Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Wrong Clark (55/??)

Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found Here

A/N: My apologies for the TMI scene in Part 54 . I couldn't resist. We now return to our story, where we left off, mirred in the mud of our A-Plot.

Part 55

*************************
Trouble with a Capital Trask
*************************

Lois put a hand on Thomas’s arm to slow him down. She stopped moving and lowered her voice to a soft whisper. “Did you hear that?”

Thomas shook his head to her question. Not surprising the way he had been rattling on. He seemed to be a natural rambler when he was nervous. God, she hoped she didn’t sound like that when she got flustered, but knew she probably did.

She waved him over to the side of the access road and behind a tree surrounded by bushes as quietly as she could. There was plenty of space for the two of them to hide. The access road curved up ahead, and she distinctly heard footsteps. She hoped it was Clark, but knew from the staggering steps that it couldn’t be him unless he was injured. Her pulse quickened at that thought.

An older man with dark grey hair stumbled around the corner. He appeared exhausted and sweaty. He had his left hand wrapped in a navy handkerchief and cradled against his chest in an all too familiar gesture of pain.

“Dad,” Thomas gasped, standing up and stepping forward towards him.

“Wait!” Lois hissed, grabbing his arm to stop him and pull him back down.

“It’s my dad!” Thomas insisted, flinging his hand towards the man. “He’s been hurt.”

“Thomas, think. How did he get away? Do you think that they would just let him go after doing who-knows-what to him? You said it was armed soldiers who took Cl… my husband,” she stammered, almost using ‘Clark’ instead of ‘Jerome’. There was a reason she liked to work alone on undercover investigative assignments. “Do you know why they took your dad?”

Thomas continued to stare at his dad, torn between Lois’s logic and wanting to help his father. “The green crystal we found after last week’s storm. My dad sent a sample of it to the lab, and then these guys arrived saying something about pesticides. The Kents have it hidden away.”

Lois had known they were keeping something from her. Green crystal? Well, it couldn’t be Trask and Bureau 39 at the Irig farm then. What would they want with a green crystal? Why hadn’t anyone mentioned it to her? She’d be angry with Clark later, but now, she needed to think on her feet. “So, I bet they beat up your dad, so he’d give up the location of the rest of it. When he didn’t, they let him go to follow him, hoping he would lead them to where he had hidden it.”

He looked at her skeptically. “Are you always this paranoid?”

She opened her briefcase, pulled out her binoculars, and focused them a good twenty yards down the access road behind Mr. Irig. She spotted a slight movement in the trees. She handed the binoculars to Thomas and nodded in the general direction he should look.

He scanned the woods twice as long as she had before lowering them. “Man, when Jerome said you were the best, I thought he was just flattering you, but you’re amazing. What should we do?”

Lois was secretly pleased that Clark had been bragging about her behind her back, which was always nice to hear. Actually, nobody bragged about her behind her back, usually people hurled insults. Although, Clark had told her once that Perry had told him that she was his best reporter, her co-workers didn't seem to agree with him. She cleared her throat, focusing back on the task at hand.

Luckily, the movement of the soldiers was in the woods on the other side of the road, so they wouldn’t cross paths with Lois and Thomas unless either of them decided to switch sides of the road. “I’ve got to go find… Jerome,” Lois told Thomas, wishing she wouldn’t trip over Clark’s alias every time she said it. He just didn’t feel like a ‘Jerome’. Intuitively, he felt like a Clark, or a Chuck, which was just plain crazy because he was neither. Maybe ‘Jerome’ was his real name. “You need to double back to the Kents through the woods and warn them. The best way to protect your dad now is to be prepared.”

He nodded. “Be careful. If anything were to happen to you, because I let you go on alone, Jerome would skin me alive.”

“I’m always careful,” she told him, and he looked reassured, which was funny because she was lying through her teeth. She guessed it helped that Thomas didn’t really know her. “Quiet now,” she reminded him.

With another nod, Thomas was off.

