Two weeks passed after Lois’s meeting with Wonder Woman, and not a single new lead had turned up as she searched for Clark – not from her own digging, not from her street sources, not from Wonder Woman or any of the other heroes she’d recruited to her cause. She’d spoken to Clark’s parents only once in that time - the night she’d secured Wonder Woman’s help. She wondered if she should call the Kents, just to check in, but she didn’t really have the heart to deflate their fragile hope. So, she kept herself busy every day until it was far too late to call, justifying her radio-silence that way.
A knock sounded at her door and she answered it, finding the local Chinese food delivery man standing in the hallway. She gave a very tired – and very fake – smile to him as she grabbed the money from her pajama pants pocket.
“Hi, Miss Lane,” the man greeted her.
“Hi, Shen,” she said in return.
“Second order this week. You must have a big story you’re working on,” the young man impishly joked with her.
“You can say that again,” she replied, her heart heavy as she threw an involuntary look over at the pages of research and open laptop that now dominated her entire coffee table.
“Any luck finding Mr. Kent?” the man asked gently, his eyes downcast.
Lois could only shake her head.
“Not yet, huh?” His false optimism reminded her of Clark in that moment and it made her want to cry.
“Not yet,” she agreed huskily, choking back the frustration and anguish that haunted her. She handed him the cash for her meal, plus a few dollars in a tip.
“Thanks. Oh, and I threw in a packet of almond cookies,” Shen added, pointing to the brown paper bag encased in a white plastic bag with a big yellow smiley face on it as he handed it over.
“Thanks, that was really nice of you,” Lois said with a slightly more genuine smile.
Shen shrugged. “You’re my best customer.”
Lois managed a half-hearted chuckle. “Tell your grandmother to keep making food as tasty as she does and I’ll never order from anywhere else.”
But the statement tore a fresh hole in her heart as she remembered past meals shared with Clark. He’d always found the best takeout places – both within Metropolis and, as she now surmised, outside of the country. If she had to guess, that Chinese food he’d brought for them to share while they’d worked on their first story together had likely actually come from China. And those amazing tacos he’d buy whenever she had the craving for Mexican food? Probably from Mexico. And those Swiss chocolates he’d bring her for no reason other than ‘hey, we both had a rough day at work yesterday’? Certainly authentic and straight from the source. Thinking about the way he’d go out of his way – even if he could fly around the world in minutes – broke her heart anew.
Shen nodded. “Will do, Miss Lane. See you soon!”
Before she could formulate a reply, he was already sauntering off down the hall, pocketing the cash she’d given him. Lois shut the door and brought her dinner over to the couch. Even with it now being over half a year since Clark’s disappearance, she still felt the weight of every passing second. She didn’t waste time in portioning out the food onto a plate. She popped the cartons of food open and dug in with the provided chopsticks. But as she chewed a mouthful of boneless spare ribs, she had to admit that she was feeling a bit defeated. And she had no idea where to look next for even the hint of a fresh lead.
“Oh, Clark, where are you?” she whispered miserably to herself as she tossed aside the paper she’d been staring at. Her computer dinged and she refreshed her email robotically. Her eyes popped open and she set aside her food as she read the sender’s address. “Wonder Woman?” she mumbled to herself, and her heart gave a little hopeful flip in her chest. “Maybe she’s found something?” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before opening the email. “Don’t get your hopes up, Lois,” she warned herself.
Opening her eyes once again, she clicked the email and fear, rather than optimism, flooded her heart.
Lois, the email began, it’s me, Wonder Woman. I’ve been doing all I can in trying to locate Superman. We need to speak further on the subject. It seems odd to me that the date you provided (May 28th) is also connected to another missing persons report you filed. Another friend of yours, to be precise. A Mr. Clark Kent.
I’m concerned about the timing of these two disappearances. If there’s any connection between the two, I need to know. And so do my other friends. It’s possible we may find one if we find the other, if you catch my meaning.
