Justice League of America - Batman: The Stone King by Alan Grant (best english novels to read .txt) 📗

data, lights representing various places throughout the world flashed on the giant screen.

"Satellite scans show seismic disturbances in Peru, Mexico City, Ireland, and eastern Europe," J'onn J'onzz reported.

"Infrared cameras show heat buildup in the following areas," Batman said in clipped tones. "Pacific Ocean–specifically at Easter Island. Japan–at Mount Fuji. Hawaii–several islands involved."

As he spoke, his fingers flew with speed across his keyboard. Every now and then he glanced up at the giant world map, as the sites he named lit up on it.

"And the computers' conclusion is . . . ?" Manhunter asked, not looking up from his own screen.

"Potential volcanic eruptions. Within hours, not days." Batman didn't dwell on the ominous thought. "I've already put all active and reserve League members on red alert."

"Perhaps we could use a few of them here to help monitor this data."

Batman shook his head. "If Cassandra's vision was correct, they're going to be needed all over the world."

J'onn J'onzz ran his eyes down the list of green figures and coordinates that filled his personal monitor. "Electromagnetic field imaging shows increasing anomalies at the following locations: Stonehenge in England, Delphi in Greece, three separate locations in India. Minor anomalies detected in the Tibetan Himalayas, at Angkor Wat, and the Forbidden City in Beijing." J'onn shook his head wearily, his bald, green pate reflecting the cool glow of the room's lighting. "And that's not all–there are predictions for further electromagnetic disruption at a whole series of secondary sites, including the Serpent Mound in Ohio."

Batman felt as if he was compiling a death list for planet Earth. "Increased seismic activity predicted," he read aloud. "Iran. Afghanistan. The Caucasus region of Russia. South America, from Ecuador to the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Peru."

He was silent for a moment as vivid memories impinged on his mind. Gotham City had suffered its own cataclysmic earthquake not so long ago. Whole streets had collapsed in piles of rubble. Subway tunnels were submerged. Entire districts had gone up in flames. Vermin and disease ran riot, and survivors were faced with no source of power and no functioning economy.

Tens of thousands had died, hundreds of thousands had been injured, and millions were turned into refugees overnight. And that was just one quake.

Several years ago now, and Gotham was still in a long, slow recovery.

Batman shuddered to think of the result if Oracle's extrapolations were accurate. Seismic disturbance could affect half the world, or more. The damage and loss of life would not only be colossal, but incalculable.

"And the missing pyramid?" J'onn asked.

Batman gave a small sigh of frustration. "Location still unknown."

He added, "Location of our four colleagues still unknown, location of the Stone King also still unknown."

J'onn had tried tracing the heroes with his telepathic powers before he and Batman used the teleporter to return to the moon. Eyes closed, mind focused to a single point, he'd tried sending out waves of mental messages. Theoretically, the range of his telepathy was unlimited, but in practice his mental emanations could be affected by a variety of things. Electromagnetic activity was capable of throwing him completely off, while even strong radio waves could set up interference patterns that turned any message into random noise.

Despite his best efforts, J'onn was unable to contact any of the missing members of the Justice League. No sign of the Stone King had shown up on his "mental radar."

It was as if they, and the pyramid, had disappeared into thin air.

"Perhaps they have been transported to another dimension," J'onn stated, as a sudden idea occurred to him. "That would explain the failure of my telepathy–and also why none of our instruments detect them."

"It's possible," Batman admitted, "but unlikely. The Stone King's quarrel seems to be with people. The energy increases are taking place on Earth, where we can observe and measure them. I find it hard to imagine the shaman doing this from any place except the planet's surface."

The cool, measured tones of one of Oracle's programmed computer voices broke in on their discussion. "I am intercepting a transmission from the space shuttle Lincoln. It appears to have relevance to your current search. Shall I patch it through?"

"Yes," Batman said curtly, and at once the grainy voice of Martin Spears could be heard over the Watchtower speakers.

"Houston?" the shuttle commander was asking, a note of disbelief in his voice. "Are you getting this? We can see what appears to be a column of bright blue light streaming up from some place in the Arctic Circle. Our orbit's not in synch with it, so we can't pinpoint the map coordinates."

Both Batman and J'onn were already on their feet, hurrying over to the plasticized glass viewing balcony. Steel panels slid automatically aside at their approach, triggered by the floor-set motion sensors. Naked sunlight streamed into the enclosed balcony as the duo slipped filter shades across their eyes.

"This is incredible! It must be twenty miles high now," the commander's voice went on. "Can you back us up on this, Houston? It's not some kind of space hallucination, is it?"

There was a long silence, as if the ground team in Houston were as stunned as the astronauts at this unprecedented phenomenon. Orbiting craft often reported unusual light displays, both in the upper atmosphere and on the planet's surface. Spectacular auroras had been filmed by previous shuttle crews. But in over thirty years of manned space flight, nothing like this had ever been seen before.

Batman squinted beneath his shades, narrowing his eyes against the sunlight, trying to make out anything abnormal near the earth's North Pole. The moon was nearly a quarter-million miles away from the earth, while the space shuttle orbited not much higher than 350 miles. He was going to need the telescope.

"There!" J'onn J'onzz breathed, his keen Martian vision zeroing in on the pulse of light. "By the souls of my ancestors . . . look at that!"

The light column must have been ten miles in diameter, a massive pillar shooting ever higher. As it reached the upper