Chapter 6
Clark came to an abrupt stop, high above the Daily Planet building in Paris and pulled his cellphone out of the hidden pocket sewn into his cape. If Lois answered, at least he'd know she was safe and be able to warn her. As both her cellphone and her desk phone rang and rang, he found himself pleading with her to pick up the phone. Finally he snapped his cellphone close. He had to find her another way.
Dipping lower, he scanned the building, looking for Lois. The building was an old one whose inner walls were coated in lead based paint and whose plumbing still contained the occasional lead pipe. It was enough to impede his vision and make it near impossible to be certain whether or not she was inside. He let his super hearing kick in, listening for her heartbeat, but the noises of a city of over 2 million people made finding any particular sound problematic, especially one as faint as a single heartbeat.
Fighting back against the edge of incipient panic that threatened to engulf him, he dropped to the rooftop and scanned again, but the vision problem wasn't improved by the closer proximity. He tried her desk and cell phones again.
Still nothing.
Almost growling in frustration, he went to change back into his Clark clothes- and stopped. How could he explain Clark's presence in Paris when he was supposedly in Vienna?
Discarding the more discreet option of the roof entrance and plain clothes, he dropped off the side of the building and hovered level with the newsroom windows.
It only took a moment before one of the newsroom staff noticed his presence and opened the window. Reminding himself that he, as superman, did not know the staff except for giving them the occasional brief quote, he refrained from addressing Jacques by name. Instead he gave him a brief nod.
“I need to see your editor.”
“Right-right away” Jacques stammered. He led the way across the newsroom and nervously tapped on the editor's door.
Even without the benefit of his super hearing, Clark could hear the resulting exchange.
“Joe? Uh- Superman is here to see you.”
“What? Well, don't just stand there, let him in!”
Jacques looked at Clark nervously. “Ah- you can go in now.”
“Thank you.”
As he walked away, Clark could hear Jacques cursing himself for getting so tongue-tied and suppressed a smile.
“Superman.” Joe offered Clark his hand. “This is an honour. What can the Daily Planet do for you?”
“Thank you, Mr Patterson. Actually, I need your help. There's been a threat against Lois Lane. Do you know where she is?”
“She left a little while ago. I can see if any of the staff knows where she was going.” Clark nodded, fighting down the urge to rail at the editor for not keeping better tabs on the reporters in his employ.
Joe came back into the room a few minutes later. “It looks like she went to lunch.”
Grimly Clark discounted that idea. If she'd gone to lunch, she would've answered her cellphone.
“I need your permission to look at her desk. The threat came from someone who I've had dealings with in the past. He's kidnapped Ms Lane once before.” It was unorthodox, he knew. But he also knew that Superman was unlikely to be denied any reasonable request.
As it happened, the information he needed was right on top. The name Carlin Imports fairly jumped off the page. He took note of the address.
“Thank you. You've been very helpful” he told Joe, before leaving the way he'd came.
As he sped across town to the light industrial district where Carlin Imports was located, he tried to tell himself that it was nothing, that he'd probably find Lois safe and sound. But he couldn't shake the sick feeling in his stomach that Luthor had her.
He couldn't lose her. Not now. Not after last night.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When Lois awoke, it was to find herself tied to a chair- and Lex Luthor smirking at her from across the room.
“Well this is a pleasant surprise.” He stood and approached her. “I came only to Paris to retrieve the artworks that are rightfully mine, and I get you as a bonus. My dear Lois, when Henri brought you in I thought I was dreaming.”
“I'm not your dear,” she spat.
“Yes I have rather fallen from grace, haven't I? No matter. My love may not be to your taste, but from now on you'll know no other.” He reached out and grabbed her hair, pulling her head back and forcing her to look up at him. “And I promise you, after a few weeks in my windowless fortress, you'll come to enjoy it.”
He released her hair roughly.
“But before we leave, I have need of one service from you.” He took a small box from his pocket and opened it, exposing a glowing, sickly green crystal.
“That of bait.”
He nodded to someone in the corner, out of Lois' line of sight. The unseen figure rounded her chair and Lois saw the face of the man who'd kidnapped her. He was as Evan Williams described; between forty and forty five, blond, green eyed, with a face that had seen more than its share of fists and broken bones. Henri, she presumed.
He took a wad of cloth out of his pocket and forced it into her mouth, tying it in place with another strip around the back of her head.
Luthor put the chunk of Kryptonite on the floor underneath her chair. Then he and the silent Henri left, swinging the heavy metal door shut behind them and locking Lois in the gloom.
As her vision adjusted to the semi-darkness, she took note of her surroundings. She was in what appeared to be a huge metal box, with a single door at one end. The only light came from a few small slits cut into the metal at the top of the wall, near the end of the box. She puzzled over it for a few moments, her head still fuzzy from her brief bout of unconsciousness, and then it came to her.
A shipping container.
She was probably still in the Carlin Imports yard, then. That was the good news. The bad news was, the last thing she wanted was for Clark to come and try to rescue her. Not with a hunk of Kryptonite under her chair. If she could just get her hands free, she might be able to do something about that.
Accordingly she started moving her wrists, twisting them back and forth as far as she could, trying to get some sort of slack into the ropes that bound them. In her experience, very few criminals knew how to tie a proper knot.
After a few minutes, it became obvious that all she was accomplishing was chafing her wrists and making her arms sore. She tried freeing her ankles from where they'd been bound to the legs of the chair, but all she succeeded in doing was knocking the uncomfortable wooden chair onto its side.
Frustrated, she lay there for a few minutes, getting her breath back and considering her next move.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
High above the city, Clark found the container yard that constituted Carlin Imports' base. He dipped lower and started x-raying the containers, hoping and praying that she would be there, that Luthor hadn't taken her somewhere else.
When he found her, he dropped to the ground and broke the heavy duty padlock on the door. Sheer relief made him incautious. He swung the door wide and stepped inside, rushing to Lois. He pulled the gag out of her mouth and heard her cry out “No! It's a trap!” at the same time as a wave of familiar, agonising pain rolled over him.
Kryptonite.
It had been months since he'd come across any of the deadly green rock. The only mercy, he thought grimly, was that it wasn't inside him like after his encounter with Diana Stride. He staggered, trying to keep on his feet as he reached down to free Lois' hands. He could feel his strength draining away like water as the horrible burning pain in his abdomen intensified. He managed to snap the rope binding Lois' wrists, but in the process grazed his hand on the Kryptonite that had been hidden by the chair.
He gasped as the toxic crystal burned his skin. The pain of it brought him to his knees.
He heard footsteps echoing on the metal floor of the shipping container and looked up, squinting a little in the bright light.
Luthor stood over him, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
“Ah, Superman. I see you've found my little insurance policy.”
“What do you want, Luthor?” Clark ground out.
“Well, I rather thought that was obvious. I want what is mine, and I want you dead.” He took a step closer, looming over Clark. “And this time, there will be no escape for you. Third time’s the charm. But don't worry. You'll have plenty of time to say goodbye to Lois. She's going to keep you company for a while. Then once you are dead, Lois and I will take a little trip into the Alps.”
“Why leave her here?” Clark managed to gasp out. “Why make her suffer?”
“My dear Lois needs a little object lesson. Once she knows you're gone, she'll know there's no one to take her from me. You see, Superman - I always get what I want. You dead and Lois mine, forever.” He leaned close to Clark's face, his voice dripping with venom. “This time I've won.”
He straightened up and stepped down out of the shipping container, slamming the door shut behind him.
