Zamba para decir adiós [Flashback]

[Deleted]

"Olvida niña que un día
te di promesas de amor,
entonces yo no sabía
este destino cantor,
entonces yo no sabía, perdona,
este destino cantor."

The Favelas were dull in color from where Lex Luthor could see them from the high floors of the hotel, staring out over the thick wall he stared out and up the hillside as the people wandered around like ants. They lived without food, without water, without electricity, clinging to desparation and crime in an economic nightmare that  required desperate measures to escape. 



In some ways it mirrored his own childhood. The desperation of poverty, of being surrounded by a world where success was punished by abuse. Where hunger and need turns to twist the minds of men into monsters. The people of the Favela were pressed together like molecules under high pressure. Bumping into eachother and pressing against one another and binding together and heating up. It would take one weak point in the structure and it would explode, taking everything around with it. 

Lex Luthor knew the hunger that drove a man to extremes. He'd experienced it, understanding the way that pressure can transform, can drive a man to greatness, to extreme measures to overcome impossible odds. He was born nameless and unwanted, nobody, and it took extreme measures to cut ties with a family that only sought to crush his potential. Although in fairness to the people of the Favela, Lex Luthor  never had the increasing pressure of facing the same crisis with so many others. 



No, Lex Luthor had faced his demons alone. 

[Deleted]

Lex Luthor's own surroundings were significantly more luxurious than those of the Favela, his suite was near the top of the hotel. He was wealthy now, wealthier. He had already been a millionaire at 15, he was entering that club of self made Billionaire in his early 20s. His time in the desert had tempered him, given him more elan to work with, grace and style. No longer merely a man driven by hunger and need, he knew now the value of symbolism, and that the symbol he would craft would be that of Lex Luthor. He was losing his hair now, and styled what was left with care. He knew he'd be bald before age 24, and would probably just shave it off before long. Best to be bald with dignity. Best to meet the world on your terms.



The roof had its own swimming pool and a small cafe, a luxury that Lex Luthor found himself enjoying a great deal. Opulence, wealth, class. El Presidente was courting him now, and that Favela was the problem to be solved. A den of crime, poverty and tempers where society broke down. Soon it would explode and take the country down with it. It was a problem that had numerous clear and clever solutions, and naturally El Presidente was choosing none of them, instead pushing for a better equipped task force to raid the Favelas. The new developments by Professor Sivana provided entre into the field, the connections made through Ra's al Ghul helped him to establish the first connection, but now here he was in a city falling apart, in a country at the verge of something horrible in the air. The hotel was largely empty, Lex's delegation was the primary occupant inside of it, due to the challenges in the city, the economic crisis had driven much of the investment away.

There were no green pastures here, except for those willing to seek them out. Lex Luthor sat at a table near the edge of the roof, staring down over the Favela to his left, with the rest of the city to his right. On the border of economic disparity, Lex Luthor sipped his drink and leaned back in the chair of a mostly empty hotel, ready to become the primary law enforcement supplier in the nation, provided the meeting went well, provided he could supply the right goods. . . provided many things. But still, it wasn't the worst thing that could happen. 

"Mr. Luthor. As I said, I feel that the government MIGHT be interested in your materiel, but the cost must be discussed. The military can also find use for your new weapons technology, but in the jungles and in the streets, Kalashnikov is King with reliability, expense and interchangeability. What does LexCorp have to offer the administration. What can I show to El Presidente that will illustrate the seriousness of your offer?" Right, the man, the dull man across from him, a flunky, not the President, a minister of some sort. Distracting Lex Luthor from the view of the Favela, his eyes rolled back to the Minister for a moment. 

"If you feel that further demonstrations are required, then tell El Presidente that one will be provided. If you honestly believe that Kalashnikovs are the future instead of a remnant of the past, then I'm certain that I can't negotiate with the administration, any more than I can negotiate with a caveman about the effectiveness of anything but a sharper rock." The words of Vandal Savage played in his memory at that. But Lex Luthor was staring now with full attention at the minister who was starting to sputter.

