Yeah, it just keeps getting longer.
----------------------------------------------
Lois finally decided to simply take Aymee home with her and worry about Inez later. It was unlikely anyone would link Lois to the Smart Kids and she did remember managing to get temporary custody of Aymee before.
Carlton finally showed up at his office and Lois was waiting for him. She didn’t expect much from him, just some additional background on the kids that escaped, and Carlton hadn’t provided much. He did confirm that he believed the kids had acted without the help of adults.
And when she asked him about Mentamide 5, he actually paled while denying he’d ever heard of it.
By the time Lois arrived back in the newsroom the Smart Kids were on TV again. Philip was on camera. “This just in: water supply returns to normal! No ill effects from the Smart Kids' mysterious gelatin stunt. How did they do it? You'll never know. Meanwhile, the kids say again, 'Leave us alone. It's a big city. Lots more things could go wrong with it…’ The Reign of the Smart Kids continues.”
Just as before the television turned off, apparently by itself.
Lois just shook her head. She had been a bright child – brighter than nearly all the adults she had known – but she would never have dared gloat about her pranks the way Philip was doing.
She spotted Jimmy coming out of the elevator. “Okay, what have you got on Mentamide 5?”
He checked his notes. “It's an organic stew: amino acids, herbs, neurotransmitters, you name it. It's so complex even Star Labs' computers couldn't analyze it completely. They were able to produce a synthetic facsimile.”
“And?”
“They're testing the synthetic. Nothing conclusive yet, but it seems to stimulate cerebral hyper-activity in lab rats.”
“They got smarter,” Lois translated for herself.
“A lot smarter,” Jimmy agreed.
Lois picked up her phone and dialed the number of the Beckworth School. It was time to face down Carlton. The notes taken from his trash and the sample from his office might not have been sufficient evidence of wrong doing in a court of law, but it might be enough to scare him into quitting his experiments on defenseless kids.
She spoke to Mrs. Powell. Carlton was gone and Powell had no idea where. Lois’s gut clenched. It was too coincidental that Carlton should decide to take a leave of absence and not leave a forwarding address after her interview with him. Had the person with the money ordered him to disappear? A suspicious person would say that an innocent person wouldn’t run. A very suspicious person might suppose that Carlton was a complication that Money Man couldn’t afford and the good doctor was going to show up dead.
“I have a very bad feeling about this,” Lois said aloud. “Get back to Star Labs,” she ordered Jimmy. “Call me at home if they uncover anything else.”
-o-o-o-
Aymee was sitting in the dark when Lois walked into her apartment. Lois flipped on the light and saw her stereo receiver in disassembled pieces on the floor. A bubble of anger started to rise – then she realized that Aymee’s cheeks were wet with tears and she was sobbing silently.
The bubble of anger burst into concern. “Aymee, what's wrong?”
“I'm not so smart any more. I took it apart to make it work better like I did with your TV, but then I couldn't put it back together… I think I broke it.”
“That old thing? It doesn't matter,” Lois assured her. “I gave some people I know a sample of Mentamide 5 so they can tell us what it really did to you kids.”
“It made us smarter,” Aymee argued weakly, wiping the tears from her face.
“It made you something you're not ready to be,” Lois said. “We start out as kids so we can learn to be adults. When I was a kid I thought all adults were incredibly stupid. I figured it had something to do with your body getting bigger, but your brain staying the same size. Like dinosaurs… It's not that simple. It’s never that simple.”
Aymee studied Lois’s face. “Do you want to know how the smart stuff works?”
A breakthrough. “Only if you're ready to tell me.”
“At first you don't notice. Then, things get easier. You understand everything, and you remember everything. But, if you stop taking it, you get dumb again... like me now.”
“You’re not dumb,” Lois protested.
“Compared to what I was I am,” Aymee explained. “It's hard going back and forth from smart to dumb. That's why we escaped. And also to stop him from doing any more experiments.”
“Why didn't you tell someone what was going on?”
“Would you have believed a bunch of 'problem' kids?” Aymee asked. “Besides, when we’re smart we can handle anything.”
“If only that were true,” Lois commented. “Being smart isn’t keeping Philip and Dudley, or you, from making really dumb decisions, like that stunt with the water, or the ATMs, or the TVs.”
