I had said I wasn't going to post this until Friday, but procrastination is a wonderful thing - while my art portfolio is still unfinished, at least I got the next section of the story up.
TOC From Part 7:
The office was littered with pictures of children and an attractive blonde woman Clark took to be the agent's wife. Sitting on the government-issue chair as he waited, Clark had plenty of time to familiarize himself with the office. One picture in particular had caught his attention: the blonde and the man in formal wear, arms around each other. Both smiled but neither looked exactly at the camera. Despite the obviously posed nature of the photo, it was apparent with even a passing glance that they had eyes for each other and no others. Clark seemed surrounded by couples in love and completely devoted to one another. He wondered if other single person had ever been surrounded by so many perfect relationships.
"May, honey, for the last time, I'm positive. Stop buying Rocky Road ice cream. I'm a chocolate man, plain and simple."
Clark turned to see a dark-haired man dressed in a conservative suit walk into the office, talking on a cell phone. Seeing Clark, he indicated he needed a minute.
"I know you have a lot more time since you stopped working for the DA. But ... that's fine, I appreciate the fact you've decided you want to be more assertive. No, I don't just appreciate you. You know I love you. Yes, I'll come home early tonight. I'll even make dinner. Listen, someone's here ... no I don't think less of you now that you're a stay-at-home mom. What would give you that idea? May, I love you and I'll talk to you later. No, I'm not marginalizing you. May, I have - fine, yes. That's fine. No, I'm not hurt. I know, you have a lot to get done. Finishing the conversation doesn't hurt my feelings. Yeah May, I love you too."
The man closed the flip phone and looked at Clark. "I love my wife, but the woman doesn't always check in with reality. Daniel Scardino."
~
Part 8:
Clark stood to shook Scardino's hand. "Clark Kent."
"I know who you are. Call me Daniel. Now, I hear you want to talk to me about an old case," Dan picked up a file from his desk as he sank into the ergonomically-designed black leather chair. "The Daily Planet reporter, Lois Lane." Dan skimmed the papers in his hands. "I don't mean to rain on your parade, Mr. Kent, but the case was closed because it’s believed Lois Lane is deceased."
"I have proof she wasn't."
Daniel raised an eyebrow. "It's a closed case."
"Given the information I have, I think the agency needs to reopen the case."
"Mr. Kent, do you know why I was assigned to the Lane case?" Clark shook his head. "I play it safe. I'll fully admit I'm one of those government types all you journalists hate. I don't cause controversy. I find and eliminate it. The only thing I give you to write about is my job, nothing about how I'm wasting government money to impress some girl. I took this case because the last thing the agency wanted was an investigator to take a reckless approach to this assignment and end up with charges of corruption on the front page of the Daily Planet."
"Daniel, this information - "
"Is not from agency sources. For all I know, you made all this up in hopes of getting some big story."
"I would not - "
"Fine. Superman would not mislead the FBI. But maybe someone else is using you. It is a possibility. You may be invulnerable physically, but even you are capable of trusting the wrong people."
"I have physical - "
"I recently finished a case where a man created an entire identity for himself. Why? Seems he found out some old spinster was looking for the son she gave up for adoption. She never had any other kids and wanted to give her fortune to her sole heir. Not everybody stands for truth and justice."
"I realize that."
"As far as the agency is concerned, this is a closed case, and Miss Lane is dead."
~
The worst part of the interview with Daniel was that Clark couldn't entirely convince himself that the agent had been wrong. Looking at it from the perspective of the FBI agent, Clark began to wonder if maybe he was too easily fooled.
A picture happens to fall out of a woman's purse, only to be found during a Superman rescue. The date on the photo was after Lois's disappearance, though Clark remembered what Perry had said about the ease in changing dates. More than that, though, Clark knew how easy it was to doctor photographs and change images.
Cat had found a sample of Lois's handwriting and while it did match that from the journals, it could easily be a forgery. The other items, though personal, were so vague that anyone could have learned something about Lois Lane and given her a generic coffee cup and dictionary.
Was it nothing more than a convincing ruse? Why would someone want to distract him?
No, Clark amended, the question was why wouldn't someone want to distract him, as he thought of several criminals who would be quite happy to see the superhero busy elsewhere. Find a way to keep the superhero tied up at his other job, and the entire criminal community would be grateful.
The idea that this was a ruse, some elaborate set-up, made more sense to Clark right now than the possibility that Lois Lane could be alive. He was not that lucky. He was alone. Though the words had not been meant for him, Clark still recalled what H.G. Wells had said to Lois after she had rebuffed his desire for her to remain with him. 'The hardest lesson is that love can be so fair to some and so cruel to others. Even those who would be gods.'
