Sorry for the huge delay in getting this posted. I've spent most of the last month driving up and down the west coast, San Diego to Seattle. I'm glad to be back in sunny Vegas and able to get to work on finishing up this story.
Just a quick reminder from CH 8
“Ugh, she did it again,” said Lois as she picked up the latest edition of the Daily Planet and read its title. “’New Age Kane Nipped in the Bud by Lois Lane and Clark Kent, special contribution Linda King.’ Yeah, right!”
“Well, how did she do that?” asked Clark.
“I don’t know,” Lois said, setting the paper back down on the stand in disgust. “We were the ones who convinced Henderson to look at the courtroom surveillance footage that got him the warrant to search Carpenter’s office. Her only contribution was a dinner date with Carpenter to get him out of that office, so we could take a look in there.”
“Still, she did play a part.”
Lois was about to respond when the elevator door chimed signaling its arrival on their floor. Lois and Clark looked over to see Linda give Perry a kiss on the cheek before exiting the elevator and heading in their direction.
“Mr. White is such a generous man,” Linda said as she approached Lois and Clark.
“You have no shame,” stated Lois.
“Yes, I do. Not a lot, but some,” Linda clarified.
“So, what’s next for you?” Clark asked Linda, quickly changing the subject.
“Hollywood. I optioned my film rights on the inside story of Preston Carpenter’s fall from grace. It’s obscene how much money those Hollywood producers will throw at you.”
“So, who’s going to play you?” Lois wondered.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Linda said flippantly. “They’re going to get some big name, but I did have it put in my contract that I get to play one small part.”
“And what’s that?” Lois asked skeptically. She couldn’t believe some Hollywood producer would cast Linda.
Linda pretended to pinch Lois’s cheek. “I’ll try to do you justice.”
“Me?” Lois choked in disbelief. “You’re going to play me and turn me into a blonde?”
“I can dye it black if you ask nicely,” mocked Linda.
“My hair is not black, and what do you mean ‘small’ part? Clark and I were the ones who figured out who the henchman was. Wallace might have been killed if it wasn’t for me,” Lois pointed out.
“But he wasn’t; besides, you weren’t at all the scenes where the action was taking place. You were always showing up late, or not at all, which severely limits your screen time. We don’t really need you sitting at the Planet sulking, because you were scooped in the script.”
Lois was fuming, but couldn’t respond before Linda spoke.
“I am hopeful that they get someone handsome to play Clark. He’s got a fairly large roll as well, unless you want to keep our partnership together and join me?” Linda snuggled up on Clark's arm.
Lois glared at Linda before Clark could come up with his usual overly polite way of saying no.
“I’m kidding,” Linda said as she pulled her arm away from his. “Look, Lois, I was hoping to have some time to talk to you and apologize for my behavior all those years ago, but I have a flight to catch soon. It will have to wait. I’ll call you next time I’m in town.”
“Great,” said Lois brusquely.
“I enjoyed working with you both. Take care.” Linda gave Clark a quick hug.
“Bye, Linda,” he said.
“Bye,” replied Linda.
Lois just waved.
They watched Linda exit the Daily Planet. “I’m glad that’s over,” said Lois, relieved that her former rival was now gone.
“She’s not that bad, Lois, and, who knows, maybe she’ll do a good job playing you,” said Clark optimistically.
“Highly unlikely. Not everyone can be Lois Lane.”
“Very true.” Clark put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a tight squeeze.
“Ready to get back to work?” asked Lois.
“Absolutely, partner.”
CH 9
Lois and Clark stepped out of the elevator and immediately their coworkers welcomed Clark back. Lois headed towards the break area while Clark stayed behind thanking them. Finally, he made his way down the ramp to his desk where Jimmy was waiting for him.
“Hey, CK! Great to have you back in the building,” said Jimmy as he gave Clark a friendly pat on the arm.
“Thanks, Jimmy. What’s up? You look like you’ve been waiting for me.” Clark took a seat in his chair and offered his guest chair to his friend. Jimmy declined and remained standing.
“I found an address for Ramirez that I thought you guys might want to check out. It’s his dad’s address. Looks like his parents divorced a few years ago, and his mom moved to California.”
“Are you sure he’s living there?” Clark asked.
“Well, I talked to his former roommate who said he had moved back home,” Jimmy replied. “Apparently his soccer scholarship didn’t cover room and board, only tuition, so he moved home to save some money. His dad doesn’t live that far from campus.”
“So he’s still in school?”
