The bathroom remodel's nearly done and the puppy is almost behaving... so now:
Part 18
“So, everything okay on the home front?” Lois asked Clark the next morning. She knew his mom had flown in to talk to his dad. Clark was looking a little more relaxed than he had been. The situation between his parents had dragged him down more than he wanted to admit, especially to her. She had to admit she hadn’t been as sympathetic as she could have been. Plus, Lena Harrison’s ‘affair’ with Eugene Laderman, and Lena’s apparent betrayal of both her husband and her ‘boyfriend’, hadn’t done anything good for his peace of mind, or hers.
“They talked,” Clark told her. “I guess Dad has been feeling a little… insecure, especially after some of the old biddies in town started telling him Mom and her art teacher were seen in town several times after class.”
“And that painting? The one your dad found hidden in the barn?” Lois asked.
Clark managed a chuckle. “It was a birthday present. I guess he’s been feeling a little old and unwanted on top of everything else.”
“Hey, I’m glad it was just a misunderstanding,” Lois told him. He might not believe her, but she really was happy for them. In her experience, too many couples bailed at the first bump, even if simply talking about the problems might solve them.
“So am I,” Clark admitted with a chuckle. “Having my father as a roommate was getting old fast.”
“So, when are they heading back?” Lois asked.
“Tomorrow,” Clark said. “They’re planning to ‘paint the town red’ tonight. I got them reservations at the Lexor tonight.”
“You are such a good son, you know that?” Lois told him.
“I try.”
-o-o-o-
She told Clark she was meeting a source on something she had on the back burner. To her surprise, he accepted her excuse to get out of the newsroom.
Jonathan and Martha were waiting for her at the coffee shop around the corner from Clark’s apartment.
“Lois, is everything all right?” Martha began as soon as Lois sat down.
“I’m not sure. When Clark first lost his memory, you told me you thought Superman was still alive. Hurt and confused, but alive, and that Clark and I would be the first to know if and when he was coming back,” Lois said.
“Yes…” Martha nodded warily.
“Last night, we had a situation at my apartment and Clark, and someone else, had to leave in a hurry, out my bedroom window onto a narrow ledge,” Lois told them. “Please don’t ask why.”
Martha frowned but nodded for Lois to continue. Jonathan’s expression was unreadable.
“I happen to know the ledge is only wide enough for one person,” Lois told them. “And the person with Clark was desperately afraid of heights.”
“Have you asked Clark about this?” Martha asked.
Lois shook her head. “I wanted to talk to you two first…” She paused, trying to find the best words for her next question. As she sipped her coffee she also realized she was afraid of the answer. “Why haven’t you told Clark that he used to be Superman?”
Martha gasped and Lois looked up to see Jonathan glowering at her.
“How did you…?” Jonathan began.
“Little things started coming together,” Lois told them. “Things that should have been obvious if I hadn’t been so wrapped up in the hero that I ignored the man.” It was embarrassing to admit to his parents, but she was fairly certain they knew the facts. “Why haven’t you told him?”
“Doctor Friskin advised us not to,” Jonathan told her. “We don’t know why he lost his memory, or his powers. But she thought that telling him outright might actually make matters worse.”
“If he has blocked his memories because he ran up against something too horrible to handle, then he may have problems when those memories finally break through. She’s been working with him on it,” Martha said. “We just have to be patient.”
“Martha, I think his memories, and maybe his powers, may be coming through,” Lois said. “He told me he’s having dreams about flying like Superman. And there was an incident last week when he… well, he did something dangerous and he told me that he knew he could handle it. He knew he wouldn’t get hurt.”
Martha and Jonathan exchanged one of their knowing looks.
“What happened?” Jonathan asked.
“We were chasing down a story… the Rose and Nick Collins’ kidnapping?” Lois said. “They’d been taken by some evil sorcerers… Don’t laugh, there was some seriously weird stuff happening that day. And Clark just… he just went ahead and ran in to the rescue, completely ignoring the danger.”
Martha and Jonathan both chuckled and Lois found herself smiling. “Yeah, I know it’s a bad case of the pot calling the kettle black, but still…”
“Lois, he’s learned from the best,” Martha said gently. “When have you ever held back from chasing a story just because it was dangerous?”