“But if people see what we can do, they’ll leave us alone,” Aymee protested.
“No they won’t,” Lois said. “All Philip and Dudley are doing is proving that they’re problem kids. Worse than that, they’ve proven that they’re dangerous problem kids. Just because nobody was hurt by the gel stuff doesn’t mean somebody won’t get hurt the next time they pull one of their stunts. And Aymee, if somebody does get hurt, it’s likely to be one of you kids.”
“I told you, when we’re smart, we can handle anything.”
“Aymee, I don’t care how smart you are, you’re still a kid and so are they,” Lois said. “You can’t handle everything. Heck, even grownups can’t. If they could, you and Inez wouldn’t have been put in Beckworth.”
“What do you know about that?”
“I know your mom wasn’t very old when she had you,” Lois told her. “And when Inez was born and your dad left, she had more than she could handle.”
Aymee snorted. “He wasn’t my dad. I’m not convinced he was Inez’s father either.”
None of that had been in the file Mrs. Powell had given Lois. “Want to tell me about it?” Lois asked as gently as she knew how.
“My mom is younger that you are by a couple years. Do the math,” Aymee began. “When I was born she had some ‘issues’ and was sent to a hospital. I ended up being raised by my grandma. Mom was told she shouldn’t have anymore kids but I guess she wasn't as careful as she should have been and Inez was born and Mom ended up back in the hospital and Grandma was stuck with two kids. Then Grandma died and Mom had to take care of both of us, only her boy friend…”
“Her boyfriend didn’t want two little kids around?”
Aymee nodded. “I ran away and took Inez with me. The social services people took care of us, put us in foster care but that didn’t work very well. So we ended up in Beckworth. I don’t know if Mom knows where we are or if she even cares.”
Lois opened her mouth to defend Aymee’s mother then decided against it. The story Aymee was telling wasn’t the one Lois had gleaned from the school files. But it made more sense that Mrs. Valdes simply handing custody of her children over to the state because she couldn’t handle it. Lots of single parents had problems and they didn’t give up their kids. They dealt with the problems as best they could and way more often than not, the kids turned out okay.
Lois couldn’t imagine simply giving up her children to strangers. She knew, intellectually, that babies were given up for adoption all the time but she couldn’t see herself doing it. But then, she was a grown woman with a decent income, family – as dysfunctional as it was – and friends. She wasn’t a scared kid suddenly thrust into an adulthood she wasn’t ready for.
Time to get the subject back on track. “Aymee, do the other kids have enough smart stuff to last them?”
“They're probably running out.”
“What will they do?”
Aymee was obviously conflicted and Lois could sympathize. “I can't say,” the girl said after a moment.
“Can you at least tell me where they are?”
Aymee shook her head. “If they get caught, no more smart kids.”
“Would that be so bad?”
Aymee didn’t answer.
-o-o-o-
The next day began as a nightmare. The Daily Planet headline said it all: "Smart Kids Nab Luthor." Beneath that, "Daring Penthouse Raid" and "Ransom Demands To Be Announced."
The announcement of Luthor’s kidnapping had come straight from the Smart Kids. According to their ‘press release’, Phillip, Dudley, and Karen had managed to bypass all of the security in the LexCorp Tower, immobilized Luthor and took him out of the tower with no one being the wiser.
“Why Lex Luthor?” Jimmy asked.
Perry shrugged. “If they wanted someone prominent, who better? What do you think they'll ask for?”
“Could be anything,” Lois said. “We’re talking about kids, remember?”
Once again the television turned on, apparently by itself. The screen showed Phillip sitting at the ‘newscaster’ desk.
“If Metropolis wants Lex Luthor back in one piece, listen carefully. First, we want Aymee Valdes and her sister Inez released from custody. Second, we want promises in writing there will be no more attempts to find or capture us. Third, we want our own island. A nice one. With palm trees. Fourth, one hun... one thousand pounds of gooey bears. You have twenty-four hours to comply with these demands.”
As before, the television turned off.
Perry shook his head. “What, no military jet? And what’s that about having Aymee Valdes released from custody?” He turned to stare at Lois. “Is there something I should know?”
