Dreaming the Wolf - Chapter 7a and 7b
Warnings- Readers, this part is rated R for violence and disturbing behavior. It isn’t nice. Kale is a hitman. It’s what he does. Keep that in mind. If this scares you off, then pm me and I’ll give you the gist of what’s going on.
Chapter 7- Origins of the Wolf
Part I- A Day in the Life
“It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.”
Buddhist quote
Two Months Before…
Nathaniel Chase, Nate to his friends and family, was finally getting home after a long day of work. Nate was 6’2, wore nerd glasses and let his wife dress him in tailored suits. He worked as an engineer, mainly designing and building mines for the army. He was good at what he did and had been part of the team that had reduced the size of a mine series by half. It wasn’t going into wide spread use, but it could function for limited types of engagement. He was inordinately proud. It was with this lens that he could say with certainty that his life was great.
It was on track. Nate had a relatively large home, two cars, a boat, a dog and a summer home in Florida. The dream of a white picket fence was his. He made sure that the house he bought with his success had a white, picket fence. He had a beautiful wife, Janie, and adorable twin girls, Emma and Lucy. They were the light of his world. Everything he did was for them. There was nothing that he wouldn’t do if it meant that they could be happy. Nate could die at this moment a happy man. “Yes, my life is good.”
This attitude was greeted with silence from his home. It was dark and quiet. More importantly, it was unnatural. Nate came home to laughter and bright lights of his home. His girls ran to his arms and gave him sloppy kisses. His dog greeted him with a bark and a wag of his tail. And his lovely wife looked on indulgently with a soft smile. But all of that was missing now. Nate was excitable and absent minded. His wife was the cool, collected one.
He ran into his home calling the name of his wife.
“Janie!”
The sight that greeted him as soon as he entered the dining room chilled him to the bone. His dog was dead. The side of his wife’s face wasn’t there anymore. Her eyes were vacant. Sightless. Blood covered her chest, but Nate couldn’t see that. He only saw her face…her eyes. Her crystal blue eyes. Her long, dark hair matted with blood. Nate heard the whimpering of his daughters and he saw that they were bound and gagged close to their mother. Their faces were streaked with tears.
Nate ran to move to them when a voice stopped him cold. The voice originated behind him. Nate slowly turned to face the voice. It was a man who had been a valet at the parking garage he regularly frequented.
“Mr. Chase, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Nate stuttered, “Tony? What…what’s going on here?”
Samuel Kale saw the recognition flash across the face of his mark. He saw as Nathaniel Chase’s eyes took in his features. The man may have been something of a goof, who had a wife way out of his weight class, but he was an engineer. Nathaniel was trained to notice the minutia. To augment and improve upon designs that had been streamlined already.
“I’m sorry to inform you, but my name is not Tony. It’s actually Samuel Kale.”
It was in that moment that Nate knew that he was going to die. No mere kidnapper, blackmailer, or burglar would ever reveal themselves let alone tell their true name. Nate didn’t doubt that he had been told the true name of the man who had killed his wife and hurt his daughters.
“Whatever you want. It’s all yours. Just please, please let my girls go. They’re kids. They won’t tell. They won’t even remember your face.”
Kale tilted his head to the left and narrowed his eyes, “They will die tonight as will you. The only say in the matter that you have is how quickly they die. Give me what I want and they won’t suffer. I’ll kill them quick…and you. Don’t waste your time begging. It won’t do you any good, but it will piss me off. This doesn’t have to be unpleasant.”
Nate felt his eyes burning. He knew that he was crying. His breath was little more than shallow pants. His body trembled. Nate could only hope that this man was telling the truth. How could it be that he had to hope in the word of a madman? What kind of God would let this happen?
“What do you want?”
Kale was glad that Chase had seen reason. He wasn’t entirely unsympathetic to the man’s plight. He didn’t relish hurting children, but he had accepted the job. He’d done his homework and knew that the key to Chase was his family. Kale didn’t want to hurt them more than necessary.
“You have some files that my employer wants. Project: Pipsqueak. I’m not entirely unreasonable so I’ll tell you the whys. You remember a Miss Kimberly Wavers don’t you? It seems that she didn’t appreciate you stealing her work and then lying about it…or rather her uncle didn’t. Ruining someone’s career is just so uncouth. So here we are.”
Nate hadn’t stolen her work. He merely borrowed some parts and presented it to the bosses. It was done all the time.
“Listen, I didn’t. She’s lying.”
Kale actually thought this might’ve gone easy, “No. I do believe you’re lying. I’ve been watching you for weeks now. You have so many tell-tales that it’s been pathetically easy to decipher you. But even if you were telling the truth and she was lying through her teeth, it would not have mattered. I’m being paid to get the files and kill you. So get them now or I’ll become rather…unpleasant.”
Nate ran upstairs to his computer with Samuel Kale right behind him. He put in his pass codes and left his computer open. After ten minutes, Kale got what he wanted and gestured for Nate to go back downstairs to his dining room.
“Well, Mr. Chase, we are now at the end of our little acquaintanceship. I have enjoyed my time as a valet. We had the most interesting conversations. So what I want you to do is pick up that gun on the table. It has three bullets. Before you think to turn that gun on me, know that you will fail. After you fail, I will hurt your daughters…very badly. Save us all the trouble. I think you know what you are to do.”
Nate trembled. There was no way that he could do as he was told. There was also no way that he could let this psychotic man hurt his daughters. Nate had no doubt that Samuel Kale would do just as he said he would. Nate closed his eyes and pulled the trigger in quick succession.
“Very good, Mr. Chase. You’re a better shot than I would’ve guessed. But then again, this is Texas.”
Nate’s voice was unsteady, “I had no choice.”
“How could it have all gone so wrong?” He turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger.
If there was anything that Samuel Kale actively hated, it was those words.
He spoke to a corpse, “No, you had plenty of choices. You could have chosen to defy me. Taken your chances, but you didn’t because at the end of the day you are weak. You could have chosen to not steal the work of others. Just because you see no other options doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. It means that you lack a strong will.”
Kale left the quaint little house with a picket fence. He was actually on his way to meet his long-time girlfriend when he received a call. It was a phone reserved for business. There were so many layers of security and obfuscation that it would take an almost Herculean effort to get to him. He wasn’t on anyone’s radar except the kind of people who wanted his services.
“Kale.”
The voice on the other end spoke into his ear, “There’s a job for you in Smallville, Kansas. The information you need is in the usual drop box. Be here by noon tomorrow.”
Kale heard a click and the line was dead. Sometimes his future bosses were like that. No nonsense types. Efficient. The instincts that he had honed in the marines and his profession told him that this would be something off the beaten path of his normal jobs. He looked forward to it.