Lois had to admit the older woman had a point. Even as a child Lois had been a risk-taker. She always had to be the first one to the top of the climbing structure, the first one to the biggest and baddest rides at the amusement park. As a teen, her reckless tendencies hadn’t abated, but had merely been channeled into more productive areas – school, writing, martial arts. She’d been born too late to be at the forefront of women’s rights on the school ground, but there had still been battles to be fought and won, her grades and ‘reputation’ be damned.
In college it had been more of the same only more so. Her father had wanted her to go into medicine – he had no son to carry on the ‘Lane’ name, but another ‘Doctor Lane’ in the family would have been good enough – but the sciences left her cold. Where she had excelled was in writing and activism. Again, she had been born too late to be an anti-war activist but human rights, both at home and abroad, had held her interest. Journalism had fed both her strengths – her heroes had been, and still were, the men and women who went onto battlegrounds with utter disregard for their own safety to find the truth and tell the world about it.
“The story doesn’t always wait for it to be safe to report it,” Lois said.
“And Clark has never been able to simply stand back and not get involved,” Martha told her. “Even as a little boy, he was the one who would defend the littler kids, the weaker ones when the playground bullies attacked. He can’t not help.”
“Used to drive me crazy,” Jonathan admitted. “I was always afraid someone would notice he was different, ask questions we couldn’t answer. But it’s just the way he is.”
“You know his secret’s safe with me, right?” Lois asked.
“We know,” Martha told her. “We wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it if you couldn’t be trusted.”
“I’m not sure how much Clark trusted me,” Lois admitted.
“Lois,” Jonathan began. “All his life we’ve told him to lay low, don’t get noticed, don’t get caught. He trusted you enough to take your advice on finding a way to help. You invented Superman as much as he did.”
“He didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth,” Lois complained even though she suspected she knew Clark’s reasons for not confiding in her. He hadn’t known her well enough at first, and then after he got to know her, he hadn’t been able to find a way to tell her that wouldn’t have endangered his life or hers – Superman or not.
“I think he was planning to, after he got back from Nightfall,” Martha said softly. Martha reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope. She handed it to Lois who unfolded the sheet of paper inside.
The letter was on Superman Foundation letterhead, just as hers had been.
Dear Mom and Dad,
If Murray has given you this, then the world is okay but I didn’t make it back.
I want you to know how much I love you both and how lucky I am to have had you as my parents. Not many couples would have had the love and courage to take in a foundling and raise him as their own. No one could have had better parents, or a better life, than I’ve had.
I want you to know that I only have one regret – that I haven’t been more honest with Lois about my other ‘job’. I trust your judgment on telling her the truth. Hopefully she’ll forgive me, eventually.
Mom, Dad, I love you so much and I hope to God you never see this letter. But if you do, I want you to know that I went out to do a job only I could do. You didn’t raise a coward or a quitter. And I hope you are as proud of me as your son as I am at having you as my parents.
Please take care of each other and remember me.
Your loving son, Clark.
Lois handed the sheet back to Martha. Her tears had started to fall as she read through it. Looking over at Clark’s parents, she realized there were tears in their eyes as well. Martha was holding her husband’s hand.
“I’ve always been proud of him,” Jonathan said, wiping his face. “And I don’t care if he never completely recovers. I’m still proud of the man he’s become.”
Martha took a sip of her coffee, her expression pensive as she regarded Lois. “Lois, tell me, how has it been for Clark since…?”
Lois shrugged. “He’s ‘okay’. It’s funny, really. Without the other job he’s been able to concentrate on work and it does show. Perry’s noticed it, even if he hasn’t said much. Clark has more of a tendency to go into ‘crusader’ mode than before and Perry likes that, even if he doesn’t say it. Clark doesn’t disappear at odd times anymore and people have noticed that, too.”
“And the city?” Jonathan asked. “I know the national news talked about how much Superman was missed during the first few weeks after the funeral, but what about Metropolis?”
Lois sighed as she thought back over the past weeks. “We miss him. It was nice to have that safety net. But Metropolis survived for more than two hundred years without having Superman around. And I think people are looking out for one another a little more than they had been. He was a good example for all of us – someone who cared about others without any regard for race or creed or net worth. But we do miss him.”
