From part 15...
She held her breath as their faces neared, her skin tingling as she felt his warm breath on her face. In eager anticipation, she closed her eyes as his lips touched hers. Instantly her knees went weak, and she was glad for the steadying arm Clark slipped around her waist. The world disappeared in a haze around her, and all Lois could think about was Clark's kiss, tender, meaningful, and perfect. She hardly dared to breathe for fear it would disrupt the deliciousness of the moment.
When they finally drifted apart, Lois felt heady and breathless, and she could tell by Clark's expression he was feeling the same way. A grin worked its way across her face as she looked up into his eyes. She'd never been in love before, but she was sure this was exactly what it felt like.
Clark stepped back, letting his fingers slip from hers as distance finally necessitated, but his eyes never left hers. "Goodnight, Lois. I'll talk to you soon?"
His eyes were a dusky color in the moonlight, and Lois found herself hypnotized by the intensity of his stare. She managed to nod, then found her voice. "Thanks for coming over. Dinner and...well, everything...was great."
He smiled through the darkness. "I look forward to doing it again soon."
"Me too."
With one last look, Clark then turned and drifted up into the night sky. Lois watched him until she could no longer make out his form in the darkness. After standing on the balcony for several more minutes, she finally went back inside and shut the sliding door behind her.
She was sad to see him go, but she found herself looking forward to next week when they could compare notes on their bi-coastal investigation. Even hearing from Clark through email was better than nothing.
**********
Now on to part 16...
**********
Lex stepped out of his private elevator into the reception area of his penthouse, his eyes never lifting from the newspaper in his hand. A large picture of Superman and his latest heroic adventure were splashed across the Daily Planet's front page.
"Superman," Lex said as Nigel followed him into the room. "It seems he's all anybody can talk about lately."
Nigel nodded his head in agreement. "Yes, he is causing quite a stir, isn't he?"
Lex turned slightly and handed the newspaper to Nigel as his assistant followed him through the room and into his office. Lex was contemplative as set his leather briefcase down on his desk, flipped the latches, and opened the lid. He extracted a couple of papers as he looked up at Nigel, who was standing a few paces inside the room with his hands clasped behind his back.
"What do we know about this 'Superman'? Anything of real substance yet?"
"Just what's been in the papers," Nigel stated.
Lex looked down at his briefcase, deep in thought, as he pulled out one last paper, then shut the lid. "Well, it seems like nobody really knows what this man is capable of, and it's always wise to know your enemy, wouldn't you say, Nigel?"
Nigel nodded. "It is, sir."
"Then let's schedule some tests, shall we? That will help us know what we're dealing with."
A slight frown played across Nigel's features. "Just how do you plan to test him, sir? I doubt he'll subject himself to a series of tests."
Lex smirked. "My dear Nigel. It's easier than you think. What would draw Superman out?"
"Someone in trouble?" Nigel asked tentatively.
Lex clapped his hands together and beamed with enthusiasm. "Yes! Someone in trouble. So all we need to do is stage a series of tests based on people in trouble, people who need rescuing. Let's also stage a few mini disasters to see just what he's capable of. We'll find out what we're up against, then plan our strategy to deal with this new adversary accordingly."
Nigel tipped his head in acknowledgement to the plan. "Very good, sir. I'll go make arrangements."
**********
Lois actually found herself looking forward to work Monday morning as she climbed into her car and steered into the steady stream of traffic. Most of the "stories" she'd been assigned by Jim had been finished, so she was eager to get started on diving back into her research on Mesopotamia, Inc. She'd suspected the company had been involved in something illegal back when she was researching them, and now that she had stumbled across their name in Clark's investigation, she was sure of it. This had the makings of a big story. And she was glad. She was ready to jump into something meaty.
As with the most of last week, Lois took the long way to her desk once she reached the newsroom in her efforts to avoid her editor. She wanted to remain out of his eye long enough to dig up enough information to warrant him keeping her on the story.
She spent the next few hours poring back through her notes and files, refreshing her memory on her findings. Then she picked some of what she felt were the more pertinent pieces of information and took them to the fax machine to fax them to Clark. She included a cover sheet with Clark's name on it, and a quick hand-written note to Jimmy to deliver them to him in case the copy boy was in charge of delivering the faxed items to the reporters.
After a quick lunch, she was back at it again. She was working at her computer doing some research when she was interrupted by the sound of a voice. She looked up to see the Chronicle's copy boy standing at her side, holding several pieces of paper. "This just came for you, Lois."
"Thanks," she said as she took the papers. A fax cover letter with Clark's name in the corner made her smile. Obviously he'd gotten her information and had decided to send some of his own. Then she noticed a hand-scrawled note near the bottom.
Lois,
Looks like you've been busy! Here are some of the papers we were looking at in my apartment. You mentioned being interested in the connection, so maybe you'll find something in them that I haven't. Maybe something to tie in with your research? Let's compare notes ASAP.
Thanks for a wonderful evening Saturday. Remember how I said my favorite night sky was the one back home in Smallville? I changed my mind. My favorite is the one I got to share with you.
Love,
Clark
Lois melted. Who said guys couldn't be romantic? Or maybe Clark was just the last of a dying breed. Either way, she felt as if she were back in the sky flying as high as her heart now was at his words.
