Superman: Dawnbreaker (DC Icons #4)(43)

As Montgomery held a document out toward Jonathan, Clark left the room, but in the hallway outside the kitchen, he stopped short of the stairs to eavesdrop. He could see a portion of the table reflected in the antique mirror hanging on the wall.

“It really is a very generous offer, Mr. Mankins,” Jonathan said, looking over the sheet of paper the man had just handed to him.

“Please call me Montgomery.”

“But like I said on the phone,” Jonathan continued evenly, “this place just isn’t for sale.”

Montgomery nodded and folded his hands together on the table. He looked at his associate, who pulled another sheet of paper out of the open briefcase and handed it to Montgomery. “Ah, here we go,” he said. “Option two. If I can’t buy the land, then what if I were to lease a percentage from you? We have this alternative offer prepared, which I’m sure you’ll find quite satisfactory.” He slid the paper to Jonathan and Martha.

Clark watched them look it over with genuine intrigue.

Martha glanced up at Jonathan, who said, “Wow, this is a great deal. But I can’t help wondering, Mr. Mankins: Why us? Why this farm?”

“I want to be completely transparent. According to our research, your property has the ideal soil for a new hybrid crop we’d like to start growing outside the lab.” He took the paper back from Jonathan and read it again. “This way, you keep the land, and we pay you rent for access to just a small percentage of the field near that old barn we saw out there. So the bottom line for you is…more money for less work. And the farm stays with the family.” He turned to his associate and chuckled a little. “Mark, who the hell drafted this offer? Saying it out loud like that…I’m having second thoughts.”

Mark added with a straight face, “And we’re only asking for a five-year lease. Short term, low risk.”

Clark watched his dad nod thoughtfully and read through the document Montgomery had handed back to him. It looked like he was considering the offer, which shocked Clark. Would he actually go for it? Jonathan had high blood pressure, so maybe he saw this as an opportunity to slow down. He passed the paper to Martha, who read through it again, too. She gave him a blank look when she passed it back, which meant she was skeptical.

When Clark saw his dad slide the document across the table, he knew the deal wasn’t happening. “I’m sorry,” Jonathan said, “but we’re just not interested. We like farming our own land. This place goes back three generations in my family. When I went off to college, I swore I’d never return. But I did. And then I took over when my old man passed. Now it’s just sort of in my blood.”

Montgomery smiled and nodded. “Well, you can’t really argue with that, now, can you? Listen, Jonathan, Martha, I respect where you’re coming from. And I admire your principles. Shoot, a part of me respects you two even more for turning me down today.”

“We appreciate you seeing it that way,” Martha said. “We really do.”

Now that Clark knew his parents weren’t selling, he continued upstairs, where he found Lana sitting on his twin bed, staring out the window. She was wearing jeans and a school sweatshirt, and her red hair was in a messy bun. Lana used to come over a lot when they were younger, but once they got to high school, things changed. Instead of going to each other’s houses, they met at more neutral sites. The All-American Diner. The library.

He stood there a second, looking around his small room, trying to see it from Lana’s perspective. The faded posters of his favorite sports teams tacked up on all the walls. The blinking alarm clock that was off by over an hour. The bent Nerf hoop that hung over his closet door, and the lumpy old beanbags.

Clark was almost eighteen years old, but his room made him seem like a child.

He cleared his throat. “Hey, Lana.”

She spun around. “So? What’s happening down there?”

“Montgomery made an offer on the farm, but my folks gunned it down.”

“Of course they did,” she said. “I bet it was a pretty hefty one, too.”

“Sounded like it.” Clark looked out the window at Montgomery’s fancy black car. “You think he’s interested in the crater?”

“Maybe.” She looked out the window, too, then turned to Clark. “I can’t help but think of the one on the Jones property.”

“And the way they were digging it up, I know.” Clark shook his head. The police were aware of the men trespassing on his property, and they’d promised to make the Kent farm part of their rounds, but now Montgomery was trying to buy it? “So, what brought you over here, anyway?” he asked Lana.

She pushed off his bed. “I think we need to talk, Clark.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t text you back. It’s just…I was studying for finals.”

Lana ignored his excuse. “Have things gotten weird between us?”

“I don’t think so.” Clark pulled out his rolling desk chair and sat down. A second earlier, he’d thought his parents might lease Montgomery Mankins part of their farm. Now he was talking to Lana about…Actually, what were they talking about?

Lana sat back down on his bed. She was looking at him intently now. “Let’s just get this out of the way, Clark. So we can focus on more important things.”