Nice tale, sorry I didn't review the earlier chapter, RL and the last of the summer, getting in the way.
Overall I like how you are moving this forward. I do hope your Lois can kick some sense into Clark.
Like it or not they need professionals. It is time to talk with Henderson.
Clark is simply to close to the hostages to be able to deal with the crisis. He is trained as a journalist, Superman or not, he lacks the training and experience to deal with this crisis.
Even in Our timeline's 1993 with our lower level of Tech there are tools the police have available to track the bad guys. Certainly in the L&C Verse, with VR better then we have today, and cloning and a space station with families, they have TECH.
The Police can find the bad guy and help capture him.
If they don't trust Henderson have Clark talk to Rachel Harris. He'd known her all his life.
Lois might be the one to suggest talking with Rachel. She can point out that Rachel is trustworthy and would have the best interests of the Kents in mind.
