Thank you to all of you who have harassed me for this part. Better late than never, right?
Table of Contents **********
From Part 20
**********
Lois hung up the phone and grabbed her purse. She was on the way out her door when she realized she should at least call Clark and tell him to meet her there. It would be rude to run off to her appointment without at least telling him what had happened. Plus, she admitted to herself, she really did need him there. He knew more about what was going on in her life than she did.
The thought irritated her just a little.
She grabbed her phone and dialed his number. No answer. His machine picked up and she hung up the phone. Should she wait? Did that mean he was on his way here? If he were on his way here, he could be here in mere seconds.
On the other hand, if he had been called away to an emergency, there was no telling when he would get here.
She reeled again at the thought that Clark was Superman. It was still a little hard to wrap her mind around.
She hesitated another ten or fifteen seconds before finally deciding that she would just leave him a note. When he did get here, he would see the note and he could just meet her there. It’s not like it would take him any extra time... not really.
She quickly scrawled a note and left it taped to the outside of her door.
Dr. Peterson called, needed me to come in early. See you there – Lois.***************
PART TWENTY-ONE
***************
Clark took the stairs at Lois’s building two at a time, without waiting for Henderson. He couldn’t explain it but he just had this feeling...
He flung the door open to Lois’s floor and hurried towards her apartment, his heart beating faster when he saw there was a piece of paper taped outside it.
No! His stomach lurched in apprehension as he unfolded the note and saw what she had written. He shouldn’t have left her alone...
Clark could hear Henderson huffing as he came around the corner behind him and Clark turned to face him. “Geez, Kent. I need to have you give lessons to some of the donut-eaters down at the...” When he saw the look on Clark’s face he stiffened. “What’s wrong?”
“Dr. Peterson called Lois and asked her to come in for her appointment early.” Clark walked over and handed the note to Henderson, the muscle in his jaw clenching. “She’s on her way there right now. I’ve gotta get to her.” He headed back for the stairwell and Henderson started after him.
Clark turned around and shook his head – he needed to get to Lois fast and Henderson would only slow him down. “No, you should go inside Lois’s apartment and get that Nirvana sample.” Clark held out Lois’s spare keys – she had asked him to keep them for her after locking her keys in her Jeep. “It’s on a plate in her kitchen sink – the one with two yellow substances on it. We need to know for sure if the drug Dr. Peterson was giving Lois is Nirvana. If it is, then Dr. Peterson could be the one behind all of this. Take the samples back to the precinct and show them to Dr. Klein – he can confirm it.” Clark realized he was speaking to Henderson in almost his Superman voice – but he didn’t care. He had to get Henderson to listen to him.
“I can’t just hand evidence over to him like that. Klein is a suspect in the case,” Henderson balked.
“You have to,” Clark argued. “He’s the only one who knows the chemical make-up of Nirvana by memory. What’s Dr. Klein going to do if you’re standing right there watching him? We need to know...”
Henderson sighed in defeat. “Okay, Kent, but you’d better be right about this. When I get inside Lois’s apartment I’ll call for back-up and send them to Peterson’s office.”
“Thanks,” Clark called out behind him as he made a dash for the stairwell.
***********
Lois stepped out of her Jeep and started to walk towards the entrance of the clinic. She cursed loudly when a black Mercedes screeched to a halt in front of her, almost running her over in the process. “What? Do you think you own the road? Probably some rich doctor’s wife too busy talking on her cell phone to bother with pedestrians.”
Lois started to walk around the car when the back door was harshly flung open. A middle-aged man stepped out of the car, his face was eerily void of emotion. “Ms. Lane. Could I persuade you to join me? You have something that belongs to me.”
“And what would that be? Your common sense? Look, I don’t know who you think you are...” she began.
“Yes,” he interrupted her, “that’s about what I expected you to say. Doctor?” He nodded, presumably at someone behind her.
She started to turn around when she felt a sharp pain in her arm and then her eyes seemed to lose focus and her vision began to swim. “What do you... think you’re...” Lois stumbled forward and braced herself against the car with one hand. She was in trouble. “Supe...”
**********
Clark flew at top speed straight for the clinic, scanning the streets below. No sign of Lois. When he got to the clinic he could see her Jeep in the parking lot – a quick scan revealed that she wasn’t inside. Clark landed out of sight, changed clothes, and made his way inside to the receptionist’s desk.
A pleasant-looking woman glanced up at him from her computer and smiled. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Yeah. I’m running late. I was meeting Lois Lane here for her appointment with Dr. Peterson.” Clark tried to control his anxiety from leaking through into his voice – he didn’t think it was working.
