Yeah, I've decided I don't know how long it's going to be.
TOC -----------------------------------------
She knew where Superman was. Rather she now knew it had been Clark Kent behind the flashy costume – or at least it had been
before. But this time around he hadn’t put on the red cape and boots. He hadn’t saved the Prometheus. She had no idea how many other lives had been changed, lost, due to Superman’s absence.
“Miss Lane?” Kent asked, breaking into her reverie. He looked worried.
“Did you see that?” Lois asked. “It just stopped, like the bottom fell out of it.”
“Yeah,” Kent said, his expression clearing. “There must be a trench or something just off the shore here.”
“Yeah, that must be it,” she agreed. “We’d better get back to the office.”
-o-o-o-
The front page of every paper in the world featured the same photo – the giant wave coming toward the Metropolis. The headlines were variations of the same theme: ‘Metropolis Saved by a Miracle’. The Planet had a bit more information on the mysterious off-shore trench that appeared, seemingly just in time to stop the tsunami. It hadn’t been on previous sonar surveys of the sea bottom.
A sub-head below the front page fold said ‘Thaddeus Roarke Held For Questioning’.
“ ‘Held for questioning.’,” Jimmy scoffed. “They caught the guy red-handed.”
“Amazing how he manipulated the Shock Wave sensors to make them think something the size of the Rocky Mountains was trying to penetrate the system,” Perry added.
Lois shrugged. “The system worked fine. It just over-reacted.”
“And the resulting seismic effect caused the tsunami,” Kent added.
“So, Luthor Technologies, with some modifications, gets the contract,” Lois said. “Of course, that doesn’t explain the trench. I’m almost inclined to believe the Inquisitor.” That headline shouted ‘Metropolis Saved By Alien Intervention.’ A drawing of a flying saucer had been superimposed on the photo of the wave. “Except I was there and I didn’t see a flying saucer,” she added. She looked over at Kent who was looking guilty over
something.
“So, story over,” Kent stated. “Assuming you don’t believe in alien intervention.”
“Not quite,” Cat said. “Congressman Ian Harrington is claiming he set the whole thing up as a sting operation to trap Roarke. He says any claims of collusion on his part are merely unsubstantiated rumors.”
Lois chuckled. “The best kind.”
“There’s still the bombing of the Lexor,” Kent reminded them.
“The Feds will pin it on Roarke and Roarke will blame it on Bart,” Lois told him. “We’ll never find out the truth behind who actually killed Linda.”
“At least the Planet had a nice obituary for her,” Kent said. “Nicer than the one Carpenter wrote.”
“Linda may have been a… you know… but she was a journalist. One of our own,” Lois said. “She was killed uncovering the truth. And that’s not the worst epitaph you can have.”
“I still…” Kent began.
Lois cut him off. “What? You could have saved her? You weren’t there, and I doubt she would have done anything different if you had known and warned her they were on to you.”
“You may be right, but still…”
“We need to talk. Privately.” She started for the conference room, pausing to make sure Kent followed her. Worry and confusion was written across his face. Lois ignored the worried looks Perry and Cat gave her.
“We didn’t finish the conversation we started last night,” she began as soon as she closed the door. Then she heard a high pitched buzzing. “What’s that?”
“What…?” he started, then his eyes widened and he swiveled his head to find the sound.
He found it. A listening device had been hidden in a potted plant in the corner.
“I thought there was something weird going on with some of the Star’s ‘scoops’,” Lois said once the bug was in her hand.
“I swear I had nothing…” Kent began.
She shrugged off his protest. “Let’s give this to Perry and then find someplace more private for our talk.”
-o-o-o-
She drove them to the south side of New Troy Island, to the American Bistro in midtown.
“My uncle Mike owns it,” she explained. “Good coffee, wonderful desserts.”
Mike Lane greeted her warmly and led her and Kent to a quiet table in a corner.
“So, you researched me and found things you didn’t say in the car,” she started as soon as her uncle was away from the table.
Kent looked uncomfortable. Then he sighed. “You disappeared from Pointe-Noire just before Christmas last year. Everyone assumed you’d been killed. Then you show up in Metropolis – only there’s no evidence you ever left Pointe-Noire. No woman matching your description was seen leaving the city. Your passport, cash, and credit cards were left in your hotel room and as far as I know are still in the hands of the police there. There’s no evidence that you entered the US, at least not legally, although your biometrics match what’s on file for Lois Lane.
