From part 7...
Clark nodded at his editor, then looked back at Lois. She was watching him intently, hope brimming in her eyes. Finally, he sighed, giving in to his heart. "Fine. Come on. I can't promise I'll be of any help, though."
"Yes!" Lois's eyes lit up and she imperceptibly pumped a fist. She hurried to catch up with him as he started walking quickly toward the elevators. When they stopped to wait for the down elevator, she turned to him. "Thank you. I really appreciate it."
A muscle involuntarily twitched in his jaw, and he nodded. He wasn't about to let on, but Clark's mind was continuing to wage a war with his heart. He knew this was stupid, but he just couldn't seem to help himself. There was something about her that just wouldn't allow him to say no.
He only hoped he wouldn't live to regret it.
**********
Now on to part 8...
**********
"So who is it you're looking for?" Lois asked as their cab pulled over to the curb in front of a run-down two-story building in a seedy part of town.
Clark got out of the cab, then held the door open for Lois to climb out onto the sidewalk next to him. He followed her inquisitive look at the building that had a sign over the door announcing the soup kitchen's entrance. He tried to see the place through her eyes, taking in the handful of homeless people loitering around the entrance, and the questionable neighborhood they were in.
He wondered briefly if she would be uncomfortable in such a setting, but she didn't seem the least bit fazed. 'San Francisco has its share of slums,' he reminded himself. 'I'm sure she's tracked down leads in areas like this, too.'
Clark shut the cab door behind her, then explained, "I have a source that comes in here from time to time. I thought he might be able to help fill in the blanks from what Perry's source had to say."
Lois nodded, accepting his answer, and fell into step with him as they walked to the entrance. Clark felt his heart skip a beat. Even though his head continued to warn him to be wary, he couldn't help feeling a sense of elation that this beautiful woman wanted to spend time with him. His voice of reason argued it was simply because she was using him for information, but he didn't buy that entirely. That may have been the reason she asked if she could tag along, but he was pleased to see how much she seemed to be enjoying herself. She'd grilled Clark about the mayoral voting scandal allegations in the cab on the way to talk to Perry's source, and had listened intently to the man when he told her about the information he'd been able to gather. She had even asked Perry's source a couple of very perceptive questions that Clark hadn't thought to ask. He had to admit, the woman was great at what she did.
In addition to being impressed, though, Clark felt relieved that her interest in the mayor scandal allegations kept her attention off him and his hero alter ego...at least for the time being. He opened the door for her and followed her inside. They both looked around the room, and a moment later Clark nudged Lois with his elbow and pointed to a man at the far end of the room. "That's him over there at the corner table in the dark coat."
He led Lois across the room to his source, a tall, thin man with rumpled dark hair and a thin, pointy nose. The man spotted them as they neared. He lifted a hand in greeting at Clark, then turned his attention to Lois. He quickly looked her up and down, taking in her good looks and flashy red career suit.
Finally he turned back to Clark and flashed him a mischievous grin. "Hey, Clark. Who's the good looking dame?"
Clark chuckled, feeling an unexpected rush of pleasure at walking into a room with a gorgeous woman at his side. "Bobby, this is Lois Lane. She's visiting from the west coast for a couple of days while she works on a story. Lois, this is Bobby Bigmouth."
Bobby rose halfway from his seat to shake her hand, his grasp firm and strong. "Pleasure," he said, chomping on a piece of gum. Then he gave her a once over before turning back to Clark and flashing him a grin. "You picked yourself a looker here, Clark. I admit, I'm impressed."
Clark turned a dark shade of red. "Oh, we're not together or anything," he hurried to clarify. "We just...she..." His voice trailed off, and he turned to Lois, clearly flustered.
Lois grinned as she chimed in an effort to relieve his embarrassment. "I'm just tagging along for the morning. And it's nice to meet you, Bobby."
