Part 8
“Mike Smithers, Harold Topac, Larry Rankin, Joe Kelly and Tom Williams…” Lois mused, looking through the papers Clark had handed back to her. Okay, so they’ve all be in and out of jail. My guess is Lex contacted one of them to buy the kryptonite.”
“Or, one of them found out about it. Maybe Bureau 39 had a piece of it and he found out he could steal it and make some money if Luther was interested in buying it. So then he had his other buddies come along to try to back him up on the double cross to walk away with the money and the kryptonite.” Clark mused, rubbing his chin absently and looking up at the ceiling.
“So we need to figure out which one was the leader,” Lois said.
“Oh, that was easy Lois, the one with the kryptonite chips beside his body.”
“Oh, right,” she smiled sheepishly. So he’s the one we have to investigate if we’re going to find out where he got it. That was Mike Smithers right? No, he was the guy with the mask. He’s one of Luther’s people. Topac was the one with kryptonite beside him. His prints were on the brief case. Okay what do we know about that so far?”
“He’s got a brother that works for the FBI.”
“Bingo. He got information on Bureau 39 and found out what they had and where to get it.”
“Okay, and then this Mike Smithers, who is he?”
“He works for Simon, Inc. It’s a company that does various jobs under contract. It’s owned by Luther Industries. He was probably chosen for his body size and stature to pose as Luther. He has a family…three kids and a wife in Metropolis.”
“Poor guy. He was just set up as the guy to take the bullets. I wonder if his family got the money for the job first.”
“From Luther? I doubt it.”
“Then Rankin, Kelly and Williams. They’re all unemployed ex-cons. They’ve all got pretty shady pasts. They were probably just hired as backup gunmen.”
“It beats me why none of them wore bullet proof vests. You know, if you know you’re going to be getting shot at, the least you can do is try to protect yourself.”
Lois patted him on the chest, “It’s okay, Clark, not everyone is as worried about safety as you are!”
He raised his eyebrows at her. “See where it got them!” She sensed a hint of undercurrent.
“I got it, but I can take care of myself.” She responded to his insinuation, remembering what Superman had told her when he’d given her the whistle.
She hated having to admit that she’d needed help from both Superman and Clark at times. She eyed him momentarily. He didn’t look quite like she’d expected him to look after she had let him down easy when he’d told her he loved her. She sat down at her desk again and sipped her coffee, thinking things over. She’d not told him she’d become engaged to Superman. Had superman mentioned anything about that? She couldn’t recall. She looked down at the ring on her finger, knowing that Clark must figure she’d accepted Lex’s engagement, but wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. She appreciated him not saying anything.
Somehow, though, he didn’t seem as angry or jealous as she’d thought he would be. In fact, if anything he looked a lot more content than she’d seen him in a long time, even if he did seem a bit distant around her. But it hadn’t been like him at all to run off just when he was asking her why she was crying. He’d always been so quick to comfort her before. She liked him a lot. He was such a decent guy. How many people had two decent men in their lives anyway? It was so wonderful, everything she’d ever dreamed of to get to know Superman better. How much there was to learn about him. It was taking an awful lot of self control not to ask Jimmy to run some searches for her. Superman would tell her when he was ready. How it seemed to tear him up to have to open this ‘Pandora’s box’ as he’d called it. Who was this other identity of his? Had she met him before? Did he work at a job where she would have ever come in contact with him? She had a feeling she was missing something. Remembering her promise to wait for him to tell her, she tried to put it out of her mind, remembering his fear of telling her.
It was good that he’d at least told her some of his secret. At least it was giving her time to process things. She’d always needed time to let things mull around in her mind before she could really see them clearly.
She looked at Clark sharply. He’d grown up with Clark! For goodness sake! Clark must know him like a brother.
Her phone rang, distracting her from her thoughts. As she hung up the phone, Perry was yelling, “Turn that up!”
The LNN announcer was standing in front of another burning building. The explosion resembled the one that had occurred the other night. Superman was there doing the same type of rescue, flying bodies out of the building faster than the camera could catch. The number of bodies on the road began to mount as she watched, stunned. She felt Perry’s hand on her shoulder. The ambulances were arriving on the scene.
Lois looked around for Clark. He’d been right there, now where was he?
Lois went back to her desk to search for more background, but Perry stopped her. “Lois, this looks just like the last building that exploded, do you think you can make time to go cover this now and work on that later?”
“Sure, Chief,” she said, pushing her keyboard in and backing her chair up.
It was much different to watch Superman work in the daylight than it had been that night a few days ago. “Any idea what caused this?” she asked the fire marshal.
“Natural gas leak.” He turned back to the firemen who were working furiously to quench the fires that kept breaking out and to erect ladders to reach the victims.
Lois felt the heat abate, and looked up to see Superman hovering above, blowing the fire out. Then he was sucking the smoke out of the building and spewing it into the atmosphere before a blur indicated he’d returned into the building.