If a man who could travel between dimensions and time believed Lois to be dead, who was Clark to think differently?
Clark stopped by the Planet long enough to tell Cat he needed the rest of the day off.
~
After spending the day finding any and every situation he could that required his superpowers, Clark returned to his apartment to hear the phone ringing.
"Hello?"
"Why Wanda?"
"What?"
"Clark, son, I don't know where in the Sam Hill you've been but I've been trying to get in touch with you all day," Perry said.
"Is something wrong?"
"That's the thing. Why not call herself Lois?"
"What?"
"Why did Lois use the name Wanda Detroit?"
"Chief, we're not even sure she's alive."
"What?"
"I talked with the agent who handled Lois's case - "
"He's an ass."
"What if this is all some elaborate ruse?"
"What makes you say that?"
"Scardino - "
"Scardino nothing. The man is a bureaucrat who wouldn't be able to stand upright if it wasn't for all that red tape they have him wrapped up in over at the FBI." Perry took a deep breath. "Clark, she's alive."
Clark didn't need super hearing at that moment to know that Perry was fighting tears. "Son, I don't really know why, but I know this: Lois Lane is alive. I can't even tell you why I'm sure of it, but I know she is."
The line was filled with silence as each man contemplated what to say next.
"What do you think, Clark?"
The question caught Clark off-guard. Out of everything he had expected, after everything that had happened in past weeks, he realized he wasn't even sure how to begin to answer. The words that came out of his mouth flowed as water through a stream: slow, then fast, tripping over each other but always moving.
"I don't know, Perry. I want her to be alive. Seeing her picture on that bus ... it was like finding out my parents were suddenly alive again. I wasn't sure what to do. But after talking with Agent Scardino, I don't know what to think. What if he is right? Or worse, that she was alive but ... "
Clark's voice faded away, leaving the sentence unfinished. That, he realized slowly, was what scared him more than anything. That she had been alive but something had happened and now he was finding out too late. That once again he hadn't been fast enough to save someone he loved.
The other end of the lin was silent for a long moment before Perry finally spoke again. "Son, you're one hell of a reporter and if your instincts are telling you that that Scardino guy is right, then I'll stand by that decision. I'd think you made the wrong choice, but I'd stand by you."
~
It was quite an experience for a ten-year-old boy to open the door expecting to see a friend coming over to play catch and instead finding the man who was Superman on his doorstep.
"Super - Mr. Kent! Wow!" LJ straightened up, his manners remembered. "Good afternoon, sir. How are you?"
"Good. Your mom or dad around?"
"Dad's up in the study learning Spanish," LJ explained. "I can say that in Spanish. Want to hear it?"
"Absolutely."
"My padre uh ...," LJ smiled. "I can't say the whole thing. I can just say that he's studying Spanish. Mi padre estudia espanol."
"I'm impressed, LJ. Do you want to know how to say the whole thing?"
"Sure. Do you know Spanish?"
"Yep."
LJ laughed. "I bet that's a really stupid question, huh? You're Superman, you can probably speak whatever language you want."
"Not every language. I have to sit down and study languages just like you."
"Really?"
"Yep," Clark said, omitting that he had taught himself fluent Spanish over the course of a week.
"So, how would I say "I'm going to Mexico in two months because my mom and dad have a new job there"?
"Let's see ... Yo voy a Mexico en dos meses porque mis padres tiene un trabajo nuevo alli," Clark translated slowly, so that the boy could understand what he was saying.
As LJ parroted what Clark had said, Lex came up behind him.
"Clark! I thought I heard a voice that was entirely too deep to be Tommy's."
"I hope you don't mind."
"Of course not." Lex glanced at LJ, who was repeating his new sentence for the third time. "I can see you're helping LJ here with his language skills. Maybe you can do the same for his old man. But where are my manners? Please, come in. It's really not a surprise LJ here has such poor manners, given how often his father forgets his."
As Clark walked into the house, he noticed a gold minivan pull into the driveway and a boy jump out. LJ ran over to his friend and pointed towards Clark. "See, told you I knew Superman! And he taught me Spanish too!"
Clark followed Lex into the family room. After both men were seated, Lex gave Clark a smile.
"I hope the information we gave you about Wanda helped."
"Absolutely. Thank you. I do have a question for you, though." Luthor nodded. "Have you been questioned at any point during the last couple of years about a woman named Lois Lane?"
