Sorry for the delay, lots of business travel these days. Thanks for you patience.
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Reflections – Part 19
Clark wasn’t sure why he touched Lois on the cheek like that. It confused him, and when he was confused, he often found himself flying. This is why at this moment he was soaring high over the North Pole, heading toward France. The freedom of being in the air, and the solitude it afforded him often helped clear his head when something was troubling him. Many times, after a difficult rescue, or after witnessing an especially terrible crime, he would fly aimlessly at high altitude, gazing at the earth below. This high up, without employing his special vision, there were no signs of civilization. No one in trouble. No one committing a crime. Nobody to pull from a natural disaster. And now once again he found himself in the air again. Only this time he had a destination – La Riva Gauche, along the banks of the river in Paris.
Something about Lois made him let his guard down. He knew he should start distancing himself from her, but it seemed that he had often chosen to ignore that voice of reason over the last few days. Though, he was intelligent enough to recognize that his past experience with Lena had been coloring his actions for the last three years.
He came to a stop in midair, hovering at the edge of space over the North Pole. He floated there, motionless, with his arms crossed, looking down at the planet. He could see the approaching line of dawn move toward the east coast as the Earth rotated under him. Being up here, sometimes made him very small, compared to the enormity of the Earth. And compared to the weight of his responsibility to the citizens of his adopted the planet. Sometimes it felt indulgent to hang on to his life as Clark Kent. That his life should only be focused on his duties as Superman. Yet his parents had pointed out that his life as Clark kept him connected to the people he had promised to protect with the gifts that had been given him.
But did he have the right to burden others with this responsibility? The responsibility was his choice, and not anyone else’s. But Lois confused him. She wanted to be his friend, even though she didn’t know very much about him. But there was something about her…
Well he wasn’t going to sort it all out floating here. He sighed to himself and started back toward France. A few minutes later he was landing in a deserted spot on the river bank, near Michel’s restaurant. After a quick spin into his street clothes, he walked up the steps that led to the restaurant. It was about two in the afternoon, and the lunch crowd was just leaving. He knew that Michel would have fresh croissants coming out of the oven to serve with his dinner entrees later that evening. He sat down at the bar, and waited for Nicholas, the resident barkeep to make his way over.
Monsieur Kent, it has been a while. What brings you to Paris this time, business or pleasure?
Not wanting to fake social banter with Nicholas he answered, “I’m afraid business this time. I wanted to grab a few croissants for the road. You think Michel could spare a couple?”
“Always for you. Sweet or no?”
“Hmmm… a couple of each.”
“Very good. Wait here.”
Nichols wiped his hands on a bar rag, and then went to the kitchen to fill Clark’s order. While he was waiting, he engaged in some casual people watching. As was usual, the restaurant had quite a few couples, enjoying an intimate afternoon in La Rive Gauche’s romantic atmosphere. As he watched the couples, he could feel a sadness wash over him. Was it fair of him to sometimes wish that he was normal? To wish that he didn’t have powers and could live an ordinary life… a job, a family, someone to share his life with?
He knew that his powers had allowed him to save people that couldn’t be saved. To catch criminals that would never be caught. He knew it was a privilege to be able to make such a difference in the world. But to make that difference, he needed to give up some things. It should be a fair tradeoff.
“You look so sad, my friend.”
Clark turned his head to see Michel standing next to him, holding a paper sack. Michel was the quintessential French café owner. Barrel chested, with a large, black handlebar moustache, and was never seen without a dirty apron on his large frame. He was always quick with a smile and an encouraging word to those who needed it.
Clark gave him a sad smile, and replied, “Not really, just thinking, that’s all.”
Michel seated himself barstool next to Clark, and leaned close to him, speaking softly, “I think maybe you are remembering the past that you can’t change.”
Clark looked down at the floor as he answered, “Not really. Just thinking about the way life is these days.”
“You wish that things were different for you?”
“Maybe… Not really, no. It’s just…”
“You are lonely.”
Clark stared him directly in eyes, surprised. Michel had voiced the thought he had not dared to think himself. “Yes.”
