Games People Play: 5 of 6 (or 7)
by Nan Smith
Previously:
The footsteps were closer, and someone coughed, the sound loud in the silence around them. Lois had heard it too, for she glanced quickly around. "Someone's coming!" she breathed. "What'll we do?"
Clark looked frantically around. There was nowhere to hide, except the forklift. He hurried to it and checked the cab.
Not much room for a full-sized man to conceal himself, but Lois might just conceivably be able to scrunch down far enough to be out of sight. "Get in here and don't move," he whispered. "Hurry!"
Lois did so, looking back at him with that odd expression. "What are you going to do?"
"Never mind! Get down on the floor and don't make a sound!"
Lois didn't waste time debating but slid onto the floor of the forklift, wedging her body into the painfully tiny space. Her head came just below the level of the metal side of the machine. Clark moved quickly to close the door and then floated straight up to lie flat against the ceiling.
With the door shut the room was completely dark. Lois's heartbeat was loud in his ears, and he had to remind himself that the intruders wouldn't be able to hear it. He held his breath, hoping that the approaching men wouldn't come into the room, but he heard the footsteps and voices approach the door, and, an instant later, the door swung open.
**********
And now, Part 5:
Lois heard the creak as the hall doors started to open, tried to duck her head down a little farther and to breathe quietly. For a brief moment she wondered where Clark would hide and then she dismissed the thought. He would find some place, she assured herself. He was Superman. He wasn't going to let them catch him, and if they found her he would certainly do something, although she didn't know what.
Still, the fact that he had been investigating Lex and so far hadn't been able to pin anything on him, in spite of *knowing* that Lex was dirty, was slightly intimidating. To be able to evade even a suspicious Superman under those circumstances meant that Lex had to be more intelligent than even she had suspected, and far more cunning. It was absolutely imperative that they not be caught.
The sounds of footsteps echoed around the room as the intruder, or intruders, entered. Lois tried to keep her breathing absolutely silent in the quiet little room and hoped the echo of the footsteps would be enough to cover any slight noise. It sounded as if there were at least two, she thought, but she didn't dare even to shift position, in spite of the cramp that was beginning to knot in the calf of her left leg, much less raise her head to check.
"Man, I'm shot," a male voice grumbled. "I'm ready to head for the sack. These hours suck."
"A couple more days and that'll change," another, deeper voice replied. "We're all set. Now we just wait for the boss's orders."
Various scrapings and other unidentified noises met her ears. The muscle in her leg quivered on the brink of a more severe cramp, and the back of her neck crawled. Lois closed her eyes and bit her lip, willing herself not to move, no matter what happened.
"I hope he finishes up soon," the first voice said. "I want to get back on a normal schedule."
"Yeah, me too. You want to drive?"
"Nah. I'd probably fall asleep at the wheel." A light door slammed. "You take it."
"There's a rumor that he's going to test it in the morning," the second voice said. "I'd kind of like to see it."
"You wouldn't see nothing," the first man said. "It'll all be out in space, and the only ones that'll know what's happening will be the egghead crowd in the control center. Hurry up and get in. I'm asleep on my feet."
The cramping muscle twinged and Lois barely restrained an exclamation of pain. A trickle of perspiration ran down her neck with a crawling sensation. She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. No matter what, she mustn't make any noise.
The second car door slammed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's go."
There was the faint swish of tires, a pause while Lois debated raising her head. The urge to scratch her neck was almost overpowering. She resisted it by concentrating on her cramping leg muscle. It helped her to ignore the itching, but made the pain of the cramp more noticeable. She began to count backwards mentally from one hundred.
There was the sudden sound of the room's doors closing. Darkness closed down abruptly.
She lifted her head and scratched her neck vigorously, squinting against the darkness, but there was no hint of light. She fumbled for the penlight in her pocket.
Another light flashed on. Clark was standing beside her hiding place, holding a mini-mag in one hand. "They're gone."
She began to unwind herself and winced as the cramping muscle in her calf protested strenuously. "Ow!"
"Are you all right?" He pulled open the door and lifted her down without apparent effort. "Lois?"
"I'm all right," she managed between gritted teeth. "I've got a muscle cramp in my leg. I'll be fine as soon as I straighten it out."
