[CHAPTER 4]
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Knowledge is not a loose-leaf notebook of facts. Above all, it is a responsibility for the integrity of what we are, primarily of what we are as ethical creatures. -- Jacob Bronowski, English historian & mathematician
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Friday A.M.
At 2:00 in the morning, the Planet newsroom was understandably deserted. The overnight skeleton crew was evidenced by the rare desk light shining in the darkness. Lois tossed her sweatshirt onto her desk and slumped into her chair.
Clark arrived seconds later and eyed her visitor’s chair warily. He moved to another desk and borrowed the chair, rolling it near Lois’s desk and sitting down. Lois’s posture was the picture of disappointment, even though her plan to knock on the front door of the chemical company had been successful. Thankfully, they didn’t have to break in after all.
Surprisingly, even though it was close to midnight when they had begged entry, the night manager had been welcoming to their questions and had even given them a mini tour. They had learned everything they needed to know about the practices of Haz and Mat’s Chem Disposal. Unfortunately for their story, Haz and Mat’s was entirely legitimate.
Clark flipped through the 11-page report the company had provided on the handling of Cyphren’s byproducts. “What are the chances of a chemical disposal company being open to visitors at midnight?”
Lois sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly. What had been a long day was only getting longer. “Welcome to Metropolis, Smallville: the city that’s always up.” Opening her eyes she straightened in her chair. “We’re going to have to switch strategies here. Either Cyphren and Haz Mat knew we were coming and put together an extremely good cover… or the cover-up takes place a lot earlier in the process.”
Clark nodded in agreement. “Whatever the case, in a few hours, they’re going to know we are digging,” he surmised, thinking about the benign story line they had fed Bethany. If Cyphren was covering their tracks now, they were going to be a whole lot more careful when they received word from Haz and Mat’s about the midnight visit.
“Well, there’s still the chance that something will come from the samples we got at the runoff area.” Even as she said the words, Lois doubted their veracity. Cyphren’s partnership with Haz and Mat’s gave them the needed illusion of transparency.
That, or there really was no story…
“It’s suspicious that they would go through this much trouble to hide a byproduct,” she commented.
“That’s because they know it’s dangerous,” Clark countered in frustration. “If they are new byproducts, there are no regulations on them. The company doesn’t want the side effects linked back to them so they are doing everything they can to make sure it stays under the radar. All Dr. Kwolek wanted was a little more time to figure out how to make the process safe, but the corporation saw the dollar signs and the speed to market and jumped on it.” As if in emphasis to his statement, he abruptly rose from his chair and began pacing.
Lois followed him with her eyes. Clark Kent was like a tightly wound ball of string. Just as with the frog incident, he was starting to fray at the edges. It was obvious that getting to the bottom of this story was important to him, but there was something else going on. She wondered if it was really about him being the world advocate he appeared to be.
“It’s the whole ‘Buy Now Pay Later Syndrome’ – one of society’s most popular rules. Are you still fighting for their team?”
Clark stopped pacing and locked gazes with her. She could tell by his expression that he was not amused and she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. “Why don’t we go ahead and call it a night? We don’t have anything to write anyway.”
“Sure,” Clark replied, sounding somewhat defeated. “Come on, I’ll take you home.”
~.~
“Kent! What in the blazes are you doing back here so soon?” Perry White demanded as he noticed the young man walking down the ramp into the newsroom. “I thought you two were planning on staying overnight.”
Clark walked to the reception desk and stood beside the editor. “Yes, Mr. White, we were, but Lois decided that we should come back last night. She wanted to look around the Cyphren plant.”
Perry frowned. “Look around?” he asked carefully.
Clark could tell that the older man knew Lois’s tactics. “Sir, I assure you that that’s all we did.”
Perry’s clouded expression turned to surprise as he gave Clark a second look. The fact that Kent had been able to temper his voracious star reporter could mean that he was a good influence. The editor filed the thought away for later analysis. “Well, come on. Let me show you your set up.”
Clark followed as the editor led the way deeper into the pit.
“Now, we had to put it together a little hastily, so it won’t be Graceland or anything, but it’ll keep. We probably could have found you something with more breathing room but I wanted you and Lane to be within yelling distance.”