Luckily, Clark managed to pull himself together, cringing at what Lois must think of him. He hadn't exactly made a good showing, stammering incoherently like that. He tried to push those thoughts aside as he turned his attention back to Bobby. "I'm working on the mayoral scandal allegations and was hoping you'd heard something that might help me."
Bobby gestured to the chairs at the table and they sat down. He shared with Clark what he'd heard, though most of it was information they already had. With not much new to go on, Clark thanked him and stood up.
"Sorry I'm not much help this time," Bobby said, looking from Lois to Clark. "I do have something else that might interest you, though."
Clark looked at Bobby with interest. "Oh? What's that?"
"That other story you were working on--that shipment of diamonds from Africa that was stolen? Rumor has it the stuff was sold on the black market, and that the board members of the corporation that owns the shipping company got a good-sized cut of the profit."
"So, obviously they were in on it." Clark looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he clapped Bobby on the shoulder. "Thanks, Bobby. I'd say that's worth a couple of steak dinners at your favorite rib joint." He pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and handed it to Bobby, who grinned.
"Hey, thanks. This might even cover a few side dishes, as well."
Clark laughed. "Happy eating. Let me know if you hear anything else, would you?"
"You got it." Bobby nodded as he tucked the bill into his coat pocket. Then, almost as an afterthought, he turned to Lois. "It was great to meet you, Lois, and I hope to see you again soon. You class up Kent's act."
This time it was Lois's turn to blush. She couldn't help smiling, though, as Bobby winked at Clark, then walked away.
"Sorry about that," Clark murmured as they turned to leave the soup kitchen. "He's always been a little...outspoken."
Lois smiled. "I like that about him. Why 'Bobby Bigmouth'?"
"Ah," Clark exclaimed as they reached the door and he held it open for her again. "You'd never know it from his build, but that man loves food. He can out-eat anybody. He gives me the best information, and in return I keep him well fed. It's a win-win situation."
"I guess so." Lois laughed as they stepped out into the late morning sunshine. "I know how invaluable good sources are. I have a couple of those back in San Francisco that I can always count on."
They got back into the cab that Clark had arranged to wait for them, and they started down the street. Lois turned to Clark, a curious look on her face.
"What was all that Bobby was saying about a stolen diamond shipment from Africa and black marketing?"
Clark smiled. He'd been waiting for that. In the short time they'd been together that morning, he'd already learned that Lois never missed a thing. "About a week ago, Customs had been tipped off that a large shipment of uncut diamonds from Africa was arriving in the states illegally. Customs intercepted the boat in the Metropolis Harbor and confiscated their small shipment of African artifacts, wares, and the uncut diamonds. Two days later, however, the diamonds and artifacts were reporting missing from Custom's warehouse."
"Hmmm," Lois murmured with interest. "Do they have any leads?"
Clark shook his head. "Not a one. Apparently, though, according to Bobby, the items were sold on the black market."
"And the board members of the corporation who own the shipping company got the proceeds. That sends up all sorts of red flags, doesn't it?" Lois was quiet for a minute as she digested the information. "How long have you been working on this story?"
"I haven't been working on the story, per se, as much I've been following leads and hunches." Clark frowned. "If I don't turn up something soon, Perry's going to kill it and tell me to work on something else."
Lois made a face. "Ugh, I hate that. Nothing is more frustrating than spending hours on something and have your editor yank it."
"Agreed."
"If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to see the information you've been able to gather on the story, if you have notes and stuff," Lois asked. "It sounds really promising." But before Clark could respond, Lois cringed. "Oh, man, I just realized how bad that sounded. Honestly, I didn't ask because I'm trying to steal your story or anything, though I know that happens sometimes in this line of work. But that's not why I asked," she hurried to clarify, her reassurances turning into babbling. "I'm just interested because I recently did a story where a shipping company got caught smuggling drugs, which led to a much bigger investigation involving money laundering by a California senator and congressman. It just sounds like a similar pattern, which is why I asked--"
"Lois." He shook his head and tried to interrupt her stream of words, but he could only grin as he realized his attempt to stop her from continuing had failed.