Remaining in her hiding spot, Lois waited until Mr. Irig passed her by, and then she trained her binoculars on the far side of the woods until his tail had passed as well. Slowly, in a crouch, she continued to follow beside the access road towards the Irigs’ farm, keeping well out of sight. When she was sure that there weren’t any more soldiers close-by, she quickened her pace. If these men were willing to harm middle aged Mr. Irig, who knew what they might do to young virile Clark Kent?

When she finally got to the Irig house, she noticed that they had already started to break up camp. The workers had started loading the earth moving machines onto trucks. Whoever they were, she doubted they’d still be around the next morning, barring discovery of the crystal at the Kents. It must be another fly-by-night agency. What was up with their government? Between this group, Bureau 39, and the NIA, it felt like her entire government was going covert.

Although, according to Ombudsman Thompson, Trask and Bureau 39 didn’t have anything to do with the government. Thompson had clearly paid for that lie with his life. General Newcomb had hinted at Trask jumping ship, being cuckoo in his beliefs, so maybe Thompson had been right. Bureau 39 had once been a part of the military but broke off when someone wanted accountability. Could she now be dealing with a rogue group of the EPA? On the other hand, could it be the Department of the Interior? Wasn’t that the government department that dealt with geology? She wished Clark were here. He always knew bits of trivia like that off the top of his head. Of course, if Clark were there she wouldn’t be sneaking back to the Irig farm to rescue him, now would she?

Lois continued around the back of the house to the line of trees near the barn. It had been less trouble to sneak over there the night before in the cover of darkness, but in the bright light of day, it would be much easier for the soldiers to spot her. She didn't need to get captured like her partner. She ducked down behind a stump as she saw a silver sedan parked on another access road. Was someone else spying on these people besides her and Clark? If the Metropolis Star…

Relief flooded her as she saw Jimmy, in the most ridiculous outdoorsman outfit she had ever seen, kneeling by a camera tripod a little ways off from the sedan. Maybe it was just an outrageous outfit because it was on him. He pulled an apple out of his pocket and took a bite. She waited a moment until her heart stopped racing and then slowly approached him.

“Lois!” he choked out her name, and pulled her into an embrace. “You scared the living daylights out of me.”

“Good to see you too, Jimmy,” she said, turning towards where he had his camera pointed. “See anything yet?”

“I don’t quite know what I’m looking for,” Jimmy replied, and then everything about him fell. “Um… Lois, is CK…?”

“Nah. He’s alive, until I get my hands on him,” Lois explained, putting her eye to his telephoto lens. Nothing.

“That’s great!” Jimmy said, his face lighting up. “The Chief said that he must have misheard. Who died then?”

Lois rolled her eyes, not wanting to go through Clark’s deception again at the moment. “An old girlfriend of Clark’s. He learned about it this afternoon.”

“Oh.” Jimmy looked as if he didn’t know if he should be happy about this news or not.

“Clark and I got separated a couple of hours ago. According to Thomas, the son of the farmer who these guys held hostage, Clark was captured when he came over here looking for me. They let the farmer go not too long ago. We spotted him on the road that leads over to the Kent farm.”

“Well, at least that’s a relief,” Jimmy said.

“Not really. A group of soldiers was following him. I’m not quite sure what they’re up to,” she replied.

“So, who has CK?” he asked.

Lois shrugged. “Not sure, exactly. I had a feeling it might be Trask, but...” She shook her head. It just didn’t make sense. “Thomas said they were looking for some kind of rock. Have you seen anything that…?” she started to ask as Ms. Sherman walked into view. “EPA liaison, my foot.”

Ms. Sherman entered the tent, stayed about a minute, maybe two, and then left again.

“I’m going to follow her,” Lois told Jimmy. “You stay here.”

“Gotcha,” he replied.

Lois got up to leave and saw someone else leave the tent, someone she had hoped she would never see again, despite knowing it was inevitable. “Trask!” she hissed.

Jimmy nodded and started taking photos.

