Home: Murder By Earthlight -- 11/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
She was going to have a lot to write about, she thought, irrespective of the murder, itself. She'd had no idea of the kind of civilization that the Moon colonists had built for themselves. It just underlined what she had always believed -- give Humanity half a chance and they would adapt to their environment, and adapt it to them, to form a successful civilization. She was already mapping out the story in her head.
"Any luck?" she whispered to Clark. So far, she hadn't seen any place that would be particularly safe for Edgar Johnson to have dropped off his suitcase, but they hadn't reached the end of the tour, yet.
Clark shook his head. "No, but we haven't gone through the undeveloped caverns. There are plenty of places there."
They were approaching the doors into the next section. Another Cave-mobile awaited them, and their guide directed them to take their seats. Moments later, they trundled through the double doors into a tunnel that led to yet another cavern. The doors behind them had barely slid closed when a violent jolt shook the vehicle, followed by a second and a third. The rocks groaned alarmingly around them, and a chorus of screams echoed deafeningly through the tunnel. The lights flickered abruptly and went out. The Cave-mobile tilted sideways, and Lori could swear that it was going over, when it seemed to pause in mid-motion and then slowly righted itself.
It had been Clark, she was nearly sure, who had saved the Cave-mobile. His lips brushed her ear. "Stay here. Don't move." Abruptly, he was gone.
***********
And now, Part 11:
Lori sat still in the seat, listening to the babble of frightened people while unidentifiable sounds echoed around her, and several smaller jolts still vibrated through the cavern.
"What's happened?" someone cried -- a female voice that somehow rose above the chaos of terrified voices.
"Earthquake!" someone cried out. "We're going to be buried alive! We're going to die! Let me out of here!"
"Everyone sit still!" a firm voice said, penetrating the hubbub without difficulty and the cacophony of voices diminished at once. Lori recognized Clark's "Superman" voice, raised to superhuman levels. "The roof is safe. Stay where you are until the emergency lights come on!"
As he spoke, the lights glimmered and began to glow, though at a considerably lower level than before. People began to babble again, at a level that hurt Lori's ears. She covered them with her hands, looking around to locate her husband.
There he was, three hundred feet above her head, his shoulder braced against a section of the roof, and as she watched, a section of the rock began to glow a dull red, very visible in the low lighting. Clark must be using his heat vision to melt rock and essentially weld it together.
"Superman!" someone cried. Abruptly everyone was looking up at the superhero.
Clark blew on the newly repaired roof and Lori watched as the redness of the stone vanished almost instantly. Clark moved back and Lori watched him as he scanned the ceiling of the cave. Then he dropped down to land beside the Cave-mobile.
"Everyone relax," he said. "The roof won't fall in."
"But how do we get out of here?" a female voice wailed. "We're trapped! I don't want to die here!"
"We wait," Clark said. "We don't know what happened, and it wouldn't be too wise to go bursting out of here until we do."
"But we'll run out of air!" someone protested.
"Not for quite a while," Clark assured him. "There's plenty of air in here." He turned to the guide. "Do you have any way of communicating with someone outside?"
The guide shook her head. "I'm signaling but I'm not getting any answer so far. Whatever happened must have caused some confusion. Can you use your X-ray vision to see outside?"
"Not well," Clark said. "Even I have my limits. Just a minute. There's one way I may be able to tell what happened."
"How?"
Clark didn't answer, and Lori saw him close his eyes. For a moment she was puzzled and then understanding dawned. Clark must be trying to communicate with Zeb, who was presumably somewhere in the city, well above their heads. For a moment there was utter silence. It was one of those moments, Lori thought, when you could have heard the proverbial pin drop.
Clark opened his eyes. "It was a meteor strike," he said.
"You mean a meteor hit the city?" Stephanie Brook sounded on the edge of panic.
"No," Clark told her. "The city is protected by defensive fields. A fair-sized meteor hit the surface a short distance away from the city and triggered a small Moonquake. Crews are dealing with the damage right now."
"When are they going to get us out of here?" Stephanie demanded. "They can't leave us in here!"
