Lois walked down beside the scene of the construction accident. The temporary barriers erected to control the crowd had been replaced by lengths of portable chain-link fencing, with workers at one end busy covering the fencing with sheets of plastic. Where the view wasn’t obscured, knots of people were standing and watching the activity inside the fenced in area. Lois scanned the crowd, looking for someone.
Spotting Clark’s familiar figure, she walked up and stood beside him.
“It’s pretty bad, isn’t it?” she asked softly.
“Yeah.” He relapsed into silence for several moments, staring out over the wreckage of the crane. It had torn a corner off the office building it had hit as it fell, and the base of the crane arm had crushed several cars. The damaged building had the edges of at least two internal floors exposed, and several more floors had windows or pieces of the façade missing.
“How many?” Clark asked.
“Eleven so far, including the operator. Mostly firefighters, though a couple of people were hit by flying debris. They were still evacuating the buildings when it fell.” She stopped, watching as people in hard hats inspected the rubble. “Clark, did Superman say anything about all this?”
“I haven’t seen him.” There was a note of anger in her partner’s voice that surprised her.
“Oh. Well, maybe he was caught up at a rescue somewhere else and we just haven’t heard about it yet,” she theorised uncertainly.
“Or something,” Clark muttered darkly. He spun away from the fence abruptly, heading in the direction of the Planet building.
***
Clark strode away from the disaster area, trying to curb his anger before he snapped at Lois. It wasn’t her fault that he was powerless; wasn’t her fault that eleven people had lost their lives.
It was Lex Luthor’s fault.
If he hadn’t been robbed of his powers two nights ago, he would’ve been here when he was needed. This was something he’d worried about ever since Wayne Irig had discovered the Kryptonite on his farm; that someday there would be a disaster and he wouldn’t be able to stop it. He knew- Lois had convinced him- that he couldn’t be everywhere at once, but there was a huge difference between missing one rescue because he was busy at another, and missing a rescue because he had no powers.
People would assume, as Lois just had, that the reason Superman hadn’t prevented the crane from collapsing was because he was dealing with another calamity somewhere distant. But soon, someone would check; they’d realise that he hadn’t been seen for at least two days. And then the questions would start.
He sighed, pausing at the kerb to allow Lois to catch up. To add insult to injury, he knew that they’d be working on the crane story when they got to the Planet. There was no escaping it; apart from the fact that it was the worst disaster to hit Metropolis since the appearance of Superman, Lois had written the majority of the Planet’s coverage of the event.
***
Clark dropped his pencil on the desk and stretched back in his chair, looking over at Lois’s empty desk. She’d left in a rush about an hour earlier, saying she had plans. Clark snorted mentally. For ‘plans’, read ‘date with Luthor.’ He’d tried to warn her yet again that Luthor wasn’t what he seemed, but he’d only succeeded in angering her. It was getting to the point where she went on the defensive as soon as Clark mentioned Luthor’s name; Clark wasn’t at all sure that she was even listening to him anymore, but he had to try.
He read over the sidebar he’d just finished writing and made a few small changes before sending it through to Perry. As he’d expected, he and Lois had spent the entire day working on the crane story. Rescue workers had managed to remove all of the bodies from the site now, and all of the injured were now expected to recover; the latest report from the hospital had been the subject of his now-completed sidebar.
Working on the story had been just as galling as he’d thought it would be, even though no one had apparently picked up on Superman’s continued absence. It felt like the entire day had been spent having his failure rubbed in his face.
Getting the nod from Perry, he stood slowly, collected his belongings and left the bullpen, the usual spring gone from his step.
***
“The leak has had a bigger impact than we anticipated.”
Lex Luthor laid the evening edition of the Daily Planet down and looked over at Nigel.
“Not only was the crane’s operator overcome by the fumes, but the resulting destruction was more significant than we’d foreseen. And now, OSHA has announced an investigation into yesterday’s… unfortunate accident.”
“As you predicted, sir.”
Lex fixed his underling with a stare. “There was nothing that could provide a link to us?”
“No, sir. The carbon monoxide leaking into the cabin will look like the result of poor maintenance, even to the most intensive examination.”
“Excellent. As we planned, blame for the accident will rest squarely on the shoulders of Metropolis Construction.” He stood, shrugging into his suit jacket. “With a word in the right ear, OSHA will levy the… appropriate… fine. MetroCon’s already tenuous financial position will decline even further, leaving the door open for Luthor Construction to acquire the business, making LuthorCon the largest construction contractor on the East Coast.”
“Any news on Superman?”
“Not yet.” Lex shot the paper a darkling look. “Has there been a report on the first shipment?”
“Everything went smoothly, sir. The cargo arrived at its destination this morning, and everything is in readiness for the next shipment.”
“Excellent.” He consulted his expensive Patek Phillipe. “Now. Time to collect Ms Lane.”
