It was like a dream, or a nightmare. Lois hadn’t decided which but remembering almost events that didn’t quite match up with reality as she was living it had both upsides and downsides.
This morning was an example. She remembered Perry wincing at the morning’s excruciatingly bad coffee. “Dishwater! How's a newspaper supposed to run without a decent cup of Java?”
Cat’s cheery response of: “Anyone for herbal tea? Does wonders for the complexion.” But this time, instead of a cutting remark aimed at Lois, Cat handed her a mug of something sweet and minty. “My sister swears by this,” Cat murmured before sauntering off.
Perry got down to business. “Eduardo, the dockworker strike.”
Eduardo grimaced. “Negotiations have broken down again. I'm interviewing the union and management reps... separately.”
“Good idea,” Perry said before checking his list.
Before, that had been Clark’s story. He’d been good at getting people to open up to him, building consensus between parties that thought they had nothing in common.
“Lois, about that article you wrote on the fruit fly infestation - could you maybe, if it isn't too much trouble, give it another go? And this time, put some zing into it!”
After all the hoopla of breaking open the relationship between the Church empire, religious terrorism and Intergang, Perry had started assigning her to ‘safe’ stories. She hated it. She pasted a fake smile on her face.
“Happy to, Chief. It's such an...” here she stretched and yawned “...exhilarating subject matter.”
Jimmy spoke up. “Here's what I don't understand. If this malathion spray is so safe, how come they tell you to put your pets inside when they're using it?”
“Precautionary measure,” Perry answered.
Perry was right in more ways than one. Her antipathy for the subject matter showed in her writing and she knew she was better than that. Plus Jimmy’s question on safety gave her an idea on a better angle on the story. If the stuff they were spraying was so safe, why so many precautions?
Perry went on. “I suppose we should lead with the latest counter-revolution in Russia.”
“I believe it's counter, counter-revolution,” someone said.
“Who can keep track...” Perry was interrupted by the arrival of hordes of people bringing in cameras, lighting equipment, even a models’ runway. “What the Sam Hill's going on?” he demanded.
“Chief, you remember,” Cat said. “Today's the day they're using the newsroom as a backdrop to introduce that new fragrance... 'Exclusive.' Marketing set it up.”
Perry scowled. “Marketing... no, I don't remember.”
“It's been on for months,” Cat reminded him. “Look, there's Elle Taylor, and... Rachel Roberts and April Stephens! I have to get an interview...”
At Perry’s nod, Cat was out the door, waving down the world famous models.
This is where it started, where my life as I knew it ended.
“Lois hon’, are you okay?” Perry asked.
Lois looked up to see Perry leaning over her, his face creased with worry.
“I just have a very bad feeling about this,” Lois admitted. “Like I’ve been here before and it ended really badly.”
“They’re only going to be here a few hours,” Perry stated.
“A lot can happen in a few hours.”
“You can file your story from home if you want,” Perry offered a little too gently.
“I’m not sick, Perry. It’s just… something stinks about this.”
Jimmy was staring at the girls as they filed in, photographers flitting around them like bees around flowers. “Who cares? You don't think there's any small possibility that a girl like that would go out with a man like me?” he asked. Lois rolled her eyes and Jimmy lost his hopeful expression. “It was just a thought…”
-o-o-o-
The circus was going to take more than a ‘few hours’ to run its course. The technicians had transformed the newsroom into a veritable perfume/fashion show complete with models and a runway. Everyone who had work they could do away from the newsroom had already left and Lois was seriously considering taking up Perry’s offer to let her work from home.
“The beautiful people,” Lois commented to Jimmy and Perry as the three of them watched the spectacle. She didn’t bother to keep the disgust out of her voice.
Jimmy didn’t notice as he stared, awestruck, at the models.
“It's such a sad comment on society,” Lois continued. “Dress a certain way, smell a certain way, and the world will love you…”
Jimmy wasn’t paying attention. He was mesmerized by the girls.