********
Four hours later Samuel Kale was on the road out of Texas. He’d checked his email on a secure server. Emails sent to him were innocuous. Many referenced the weather. Others talked about seemingly random news stories, but all of them had meaning to him. He was intrigued by this new job. This small town in Kansas was too much to be believed. There should have been more press in the news about this town, but there wasn’t. No doubt all the oddities of the town were more than likely attributed to the fact that these people were hicks in a town so far removed from the map it was unreal.
“Smallville, Kansas here I come.”
Part II- Believer
“Pale death knocks with impartial foot at poor men's hovels and king's palaces.”
Horatio
Kale had managed to wrangle four of the meteor freaks. The dossier compiled for each person was impressive. Meticulous. If he had to guess, he’d say that his new boss was compulsively neat. The words precise and the entire document crafted with an eye to detail. This job was proving to be enjoyable even if his quarry was not.
As soon as he had gotten to Smallville, he had applied for a janitorial position at the local high school. He enjoyed working there. He worked with his hands. Made everything neat. It didn’t really matter that he’d have to clean the same spot the next day. It appealed to the inner obsessive compulsive. His girlfriend had jokingly said that he bore more than a passing resemblance to some character on a show called, “Friends”. Whatever that was. Samuel wasn’t big on television. He was a reader.
He had slowly been getting used to Smallville. In that time, he had seen and heard some seriously strange things. Kale had noticed a pattern to all the odd things happening in town. Lex Luthor, Chloe Sullivan, Lana Lang and Clark Kent seemed to always be connected. Digging even deeper, which is to say he broke into the police station, and using the limited knowledge that his boss had given him, he had noticed that all things invariably led back to Clark Kent and something the locals called meteor rocks. That is, he was always at the center of things. The others were incidental. Nevertheless, it had piqued his interest. Kale felt an almost painful compulsion to fit the pieces of the puzzle that was Smallville.
It was at that point that Kale decided to make discovering the odd core of Smallville part of his mission. Capturing the meteor freaks didn’t require all of his attention. And his boss played the game of “need to know”. Kale understood, but that didn’t mean he’d back off investigating the happenings. He was still careful and wary of his marks, but they had proven easy to capture. It was like punting a Pomeranian across the room. Easy and somewhat satisfying, but requiring no effort. So he began his work following each of them.
Luthor posed special problems due to his social standing, but following him proved to be unnecessary. Chronicling the fumbling attempts at clandestine activity of Lana Lang, however, proved far more informative. Kale thought it completely pathetic and weak that she would betray someone she purportedly cared for. Not only did she use various means, all stupid in his opinion, to try to find damaging information on her fiancée, but it actually seemed like she had feelings for this Clark Kent.
Kale had spent two nauseating hours watching the juvenile mating dance of Lana Lang and Clark Kent. “Hours I will never get back.” He also found a possible route to kid Luthor if he needed it. It galled him to admit it, but Lana Lang had led him to an impressive amount of information regarding the younger Luthor. Information that might come in handy. There was a momentary twinge of anxiety when he realized that his activities might be construed as betraying his boss, but he tossed those aside. He had to make sense of the power brokers of Smallville.
Lana Lang had also led him to Clark Kent. The boy was fascinating. Clark Kent wasn’t nearly as careful as he thought he was. “I suppose he counts on the general stupidity of those around him to conceal his…gifts.” So he chronicled what he had seen the Kent boy do. Kale had seen him bend a steel girder like one would snap a twig.
He had seen the boy survive things that no man should ever have been able to survive. Kale was sure that this boy would be a mark…should’ve been his first mark. He figured maybe his boss didn’t know about Kent, but he was wrong. His boss just had other plans. Plans that he wasn’t privy too. Kale had thought that he had learned all he could from Kent, but he was also wrong about that. Very wrong.
Two Weeks Ago…
Kale had followed Kent to a quarry of some sort. “I guess he’s meeting someone.” From a distance and using high-powered binoculars, he watched as the Kent boy doubled over in pain. The sun hit the quarry just right and an eerie, iridescent green glow could be seen. Kale was no geologist, but it seemed like the glow was coming from what everyone around here called meteor rocks. He watched as a blond woman, who he recognized as Chloe Sullivan, ran to Kent. She seemed frantic and had to drag the boy to safety. It was slow going as he could only offer the slightest bit of help. Kale sat up straighter when he realized that Kent was able to offer more help the further he got away from the rocks. “Intriguing.”
Later in the day, Kale informed his boss of what he had witnessed at the quarry.
His boss was very quiet. When Kale finally got a response, it wasn’t what he figured it would be, “Riddle me this, Kale. If the meteor rocks are the cause of the genetic anomalies observed; and if they are the reason that the denizens of Smallville frequent the hospital less, then it wouldn’t make sense that it both gave strength and weakness to the same individual would it? You also tell me that you have seen Clark Kent do many other spectacular things, yes? Then tell me how multiple and disparate mutations would occur in one person? Or perhaps I am missing something.”
Kale absorbed those words. His boss was right. It didn’t make sense that the dual properties of the meteor rocks would manifest in one person. That person would surely die if the source of strength and weakness were one and the same. Another important point was made. The meteor freaks documented did have random abilities but once established any given individual had a natural progression of abilities.
No meteor freak had the ability to run quickly and have above human capability strength. They were too different. Taken into context with the fact that the boy, Tobias, who could see meteor freaks, indicated that Kent was not meteor infected it made little sense. Unless Tobias was wrong. But that also didn’t make sense. Tobias was batting 1000 when it came to identifying meteor infected. “Occam’s Razor.”
Kale spoke, “It only makes sense if Kent is the cause. Did you know that his adoption papers are so shallow as to imply that he was never really adopted?”
He heard chuckle on the other end, “Yes. Chloe Sullivan accidentally discovered that little fact. Did you know that a few locals said that something significantly larger than meteor rocks crashed into town?”
Kale heard the riddle posed in the question. “Impossible.”
“You’re telling me that an actual ship may have crashed?”
The voice on the other end continued without answering his question, “I have been aware of Clark Kent, but this new information helps me in my endeavors. You also intrigue me with the information on Lana. Sooner or later, I’ll want to involve her directly. She’s the weakest link. Congratulations, Mr. Kale, I am impressed. But I have another assignment for you. Too much attention is being paid to my project, especially from Daddy Dearest. I want you to cause a major distraction. I don’t care how you do it. I do, however, require that you set up a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises for whatever activity you settle on. FoxTech is run by Lucius Fox. He’s a cohort of Wayne. More importantly, they recently developed some new kind of mine that will be seeing limited army use. It’s having a coming out party. I’d like that party to be delayed. The government is becoming a thorn in my side so I’d like these birds killed with one stone. I won’t breathe down your neck on this. My project requires my full attention. You’ll have what you need by tomorrow. I want to read about this in the news, Kale.”