“Dr. Peterson?” She raised her eyebrows at him. “You must be mistaken. Dr. Peterson’s not in today. He had something personal to attend to. I’m sorry, I thought he had already called and cancelled all his appointments for today himself...”
Clark was already turning around before the last sentence was out of her mouth. He said a muffled ‘thank you’, and he pushed the door open and left the building.
Moments later he was back in the air again scanning, what he felt to be futilely, the streets and vehicles below for Lois. How would he ever find her? How much had he missed her by? She could be anywhere by now. He flew in a gradually deepening circular pattern, x-raying as he went. The more time that passed the more panicked he became – minutes seemed to stretch by like hours.
Why wasn’t she calling for him?
He stretched out with his hearing, as far as he could push it - hoping to hear something – a heartbeat, a breath - anything. No matter how far away they had taken her, it couldn’t be far enough that he wouldn’t hear her.
But there was nothing.
Why couldn’t he hear her?
Because this wasn’t about him. This wasn’t about using her to get to Superman. They weren’t trying to make her yell out for Superman to lure him into some kind of trap. They already had what they wanted.
Lois.
For all he knew, she could already be dead.
Clark lost altitude, falling a few feet through the air before steadying himself. His heart was pounding wildly in his chest. No. He shut his eyes against the thought, flying blindly for a few seconds, trying to clear his mind and think clearly. No, she wasn’t dead. If they had wanted to simply kill her, they would have done that last night. They must still need her for something – or she still had something that they wanted.
He needed help. Clark changed direction and headed for the police precinct. He needed to tell Henderson what had happened and find out if Dr. Klein knew Dr. Peterson.
**********
Lois opened her eyes and then abruptly wished she hadn’t when they were assaulted by harsh light. She shut them and then tried again, this time just squinting.
She was strapped into a chair, her wrists were bound to the arms of it with rope and that same rope was around her waist holding her in place. Two men were standing off to the side, a little ways away, arguing about something.
She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. She concentrated a little harder and the voices became clear.
“I said I want out,” the older-looking man said angrily.
“You can’t get out,” the other man snipped. “You’re in too deep, now. She’s not going to just let you walk away.” Lois tried to hear more but their voices had become quieter and she couldn’t make out what they were saying.
As her eyes became adjusted to the light, she opened them a little wider. She didn’t recognize where she was. The room had all sorts of equipment in it – computers, telephones, large monitors and screens hanging on the walls. But there were no windows. And there only appeared to be one set of double doors leading into the room.
She looked down at her restraints, wondering if she could wriggle enough to get one arm free. Side to side and back and forth she moved one arm and then the other, trying to gauge how much room she had to move. There wasn’t much give, but since the two men in the room with her weren’t watching her, she’d give it a shot.
Lois worked the arm that had the most freedom back and forth a few times. She tried flattening her hand out and scrunching her fingers together to see if she could get them to slide through her restraints, but it wasn’t going to work. She gave the rope one more hard, frustrated tug before giving up.
The noise from her last exertion caught the men’s attention. “Well, Ms. Lane, how good of you to join us,” the one man said. He had dark thinning hair and an aloof, militaristic presence about him. She recognized him as the man who had gotten out of the Mercedes.
“I’m sorry. My mother told me never to talk to strangers,” she bit out. It was ridiculous but she was mad and she didn’t feel like cooperating in the slightest with these people – whoever they were. She looked over at the other man. He was an older man with white hair. He was almost bald save for the few wisps of hair around the back of his head.
“Cute,” the man with the dark hair continued, “But we aren’t strangers, Ms. Lane. This is Dr. Peterson. I believe you know him quite well, actually.”
Lois looked at the white-headed man again and scowled.
“And though we’ve never officially met before,” the dark-haired man continued in his structured tone, “you actually know me as well – Charles Knox. You listened in on a private conversation of mine once with Agent Scardino. Although I’m sure at the moment you don’t remember any of that.” He smirked ever so slightly at her. “In fact, I tried unsuccessfully to kill you and Agent Scardino in an explosion at the courthouse.” His almost smirk turned to a scowl. “I was foiled by that sanctimonious schmuck, Superman.”
“Is that why I’m here? You think you can get me to call out for Superman? Lure him here? Because I won’t do it,” she spat.
“Oh, no, Ms. Lane. Superman is the last person I want here. In fact, we’re a little over forty feet below ground down here... and we have sound-proofing in place – I doubt even the Man of Steel could hear you scream.”
Scream? Lois swallowed involuntarily. “So you brought me down here to finish the job you started before? To kill me?”
Knox’s sneer was more pronounced this time. “If I had simply wanted to kill you, I would have had the bumbling idiot that my employer sent to your apartment last night do it.”