Lois turned to Perry. “I’m heading out. I promise I’ll give you an article on fruit flies that’ll knock your socks off…”
She was waiting for the elevator when the doors slid open to reveal a blonde woman in a peasant style blouse, and long skirt. A wide-brimmed hat hid her face but it was what was in her hands that caught Lois’s attention – a cobalt blue atomizer bottle. The foul potion she’d been sprayed with before had been in a cobalt blue atomizer in the hands of a woman wearing a peasant blouse and a wide-brimmed hat.
Lois grabbed the bottle before the woman could spray her with it and sniffed it. It was the same stink as before. “What do you call it, Miss…”
“I call it ‘Revenge’,” the woman said.
“Smells like eau de sweatsocks. I bet you’ll be charging 300 dollars an ounce, too.”
“One can’t put a price on true love,” the woman said, reaching for the bottle.
“True Love? Then why call it Revenge?” Lois asked sweetly, just before spraying the woman in the face with the concoction.
The woman screamed like she’d been sprayed with acid. She clawed at Lois to get back the bottle.
“Lois?” Perry asked worriedly.
“I told her not to spray me and she tried anyway,” Lois lied. “So I sprayed her with it. Somehow I don’t think it’s perfume in that bottle.”
The other woman had stopped screaming. Aside from the stink there was no evidence she’d actually been harmed. Lois hadn’t aimed for her eyes. “Give me back my property before I call the police,” the woman demanded.
Lois handed the atomizer to Perry. “Maybe we should have Star Labs check it out. And I’m perfectly willing to file attempted assault charges against her. Trying to spray a pregnant woman with whatever nastiness is in that bottle. I mean, it can’t possibly be safe if the person who knows what’s in it screams bloody murder when it gets on her.”
The commotion by the elevator had caught the attention of the people working the show. The noise level in the newsroom had gone down to a level where you could almost hear the proverbial pin drop. Cat had come to standing with Perry and grabbed the hat away from the woman.
“Miranda,” one of the show people said with a disdainful sniff. His name tag identified him as ‘Mischa’. Lois thought that was the name of the designer of the perfume being introduced.
“You know her?” Perry asked him.
“She’s a local perfumer. Dabbles in ‘interesting’ scents.” He sniffed the air around Miranda. “Animal based. Still trying to use pheromones for the bottom note, luv?”
Miranda just glared at him.
-o-o-o-
Lois sagged against the doorframe of her apartment door. It had been a long several days.
Research had turned up the fact that Miranda had been funded by Luthor Labs and that her funding had been cancelled. Luthor Labs management refused to comment on what she’d been working on for them and why her funding had been cancelled. It stank – in more ways than just the perfume.
Star Labs took the sample and Doctor Friedman’s initial analysis of ‘Revenge’ was that it was laced with modified human pheromones. The alterations were such that, for susceptible persons who were already attracted to someone, their sexual inhibitions went out the window for forty-eight hours or so. Friedman had been so alarmed by his analysis that he sent a copy of his report to the FDA. Luckily the poison seemed to have no effect unless it came into direct contact with skin – just smelling it didn’t activate it.
Had that been what happened before? Had she and her Clark been ignoring their mutual attraction until Miranda’s potion lowered their inhibitions to the point that they acted on them? And what of her Clark? Was he wondering what had happened to her? Was he looking for her without having any idea where she was? Lois had no way of knowing.
And the Clark here? The one she’d mistakenly accused of taking advantage of her? She had spotted him with Linda King but hadn’t seen his by-line at the Star. She didn’t know if he had seen her at the mayor’s press conference the day she saw him. If he had he hadn’t shown any indication he had recognized her.
Then Miranda’s body was found in Hob’s Bay. The ME labeled the death as suspicious.
Lois was reasonably certain Miranda hadn’t ended up dead before.
-o-o-o-
Weeks passed. Any hope Lois had that whatever had sent her here in the first place would send her home when the time of Miranda’s attack passed, faded into near nothingness. Her co-workers were being unusually charitable in not mentioning her growing baby bulge.
One of Lois’s sources dropped her a note that Congressman Ian Harrington, chairman of the House Defense Committee, had been seen with people who had with connections in some very questionable places but they gave her no names. The source also hinted there might be irregularities with Harrington’s campaign finances.
Lois called Cat over to her desk. “Tell me about Congressman Harrington.”
