Part 1 The mission
Lisa Krueger was feeling quite nervous as she waited in the elevator that was taking her to the top floor. She had never been up there before, since it housed the offices of some of the top dogs of P.H.A.N.T.O.M. Considering Lisa's low ranked position in the chain of command, she was wondering why she had been summoned.
The elevator doors opened smoothly and gave way to a lavishly decorated hallway. Two heavily armed men were guarding the exit and beckoned her to step outside.
The carpet was soft in texture, rich in appearance and the walls were crowded with magnificent works of art. Lisa guessed that any one of those paintings was worth considerably more than the shamble apartment where she was living.
"We have been notified of your arrival, miss Krueger," one of the guards said. "Please go straight to the waiting room down this hallway and a have a seat. Mr. X's secretary will let you in at the appropriate time."
Lisa walked down the hallway and sat down in a luxurious leather chair. So she was going to meet the infamous Mr. X, the man that had created P.H.A.N.T.O.M., the largest underground organization in the world. P.H.A.N.T.O.M. seemed to have interests in every kind of illegal business, from gambling to money laundering, from drug trafficking to arms trade. It had its many tentacles spread out to every part of the world and Mr. X was surely running a tight and efficient business.
For Lisa P.H.A.N.T.O.M. had been a godsend. She had received no favors in her life. Her parents had been drug addicts and she had seen the inside of too many institutions throughout her youth. As soon as she could, she took her fate in her own hands. She had been drawn to a life of crime and deceit as it offered the quickest route to success and riches.
After a number of successful scams, she had been approached by P.H.A.N.T.O.M. The organization had eyes and ears everywhere and was always on the lookout for new talented prospects. She had managed a series of smaller assignments quite well, including seducing a foreign ambassador and copying the contents of his laptop.
She was well suited for those kind of jobs. Handsome in her way, with blond curly hair and big brown innocent eyes, but not too notable to attract unwilling attention.
And now her initial successes must have drawn some attention higher up the chain of hierarchy, which had led her here today.
The door she was facing opened and a stern looking woman stepped outside. "Please follow me miss Krueger," she said and went back inside without waiting for a reaction. Lisa quickly jumped to her feet and followed her in. They walked through an office with no windows and the secretary pushed a button of an intercom beside a heavily reinforced door at the other side. "Miss Krueger is here to see you sir," the secretary spoke with a voice as pleasant as she could master.
The response came quickly "Let her in", and the door unlocked. The secretary quickly opened the door, pushed Lisa through and closed it again behind her.
Lisa was blinded at first by the light coming through the many windows of the enormous office. The view was spectacular and showed the finest of the Los Angeles business center. In the center of the office was a huge mahogany desk, with a reclining chair behind it and two visitor's chairs in front. No one was sitting at the desk.
"Please have a seat Miss Krueger", a voice seemingly coming from nowhere said. "As you can imagine I am a very careful man, so I am not physically present here. But this place always seems to impress people so I use it for my virtual briefings".
Lisa quickly sat down in one of the visitor's chairs. She did not quite know where to look and waited for her next instructions.
"You have performed well in your first assignments for P.H.A.N.T.O.M., very well even. My subordinates tell me that you have a natural flair, a good set of brains and a decent amount of self-confidence."
Lisa did not know what to say. She was not used to be being flattered.
"So now I sending you on a mission that is quite a bit of a challenge. What do you know about Strongman?" Mr. X asked.
Lisa considered her answer for a moment. "Strongman is a famous superhero. He is in the newspapers every single day, saving elderly women of getting mugged, stopping bank robberies, helping people escape burning buildings, all random hero stuff."
"Yes", Mr. X replied, "those are some of his actions that are indeed getting quite some media attention. But what do you know about his capabilities?"
"Well, he is obviously quite strong, hence the name," Lisa replied.
"Indeed, but he is also quite arrogant, gullible and dumb. His self-chosen name "Strongman" for instance, is a shining example of his limited mental capabilities. But it is because of his unnatural strength that P.H.A.N.T.O.M. has taken an interest in him. This is caused by some sort of genetic mutation. And we want to use that to our advantage."
Lisa was getting interested now. "And how do you intent do that?"
