From Part 6
* * * Flashback * * *
With another glance over her shoulder, Lois made sure that she was still alone. Satisfied, she went to Perry’s office. He was way too confident that his natural authority would keep nosy employees out. Maybe, his fear of his wife Alice added to the fact that lately, he kept forgetting to lock his door. Since his job as the editor-in-chief always kept him in the office until late hours, he had to hurry home in order not to incur Alice’s wrath.
Today had not been any different from all the other days in that respect. The door swung open as soon as Lois pushed down the handle. Perry’s desk stood in stark contrast to the tidy place Clark had left behind. It was covered in heaps of sheets and folders, a complete mess to anyone but the adept observer. Lois however knew the secret system behind the chaos, she had studied Perry well. It took her only moments to find the right folder, the one in which Clark Kent had kept examples of his work.
She snorted as she skimmed over the first one that was dealing with the mating rituals of the knob-tailed gecko. It had been published in the Borneo Gazette. The second article had made it as far as the Smallville Press. Lois shook her head in annoyance. Reading his work, she had to admit that he had good writing skills, but it took much more to become a good investigative journalist. The third sheet of paper proved to be a letter of recommendation from one Professor Carlton, Midwestern University, Kansas. It was addressed to Perry White and from the looks of it, the two men knew each other, seemed to be friends even.
Lois flipped the folder shut. She had seen enough. Obviously, Clark Kent had been hired because of Perry’s friendship with said Professor Carlton. Although, Lois found that kind of strange, it had not been unheard of. She shrugged it off and put the folder back on its place on the desk. If Perry hired a hack from Nowheresville to have someone to cover the dog shows, she certainly was not going to question it. If he made it that long in the big city, he might even take over the obituary section, once Andrew retired.
* * * End Flashback * * *
... I Knew The Truth
Part 7
It was indeed a slow news day. After reading the press release of the NTSB, Lois had gone out to cover the hundredth meeting of the city council, which was traditionally open to the public. Listening to the politician’s debate on renovating several playgrounds was not Lois idea of fun. She sat through the meeting, trying her best not to fall asleep. Now and again, she put down a note. But most of the time, she agonized about finding a new lead to continue her story. Regarding the meeting of the city council, she could compare notes with her fellow reporters later on. In times of pure boredom, it was an unspoken agreement to bury the hatchet and work together.
Lois smiled inwardly as she heard a soft snore beside her. After the playgrounds the debate had moved on to the trash collection services, a topic that was equally as controversial – not. Two weeks ago a strike had resulted in large pile-ups of trash all along the city. That story was old news now and the city council had no interest whatsoever to have that particular disaster repeated anytime soon. So they quickly agreed to meet all conditions in order to avoid another strike.
The rest of the meeting was no better than the beginning. After two hours, Lois was finally able to leave the city hall. She stepped out of the building and into the pouring rain. Quickly, she fumbled for the umbrella she kept in her bag, but by the time she had taken it out, she was already half drenched. Muttering a soft curse, Lois wondered if her day could get any worse.
So far, all she had to show for the day were three short reports on city politics, four reports if one counted the press release of the NTSB. Together they were barely enough to fill a column. Her evening with Lex had not amounted to anything printable, either. At least if she did not want to bore her readers to death. With a frustrated sigh, Lois raised her hand to hail a cab. She decided to head for the police station, desperately hoping to find herself a story she could write.
Regarding her initial plan to expose Lex Luthor, she was coming up empty. Even after spending the past two hours contemplating the problem at hand, she had no better idea than to contact Bobby Bigmouth. While he was the best snitch she knew, she had the distinct feeling that she would be wasting a fortune on food and would get no results. She did not even have any idea what she was going to ask him. Lois would need something a little more concrete on either Luthor or Clark. It would not do her any good if she asked Bobby, whether he had seen a flying man. Clark was certainly more careful than that.
Finally, a cab pulled to a halt in front of Lois. She quickly closed her umbrella and shook it as dry as she could, before she climbed in and asked the cabby to drive her to the police station, already fearing that it would only be another exercise in futility.
Around noon, Lois was back at the Daily Planet with a set of police reports to fill a second column. She was a long way from producing anything front page worthy. A quick survey of the newsroom told Lois two things. Firstly, her colleagues were no better off than she was. Secondly, Clark was still missing.
Lois went to her desk and put down the bag of sandwiches she had gotten for lunch. Sitting down on her chair, she got ready to write the articles she had so far, however small they were. If worst came to worst, she could still use the decision of the city council regarding the trash collection services and blow it out of proportions to make for a good headline. Maybe she could interview a few employees and citizens later to create a good human interest story. The fact that Clark was better at that kind of stuff did not mean she could not do it. And if by any stroke of luck someone else had found front page material, then her article would still provide a decent page two. It was better than nothing.
