Sometimes RL attacks with a vengeance.
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The next morning brought confirmation of her worst fear. She wasn't just pregnant – she was very pregnant. She dropped the little indicator into the trash and bowed her head.
‘How could this happen?’ a little voice inside her asked. ‘And what do I do now?’
She debated with herself about telling Perry. The last woman in the newsroom who found herself pregnant had also found herself banned from covering any stories that might have a negative impact on her or her baby. Lois wasn’t sure if Perry’s ban had been legal, but legal or not, Lois knew Perry would do the same to her.
Good bye going undercover on assignment.
Good bye Pulitzer. Good bye, Meriweather; good bye, Kerth. As much as she wanted to believe that female journalists were on a level playing field with men, she knew better. The old boys’ club might award a Kerth or Meriweather to a woman but they wouldn’t dream of giving one to an unwed mother who had gotten pregnant during a one night stand.
And Lois Lane with child was simply going to confirm the worst suspicions of the bullpen sleaze bags – that she, like Cat Grant, had slept her way to the top stories and maybe even into Perry’s good graces.
The obvious solution was to terminate. A baby wasn’t in her current life plan and she was certainly young enough and healthy enough to have a baby once she found that special someone. But she found herself shying away from that ‘solution’.
It wasn’t that she had any strong religious notions concerning when a ‘fetus’ became a ‘person’ – her father was a doctor and she was well aware both the biological facts and of his opinions about politicians and religiosos interfering in what should be a private matter between a woman and her physician. ‘If you’re against abortion then don’t have one,’ was one of her father’s mantras.
It was one of the few things she agreed with him about.
As a journalist she had covered the bombing of women’s clinics and the murders of doctors who provided abortion services to poor women. The arguments of the perpetrators sounded specious – They all claim to be killing killers, but Lois couldn’t understand how people who claimed to love life could justify denying poor women the medical care they needed to have healthy children, Did any of the self-proclaimed ‘pro-life’ groups have any provision for caring for the unwanted or severely damaged babies they claimed to want to save?
She knew the answer and it sickened her. As far as she was concerned, attacks on women’s clinics were nothing more misogynistic terrorism, no better than the imams that attacked women for wanting more than being be confined to their homes or veiled.
But now she was facing her own need and she found she didn’t want to take that logical step.
She debated on whether or not to try to contact Clark. She had no idea where he was but she assumed he had found a newspaper job somewhere in the country. It wouldn’t be that hard to track him down. But then, the man who had left Perry’s office that day had claimed not to know her and she suspected he had been telling the truth. Something utterly weird had happened to her and now she was the only one who remembered Clark Kent working at the Daily Planet just as she was the only one who remembered a world that had Superman in it.
Superman… Was he out there somewhere waiting for a chance to show himself? Did he even exist in this world that was at once so similar to the one she remembered and yet so different?
That was a question she had no answer to.
The next few days kept her busy enough that she didn’t have a lot of time to worry about Clark Kent, or how she was going to tell Perry and her parents about her ‘condition’. Her father had managed to avoid having charges brought against him for his part in Max Menken’s criminal doings. Lois hadn’t believed her father was entirely innocent the first time she’d covered the boxing cyborg scandal with Clark. She was doubly certain this time that he had been well aware that the fighters he’d ‘altered’ had used their enhanced strength to win matches they never could have won otherwise.
Tommy Garrison plea bargained his way out of a possible death sentence for killing his opponent in the ring at the Ultimate Street Fight – even with Sam Lane’s cyborg enhancements, the poor fighter Menken had set against him hadn’t had a chance against Garrison’s speed and strength and Superman hadn’t been around to stop the fight.
And Luthor? He claimed that Menken pulled a gun on him when he tried to stop the fight promoter from escaping when the police came to stop the match and arrest Menken. But Lois wasn't so sure that was what actually happened. She remembered Luthor shooting Menken before. She remembered Menken taking her hostage and Luthor coming to her rescue. This time she’d been smart enough to avoid being caught by Menken but Luthor had shown up in the alley anyway. There had been no reason for Luthor to have been there unless… Research like her father’s cost money, a lot of money. Menken had to have gotten his funds from somewhere. The official line was that he had been involved in organized crime but that overlooked the next two obvious question – who actually fronted the money and why?
Her subsequent research shed little light on those questions. Her sources admitted hearing rumors that the crime boss known only as ‘the Boss’ may have been involved, but there had also been rumors that he’d been behind the Toasters’ arson spree in the Hob’s Bay area. In fact it seemed that any major crime in Metropolis, from muggings to art heists, was being laid at the mysterious Boss’s feet.
