This chapter has been revised from the original post based on feedback.
***~~~***
Chapter 20: Raid
***~~~***
The next morning Lois came out of her room to find Clark preparing breakfast. She was surprised that upon seeing him her first thought was to kiss him good morning. She shook it off and instead walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder. “Good morning,” she said. Even with just a casual touch, she could tell that the special feeling from last night was still present. The feeling of connection and rightness that had almost overwhelmed her during their kiss was still going strong. She reluctantly removed her hand from her roommate and forced her mind onto more mundane matters for the rest of the morning.
Once they got to work, the day was among the least eventful since Nightfall had struck. There weren’t any developments in the Superman investigation and Lois spent her day on solo stories. Except for the most incidental interactions, both she and Clark were too busy with separate projects to spend any time together.
Unfortunately, an incident in the late morning added confusion to Lois’s day. She’d just been to the coffee station when she overheard two office interns speculating about her and Clark living together. That got her fears going again and she had trouble getting back to work. Naturally, right after that Clark decided to come over to ask her to lunch. Not only was she short in declining his invitation, but when he asked if anything was wrong and reached for her hand, she pulled away. A hurt-looking Clark went to lunch alone and then kept his distance for the rest of the day. While that one voice kept telling her that it was for the best to push him away, another part wanted to pull him aside and apologize.
As the day wore on, Lois was surprised to notice how intensely she missed working with Clark. Every time she almost got up the courage to apologize for her curt behavior before lunch, that voice got loud again. She was happy when the end of the day finally arrived since it meant she’d be able to spend some time with her roommate.
That night at the apartment, Lois was especially aware of how much she enjoyed simply being with Clark. Looking back, she thought he’d been acting strangely all evening. Finally, just before bedtime, Lois realized that Clark was nervously waiting for her to define their relationship. As a result, the evening had turned into an anxious dance of avoidance.
All during the day when she wasn’t thinking about pushing Clark away, she’d been thinking about kissing him. Once she realized what was happening, she decided that the only way to deal with it was to meet the challenge head on. Therefore, when Clark escorted her to her door, instead of settling for a kiss on the cheek, Lois initiated a repeat performance of the kiss that ended their date. Clark quickly got over the shock of the unexpected intimacy of the kiss and responded in kind. And there it was again. That sense of…what? Connection? Completion? Perfection? She didn’t know. What she did know was that tonight’s kiss was just as otherworldly as the one last night.
In that moment she felt her own worries starting to slip away. If only it could be this easy. Maybe this would be the relationship that didn’t end badly. But no matter how hard she tried to just go with the feeling, she couldn’t quite escape that small voice that kept saying, “What if it goes bad?” and “If you don’t let him get too close, he can’t hurt you.” Despite the voice, Lois was thoroughly enjoying the kiss and would have been happy to have it continue. However, Clark had other ideas. Without warning he moved his hands to her hips and gently but firmly pushed away.
“Lois, what’s going on?” Clark asked. He sounded confused, but not angry.
She tried to brush it off. “I thought we were kissing. What did you think was going on?”
“You know what I mean.” Now there was a touch of frustration in his voice. “You know how I feel. If our relationship has changed, please tell me.”
She should have expected this from him. “Clark, I don’t know exactly what’s happening,” she admitted.
Clark reached out and touched her cheek. “Please tell me that you want to move our relationship forward.”
She could hear the longing in his voice. His touch sent a warm feeling through her. “Yes. I… Clark, I want to, but I’m scared. Things changed last night.”
“They changed for me too,” Clark replied. “Not in what I feel, but… well, I was hoping you might have changed the way you feel.”
“I think my feelings have changed,” Lois offered. “I’m just not sure what it all means.”
“Lois, to be honest I don’t see how we can kiss like this and go on just being roommates. At least, I’m sure I can’t. If we are going to be … boyfriend and girlfriend, then that’s great. But it doesn’t feel right like this.”
Lois didn’t know what to do. The kiss tonight had been an experiment. She had been wondering all day if what happened the previous evening was a one-time deal or if it would happen again. She had her answer. Clark’s kisses did something to her; when she kissed him she felt things she’d never felt before.
Unfortunately, now she was just as confused as ever. Part of her wanted to reach out and hold him as tightly as a moment ago when they kissed. Another part wanted to run away. It didn’t help that she knew that holding Clark would make her feel better. It would make her feel a lot better. But unless she was ready to commit to a relationship, that wasn’t fair to either of them. She looked up to find Clark waiting expectantly for her to continue.