“Lois, what do you think will happen if he does come back?” Martha asked.
“There will be a lot of questions,” Lois said. “But I think it will depend on how he comes back. We still don’t know why he disappeared.”
“Keep us posted, okay?” Martha asked.
“Of course.”
-o-o-o-
Clark was waiting for her when Lois got back to the newsroom. “Did your source pan out?”
“I got some background I needed,” she told him. “What about you? Anything more on the virus Harrison was working on?”
“According to the experts I talked to, a virus like Eugene described is not only possible, there’s evidence that LexCorp’s computer systems are already under attack,” Clark told her. “And if LexCorp goes down…”
“Do they have a way to deal with it?”
Clark shook his head. “They all agree that without access to the original code it’ll take time to create a filter and an antidote.”
“Or access to someone who knows how Harrison thought?”
“Maybe,” Clark admitted.
The elevator doors opened. Lois looked over to see Detective Reed crossing the elevator lobby and trot down the stairs to their desks.
“Do you have a warrant to search the Daily Planet as well?” Lois asked. It was harsh and uncalled for but Lois didn’t really care.
“Nope,” Reed answered. If she noticed Lois’s impoliteness, she didn’t show it. “Thought I'd fill you in on something, though. Wondered if you might have a take on it.” She opened her briefcase and handed Lois a slim file.
Lois opened it. “The deceased was exhumed at approximately...” she read aloud. She looked up at Reed. “You dug up Henry Harrison's body?”
“Per you suggestion, I dug up a body,” Reed said. “But it wasn't Harrison's.”
“If the body found in the generator wasn't Harrison, who was it?” Lois asked.
“A homeless man who lived in the generator room of Harrison's building,” Reed said. “He'd been reported missing by his family. Seemed he called them once a week. Dental records match.”
That didn’t make any sense. “How come they weren't checked before the trial?”
“They were. There was a match.”
“How is that possible?” Clark asked.
Reed grimaced. “Computer records can be falsified. Especially by computer experts. Besides, Lena Harrison identified the body.”
“Eugene was telling the truth,” Lois murmured to herself. Reed gave her a sharp look. “You can call off your manhunt now,” Lois added, returning Reed’s look.
Reed shook her head. “I have a dead body on my hands, and Harrison's still missing. For all we know, Laderman may have killed two men.”
“You can't be serious,” Lois protested.
“I've got a job to do. Maybe he did it, maybe he didn't. That's up to the courts to decide,” Reed stated. “But right now, I intend to bring him in... by any means necessary. So if you know where he is, tell him to turn himself in. For his sake.”
Lois tried to look impassive as Reed turned and headed out of the newsroom.
“So, Lena perjured herself to cover her husband’s disappearance,” Lois commented.
“Insurance fraud?” Clark asked.
“Nothing about any big insurance policies came up during the original investigation,” Lois reminded him. “But it’s definitely something to check into. It would explain why Lena lied about the dead man being her husband.”
“Lois! Clark! Check this out,” Jimmy yelled from his own desk. Lois hurried over to Jimmy’s desk, Clark following on her heels. Jimmy was pointing to his computer monitor. The text on the page was barely recognizable as text – it was distorted into moiré patterns. Other staffers were groaning and swearing, some pounding on their monitors as though the machines were being disobedient.
Then new text appeared on the screens. ‘BEWARE THE IDES OF METROPOLIS’ scrolled across in bright block letters.
Lois felt her gut clench – this was exactly what Laderman had warned them about. Clark’s expression was at least as horrified as hers was. They shared a look and raced out of the newsroom. Clark had demanded proof and now it was all over the Daily Planet newsroom. Laderman knew about the virus and everyone agreed he was a brilliant programmer. Maybe he could do something.
The radio was full of reports of the other computer systems that had been attacked. “The 'Ides of Metropolis' appeared this morning on the screens of over a million computers, and with its arrival came a catastrophe of unparalleled proportion,” the LNN newsreader was saying. “World financial markets are collapsing... Banks and other financial institutions have closed their doors creating mass panic… Doctors are performing emergency surgeries under war zone conditions… Airports are shutting down; several near misses have been reported… Utilities, phone systems... nothing seems to have escaped this deadly virus and there’s no end in sight. At this time, the Army and Navy are on full tactical alert due to the failure of the computer systems controlling the ground to air nuclear missiles...”