"--not that you have any reason to trust me," she hurried to add, "especially after how I treated you last night, but I was just kind of hoping--"
"Lois!"
Amazingly, she stopped this time. Clark found his grin broadening as she now sat silently, her mouth still open and her eyes watching him intently. At least he'd finally gotten her attention. He chuckled quietly and shook his head. Geez, the woman could babble. And for some strange reason, he liked it.
Seeing her watching him expectantly, he knew he'd better give her an answer before she started babbling again and needed a paper bag or something. It didn't take long for him to realize what she was proposing was a win-win situation for him. Not only could he really use some fresh eyes to look over what he had, but it would also go a long way to distract her from what she was really after. His alter ego.
His mind made up, he finally nodded. "I'd love to have you look over my notes. Maybe you could give me an objective opinion on what I have so far. Maybe you could even pick up on something I've overlooked."
Lois breathed a visible sigh of relief. "Thank you. I was worried for a minute there. I didn't want you to think--well, you know." She smiled sheepishly as she realized she'd just explained all that in fast motion a few moments before.
He laughed again, his heart feeling lighter than it had in a long time. There was just something about her that made him feel alive. He suspected it had everything to do with the passion she so obviously had for life and her work.
Clark glanced at his watch. "Are you hungry? It's almost lunchtime, and my notes are at my apartment. How do you feel about grabbing some take-out, then going to my apartment to eat?"
Lois nodded eagerly. "That would be great."
They decided to get Chinese food, so Clark gave the cab driver directions to his favorite Chinese restaurant not far from where he lived. There they picked out several items from the menu, then walked the two blocks to Clark's apartment.
Clark led the way up the dozen or so steps to his apartment, then unlocked his door and pushed it open, gesturing for her to enter first. "It's not much, but it's home."
Lois stepped through the doorway and took in her surroundings with a sweeping glance. "Clark, this place is great!" she exclaimed as he shut the front door and they started down the steps to his living room. "It has such a nice, open feeling with the high ceilings and studio feel. I like it."
"Thanks. It's nothing fancy, but I like it too."
Clark walked over to the coffee table that was strewn with papers. "Here's everything I've got. I've tried to put things in some kind of order, but it's been hard because there are so many things that seem unrelated." He pushed some of the papers aside in an effort to make room for the take-out food and sat the bag down.
He watched as Lois reached for a paper on the top of the stack, then started to skim the information. "Go ahead and have a seat," he offered, gesturing to the couch beside the coffee table. "I'll grab us some plates for the food. Here, let me take your jacket."
She looked up at him briefly and smiled her thanks, then turned her attention back to the paper she was holding as she shrugged out of her suit jacket. She barely noticed when Clark took it from her.
Clark felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. He'd never seen a reporter so intense. He wondered if she'd even notice if the apartment caved in around her. Slipping out of his overcoat, he crossed the room and draped both jackets over the back of the leather recliner in the corner. Then he got two plates from the kitchen cupboard and walked back to her.
"Here you go." He handed her a plate, which she took gratefully. He sat down next to her and opened the bag of take-out. "What would you like to start with?"
She finally looked up from her reading and saw him pulling cartons out of the bag. "I'd love some of the sweet and sour chicken and fried rice."
"You got it." He poured some of the chicken and sauce onto her plate, then spooned out a portion of rice before doing the same for himself.
They ate in silence for a minute, then Lois swallowed her mouthful and asked, "Do you have anything from Customs about the confiscated shipment and what exactly it contained?"
Clark nodded as he finished a mouthful of chicken himself. "It's in here somewhere." He shuffled through several papers nearest him. He extracted on in particular and glanced at the writing. "Yeah, here it is."
He handed her the paper, and she skimmed it thoughtfully. "Hmmm. Diamonds, artifacts...." Suddenly she paused, her chopsticks with chicken stilled halfway to her lips. "Have you done any research on the artifacts themselves?"
