from Chapter 26:
“You can’t stay? Oh, too bad, Clark,” Sam said, in a sincere tone of voice. “We have to fly back to California tomorrow. Except for Chloe, that is. Did I tell you that she’s a journalist major and she’s transferring to Met U?”
“Yes, she told me the first time I spoke to her. She’s looking to intern at the Daily Planet.”
“She thinks that Lois is the goddess of investigative reporting, Clark. I hope she’s pleasant to her. She’s family now.”
“I’ll work on her. Where are they?” Clark turned around and was pleased to see Lois chatting happily with Chloe. He turned off his super-hearing as not to eavesdrop on their conversation, as Lois was entitled to some privacy.
“Chloe – when I first heard about you, I did a search on the internet and found out that you had some very interesting research on people exposed to meteorites in some small coastal town in Northern California,” Lois began.
“Yes, Little Ville. My “wall of weird happenings” actually received some attention in the press. It helped me get into UCLA with a major in journalism,” she said, beaming.
“You’re looking for an internship at the Planet, right?” Lois said. “You’re here for the summer and starting at Met U in the fall?”
“Yes and yes,” Chloe said, starting to get excited.
“Have you heard of Luthor Corp? Lex Luthor?”
“The mysterious philanthropist who’s been married about 8 times and makes sure he gets an iron-clad pre-nup agreement each time? Sure!”
<Wow, she *is* like me!> Lois thought. “Yes. Seems he’s been doing a little meteor research too. Using Kryptonite – the one thing that can kill Clark. Do you have any samples of the meteorites that were causing strange behavior in Little Ville?”
“Well, yeah – back in California. Obviously, I didn’t bring it with me to Metropolis.”
“Did anyone analyze it? To see if it’s the same composition as Kryptonite, that is?” Lois asked.
“Well, the geology department at UC @ Davis was the closest campus to Little Ville, so the rocks were sent there. I have no idea what the results of their research were. Are you thinking that some of the remnants of Krypton landed there as well?”
“Yeah - I am,” Lois said. “And someone like you - that no one knows is related to me – at least not yet – could be very handy for research. How good are you with computers? Is hacking one of your talents? I’m a little rusty myself, so you could really come in handy if you’re good.”
“I’m good, Lois – I’m *really* good. Tell me what you need, and I’ll get it for you.”
“Chloe – tell you what. You help me out here, and keep it on the down-low from Clark, and I can guaranty you a spot on the Daily Planet when you graduate. After all, my boss –and brother in law - is the owner,” Lois said gleefully.
“I would imagine it’s pretty tough to keep stuff from Clark, Lois. He can probably hear us talking right now, can’t he?”
“Well, he knows I’m a bit paranoid about him using his powers to eavesdrop so I’d be surprised if he’s listening. I already gave him Hell because he listened in on a phone conversation the other day,” Lois explained. “Let’s take a little walk together while he’s involved in a conversation with James and my father to preoccupy him. I’m going to go ahead and trust you – a bit leap of faith for me – don’t let me down, okay?”
“I won’t – I promise, Lois,” Chloe said sincerely.
And now, finally, Chapter 27
“Well, I have to say, my two little girls did all right with their choice of husbands,” Sam Lane remarked, accompanied by a wide grin.
Clark’s face turned crimson as he stuttered out, “Uh, Mr. Lane, not that I don’t love your daughter, because I do, but we’re not even engaged…”
“Not yet, but I can tell by the way you two look at each other that marriage isn’t far off,” Sam retorted. “Right, Clark?” he said, winking.
Clark smiled uncomfortably and nodded in response.
“Clark, I need to talk to you about – Daily Planet business – for a moment. Dad, will you excuse us?” James asked, trying to give Clark a much-needed break.
“Absolutely. I’m going to freshen this one up,” Sam replied, nodding at the empty martini in his right hand.
Walking away from the father of the women both men loved dearly, Clark smiled at James. “Thanks, I needed that. Nothing like being put on the spot. And to think he didn’t even try to find his daughter,” Clark spat out.
“Hey, buddy, not to change the subject, but what exactly happened when you came to pick up the dog this morning?”
“Yeah, I left you a message about it. Your guys were right on top of it – the minute we landed, they came riding up in their golf carts. They were so worried that you would fire them for letting LabRat leave with us…”
“Clark – that’s just it - I don’t know who those guys were!” James exclaimed. “I have a feeling that if you hadn’t shown up when you did, Luthor Corp was here to reclaim their lab experiment.”