Exactly. And three months ago, parts of a woman’s skeleton was found in a shallow grave not far from where the gun-runners she was looking for had their camp. All indications are that the skeleton belonged to a white woman your age and height. And there was a watch found that looks exactly like the one you’re wearing. There was an inscription on the back ‘to Lois from Uncle Mike, Congratulations’.”
Lois felt the blood drain from her face. Her watch was unique, a gift from Uncle Mike on her college graduation. She had suspected that the ‘Lois’ that belonged to
this Daily Planet had died. But to have it confirmed…
“Miss Lane? Lois?” Kent asked. He sounded even more worried than he had before.
“Who else knows?” she asked.
He paused a moment then said “No one.” Then: “Want to tell me about it?”
“Only if you swear not to call the guys with straightjackets.”
He nodded.
“I have two sets of memories covering a time starting in Pointe-Noire just before Christmas and ending about a week ago. Actually the double set of memories started when I walked in on you and Perry that day. I had lived through that day before, only I didn’t recognize it until it was too late.”
“You’re saying you travelled back in time?” Kent asked. At least he didn’t sound like he thought she’d lost her mind.
“Something like that,” Lois said. “Only problem with that scenario is that Lois Lane had been dead for six months. What
I remember happening in Pointe-Noire is that my contact never showed so I never found the camp. I got word from a buddy of his that he’d been killed and I needed to get back to the States before I was arrested. The buddy made sure I got on a plane to Metropolis.”
“What was the contact’s name?” Kent asked. “The dead one.”
“Robert West,” Lois told him. “He was, or at least he claimed to be, an NIA agent working with Interpol and the local authorities tracking down the gun-runners. They would make the arrest and I’d get an exclusive on the story.”
“Robert West
was NIA,” Kent told her. “
My contacts told me he was dirty. But his remains were found not far from where the other Lois was buried so I suspect he was killed because he really was working to catch the people you –
she – was after.” Kent’s expression turned worried. “If what you’re saying is true then… I… a different me… took advantage of you and…”
“And is the father of my baby,” Lois finished for him.
“Oh boy,” Kent muttered.
“I know you’re not him,” Lois assured him. “And I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have happened if he and I hadn’t both been exposed to a pretty vicious psychotropic poison.”
Kent sighed again. Then: “You have to admit, it’s a pretty weird story.”
“Oh, it gets weirder,” Lois said with a wry grin. “One of the things I remember very clearly is Metropolis being home to an alien from outer space. From a planet called Krypton, to be precise. I’d been wondering what happened to him here, why he hadn’t appeared. I looked for him, looked for news reports of impossible rescues, miraculous saves. But if he
was doing anything like that, he was covering his tracks really, really well. Then I figured out where he was. More importantly,
who he was.”
“Now we’re getting into ‘seriously out of touch with reality’,” Kent warned. “Aliens from outer space?”
“That’s weirder than me being alive when my remains are somewhere in the Congo?” Lois asked. “Someone dug that trench and saved the city and millions of lives this morning. And you climbed out of the water just seconds after the wave was neutralized.”
“You think… me?” he sputtered.
Lois sketched Superman’s symbol on a napkin and handed it to him. “Ring any bells?”
“No, should it?”
“Ask your Mom.”
A flicker of worry crossed his face. “And what do you know about my Mom?”
“I know both your parents are alive,” Lois said. She’d checked that fact months ago when she realized that something very strange had happened to her. “I remember meeting your Mom and Dad at the Corn Festival in Smallville. I also remember an EPA investigation on Wayne Irig’s land, only it wasn’t the EPA. I remember some of the best apple pie I’ve ever had at the diner there. I remember Maisie asking about my novel because my partner knew about it and told his mother. And I remember Sheriff Rachel Harris hoping she still had a chance with you.”
“The problem on Mister Irig’s land never made it into the papers in Metropolis,” Kent told her. “So how…?”
“I told you. I
remember going to Smallville with Clark Kent. I
remember a man called Jason Trask and a supposed government agency called Bureau 39 that was looking for evidence of an alien invasion,” Lois said keeping her voice low. “Looking for it in Smallville, Kansas.”
Kent looked stunned. “They never came out actually and said who they were,” he said. “But nobody believed they were from the EPA. Irig’s farm wasn’t on any official EPA list. I tried to talk Linda into looking into it but she and Carpenter didn’t think it was big enough to bother with.”