“His former roommate seemed to think so.”
“Good work; we’ll check it out .” Clark patted Jimmy on the arm before Jimmy left for his desk.
“An address,” Clark said, waving the paper Jimmy had given him in the air as Lois approached him with a hot cup of coffee that he graciously took. “Thank you. Do you want to go check it out?”
Lois took a sip of her coffee. “No, not yet.”
Clark looked at his partner skeptically. “You don’t? Are you feeling okay?” he joked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just think we need to find out more before we go question Ramirez. I want to know more about what Goldberg is doing first.”
“Um…Okay,” he stammered.
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s just I thought you’d want to jump on this.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I think we should listen to the tapes first and wait until we hear from Dr. Zeigler. Maybe if we press Ramirez on what we’ve found out, he’ll open up about the treatment he received.”
Clark nodded in agreement. “It’s worth a shot. Did you bring the tapes?”
“I did. We’ve still got half of Thursday that we didn’t get to last night, as well as Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and I hope you picked up Monday’s,” she said, looking at him expectantly.
“Right here.” Clark pulled the tape out of his interior jacket pocket. “Let’s split them up. I’ll take Sunday and Monday.”
“Okay.” Lois went to her desk to remove the tapes from her briefcase and handed Sunday’s tape to Clark, who had followed her. Her eyes trailed down his backside as he returned to his desk and sat down. A smile spread across her face. The emptiness she had felt while Clark had been undercover last week was gone.
Lois reached into her bottom desk drawer and pulled out her walkman. She put in side B of Thursday’s tape and pressed play before booting up her computer. She browsed through her emails from the day before while she listened. As she was changing out the tape for Friday’s, her phone rang.
“Lois Lane,” she answered.
“Miss Lane, Dr. Zeigler.”
“Oh, hi, Doctor. I hope you’re calling with good news.”
“I am. I was looking over the test results on Friday when I noticed something interesting. I spent all weekend in the lab working on it.”
“What did you find?” she asked, grabbing her notebook and pencil.
“I don’t want to go over everything on the phone, but the samples all contained some things I haven’t pinned down yet. I was hoping you and Mr. Kent would be available this afternoon to stop by, so that I can show you what I found.”
“Yes, we’ll be available,” she replied excitedly.
“Good. I’ll see you then,” said Dr. Zeigler.
“Bye,” said Lois before she hung up the phone. “Clark,” she called eagerly and dashed over to his desk.
“Shhh…” Clark held a finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet and then pointed to his headphone.
Lois anxiously waited while he finished listening to his tape. “What was that about?” she asked.
“Something happened Sunday night. Dr. Goldberg and some other man were in an argument. I think that kid we saw stop by about his knee, was hurt in Friday’s game. I haven’t listened to all of it yet. We should go in the conference room and listen to it again together.”
“Okay, but first, I just got a call from Zeigler. He says he’s found something in the samples and wants us to stop by this afternoon to go over everything.”
“Great,” exclaimed Clark. “Let’s finish these tapes, grab lunch, and then head over there.”
“Sure, I’m just going to get a refill,” Lois said, holding up her coffee mug. “Do you want one?”
Clark handed her his coffee cup with a smile of gratitude. “Thanks.”
“Go set up. I’ll meet you in there.”
Clark ejected the tape from his walkman and took it and his notepad into the conference room. He placed the cassette in the stereo and rewound it a bit for Lois to hear the whole argument.
“Here you go,” Lois said, carefully handing Clark a full hot cup of coffee before taking a seat next to him.
“Thanks. I rewound the tape to where the other guy enters the room. There’s nothing important before that.”
“What about Saturday’s tape?” she asked.
“There’s nothing. It’s mostly blank.” Clark reached over to the stereo and pressed play. After a few moments of static, a door opened, they heard footsteps, and then the door was slammed shut.
“Do you realize how much of a problem this is going to become?” shouted Dr. Goldberg.
“We have it under control. He’s at the hospital where we can cover his injury,” said the second voice.
“You have it under control?” Goldberg objected.
“It’s in the paper. The Daily Planet had a photo on the front page of the sports section with a story about how the Panthers’ top basketball player collapsed after an apparent knee injury. That kid trusted me. He came to me complaining of pain and I assured him he would be okay. What if he tells someone about the treatments?” “He won’t do that,” the second voice calmly assured him.