It was Bureau 39, just as she suspected. What were they doing here in Smallville? Why were they interested in that green crystal that Thomas and Wayne Irig had found? She thought Bureau 39’s main objective was to kill Superman, and stop the alien invasion of Earth. Even if Trask’s crazy idea was on the right track, killing the Kryptonian representative sent to Earth would probably anger the Kryptonian people enough that they would be more likely to attack, than to have friendly relations with the people of Earth. Of course, Trask’s theory was completely implausible. Superman would never do that. He loved Earth and valued life above all else.

Trask went off in the same direction as Ms. Sherman, so Lois decided that was definitely the way to go. There was a van blocking her view of the tents, but if she circled far enough back the way she came, she might be able to see around it. Yep, there was another tent on the other side of the van. Ms. Sherman must have entered it, because Lois didn’t see her anywhere else. Was that where they were keeping Clark? She hoped Ms. Sherman hadn’t gone into one of the Irigs’ outbuildings. Lois moved a little further along, but didn’t see anything else of interest. She lost sight of where Trask went. Had he entered this second tent as well?

Lois stared at this second tent for a while trying to decide what to do next. If she peeked inside, they would surely capture her, like Chuck had been, but if he was being held inside there, she might be able to save him. She heard the van’s engine start and glanced towards the first tent, seeing a shackled Clark being led from that tent and put inside the van.

Oh, no, Clark! Lois raised a hand to her mouth as she gasped in pain at seeing him so. Luckily, it hadn’t looked like Trask had done anything to Clark except chain him up.

Where were they taking Clark? How could she follow them on foot? If she and Jimmy followed in Jimmy’s car, the soldiers would surely spot them. They needed more help, only who? Sheriff Max Harris seemed to be the logical choice except for the fact that, according to Clark, he wouldn’t help.

Trask left the second tent with another man. “Did anyone ever find Lane?”

“No, sir. We swept the area several times,” the man replied. “She’s not here.”

Ha-ha. Joke’s on them.

“She probably knows that we have Kent and is sending in reinforcements to rescue him,” Trask told his lieutenant.

Sounded like a good plan to her. Thanks, Trask.

“So, we need to have it look like we were never here by the time they show up. Irig went to the Kent farm, so he probably left the meteor with Kent’s folks,” Trask said.

Meteor? Did he mean Thomas’s green crystal? Lois wondered. Probably. Kent’s folks? Oh, crap, Trask thought that Clark was related to the Kents. Not good.

“Once we have it, I’ll get Kent to give up Superman, and our mission will be accomplished by nightfall. We’ll meet at the rendezvous at nineteen hundred hours. You’re in charge here, Colson.”

Her eyes widened. Did Trask think that the green crystal could hurt Superman? He was insane. Superman was invulnerable. Wasn’t he? Trask couldn’t be right, could he?

Colson stood at attention. “Thank you, sir.”

Suck up.

Trask got into the front seat of the van where they had put Clark.

Soldiers were now running around the camp starting to take things down and loading the things onto trucks. Word must have spread that they were moving out. If she didn’t get into those tents now, whatever documents and information she could find would disappear as quickly as Superman’s vessel had.

Knowing that the men were busy packing up the camp, instead of guarding it or searching for her, Lois didn’t take quite as much care returning to Jimmy. He had already packed up his tripod and camera.

“Go into town. Find someone who can help. I don’t know, an Army recruitment officer or someone. Call Perry and see if he can send in the Feds or the National Guards. Tell them that Trask kidnapped Clark,” she told him. “They’re taking him to Kent farm. It’s one farm over to the west.”

Jimmy nodded. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to see what I can find out here before it disappears into a truck. I’ll meet you back at the Kent farm,” she told him. “Contact Superman. Warn him that Trask thinks he has some kind of rock that can hurt him.”

“How can I contact him?” Jimmy asked with exasperation. “Metropolis doesn’t have a Super signal.”

“Think of something. Have Perry scream ‘Help, Superman’ out his office window or something,” Lois suggested.

