#6
February 2001
Monaco Sunset, Switzerland Doom!
by Black Condor
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#6 February 2001 |
Monaco Sunset, Switzerland Doom! by Black Condor |
The limousine ride from the airport to the center of Monaco was fascinating and romantic. The warm air and baroque architecture of Monaco helped enhance the romance that was growing between Pamela and I.
We checked into the front desk of the Hotel de Monaco. Pamela was still astounded at the opulence of Monaco, while I had been to this hotel so many times that the desk clerks and bellhops knew me. The few bags Pamela and I had were immediately taken care of. I asked the head desk clerk for the best suite in the hotel, but I was informed that it was already taken.
"A Monsieur Johnson has taken that suite, Monsieur Stark. I am very sorry."
"A Monsieur Bryce Johnson?"
"Why yes, monsieur. How did you know?"
"Well, I know him, and if he was here that would be the suite he would take. Please leave him a message--tell him 'Wire Splitter'* is here at the hotel and wants to stop by."
* Wire Splitter is Tony's old nickname from boarding school, during which Bruce Wayne and he were best friends.
Bryce Johnson was one of the assumed names my friend Bruce Wayne used when traveling. I wondered what he was doing here in Monaco.
The bellhop escorted Pamela and I to a palatial suite on the second-to-top floor of the hotel. Pamela was astounded at the size of the suite and the lushness of its furnishings. She gave me a long kiss in gratitude for getting us such a nice suite.
"Oh, it's wonderful, Tony!" she exclaimed while still in my arms. "It's all so wonderful. You make me feel like a princess!"
"Well, you are a princess, Pamela." I looked at her lovingly. It was so wonderful for us to be able to express our feelings so openly here, far away from the routine of the Stark Enterprises offices.
I cleared my throat and broke the embrace. "I have to go visit a friend who's staying here at the hotel. Do you want to come with me?"
"After what's happened the past few days, I just want to hop in that tub and have a hot bath! Do you mind, Tony?"
The way she looked, so happy and radiant, I wanted to stay in the room with her. But I needed to go see Bruce.
"Sure you can stay here. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call Room Service. Get whatever you want." I closed the door, after taking one last look at her radiant beauty.
I knocked on the door of the suite that I usually occupied when I visited the Hotel Monaco. A trim, tall older man answered the door.
"Master Stark! What a pleasure to see you, sir!"
"Alfred!" I patted the usually reserved butler, whom I had known since I was a child, on the arm. "It's been a while. Is Bruce available?"
"Yes, please do come in." His voice dropped to a near whisper. "Master Bruce is traveling incognito, so if you would not mind coming in so that not much attention is attracted..."
"Of course."
Bruce Wayne was deep in meditation. doing some yoga exercises. I marveled at the ease with which he achieved his yoga positions.
He broke out of a rather complicated position when he noticed that I had arrived. "Tony! What are you doing here in Monaco?"
"I might ask you the same question, Bruce!"
"Well, I needed a little break after recent things that have been happening in Gotham. I thought I'd actually use a little bit of my money to give Alfred and me a vacation!"
"I'm here for pretty much that same reason."
Bruce got a faraway look in his eye, the look that always told me that he was going to talk about something important.
"Tony," Bruce said, giving a sidelong glance to Alfred. Alfred knew that his master wanted privacy, so he retired to the anteroom of the suite. "I have to talk to you about something."
Bruce suddenly had an astoundingly serious look on his face for someone who was supposed to be on vacation. He motioned me over to him. "There's something we need to talk about, Tony. I've found out more about our parents' deaths...that's what I've been dealing with in Gotham for a little while."
"You weren't there when our parents were killed, Tony. There were two supervillains who shot our parents and your cousin Morgan."
"Yes, we've talked about this before," I responded. I was never very comfortable talking about the brutal murder of my parents twenty-five years ago.