“Trust me, Doctor; we have it all under control. Once he’s out of surgery, he’ll be placed in your care. You’ve been granted hospital privileges at Luthor’s Children Hospital for the duration of his stay. Be there tomorrow. I expect a full report. In the mean time, keep treating the other kids. Keep your mouth shut and it will all go away. We’ve just started phase three. My employer would appreciate it if we didn’t have to interrupt it .” “What about the other kids? What if this happens to them?” Dr. Goldberg pleaded.
“We’re still working with the formula. You’ll be receiving a new batch by midweek. Make sure all the boys come in to receive treatment.” “And Phase Four?” “That’s classified. Never ask about it again,” voice two demanded.
“Now, do you have the test results for the last month?” “Yes.” There was rustling and a cabinet door opening and closing, followed by a thunk.
“Here’s the report. It includes follow-ups on Phase One subjects as well.” “That wasn’t necessary.” “Do you realize what they’re going through? They all think they’re dying and the truth is they probably will if we can’t fix it.” “They chose to participate. They signed the waivers,” said voice two, blithely unconcerned.
“None of them expected to die,” Dr. Goldberg protested.
“I guess it’s your job to fix that. Just don’t let them find out the truth. You might find yourself in a lawsuit or something worse,” he threatened.
“What’s that suppose to mean?” asked Dr. Goldberg.
“Just a warning. Do your job. Now, I have to go. Thanks for the reports.” Clark shut off the tape.
“We need to find that article he was talking about.” Lois opened up the conference room door and called for Jimmy.
As soon as he heeded her call, Lois told him, “Jimmy, I need you to get us the Saturday and Sunday copies of the Planet’s sports pages.
“No problem. Give me a minute,” he replied and headed off to retrieve them.
Jimmy came back a few minutes later with the papers she had requested. Lois tore into them looking for the article. She found it in the Saturday sports section.
“Clark, here it is. ‘Panthers’ star forward, Thomas McKay, ruptures knee in key playoff game.’ It goes on to say that the injury occurred when he jumped to make a layup. There was no contact with another player during the shot.”
“Is there a picture of the kid?” asked Clark, looking over her shoulder.
“Yeah, here.”
Clark instantly recognized the person in the picture as both the kid he saw coming towards Dr. Goldberg’s office complaining about his knee and as the kid Superman stopped from harassing a couple of girls the previous week.
Lois saw the look of recognition in Clark's face as he studied the photo. “Do you know that kid?”
“Huh?...Oh, yeah. He’s definitely the kid I saw approaching Dr. Goldberg’s office last week,” he said affirmatively.
“Are you sure?” she asked, turning around to look him in the eyes. “He was far away and you don’t exactly have twenty-twenty vision,” she teased.
Clark adjusted his rims, acknowledging her jab. “I’m sure, Lois. That’s the kid.”
“We should go to the hospital and see if we can get hold of his records.
“I agree. Let’s go.”
*******
“Lois…” Lois heard Clark whisper. She turned to see Clark in a pair of blue scrubs, poking his head out of a storage closet and waving her over. She surveyed her surroundings before casually walking over to join him, shutting and locking the door behind her.
“What did you find?” Clark whispered.
“McKay is being discharged in the next few hours. He had surgery yesterday morning to fix some ruptured ligaments in his knee. He’s up on the third floor in a private room. I was just about to head up there. What about you?”
“I’ve been in the lab. I got a sample.” Clark held up a vile with about a quarter-inch of blood and smiled.
Lois playfully patted his chest. “You’re getting really good at this. Let’s get upstairs and then head over to STAR Labs.”
They took the stairs up one level and were walking down the hall looking for McKay’s room when they saw Dr. Goldberg and a woman, probably in her late forties and who they assumed was McKay’s mother, emerge from a room. Lois grabbed the nearest patient chart hanging on the wall and turned her back to the doctor. She and Clark pretended to look over the papers as they listened in.
“He’s going to be able to play again, isn’t he, Doctor?” asked the woman, her voice heavy with concern.
“This is a common injury for athletes. He’s done for this season, but I see no indication he wouldn’t be back for his senior year. He’s got great college potential,” replied Dr. Goldberg.
“That’s great news, Doctor. He’s been working so hard this year and it’s really paid off for him. I just hate to see him lose out on something that’s so important to him. It has also given him motivation to get his grades up.”
“He’s a special kid, Mrs. McKay. Now, I’ve signed his discharge papers. A nurse should be along in the next hour to release him.”
“Thanks again. And he’ll be in on Friday for a follow-up, right?”
“Yes.”
