Table of Contents From Part 9:
Clark looked down at his watch - it was just a little after four o’clock. Her *date* - ugh – wasn’t until six. “Yeah, but Dan’s not coming by to get you until six. What are you going to do until then?” As he spoke he closed in on her, standing so close to her that he could feel the heat coming off her body.
The close proximity of his body was sending mixed signals to her brain. No. No, she was mad at him. She was mad and she was going to make him pay. Isn’t that what she had decided earlier?
She took a step away from him. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I need time to get ready.”
“Ready?”
“Yeah, you know, for my date. I have to wash my hair, shave my legs, paint my toenails... oh and then there’s my eyelashes – I probably should curl them since Dan made that comment about them being pretty. Then again, after all that effort, I might not feel like going out at all. Maybe we’ll stay in and I’ll make him something. *He* loves my cooking, you know...” The elevator opened and she stepped inside. “Goodnight, Clark. Have fun on your date with Dr. Klein.”
Then the elevator doors closed and Clark was left standing there to contemplate the jealousy that was flaring up inside him.
What did she mean she had to shave her legs?
**********
PART TEN
**********
Lois had known that Dan had said he was just going to meet her at her apartment at six and then they would go somewhere else from there, but, wanting to irritate Clark just a little further, she had gone ahead and made dinner for Dan. After all, he had seemed pretty pleased with her rumaki. She had decided that maybe she wasn’t such a bad cook after all.
Or maybe not.
She looked with dismay at the mess that had once been her clean kitchen countertop and range. All she had to show for her efforts were boiled over liquids and the burned crisps of something that had once been edible. Her entire apartment had the horrid burnt stench of dinner gone terribly, terribly wrong.
It was at this moment that Dan chose to ring her doorbell.
“Just a minute!” Lois sighed in frustration as she looked at the wreck in her kitchen. She made her way to the front door and stopped in front of the mirror just long enough to ensure that she didn’t have any of the mess on her or her clothes.
She didn’t. Her kitchen may have been a wreck, but she looked great – except for the diminishing bump and cut that still adorned her forehead. Oh well, nothing she could do about that. She had touched it up with make-up as best she could.
She gave her hair one last fluff before she opened the door – just a crack. “Hi, Dan! I’m sorry, but you can’t come in. Trust me – it looks like a war zone in here.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad. Besides I’ll hardly even notice. It’s not like I came here to look at your apartment.” He let out a low whistle. “I really like the haircut. I didn’t think anything could make your eyes more lovely. I was wrong.”
“Thanks.” Despite everything, she felt a blush creep into her cheeks. Get a grip, Lois. You are not interested in Dan. You dumped him, remember? You are just doing this to get back at Clark... oh, and to get some information on Project Nirvana. “Okay, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” It wasn’t like she was trying to impress him, anyway. Who cared if he saw her house in this messy state? She wasn’t trying to date the guy. She flung the door open with reckless abandon and waited to see his horrified expression.
It didn’t come.
“Now, I know I promised I wouldn’t bring flowers, but...” One arm came out from behind his back and he handed her a package of imported Swiss chocolates. “...I never promised not to bring chocolate.”
Lois was appalled. He *did* think this was a date!
“Dan...”
“So, tell me, Lois, whatever happened to ‘Mr. Smoldering Eyes’? You never did tell me on the phone yesterday.”
“Um, well, it’s complicated.”
“When isn’t it with you and him?”
She smiled uncomfortably at him and shrugged.
“Well, are you two still dating or not?” he brazenly asked her.
She sighed heavily. “At the moment... not.”
“Great. Then I don’t have to worry about ‘Dad’ dropping by to spy on us, now do I?”
She fidgeted awkwardly. “I think you’re getting the wrong impression about tonight, Dan.”
“Am I? Let’s see. Currently you are not involved in a relationship with your former boyfriend – the one you dumped me for – and yet you called me up out of the blue to ask for my help. When I bribed you for dinner, you accepted, and from the looks of things you even tried to *cook* me dinner... which is really very sweet, definitely going the extra mile. Does that about sum things up?”
She nodded mutely at him – realizing just how things really did look from an outside perspective.
“Then I just can’t imagine how you could possibly think I’m getting the wrong impression.” He smiled lopsidedly at her.
