The Vampire Murders: 25/26
by Nan Smith
Previously:
Moments later, they paused. Peeking under his lids, Clark saw the man carrying Lois over his shoulders like a sack of meal reach up and push the little plastic square above his eye level.
The wall slid open. He proceeded through and dumped his burden unceremoniously onto a chair. The two men dragging Clark followed and let him thump ungently to the carpet.
"That's it. Let's go," one of them said.
"Not yet," the man who had carried Lois said briefly. "The boss said there's one more." He chuckled softly. "Vampire's gonna be busy tonight."
There was a general laugh.
Clark didn't dare open his eyes now, as he was face up, and all three men were standing within feet of him. He concentrated on breathing naturally and listening to everything around him.
Footsteps were approaching, and a very familiar voice was speaking.
"Why are you doing this? I already promised I'll never tell anyone!"
"That's what we're going to make sure of," someone else said, sounding disinterested. "In there, now."
"My God! You've killed them!"
"They're not dead. Not yet, anyway." That was the voice of one of the men who had dragged him, Clark thought. "Sit down, Vlad. You got some time to kill."
"My name," the man addressed as Vlad said, "Is not Vlad!"
"Close enough," someone else said. "Let's go." That was evidently addressed to his companions. There was a general shuffle of feet, and then the soft click as the door slid shut. Clark opened his eyes.
Aloysius Filner, dressed once more in his vampire costume, stood staring at him. They were in the room where Lois had been imprisoned only a few days ago. And this time, Superman was imprisoned with them.
Great, Clark thought grimly. Just great.
**********
And now, Part 25:
Lois Lane opened her eyes. She was lying on a sofa that she had hoped not ever to see again, with a sofa cushion supporting her head, which was throbbing painfully. The sound of voices nearby made little sparks of light seem to dance across her vision with every beat of her heart. She groaned faintly.
"Lois?" Clark was suddenly kneeling beside her. "How do you feel?"
She moaned a little louder. "Keep your voice down," she whispered.
"Oh." Clark's voice was suddenly a whisper. "Bad, huh?"
She raised a hand to cover her eyes from the incredibly bright light that seemed to be blazing in her face. "Can you turn off the floodlights?"
The light went off, leaving the room pitch black. An instant later, a light came on somewhere to her left, but since the back of the sofa was between her and it, it was bearable. Just.
"Lie still," Clark's voice said softly. "You'll feel better in a while."
"I'm really sorry, Ms. Lane," another voice said from out of the dimness, sending small pulses of pain through her temples once more. "I really didn't think anyone would get hurt."
"Be quiet," Clark's voice said softly. "You heard her."
"Haven't you ever had a hangover?" Lois half-snarled. "Shut up!"
Silence fell. Clark didn't speak again, nor did the other, unidentified person. Very gradually, the throbbing in her head receded to bearable levels, and she began to recall what had happened just prior to waking up here. They were in the Cost Mart prison where she had spent a very uncomfortable afternoon and evening a few days ago, followed by other equally disturbing events. It looked like the luck for the Hottest Team in Town was holding true.
She began to push herself cautiously to a sitting position, and at once Clark's hands were there, helping her. She leaned forward, burying her face in her palms.
"Are you all right?" Clark asked.
"No," she muttered. "And keep your voice down."
"Oh. sorry."
Gradually, the slight nausea engendered by her change in position subsided somewhat, and she was able to raise her head. Clark had seated himself beside her, and in a chair across the room, the man who had burst into her apartment in an attempt to scare her away from her investigation -- or something, she figured -- sat watching her apprehensively.
She looked steadily back at him and watched him begin to squirm uneasily.
She rubbed her temples gingerly. "I hope," she said at last, "that you've learned something about making deals with criminal syndicates. They don't keep their end of the agreement very often. It's inconvenient."
The "vampire" looked at the toes of his shoes. "So Mr. Kent explained," he said in a low voice. "I'm sorry. I didn't think anyone would be hurt. It was just an acting job, and I needed the money."
"And just where did you think all the bodies were coming from?" she demanded acerbically. Again she rubbed her temples. Her stomach seemed to be fairly steady, which was remarkable. The last time she'd been hit with chloroform, she'd been sick for quite a while after waking up. But it probably hadn't been chloroform. She didn't remember the telltale odor.
