[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.As the cycle carried him onward with barely audible purring, he used front-mounted metal detectors to scope out buried land mines and other pitfalls.He activated the cycle's "trail of bread crumbs" system, which spat regularly spaced dots of pigment visible only in infrared.He placed filtered goggles over his mask and rode across the now greenish-hued desert landscape.Finally, he spied the diaphanous glow of a complex ahead, nestled at the base of barren mountains.The Jeep roads met at a cluster of standard military buildings, Quonset huts, long rectangular barracks, hangars, warehouses, igloo-shaped storage domes, a tank farm.Guard towers sported brilliant searchlights.Military police patrolled the inner perimeter, rifles shouldered, while growling Jeeps circled the outer roads.He ditched the cycle behind a pile of boulders, then activated a sounder on his utility belt that would emit a locator ping so he could find the vehicle again.He made his way closer on foot.Hidden by his dark cape, he moved forward in a low crouch to take advantage of the minimal cover.He extended his palm and, listening for feedback from the sensitive metal detector in the gauntlet, avoided several buried booby traps.Following established military procedure, the soldiers had placed land mines on a precisely spaced grid that made them easy to get around.He sat in perfect stillness for several long minutes, watching carefully.The base soldiers were alert, but not alert enough.They had been drilled repeatedly—so frequently, in fact, that he could use that to his advantage.Even a genuine breach of security would seem to be just another exercise at first.He was certain no intruder had ever penetrated this deeply into the restricted area.The main research hangar was unmistakable, and that was where he had to go.He would need to use his grappling hook to get over the barricade, and from there he'd resort to metal-eating acid, diamond-edged cutters, even smoke bombs or tranquilizer darts if the smoke alone didn't create a sufficient diversion.In his utility belt he had everything he needed.Piece of cake.* * *IT TOOK HIM FORTY-FIVE MINUTES TO GET INSIDE THE secure hangar, fifteen minutes longer than he had anticipated.Now he had to move quickly.Judging by all the military security in this forsaken place, the U.S.government considered the mysterious object to be as important as Luthor seemed to think it was.All of the base research activities had shut down for the night, and now the exotic object sat in the middle of the hangar under security lights, surrounded by complex instruments; adjacent tables were piled with notes and black and white photographs.He stepped forward, feeling a clear sense of awe.Without a doubt, the sleek, silvery vessel looked like an alien spacecraft, a flying saucer with aerodynamic lines and propulsion curves unlike anything he had seen in his own research and development for the aircraft industry.As a rational man, he had never believed in stories of alien visitors or Martians spying on Earth.As he studied the object more carefully and began to guess exactly what it was, he found himself even more surprised by the truth.He hadn't expected this at all.CHAPTER 33AREA 51KAL-EL FLEW OFF, LEAVING LAS VEGAS BEHIND.HE WAS glad to have saved a life, but he still felt unsettled and uncertain about what lay in store for the poor man.The complexities of the human psyche, the twisted burdens that forced everyday people to make extremely bad decisions—those were not problems Kal-El could solve with a burst of super-speed or strength.He was reminded of all those difficult and disturbing letters written to "Lorna for the Lovelorn."He flew silently away from the neon glow and out across the empty landscape.Radiant heat still wafted up from the desert sands, and thermal currents swirled around him like invisible smoke.Accelerating, he flew northeast, keeping himself just under Mach 1 so as not to create a prominent sonic boom.In minutes, he had passed the hurdles that military security had thrown up against him and Jimmy the previous day, when they'd approached via more conventional means.He found the large dry lake bed, its smooth alkaline surface sparkling in the starlight; a military landing strip marred the otherwise pristine-looking flat.Long, straight roads cut across the desert, running from the Tikaboo Valley to the east and over the mountains and mesas from Yucca Flat and the atomic testing grounds.All of the roads converged like a targeting cross on the secret installation.With his sharp vision, Kal-El spotted the central research hangar amid the barracks, warehouses, storage tanks, and blocky buildings.Decreasing speed, he landed gently atop the corrugated roof, dodging searchlights from the guard tower.Kal-El was not accustomed to lurking in shadows like some prowler, but this mission was a personal one.He didn't want to be seen.Though it made him uneasy, he would have to bend the