She blushed again – and then chastised herself for letting him see her blush.
What was wrong with her?
Well it couldn’t be that, because her best friend, partner, and superhero to the world had just rejected her, she was feeling a little neglected and needy and so was responding to this attention more fervently than it really deserved.
Could it?
God, that was it, wasn’t it? She actually felt like she needed the attention of a man to validate herself. Since when did Lois Lane ever need anything from a man?
Since she had fallen in love with Clark Kent.
The ache in her heart made her angry and she forced the feeling down into the pit of her stomach. Clark was going to be sorry. She would make him sorry. If she knew Clark, he wouldn’t just sit at home all night, brooding about her date with Dan. He would put in an appearance at some point, some innocent coincidence no doubt, but he would make sure Dan saw him, nonetheless.
And when he did...
**********
Clark stood inside the security checkpoint waiting area to STAR Labs feeling a little disconcerted when the woman behind the glass wouldn’t let him inside the facility.
She was the same woman who had been here the other day when he and Lois had come to interview Dr. Klein. All they’d had to do was show her their press badges and they had been let inside without question.
But this time she had asked him to wait while she got clearance to admit him.
Clark tipped his glasses down on his nose a little and scanned inside her booth. She was talking to someone on the phone. He relaxed his guard and let his hearing stretch out to intercept her words.
“Yes, Dr. Klein, it’s that reporter from yesterday... No, he’s here by himself... Yes, I’m sure it’s the same guy... Should I send him... No? You want me to... Oh, okay, whatever you say, Dr. Klein.”
The curls of her read hair bounced a little as she came back to the window and took a seat on her stool. “I’m sorry, Mr. Kent. Security has been tightened around here the past couple of days. Without direct authorization, I can’t allow you inside the facility.” Her face flushed a little, enough to cause her light freckles to darken. “Dr. Klein wouldn’t give it to me. He asked me to have you wait out here.”
The news irritated an already impatient Clark. He wanted to get this over with so he could use the information he obtained from Dr. Klein as an excuse to go intrude over at Lois’s.
He cringed inwardly at himself. Clark Kent, what has become of you? Was he really that jealous of Dan that he couldn’t stand for Lois to be alone with him for one evening?
Yes, he was. And, under the current circumstances, he had good reason to be.
His over-active imagination was taking him to places that he didn’t want to go. He could practically see Dan sitting next to Lois on her loveseat, raising one arm to drape behind her. He could see Lois smiling prettily at him, batting her long, thick eyelashes – the ones Dan had commented on. Then Dan would lean in closer to her and they both would close their eyes...
That was ridiculous. Lois wouldn’t... would she? No.
It was also repulsive and Clark didn’t want to think about it anymore. But he just couldn’t get the contrived imagery out of his head.
He sighed. He had to make up his mind. Lois wasn’t going to allow him to teeter back and forth. They were either together or they weren’t. And if they weren’t, he was going to have to let her go.
And that wasn’t something he was prepared to do, not now.
**********
“Let’s see if we can salvage any of this,” Dan offered as he made his way into her kitchen.
“That’s really sweet of you but, trust me, it can’t be salvaged.” She watched, holding her breath, as he stuck his finger in one of the pots and tasted it.
“A little heavy on the Cajun blackening,” he told her, grinning widely.
She had forgotten how his smile could make her feel. It was infectious.
But not as intoxicating as Clark’s smile. His smile made her weak like no other man ever had before.
She frowned. But Clark wasn’t here tonight and apparently he didn’t plan on ever being here again – not like this.
“It’s okay, Dan, really. Don’t give yourself food poisoning just to impress me. If you want to eat here, I can always call out for some Chinese to be delivered.”
“How about that place I told you about that has the really good rumaki – the one that wasn’t as good as yours... remember?”
Of course she remembered. She had mentioned that very thing to Clark just yesterday. She smiled at him. “Okay.”
While Dan busied himself with calling in their order, Lois turned her attention to cleaning up the kitchen. If they were going to eat here, they at least needed a clean place to sit – and one that smelled a little less like a science experiment gone wrong.
“Here, let me help you with that,” Dan said as he walked up behind her.
She was in the process of picking up various pots and pans and dishes. He reached out to take a stack of the dirty items from her and their hands brushed briefly.