Jimmy glanced down at his watch and nodded. “I know of something, but it’s a long shot.”

“A long shot is better than none. I’ll call the Kents and warn them they’re about to get visitors,” Lois said, reaching into her bag and pulling out her cell phone as she headed back towards the tent she was sure Ms. Sherman must have entered. She looked down at her phone, one bar. What was it with this middle of nowhere town? She turned back to tell Jimmy to hurry to the Kent farm, but instead saw his sedan kicking dust into the air.

“One bar is better than none,” she grumbled to herself. She scrolled through her address book, found the number, and pushed “call”. She got a series of beeps in her ear. Out of range. Argh! She felt like throwing her phone on the ground and jumping on it. Instead she returned it to her briefcase, vowing to try again in a few minutes.

***

Thomas ran in the backdoor of the Kent house. “Mr. Kent! Mrs. Kent!” he yelled. “We’ve got trouble coming our way.”

Martha Kent ran into the kitchen with Jonathan’s wheelchair at her heels. Mrs. Kent spoke first. “What kind of trouble, Thomas?”

“They’ve hurt my dad,” Thomas said, closing his eyes in a wince. The image of his dad holding a bloody hand to his chest flashed across his mind. “They’ve let him go, but he’s injured. Lois and I saw him on the access road, but we couldn’t help him because the soldiers are following him. He’s headed here.” He bent over and set his hands on his knees in an attempt to catch his breath.

“Where’s Lois now?” Mrs. Kent asked.

“She went on to our farm looking for Jerome, but she sent me back here to warn you guys,” Thomas explained. “Lois said we needed to hide the rock. She figures they’re coming after it because my dad wouldn’t tell them where he hid it. Otherwise, why follow him after letting him go?”

“Lois knows about the rock?” Mr. Kent asked, shooting a worried look at his wife.

“Yeah. I told her. She seemed surprised nobody else had mentioned it. I mean, it’s why these guys took over our farm, isn’t it?” Thomas asked. If they brought her here to help, it seemed only fitting that she should have all the details. “How are we going to protect ourselves from those guys?”

Mr. and Mrs. Kent exchanged another look, communicating a whole conversation, which Thomas didn’t catch.

“No, Jonathan, absolutely not. We’re not going to use our rifle against people, even bad people. That’s not who we are,” Mrs. Kent told her husband in no uncertain terms.

“Martha, we need to protect Wayne, Thomas, Lois, and Jerome. Who knows what those guys will do once they get a hold of the green rock? It’s dangerous,” Mr. Kent countered.

“It’s dangerous?” Thomas stammered, feeling light headed.

“It makes some people sick. That’s all we know,” Mr. Kent said vaguely.

Who did it make sick? Mr. and Mrs. Kent seemed fine. It didn’t affect him and his dad. The only person who wasn’t feeling well lately was… “Jerome?”

Mr. and Mrs. Kent looked at one another and then back at him.

“We aren’t sure about this, you understand?” Mrs. Kent said to him, and he nodded. “But the glowing made him dizzy. That’s why he fell and hit his head when I showed it to him last night. You aren’t to repeat that to anyone, anyone, you hear?”

Thomas nodded again. “Sure. Why not?”

“He doesn’t want anyone, especially Lois, knowing that the rock made him sick, got it?”

Yeah, that makes sense, thought Thomas. Lois seemed to have a bee in her bonnet about everything Jerome said or did. He didn’t need to add extra logs to that man’s marriage funeral pyre.

Mr. Kent took hold of his wife’s hand. “Can you carry the box by yourself?” he asked her.

She pressed her lips together in a sour manner, which Thomas thought must be hardwired into a woman’s DNA because he was sure he had seen Lois give Jerome the same expression.

“Oh, Jonathan, I feel weak with faint,” she said sarcastically, with a demure southern accent as she fanned herself, before nudging him on shoulder. “I’ll be fine.”

“Hide it where we discussed.”

Mrs. Kent nodded.