“Clark, I’m not sure where we are. I guess I needed to know.”
“Know what?”
“If last night was a fluke.”
“Well, I can answer for me, but I don’t think that’s what you were wondering.” He paused for a moment as if trying to decide what to say. “Did you get your answer?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Tonight was…great. But, Clark, I’m scared. This all feels too fast. I need time to think.”
He looked disappointed but not too much so. “Okay, but..”
“But what?” she asked.
“As much as I enjoyed it, and I did enjoy it very much, I don’t think we should kiss again unless you decide that you want our relationship to move in that direction. So until then, we go back to just being roommates. Okay?”
He was right. It wasn’t fair to him to kiss like that unless she was ready to go all-in on this relationship. She’d acted like a tease and Clark didn’t hold it against her. He was so good for her. “Yes. I think that is a great plan.”
“Well, then, goodnight, roommate.” He took a small but deliberate step back away from her and her door.
She was through her door before she realized that in many ways they were repeating last night’s scene. As she entered the room, she turned to find Clark still watching her. In a flash, she realized that she remembered that look. The words still echoed in her memory, ‘Don’t fall for me, farmboy. I don’t have time for it.’ Apparently, he had fallen for her anyway. But there was something else there. Now he was waiting for her. Was she ready to believe that he was the man she had needed in her life all along?
“Goodnight, Clark, and thank you.” She hoped her voice did justice to the warmth she was feeling toward him right now.
There was that megawatt smile again. “Goodnight, Lois.”
That added yet another night to the list of those where she had trouble falling asleep due to thinking about Clark Kent.
***~~~***
The next morning lacked much of the personal tension that had filled the air on the previous day. Clark had gone out of his way all morning to play the part of her friend or possibly her brother but not seem like anything more. Lois was of two minds about this. Part of her wanted to throw caution to the wind and give Clark the good morning kiss she’d been thinking about for the past two days. But that voice warning her to play it safe and steer clear of any relationship just wouldn’t shut up. All in all it was very frustrating and left her with a short temper all morning.
They were back on the Superman investigation. Lois had a feeling that something was about to break. Both Bernie and Fred had been working steadily to trace Superman’s mission equipment and try to discover the location of the so-called integration modifications. Bernie had gotten the shipping receipt from the delivery of the equipment from Fred’s lab to the staging area where the EPRAD team took possession from LexCorp. Lois and Clark were able to use that receipt to trace the equipment. They were certain now that the missing extra stop was somewhere in the city of Metropolis. Fred had run into a roadblock when he had tried to trace the equipment from his end. None of his contacts were able to provide any information.
Early in the morning, Fred called Lois to tell her that he was near a breakthrough. He wasn’t willing to say any more over the phone, but said he would report in person later in the day. So for now Lois and Clark worked other, mainly pedestrian stories, while they waited.
The crime rate was still much higher than before Nightfall. Debating the point about whether Nightfall or the lack of Superman was most responsible for the increase in crime had become a popular pastime. Of those that seemed committed to the Nightfall explanation, many seemed to be reading from the same playbook. They consistently argued that Superman hadn’t been that valuable to have around and the world would have been better off if he had never arrived. The first few times she had heard this line of argument, Lois had gone ballistic. It was quickly evident that these people tended to have a connection to a Lex Luthor-controlled company. Given what they now knew about Lex, that wasn’t a surprise. It had become almost a game to see how quickly she or Clark could establish a link between someone arguing the anti-Superman line and Luthor.
However, Lois was beginning to detect a new trend which she found most disturbing. Early on, she’d been able to trace almost all the anti-Superman speakers back to Lex. But each day there seemed to be a few more public figures joining the anti-Superman camp with no apparent inducement from Luthor. This made Lois more anxious than ever to get the evidence so they could move with the story.
Fred showed up with Bernie Klein in tow early in the afternoon. His excitement was obvious as he practically ran to Lois’s desk.
“Ms. Lane. We need to talk!”
She saw that Clark was already on his way over. “In the conference room,” she said as she stood and started for the meeting room. She led the way with Fred, Bernie, and Clark on her heels.
The door was barely closed when Fred started talking excitedly. “We found it.”
“What do you mean? Found what?” Clark asked.
“Bernie and I were going over the remnants of the survival pack when he asked about a piece of burned equipment.”
Bernie cut in. “The specs for the survival module were very general. Fred’s lab added a number of enhancements.”