“I wonder how they’re staying on the air?” Lois wondered aloud.
“I’m betting they have older equipment as back-up,” Clark said. “Those will be the systems that aren’t hit.”
“The ones not running Gateway?”
“And the ones not hooked up to LexCorp.”
“And the ones what have been hit…?” Lois began to think aloud. “Banks, the exchange, airports, hospitals, utilities… Those are all industries Luthor has pushed for modernization and streamlining over the last couple years. He practically donated the computer equipment for the city offices and the utilities.”
“Not to mention ‘upgrading’ the hospital systems and airports,” Clark muttered.
-o-o-o-
Laderman was waiting for them when Lois and Clark arrived at her apartment. “I’ve been watching the news,” he said. “It’s even worse than I thought it would be.”
“You really think the main frame at MUT has a chance of finding a cure for this virus?” Clark asked.
“It’s one of two on the east coast with enough horsepower to even have a chance,” Laderman told him. “My students and I designed the firewall and antivirus software ourselves, so I know it won’t have been hit.”
-o-o-o-
Metropolis University of Technology was one of the largest and highly regarded technical institutes in North America, coming in just after MIT and Caltech. The campus was in the eastern part of the Old City, overlooking the island of Hell’s Gate. Despite the fact that the university specialized in bleeding edge technology, most of the buildings dated from the turn of the century.
Luckily, the computer science lab was as modern as its technology. Lois and Clark looked on as Laderman and a coterie of students in their late teens and early twenties. Lois watched the young intent faces and felt old.
“Where you ever that young?” Lois murmured to Clark.
Clark chuckled. “Where you?”
“Not that I’ll admit to.”
Laderman was swearing under his breath as glared at his monitor and keyed in another sequence.
“What exactly are you looking for?” Lois asked.
“An entry code, so we can analyze the virus and find a cure. I've tried all the ones Henry ever used. Every member of his immediately family, etc. Now we're trying number combinations,” Laderman explained.
“What about the name of the program 'The Ides Of Metropolis?'”
Laderman shrugged. “'Ides' refers to the fifteenth day of certain months. I've tried some letter/number combinations using that factor, but so far...”
“What about the dramatic reference? Julius Caesar...” Lois suggested “'Beware the Ides of March?' It's a long shot, but...”
“I'll give it a try,” Laderman said but he didn’t sound encouraged. ‘Incorrect Password’ appeared on his screen. His shoulders slumped.
“The play was about a conspiracy. Traitors, politics...” Lois said, thinking aloud. “Maybe there's another connection.”
Laderman gave her a thoughtful look before turning back to his keyboard and monitor.
The door to the lab slammed open and Reed rushed in, gun in hand. Behind her was a uniformed officer.
“Police!” Reed yelled. “Step away from the desk. Laderman, down and kiss the floor.” The students looked up, startled and wide-eyed in astonishment and fear.
Lois moved to intercept Reed. “No, you can't. Eugene is working on finding the antidote to the computer virus. He may be close... he's the only one who can do it.”
Reed glanced over at Laderman and his monitor. Lois took advantage of the other woman’s momentary distraction. A well placed kick knocked Reed’s gun out of her hand. Reed responded by going into a wide stance, hands out in a self-defense stance. She kicked out and Lois blocked. Reed was surprisingly adept and Lois guessed the policewoman was at least as well trained as she was.
“Are you ladies finished?” Clark asked. There was an odd sarcastic note in his voice. He was holding Reed’s gun and had it trained on Reed and the uniformed officer.
“Yes, we are... Mr. Law and Order,” Lois stated. Clark seemed to realize what he was doing. He emptied the bullets from the gun and dropped them into his pocket. He tossed the gun to the uniform then walked up to Reed.
“Don't you see what's going on? Have you read the news? Eugene may be our only hope,” he spat at her.
