Lois took a deep breath before stepping off the elevator. She had just come from a perplexing interview at EPRAD, which hadn’t gone down in the way she thought it would. No, not at all.
We’ve just been in Vegas!
WELLS:
LOIS: No, you stupid! I’m just interviewing for the PR staff position at EPRAD. Girl’s got to eat and it’s either that or working in the middle of LFI magazine.
CLARK: You mean the centerfold position?
LOIS: Oh, shut up! I already said that I’m taking the PR gig.
The burden had been left to her, and she was afraid that she had made the wrong decision.
She taken the job before she realized that being in PR means being nice to other reporters?
Oh, she had plausible excuses for the choice she had made, but that was all they were, excuses.
LEX: I believe they’re called ‘reasons’.
It was an insane title for a law firm, she decided. What else would they call themselves? Attorneys for Crime? Attorneys at Play?
Oh, and here I thought it was because of Bender bending the law.
Lois’s curiosity on why Bender wanted to talk to her was tinged with dread. She doubted Luthor would fake his death only to show up two days later in his lawyer’s office, of all places.
Well…it would be convenient?
Still, Lois had followed that phone call with one to her favorite A.D.A.
Because Mayson hasn’t yet consummated her lust with Clark?
Mayson had said she could think of a hundred reasons why Luthor’s estate might want to sue her.
Wouldn’t they send a pizza delivery boy to bring her the summons?
nor did she want to worry Clark by calling him at six-thirty a.m. Vegas time.
Plus, he might not be back in his room yet. Cathouses are usually open throughout the night. I’d assume…
LOIS: Cat often came to the office straight from work.
“I’m Mr…. was Mr. Luthor’s personal attorney, Ms. Lane. There are others in my firm who handle the business end of things,” explained the lawyer.
So, they’re giving control to the *lawyers*?
![[Linked Image]](http://cosgan.de/images/midi/verschiedene/c050.gif)
A dash of ink might liven up the temporal clase.
Luthor signed some paperwork to ensure your financial well-being should anything happen to him.
He signed her over to some Mid-Eastern sheik he thought deserved a go at his bed bunny?
Had he made her his beneficiary?
Luthor?
Well, it would explain why Bender was being nice all of a sudden.
The lawyer slid a document across the table to her. As she picked it up, he continued, “According to Mr. Luthor, you two had an arrangement that should you agree to marry him, he would turn over the ownership of the Daily Planet to you.”
Oh. Right. But she said *noooooo!* *NEVER!* And ‘you go and shove that ring where it will never be found safe by a proctologist’.
Lois’s heart began to race with anticipation as she studied the papers he had given her. Unfortunately, they were written in a foreign language – Legalese.
“Mr. Luthor signed the ownership papers over to you while you were waiting to walk down the aisle.”
LEX: Oops?
“I understand he wanted to present it to you on your honeymoon.
He was hoping to get some special birthday nookie from his new bride due to the joyous occasion, thus making the honeymoon video much more entertaining to watch?
CLARK:
She stared at him. This must be some big huge practical joke.
Like Lex jumping out of a Jumping-Jack box?
“Contrary to what the FBI and those with the Metropolis Police Department might feel, Mr. Luthor was an honest man,” Bender went on.
![[Linked Image]](http://cosgan.de/images/smilie/froehlich/a065.gif)
“If he agreed to something, even if he should later regret the decision, he would honor it.”
Oh. An *honest* thief!
unable to believe that Luthor would let go of such a valuable prize in his holdings and so easily at that. A prize despite his having blown it up.
But since she can’t afford to rebuild it…Maybe she could get the money from her husband by offering him sexual favors?
He didn’t, on the other hand, leave you any funds with which to rebuild it,”
See?
She didn’t even want to think what the sick bastard would have required her to do to get the money.
![[Linked Image]](http://cosgan.de/images/midi/verschiedene/b075.gif)
![[Linked Image]](http://cosgan.de/images/midi/frech/e045.gif)
![[Linked Image]](http://cosgan.de/images/midi/frech/g042.gif)
“I’ll need the keys to the building and the property title, if you don’t mind.”