Just as Lois took a sandwich out of her bag, her telephone rang. She picked up immediately. “Lois Lane, Daily Planet.”
There was silence at the other end of the line. “This is the Daily Planet. You’re speaking with Lois Lane,” she repeated a little impatiently, but was still only met by silence.
Lois was about to hang up when she heard someone take in a deep breath. “Clark?” she asked tentatively. “Is that you?”
“No, Lois,” a male voice replied thickly. “It… it’s Paul.” He sounded nervous.
“Paul?” Lois said surprised. She dropped her sandwich and hastily fumbled for a pad to take notes. “I didn’t expect to hear from you. What’s the matter?”
“Gotta make this quick, Lois,” he said, his voice almost drowned out by noise that seemed to come from his end of the line. It sounded like traffic, rather strange for someone who was working in an office. “After our conversation the other day, I happened to have lunch with the guy who conducted the investigation concerning the helicopter explosion you asked me about. He told me about his case, saying that they found remnants of the timer in the debris. According to him, it was pretty peculiar. I believe ‘a piece of art’ were his exact words.”
“Wait a moment, that sounds like the explosion was no accident,” Lois mused, now sitting on the edge of her seat.
“I would certainly think so,” Paul agreed. “Whoever built this bomb must have known what they were doing. It’s highly unlikely that such a bomb was on board the helicopter for any other reason than to cause the explosion.”
“But today your office released a statement, classifying the explosion as tragic accident, caused by the debris of the initial explosion in the warehouse,” Lois stated.
“That can’t be right,” Paul said, taken aback. “My colleague told me that the official report wouldn’t be ready before tomorrow.”
“Well, obviously, he finished it sooner,” Lois disagreed. “Paul, is there some way I can talk to your colleague? This could be something really big. I’m certain this helicopter explosion is linked to the sabotage of the Messenger a week ago.”
Lois heard some more traffic, before the line went silent again. For long, agonizing moments she thought that Paul had hung up. She took in deep breaths, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart.
“I’ll see what I can do, Lois,” Paul said eventually.
“Thanks, Paul,” Lois replied gratefully. “I thought you weren’t going to ask around,” she then added.
“I wasn’t. He just told me,” Paul objected. “Besides, I didn’t want to make any promises I couldn’t keep.”
“Thank you,” Lois repeated. Before Paul said anything else, the line went dead.
Lois stared at the receiver in her hand. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest. She closed her eyes, whispering a silent prayer to thank whatever deity had blessed her with another lead. This was big. Only moments ago, she had been ready to drop the story altogether. Now, she knew that there had indeed been a bomb on board the helicopter. Moreover, someone had faked the official report to hide his tracks. This reeked of corruption, in an organization like the NTSB, no less. A flutter filled Lois’ belly and suddenly, she couldn’t start investigating soon enough.
Hastily, she fumbled for the press release. Earlier, she had paid no attention to the signatures at the bottom of the page. Now, she studied them thoroughly. There were three of them, two belonging to the chairman and vice chairman of the board. The third was the name of the person who was responsible for the current investigation. It was a man named Sidney Burke
“Jimmy!” Lois shouted across the newsroom, her impatience seeping into her voice.
His head shot up and he dropped whatever he was working at. Quickly, Jimmy scurried towards her desk, almost standing at attention as he reached her. “I need you to get me anything you can find on one Sidney Burke, who is working for the NTSB,” she explained hastily, shoving the press release with the name on it into Jimmy’s hands. “I want to know where he lives, where he went to school and so on. If there is anything, anything at all that might him susceptible for being bribed I want to know that, too.”
“On it, Lois,” Jimmy confirmed and turned on his heels, eager to comply with her request.
Giddy with excitement, Lois jumped up from her chair and was already half on her way to Clark’s desk to tell him the good news, when her gaze fell on his still empty seat. She huffed in annoyance, both at his absence and her own need to involve him in her story. Granted, it had been nice to share the success of their first story as partners, something she had never thought would happen. Still, the thought irked her that their short-term partnership might have been more to her than just a necessity.
Lois was a lone wolf and she preferred it that way. Clark had practically done her a favor by giving up, she tried to convince herself.
It was not easy though. Lois felt still a bit deflated at the missed opportunity of sharing her joy. Besides, she realized that there was not much she could do for now. She had to wait for Paul to call her about meeting Sidney Burke and Jimmy would not be back with his research for a few hours. Maybe, she should have looked into the guy on her own. Lois could not help the feeling that Clark might have come up with something they could do in the meantime, some other lead they could follow.
