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Chapter 13 – Kidnapping Matters

Lois had an appointment with her doctor just before lunch that she was determined to keep. She had already rescheduled twice when something more important had come up. She knew Richard had hoped it was because she had been having second thoughts about not wanting to have another baby and had said as much. She knew he loved Jason unconditionally but he had been an only child and didn’t want the same for Jason so he kept trying to convince her that it would be better if they had another child before Jason got too much older. She had almost given in to his reasoning until…the love of her life came back…there she thought it. Now was certainly not the time to risk going unprotected.

She picked up her things and headed to Richard’s office. “I’m leaving now. I’ll see you this afternoon.”

“Lois, are you sure you want to do this? Once you take that shot its three months…”

“Richard, we’ve talked about this already. You’re going to make me late. I’ll see you when I get back and don’t wait lunch, I may not come straight back.” With that she was gone without even a kiss goodbye.



A few minutes later Richard got up and decided he might as well enjoy his lunch. He decided on a whim to go to this little greasy spoon that had the best Philly steak sandwiches in town. Lois hated the place. Maybe Jimmy would like to join him. He looked around but the only person he saw who had not already left for lunch was Clark.

Oh well he thought, perhaps it would give them more time to chat and get to know one another. Know thy enemy. Somehow he just couldn’t think of Clark or the hero as an enemy.  “Clark, wanta go get lunch? I know this great deli a few blocks from here. We can walk there.”

Clark looked up surprised. He looked around the office before answering and realized he was the only option Richard had. “Um, sure.”

  As they left the office Richard asked, “Do you mind if we stop by my ATM first since it’s on the way?  It’ll save me a trip later.”

“No problem. Lead the way.”

As they approached the bank Richard moaned, “Darn the ATM is down. We’ll have to go inside. It should only take a minute.” They got in a short line and minutes later were just about to exit the bank when three masked men entered locking the door behind them.

“Nobody move and no one gets hurt,” one of the men shouted. “Tellers back away from the silent alarms NOW!”

The three were standing side by side. One of the men came forward but before he got very far there was a rush of movement and all three men were tied together with their belts, huddled on the floor unable to move. Their guns were melting masses nearby and the door to the bank was swinging back and forth as if someone had just left unseen by human eyes.

Clark was standing next to Richard adjusting his glasses, appearing as bewildered as everyone else. Richard shook his head in disbelief thinking and this is what I’m trying to compete with. Give me a break. Well at least Lois wasn’t here. 

It didn’t take too long with the police officers since no one had really seen much and it had all happened so fast there wasn’t much to tell. Although Richard was sure a lot of the people would be talking about what they had or hadn’t seen for years.

They finally made it to the deli and Richard insisted Clark had to try ‘The Best Sandwich in Town’ his treat. They had already called in the story with their first hand accounts to the Daily Planet to make sure it beat the deadline for the next edition and they also had reported it to the affiliated live news channel.

Finally enjoying their sandwiches Richard relaxed and asked, “Have you ever seen that movie Phenomenon?”

“I don’t really see too many movies. Plus I was gone a long time remember?”

“Oh right, well it was on just the other night and there was this part that made me wonder about you. I don’t really want to give the plot away in case you decide to watch it but something is happening to the main character making it seem like he’s some kind of a super genius or something. The government sends an agent to test him to see if he’s faking or just how smart he really is. So anyway this agent asks him to name as many mammals as he can in sixty seconds and starts a stop watch.” Richard paused for affect taking a drink before continuing. “The main character asks these questions saying the test wasn’t precise like could he include extinct mammals or if he wanted them in a certain order before finally naming this long list of them in alphabetical order.”

“Are you going somewhere with this?” Clark asked. 

Richard nodded, “It gets even better the agent then asks how old a person is who was born in 1928 and once again starts the clock. The character again kills time asking seemingly stupid questions only to tie down the persons age down to the second based on where he was born and what time he was born.”

“And…the point is?” Clark asked.

“After what happened in the bank a little while ago and reading some of the other stuff you’ve done I can’t help but wonder, can you do stuff like that fictional character?”

Clark sat his sandwich down and looked him in the eye. “Would it make you uncomfortable if I could?”



The man sat in the parking lot of the private school in his stolen SUV. Magnetic signs proclaiming ‘Joe’s Plumbing’ were attached to each side of the vehicle. How convenient of the owner to provide him with the idea for his perfect cover and a tool box to boot. He shifted slightly in anticipation as he saw a group of small kids finally come out onto the playground. The SUV was perfect, it had dark windows hiding his presence from any prying eyes allowing him to sit and watch the playground with small high powered binoculars. There was a fence but he had found a spot that allowed a good view and he was taking full advantage. Finally his patience was paying off.