"No, why?" Clark asked, taking another bite of his food. "Do you think that's relevant?"
"I don't know...maybe," she said noncommittally. " When you were telling me in the cab about the shipment being intercepted by Customs, and the stuff disappearing from the Custom's warehouse and now apparently being sold on the black market...it had a familiar ring to it. I just finished up a crime ring expose, and the patterns between my investigation and yours seems to have some similarities."
She thought for a moment, then asked, "Have there been other shipments reported missing over the past few months by this shipping company?"
Clark's face reflected his surprise. "As a matter of fact, there have." He found the reports of stolen shipments and held them out to her. "How did you know?"
Lois put her chicken into her mouth before taking the papers from Clark. She flipped through them for a moment without responding. Then her hand still on the third sheet and her eyes widened.
"What?" Clark asked, leaning over to see what she was so intent on.
She took a moment to swallow, then said, "Clark, this lost shipment claim is marked 'Mesopotamia, Inc.'"
He nodded. "Yeah. So?"
"Mesopotamia, Inc. is one of the companies that reported shipments missing in my west coast investigation." She felt a burst of adrenaline as she realized there might indeed be a connection. She shifted on the couch so she could face Clark, beginning to gesture with her hands as she continued, her expression animated. "That crime ring expose I just did? I gathered information on a California senator and congressman who appeared to be laundering money. I managed to follow some leads and a money trail to discover they were trafficking drugs through a shipping company in San Francisco. But when I tipped off the police and they ransacked the warehouse, I did a little snooping of my own in the warehouse."
Clark looked startled. "You searched through a crime scene? Lois, that's illegal."
Lois rolled her eyes and snorted. "Yeah, so? Haven't you ever bent the law a little during an investigation?"
"No." Clark's voice was firm.
Lois stared at him in disbelief. "Never? No breaking and entering, no slipping a little piece of evidence into your pocket?"
Clark's eyes widened. "Lois, that's illegal!" he repeated. "Please tell me you've never done that."
"Well..." Lois answered, a sheepish expression on her face.
Clark's jaw dropped open. "I can't believe it! I don't even want to know how many laws you've broken in your career. I'd never do anything illegal to get a story! I can't believe that you have."
Lois laughed out loud. "Oh, come on, Clark! How do you think I got so successful at such a young age? By avoiding crime scenes and obeying every little law?" She shook her head. "No. I take risks, bend the rules. Sometimes to get what you want, you have to go after it, no matter what it takes."
'No matter what it takes.' The words resounded in Clark's head. He had been so wrapped up in the easy way they seemed to work together that he had temporarily forgotten what this woman had come her to do. She was after *him.* Suddenly he wasn't so sure he liked seeing this side of her, with that in mind. Her tenacity and determination continued to be intimidating, to say the least. And here he had invited the proverbial wolf inside the sheep's den. He knew he should be fleeing for his life, but instead he was having lunch with his hunter and discussing investigations as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do. At that moment, he found himself wondering if he should have listened to the little voice in back of his head. This really was crazy.
But if he knew that was true, then why did he find himself unable to steer clear of her? Why did he find himself meeting her gaze openly? And why couldn't he bear the thought of letting her go?
Clark's stunned expression from hearing about Lois's illegal pursuit of information--and the fact that she could have been using that tenacity and intensity to pursue *him*--waned. He knew it was crazy to still be sitting there beside her, but he couldn't help it. She may as well have been a fisherman luring in a fish. He was helplessly hooked.
"Anyway, what I was saying," Lois continued a moment later, "was that I did a little snooping around the shipping warehouse and found evidence that the shipping company had not only been smuggling drugs, but had also been stealing goods from inbound and outbound freighters and selling them."
"On the black market?"
