Yeah, I know. But the Muse grabbed my keyboard and wouldn't let me type until I added in all this cool stuff that she thought up over the last week. so I had to put in another part. The saga continues.
Games People Play: 7/9
by Nan Smith
Previously:
But he had no intention of letting all the evidence get away. A quick dive into Earth's atmosphere to refill his air supply for a third time, a race to the Moon, guiding one remaining satellite, and a short time later he lifted off the dark side of Earth's barren companion, leaving behind his prize, its nuclear payload intact.
He hoped Lois had been able to convince Henderson in time to do some good, he thought as he entered Earth's atmosphere and set a course toward Metropolis. If Lex Luthor realized that he and Lois had been there and what they had seen, Clark knew enough of the billionaire to realize that he wouldn't hesitate to destroy the evidence, and with it every denizen of the underground bunker. As it was, Luthor had to know who had disposed of his nuclear satellites. Clark wasn't sure what the man would do, but he was fairly certain that Luthor would do something.
But just once it was going to have to be brought to an end by Metropolis's Finest. Superman was going to have to stay at a safe distance.
**********
And now, Part 7:
Lois Lane tapped her foot crossly and then drummed her fingers on the chair arm.
She shouldn't be so annoyed, of course. Her report to Henderson had been met with far more belief than she might have expected, especially after Henderson had had her photos developed in the station's lab. And then there had been the explosion in space.
No one missed that. The ball of light had blazed brighter than the Moon in the night sky, and Henderson had run out along with everyone else to see it.
"Looks like Big Blue got the test bomb," he said tersely, after he and Lois were alone once more in his office.
"What are you going to do about it?" Lois demanded.
"Take it easy," the Inspector told her. "I'm getting a warrant from a judge I can trust."
"What do you mean, 'trust'?" Lois asked.
Henderson's lips stretched in a dry smile. "Let's say that Mr. Luthor has a lot of persons on his payroll that don't appear in the official records," he said. "You don't think you were the only one that suspected him of a skeleton or fifty in his closet, do you?"
She shook her head.
"Actually, I'm a little surprised," Henderson continued. "I thought he'd taken you in completely."
She wasn't about to admit to Henderson that he was right. "Have you ever heard of an undercover investigation?" she inquired crossly.
Again that dry smile. "That was why you showed up with him on the society page last week? And the one the week before?"
"Never mind that," she said. "Yesterday was the breakthrough I'd been looking for. I couldn't wait any longer to report it -- not with what Clark and I found."
"I'm glad you did," Henderson said. "But where's Kent? Did you say he was with you?"
Darn it! How was she supposed to cover that part?
"Yes, he was. He got hold of Superman for me. He's holding off on writing the article until the MPD gets finished with whatever you guys are going to do, though."
"I'm surprised it's not already on the news," Henderson said drily.
"Clark and I aren't stupid!" Lois said. "We don't want Lex to get away with this either!"
"I guess I should be grateful for small favors," Henderson said. He turned his head as the intercom squawked at him. "Yeah?"
"We got it, Boss," a woman's voice said.
"Great. Is everybody ready?"
"Ready and waiting."
"I'll be right there." Henderson got up and paused as Lois also rose. "Where do you think you're going, Lois?"
"With you! I've got a story to report on!"
Henderson shook his head decisively. "You'll hear about it when we get back. I'm not going to risk a civilian getting hurt or killed down there. Or, equally important, an eyewitness."
"But --"
"I don't have time to argue," Henderson said. "Stay here." He relented slightly at the sight of her rebellious expression. "Look, you've got the exclusive. That's a promise. But I don't want you anywhere near that place, or near Luthor's goons. It would be awfully easy for you to catch a stray bullet. Besides, I'd miss your insults." He left the room without another word, leaving Lois to glare at the unresponsive door.
Five minutes later, Lois poked her head out the door and looked carefully in both directions. Henderson was probably gone by now and if she hurried she wouldn't be too far behind him. Lex Tower was only a few blocks away and if she was lucky enough to spot a taxi she might be able to get there in time to see most of the action.