“Then why did they make a big deal about telling you that I took them? They were acting like they were all afraid that you would fire them? And how did they know he was here? I removed the implant. There must be another tracking system on LabRat…uh-oh…”
“Where’s the dog now? Your apartment?” James asked.
Clark was already in the air, speeding over the river, heading back home. Using his enhanced vision, he saw LabRat barking excitedly at the door, with two goons that Clark recognized as the fake security guards in the golf cart, attempting to break in to the apartment. Just as they were opening the door, Clark snagged the two men who were readying to shoot LabRat with some type of tranquilizer gun. Clark flew off towards police headquarters with them.
Down below, at street level, the paparazzi clicked away as they spotted Superman flying away with a man in each arm!
Bill Henderson happened to be in the bullpen when Clark arrived. “Cl-Superman! What do you have here?”
“Breaking and entering my apartment – attempt to sedate and kidnap my dog,” he replied. “Here’s the tranquilizer gun they were going to use.”
“He ain’t your dog – we’re just taking back what belongs to Luthor Corp,” one of the perps muttered. “I want to make a phone call. You’re going to regret this!”
“Then have Luthor Corp’s lawyers prove it,” Clark asserted. “If they really believe that my dog is their property, let them get a search warrant.”
The booking officer on duty proceeded to write up the arrest details while Henderson and Clark reconvened in his office.
“These guys were hired by Luthor Corp? That’s gonna be bad press for them,” Bill observed. “Clark – off the record, did you steal the dog from them?”
“Bill, here’s what happened: the dog wandered onto my farm in Smallville one night when Lois and I were there. He had a computer chip imbedded in his neck, so the next day we took him to a local vet’s office. I stayed in the pickup truck with him while Lois went into the office. The receptionists told Lois that someone had indeed reported a Golden Retriever missing and that we should bring him in to have the device scanned. Listening from the truck, I then read the paperwork he was looking at using my X-ray vision, and it verified that Luthor Corp had been conducting dog food experiments using Kryptonite as fertilizer, which gave him unusual strength and other enhanced canine abilities. I had the scanner removed and he’s been in our custody ever since,” Clark explained. “I’m not giving him back so they can experiment on him again. And I had the chip removed, but apparently there’s another tracking device on him that I must have missed.”
“Do you have any proof of these ‘experiments’? Henderson asked. “You’re walking a fine line here, you know.”
“Lois and I are working on getting that right now,” Clark replied. “And we’ve brought in some big guns for assistance – a certain someone from Gotham City who’s also been investigating Luthor Corp’s shady experiments.”
“”Batman? He’s real then? Clark, then I hate to say it, but for PR’s sake, I would drop your charges against these two goons. You’re going for the moral victory here – and while breaking and entering to retrieve something - even if it’s rightfully yours - is certainly illegal, word getting out that Superman stole someone’s dog is going to hurt you in the press.”
Clark strode out of Bill’s office and got in the face of the two henchmen. “Officer, please have these men call the company that hired them. Maybe we can come to a … temporary understanding.”
Officer Hunt handed the phone to one of them men. “You heard him. Make the call. Now.”
Clark heard the receptionist answer the phone with his enhanced hearing. “Luthor Corp International Headquarters. How may I direct your call?”
“Yeah, I need to speak with St. John. Yeah, it’s an emergency. Tell him it’s Tripp. Yeah, I’ll hold.”
Several minutes later, a male voice came on the line. “Where the hell are you and why are you calling me?”
“We’re at police headquarters. Superman caught us just as we were about to get the dog. He wants to talk to you.”
“You bloody fools! That wasn’t part of the deal. Olsen’s property only – that was your order – what the hell happened?”
“He moved the dog to his home this morning. We want to get paid, so we watched the apartment and when he and the Lane dame took off, we made our move.”
“Against Superman in his own apartment? You idiots! Go ahead, put him on the phone,” St. John grudgingly muttered.
The man named Tripp handed the phone to Clark.
“Who I am speaking with?” Clark asked, although he knew from his eavesdropping that the man’s name was St. John.
“Nigel St. John. I’m an executive Vice-President of Research and Development here at Luthor Corp,” the man said with a crisp British accent.
“I’m willing to drop the charges based on the extenuating circumstances but I want to meet with you and Luthor – now,” Clark commanded.
“Those idiots were not acting under Luthor Corp’s orders,” St. John revealed. "We have a missing research dog and it had apparently wandered onto James Olsen’s property. Their mission was solely to retrieve the dog and bring it back to the research facility, not to break into your apartment. Luthor Corp will not back them up with either financial or legal assistance in this matter. Do what you have to do.” The line went dead.