He went over in his head the description of the kid. Light brown wavy longish hair that falls in his face, about three and a half feet tall, blue eyes and dimples. Luthor had given him a picture of the kid from a surveillance camera but it wasn’t that good. Hopefully he would be able to pick the little brat out of the group now playing in the yard.

“Bingo, there he is!” he said to himself. “Now all I have to do is make the grab.” He got out and opened up the back to retrieve ‘his toolbox’ with the newly added cartoon stickers all over it but first he put his work gloves back on. He might be leaving the toolbox behind and didn’t want to leave any evidence with it. He had already spoken to the office and they thought he was there to fix several leaking bathroom fixtures.   Supposedly he was on his ‘lunch break’ now. He laughed at how easy it had been. What facility like that didn’t have leaking or malfunctioning bathroom fixtures?

It was just about time for the kids to go back to their classrooms. If he timed it just right he could grab the kid as he got a drink. That would put him close to the exit and make for a quick escape, if he could distract the kid for a minute to make him the last in the yard all the better.

He walked in the gate and headed slowly towards the bathroom stopping near the drinking fountain to seemingly retie his shoe just as the bell rang. Several kids came up and formed a line at the fountain the target among them. He made sure to let a pen fall out of his pocket right next to the kid he wanted. Bingo again, he thought as the kid bit and got out of line picking the pen up to hand it back, even better he had noticed the stickers on the toolbox.

The man smiled at him. “My son put those on there. I don’t even know who most of them are suppose to be. I bet you know though.”

The little boy smiled as he pointed to each in turn, “That’s Dora, and that’s Shrek and that one’s Sponge Bob.”  He continued naming several more of the stickers till the last of the kids finished getting a drink and ran inside. “Oh, I’m late.”  The little boy said then quickly went to the fountain and bent over to take a drink before going inside.

Taking advantage of the little boy turning his back he made his move grabbing him from behind holding a handkerchief filled with chloroform over his mouth as he simultaneously wrapped his jacket around him. Within seconds he was back in the SUV with the unconscious boy hidden under a blanket on the floor of the back seat.

He drove a couple blocks and parked for a minute to remove the signs then continued on to deliver the goods. He smiled thinking of the payoff to come.



The man carried the still unconscious child into the room where Luthor was waiting. He placed him on a couch and uncovered him then stepped back. 

Luthor took one look and practically screamed. “You idiot. That’s the wrong kid.” He was so furious that he reached into his pocket pulled out a gun and shot the man dead before he had time to even react. “Let that be an example to the rest of you.” He said to the other men now cowering in the room.

“It’s impossible to get good help nowadays. Lucky for me thugs are a dime a dozen and this one was free,” he said under his breath as he bent down retrieving the still stuffed envelope he had given the man earlier.

“Get him out of here,” he screamed as he walked back to the child. He finally calmed down as he saw that the kid did look a lot like the little Lane brat. It might still work. Then he reconsidered, perhaps it would still work. He didn’t have to worry about that kid causing problems like last time and Superman would still feel just as guilty, heck knowing that bleeding heart ideology of his perhaps this could work out even better. Yes he smiled this could definitely work to his advantage.



Almost before Richard or Clark could exit the elevator and enter the bullpen Jimmy came running up. “Did you hear? A five year old child was just kidnapped from Jason’s school? They just put out a bulletin two minutes ago.”

“What?” both Clark and Richard said simultaneously looking up to the monitors but the news had moved on to another topic.

“They think it was a man pretending to be a plumber but other than that they really aren’t saying much. The kid looked a lot like Jason but they said his name was Ricky Johnson.”

Both Clark and Richard reacted instantly by heading back to the elevator. Once inside Richard grabbed Clark’s arm as the doors were about to close to keep him there for at least a couple seconds. “Clark, Ricky does look a lot like Jason and as Jason’s father I might be able to get some answers from the authorities.”

“Sorry, but as Superman I will most likely be able to get more. This is definitely Luthor’s work. He probably knows it’s not Jason by now but I highly doubt that it’ll matter much to him. He surely knows I’ll still come after him.” He looked down at Richard’s hand on his arm. “Let go, I need to leave.”

“Be careful if you find him. He may have Kryptonite,”  Richard answered then released him.

There was a whoosh and Clark was gone.