"Wow," Daniel said, looking around the room with genuine appreciation. "My own containment cell."
He was cuffed to the table, one way glass on every side, the kind of room designed to make people feel observed without being able to confirm it. Daniel found it charming.
On the other side of the glass General Swanwick stood with a senior scientist beside him, both looking at Daniel the way people look at something they haven't fully categorized yet.
"He looks completely human," the scientist said, his eyes moving across Daniel with professional skepticism. "Are you certain he's one of them?"
"We have visual confirmation of him standing unsupported at two hundred feet," Swanwick said, not taking his eyes off Daniel.
"He grounded three federal agents in a Metropolis alley without touching them. An entire military formation in Kansas turned around because of him." He paused. "He looks human. He isn't."
"And he surrendered voluntarily," the scientist said, which seemed to bother him more than anything else on that list.
"He said he wants to be taken to his people," Swanwick said.
The scientist looked at Daniel sitting cuffed to a table, completely relaxed, examining the room with the mild curiosity of someone on a brief tour.
"He doesn't seem particularly concerned about the restraints," the scientist noted.
"That is because I can get out of them anytime I want," Daniel said, his face pressed against the one way glass from the inside, looking directly at them, which should have been impossible.
The scientist stumbled back a full step.
General Swanwick didn't move.
"Now while we're having this lovely conversation about me not being human," Daniel said, his breath fogging the glass slightly, "how about we also talk about the other non human in this facility."
"What does that mean?" the scientist said, looking at Swanwick.
Swanwick said nothing for a moment. "He's talking nonsense. It's a deflection."
"Yeah, nonsense," Daniel said through the glass, his eyes moving from the scientist directly to Swanwick and staying there. "That's fine. The one who needs to understand it already does."
He kept looking at Swanwick.
At Swanwick specifically, with the calm patient expression of someone waiting for a person to stop pretending.
Because standing behind the face of General Swanwick, underneath every layer of the disguise that had fooled every human in this building, was a Martian.
And Daniel could see him perfectly.
"So did you call my people," Daniel said, stepping back from the glass and sitting back down at the table like none of that had happened. "I really miss them. Can you please send me home."
Swanwick looked at him through the glass for a moment then walked around and entered the room, pulling the chair across from Daniel and sitting down.
"Before that," Swanwick said, "I want to know something. If we hand you over will there be any threat to us afterward."
"Of course," Daniel said without hesitation. "One hundred percent. Guaranteed danger whether you hand me over or don't hand me over. Same outcome either way."
The scientist on the other side of the glass leaned forward.
That didn't make sense. The entire premise of the ultimatum was that handing over the alien meant Earth would be left alone. That was the deal being implied. But this man was sitting there telling them compliance and refusal led to the same place.
Swanwick looked at Daniel carefully. "You're saying it doesn't matter what we do."
"I'm saying the people up there didn't come here to make a fair trade," Daniel said, leaning back in the chair with the cuffs still sitting uselessly on his wrists. "They came here because they need something on this planet. You are not part of their plan either way."
The room was quiet.
"So what do you suggest," Swanwick said.
Daniel smiled. "I suggest you send me home like I asked."
"Because you have no other option," Daniel said. "I'm sure your president is sitting in a room right now thinking that handing me over means avoiding a war and that's exactly what any reasonable president would do."
Swanwick said nothing.
"A threat comes from space," Daniel continued.
"Demands are made. A target is identified and is currently sitting in a government facility. The math is simple from where he's sitting. One person for an entire planet. Every advisor in that room is telling him the same thing right now."
He leaned forward slightly.
"The problem is the math is wrong," Daniel said.
"Because the moment I'm handed over nothing stops. It accelerates. But your president doesn't know that and his advisors don't know that and by the time everyone figures it out there won't be much left to figure it out from."
Before Swanwick could respond the facility comm cut in.
The Kryptonian ship had made contact. They were coming down to collect.
Swanwick looked at Daniel.
Daniel was already standing, cuffs hanging off one wrist.
"Well General," Daniel said. "It's about time."
He looked at Swanwick for a moment, and something in his expression shifted just slightly, the easy calm still there but underneath it something that knew exactly what was coming next.
"Don't worry," Daniel said. "We'll meet again."
The doors opened and the escort formed around him, soldiers who had stopped pretending they were actually containing anything and were now essentially just walking beside him as a formality.
Daniel walked with them without complaint, hands loose at his sides, looking straight ahead as they moved him toward the exit and whatever was waiting outside.
*****
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