Fred picked the story up again. “One of the parts we added was an independently powered location transponder. The idea was to have an emergency backup location system. It would broadcast a locator signal for 72 hours.”
“Hold it,” Lois said. “Why didn’t anyone use this to track Superman after the Nightfall intercept?”
Bernie answered her question. “It was a short range system. More than twenty miles away, the signal is too weak to detect.”
Fred spoke up. “The idea was that if Superman got back and was on the ground but injured, we could use this to find him. We assumed that we’d know his general area. This was a short range, high precision device.”
Then Bernie picked it up again. “The one that was on the mission pack didn’t survive re-entry. By the time we thought to look for that signal, there was nothing to detect.”
Lois was getting impatient. “So what good does this information do us?”
Fred’s turn again. “The transponder was designed to be triggered by an external signal. There were spare parts to everything in the system. We figured that there might be a chance that the backup transponder would be with the rest of the backup equipment. We mounted a transmitter in a Star Labs truck and drove around the city broadcasting the activation signal. In less than half an hour, we were getting a reply. We traced it to what looked like an industrial warehouse.”
“That’s great,” Lois said. “But what good do those parts do us?”
Fred answered immediately. “There was a backup for the security key module. It should have the same set of digital keys as the one that was destroyed. If it’s there then we should be able to listen to that encrypted message we found.”
Before she could reply, Clark cut in. “If Fred’s original spare parts are there, maybe there will be information about the modifications. Even if the key module isn’t there, we might find information that will lead to the people that modified the equipment.”
“And that might lead to the person that ordered the changes,” Lois added. “Okay, I’m convinced. We need to get into that warehouse.” She looked at Fred. “Did you see any people in the area? Any security?”
“No. The area looked completely deserted,” Fred answered.
“I think we should take a look in that warehouse ourselves.” Lois said.
“I’m not sure that would be a good idea.” Clark cautioned.
“Clark, you always say that when I want to bend the rules for a story.”
“But, Lois, this isn’t about a story,” Clark said. “This is about getting the evidence about what happened to Superman in a way that can convince the world. If you and I bring this in ourselves, some people will say that we faked the evidence. You’ve always been Superman’s staunchest supporter.”
“You aren’t being fair.” Lois’s voice carried an element of complaint but she knew that Clark was probably right this time.
Clark seemed to sense that she wasn’t going to push the issue and came back immediately. “Maybe not. But this has to be about more than a story. I think we should go to Bill Henderson and see if he can get a search warrant and make this official. That way we have a legal chain of evidence and the critics will have a much harder time claiming bias.”
Lois had to concede that Clark was right. This was way bigger than just a story. “So what do we use to convince Bill that this is a police matter?” she asked. “None of this equipment is stolen. What crime can we ask Bill to investigate here?”
Clark looked back at Lois with surprise. “Murder.” His tone was deadly serious. “We have the recovered environmental pack. It has traces of Kryptonite and nerve gas. The other equipment may be evidence in the crime of murdering Superman.”
“We know that, but without his body we may not have enough.”
Clark thought for a moment then his expression brightened. “We have my body. I was exposed to the gas and had my memory erased. That has to be at least good enough for some sort of criminal negligence or something.”
She looked at Bernie. “Do you have any samples and notes that we can take to the police?”
“Yes,” Bernie replied. “I had a feeling that sooner or later we would have to provide evidence detailing what we’ve discovered. I have two sets of reports each with samples and test results.”
“That’s great,” Lois said. “Are they small enough that we could bring them to police headquarters?”
“Yes. I picked the samples with that in mind. We’ve recovered enough of the survival pack that we would produce a dozen report packages like this.”
“Then it’s time we talk with Bill Henderson,” Lois announced.
***~~~***
When Lois led the way into Bill Henderson’s office, he was waiting. There had been some trouble getting through security with the samples that Bernie had supplied, but the parts were all small and obviously not weapons. Even so, if she and Clark hadn’t been so well known and respected, there might have been even more trouble.
“Lane, Kent, what can possibly be so important?”
Lois motioned Clark to close the door and spoke in a hushed tone. “Bill, we have some very important information. Can we talk in here without being overheard?”
He looked slightly offended at that. “You know we can.”
“We need some help to finish an investigation.”
“You know I don’t help you with stories unless a crime is involved.” There was a note of curiosity in his reply.
“Last time I checked, murder was a crime,” she deadpanned back.
“Okay, Lois, you have my attention. Who was murdered?” Now Henderson’s voice was all business.