rules.The demanding pull to learn who he was, to see if he was truly alone on Earth, trumped his other concerns.As quietly as he could, causing as little damage as possible, Kal-El popped the rivets on a sheet of the research hangar's roof.He pried the zinc-coated steel upward, opening a way for him to get inside.He scanned the skeleton crew of base security, and when he was satisfied that he had tripped no alarms, he dropped down inside the hangar.With barely a whisper of noise, he settled onto the swept concrete floor and looked around.The cavernous bay was dim and quiet, lit only by a few emergency lights around the edges and a set of bright utility spotlights in the center.His blue eyes immediately locked onto the object he sought: a silver spaceship.Kal-El wished he knew more about Kryptonian science, more about the small craft that Jor-El had built to send him away moments before their planet exploded.Up in his Fortress of Solitude, Kal-El still had the crystalline data-storage units along with recorded messages that his parents had placed in his ship, but even those were not enough to answer all his burning questions.The flying saucer on display was of a completely different design, a technology that had not originated on Krypton.Had another alien race created it? The vessel was much too small to carry a human-sized adult.Could it have been designed to hold a baby, like the ship that had saved him from his doomed planet? Or was this craft simply used by a more diminutive species?If the alien occupant had survived the crash in Arizona, the soldiers and scientists in Area 51 would have taken him or her captive.Maybe the precious passenger was even now in a military holding area on the base.Taking a step forward, Kal-El scanned the craft with his X-ray vision to penetrate its inner workings—and to his surprise he found no passenger compartment.No room, in fact, for any living creature.This strange vessel was nothing more than a case to hold exotic propulsion systems and automated controls.The whole machine was a drone of some kind.A scout ship from another world?"It's a LuthorCorp prototype." The deep voice came out of the shadows behind him."As you well know."Kal-El spun, saw the dark-suited figure, the black cape, mask, and cowl.Batman.Batman stepped into the glow of the utility lights."Luthor sent you to get the craft back for him, didn't he?His other efforts failed."At first Kal-El didn't understand what the other man was implying [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.As the cycle carried him onward with barely audible purring, he used front-mounted metal detectors to scope out buried land mines and other pitfalls.He activated the cycle's "trail of bread crumbs" system, which spat regularly spaced dots of pigment visible only in infrared.He placed filtered goggles over his mask and rode across the now greenish-hued desert landscape.Finally, he spied the diaphanous glow of a complex ahead, nestled at the base of barren mountains.The Jeep roads met at a cluster of standard military buildings, Quonset huts, long rectangular barracks, hangars, warehouses, igloo-shaped storage domes, a tank farm.Guard towers sported brilliant searchlights.Military police patrolled the inner perimeter, rifles shouldered, while growling Jeeps circled the outer roads.He ditched the cycle behind a pile of boulders, then activated a sounder on his utility belt that would emit a locator ping so he could find the vehicle again.He made his way closer on foot.Hidden by his dark cape, he moved forward in a low crouch to take advantage of the minimal cover.He extended his palm and, listening for feedback from the sensitive metal detector in the gauntlet, avoided several buried booby traps.Following established military procedure, the soldiers had placed land mines on a precisely spaced grid that made them easy to get around.He sat in perfect stillness for several long minutes, watching carefully.The base soldiers were alert, but not alert enough.They had been drilled repeatedly—so frequently, in fact, that he could use that to his advantage.Even a genuine breach of security would seem to be just another exercise at first.He was certain no intruder had ever penetrated this deeply into the restricted area.The main research hangar was unmistakable, and that was where he had to go.He would need to use his grappling hook to get over the barricade, and from there he'd resort to metal-eating acid, diamond-edged cutters, even smoke bombs or tranquilizer darts if the smoke alone didn't create a sufficient diversion.In his utility belt he had everything he needed.Piece of cake.