Much to her surprise, it sent a little jolt through her. By the look on his face, it had done the same to him.
“Umm, I’ll let you finish putting the dishes into the dishwasher,” she instructed him, taking a few steps back. “I’ll just grab a towel and see if I can get some of this food off the counter.” She anxiously moved past him, headed for the drawer she kept her towels in.
But before she got past him, he had taken hold of her arm, stopping her from going any further.
“How serious did it get with you and Kent?”
“What do you mean?” she asked evasively.
“You know what I mean, Lois. I can see it in your face, when you look at me.” His own face had taken on a very somber demeanor – one that she hadn’t seen on Agent Dan Scardino’s face very often, not unless he was dead serious about something. “There’s guilt in your eyes when you smile at me. He really got to you, didn’t he?”
Lois looked away from him, not wanting him to see her most private feelings on display.
Pull it together Lane.
“No, hmm mmh,” she lied unconvincingly. “I just feel guilty about stringing you along on this ‘almost’ date just so I can get some info out of you about Project Nirvana.”
“Project Nirvana? The drug that Knox was working with Intergang on?”
“Yeah. That’s the one,” Lois confirmed, glad to have steered the conversation in a different direction. “Apparently when your office pulled the plug on the drug, a sample of it was sent to STAR Labs. For what, I don’t know, but I’m betting it had something to do with the government wanting to do some testing on it. Anyway, the research and samples that STAR Labs had were stolen last night.”
“Are you kidding? Do the police have any leads or suspects?”
He was still holding her arm. Well, not so much holding as touching. And she couldn’t find it in her to pull her arm away. “No, not yet. Clark and I have been doing some digging to try and piece together who might have stood to benefit from stealing it.”
“Who? Just about any criminal with enough ambition, that’s who. Lois, that drug is powerful... and dangerous. You thought you knew what I was involved in... but you didn’t know the half of it.” He shook his head and let out a long, slow breath. “That drug in the wrong hands...” He let go of her arm to pull his cell phone out of his pants pocket.
“Who are you calling?” she asked, unable to contain her curiosity.
“My office. They need to be informed of what’s going on in Metropolis. I have a feeling that this might pre-empt my next assignment in Philly. Looks like you might be stuck with me a little longer.”
Lois smirked to herself – oh, Clark was going to love that.
**********
Clark was just about to give up on Dr. Klein, deciding that the doctor had gotten so absorbed in what he was working on that he had forgotten about him, and that was the precise moment that Clark could see him coming from the other side of the thick glass.
As Dr. Klein approached the door and reached out to open it, the glass from the doors behind Clark shattered violently – jagged pieces of it shooting out in all directions.
Clark, unable to change into Superman, dropped to the ground, ducking his head down between his knees and covering his head with his hands as if to protect himself.
Bullets flew by overhead, impacting harmlessly into the interior, bulletproof glass.
Clark could see Dr. Klein out of the corner of his eye. The older man had an absolute terrified look of horror on his face as he dropped down and stared at Clark through the glass.
The shooting stopped almost as soon as it had started and Clark could hear the squealing of tires as the vehicle sped away.
The door to the room was jerked open and Dr. Klein was there, bending over him and babbling nervously.
“Mr. Kent. I’m so sorry. Are you hurt? Were you shot? This is why I was being so careful. Clearly not careful enough. If I had known...”
“Dr. Klein, it’s all right. I think I’m okay.” Clark knew he was okay, but he at least gave the pretense of being concerned by sitting up and feeling himself and looking his clothes over for evidence that none of the bullets had chosen him as a target.
Luckily, none of them had. Clark looked back up at the glass. All the hits had been centralized in one basic spot – the area Dr. Klein had been standing in.
Dr. Klein was over at the security window checking on the now crying attendant behind the glass. Poor thing. She wasn’t a security guard; she was just a receptionist. She wasn’t prepared to deal with something like this.
“Mandy, are you okay?” Dr. Klein asked her worriedly.
“Y... yes, Dr. Klein, I think so. Who were those people? And why were they trying to shoot you?”
“Yes, why were they trying to shoot you?” Clark asked, eying the glass again.
“Mandy, call the police, and contact the board of directors, let them know what happened.” Dr. Klein turned away from her and lowered his voice before continuing, “This is why I wanted to meet you after work. I think we have a mole somewhere here at STAR Labs.”
