This part is dedicated to Doran for her birthday on Tuesday. 
It's a bit early, but next Monday would be too late. 
Happy Birthday!! 
~~~Part 15~~~
Lois felt a light caress against her cheek. She kept her eyes closed, not wanting to wake up just yet. This was a good dream. She let it play over in her head, hoping it would continue where it left off as dreams sometimes did in that half-awake state. And maybe if she wished hard enough, she could fall into it and not have to endure another humid night in the Congo.
She felt the feather-light touch against her cheek again. It was so much more real than in any of her previous dreams. She shifted a bit from where she was lying, but didn't get very far. There was a large pair of muscular arms embracing her. She froze for half a second until she remembered.
Clark.
She relaxed and smiled lazily, settling once again in his arms and stretching her legs. She was safe. She was content. She felt free. What more could she ask for?
Lois finally opened her eyes when she felt the slight moisture as Clark placed a kiss on her brow.
"Hello." His voice was deep, but quiet. Soothing.
"Hi." She smiled and ducked her head a bit.
Night had long since fallen before they'd dropped off to sleep after their emotional conversation, but it was darker now. The moon was high in the sky among the stars, and they lent a tender glow to their surroundings.
She finally looked back up at him, into his eyes. The smile that greeted her made her heart flutter. They were both quiet for a time, just comfortable in the moment. She snuggled closer to him.
Lois watched him as he turned his head to look at the sky. His smile broadened, and if she was seeing right, there was a watery glimmer in his eyes.
"Look, Lois." His voice sounded choked with emotion, and he spoke softly as his fingers started tracing lazy circles on the bare skin of her shoulder. "Look how bright the stars are."
She followed his gaze, and looked above her. The thick blanket of stars covering the sky was breathtaking. Thousands of twinkling orbs smiling down on them.
Clark was right; they did seem brighter than she could remember ever seeing them. But maybe it was because this was the first time she had really looked at them without the dense cloud of dread hanging over her.
"Wow. You ever wondered how many there are? How long it would take to count them all?"
His hand stilled. "Yeah... I wonder..."
"Clark, is something wrong?"
He kept staring at the stars, but his face was less peaceful, troubled almost. It must have been the uncertainty in her voice that made Clark turn to her with an almost startled look. The melancholy that had lined his face seconds ago was gone now, and had been replaced with a tender expression. He cupped her cheek and kissed her briefly on the lips. "No, Lois. Nothing's wrong. I was just thinking, that's all."
That reassured her... some. But she still had this niggling feeling tugging at her that something was wrong. Like maybe he hadn't told her everything before they'd fallen asleep in each other's arms.
***
Lois kept stealing cautious glances at Clark, as she'd done their entire flight back to the alleyway near St. John Enterprises. Clark looked to be scanning the building for occupants, and he'd told her he'd be able to assess the security system as well, find the easiest way to break in without being caught. Turned out it was going to be more helpful than she thought, having Superman as a partner.
She was worried about him, though. He'd talked, but she had a feeling there was still a lot he wasn't telling her, stuff he was still keeping bottled up inside. There was so much darkness and hurt hidden in those deep brown eyes of his, it'd take much longer than a night's conversation to reveal.
But she was encouraged by the fact that he *had* shared something. He'd made her realize that being a superhero wasn't as easy as one would think. Especially when his past was as dark and tragic as his had been. Sharing her own past had been difficult, but worth it. To see that look in Clark's eyes, the same feeling she'd had when she'd read the articles.
He'd realized he wasn't alone anymore.
She hadn't told him yet about the thing that was worrying her most right now. The strange suspicion that she could feel everything as he was feeling it - ever since they'd opened up and shared their emotions. She had to be imagining things. She was just being empathetic, which wasn't too hard to fathom considering the tragedies they'd both survived...
But there was something...
He kept looking at her. Like he'd do anything not to have her leave his side. Like he could see right into her soul when he looked into her eyes. That warmed her heart, but at the same time...
It scared her.
A lot.
What if there *was* something to this awareness she was experiencing? Another one of his powers? And if she could feel his emotions, did that mean he knew everything she was feeling? She was just being crazy, right?
Lois felt a bit guilty trying to avoid his gaze after everything they'd shared in the past few days, especially what they'd shared just in the last few hours, but she was scared of this possible connection she... must be imagining.