“Aymee is staying with a friend,” Lois told him. “But, she did confirm my suspicion that Carlton was using her and the other kids as experimental subjects in a drug trial that no conscientious person would have authorized. The drug is what made them so smart, but it’s only temporary.”
Perry snorted. “Kidnapping Lex Luthor isn’t exactly a smart thing.”
“Unless he’s involved in some way we don’t know about,” Lois said. “Someone was funding Carlton’s experiments and he chose those four kids for a reason.”
“And what was that?” Perry prodded.
Lois shook her head. She didn’t want to tell him what she had managed to badger out of Mrs. Powell that morning. After hearing Aymee’s story about how she and her sister ended up at Beckworth’s, Lois had dug deeper. Aymee’s story was true, as far as she had gone, but what she hadn’t told Lois was that Aymee had repeatedly run away from home and had been returned to her mother despite indications that the home environment was dangerous for her. It was only after she took Inez with her that Child Protective Services took action to protect her and her sister from the mother’s abusive boyfriend.
The stories of the other three kids had similar themes. Karen had been abandoned by her parents and then taken from her foster home after an investigation showed that the foster parents had been neglecting and abusing the kids in their care. Karen had been the oldest. The youngest had been six months old. Dudley’s story was similar. He had either run away or been abandoned by his parents – the authorities hadn’t determined which, but no missing child report had been filed on him and he’d run away from the foster homes he’d been placed in.
Phillip’s story was probably the most frightening. He hadn’t run away from home, but he was the only survivor of an arson fire that killed the rest of his family. His foster family had turned him over to Beckworth because they were afraid of him. They refused to tell Lois why.
“Let’s just say that with the history of these four, none of their families were going come after Carlton if he did anything,” Lois said.
“That bad?”
Lois nodded.
“Lois, you're not going to believe this...” Jimmy announced as he ran up to Lois.
His clothes were rumpled and he looked like he hadn’t slept at all. He probably hadn’t. Lois waited fro him to continue.
“Well, remember this is from the synthetic they made, but... the stuff does boost intelligence... for a while,” Jimmy said. “But once enough residue has built up in your system, though, there's a kind of an overload.” He lowered his voice as if to emphasis the seriousness of what he had discovered.
“Go on.”
“Conscious cerebral activity drops to almost nothing,” Jimmy said. “It burns out your brain. They also think they identified the source.”
“LexLabs?” Lois asked.
“How did you…?”
“The kids kidnapped Lex Luthor.”
-o-o-o-
It took all of Lois’s persuasive abilities to convince Aymee that the other kids were in danger but finally Aymee caved. Which was why Lois, Jimmy, and Aymee were walking into a warehouse at Metropolis Harbor.
“Incoming,” a childish voice yelled. Lois assumed it was Karen. Then Dudley stepped out of the shadows holding what looked like a Super Soaker.
“Hold it right there,” the boy ordered.
Aymee walked up to him and pushed the nozzle aside. “Cut it out. They're with me, okay?”
“I have my orders,” Dudley protested as Aymee reached around and pulled out the drain plug from his ‘ammunition’ tank. Green goo ran out onto the floor.
Aymee beckoned Lois and Jimmy to follow her through the door into the room beyond.
Lois looked around. The room was a kid’s dream: toys – electronic and otherwise – games, big screen TV, videos, all thrown together in an unruly mishmash.
“Where's Lex Luthor?” Lois asked.
“Not so fast, lady,” Dudley said as Lois headed for the far door.
“Guys, they're here to help us,” Aymee told them. “They found out the smart stuff turns to poison if you keep using it. Really, it's the truth.”
It was obvious that Dudley and Karen didn’t want to believe her.
“It's a trick,” Karen announced.
“It's not a trick,” Lois protested. “You've got to stop taking Mentamide 5 right now.”
“Then we won't be smart anymore,” Karen protested.
“You were always smart. You'll just be normal. We know about Dr. Carlton and what he did. He's through,” Lois promised but she could tell they weren’t convinced.
“Listen up,” Aymee ordered. “You know me. I wouldn't steer you wrong. These are friends of mine. I think we should believe them.”
After a long moment Dudley and Karen both unhooked the harnesses that held their goo weapons.
“Where’s Lex Luthor?” Lois asked.
“Phillip's got him. In the spy center. Down the hallway,” Dudley told her.
Lois turned to Jimmy. “I’ll be right back.”