“He’s the most notoriously sexy man in Washington,” the society columnist reported with a smirk.
“Give me something real, not unsubstantiated rumors.”
“But those are the best kind.” Cat grinned at her.
Lois didn’t laugh.
Cat frowned. “You’re serious.”
“As a heart attack,” Lois told the older woman. “I got a tip that concerns him about possible financial irregularities and some of the people he’s been seen with recently.”
“Well, Harrington’s been in Metropolis for the past ten days or so,” Cat said. “Something about getting to know the faces behind the big defense contractors his committee deals with.”
“He came to have drinks with Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, and maybe Oliver Queen,” Lois translated.
“Wayne is in Paris and Queen is in Singapore,” Cat told her. “But Harrington did have dinner with Luthor day before yesterday. Aside from that he’s been doing the usual night scene – gorgeous blonde one night, gorgeous brunette the next... but he’s been calling it a night fairly early for him and not going straight back to his hotel room.”
“Meeting somebody?” Lois suggested.
“If he is, he doesn’t want anybody to know about it. And he’s enough of a celebrity he’s not likely to be meeting a hooker unless it’s for something way kinkier than the gorgeous blonde or brunette are comfortable with,” Cat said. “And as far as I know, he’s not into that scene.”
“Maybe we should figure out who he is meeting,” Lois suggested.
“We?” Cat repeated a trifle suspiciously.
“Aren’t you even a little curious as to who he’s meeting that he doesn’t want people to know about?”
“With a name like ‘Cat’, what do you think?”
-o-o-o-
If Harrington noticed he been followed when leaving the haut bar he’d taken his latest conquest to, he showed no evidence of it. He drove his rental car straight to the Luxor Hotel parking garage and then crossed the street to the Wannamaker Building, a genteelly aging mid-rise office building.
“Kind of late for a run of the mill business meeting,” Lois commented as she and Cat hurried to follow him.
“And I don’t know anybody running a sex business out of the Wannamaker,” Cat said. “The Luxor’s a much better place for that.”
Lois wasn’t sure if Cat was joking or not.
Harrington was met in the lobby by two men. One was short and stocky with grizzled hair, the other an obvious muscleman. There was no one at the lobby security desk. Lois wondered if the time for the meeting had been deliberately set to coincide with the guard’s break.
Lois had her camera out and snapped pictures of the three through the lobby door before the men disappeared into an elevator.
“Nope, not sex,” Cat muttered as they entered the lobby. “Harrington isn’t into guys... as far as anyone will admit.”
The indicator above the elevator the men had taken stopped at the twelfth floor. A quick check of the building directory revealed four tenants listed for that floor. Two law firms, an engineering firm, and something called ‘Apocalypse Consulting’. Lois was willing to bet real money that Harrington et al weren’t meeting a lawyer or engineer at this time of night.
-o-o-o-
“So, who are these two jokers with Harrington?” Perry asked as he looked over Lois’s photos the next morning.
“We don't know,” Jimmy answered for Lois. “I'm running our Identafile program looking for a match.”
“Any idea who they were meeting?”
“My bet’s on Apocalypse Consulting,” Lois said. “The two law firms both specialize in family law and the engineering firm specializes in ‘erosion mitigation’. They’ve all been at their current addresses for years and all have decent reputations in their fields. Apocalypse Consulting on the other hand… No bank accounts or financial transactions that we can trace. They moved in a couple months ago. Paid off a five year lease on the offices in advance, in cash.”
“That’s not a crime,” Perry noted.
“But it is suspicious.”
“You know, that office is on the side of the building that overlooks the Luxor…” Cat said.
“What are you suggesting?” Perry asked suspiciously.
“A couple days in the Honeymoon Suite would be ideal…” Cat stated with a grin.
“Now, hold on a minute. You’re talking a major surveillance operation here and we don’t even know if there’s something to surveil.”
“Perry, we know something’s up, otherwise Harrington wouldn’t be hiding it,” Lois stated.
“And it doesn’t have to be the Honeymoon Suite,” Cat added. “The room below would probably work as well and would be less suspicious. And I agree with Lois, Harrington’s up to something. And since he’s chairman of the House Defense Committee, we could be looking at something with national or even international ramifications.”