"But I don't offer guns. Not mere rifles. No, what LexCorp offers is a more comprehensive catalog of options. A comprehensive catalog that El Presidente has seen. . . and so have you. And so have your neighbors, who are also somewhat interested in more than Kalashnikovs. . . But I understand how business must be done. There's considerations, and naturally the contribution to El Presidente's re-election must be safe. . . but let's provide a sample, and a gift." He reaches into his belt to unholster the small device, the size of a cellphone, bulky and filling the hand with an antenna, handing the device to the minister

The Minister looked at it for a moment incredulously "And what is this? this is the device that is meant to do what we need? What can that do to quell the violence of the Favelas?" The minister pushed one of the buttons, and then blinked as he felt himself bend over, clutching his stomach as his knees fell down.

"That sense of dizziness you're feeling, and nausea, is part of the newest contribution to the LexCorp Technology." Lex Luthor stood up and walked to the minister, taking the device from the clutched hand and pushing the button again.  The Minister looks shaken for a moment, staring at Lex Luthor. "It uses sound waves, quite an interesting device. I'll give you mine, as a gift for El Presidente. . . " He narrows his eyes and then says "Along with the earplugs that prevent the unpleasantness you just underwent. One of our less invasive and lighter devices from LexCorp weapons technology." 

The Minister chokes a bit and feels himself throw up over the side of the table onto the ground. Lex Luthor closes his eyes and clenches his teeth in shame at this horrendous display, before controlling his face back into calmness. "Senor Magueda. This underscores the importance of eating lightly and not pushing random buttons of devices offered to you. Too much heavy food and too little caution with curiosity can be bad for your health, but I admire your scientific ambition. But notice, minor disorientation, nausea and then . . . back to normal. The perfect dispersal weapon, nonlethal, incapacitating, attention grabbing." He looks at the minister for a moment and says "I'll look forward to hearing from El Presidente soon." He clicks his tongue and nods his head, another man in a black suit approaches with a briefcase. Lex opens it and then places the device inside, staring at the Minister, who clears his throat. 

"Mr. Luthor. . . I . . . look forward to providing your . . . gift to El Presidente." The minister looked like his composure's regained.


Lex Luthor offered a manila envelope to the Minister. "I appreciate you paying such attention to my needs, Senor. Please, accept this gift. . . for your time." The envelope was thumbed through, a change on the look of the minister's face, he stands up and then straightens his tie and takes a sip of water. "Y. .yes, Mr. Luthor. I look forward to the meeting and demonstration." 

The minister walked away. Lex watched him wander away, shaking his head as the minister was escorted out. He looked up at his local guide for a moment and then said "This is the quality of the government officials here? I'm beginning to understand the problem. "

The guide smirked at that.

"I think I'd like to get out of the hotel for a time. Go downtown. . . see something other than Favelas."

The guide raised an eyebrow at that and said "You want to leave the hotel?"

Lex Luthor pursed his lips and said "Yes, I think I would. Where's a good place for lunch here? I find that the ambiance here. . . is sickening" 

The guide shrugs and says "Well, I know one place."

[Deleted]

Te amé no puedes negarlo

conmigo te llevaré

hecha recuerdo en mi canto,

en zamba, te nombraré,

hecha recuerdo en mi canto, mi cielo,

en zamba, te nombraré.

The old man played on guitar on the street Corner. Lex Luthor walked through the pedestrian side streets on roads of cobblestone, the address clear in his mind. The outdoor markets weren't teeming as they should, the streets largely empty except for a few wanderers in the heat of the sun. 



Lex Luthor appreciated the old buildings from an aesthetic point of view, and he agreed that they gave such an interesting sense of place to the city. But that being said. . . Lex Luthor was never one for sentiment. Old ties like sentiment could easily hold one back, hold one down. He'd lost his family young, and in some ways that defined him, he'd never looked back and never regretted their loss. 

But why think of father so often? Lionel Luthor, viscious, nasty, small minded in many ways compared to Lex. Not worthy of consideration. Lex pushed the man out of his mind and walked past the antique shop, without a second glance. The cobblestone streets were workable, but there were few cars. 

He heard the clanging from a street away, a mass of people striking pans and pots.

"¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido! ¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido! ¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido! ¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido! ¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!" The sound of the small group's chanting as they marched was covered by the loud noises of the bangs of pots and pans. They continued to march even as the sirens approached. 