Lois nodded. "You got it. The people at the shipping company were obviously good at covering their tracks, and they never stole enough at one time to send up red flags--it was only a carton or two here and there. It was enough to make me suspicious, though, which is why I ended up getting doing a bit of research on the missing items. I turned over what I'd found to an detective I knew on the police force, and they managed to track down many of the items."
Clark listened closely, his curiosity growing. "What kinds of goods went missing?"
"Antiques, mostly. But there were also computer components, high tech gadgetries...things like that. Anything that could bring a price. On a hunch, I started going through the files I'd found in the warehouse, trying to put together a list of everything they'd stolen. And this is where it gets interesting. You'd think that once a company started having bad luck with a shipping company not delivering your stuff, you'd change shipping companies, right?"
Clark nodded, but Lois shook her head and continued, her eyes bright with excitement. "Not the case. In fact, one company in particular had more items go missing than any of the others, and the dollar amount listed on the claim forms filed with insurance companies grossed almost three million dollars."
Clark's eyebrows flew up his forehead. "Three million dollars! You're kidding!"
Lois shook her head. "No, I'm not. And guess who that company was?" She paused dramatically. "Mesopotamia, Inc."
Clark stared at her for a long moment, trying to digest the information. "That doesn't make any sense," he finally responded. "You'd think this Mesopotamia, Inc. would care enough about actually getting their antiques that they'd switch companies with those kinds of losses."
"You'd think so," Lois agreed, "which is what made me suspicious of them. I did a little research on them, and get this. One of those stolen antiques, a vase, made headlines in France a short time ago for selling at an auction for nearly half a million dollars."
Clark shrugged. "So? The company probably recovered it and sold it at the auction."
Lois became more animated and shook her head. "When authorities questioned the people at Mesopotamia, Inc. about it, they claimed their vase had never been recovered and that the vase sold at the auction wasn't the same one. But I did a little digging, and guess what I found? The very next day after the auction, a tidy sum was deposited into Mesopotamia's account by guess who? The person who sold the vase at the auction."
Clark's eyes widened. "That does sound suspicious. Any luck finding out who's behind this Mesopotamia, Inc.?"
Lois leaned back on the couch and crossed her arms with a sigh. "Word on the street was that the owner of the company was some huge business mogul who had his hands in some pretty questionable enterprises, but I could never find out who was behind it. I was never able to prove that they were in on the sales with the shipping company, either."
"Are you still researching the story back in San Francisco?" Clark wondered.
"Afraid not." Lois shook her head. "My editor axed the story because I was at a dead end. It killed me to let it go, because I was sure the people behind Mesopotamia, Inc. were tied into the shipping company, the smuggled drugs, and the senator and congressman. I just couldn't prove any of it."
She turned and looked at the papers scattered across Clark's coffee table. "If the name Mesopotamia, Inc. has already turned up once in your research, though, I'd be willing to bet it will turn up again. I wonder why I didn't come across these Mesopotamia, Inc. shipping records when I was researching them?"
Clark shrugged. "They're recent. Maybe this business person had to move his place of destination to the east coast because your investigation of the San Francisco shipping company caused its west coast operations to shut down?"
"Maybe," Lois murmured thoughtfully, leaning forward to pick up another paper and study it. "Have you done any research on the shipping company itself? I wonder if it has a high number of lost shipment claims, as well."
"With everything you just told me, I wouldn't be surprised to find that connection," Clark admitted. "I think I'll have Jimmy pull up their files this afternoon and see what turns up."
Lois set the paper down on the stack and reached for another. "Be sure to let me know what you find out. I think this could turn into something big. Maybe we could even make this a bi-coastal investigation."
Clark's eyebrows lifted, and a slow smile working its way across his face. A bicoastal investigation. He liked the sound of that.
But just as his heart started to soar at the idea of staying in touch with her in the future, his brain jerked him back to reality with a bump. The danger of her exposing him was still too great, and if he managed to pull this off and keep his secret under wraps, he should plan to breathe a sigh of relief the second she got on the plane to go home and cut all ties with her completely.