"One of them was a woman named Agatha Haggschwarz, otherwise known as the Hag. The other one was the Black Assassin, an ex-Nazi agent, who is still around to this day."
"How can you be sure of this?" I asked.
"Agatha told me so...she admitted to the murder...just before she was..."
"Master Bruce?" Alfred asked, barging into the room as politely as one with his well-trained butlering skills could. "I do believe the appointment you had scheduled is happening very soon."
"Oh, yes, Alfred, the appointment." Bruce looked into my eyes, and I could tell he was bringing me into something secret again. "Tony, do you want to help me out with something? I've got a line on some ex-Nazis that I think are allied with the Black Assassin meeting in this very hotel, tonight."
"You know I would, Bruce." I was a little embarrassed at not being able to help him out. "But I have my secretary here with me. We went through a bit of a rough time in Kunlong...if she saw Iron Man around here with Batman, there might be some questions…"
"You went to Kunlong? What the hell were you doing, Tony? You're lucky you didn't get killed. Things just get worse and worse between the natives and the Chinese."
"I know. I saw it first hand. It was a case of someone trying to take advantage of me again."
"That doesn't surprise me," Bruce said, as he put a handsome blazer on. "You're too nice, Tony. Someday, someone's going to get close to you because of that, and they're going to do you a lot of damage if you're not careful."
*(To see what Batman is up to, read Batman #11!)
But I wasn't supposed to be looking, and she was surprised when I walked forward into the room. The television was blaring something about an anti-terrorist hero calling himself Wild Dog or something.
"Oh! Mr. Stark!"
I shielded my eyes a bit just in case Pamela was feeling shy.
"It's 'Tony'...I can't believe you're still calling me 'Mr. Stark'!"
"Sorry, 'Tony.' Umm...there's an e-mail for you on your laptop. I took the liberty of turning it on, in case you wanted to get in touch with someone."
It was funny that she had turned my laptop on, after I had left it in my suitcase. But that didn't really matter, because I needed to use it anyway.
"Oh! Thanks...there are probably a lot of e-mails for me to answer."
"Do you want to go to Switzerland with me, Pamela?"
Pamela flipped her hair back, and thought about this a bit before she responded, almost as if she was expecting me to ask her to go.
"We've been away from Stark Enterprises for a while, Tony, and I want things to be in order for you when you return. I love..." She came closer to me.
"I love being with you, but I also want to do my job, to help you and Stark Enterprises. There's probably all kinds of things for me to take care of back at the office..."
I was a little disappointed, but I saw Pamela's point.
"Well, let's just stay here together tonight, and then I'll charter a plane for you to go to California in the morning. I've got this meeting in Switzerland.."
At the mention of me going to Switzerland, Pamela seemed to lean forward with interest, and then corrected herself and lean back.
"Oh! Well, I will miss you..." She looked away. "Oh, what will I do with myself tomorrow after we're apart?"
"Tomorrow is tomorrow, Pamela. Let's go out tonight, in Monaco, and spend some of my money."
"Tell me this isn't all going to change when you get back to Stark Enterprises..." she asked, her eyes deep and imploring.
"No, it won't change. I won't change. Don't worry."
After one long kiss, we boarded our respective jets. After a little while, each moment of which I spent looking at the jet Pamela was on, we took off into the clear Monaco sky, heading our separate ways.
The men who came to greet me gathered up my luggage and efficiently herded me toward a lushly appointed 4-wheel-drive truck. In these unfamiliar surroundings, it was calming to have my Iron Man armor at the ready in my suitcase.
I could hear that the radio was playing the local news or something--the ride was long enough, and nobody was talking, so listening to the broadcast was the only thing to do. I spoke French passably, so I could understand that it was another report on the activities of Wild Dog, an American anti-terrorist operative. He seemed to be particularly active in Europe.
It became clear to me why we needed 4-wheel-drive as we later climbed some treacherous, snowy mountain passes to get to our destination. We stopped at the entrance to a huge compound that looked like a combination between a ski chalet and a military base. It seemed like these people, whoever they were, did not need much in the way of donations from me.