The number of ambulances was mounting as were the number of rescuers on the scene. Medics were kneeling beside victims, calling to others as they preformed the sorting of triage to help those who will die without their help first. A helicopter landed a block down the street in the center of the blockaded intersection, in the midst of the city buildings. Stretchers were raced to the awaiting aircraft. Lois took notes. Jimmy took pictures.
Before heading back to the newsroom to write it up, Lois drove over to the site of Friday’s explosion. Men were working at the site. She asked some questions and got some answers. It too had been caused by a gas leak. She pulled out her cell phone and called the gas company. The buildings had both been inspected within the last few days before the explosions had occurred. The man in maintenance on the other end of the line gave her the names of those who had been responsible for the inspections.
She asked about further sites they were to personally inspect and was given a list. She shoved her phone back into her shoulder bag and headed back to her car. The air was becoming cloudy again with the smoke from this new fire. She was glad to return to the newsroom, away from the horror of it all, the glaring daylight that didn’t hide anything from view.
She looked over to Clark’s desk, but he was out, still. She sighed. He was so unreliable. Her emotions were on the edge. She opened her email program and started a new message.
To Clarkkent@dailyplanet.com
From Loislane@dailyplanet.com
Dear Clark,
Sometimes I just don’t get it. You were here a minute ago and now, once again you’re gone. You’re supposed to be my partner. What is it with you? Why don’t you at least let me know where you’re going to be when you disappear? You’re lucky Perry doesn’t fire you. Sometimes I don’t know why you even think you work here!
I'm really getting sick of all the stupid excuses, too. Perry’s thinking of sending you on a time management seminar. He says, and I agree, that you’ve forgotten more things in the year we’ve known you than he has in his whole life. Ditto from me.
I'm really getting sick of this, Partner. I’m trying to work on this story, the one with the look alike and I got interrupted now with investigating these two explosions. I found out that they were both caused by gas leaks. I’ve got a hunch the people doing the maintenance have something to do with it. I want to go check it out, but I needed to talk to you first.
This is all getting pretty overwhelming for me. First Lex proposes, then you nearly do, then Lex gets arrested, we’ve got these two huge stories and now you’ve disappeared again!
Lois.
Your partner, remember?”
Tears began to pool in her eyes again as the enormity of what was on her plate faced her. Sighing loudly, she pressed send and headed over to fill her mug and then to get a sandwich from the vending machines downstairs. It probably wouldn’t be so much to handle if her involvement with Lex hadn’t been on her mind. She just couldn’t believe he’d been ready to kill Superman. How could she have been ready to marry a man who was ready to murder the most wonderful man in the world. And where was Clark anyway? And she had to do something about him thinking that she was still wearing Lex Luther’s engagement ring. She fingered the ring as she headed angrily over to the vending machines. Why did everything have to be so complicated. Lois Lane, the woman who chose men badly. Her biggest fear. She’d even admitted it to Superman. Men. They’re always running out on you, always deceiving you in some way. None of them are ever any good. Just like her father. Just like Claude and Paul and Lex. Her money dropped noisily into the machine as she viciously pushed the button.
Ham and cheese on rye.
She picked it up and turned on her heel to head back to the elevators. She came up face to face with Ralph. A sneer of a smile spread across his face.
“Nice ring you’ve got there! Word is you’re engaged to Lex Luther, soon to be a prison wife?” She lost all semblances of control and in three swift moves, he was lying groaning on the floor, holding his groin. She stalked over to pick up her sandwich and headed into the elevator.
“Men.” She snarled, tossing her hair as she swung around in the elevator to face the door. She pulled the diamond ring off her finger and stormed over to her desk. Jerking her chair out, she pulled the top drawer open and flung it in, then slammed it closed. She fell into her seat, leaning forward. Her head came down onto her arms and she sobbed.
The noises of the newsroom intensified as she finally pulled her head up from her desk and headed to the ladies’ room to wash her face.
Ralph came out of the elevator as she walked past. “I could charge you for that!” he sneered.
“Yeah? Well just try it. I’ve had enough of your harassment. If I were you, I’d put my tail between my legs and run.” She stormed past him.
“What was that all about?” Jimmy said, looking up from the photos he was examining.
“Mad dog Lane’s got a bee up her *** if you ask me!”
Jimmy’s eyebrows went up. Eventually Lois came back to her desk and sat down, unwrapping her sandwich and opening a can of pop. Jimmy came over to her desk.
“Hey Lois,” he sat in the extra chair beside her and opened a sandwich of his own, putting his can of Pepsi on the edge of her desk, then pulling a file folder out from under his arm.. “I got some awesome shots at the fire! I got some of superman being just a blur. I think they’re great.
“Nice, Jimmy,” she said, trying to get a handle on her temper, not that she cared whose head she bit off.
Superman worked tirelessly until the bodies and survivors had been removed. He left after talking to the fire marshal and taking a look around at the cause of the explosion. There wasn’t much to see, but the fire inspectors seemed to be able to make a lot out of what little was there.
“If you can take it from here,” he said, “I'm going to be leaving.” He glanced again at the row of bodies the coroner was looking over and shot up into the air.
