Lois was fuming in the solitude of her room. Kal-El was insufferable. Not that she had expected her captor to be a kindly benefactor, but he was going to deny her food to make her bow to his whims. What other demands would he make of her?

There was a knock at the door, and she tensed, expecting it to be him. She didn't answer, but the knocking continued. "It's Lara. I've come to bring you your dinner."

Greatly relieved, she opened the door. The older woman came in to set the food and drink down on the bed.

"This is kind of you." Lois said. "What is Kal-El going to say about it though?"

"He would relent after while. I'm just doing what I know he's going to allow when he's had time to think about it."

She snorted. He was much too arrogant to go back on his word from what she'd seen. "And give into a lower life form? I think not."

"It's not his fault really. It's how his father saw your people. He's passed his prejudices onto his son through his clone."

She was full of good excuses for his behavior, but she wasn't completely buying them. "And his mother, what did she think?"

"She didn't know what to think about the people of Earth, but I think she would have liked you a lot."

It was a strange thing for her to say. Sweet but strange. She picked up her plate.

It looked like gray paste, not very appetizing, and she was afraid it was some kind of alien dish that might not be good for her. "Not trying to be rude, but what is this?"

Lois wouldn't be surprised if the alien poisoned it. Maybe he was collecting dead Earthlings back there in the forbidden section like some kind of episode off the Twilight Zone. She shuddered at the thought, realizing she probably watched too many horror movies.

"It's fish paste."

"Yummy," she said, lying through her teeth, but at least it came from this planet.

"Earthlings don't eat it?"

"Oh, I'm sure somebody somewhere here does, but not this Earthling." Her stomach growled. "I am hungry though."

She overcame the ick factor and stuck her finger in it and to her mouth quickly before she changed her mind about being hungry enough for fish paste. It wasn't the best tasting stuff in the world but not the worst and full of protein.

Lois didn't expect a parade of food, but she did hope that they ate more than fish paste around here.

sss

"I need a phone!" Sam shouted as he tore into the Talon. He was panting, out of breath from the running he'd done.

The girl behind the counter asked, "What happened to your hand? You should go to the hospital right away."

That took him back by surprise. A hospital in the midst of all these cornfields? It didn't distract him for long though. "Never mind that. My daughter is being held against her will. I've got to get help."

"By who?" she said, eyes wide with alarm, as she handed over the phone.

He ignored her and dialed 911 and said as much as he could as quickly as he could "I need an officer trained in crisis negotiation to come down with me to the Katawatche cave. My daughter is being held hostage, and bullets aren't going to work." He sighed, dreading this part but knowing he had to say it. "It's only fair to know what you're up against: he's an extraterrestrial."

Laughter rang out from the other side of the line and around the room. He would've thought if there was any place on Earth that would believe him, it'd be Kansas. They had once been a hotbed of alleged alien activity in the not so distant past. It was practically an American sport here in the Midwest, along with football and baseball.

The girl who'd loaned him her phone didn't laugh. She only rolled her eyes in a way that reminded him he was glad his daughters were grown up as he didn't have the patience anymore for their teen antics if he ever had.

He'd send in the whole army if he could, but this had to be a secretive operation. For if the space creature saw them coming, there was no telling what he'd do to her. He'd find someone to help him, but he wasn't going to find it among these yokels. He hung up on the emergency operator.

"Hang on, Lois," he pleaded.