Lois thought she saw a flicker of understanding cross Reed’s face. “Eugene worked under Harrison. He saw Harrison develop the virus. He's the only one who can find the antidote. For God sakes, let him try,” Lois pleaded.
Reed stared at her a long moment then turned to her companion. “Stay here. Don't let anyone in or out of this room.”
“Where're you going?” Lois demanded.
“HarriTech,” Reed said. “It was supposed to be closed down, all locked up. But I followed Lena there last night. She's got some explaining to do.”
“I'm coming with you,” Lois announced.
“In your dreams, Lane.”
-o-o-o-
The HarriTech building looked like it had been abandoned for ages rather than the few days it had actually been locked up. Reed had handed Lois a flashlight from her unmarked car. The light beams cast eerie shadows on the walls, the covered benches, the abandoned equipment.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Lane, Ms. Reed,” a man said as the lights switched on. He was wearing the same hat and trench coat as the man Jimmy had caught on camera meeting Lena at the Lexor. He was also holding a gun on them.
“Permit me to introduce myself. I'm Henry Harrison,” he said. He nodded to Reed. “We'll relieve you of your weapons now.”
“We?” Reed asked. Her question was answered by Lena Harrison who stepped into the room to stand beside her ‘late’ husband.
“You were in on it all along,” Lois realized.
“Of course,” Lena said smugly. “I believe in marital fidelity.”
“What about your loyalty to Eugene? He loved you.” Lois asked.
“Yes. Poor Eugene. I thought the legal process would finish him off, now...” Lena shrugged. “I'll have to do it myself.”
“Why?” Reed asked Harrison.
“I can answer that,” Lois said. “Revenge. Luthor humiliated him, stole his ideas, tried to destroy him. HarriTech was about to fail, probably thanks to Luthor. His virus would hold the world hostage, starting with LexCorp.”
“Quite correct, Ms. Lane,” Harrison said. “Billions are at stake. I needed to disappear beyond suspicion. Like dead. Eugene was the perfect foil.”
“Forgive the cliché, but you're not going to get away with this,” Lois stated. “Eugene is working on the antidote as we speak.”
“It doesn't matter,” Harrison said. “Within the hour every computer system in the country will be shut down.”
“The nuclear missiles...?” Lois asked.
“Give me a little credit, Ms. Lane. Surely you don't think I'd destroy all those potential customers. Of course, a few shut downs here and there, medical facilities, control towers, automated machinery... there's bound to be a few glitches.” He seemed pleased with himself. Lois knew that he was also lying, or at least fooling himself.
“I can get you a deal,” Reed offered.
“I doubt that very much,” Harrison told them.
“So, what are you going to do now? Kill us?” Lois asked and promptly wished she hadn’t. Harrison smiled. It was a smile she’d seen before – on a madman.
-o-o-o-
Lois found herself thrown into a small grey concrete room with Reed. There was trash, including pieces of electronics scattered across the floor.
“Great. Now you've done it!” Lois fumed.
“Me! You're the one who said 'What're you going to do now, kill us?' They teach you that in journalism school?”
“Well, I suppose you called for back- up and told them to burst in if we didn't come out in ten minutes,” Lois retorted. “They teach you that in Detective School?” She looked around the room. There was something odd about it – there was a seam all around two of the opposing walls. “What is this place?” Lois had a suspicion as to what the answer was and it didn’t bode well for them.
“How do you get it to do that, anyway?” Reed asked, watching her.
“What?” The change of subject was a little confusing.
“Your hair. That bounce thing. When you turn your head,” Reed pointed out.
“I don't know. It just... does it,” Lois said. She didn’t pay all that much attention to her hair. It was straight and it took an extremely talented hairdresser to get it to take a perm. Lois took an evaluating look at her companion. Reed’s hair was brown and curly – frizzy actually – and the humid warmth in the room was making it even frizzier. But Reed’s hands were fabulous – long polished nails, smooth skin. Lois’s hands never looked that good, even after a session with the manicurist. “I wish I had your nails.”
“You can. $1.98 at Price House.”
“Get out of here!” Lois protested. “They look so real.”