The line went dead. He was both frustrated and surprised. So few of his bosses allowed him such autonomy. And even fewer were able to evade him. No question that mattered to him had actually been answered…but they were in a round about way. True to form, his boss delivered. He once again had the blueprints for the pipsqueak mine, which elicited a small laugh from Kale, and the mine itself. He would’ve worried about the mine if there wasn’t a paper attached to it with the headline: FoxTech Warehouse Robbed. Unknown Items Taken. He was impressed. “A boss who anticipates my worries.” Kale set his mind to work on the problem and found a solution that was bound to make a splash. His heartbeat sped up and a smile lit his face. “This will be fun.”
Present…
For two weeks, Kale followed Lana to figure out Lionel Luthor’s schedule. Through the course of his investigations, Kale had found that Lana Lang was trying to play father and son against each other. His observations indicated that she was failing miserably at her games. “She is the worst kind of woman.” He spent a lot of time in and out of Smallville. For someone so high profile, Luthor foolishly allowed his arrogance to get in the way of prudence. The man didn’t think anyone would come for him. But Lionel Luthor was wrong.
The last stretch of road into Smallville was a two lane affair. It was also surrounded by corn fields with only a few breaks of clear land in between. On this particular day, a Monday, the road was deserted. Kale had noticed that the road was empty of cars between noon and 2 PM. It was also the time that Lionel Luthor generally rolled into town in his impressive limo. Luthor had taken to using the limo instead of the helicopter due to the falling out with his son.
Luthor would not have his driver stop to help a motorist whose car had broken down, but he would stop if that car took up both lanes due to an accident. Kale deliberately hit the embankment on either side of road so that he’d have to overcompensate and the car would end up crashed. He had a hell of a time finding and stealing a car that would serve his needs, but he had. This stretch of road was also very good because there were no cell towers nearby. It lay well outside of Metropolis’s and Smallville’s range of towers. Nevertheless, Kale activated his cell phone killer. It interfered with phone signals. Lionel would be unable to call anyone for help.
Kale positioned himself a little ways off the road and watched through the scope as Luthor’s limo slowed and finally stopped. He was a good marksman, but the tires were the kind that would work even when flat and the windows were bulletproof. He expected nothing less. He watched as the driver got out of the car. This was the moment. “Perfect.” Kale pulled the trigger and fired three bullets into the back of the driver. The scope made it possible for him to see the blood spray as the bullets violently impacted the man. He had been tempted to go for the head shot, but figured that now wasn’t the time to get fancy.
He left his rifle and ran from his vantage point to the limo. Kale had to get Luthor out of the car quickly. Luthor wouldn’t come out of the car voluntarily, but he also wouldn’t be able to get to the front seat of the limo easily. The partition ensured it. Kale made it to the limo just as Lionel found the courage to step out on the side of the car away from the bullets.
Kale figured the man had a gun. He had on full riot gear. Luthor could prove to be adept with a gun to make a head shot. Kale was not going to find out if he was. ”Better safe than sorry.” He called out to the elder Luthor, “Mr. Luthor, I’m Samuel Kale. It’s nice to make your acquaintance.”
********
One minute, Lionel Luthor was enjoying reaming an employee about some report and then his cell phone died. A few moments later, his driver lowered the limo partition and informed him of a wreck.
“Mr. Luthor, sir, we seem to have a problem. There’s an overturned car-“
Lionel interrupted him, “Drive around the car and call the authorities.”
“I can’t, sir. The car is taking up both lanes and my phone is dead.”
Lionel’s patience vanished. He had a meeting with Lex. The boy didn’t know it, but that didn’t matter. Lionel picked up his phone to dial out and discovered that it was also dead. It was fully charged. There was no reason for it to not function.
“Sir, I’m going to see if the person in the car is ok. I’ll also check for a phone.”
The driver, Lionel forgot his name, raised the partition and exited the car. Three loud bangs in quick succession greeted Lionel’s ears. He identified them as bullets. They could be nothing else. He moved to exit the car and stopped himself. Whoever was shooting was probably not going to stop at a limo driver. Lionel took stock of the situation and did not like the way things were going. He used his control panel to lower the partition once again, but he wasn’t as flexible as he used to be and getting to the front seat would slow him down too much.
Lionel had to take the risk and assume that there was only one shooter. He probably wasn’t in too much danger. “Probably a kidnap attempt.” If it was, then whoever it was wouldn’t want him dead. Lionel didn’t know who the hell was shooting at his limo, but this person would pay.
He exited the car away from where he expected the shooter to be and crouched low. Lionel heard a voice call out to him, “Mr. Luthor, I’m Samuel Kale. It’s nice to make your acquaintance.”
Kale drew his tranquilizer gun and dropped to the ground. He saw that Luthor was crouched low, but his knee touched the ground. It was a good enough shot to get a dart in him. Kale took the shot and was rewarded with a soft expletive and then the sound of Luthor’s body hitting the dirt.
Samuel Kale stood. It was now time for the hard stuff. He pushed the driver into the passenger seat and carried Lionel into a break in the corn field where his car was hidden. Kale had enough time to wipe the mine of his fingerprints, both inside and out, and place it on the underside of the car. He was sorry that he wouldn’t be able to stay for the explosion because it was on a timer. The mine could be traced to an employee of FoxTech. He so rarely got to work with demolitions. No matter. He had his mark. Lionel wouldn’t be given up for dead, but in the interim there would be an investigation. It would be on the front page.
********
Lionel Luthor woke up to a funny smell. When he tried to move, he found that he was bound to a chair and his mouth felt like he had cotton in it. His head pounded in time with his heartbeat. He was uncomfortable.
A voice sounded to his right, “Ahh…I see you are awake, Mr. Luthor. I trust your nap was about as good as it gets for these types of situations.”
If there was anything that Lionel Luthor knew, it was when he was being mocked. He moved his head to face his kidnapper and found that he didn’t so much move it as it lolled to the side.
Lionel would’ve said something cutting, but his tongue simply would not work. Kale saw the man’s predicament. He was tempted to be mean, but that wouldn’t satisfy his boss, who wanted his humiliation. Kale brought a glass of water to Lionel’s lip and allowed water to trickle into his mouth. Kale watched as Lionel composed himself. He saw the very moment that lucidity returned to Lionel and watched as his cunning mind began to work in earnest.
Lionel swallowed and spoke, his voice raspy, “You’ll regret this.”