He sighed as he watched Lois turned back to the papers and picked up a copy of a police report. She absently ate the rest of her lunch, chewing thoughtfully as she read, her brow furrowed in concentration.
Clark ate the rest of his lunch in silence as he considered the things the warning voice in his head was saying. He knew what he was doing was dangerous, but as much as his head was telling him it was safer to simply cut all ties with her once she left, he wasn't sure he could. If this last hour had been any indication, she was a dynamic person to work with. She thought on her feet, was clever and intelligent, and knew just how to approach an investigation. She knew how to track down the information she needed, and was smart enough to know which people to talk to, or which avenues to focus on and pursue to get what she needed.
Their argument about using illegal means to gain information for an investigation resurfaced in his mind. He shook his head. Her approach to investigating was completely opposite from his. She clearly had little regard for rules and regulations, and that surprised him. He'd assumed she was brilliant just because she was. But he'd gotten a good look at the real Lois Lane, the one whose success in part came from her fearlessness, her willingness to break the rules.
He may not have agreed with her methods--he himself would never break into a place of business to steal information, or disturb a crime scene to look for clues for his own investigation--but it clearly worked for her. And in all his time working as a journalist, he'd never enjoyed working with anybody more. 'Goodbye' was the last thing he wanted to say to this woman, who was quickly working his way into his heart...whether he wanted her to or not.
Clark glanced at his watch. The lunch hour was gone, and he knew Perry would be wondering where he was. "I guess I'd better get back to the Planet," he told Lois as he stood up and collected the empty take-out cartons. "Perry's going to want to see something on the mayoral scandal by the end of the day."
Lois looked up from her reading, saw him cleaning up, and hurried to help. She looked into the bag and saw there were still a couple of cartons that hadn't been opened. "Do you want me to put these in your fridge?" she asked as she picked up the bag and carried it into the kitchen. "You could have them for dinner or something."
"What about you?" Clark responded as he threw away the garbage and put their plates in the sink. "Would you like to take them back to your hotel to eat tonight? You don't have the luxury of cooking dinner for yourself, and I imagine eating out can be a pain."
"I eat out all the time at home," Lois admitted with a grin. "It's a lot easier than trying to cook something and setting my kitchen on fire. I have the fire department on speed dial."
Clark laughed. "If you don't feel up to eating out, though, you're welcome to take those with you."
"Thanks, but I'll be okay," she reassured him as she opened his fridge and set the cartons on a shelf. "I have a dinner appointment."
Clark turned to look at her in surprise. Dinner appointment? 'Appointment' sounded suspiciously like another word for 'date.' At the realization, an unexpected stab of jealousy went through him. She'd only been in Metropolis for a day. Who could she possibly have a date with?
Gathering the nerve to ask, he tried to sound casual in spite of the rapid beating of his heart. "You're having dinner with someone? That's great. Is it somebody you already knew here?"
Lois shook her head. "I've never met him before, but I know who he is. Lex Luthor, of LexCorp?" She voiced it as a question, wondering if he knew who she was referring to.
Unfortunately, Clark did. Everybody knew who Lex Luthor was, especially the people who lived in Metropolis. He was the east coast's most renowned philanthropist, was incredibly rich and influential, and was always in the news for one thing or another.
Clark had interviewed him on a couple of occasions for projects he was funding, but while everyone else seemed to think he was a saint, Clark had the nagging feeling that the man was not what he seemed. But Clark knew he couldn't pinpoint his suspicions. Call it intuition, but there just seemed to be something calculating in Luthor's eyes, something hidden behind that cool, suave exterior. Everybody else seemed fooled, but maybe it took a man who'd been hiding a secret his whole life to find another who'd been doing the same. The bottom line was, he'd never trusted the man from the moment he'd met him.
He tried to tell himself that he wasn't jealous--that the unsettling feeling he had had to do with the fact that Lois was going out on a date with somebody he didn't like, and didn't trust. But if he wasn't jealous, why did he care so much about who she went out with?