“Superman.”
“What?” It was clear that he didn’t expect that.
They spent the next twenty minutes going over their investigation. She described how investigating Clark’s amnesia led them to the building where they found the equipment and how Bernie Klein had reconstructed the Nightfall mission.
When she was done Henderson was speechless for several long minutes. Finally, in a tone of shocked disbelief he asked, “So you’re telling me that someone sabotaged the Nightfall mission to kill Superman?”
“Bill, we know how crazy it must sound but we brought samples of equipment that was on the mission,” Clark answered. “Some of these still have traces of the Kryptonite and the nerve gas. There isn’t enough to harm anyone but there is enough to detect. We also have the full write up of the analysis.”
“What do you want me to do with all this?” Bill asked. “I can see you writing a story, but you must be here for a reason.”
“Bill, there was more equipment that didn’t go on the mission,” Lois supplied. “We think there’s a chance that there will be evidence that might identify who was responsible. We were hoping to convince you to get a search warrant and raid the warehouse where the rest of the equipment is located.”
His eyes lit up at this. “You know where it is?”
“Yes,” she answered. “Bernie Klein managed to trigger a spare locator beacon that led to a warehouse owned by a LexCorp front company.”
“What do you expect to find there?” Bill asked.
Lois continued. “We’re hoping that there will be records and equipment. The jackpot would be a spare key module for the communication system. There was a message for Superman that played at the same time the poison gas was triggered. It’s heavily encrypted and the key module was burned away. Our contact says there was a spare. If we can get that and use it to play the message, we may know who was behind this.”
Bill was quiet again. Finally he seemed to have it all straight. “You think you know who is responsible, don’t you?”
“Bill, we’ve already told you this is LexCorp,” Lois said. “We have a suspicion but no evidence. Since we don’t have the facts to back up our suspicions we’d rather not say yet. Can you live with that for now?”
“I guess.” Bill was quiet for a moment. Lois could almost see the wheels turning. A moment later he said, “I think I can get the search warrant. I gather you think this should be done as quietly as possible?”
“Yes, Bill. We know that there is a LexCorp connection. With the links they have to MPD now, we need to do this in a way that won’t alert anyone there that might have been involved.”
“I understand. I think we should move as quickly as possible on this. Is the place guarded?”
“Not that we could tell,” Lois answered. “It looked pretty deserted.”
“We’ll do this like a drug raid. We can bring that team and tell them that we’re going to raid a reinforced drug manufacturing setup. I should be able to make the arrangements for tonight. I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks, Bill. We owe you,” Lois offered.
“Not for this,” he replied. “First, if someone really did this deliberately, then the whole world deserves to have them brought to justice. Second, Superman was my friend too.” He looked at Clark. “And, Clark, what happened to you was bad enough on its own. Whoever did this cost you the memories of your whole life. I’d support you if that were the only reason.”
***~~~***
The whole middle of the day seemed to go in slow motion. Both Lois and Clark busied themselves with other articles and minor investigations. Clark seemed more confident in his abilities now and had gotten reacquainted with most of his contacts. Lois revisited an ongoing check into connections between Lex and The Boss. As had generally been the case with any investigation into Metropolis’s crime king, no one would say a word.
Lois took the call from Henderson late that afternoon. “Lois, can you and Kent come by my office? I’d like to discuss the evidence you provided from your apartment building collapse.”
Lois knew that the only evidence they had discussed recently had nothing to do with her apartment. “Sure, Bill. We’re not busy right now and we’ll be right over. I appreciate you following up on that evidence. I know MPD has a lot on its hands these days.”
“No problem, Lois. We’re busy but this was a serious crime. There are some developments that I thought you might find interesting for your own investigation.”
“Okay, Bill. We’ll be over shortly.” When she hung up the phone she called to her partner. “Clark, we need to head over to MPD. Bill Henderson has something for us.”
For a second, he looked like he wanted to ask a question but then seemed to think better of it. He simply set down his work, stood up and grabbed his jacket. “I’m ready when you are.”
She started gathering her stuff. “Let’s go.”
***~~~***
In less than half an hour they were in Henderson’s office. As soon as the door was closed Bill spoke up. “This was much easier than I thought. There are several judges that are above reproach and thought very highly of Superman. With the analysis you provided, it was easy to convince one that a search warrant was in order. I’ve hand-picked the team that will participate in the raid. I sized it as if this were a raid on a newly-discovered drug manufacturing warehouse. That will explain why we’re in that part of the city. It also makes a good cover for any leaks that might occur before tonight.”
