Table of Contents ~~~Part 26~~~
Elle stared at the doors to the warehouse. She needed to stop trembling and pretend this was just like any other meeting. But that was exactly the problem. It *wasn't* just like any other meeting. Luthor would be there. With his intent to kill her. And her job...
... was to weasel information out of the most evil, dangerous man she'd ever heard of.
Yup. No pressure there.
Elle looked one more time over her shoulder to catch Pete's eye. He gave her a thumbs-up from his hiding spot behind a pile of crates. Heh.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second, then she reached out to open the door. "Here goes nothing," she muttered under her breath. The hinges on the old, rusted door creaked, as usual, announcing her presence to the world. Or at least to anyone who happened to be near the warehouse.
The first step inside was tentative, but then more confident, with what she sure as hell hoped was an air of nonchalance... or at least *not* scared stiff. She hoped.
Though if she'd managed a pretense, it had sure as hell just faltered.
Lex Luthor was standing in front of her - clear as day even though it was the damned middle of the night. Nigel was there too, as usual. But no one else was. Not Johnson, not Miller. Better to not have any witnesses to her murder.
Before she had time to compose herself into the Blissfully-Ignorant-of-Who-Lex-Luthor-Was-Elle, Lex called her bluff. Wholly unfair considering she hadn't even spoken a word yet. And on top of it all, the damn wire was itching again.
"Good evening, Miss Daly. Doing well, I hope?" Lex gave her a patronizing smile. "I trust you recognize my voice. And I'm sure I need not introduce myself..." Lex paused to take a step toward her and narrowed his eyes. "Not to a little, nosy, meddlesome waste of clean air such as yourself."
Heh. She didn't have a reply for that. In fact, the entire plan she and Pete had come up with in the last ten minutes had run away. Probably straight out the door, holding hands with her courage.
Maybe she should go find them. It really wasn't too wise to be here without the plan, was it? Elle turned back to look at the door and had to keep herself from jumping. Nigel was there, and the door was closed.
Bugger. Time for a new plan.
Think. Think.
Why was it so hard to think with a gun pointing in one's direction?
Moving so Nigel wasn't out of her line of sight would be a good idea. She turned and backed herself closer to the side of the warehouse, then focused in on what Lex was saying.
"... you have anything to report for this week regarding the whereabouts of Miss Lane?"
He was toying with her. He knew bloody well that she'd left the airport hours ago *and* that she'd let Lane go. Did he want her to lie? Fess up? Her hand had made its way up to the hem of her shirt to scratch at the wire before she realized. She watched Lex's eyes follow her movements. Crap. She was screwed.
Wait! That was it!
She grabbed the wire and yanked it free, keeping her thumb over the miniature microphone, and addressed him in a sickly sweet voice. "Now, Lex, you wouldn't hit a woman, would you?" She narrowed her eyes and changed her tone. "Or, rather, you wouldn't shoot a woman with a bomb. Would you?"
Her heart would have leapt at the brief flash of fear in his eyes... if it hadn't been busy doing a pretty good impression of the timpani section of an orchestra.
What on earth was she doing?
"What do you think you're doing, Daly?" The gun was still leveled at her.
Great. She cleared her throat. Maybe he didn't believe her. "I knew you were going to kill me, so I thought, what the hell? Might as well take you down with me. If my thumb leaves the trigger here, all three of us are fish food." She hoped her voice wasn't shaking too much.
"She's faking. She hasn't the gall."
Ohhhh. Nigel needed to shut up. Elle looked back to Lex.
He was silent. Contemplating, maybe? But he lowered the gun, and that bolstered her confidence... even though his finger had clearly remained on the trigger. He hadn't paid too much mind to Nigel, thankfully.
"Tell me, Luthor, I'm just dying to know *why* you are so concerned with Lois Lane. Everyone thinks she's dead. How could she possibly be of any use to you?"
She prayed Pete could still hear what she was saying even though she had her thumb over the microphone. Brilliant back up plan. Get Luthor to confess, but no evidence because she was obstructing the recording device.
He still wasn't talking. Just staring at her. He didn't believe her. But why wasn't he calling her bluff? Maybe this was some sort of sick mind game he was playing. Like a cat staring down the mouse who was frozen solid with fear.