"I'm afraid we're going to have to be patient," Clark said, and Lori was certain that she didn't imagine the faint edge of irritation in his carefully modulated voice. "No one is in any danger, and there are other, more urgent problems for them to take care of in the city, itself."
"How bad is the damage?" one of the male tourists asked. He was a dark-haired man with a woman and a child of about three or four seated beside him.
"Not too bad," Clark replied. "Some of the power systems have been disrupted. As I said, we'll have to be patient."
Stephanie got to her feet. "You're Superman! You can get us out of here!"
"Not without causing a lot of damage to the caverns," Clark said. "Believe me, Ms. --" He glanced at her small handbag. "Ms. Brook, is it? -- I'd like very much to be out there. I'm quite sure they could use my services in the city."
"How do you know what happened?" Talbot Grey asked suddenly.
Clark shrugged. "Eclipse told me. Kryptonians are telepathic with each other."
"Did he give you any indication of when we may expect rescue?"
"Not specifically," Clark replied. "He's pretty busy at the moment. They'll get to us as quickly as they can."
Lori hadn't been married to Clark for more than three years without learning how to recognize her husband in evasion mode. Clark knew something he wasn't telling them. She sat with her hands in her lap, hoping that Stephanie and Tal wouldn't look around and notice that Clark had vanished, and trying to think of an excuse should they do so.
The guide spoke. "I'm getting a general emergency broadcast on the radio," she said suddenly. "They expect to have the Cave-mobile and the doors working soon. I realize no one planned for this, but everyone please sit down. We're not in any danger."
"How can you know that?" a woman demanded hysterically. "We could all die in here! I want out of here *now*! I demand that you *do* something! I demand that *Superman* do something!"
There was a chorus of agreement. Clark was silent until the voices died down. "I can't get us out right now," he said. "I'm going to check the rest of this cave to be certain that there's no possibility of collapse, but if I were to dig my way out, I could conceivably put us in real danger. Everyone please stay seated until I return."
He turned and in an instant had begun to whisk around the cave.
Lori remained silent. The other passengers were watching Superman. Some of them were crying, others talking among themselves. Several simply sat quietly.
The lights flickered again. There were muffled cries and gasps. Another flicker and they went completely out. Lori sat still in the pitch-blackness, wondering where Clark was, and what they would do if the lights failed to come back on. Even Clark needed some light by which to see. Multi-colored sparks danced before her eyes -- manifestations of her own imagination, she was sure. Here and there she heard muffled sobs from the passengers of the Cave-mobile, and firmly controlled the desire to call out for Clark. He wouldn't let anything happen to them, she reminded herself, and he was certainly doing the best he could for all of them right now.
Abruptly, the lights on the walls began to glow redly -- at a level much lower even than they had been at before, but they seemed almost dazzling to eyesight that was used to utter blackness. She squinted through a sheen of tears from her watering eyes, and shaded them with one hand while trying to peer around through the gloom. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the new light level. It wasn't much, she acknowledged, but it was better than the smothering darkness of a minute or two before. She couldn't see Clark, but she was sure he wasn't far away.
With a suddenness that made her start, his voice spoke again from somewhere near the head of the Cave-mobile and she squinted, barely able to make out his darker silhouette against the pale glow of the light. "The cavern roof is sound," he informed them. "We'll be fine here until the power is restored. It shouldn't be long. I have a few things to deal with elsewhere in the cave. If anything happens that shouldn't, I'll be back."
Instantly, Lori was aware of a presence to her right and turned her head to see Clark's familiar silhouette. His arm slipped around her shoulders. "Are you all right, honey?" he inquired softly.
"I'm fine," she said. "It's lucky Superman was here, though."
"Yeah," Clark agreed.
In the seat ahead, Stephanie turned to face them. Lori could just make out her features in the dimness. "How can you be so calm?" she demanded. "How do we know Superman just didn't leave us here?"
"Oh don't be ridiculous," Lori said, rather testily.