Kale readied himself for a grand performance. This would be the best kill he’d earned. If he were into trophies or otherwise marking occasions, now would’ve been the perfect time. As it were, Kale was content to allow this moment to forever exist in his mind alone.
Kale laughed and allowed his entire body to shake with his mirth, “Maybe. Probably not. I will tell you this, I won’t be ruing the day in your lifetime.”
Lionel narrowed his eyes at the threat, “If you’re looking for money, I should tell you that Luthorcorp has a policy against negotiating with kidnappers. Stop this nonsense now, and I’ll be tempted to let this offense go unpunished.”
“In that case, I suppose I should tell you that I don’t plan on sending out some cliché ridden ransom note. No, I plan on killing you, Mr. Luthor.”
Lionel let his words wash over him, “Samuel Kale was it? If you honestly believe-“
Kale was getting bored with the blustering and decided to end it now, “Mr. Luthor, you shouldn’t concern yourself with the “whats” of the situation. You are going to die and I’ll be the one to kill you. Now you know the “what” of the situation. I’m being paid to do this, but the satisfaction of knowing that I got Lionel Luthor to beg for his life is more than gratifying. I wouldn’t waste your breath on offering me money to let you live either. It just isn’t going to happen. I’ve already been bought. But really, the most important question is the “how”. I can kill you quickly, well quickly for me, it’ll still be far too slow for you. Or, I can kill you slowly. What I want from you is your pass codes. You scatter your technological resources so well.”
Lionel Luthor refused to believe that this was his end. He was not meant to die this way. He was going to get out this. This…this piece of hired filth would not get the better of Lionel Luthor. No one could’ve gotten this close to him without help. As soon as the thought that Lex might’ve had a hand in this entered his mind, Lionel quashed it. There was no way that his cowardly, broken son could’ve done this. Lex was just too weak.
Lionel affected his patented smirk that even his son tried so hard to imitate, “Even as we speak, there are people looking for me. It’s only a matter of time before you are found out. You will not get away with this. I’m going to bet that you have a family. Everything about you will be investigated. I’ll have you, boy.”
As soon as Luthor mentioned family, the smirk left Kale’s face, “I get it. I see what you’re trying to do now. You’re trying to play on my weaknesses. I think I need to reassess my opinion of you. Bravo! Unlike many of the people you have brought low, I remain unaffected. I will help you out though.”
Samuel began ticking points off of his fingers with his gun, “I have numerous daddy issues. He beat me and then I killed him. I wasn’t too fond of women for a long time. There was a long time when I only accepted jobs with female targets. My mother was a terrible influence. I even have a few sexual hang-ups. My girlfriend is such a sweet heart. She’s helped me through many issues I have. I love her to death. Quite literally. So, Mr. Luthor, do your worst. The difference between me and the fodder you destroy so completely is that I know myself. In real terms, it changes nothing, but it does mean that I can sometimes harness my own impulses. I won’t be panicking. I won’t deviate from my plan.”
Lionel set his mouth to say something cutting to the upstart that dared to touch him, but he didn’t have a chance before Kale spoke again.
“The trouble with men like us is that we believe ourselves to be strong. Powerful. My death will undoubtedly be painful. The strong are brought low quicker than the weak because we don’t see it coming. We don’t even believe it will come. But I believe. And now, I’m going to make a believer out of you.”
Lionel scoffed, “Better men than you have come at me. From all sides, they have come at me. And still I won. Because that’s who I am and that’s what I have created. I have an empire of people afraid of me. People who will look for me out of loyalty, fear, and respect. You are one of many fools I will grind into dust, boy.”
It was in that moment that Kale knew how to get him. His son. It was always through the family that you can get to the mighty, “I want you to know that I found you through someone close to you. Someone betrayed you. It was fun to trap you using one of those people you’ve created an empire out of.”
“Lex would never-”
Kale let Lionel have his assumption and interrupted him, “Mr. Luthor do you believe that because you believe that your son doesn’t have the guts to do so? Or maybe because you think you’ve beaten him down. Or maybe it’s because you simply can’t envision a scenario where you lose by the hand of your son. Make no mistake you have lost.”
And there it was. The look that made everything he did worthwhile. The look of resigned defeat. The moment that his mark knew that they were well and truly ruined. That everything they knew to be true wasn’t and that he, Samuel Kale, would come out on top.
Kale leaned until he was nose to nose with Lionel Luthor and his voice became a whisper, “There are those people who are wrapped in bubble. Innocent. Never truly knowing or understanding that the world they live in is tainted with darkness here and there. The world is an endless joy to them. And to these people I give them my resounding indifference. What should I care for them? There are those in the glass house, who see the troubles coming their way and every now and again a window is broken. They pick up the pieces of their window and make a new one. Or maybe they put duct tape over it and resolve to fix it later. These people would benefit from barricading themselves in, but they can’t imagine not letting the sun bathe them. Most of them don’t even know what it means to take the easy way. They toil and toil. They deserve what happiness they can find; their peace of mind, but it’s not for us. Never for us or those who dabble in the games we play. We aren’t strong enough to handle it. It is one of the greatest ironies crafted by God. And now. Now you begin to believe. I knew I’d make a believer of you.”
Then the screaming began. It didn’t stop until an hour later. Kale surveyed his work. It was his best yet. Samuel felt a rush that he had never felt before. His heart raced and his breath left his body in forceful pants. “It’s almost like sex.” He doubted that it would be like this ever again. After he cleaned this place and arranged the body for discovery, he’d call Marissa. He needed to hear her sweet voice in his ear. He needed to dissociate himself from this kill. He couldn’t yearn for something like this ever again. He needed to remember that this wasn’t personal. It was business…clinical. Anything otherwise would lead to his self destruction. He would be better than that.
********
The world woke up to a breaking bulletin. It filled the radio airwaves. It filled television stations. Everyone was in on the know. Lionel Luthor was found dead. Tied to a scarecrow stand in a corn field of Smallville. It was equidistant to the Kent farm and the mansion owned by Lex Luthor. His body posed to be a blasphemous mockery of a crucifixion. If Lionel Luthor wanted to live like a god, then Kale would let him die like one.
Already there were major shake-ups at FoxTech due to the hardware found at the scene of the crime. A huge investigation was ongoing and Wayne Enterprises was rocked by a scandal the size of which it had never encountered before. Luthorcorp was shaken to its very core. It was chaos and mayhem at its most glorious.
Never before had he clung to Marissa as he had when news first broke. Samuel needed her to ground him…to focus him. She helped get rid of the euphoric feeling of Lionel’s death. She prevented him from immersing himself in it. He had just finished speaking with Marissa when his phone rang.
“You did well.”
Samuel didn’t have a chance to speak before the line went dead. His employer would forever remain a mystery to him. Nothing like what would be expected.