Perry stopped at the rear corner area that served as Lois’s work space. Her seniority and prestige had earned her a larger space than most of her colleagues and prime real estate near the window. A desk had been placed against the wall perpendicular to hers. The slight distance between the desks was adequate for passage, but Clark didn’t think that many people would have a need to come through that area on a regular basis.
Even with Perry’s apologies for the location, Clark felt that it was perfect. When sitting at his desk, he would have the large window to his left and a wall at his back. He had an issue with closed-in spaces, and this way, he would be able to see the entire newsroom easily. While he didn’t have the partial cubicle walls that Lois used to protect her privacy at her back, he felt that he was sufficiently covered.
Perry continued with his landlord duties, “Are you sure you aren’t going to need a computer?”
Clark moved behind the desk and set his laptop bag on its surface. The docking station he had requested was in place. “No, this is perfect.”
With a shrug, Perry acquiesced to the reporter’s judgment. “If you say so… I’ll have Jimmy come over and give you your login credentials.”
“Thank you.”
Perry frowned. There was something about Clark’s shuttered demeanor that tickled his reporter’s senses. “Where did you say Lois was again?”
“I didn’t say,” Clark replied, “and I don’t know. It was rather early this morning when I took her home.”
“Hmmph.” Perry’s eyes narrowed briefly. “Well, I’ll let you get to it. Send her my way if you see her before I do.”
~.~
Lois breezed around the short wall that bracketed her desk and stopped short when she saw the new decoration of her office space.
Clark glanced up from his laptop to see a mournful look in her eyes as she took in his desk’s location. “I know this is a little intrusive but it’s only temporary…”
Lois waved a hand dismissively in the air as she dropped into her seat. “No, it’s just that I used to have a plant over there. The unappreciative newts probably trashed it.”
Clark thought back to how the space had looked the day before. “Wasn’t that plant dead?”
Lois shrugged. “Probably, but now I’ll have to dump my coffee in the kitchen when it goes stale.” She shook off her grief and swiveled her chair to face her desk. “So, I took the samples in to my dad this morning.”
“Your father is a chemist?”
She reached to boot up her computer. “No, he’s a bio-ortho something or other – some technical term that changes every year – anyway, he knows guys who know guys. I figured that he’ll at least be able to point us in the direction of someone who could help. If anythin, he’ll have a good idea of what effect the toxic chemicals could have on human cells.”
Clark’s forehead creased. “These guys knowing guys…” he started. “Is your father aware that we… are trying to keep all of this close to the vest?”
Lois turned her head and gave him a pointed look.
He raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry, I just thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask.”
Lois smirked and turned back to her computer, moving her mouse around to call up her email program. “So, what are you working on?”
Clark glanced down at his screen and rubbed his jaw. “Uh, nothing really, I was just… surfing. Looking up some information on Cyphren’s corporate tickler,” he replied haltingly. He mentally kicked himself when he looked up and saw Lois eyeing him.
“And?” she prodded.
“…And,” he began, “I found it. But it’s nothing really helpful.”
Lois frowned. “Did you have time to look at the shredded papers?”
“A little,” he replied. “I think I’m close.” He was lying - he hadn’t looked at all - but he didn’t foresee the project taking a lot of time once he got started. He decided to change the subject. “After what we found at Haz and Mat’s last night, I was thinking that there might be a chance of those samples not telling us anything helpful. We might need to start looking at hospitals in the area – check for any health trends occurring during our target timeframe.”
“I like the way you think, Kent,” Lois replied perkily. “…Mostly because you think like me. I have a source at Metropolis Memorial. I figured we could take a field trip to go see her a little later this afternoon.”
~.~
Clark watched as Lois approached an attractive older woman that was standing at the nurses admit station and hugged her.
“Lo-Lo!” the woman exclaimed.
Engulfed in the arms of the woman, Lois rolled her eyes. “Mom,” she groaned.
That caused Clark to come to attention. He was beginning to wonder if all of Lois’s contacts were in some way related to her.
“Mom, there’s someone I want you to meet,” Lois said, finally dislodging herself from her mother’s stronghold. She turned her mother around to face Clark. “This is Clark Kent from the US Daily News. We’re working together on a story. Clark, this is my mother, Ellen Lane.”
As Clark shook the woman’s hand, he pretended not to notice the look she gave her daughter. Lois’s eyes widened and she returned a look of her own.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Kent.”
“I feel the same, Mrs. Lane. It is a pleasure.”
