“You let Jim ride David’s horse?” Bill Turner had a shocked look on his face.
“It was an emergency. David has been hurt and we knew the GC would be smart enough to make it back.” Rick said defensively. The two boys had decided to drop the horses off since Joe was already in with Sergeant Reynolds by the time they arrived and his horse had been wondering off.
“Oh I get that, but what you apparently don’t get is that David breaks in horses for me. His horse is always the wildest one I have.” Bill chuckled and looked at Jim. “You’re lucky he didn’t just toss you off.” He sighed and his face took on a more serious expression. “I hope David is ok, he’s a good kid.” He started leading the horses back to the barn two at a time.
Sergeant Reynolds was walking out of the fort screaming commands and that everyone was scrambling to react. “I want 21 men on route to Fort 24 right now. Twenty of them report to Commander Jackson for immediate deployment to deal with Ist activity. The other man needs to meet me at City Hall with a report on David’s status. I want 5 more men at the Fortress of Solitude backing up Danny. I’m taking these boys into town to explain what just happened to the Mayor. We’re going to be running on a skeleton crew here men so I want all eyes South.”
Rick walked towards the man. “Sergeant Reynolds, I want to be one of the men that go to Fort 24 to hunt down the Ist that did this.”
“I’ll tell you the same thing that I told Joe. Not gonna happen. I’m not sending you boys into harms way and you can’t be fully affective to Commander Jackson without clearance into Fort 24 and you are a good year away from getting that. My decision stands and we do not have time to discuss it.” He stepped up to the stable. “Bill I need four horses.”
As the boys rode to town Jim had a chance to take in the sites he had missed while running to the Fort that morning. The first thing that caught his eye was a large statue in front of the town pantry. It was a man holding a paper sack. The pantry was just a warehouse and was positioned close to Fort Massac to allow for better control if another food riot were ever to break out. The town’s food was actually handed out from City Hall and large amounts were never onsite. Up ahead on the right was an old theatre that a group of kids from school had just recently started using for plays. On the left in the distance was a water tower. It had been reinforced over the years and whatever had once been painted on it had chipped away until there were just flakes of color left.
Town hall was the largest prebomb building still standing in Metropolis. It was two stories with large open courtyards on all sides. A stable had been built to the East of the building. In the back a 20ft tall statue of a man stood holding his hands to his waist. It had a long red cape and a bright red and yellow S symbol on its chest. Jim knew that this iconic character had been important to the town before the bombs. He had seen the symbol still standing all throughout town. In the days after the bombing though peoples priorities had changed. The town had created a new identity for itself and surviving was more important than honoring a fictional character. There were still those in town that knew about him and tried to keep his stories alive. Jim and his father were certainly not those people.
Shannon McQuery Sr. was the Mayor who had seen Metropolis through the bomb and was single handedly credited for its current well being. He is remembered as the greatest leader Metropolis has ever known, and his son is remembered as the worst. Under Shannon McQuery Jr. the town had seen corruption and mismanagement like they had never known before. Jim often wondered if it was the stress of not being able to live up to his father’s legend that led to the mayor’s downfall. Whatever the cause it left a large mess for current mayor Frank Parker to clean up. Jim found himself standing in front of this man telling him all about yet another complication that he would have to deal with.
Mayor Parker listened quietly to the boys telling their story. He let each one tell it as they remembered and took notes occasionally. When the last boy was done with his story the Mayor finally spoke. “This is troubling on many levels. You boys were set up for an ambush and are lucky to be alive. Those Ists somehow managed to raid town food as well. This says to me that they are organized.” He shook his head. “I haven’t seen this level of organization since James crushed the last band thirteen years ago.” Mayor Parker looked at Jim. “Your father is a hero and this town can never repay him enough for what he did or what you two had to sacrifice.”
The Mayor turned back to Sergeant Reynolds. “We are still going to have the celebration tomorrow. This town needs its yearly morale boost and I will not have this incident tarnish that. I can’t help but wonder about it’s timing. One day before the celebration seems like too much of a coincidence.” He looked at the boys. “We cannot spare extra men to attend the celebration now. They need to be patrolling the northern border. I want you three and any other recruits to keep a close eye on the town during the celebration. I want you to celebrate and have a good time, but you keep your eyes open for anything suspicious.”
Before any of the boys could answer they were startled by a knocking at the door. Mayor Parker motioned for Sergeant Reynolds to open the door. “I have news from Fort 24 sir.” Jim was not sure if the man was speaking to the mayor or Sergeant Reynolds. “The Taylor boy pulled through. It was real touch and go for a while there and they weren’t sure, but the docs managed to stabilize him. They said another few minutes and it would have been too late.”
Mayor Parker looked back at the boy. “Well I guess you three have something extra special to celebrate this year. You’re dismissed for the rest of the day. Go home to your families before word of this spreads to them. Sergeant Reynold you stay here. We need to talk.”