"Put your hand on my shoulder," he directed. "I'll stretch it out for you."
She obeyed, tensing involuntarily as he bent to take her ankle in one hand and grip the front of her leg just above the knee. "Careful."
"I'll try to be. Tell me if I hurt you."
"You won't be able to not hurt me," she grumbled. "Just don't do it too fast. It's sore."
He began to stretch the leg out and she squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth against the cramp. A sudden warmth enveloped the spasming muscle and she felt the cramp begin to reluctantly release its grip. She gave a tiny sigh of relief as Clark straightened the leg and then lightly began to massage the offended muscle. It was sore, but much less so than Lois had expected.
"That feels good," she murmured. "Thank you."
"Can you walk on it?" Clark asked.
"Yeah. Just give me a minute." She stretched the leg and bent it experimentally. The muscle protested only slightly. "Wow. That's the fastest I've ever had a muscle cramp like that go away. You've got magic fingers." She cautiously set her foot on the floor. "I think it's okay. Let's go."
Clark hesitated and then nodded. "Okay, but if you need to rest your leg, tell me."
"It's just a cramped muscle," Lois said, a little surprised at his tone. "It'll be fine. Come on -- let's go see what this OP EMP place is."
He nodded and led the way to the door. After a pause while he listened, he opened it onto an empty hallway. "I don't hear anyone around. Let's go."
Trying to move as quietly as Clark, and knowing all along that it was a useless effort, Lois followed him almost on tiptoe, resolutely not glancing at his feet. The complete silence in which he moved told her that her partner was again walking on a fraction of a millimeter of air. It seemed unfair, but why shouldn't Clark utilize every ability he had in an investigation like this? She certainly did. The only difference was that he had so many extra ones that ordinary people like her didn't have.
But at least he utilized them in the service of Lane and Kent, and never tried to claim extra credit. That was one thing in his favor. And besides, how many investigative journalists in the city -- or the world, for that matter -- could claim that she had Superman for her partner?
Only Lois Lane.
Face it, she thought to herself. Clark Kent was one heck of an investigative reporter. He'd undoubtedly do better without a partner holding him back, so why did he seem so happy to have her for a partner? There had to be some reason but she couldn't think of any. She'd thought early in their relationship that she had him figured out, but it was becoming more and more obvious to her that there was a lot more to Clark Kent and even Superman than she had realized.
She glanced uncertainly at him as he moved by her side. His whole attitude telegraphed caution. She saw him tilt his head slightly, listening, she thought, for the slightest indication that anyone else was nearby, but apparently they were alone. They rounded a turn in the corridor and Lois saw the door of the mysterious OP EMP room.
Clark paused for a long moment. Then, he moved swiftly forward and grasped the knob.
"Locked," he said. "Still got that magic lock pick?"
Lois produced it. "Any sign of an alarm? You seem to be pretty good at spotting them."
He had turned back to face the door and she saw him lower his glasses slightly. After a moment he pushed them back into place. "I don't see anything. Do you?"
She didn't smile, but moved forward and made a show of inspecting the lock. "No."
He stepped back. "Go ahead."
"Okay, but *you* let me know if you hear anyone coming."
"I will."
The lock was a heavier one than the lock on the storeroom door and it took more effort and time to pick it, but at last Lois succeeded. It occurred to her to wonder why he didn't simply break the lock but concluded that taking such a chance wasn't a good idea for a man trying to conceal his super strength. Once or twice when it wasn't obvious he might get away with it, but he had to know that she was pretty observant and might catch him if he pushed his luck. And besides, if Lex's people found too many doors with their locks broken, someone was bound to add up the numbers and realize that Superman had been checking out their Ark. The last thing either of them would want was for Lex to decide to hide the evidence. Lois could think of only one way he might be able to do that, and knew that such an act would necessarily involve the deaths of everyone on Lex's Ark.