Lois walked back to her desk, her shoulders slumped. She sank onto her chair, turning her attention back to the boring stories she had been working on before Paul’s phone call. Like Perry would say, they had still a paper to write. Thinking of Perry, Lois suddenly felt another rush of energy. She jumped up from her seat and quickly made her way to her editor-in-chief’s office. Perry had sources in all kinds of places, the most illustrious of them all over Washington D.C.. Who was to say that he did not know someone in the NTSB as well?
* * *
Roughly thirty hours later, Lois sat in a shady bar of a dump in Washington D.C. that much reminded her of the Apollo Hotel Clark had stayed at. On such short notice she had not been able to find a more comfortable place to spend the night. The capital city was crowded with reporters and lobbyists lying in wait for the big scoop. The congress had spent the past few weeks arguing about a set of new laws regarding health care, which affected the tobacco as well as the pharmaceutical industry along with some minor branches Lois had no real knowledge about. Since the Daily Planet held a little office in Washington as well, she hardly ever dealt with internal policies.
For the most part, Lois was glad she did not have to cover what she considered a dog show. Most of the meetings were not public, so her fellow reporters spent hours and hours waiting for someone to give a statement. While the laws were ambitious, Lois had no doubt that their real intention would be diluted to nothingness, once the lobbyists were done with the politicians. In Lois opinion there were far better ways to waste time. But the commotion on Capital Hill also meant that she was sitting alone in the bar, desperately waiting for her source to arrive. She had no one to keep her company and that made her own assignment all the more boring.
Stifling a yawn, Lois reached for her glass of coke and took a large sip. Her stomach was growling something furious and she could not help, but to stare at the assortment of nuts sitting on the bar. So far, she had deemed them too disgusting to eat, since who knew how many thugs had already dipped their fingers in the bowl. But with every passing minute they looked more appealing.
Perry White had been excited after Lois had told him about her suspicions regarding the helicopter explosion and the cover-up on such a high level. Her assumption that Perry knew the right people in Washington had been spot on. He had arranged for her to meet his source. Unfortunately, she knew little more about the guy than that he obviously had a thing for shady bars. That was another reason why Lois was staying at this dump. He had insisted on meeting in a part of the city where none of his co-workers were likely to go. She did not even know how to recognize the guy, which frustrated her most of all. He would find her – and that was why she could do nothing bit sit at the bar and sip at her coke.
While she waited, Lois half-heartedly watched a game of basketball on TV. Time and again, she looked over her shoulder only to find the place just as deserted as before. Heaving a sigh, she turned her attention back on the TV screen, seeing a ball bounce of the basket without scoring a point. Even the game was boring, as two mediocre teams spent most of the time chasing the ball across the court. The score was low on both sides, almost even. Lois yawned and raised her glass to her lips once more.
The bell on the door gave of a soft ring as someone entered the bar. Lois’ heart started to race, just as the other two times someone had come in and drowned a glass of beer only to leave again. She cautioned herself, warily looking over her shoulders. The newcomer strolled ahead towards the bar, lazily taking off his jacket. He wore jeans and a pullover, looking a lot more cultivated than anyone else she had seen at this place. He was slightly overweight.
Yet, he dropped onto one of the bar chairs a few feet to her right with an almost casual grace. Lois eyed him more thoroughly, estimating that he was around Perry’s age, maybe a few years younger than the Chief. His once black hair had mostly grayed. He ordered a beer and for long moments nothing happened. Lois suppressed a sigh of disappointment as she looked back at the game, finding that none of the teams had won a point. She squinted her eyes shut. This day really could not get any worse.
“How’s the game?” the man beside her asked in a warm baritone.
“Don’t ask,” Lois groaned and looked back at the man beside her, flashing him a tentative smile she hoped he would not mistake for flirting.
“That bad, huh?” He quirked an eyebrow.
“Worse,” Lois replied and despite herself she chuckled softly.
“What’s a young lady like you doing in a dump like this?” the man beside her wanted to know.
“Waiting for someone,” Lois said as non-commitally as she could. Inwardly, she rolled her eyes at the blunt advance.
“I guess, that someone would be me, then,” the guy continued, making Lois wonder who was writing his lines. She could hardly stifle another groan as he offered her his hand. “James Russ,” he introduced himself. “But most people call me Jim. You must be Ms. Lane, I presume. Perry told me, I’d find you here.”
Taken aback, Lois turned towards the man beside her, quickly wiping the scorn from her face. She hurried to put on a smile instead and shook the hand he held out.