After spending the morning with Lois, he could tell she had the same intuition about people that he did, and was clearly adept at seeing beneath the exterior. That's what made her so good at what she did. But if that was the case, then why had she agreed to have dinner with a man who was clearly questionable in character?
'Maybe it's because she's never met him before,' the voice of reason in Clark's head chimed in.
Clark bowed to that. That was indeed possible. She did live on the opposite coast and hadn't been exposed to him on a weekly basis in order to possibly build up any suspicions about him.
He shook his head. What this boiled down to was that he shouldn't care what she did. He was far better off to distance himself from her, to let her get distracted with other things so she wouldn't be so interested in ruining his life by revealing his secret identity.
But if he really felt that way, then why did he still feel so jealous at the thought of her in another man's company? It was clear he was going to have to give his heart another talking to.
"That's--that's great," Clark finally responded as he realized Lois was watching him curiously, still waiting for a response.
Lois watched him closely for a moment, as if trying to figure out what his silence meant. Then she shrugged. "I see it as an opportunity. He found out I was in Metropolis--don't ask me how; I'll have to ask him that myself tonight--and tracked down my cell phone number through my editor in San Francisco. His receptionist called and told me he was a fan and wanted to get together for dinner while I was in town."
"I see." Clark couldn't muster much enthusiasm, and, judging from the strange look Lois shot his way, she had noticed. He looked away and busied himself with straightening a pile of papers on the counter.
"I take it you don't like him."
Clark looked up. She was studying him intently, analyzing his reaction. Finally, he shook his head. "Not really, but don't let my opinion ruin your date."
She rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't necessarily call it a date. At least not from my perspective. I see it as an opportunity to have dinner with one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. It's not every day something like that happens. Maybe I can convince him to give me an interview."
Clark cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "You're not the slightest bit attracted to him? Most women I've talked to think he's very good looking, and he's often referred to as the world's most eligible bachelor."
"I don't know." Lois sighed and leaned back against the counter with her arms crossed over her chest. "Sure, I've seen pictures of him, and I agree he's good looking. But from everything I've heard about him, he's into elegant balls, the theater, dinner parties, and hob-knobbing with the rich and famous. While I'm incredibly flattered he would go to so much trouble to track me down to ask if I'd have dinner with him, but I really don't think he's my type."
As guilty as he felt about it, he felt a flash of hope. Then, before he could tell himself he really shouldn't care one bit, he found himself asking, "Oh? Then what *is* your type?"
A tiny smile tugged at the corners of Lois's mouth. Immediately, Clark wanted to kick himself. She knew he was digging, and clearly that amused her. 'Yeah, that's smooth, Clark,' he chastised himself as he groaned inwardly. 'So much for playing it cool.'
But before he could think of a way to casually retract his statement, she shrugged. "Not fancy balls and the theater, that's for sure. I guess I'm more a pizza-and-a-video kind of girl."
Clark's heart skipped a beat. Darn. That wasn't what he needed to hear. A night in with pizza and a movie was his favorite evening luxury, too. He shook his head imperceptibly. Here he was trying to distance himself from her, but instead he kept corralling himself into learning things about her that made her even more attractive.
He felt her eyes on him, but he busied himself with pulling the full garbage bag out of the kitchen garbage can so he wouldn't have to meet her gaze. She'd already seen through him several times that day. The next time might have more serious consequences. Just then he realized Lois was talking. He glanced up briefly to show he was listening, but refused to let himself meet her penetrating gaze.
"Anyway, back to what you said earlier..." Lois began. "Why don't you like Lex Luthor? I'm curious."
Clark shrugged. "It's nothing I can put my finger on. There's just something about him that makes me wonder if he's not really all he appears to be."
He chanced a look at her and saw her cock an eyebrow. "Hmmm," she murmured thoughtfully. Then, "You think he's hiding something?"