“I knew it was going to be a good day.”
Back to Chapter 6
Off path to a Samuel Kale origin story
Onward to Chapters 7c and 7d
Chapter 7- Origins of the Wolf
Part I- A Day in the Life
“It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.”
Buddhist quote
Two Months Before…
Nathaniel Chase, Nate to his friends and family, was finally getting home after a long day of work. Nate was 6’2, wore nerd glasses and let his wife dress him in tailored suits. He worked as an engineer, mainly designing and building mines for the army. He was good at what he did and had been part of the team that had reduced the size of a mine series by half. It wasn’t going into wide spread use, but it could function for limited types of engagement. He was inordinately proud. It was with this lens that he could say with certainty that his life was great.
It was on track. Nate had a relatively large home, two cars, a boat, a dog and a summer home in Florida. The dream of a white picket fence was his. He made sure that the house he bought with his success had a white, picket fence. He had a beautiful wife, Janie, and adorable twin girls, Emma and Lucy. They were the light of his world. Everything he did was for them. There was nothing that he wouldn’t do if it meant that they could be happy. Nate could die at this moment a happy man. “Yes, my life is good.”
This attitude was greeted with silence from his home. It was dark and quiet. More importantly, it was unnatural. Nate came home to laughter and bright lights of his home. His girls ran to his arms and gave him sloppy kisses. His dog greeted him with a bark and a wag of his tail. And his lovely wife looked on indulgently with a soft smile. But all of that was missing now. Nate was excitable and absent minded. His wife was the cool, collected one.
He ran into his home calling the name of his wife.
“Janie!”
The sight that greeted him as soon as he entered the dining room chilled him to the bone. His dog was dead. The side of his wife’s face wasn’t there anymore. Her eyes were vacant. Sightless. Blood covered her chest, but Nate couldn’t see that. He only saw her face…her eyes. Her crystal blue eyes. Her long, dark hair matted with blood. Nate heard the whimpering of his daughters and he saw that they were bound and gagged close to their mother. Their faces were streaked with tears.
Nate ran to move to them when a voice stopped him cold. The voice originated behind him. Nate slowly turned to face the voice. It was a man who had been a valet at the parking garage he regularly frequented.
“Mr. Chase, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Nate stuttered, “Tony? What…what’s going on here?”
Samuel Kale saw the recognition flash across the face of his mark. He saw as Nathaniel Chase’s eyes took in his features. The man may have been something of a goof, who had a wife way out of his weight class, but he was an engineer. Nathaniel was trained to notice the minutia. To augment and improve upon designs that had been streamlined already.
“I’m sorry to inform you, but my name is not Tony. It’s actually Samuel Kale.”
It was in that moment that Nate knew that he was going to die. No mere kidnapper, blackmailer, or burglar would ever reveal themselves let alone tell their true name. Nate didn’t doubt that he had been told the true name of the man who had killed his wife and hurt his daughters.
“Whatever you want. It’s all yours. Just please, please let my girls go. They’re kids. They won’t tell. They won’t even remember your face.”
Kale tilted his head to the left and narrowed his eyes, “They will die tonight as will you. The only say in the matter that you have is how quickly they die. Give me what I want and they won’t suffer. I’ll kill them quick…and you. Don’t waste your time begging. It won’t do you any good, but it will piss me off. This doesn’t have to be unpleasant.”
Nate felt his eyes burning. He knew that he was crying. His breath was little more than shallow pants. His body trembled. Nate could only hope that this man was telling the truth. How could it be that he had to hope in the word of a madman? What kind of God would let this happen?
“What do you want?”
Kale was glad that Chase had seen reason. He wasn’t entirely unsympathetic to the man’s plight. He didn’t relish hurting children, but he had accepted the job. He’d done his homework and knew that the key to Chase was his family. Kale didn’t want to hurt them more than necessary.
“You have some files that my employer wants. Project: Pipsqueak. I’m not entirely unreasonable so I’ll tell you the whys. You remember a Miss Kimberly Wavers don’t you? It seems that she didn’t appreciate you stealing her work and then lying about it…or rather her uncle didn’t. Ruining someone’s career is just so uncouth. So here we are.”
Nate hadn’t stolen her work. He merely borrowed some parts and presented it to the bosses. It was done all the time.
“Listen, I didn’t. She’s lying.”
Kale actually thought this might’ve gone easy, “No. I do believe you’re lying. I’ve been watching you for weeks now. You have so many tell-tales that it’s been pathetically easy to decipher you. But even if you were telling the truth and she was lying through her teeth, it would not have mattered. I’m being paid to get the files and kill you. So get them now or I’ll become rather…unpleasant.”
Nate ran upstairs to his computer with Samuel Kale right behind him. He put in his pass codes and left his computer open. After ten minutes, Kale got what he wanted and gestured for Nate to go back downstairs to his dining room.
“Well, Mr. Chase, we are now at the end of our little acquaintanceship. I have enjoyed my time as a valet. We had the most interesting conversations. So what I want you to do is pick up that gun on the table. It has three bullets. Before you think to turn that gun on me, know that you will fail. After you fail, I will hurt your daughters…very badly. Save us all the trouble. I think you know what you are to do.”
Nate trembled. There was no way that he could do as he was told. There was also no way that he could let this psychotic man hurt his daughters. Nate had no doubt that Samuel Kale would do just as he said he would. Nate closed his eyes and pulled the trigger in quick succession.
“Very good, Mr. Chase. You’re a better shot than I would’ve guessed. But then again, this is Texas.”
Nate’s voice was unsteady, “I had no choice.”
“How could it have all gone so wrong?” He turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger.
If there was anything that Samuel Kale actively hated, it was those words.
He spoke to a corpse, “No, you had plenty of choices. You could have chosen to defy me. Taken your chances, but you didn’t because at the end of the day you are weak. You could have chosen to not steal the work of others. Just because you see no other options doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. It means that you lack a strong will.”
Kale left the quaint little house with a picket fence. He was actually on his way to meet his long-time girlfriend when he received a call. It was a phone reserved for business. There were so many layers of security and obfuscation that it would take an almost Herculean effort to get to him. He wasn’t on anyone’s radar except the kind of people who wanted his services.
“Kale.”
The voice on the other end spoke into his ear, “There’s a job for you in Smallville, Kansas. The information you need is in the usual drop box. Be here by noon tomorrow.”
Kale heard a click and the line was dead. Sometimes his future bosses were like that. No nonsense types. Efficient. The instincts that he had honed in the marines and his profession told him that this would be something off the beaten path of his normal jobs. He looked forward to it.