This time, Lois ignored her mother’s look. “So, Mom, this story that we are working on,” she started as she led her mother away from the main desk. “We’re investigating a chemical company that has begun to use a new technique to produce plastics. We have reason to believe that they are trying to cover up the side effects.”
Ellen frowned thoughtfully as they paused in the hallway to let an orderly pushing an elderly man in a wheelchair pass by. “Side effects? Like what?”
Lois shrugged. “That’s the thing, we don’t know. We’re working on deciphering a document that has the chemical compounds listed and we want to see what potential effects they could have on human tissue.”
“Wow, Honey, that sounds like something you should ask your father about.”
“I did already. I’m just working all the angles.”
Ellen arched an eyebrow and Clark chuckled at the family resemblance.
“So, now I’m an angle?”
Groaning, Lois reached out so she and her mother were walking arm-in-arm. “You know what I mean.” Lois turned her head to look over her shoulder at Clark, who was walking behind them. “I’d like to state for the record that my mother is a big wig hospital administrator – not an angle.” Lois faced her mother again. “Happy?”
Ellen smiled. “Yes… at least until you tell this *big wig* what it is that you want me to do,” she said.
Lois starting laughing; her mother knew her well. “I was hoping – *we* were hoping,“ she amended, hoping to prey on her mother’s apparent impression of Clark’s attractiveness, “that you could keep an eye out for any recent health trends occurring over the past six months. You know, anything that looks out of place.”
“Lois, I’m afraid you are looking for a diamond in the desert here. You need a way to limit the scope of your search. The best thing to do in this situation would be to test the employees from the company.”
Clark decided to speak up. “It turns out that the company offers free health care when the employees go to the in-house clinic. If the company is covering something up as we suspect, there’s no way we would be able to get any reports from them.”
“Which is why we’re going to have to look at any effects on the general population,” Lois added. “Metropolis Memorial is the hospital that is closest to the manufacturing plant. Right now, that’s the best we can do to limit the range of the investigation.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Ellen glanced at her watch. “I’ve got a meeting to get to but I’ll take a look at the reports a little later.”
Lois hugged her mother again. “Thanks, Mom. You’re a life saver.”
“I know, I know,” Ellen replied, reaching to shake Clark’s hand in farewell. “I hope to see you again soon, Mr. Kent. What are you doing for Sunday dinner?”
“Uh…”
“Mom!”
Ellen smiled warmly. “Well, if you can make it, we’d love to have you. Lois can give you directions.” She winked at Lois and headed down the hall at a brisk pace.
“Okay, well, I think we’ve officially hit a wall,” Lois said with a sigh as they set off in the direction of the entrance.
Clark put his hands in his pockets and nodded. “…Until we get some new information at least. I think I’d like to go work on getting the rest of those scraps together. Knowing the actual compounds will give us an edge.”
When they arrived outside, Lois raised an arm and hailed a cab. “Tell you what, you head back to the Planet and I’ll catch up with you on Monday.”
Clark looked at her in confusion – his rental car was across the street in the ramp.
Lois shot him her best innocent grin. “I just want to get some background on EPA regulations. Have a good weekend.”
Clark watched her disappear inside of the cab. His special hearing allowed him to hear her give the driver the address of the Cyphren Manufacturing Plant as the cab pulled away from the cab. He momentarily pondered why she hadn’t been straight forward with him, but let the thought go since he was guilty of the same. While he indeed planned to work on the shredded documents, he wanted to get back to his laptop so he could continue the research he had been working on earlier.
The reality was that, like in the past, he could do this investigation from anywhere – he didn’t necessarily *have* to take up residence in Metropolis in order to work on the Cyprhen story. Gaining access to the Daily Planet’s advanced search engine was the real reason he needed to be there.
~.~
Sunday Afternoon
Lois paused to speak to the guard as she entered the Planet Building. “Hey, George.”
“Hi, Lois,” the white-haired man replied with a pleased grin. “I sure can’t wait to read this story of yours.”
She tilted her head. “What story?”
George chuckled. “Come on, Lois, you’re always working on a story – but this one’s got to be something major if it’s got you coming in at all kinds of hours. I can’t believe how quickly you trained the new guy.”
“What do you mean?”
George gave her a knowing look. “The new guy – Kent – he’s been here all weekend. Like I said, this story must be a doozy.”