“Maybe I should contact my source, the source, just to see if there's anything to this, before we get in too deep,” Perry said after a moment.
Jimmy’s eyes went wide. “You don't mean...?”
Perry cut him off with a finger to his lips. “Don't even say that name out loud.” He turned to Lois. “Okay, you ladies have got three nights.”
Lois was ready to protest that it was her story, but she also remembered that it was Cat who had confirmed what Lois’s source had said about Harrington.
Cat grinned. “We are going to have so much fun,” she announced with obvious glee.
“Doing ‘round the clock surveillance?” Lois asked.
“Don’t be such a fuddy duddy,” Cat came back with a laugh.
-o-o-o-
Spending the day with Cat hadn’t been as onerous as Lois had feared. Cat was friends with the Luxor’s head chef and he arranged for Cat and Lois to sample some of the ‘healthy options’ seasonal lunch menu items he was developing. Cat had also brought her manicure kit and had cheerfully given Lois a professional quality manicure as well as a facial. Lois hadn’t had a day of pampering since… she honestly couldn’t remember when. College, maybe.
“Take care of your body,” Cat said. “It’s the only one you have.”
“I take care of myself,” Lois protested.
“You forget to eat. You’re addicted to caffeine and chocolate… Need I go on?”
“I’ve cut out the caffeine and cut down on the chocolate,” Lois protested. “I never did drink much, so cutting that out wasn’t much of a loss.”
Lights came on in the office they were watching. Lois grabbed her binoculars, flipped on the recorder and turned up the sound.
The three men walked in. As Lois watched, Harrington handed a manila envelope to the stocky man.
“That's the last of the system specs,” Harrington said. His voice was clear on the speaker. The new directional mike Jimmy had brought them was a technological wonder. “I'll have the information on the testing for you tomorrow. Dates, procedures, the whole thing,” Harrington continued.
“Good. What about a new vote?” the stocky man asked.
“I can't initiate a re-vote until after the test results are analyzed and the plan rejected,” Harrington said. He sounded exasperated. “Hopefully...”
“'Hopefully' isn't good enough,” the stocky man interrupted. “That's why I bought insurance: you.
“You don't own me, Roarke,” Harrington warned.
Now we have a name to the face, Lois thought.
Roarke pushed Harrington against the wall, grabbing his collar. “I own you lock, stock, and re-election fund, Mr. Chairman. Never forget that,” he warned.
The muscleman dragged Roarke back from Harrington who straightened up and pulled himself together.
“I only meant...” Harrington said shakily, “are you sure you can pull this off?”
“I guarantee it.”
“Because if you don't, what happens to me?”
“Pray you never find out.”
“Lois, what would you say if I said that I don't have a clue what they're talking about, but that, whatever it is, it's really big,” Cat said. “Congressmen don't sell out for less than ‘big.’ But this is really big.”
“I'd say... you're absolutely right.”
-o-o-o-
In the bullpen conference room the next morning, Lois ran the recording for Perry and Jimmy. By the time she turned it off they looked as mystified as she already felt.
She started ticking off her mental list. “So, who's Roarke? What 'system' are they talking about? And what 'test?'”
“And the ‘vote’,” Cat added. “Don't forget the ‘vote.’ We need to find out about every vote taken by Harrington's committee for the past...”
“Six months?” Jimmy suggested with a grin. “Already on it.”
Jimmy was back in less than an hour. “I ran Roarke, name and picture through every program the Daily Planet has access to... the man's a ghost.”
Cat shook her head. “No, I’ve seen his face somewhere...”
Perry walked up to them and dropped a photo of Roarke on the conference room table. The photo showed Roarke wearing a dinner jacket and looking very dapper. “Thaddeus Roarke. International arms dealer, electronic weapons system analyst, entrepreneur, and general bad boy. Last known base of operations: Beirut.”
“Where'd you...” Jimmy started.
“Sources, boys and girls, sources. The life blood of journalism,” Perry intoned.
Cat looked the photo over then checked the back. “ ‘People Magazine.’ I knew I’d seen him before.”
