by Brian Moon
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Lord Nemesis’ body seemed frail and lighter than its size suggested. Lukas carried over his shoulder back to the workstation where he had sounded the alarms from and took a key from his pocket. He inserted the safety-key and turned it. His hand reached forward and hesitated over one final lever. He looked around his home since coming to this country. Well he had a new home in the south now. At least his children would grow up away from the City. He pulled the lever the turned to lift Nemesis’ body and the satchel he had been given before the battle and got into the elevator. He stepped out into Lord Nemesis’ hospital like room of an apartment and laid his friend down on his bed and crossed his arms in rest. He paused, saying a pray for his old friend who was dead but wasn’t and then ran for the elevator. Lukas was grateful for the speed of the modified elevator, queasy feeling and all and he found himself out the front door and into a waiting car. He had never seen this battered old Ford before and wondered if he would have to get out and push. Lukas was changing out of his uniform and into what looked to be farmer’s overalls when he heard the explosion. He didn’t need to see it to know that the Southern United building, all twelve stories of brick and mortar just collapsed into itself and it’s four sub basements filled with rubble. They would find the wallet and ID of Lukas Reese, but no other trace. Whether they connected him to Lord Nemesis would remain to be seen but for now his only immediate need was to get out of Paragon City and to his wife.
The orders in the satchel were clear on how to make his escape and where to head, change vehicles, where to sleep. It would take him weeks to get to Atlanta, but once there he would stay there for quite some time. Running a company that manufactured vacuum tubes as Lukas Eisenberg. But for now he settled in the small uncomfortable car as they headed for the first of many checkpoints out of the city. Passing over a bridge he threw a weighted bundle out of the window into the water below. The last of his military career now sunk to the bottom of the inlet.