Red Like Kryptonite
Folc4evernaday
Pt. 4
***
Clark’s head seemed to be in a fog. All he could concentrate on was Lois. He should be doing something, but for the life of him, he couldn’t think of what it was. All he wanted to do was take Lois in his arms and pick up where he’d started before.
They had been unloaded from the sedan to what appeared to be some sort of warehouse. It didn’t look like anything of interest to him. He looked towards Lois who was standing next to him, putting up her best fight with the goons that held them there.
“You won’t get away with this!” Lois snapped at the balding man in front of them. “People know where we are! They’ll come looking for us!”
“They can’t come looking for you if they don’t know where you are!” The man shot back.
Lois glared at him, stepping forward as if to challenge him. The man lifted his hand towards Lois. Clark caught his wrist midair. “Don’t even think about it!”
“Well, well, someone has guts. Spunk and guts. The two things I hate the most.”
“Mr. Knox, your FDA guy is here to see you,” one of the thugs said, hanging up his phone.
Knox smiled, “Let him in.”
“FDA?” Lois asked confused. The other side of the room lit up when the elevator car arrived. The doors opened, revealing a familiar face. “Dan?”
***
Perry held a halogen lamp in his hands, tightening his grip on the neck of the lamp. The door to his room opened and one of the guards, dressed in a suit, wheeled in a full course meal on a cart. “Dinner is served,” he said, lifting the dome up.
“Boy, I could get used to this,” Perry laughed.
“Mr. Church has his own chef,” the guard said simply. He turned to face the door and Perry turned the light off. He used some strategic martial arts moves and the halogen lamp to knock the guard unconscious.
Perry slipped into the hallway unnoticed as he made his way towards what he thought was the exit. He opened the door and found an empty office with a map on the wall of buildings and different locations around the world. It appeared he had found the headquarters of Intergang.
***
“Nice to see you again, Lois,” Dan beamed. “Sorry, it’s under such dire circumstances.”
“Enough of the small talk.” Knox hissed, interrupting them. He then sneered at Lois, “You won’t be able to say anything much longer!”
Dan glared at Lois and Clark, then turned his attention to Charles Knox. “Hi, Charles Knox, right? Dan Scardino, FDA.” Lois coughed at that comment; he ignored it. Looking at the briefcase Knox held in his hand, Dan asked, “Is that the money?”
Lois just glared at him. “You really are a piece of work!”
Knox nodded and hefted the briefcase up to open it, revealing the money. “Let’s talk dates.”
Dan smiled. “We hardly know each other, but hell, if you’re paying….”
Knox slammed the suitcase closed and stepped into Dan’s face. “Go be Chuckles the Clown on your own time! On my clock, shut your mouth! Now, we want FDA approval on the drug. We want it by the first of the year and we want it guaranteed.”
“What about all your ethics now, Dan? What about Jenna? Did she even really exist?” Lois continued to rant.
“You got it.” Dan smiled back. He cast another wayward glance at Lois and Clark. The four guards had their guns trained on them, ready to shoot at the slightest motion.
Knox turned towards her. “You are getting on my last nerve!” He raised his hand towards Lois once again only to find Clark blocking him.
Dan decided to intervene. “Hey, hey, let’s all calm down here.” He cast an uneasy look at Lois and Clark then turned back to Knox.
Knox glared at him menacingly. “Do you have a problem, Mr. Scardino?”
“No, no, not at all….it’s just…Well, I think ….”
“Yes?” Knox glared at him.
“I don’t believe in hitting women.” Dan gulped.
Knox stepped away then laughed. “You really are a piece of work.” He kept a watchful eye on Dan. “Well, we only need one of them alive. You just made our choice easy for us.” Knox handed him a gun.
“What’s this?” Dan asked, looking at the gun Knox had tossed him uneasily.
“Take care of the problem,” Knox remarked menacingly. “Unless you have another set of morals we aren’t aware of.”
Dan stared at Clark for a moment. He met Dan’s gaze without an ounce of fear. How could he stay so calm? He caught the glance between Lois and Clark. There was such tenderness in her eyes and something else.
Fear?