“A mole?” Clark asked, surprised.
“Shhh,” Dr. Klein shushed him, gesturing with his hand for him to lower his voice. “I know I probably come off seeming a little scatterbrained from time to time...”
Clark hid a smile.
“...but when it comes to things like formulas, my memory is impeccable. I can remember formulas like some people remember... oh, I don’t know... telephone numbers...”
“Uh, Dr. Klein,” Clark prompted him, wondering if there was a point to this.
“Huh? Oh, yes. Well, I’m personally the one who has been experimenting with the Project Nirvana drug over the past several weeks. It’s one of several projects that I’ve been working on. It has a very interesting chemical makeup. There are some synthetic ingredients in it that are so intricate...”
Clark made a gesture of rolling his hand.
“Right, sorry,” Dr. Klein apologized. “I had worked with it enough that I had committed its formula to memory. So when the research notes and samples were stolen, it wasn’t a total disaster because I had everything up here.” He pointed to his head. “I had been working on a reformulation of it all day long the day you were here. Uh, that was the reason I had to run out on you and Ms. Lane – forgot I had left a batch of it unattended. I finally got the formula perfected yesterday. But here’s the weird thing, when I came in this morning, all my new notes and samples were gone – stolen again.”
“Did you call the police?” Clark asked him. This was news to him - no one had said there had been any additional theft here.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because shortly after I discovered the theft, someone called me. Someone who was speaking with a voice synthesizer, Mr. Kent. I was instructed not to report the theft and that I was to stop working on the Nirvana project... or else they would put a stop to me.” Dr. Klein gulped visibly. “So you can see why I’ve been so hesitant to talk to you and why I had taken so many precautions.”
Clark looked around at the mess on the floor. Obviously not enough. Someone wanted this drug to disappear pretty badly. And he was betting that whoever it was had connections to Intergang.
“I know you told us before that it was some form of mind control drug. How so? What does the drug do, exactly?”
“Just about anything you want it to. Have you ever heard of another Project – Project MKULTRA?”
Clark searched his memory. It sounded vaguely familiar, but he wasn’t sure why. “I think I’ve heard of it but I don’t remember what it was about.”
“That’s not surprising. What are you, Mr. Kent? About twenty-eight? Twenty-nine?” Clark nodded at him. “Project MKULTRA would have happened before you were even born. It was a pet-project of the CIA back in the fifties and early sixties.”
“Let me guess. They were trying to figure out how to brainwash people?”
Dr. Klein nodded. “They experimented with LSD mainly, but also several other drugs and combinations of drugs in an effort to create a perfect truth serum or in other words, mind control drug. They would even combine those drugs with electronic signals sent into the brain or sometimes radiation.”
Clark shivered involuntarily. “Were they successful?”
Dr. Klein shrugged his shoulders. “No one knows for sure. All the research, notes, and files were mysteriously destroyed several years later. It was rumored that they had finally developed a drug that could actually inhibit or control cognitive brain function. The only drawback, if I remember correctly, was that it required electric stimuli to initiate the response.”
“They had to shock the subject before it would take effect?” Clark was horrified.
“Pretty much. It wasn’t very realistic for implementation in anything outside of war. They couldn’t exactly get away with going around drugging and shocking innocent civilians. But not so with Project Nirvana. Project Nirvana also affects cognitive brain function. It inhibits the conscious, decision-making capabilities of the brain, much like as if you had drank a little too much. It makes you highly susceptible to suggestion. And the stronger the dosage, the more control you have over someone.”
“So how do you *activate* the Project Nirvana drug?” Clark pondered.
“From what we learned in the research notes we had that Omnicorp had conducted on it, there really isn’t anything required to activate it - for small suggestions. For example, if it was being administered in small doses and you were simply going to expose someone to a little subliminal advertising.”
“Like to get someone to buy your products. So that’s why Bill Church was in on it – he could brainwash people to shop at Costmart.”
“Yes, but that’s not all. According to their research, if you tried to plant a more stringent suggestion in someone’s mind, say something that would normally go against their basic moral code, or something contrary to the normal functioning of the brain, the mind would fight it. Higher doses of the drug had to be administered in those cases and also a “trigger word” had to be set up, like one would use in hypnosis. The trigger word would activate the programming, the subject would carry out their assignment and then they would wake up, oblivious to what had happened – at least while they were under the effects of the drug. There hadn’t been any long term experiments conducted yet.”