He turned to her, apparently having finished his scan, and gave her a thumbs-up and a grin. Then he took her hand and led her further down the alley and to the rear entrance of St. John's a half a block away. She smiled slightly, secure in the knowledge that she didn't have to pretend her stomach hadn't flipped a little at his touch, or that it felt insanely nice to be holding his hand.
She was grateful she didn't have time to contemplate the magnitude of emotions assaulting her. The responsibility of encouraging the world's superhero on her shoulders. The strange feeling of what she suspected were his emotions overwhelming her.
No, she didn't have time. Right now, she was Mad Dog Lane, investigative reporter - or at least she was trying to be.
Lois watched in awe as Clark punched in dozens of security codes and found the right one in a matter of seconds. He opened the door and let her slip in before he followed her, and the door snicked shut behind them.
Once inside, Lois realized how ill-equipped they were. They didn't have a flashlight, and the security lighting was a poor substitute. This was going to be harder than she'd thought.
"C'mon, this way," Clark whispered.
He was guiding her gently forward, their hands still linked. "I can't see a thing, Clark," she whispered back.
"That's okay, I can manage well enough."
She'd have sworn she heard him smiling with those words. She shook her head in amazement. She really had to find out what the extent of all his powers was.
Lois followed him blindly through the poorly-lit room and down an even darker hallway, trying not to draw frightening parallels to the last dark corridor she'd walked down. Only the warmth of the strong hand holding hers kept her mind from wandering down that dangerous road.
He stopped them in front of what she suspected was a locked door. "This is it," he said, his voice slightly stronger than a whisper. And to her amazement, he turned the knob and it opened.
"Wasn't it locked?" She gasped.
"Yeah. But that wasn't a problem."
There was that grin again. She could *feel* it. She grinned with him. "You're quite useful, you know."
He chuckled softly, and the sound echoed somewhere deep in her chest.
They entered the room, and Clark turned on the light. He spoke before she could gasp again. "There are no windows in this room. No one can see."
Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the bright light after the pitch black of the night and the only slightly brighter security lighting. She found him grinning, and, again, she found it contagious. She was really here. After all this time, she was finally doing something to right the wrongs she'd suffered through for more than three years.
Clark's voice interrupted the silence. "So, what are we looking for, exactly?"
Proof. They needed concrete evidence that this company was responsible for the contribution to civil war in the Congo. She only hoped that there was still something to find.
"We need to find some kind of documents, invoices maybe, that match the ones I saw in Point Noire."
"Okay, then. File cabinets. That's where we should start."
Clark moved over to the tall metal filing cabinets in the corner of the room, and deftly opened the top drawer even though she was certain it'd been locked. She was sure, one day, she'd get used to his displays of power, but as of right now, she still delighted in the thrill that ran through her at the sight.
"Bingo," Clark said. "Invoices. What year and month do you want?"
"Um... I guess the most recent one. See if they're still at it."
Lois crept up on her toes to try and peer at the files over Clark's shoulder as he pushed the older folders away to make extracting the newer ones easier. She sank back flat-footed again after he'd withdrawn a handful of overstuffed file folders, and then followed him to the desk so they could take a look.
She stood close to Clark's side as he opened the folder and leafed through the invoices, almost hating that it was hard to concentrate being so near to him. Lois shook herself mentally and focused on the documents in front of them. Her heart started to beat a little faster, her breaths more shallow, and she tried to quell the panic that was threatening to rise to the surface.
They were the same. Exact copies of the invoices she'd attempted to take before she'd been captured - only different dates. She shouldn't be surprised. She shouldn't be scared. Of course they would be the same. And there was no reason to be scared. Clark was here.
She felt his hand close over hers. He must have guessed she was frightened, and she was grateful to have him next to her, offering the small comfort of his hand clasping hers.
"Right ones?" he asked quietly.
She nodded.
"Okay, so we should take a few of these for evidence. Even though the police won't be able to use them in court, it'll still be helpful in convincing them to take action."
She nodded again.
Clark shook his head.
Her brow furrowed. "What's wrong?"
"This is too easy. Too simple. Why would they have record of illegal arms export? It just doesn't make sense."
Lois had thought about that. She'd had years to think about it. About why the glimpse of shipping invoices she'd seen had recorded the actual nature of the goods being shipped when she knew in her gut that they had to be illegal.