Carefully, she closed the door to Henderson's office and turned quietly toward the rear of the building.
The door through which she exited a few moments later opened upon an alley, and she was able to reach the street in less than a minute.
It was still dark, of course, but the streets weren't empty. Cars passed on the thoroughfare, perhaps not with the same frequency as in daylight, but still in respectable numbers. A glance at her watch told her it was sixteen minutes after three.
She glanced upward. The remnants of the nuclear explosion still glowed in the night sky, and Lois shuddered. Clark had pushed that thing out of orbit around the Earth, taken the bomb to a safe distance where the electromagnetic pulse that it produced would not harm the planet. She hoped sincerely that he had been a safe distance away before it had blown. How invulnerable was Superman, anyway?
She frowned, still looking at the glowing embers of the nuclear blast in space. He could be hurt, she knew. Maybe even killed. In Smallville, a few months ago, she had seen him first affected by allergies and then the victim of a paper cut.
But that wasn't right, she thought not for the first time. Superman didn't get either allergies or paper cuts.
And then it was as if something in her brain clicked.
Superman couldn't be cut or shot. He could hold his breath and fly into airless space without a suit -- and yet his finger had been bleeding that day in Smallville. She hadn't had enough information back then to put the pieces together and had thought nothing of it, but that was before she and Clark had stayed in the Honeymoon Suite at the Lexor, when Lois had made her discovery.
They had gone to Smallville months ago and run into Bureau 39, headed by Jason Trask, hunting for a mineral that he had believed could kill Superman. Clark had named the imaginary stuff Kryptonite for their article a few days later. Lois had given the hypothetical substance little credibility at the time, and very little thought about it since. But there *had* been Kryptonite in Smallville. There was no other explanation.
Clark must have encountered it that first night sometime before she had come downstairs to check the fax machine and found him sitting at the kitchen table with his parents, in obvious physical distress. And the next day he had cut his finger on a sheet of paper. Whatever Kryptonite was, it had taken away his invulnerability, and maybe more. He must have recovered later, so the effect was temporary, although who knew what might have happened if he had stayed near it longer?
And a short time ago, instead of going back -- as Superman -- to stop the test, he had elected to take her to safety and go to stop Lex's nuclear devices directly.
Of course, it was possible that he might not have been able to stop the test down in the bunker, but he could have grabbed Lex when he had come into the room where they were hiding, and he hadn't. She had wondered at the time what was wrong. Now she knew that he had feared a nuclear explosion less than he feared Kryptonite.
Wayne Irig had sent a piece of the alien mineral to a lab for analysis, Lois recalled, and it had vanished. She should have added it up before. She might have if she had known the truth about Clark.
Lex had tentacles everywhere, and the possibility of a weapon against Superman must have been irresistible. Of course he was behind its disappearance. Looking back on the episode from her new perspective it was obvious. If it was as effective against Superman as Trask had believed, Lex would use it against Superman in his bid to become Luthor the First in the antediluvian world that he would create with his EMP weapons. It all added up.
Lex must have had the Kryptonite, whatever it was, with him back in the cave and apparently it really was so dangerous that Clark dared not get close to it.
She was almost surprised at the steely determination that washed through her then, but not really. Lex Luthor could not be allowed to use the Kryptonite against Clark, nor must he be allowed to give it to someone else for the purpose. And almost as important, the knowledge of what it could do to Superman must not be allowed to become public. Even Lex couldn't be sure, she thought, and she couldn't let him find out for certain.
By hook or by crook, she was going to have to get hold of it herself.
**********
Fifteen minutes later, Lois Lane, clad in the slightly loose outfit of a member of Metropolis's SWAT Team and clutching a full automatic rifle, strode confidently toward the entrance to Lex Tower. The operation was underway. The radio receiver in her ear faithfully relayed the communications flying back and forth between the officers involved in the invasion of Luthor's bunker. It was a little hard to follow, but it seemed as if things were going smoothly, at least so far. Without difficulty, she picked up the distinctive voice of Inspector Henderson, and had to remind herself that what she was doing was absolutely crucial, because it was for Clark.