********
Four hours later Samuel Kale was on the road out of Texas. He’d checked his email on a secure server. Emails sent to him were innocuous. Many referenced the weather. Others talked about seemingly random news stories, but all of them had meaning to him. He was intrigued by this new job. This small town in Kansas was too much to be believed. There should have been more press in the news about this town, but there wasn’t. No doubt all the oddities of the town were more than likely attributed to the fact that these people were hicks in a town so far removed from the map it was unreal.
“Smallville, Kansas here I come.”
Part II- Believer
“Pale death knocks with impartial foot at poor men's hovels and king's palaces.”
Horatio
Kale had managed to wrangle four of the meteor freaks. The dossier compiled for each person was impressive. Meticulous. If he had to guess, he’d say that his new boss was compulsively neat. The words precise and the entire document crafted with an eye to detail. This job was proving to be enjoyable even if his quarry was not.
As soon as he had gotten to Smallville, he had applied for a janitorial position at the local high school. He enjoyed working there. He worked with his hands. Made everything neat. It didn’t really matter that he’d have to clean the same spot the next day. It appealed to the inner obsessive compulsive. His girlfriend had jokingly said that he bore more than a passing resemblance to some character on a show called, “Friends”. Whatever that was. Samuel wasn’t big on television. He was a reader.
He had slowly been getting used to Smallville. In that time, he had seen and heard some seriously strange things. Kale had noticed a pattern to all the odd things happening in town. Lex Luthor, Chloe Sullivan, Lana Lang and Clark Kent seemed to always be connected. Digging even deeper, which is to say he broke into the police station, and using the limited knowledge that his boss had given him, he had noticed that all things invariably led back to Clark Kent and something the locals called meteor rocks. That is, he was always at the center of things. The others were incidental. Nevertheless, it had piqued his interest. Kale felt an almost painful compulsion to fit the pieces of the puzzle that was Smallville.
It was at that point that Kale decided to make discovering the odd core of Smallville part of his mission. Capturing the meteor freaks didn’t require all of his attention. And his boss played the game of “need to know”. Kale understood, but that didn’t mean he’d back off investigating the happenings. He was still careful and wary of his marks, but they had proven easy to capture. It was like punting a Pomeranian across the room. Easy and somewhat satisfying, but requiring no effort. So he began his work following each of them.
Luthor posed special problems due to his social standing, but following him proved to be unnecessary. Chronicling the fumbling attempts at clandestine activity of Lana Lang, however, proved far more informative. Kale thought it completely pathetic and weak that she would betray someone she purportedly cared for. Not only did she use various means, all stupid in his opinion, to try to find damaging information on her fiancée, but it actually seemed like she had feelings for this Clark Kent.
Kale had spent two nauseating hours watching the juvenile mating dance of Lana Lang and Clark Kent. “Hours I will never get back.” He also found a possible route to kid Luthor if he needed it. It galled him to admit it, but Lana Lang had led him to an impressive amount of information regarding the younger Luthor. Information that might come in handy. There was a momentary twinge of anxiety when he realized that his activities might be construed as betraying his boss, but he tossed those aside. He had to make sense of the power brokers of Smallville.
Lana Lang had also led him to Clark Kent. The boy was fascinating. Clark Kent wasn’t nearly as careful as he thought he was. “I suppose he counts on the general stupidity of those around him to conceal his…gifts.” So he chronicled what he had seen the Kent boy do. Kale had seen him bend a steel girder like one would snap a twig.
He had seen the boy survive things that no man should ever have been able to survive. Kale was sure that this boy would be a mark…should’ve been his first mark. He figured maybe his boss didn’t know about Kent, but he was wrong. His boss just had other plans. Plans that he wasn’t privy too. Kale had thought that he had learned all he could from Kent, but he was also wrong about that. Very wrong.
Two Weeks Ago…
Kale had followed Kent to a quarry of some sort. “I guess he’s meeting someone.” From a distance and using high-powered binoculars, he watched as the Kent boy doubled over in pain. The sun hit the quarry just right and an eerie, iridescent green glow could be seen. Kale was no geologist, but it seemed like the glow was coming from what everyone around here called meteor rocks. He watched as a blond woman, who he recognized as Chloe Sullivan, ran to Kent. She seemed frantic and had to drag the boy to safety. It was slow going as he could only offer the slightest bit of help. Kale sat up straighter when he realized that Kent was able to offer more help the further he got away from the rocks. “Intriguing.”
Later in the day, Kale informed his boss of what he had witnessed at the quarry.
His boss was very quiet. When Kale finally got a response, it wasn’t what he figured it would be, “Riddle me this, Kale. If the meteor rocks are the cause of the genetic anomalies observed; and if they are the reason that the denizens of Smallville frequent the hospital less, then it wouldn’t make sense that it both gave strength and weakness to the same individual would it? You also tell me that you have seen Clark Kent do many other spectacular things, yes? Then tell me how multiple and disparate mutations would occur in one person? Or perhaps I am missing something.”
Kale absorbed those words. His boss was right. It didn’t make sense that the dual properties of the meteor rocks would manifest in one person. That person would surely die if the source of strength and weakness were one and the same. Another important point was made. The meteor freaks documented did have random abilities but once established any given individual had a natural progression of abilities.
No meteor freak had the ability to run quickly and have above human capability strength. They were too different. Taken into context with the fact that the boy, Tobias, who could see meteor freaks, indicated that Kent was not meteor infected it made little sense. Unless Tobias was wrong. But that also didn’t make sense. Tobias was batting 1000 when it came to identifying meteor infected. “Occam’s Razor.”
Kale spoke, “It only makes sense if Kent is the cause. Did you know that his adoption papers are so shallow as to imply that he was never really adopted?”
He heard chuckle on the other end, “Yes. Chloe Sullivan accidentally discovered that little fact. Did you know that a few locals said that something significantly larger than meteor rocks crashed into town?”
Kale heard the riddle posed in the question. “Impossible.”
“You’re telling me that an actual ship may have crashed?”
The voice on the other end continued without answering his question, “I have been aware of Clark Kent, but this new information helps me in my endeavors. You also intrigue me with the information on Lana. Sooner or later, I’ll want to involve her directly. She’s the weakest link. Congratulations, Mr. Kale, I am impressed. But I have another assignment for you. Too much attention is being paid to my project, especially from Daddy Dearest. I want you to cause a major distraction. I don’t care how you do it. I do, however, require that you set up a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises for whatever activity you settle on. FoxTech is run by Lucius Fox. He’s a cohort of Wayne. More importantly, they recently developed some new kind of mine that will be seeing limited army use. It’s having a coming out party. I’d like that party to be delayed. The government is becoming a thorn in my side so I’d like these birds killed with one stone. I won’t breathe down your neck on this. My project requires my full attention. You’ll have what you need by tomorrow. I want to read about this in the news, Kale.”