Clark handed the phone back to Officer Hunt. “Sorry guys, looks like you’re out of luck. Go ahead and book them.”
“With pleasure,” Hunt replied.
~~~~~
Nigel St. John swore under his breath, then picked up his cell phone to make another phone call. “Yeah, it went down just like it was supposed to. Good work. Lex will be pleased. I’ll be in touch.”
~~~~~
Clark flew back to the apartment to find LabRat still agitated and panting. “Ok boy, it’s ok now,” he told him, filling his bowl with fresh cold water. “Now, where is that tracking device?” Clark scanned the dog with his X-ray vision gently. Noting a slight dark spot in one of LabRat’s teeth, he opened his mouth and scanned it again. “Sonavagun! There it is,” Clark exclaimed, as he found a GPS tracker implanted in an upper molar – similar to the material used when a dentist fills a cavity. Gently using his heat vision to loosen it from the tooth, the rice-sized GPS emitter dropped silently into Clark’s hand. “Hmm, boy, maybe I should have this implanted on your mother, huh?” he joked. “She really needs someone to keep an eye on her, the way she gets into trouble.” Thinking better of it, he used his heat vision to melt it, then flushed it down the toilet.
“What a good boy you are, letting me do that to you,” Clark said, petting his golden pooch’s head enthusiastically. “Wait until your mother hears about this. C’mon, no time like the present.” Holding the dog against his chest, he flew out the window, back towards Olsen’s property.
The paparazzi got another shot at Superman flying out of his window but they couldn’t quite make out who his passenger was this time!
~~~~~
Clark and LabRat arrived at James Olsen’s compound just as Lois and Chloe had noticed that he had disappeared. “So Chloe, you really think you can pull this off? You’re *that* good?” Lois asked, watching with one eye the two men in her life that she loved the most – Clark and LabRat.
“I’ve got it Lois – not to worry. This will be *fun*. Go find out what happened – I’ll get to work on this right away,” Chloe promised.
“Thanks. I always wanted to have a younger sister,” Lois disclosed, walking towards Clark and a bounding LabRat. “Hey sweetie,” she said to the dog, who was licking all of her makeup off!
“A minute later and those fake security guards from this morning would have had him,” Clark admitted. “They were Luthor Corp goons all right, but since their orders were only to retrieve him from James’ property, not for breaking and entering, they’re going to be cooling their heels in a jail cell for a bit.”
“Those guys in the golf cart didn’t work for James? Uh-oh. Why were they so adamant that we tell James that we took the dog? Something doesn’t add up here,” Lois observed.
“Yeah, I said the same thing to James. There’s a missing link here in the puzzle. I say we cut this party short and get working on it. Unless you’re having such a great time you can’t leave.”
“Waitaminute, Clark – how did they find LabRat? Was there another tracking device on him?”
“Yeah – in the form of a tooth filling,” Clark replied. “I can’t believe I missed it the first time – a microscopic GPS tracking device imbedded in one of his upper molars. I was thinking of transferring it to you…..” he smiled.
Lois playfully slapped Clark. “But you don’t have the receiver, so it wouldn’t work, huh?”
“Right,” Clark said, kissing her forehead. “By the way, your father thinks we’re married.”
“Huh? He does?”
“I set him straight, but he seems to see wedding bells in the near future.”
“It’s a little soon to talk that way, isn’t it?” Lois asked tentatively.
“Probably,” Clark agreed, not wanting to scare her off.
**Three days later – Tuesday -The Daily Planet building**
“Daily Planet, Lois Lane speaking. Oh, hi Bruce. Really? No, Clark had an emergency – there was a volcano erupting near Fuji, Japan, and he’s trying to help any way he can… yes, he is…anyway, Chloe has done some wonderful research on the effects of what turned out to be a different strain of Kryptonite in that town in California. Can we meet tonight? I’d like her to join us. 7PM? No, you don’t have to send your limo…well, all right. I’m not sure Clark will be back by then…ok, I’ll tell her. His name is Richard? Oh, Dick for short? Great. See ya.”
“Chloe? Lois here. Yeah, he called. We’re meeting him tonight and his ward, Richard – Dick – will be there too. He’s about your age, I think. No, I don’t know if he’s cute or not. Be in front of the Planet at 7pm. Don’t tell your mother or my Dad. See ya then.”
TBC...sooner rather than later, I promise!