The man shifted uncomfortably. "I really didn't connect them with ... with what I'd been hired to do," he said. "No doubt it was very naive of me, but --"
"That's one way to describe it," Lois said shortly. "Why didn't ... what do we call you, anyway? I can't go on thinking of you as the 'fake vampire.' Do you have a name?"
"He said to call him Al," Clark interjected quietly. "It's been about forty-five minutes since they caught us. After I made sure you were breathing, he and I had time to talk a little."
"All right," Lois said. "And do you have any idea what's going on?" she asked, fixing Al with her most intimidating stare.
The man shook his head. "Not really. Mr. Church wasn't very specific. He told me what I had to do and I did it. It seemed rather strange, but I was just doing my job."
"Right," Lois said. She looked at Clark. "I searched this room from one end to the other, the last time I was trapped in here," she said. "I couldn't find a way out. If it hadn't been for our mysterious friend, I'd probably been killed that night, and that's what will happen to us soon, if we don't find a way out of this mess. Do you have any ideas? I don't think we can count on him rescuing us a second time."
Clark shook his head. "I'm not going to let that happen," he said flatly.
The note of finality startled Lois. Clark had a grim expression about his full-lipped mouth that gave her a faintly uneasy feeling. Her partner looked almost as if he had resigned himself to making some kind of final decision.
Well, if he had any ideas of sacrificing himself for her, he was way off the mark. She had no intention of letting him do any such thing.
"Have you looked at the door?" she asked. "Can you find a lock anywhere?"
"I think the only way to open this is from the other side," Clark said.
"Well, maybe there's something we can figure out," Lois said. "We usually work better together than we do alone. If we had some tools, maybe we could figure a way to undo that door."
"What do you mean?"
"Clark," she said, with determined patience, "I knew there was a chance I could get trapped in here another time when we came over here. I'd already had one try at it, hadn't I? This time I made a few preparations."
"Preparations?" His eyebrows flew up. "They cleaned out your purse before they threw us in here, you know." He nodded at her shoulder bag, lying discarded on the carpet.
"Do you think I'd be so stupid as to bring anything important in here in my *purse?*" she said incredulously. "Clark, how dumb do you think I am?"
"Not a bit," Clark said, the faintest of smiles on his lips. "You're one of the smartest women I know. In fact, the only other woman I know who's as smart as you is my mom. So what did you do?"
Lois bent to remove her shoe. "Didn't you notice my joggers have kind of thick soles? I got these from Louie last year. They're specially made."
"Who's Louie?" Al asked, sounding bewildered.
"He's a guy who knows guys," Clark told him, absently. His attention was focused on Lois. "I take it Louie included some useful stuff?"
"Exactly," Lois said. She hooked her fingers in the back of her shoe's heel and pulled.
The apparently rubber heel clicked downward and several very small items fell out onto the pillows of the couch. Lois shut the heel again, shoved the shoe onto her foot and removed the other one. Quickly, she repeated the motion, and displayed her treasure trove.
"Lock pick," she said, exhibiting the tiny, well-folded item. "Micro-miniature, diamond-tipped drill for cutting through metal, and battery. Some assembly required. Mini-scalpel. Miniature wire cutters. Of course, they only cut small wires. Forceps. Ear plug, micro-mini-button microphone. Light. Can you do anything with this, or should I?"
"No explosives?" Clark said, sounding disappointed.
"No. There was a limit to what would fit in my heels," she said. "Don't be silly."
Al's jaw was practically sitting on the floor. Good, Lois thought. Maybe the demonstration would give him an inkling in his tiny little brain exactly who he was dealing with. With fingers that still shook slightly, she began to snap together her litany of tools.
**********
Clark watched his beautiful partner assembling her weapons with grim determination and felt his hope growing. Lois had come through again, as she always did when Superman needed help desperately. He had resigned himself to the probability of having to reveal his identity to get them out of this mess. If Lois had been the only one in the room, it wouldn't have been so bad. He'd been thinking hard for some time about the possibility of telling her the truth about his relationship with Superman. He hadn't worked up the nerve yet, but he knew that eventually he was going to have to do so. If they had been alone, she would probably already know, or if not, would within a few minutes, but with Al sitting chaperone beside them, he had been putting off the event in the faint hope that something would occur to make it unnecessary. It looked as if Lois had supplied the event. Even if the tools proved inadequate to the job, they would provide the cover for him to use his special gifts to open that door and credit the tools, but it was quite possible that Lois would succeed all by herself. She deserved to. He certainly should have known that Lois Lane wouldn't be caught in the same trap twice without some kind of backup plan.
