Chapter 16
“Miss Lane?”
Nigel waved Lois towards the door to Lex’s office. She suppressed a shudder as she passed the older man. He was always impassive, but there was something about the man that she just did not like. His stubborn refusal to call her Ms Lane was irritating, but that wasn’t it. He was, she decided, a little creepy. Pushing thoughts of Lex’s unpleasant assistant aside, she steeled herself for the conversation ahead.
“Lois!”
Lex rounded the desk, a broad smile on his face as he approached her and planted a possessive kiss on her unwilling mouth.
Clark’s multiple revelations from the day before had torn the wool away from her eyes. And while she still wasn’t certain that Lex was capable of what Clark had accused him of, she was considering him dispassionately now. As painful as it was to admit, it was the first time she’d done so since they’d met. What had happened to her? How had she gone from seeing Lex only as a story, as the subject of a hard-hitting, in-depth investigation, to dating and almost marrying the man?
How had she not seen the glint in his eyes when he looked at her before this? He looked at her like a valuable object, like another piece of art to add to his collection.
“Hi, Lex.” She managed a small smile, hoping it didn’t appear as fake as it felt.
“To what do I owe the pleasure this morning?” He tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and drew her towards the desk. “Have you come to give me your answer?”
Relinquishing her hand, he opened one of the drawers of his desk and drew out the velvet box containing the ostentatiously large diamond ring he’d presented her with on the plane two nights earlier.
“I have.” She chose her words carefully, wanting to avoid any possibility of him misconstruing her meaning.
“Excellent.” Smoothly he snapped the lid of the box open and pulled the gaudy ring out of its velvet nest, taking her left hand and sliding the metal band onto her finger before she could react.
“I’ll have Nigel draft a press release-“
“Lex, no.”
“But sweetheart, we’ll need to put out a statement-“
“Lex, my answer is no.” She tugged the ring off her finger and held it out to him. He looked at it in disbelief before meeting her eyes, and for a moment she saw a flash of pure cold rage, as if the veneer of his humanity had been cast aside. Involuntarily she took a step backwards, chilled to her core. In another moment, the mask was back in place.
“Of course, my darling. I’ve been too hasty, haven’t I? I haven’t given us enough time to get to know one another. So I’ll just put this aside for now, and in a few weeks-“ The tone of his voice, as if he was humouring a petulant child, irked her.
“No, Lex. I think- I think we should stop seeing each other.”
“I see. So this is your final answer?”
“Yes, it is. Goodbye, Lex.” She turned and walked towards the door, suppressing the urge to flee until she’d made it out of the view of Lex’s creepy assistant. The glimpse he’d unwittingly given her of his inner self had shaken her greatly.
Was this what Clark had seen? Was this what he’d tried to warn her about? That underneath the suave, debonair exterior lay someone entirely different? Someone twisted, someone evil? He’d seen Lex so much more clearly than she ever had.
She shifted the Jeep into reverse and sped out of the parking lot, shuddering in relief as she left LexTower behind.
***
The sound of someone pounding on his front door startled Clark out of a deep slumber. Bleary-eyed from sleep and sore from the previous day’s beating, he slid out of bed and stumbled towards the door, pulling on the nearest set of clean clothes as he went.
He reached out a hand to open the door, then paused. Cautiously, he moved aside the curtain covering the glass pane a fraction and peered out through the gap he’d created.
A phalanx of reporters filled the stairs to his apartment, spilling out into the street. The pack was headed by Leo Nunk with his photographer in tow, but from his vantage point Clark could identify reporters from the Inquisitor, the Metropolis Star, LNN and a host of other news agencies- both reputable and otherwise.
“Oh no,” he breathed, letting the curtain fall back into position and backing away from the door. Trying to move as noiselessly as possible, he flicked the television on and muted it, tuning it to an all-news station. As he had feared, Superman’s secret identity was the top story of the day. Unable to look away, he watched as a video clearly taken from inside his apartment was played. The unseen cameraman took care to zoom in on several objects that clearly identified their owner; the photo of him and his parents on his graduation day; his college football; trophies and awards from his past, all with ‘Clark Kent’ emblazoned on them. The camera pulled back; moving through the living room, it stopped at the closet, sliding the door back and triggering the mechanism that opened the hidden compartment. The camera panned across the contents of the compartment, revealing the electric blue Spandex of the Suits.