“Arms dealer, House Defense Committee. Makes sense,” Lois said.
Perry’s expression turned serious. “Now team, we should talk about this. A scoop's a scoop, but if we're into something that impacts on national security, we have to bring in the Federales.”
“Now?” Lois squeaked.
“No. When the time's right,” Perry said. “So far we have more questions than answers. Let's hear some theories.”
“Okay. The Defense Department is about to test some new weapons system and Roarke wants to know about it,” Jimmy suggested.
“So he bribes Harrington to slip him the info?” Lois said.
“But, Harrington is also afraid of Roarke,” Cat said. “Or maybe afraid of what Roarke will do once he has the information. Plus, Harrington’s not a little fish. He didn’t get to be chairman of the House Defense Committee by being a push-over. Roarke has to have something on him more than just re-election finances.”
“Cat, look into it,” Perry ordered. “Get in touch with Bob at our Washington Bureau, see what he can dig up on Harrington and the other members of that committee. Jimmy, next time Roarke shows...”
“Got him.”
“Lois, Cat, you've got two more days. Make the most of them.”
-o-o-o-
“It’s hard to make the most of two days at the Luxor when you can’t use the recording equipment for taping more interesting things and you can’t invite anybody up to share,” Cat complained.
Lois wasn’t sure she was joking or not.
Across the way, Roarke’s nameless associate was filing papers in a cabinet. His jacket was hanging on a coat tree in the corner. Without the jacket it was even more obvious than it had been before that he was big and muscular. He was also armed. As she watched, Muscleman seemed to hear something. He closed the file drawer, locked it, and dropped the keys into the pocket of that jacket hanging on the coat tree.
Roarke and Harrington walked in and Lois turned up the sound on the tape monitor.
“... no possible way the test will be postponed?” Roarke was asking.
Harrington shook his head. “Weather's clear. Naval monitoring ships are en route. Dawn, day after tomorrow. It's set.”
“Good. And after the test fails, we'll get my system approved and installed. How soon before you can vote again?”
“There'll be delays, of course. Analysis of test results, modification proposals...”
“No.”
“We have to go through the process, Thaddeus,” Harrington explained.
“After what happens at that test, no one will be interested in ‘modification proposals,’ ” Roarke promised.
“What exactly will happen?”
Roarke smiled – a cold bitter smile. “Why don't I show you? We had a video made from our computer model. Bart, get the lights and the shutters.”
Muscleman – now identified as ‘Bart’ – turned off the light then closed shutters over the windows.
“Damn,” Cat muttered as the sounds coming through the tape monitor muffled into white noise. The shutters were sound-proofed, too.
Twenty minutes Bart opened the shutters. Roarke and Harrington were gone. Then Bart left, leaving his jacket behind.
The printer on the hotel desk clattered on. Cat went over to check it. “Finally. Voting records of the House Defense Committee.”
Lois stared at the darkened window of Apocalypse Consulting. It was tempting to just go over there and check it out while Roarke and Bart were busy doing other things. She came to a decision. “I'm going down to the lobby for a few minutes. I... need something from the drug store.”
“No, you don’t,” Cat stated. “Perry warned me you’d try to sneak off and do something dangerous without backup.”
“He said that?” Lois couldn’t decide if she should be mad at Perry or not for warning Cat.
Then, to Lois’s surprise, the other woman handed her two walky-talkies. “Jimmy’s already over there waiting to tail Roarke. Take him with you as a look-out.”
-o-o-o-
Having Jimmy as a look-out had been a good idea. He’d made quick work of the office door lock and gave her plenty of warning when Roarke and Bart headed back upstairs.
Now she, Perry, Jimmy, and Cat were looking over the photos she’d taken of the documents in the locked cabinet. Mostly sales orders for guns and other weapons to places the U.S. government would object to if it knew.
“Does Harrington have any clue about Roarke’s other business dealings? I mean, the little bit here should be enough for the NSA to lock him up and throw away the key,” Lois said.
“Lois, you know as well as anybody that his kind of scum has a ‘get out of jail free’ card because the Federales don’t want to burn an asset they might want to use,” Perry said. “For them he’s a necessary evil.”