"It's not ridiculous!" Stephanie's voice rose. "Why was he here, anyway? And he's gone, isn't he? Maybe he's saving himself!"
"Be quiet," Lori said sharply. "Do you want to start a panic? He said we're safe and I believe him."
"I wonder how he turned up so opportunely," Talbot Grey's voice remarked. "It's fortunate for us, of course, but it's certainly an odd coincidence."
"I heard that he arrived in Luna City yesterday," Clark remarked. "It was on LCN. One of the Airlock Monitors said he came to visit Eclipse. I guess we were lucky that he was in the caves just now."
"Oh," Grey said. "I must have missed the report." His silhouette shifted slightly, and Lori thought that he had turned to face them. "May I ask why you two are here instead of at the convention?"
"Lori's never seen the Caverns before," Clark said mildly. "We figured we could get back in plenty of time before the presentations started."
"'The best laid plans of mice and men --'" Grey quoted softly. "I thought the same."
"I didn't realize you and Ms. Brook were together," Lori said, casually.
"We aren't," Stephanie said.
"I encountered Ms. Brook in the hotel lobby," Grey explained. "When I mentioned that I intended to visit the Caverns she suggested that she accompany me."
"I didn't know you were so interested in the Moon's tourist sites, Stephanie," Lori remarked sweetly.
Stephanie didn't answer.
From somewhere there was a faint grating noise, followed by a louder one. Two of the women screamed.
"May I have your attention," the guide's voice said firmly. "They're opening the doors and we'll be turning the Cave-mobile around. Everyone please remain seated."
Lori found the subsequent maneuvering in the dark slightly unnerving, but maintained her silence. She wasn't particularly apprehensive. Clark said they were safe and she believed him, but there was definitely something he wasn't telling her -- not that he could at present. Talbot Grey and Stephanie would be bound to overhear him.
The Cave-mobile started its return journey. Lori sighed. "Now I'll never get to see the rest of the Caverns," she said wistfully.
"Thank heavens!" Stephanie's voice said. "I never want to see this horrible place again!"
"It wasn't the fault of the Caverns that a meteor decided to hit the Moon," Lori said. "I'd like to come back someday and see them."
"Don't worry," Clark said, and she thought she detected amusement in his voice. "If you want to, we'll come back on our next vacation. I'd like to see the rest of them, myself. I've only been down here once, and I'm sure they've opened up a few more caverns since I was last here."
Lori was certain of it, too. "I can't imagine why anyone would want to come in here," Stephanie's voice said, sounding waspish.
"Really? Then why are you here?" Lori asked.
Stephanie didn't answer. Clark's arm squeezed her shoulders. "Lori isn't easily scared," he remarked. "She has more guts than anyone else I know."
"I'm sure," Stephanie's sarcastic voice said. "I'm surprised she's survived this long."
"We didn't get to be Kent and Lyons of the Daily Planet by playing it safe," Lori said mildly. "Taking risks is how you get the important stories."
A sniff from Stephanie. "I suppose that's how you found that dead guy yesterday," she said.
"As a matter of fact, it is, although we didn't really take any risks," Clark said. "How did you know about it?"
"I saw it on LCN," Stephanie said. "I've never found a body in my life!"
"Why not?" Lori couldn't resist. "What *do* you do at your news service, anyway? I thought you were an investigative journalist."
"I report on politics," Stephanie said, coldly.
"Then I'm really surprised you haven't found any bodies," Lori said. Needling Stephanie was hard to resist. "Remember the murder of that state senator down in Southern California last year? And there was a city councilman in Metropolis that Clark and I found dead in his office a couple of months ago. He'd been taking bribes and tried to doublecross somebody by taking them from a chief rival, too. Politics, these days, is played pretty ferociously. Skeletons in the closet aren't really the same thing at all."
A faint snort from Clark. Talbot Grey's voice spoke out of the darkness, sounding elaborately casual. "What *is* the story behind that discovery yesterday? It seems to me to be very unlikely that anyone could accidentally find a body hidden out on the Moon's surface unless he was searching. Even then, it seems unlikely that it would be found."