It was too much for one man to be controlling – wasn’t it? But then people like Luthor and Bruce Wayne wielded that much power through what they controlled – companies, money, opinion. Was it much so much of a stretch to believe that a powerful man obsessed with power might take more than a few steps into the unsavory and unscrupulous side of things?
She was still worrying the matter over in her mind at morning staff meeting the following Monday. It had been a quiet weekend. Too quiet.
“Anything from the Governor's office?” Perry asked Eduardo.
Eduardo shrugged apologetically. “We can expect a fiscal turnaround sometime next year.”
“Now there's news,” Perry groused before turning to Lois. “What about Washington?”
“President's on vacation... again.”
“Nice work if you can get it,” Perry said with a grimace. “Please. An idea, any idea.”
“Those kids are still missing from the Beckworth School,” Jimmy volunteered. There was something about Beckworth School the tickled Lois’s memory.
“We've been using that as filler the past three days,” Perry stated, interrupting Lois’s train of thought. “Nothing's changed. Come on, Jimmy, where's your nose for news?”
“'Man of La Mancha' opens at the Orpheum Friday with an all female cast,” Cat offered.
“That's a travesty,” Lois protested. “'Man of La Mancha' is my all time favorite musical.”
“It is?” Cat asked in mock surprise.
Perry grimaced. “There are twelve million people in the city of Metropolis. There must be something significant happening somewhere.”
As he spoke the television in the corner of the conference room flickered on by itself to show a school-age boy in a suit and tie sitting at a desk. It looked like a parody of a TV news anchor set.
“We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this special report,” the boy announced solemnly. A trumpet fan fare sounded. Then, “Smart Kids still at large! Authorities search for clues to kids' whereabouts. Meanwhile, the kids say: leave us alone. Don't look for us. Don't try to get us back... or else… We rejoin our show in progress.”
Only what came on the screen wasn’t what should have been on the schedule. Lois was certain that a vintage Porky Pig cartoon wasn’t on channel Six’s morning lineup. The cartoon was short and was soon replaced by two children, a boy and a girl, seated in directors’ chairs.
“What I like best about this film is the metaphorical content,” the girl began. “Porky, of course, is our 'everyman' character, and his antagonist is 'death.' Dudley?”
“I agree, Aymee. Who amongst us has not felt the pangs of mortality?” the boy said. “Yet, we persevere.” He stuck out his fist with his thumb up like a movie reviewer. “I give this film my highest recommendation.”
The girl, Aymee, mirrored his movement. “I second that. And... that about wraps it up. Join us next time when we review that classic of post-modernist angst, 'Bongo's Bad Day.' Ciao.” The screen went blank as the television turned itself off.
“It’s them,” Lois murmured to herself.
“It’s who, hon?” Perry asked.
“The missing kids from the Beckworth School,” Lois explained.
“She’s right,” Jimmy said. He opened the folder he’d been carrying and pulled out four faxed photos of kids. He stabbed at the photos with his finger. “Phillip Manning, Aymee Valdes, Dudley Nickolas. Twelve, eleven, and eleven. They're three of the four who escaped from the Beckworth School last week.” Jimmy grinned. “Someone say something about a nose for news?”
Perry ignored the dig. “What have we got here? A prank? A scam?”
“Well, obviously someone’s behind it,” Cat stated. “That stuff didn’t come from a couple of grade-schoolers. And what the heck is post-modernist angst?”
“Isn’t Beckworth supposed to be for gifted and talented children that the regular foster care system can’t handle?” Lois asked.
No one bothered to answer her question, but Lois knew she was right. “So, why did they run away, and why did they feel they needed to make this big announcement?”
“Okay, it's your baby,” Perry announced. “Get me some answers.”
-o-o-o-
“Tell me about the television stunt,” Lois demanded. Jimmy settled onto the corner of her desk.
“If it hadn’t happened, I’d say it was impossible,” Jimmy said. “Every television in the greater metro and every channel. Now the channels… well, if a strong enough signal could be broadcast on every broadcast frequency, that would explain the channels, but then the signal had to be fed to all the cable providers, too.”
“That sounds hard, but not impossible,” Lois pointed out.
“But turning on everything single television set in the city?” Jimmy responded. “That’s just not possible.”
“But it happened,” Lois reminded him.
“Yeah. It happened.”
Lois took Jimmy with her to the Beckworth School. She remembered the ‘other’ time she went to the Beckworth School - with Clark. This time she’d done her homework and although she was still of the opinion that the kids the school served were brats, she also knew that the four missing kids had gone missing for a good reason. At least the four kids thought it was a good reason.
“So, what’s the plan?” Jimmy asked as the cab dropped them off a block from the school.