“See you then, Doctor.” Mrs. McKay stepped back into her son’s room and the doctor headed for the elevator.
“Damn. He took the report with him,” Lois whispered with frustration.
“I saw that. I don’t think we’ll get any more information here. Let’s get over to STAR Labs.”
*******
“Lois, what about looking into some of the other kids at that school? Maybe his friends are in on it also or at least know what’s going on,” Clark suggested as their next angle to investigate while they waited in her Cherokee for the light to turn green.
Lois glanced over at him. “Clark, there are over a thousand kids at that school. How do you propose we narrow down the list?”
Clark knew what two of McKay’s friends looked like and had a suspicion that they would know what was going on. Coming up with an excuse to track down two particular kids, neither of which he had names for, wasn’t going to be easy to explain. “We could have Jimmy put together a list of people he’s associated with through sports and any other activities that he’s in. Maybe something will turn up,” he offered as the light turned green.
“Maybe,” she acquiesced. “I’m just glad we have another lead to follow. Those medical reports are giving me a headache and every time I listen to those tapes, I just keep picturing my dad sitting there in a lab in the middle of the night, going over research papers by himself, meanwhile ignoring his family in the pursuit of science. I hope for their sake, Dr. Goldberg doesn’t have any family who he’s ignoring in pursuit of whatever it is he’s doing to these kids. ”
“I hadn’t thought about it. It seems as if a guy who would go to work into the middle of the night wouldn’t have much of a home life.”
“I know you would think that, Clark, but, unfortunately, it’s just not the case,” she said solemnly.
“When I was a kid, maybe five or six, my dad had an office downstairs. Sometimes when I would wake up in the middle of the night needing a glass of water, he would be in there working. I would look in at him through these fancy glass French doors he had and just stand there watching him engrossed in his work.” Lois paused, hating the memories this was bringing up.
Lois continued, “You know that feeling you get when you’re in a room and someone enters, or is watching you, and you know they’re there, even though you don’t see them?”
“Yeah, I know the feeling.” Clark felt that way every time Lois walked in the newsroom.
“Well, I’m not sure he does; he never once looked up,” she said softly. “I have no idea if he ever knew I was even there. Was it really too much trouble for him to stop and help his daughter get a glass of water?”
“Maybe he was just so focused that he really didn’t notice that you were there,” Clark said, trying to rationalize her father’s behavior even though he was appalled by it.
“Maybe,” she said solemnly.
Clark wanted to comfort her, but didn’t know what to say. The more he heard about her father, the more he disliked the man and the way in which he neglected his family. No wonder Lois was so reluctant to ask him for his help.
“I’m sorry, Lois,” he said, reaching over and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, trying not to distract her from her driving. “I never felt that way as a kid. No matter what I was going through, my parents were always there to help me. The closest experience I have is probably the feeling of abandonment by my birth parents, but that’s different because I had another set of parents that made sure I never experienced that. I’m sorry you didn’t have that.”
Lois tilted her head to the side to rest it on Clark hand that had begun rubbing her shoulder, easing the tension in her upper body. “It’s okay, Clark.”
Clark moved his hand to her neck and resumed his ministrations. “If it helps, I can keep the tapes. If I find anything interesting on them, I’ll let you know.”
“Sounds good,” she said, rotating her neck the other direction. “I don’t know how much more we’re going to get from them anyways. What we really need is to find out who the other guy on the tape is.”
“Then I think another stakeout is in order, for tonight. He did say there would be a new shipment of the formula. Hopefully, he’ll hand deliver it.”
“It’s a date,” Lois blurted before realizing what she had said. Clark ministrations halted briefly at her words. “I didn’t mean a real date. I was just agreeing to the stakeout tonight.”
“Oh, I knew that,” was all Clark said before his hand went back to work on the knots in her neck.
“Wouldn’t be much of a date, sitting in a car and waiting for some guy we haven’t been able to identify to show up,” Lois rambled on.
“No, it wouldn’t,” he grudgingly agreed.
******
They checked in at the front reception and were quickly escorted back to Dr. Zeigler’s lab.
“Miss Lane, Mr. Kent. Here’s the report I put together for you. It lists out the details for each sample.” He handed each of them a copy of the report.
“What did you find?” asked Lois.
“Well, to tell you the truth, I’m still trying to figure that out,” the doctor replied.
Lois gave him a puzzled look. “I’m confused? You said you had some news for us.”
