The Silver Age #7
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The Silver Age #7 |
"The Nearest Friends"
Lois Lane was not an easy woman to impress. As an Army brat, she’d seen more of the world by the time she was 12 years old than most people did during an entire lifetime. By the time she had graduated from college she had spent at least a week in every major city on the globe and seen many of Earth’s natural and man- made wonders. But the incredibly majestic beauty of The Colorado Rockies was simply breathtaking. Thankful that she had brought along her digital camera, she busied herself taking pictures while June Robbins expertly flew the helicopter toward Challenger Mountain.
Lois was a fast mover herself but she had to admit that June was no slouch in that area. In a whirlwind of activity, she had returned to her office, issued instructions to her small but efficient staff, contacted her superiors and let them know she was going to be on Challenger business indefinitely and then called her housekeeper who had met them at Ronald Reagan International with a bag she had quickly packed. Somehow in the whirlwind of activity, June had also called the airport and they had her helicopter fueled and ready for her. After she had checked out the craft herself, they were aloft and speeding west. Lois had to make a couple of calls herself, one of them to Perry White, her boss at The Daily Planet who pleaded with her to be careful and if she couldn’t be careful, well, at least transmit a good story before she got killed.
The helicopter was of a type unfamiliar to Lois and she commented on its unusual design. June replied that it was a one built by Ace. Boasting a completely state-of-the-art stealth suite of anti-detection devices, there was little chance of it being tracked to Challenger Mountain by conventional methods. Thanks to the radical engine design and fuel, it could fly faster and farther than other helicopters of its size.
Lois turned in the passenger seat and said to June, "You’re going to be in so much trouble with your pals when they see you’ve dragged me along."
June shrugged. "Not really. You’re a distinguished and respected member of the press. And besides, we work hard at keeping the location of Challenger Mountain a secret from our enemies and the world at large but most of our friends and associates know where it is, as do many who work for various government agencies and intelligence groups. And it’s generally known that it’s in The Rockies but picking one mountain out of so many…well, that’s a job in itself. Hey, even your pal Superman had a hard time finding it the first time he came here."
Lois frowned slightly. "I find that hard to believe."
"It’s true. Flew over it three times before Ace fired a flare. Red and Rocky were unmerciful in their ribbing until I took them to the side and made them stop. You see, Challenger Mountain was built to take a hit from a nuclear missile if necessary so there’s a hell of a lot of lead that went into its construction. Lead is plentiful in this region of The Rockies so Superman’s X-Ray vision was just no good to him."
"I’m surprised he didn’t use his super-hearing to pinpoint your power generators."
June grinned. "White noise projectors mask all sounds that may leak out of the mountain. We thought of everything when we built that place, Lois."
Where previously Lois had felt a warmth and friendliness toward June Robbins, now she was feeling a growing resentment at the cockiness demonstrated by the lovely blond scientist. "Seems to me you Challengers took a lot of pleasure in trying to outwit Superman. What reason could you have for that?"
"Nobody was TRYING to outwit Superman, Lois. It just was funny that he couldn’t find us, that’s all. Matter of fact, that put the final seal of approval on the place. Hey, if SUPERMAN couldn’t find it without our help…"
Her voice was noticeably chilly as Lois replied; "I’m certain that had he wanted to, Superman would have found your little clubhouse. He probably didn’t expect that people he regarded as friends would make a game out him paying a friendly visit."
June smothered a grin and wisely bit back a quick answer. Instead, she pointed out one towering peak that to Lois looked just like all the others they had been flying over for the past 90 minutes. "Home Sweet Home," she said. Indeed, the side of the mountain was opening up, a massive section of what looked like snow covered rock was sliding upwards even as a wide black metal landing platform extruded from the darkened interior of the mountain. June maneuvered the helicopter over the platform and slowly lowered the machine onto the designated landing point, which was indicated by a huge golden hourglass. The platform began to retract back into the mountain.
June began shutting down the engines as Ace Morgan’s voice crackled from the radio. "June, I’m in the communications room. Get down here as soon as you can."
"Sure, Ace. Just as soon as I change. And I’ve got a guest with me. I think you’ve met her. Lois Lane, from The Daily Planet…"
"June." Ace’s voice was clearly full on controlled anguish. "June. Get down here now. I was trying to contact Prof and get an update on when we could expect him here and…it’s bad, June. Real bad."
"I’ll be right there." In seconds, June had unstrapped herself and racing for the pneumatic lift that would take her to the communications room and Lois was right on her heels.
Prof Haley was sick of the taste of coffee. Normally he loved the stuff and could drink a gallon of the stuff without a second thought. But there was a big difference when you were drinking it for pleasure or stimulation to help you through an all night experiment and when you were drinking it because you didn’t want to doze off while the woman you loved was fighting for her life.