His employer? Who was that? She vaguely remembered the DEA agent, Dan, mentioning something about Intergang possibly being involved in the break-in. Did Knox work for Intergang?
Lois needed to keep Knox talking. She needed to give Clark time to find her. She knew he would get her note, and then he would go to Dr. Peterson’s office. She didn’t know where he would go from there, but surely he could find her – Clark was smart. He was the best investigative reporter she’d ever worked with – not to mention the fact that he was Superman. She just needed to give him time.
“So why am I here?”
Knox frowned. “You wouldn’t *be* here if that dullard had done his job.”
Lois watched him walk over to a drawer and open it, pulling out a small vial and syringe. Knox set the items on a table as he continued speaking.
“That blundering burglar was supposed to break into your apartment, put you to sleep, steal the sample of Nirvana that you had and the notes, and then leave. Everything was going fine until he came back without the notes. He had found a few papers that had case notes on them and some newspaper clippings about Nirvana, but that’s not what we needed.” Knox sighed softly, regaining his composure. The blank look on his face had returned and Lois found it disturbing. “Apparently you hid the actual notes somewhere... probably along with that journal Dr. Peterson told me you’ve been keeping.”
“So you brought me here because you need my journal? Why not just break in and look for it again?” Keep him talking, she repeated the mantra to herself – her mind racing to figure out a way to escape.
“No, I’m quite sure the journal won’t contain anything of use to me. What I’m interested in is Dr. Klein’s notes. The journal I was just going to throw away to make sure we squelched that memory of yours,” he explained, tapping her on the head.
“To make *sure*...? You mean you’re responsible for my memory loss?”
Knox’s eyes narrowed slightly and he nodded towards his accomplice. “Actually, no, you can thank Dr. Peterson for that. He was one of the doctors I had originally worked with on Nirvana. He was about to start a clinical trial of the drug when you and Agent Scardino exposed it as a mind-controlling substance.” He folded his hands stiffly in front of him. “Imagine our delight when Mr. Kent brought you into the hospital that fateful night, almost a week ago, for that concussion you had sustained.”
Lois wracked her brain trying to remember, but it wouldn’t come to her. What had happened to her?
“Dr. Peterson knew an opportunity when he saw one,” Knox continued. “He still had a small sample of the Nirvana drug from his previous research. He called our mutual employer and asked if you should become his first experimental subject. You made the perfect test subject. If we could erase your memory, you couldn’t testify against me in the upcoming Nirvana trial. And your background gave us the perfect cover story.”
Her background? What did he mean? At her confused frown he went on, “Your file at the hospital showed that Superman had brought you in a few months back. You had been exposed to extreme cold and he’d had to revive you. He was concerned that there might be after-effects – ruptures, bleeding in the brain... You get the idea. It turned out that you were fine and given a clean bill of health.”
He unclasped his hands and straightened his tie and coat, almost mechanically. “But last week, the concussion you incurred gave us just the opportunity we needed to give you a little amnesia. As a test run, we took your memory back to the night that Superman had brought you in. We had to be sure the drug would do what we needed it to before we erased your memory any further. You became our first lab rat.” He was staring at her and she suddenly felt very much like a specimen under a microscope. “You should be proud. We’ve gotten a lot of helpful data back from our experiments on you.”
Lois was paying attention to everything he said, even though most of it didn’t make any sense to her. Knox hadn’t hesitated to answer any of her questions – that could only mean one thing. He wasn’t planning on her being able to tell anyone. She had to keep him talking...
“So why did I suddenly regress further?”
He glanced over at the doctor before answering her question. Lois followed his gaze and realized the doctor didn’t look too happy. “Dr. Peterson had programmed your memory yesterday to reset far enough back that you wouldn’t remember anything about Nirvana or Agent Scardino. Too many of your memories were finding a way to seep back into your conscious thoughts through your dreams. We needed to do something more drastic. Our experiments were over. We had the information we needed and it was time to make you forget completely.
“Are you sure we should be telling her all of this?” Dr. Peterson finally broke in.
Knox looked over at him again. “Worried, Doctor? Don’t be. After we’re through with her, she won’t be telling anyone, anything.” He shifted his piercing gaze back on her and a shiver went down her spine.
Please hurry, Clark, she thought desperately.
**********
After changing clothes, Clark ran up the steps leading to the precinct. He was met by none other than Dan Scardino coming out the door.
“Kent? What are you doing here? Where’s Lois?”
Clark winced. Not the person he wanted to see right now. “I’m here to see Henderson. Has he made it back yet?”
“Yeah, just a few minutes ago. Why?” Dan eyed him suspiciously.
“Nothing. I just need to talk to him.”