“Then hurry back here. Thomas will need your help getting me into the cellar. We’ll hide out there until the soldiers are gone,” Mr. Kent went on. “Wayne will need your help with his injuries until we can get him to the doctor.”

Mrs. Kent ran out the back door towards the barn.

“Maybe I should have…” Thomas said, pointing to the tool shed where they had hidden the box with the green glowing rock.

“No,” Mr. Kent said. “Martha may be right about using my rifle on humans, but I’m not going to leave us wholly unprotected either. Your dad taught you to hunt, right?”

Thomas nodded, unable to speak. Aiming a rifle at a deer, duck, or rabbit was very different from aiming it at another man. Mr. Kent reached into the pocket of his wheelchair. “Here are the keys to my gun safe. It’s at the back of the closet in our old bedroom.”

“Where Lois is staying?” Thomas asked softly.

“Here’s what I’m going to need you to do,” Mr. Kent said, leading him back into the living room.

***

Jimmy pulled his rental car up to next to the park in the center of town where he saw the sheriff’s patrol car. Lois said Army recruitment officer, but surely the sheriff would be better.

He grabbed his camera bag, jumped out of his car, and ran over to the man in uniform. “I’m looking for the sheriff,” he told the man, who was shorter than Jimmy and seemed a bit young for the title. He must be the deputy. “We’ve got an emergency.”

The man pressed his lips together in annoyance. “You’re speaking with him. Sheriff Maxwell Harris,” the man said snidely, holding out his hand.

Jimmy shifted his keys to his other hand and went to shake the man’s hand. “Jimmy…”

“No, your keys,” the sheriff interrupted.

Jimmy’s brow furrowed. His car keys? With a shrug he dropped them in the sheriff’s hand.

“Yo, Jacobs, take this yokel’s car and impound it, will you?” Sheriff Harris said to another uniformed man nearby, tossing him Jimmy’s keys. “It’s parked illegally.”

“Yes, sir,” the deputy replied.

Jimmy gaped. “I can move the car. You don’t need to impound it. There’s an emergency.”

Sheriff Harris looked at him doubtfully. “Fine. What’s your emergency, big enough for you to blatantly disregard posted parking signs? Talk fast, and I might take it under consideration.”

Jimmy glanced over his shoulder as Jacobs pulled away in his rental car. He had parked it directly in front of a ‘No Parking’ sign. Was this guy for real? He shook his head. Need to save CK! Right. “Okay, there’s this guy, his name is Trask. He thinks that there are UFOs. I mean, there are UFOs, but this guy collects them. Anyway, he’s here in Smallville, and he’s got my friend, and if we don’t save him now, he’s going to be toast. Do you know how to call the Army?”

Sheriff Harris sighed incredulously.

“The National Guard? We’re going to need helicopters,” Jimmy continued, but seeing Sheriff Harris’s expression, he doubted he was going to get the help CK needed.

“You’re not from around here, are ya?” the sheriff said wryly.

Jimmy took off his hat, and took a deep breath to make his voice calmer. “My name is Jimmy Olsen; I’m from Metropolis, with the Daily Planet, and my friends…”

Sheriff Harris held up his hand to stop him. “You’re from Metropolis? And you come here, expecting me to be some backwards country hick, stupid enough to believe this load of horse manure about some man looking for UFOs in Smallville?” He rolled his eyes with a shake of his head. “This isn’t an emergency. You’re wasting my time.”

“My friend CK, Clark Kent, is being held hostage by this Trask fellow,” Jimmy said, trying to get his information through this man’s thick skull. “Trask’s got a bunch of soldiers out at the Irig farm and has been digging it up looking for something. Lois Lane is out there, trying to find out what. Trask will probably kill CK and Lois Lane too, if they catch her spying on them. These guys are starting to pack up as we speak. If we don’t hurry, it will be too late.”