Lex mulled over the question for a moment. "No, I would remember another double-L name. What does this have to do with Wanda?"
Clark took a deep breath before answering, reminding himself that this was the only way. Things had changed since his conversation with Cat. In the end, he would never be positive unless he did this.
~
"You wanted to see me when I got off the phone?"
"I want you to keep Lois's name away from the lead you're following with the people from the bus," Cat commented without looking up for the story she was editing. "If Lois is alive, I want to keep our knowledge of that off the radar as long as possible."
Clark’s brow furrowed at the editor’s words. "Why? What does that accomplish? If we get her name out there, we could get potential leads, reports from people who have seen her."
"Listen to me, Clark. Lois loves trouble. Her type of story was one that would put her in as much danger as humanly possible."
"Cat, if I remember correctly, you once broke into a honeymoon suite and hid under the bed so you could get proof that a mayor was having an affair with a mob boss's daughter. You're hardly one to talk."
"Yes, but my antics as a reporter never resulted in the entire staff going through emergency safety training."
"What?"
Cat motioned for Clark to close the door and take a seat. Putting the papers and pen she had been using to the side, she leaned forward on her forearms.
"After Lois managed to get caught and tied up on the fortieth floor of a building scheduled to be demolished that same day, management thought it might be in their best interest to have reporters trained for more than dog shows." Cat gave a small chuckle. "Hell, other reporters used to joke that she went after life-threatening situations because she had a better chance of having an orgasm from that than being with a man."
Cat, the woman who knew every piece of gossip circulating the newsroom but rarely shared any of it, found Clark staring at her with a slaw-jawed expression. "Don't act so shocked, Clark. You know this group. And no, I played no part in that rumor, though I was the one to coin the nickname Fighting Chipmunk Lane." Cat held up a hand. "Don't ask. The thing is, Clark, what they said about Lois was mild. No one is safe in this newsroom, which is what happens when you get a bunch of reporters in close confines. Hell, last month they had me with the copy repair man on top of a copier that hadn't needed repairs in over a year." Cat smirked. "And despite how ludicrous things may sound, there is always a ring of truth to them. In Lois's case, it's more truth than fiction. She likes danger. All I'm saying is, someone may still have a vendetta against her. And the longer we can keep her name out of the loop, the better."
Clark finally nodded in agreement. "One question, though." Cat nodded. "Where was the truth in your copier repairman story?"
~
Less than four days later and Clark was about to divulge Wanda's true identity to Lex Luthor. After his conversation with Perry last night, Clark had done everything he could think of to put the agent’s voice out of his head. Nothing had worked, and Clark had realized this was the only way he would be able to put the nagging doubts planted in his head by Scardino to rest.
Clark took a videocassette from his suit jacket.
"Clark, we don't own a VCR or a television."
Is there someplace we could go?"
A twenty-minute walk later, as Annie had the car and the boys had to come with them, negating the idea of flying (though Lex had added that flying to church was a little too self-righteous for him), Clark and Lex sat in the church's film library, watching the footage Clark had brought.
"Hello and good evening, Metropolis. This is the Thursday Evening Review with Diana Stride. We have a special show this week, as we lead off with a round-table about the recent scandal at the Metropolis Star. With me are several members of the Metropolis journalism community. I would like to point out that an invitation was extended to the Metropolis Star, which they declined. I'd like to have each of our participants introduce themselves to the audience and say a word or two about their take on the events."
Clark, impatient to see Luthor's reaction, fast-forwarded past the first two individuals and Lex's instantaneous reaction as Clark stopped on the third finally quieted the lingering doubts in his head.
"Wanda?!" Lex stopped for a moment and looked at the card under the woman, realization dawning. "There is no Wanda, is there?” Lex stood suddenly, his face twisted in anger. “She was just some undercover reporter trying to find dirt to use as an expose on the evils of missionaries. So typical of society today. This is how people who try and help are repaid."
"Lex, up until I found that picture, it was thought Lois Lane was dead. I don't know why she was in Senegal, but it most likely was not to dig up any dirt."
"Well, she wouldn't find any," Lex replied sharply, still wary of this admission. "My wife and I are honest people."
"I know," Clark said, using the skills he had honed over the years as a reporter to hopefully help Lex get past the anger and start talking again. "But are you sure that is the same person?"
Luthor watched the tape carefully, taking in each nuance that was Lois. "Absolutely. There is no doubt in my mind that she is Wanda. I don't know who lied to you, but Lois Lane is not dead."
End Part 8
