Okay, no humor with this one, Kara thought. “Well then, just do it.”
Kara winced as Lily washed out the wound, then took tweezers and pulled out... stuff. She didn’t want to look and see what it was. She was still tweezing when Matt came up the stairs from the basement, which opened into the kitchen. Lily jumped up.
“What happened? Is Nathan okay?”
Matt held up a soft-looking golf ball.
“What’s that?” Lily asked.
“She wanted you to believe that it was C-4.”
Lily’s eyes widened. “That’s an explosive!”
“C-4 is, this is not. It’s a high-grade clay that has the look and consistency of C-4, but won’t ignite. She told you that she could remotely release the gas and poison your son?”
“Yes.”
“I inspected the gas. I don’t know what’s in the canister, and it could be dangerous. But there is no way to release the gas, and definitely not with inert clay. Itlookeddangerous because of the wires and phone, and I thought it might be a real explosive, but once I disassembled it, I knew it was harmless.”
“But you didn’t know! You could have killed my son.”
“I know what I’m doing, Lily. We need to get Nathan out of that cage. Kara can do it.”
“I can?” she said. “You have a lot of confidence.”
“In you, always,” Matt said and caught her eye.
Lily looked from one to the other. “What’s going on? Why would she put a fake bomb there and say it’s real? Does that mean she isn’t going to kill my husband?”
“The woman has killed at least six people,” Matt said bluntly.
“Oh my God,” Lily said, then crossed herself.
“She’s capable of killing, but for now she needed you to be compliant. What better way than to threaten your son.”
Lily turned to Kara, implored her. “You can break the lock?”
“I’m not Supergirl, but...” She glanced at Matt. “What kind of lock?”
“Common Master lock with a keyhole.”
“I need really fine tools. Strong, flexible metal. Paperclip would be best, but I might be able to work with a bobby pin or a barrette, if it’s small enough. And I need pliers. Unless of course you have a lock pick set handy.”
“I haven’t found anything like that,” Lily said, her hopes falling again.
“I’ll look,” Matt said. “I’ll find something. You finish bandaging Kara’s leg.”
“I need to check on my son.”
Matt nodded and stepped out of the doorway.
Lily ran down the stairs and Matt sat in the chair she had vacated.
“That was stressful,” Matt said.
“I’ll bet. You okay?”
“I’m more worried about you.”