I understand your hesitation in mentioning both people at our meeting, particularly if I’m right in surmising that the two men are…shall we say…connected. As a gesture of good faith on our behalf, my friends and I are willing to divulge that we all have our own secrets identities that we use to keep our personal lives separate from our more public personas. All of us are committed to keeping Superman’s secret safe as well, if he indeed has one.
This email is encrypted so that only you and I can access it. Any reply you send will remain between you and me, without the need to worry about someone else gaining access to the information within. Please, contact me at your convenience. My friends and I want to find Superman, but we need your help to do it.
Sincerely,
Wonder Woman
AKA Diana Prince
AKA Diana, Daughter of Hippolyta, Princess of Themyscira
Lois felt sick to her stomach as she read the email over and over again. Wonder Woman – Diana – was right, of course. It could well be that Clark was somewhere as himself, rather than Superman. But his secret was his, not hers to give away. And yet, by keeping the secret, she could be endangering any chance of finding him.
For a few terrifying minutes, she was paralyzed with indecision, the email mocking her until she finally shut the lid of the computer, as though having the words out of her sight would make her feel any less panicked. She gulped hard, trying to calm her racing heart, then she picked up the phone, and with trembling hands, dialed the now-familiar number from memory. She drummed her fingers on her thighs and cradled the headset in the crook of her neck as it dialed. But as soon as she heard the tone change and the tentative “hello?” from Martha, she gripped the phone like it was her lifeline.
“Hi, Martha? It’s Lois,” she said, trying to keep the concern she had out of her voice.
“Hi, dear,” Martha said warmly, though Lois could tell the woman was restraining herself from jumping straight to the ‘any news on Clark’ questions.
“Martha? Is Jonathan there with you?” Lois asked cautiously. “I have…an important question to ask you both. Something…” She paused, trying to come up with the correct words to convey just how shattering her question would be.
“Is…has there been some development?” Martha responded, her voice hitching a bit.
“No leads, I’m afraid. But a new ally in our search,” Lois answered carefully.
“Jonathan? Pick up the extension,” Martha instructed her husband. Her voice was muffled a bit and Lois imagined that she’d pulled the phone away from her ear and held it against her chest.
There was a click and a sound of static, as though the mouthpiece of the phone was being dragged across some fabric, then Jonathan’s voice.
“Lois?” he said.
“Hi, Jonathan,” she greeted him. “I wish I was calling with better news,” she began. “But, as you know, I’ve been contacting other…powerful individuals…you know, ones like Clark…as much as possible, hoping they can help us find Clark. I wish I’d been able to track down more of them at this point, but trying to pinpoint where any one of them might be at any given time…” Her voice trailed off. “I digress. Two weeks ago, I was able to speak with Wonder Woman.”
“We remember,” Jonathan commented softly, encouraging her, and she could picture Clark’s father nodding his head.
“She promised to get in touch with some of the others that I haven’t been able to,” Lois added.
“She’s better equipped for the task,” Martha said in turn. “It helps when you can fly around the world and all.” There was a touch of sadness to her words.
Lois nodded, though Clark’s parents couldn’t see. “I just got an email from her. She’s…made a tenuous connection between Clark and…who I asked her to find,” she said uneasily, not quite trusting the phone line to be secure.
Too many science fiction movies, she determined, but the worry was there nonetheless.
“She…offered me her…true identity, no strings attached,” she informed them, still reeling a bit from the unexpected email and information.
“Why?” Jonathan asked. Lois could tell from the treble in his voice that his guard was up, his suspicions aroused.
“Jonathan, please,” Martha said soothingly, though Lois could tell she was on the defensive too. “Let Lois talk. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation…” She let her voice trail off, allowing Lois to pick up the conversation.
“She wants me to trust her. And to confirm her suspicions and…and…I don’t know what to do.” Lois bit back a tormented sigh. “I don’t want to be the one to give up his…personal information. But if there’s any chance it might help our search…”
She let her voice go dead. The silence on the other end of the phone was deafening, and she could only imagine how badly Jonathan and Martha were reeling. Still, she wished one of them would say something – anything – to break the awkward quiet. She wanted desperately for them to tell her what to do. If anyone had the power to make the decision to divulge Clark’s secret, it was the people who’d raised him.