“My friend, even for one who can do such things as you can do, you need someone to fill in the empty spaces. Even with the joy my café brings me, I cannot imagine life with my amor. To be whole, you must let someone be what you cannot.”
“Can I do that to someone?”
“I do not believe you are such a horrible person.”
“You know what I mean. My life can be… difficult.”
“I think that is up to her to decide. Besides, anyone who can break though the ghost of that devil must be a strong woman.”
Clark was even more surprised. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Come on, my friend. I have heard of your exploits in America. You come here just to get croissants? You never ask for my sweet ones. She is the one that makes you sad, no?”
Clark stared at out at Michel’s patrons, then without looking back at him replied sadly, “Oui.”
"No burden is so great that it cannot be shared by the right person.”
“How do you know who is that right person?”
“When you see your heart reflected in her eyes.”
Clark turned his head to look at his friend, his heart and his head still at war. “Thanks, Michel. How much do I owe you for the croissants?”
“You are pulling my leg, no? What you did for my family, I can never repay in my lifetime.”
“Thank you, Michel. For everything. For keeping my secret.”
“That is no effort to me. Who would I tell anyway? Besides, I like the quiet life of my simple café.”
Clark smiled at his old friend. “I hope I can be as wise as you someday, my friend.”
Michel handed him the bag with a smile and replied, “Only if you listen to me. Now go, I have hungry customers waiting for me to cook.”
As Clark turned to leave, Michel placed his hand on Clark’s shoulder and said, “You need let the ghosts of the past go, or you may never be able to move into your future.” With that he returned to his kitchen, leaving Clark lost in thought.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later, walking along the river, Clark stopped for a moment at the bank, watching the boat moves slowly by. Michel gave him much to think about. He looked up at the sky, was again wondering if it was chance or fate that brought him to this moment. Crossing the vast distance from his home planet, and being found by people who were loving and brave enough to adopt him and raise him. Teaching him the values he carried through life. What if his ship had been damaged along the way? What if someone not as good as his parents had found him?
So was meeting Lois chance or fate?
Not wanted to think about it anymore he spun into his suit, and took to the air. He arrived at Metropolis just as the sun was rising, and flew by his hotel to drop off the croissants. He spent the next couple of hours patrolling the city, making sure there was no trouble on this early Sunday morning. A couple of minor rescues later, he was back at his hotel, getting ready for Lois to pick him up. A few minutes before ten, he went downstairs to meet her on the street. She pulled up to the hotel right on time.
As he got into the car, Lois seemed almost a little shy towards him. Without saying anything to him, she took off towards the Planet.
“So, Clark, did you sleep okay?” she asked without taking her eyes off the road.
“Um… yeah, I slept fine. It was a long night.”
“Oh.”
“You sleep okay?”
“Sure, no problem.” Then after a beat, “Hey, whatever you have in that bag smells great.”
“Well I hope you’ll like them. I believe the sweet ones have chocolate in them.”
She laughed, “I see you already know me. So you need to take me to this place sometime so I can get them whenever I want.”
Clark thought about it for a few moments, and then answered, “Maybe I will.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lois heard Clark’s response and thought it sounded strange. As if the bakery was some deep, dark secret. He was so frustrating, yet intriguing at the same time. If he kept this up, she might be forced to look into his past a little bit, not being able to control her curiosity.
On the other hand, something had happened last night as she dropped him off. Something had broken through his barrier, even if it was only for a moment. And as tired as she was when she got home, she found herself tossing and turning in her bed for a while before finally falling asleep. She snuck a glance over at Clark, who was staring off in the distance out the window, seemingly deep in thought. She hoped that he hadn’t decided to put up those walls again today.