Which reminds me…What about property taxes. And is there a gift-tax in the US? Over here, if you receive property of any sort of significant value from anyone but the closest of family, the state collects 10% or 15% (I think) of the value.
Should it become public knowledge that Lois had received the Daily Planet assets from Luthor during her investigation, it would tarnish her reputation as a reporter.
What she earns on her back should in no way reflect what she does while standing up.
Reporters weren’t supposed to receive financial gain for the work they did as part of their job, any more than politicians, judges, or any public officials were.
And since it’s mostly the reporters who are living meager lives, I’m assuming they’re the only ones not smart enough to exploit every loophole there is?
LINDA: Ooooh! I finally have 6 zeros on my bank account balance. Nice! Let’s see, what’s next…
A shadow fell over his body and Clark opened his eyes behind his sunglasses. “Yes?”
Jimmy? Or some hot blonde?
“Um…” The young woman in the bikini blushed.
Ooooh! A hot blonde.
She quickly recovered and shot him an alluring smile.
She hoping he might rub her with sun lotion?
“I… uh… noticed that you have been lying here for quite a while and… um… I just wanted to make sure that you hadn’t fallen asleep. I didn’t want you to awake with a serious sunburn.”
Oh, she’s hoping to rub *him* with sun lotion.
HOT BLONDE: It’s like a Chippendale’s show!
“Inside?” she sputtered with confusing disappointment as if no man had ever shown as little interest in her as he had.
She never met a gay guy, then?
STEPH: I have.
“Yes. I need to buy my girlfriend a gift. Our anniversary is coming up,” he said.
Subtle.
CANON CLARK: Why would he lie? I never lied like that to Mayson…
This was the second time this morning Clark had needed to go inside to avoid a well-intentioned young woman
No, I think their intentions are of a rather dubious nature.
The first one had actually asked him to help her apply sunscreen. He had noticed a similar bottle in Stephanie’s hands.
:lauhg:
He had lost it in his old dimension and it annoyed him to no end when someone invaded it on their own volition.
They’re not invading. They just want some happens-in-Vegas-stays-in-Vegas time with him.
He assumed that they meant well, but he wished they would just leave him alone.
He could wear a wedding band?
Actually, he had enjoyed the young man’s company,
BATMAN:
ROBIN:
Mostly, all these women ogling him embarrassed Clark. Grown women shouldn’t titter like gossiping schoolgirls whenever they walked by. It wasn’t as if his body was much different from most of the other men at the pool.
I’m assuming now he gets it how women feel like?
CLARK: I never ogle women!
WOMEN: :mycry:
Perhaps he would be lucky and Jimmy would have returned from UNN and could join him, deflecting all the unwanted attention onto himself.
Later…
JIMMY: Hi, I’m Jimmy.
HOT CHICK: Huh? Oh. Right. Sooo…Claaaaarrrrrrrk…
Knowing Lois, it must not have been progressing at all or she would have been hesitant to speak of anything else. Either that or it was progressing spectacularly and she wanted to keep all the acclaim to herself. One of the two.
He could then read all about it in tomorrow’s paper?
as the man could not fall lower than his dive off the penthouse balcony had taken him.
They could dilute his remains and poor him down the toilet?
Perhaps that would discourage anyone else from trying to start up a conversation with him.
Maybe a torrid romance novel?
Give me my sunlight and let me be!
He’s quite the grumpy vacationer.
She had looked through her peephole first.
That’s quite the new habit she’s getting into, isn’t it?
“I don’t know how many more dictionaries I can afford to give to the Metropolis Police Department with the word ‘Exclusive’ highlighted.”
Maybe she could just print out the one page?
and in enough quantities that we believe that the man who jumped from Luthor’s balcony wasn’t fully human.
LOIS: I *knew* it! Lex was a pig!
“It couldn’t be a mask, like the one of my face we found in the safe, because… well, I’m sure that would have been a dead giveaway. Pardon my pun.”