Lex Luthor avoided the commotion through a side street and continued to walk, casually. It was of faint interest, but intellectually so. He saw no reason to be caught in that if necessary. He soon found his way through the empty market street into the cafe, near one of the plazas. 



He'd seen her about the hotel, the American. One of the few faces from home around his own hotel. Passing in the hallway once in a while in silence, never once saying hello.

She'd been there for weeks now, before he arrived. . . quiet, private, he didn't know she left the hotel, he certainly hadn't seen her around at night. . . and he was often too busy during the day to notice. When he saw her at the table alone, he thought for a moment and then decided to join her. 

"I think you're at my hotel. I've seen you in the hallways and in the upstairs cafe. I'm Lex Luthor." He spoke with confidence of knowing exactly who he was. He smiled faintly and then gestured at the menu saying "I've heard the Milanesa is more than adequate here. Would you care for some company over the meal? I haven't seen many Americans in the area, and I find it pleasant and often educational to speak with other travellers abroad." He smiled in that charming way that he is ought to do at times. 

[Deleted]

It hasn't been difficult to be Candace lately. Of course, it's not been that difficult for her to be Candace for a very long time, as she's well and truly used to playing the part after so many years of doing so. Still, one tires of acting broody and depressed all the time if that's not how you really feel, only able to be your true self at night. It's been a very, very long 'lifetime' this time. But now she's run out of things to do but wait for Aria - it's only a matter of waiting for the start of the next school year at the boarding school in the United States that she selected, a bit of juggling to at least briefly live both lives, and then she can be finished being Candace forever. So now all she has to do is wait.

And waiting is very, very boring. It's almost method acting to be depressed right now.

She hasn't been at the cafe for long, as evidenced by the fact that she's still perusing the menu, when a not completely unfamiliar face appears at her table. "I know," she replies to his introduction, "And you're here trying to sell weapons to the Argentinian government." And the way that she says it makes it sound as if she finds the whole thing utterly boring. "I'm Candace Lloyd," she introduces herself, almost as an afterthought - it doesn't really matter who she is, but it's polite to introduce yourself when someone else does so.

Though it seems on the surface that she's completely immune to his smile, as charming as it is, his offer of company prompts a vague gesture at the empty chairs at her table as she says, "If you'd like." She pauses for a moment to allow him to seat himself before asking, "Do you mind if I smoke?"

[Deleted]

"Not at all" He joins her, sitting down in the chair. He was more refined now than before, but still somewhat inelegant, he had a reputation for arrogance, for politeness but a lack of subtlety in some regards, socially. He settled into the chair and glanced at the menu, listening to the distant banging of pots and drums, the distant sound of sirens. 

The heat of the sun was barely averted by the umbrella over the cafe. He exhaled and sat calmly "I'm not trying to sell weapons, I'm trying to sell solutions. The government sees the only solution as weapons, so that's what I sell. If they were able to see their options more clearly, then they'd work with me in other areas." He considered the menu for a moment. 

"But then again if the government could consider other options, I doubt they'd have the problem to begin with. They're responding to force with more force, and it's brutal and inefficient. Just look at the  Peña Dura problem they have." He shakes his head and then looks up at her for a while. "The government seeks to use overwhelming force, because it's the only option they seem to know." He shrugs as the waiter approaches. He puts in an order, and then looks at his companion. 

"And what of you? You seem to know much about me. . . what brings you to this . . . paradise?" He raises an eyebrow, saying the term sardonically, there's a continuation of chanting, distant sirens. 

[Deleted]

The instant that he indicates his lack of concern with it, Candace retrieves a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her purse and has one lit within moments with the practiced ease of someone who has done so a very large number of times. Returning the pack and lighter to her purse, she idly watches him as he rambles about weapons. But though she looks completely unenthused about the whole thing, there's also a small hint of amusement in her features.

When the waiter arrives she orders the milanesa con puré and a cup of coffee with a certain careless fluency with the Spanish language. That done, she puts her cigarette to her lips and sighs as she answers Luthor's question. "I'm here on an extended vacation with my daughter, Aria," she explains, "This is a lovely country - except for the parts that aren't." The hint of amusement that had crossed her expression before reappears much more noticeably as she remarks, "Their economy is in such a state of collapse that you can live like a king here on practically nothing as long as you have American dollars. And buying all those weapons from you only digs the hole deeper."

