TOC Clark waited until nightfall to leave the grounds. Deter had been annoyingly attentive after dinner and it had taken all of Clark's self-discipline to keep from doing permanent damage to the doctor's anatomy. Finally, Clark/Alexa had simply begged off, claiming that Mendenhall's treatment had exhausted her, mentally and physically and she needed to get some sleep. Even then Deter seemed reluctant to leave him alone.
But finally Deter left and Clark was able to change into dark clothes and leave the building.
Getting off the grounds was exceptionally easy. There was no camera coverage of the hidden gate. And given the level of security on the rest of the grounds, the lack of coverage was hardly accidental. It also didn't hurt that his powers had finally come in.
Moments after lifting off from the Institute Clark landed on the balcony of the Alexanders' hotel suite.
-o-o-o-
Lois heard Clark land outside and went out to meet him. “Thank goodness you're okay,” she said, giving him a hug. “Did you find out anything more about what's going on there?”
“Two of Mendenhall's patients have had strokes in the past two days,” Clark told her. “Fatal, artificially induced strokes. I also have the names of three other of his patients who also had strokes in the past year. And I believe the dates closely correspond with three weird unsolved murders.” He handed her the list with names and dates of death.
“May 25th, July 17th...” Lois read off. “You're right. The Vice President of Sun Construction was gunned down on May 23rd and they never found his killer. And on July 15th...”
“... the head of AmerTech Labs was killed when his house blew up,” Clark continued. “I also overheard part of a phone conversation. Mendenhall was telling someone that everything was going well and the contract that would be carried out in day or so, and the payment was due by six o'clock. Mendenhall also told them it was a cash business, that one of his clients tried to pass him a bad check and they never found his body.”
“It sounds like he's got an another assassination planned.”
“And another of his patients is going to die of a massive stroke,” Clark said. “We should let the police know.”
“And tell them what?” Lois asked. “There's no direct link that we know of between Mendenhall's patients and the murders and Mendenhall will just claim you're emotionally disturbed and imagining things. Henderson might believe us but nobody else will.”
“Maybe Mendenhall's dead patient list will give us a usable lead,” Clark said.
“I hope so,” Lois said. She sighed, then: “Anything more on Deter?”
“I won't be held responsible for what I'll do if he keeps treating me like a prize mushroom,” Clark said. “Plus, what I've overheard indicates he has no idea what Mendenhall is up to and that's suspicious in and of itself. Deter's supposed to be smart, tops in his field, and he's not objecting to the fact that an unusual number his partner's patients are dead because they were subjected to Mendenhall's experimental 'treatments'? And he's okay with
me being subjected to it, even though he knows it's dangerous.”
“You don't have to go back,” Lois said.
“We still don't have a lead on the drugs Deter gave Luthor,” Clark reminded her. He studied her face for a moment. “There's something else, isn't there?”
“What time was that call to Mendenhall?”
“Twoish,” Clark answered.
“Two gunmen tried to rob the restaurant Perry and a member of the mayor's staff were having lunch,” Lois told him. “At least it was supposed to look like a robbery, but there's reason to believe Perry was being targeted. That happened about noon.”
“Any ideas on who Perry's pissed off lately?”
“He doesn't think it's the mayor, but someone knew where he was having lunch and when and I don't think anyone at the Planet had the information. Jimmy didn't.”
“Phones can be tapped and if the technology is good, even Superman may not know it,” Clark stated. “Are the police keeping an eye on him?”
“I let Henderson know my suspicions,” Lois said. “And just so you know, I'm pretty sure Perry knew about Clark and Superman and he suspects I have powers.”
Clark sighed. “Perry didn't get to be a man in his position by just knowing how to yodel. I'm amazed he never confronted me about it.”
“Probably didn't want to scare you,” Lois said.
-o-o-o-
The next morning came too soon for Clark. He had returned to his room at the Center hoping no one had noticed his absence. It appeared that no one had, but he hadn't been able to sleep. Noises kept intruding – fire alarms and police sirens, cries for help and gun shots. All things Superman would have attended to, but Superman was dead.
Breakfast in the dining room was quiet. The patients seemed to notice that Agnes was gone, but none of the staff mentioned her passing. And no one volunteered to join Clark at his table. A natural reticence on the part of the other patients or another sign of Deter's manipulation of “Alexa's” environment?
He went back to his room to do his exercises. Mindfulness and control. He was getting better at controlling this body. Now it was a matter of keeping his powers in check so as not to be noticed.
The door to the room opened and Deter walked in. He hadn't knocked.
“I thought you had a session with Dr. Mendenhall this morning,” he said.
“I don't want to go,” Clark said as he completed the current part of his routine.