Cat picked up one sheet showing the cover of a file folder. “Tsunami. Funny, nearly everything else is labeled by date. This one has a code-name.”
“I was about to copy that file when Roarke and Bart started back to the office,” Lois explained.
“A tsumani’s a giant wave. Like a tidal wave,” Jimmy said.
“Wave?” Perry asked, looking up from the copies he was reading over. “I've got a wave here, too.” He held up one sheet: ‘Shock Wave / Preliminary Analysis.’
“Wait a minute, ‘Shock Wave’...” Jimmy grabbed a stack of printed sheets from the table and shuffled through them. “Harrington's committee voted on something called Project Shock Wave not too long... here it is! 'Appropriation approval for system test installation.'”
Lois read over Jimmy’s shoulder. “This vote was taken five weeks ago. Passed eight to zero, with one abstention… Congressman Ian Harrington. But nothing about what it is. But this has to be what they were talking about. Roarke wanted Harrington to have the vote reversed.”
“And his own system approved instead. Whatever that means,” Perry added.
“But what’s ‘Shock Wave’?” Cat asked. She looked over to Jimmy.
“After Lois was done, I followed Roarke and Bart to Pier 31. They went into a warehouse and they were still there this morning when I left to come back here. Warehouse leased to... Apocalypse Consulting.” He handed Lois his notes.
“Did you look inside?” Lois asked.
“No windows.”
“We're spinning our wheels. Some test, monitored by Naval units, is taking place tomorrow at dawn, and Roarke is planning on sabotaging it.” Lois stated. She hated puzzles with pieces missing.
“I think it's time,” Perry said solemnly. “Time to go to the top. To the man who always knows what's going on. The man who's never let me down.”
“You don't mean...?” Jimmy said, obviously awed.
Perry nodded. “I do mean. Sore Throat.”
-o-o-o-
It hadn’t taken Perry very long to arrange a meeting with his contact. To Lois’s surprise, they were meeting in an underground garage not far from the Planet.
“Why here?” Cat complained. “It's freezing.”
Perry shrugged. “Sore Throat's choice.”
Lois was surprised that she wasn’t feeling the cold. She’d heard that pregnant women had higher metabolisms. She assumed that was the case here – but she hadn’t been noticing heat as much either.
“You should dress more warmly, Miss Grant. This is the cold and flu season,” a male voice said from behind them. She turned to see a portly middle-aged man wearing a long overcoat and sunglasses. It was hard to make out more – he was staying in the shadows.
He coughed and sneezed as he pulled a tissue from his pocket. “Allergies. They're killing me.”
“What can you tell us about Project Shock Wave?” Perry started.
There was a long pause, then: “Where did you hear that name?”
“We have reason to believe Thaddeus Roarke is working with Congressman Ian Harrington to sabotage Project Shock Wave,” Lois said. “It's due to be tested...”
“At dawn – tomorrow,” Sore Throat completed for her. “I know all about it. Project Shock Wave: experimental coastal defense network. A couple of years ago, the Navy began lobbying for their own version of a Star Wars system. Several proposals were made, the Navy picked Shock Wave. Roarke's system was runner-up.”
“Who's behind Shock Wave?” Perry asked.
“Luthor Technologies.”
“Why was Shock Wave picked?” Lois asked.
“More sophisticated. It's designed to automatically analyze any foreign object within sensor range and calibrate an appropriate response.”
“What kind of response?” Lois asked.
“Think of it as a sonic 'curtain.' Sonic vibrations providing an impenetrable barrier that would disable whatever tried to pass. Roarke had millions tied up in his own system. I'm not surprised he's taking steps.”
“Mr... Throat, what would you suggest we do?” Cat asked.
“You could take whatever evidence you have to the Navy, but they'd probably charge you with espionage. This test is top secret.” He paused as if thinking. “You could publish your theories, force the Navy to cancel the test, and face government censure and a slew of lawsuits. Or, you could do what I intend to do.”
“What's that?” Cat asked.
“Get out of town.” He cleared his throat, again. “I need a drier climate.”
Lois felt a growing bubble of fury. “That's it? That's your advice? The great Sore Throat has spoken?”
