, trying to imagine that long-ago version of himself crash-landing here. Jonathan and Martha opening the top of the spaceship and carrying him into their home. Treating him like their own.

  None of it seemed real.

  Or even possible.

  Yet it was the truth. His truth.

  Instead of feeling sorry for himself or trying to make sense of something so incredible, he vowed to deal with it another way. He would do everything in his power to make his adopted planet a better, safer place.

  Clark woke up to a text from Gloria.

  Freaking out. Nobody can find Cruz.

  Clark froze, picturing the Jones farm, the men chained to the floor. He called Gloria, but she didn’t answer. He left a message and texted, too, telling her to call him back as soon as possible.

  He put away his phone and sat up in bed, an awful feeling moving through his entire body. Cruz was just a kid. And he was a citizen. Maybe there was some other explanation.

  While waiting to hear back from Gloria, Clark went over to his closet and looked at the suit. He’d managed to remove it the night before. But now he had a strange desire to put it back on. Like it was some kind of armor on such an important day. He took it off the hanger and slipped it on, then put his regular clothes on over the suit. He also wore the thicker-framed glasses Lex had given him instead of his regular glasses. The new ones seemed more Clark Kent to him now, and it felt important to make sure that the two different sides of him contrasted greatly.

  He tried calling Gloria one more time but got her voice mail, so he started for downtown.

  Two hours later, he still hadn’t heard anything from Gloria. He looked for her outside city hall, but she wasn’t among the crowd of protesters. And she wasn’t anywhere around the square. He eventually left to meet Lana and Lex on the steps outside the library.

  And there was Gloria.

  But no Lex.

  “Hey,” he said to Gloria. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”

  She nodded, clearly upset. “I left my phone in the car while we looked around the neighborhood for Cruz.”

  Clark hesitated before asking, “Did you find him?”

  She shook her head. “You don’t think he could be on the Jones farm, do you? He’s just a kid.”

  “I didn’t see him last night.” Clark glanced at Lana, who looked at the ground, shaking her head. “We have to get this right,” he told Gloria. But he was saying it for his own benefit, too. “If we get this right, everything will be okay.”

  “Lex texted,” Lana said. “He’s going to be late. We don’t have access to any of the footage without him.”

  Clark looked around, trying to figure out what to do. He’d never felt so anxious. “Maybe we should go talk through the plan. We can catch Lex up whenever he gets here.”

  The three of them ducked into a quiet room in the library and sat at a round table. Clark motioned to Lana. “So, you’ll start your interview with Corey a few minutes before the first speaker, right? That way you can cover the charity angle and get him comfortable.”

  Lana didn’t look very confident.

  Clark’s whole body tensed. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’ve been texting Corey all morning,” Lana said. “He told me he didn’t have time for an interview. When I pressed him, he went silent. So I sort of had to try a Hail Mary.”

  Clark waited for her to explain. It felt like everything was unraveling.

  “I told him I’d heard a rumor that there was something strange happening on the Jones farm. And I was hoping he could clarify for me personally.”

  “And?”

  “He agreed to meet me,” Lana said. “But he’s definitely not happy about it. I think the whole charity angle is out the window. We’ll just get right to it.” She held up a small black duffel bag. “I brought the digital camera and tripod from school. So at least I have that part covered.”

  Clark wanted to believe this part of the plan could still work, but he had his doubts. “Where are you guys meeting?” he asked.

  Lana tried to seem more upbeat. “Corey said he talked to the courthouse manager. She’s letting us use one of the meeting rooms for the interview.”

  “Okay. So you’ll be at the courthouse.” He turned to Gloria. “And were you able to get a look at the AV they’re using?”

 
Gloria nodded.

  “It only took her, like, two minutes to figure out how to do it,” Lana said.

  Gloria shrugged. “For outside events like this, people don’t usually do anything too sophisticated.” She held up a thin laptop. “I enabled split-screen capability in case we want to have the interview running alongside the footage. Up to you.”

  “That would be great.” Clark still had doubts about the Corey piece, but if anyone could pull it off, Lana could. And he loved the split-screen idea. “I’ll be right next to the police stand the whole time. Soon as we cut the footage, I’ll lead them directly to Wesco.”

  “We just need Lex to show up,” Lana said.

  Gloria’s phone buzzed just then. She stood to answer it, saying, “Marco? Did you get in touch with Carlos yet?” She stepped out of the room to continue the call.

  Lana looked at Clark. “You don’t think Cruz could be on the farm, do you?”

  “I sure hope not,” he said. “But I’m not putting anything past these people.”

  “When this is over,” Lana said, “I want to see them all rot in jail.”

  They both went quiet for a stretch, and then Clark said, “Can you text Lex again?”

  “I’ve been texting and calling all morning,” Lana said. “What are we gonna do if we don’t have the footage? Then everything’s ruined.”

  Clark stared at the floor, replaying everything that had happened the night before, searching for any sign that Lex might have been putting them on. Clark definitely didn’t trust the guy to do anything out of the kindness of his heart, but in this case it seemed like their interests were aligned. Clark, Lana, and Gloria wanted to expose Wesco and save the people held prisoner on the Jones farm. Lex wanted to take down the competition.

  A few seconds later, Gloria came back into the quiet room. She was followed by a thin, middle-aged black man with a bushy mustache. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, jeans, and a leather backpack.

  Clark and Lana looked to Gloria, who said, “This is Leonard. He was looking for us outside the library.”