They pulled into the half empty parking structure. She unconsciously parked very close to one the entrances. After getting out of the car they silently rode the elevator to the newsroom. Lois had snuck a couple of glances at Clark, but he seemed deep in thought. Something was weighing on his mind, but she couldn’t tell if it was related to their investigation, or to something else entirely. As they got out of the elevator, she heard Clark say he was putting on coffee, and saw him head toward the machine. She made a beeline to her computer, and started calling up online searches on the Shuttle upgrade contract. She was in the middle of reading her third article when a cup of coffee appeared next to her. She turned to see Clark pulling up a chair to sit next her. As he sat down, he set some napkins on the desk, and then placed the croissants down on top of them.
She picked up one of the sweet ones and took a big bite. After a second she had to pause to take in the taste of the treat Clark had brought her. She had never had any of her regular places come close to the croissants he had brought.
She finished her bite and said to Clark, “This is unbelievably good, Clark. You need to share your secret with me.” She smiled and took a cup of her coffee. For some reason she expected it to be perfect, and it was. Looking over her cup, she could see the most serious expression on Clark’s face. Much more serious than telling her about his favorite bakery.
“Clark, what’s wrong?”
He shook his head as if trying to clear his thoughts, then replied, “Um… nothing. Why?”
“You look like you got the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
She saw him smile sadly. “Sorry, I was talking to a friend this morning, and he got me thinking about some things.”
“Oh… Well I would usually ask you if you’d like to talk about it, but for some reason I think you’re not ready to share with me.”
Clark looked down at his coffee cup for a moment, then looked up and said, “Actually, I think I want to. But it’s…”
“…hard. I understand Clark, I really do. I’m not sure if I would have handled having my heart broken… having my trust betrayed as well as you have. I can’t even imagine what I would be like now.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think that you would have been stronger than me.”
She studied Clark for a moment as he looked back down into his coffee cup, looking as if he was trying to find all the answers in the dark liquid. At times he seemed like he was a tower of strength and at other times he seemed so vulnerable. She had read somewhere that the bigger the heart in the person, the more vulnerable they become. She could see that he thought that he was afraid to risk his heart again. Touching his arm gently, she said, “You’re stronger than you think, Clark.”
After a few moments he looked like he had come to a decision as he looked up from his coffee. “If you can be patient, I think I would like to take your third choice from last night.”
Lois smiled at his decision, but couldn’t help saying, “You know I don’t do patient very well. But I guess I could make an exception in this case.”
Clark smiled back as he said, “But I guess we still need to finish up this Shuttle business first.”
Now excited to share what she found with Clark, she turned her screen toward him as she said, “Damn straight, Smallville. Look what I dug up.” She pointed to an article describing the win by Yeager Air & Space.
“After they won the contract, two of the three bidders protested the win, citing the fact the new technology was too risky, and YAS was too small to handle the challenge.”
“Who protested?”
“Lockheed and Rockwell. Both are old, well established aerospace firms. Rockwell was the builder of the original Shuttles.”
Clark shook his head. “See, it doesn’t make sense. These companies deal in billions of dollars of business with the government. They win and lose things all the time, much bigger than this contract. Why would either one suddenly do something so blatant against their competitor?”
“I don’t know. Pride. Loss of future business.” Lois thought for a few moments, staring at the screen. After thinking about it, Clark was right. It was out of character for these companies, unless they had some rogue engineer or manager who just couldn’t stand the thought of losing the contract.
“How about a rogue in either company?” she asked. She shook her head and recanted. “No, that sounds dumb, even coming out of my mouth. What could possibly be gained?”
Clark was staring at the article on the screen, and then clicked the mouse to go to the second page. After a moment he began to scowl at what he was reading.
“What do you see?” she asked.
He pointed to a section of the article. “Look at this. Luthor Research Labs didn’t protest the loss, but they offered to help manage the development of the new technology to belay the concerns that the smaller company wouldn’t be able to handle the development and integration of the new design.”
He then pointed to another paragraph. “And here, it mentions that the Shuttle’s main mission will be delivery and resupply of the new Space Station, which some companies are bidding on right now. There was some concern that one company would do both, essentially be the controlling company for all U.S. space travel.”
They looked at each other, silently exchanging the same thought that went through their mind. Lois went back to the search page on her browser, and started a new search, cross-referencing the two large programs. After a minute of searching she had her answer.