* * *IT TOOK HIM FORTY-FIVE MINUTES TO GET INSIDE THE secure hangar, fifteen minutes longer than he had anticipated.Now he had to move quickly.Judging by all the military security in this forsaken place, the U.S.government considered the mysterious object to be as important as Luthor seemed to think it was.All of the base research activities had shut down for the night, and now the exotic object sat in the middle of the hangar under security lights, surrounded by complex instruments; adjacent tables were piled with notes and black and white photographs.He stepped forward, feeling a clear sense of awe.Without a doubt, the sleek, silvery vessel looked like an alien spacecraft, a flying saucer with aerodynamic lines and propulsion curves unlike anything he had seen in his own research and development for the aircraft industry.As a rational man, he had never believed in stories of alien visitors or Martians spying on Earth.As he studied the object more carefully and began to guess exactly what it was, he found himself even more surprised by the truth.He hadn't expected this at all.CHAPTER 33AREA 51KAL-EL FLEW OFF, LEAVING LAS VEGAS BEHIND.HE WAS glad to have saved a life, but he still felt unsettled and uncertain about what lay in store for the poor man.The complexities of the human psyche, the twisted burdens that forced everyday people to make extremely bad decisions—those were not problems Kal-El could solve with a burst of super-speed or strength.He was reminded of all those difficult and disturbing letters written to "Lorna for the Lovelorn."He flew silently away from the neon glow and out across the empty landscape.Radiant heat still wafted up from the desert sands, and thermal currents swirled around him like invisible smoke.Accelerating, he flew northeast, keeping himself just under Mach 1 so as not to create a prominent sonic boom.In minutes, he had passed the hurdles that military security had thrown up against him and Jimmy the previous day, when they'd approached via more conventional means.He found the large dry lake bed, its smooth alkaline surface sparkling in the starlight; a military landing strip marred the otherwise pristine-looking flat.Long, straight roads cut across the desert, running from the Tikaboo Valley to the east and over the mountains and mesas from Yucca Flat and the atomic testing grounds.All of the roads converged like a targeting cross on the secret installation.With his sharp vision, Kal-El spotted the central research hangar amid the barracks, warehouses, storage tanks, and blocky buildings.Decreasing speed, he landed gently atop the corrugated roof, dodging searchlights from the guard tower.Kal-El was not accustomed to lurking in shadows like some prowler, but this mission was a personal one.He didn't want to be seen.Though it made him uneasy, he would have to bend the rules.The demanding pull to learn who he was, to see if he was truly alone on Earth, trumped his other concerns.As quietly as he could, causing as little damage as possible, Kal-El popped the rivets on a sheet of the research hangar's roof.He pried the zinc-coated steel upward, opening a way for him to get inside.He scanned the skeleton crew of base security, and when he was satisfied that he had tripped no alarms, he dropped down inside the hangar.With barely a whisper of noise, he settled onto the swept concrete floor and looked around.The cavernous bay was dim and quiet, lit only by a few emergency lights around the edges and a set of bright utility spotlights in the center.His blue eyes immediately locked onto the object he sought: a silver spaceship.Kal-El wished he knew more about Kryptonian science, more about the small craft that Jor-El had built to send him away moments before their planet exploded.Up in his Fortress of Solitude, Kal-El still had the crystalline data-storage units along with recorded messages that his parents had placed in his ship, but even those were not enough to answer all his burning questions.The flying saucer on display was of a completely different design, a technology that had not originated on Krypton.Had another alien race created it? The vessel was much too small to carry a human-sized adult.Could it have been designed to hold a baby, like the ship that had saved him from his doomed planet? Or was this craft simply used by a more diminutive species?If the alien occupant had survived the crash in Arizona, the soldiers and scientists in Area 51 would have taken him or her captive.Maybe the precious passenger was even now in a military holding area on the base.Taking a step forward, Kal-El scanned the craft with his X-ray vision to penetrate its inner workings—and to his surprise he found no passenger compartment.No room, in fact, for any living creature.This strange vessel was nothing more than a case to hold exotic propulsion systems and automated controls.The whole machine was a drone of some kind.A scout ship from another world?"It's a LuthorCorp prototype." The deep voice came out of the shadows behind him."As you well know."Kal-El spun, saw the dark-suited figure, the black cape, mask, and cowl.Batman.Batman stepped into the glow of the utility lights."Luthor sent you to get the craft back for him, didn't he?His other efforts failed."At first Kal-El didn't understand what the other man was implying [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]