Elle wasn't frozen, though. She could move. She had to keep talking, keep the upper hand... or convince Luthor that she *did* have the upper hand. "What are you doing with all the diamonds?"
The gun came back up. Oops. She might have gone a wee bit too far with that one. She did her best not to gulp.
"Who told you about the diamonds?"
She gulped.
Stall. She just had to stall for time. Pete said he would barge in if things started sounding too dangerous. He'd be here any second... She glanced down at her thumb on the "trigger". If he could hear what was going on.
"Really not a wise idea. The bomb will go off if you shoot me." She forced a bit of bravado back into her voice. "Now, tell me what you're doing with the diamonds."
"Ah, it's always the innocent ones who are foolishly brave in the last ten minutes of their lives. Isn't it, Nigel?"
"Yes, quite."
Ten minutes. Did that mean ten minutes from now? Or from when she'd first walked in the door? And how long ago had that been? And who was to say Luthor had really meant ten minutes.
Where the hell was Romero?
***
"I don't care what your supervisor told you!" Pete swiped at the air in frustration. Every second that went by was one more second in which Elle could die. And he wasn't going to go barreling in without backup. Not again. Not this time.
"You guys can suspend me later for all I care, but I told you, I need back up. ASAP. Give me S.W.A.T., local police, anyone. I've got Luthor cornered, but civilian lives are in danger."
Hold. He'd put him on hold! For the love of-
He froze at the sound of the voice coming through his headset.
<<What happened to your little boyfriend, Daly? The one from the airport.>>
Crap. Lex was getting impatient; Pete could hear it in his tone. He jumped up and started toward the warehouse, torturous hold music in one ear, and the taunting hiss of Luthor threatening Elle in the other. He hovered a few yards from the door, his gun already out of its holster.
"C'mon, c'mon," he muttered into the phone. "You should've jumped the second I said the name Lutho- Hello... Finally... Well, I told you! The old warehouse. Fifth and Warren. I need you here ten minutes ago!" He slammed the phone shut and shoved it in his pocket.
<<You know, one would think you'd have learned your lesson with your little friend. What was his name again?>>
Luthor was volatile now. There was a rough undercurrent of rage in his voice.
<<Joe.>>
Elle's voice was nothing more than a whisper in his ear. He couldn't wait for backup; he'd have to take his chances.
***
She'd had a plan. She and Pete had come up with a plan. A good one. Why, why, *why* was she staring at the wrong end of a gun attached to the arm of an extremely pissed off villain. A villain who was not following the typical bad guy script of confessing all his sins before he tried to kill the heroine. But Lex Luthor was far from typical, and she was certainly no heroine.
Lex had just advanced on her. Any second now he was going to pull the trigger, and Elle found herself wishing she really did have a bomb.
"In all your snooping you didn't learn the most important fact about me, did you?"
No... no. What had she missed? She shook her head, frightened. Why had she decided it'd be a *bad* idea to stash her gun somewhere on her?
"Lex Luthor never loses a b-"
"Freeze, Luthor! Elle, run!!"
She blinked and snapped her gaze towards the door. Pete. With a gun pointing at Luthor. And-
"Now, Elle! Go!"
She hesitated. She couldn’t just leave him. But... he was the trained professional here, and Luthor was suddenly looking again in her direction.
She bolted. Straight across the room and through the first door she saw. She flinched, but didn't look back when she heard the gunshot. Pretended she hadn't heard steel ripping through flesh. She couldn’t have. She ignored the grunt of pain she heard, the rustling and commotion, and slammed the door shut behind her.
Now she had to... run? Call for help? Had Pete called for backup? She should find a phone just in case.
Elle stared ahead at the dark hallway, then spared a look behind her at the door. Pete was in there by himself. Someone had been shot. She could hear shouting... chaos on the other side of the door. She needed to help. But... if she opened the door again, she didn't have any means of fighting back, let alone protecting herself or Pete. Damn it!