“Ahh….” Jonathan said, stammering, clearly at as much of a loss as Lois was.
“I don’t know what to tell her,” Lois said, nearly repeating herself.
“Is she trustworthy?” Martha asked, her tone of voice suggesting she was deep in thought.
“I’ve only met her the one time but…I felt like I could trust her, yeah,” Lois replied slowly, thinking back on her meeting with the Amazon warrior. “And from what I know about her, her values are the same as Clark’s.” It was important to point that out, in her mind. That, if anything, proved that the woman was someone they could trust.
“You said she gave you her own identity?” Jonathan asked thoughtfully. “No strings attached?”
“She wants me to know his secret will be safe, by offering up her own. She knows I’ll blast it all over the front page of the Daily Planet if she so much as thinks about telling the world who Clark is.”
“And she’ll keep this information completely to herself?” Clark’s father inquired.
“No. She’ll tell the others, so they can all keep an eye out for him. Or any trace of information about Clark,” Lois said with certainty.
“How can we trust them?” Jonathan wondered. “We don’t know these people from a hole in the wall. How can we be sure they’ll use the information only for its intended purpose?”
“We make them trade their information for ours,” Lois replied with cold determination. “Di…Wonder Woman said that every single one of them has a private life.”
“Do it,” Martha said with grim resolve.
“Martha! You can’t be seriously agreeing to giving up our boy’s entire identity,” Jonathan exclaimed in surprise.
“It’s what Clark himself would choose. This may be our only chance to find him,” Martha replied.
Jonathan took a deep breath and noisily blew it out again. “You’re right. Lois, you have our blessing.”
Lois found herself trembling with the incredible sense of responsibility that now rested on her shoulders. “I will. Thanks. I…couldn’t have made that decision without your input,” she told them.
“No, thank you for everything you’ve done so far for our son,” Martha replied.
“I’ll call you in a day or two, once I’ve had a chance to talk to Wonder Woman,” she informed them.
“Thanks,” Jonathan acknowledged.
“This’ll work,” she promised. “It has to.”
***
Lois stood on the roof of her apartment building, shivering in the frigid night air. It was now well after midnight, and she was tired as well as cold, and more than a little hungry, though her stomach revolted at each thought of food. She hadn’t been able to eat any of the abandoned Chinese food. She’d been sick to her stomach with the idea of telling anyone – even someone as good and pure as Wonder Woman – that Clark was Superman.
I have no choice. I need her help. It’s been far too long since Clark vanished. I need all the help I can get. Because if I don’t…I fear what might happen to him. I fear what may have already happened to him. I need to bring him home, no matter what.
“I’m glad you decided to meet me,” Wonder Woman said, startling Lois out of her brooding thoughts as she came to a light touchdown before Lois.
“I’m glad you decided to come, rather than do this over email,” Lois replied. “Encrypted or not…I wasn’t comfortable having this discussion in printed words.”
Wonder Woman nodded in understanding. “Ever the reporter,” she said with an amused smile. “Everything is evidence to be found by the right person, even if it’s impossible to be found.”
“Clark’s investigative skills are proof that nothing is ever really safe,” Lois countered, fondly remembering how many ‘impossible’ leads he’d uncovered and how many ‘dead ends’ he’d busted through, though now she knew to attribute at least some of his success to the surreptitious use of his powers.
Wonder Woman’s smile grew. “Fair enough,” she allowed.
“The thing is, Wonder Woman,” Lois began.
“Diana, please. We’re partners in this investigation, Lois,” the Amazon gently corrected her. “Leave the ‘Wonder Woman’ title to the fanboys.” She smiled again and her eyes twinkled.
Lois found a tiny chuckle escaping her lips. “Okay. Diana.” She paused and sighed. “I hate admitting this but…you’re right. I was holding information back. I was scared. It’s not something I can ever…fix, if things go wrong. I didn’t want to be responsible for ruining my best friend’s life. But…after some thought and a conversation with Clark’s parents…well, I’m not exactly happy to be sharing this information. I just know it’s necessary, if we stand a chance of bringing him home. Clark…is Superman.”
