Table of Contents From Part 21:
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...>***************
PART TWENTY-TWO
***************
Dr. Klein was frowning as he lifted his attention from the microscope. “Yes. The composition and make-up of the two specimens are exactly alike. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say they came from the same primary source.”
“You’re probably not far off, Dr. Klein.” Clark said, glancing from Klein to Henderson to see what he thought. His expression was unreadable. “The pills Lois was taking could very well have come from the sample of Nirvana that was stolen from STAR Labs. So both samples would have come from your lab, but...”
“If we take Dr. Klein at his word,” Henderson interrupted, looking over at Clark, “which I’m not sure I’m willing to do... Then this proves that Dr. Peterson has been giving Lois the Nirvana drug. But what I want to know is how Dr. Klein is acquainted with Dr. Peterson.”
Dr. Klein sighed. “That’s the thing. I’m not. I’ve never even met the man before.” He shook his head in bewilderment. “He’s a private practice neurologist. I’m a scientist at STAR Labs. Just because we’re both doctors doesn’t mean we both belong to some exclusive club that gets together on weekends.”
“But I saw you take the sample from the vault,” Henderson pointed out. “If you removed it and he ended up with it, and you say you’ve never even met him, then how did it happen?”
“Honestly, I just don’t know,” Dr. Klein said, exasperatedly. “I don’t even remember removing that sample from the vault.”
**********
Lois shut her eyes in apprehension as the needle touched her skin. She winced from the prick of pain and the pinching slide the needle made as it entered her arm. She could feel a burst of liquid and then it was over.
She didn’t feel any different – didn’t remember anything new.
“It didn’t work,” she stated condescendingly.
“For a reporter you don’t listen very well sometimes.” Knox let out an exasperated sigh. “I have to say the *fail-safe* code word to trigger the release of memory.” He glanced over at Dr. Peterson as if seeking confirmation. The doctor gave him a slight nod. “You see, Nirvana works all by itself for small things like, oh, commercial brainwashing, for instance. Commercials tell us every day what to eat, how to dress... what phone service to buy. But we still retain the ability to decide that for ourselves. However, if someone was taking Nirvana and was exposed to, say suggestive advertising inside a CostMart store, they would be unable to resist. They would buy what they were told, without question.”
Lois scowled at him. “That’s what your grand plan for Nirvana is? Mindless consumer consumption?” She snorted.
“Hardly, Ms. Lane,” Knox said flatly. “I said that’s how it works for small things. We have much bigger plans for Nirvana. But further, deeper mind control requires programming. That’s what we used you as a test subject for. Each morning when you came in for your doctor’s appointment, you received programming through the use of code words – detailed instructions that told you to forget your memories for that day and reset to your memories of the previous day. You were also given a fail-safe code word in case we needed to bring the memories back.”
Knox walked closer to her, close enough that she could have tried to kick him again, although it wouldn’t have accomplished anything. “Now close your eyes and relax. Focus on my voice and hear the word.”
Lois did what he said and waited anxiously to hear the word that would give her life back to her.
“MKULTRA.”
Lois opened her eyes, probably a mere instant later but it felt strangely like she had been asleep for what seemed like days. When she remembered where she was, she wished desperately that she could just go back to sleep. She blinked and looked around.
And then she could see Clark in her mind. He was kneeling before her, the rain that was falling had created a soft mist on his glasses. She closed her eyes, wishing she were really there, and she could hear him speaking -
<If the Earth opened up at my feet, I wouldn’t move until I’d said this... Lois... Will you marry me?> And then the memory shifted and she was standing next to him on a sidewalk - he was arguing with her –
<Oh, okay, I see. It’s okay for you to get mad, but I’m not supposed to feel anything?>The pain in his voice hurt and she struggled against it, trying to block it out. But then his face was gone and it had been replaced by Martha’s face. She was crying –
<Oh, this is so nice. Almost thirty years, you’re the first woman I’ve ever been able to talk to about my boy...>Martha leaned in to hug her and her face dissolved into an image of Perry smiling softly at her -
<Honey, there will always be another headless corpse. But true love... comes around maybe once...>His image vanished and was replaced with Clark’s face again, but this time Clark was holding her in his arms. They were lying next to a campfire -
<This thing between us, whatever it is, it’s stronger than me. Being with you is stronger than me alone...>She turned in his arms and he leaned down to kiss her. She was beginning to anticipate it when his face shifted and suddenly he was in her apartment, sitting next to her on her bed -
<Lois, I love you. I love you way too much to ever let something like this happen to you again. I know I can’t control everything, but I can control people not using you to get to me... And so that’s why I came. To tell you... To say... We just can’t be together anymore, Lois, I’m sorry...>And then memories started flooding in faster and all at once – flashes and glimpses -
The smell of aftershave on Clark’s throat.