As they had talked they had settled down on the floor with their backs to the wall opposite the door. Lois smiled when she realized they had spent the past minute or so just chatting like friends. Lois didn’t have all that many friends outside of work and even there, there weren’t many people her age. She played poker with them, went drinking occasionally. But she didn’t ‘hang out’ with any of them, except Clark.
She glanced at her companion to see an identical wistful smile on her face.
“Must be tough being a reporter. Especially for a woman,” Reed said after a time.
“No tougher than it must be for a detective.”
“It's a boys club.”
“Tell me about it,” Lois said. “Perry, he’s my boss, hired a green hack from Nowheresville on the strength of a touchy-feely story I wouldn’t take. Then he had the gall to assign him to be my partner. Like I needed a partner…”
“You’re talking about that hunk you work with, right?” Reed asked. She sounded amused.
“Yeah, but that wasn’t my point,” Lois said. “I worked hard to get a job at the Planet. I turned in my first story to Perry when I was in high school. I interned at the Planet during college, worked my buns off. And Clark waltzes in with a stack of pieces from the Borneo Gazette and a story about a theater and he has a job.”
“But he’s not hard to look at, either,” Reed commented. “All the guys I work with are either too old, too married, or too full of themselves. And this thing with Laderman and Harrison isn’t going to make things any easier. I should have figured out the insurance fraud angle, and the whole thing with Lena leading Laderman on. I knew it didn’t smell right, but I let getting the case to trial override my instincts.”
“Harrison and his wife had everybody fooled,” Lois told her. “They had to have been planning this ever since LexCorp fired him and stole the programs he’d designed for them. Maybe even before.”
Suddenly the room was filled with the sound of a motor coming alive somewhere near, and a scraping screech. The side walls had started to creep together. Lois and Reed were on their feet, looking around the floor for something to stop the walls from moving closer.
“Find a brace, anything,” Reed ordered.
Lois found some lengths of steel conduit to brace the walls apart, but even steel wasn’t strong enough. “It's no use,” she said as she watched the pipes bend. “What does the manual say to do in a time like this?”
Reed just looked at her a long moment before opening her mouth to scream for help.
It was no use. They were going to die from a movie cliché and there were no droids to save the day. At least Clark was safe and would carry on their investigations, even if he never came back as Superman.
Clark… He would hate himself for not being there to save her but there was nothing to be done about it. She realized that she had but one regret – she hadn’t been able to overcome her fear of getting close to a man. She was going to die without ever feeling Clark’s strong arms around her in a lover’s embrace, without ever feeling his lips on hers in a lover’s kiss. Without ever feeling his hands on her body as they lay naked together.
Reed was swearing at her impotence, pounding on the sealed door. Suddenly the walls stopped moving. The screeching stopped, the motor noise stopped. The silence was deafening.
The door swung open and Lois saw Clark standing outside. She ran to him and gave him a hug.
“I thought I…” she began. “Oh Clark…”
“I got worried when you didn’t check in…” Clark told her, returning her hug.
“Laderman and his team did it?” Reed asked. Lois looked up and realized that Reed wasn’t addressing Clark. Bill Henderson was standing in the hallway with him.
“Yes,” Henderson said. “It’ll take a few days for the virus to get completely cleared out of everyone’s computer systems, but the worst of it’s over.”
“Harrison’s alive,” Reed stated. “It was all a set-up with Laderman as the patsy. And it’s my collar.”
-o-o-o-
“So, are you going to tell me what happened at MUT?” Lois demanded as soon as they were away Reed and Henderson.
“Well, Eugene found the password. You were right about the it being related to Julius Caesar. It was ‘Et tu, Brute’. Eugene and his students managed to create the antidote. But we had to get Luthor involved so they could load the antivirus program into the LexCorp system and let it propigate.”
“But it worked,” Lois insisted. Clark nodded but there was still something wrong. She could see it in his expression. "What else happened?"
"While Eugene was working on the LexCorp system, he came across some encrypted files pertaining to Superman," Clark told her.
"And?" Lois prompted.
"And… remember that series of bizarre 'tests' that happened a few weeks after Superman first arrived in Metropolis? The ones that seemed designed to test how fast and strong he was?"
Lois nodded. She'd been injured when a bomb went off in a bank - a bomb designed to test how invulnerable Superman was. She still had the fragment of cape she had found at the site.