"This is a subsidiary of a larger business. There's a bigger fish to catch here," she said.
Clark looked at her, a mix of awe and surprise on his face. "Quick thinking. I guess I'm a little rusty."
"No, Clark, I... I didn't have much else to do while I was... l-locked up for so long."
She watched his eyes darken. He seemed about to say something, but she spoke before he could, steeling her resolve to be Mad Dog Lane. "But that doesn't matter. We shouldn't waste any time here speculating or brainstorming. We need to find evidence of the company St. John's reports to. That'll be the key to unlocking all this."
He nodded resolutely. "You're right." He gave her hand a squeeze before releasing it, and took a few of the invoices from random spots in the pile, closed the folder and returned it to the filing cabinet. "Okay, so what are we looking for now? Memos? Licenses?"
"Memos or letters might be a good start. Let's see if the desk is locked."
They both moved around to the rear of the desk, and Clark scooted the chair out a bit. Lois sat down and started trying the handles. All three of the larger drawers on the left-hand side were unlocked, and she opened and closed them in quick succession.
"Why didn't you look in any of those, Lois?"
"Because they won't have the good stuff easily accessible."
"Right. Sorry, it's been a while since I've done this investigating stuff. I've lost my edge."
Lois wished he'd stop saying that. *She* was the one who was rusty and out of practice. But she didn't have time to dwell on that right now. She quickly moved on to test the middle drawer as well as the ones on the right.
Bingo. Bottom right.
She looked up at Clark with a sly grin. "Do you mind?"
He quirked a smile back and yanked the drawer open easily.
"Thank you."
"Glad to be of service." His grin stretched a bit, covering more of his face. God, he was cute when he smiled. He ought to do that more often.
She didn't linger on that thought long; out of the corner of her eye, she'd seen the contents of the drawer. Pay dirt. A list of distributors and recipients.
***
Clark looked over her shoulder at the list she held in her hand. He was trying his damnedest not to revel in the very comforting fact that he could now feel that emotional connection he'd been longing for. The same one the other Clark shared with his Lois. He still found it a bit odd and maybe a tiny bit disconcerting, but on the whole it was a wonderful feeling.
But right now he needed to focus.
Wordlessly, he spread out the invoices on the desk so they could have a closer look at them while Lois examined the paper in her hand.
"I'm dying to know what LLI is," she said. "They're the main distributor. In fact, it looks as though LLI is the main company, and all the others are subsidiaries, including St. John Enterprises."
He watched her frown as she mulled it over in her head.
"I'll bet the last letter stands for incorporated or investments or something," she said.
LLI...
Clark's mind flashed back to the other universe... The night Lois had told him about...
Lex Luthor.
<Lex Luthor, evil?>
<Yeah. A criminal mastermind.>
"Lex Luthor Investments," Clark breathed.
"What?"
"Lex Luthor," he repeated.
He still had trouble wrapping his mind around it. The man was nothing short of a saint. Even a bit of a recluse, living in his mansion in North Metropolis. Clark just couldn't imagine him being evil, but Lois had told him of only a few of the atrocities the Lex of her world had committed, and he knew there were countless more. And so far with this alternate universe thing... Clark paused to look at Lois... things were pretty parallel. Eerily so.
"The philanthropist Lex Luthor?" she asked sardonically, turning in the chair a bit to raise an eyebrow at him.
He shrugged helplessly.
"Sorry, he just seems like the least likely person to be involved in something like this." She paused for a moment and seemed to consider the notion. "Unless... has he turned to the dark side while I was gone? Has he done something in the past three years to make people suspicious?"
"No... The other Lo... is... told me." He was an idiot. How exactly was that supposed to sound to her ears?
"Oh." She averted her gaze from his, and concentrated on the mess of papers in front of them. "She told you that Lex Luthor was a criminal mastermind or something?"
He gulped. "Yeah... at least in her universe. She said he was responsible for a whole slew of illegal activity, not the least of which was trying to kill the other Superman."
"K-kill?" She swiveled around quickly to face him. "I... I thought you were... invulnerable. I read it in the paper..."
Clark ducked his head, trying desperately not to let his mind wander to the evidence vault at precinct fourteen. It was best forgotten. But Lois... "There's a substance - a meteorite - called Kryptonite. It can... kill me."
"Clark!" Her anxious voice shook him a bit.