The feel of his hands against the bare flesh of her back.
The touch of his mouth as it brushed her lips and lingered against them, seizing them in a kiss.
Touches, glances, kisses, feelings...
<Fight, Lois, come on, fight... Don’t you die on me, Lois. Now come on, don’t give up...> And then it stopped...
Oh, Clark... Lois’s heart constricted. Every memory she had ever made with Clark over the past six months was there – even the ones she had lost over the past week.
Even the ones from last night.
<Marry me, Lois. I want to spend my life with the woman who completes me, who has made me the man I am today. We’ve made so many wonderful memories together – enough to last a lifetime. Marry me...> Lois slowly opened her eyes and glanced down at the ring on her finger as tears threatened to form. She blinked them back, not wanting to share this moment with the men in this room.
<I love you way too much to ever let something like this happen to you again...> She had to find a way out of this mess. Clark would blame himself for what had happened to her.
But no matter what, she couldn’t let them find her journal. She had been so careful not to write anything down that would blatantly lead anyone to believe that Clark was Superman. But there was still enough there that someone who was savvy might figure it out. That book had been her memory and she had written a million different little details in it – each one of itself innocent enough. But put them all together...
No. She couldn’t let them find that journal. No matter what. If they found that journal and figured out that Clark was Superman, they would expose him to the world. And then Clark would be gone – swallowed up by Superman. Clark Kent would no longer exist.
The world might not miss Clark Kent. But she would. She needed him. She needed Clark far more than she had ever wanted or needed Superman.
“Feeling more like yourself?” Knox asked? “A pity if you ask me. Now, where are the notes?”
Lois remembered, of course. She had put the notes inside her journal and when she had heard the noise outside her window, she had tucked the journal under the cushion of her loveseat.
But she wasn’t going to tell Knox.
“I can’t remember,” she said. “I guess you need to work on your drug some more.”
“Okay. We’ll just have to help you remember another way, won’t we?” Knox moved behind her and attached two electrodes to either side of her forehead. Lois futilely shook her head from side to side and twisted against the restraints. It didn’t help. Once the leads were attached, Knox stood next to her and looked over at Dr. Peterson.
“Here,” Knox held out the wires attached to the electrodes. “Attach these and throw the switch.” Knox pulled something out of his pants pocket that looked like a remote controller. “We’ll see if we can’t help jog your memory,” he said, looking at her stone-faced.
Dr. Peterson balked. “I... I already told you - I won’t be a part of this. You don’t know what it might do. The combination with her medication could be lethal. Besides electroshock therapy is normally used to erase memory...”
“It worked fine for the government,” Knox stated matter-of-factly.
“It did not work *fine*. And the government wasn’t using Nirvana. The drug they were working with wasn’t nearly as strong as Nirvana.” Dr. Peterson shook his head adamantly. “I won’t do it.”
“You will. You are in too deep now to back out. Or shall I call *her* and tell her that you’re having second thoughts?” Knox’s eyes were glittering. “She just needs to be coerced a little into giving us what we want. It won’t take much.”
Dr. Peterson bolted for the set of double doors in the room. Knox calmly pulled his handgun from his coat pocket and fired, catching the doctor right between the shoulder blades. Peterson dropped to the floor with a loud yelp.
Lois shrieked and then watched in horror as the doctor tried to drag himself towards the door. Knox walked over to him, keeping the gun trained on him, and Lois looked away, her body jerking when the gun went off again.
She wanted to cry. Not for Dr. Peterson. She was sorry for what had happened to him – no one deserved to die like that - but she was scared. Knox was serious. He was cold, calculating. He didn’t care about her... about anyone.
As Knox walked back towards her, she couldn’t fight the instinctive reaction to recoil from him. He walked around behind her and bent down, fiddling with whatever was underneath her chair.
“I don’t remember anything,” Lois said adamantly. “You can do you what you want to me, but it’s not going to help.”
“I think you will remember.”