It was okay, he reasoned. All the video proved was that he was storing Superman’s Suits. He could come up with an explanation for that-
Onscreen, the video changed. From the angle and the quality of the image, it looked like footage from a security camera overlooking one of the alleys with which Metropolis was so generously provided. For a long moment the alley was empty; then without warning Superman touched down, spun into what Clark recognised as the suit he’d worn on one of the few days between attacks after the hospital fire, and exited the alleyway, looking furtively around him before blending into the crowd.
There was no explaining that away.
He changed the channel, flicking rapidly between stations. Every single news broadcast that he caught showed the same footage.
Groaning, he sank into the nearest chair, cradling his head in his hands.
It was out.
Even if it was only Metropolitan news at the moment, it wouldn’t stay that way. By tomorrow, the entire world would know that Superman was Clark Kent in disguise.
He’d lost.
***
Grim-faced, Perry watched the bank of monitors hanging from the newsroom ceiling. While they were all tuned to different stations, as usual, today the coverage was so similar he could almost swear it was the same channel.
Clark’s secret was out.
Every single station was playing the same video clip on what felt like a continuous loop. The interior shots of what he recognised as Clark’s apartment. The partition concealed behind the closet he’d once hidden in. The alleyway shot of Superman morphing into the mild-mannered reporter he’d come to think of as a surrogate son.
The Planet had received the same clip, hand-delivered anonymously early this morning on an unmarked videotape. Perry couldn’t blame the news directors for using the footage. Superman’s secret identity? The clip was every reporters’ dream.
Luthor had really done it. Destroyed a young man’s life, and for what? To cover his own criminal activities? What was on those ships that was so valuable?
“Chief!”
Jimmy’s voice came from the back of the pack of reporters that surrounded the monitor bank.
“Call for you on line one.”
Perry instinctively moved towards the nearest desk but was headed off by the uncharacteristically fierce expression on the young photographer’s face. Jimmy jerked his head in the direction of Perry’s office, clear signal that the call shouldn’t be taken within earshot of the newsroom staff.
“Excuse me, folks.”
The crowd of reporters reluctantly parted to let Perry through. Reaching his office, he punched the flashing ‘Line 1’ button.
“Perry White.”
“Chief? It’s me.”
The strain and desperation were evident even in Clark’s opening words.
“Have you seen it?”
For a moment Perry thought of lying, of covering and trying to make it seem like Clark’s secret was a smaller story than it really was; of trying to make it seem like it wasn’t something that would consume the thoughts of a considerable portion of the world for days, weeks, months… but Clark was too smart and too savvy a journalist to buy that. He’d see right through Perry’s dissembling in a heartbeat. Right now, Perry knew that what Clark needed more than anything was someone he could trust, and lying to him would only isolate the young man even more.
“Yeah son, I’ve seen it.”
“Well. I guess I owe you that exclusive.” The attempt at lightness went straight to Perry’s heart. “Only I think you’ll have to send someone down here. My apartment is surrounded.”
The line disconnected abruptly. Perry slowly hung up the receiver.
Clark hadn’t done anything wrong. To the contrary, he’d done nothing but try to help the citizens of Metropolis and of the world, and this was how he was repaid? Blackmailed, beaten, tortured and now virtually imprisoned in his own home? And by journalists whose only concern was getting the biggest story of their careers- and not the man whose life had just been turned upside down.
For the first time in his career, Perry hated his chosen profession.
Sighing, he got to his feet. The only reporter he would trust with a story of this magnitude was Lois, and sending her was out of the question. Even without yesterday’s display, she’d been Clark’s partner for most of the last year. No, he couldn’t send Lois. He’d go himself. Rifling through his desk, he pulled out a spiral bound notepad and a pencil, slipping them into his pocket. It had been a long time since his byline had appeared on the front page of the Daily Planet.
Pulling open the door, he was confronted by Lois. At the sight of her, his simmering anger boiled over and he had to resist the urge to yell at her in front of the entire newsroom.
She could’ve stopped this.
If she’d just heard Clark out instead of flying off the handle every time Luthor’s name was mentioned, this could’ve all been avoided. They could’ve worked together to get to the bottom of whatever Luthor was doing before it had gotten to this point.
“I want the story,” Lois stated with no preamble.
“No,” Perry snapped, unwilling and unable, right now, to be diplomatic with his star reporter.
“But Perry, its Clark!”
“Exactly. And you can't be impartial. Your behaviour yesterday proved that. Unless and until you can show me otherwise, I don't want you anywhere near this story.”
Perry turned and walked away, leaving Lois flat-footed in his wake.