“What makes you think I have a plan?”
“You spent all yesterday and this morning checking out the missing kids and the staff at the school,” Jimmy reminded her. “So, obviously, you think there’s something going on there.”
“Well, we both know what they did with the TVs was impossible,” Lois said. “So, what would make kids capable of doing that want to run away and warn everybody to stay away from them?”
The tour of the school was much as Lois remembered from her first tour. The building was a little shabby but the children seemed healthy.
“Our funding comes from a variety of sources. Subsidies from the State Special Education Fund, private donations…” Mrs. Powell, the school’s director explained. “We take whatever we can get.”
“All your students live here full time?” Lois asked.
“That's correct.”
“Any of 'em ever get adopted?” Jimmy asked.
“At their ages, the chances are poor,” Mrs. Powell explained. “This is their home. The escape has been very unsettling for all of us.”
“You don’t believe they were kidnapped or coerced to leave?” Lois asked.
“The police keep asking that,” Mrs. Powell said. “It would explain a lot.”
“Is there anything else that links these particular children? They seemed... unusual,” Lois said.
“We've been through their files with a fine tooth comb. Nothing. I mean, for what it's worth, they're very bright kids.”
“Bright enough to pull off that stunt yesterday?” Lois asked.
“I wouldn’t have thought so,” Mrs. Powell admitted. “But Doctor Carlton must have seen something the rest of us didn’t since he started working with them about six months ago.”
“So, Doctor Carlton’s been working here for the past year and he’s taken a special interest in these particular kids?” Lois asked.
“He’s been with us a year,” Mrs. Powel said. “Wonderful man. He donates his time to the school free of charge. He also has a degree in Clinical Psychology. He's helped enormously with our testing and counseling programs.”
Lois knew all that from her research, but her inquiries had left more questions than answers – Alfred Carlton was a neurologist with a degree in clinical psychology who was donating his time to the school. But nothing she found about him gave any indication of why he had suddenly decided to give his services to the school for free. From all accounts he was brilliant but also self-centered. Magnanimity wasn’t his style.
“He must be busy now, the kids being upset about their missing classmates and all,” Jimmy said.
Mrs. Powell frowned, looking over at the locked door to the infirmary. “As a matter of fact, no. He wanted things to calm down a bit before he began therapy. Frankly, waiting seemed contra-indicated to me, but... he's the expert.”
“If you'll come to my office, I'll get you those files,” Powell said, heading down the hall. Jimmy fell in beside her. Lois waited at the school bulletin board, pretending to read the notices. She had spotted a little girl watching her from around a door and Lois was fairly certain what would happen next.
She wasn’t disappointed. A beanbag hit her on the rump. The little girl was standing behind her.
“I'm Inez. What's your name?”
“Lois. Lois Lane.” Lois remembered losing her temper the previous time. This time would be different.
“Aymee's my big sister. Aymee Valdes. She escaped,” Inez said seriously. “You have to help her.”
“Help her how?”
“She'll come back for me, I know she will. But then he'll catch her.”
“Doctor Carlton?”
Inez’s eyes widened.
“Did Aymee and the others run away because Doctor Carlton was going to hurt them?” Lois asked.
Inez paused then nodded.
“Why didn’t they tell Mrs. Powell?”
“Nobody believes kids,” Inez said.
“I believe you,” Lois assured her. “I guess you don’t have a way to get in touch with her?”
Inez shook her head. “It’s safer that way.”
“But not for you,” Lois noted.
-o-o-o-
Mrs. Powell was unable to shed any more light on the reasons why the children had elected to leave. Lois had the sense that Mrs. Powell would have been a competent administrator if she wasn't so in awe of Carlton’s brilliance, letting his opinions override her own good sense. On the way out of the building Lois spotted the shredded files in the trash and grabbed several handfuls.
“Why would someone be shredding files in a school?” Jimmy wondered aloud.
“Maybe someone who has something to hide?” Lois suggested. “Maybe these will tell us something. And maybe we need check out Carlton’s office later tonight.”
-o-o-o-
After several hours, Lois and Jimmy finally had enough of the shredded papers put back together to actually examine them. Luckily the shedder Carlton had used wasn’t a very good one – a lot of the shredded pieces hadn’t separated properly.
“Mentamide 5,” Lois commented to herself. It was just like before.
“Never heard of it,” Jimmy said. “It's here in a couple places. Maybe some sort of medication?”
“In that case, what’s it for and why would Carlton be shredding the records on it?” Lois asked.
Jimmy shrugged.
“And didn't it seem strange to you that the school doctor would delay counseling for the kids left behind?” Lois went on.