Maybe if he pulled the mask off mid-fall and aimed his face for the pavement? The mask could even have some combustible aids added to it?
“Enough to verify he had been shot in his left shoulder within the last six months,” he said.
Ooooh! Ooooh! I know! I know! Pick me! Pick me!
“That’s only because the clone was my date on the night the terrorists took over the Daily Planet,” Lois said. “Luthor, the real Lex Luthor wasn’t there.”
She does realize that she sounds like one of her more loony sources, right?
Lois glowered, wishing that Henderson would be more frank and open about what he knew, because if he did she would finally have the source in the MPD that she deserved.
She’s like one of those spy-handlers from the cold war. Building up a source until the source believes helping his handler is more important than his job. His country. Maybe even his family.
She was tempted to tell him that it was merely an assumption she had made after reading Jurassic Park.
You’ve not suggesting that the writers of the clone-argh got their idea from that movie, are you?
If she didn’t already know that upon telling Henderson this so-called ‘truth’, she would’ve lost his respect, it would have been worth it just to see his shocked expression.
It’s called book-smarts? And what will they say when Superman collects a stray T-Rex from Madison Avenue?
“I never said that I kept them out of the loop. Besides, if I had told you, you would have zipped up quicker than a couple of teenagers necking on a couch when a car pulls in the drive,” he replied.
You already considering buying an e-car for when your little ones reach that age?
“That’s sick, Henderson,” Lois said, betting he wouldn’t have used such an analogy with her partner.
Because Lois is the mothering type?
“You had this information and you sat on it?” he sputtered.
Duh!
“Weren’t you the first person to meet Superman?” Henderson asked.
Hence the requirement for taking her flying. Thus, she could verify the truth of the statement.
“You’re not invited, by the way. FBI’s orders. No civilians allowed,” he returned. “Too dangerous.”
Maybe they should throw down some grenades?
Although, Luthor was social man.
Is that billionaire for being a player?
How long could he stay underground all by himself?
Hence the harem.
“I… that’s not… it…” she stammered, before finally putting her hands on her hips. “How in the hell do you know about us?”
Although I did expect her to sputter how Superman would never kill a person.
“Well, my answer is still ‘no’,” Lois said. Once Clark was back in town, she would have all the protection she would ever need, and then some.
CLARK:
She’s fine with the cast-iron cage I have made for her!
I was loco for April Stephens, though.”
Clark smiled. If April Stephens could only see you now. “So, how does it feel to be a celebrity?”
Maybe she’d go after him now?
JENNY:
Oh, right.
Jimmy looked up from his hands. “If I’m famous for knowing Superman, how will I know that they admire me for my actual work or for hanging off his cape?”
Maybe Lois could be of some advice to that?
Clark wasn’t as convinced, since he knew Superman had tagged along on all of their cases, maybe not overtly, but definitely covertly.
Maybe he could do a book? Lane and Kent – Super Frauds
When the Daily Planet building had been boarded up after the bombing, its parking garage had been deemed ‘unsafe’ by LexCorp’s engineers. It appeared sound to her.
What about that pack of sex offenders nesting in the corner over there next to the elevators?
She pulled the large ring of keys from her briefcase, looked at the sheer number of them, and dropped them back into her bag. Next, she pulled out her lock picks and opened the door that way.
Two doors down was Perry’s office, locked up and entirely too quiet. She almost expected him to stomp out and start yelling at everyone to get off their collective fannies and get back to work. It had been in there that she had seen Clark for the first time and called him ‘Chuck.’
So, the building’s dead, then? No living soul left? Will she find Ralph’s half-decayed body in a stall in the men’s bathroom?
Lois, on the other hand, had covered enough fires to know that many of the older buildings were built to more sturdily than the newer ones and, therefore, could withstand fires better.
Maybe the fire marshals didn’t know that?
A dial tone.
***End of Part 187***
She going to phone Perry? Or that nice billionaire she met over in Gotham City? John Wayne? Bruce Sprinsteen. Something like that.
Michael