Lois shrugged modestly. “Well, that’s what we’re hoping.” She walked to the elevator bank and pressed the Up button. “All weekend, you say?” she asked, turning her head to George as the elevator car arrived.
“Like a well-trained puppy,” George answered sedately.
“Thanks, George,” Lois said, laughing. “I’ll see you later.”
After stepping off of the lift, Lois zigzagged through the pit on her way to her work area. When she neared the two desks that occupied her corner, she saw Clark lower the cover of his laptop.
“How’s it going?” she asked breezily.
“Oh, uh, fine,” he answered. “I didn’t expect to see you today.”
“I could say the same for you,” she returned, lowering into her chair. “I owe Perry a follow-up on my last story.”
Clark cleared his throat and rose from his seat, picking up a file as he stood. “I was going to show you this tomorrow, but now’s as good a time as any.” He crossed the short distance and began laying the contents of the file on her desk.
Lois leaned forward to take a closer look. Clark had taped together the bits of paper they had gotten from Kwolek’s security deposit box, but none of them had created a full page. “This is it?”
Clark nodded. “My guess is that Dr. Kwolek had to smuggle out a piece at a time. He must have thought he would have more opportunities to get the rest of the scraps out of the building. As it stands, I was able to put together what looks like the pieces of 8 different documents.”
Lois gingerly touched the corner of one of the documents and sighed. It was about the size of her hand and covered with pencil drawn chemical equations. They really had their work cut out for them.
“I’ll take these to my father and see if his colleague can shine any light on what’s going on here.”
Clark went back to his desk and began to shut down his work station.
“Oh, um, dinner – it’s something my family does every Sunday. The invitation from my mom still stands,” Lois offered as she slid the documents back into the folder.
Clark’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, right. I, uh, have plans.”
Lois sat back in surprise. She had assumed that Kent was a stick in the mud but he had been in town for less than a week and already had *plans*. She was impressed. “You do?”
Clark finished loading his computer into a laptop bag and turned to face her. He ignored the unasked question that was being implied. “Please tell your mother thank you for the offer. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Lois waved. “Yep. Auf wiedersehen,” she said, focusing on her computer screen.
Clark paused briefly at the German greeting before shaking his head and continuing on to the exit.
~.~
Lois accepted the bowl of mashed potatoes that her father handed to her.
“So where is that partner of yours?”
Lois rolled her eyes at her mother’s question without bothering to correct her. Ellen had been referring to Clark as *that partner of hers* since the day she met him. “I invited him, Mother, just as you asked me to do on Friday, Saturday, *and* today. He was busy.”
“Did you ask him every day?”
“Mom.”
Ellen was unfazed. “Well?”
“I asked him today. It was the first time I’d seen him since *you* invited him to dinner.”
“Had you asked him on Friday or Saturday he might not have had plans,” Ellen offered. “Sam, you should meet him. He’s seems *very* nice.”
“I met him,” Lucy quipped. “He’s cute.”
Lois glared across the table at her sister.
“I’d say he’s hot.”
“Mom!” Lois gasped. “You can’t say that!”
Ellen waved dismissively at her. “I can see can’t I?”
Lois turned to her father. “Dad, make her stop.”
Sam Lane bore the patient demeanor of a man used to being surrounded by women. Facing the pleading expression of his eldest daughter, he asked, “Well, is he cute or is he hot?”
Lois threw her hands in the air. “I don’t believe this. Hey, shouldn’t we be focusing on Lucy? She’s the one leaving to go back to California next week.”
Lucy smiled gaily. “That’s right, this is a ‘my choice’ dinner… and I choose to talk about your new partner.” She turned to their mother. “Did you know that she’s investigating him?”
Ellen gave Lois a look while pursing her lips together. “Honey…”
“It’s not an investigation.” Lois turned to her right and saw her father’s look. “It’s not! I’m just checking some facts… I’m fact checking.” She looked across the table and arched an eyebrow at her younger sister.
Lucy’s expression sobered immediately. She really didn’t want to engage Lois in a disclosure war in front of their parents. “This roast is really good, Mom.”
“She’s right, Honey. It’s excellent,” Sam agreed. “Lois, remind me to give you Bernard Klein’s number before you leave tonight.”
“Uncle Bernie?” Lois asked. She remembered her father’s former colleague from her youth.
“The one and only,” Sam replied. “I told him to expect your call. He should be able to help you with those compounds.”
~.~
tbc