Another piece of a puzzle from
before fell into place. Clark was Superman, but in Smallville, Clark had been vulnerable. Was the green mineral Trask had found at Irig’s farm actually harmful to Superman? How much of the green mineral was out there? And Clark – everyone remembered Clark growing up in Smallville. His parents had baby pictures. That meant Clark had arrived as a baby. And no loving parent would put their baby in a spaceship and send him to another planet unless they had no choice.
“Lois…” The worried note was back in Kent’s voice.
“I just remembered something else,” Lois told him. “Something that makes sense now that didn’t then.”
“And that is?”
“You know you’re adopted, right?”
He gave her a disbelieving look before laughing. “It’s kind of obvious.”
It
was obvious. Kent had brown eyes and black hair. There was an indefinable ‘foreign’ look to him. Martha and Jonathan Kent both had pale eyes and light hair and looked quintessentially American.
“Maybe you need to ask them exactly how they found you,” Lois suggested as she paid the bill for their coffee and desserts. “In the meantime, Perry’s going to be wondering what happened to us.”
“Look, I need to run some errands,” Clark said. “I’ll meet you back at the Planet.”
“Sure.” Lois wasn’t at all surprised. She’d dumped a lot of weirdness on him and knew he’d have to check. Hopefully he wasn’t so freaked out that he wouldn’t return. Perry would never forgive her if she scared away another new hire.
-o-o-o-
Talking about Trask had reminded Lois of other things. Things that might lead to a story if she dug deep enough.
“Jimmy, find out what you can about a George Thompson, Jason Trask, Bureau 39, and Bessolo Discount Used Office Furniture,” she ordered. “Thompson works for the government, Trask may be military. Bureau 39 may be involved in hunting down UFOs. Oh, and General Burton Newcomb, US Air Force Retired.”
“Big story?” Jimmy asked.
“Maybe. Oh, and if you manage to not leave any traces that you’re looking, even better.”
Jimmy came back several hours later. “George Thompson works for the State Department. What I got was he’s sort of troubleshooter if one of the intelligence agencies does something publicly stupid. General Newcomb lives in Metropolis. He was involved in Project Blue Book.”
Jimmy handed her a familiar printout of an old Daily Planet page from the ‘60s – a photo of Newcomb, Trask, and several other uniformed officers and the headline ‘UFO Sighting Really Swamp Gas.’ Newcomb and Trask were identified by name.
Jimmy continued. “After that article there’s a lot missing from his military record, like he was involved in really highly classified stuff. The kind of stuff that even knowing the name of it can get you into trouble if you’re not short-listed for it. And except for this article, Trask is a ghost. I couldn’t find anything that shows he even exists. So either that’s not his real name or somebody really wanted him to not exist. Nothing on Bureau 39 either, but there are hints that at least one government agency is still looking into UFO sightings.”
Lois pointed to one of the men in the photo. “That’s Trask.”
“That’s one of the men that showed up in Smallville a couple months ago,” Kent said from behind them. “Older, of course.”
“What about ‘Bessolo Discount Used Office Furniture’?” Lois asked Jimmy.
“Another one of those five year leases paid in advance and in cash,” Jimmy said. “There’s a business license but no indication the business
does any business. No bank accounts, no credit, no employees, no sales, no taxes. Plus, there’s a note in the fire department’s building database that safety inspectors have been repeatedly refused access to check the building’s safety and, to add to the mystery, there’s a state of the art security system installed.”
“Keep digging on Trask and Newcomb. Maybe there’s an original of that photo somewhere in the Planet morgue. Then we can run that through the ID program.”
Jimmy hurried off to comply.
Lois turned to Kent. He was watching her curiously.
“Well?”
“Mom recognized the symbol,” Kent said, keeping his voice low. “And Dad nearly had a heart attack when I started asking questions about what happened the night they found me. There was a ‘container’ with that symbol on it. Dad buried it only it’s not where he says he buried it. And, a few days after I was found, government men came looking, asking questions. I’ll bet if I showed my parents that picture, they’d recognize some of the people in it. Mom said there was something ‘off’ about them. Something scary.”
“Trask
was scary,” Lois said, keeping her own voice low. “He was so fixated on saving the world from an invasion that didn’t exist that he labeled anyone who didn’t believe it as an enemy collaborator. He set himself up as judge, jury, and executioner and his men followed his orders without question, up to and including the torture and murder of civilians who got in his way and government officials who disagreed with him.”
