Chapter 19:
Clark paced back and forth across the floor of the conference room. It had been an hour since Lois had said she was going out for takeout, and she still hadn't returned. He was beginning to think she lied to him, because there's no way traffic was that bad at this hour, and because Jimmy Olsen was suspiciously missing as well.
The general consensus around here was that meant trouble.
He wanted to fly around the city and check things out, make sure she wasn't in any serious trouble, that she merely had a run in with an angry pedestrian or even Bill Henderson. Not that she went and did something stupid, like go back to check out the Prometheus without him.
Ten to one, that's what she did.
He sighed, beating the thought back into his subconscious where it belonged. Restlessness stirred inside his chest. He wanted to do something. Taking a break was a mistake. He was in the eye of the storm right now, stuck waiting for a lot of little somethings to happen. In the meantime, he was trapped, pacing the confines of his office-cage, clawing at the insides of his brain.
He ultimately chose to call Nigel and see how things were going on the project over slowly going insane. At the very least he could get some details out of him, maybe put his mind more at ease.
*****LnC*****
"Your final installment will be waiting for you in the helicopter. And I—" A ring emanated from Nigel's breast pocket, startling him mid-thought. "Excuse me," he smiled forcefully, reaching for the device and checking the identification of the caller. His eyes lit up in surprise. "I have to take this. Wouldn't want to keep the boss waiting."
"Of course," Antoinette responded, a slither of a smile slinking across her face at the mention of the boss, eager as ever.
It was all Nigel could take to keep his eyes from rolling as he picked up. "Yes, sir?"
"How are things going?"
"All quiet on the western front, sir."
"Excellent. Where are we with the shuttle plans?"
"It's all set to go in the—"
A clanging sound rang out and a flash of brown hair was all Nigel saw before gunfire rang out. He ducked down instantly, years of special forces training kicking in instinctually as he rolled and drew his own weapon in defense.
"What the hell was that?"
"It seems we have visitors. I'll call you back when it's been taken care of."
"Wait wait wait- Nigel—"
He hung up and jumped to his feet, leaving Clark Kent dumbfounded and uneasy on the other end.
*****LnC*****
Lois slowly blinked, her head feeling woozy and like it was filled with cotton. She moaned, tried to stretch, when like a shot of adrenaline she realized that she was tied up. Her spine straightened quickly as she tensed and struggled fruitlessly.
"Calm down, Miss Lane," a soft voice called out to her. Lois whipped her head around and her eyes settled on Dr. Baines. "There's nothing to fret about. Everything is in place. You just have to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show."
Quickly, Lois was able to clock Jimmy on the floor to her left, bound and gagged as well. So he would be no help. A tingling feeling ran up her spine at the potential that she wouldn't make it out of this one. She swallowed thickly, hearing Perry White's words of caution in her head, chiding her for diving in without checking the water level first. But now wasn't any time to panic. She looked around the space, evaluating her options. There was what looked to be a large door across the way, though it seemed heavy and was most likely locked. Plus there was the pesky problem of being chained to a chair. And her captors... who had guns.
All of the sudden, a loud crash filled the space, making her flinch even as she turned to see what the noise was. Her jaw dropped as she saw Clark Kent barrelling through it, looking frantic himself.
Antoinette Baines seemed shocked herself, only a slight shakiness in her voice giving her away before she pasted her slithering smile back on. She smoothed out her clothes as she spoke. "Good evening, Mr. Kent. I guess you don't know your own strength."
Clark appeared to quickly realize the situation he got himself into, and sheepishly looked to Lois. She scowled at him darkly-- because of course he’d be so stupid as to follow her into danger without any more of a plan. Lois' gaze remained firmly on him, Baines' gun remained on Lois, and her henchman's gun suddenly found its mark on his chest as well. "Put down those guns," he huffed, trying for menacing but not quite hitting the mark, what with all of the uncertainty swirling in the room. Lois rolled her eyes.
"Or you'll... what?"
Clark's mouth opened and closed for a minute, grasping for a plausible answer.
Nothing.
With a sigh, he stupidly raised his hands in defeat. The tattooed henchman was quick to wrestle him into a seat, back to back with her, and tied him down with the chains as well.
*****LnC*****
Before he could even raise a word in protest, their captors were out of the room with promises of more to come soon.
Clark sighed in relief, grateful for a little peace and the fact that Jimmy seemed to have stayed unconscious this whole time. It was much easier to explain something to just Lois. Although, there was no getting out of this one without a lot of explanations.
That is, if she would even give him a chance to speak. She was a seething, hot ball of anger against his back, he could sense it. He hesitated a split second before speaking. "Lois, are you alright?"