“Bill, we need to be there,” Lois said.
“That works for me. I need your technology specialists to help me identify evidence that will be important. What I hope we find is some more of that nerve gas.”
“Why that in particular?” Clark asked.
Bill looked intently at Clark. “Because you’re our ace-in-the-hole. It will be difficult to prove much about what happened to Superman based on the evidence we’re likely to find. However, that gas is very hard to come by and Clark was injured by a release of that gas inside Metropolis city limits. That gas provides evidence for a crime where all of the parts are in place. That is the hook that we can use for following up on whatever we find.”
“Bill, I’m surprised. Clark is important…” She looked over at her partner and realized what she was saying. She reached over and squeezed his hand before continuing. “Okay, Clark is very important, but what was done to Superman harmed the entire world.”
“I’m not trying to devalue Superman,” Bill replied. “You know me better than that. If this was just about Clark, we probably would still have been able to get the search warrant. But we wouldn’t have gotten it so easily. And while there is ample evidence that someone tried to kill Superman, the evidence you have shows only a tenuous link to Metropolis. It’s probably more in the FBI’s jurisdiction. The more we can find to tie this into what happened to Clark, the more we can do on our own.”
“You’re right, Bill. I’m sorry,” Lois apologized. “I just want to get to the bottom of all this.”
“The raid is set to go down at 9:30 tonight. I’d like you to be there with Dr. Klein and any other technical experts you think would be valuable.”
“We have one other person that has been working with Dr. Klein on this investigation. I think the four of us will be all we need.”
Clark interrupted. “Bill, can we bring a photographer?”
Henderson thought about the request. “I don’t see a problem with that. You know the rules about this sort of situation. Stay back until we give you the go ahead. Do you have a photographer that you can trust?”
Clark glanced at Lois for only a second before answering. “I was thinking about bringing Jimmy Olsen. He’s been involved in some parts of the investigation and he’s been working to establish himself as a photographer. He deserves to be in on this.”
“Olsen’s a good kid. So you’ll be there at 9:30?”
“We’ll be there,” Lois assured him.
***~~~***
In many ways, the actual raid was anticlimactic. To outward appearances, it was just another warehouse in an industrial district. Entering the building involved little more than the creative use of some bolt cutters. Henderson had brought the tank-ram vehicle that MPD used to break down walls of fortified buildings, but it wasn’t necessary.
The police went in first. Bill insisted that they do this by the book. He was going to make everyone wait for the entire building to be secure before they entered, but then he got inside and realized how big it was. It would take hours to search if they just looked around. Fortunately, Bernie had brought several pieces of equipment including a small device that could show the precise location of the beacon. Since Bernie and Fred had all the expertise and the critical equipment, the scientists led, escorted by the police.
The tracking device led them to a series of rooms up against one wall of the warehouse. They were generally nondescript but the padlocks on the doors were of a much higher quality than the locks on the building. However, the police had brought plenty of equipment and in moments the first lock was history.
When the light came on it revealed a room full of advanced looking equipment. Fred was right at the front of the group. He took a quick look around the room. “This is it!” he exclaimed. “This is all the backup and spare parts we prepared.” He started moving toward a bench that had several larger pieces of equipment.
Henderson cut him off. “Wait! Please don’t touch anything until we can dust for prints.”
Fred paused and then turned to Henderson. “Some of this equipment is especially important.” He pointed at a bench. “Can you have your team go over these first?”
“Sure,” Bill replied. “I have a forensics team with us. You can look around but please don’t touch anything unless we give you the go-ahead.”
Fred walked over to a large piece of equipment that stood in one corner of the room. He turned back to Bill and then pointed at a small box that was attached to the larger pack. “You need to process this part first. This is the communication system security module. It should have the keys to decipher the message that Superman heard when the gas was released. Bernie and I were hoping to find this and we brought a playback module with the data file. If we can plug that module into our playback system, we should be able to listen to the message.”
“Okay, we’ll work that first.” Henderson stepped outside and in a moment several officers were photographing and cataloging that section of the room. While the team was working there, the scientists were looking over the rest of the room very carefully. From what Bernie and Fred were saying to each other, this was all of the support equipment and spare parts that Fred’s team developed for the Nightfall mission. There were several locked filing cabinets but the contents of those would have to wait until the forensics team could get to them.
A moment later Henderson approached them. “We found something in another room that we would like you to look at.”