“I do.” Dr. Zeigler opened his original copy of the report and pointed to a spreadsheet where the left column listed the samples by their number and the top row had a list of acronyms. “You see this row here, in all the samples there’s DNA that I can’t match to anything. It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s incredibly complex, but that’s not the strangest thing. There’s two other set’s of DNA in each sample. One being the patient’s actual DNA and another one shared with all the samples.”
Lois looked at Clark, who normally understood the more complex scientific theories, but he appeared to be just as lost as she was. He shrugged at her.
“So, what does that mean, Doctor?” asked Clark.
“It’s like one big gene therapy experiment. Whoever is doing this is trying to mutate these young men’s DNA to enhance them. It looks like this complex DNA, CX as I’ve called it, has been combined with a base set of DNA, and then each patient was mixed with that new set. If I were to guess, the CX needed to be altered before being given to the patient so that the new host didn’t flat out reject it. That’s what the third DNA is for. I’m still working on trying to identify that one as well. Unfortunately, it’s not going to work.”
“Why is that?” Clark asked, heavily concerned.
“From what I can tell, there’s something wrong with the CX. It’s just not stable. There were significant variations in the samples. In some of them, the cells that contained the complex DNA/base DNA mix are…” He paused as if searching for the correct term. “Dying, for lack of a better word, and in some, they were almost all dead.”
“Doctor, can you tell where the samples came from in the body?” questioned Lois.
“Well, the blood samples could have come from anywhere. Some of the other samples are from joints. The concentration of altered cells was more prevalent in the joint fluid than the blood samples.”
“Do you think that this treatment could be life threatening?” Lois asked, fearing she already knew the answer and dreading the doctor’s confirmation.
“I guess that would depend on how much of the altered DNA they had and how it was being administered. If I had to guess, this treatment is being targeted to certain areas. Now, these areas may become weak as the new cells died, but as long as it isn’t widespread throughout the patient’s body and their internal organs aren’t affected, it shouldn’t be life threatening.”
Lois was surprised that he didn’t confirm her suspicion, but then again, Dr. Zeigler didn’t have samples of all the patients. “Clark, I have a horrible thought. We know from the tapes that this is Phase Two. That’s what Goldberg said they were currently working on. What if Phase One wasn’t targeted to specific areas of the body, and that’s why Hager is so sick?”
“Hearing all this, it is a possibility,” agreed Clark.
“What do you mean Phase Two?” asked the doctor.
“We’ve overheard the man we’re investigating talking to someone who we’re assuming is providing the complex DNA samples. They mentioned four phases, and we have a copy of his journal or something,” Lois explained, opening her briefcase and pulling out a copy of the papers Clark had made of the translation. She handed it to Dr. Zeigler. “This book mentions three. We were also hoping that the numbers on the samples Clark took match this book.”
“They could. It’s mostly likely the patients birth date. Just European style, in year month day format,” stated the doctor as if they should have figured out the number scheme already.
“Oh. Well, that would make sense,” agreed Lois, mad at herself for not seeing something to simple.
“So you guys think all these samples are for Phase Two?” the Doctor asked.
“From what we’ve overheard, that’s our guess. It sounded like Phase One ended months ago. We’ve only been able to talk to one patient who we are assuming was in Phase One. He broke his leg and was back out on the field within a few months. Shortly after that, he starting getting sick. Now, he’s said his doctor has diagnosed him with a rare autoimmune disease.”
“That could easily just be for cover. You see, with autoimmune diseases, the body turns on itself. Now, if the cells containing CX are dying or being rejected, the resulting effects could look like any number of those diseases,” Dr. Zeigler explained.
“But, Doctor, are the patients actually dying?” implored Clark.
“Without studying the subject, it would be hard to say, but let’s say that Phase One patients received non-targeted treatment, then the CX could be in higher concentrations anywhere in the body, invading and damaging any organ,” suggested the doctor.
Lois looked at Clark. She knew this news would eat him alive. Clark had such compassion for life and hearing about what could be happening with these kids was obviously tearing him apart inside. “If you were to see this patient, do you think you could help him?” Lois asked optimistically.
“I’m not sure. I need more time to try to figure out what exactly the CX is. It could be possible that something like dialysis or a transfusion would work. I can’t really say at this point.”
Clark reached out and shook Dr. Zeigler’s hand. “Thanks for all your work on this, Doctor. We’ll keep you posted if we find anything else.”
“I’ll do the same,” he replied and opened the door to lead his guests back to the lobby.
*******
End of Chapter 9