“The Kents and the Irigs?” Sheriff Harris said, grinding his teeth together. “First of all, get your facts straight, city boy. It’s the EPA digging up at the Irig farm, not some wacko guy with soldiers. I’ve seen the paperwork. I even approved it. Irig’s been poisoning the drinking water with his pesticides. Secondly, if someone held Wayne Irig and some Kent I’ve never heard of hostage, they probably deserved it, broke some law or something. Ever hear about trespassing? It’s a big deal here in the country, not that it means anything to a big city reporters like you and this Lane woman. The Kents and Irigs are a bad lot, and we’ve been trying to rid our county of them for a decade. So, if some government agents want to arrest…”

“I never said Trask was a government agent,” Jimmy corrected him. “He’s posed as one before when he raided our offices in Metropolis searching for information on Superman. You’ve met him, haven’t you?” His gaze narrowed, having gotten a bead on this man. “He’s gotten to you, hasn’t he? Do you know that Trask is trying to find a way to kill Superman?”

“Good riddance!” Sheriff Harris spat. “No good vigilante. Only helps out when he wants to. He’s only in it for the glory.” He pointed his finger at Jimmy. “Colonel Trask is a good, all-American man. You could learn something from likes of him.”

Jimmy threw up his hands. “And you call yourself law enforcement? My friend is in real trouble, and if he gets killed by that whack-job, his blood will be on your hands,” he yelled at the man. “Now, I can’t even go help rescue my friends because you stole my rental car!” He turned away from the sheriff and looked out at the park filled with people, many of whom were already watching the altercation between him and the sheriff with interest. Lois said they needed a long shot, so here it was. “Any of you out here in real law enforcement? In the military? Willing to help rescue your friends the Irigs and the Kents, my friends, Lois Lane and her partner…”

Sheriff Harris grabbed Jimmy arm and pulled it behind his back. “You’re under arrest!”

“On what charges?” Jimmy countered. “Asking for help? Speaking the truth? That’s not against the law in this country, bub!”

“For threatening a law enforcement officer, namely myself,” Sheriff Harris said, snapping on handcuffs. “Please do yourself and the rest of us a favor, and keep your mouth shut, because anything else you say will be counted in the court of law against you…”

***

Clark pulled on the chains of the manacles that had been looped through a bar on the ceiling of the van.

“Come on! Come on! Come on!” he coaxed his reluctant muscles, needing them more than ever.

Lois and the Kents were in danger because of him. He had stupidly continued to use the name his folks had given him on the day they had found him in Shuster’s field. Now, Trask thought these Kents were his family. If anyone got hurt because of him, he’d never forgive himself. Ha! He wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

It was better that Trask kill him rather than chance that maniac harming Lois or the Kents. Lois would be devastated, of course, that her beloved Superman was no more. She would understand though, that he had done it for her. This vicious cycle of death that continually followed him had to end. It had started when his birth father and mother had sent him away from his true fate on Krypton.

This was not to say he wasn’t happy to be alive, he was, but he had brought so much pain and misery to those he loved. If they could all survive this ordeal he would strive to be the man Lois deserved, even if she could only accept that man as her friend. He couldn’t face her rejecting him completely. He had come to this dimension to win her love, and here he had done everything in his power to push her away.

He was somewhat surprised, actually, that she hadn’t bolted from Smallville last night. That small fact gave him a flicker of hope that, if he was really lucky, she might someday be able to forgive him for deceiving her. It was also true that Lois Lane never gave up on a story. Clark hoped that there was a part of him she wouldn’t give up on either.

The van began to move, knocking Clark over. He got his balance once more, and returned to work on the chains. He needed his powers. He needed them. He couldn’t let Lois and his new-dimension folks die again, not on his watch.

When the chains still wouldn’t bend, Clark closed his eyes and reached deep inside himself for his inner strength, for his essence, for what made him, rather than anyone else, Superman. This wasn’t a job for Clark, or Jerome. This was a job for Superman.

***

One truck was loaded and had driven off before Lois was able to dart across the road from the trees to the tent, the second tent, Lois could have sworn, inside of which Ms. Sherman had gone. It was empty… Well, empty of people at least. She saw a small file box, sitting on a table. Jackpot!