“And what if I don’t?” she asked, her voice shaking in spite of her efforts to sound confident. “Are you going to kill me like you killed Dr. Peterson?”
“I won’t kill you, not just yet; you have one other purpose to fulfill first.”
“Another purpose?” Lois’s mind was reeling. She was trying to focus on a plan of action – a way to escape – but she was coming up empty-handed. Nothing. There was no way to escape. She had already tried to fight against the ropes that held her – to no avail. They were forty feet underground – no one would hear her if she screamed.
And no one knew where she was.
It was a seldom thing in Lois’s life when she felt really and truly scared – and this was one of them.
<Clark, I love you. This isn’t your fault...> She thought desperately, wishing there was some way to tell him. He would blame himself – she knew him too well. He had told her just earlier this morning that he would always be there for her. He shouldn’t have promised that – let alone allow himself believe it. Some things were just beyond his control.
But he would blame himself nonetheless.
“Yes, another purpose,” Knox repeated going over to a counter and retrieving her purse. He dug through it until he pulled out her cell phone. As he walked over to a desk that had a phone, Knox flipped her cell phone open and started pushing buttons. “Yes. Here it is. The other purpose.”
Lois couldn’t imagine what he was talking about but before she could ask him, he told her.
“How nice of you to keep the number for Agent Scardino.”
**********
“You don’t know,” Henderson repeated, smirking at Dr. Klein. “Well there’s a piece of testimony that’s bound to get you acquitted at the trial, Klein,” he continued sarcastically. “Oh, I’m sorry, judge, my memory just isn’t what it used to be. And since Dr. Peterson isn’t one of my golfing buddies, you can see how I couldn’t possibly know him.”
“I don’t golf,” Klein stated simply.
“Excuse me?” Henderson said incredulously.
“I don’t...”
“Is it possible that someone could have drugged Dr. Klein too?” Dan broke in.
Clark hated to admit it but Dan had a good point. What if someone had used the Nirvana drug on Dr. Klein? Had him steal the sample and notes and deliver them somewhere, only to forget he had ever done it?
“That’s a nice happy little theory there, Scardino,” Henderson replied acerbically, “but where’s your proof? The only proof I have is the tape that shows Dr. Klein stealing from his own laboratory. I have to have hard evidence.”
“I understand that,” Dan said, not sounding understanding at all, “but if you would just...” He paused and pulled his cell phone from the case clipped to his belt. He opened the phone and said, “Scardino.” His eyes widened just slightly – not enough that anyone else would have noticed, but Clark did. “Ex... excuse me for a second. I gotta take this call.”
Clark watched as Dan hurriedly left the office. He peered through the wall, continuing to watch as Dan ran out the front door, stopping on the front steps and putting the phone to his ear. Clark stretched his hearing out – trying to ignore the discussion that Dr. Klein and Henderson were engrossed in – and focused on Dan. The first words Dan uttered captured his full attention.
“Where’s Lois?”
Clark edged towards the door. Henderson scowled at him and Clark raised his hand to placate him. He nodded vaguely in the direction of the hallway and then ducked out of the office. He listened, hearing Dan's rapid footsteps and only snatches of the voice on the other end of the call.
“All-- good time. Tell-- Scardino, how is-- FDA--?” Clark didn’t recognize the man’s voice.
“Knox?” Dan spat into the phone.
Knox? As in Omnicorp’s Charles Knox? The man who had been working with Intergang to get Nirvana approved? Clark stopped just inside the front door where he could listen in unobserved. He was close enough now to make out the caller’s words.
“Well, wit *and* brains,” the man replied tartly. “Yes, this is Knox. And you are a DEA agent. You lied to me, Scardino. You’ll pay for that.”
“Where’s Lois?”
“We have her here.”
“Here? Where’s here?” Dan asked.
It was faint, but Clark could hear muffled pleas coming from Lois in the background. “No, Dan! Don’t listen to him! Call Clark, he can...” There was a loud smack and a moan – and Lois went silent. Clark’s blood boiled and he fought the urge to go out there and snatch the phone away from Dan. Knox would pay for that.
“Ms. Lane, that was a warning. Shut up or I will be forced to shut you up,” Knox threatened. Clark cringed. Please listen to him, he begged her silently. Wait for me. I’ll find you.
“If you ever want to see Ms. Lane alive again,” Knox continued, “I suggest you follow my instructions to the letter.”