"We want to breed a race of supersoldiers, that will be as strong as he is. But for that we will need his semen, and this is where you come in."
"His semen? Me? How? What?" Lisa exclaimed in surprise.
"We will need daily samples of his semen for the next 90 days But he should not be aware that we are doing so. And of course he cannot be taking captive. With all the media attention surrounding him, this would not go unnoticed, and we don't want an extensive police investigation, do we?"
"So let me get this straight." Lisa said. "I need to get hold of a dose of sperm of this superhero with enormous strength. But he must not be aware of it. I cannot draw unwanted attention. I cannot kidnap him. And I need to find a way to do this every day for the next three months?"
"Yes. That is a fairly good summary of your mission". Mr. X replied.
"Great!" Lisa exlaimed. "When do I start?"
It appeared that she could start right away. Mr. X's secretary handed her a sperm collection device on the way out. In the awkward briefing that followed she carefully explained Lisa how the device needed to be placed over the subject's penis, how the sucking mode needed to be switched on, and how that would result in a good dose of sperm that would be kept sterile in a recipient container. The secretary did not even blush nor gave any signs of feeling uncomfortable. Lisa quickly put the device away in her bag and left the same way as she had come in.
Lisa could not sleep that night, going over every possible idea that sprung to mind to execute that seemingly impossible task. His strength was certainly the biggest obstacle, but on the other hand if he was as arrogant and gullible as Mr. X has said, there might be possibilities. And at dawn, she finally had her plan figured out. She needed one more visit to the P.H.A.N.T.O.M. headquarter, this time to the science lab.
Part 2 The interview
Strongman was in a good mood. The day had been very fruitful up till now. He had been able to rescue a cat out of a tree by pushing down the tree. The owner whose garden was now slightly ruined had not been too happy, but the press at the scene had taken a most adorable picture of him with the cat. That would look good in tomorrow's paper.
Afterwards he had been on the set of the latest "Strongman" movie that was being produced. He only needed to do a couple of takes, the rest would be filled in by CGI. The director had told him that his statue in the Wax Museum talks better than he did. He thought that this had been a compliment, but he was not really sure about that.
And now he was sitting in his luxury condo, enjoying a healthy smoothy. Just one more interview with a journalist from the L.A. Daily Gazette, and he could enjoy the rest of the evening watching WWE wrestling matches.
Right on time he heard the doorbell and went to open the door. The journalist turned out to be a cute girl, which added to his good mood. He showed her in and offered her to take a seat in his luxurious sofa. Strongman sat down in his relax chair.
"Thank you for taking the time to have this interview, Mr. Strongman," the girl started. "My name is Hannah Smith from the LA Daily Gazette, and I have compiled a list of questions that were suggested by our readers."
"No need to thank me Hannah," Strongman replied. "I am always happy to share my thoughts with my fans. What do they want to know?"
"Well for starters, are you really strong enough to lift a car?"
"Actually I have lifted a truck once," he answered, "but I almost pulled a muscle, so I'm not doing that again."
"Wow that is impressive," she exclaimed. "If you can do that, it seems you could do almost anything."
"I am always up for a challenge," he bragged. "For a man like me, nothing is too much."
"Hey I've got a fun challenge for you," she replied, "maybe you could break the record, but I doubt it personally."
"I don't have a habit of giving up," Strongman said. "What's the challenge?"
"It's something neat. You have to look at a disk with lights without blinking. The record is 60 seconds. But I don't think that you can even get close."
"I think that you are underestimating me, lady," he said. "Show me the disk, and I will show you a new record that will never be broken."
"Great", she cheered. "We have a contest on our hands. Our readers will love this!"
She searched her bag and retrieved a disc of about 6 inches diameter. She put it in front of Strongman on the coffee table. "Are you ready?" she asked. "I will turn it on and start the count."
"I was born ready," he said. "Switch that thing on already."
"All right. Just remember to keep your eyes on the disk, don't look away and don't blink," and then she switched on the lights.
The lights were slowly beginning to make circular patterns and Strongman watched closely as the spinning motions were going faster and faster. He had no trouble following the motions and thought that it would be easy to break this record.