“Lois Lane,” she said almost apologetically, trying to make up for her earlier wariness. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Russ.”
“Call me Jim,” he told her with a brilliant smile that almost rivaled Clark’s on his good days. “That way I don’t feel quite as old.”
“I’m Lois. Did Perry tell you why I wanted to meet you?” she asked cautiously. She felt herself warm to the man, who now that she thought about it, had an almost fatherly air to him.
“Well, he did say something about a faked report, but that is pretty much all I know,” Jim shrugged and took a large gulp of his beer. “So, what exactly are you after?”
Lois quickly fumbled for the notepad she always kept in her handbag. “There was a helicopter explosion in Metropolis a couple of days ago,” she explained while Jim Russ studied her thoughtfully, now and again sipping off his beer. “The official press release from the NTSB said that the helicopter caught fire and exploded as it hovered low over a burning building. I have a source saying that there was a bomb on board the helicopter and that someone in the NTSB must have covered it up, letting the real report vanish in favor of a fake one.”
“That’s a serious allegation, Lois,” Jim said softly. “If you weren’t working for Perry White, we’d be done talking now.”
“I know this sounds like a bad conspiracy theory,” Lois admitted. “But I watched the explosion. I’m not an expert, but I think that the helicopter flew too high to be hit by scorching debris.”
Jim nodded slowly. “It’s an unlikely cause for an explosion, that’s for sure. Unlikely, though not impossible,” he amended.
“What would you need to do to pull something like this off?” Lois asked.
“Bribe or blackmail several people in high places, I’d say,” Jim mused. “Did you give your statement?”
“To the local police department,” Lois told Jim, quickly eying the list of questions she had prepared before their meeting. Her stomach lurched at the thought of asking him after Sidney Burke. Jim seemed nice enough. Hence, she wondered if he would give her any information on the man. She still had Jimmy.
“The NTBS would definitely have taken your statement into account,” Jim said slowly. “That makes the classification as an accident all the more unlikely.”
“Someone must be pretty desperate to hope that no one will follow up on this story,” Lois commented.
“Oh, I don’t know. We’re talking about the helicopter of this young scientist who sabotaged the Space program, aren’t we?” Lois confirmed Jim’s notion with a nod. “While the sabotage was on the news nationwide, the helicopter explosion did not make quite such an impact. I doubt that the story sparked the interest of many reporters, particularly since the launch of the Colonist transport was successful.” Jim took another large sip of his beer, swirling the remains of the beverage in the now almost empty glass. “Besides, employees of the NTBS usually don’t talk to the press. They’d be risking their jobs.”
“I always keep my sources confidential,” Lois assured him.
“Oh, I don’t doubt that. I happen to know Perry White well,” Jim smiled.
Lois finally worked up her courage. “Do you know the guy who signed the press release? His name is Sidney Burke.”
Jim continued to swirl his glass, looking into it as if it held some answers. Lois heart rate spiked with excitement. She felt that Perry’s source was just as valuable as she had hoped he would be. But the longer he remained silent, the more she was worried that he was not going to answer her question.
“I do know him,” Jim said eventually, his voice thick with emotion.
“Do you think he would be susceptible to bribe or blackmail?” Lois asked tentatively.
“Who wouldn’t?” Jim retorted, anger seeping into his earlier so calm voice. As Lois flinched, his expression immediately softened. “What I´m going to tell you know is strictly off the record, are we clear?”
“Completely,” Lois agreed, putting her notepad down to illustrate her point.
“Sidney Burke is a good man,” Jim said emphatically. “But his wife was recently diagnosed with a rare, life-threatening disease. I don’t know any more details than that. He loves her dearly. I’ve hardly ever seen two people so happy with each other as the two of them. If he really let himself be bribed, he certainly would have done it to help his wife.”
“Could someone else be responsible?” Lois asked.
“A number of people,” Jim replied. “But if it was someone else, it wouldn’t be like Sidney to stay silent about it.”
“He could be afraid to lose his job over this,” Lois pointed out.
“That might be the reason, indeed,” Jim agreed, drowning the last bit of his beer and already lifting his hand to order a new one.
He turned towards the bar again, effectively ending their conversation. Lois put her notepad back into her handbag, feeling that it would be futile to ask any more questions. They had returned to the starting point and once again were only two strangers in a bar who happened to sit next to each other, only a chair between them. Lois emptied her glass of coke and slipped off her chair. Her stomach growled angrily and she decided that it was time to grab a bite to eat before she headed to bed.
As she left the bar, Lois thought that she saw a figure in the shadows close to the entrance. But as she looked closer, the figure was gone.
to be continued...