“You say Trask ‘was’… What do you remember happening to him?”
Lois took a moment before answering. Something in Kent’s manner told her that things had gone very very badly when Trask went to Smallville in this reality.
She gave him a heavily edited version. “Trask lost it. He was holding the Kents and Mister Irig hostage, threatening to kill them because they wouldn’t confess to something they hadn’t done. Sheriff Harris got wind of it, found Trask holding a gun on them. She ordered him to drop his weapon, he didn’t. She shot and killed him. The rest of Trask’s gang disappeared.”
Kent took a deep breath. “What
I remember is the man you’ve identified as Trask murdered Rachel Harris when she went to question him about the death of Wayne Irig.”
“Oh Clark, I’m so sorry…”
“There were no leads as to who he was or who he was working for. No pictures, no identifiable prints,” Kent said. “He had told everyone he was a government agent, but no agency would admit to having any investigations of any kind in Lowell County, Kansas. But now we have a picture and a possible link to a covert government agency. It’s not a lot, but it’s something. Maybe enough to point the FBI in the right direction. They’re not fond of cop killers.”
“Plus we may have a location on him,” Lois pointed out.
“Which we should check out before they realize someone may be onto them,” Kent said.
There was the sound of Perry clearing his throat. “Is everything okay over here?” he asked.
“Sure, Mister White,” Kent told him, sounding mildly confused. “Why shouldn’t it be?”
“Well, you two lit out of here like you heard a fire alarm right after handing me that little trinket you found,” Perry said. “Then Lois here comes back without you and then you show up like you’re on a hot lead and now I’m not sure what’s going on. I mean, if it’s something I need to know about, you will tell me?”
“Of course, Perry,” Lois assured him.
He gave her a long look. “Lois, I know you well enough to know you think your old editor here should be treated like a prize mushroom until you’re good and ready to tell him what you’re up to. So I want my assurances from
him.” He turned to Kent. “What have you two got going?”
“Miss Lane may have uncovered a Metropolis link to a cop killing in Kansas a few months ago,” Kent said. “We’ve been comparing notes on it, plus it happened in my home town so I can provide background.”
“So, it sounds like you’ve got a lead on some very dangerous characters,” Perry said. “Just remember, the story’s important, but you can’t report it if you’re dead.”
“We’ll be careful,” Kent promised.
“Sure you will,” Perry muttered as he headed back to his office.
Kent turned to Lois. “I just want one assurance from you. If you decide
I’m the story, give me enough lead time to get my parents someplace safe.”
Lois’s first instinct was to protest that she’d never do anything like that. But she also knew that he had every right to distrust her. She had already damaged his journalism career in Metropolis although few people realized it and he was now, finally, where he really belonged – in the bullpen of the Daily Planet. Plus he
was a huge potential story and they both knew it. “I promise,” she said. “But just so you know, I think you’re a lot more valuable right here than in some lab or running for your life. Besides, I’m not stupid enough to risk the best potential resource the Planet’s ever had.”
-o-o-o-
“Jimmy was right about the security system,” Kent commented as he and Lois looked around the exterior of Bessolo Discount Used Office Furniture. The building looked run-down, fitting in with the other buildings in the area – a warehousing and light manufacturing area that had seen much better days.
The one thing that belied the building’s seeming ordinariness was the sophisticated security system. Video surveillance, sensors on the high windows, locks with magnetic keys.
“They really don’t want people getting in and seeing what they have,” Lois said quietly.
“My mom has a theory that big locks just tell people you have something you think is worth stealing,” Kent said with a grin.
“She doesn’t live in Metropolis,” Lois countered. “But she may be right about this place. Big locks probably means something big inside.”
Kent had pushed his glasses down his nose and was peering at the building over the top of the frames. It was an oddly familiar gesture that Lois hadn’t realized she had missed until now.
Her Clark had done that and now she knew why.
“I think there’s less security on the roof,” Kent said. “And there’s a fire escape over on that other building.”
“A fire escape?”
He grinned at her. “Plausible deniability.”
She followed him up the fire escape and he held her as they jumped to the roof of the building they were interested in. It wasn’t a big jump although if someone had been watching it might have looked a little too easy.
“No cameras up here?” she asked.
“Just one,” Kent told her.