Despite the sunglasses and shadows, he managed to look affronted. “What'd you expect to hear? ‘Follow the money?’ I never understood that.” He turned to leave then paused. “Did I mention that Roarke was completely insane, with maniacal delusions of grandeur?”
“No,” Cat said. She sounded as peeved as Lois felt.
“Well, he is.”
-o-o-o-
“Do we have enough to publish? We take everything we've got, video, audio, research, and put it in the afternoon edition,” Lois said once they were back in Perry’s office. “I mean, Roarke scares me. If half of what we've heard is true... he's got to be stopped.”
Jimmy ran into the office without knocking. “It just came over LNN. The Luxor’s been bombed. From the pictures, it looks like the device was planted in the Honeymoon Suite.”
“Our room was one floor down,” Lois said. “Do you think Roarke knows we're on to him?”
“He was on to someone,” Jimmy said. “The Honeymoon Suite was rented out to the Star’s star reporter, Linda King.”
“Could we be so lucky that she was there when it happened?” Lois asked. At Perry’s frown, she went on to explain. “Linda and I go way back. She’s one of those who would stoop to anything for the scoop. And I do mean anything.”
“Well, she and some guy from the Star did check in to the Luxor about two hours after you guys did.” Jimmy said. “It’s possible it was a coincidence.”
“It’s possible the Star has a mole in our midst,” Lois groused.
“Pity we can’t actually tie Roarke to the bombing,” Cat said. “And if Roarke was behind it, he’ll have cleared out this office so all we have is what we brought back here. Everything we left in the room is gone.”
“Get started writing up the story on Harrington and Roarke,” Perry ordered. “In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do on postponing the test,” Perry said.
It was well after dark by the time Perry came out of his office. “I called everyone I know in Washington. No one's interested. And, as far as the Navy’s concerned, there is no test.”
“We have to do something,” Lois grumbled. She picked up her phone and dialed a number she remembered from before. “Hello. This is Lois Lane of the Daily Planet. I'd like to speak to Lex Luthor… Yes, it is important. Tell him it relates to Thaddeus Roarke and Shock Wave.”
Half an hour later Lex Luthor walked into the newsroom. He was accompanied by a well built young man with dark hair and glasses – Clark Kent.
Luthor nodded politely, his eyes only briefly lighting on Lois’s pregnant belly. “Perry, Ms. Lane, Cat...” He glanced at Jimmy, mentally dismissing him. “... and... whoever, Luthor Technologies has approximately half a billion dollars in research and development tied up in a project code-named Shock Wave. Shock Wave, even the name, is top secret. Yet, Ms. Lane, you call on a line that only my closest business associates know to tell me you not only know of the project, but suspect that Thaddeus Roarke, a man with whom I've had previous unsatisfactory dealings, is intent on sabotaging the impending test. Then I get a call from Mister Kent here telling me the same thing.” He looked around the room. “Under the circumstances I might have elected to stay home and watch reruns of Flipper on the all night cable channel. Instead, I decided to come here. What is going on?”
“We've had Roarke and Congressman Ian Harrington under surveillance,” Lois began after Perry nodded his permission – not that she needed it. “Roarke is positive your system will fail its test, leaving the door open for his system to be adopted instead.”
“Roarke and Harrington?” Luthor repeated. “I should have known. You say Roarke is positive?”
Kent nodded agreement, confirming Lois’s suspicion that the ‘boyfriend’ Jimmy had mentioned checking in with King had been Kent.
“That would imply sabotage,” Luthor continued. “No one ever described Thaddeus Roarke as an incurable optimist.”
“How could your system be sabotaged?” Perry asked.
“So far as I know, it can't.”
“But Roarke is a weapons system expert,” Kent said. “Besides, Roarke hinted at more than a simple breakdown. Something... bigger.”
“So, you and Linda were at the Luxor watching Roarke,” Lois stated.
Kent nodded.
“So what are you doing here?”
“Linda was in the room when the bomb went off. I… I wasn’t there. Then when I called Mister Luthor to warn him about Roarke, I was fired. By Preston Carpenter himself. While Mister Luthor was still on the line.”
“What, you were supposed to have died in the room with her?” Lois asked.