After the horrifying accident on the dock, an ambulance had rushed Dora Lockridge to one of Perth’s largest and most completes hospitals where the capable surgeons had gone right to work on her. And it was now five hours later and Dora still hadn’t come out of surgery. Ever so often a sympathetic nurse would come along and coo comfortingly as she patting Prof’s hand and whispered words of encouragement and faith. But Prof saw in their eyes that things weren’t good at all. The eyes always gave it away. And so he sat in the waiting room, looking out of the window, listening to the blathering drone of the television as some mindless soap opera characters went on about their scripted lives and Prof wondered how he was going to tell one of his best friends that there was no way he could leave Dora in this condition. Red would have to make do with Ace, Rocky and June to look for Tino Mannery. He hated like poison to have to let Red down. Over the years of wild and rough adventures together, Red, as well as Rocky and Ace had become his brothers. The ties they had forged since that fateful day of the plane crash that should have killed were ties stronger even than that of blood. Prof had never thought that the day would come when one of his best friends would ask for help and he would have to refuse.
But that day had come and that day was here.
"Haley? Hey, Haley? How you holding up?"
Prof shook himself out of his gloom and looked up at the broad-shouldered, dark-haired man standing just inside the doorway of the waiting room. He was dressed in a jumpsuit with racing patches decorating the arms, legs and front and indeed, a pair of goggles hung around his neck and his face was still dirt streaked, despite some effort having been made to wipe most of it away. Prof stood up, his eyes widening with disbelief. "Clayburne? Gaylord Clayburne?"
"Gaylord Clayburne The Third, pal. You never could remember that part of my name, could you?"
Prof stood up slowly and walked over extended his hand for Gaylord to shake firmly. It had been years since Prof had seen Gaylord Clayburne III. An international playboy/sportsman/socialite, Gaylord had campaigned to join The Challengers Of The Unknown and after a rigorous and grueling trial, Gaylord had passed and been made a member of the team. But due to personal friction, Gaylord decided to quit. He just simply wasn’t a team player. He liked the spotlight all to himself and didn’t care one whit for having to share it with others. And Prof had to admit, there was something about Gaylord Clayburne that just rubbed most people the wrong way. Maybe it was the fact that he was richer, handsomer and more intelligent than any one man had a right to be and the arrogant son of a bitch knew it and never let YOU forget it as well.
"Clayburne, I appreciate you coming by…but what the hell ARE you doing here?"
"I’ve been in Australia for a couple of weeks now, getting ready for an upcoming race out in The Gibson Desert. Been working on my new car with my crew and I heard over the radio about what had happened. You could have knocked me over with a strong fart. I didn’t even know you were in Australia. Stopped what I was doing and I drove right on over. Must have had ten police cars chasing me."
"You drove through city streets in a high performance racing car? You’re still careless and irresponsible, I see."
"And you’re still an ungrateful shit, Haley. This is the thanks I get for coming to see how you and your girlfriend are doing?"
"Oh, man….you’re right. You didn’t deserve that. I’m sorry." Prof extended his hand again. "Really, Clayburne. I’m truly sorry. And I DO appreciate you coming. Despite whatever differences we’ve had, you’re a Challenger."
"Damn skippy," Gaylord grunted as he shook Prof’s hand. "So what’s going on with your girlfriend? Anybody told you anything?"
"Not a damn thing. She’s been in surgery for going on six hours now and-" Prof paused as he saw two doctors enter the room. Both of them looked exhausted and strained.
"Professor Haley? I’m Doctor King and this is Dr. Brown. We’re the chief physicians on your fiancé’s case."
Prof said in a strangely calm voice, "Dora’s dead."
Gaylord gripped Prof’s shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze. "Hold it together, man. Nobody even breathed the word yet."
Dr. King looked at Prof and then at Gaylord. "Are you a member of the Challengers Of The Unknown, sir?"
"Former member in good standing. Clayburne’s the name."
Dr. King looked a question at Prof who nodded in the affirmative. "You can speak freely in front of Mr. Clayburne, doctors."
"Well, that’s good because I don’t think you want information like this to be circulated to the wrong people. Especially the press."
Prof frowned. "She’s had an accident. I’m sure it’s serious but it’s not a secret. There must have been seventy people on the dock who were there when it happened. Clayburne himself heard about it on the radio."
The two doctors swapped curious looks. "We’re somewhat confused, Professor. You mean to say that you don’t know about the crystal in Miss Lockridge’s brain?"
"The what in her where?"
Dr. Brown spoke up for the first time: "Miss Lockridge has what appears to be a crystal of some sort embedded in the exact center of her brain. But we can find no apparent signs of former surgery that would account for it having been placed there by conventional means. Now, unless Miss Lockridge was born with this crystal, which is highly unlikely, we can only conclude that it must have been placed there recently."
