Superman: Dawnbreaker (DC Icons #4)(65)

Clark could feel Gloria’s words in the pit of his stomach. Because it could just as easily be him chained up like that. If they knew what he really was.

“We won’t let them get away with it,” Lana said.

Clark and Gloria nodded, and Lex said, “We get this right, it’ll be a public takedown of epic proportions.”

“And since Mankins is a nationally known corporation,” Lana added, “I’d be shocked if there weren’t at least a few media outlets from outside of Smallville at the event.” She glanced back at Clark. “It’ll be a national story. Plus, we’ll be doing it peacefully, right, Clark? No violence.”

Clark nodded. But his mind had drifted back to what he’d seen on the Jones farm.

“Clark?” Lana said as Lex pulled up to the foot of his driveway. “You okay?”

He looked at her. “I just want this to work.”

Lana glanced back at Gloria. “We’ll make it work.” She opened the passenger-side door, got out, and flipped the seat forward for Clark.

Before getting out, he turned to Gloria. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Let’s go,” Lex said.

Gloria ignored him and reached across the seat to touch Clark’s cheek. “Bye, Clark.”

He climbed out of the car, then watched as Lana got back in and Lex’s car pulled away.

Instead of going straight into the house, Clark went down to the crater near the old barn and sat with his head against the lip, his usual spot. He pulled out his phone and checked to see if Bryan had texted him. Nothing. Clark slipped his phone back into his pocket and thought about Gloria and what they’d all just seen together, and then he looked out over the crater before him, trying to imagine that long-ago version of himself crash-landing here. Jonathan and Martha opening the top of the spaceship and carrying him into their home. Treating him like their own.

None of it seemed real.

Or even possible.

Yet it was the truth. His truth.

Instead of feeling sorry for himself or trying to make sense of something so incredible, he vowed to deal with it another way. He would do everything in his power to make his adopted planet a better, safer place.





Clark woke up to a text from Gloria.

Freaking out. Nobody can find Cruz.

Clark froze, picturing the Jones farm, the men chained to the floor. He called Gloria, but she didn’t answer. He left a message and texted, too, telling her to call him back as soon as possible.

He put away his phone and sat up in bed, an awful feeling moving through his entire body. Cruz was just a kid. And he was a citizen. Maybe there was some other explanation.

While waiting to hear back from Gloria, Clark went over to his closet and looked at the suit. He’d managed to remove it the night before. But now he had a strange desire to put it back on. Like it was some kind of armor on such an important day. He took it off the hanger and slipped it on, then put his regular clothes on over the suit. He also wore the thicker-framed glasses Lex had given him instead of his regular glasses. The new ones seemed more Clark Kent to him now, and it felt important to make sure that the two different sides of him contrasted greatly.

He tried calling Gloria one more time but got her voice mail, so he started for downtown.

Two hours later, he still hadn’t heard anything from Gloria. He looked for her outside city hall, but she wasn’t among the crowd of protesters. And she wasn’t anywhere around the square. He eventually left to meet Lana and Lex on the steps outside the library.

And there was Gloria.

But no Lex.

“Hey,” he said to Gloria. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”

She nodded, clearly upset. “I left my phone in the car while we looked around the neighborhood for Cruz.”

Clark hesitated before asking, “Did you find him?”

She shook her head. “You don’t think he could be on the Jones farm, do you? He’s just a kid.”

“I didn’t see him last night.” Clark glanced at Lana, who looked at the ground, shaking her head. “We have to get this right,” he told Gloria. But he was saying it for his own benefit, too. “If we get this right, everything will be okay.”

“Lex texted,” Lana said. “He’s going to be late. We don’t have access to any of the footage without him.”

Clark looked around, trying to figure out what to do. He’d never felt so anxious. “Maybe we should go talk through the plan. We can catch Lex up whenever he gets here.”

The three of them ducked into a quiet room in the library and sat at a round table. Clark motioned to Lana. “So, you’ll start your interview with Corey a few minutes before the first speaker, right? That way you can cover the charity angle and get him comfortable.”

Lana didn’t look very confident.

Clark’s whole body tensed. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been texting Corey all morning,” Lana said. “He told me he didn’t have time for an interview. When I pressed him, he went silent. So I sort of had to try a Hail Mary.”

Clark waited for her to explain. It felt like everything was unraveling.

“I told him I’d heard a rumor that there was something strange happening on the Jones farm. And I was hoping he could clarify for me personally.”