He straightened his tie as he stepped out of the staircase, glancing around the newsroom. Perry was in his office on the phone. Jimmy was sitting beside Lois’ desk having lunch with her. The general hustle and bustle included people from research bringing files over to reporters, a few people were on the stairs up to the stacks, LNN was acclaiming the latest feats of Superman over the fire. Clark blocked it out as they enumerated the number of dead and injured. The building had been mostly empty, compared to the one the other night. Most people had been at work or school. The victims had been mostly preschoolers and mothers as well as retired or disabled people.
He didn’t feel as angry as he had earlier about the injustice of it all. It had to have been a planned explosion, the similarities to the one the other night were just too numerous, all except the timing. Who would want to blow up a building of innocent people? He’d been trying to figure that out for the past hour as he had worked.
What kind of a pattern was this about anyway?
Swimming in the cold arctic had done him a lot of good. He did feel much more ready to face being Clark Kent again.
He ignored Lois and Jimmy, just wanting to write up the explosion while it was fresh in his mind. Even though he had a photographic memory, things did seem to flow better when he wrote them down right away.
Just as he was sending it to Perry, the new mail icon popped up and he clicked on it, opening up a message from Lois. He sat back in his seat and read it, slowly exhaling. He sighed then turned to look over at her desk. She wasn’t there any longer. He could hear her in Perry’s office, discussing the gas leaks and the information she’d gotten on it. He felt bad that he’d left her to investigating this on her own when she was still so upset about Luther’s death and her whole involvement with him. He watched her body language as she stood before Perry’s desk, ranting. He wouldn’t allow himself to eavesdrop. He just wanted to scoop her up and fly away with her and explain it all. There hadn’t been much he could do. He hadn’t felt he’d had time to even speak to anyone before he’d left. The explosions were still occurring when he’d arrived. He knew that each second’s delay meant death and tragedy for someone and their loved ones. He was grateful that he’d been able to help, but it didn’t seem enough. It never did. He knew people who didn’t listen to the news or read newspapers. They couldn’t stand knowing what was going on when the news was so bad.
He sighed. He couldn’t do that. But sometimes he wished he didn’t have to be carrying people whose pain went through him like knives. Maybe he should have taken over the family farm from his parents like they’d wanted him to.
“So there you are! What’s your excuse this time?”
Clark fiddled with the pen in his hands. “I'm sorry I abandoned you, Lois. I went to cover that fire.”
“Oh yeah? Well I didn’t see you when I was there! You know, Clark, sometimes you’re just totally unreliable. I’ve had about all I can take of this.” She looked past him at the document on his monitor and pursed her lips as she read what he’d written. “So you were there.” She acknowledged. “Did you already send it in to Perry? Before even checking to see what I’d written about it?”
He sighed again. “Look Lois, maybe…” he stopped himself, looking into her glowering eyes. He walked past her to get a cup of coffee, taking great care to slowly open three packs of sugar and slowly stirring it with a stir stick. He looked back at her, wondering if it was going to be safe to talk to her at all today, at least as Clark.
She slammed her keyboard back under the desk and stood up. “I’m going to talk to the maintenance engineers, are you coming or are you…”
He grabbed his notepad and headed off after her into the elevator. “I'm sorry, Lois. I wasn’t thinking.” She glared at him. Groveling in apologies wasn’t going to help. No, this was one of those times that she needed to be left alone to fume long enough until there wasn’t much left. “Look, do you really need me to come along? Would it be better if I just concentrated on solving some more of the details of this kryptonite massacre? I don’t really want to sit in the car with you when you’re in this kind of a mood. I’d rather wait until you calm down and tell me what’s really bothering you.”
“Oh you would, would you?” she swung her head away from him, punching the lobby button. Her hair fell back into place as she stood facing the doors.
This is what he was going to face when he told her his secret, only she would be even more justified in her anger. He got out when the elevator opened, “goodbye Lois. I’ll leave you a message if I have to go anywhere. I'm going back up to the newsroom to do some more legwork on the kryptonite case. If you need me, you know my number.” With that, he turned and opened the door to the stairwell, leaving her standing with her mouth open.
He entered the newsroom again and heard Ralph proclaiming loudly to one of his colleagues, “She’s a real bitch, I tell you. Well, she’s not getting away with it this time!” He went back to his desk, then got up to go see Perry about the article he’d just sent him.
There had been a bit of overlap with Lois’ story, but Perry planned to edit that part out and run both of them in the afternoon edition. “I wondered where you’d gone. I may not like the way you do it, but you certainly cover the news.” He paused and went over to shut the door. “You know, son, Lois is mighty angry with you right now. I think you’d better try not to ripple the water so much for awhile. She’s ripping mad.”
Clark nodded, “I know Chief.”
“Ralph is threatening legal action. I guess she lambasted him at the vending machines.”
A whistle escaped Clark’s lips. He felt he should tell Perry about Lois’ upsetting discovery with Lex, but knew he had to keep what she’d told him to himself.