They left the room to find that all of the rooms had been entered. The police teams seemed to be making a systematic search of the adjacent rooms. “In here.” Henderson stepped through a door.
This room was almost empty. There was nothing but a series of tanks standing next to one wall. Henderson pointed to the canisters. “Can you tell me what those are?”
Bernie went nearer before suddenly reversing course and backing away. “You need to get everyone out of this room right now. The marking on some of those canisters are nerve gas. You need to bring in a military hazmat team to handle those.”
The exited the room and closed the door. Henderson turned to Bernie and asked, “How dangerous are those canisters?”
“Exceptionally.” Bernie said. “This is the gas that was used to kill Superman. It’s very deadly. It’s also the gas that in a trace amount cost Mr. Kent his memory. We should clear the entire warehouse until those canisters are safely removed.”
“Then we need to evacuate. Do you know who to contact in the military to take care of this?” Bill asked Bernie.
“Yes. I’ve made some contacts while researching this. I can initiate the call and let you work out the logistics of this being a police matter.”
They stepped back into the room with the Nightfall equipment. “We’re evacuating the building,” Bill announced in a shout. “Finish what you’re doing and get out.”
One of the forensics officers stepped toward Henderson. “We finished our work on that first part so we can go now.”
Lois, who had been letting the police and scientists do their job, cut in. “Bill, you have to let us take that security module. Your team is finished and we have the playback equipment outside.”
“Lois, I can’t let you take it. It’s evidence in an investigation.”
“Then you carry it,” she pleaded. “All we need to do is plug it into the playback unit that Bernie brought. You can have it back as soon as we hear the message.”
Bill took a moment to think through the options. “Fine. But I carry the module and it never leaves my possession.” He looked back at the police technician. “You’re sure that you’re done?”
“Yes, sir. There were no prints anywhere. I suspect the equipment was wiped down and that anyone that handled it must have worn gloves. We’ve photographed and cataloged everything in that section of the room.”
Bill walked over to the equipment where Fred was already standing. “We’re taking the security module with us. Could you disconnect it, please?”
Fred used one hand to press what looked like a locking pin while he pulled the security module off with his other hand. “This is all we need.”
Henderson held out his hand. “Please let me carry it. I want to maintain the chain of possession.” Then he raised his voice. “Everybody out now!”
It took less than a minute to evacuate the building. It helped that most of the police had already left. They took a minute to account for everyone and then Henderson deployed the police around the warehouse to establish a perimeter.
While Bill was deploying the police, Bernie and Fred had been setting up the playback unit. Finally Henderson was satisfied with the police situation and he came over to the Star Labs van.
“Are we ready?” he asked.
“Yes,” Bernie replied. “We just plug in the module, turn on the system and press this button. It will trigger a playback sequence and hopefully we’ll get to hear what Superman heard.”
Bill took the module out of his pocket. He was handing it to Fred when he suddenly stopped. “Is there any chance your device will damage this… thing? I don’t want to accidentally destroy this evidence.”
“No.” Fred answered. “This is standard military hardware. There’s nothing unique here except for the digital keys it carries. They are the only data that can be erased. When Bernie and I designed this playback unit, we made sure that we could play an encrypted message with no chance of destroying the key.” Fred’s expression turned very serious. “We think this message may be very important. We put a lot of time into making sure we could hear it.”
“Okay, I’m convinced,” Henderson said as he handed Fred the module.
Fred turned to the playback device. He made sure the power was off before plugging the unit into the empty receptacle. “Ready,” he said.
Bernie turned on the unit and looked at some indicators. “Everything looks good.” He started to reach for the play button but stopped short of pressing it. He looked at Lois and Clark. “Ms. Lane, Mr. Kent, would either of you rather do this? After all, it was your investigation that brought us all here today.”
Clark shook his head. Lois started to say no but on an impulse reached over and pressed the button marked, ‘Play.’
Luthor’s voice was unmistakable. “Hello, Superman, Lex Luthor here. I wanted to thank you for saving the planet for me. You should know that LexCorp built your survival suit. In fact, I personally helped in the design. From the instant your guidance system signaled that you were no longer needed, your air supply has been laced with Kryptonite and poison gas. You were a worthy adversary, but I always win. Have a nice death. Oh, I’ll be sure to be there to comfort Lois Lane when you’re gone.”
Even after all that they had learned and all that had happened, this seemed too much. The only thing Lois heard was her own voice saying, “Oh my God.”
TBC
Bob