Before, it had been Clark who had walked into the spy center to rescue Luthor. Now it was her turn.
Phillip was watching an array of monitors that showed scenes from all over the city. Behind him, Luthor was tied to a chair surrounded by mechanical arms that held hypodermic needles filled with something red and frothy-looking.
Phillip turned as Lois entered the room. His eyes seemed swollen and unnaturally bright, as if he was feverish. Luthor was very still but otherwise seemed unharmed as he watched Phillip.
“Miss Lane. Guess you won game number one,” Phillip said.
“What game, Phillip?”
“Hide and seek,” the boy said.
Lois stepped closer.
“Careful,” he warned. “There's always game number two.”
“And what's that?”
Phillip opened his fist to show her a small wireless transmitter. He nodded toward Luthor. “Pin the tail on the donkey. Mr. Luthor here could end up with the I.Q. of a radish.”
“Phillip, are you all right? Did you take more smart stuff?” Lois asked.
He grinned at her. “Yeah. The new improved version. My mind is so big...”
“You took Mentamide 6?” Luthor asked. He sounded surprised.
Phillip nodded.
“But you're still...”
“Smart? Oh, yes. There was a flaw in the formula, but I fixed it,” Phillip told him.
Lois noted the way Luthor’s eyes lit up at Phillip’s statement. And he’d known about the new ‘improved’ version. Luthor was surprised that Phillip was still functioning. Luthor knew about Mentamide 5.
“The other kids want to go back to the way things were. How about you?” Lois asked.
“I can't go back,” Phillip said.
“You can. It'll wear off. If you don't take any more, you'll be normal again,” Lois assured him.
“Normal is boring,” Phillip told her. “Normal is stupid.”
Lois had to concede that he had a point. “Maybe so, but is getting smart by using a drug, being dependent on people like Carlton, any better?”
“But if the drug has improved him, made him special, what’s the harm of that?” Luthor asked Lois. He turned his attention back to Phillip. “You've become a very special person, Phillip. Unique. You deserve special treatment. I can arrange that, son. Anything you want.” He paused as if evaluating his audience. “I had no idea Dr. Carlton was using his research grant at LexLabs to experiment on you kids. I'm shocked, of course, but I take full responsibility. Let me make it up to you and the others.”
“So you admit that LexLabs was behind Carlton?” Lois asked. “But if you didn’t know what he was up to, how did you know about Mentamide 6?” She turned to Phillip. “As long as you want stay the way you are, you’ll be controlled by the people who have the drug. And they only want to use you for their own selfish ends. Is that what you want?”
“She wants to take it all away from you,” Luthor protested. “I want to give you the world.”
“It's the other way around, Phillip and I think you know it,” Lois said. “Can you remember what it was like before? Before Carlton started you on Mentimide? Can you remember just being a kid?”
“I'm still a kid,” Phillip muttered.
“Are you?” Lois asked. “Do you feel like a kid? Like you used to? Is anything as good as it was?”
Phillip looked like might actually be listening to her.
“Why deny yourself the excitement, the reward, of learning as you grow?” she went on.
Luthor interrupted. “Because Phillip doesn't need to get stupid again just to work his way back to intelligence. Whatever he wants is in his grasp now: power, privilege, wealth…”
“But would he enjoy them?” Lois asked.
“Who wouldn't?”
“Someone who had gone beyond humanity into becoming... something else,” Lois said.
“Something more,” Luthor insisted.
Lois kept watching Phillip. “Something we were never meant to be.”
“Nonsense,” Luthor said.
“What do you feel, Phillip?” Lois asked. “How wonderful or terrible is it really? You're the only one who knows. You're the only one who can decide.”
Luthor snorted. Lois was amazed at how cool he was keeping considering he was tied to a chair with hypodermics pointed at him. “That I agree with,” he said. “Come on, Phillip. Choose. Back to kiddihood, or onward to greatness.”
“Are you smart enough to know a lie when you hear one?” Lois asked.
“Would you go back to being a kid if you could?” Phillip asked her.
She considered her answer, placing a protective hand over her belly. “No. I've already been one,” she said finally. “I've moved on. Someday you will, too. But not now. When it's time.”
“It's not easy being a kid,” Phillip said.