She flipped it open. It wasn’t a jackpot, unfortunately, but it was something at least. It was Ms. Sherman’s falsified EPA records. Not exactly what Lois was hoping for, but it was still something. Paper trials were good for indictments, and indictments made for good copy. If there was one person Lois wanted to see indicted, that person would be Jason Trask

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she had a feeling – one of those darn pesky real feelings – that she would never see Jason Trask inside a courthouse. With the feeling came a clammy chill down her spine. She swallowed and wished that this was one of those times she got an image as well as a feeling, but it never came. She pushed that feeling away, unhelpful as it was.

There wasn’t much else in this tent. Lois could try to sneak out of this tent and go over to the other one, the one where they had been holding Clark. Maybe there was something more substantial in that tent. She quickly went through the file box, took out a few folders and slipped them into her briefcase. She’d peruse them in more detail later.

She went back to the flap of the tent and peered outside. There were some more soldiers loading another truck. If she didn’t get out of this tent soon, there wouldn’t be anything left in this tent city to investigate. It was possible that the two tents were positioned next to one another. At the side “wall” of the tent, she lifted up the canvas and saw that she had been correct. The other tent was directly next to this one. The fabric was taut, so it made it difficult to lift it high enough to get under. She would have to crawl on her belly. Thank goodness she remembered to change into jeans and a t-shirt when they returned from town.

She lifted up the fabric once more to check to make sure the coast was clear, and then started slithering over to the next tent wall she saw. She lifted it up the flap to see if there was anything worth investigating in Clark’s hostage tent. She saw some tables and chairs on one side of the room. That was it? She guessed it made sense since they wouldn’t want to leave a reporter in a room with highly sensitive information, would they? She glanced up and saw some file folders sitting on one of the tables. The tell-a-tale red “confidential” label adorned at least one of them. She grinned. She loved that shade of red.

With an extra push, Lois was able to get her head and shoulders into the tent, but then a soldier entered, and she froze. Could she back out without him seeing or hearing her? On the other hand, perhaps she should just stay where she was, and hope he didn’t see her. The man dropped a cardboard box on the table with the confidential files and then proceeded to fill the box with the files. Lois’s heart broke as she saw all those files, almost within her grasp, being taken away from her.

By the time the man finished filling the box, and left, nothing remained in the tent worth investigating. Tables and chairs. Whoop-de-dah. She pushed her way out of that tent and back into the one where most of her body remained. She wasn’t quite sure where to go next. Should she check some of Irigs’s out buildings and hope there was still information brought in by Bureau 39 that was worth risking capture for? Alternatively, she could try another wall of the tent and hope to find another treasure trove, unprotected for her perusal.

Lois went over to the main flap of the tent and peered out. The soldiers were loading a big, and apparently heavy, box into the back of the truck directly in front of her. No escape that way. She picked another canvas wall. No tent that direction. She leaned against the table, since all of the chairs had already been removed, and thought about what she should do next.

She saw a portable telephone, like the kind she’d seen used in war movies, sitting on another table. How had she missed that before? She pulled out her cell phone from her briefcase and saw with aggravation that she still only had one bar. She started fiddling with the knobs on the portable telephone, somehow hoping that she would be able to use it to warn the Kents.

When Lois finally got it to work, the Kent’s line just rang off the hook ominously. The muscles in her gut twisted, and she realized she felt bad. Oh, God, was this guilt? She didn’t feel guilt. She made her decisions, usually the right ones for her, and lived with them, no matter what.

Should she have gone with Jimmy to go rescue Clark? She didn’t know what else she could do that Jimmy wasn’t already doing. Why have two people do the job for which only one was needed? She knew that Clark was a professional as much as she was. He would respect her decision to stay and find out as much as possible from the devil’s lair. A story like this meant risking one’s life; he knew that.

Who was she kidding? Clark never would have risked her life for a story. Like with Superman, she was Clark’s number one priority. As her partner, why wasn’t he hers? The burning in her gut started rising through her chest, making it more difficult to breath.