Clark nodded his head, understanding. The people involved with Intergang definitely would have had more nefarious designs for the drug. With the help of that drug, they would have had an unlimited source of mercenaries to carry out whatever purpose they deemed necessary to the organization. All they would have had to do was drug someone, plant a suggestion and a trigger word, and voila – instant assassin.
“Come on, Dr. Klein, I’m going to take you down to police headquarters. We need to get you somewhere safe for the night.”
And once he had that little errand taken care of, he could go check on Lois.
**********
“So what is it you see in Clark Kent that you didn’t see in me?” Dan asked her, taking another drink from the wine glass she had offered him.
Dinner had been delicious, much better than anything she could have concocted. They had discussed what Dan could recall from memory about Project Nirvana. Lois had made detailed notes in her journal – managing not to reveal to Dan why she was writing everything down word for word. She wasn’t sure why, but she just didn’t want to talk to him about her memory problems right now.
Right now that seemed better off forgotten.
After telling her what he could remember he had said he would call the office secretary first thing in the morning and have her fax his notes to the Planet, so he and Lois could go over them...
...together.
She hid a sigh. That had been over a half an hour ago.
Dan had made himself at home on her couch and she had long since passed the point of politely being able to ask him when he was planning to leave. So, she had made the best of the situation by getting them both a glass of wine.
She had just begun to relax, both in part to the familiarity of talking with Dan but also due, in no small part, to the relaxing effect of the wine. His question snapped her back to full alert though.
What did she see in Clark?
How did he expect her to answer that question? She wasn’t even sure how to answer that question. It wasn’t like she could tell him that Clark was Superman. Although, in all fairness, she hadn’t known that little tidbit when she had chosen Clark over Dan.
So why had she chosen Clark over Dan?
There were a lot of different reasons, but most of them were just “feelings” – not really anything she could put into actual words. But Dan was waiting... so she thought quickly.
“He has an innate goodness.” On seeing Dan’s uncomfortable body language she hastily amended her statement, “Not that you don’t also possess a goodness. You do. It’s just that... how do I explain this? Clark sees the world with such different eyes. He sees things with an almost innocent nature. He always looks for the good in people. You should have seen the way I treated him when I first met him and we started working together.” She smiled at the memory – ‘don’t fall for me Farmboy – I don’t have time for it’. “If he hadn’t looked past the wall I projected...”
“I looked past that wall...” He reached out and touched her hand lightly.
That touch sent the butterflies fluttering again.
How ridiculous. Had she actually become so shallow that the sweet attentions of any man could threaten to send her into a diabetic coma?
She tried to compose herself before speaking. “Yes, you did,” she admitted, extricating her hand. “But you also weren’t willing to be honest with me.”
“Neither was Kent.”
She stared at him slack-jawed. “What do you mean by that?”
“Oh, come on, Lois. The guy was always running off to take care of some mysterious agenda. And he had the absolute worst, most unbelievable excuses I’ve ever heard. Don’t tell me you bought any of those.” He eyed her appraisingly. “Is that why you guys are on the outs, right now? You finally found out what he was hiding?”
The conversation was quickly finding her more and more uncomfortable. “I really don’t think that’s any of your business.”
“You’re right. It’s not,” he apologized, having the decency to look abashed. She made a motion to stand up from the couch and he stood up behind her, reaching out to stop her from leaving. “Please don’t shut me out again, Lois. Please give me another chance. I can be the man you want. I know I can. I’ve thought about you every day since I left Metropolis, hoping for another chance at this.”
His words were having the oddest effect on her. They seemed to be warming her from the inside out. She felt a little dizzy. What was wrong with her? She loved Clark, didn’t she? But, yet, she *couldn’t* love him, could she. She felt so confused. It had to be the wine... or maybe the fact that her brain was scrambled right now.
Dan moved in closer to her, so close that she could feel his breath on her skin. He placed a soft kiss next to her lips.
“Just one more chance, Lois. Please?”
**********
To Be Continued...
Section Notes: For any of you who would like some light reading <g> - Project MKULTRA is real. Here's the link to the info about it on Wiki:
Project MKULTRA