"Could be. But history is full of dictators and rulers who were motivated by power, and I've been around this business long enough to know that men like that don't usually get where they are by playing nice."
Lois looked impressed. "Good point."
Silence crept in, and Clark focused on cinching the garbage bag up, then setting it by the now-empty garbage can. Just then Clark's pager went off, and he unclipped it from his belt and glimpsed at the number. It was Jimmy.
"It's the Planet," he explained to Lois when she looked at him questioningly. He went over to the phone and dialed Jimmy's number. "Hey, Jimmy, it's Clark. What's up?"
Jimmy's voice was animated. "Perry told me to page you. There's been a break-in at ENSCO labs, and the guy locked several employees in a security vault before taking off with some high-tech equipment. Perry wants you to get over there fast."
Startled, Clark tuned into the noise of the city and finally heard it--the security alarms. He frowned. Now that he was listening for it, he could hear them plain as day, but he had let himself get distracted. He looked over at the source of his distraction and saw her regarding him curiously, her brown eyes unblinking, and her full, red lips slightly pursed as she tried to determine what he was being summoned for. For a moment, he almost forgot who he was even talking to.
With a mental shake, he forced his thoughts away from the gorgeous woman only a few feet away and focused on his phone conversation. "Thanks, Jimmy. Tell Perry I'm on my way."
He hung up the phone, then hurried over to grab his and Lois's jackets from the recliner in the corner of his living room. He was back beside her before she could speak. "I'm sorry, Lois, I've got to go." He handed her her suit jacket, then slipped his arms into his overcoat. "There's something going on at one of the science labs and Perry wants me to cover it." He took her arm--trying to ignore the jolts of electricity sparking between them as he did--and led her up the stairs beside him to the door.
Lois seemed speechless as he opened the door and guided her out, then walked with her down his front steps. "But--but Clark..." she stammered. "What about what we were going to talk about?"
Distractedly, Clark looked in the direction of the sirens, then back at her as they climbed down the last couple of steps and stopped on the sidewalk. "What are you talking about?"
"You know...'friend man'?" Lois prompted. "You were going to tell me how to contact him, but we got distracted by talking to your source about the mayoral scandal, then by the notes in your apartment on the shipping company investigation. You said you'd help me."
Clark's response was something between a sigh and a groan. "I didn't say I could help you contact him; in fact, I distinctly remember saying that I couldn't promise to be of any help."
"You haven't been *any* help!" Lois snorted. "Come on, Clark, give me *something.*"
Clark cringed. What was he supposed to say to that?
'Stall, Clark, stall,' the voice in his head instructed.
This time he listened. "Lois, I've got to go." He glanced once more in the direction of the sirens, feeling more anxious by the minute. "Can't we talk about this later?"
"But we spent the whole morning talking about everything *but* this acquaintance of yours. I only have a day and a half left!"
Clark felt a mixture of relief and regret at her plea--relief that he'd managed to put her off after spending an entire morning with her, yet regret that in just a day and a half, he was going to have to force himself to let her go.
The sirens of dispatched emergency vehicles merged with the science lab's security alarms. Clark knew he was out of time.
Turning back to Lois, he shrugged apologetically. "Lois, I have to go. We'll talk later. You can find your way back to the Planet or your hotel from here, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he hailed an approaching cab and jumped in before she could respond. Then the cab sped away, leaving Lois staring after them in a confused silence.
Clark hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath until he let it out in a rush the instant they rounded the corner. Knowing they were out of Lois's sight, he leaned toward the front seat.
"This is good," he told the driver, eliciting a surprised look from the man. But the driver obediently pulled the cab over, and Clark handed him a couple of dollars before jumping out. He waited anxiously until the cab drove off, then looked around to make sure nobody was watching. Confident nobody was, he darted into the nearest alley, then changed into his costume and rocketed into the sky toward the distant sirens.
**********
stay tuned for part 9 on Monday...