It wasn’t as if Lois was risking his life more by not going to the Kents, was she? Was there anything more she could do at the Kent farm than she could at the Bureau 39 camp to save Clark? She’d most likely be in the way, or would be captured as he had.

What was she thinking? She wasn’t that stupid.

Lois closed her eyes drowning in guilt. She should have tried. Clark wouldn’t have given up so easily. Had she given up? No, she had gone after the story. She knew Clark could get himself out of this, couldn’t he? Was he really in danger? Did she somehow know he would make it out of this okay? Yes. No. Oh, she didn’t know. It wasn’t as if Trask would be stupid enough to kill Clark, as he had done with Thompson.

The guilt in Lois’s mouth turned white hot and bitter and started to choke her.

“Superman, please,” Lois whispered, despite knowing that even with his superior skills, he wouldn’t be able to hear. “Help Clark. He needs you.”

All of a sudden she could hear Ms. Sherman’s disembodied voice. It was as if she was talking to Lois, but Ms. Sherman wasn’t there in the tent with her. Lois was still alone.

“Look, he’s got your friend’s parents, and he’s going to make it look like a fire burned the place down,” Ms. Sherman’s voice said.

It wasn’t until she heard her own voice that Lois realized the voices were coming from inside of her, like a memory or a daydream.

“What about Clark?” her voice asked Ms. Sherman.

“Trask thinks he knows how to find Superman. He found some rock here, he thinks can kill him,” Ms. Sherman’s voice continued.

It certainly wasn’t any memory that Lois could recall. Why was she daydreaming about Ms. Sherman? She knew she should have eaten a better lunch than cookies.

“Can it?” Lois asked.

“I doubt it,” Ms. Sherman said. “But Trask thinks it can.”

She heard some actual soldiers yelling at each other to hurry up outside the tent, and the echoing voices in her head slipped into silence.

The rock that Thomas had mentioned. Trask was going to kill the Kents, who he thought were Clark’s parents, to get Clark to give up Superman. Oh, no! Trask knew about Clark’s connection to Superman. It was a trap! She couldn’t let this happen to Clark, or to Martha and Jonathan. It wasn’t their fault that they stumbled across this mad man bent on destroying Superman.

Superman! Lois’s heart ached at the thought of anything being able to hurt him. She knew Clark’s personality enough to know he would protect Superman to his dying breath. He had proved that on the plane, when he offered to jump out first, instead of risk the woman who Superman loved. Who Clark himself loved, Lois amended. She didn’t want anything to happen to Clark either.

Fire! Was Trask going to set the Kent house on fire? She had to rescue Clark, or the reporter formerly known as Clark, and the Kents.

She didn’t know if Jimmy would be able to find anyone, save the sheriff… Lois winced. She had forgotten to warn Jimmy to stay away from the town sheriff. Crapola. Okay, maybe Sheriff Harris wasn’t as bad as everyone said he was. Perhaps he would call in the National Guard and save the Kents and Clark. Maybe pigs would start flying next. Did their lives rest on her?

Lois returned to the flap door of the tent. The truck was still right in front, but she didn’t see any soldiers. With three quick strides, she yanked open the passenger door of the truck and jumped in. There sitting in the ignition were the keys. Too easy.

She slid over to the driver’s seat, only to see in the side view mirror the actual driver, a gun slung over his shoulder, approaching. When he was close enough, she swung open the door, catching him in the chest and finished the job with a precise front kick to the sternum. He went flying. She shut the door of the truck, turned the key, and took off.

Lois didn’t care if there were soldiers in the truck. She didn’t care what was in the truck actually. She didn’t care that she was horrible at driving stick shift. She didn’t care that she had really no idea in which direction to go, only that she had to go. All that mattered was saving Clark, the Kents, the Irigs, and Superman from Jason Trask. She could do that, couldn’t she? She was Lois Lane after all.

***End of Part 55***

Part 56

Comments Appreciated.