Which is all a good thing for her, actually. Because while the trust fund for Aria will be rather substantial regardless, more is always better and she's saving a lot of money by living in the manner to which she's accustomed here rather than somewhere else. Of course, the drawback is that they could find themselves in the middle of civil war at any moment, but she's not much worried about that.

[Deleted]

Lex Luthor shrugs at the idea as the drinks are brought to the table, "Many of the weapons I offer are nonlethal, and I hope that when the hole cracks open, and whatever happens occurs. . . there will be a reduction in loss of life and resources due to the interaction of LexCorp" He takes the drink as it comes, sipping it softly. It's chill and fends off the heat. He closes his eyes as he listens to the distant sounds of sirens, things are growing quiet, the banging is slowing down. It sounds as if the police have things well in hand.

"But then again there are a number of other corporations seeking to expand their interests here. UltraGen lacks the restraint that LexCorp shows. They're offering nothing but guns and explosives and chemical weapons. I'm not interested in destroying a country. I just want to stabilize it and build business contacts to let my company grow. If that means stabilizing a country so that investment can come in and we can make lives better, then so be it. If it means the country collapses, I'll be greatly saddened."

He looks at his lunch companion. The commotion was dying, it was almost quiet now. A guitar player strummed along and played on the street. Lex Luthor looked over his glass and said "Either way . . . I'm not here to start a fire . . . I'm only here to keep warm in the blaze."



The funny thing about explosions, is that in the immediate aftermath, the only thing you hear is ringing, the only thing you feel is the blast and the push and the heat. As the building across the square exploded, there was the sound of screaming. There was the sound of rioting across the way, the surprise had taken La Policia completely. Lex Luthor and Candace had a front row seat to it. The gates of perdition opened, and all of hell followed in its wake. 

[Deleted]

Her coffee arrives and she sips it as the man continues to insist on the nobility of his cause. Does she believe him? Well, she may or she may not - the more important question is whether or not she cares, and she certainly doesn't. Whenever there's a conflict, whomever supplies the weapons gets rich - that's been the case ever since it became possible for weapons to be imported rather than being made locally. And all of them always seem to try to justify it, believing that they're simply supporting the side that is 'right' and attempting to end the conflict sooner.

In reality, the side that's 'right' is whomever wins, and the more weapons you give them the longer it will take for them to decide who that will be. It's not as if it's possible for the government to get a real edge on having better weapons - not when there's so many corrupt government officials who are happy to supply the other side with a healthy portion of whatever their own side is getting, for the right price. If both sides ran out of bullets, on the other hand, perhaps they'd get somewhere. Or they'd downgrade to knives and other weapons, but even that would lower the bodycount. But they won't run out of bullets because there's profit to be made by anyone who sells them. So though Lex's motives are noted, they're also meaningless at this stage of the conflict. Perhaps later they'll come up with a better way later. Probably not while she's still in the country, though.

She trades between her coffee and her cigarette, enjoying the mix of caffeine and nicotine in her system. Both will be missed when she becomes Aria, too young for cigarettes or to drink much coffee. Neither have any power to give her a physical addiction, but they have a psychological effect as well that she's not entirely immune to. And as she enjoys both, she listens but without much interest, though the way her head shifts as the distant noises fade indicates that she's listening to that even as she's listening to him. Her explanation about why she's here may have made it sound as if she is unaware of or is complacent about the turmoil, but she isn't. She's simply very confident in her ability to handle it if the situation suddenly spirals out of control - it's not like she hasn't seen trouble like this many times before, after all.

Even as her lips part to finally respond to what he's saying, an explosion across the square interrupts. The ability to do that without the aide of a magician is a relatively new thing to her, though fortunately she adapts to these things quickly. With little hesitation, she drops her cigarette into her coffee and grabs her purse as she stands and says, "We need to go." Adding urgency to her words, she tugs on his sleeve, though she doesn't wait to be sure that he's coming before she hurries away from the explosion, trying to get away from the area as quickly as possible and before the stunned locals can decide how to react. Because she already knows how they're going to react - instead of doing the sensible thing of leaving the area, a majority of the people in the immediate area will gather and use this as the genesis for a riot, while the rest will hide in their houses until it's over. And if that alone isn't enough of a reason to leave, what will happen when La Policia manages to gather together a response will be... far too messy.