Would he do such a thing? She liked to believe that he wouldn't -- that no matter how ruthless Lex might be, he wouldn't sacrifice the lives of his employees to hide whatever he was doing down here -- but she was no longer sure of that. He had been ruthless enough to kidnap her "for her own good" when he thought that Superman wasn't around to rescue her, and Clark had told her enough to make her understand that she didn't know the real Lex Luthor at all. He had been willing to kill every colonist on board the transport, for if the bomb had exploded after takeoff there could have been no other outcome. Would he destroy his hidden fortress under the city along with all its inhabitants in order to protect himself? Regrettably, the answer was almost certainly yes, and she was sure Clark thought the same thing. They couldn't afford to leave any more evidence, if they could help it.
At last the lock clicked open and she pocketed her lock pick. With another glance around, she turned the knob and pushed the door open.
The room beyond had obviously been a natural cavern originally, that those who had dug this fantastic place must have stumbled upon, but it had been adapted for another purpose since then. Lois stepped inside, followed by her partner, and he closed the door behind them. Then they both paused, staring around in silence.
The walls were of some kind of natural rock, but naked wiring ran up the walls and was draped from the roof between unshielded fluorescent lighting fixtures, and on the walls were various screens, now blank. Around the big room were consoles, each with a computer screen and an array of instruments. From somewhere came the faint hum and click of equipment running in the background. On one wall to Lois's left was a single, larger screen that was lit, showing a computer graphic of the Earth, rotating slowly, and around it a display of minuscule moving points of light that seemed to always maintain their relative positions over the planet.
"What's that?" she whispered. The room was empty of human life but somehow the incredible scene seemed to require that she keep her voice down.
Clark was frowning at the display. "I'm not sure. It looks like a computer animation of Earth and some kind of satellites in geosynchronous orbit around it."
"*What* kind of orbit?"
"A geosynchronous orbit is the kind where an object stays above the same spot on the planet -- it moves at the same speed as the Earth's rotation," Clark explained. "Look in the lower right corner. There's the real Earth. It looks like pictures I've seen taken from Space Station Prometheus."
Now Lois saw the much smaller picture where Clark had indicated it. She hadn't noticed it among all the various readouts and symbols crowding the bottom of the screen. "You mean those lights are satellites?"
"I think so," Clark said. "It looks like about --" He was silent for several seconds, squinting at the screen. "I think there's about six."
"I only see four."
"Yeah, but each one is positioned over a large land mass." He pointed. "One each over Europe and Asia. One over Africa and another over Australia. The other big land masses -- not counting Antarctica -- are North and South America. If you look at the graphic there's a ghost outline of them on the other side, showing through, and one point above each one. Now why would Luthor be monitoring a bunch of geosynchronous satellites orbiting the Earth? Surveillance satellites, maybe? And how did they get there? I don't recall any launches from EPRAD recently."
Lois stared at the screen. "And what do they have to do with OP EMP?" she added.
Clark looked at her sharply, and Lois could almost swear that she heard an audible click. "Electromagnetic pulse," he said slowly. "EMP is an abbreviation for electromagnetic pulse. OP might mean operations or something, but the EMP is the important thing, if I'm right. And it makes sense."
"Well, it doesn't to me!" Lois said caustically. "What's an electromagnetic pulse, and how does it make sense?"
"Come on," Clark said. "Let's look around while we have time. An electromagnetic pulse is produced from the explosion of a nuclear weapon. It will fry any unshielded electronic equipment within its range. If you explode it in the sky above an area, anything that uses electronic circuits will stop working, unless they're shielded."
"But what has that got to do with anything?"
"Think of Metropolis suddenly without power. No internet, no communications. Nothing. A lot of cars wouldn't work, because most of the newer cars use electronics -- not like the old ones. And they'd run out of gas before long because it takes electricity to run the gas pumps. No running water because we pump the water in. Then think of it that way everywhere."
Lois found herself staring at him in horror. "Earth would be practically back in the Stone Age."
"Yeah," Clark said. "Sort of like after Nightfall."
Lois swallowed. "And if Lex and his people were down here with tons of food and technology they'd be fine. There would be chaos at first, maybe some wars, lots of people dying, but in a few years things would settle down and then he could come out and --"
"Luthor the First," Clark said. "It would have been nice to have Space Station Luthor to live and rule, and play emperor from, but I think he'd make do here. No wonder he had this place waiting when Nightfall showed up."
**********
tbc