“Well?” Clark asked.
“There are three companies bidding as the lead contractor for the Space Station program, Boeing, Martin Marietta, and…”
“Luthor Research,” Clark finished for her.
“Yeah.”
“So if the new Shuttle failed, Luthor Research could step in to fix the ‘problem’ with the new engines, controlling that part of the space program.”
She almost couldn’t believe that it would be possible that someone would go to such lengths to control the space program. “But that doesn’t guarantee that they would win the Space Station program.”
“No, but it would set them up in a good light, saving NASA from the ‘failed’ program, plus any inside information from working directly with NASA.”
“I don’t know Clark, it might fit, but we don’t have any hard evidence. And it all seems so… Machiavellian. Luthor has so much money and power already, why would he risk his current position with something so blatantly illegal.” Lois thought about the possibilities that would fit such behavior. There was something tickling the back of her mind, but she couldn’t quite grab onto to it.
Lois looked around the newsroom, and saw that the Sunday afternoon crew was coming in to work the Monday morning edition. “Let’s grab the background research that I had already gathered on Luthor and review it in the conference room. It’ll give us some more room to spread out, and it’ll be a little quieter.”
“Sure, Lois,” Clark replied as he got out of his chair. She got up and walked over to her four drawer file, and pulled out the files she had compiled on Luthor in anticipation of getting an interview with him. As she walked towards the conference room, she could see Clark staring off into the distance out the window.
“Clark? Oh, Clark, you there?” She chuckled to herself as he seemed completely oblivious to her presence right next to him. “So how about we chuck all this and run away to Jamaica?”
He finally realized that she was there, and replied, “Huh? I’m sorry Lois did you ask me something?”
Lois snorted in amusement. “Nothing important. Something fascinating out there?”
“Um… no, not really. Listen, can you excuse me for a moment. I’ve got to, you know…” He pointed in the general direction of the bathroom.
“No problem, Clark. I’ll set things up in the conference.”
“Thanks, Lois. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” With that, he turned and dashed out of the newsroom.
‘Why, he really had to go,’ she thought to herself. As she headed to the conference room, she heard a loud thud come from outside, strong enough to rattle the windows. She went to the windows to see if she could see what the source of the sound was, but she couldn’t see anything obvious. She shrugged, and headed to the conference. She threw her files on the table, and then opened the blinds to let in some sunlight. She looked out over the city, the mirrored glass of the building reflecting the sunlight peeking through broken clouds above. The city looked fresh and clean, the air having been scrubbed by the last few days of rain. She thought about how connected she was to this city, having spent her whole life here. She didn’t know if she could leave, like Clark had done, to ‘see the world’. To her the world was right here. Did that limit her somehow?
Just then, a momentary streak across the sky caught her attention. Then she heard a repeat of the thud sound. She stared intently into the sky trying to discern what had made that noise.
“Hey, Lois, I hope I didn’t take to long.” Lois jumped in surprise at Clark’s voice. “Sorry, thought you heard me come in. Checking out the weather out there?”
“No. I was trying to figure out if the military was doing some flyovers today.”
Clark looked at her in confusion. “Why would you think that?”
She pointed out toward the window. “It’s just that I keep hearing this loud ‘booming’ sound and I thought I got a glimpse of something streaking across the sky.”
Oddly, for a moment Clark got a wide-eyed expression on his face, but it quickly passed. He shrugged noncommittally and said, “Maybe they are. Anyway, do you want to start looking through what you’ve got?”
Again, something about Clark hit Lois as off-kilter, but she still couldn’t put her finger on it. She definitely was getting more curious about her quasi-partner. Deciding to keep focused on the business at hand she replied, “Yeah, let’s get started.”
They both sat down at the conference table and started going through all of Lois’s research, studying and cross-referencing everything Lois had found out about Luthor, adding extra research from the Internet. After a couple of hours, Clark got that far away look in his eyes again and suddenly said he had to check on something. Before Lois could ask anything, he was on his way out, saying he would also bring back some lunch. Lois could only shake her head in confusion. Yes, she was definitely going to take a little closer look at Mr. Kent when this was all over.