Though one couldn't quite call her pace a run, she still makes impressive time as she seeks to distance herself from the site of the explosion. But though she wasn't concerned enough with Lex's well-being to make sure he got up, she doesn't get too far before she glances back to check and at least see where he is. Her instinct now is to go back to the hotel as fast as possible, as she figures that the violence won't make it all the way there and hopefully she can get ahead of it and stay ahead of it in the meantime. But she does suspect that the most direct route isn't going to be safe and perhaps she ought to warn her fellow American about that.

[Deleted]

He was up, turning to the explosion, when he felt the tug at his arm. Lex Luthor never feared explosions, although he had a healthy respect for them. Flashing in his mind, he smelled the air, the fire, the steam the smoke. A few calculations in his mind as he turned to run with his new compatriot. He'd survive the riots, he was sure, but he wasn't so certain about her. He ran to keep up, she'd need to know that a straightforward path would not likely lead to safety, there'd be a cutoff.

In his mind the memories came clearer, that was on of the few superb gifts that Lex Luthor felt himself blessed by. One of the few elements that was given from birth, unearned, unworked for, a gift of unique and twisted genetics, a perfect memory. It was what got him through the long nights as a child, reading books in his mind that he had glanced at once before his father had burned them. Running in perfect memory the scenes and scenarios of chess matches he saw at the parks. It's the curse that left him to remember every strike, blow and setback from when he was too young to fight back.

 Fertilizer, it was a simple pipe bomb, obviously, the blast would have stretched outwards from a central point. But wait. The image of the explosion seared in his memory. The blast was directional, the fragments. . . there was an oddity here. He ran after her, thinking he'd need to tell her to turn left down the alleyway, but when she did it on her own. . . he blinked. She'd moved quickly, far too quickly, most people in a situation like that would be shocked. She had some experience in war, that much was clear. 

As they twisted down the streets away from the chaos of the forming riot, Lex Luthor reached forward and said "Hold on, I need to check something. Give me one minute." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device. Taking out something from his shoe, he removed the sole, and then slipped it back in place screwing it into the small device. He then took a pair of pliers from his belt, and then walked to one of the telephone poles, the box opened up, he clamped the device on the wire, and then looked at it for a moment. He then pulled the flipphone from his pocket, plugging it into the device, and then looking over it. This lasted for forty seconds, and then he unplugged the device. "Alright, I wanted to check that for later. We should head back to the hotel, or somewhere it's safe." 

There were sounds of sirens in the distance, the sounds of rioting. It was pandemonium in the distance, drawing closer.  He looks to her "Are you alright?"

[Deleted]

If anyone present isn't scared of explosions, it's Candace. After all, even if she was caught in the blast, she'd be fine later. She does have a healthy dislike for being within that zone of a blast where you get hurt but don't die immediately - because that's just plain painful and pain is unpleasant. Dying immediately would still be an inconvenience - either large or small, depending on exactly how it went - so that's also to be avoided. But so is getting caught up in a rioting crowd for the very same reason.

Fortunately, riots are easy enough to avoid if you have her level of experience with them. She's participated in them, started them, been rioted against, been killed in them, observed them, and even has had that touched upon in a college course or two. She knows her riots. And even as it's forming, she can easily guess that this is going to be a particularly big one - so many parts of the city are powder kegs, just waiting for this spark. So much of that's her fault, actually - a fact that makes her inexplicably grin to herself as she hurries to avoid getting caught in the thick of it. A part of her wishes that she could join in, but a riot here is hardly a safe place for a rich American woman to be - not to mention all the trouble she'd get into if the wrong person caught her doing it.