“Why not?” Deter asked, sounding surprised.
Clark stopped moving. “He... scares me.”
Deter moved closer. “Elias Mendenhall is a great doctor. There's no reason for you to fear him.”
Clark studied Deter's face, wishing that mind-reading was one of his powers. “Maybe not,” he said after a moment, “but I do.”
Deter moved even closer. “Your mind is going through a lot right now and you're a little confused. You know that I'd never let Dr. Mendenhall, or anyone, hurt you. You have to trust me.”
“Did Henry and Agnes trust you?” Clark asked.
For just a moment Deter looked as if he'd been physically struck, then he schooled his expression into something more 'benign'. “Henry and Agnes were not as healthy or strong as you are. Besides, they weren't my patients.”
“And that's supposed to absolve you of responsibility? What happened to 'above all, do no harm'?”
“Do I detect a touch of paranoia?”
“Is it paranoid to be concerned about being treated by a doctor who's had two patients die in two days?”
“Agnes and Henry were part of an experimental treatment study,” Deter said, but Clark could tell he was lying. “You're not getting that treatment. The treatment he's giving you is completely safe and will only enhance my work with you.”
“You're absolutely sure?”
“Of course,” Deter promised. “But if you're still frightened, I can give you something to help you relax.”
“You can?” Clark asked, trying to sound as though Deter had convinced him.
Deter pulled a pill case from his pocket and handed Clark two small white tablets. He watched as Clark put them in his mouth. “Now go,” Deter ordered. “You shouldn't keep Dr. Mendenhall waiting.”
Once out of sight of Deter, Clark faked a cough for the hallway camera and spat the two pills into his hand. With any luck, analysis would prove that the pills contained the same drugs that Luthor had used on Lois Lane.
An orderly carrying a large bouquet of flowers passed by and Clark turned to see him enter “Alexa's” room.
-o-o-o-
Lois entered the Daily Planet newsroom. Again, if Bob had any comments he didn't voice them. Nor did he make any comment on the fact that Lane hadn't shaved today. It couldn't be helped. His electric razor had finally simply given up on trying to cut invulnerable hair.
She looked around for Jimmy and finally spotted him. He looked uncomfortable in his dark suit - Lois and Clark's funeral was scheduled for the afternoon. Lois had hoped she would be able to avoid that service as well, but Martha Kent would have none of that. “If you were really Clark's friend, you'd be there,” she had stated firmly.
At least Jimmy was looking a little better than he had the day before.
“Jimmy,” Lois called. “I have some additional names for you to check.” She handed Jimmy the list Clark had given her.
“I'll get right on it,” Jimmy promised. “Oh, by the way, the M.E. is looking into those two deaths you were interested in. It looks like somebody suggested that they may have been subjected to some sort of dangerous experimentation.”
Lois's cell phone chirped and she answered it.
“Mr. Alexander. This is Dr. Deter. I thought we had an understanding about Alexa.”
Lois felt a pang of worry. Had Deter detected that Clark had left the grounds last night?
“Cutting off communication with her means no visits, no calls and no bouquets with 'thinking of you' notes,” Deter continued.
“Come on,” Lois protested. “They were only flowers. Besides, she's still my wife.”
“You don't understand; anything could set her off. She's suffering from acute paranoia this morning. Something must've happened during the night that spooked her,” Deter stated.
“Like what?” Lois asked, wondering what he suspected.
“I have no idea,” Deter admitted. “But she's not being rational and has tried to refuse treatment. If she tries to contact you, don't try to reason with her. As a matter of fact, don't even talk to her. I know it sounds callous, but it's for her own good.”
“Shouldn't I have a say in her treatment?” Lois asked.
“Are you her doctor?” Deter snarled.
“No, I'm her husband.”
“No contact,” Deter repeated and hung up. Lois stared at her phone for a moment before putting it back in her coat pocket.
“Problems, son?” Perry asked.
“Doctor Deter,” Lois told him. “It seems he has taken offense to me sending flowers to my hospitalized wife.”
“That is a little odd,” Perry said.
“Mister White, if I was Clark and that was Lois undercover there, what advice would you give?”
“I'd remind Clark that Lois Lane was in a league of her own and she was doing undercover work for years before he came along, but I'd also tell him to make sure Superman was watching over her,” Perry said. “Unfortunately, that's not an option any more. But if you suspect she's in real danger, pull her out.”
“That's just it,” Lois said. “I don't
know that she's in danger. I just know that I don't trust Max Deter or Elias Mendenhall.”