Lois looked up at last. "Okay. That's the best I can do," she said. "As I remember, the door is over there."
Clark walked over to the door and put his finger on the spot that marked where the latch was on the other side. "I think the lock is about here."
Lois inserted the button receiver in one ear and moved carefully over to the door. "I wish my head felt a little better."
"If you like, I'll do it," Clark offered.
"Give me a minute," Lois said. "If it gets too bad, you can take over." She took the miniature drill between her fingers and flipped the tiny switch.
The mechanism responded with a soft hum. Lois applied the point to the wall and the hum turned into a high whine that made Clark wince, but a peek with his X-ray vision showed him that she was drilling right into the mechanism. Whether it would be enough he couldn't be sure, but Superman's heat vision could finish anything the drill couldn't.
There was a tiny clinking sound. The drill bit had encountered the actual tumblers. Lois withdrew it for a moment to check the tip. It seemed undamaged.
Clark knelt beside her, shining the tiny flashlight into the pinpoint hole. The little flashlight was barely half the diameter of a cigarette, and he wondered absently where she had gotten the batteries. "I think you hit the tumbler. Try moving it a little to the right. Let's see if you can cut a few holes in the shaft that's holding the door closed. If you can weaken it, maybe I can break it open."
Lois nodded and re-inserted the drill. For several seconds, she felt around with the tip and then switched it on once more. Following the progress with his X-ray vision, Clark could see that she was cutting a tiny hole directly through the metal bar that inserted into the door frame. He hoped the battery would hold out long enough, but even if it didn't, he at least had an excuse for the latch to break when he hit it with his shoulder. And there was nothing to say that he couldn't use the hole for a path for his heat vision to improve the job.
For long minutes, there was no sound in the room but the whine of the drill and the breathing of three people. Lois cut the power, felt around again, and turned it back on. After a moment, she repeated the procedure. Clark tuned out his super hearing and tried to ignore the sound. It wasn't the most comfortable feeling to have that high buzzing in his ears, but he figured he could manage it as the price of their freedom and his secret identity. He wondered how Lois stood it with the little receiver in her ear.
"What are we going to do about the surveillance camera?" Lois asked, not pausing in her work. "And why do you suppose they didn't spot me when our mystery friend rescued me the first time?"
"My guess is the camera is close to the exit," Clark said. "We can hope so, anyhow. As for the other -- who knows? Maybe he was the one watching it. Or maybe he turned it off or something."
"He was wearing a Cost Mart uniform," Lois said. "I guess he might have been able to do something like that."
"Or maybe the camera wasn't on or something, and he knew it," Clark said. "He seems to know a lot of things he isn't expected to know."
"I noticed that," Lois said. Again she withdrew the tiny drill and re-inserted it. "I think I've got about four holes through the latch," she added. "Do you want to try your brute strength thing now?"
"Sure," Clark said.
Lois pulled the drill back again, got to her feet and stepped aside.
Clark had been checking with his X-ray vision and his enhanced hearing, but there were no sounds in the vicinity. Bracing himself, he rammed his shoulder against the door with considerably less force than he was actually capable of, but that, of course, didn't matter. There was a slight screech of metal and the door popped smartly open.
Lois stood looking at him with her eyebrows slightly raised. "Wow," she said.
"You did a good job with that drill," Clark said. "Let's get out of here."
Lois hastily dumped her implements into her otherwise empty handbag and glanced quickly at Al. "Better move, pal. Unless you want Bill Church to finish the job."
Al got hurriedly to his feet. "I'm coming, but what are you going to do?"
"We're going to make tracks as fast as we can," Clark said. He glanced at his partner. "Do you want to try to get out the tunnel again, or do you think we should try the elevator?"
"Good question. Do you think they'd be watching? They think we're locked up, so they may not expect trouble. Besides, they might be guarding the elevators."
"Let's head back toward the exit to the tunnel, but watch and see if you can spot the camera. And we move fast," Clark said determinedly. "We know where they caught us. If we're quick enough --"
"You lead," Lois said. "I'm rear guard."
Clark nodded and took the lead, scanning the area ahead of them with his enhanced vision. Each time before turning a corner, he paused to carefully check for the security camera that had betrayed them the last time. Al stumbled noisily along behind him until Lois whacked the man on the shoulder with one hand.