Instead she rushes away, glad when she turns to see that Lex is right behind her and giving him a vague wave to indicate that he should follow her left down the alleyway. This other path will lead them through an area that sides more with the government and is less likely to join the riot, or at the very least will be slower to do so. Still, it's better not to linger, so when Lex tells her to stop her first instinct is to protest. However, instead she sees that he's in the middle of something... interesting, so she simply says, "Hurry." She's just barely breathing hard - a bit less winded than one might expect if she's a regular smoker, but then again she hadn't exactly been running hard - she didn't need to push herself too much since she'd reacted to the explosion so quickly.

When he indicates that he's finished, she nods, and says, "This way." Her knowledge of exactly where it is or isn't likely to be safe isn't exact, but that's where her other skills come into play. Because she has indeed had some experience in war - lots of experience. Not such urban warfare, perhaps, but the standard rules of handling complicated terrain are enough to go on when the 'enemy' is so disorganized. So she sets out with complete confidence on a circuitous route back to the hotel, though his question causes her to glance back and say, "I'm fine." Though in the heat of the moment, she neglects to disguise the fact that she's far more excited by all of this than scared, as most women would be. Or that she's not even that excited - she is a little bit, but she's rather too calm. This is an inconvenient interruption to her day for her, not something to write home about.

In fact, they don't get too much further before she's asking, "What was that thing you were using?" She may know a lot about a lot of things, but mostly things that are timeless or that don't change very quickly. Modern technology isn't one of those things, though she suspects that being better educated on it may not help her answer that question herself anyway - whatever he was doing, it looked rather unconventional.

[Deleted]

"Information is the oxygen of the modern age," He finishes disconnecting the device from the wires, looking at the numbers that move over the cellphone's screen, he pushes a few more buttons, and then starts to pocket everything stating "True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information." He looked about and said "I believe the hotel is back in this direction." He nods to her as he says "We should make some measure of haste." 

He starts to talk as they move. "The explosion had some oddities. I know some things of explosives myself, and that wasn't merely a fertilizer explosion, the smell was wrong, there was another chemical composition in it. I am aware of this composition very distinctly, as it is a proprietary chemical compound produced by LexCorp, which begs the question as to who is using my design to destroy city cafes." A left turn down the street as he continues on. He maintains an even pace of conversation even at a run. The man certainly seems to be in good shape.

"In addition the blast was too controlled. It exploded as the protesters were exactly two blocks away, and the police were making haste to stop them." He maintained a perfect conversation as he continued to move with her. He ran at first, then walked with a hurried pace down an alleyway as sirens and police drove past. There was a sound of screaming in the distance. 

"There are three methods potentially utilized for triggering such an explosive. One, would be timer. Possible, but unlikely due to the timing of the explosion. Second, physical trigger. Again, possible, but unlikely as anyone who would have triggered it on purpose would have died with the explosion, and no one entered or exited the building immediately following the explosion on our side. It's possible the trigger was something else, but the timing is odd. Third, remote detonator. If that's the case my scanner would pick up a signal that corresponds with the time. I'll check that when I return to the hotel. The other possibility is that someone modified a cellular telephone to trigger the explosive. If that's the case, there'd be phone records of all the calls that occurred at that time, easily traceable. And I just got all of the phone records for the period using my little device." He pats his chest again as he says.

"And I am very curious to see whether or not my designs are falling into the hands of terrorists or rebels. Not to say that I'm against the idea, but I'm not here to arm both sides of a war. In fact I'm not particularly interested in arming one side of the war with uncontrolled explosive ordinance." In the distance there's sounds of gunshots, a faint smell of smoke. Things were getting worse. So far they were avoiding the worst of it. 

[Deleted]

It isn't that difficult for Candace to mentally juggle listening to the man while at the same time picking out a safe route back to the hotel. Partly because the latter is largely instinct. And also partly because she just plain doesn't care as much as he obviously does about the exact nature of the explosion. Oh, she's duly impressed by the depth of the analysis given the short amount of time since the explosion, the minimal amount of data he's working with, and the fact that he's done it in spite of the somewhat chaotic situation they're in, but the question of whether or not the man's technology was used in the explosion hardly matters to her. Partly because a bomb is a bomb, no matter what it's made of or how it's designed.