Prof’s face darkened as hot angry blood rushed to his head. "Kra."
The two doctors nodded. "Of course, the recent Freedom’s Light incident came to mind. Dr. King and I have been following the reports of the cybernetic implantations that had been done to the crew and it occurred to both of us that perhaps we’re seeing a version of that on a more technologically sophisticated level that what was done to the others."
Prof nodded. "It could be that the crystal inside Dora’s brain was the control crystal for the cyborgs," Prof said slowly. "After all, they DID keep moving even after we destroyed Kra."
Gaylord cleared his throat for attention. "Fascinating stuff, I’m sure, but can you take the damn thing OUT?"
Dr. King shook his head in an emphatic negative. "As we’ve said, the crystal is in the exact center of her brain. The only way we could remove it would be to cut her brain in half, which would be unwise, to put it mildly."
Prof slammed his fists together. "There’s a way. The surgery could be done from the inside. By The Atom. He’s done surgery on a microscopic level before. At best, he could give us a direct, clinical view of the crystal and provide a hands on report of it. Could you excuse us for a minute, Doctors?" Prof took Gaylord by the arm and led him a couple of steps away. "Look, Clayburne, I need a favor from you. A huge favor." Prof quickly explained the situation with Red’s brother in a few minutes and finished with: "I need you to take my place on the team and help them out while I get hold of The Atom and make sure Dora’s taken care of."
"No."
Prof stepped back and scowled. "Dammit, Clayburne! What’s the point of you coming down here and playing at being all sympathetic and-"
Gaylord held up his hands. "Hold it, Haley. Just hold it a second, willya? Hear me out. I think I should be the one to stay with Dora and look after her while you go with the team."
Prof blinked in surprise. "Beg pardon?"
"Let’s face facts: I don’t work well with you guys at all. And Ryan hates my guts. You honestly think that if I show up he’s gonna appreciate it? He called YOU. He didn’t call me. I show up at Challenger Mountain and valuable time is gonna be lost while they argue with me. Time they’re gonna need to find Mannery. And there’s nothing you can do for Dora here but back in The States you can contact The Justice League personally and they can put you in touch with The Atom. I’ll stay here and you’ve got my word that I’ll look after Dora. Whatever she needs, I’ll make sure she gets it." Gaylord turned to the two doctors. "Hey! Aside from the crystal thingy, how’s Dora?"
Dr. Brown said: "Both legs were broken in several places as well as her right arm. There was some internal damage as well as severe trauma to her spinal column. We don’t know exactly how bad yet. She’s still critical but she’s stable."
"Look, Professor Haley’s got to fly back to the States on urgent Challenger business so you’ll be dealing with me from here on out, got it?"
The two doctors nodded.
"Good. I’ll be having my personal physician along with his entire staff flown in from Texas to assist you guys. You need specialists, equipment, ANYTHING at all, you let me know and I’ll get it for you. And as of right now, Dora Lockridge is your only case, got it?"
The two doctors nodded.
"Then stop standing there gawping at me and go back to work! Scram!"
The two doctors scurried away.
Gaylord grinned at Prof. "I love doing that. So, you satisfied?"
Prof nodded. "Eminently. I can’t thank you enough for what you’re doing, Clayburne. You’re okay in my book."
Gaylord gave Prof a friendly shove. "Go on….get the hell outta here before we start acting like friends. And Haley?"
Prof turned and looked back over a shoulder.
"Take care of yourself. I don’t want to have to explain to your woman how I let you go off to get killed in The Bermuda Triangle."
Red Ryan and Corinna Stark entered the communications room to find Ace and June compiling all the information in the Challenger computer database concerning The Bermuda Triangle. Red’s face was strained as he said; "Is it true? I heard a radio report that Dora was hurt in a boating accident?"
Ace gripped the younger man by the arm and nodded. "But she’s out of danger. Her situation’s critical but stable."
"How did it happen? The news reports were kinda skimpy on details."
"Prof says that he’ll explain everything once he gets here. He said there’s a lot more to this than we know." Ace looked over Red’s shoulder and said, "Hello, Corinna."
Corinna smiled slightly. "Good to see you again, Ace."
"What is this, Challenger Reunion Week?" June laughed. "Can you believe that Gaylord Clayburne showed up at the hospital’s Dora in?"
"Clayburne?" Red frowned. "What did that snake want?"
"Be nice. According to Prof, Clayburne acted like a regular human being. Matter of fact, he convinced Prof that he should come on back to help you look for Tino while he stayed there to take care of Dora."
"Clayburne did that?" Red looked shocked. "You sure it was him and not a robot?"
"Where’d you find Corinna, Red?" Ace asked.
"Showed up outta the clear blue sky and said she wanted to help."
Ace nodded. "Thanks, Corinna. We could use another hand."