It hadn't been difficult, once she had spotted the vehicle belonging to a female officer on the unit. Popping the car's trunk had taken seconds and pulling on the clothing hadn't consumed much more time. Two men stood at the main entrance of Lex Luthor's headquarters, guarding the doors against escapees, and Lois approached, almost holding her breath.
But neither man objected. She nodded to them as she pushed her way through the entranceway and into the big lobby of the Tower. Once inside, she didn't hesitate but hurried toward the main hall with a businesslike stride, passing two other SWAT officers without speaking. She needed to find Lex at once, and if he was already in custody she needed to get her hands on anything that they had taken from him that might be the mysterious Kryptonite. She had no idea what it might look like, but she was fairly confident that she could figure it out fast enough.
Someone's voice spoke in her ear, telling all officers in general to be on the lookout for Lex. Lois gathered from the announcement that they had not located him yet.
Well, he could be in his underground fortress, of course, but Lois didn't think so. His test had failed, and Lex would have to be a lot stupider than she thought he was not to realize that something had happened to his bomb -- and who had caused it. So what would he do?
Well, Lex couldn't know that Superman had reason to connect his bunker to the orbiting weapon. If Lex was half as smart as she thought he was, he'd have left no identifying features on the orbiting bomb. He might very well figure that Superman had spotted the weapon on one of his trips beyond Earth's atmosphere. Superman had never been very forthcoming about the extent of his powers, or exactly what they were. People were free to speculate, and Lois thought that approach was probably a good one. The less people knew about Superman's abilities, the harder it was for them to predict what he could and could not do.
In any case, on her hurried trip to Lex Tower, Lois had decided upon her approach. What Lex would probably do, she thought, was go up to his penthouse and act innocent, so that would be her method of attack. Surely, he wouldn't carry the Kryptonite with him all the time, would he? But if he did, she still might be able to work out a way to get her hands on it.
The elevator that Lex Luthor used to reach his penthouse was in the hallway just beyond the lobby. Lois strode confidently through the lobby, nodding to the SWAT officer who appeared to have been stationed there to keep an eye on things, and entered the hall.
Several SWAT officers were waiting at the elevator.
Lois stopped. Getting into the car with several members of Metropolis's SWAT team probably wasn't a good idea. If they got a close look at her they would know at once that she wasn't a member of their group.
But there was another elevator two halls away that went to the floor directly beneath Lex's lavish penthouse, and that would be almost as good, because it opened on Lex's servants' quarters and on the penthouse kitchens. And in the kitchens there was another elevator -- a dumbwaiter, actually -- that opened on the room adjacent to Lex's luxurious study.
**********
Clark Kent, in his guise as Superman, entered the Twelfth Precinct and approached the desk sergeant. "Sergeant Binns?"
The man hastily laid a raised doughnut down on a greasy napkin, chewed laboriously at the chunk he had just bitten from the confection and swallowed convulsively. "Superman?"
"Is Ms. Lane still here?" he inquired.
The man nodded. "She should be waiting in Inspector Henderson's office," he said. "The Inspector isn't here, though. He left with the SWAT team about --" The sergeant glanced at his watch. "About twenty minutes ago."
"Would it be all right if I went back to wait for him?" Clark inquired politely.
The sergeant nodded. "Sure. Go ahead."
"Thanks." Clark went past him toward the door at the rear of the room. The sergeant picked up his doughnut.
Clark strode quickly down the hallway, his cape waving behind him. A vague sense of uneasiness warred with his relief at the outcome of his mission into space. Something wasn't right, and he couldn't put his finger on it. He knocked on the door to Henderson's office.
There was no answer. He knocked again.
Still nothing. He x-rayed the room beyond the door.
The room was empty.
That was what had been nagging at him, he thought. Lois's heartbeat was nowhere in the building.
He stood for a split second with the thoughts racing through his mind, along with a sinking sense of certainty. Henderson would have refused to take Lois with him to capture Lex Luthor, and Lois would have refused to accept Henderson's decree.
Clark had a pretty good idea where his partner was.
**********
tbc
