Enemies & Allies by Kevin J. Anderson Read Free Book Online Page B

do you come from?”
    “I had good parents, a wholesome childhood, in an average but beautiful town, the real heartland of America.”
    “Can you be more specific?”
    “It’s better if I’m not. I have to keep some of my secrets, Miss Lane.” He just gave her a mysterious smile. “And now I think I should be going. It’s a big city. Somebody always needs rescuing.” He had such sincerity in his voice that she didn’t doubt him for a minute.
    He had already started for the balcony by the time she jumped to her feet in alarm. “Wait—how do I get in touch with you again?”
    “I’ll know when you need me, don’t worry.” Waving good-bye from the edge of the balcony as Lois followed him out into the open night air, he added cryptically, “And say hello to Clark Kent for me. I’m sure he’d love to hear your advice as a reporter.”
    “I—wait…Clark?” She had struggled to think of a compelling last line, something that would make him remember her, something that would make Lois Lane sound like a person he’d want to know better. She certainly felt giddy and smitten—and embarrassed by it!—but he had rescued her from death, holding her firmly in his muscular arms, so she had good reason to have intense feelings about him.
    But what did Clark Kent have to do with anything?
    “Promise me I’ll see you again!” she called.
    “That’s a promise,” he said with a smile, and then added teasingly, “unless you stop getting yourself in trouble.”
    “I won’t!” She waved as he silently sprang from the balcony. Instead of falling, he shot up into the air, waved good-bye, and vanished into the night.
    Lois stared after him, reeling, swept off her feet twice in one day.
    Afterward, it had taken an unheard-of three hours for her to compile her notes and draft a story. The story of the century: “Superman: A New Hero for Metropolis.”
    Lois Lane had always been a reporter to watch; after publication of the Superman article, she was the reporter every other newspaper envied. Suddenly every paper wanted to feature Superman, but he never stopped to talk with reporters after his heroic deeds. Lois hoped she hadn’t disappointed Superman with her article, but she hadn’t had the opportunity to talk with him again (though she did make a habit of leaving her patio doors open in the evening, just in case he decided to drop by).
    In retrospect, she should have won the Pulitzer for that article, but mocking skeptics had laughed at her “absurd and undocumented claims” that Superman was a “strange visitor” from a planet called Krypton.
    Now, as she thought about it, Lois remembered Perry’s cautions about following up the Lex Luthor exposé. The notoriety she had gained from her Superman interview suddenly put her in a different league, made her work even harder as a reporter, though it hadn’t yet earned her a raise.
    This story would be different. Superman was clearly a hero, but Luthor came from a different mold entirely—she would have to approach her story with a certain amount of healthy trepidation. She could do it, though. After all, how could a story about Lex Luthor be any more problematic than getting the scoop on the greatest hero in the world?

SIBERIA ARIGUSKA GULAG
     
    I N THE WAN SIBERIAN DAYLIGHT, THE STAIR-STEP LEDGES OF the quarry excavation emphasized the crater made by the Ariguska meteor strike in 1938. Joseph Stalin had kept the Soviet Union under such a tight cloak of secrecy that very few Westerners knew about the devastating impact.
    Lex Luthor was one of those few.
    At around the same period, two decades ago, several large meteors had peppered Earth and astronomers were baffled as to what had caused the sudden spate of high-velocity space rubble. Here at Ariguska, where the Soviets had established a large gulag for political prisoners, General Ceridov had found fascinating and unusual mineral fragments that could only be attributed to the massive meteorite itself.
    When the