"The Luna City Police have asked us not to discuss any specifics until they've completed their investigation," Clark said, sounding completely calm. "They were already investigating the man's death because of the accident at the solar collector. That's why we were there, too. That's really all we can say."
"I see," Grey said. "Did you by any chance, know the victim?"
"I think we saw him the first day we were here," Clark said. "We didn't know him."
"Why were you investigating the story, then?"
"It was a story," Lori said. "John told us to keep an eye out for anything interesting while we were here. It seemed like something that might be of interest to the Planet, even if it was only because it came from the Moon."
"I see."
"Surely your editor expects the same of you while you're here," Clark said mildly. "If he didn't, he wouldn't be an editor."
"Quite true," Grey said, but the total lack of expression in his voice would have alerted Lori, even if she hadn't already been listening closely to everything he said. As little as Clark did she believe that Talbot Grey's presence here was an accident. The only thing that she couldn't decide was if Stephanie was involved with the murder of Edgar Johnson or if she had discovered where Clark and she were going and had seized the opportunity to follow them.
The Cave-mobile tilted upward sharply and she realized that they were beginning the long climb toward the lunar surface once more. Within a few moments they would be out of the caves, but if the briefcase were back there, somewhere, how were they going to find it now?
**********
The Cave-mobile glided into the same room from which they had embarked on the tour and their guide requested that they stay seated until the vehicle came to a complete stop. Lori and Clark obeyed. Lori looked around, taking in the appearance of the room.
Only the emergency lights were glowing, and the number of employees present seemed to have increased since their departure, forty-five minutes ago. Clearly, the situation had not yet been resolved.
The Cave-mobile slid to a stop by the platform and the guide spoke. "Please exit to your right. Refunds will be available through the agency where you booked your excursion. We hope you'll come back on another day for a full tour of the caves."
Lori got out and Clark took her arm. "I need to get out there," he said, keeping his voice low. The background babble of the other passengers as they disembarked was enough to cover his low voice. "There's a fair amount of damage and Zeb has his hands full."
"What's going on?" Lori asked. "You weren't telling us everything in there. I could tell."
"I didn't want to scare people. The quake caused some damage to the nuclear reactor that provides most of the power to the cities," Clark said softly. "There's no danger to the cities, but the reactor is offline, and Luna City, and the others, are operating on solar and backup power. I'm going to give you a lift back to the hotel and then Superman is going to offer his services to assist."
"All right," Lori said. "As soon as we get away from here, take off. I'll get back to the hotel on my own. I've thought of a few things I can check out by myself, while you're otherwise occupied."
Clark began to move toward the exit, slowly forcing his way through the crowd of milling people. "I doubt any of the attractions will be open. The city is going to be in power conservation mode."
"I'm not interested in any of the attractions," Lori explained. "There are a couple of things about Edgar Johnson's murder that I think I can check out on my own."
He looked instantly wary. "What?"
"Oh, don't worry," she assured him. "I'm not going to go snooping in Talbot Grey's room or anything. I'll stay where people can see me -- and I'm wearing my earrings, remember. It's just that I thought of something while we were in the caverns. I might as well rule it out while you're busy."
The automatic door was no longer powered, and Clark pushed it open for her. They stepped out into the open. "Well -- all right," he said dubiously. "Just -- don't do anything adventurous until I get back, okay honey?"
She held up three fingers. "Scout's honor."
He didn't seem entirely reassured, but it was obvious from the general conditions around them that Superman was really needed. They hurried across a non-moving slidewalk and into one of the parks, with which Luna City was so generously supplied. Clark glanced around. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Go on," Lori told him. "Let's see some tights, Superman."
He grinned slightly. "Sometimes I still can't get over how much like Lois you are."
"Move it," Lori told him, unimpressed. "You've got a day to help save."
With his usual speed, Clark made the change to Superman, kissed her quickly and took off into the air. Lori turned back toward the entrance to the Rainbow Caverns tour. There was something, as she had told Clark, that she needed to check out.
**********
tbc
