Superman: Dawnbreaker (DC Icons #4)(35)

Clark splashed water on his face and washed his hands. Smallville had always been the kind of place where everyone knew everyone else, and no one locked their doors at night. Now people had gone missing, and men dressed in black fatigues were firing warning shots at unarmed high school kids.

Before Clark left, he took off his jacket and slung it over his shoulder. As he turned toward the door, something in the mirror caught his eye. He stepped back in front of the mirror and pulled off his shirt and held it in front of him.

His stomach dropped.

There was a single hole in the white fabric near the lower back.

He knew right away what he was looking at.

A bullet hole!

Clark spun around and looked at his bare skin in the mirror. He discovered a subtle red mark just above the small of his back. It matched the hole in his shirt exactly.

Clark’s knees wobbled, and he grabbed the sink to keep his balance.

The armed man in the black fatigues hadn’t been firing warning shots.

He’d been shooting to kill.

And what if he’d hit Lana instead?

Clark’s first thought was to march right back into the deputy’s office and offer up his bullet-hole shirt as evidence. That was what Rogers based everything on, wasn’t it? Then maybe he’d actually do something.

But this wasn’t the kind of evidence Clark could submit. The bullet hole might motivate the sheriff’s department to get serious about his and Lana’s accusations, yes. But eventually it would lead to both the deputy and Lana wanting to look at Clark’s unharmed back. There was no way he could reveal to anyone that he was somehow…bulletproof.

Instead, Clark slipped his shirt back on, then his jacket, and went out to the lobby, choosing to keep his mouth shut. But whatever was happening in Smallville…he now knew it was life or death.

“Check this out, Clark,” Lana said as soon as she saw him. She took him by the wrist and led him to the front door, which she pushed open slightly so that he could see.

The protest in front of city hall had increased dramatically since they’d entered the building a couple of hours earlier. No longer a handful of people marching with signs, there were now dozens. He recognized the leader from another time he’d watched them. He had a goatee and spiky black hair, and he lifted an electric megaphone and shouted in perfect English, “We belong, same as you. Smallville’s our home, too!”

The crowd behind him echoed each sentence, one at a time.

The effect was powerful.

“The deputy was right about one thing,” Lana said. “This is only going to get bigger before the vote. And I’m all for it.”





“Hope you don’t mind that I invited Lex,” Bryan said as they sat down across from Clark in a large corner booth at the All-American Diner. The place was packed again, even though it was only Wednesday. Gloria wasn’t working tonight, but on his way in, Clark saw that she was here eating dinner with her brother, Marco. Unable to tear his eyes away from her, Clark had nearly knocked over a busboy carrying a tray full of dirty dishes.

“That’s fine,” Clark said with a shrug. But he had to admit, he was a little annoyed. It had been four days since the men in black fatigues shot at him and Lana, and they’d gotten nowhere on their own. Clark had asked Bryan to meet up with him to find out what he knew about Dr. Wesley’s relationship with Corey and in what capacity they were working together. Lex’s presence would only complicate matters—Bryan might not be as forthcoming.

“So you wanted to talk about my brother,” Bryan said, picking up his menu.

Lex stared across the booth at Clark with a slight grin. He seemed to always have that grin on his face, Clark realized. Even when he and Bryan were getting into it at the party. It was as if everything Lex encountered in Smallville was kind of a joke to him.

Clark glanced at both of them anxiously. He didn’t know who he could trust anymore.

“Clark, relax,” Bryan said. “Anything you say to me, you can say to Lex, too. He’d just find out anyway. He always does.”

“You have my complete confidence,” Lex added. “I’d never cross a guy who can take on a bonfire and actually win.”

“So, you guys made up, then?” Clark asked, wanting to steer clear of any talk about his fall into the fire at the party.

Lex laughed. “When you’re tight like us, sometimes you get into little…debates. But there’s never any hard feelings, right, Bry?”

Bryan shook his head. “He and I both have rich, powerful fathers,” he said. “We just approach things a little differently.”

“I think Bryan should take more of an active role in the family business,” Lex said. “Like I do. But ultimately it’s his choice. And I respect that.”

“Anyway, you can trust Lex,” Bryan said. “He’s on the level.”

Clark looked at them both. Despite Bryan’s confidence in Lex, Clark would be careful about how much he revealed in front of the guy. He pulled his phone out to see if Lana had texted. She was supposed to be here already, and he didn’t want to get into the meat of this conversation without her.

He looked across the restaurant.

As if on cue, Lana suddenly burst through the front door. When she spotted them, she waved and hurried over. Clark stood, and Lana slid to the inside seat of the booth. “What’d I miss?”