I was led into the foyer of the compound. I waited and examined some of the paintings on display in the foyer. A few minutes later, a blond man in sunglasses and a black suit came to get me.
"The leader will see you now," he said as he whisked me toward an office set on a higher level than the rest of the compound. I entered the office, not knowing whom or what to expect to find there.
The seated figure turned around and faced me. He was dressed in a superhero-like costume, with a black mask with red eyeholes, a black cape, and a white tunic with a belt buckle that had a globe-like emblem.
"You act surprised, like you don't recognize me," the man commented. "Don't you know who I am?"
I stood there and thought for a moment. It had been a while since I had really gone through the Avengers League case files on superheroes and supervillains, but I suddenly remembered a battle that Batman and Captain America had engaged in at the United Nations, a few years ago. I was face-to-face with the Flag-Smasher!
"Flag-Smasher!?"
"I don't know why you are acting so surprised, Mr. Stark. In the past few months, you have become one of the chief supporters of our organization. I invited you here to thank you, and to offer you a chance to help direct our cause. You have performed excellently at carving out a business empire for yourself. Perhaps you could help me and ULTIMATUM carve out an empire for ourselves, in defiance of the other powers of the world!"
"Stark Enterprises would never do that!" I replied angrily. "I would never join you!"
"If you didn't support our activities, Mr. Stark, then why did you donate millions of dollars to us? You must have gone to some trouble to get that money to us. It's not like it would have been easy to contact us, either...You must have far-reaching connections within terrorist communities to have been able to reach us."
"I don't know anything about this! I would have never donated money to ULTIMATUM!"
Flag-Smasher smiled a little, but still attempted to be polite. "Well, perhaps someone in your organization is fond of us. If so, then more power to them. However, if you don't support us...then perhaps you have seen too much during your trip here, especially as you now know where our headquarters is."
I had a feeling that things were about to turn really ugly. I was right.
At that moment, five armed guards wearing berets, ski masks, and black leather uniforms burst into the room.
"Kill him," Flag-Smasher ordered, as he left the room, his cape flowing behind him.
The guards raised their Uzis and pointed them at me.
For a moment while I walked from the floor I was staying on to the one where Bruce was, I had a feeling that I was being watched by someone. Each time I turned to look, there was no one there. After a few tries at guessing who, if anyone, was following me, I gave up.
I left Bruce to whatever he was going to do*, and went back to my suite. When I got back, I came upon Pamela combing her hair after her bath. She only had a towel on, and her porcelain skin made her look very beautiful.
I went over to the laptop to read my e-mail. Amongst the usual updates from employees at Stark Enterprises was an invitation to meet with a grateful recipient of a recent donation to a political cause in Switzerland. I didn't count every cent that the Maria Stark Memorial Foundation gave out, but I didn't remember earmarking any funds for Swiss political causes. The e-mail contained an invitation to come and visit a Swiss villa to meet with the leader of the cause. It had been a while since I had been to Switzerland, and I thought that Pamela might enjoy the trip, too. Besides, I wanted to find out who this Swiss political group was that was receiving so much of my money.
The next day Pamela and I prepared to go to our separate destinations. We held hands and gazed at each other in silence for a while as the engines of my two private planes warmed up.
It was a short flight to Zurich, but each moment away from Pamela seemed like it lasted ten years. When I arrived at the Zurich Airport, I was greeted by a group of four men in sunglasses and black suits. For a moment in the airport, I felt that same feeling that I did in the hotel, that someone was watching me. When I looked around, however, I couldn't see anyone. Maybe I was being haunted by the airport ghost or something.
"Mr. Stark," a voice boomed from a large desk chair that faced the wall. "A pleasure to finally meet you."
Next Issue: Iron Man vs. Flag Smasher! Luthor and Wild Dog strike!