Thirty minutes later he returned, with some Italian food and some soft drinks in hand. “So what did you have to check on?” she asked as innocently as possible as he was setting up the food for them.
“What? Oh nothing big. I just, um, promised to call my Dad about the farm. See how he was doing.”
“Oh, I see,” she said as Clark set a paper plate full of pasta in front of her. “So how’s the farm?”
“Fine,” he replied as he sat down and started eating his pasta. “I try to fly over and help out whenever I can.”
“Well that can’t be very often, given where you’ve been for the last few years.”
She could see him pause for a moment, before replying, “Yeah, I guess I wish I could be there more for him.”
“You know, you have to tell me one day how a Kansas farmboy ended up traveling the world.”
“So you think I’m worthy of an interview, then. You planning a big article about my life?” he asked with a grin.
She snorted in amusement. “Puh-lease. I only deal in hard news. By the way, I figured out what you do in your spare time.”
Clark paused before eating his next bite to ask, somewhat hesitantly, “And what would that be?”
“Apparently you spend all your time scouring Metropolis for the best takeout food. I’ve been here all my life and I never been able to get stuff as good as you’ve brought. If you’re sticking around, then you’re going to have to give up all your secrets.”
She saw Clark give her, what she could have sworn, was the most conspiratorial smile she had seen on him before answering, “Like I said, maybe I will.”
“Ha! There’s no maybe about it Smallville. So let’s get back to this research on Luthor. There some pattern in there, I can feel it, but I just can’t put my finger on it at the moment.”
“I don’t know. It seems like fairly bland stuff to me. Details are really lacking, and he almost never grants interviews.”
“I know, but there’s something…” She trailed off and started to focus on the files in front of her. Without speaking, she started to arrange the papers into groupings as she started to see connections. As she slowly ate her food, the connections started to form in the information before her. Suddenly the pattern became clear, and it not only surprised her, but made her a little afraid.
“Clark, do you know why people commit terrible crimes.”
He looked up from the papers he had been reading with a perplex look on his face. “Um, I don’t know. Greed, revenge, jealously…”
“I went to this investigative seminar last year, and they showed us these statistics for the motives behind ‘heinous” crimes. Greed accounted for 22%, revenge was about 20%, hate crimes were 26%, and deviant behavior was 30%. Then there were a smattering of others. But people like Hitler or Napoleon, who try to set themselves as the center of power, are few and far between. In Western civilization, it’s almost unheard of. But look at this…”
She started to point to the first grouping of files that she had arranged. “Alexander Joseph Luthor, better known as Lex Luthor, has been a significant force in the business community for the last ten years. Fifteen years ago, he took over his father’s business, and started buying small plots of low cost real estate on the North side. A little bit here, and then a little bit there. In some instances, he bought up whole blocks of real estate after some kind of accident or catastrophe drove prices down. Then suddenly here…” She pointed to one particular article at the end of the group. “…all the properties connected together. He came in with a major reconstruction project and within one year had established a whole new set of office buildings and dwellings. Prices shot up, and he not only made a killing, but pretty much controlled the north end of town. Then the process was repeated on the east side three years later.”
She then shifted to another grouping. “And here, nine years ago he had one small lab for doing government research. Then he began to buy up small to medium defense and government contractors. Then fours years later, he puts them all together into Luthor Research Labs, and becomes the largest government contractor in the U.S. An article here, from last year says that Luthor Labs is responsible for 40% of the U.S. military equipment and arms.”
“The pattern repeats in construction, electronics, software,” she says as she points out other articles in various groups of files. “And know what the worst part is?”
Clark shook his head slowly, obviously digesting all what Lois was telling him.
“The worst part is that this pattern looks like what’s been happening in the illegal arms trade you’ve been investigating for the last three years.”
“Holy…”
“Exactly. So if this is right, Luthor is setting himself up to be… I don’t know…”
“…the next Alexander the Great,” Clark finished for her.