"It's locked up. The police have it," he hastened to reassure her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"But that's no guarantee. Personally, I don't trust the police as far as I could throw them. Though... I suppose things have changed a lot since I've been gone. Are you sure it's safe there?"
"Yeah. Well, relatively. It's been there well over a year, and I don't suspect any bad guys know where it is."
She sat silent for a moment, and he could feel a whole mix of emotions coming off her. Worry. Fear. And something else he couldn't make out.
"Are you okay, Lois?"
She jumped almost imperceptibly. And he took his hand from her shoulder. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." She tucked her hair behind her ear. "So back to this Lex Luthor thing... what makes you think this universe's Lex is anything like ours?"
Well, because Lois told him so, and it seemed like a good idea?
"Because it fits, and it's about the only lead we have."
"Okay," she said, her tone careful. "I suppose that's true enough, but how do we look into that? I mean, it’s not like we can just knock on his door and ask him."
Clark frowned, thinking hard. "Well, I suppose we could look at these shipping invoices a little closer..."
Lois turned back to face the desk, and they both stared down at the papers. No matter how he looked at them, the invoices still seemed to be legitimate. Lois had told him she hadn't seen the weapons themselves, just the diamonds that'd been traded in return.
He sighed. "It just doesn't make sense. Why would it be legal to export weapons to a country in the midst of civil war? It doesn't seem right."
"No, it doesn't," Lois replied, frowning.
He stared again, and something caught his eye. "Lois, look." He pointed to the invoice. "Cabinda is listed as the recipient of the munitions, not Point Noire. The Congo is just a dock point along the way. And I'll bet you anything the amount of guns on the ship don't match what's on the invoice."
"You're right! Why didn't I see that before..." She trailed off, and a sad look flitted across her face before she started again. "So now we just need to find the *real* record of shipments."
She glanced sidelong at the computer on the desk across the room. "You any good at hacking?" she grinned.
***
Lois Lane was a liability. A massive one. And it angered him that the people he'd hired to watch her had failed. He thought he'd taken care to select competent subordinates, but obviously he'd made an error in judgment because they'd slipped up. Daly had somehow missed her leaving the airport - an unforgivable offence for which she'd pay later. Now Johnson had let Lane out of his sight, leaving means for her to accomplish just about anything. He was at least safe in the knowledge that she hadn't gone to Perry White, as he was still out of town.
Lois Lane was a loose cannon.
But she was also an asset.
That's why he hadn't ordered her elimination. Not now, and not over three years ago when he'd gotten the phone call that someone had been caught snooping. Back then, Lois Lane had been mildly useful... only as insurance against anything going wrong. The Daily Planet had caught wind of their operation - and sent their top reporter to investigate - a fact that had made him nervous and edgy.
And he was always in control.
But that was why he'd kept her alive and imprisoned. Knowing Perry White, he wouldn't have traded an international exclusive for the life of his favorite reporter. He'd had the situation under complete control; there was no way Perry White would run a story when it would cost him her life. Thus, Lois Lane had become his bargaining chip - had he needed one.
He smiled smugly. He hadn't needed one. And so he'd taken a perverse pleasure in keeping her alive, but forgotten by everyone she'd ever known. Dead to the world, but for his private enjoyment in having defeated such an opponent.
But then she'd proved not so easily conquered. He'd been sent word eight months ago that she'd escaped. He wasn't sure how she'd accomplished it, but he'd doubted highly that anyone could survive the wilds of the Congo. Nonetheless, he'd had men stationed in Metropolis at the three places he'd be sure to catch her: the airport, the Daily Planet, and City Hall - Perry White's base of operations. Better safe than sorry if she somehow miraculously made it back to the States. He'd been certain she wouldn't survive.
Lois Lane had proven him wrong, and he despised her for it. He loathed being played the fool, but he'd risen from this setback as he always did. He had a better plan. White was the Mayor now and held far more influence over Metropolis than he'd had as editor of the Planet.
White had been sending tentative queries in Kayes and Point Noire ever since the impostor Lane had shown up and promptly disappeared. He couldn't have the mayor finding anything he wasn't supposed to. He needed to be silenced, and as he didn't have the poor sense to kill the mayor, he had something else in mind.
No one crossed Lex Luthor and lived to tell about it, not without paying gravely for it.
TBC...