She growled— growled!— at him. He bit his tongue to hold back any remark that might make things worse between them and waited her out.
And waited. And waited.
He gave in finally, opening and closing the padlock on the chains that bound him nonchalantly. "Lois, what do you want me to say? I'm sorry? You know, I only came to help you."
"I am not some damsel in distress, Kent," she spat the words through tightly clenched teeth and in as low a tone as he'd heard from her. "I don't need a hero, and I definitely don't need you."
"Now wait a second," Clark turned, forgetting about his fetters. "Are you trying to tell me you wouldn't have gotten caught if I didn't come in here? Because you looked pretty tied down when I showed up."
"Showed up? Try barreled in here like a five hundred pound gorilla! What were you thinking? Oh wait, you weren't thinking, like a typical man."
"Lois, what is going on? Before lunch we were fine. I thought we were in this case together. But you were weird when you got back and then you bolted with Jimmy before I could even ask."
"Let's just figure a way out of here already," she snapped back at him.
Clark let her words sit in the air for a minute, contemplating. He could push it and make her angrier, or he could drop it and most likely never have the chance to get her to open up again. He didn't know which would be worse.
Unfortunately, the decision was taken from his hands when Dr. Baines' voice rang out shrilly throughout the facility, a startled "What?!" that set Clark's senses on alert. If he tuned his hearing in, he could hear Nigel's low British accent murmuring reassurances to her. His jaw clenched with anger.
Nigel told her.
Oh, there would be hell to pay for this one. Time to get out of here.
Clark easily pulled apart the chains. "Lois, I think I've—"
"Managed to mess everything up? No kidding."
"Lois—"
"Well!" Dr. Baines' voice sounded a little shaky underneath her false bravado as she walked back into the room. Her eyes glanced towards Clark repeatedly and he steeled his gaze. He was quick to cover up the broken chains when she turned to smile at Lois. "I'd love to stay and chat, but it looks like our time together is coming to a close. But accidents do happen."
"Accidents?" Lois pestered, though Clark could pinpoint the spike of fear underneath her words as well.
"Well, we can't exactly go around letting some pesky reporters telling people all about this little project of ours. The Boss wouldn't like that."
"The boss?"
Her gaze shifted to Clark's once again on the name, and quickly swivelled back to Lois with a saccharine smile. "That's of no concern for a dead reporter. And you," her heels clicked sharply as she walked towards Clark's side and bent down close to his face. "It's a shame you have to go this way though. You're just too pretty to die. Forgive me?" She pouted, but her blue eyes were clear with fright.
Clark's gaze narrowed, but without malice. He stacked all his anger behind his words. "I can take care of myself, thank you."
She grinned impishly and pecked his cheek with a kiss. "Feisty. I like it."
He could practically feel Lois' eyes rolling behind him. "What are you going to do with us?" he asked, forcing a little fear into his tone for the sake of the reporter.
"Oh, don't be silly! I'm not going to do anything! But I do feel I should warn you about some chemical leakage that just started in the plant. Staff is evacuating, but unfortunately trespassers don't get a warning."
"Baines," Lois growled, "you're gonna regret this."
"Nope. See you all on the other side."
She turned and fled out the exit with her two thugs following her. As soon as they were out of sight, Clark pushed his way out of his restraints and jumped to his feet.
"Kansas, how did you—"
"Missing link. Let's get out of here." He knelt at her feet and started untying her until she was free enough to finish herself. He quickly turned and located the source of the spill, but too late. They were inches away from the dangerous chemicals mixing, and with no time to stop it— "Lois, let's get out of here!"
He grabbed her arm and started pulling when she slipped from his grip.
"Wait! James!"
Clark bit his tongue once more and with an eye roll went back for the unconscious photographer. He lifted him over his shoulder with ease, grabbed Lois' wrist, and made a break for it.
The building exploded behind them just after they had gotten far enough away, Clark using the explosion as an excuse to propel them all a little bit farther forward.
Lois coughed, hanging onto his arm for dear life. She glanced up and saw a helicopter hovering above the wreckage of the building. "Look! They're getting away!"
Clark followed Lois' gaze in time to see the helicopter explode into a fireball. Lois flinched at the sound, and leaned against his chest, completely deflated.
"You don't... Do you think the explosion..."
"No," Clark soothed, running a hand up and down her arm as he glanced back at the wreckage. "I think things went exactly as planned." He couldn't help the look of serenity that briefly flickered across his face. His secret was safe, as was Lois.
Goodnight, Antoinette. Sweet dreams.