And partly because she already knows that his designs are probably falling into the hands of the terrorists and rebels - that's her fault. Again, not directly, but it's quite a bit more her fault than the bomb itself had been. Not that she's concerned about whether or not his investigation of the issue would lead him to her or not, since he'll probably stop after he finds the one who actually did it instead of seeking the person who gave the guilty government official the idea in the first place. Let alone the woman who gave that person the idea to give him the idea.

But even as the conflict quickly escalates behind them, she starts to slow as pass out of another alleyway and reach the next street. They should be out of the hot zone now, so if the riot reaches here she's guessing it will be well after they've gone - no need to rush so much. Especially since she can see the hotel further up the road, and the way looks clear of conflict. It should be safe enough there, even if all this spirals further out of control than she expects it to - the government would consider it a high priority to not let the guests there come to harm.

After she's had a chance to settle into a calmer walk, she simply comments, "Unfortunately for you, those who are supposedly in power don't really have any and are too incompetent to fix that, and those who actually have the power believe that they have more to gain from war than peace. Or they simply don't care one way or the other." And much of that may also be her fault. "If you really want to help here, what you need to do is find who is pulling the strings and convince them," she adds.

That's only partly a reference to herself - she's not so vain as to suffer under the delusion that she's the only puppet-master in the country, though she's certainly one of them. She'd certainly like to have a further reach, but the more power you have the harder it is to keep it concealed - especially when you're working within her particular time frame. And it's not like keeping the country in such a state is part of some master scheme for her - it's merely a diversion to pass the time. Fortunately for her, the goals of the other puppet-masters aren't at odds with hers.

[Deleted]

He wasn't quite stunned by the cunning of the statement, but Lex Luthor felt thoughts start to come together as he started to realize there was more to this one than met the eye. The visiting American had responded very quickly to the explosion, in retrospect. Moved with precision and a remarkable certainty as she navigated the back alleyways of the city. He'd been able to function because of a unique intelligence and a photographic memory. But her? 

And her advice, so sound. To find the string pullers and button pushers. Perhaps there was more to things in this country than met the eye, and naturally. . in the case of revolution he didn't particularly like el Presidente. Why would he? The man was boorish, but a source of money. Good money, but even so. . . how long could one prop up a corrupt government with half measures and loans? No, the administrators and El Presidente had proven one thing, certainly. . . they were hardly competent.

And the rioters? Little more than animals, come to create havok. No, there was an intellect here. The explosion had set off the riot quickly, the rioters were in the right place, the growing pressures. There was an intelligence here, subtly pushing the matters. He would have missed it if she hadn't have said what she did. He looked at her with new eyes. 

"How . . . would you suggest I do that?" He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. The multibillionare considered his options. He'd been a force to be reckoned with in the past, certainly. But a puppetmaster? One behind the scenes? That hardly suited his mindset. Lex Luthor strode the world like a colossus, and had little regret of the situation. He considered her words though. "Where would you . . . suggest I begin?" He listened with interest, watching her reaction. 

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The thing about being alive for over six hundred years is that means that you have a lot of time to think and to learn and to discover things that don't tend to immediately occur to most people. And not only that, but to also have those things be so relevant to your life for so long that you forget that they aren't the simplest idea in the world and immediately obvious to anyone. She usually avoids any problems that causes by assuming that people will behave stupidly - though in reality the problem isn't that people are less intelligent than her so much as she simply has way more experience to draw upon than they do, the effect is still pretty much the same thing.

It isn't until Lex's questions point out to her that they've strayed into one of those areas that she's especially experienced in - where it can be come difficult for a mere mortal to keep up with her thinking. She glances over at him then sighs wearily to herself, as if she's already exhausted by the mere thought of having to explain. "Cui bono - who benefits?" she replies as she continues walking, "You find the one who pulls the strings by finding the one who benefits more than the one whose strings are pulled." A very basic idea, but one that's surprisingly often missed. Perhaps because a lot of people fail to consider the idea that the powers that be could be puppets to begin with, let alone ponder the idea of how to find the person doing it.