“And maybe for good reason,” Jimmy said, coming up to them. “Every one of the deaths on Alexa's list happened within the twenty-four hours following a weird unsolved murder. All the stroke victims were admitted to County General from the Neuroscience Center, died within a day or so, and none of them had relatives in town at the time. And get this, everyone of them had signed over their property, including real estate and bank accounts, to the Center only a few days before their deaths.”
“And nobody thought that was suspicious?” Lois asked.
Jimmy just shrugged. “Want me to see if there are any links between the other victims? I know Lois and Clark didn't find any connections between them, but it's possible they missed something.”
“Or maybe the connection is what happened to their companies after their deaths?” Lois suggested.
“Or maybe the only connection is who was hired to do the dirty work,” Perry suggested.
“Mister White, Alexa has reason to believe another assassination is the works,” Lois said. “And given what happened to you yesterday, you may well be the next target.”
“The two thugs aren't admitting to anything except trying to rob the restaurant,” Perry told her. “And I run a newspaper. If I ran like a scared rabbit every time a threat came my way, I wouldn't be worth the sweat off an Elvis impersonator. None of us here would. You should know that.”
“It's just that, like you said, Superman's not an option anymore.”
-o-o-o-
Clark was actually nauseous when he finally made it back to his room. His head pounded and he wanted nothing more than to lay down in a dark room and hope the symptoms didn't last. It didn't really feel like kryptonite exposure, but he knew he'd been exposed to something nasty while in Mendenhall's treatment room.
His headache was making it hard to concentrate on what he needed to do: call Lois and let her know that Mendenhall's next target was Perry White and that Alexa Alexander was the designated assassin.
He picked up the phone and dialed Lois's cell phone number.
“Yes Miss Parker?” a female voice asked after only one ring.
“I'm trying to get an outside line, please,” Clark said.
“I'm sorry, but Doctor Deter has ordered that you have no contact with the outside.”
“It's an emergency,” Clark grated.
“I'm sorry, you'll need to talk to Doctor Deter.”
“But somebody's going to die!”
“You'll need to talk to Doctor Deter,” the voice repeated. Then the line went silent.
-o-o-o-
Like the day before, Mother Nature seemed to be celebrating life. Blue skies, a few high clouds, only a light breeze. Unlike the very public ceremony for Superman, the funeral for Lois Lane and Clark Kent was a small, private one at the grave site. Family and a few friends. There was only one coffin – Lois's. Clark body was presumed vaporized by Luthor's weapon. Bill Henderson and a few other members of the MPD showed up to offer their condolences.
Perry did the eulogy. “When I first met Lois Lane, she was a young, brash journalism student who had won a summer internship at the Planet and she was as stubborn as a pitbull on a pant leg and as curious as a kitten. But her driving force was not to find and spread about prurient tidbits about celebrities or gory details about crimes. Her driving force was Truth. For without Truth there can be no Justice and without Justice we cannot have a good and just society. It didn't hurt that she knew more about the inner workings of the sports scene in Metropolis than most veteran sports writers.
“Lois was a good .. no, make that great... crime beat writer. She didn't consider the police or the district attorneys to be the opposition or 'simply' sources. She considered them friends and even partners in the quest for Justice although her dedication to Truth sometimes put her at odds with those who serve Justice.”
Lois heard a faint chuckle and thought it came from Detective Reed.
“When I first met Clark Kent, he too was full of that confidence you get when you don't know any better. I remember thinking... this kid is me. I didn't hire him on the spot. I did hire him when he brought in a story that Lois wouldn't or couldn't write. He didn't disappoint me. Like Lois, he was dedicated to Truth and Justice. But his was a lighter touch, a gentler one. For him, Justice was more than law enforcement, more than the justice system. For him, it included how we treat one another, fairly, compassionately, without bigotry or prejudice, without regard to color, creed, or finances. For him it meant giving voice to those who had no voice, paying attention to those who others ignored.
“For both Lois and Clark, Truth and Justice meant calling out those who thought that having wealth and power meant that they were above the law and they were beyond justice. And for that these two seekers of truth were targeted and for that they were brutally cut down when they should have been starting happy lives together.
“The world will remember their killer as the one who killed Superman. We who knew Lois and Clark best will remember him as something even worse. We will remember him as someone who tried to murder Truth and Justice in the form of two wonderful human beings who I respected deeply and am proud to have called my friends.”
Amazing Grace sung by Elvis Presley came next. Obviously Perry and Martha had won over Ellen Lane. Or they simply ignored her wishes and simply went with what they knew Clark would like.
“Clark was a good man,” Lois overhead Henderson telling the Kents. “And he was a good friend. We shall not see his like again.”
Another song.
Somewhere from Westside Story.
There's a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us...Lois wondered who suggested that one. Had she and Clark been as star-crossed as those two lovers? Maybe.