“What’s wrong, Scardino?” Knox asked. “Pull the trigger!”
***
“He-He’s not here…” Jimmy stammered, looking around the newsroom for any sign of Lois or Clark.” It was five in the morning. He had come in early to try and get caught up on his research and he had been bombarded by Wally, one of the veteran reporters. Wally was known for digging up the dirt on the politicians in Metropolis. “Perry went to…an executive retreat. You know one of those think-tank things where they talk about the future of the world, then play a little golf.”
Wally was impatient. “Well, when’s he getting back?”
“I’m not exactly sure, but soon,” Jimmy stammered, trying to keep his cool.
“I’m sitting on a major story. I just learned that a certain aide to the Mayor has been the unwilling recipient of her Honor’s sexual advances.”
“Wow! Really?” Jimmy tried to calm his reaction down to a more professional manner. “Uh, are there any witnesses?”
“I’ve got an eyewitness, but she’s not back in town until tomorrow.”
“Man, uh, I don’t know, Wally…”
Wally scoffed, “You don’t know? Who cares if you don’t know? I need Perry’s approval to go with this now.”
“I’ll try to get him on the phone and run it by him.”
“You do that.”
Wally waltzed away, leaving Jimmy in a frenzy. “Where are you, Chief?” he muttered. Just then the phone on Perry’s desk rang. He looked at it skeptically. Did he dare answer it?
Gingerly he picked up the phone and in a hesitant tone he spoke into the phone, expecting the worst. “Hello?”
“Olsen??” Perry’s voice boomed from the other side.
“Chief! I am so glad to hear from you! Are you all right?”
“I’m fine; listen, I’m being held by Bill Church Jr. He’s head of the whole Intergang operation.”
“Wow! So, I guess Lois and CK were right, huh?” There was no answer. “Chief?”
***
Perry sat in a chair across from Church’s desk with a gun trained on him. “You disappoint me, Perry. Why did you have to go snooping around?”
“Old reporter’s instinct, I guess.”
“Too bad it doesn’t include an instinct for survival,” Bill Jr muttered.
“What to do with you?”
***
“Look, Inspector Henderson, I’m telling you there’s something going on. He said he was being held by Bill Church Jr. Maybe look in the Cost-Mart stores?” Jimmy ran a ragged hand through his hair. “No, I don’t know where Lois and Clark are. They haven’t been in all morning.”
***
“Well, he won’t be causing any problems,” Dan muttered, looking on the ground at the unconscious Knox and surrounding guards. “How’d you know I wasn’t really going to shoot you, Kent?”
Clark just shrugged. “I figured you’d have done it long ago if you were gonna do it.”
“Ah,” Dan smiled. “Let’s get out of here.”
“First we need to find Perry. It can’t be any coincidence that we’re in the sub-basement for Cost-Mart,” Lois said. “Bill Church Jr has Perry and we need to stop him.”
***
“I even had a nameplate made for you and everything.” Bill sighed. “I guess that’s the way it goes, huh?” He moved closer to Perry. “Don’t worry. I’ll tell Alice you said good-bye.”
A loud resounding bang could be heard in the hallway. Bill’s head jerked up and Perry took the opportunity to deliver a swift kick in the stomach, causing Bill to hunch over in pain. Perry bolted out the door only to come face to face with Lois, Clark, and Agent Scardino.
“Perry!” Lois exclaimed, happy to see him.
“Lois, run, honey! Run!”
“I’ve got this covered.” Dan pulled out his gun and kept it aimed on Bill Church Jr’s door.
“So do I.” A voice from behind him said. The cold barrel of a semi-automatic grazed against Dan’s forehead.
***
“Everyone, I want the perimeter secured. No one gets out. We’ll go in through the back. Roger, I want your team to go in through the front.
Everyone understand? This is the kind of thing that could make or break a career. The day we’ve been praying for. Don’t screw it up! Everyone does everything by the book or else!” Henderson roared to his team outside the Cost-Mart. Jimmy Olsen stood on the sidelines impatiently waiting for a sign of Perry or Lois and Clark to show up.
***
TBC...
Last edited by folc4evernaday; 10/28/16 12:33 PM.