"One of the files had all the details on those tests, including Luthor's personal notes," Clark told her.
"According to the notes he left us, Superman suspected Luthor has behind the tests, but he couldn't prove it," Lois reminded him.
"We still can't," Clark told her. "We can't prove that the files haven't been tampered with to implicate Luthor. But wait, it gets better. Another document outlined a plan to clone Superman. Apparently Luthor managed to get hold of that hair sample Superman donated for the Coates Home fundraiser. Luckily it seems that Earth science isn't up to cloning humans yet, much less Kryptonians."
"Lucky for us," Lois murmured. "Can you imagine someone with Superman's powers under the control of someone like Luthor?" She shuddered.
"I don't even want to think about that nightmare. Let's just be happy Doctor Leek's research was cancelled."
"Doctor Leek? Doctor Fabian Leek?"
Clark nodded. "You know him?"
"I know of him," Lois said. "He was one of the foremost researchers on cloning and stem cells. He's also dead. Some sort of weird lab accident last week."
"Was it an accident? Or was somebody cutting their losses?" Clark asked.
"Now you're sounding paranoid," Lois said.
Clark sighed. "Maybe so, but the last document was an internal memo to Luthor from the head of LexLabs giving an analysis of the Nightfall meteorite, its expected environmental impact on the planet and the suggestion that Superman be asked to handle it. It also contained an analysis of Superman's expected oxygen usage during his flight and the energy output needed to divert the mass," Clark said.
"That was in Luthor's files?"
Clark nodded, unable to meet her eyes. "Superman was given an air supply that should have kept a human alive for six hours. That's what he was told. He was also told that his normal oxygen consumption wasn't all that much above what a human of his mass would use. But LexLabs' analysis indicated his oxygen consumption would be much higher than that. Maybe twice as much given what he was doing."
"No wonder Luthor was convinced Superman was dead," Lois said. "He knew all along that Superman had to have run out of air at just about the time he needed to make the push to divert the asteroid. He had his contingency plans in place. He didn't care which way it went."
They both sat down at their respective desks. The files Laderman had retrieved were damning but they still didn't prove anything. The one thing the documents did give them was more places to look for hard evidence - evidence Perry would accept.
"So, Harrison and his wife were working together to frame Laderman?" Perry asked, coming out of his office and stepping over to their desks.
"For the insurance and so Harrison could cover his tracks before Luthor figured out what was going on," Lois told him.
"Laderman should be a free man tomorrow," Clark added. "MUT has offered him a full professorship once the legal stuff is handled."
"Nice work," Perry said. "It'll make a great story for tomorrow's paper."
"And thanks for not blowing the whistle on us," Lois said almost as an afterthought.
"I trust your instincts," Perry assured her as he walked away.
Clark watched after him a moment before turning back to Lois. "Well, go ahead. I'm waiting."
"For what?"
"The morality play," he said. "The 'you should have trusted me and my infallible reporter's instinct' lecture."
"Clark…" she began. He was watching her, waiting for her to continue. "Come on, I'm starving and you're buying… And just in case you did miss the moral to this story… You should trust what's in people's hearts, not just the facts, ma'am."
"And you knew Laderman well enough to know what was in his heart?" Clark asked.
"Well, I like to think I did. I know that things didn’t add up right in the case," Lois told him. "And I was right. Harrison was masterminding the whole thing and he was a cold-blooded killer. So was Lena. I guess Reed and I are lucky you called Henderson to get us back-up."
"Like I said, I got worried when neither you nor Reed checked in," Clark said.
Lois sat back and considered his statement for a moment. Superman wasn't flying through the skies of Metropolis anymore, but he was still hard at work saving lives in the guise of mild-mannered Clark Kent. "Have I told you recently what a good friend you are?"
"Not recently, no."
"Well, remind me to do that over dinner," she ordered, picking up her purse and grabbing her jacket. "By the way, I know for a fact you didn't tell me your biggest secret."
"Oh, and what exactly is my biggest secret?"
"If I told you, then it wouldn't be your biggest secret anymore, would it?" she asked, sauntering to the elevator.
The Ides of Metropolis was written by Deborah Joy LeVine