And at first, she's about to leave it at that - after all, she answered his question at the most basic and useful level, and that's plenty for most. Then again, he's already proved to not be most people. She can't say that she's overly impressed simply because he has money - after all, so many of those with it are puppets themselves. So many think that their skill or luck got them the money, when the truth of it was that someone else smoothed their path for them. A puppet with a lot of money is so much more useful than a poor one, after all. But in Lex's own handling of the situation he's shown that he has a surprising amount of competence for someone of his social level. And to hear him actually having to ask these questions? It's actually kind of sad, really.

But she knows how to fix that - by going deeper. "Mistake number one - assuming that the benefit is financial. A 'benefit' is anything that someone wants, and it's never mere money. Even those who seem to simply want money are after something else - security or to live comfortably, for example. But it could be anything else - they could want to please their wife or they could want a blow job from their attractive secretary. Empires have risen and fallen over such things," she explains easily, because she's both seen it and lived it for centuries - been the wife, the secretary, and every other part.

"Mistake number two - assuming that when you find someone pulling a string that it ends there. The more prominent a person is, the more likely that multiple people are pulling that person's strings - who wins in a particular moment is whoever's pull is hardest. Also, the more prominent, the more likely those people pulling strings are having their own strings pulled by others. It ends up being a tangled mess of several layers - though never too many. You only know you've found someone who actually has power when you find one that controls but is uncontrolled. Or sometimes it's a small group - each able to manipulate the others, but none from outside the group are able to control them. No matter how many people are in the tangled web, it always narrows down to one or very few - that is who needs to be convinced," she adds. All of which seems totally obvious to her at this point, especially since it's not that complicated of a concept to explain, but too many people are too used to looking at the world too narrowly to see the obvious.

[Deleted]

He listened with an intense mind, this was basic logic, comprehensive. Even as a child he'd learned to follow the money, he listened, though, to her lessons, to the way she spoke. His eyes narrowed with a keen interest in the words she was saying, and while the logic was straightforward, he found himself starting to understand more about the companion he's with.  The mere mortal, despite the obviousness and non subtle way with which he moved, was still one of the most intelligent human beings in the history of the planet. "I suppose that's my weakness." as close to an admission of weakness as one might get from Luthor. "I didn't research the players as clearly as I ought to have. Foolish of me, I'd been taught better than this." 

"El Presidente is obviously not pulling any strings, he'd strike with direct force, as he has been. . . obviously a slave to his own desires, trapped in a maze of fear and want." She'd heard that phrase before once or twice, in a time before this. Lex HAD had an interesting path to this point. He considered that, as a man with money, he understood inately at money in and of itself was not an end goal. The great men of ancient times had known that money is a tool towards an end, not an end in and of itself. It's common to think of money as power, they're often conflated, but Lex Luthor knew otherwise, and it's why he expanded so ruthlessly and thoroughly. . . towards an end, perhaps, that he and only he truly understood. 

There was a subtlety to the woman, though, she spoke with experience, with a casual grace in such matters. At the risk of sounding trite, she honestly moved through intrigue like a fish through water. Supported by it, breathing it, imbued by it. Interesting. She was significantly more than she appeared to be. This flashed through his mind in a moment, as he felt himself try to hide the thought. "Hmm, you might have a point to that. I just need to get to know the players. . . " He purses his lips and narrows his eyes, then he looks up at the woman for a moment, then nods as he says "Thank you, for your thoughts on the matter. . . you seem to have a significant insight into things." He smiles faintly, apparently distracted as he thinks his options out. "Perhaps you can tell me more about yourself, as we make our way back to he hotel, and safety."

He pulls out a cellphone again, pulling the antenna out and saying "I need guards around the hotel, we're a bit of  a ways out, perhaps if possible you can establish a rendezvous point for pickup." He listens for a bit and then says "Use the relay drones, Pattern . . . Gold. . .  and then let me know."

He smiles as he hangs up the phone again saying "This way, we'll get a warning about any movements before we get close, in case this is a concerted effort. A prototype I've brought along with me, I think it'll be helpful in securing the hotel."

He starts to walk along, closer to the hotel. The phone rings a moment later "Yes. . . ten blocks west. Yes, we'll be there." He listens longer "Clear the way back? Good. Continue on sentry" Overhead what appears to be a small quick moving aircraft moves between the buildings. 

He gestures as he says "This way, if you would. . . the car will be this way." He begins to walk, west.