The line went dead. He was both frustrated and surprised. So few of his bosses allowed him such autonomy. And even fewer were able to evade him. No question that mattered to him had actually been answered…but they were in a round about way. True to form, his boss delivered. He once again had the blueprints for the pipsqueak mine, which elicited a small laugh from Kale, and the mine itself. He would’ve worried about the mine if there wasn’t a paper attached to it with the headline: FoxTech Warehouse Robbed. Unknown Items Taken. He was impressed. “A boss who anticipates my worries.” Kale set his mind to work on the problem and found a solution that was bound to make a splash. His heartbeat sped up and a smile lit his face. “This will be fun.”
Present…
For two weeks, Kale followed Lana to figure out Lionel Luthor’s schedule. Through the course of his investigations, Kale had found that Lana Lang was trying to play father and son against each other. His observations indicated that she was failing miserably at her games. “She is the worst kind of woman.” He spent a lot of time in and out of Smallville. For someone so high profile, Luthor foolishly allowed his arrogance to get in the way of prudence. The man didn’t think anyone would come for him. But Lionel Luthor was wrong.
The last stretch of road into Smallville was a two lane affair. It was also surrounded by corn fields with only a few breaks of clear land in between. On this particular day, a Monday, the road was deserted. Kale had noticed that the road was empty of cars between noon and 2 PM. It was also the time that Lionel Luthor generally rolled into town in his impressive limo. Luthor had taken to using the limo instead of the helicopter due to the falling out with his son.
Luthor would not have his driver stop to help a motorist whose car had broken down, but he would stop if that car took up both lanes due to an accident. Kale deliberately hit the embankment on either side of road so that he’d have to overcompensate and the car would end up crashed. He had a hell of a time finding and stealing a car that would serve his needs, but he had. This stretch of road was also very good because there were no cell towers nearby. It lay well outside of Metropolis’s and Smallville’s range of towers. Nevertheless, Kale activated his cell phone killer. It interfered with phone signals. Lionel would be unable to call anyone for help.
Kale positioned himself a little ways off the road and watched through the scope as Luthor’s limo slowed and finally stopped. He was a good marksman, but the tires were the kind that would work even when flat and the windows were bulletproof. He expected nothing less. He watched as the driver got out of the car. This was the moment. “Perfect.” Kale pulled the trigger and fired three bullets into the back of the driver. The scope made it possible for him to see the blood spray as the bullets violently impacted the man. He had been tempted to go for the head shot, but figured that now wasn’t the time to get fancy.
He left his rifle and ran from his vantage point to the limo. Kale had to get Luthor out of the car quickly. Luthor wouldn’t come out of the car voluntarily, but he also wouldn’t be able to get to the front seat of the limo easily. The partition ensured it. Kale made it to the limo just as Lionel found the courage to step out on the side of the car away from the bullets.
Kale figured the man had a gun. He had on full riot gear. Luthor could prove to be adept with a gun to make a head shot. Kale was not going to find out if he was. ”Better safe than sorry.” He called out to the elder Luthor, “Mr. Luthor, I’m Samuel Kale. It’s nice to make your acquaintance.”
********
One minute, Lionel Luthor was enjoying reaming an employee about some report and then his cell phone died. A few moments later, his driver lowered the limo partition and informed him of a wreck.
“Mr. Luthor, sir, we seem to have a problem. There’s an overturned car-“
Lionel interrupted him, “Drive around the car and call the authorities.”
“I can’t, sir. The car is taking up both lanes and my phone is dead.”
Lionel’s patience vanished. He had a meeting with Lex. The boy didn’t know it, but that didn’t matter. Lionel picked up his phone to dial out and discovered that it was also dead. It was fully charged. There was no reason for it to not function.
“Sir, I’m going to see if the person in the car is ok. I’ll also check for a phone.”
The driver, Lionel forgot his name, raised the partition and exited the car. Three loud bangs in quick succession greeted Lionel’s ears. He identified them as bullets. They could be nothing else. He moved to exit the car and stopped himself. Whoever was shooting was probably not going to stop at a limo driver. Lionel took stock of the situation and did not like the way things were going. He used his control panel to lower the partition once again, but he wasn’t as flexible as he used to be and getting to the front seat would slow him down too much.
Lionel had to take the risk and assume that there was only one shooter. He probably wasn’t in too much danger. “Probably a kidnap attempt.” If it was, then whoever it was wouldn’t want him dead. Lionel didn’t know who the hell was shooting at his limo, but this person would pay.
He exited the car away from where he expected the shooter to be and crouched low. Lionel heard a voice call out to him, “Mr. Luthor, I’m Samuel Kale. It’s nice to make your acquaintance.”
Kale drew his tranquilizer gun and dropped to the ground. He saw that Luthor was crouched low, but his knee touched the ground. It was a good enough shot to get a dart in him. Kale took the shot and was rewarded with a soft expletive and then the sound of Luthor’s body hitting the dirt.
Samuel Kale stood. It was now time for the hard stuff. He pushed the driver into the passenger seat and carried Lionel into a break in the corn field where his car was hidden. Kale had enough time to wipe the mine of his fingerprints, both inside and out, and place it on the underside of the car. He was sorry that he wouldn’t be able to stay for the explosion because it was on a timer. The mine could be traced to an employee of FoxTech. He so rarely got to work with demolitions. No matter. He had his mark. Lionel wouldn’t be given up for dead, but in the interim there would be an investigation. It would be on the front page.
********
Lionel Luthor woke up to a funny smell. When he tried to move, he found that he was bound to a chair and his mouth felt like he had cotton in it. His head pounded in time with his heartbeat. He was uncomfortable.
A voice sounded to his right, “Ahh…I see you are awake, Mr. Luthor. I trust your nap was about as good as it gets for these types of situations.”
If there was anything that Lionel Luthor knew, it was when he was being mocked. He moved his head to face his kidnapper and found that he didn’t so much move it as it lolled to the side.
Lionel would’ve said something cutting, but his tongue simply would not work. Kale saw the man’s predicament. He was tempted to be mean, but that wouldn’t satisfy his boss, who wanted his humiliation. Kale brought a glass of water to Lionel’s lip and allowed water to trickle into his mouth. Kale watched as Lionel composed himself. He saw the very moment that lucidity returned to Lionel and watched as his cunning mind began to work in earnest.
Lionel swallowed and spoke, his voice raspy, “You’ll regret this.”
Kale readied himself for a grand performance. This would be the best kill he’d earned. If he were into trophies or otherwise marking occasions, now would’ve been the perfect time. As it were, Kale was content to allow this moment to forever exist in his mind alone.