For Lois, it felt like she’d dropped a nuclear bomb by divulging Clark’s secret. But Diana seemed unfazed by the revelation. The Amazon merely nodded to herself, as if confirming to herself that her suspicions had been accurate.
“Thank you, Lois. I know that wasn’t easy for you to tell me. But I’m glad you did. My friends and I will keep a sharp watch for both of his personas. You’re doing the right thing in trusting us.”
“I hope so,” Lois replied queasily.
Diana put a supportive hand on Lois’ shoulder. “You are. And I think, once we find him, Clark will agree that you had no other choice. Here,” she said, slipping a small slip of paper out from beneath her gauntlet. “Take this.”
“What is it?” Lois asked, even as she accepted the paper.
“The others agreed with you in that if we were asking you to entrust Superman’s identity to us, then you should be privy to ours,” Diana replied, gently curling Lois’ fingers around the paper. “Commit it to memory, then burn the paper.”
“I’ll keep the information safe,” Lois promised. “You have nothing to worry about.”
Diana smiled softly. “We know. We’re all impressed with your dedication to find Clark, you know. Especially given how fickle the populace can be. So many have already forsaken the man they once revered.”
“I love him,” Lois admitted in a whisper. “He’s my best friend, my partner…the one man I was thinking about when I was getting ready to marry another. Clark’s the reason why I couldn’t go through with it. Even without being there, he saved me from the biggest mistake of my life. Please, bring him home to me.” What had started off as a staunch defense of Clark had devolved into a plea by the end.
“My friends and I will move Heaven and Earth looking for him,” Diana promised, stepping forward to envelope Lois in the hug that she sorely needed in that moment.
***
It was dark. So very dark. It was oppressive, suffocating, life-draining. How long had it been since he’d seen light – of any kind? Weeks, certainly. Months, more than likely. A year or more? Who knew? Even the concept of light felt like a fantasy – a cruel farce dreamed up by Satan’s minions to torment those who lived in the eternal pitch-blackness of this Hell on Earth.
Clark blinked, and it was only that sensation that allowed him to know that his eyes had, indeed, been open. There was no other way to tell. He couldn’t see so much as the hand in front of his face. He could only tell when there was food in his miserable little cell when he fumbled out in his forced blindness and bumped into the tray on the floor, or the rare occasion when whatever he was served had enough of a pungent odor as to allow him to smell his way to his meal.
At least there was one upside to never seeing any light. It meant he hadn’t seen the glow of the Kryptonite bars for however long it had been since his world went dark.
But that was the only positive to the inky, eternal blackness he lived in. He never saw another human being. Even when his meals were delivered, it was done under the cover of darkness and without so much as the squeak of a shoe on the concrete floor to alert him to the presence of another person. He supposed they were brought during the times when sheer exhaustion allowed him to pass out for brief rests. He had to wonder if whoever was bringing the meals was doing it with the use of night-vision goggles. There could be no other explanation for how they were getting around in the dark.
Being robbed of his sight also meant that Clark could never prepare himself for anything that happened to him. Sometimes, out of nowhere, a powerful spray of cold water would drench him, cleaning both his suit and his body in one slipshod effort that usually had him gasping for breath under the torrent and left him with chattering teeth long after the water was shut off and he was left to drip dry. Sometimes, various noises were heard in the blackness – strange, intentionally terrifying noises that frayed what courage he had until he imagined it as a torn, bleeding animal inside of him.
He lost all sense of time. Not only was he restricted from knowing if it was day or night, or even what hour it was, he was never allowed to sleep more than what was likely an hour at a time. Mostly, he was assaulted with a loud, unending recording of a demonic, yet robotic, sounding voice.
You are Superman. There is no Clark Kent. There has never been a Clark Kent. You are Superman. Only Superman. You will never be anything other than Superman.
Alone in the dark, with bloodshot eyes, a desperate need for sleep, and the oppressive isolation, Clark found his grasp of reality slipping away.
To Be Continued…