“I put the needs of the people above the story,” Kent said. “That’s not Carpenter’s way.”
“Luckily, I recognize talent when I see it, so I told Kent to meet me here,” Luthor stated a bit smugly for Lois’s taste. “But this doesn’t help us determine exactly what Roarke has planned.”
“One of the files he had was labeled ‘Tsunami’,” Cat said.
Luthor gave her a puzzled look.
“Tsunami. A giant wave caused by an undersea tremor,” Kent explained.
“A shock wave,” Jimmy added.
“And Apocalypse Consulting has a warehouse on Pier 31,” Lois said. Kent’s reaction told Lois that he and Linda hadn’t known about the warehouse. Linda hadn’t had Roarke followed, or maybe she had and hadn’t told Kent about it.
“I’ll get on to my people and let them know about the threat,” Luthor promised. “Obviously Roarke spotted an exploitable weakness.”
“Do you think your people can fix it in time?” Perry asked.
“I hope so,” Luthor said.
-o-o-o-
As soon as Luthor left the newsroom, Perry pulled Kent into his office. Five minutes later both men came out and Perry asked her if she would have a problem with Kent joining the Planet.
“My opinion shouldn’t matter,” she told them. “But, no. No problem. I admit I mistook him for someone else.”
“If you’re sure…” Perry said. He didn’t seem convinced of her sincerity, but then she wasn’t entirely convinced either. “Okay then, you two check out that warehouse. But check in with me before doing anything impetuous, like going inside.”
“I am sorry about Linda,” Lois told Kent a few minutes later as she drove them to Pier 31. She had caught him watching her warily.
“You’re not like how she described you,” he said after a moment.
“Let me guess. Self-important, ruthless, no conscience, would do anything for a story?”
“Pretty much,” Kent admitted.
“So, what was she like, as a partner?”
“Self-important, ruthless, no conscience, would do anything for a story including stealing from her alleged partner.”
“Is that why I haven’t seen your by-line over there?”
“Senior partner gets the by-line and all the credit,” Kent stated.
“Not at the Planet,” Lois stated. “Not on Perry White’s watch.”
He watched her for a long moment. Then: “I want to thank you for not spreading it around town that you thought I’d…”
“After you left that day I realized…”
“Realized what?” Kent prompted when she stopped to collect her thoughts.
“I realized that something had happened to me. Something weird, something unbelievable.”
“You discovered you’d been dead for six months?” Kent suggested.
Lois hit the brakes. “How did you know that?” she demanded.
“After what happened, I did some research on you. What I found didn’t make a lot of sense,” he said. “Lois Lane died almost a year ago, but here you are.” He peered out the windshield. “Dawn is in less than half an hour…”
Lois hit the accelerator.
-o-o-o-
They found Harrington tied to a dock railing just outside Apocalypse Consulting’s warehouse. The door to the warehouse was open and there was evidence that heavy equipment had been stored there and recently moved.
“It's too late,” Harrington kept repeating, staring out to sea. “I never meant for this to happen...”
“What?” Kent demanded as he untied the ropes. “Where’s Roarke?”
“I never meant for this to happen,” Harrington repeated.
“For what to happen?” Lois insisted.
Across the water Lois could hear faint alarms. The test must have started. Then there was a rumble like a freight train or rolling thunder. It grew louder. Harrington screamed. A towering wall of water was rushing directly toward them.
Kent pushed them away from the water. “Run!” he ordered.
Lois started toward her car, dragging Harrington with her. Then she stopped, realizing Kent wasn’t behind them. Harrington kept running.
“Clark!” she screamed. The wall of water was close, too close. There was no escape, either for her or the city.
Then, the wave simply folded into itself, melting away to nothing. The roar had stopped. Small waves lapped gently against the pilings. It was over. Metropolis was safe.
But where was Clark?
Then she spotted him climbing onto the pier. He was soaking wet, hair slicked back, glasses missing. Suddenly all the puzzle pieces from before came together. She knew where Superman was.
__________________________________________________________
Pheromone My Lovely was written by Deborah Joy Levine.
Honeymoon in Metropolis was written by Dan Levine.