“Nothing?” Dan scowled. “Come on, Kent, I know we’ve had our differences, but I’m involved in this and you know it. Let me do what I can to help.”
Clark sighed in defeat. “Okay, come on. I only want to have to say this once.”
**********
“I told you that I’m not going to be a part of killing anyone,” Dr. Peterson told Knox heatedly. “I’m a doctor. I initially got involved in this for the research and to help my patients. I’ll admit that I’ve done some things I’m not proud of, but I won’t be involved in killing anyone.”
“Who said anything about killing her?” Knox asked, his voice sharp and precise. “Once we have the notes for Nirvana, we can make more of it and just erase her memory entirely.” He chuffed slightly and Lois felt her face blanch. “Although it’s a little late for you to worry about murder on your rap sheet.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with the death of that man.”
“No. You’re right. I killed him – but you would no doubt be viewed as an accomplice,” Knox said with calculating indifference. “I killed him for his ineptitude and his stupidity. He should have been smart enough to know the notes he brought us weren’t what we needed, and he should have been smart enough to know if he didn’t finish erasing that tape that he shouldn’t have bothered to come back. Besides, if I hadn’t killed him, *she* would have. And she’ll kill you if you try to back out now.”
Lois wondered just briefly what tape he was talking about – and who this mystery woman was. And then Knox was walking over towards her chair. She would have tried something, her legs were still free, but he gave her a wide berth. He bent down behind her and began to fiddle with something underneath the chair. “Now come here and help me hook this thing up.”
“No. I told you that it’s too dangerous,” Dr. Peterson said nervously. “We don’t know what it might do in reaction with the drug. It hasn’t been tested.”
Knox stood up and adjusted his glasses, looking first at Lois and then at the doctor. “If you aren’t going to help, then at least prepare the Nirvana.” She could see him gesturing at the bottom of her chair out of the corner of her eye. “Besides the initial employment, we’ll only use this if we have to.” He walked around where she could see him more clearly. “I’m sure Ms. Lane is going to cooperate with us. Aren’t you, Ms. Lane?”
Lois glared at him. She would cooperate – to a point – if it would buy her more time.
Dr. Peterson walked over to the table and grabbed the syringe and vial, which Lois could now see contained a small amount of golden liquid. The doctor inserted the needle into the vial and extracted the liquid before tipping the needle up and tapping the cylinder. He pushed the injector far enough that a small bit of liquid came out of the needle, and then he brought it towards her.
The doctor paused and looked over at Knox. “You realize this is the last of the vial we *obtained* from STAR Labs? We won’t have any more until we can get those notes.”
“Yes, yes. I know,” Knox assured him brusquely. “It’s a shame the notes we stole from STAR Labs turned out to be incomplete, our circumstances wouldn’t be quite so problematic. We could have simply made more.”
Knox turned to look at her and his lip twitched as if attempting a smile. “Now just relax...”
“Don’t bet on it,” Lois said as she kicked out at both of them with her legs. Unfortunately they came up short.
“I told you to tie her legs,” Knox spat.
“Sorry. I’m new to the whole kidnapping and hostage scenario,” Dr. Peterson quipped. “And we didn’t have any more rope.” He turned back to her and gave her a regretful look. “Ms. Lane, trust me when I say that you’re going to want this as much as Mr. Knox does.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she snipped.
“No, he’s right,” Knox interjected. “Once we inject you with this and say the fail-safe code word, your memories will return.”
Lois eyed him suspiciously. “And just why would you do that? You’ve worked so hard to take them away from me. How do I know whatever is in that thing isn’t just going to kill me?”
Knox sighed, pulling out a handgun from inside the coat he was wearing and pointing it at her. “Because, Ms. Lane, if I wanted to kill you, I would simply shoot you.” Lois struggled to remain calm and continued to glare at him. It was a stand off.
She won.
He re-holstered the weapon and gestured for Dr. Peterson to try again. “You want your memories. We *need* your memories. We need those notes and you are only going to be able to tell us where they are if we give you your memory back.”
Lois bit back the retort that she wasn’t going to tell them anyway. She wasn’t. But if it meant she would get her memory back, she would cooperate with them for the time being. And once she had her memory back, she had to figure out a way out of this mess before they took it from her again... She repressed a shudder – or something worse.
Even though Knox had assured her he wasn’t going to kill her right this second, she eyed the needle that was coming toward her with equal parts trepidation and excitement.
She was finally going to get her memories back! But what was going to happen to her when she didn’t cooperate?
<We’re a little over forty feet below ground down here... and we have sound-proofing in place – I doubt even the Man of Steel could hear you scream...>**********
To be continued...