Best thing to do was to make sure help was on the way. Which meant finding a phone. There had to be an office somewhere in this warehouse. The dull, flickering bulb overhead provided enough light so she could just barely make out that there were doors scattered along the corridor. Two, maybe three on the right and at least four on the left.
She dashed over to the first one, the closest one on the right. Locked. The next one was locked, too. And the next. But now that she was further down the hallway, she could see... one of the doors was open. Or at least it appeared so. There was a dark, black abyss instead of the faint glint of light cast on the steel of the doors.
Elle sprinted toward it, but right before she reached it, a shot rang out. Her head whipped around to stare back at the door. It was still closed. But someone could be d-
How the hell had she ended up on the floor? Why did she feel as if she'd ran straight into a steel wall? She tried opening her eyes. The dark shadows were swimming above her, weaving back and forth. And...
Crap. Crapcrapcrap. She'd run into someone. Someone who probably worked for Luthor. She tensed and waited to hear the clicking of a gun being cocked. Or maybe a knife straight through the heart. Maybe if she didn't move...
"Are you okay?" A worried, masculine voice was whispering.
Another voice hissed through the semi-darkness. "Clark, you don't know who she is! For all we know, she's one of them."
Why did that name sound familiar? Clark...
"Running in the dark without a flashlight? I doubt it. Miss? Can you hear me?"
The man leaned closer and his face came into focus. She gasped. "Superma... mister Kent. Wha..." He didn't look well. At all. But she didn't have time to ponder that; the other face hovered into view. "Lois!"
Whoops. She ought not to have said that. Lois was tugging at Clark's arm, an alarmed look on her face.
"See?" There was a note of panic in Lois's voice as she tried pulling Clark away. "She knows. No one knows but them. And sh-"
"Ms. Lane, don't. It's okay." Elle stood up finally and brushed herself off. "I'm Elle Daly, ATF special agent."
"Let me see your badge," Lois demanded.
"Erm... I..."
"And if you're with the government, where's your gun? Or how about a flashlight? And why were you running?" Lois had missed her calling; she should have been working for the FBI. No, better yet, the FBINWWMPBN - Federal Bureau of Intensely Nosy Women Who Make People Bloody Nervous. Yup. Americans had organizations for everything; surely they had that one.
"Okay, fine. I’m not a special agent... not officially, anyway... but I *am* here to help." Elle tried to not punctuate her claim with a sigh. And she just bet Lois would believe her about as far as she could throw her... though, if the look on Lois's face was any indication, the odds of believability might be quite good...
"Why should I believe you?"
Lois's voice was curt, accusing. More so with her arms crossed and a perfectly uncalled for glare on her face. Clark, for his part, was being far too quiet for her liking, just standing there and watching while Lois attacked.
There was a loud crash from behind the door. Damn it. Pete still needed help. There wasn't any time to waste. "Look, Ms. Lane, believe me or don't, but I've got to find a way out of here and get help before the *real* ATF agent gets killed." She swallowed back her heart thudding in her throat and brushed her way past Lois. "Excuse me."
"You can't get out that way." Lois's snappy voice behind her halted Elle in her tracks.
"She's right." Oh, *now* Clark spoke up, though his voice was sounding as feeble as he looked. "We've tried. This is the only way out... or at least we're hoping it is."
Elle turned around. Damn. She'd *known* he was going to be pointing at the door she'd just slammed shut. "Well, maybe you've missed something. I'm sure there's one here somewh..." Lois and Clark were both shaking their heads.
She bit at her lower lip, her heart still thundering in her chest. "Look, you probably won't believe me when I say this, but Lex Luthor is behind it all. He's the reason you were locked up for years, Lois, the reason why there are guns going into the Congo and diamonds coming out. And right now..." Elle sucked in a shuddering breath. She didn't have time to cry, dammit. And not over Pete. "He's busy k-killing a government agent, and he'll be after me as soon as he's done." They were both staring a bit slack-jawed at her. Elle rushed on before they could regain their wits and stop her. "I don't have a weapon. I don't have a plan. And unless either of you are..."
Oh, gads. She was a first class idiot! All this time she'd had the solution literally staring her in the face. "Clar... Superma... uh, Mr. Kent. You've got to stop him! You're the only one who can."
TBC...