She looked and spotted the camera mounted to the top of an HVAC unit. The wires snaking from the camera looked charred. She could almost see the heat coming off the wires. “You are
so handy.”
They made their way to the skylight and peered down into the warehouse.
For an alleged furniture warehouse, there was little to be seen. A desk, some file cabinets, and irregular piles of
something covered with tarps.
Lois could also see several men in military style camouflage standing around two men who seemed to be arguing. Their voices floated up to her. One of the men, the one in the suit, sounded like George Thompson.
“Trask, your reckless freelancing is jeopardizing the integrity of the entire Bureau 39 operation,” Thompson was saying.
“You don't know anything about Bureau 39!” Trask responded. “You sit with those gutless paper pushers in Washington who are too stupid to know we're even in a war, let alone know how to fight it!”
“What war?” Thompson demanded.
“They’re here, just waiting for an opportunity to attack.”
“Who is here, Trask?” Thomson asked. “Have you captured one? Where are they? What do they look like?”
“They look like us, except they’re not.”
“Have you any idea how insane you sound?” Thompson asked. “How do you even know there are aliens?”
“I have my sources,” Trask told him. “They came down in 1966 in a little podunk town in Kansas nobody cares about and took over. Now they’re on the move.”
“Can you prove any of this?” Thompson demanded. “Is there one shred of evidence outside of this collection of junk?”
“Open your eyes! It’s happening! They're coming after us. A few people will die in the struggle, yes, but we either draw the line or we capitulate. I will never submit.”
Thompson sighed. “We can’t cover for you any more, Trask. The local FBI office got a tip identifying you as the man who killed that female sheriff in Kansas three months ago.” He handed Trask a piece of paper. “This orders you to turn over command and control of all your military assets to civilian authority. Me. I advise you make yourself scarce before the local agents come in here with guns blazing.”
“You can't shut me down.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Thompson grated at him. “I can and I will. More than that, we’re washing our hands of you.”
Trask glared at Thompson then abruptly backhanded him across the face. “You have no authority,” Trask screamed. He made a gesture and two of the other uniformed men grabbed Thompson.
“Have you ever seen Metropolis Bridge by moonlight?” Trask went on more calmly. “Over five hundred men gave fifteen years of their lives to build it. But you, George, you can experience the majesty of that bridge in seconds. I'm sure it'll be a thrill. Too bad you won't be able to tell me about it.”
Lois found herself trembling. She wasn’t sure if it was horror or fury at Trask’s insanity and Thompson’s apparent callousness. He was washing his hands of Trask, not because the man was a cold-blooded killer, but because he was ‘inconvenient’.
“If we call in an anonymous tip, do you think they’ll be able to keep Trask from killing Thompson?” she said aloud. Kent gave her a strange look.
“What? You don’t think we should let the cops know we found Trask and his goons?” she asked.
“No, of course we should…” Kent said. “But… you heard everything they said?”
“Of course,” Lois said. Then she realized what he meant. The two men had been too far away for her to have heard them through the closed skylight. She looked down at her swollen belly.
What was happening? Is it you?“Let’s call this in,” Kent said. “We can come back later and see what’s inside.”
“If Trask gets spooked, he’ll disappear and take everything with him,” Lois warned. “I’ll go call them. You keep a look out here.”
Kent gave her a worried look, but jumped her across the gap between buildings to the fire escape. She could feel his eyes on her as she made her way down to the street.
Before she headed away she said in a low voice, “Oh, and be careful.
Before, Trask was looking for kryptonite on Irig’s land. I don’t know if he found any.”
“Kryptonite?” Kent’s voice came to her clearly.
“A meteorite from Krypton. Green glowing, possibly radioactive, crystal. Hurts Kryptonians.”
“I’ll be careful,” he promised.
Instead of the FBI, Lois called one of her contacts in the MPD. Bill Henderson was a straight up guy and listened to her when she called. Even after her ‘return from the dead’ he had listened and helped, although she was fairly certain he knew about at least some of the irregularities of her return to Metropolis.
He listened. His only question was: “How do you know Trask has taken Thompson prisoner and intends to kill him?”
“I saw them. Was close enough to hear. Trask mentioned the Metropolis Bridge by moonlight.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Lane,” Henderson warned.
“I won’t,” Lois promised.
“Riiight,” Henderson said before hanging up. For a moment he sounded just like Perry.
Then she heard the explosion. Bureau 39’s warehouse. She started running towards it.