"Look, idiot," she said, her voice no less intense because it was kept to a whisper, "if you can't make less racket, maybe you'd like to duck into one of these rooms and hide until we come back with the cops! We're trying to be quiet!"
Clark felt slightly sorry for the man, but Lois had a point. The last thing they needed was to get caught again simply because Al blundered along like a small herd of cattle. He paused at the corner that led into the final hallway, and started to peek around it.
A short, compact, dark-featured figure, wearing the green t-shirt and jeans that was the Cost Mart employee uniform was standing only a few feet away. With a start, Clark recognized Lois's rescuer.
The slim, muscular man held a finger to his lips and beckoned. Clark hesitated only a second and obeyed the silent command.
Behind him, Al gasped audibly, and he heard Lois whack the hapless actor again. "Sh!"
The dark man's teeth flashed in that brilliant, white grin, and he turned, beckoning again. They followed him down the short corridor, toward the doors that led to the storeroom, and beyond it the exit into the tunnel. He opened the door and waved them through, all in utter silence, and Clark pushed first Lois and then Al through the opening. He followed, aware that the dark man was silently closing the door behind them. For a few seconds they stood in complete darkness, and then a low light came on overhead.
"Your Inspector Henderson has laid his trap well," the low accented voice said quietly. "He is, however, most annoyed with you. Perhaps it would be well if you stayed in the outer corridor until events resolve themselves outside."
"How come they didn't see you on camera?" Lois demanded.
"I believe you would call it a trade secret, Ms. Lane." The dark eyes of their strange friend held a faint twinkle of amusement. He extended a hand, and Clark saw her miniature camera lying in his palm. Lois almost snatched it up. "Take your photographs for your story quickly, and then go," their rescuer said. "It is possible that Mr. Church or his minions will seek to escape the hands of the law by this route when they realize that their scheme has been revealed to others." He shifted his attention to Al, who had wrapped his vampire cloak around himself in an almost defensive pose.
"So this is the fool they chose to tell their lie. You are more fortunate, my friend, than you deserve. Do not fail to learn from this."
"What are you talking about?" Al demanded.
The dark man's face grew remote. "Fools who fail to learn from experience do not remain fools long," he said. Clark felt a chill tingle across the back of his neck, although it was said in a perfectly expressionless tone.
"You've been right in the middle of this since almost the beginning," he said suddenly. "What happened to Henderson's men?"
The dark man regarded him soberly. "They were victims of this evil enterprise called Intergang. They saw too much, and those who hired them knew that they saw."
"How about the first body in the park?" Lois asked suddenly. "The homeless guy?"
The dark man was silent for a long minute. "That was the beginning," he said. "His death was accidental and unfortunate. The result of too long a time in darkness. The leaders of Intergang saw it and used it for their own purposes."
Clark didn't comment, but a shiver tried to lift the hair on his scalp. The dark man regarded him soberly. "Time is short," he said. "Do what you came to do and depart quickly."
From her expression, Lois hadn't missed the significance of what he had said, Clark thought, but she turned away, lifting her camera. A number of the boxes stored in this place had been opened, and their contents lay exposed to the overhead light. Lois began taking pictures.
Clark listened. There was no noise in the outer corridor, but there was noise some distance above their heads, and coming closer with surprising speed. The dark man was watching him silently.
"Do not take too long to decide," he said suddenly. "One can lose a great deal with an excess of caution."
Somehow Clark didn't think he was talking about Intergang. "I take it you speak from experience?" he asked.
"I knew such a one as she, long ago," the dark man said. "They were much alike both in beauty and in spirit. I wished to protect her, but in the end I paid dearly." He turned his head. "You must go, now."
Clark could hear the rush of approaching footsteps, but he hesitated. "Someone tried to kidnap her last night," he said. "And someone who wasn't Superman saved her."
The other man looked away. "We all have our secrets," he said. "Go. Hurry." Without another pause, he crossed the dim room to the exit and opened it without ceremony. "You must go now!"
Clark grasped Lois by one wrist and Al by the upper arm. "Come on, quick." He hustled them out the door into the stone corridor beyond. Behind him, in the room, he heard the opening of the door to the hall. The dark man stepped silently through the opening behind them and closed the door with the same eerie silence.
"Come," his voice said quietly. A penlight in his hand cast its pale beam on the stone floor. "There is not much time."
**********
tbc