Lois Lane entered the communications room. "No wonder you guys keep changing uniforms. This thing is HOT," she complained. She had changed into an original Challenger uniform: a dark purple jumpsuit with white boots and gloves and the ubiquitous yellow hourglass over the left breast. Seeing Corinna, she stopped short. "And what have we here?"
Red turned to Ace, frowning. "What’s Lois Lane doing here? Dammit, Ace, this isn’t a three hour tour we’re planning! This is The Bermuda Triangle or have you forgotten?"
Ace waved a hand at June while he bent back to his maps and charts. "You fight it out with June. She brought her here. But I don’t think it’s anything to get heated over. We all know Lois and know she can take care of herself."
"Anyway, it might not be such a bad idea to have somebody along who can get hold of Superman in a pinch, is it?" Lois asked, walking up to Corinna and giving her a disdainful look up and down. "And who are you? Ryan’s hootchie of the week?"
The slap of Corinna’s hand across Lois’s cheek was as loud and sharp as a gunshot in the communications room.
"You said you were going to help me! I’ve got a real problem on my hands here!" Dixie Dunbar was furious. She had asked Rocky Davis for help with some unspecified problem, hinting at a mystery that only Rocky could handle as a Challenger of The Unknown. But Rocky had gotten the call from Red and that was most certainly that. Rocky had called his agent and explained the situation and then Rocky had driven over to C.K. Krispendon’s house himself to speak with the director personally. Rocky was the star of ARAK THE UNTAMED, $170 million dollar Sword and Sorcery movie that would most certainly suffer if he were away for a considerable length of time. But it couldn’t be helped. The very first clause Rocky insisted be in his contract was that his Challenger business came first and there was no way Pinnacle Studios could get around it. But Rocky genuinely liked and respected C.K. and he figured the lanky, bearded director was owed a personal explanation of the situation. C.K. was most understanding and assured Rocky that the time would well used filming scenes with other actors and fine-tuning the thousands of CGI effects that would be used in the movie.
"Just don’t get killed!" C.K. Krispendon yelled. "The damn studio’ll make me CGI your head on some side of beef’s body to finish the friggin’ picture and I KNOW you don’t want THAT!"
Rocky had a helicopter that was a twin to June’s fueled and waiting for him at LAX. All of The Challengers were familiar with many types of aircraft, thanks to intensive training with Ace. It was while he was performing a last check; Dixie Dunbar had driven onto the tarmac in her BMW convertible, angry beyond words.
"Rocky Davis! Aren’t you listening to me?"
"I sure am, Dixie and I’m goin’ to continue listenin’ to you even as I’m flyin’ away into the wild blue yonder."
"So when were you goin’ to tell me that you were leavin’ Hollywood?"
"I told Danny to call you. And C.K. knows. You would have gotten word sooner or later."
"But I need your help!"
"Dixie, it’s gonna have to wait until I finish this business. Red Ryan’s brother is lost in The Bermuda Triangle and we gotta go find him."
"The Bermuda Triangle? Who says YOU’LL come back?"
Rocky shrugged. "We’ve been there a couple times already. I’ll be back. And whatever problem you’ve got, I’ll help you with it then, okay?" Impulsively, Rocky leaned down and kissed the diminutive blond actress on the lips. "Now stand clear while I take off. I promise you I’ll call the minnit I get back."
Dixie returned to her car and watched morosely as the helicopter lifted off into the darkening sky and headed east in a burst of speed.
Her cell phone rang and she regarded it as if it were a cup of poison. She picked it up from the dashboard holder and flipped it open.
"Yes?"
"We’re waiting most patiently, Miss Dunbar and we see neither you or Mr. Davis." The voice was neutral, deep and even timbered.
"He’s gone. He had to return to Challenger Mountain."
There was silence from the other end for several seconds and when she heard the voice again it had an edge of menace to it: "Miss Dunbar, I thought that I made the penalty for failure quite explicit. Perhaps you did not understand my instructions or even worse, you thought I was bluffing."
"No! NO! I’m telling you the truth! Rocky was gonna come back to my house with me but he got a call from Red Ryan and started babbling somethin’ about The Challengers havin’ to go to The Bermuda Triangle! I swear that’s the truth! He just flew away!"
"I have ways of verifying what you’ve just told me, Miss Dunbar. I’m going to give you one last chance to tell me the truth."
"That IS the truth! Check it out! Go ahead! You know I wouldn’t double cross you!"
"Rest assured, I will check this out. If it’s as you say, then all well and good and I will have to wait for Davis to return to The States. But if not…" The connection was broken and Dixie threw the phone to the tarmac where it splintered into bright colored shards. She dropped her head into her hands and sobbed uncontrollably and prayed that Rocky would return soon.
NEXT ISSUE: The Challengers Of The Unknown enter The Bermuda Triangle in search of Tino Mannery! But that’s the EASY part!