“Okay. You have my undivided attention. What is it that you want?” Dan asked, his voice void of all its usual cockiness.
“We want you to come here... alone,” Knox instructed.
“No!” Lois cried. “Don’t, Dan! Call Clark! Tell him to find Superm...” her words were cut off in a blood-curdling scream.
***********
Lois was listening intently to the one-sided conversation Knox was having with Dan. She seethed at the pain in her cheek from where Knox had hit her.
He was telling Dan that he wanted him to come here alone. Lois couldn’t let him do that. Knox would kill him. She had to say something, do something – no matter what the consequences to her.
“No!” she cried. “Don’t, Dan!” Lois watched as Knox lifted the remote in his hand – whatever he was going to do to her, it was about to happen. Desperation clutched at her. “Call Clark! Tell him to find Superm...”
Her words were cut short as a wave of painful heat sparked from the electrodes on her forehead and pulsed through her, causing her body to arch against the restraints holding her in place and making her feel as if every single cell in her body had just caught fire. In that instant, her brain shut down. She couldn’t talk, couldn’t think... couldn’t do anything. Her mind shouted one coherent thought to her - *make* *it* *stop*!
And she screamed.
***********
Clark’s legs went weak at the pain in Lois’s scream and he leaned against the wall next to him to support himself. He felt like he was going to be sick. What had Knox done to her?
“Stop!” Dan pleaded. “Stop it! Why are you doing this? What do you want? I can get it for you. Whatever you want. Just name it.”
“We want you, Scardino. We want you to come here.”
“Where?” Dan exclaimed in frustration. “Tell me and I’m there.”
“Come to the CostMart building and wait for further instructions. Oh, and don’t bring the police into this. We wouldn’t want things to get... messy. And don’t even think of alerting Superman. If we see so much as a flash of red cape, Lois is dead – negotiations closed. We don’t want to see any blue uniforms around here – police or superhero. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Dan assured them, his voice breaking. “Yes, I understand.”
“Good. I would hate to think you didn’t. Ms. Lane’s life depends on you. Goodbye, Agent Scardino.”
Dan hurried down the steps and Clark rushed out the door after him. “Where are you going? Who called?”
“I’ve gotta go, Kent. I don’t have time to explain.” Dan started to walk away but he was stopped by Clark’s hand clenched tightly around his arm.
“Did that call have something to do with Lois?” When Dan hesitated, Clark continued, “I can see the fear in your eyes. Tell me what’s going on.”
Clark knew very well what was going on but he couldn’t rush off to save Lois as Superman. Knox obviously had some kind of surveillance around the CostMart building. If Clark went as Superman, he’d get Lois killed for sure. But he could go as Clark and try to find a way to get to her. He was pretty certain he knew where they were holding her – the same bunker that Bill Jr. had held Perry in when he kidnapped him.
But Clark wouldn’t be able to explain how he had found Lois – unless Dan told him. So Dan was going to have to tell him.
Clark tightened his grip on Dan’s arm until he flinched a little. “Let me go, Kent. It’s Lois. Charles Knox has her. I’m supposed to meet him at the CostMart building.” Clark loosened his grip and Dan jerked his arm away. “I know how you feel about Lois and I know what you think of me. But you can trust me. I don’t want to see anything happen to Lois. Don’t say anything to Henderson. Knox said if he sees any cops, Lois is dead.”
Dan started to walk away but hesitated. “And if you see Superman, tell him to stay close, but not to interfere.” He sighed heavily and his eyes darkened. “Knox will kill her if he sees Superman anywhere near them.”
Then, before Clark could respond, Dan was running full tilt and disappeared around the corner of the building.
Clark headed for the closest alley. Knox had said Superman couldn’t be seen – but Superman could at least get Clark close.
**********
To be concluded...
NOTES ON MKULTRA:
If you'll remember from way earlier in the story, when Clark and Dr. Klein were shot at when they were at STAR Labs, Dr. Klein proceeded to tell Clark about a Project MKULTRA - in which the government had experimented with mind-control and drugs... very similar to NIRVANA. That was where the code-word MKULTRA came from. And if you actually had a good enough memory to remember that <g> then you might not have been surprised by the *shocking* conclusion of this part.
MKULTRA is real and if you are interested in seeing where I pulled my information from, here's the link to it on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA C-ya!