“Maybe he’s busy?” Jimmy suggested.
“Doing what?” Lois asked. “He’s not at the school and he’s not in his office downtown.”
“Maybe the kids grabbed him,” Jimmy suggested facetiously.
“Or maybe whoever was funding this Mentamide stuff? Having the kids run away can’t be making ‘whoever’ very happy.”
“What makes you think there’s somebody else involved?” Jimmy asked.
“If this was a drug trial, then the drugs had to come from somewhere,” Lois explained. “And new and experimental drugs aren’t cheap. There’s nothing in Carlton’s background that indicates he’d be able to formulate a drug by himself. And I’m betting the kids know more than they should about it and that’s why they ran.”
“Well, those kids on TV seemed awfully smart,” Jimmy said.
“Smart and, unless I miss my guess, in way over their heads.”
-o-o-o-
There was a definite advantage to remembering events that hadn’t happened yet, even if they did play out differently the second time around. The city was in an uproar over the ATMs being filled will play money and the water system contaminated with blue goo. They were childish pranks that hadn’t been funny the first time.
But Lois and Jimmy were waiting outside the Beckworth School when Aymee Valdez started working on the security system on the exterior gate controller.
“You know there’s a cop waiting for you just inside the gate, don’t you?” Lois said softly. Aymee jumped and even through the camouflage makeup and the dim light, Lois could see that the girl had gone pale.
“Who are you?” Aymee asked, looking around.
Lois introduced herself and Jimmy. “We need to talk,” she added, grabbing Aymee’s arm. “About Mentamide and Doctor Carlton.”
Jimmy led them to an all-night coffee shop he knew not far from the school.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aymee insisted even before Lois had a chance to begin asking questions. But the girl accepted Jimmy’s offer of a hot cocoa.
“Well, if you don’t know anything, then Doctor Carlton obviously has your best interests in mind and you just ran away on a lark,” Lois told her. “In that case, I’m wasting my time and I should just turn you over to Child Protective Services and they can return you to the school in the morning.”
“No!” Aymee said sharply. She continued in a lower voice. “We… It wasn’t a lark, but I can’t tell you why.”
“Then let me tell you what I know. Then you can fill in the blanks,” Lois offered.
Aymee glowered at her. “You just want me to tell you where the other kids are because you're a reporter and you think we'd make a good story”
Lois managed a chuckle. “I’m not just a reporter. I’m an investigative journalist. I’m the one who pokes sticks into holes to see what bites. I turn over rocks to see what slithers out. I shine light into dark corners to find the rats that prefer to do their dirty work where nobody else can see them. And I suspect Doctor Carlton is one of those rats. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Aymee stared into her cup.
“Doctor Carlton’s been using you kids as guinea pigs in a drug trial,” Lois continued. “Something called Mentamide 5. Only it didn’t go quite the way he was expecting. You guys got smart. Really really smart. Smarter than him. Smart enough to know he was up to no good. How am I doing so far?”
Aymee didn’t answer.
“They will find the other kids,” Lois stated.
“No they won’t,” Aymee said, finally breaking her silence. “And pretty soon we’ll have everything we need and we’ll be able to go somewhere where he can’t find us.”
“There’s no place you can go, not without help,” Lois said.
“We don’t need help from any stupid grownups,” Aymee grumbled.
“Well, it was a stupid grownup that kept you from getting nabbed at the front gate,” Lois reminded the girl. “So here’s the deal, you help us get in and get the goods on Carlton and we help you get Inez out of there.”
-o-o-o-
Getting in and out of the building hadn’t been difficult – Aymee knew the particulars of the alarm system and Jimmy made quick work of the locks on Carlton’s office door and the various cabinets.
Aymee watched him in rapt silence. “He’s good,” she murmured when the door was open.
“The skills of a misspent youth,” Jimmy explained with a grin. Then his expression became more serious. “I don’t recommend it. Juvvie is not a fun place.”
Watching Aymee out of the corner of her eye, Lois went through the file cabinets looking for the medical files belonging to the four escaped kids. There was no sign of them, even though every other child in the school seemed to have a full dossier. Lois couldn’t even find their immunization records and those were required to be on file by state law.
Jimmy let out a low whistle as he inspected a tray of microscope slides. “I think we got something.” He pulled out one slide and held it under his flashlight. Lois looked at it over his shoulder. There was a pink smear across the glass and ‘Mentamide 5’ was written in grease pencil across one end of the slide.
“Bingo.”
“They moved Inez,” Aymee announced. Lois hadn’t realized she had left them. “I can’t get to her.”
“We’ll get her out of here, don’t worry,” Lois promised even though she had no idea how she was going to do it.