“Who ever told you it was?” Lois asked.
Phillip stared at the needles that were just inches from Luthor’s skin. For the first time, the billionaire actually seemed nervous. A little smile flickered across Phillip’s face – a cold smile that reminded Lois of Luthor.
“Don't do anything you'll regret, Phillip,” Luthor said. There was barely controlled desperation in his voice.
“Phillip...” Lois warned.
Phillip’s smile grew wider as he hit the switch on the transmitter. Luthor jerked against his bindings and Lois held her breath. The arms didn’t move but the plungers on the hypodermics pushed down, spraying pink goo over Luthor’s body.
Phillip dipped a finger into the goo then put his finger into his mouth. “Cherry.”
If looks could kill, Luthor’s expression would have incinerated both of them.
-o-o-o-
“So you think Luthor was involved in this Mentamide stuff all along?” Perry asked after reading what Lois had submitted.
“I know what I saw and what he said,” Lois told him. “But he assured the DA that all of Carlton’s notes and samples would be turned over to Star Labs for analysis and it looks like the DA is just happy it’s over. Prosecuting three pre-teens for kidnapping and extortion was not going to look good on his record, and with Carlton’s body being found in his apartment with a convenient suicide note taking full responsibility for the kids’ actions…”
“Luthor even agreed to pay off the charges the kids put on his credit card,” Jimmy added.
“Not exactly a real issue considering Luthor owns the bank the card was drawn on,” Lois reminded them. “I’m sure he’ll figure out a way to make it up.” She made a mental note to move her accounts to the credit union her uncle Mike had recommended.
“On a good note, except for Phillip, all the kids are in back at Beckworth and reports are that they’re settling in nicely. No long term ill effects. Phillip is at Star Labs for the time being. He’s agreed to help them out while his mind is still expanded. At least Luthor doesn’t have his hands on him.”
Perry’s eyebrows drew together in worry. “Lois, what have you got against Luthor?”
She shrugged. “Nothing concrete,” she admitted. She wasn’t surprised the Perry had picked up on her antipathy towards the billionaire. Perry didn’t get to his position by knowing how to yodel. She reminded herself to be more circumspect about her suspicions.
“There are a lot of odd coincidences involving him,” Lois said aloud. “Each time he has a perfectly reasonable explanation, but when you put it all together, you have to wonder.”
“Lois, just be careful,” Perry warned. “Luthor didn’t get to be where he is by playing by the Marquis of Queensbury rules, no matter what his bios say.”
“I’ll be careful,” she promised. I have to be. It’s not just me anymore.
-o-o-o-
Two weeks until Christmas and Perry still hadn’t said he’d noticed her growing bump, although other people in the newsroom had made snide remarks. Only Cat seemed to actually consider that might really have happened. “If you need to talk, go shopping, find somebody to break the guy’s knees…” Cat had offered.
Lois had chuckled. “No, that’s okay. I think I can handle that part myself.”
“Well, just remember, you’re not the first woman who ever got into this situation,” Cat said. Then she lowered her voice. “Although I am a little surprised you chose to go through with it. I know I wouldn’t.”
“It just didn’t feel right,” Lois admitted. Lois couldn’t quite pinpoint when she had made the decision to continue the pregnancy. While helping Aymee and the other kids, probably. At least she felt she would do a better job of being a parent than those kids’ moms or her own parents, for that matter. It would be hard, but she’d faced hard challenges before.
She turned her attention back to her current research.
LexCorp’s new nuclear power plant had hit yet another snag on getting approved to go to full power – not only were there more questions about the environmental impact statement LexCorp had provided the EPA, but now there were questions about the concrete used in constructing the containment vessel.
It looked like all the millions that Luthor had sunk into his state-of-the-art flagship power plant would end up in mothballs due to an unscrupulous, or just stupid, contractor. Lois wondered how soon before that contractor’s body would be fished out of Hobb’s Bay. People who crossed Luthor tended to end up that way.
“Lois!” Perry’s yell intruded on her ruminations. “Fire at the Clinton Street Women’s Center.”
Lois’s gut clenched. She grabbed her bag and headed out, hoping her gut reaction was an over reaction. Hoping that the horror of two years before wasn’t repeating itself.
(Smart Kid was written by Dan Levine.)