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe...Frank Sinatra singing
The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha. Lois loved the play and the song. She started singing under her breath.
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar...“Lane?” Perry asked. “Are you okay, son?”
Lois brushed the tears from her face. A song shouldn't make Lane Alexander cry. “I'm fine. It... I just keep hoping this is all a horrible nightmare and I'll wake up and Clark and Lois are back from their honeymoon and tracking down bad guys and looking for something to put Luthor behind bars again...”
She looked up to see Perry giving her a bemused look.
“For a moment there, you sounded just...”
An odd movement on the road caught Lois's eye. A large pickup truck jumped the curb and was driving across the grass. Lois could hear faint tinny strains of 'Feelings' coming from the driver's headphones. Lois recognized the driver.
“What in the Sam Hill is that guy trying to do?” Perry muttered.
Suddenly the truck swerved toward them and Lois yelled. “Clark!”
The driver hit the brakes and Lois ran toward the truck, Perry right behind her. Lois could hear other members of the funeral party running towards them.
She threw open the truck door. “Are you alright? What happened?”
Clark shook his head as he pulled off the headphones. “Deter made me go to Mendenhall's treatment even though I didn't want to and I tried to call you afterward because I figured out what he was doing but Deter ordered that I not be allowed to make calls... and then... here. You, yelling my name.”
“You need to see Doctor Klein,” Lois stated.
Clark shook his head. “Mendenhall will get suspicious if I don't report back.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the two tablets Deter had given him. He held out the tablets to Henderson. “Evidence. Deter tried to give these to me. I'm really sure they aren't part of the Center's normal pharmacopoeia.”
-o-o-o-
It wasn't hard to pretend to be dazed. Clark clearly remembered Mendenhall's instructions while under the influence of the treatment chair. Kill Perry White – with explicit instructions on how it was to be done – and then return to the Center, to Mendenhall's office.
“Alexa, how are you feeling?” Mendenhall asked
“Much better, now that Perry White is dead,” Clark answered.
Mendenhall smiled, gesturing to the treatment chair. “You'll be happy to know that this is your final treatment.” He went to the control panel and adjusted the settings. Then he frowned as he realized Clark had not moved to the treatment chair.
“It's over, Mendenhall,” Clark said as Lois, Henderson, and Reed walked in.
“I don't understand,” Mendenhall protested. He took a step toward his desk.
“Elias Mendenhall, you are under arrest for the murders of Henry Blackstock and Agnes Moskowitz. You have the right to remain silent...” Henderson started.
“They died of strokes,” Mendenhall stated. “Natural for their age.”
“That's not exactly what the autopsy report says,” Reed said.
Mendenhall lunged toward his desk and hit button on his desk. Suddenly strains of a particularly odious arrangement of
Feelings filled the compound.
Clark suddenly had to fight an urge to attack Henderson and Reed. “It's the music,” he managed to say, covering his ears to try to stop the horrible noise. Mendenhall tried to run but Reed grabbed him, knocking him down.
Henderson pushed the button on the desk, but the music didn't stop. Suddenly the office window was shattered by machine gun fire. Lois grabbed Henderson and Reed, pushing them behind the desk. Through the growing haze in his head, Clark looked out to see a one of the Center's older patients standing on the lawn holding an Uzi. He had a completely blank look on his face. Behind him, more elderly patients were approaching the office, all of them armed with heavy artillery, all with vacant expressions.
“Mendenhall must've brainwashed them to protect him and the song is their trigger,” Lois said.
“Hurry,” Clark moaned.
Lois ran out of the shattered window during a lull in the gun fire. In a few seconds the music stopped. Outside, the army of brainwashed elderly halted their move toward the office. They dropped their weapons and looked to one another to find clues as to what had just happened to them.
Reed finished giving Mendenhall his rights and handcuffing him. “I'm going to suggest to the D.A. to make sure that wherever you end up, they pump '
Feelings' into your cell, day and night.”
Lois stepped back through the window. “Everybody okay here?”
“Fine,” Reed said, pushing Mendenhall in front of her into the hallway. The hallway had several uniformed officers in it, one of whom had Maxwell Deter in custody. Reed handed Mendenhall over to one of the unis.
Dan Scardino walked up to them. “Thanks for the tip,” Scardino told Henderson.
Henderson snorted. “Don't make me regret calling you.”
Scardino eyed Clark. “Nice work. My team can use somebody like you.”
“No sale, Scardino,” Lois said, placing a protective arm around Clark's shoulders.
“Just saying, if you get bored playing the little wife,” Scardino said as he walked away.
“I could easily learn to hate that man,” Reed said. Clark agreed with her.