Kale laughed and allowed his entire body to shake with his mirth, “Maybe. Probably not. I will tell you this, I won’t be ruing the day in your lifetime.”
Lionel narrowed his eyes at the threat, “If you’re looking for money, I should tell you that Luthorcorp has a policy against negotiating with kidnappers. Stop this nonsense now, and I’ll be tempted to let this offense go unpunished.”
“In that case, I suppose I should tell you that I don’t plan on sending out some cliché ridden ransom note. No, I plan on killing you, Mr. Luthor.”
Lionel let his words wash over him, “Samuel Kale was it? If you honestly believe-“
Kale was getting bored with the blustering and decided to end it now, “Mr. Luthor, you shouldn’t concern yourself with the “whats” of the situation. You are going to die and I’ll be the one to kill you. Now you know the “what” of the situation. I’m being paid to do this, but the satisfaction of knowing that I got Lionel Luthor to beg for his life is more than gratifying. I wouldn’t waste your breath on offering me money to let you live either. It just isn’t going to happen. I’ve already been bought. But really, the most important question is the “how”. I can kill you quickly, well quickly for me, it’ll still be far too slow for you. Or, I can kill you slowly. What I want from you is your pass codes. You scatter your technological resources so well.”
Lionel Luthor refused to believe that this was his end. He was not meant to die this way. He was going to get out this. This…this piece of hired filth would not get the better of Lionel Luthor. No one could’ve gotten this close to him without help. As soon as the thought that Lex might’ve had a hand in this entered his mind, Lionel quashed it. There was no way that his cowardly, broken son could’ve done this. Lex was just too weak.
Lionel affected his patented smirk that even his son tried so hard to imitate, “Even as we speak, there are people looking for me. It’s only a matter of time before you are found out. You will not get away with this. I’m going to bet that you have a family. Everything about you will be investigated. I’ll have you, boy.”
As soon as Luthor mentioned family, the smirk left Kale’s face, “I get it. I see what you’re trying to do now. You’re trying to play on my weaknesses. I think I need to reassess my opinion of you. Bravo! Unlike many of the people you have brought low, I remain unaffected. I will help you out though.”
Samuel began ticking points off of his fingers with his gun, “I have numerous daddy issues. He beat me and then I killed him. I wasn’t too fond of women for a long time. There was a long time when I only accepted jobs with female targets. My mother was a terrible influence. I even have a few sexual hang-ups. My girlfriend is such a sweet heart. She’s helped me through many issues I have. I love her to death. Quite literally. So, Mr. Luthor, do your worst. The difference between me and the fodder you destroy so completely is that I know myself. In real terms, it changes nothing, but it does mean that I can sometimes harness my own impulses. I won’t be panicking. I won’t deviate from my plan.”
Lionel set his mouth to say something cutting to the upstart that dared to touch him, but he didn’t have a chance before Kale spoke again.
“The trouble with men like us is that we believe ourselves to be strong. Powerful. My death will undoubtedly be painful. The strong are brought low quicker than the weak because we don’t see it coming. We don’t even believe it will come. But I believe. And now, I’m going to make a believer out of you.”
Lionel scoffed, “Better men than you have come at me. From all sides, they have come at me. And still I won. Because that’s who I am and that’s what I have created. I have an empire of people afraid of me. People who will look for me out of loyalty, fear, and respect. You are one of many fools I will grind into dust, boy.”
It was in that moment that Kale knew how to get him. His son. It was always through the family that you can get to the mighty, “I want you to know that I found you through someone close to you. Someone betrayed you. It was fun to trap you using one of those people you’ve created an empire out of.”
“Lex would never-”
Kale let Lionel have his assumption and interrupted him, “Mr. Luthor do you believe that because you believe that your son doesn’t have the guts to do so? Or maybe because you think you’ve beaten him down. Or maybe it’s because you simply can’t envision a scenario where you lose by the hand of your son. Make no mistake you have lost.”
And there it was. The look that made everything he did worthwhile. The look of resigned defeat. The moment that his mark knew that they were well and truly ruined. That everything they knew to be true wasn’t and that he, Samuel Kale, would come out on top.
Kale leaned until he was nose to nose with Lionel Luthor and his voice became a whisper, “There are those people who are wrapped in bubble. Innocent. Never truly knowing or understanding that the world they live in is tainted with darkness here and there. The world is an endless joy to them. And to these people I give them my resounding indifference. What should I care for them? There are those in the glass house, who see the troubles coming their way and every now and again a window is broken. They pick up the pieces of their window and make a new one. Or maybe they put duct tape over it and resolve to fix it later. These people would benefit from barricading themselves in, but they can’t imagine not letting the sun bathe them. Most of them don’t even know what it means to take the easy way. They toil and toil. They deserve what happiness they can find; their peace of mind, but it’s not for us. Never for us or those who dabble in the games we play. We aren’t strong enough to handle it. It is one of the greatest ironies crafted by God. And now. Now you begin to believe. I knew I’d make a believer of you.”
Then the screaming began. It didn’t stop until an hour later. Kale surveyed his work. It was his best yet. Samuel felt a rush that he had never felt before. His heart raced and his breath left his body in forceful pants. “It’s almost like sex.” He doubted that it would be like this ever again. After he cleaned this place and arranged the body for discovery, he’d call Marissa. He needed to hear her sweet voice in his ear. He needed to dissociate himself from this kill. He couldn’t yearn for something like this ever again. He needed to remember that this wasn’t personal. It was business…clinical. Anything otherwise would lead to his self destruction. He would be better than that.
********
The world woke up to a breaking bulletin. It filled the radio airwaves. It filled television stations. Everyone was in on the know. Lionel Luthor was found dead. Tied to a scarecrow stand in a corn field of Smallville. It was equidistant to the Kent farm and the mansion owned by Lex Luthor. His body posed to be a blasphemous mockery of a crucifixion. If Lionel Luthor wanted to live like a god, then Kale would let him die like one.
Already there were major shake-ups at FoxTech due to the hardware found at the scene of the crime. A huge investigation was ongoing and Wayne Enterprises was rocked by a scandal the size of which it had never encountered before. Luthorcorp was shaken to its very core. It was chaos and mayhem at its most glorious.
Never before had he clung to Marissa as he had when news first broke. Samuel needed her to ground him…to focus him. She helped get rid of the euphoric feeling of Lionel’s death. She prevented him from immersing himself in it. He had just finished speaking with Marissa when his phone rang.
“You did well.”
Samuel didn’t have a chance to speak before the line went dead. His employer would forever remain a mystery to him. Nothing like what would be expected.
“I knew it was going to be a good day.”
Back to Chapter 6
Off path to a Samuel Kale origin story
Onward to Chapters 7c and 7d