She set the cover letter on her desk, then took a look at the other pages Clark had faxed. Jimmy had found a little more information on Mesopotamia, Inc.'s shipping record for the Metropolis shipping company, and their shipping activity did seem to have increased in the last several weeks. She wondered if that had anything to do with the San Francisco shipping company being investigated and then shut down. She knew it didn't prove anything, but it was encouraging enough to make her want to keep researching.
She spent the rest of the afternoon and all of Tuesday digging, talking to sources around the city, and trying to make connections. Comparing Clark's notes with hers, she turned up a few more interesting pieces of information. She already knew that Mesopotamia, Inc. had their hands in several lucrative affairs. They dealt with importing art and artifacts, mostly shipped from third-world countries where the items could be obtained relatively inexpensively, then sold for a tidy sum in the States off market, mostly to private parties. But what was new to her was a connection she'd been able to make between several of the company's board members.
Some of the board members' names showed up as owners on several seemingly random and non-related companies that didn't appear to do much of anything. After digging for information on them, she began to suspect they were shell companies. What was even more exciting was that she recognized one of them as being one of the companies that had been investigated by the FBI during her crime ring investigation for possible money laundering. The owner had mysteriously disappeared during the investigation, and the company had shut down. It had been suspicious then, and it seemed even more so now. If all the companies were owned by Mesopotamia, Inc.'s board members, and they were indeed shell companies, she wondered if they were being used to launder Mesopotamia, Inc.'s profits.
She still wasn't sure any of this tied in to the shipping company in San Francisco, or even the one in Metropolis, but she was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Filling her attache with notes, she took everything home with her to read that night. She settled onto the couch in her apartment with a turkey sandwich and a glass of milk, then used the remote to flip on the TV for some background noise. She never worked well in absolute silence; her thoughts seemed to flow more freely when there was something going on around her, and in an empty apartment, that usually meant TV noise.
She opened her attache sitting on the couch beside her and started pulling out notes. Then she took a bite of her sandwich and began to go through what she had. She ended up putting things in various piles on her coffee table in an attempt to make heads or tails of the information she had. When the entire pile of papers were sorted, she looked at the stacks and sighed. There was no way she was going to get through all of this in one night.
She reached for her sandwich and leaned back against the couch, tucking her feet up beneath her legs Indian-style. A series of images flashed across the television screen and a familiar flash of read and blue caught her attention. She smiled. Apparently Clark—Superman—had performed some new newsworthy feat. She reached for the remote and turned the sound.
The news reporter on the early edition news was recounting Superman's busy day. He'd reportedly thwarted two suicide jumper's attempts, dealt with a bomb in a Metropolis building, and stopped a speeding elevated train that had mysteriously lost its brakes. A few images of his appearances flashed on the screen, but the one that caught Lois's attention the most was when a cameraman had managed to catch Superman on tape just before he left the scene of an attempted convenience store robbery. It was obvious to her how tired he looked, and maybe even a little overwhelmed.
Her heart went out to him. More than anything, he looked like he could really use a friend. In a moment of clarity, she realized how lonely he must feel, going home to an empty apartment and having no one there to confide in, or pour out his frustrations to. She knew he had a few friends that he liked to do things with, but it didn't seem like it would be the same as having friends he could share everything with. After all, none of them knew his secret. And while he had obviously good and understanding parents, she knew it wasn't the same as having someone your own age to confide in. In that respect, she suspected his life was very lonely.
On an impulse, she found herself reaching for the phone.
**********
Clark flew home Tuesday night, both tired and distracted. He had spent very little of his day at the Planet, and he was starting to worry that Perry was suspecting him of shirking his work responsibilities. He frowned. That's all he needed--a reason to worry about the security of his job.
He decided to spend the evening typing up the stories Perry was expecting on his desk first thing the next morning to show his editor he really was taking his job seriously. One nice thing about super powers was the ability to type fast. He planned to use that skill to his advantage that night.
When he finally landed in his apartment, he breathed a sigh of relief. He loved being Superman; he loved helping people with powers that really made a difference in averting disaster quickly, but there were days when something about his new alter ego's "job" caused him to pause and think. Today had been one of those days.
Perplexed by the day's events, he furrowed his brows in thought. The day had started off as any other morning, with Superman needed on a few different occasions, but as the day progressed, the rescues became more unusual and baffling. He was not a suspicious person by nature, but it was impossible to dismiss the nagging feeling that something odd was going on.
The sound of his phone ringing jarred him out of his thoughts, and he quickly sped into his bedroom to change out of his costume and into jeans and a T-shirt before speeding back to lift the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Clark? It's me, Lois."
Clark's heart skipped a beat. "Lois!" he exclaimed, his tone reflecting his surprise and delight at hearing her voice. "How are you?"
"I'm good. I was just sitting here on the couch working on this investigation of ours and I saw you on TV. Looks like you had a busy day."
Clark sighed. "You could say that. Today was crazy. It seemed like one thing kept happening after another."
"What was that about suicide jumpers and a bomb?"
Recognizing the reporter curiosity in her voice, Clark grinned. She had to be one of the most inquisitive people he'd ever known. Knowing he had an attentive ear, he sat down on the couch and got comfortable as he poured out the events of the day. It felt good to have somebody to talk to, and he didn't feel nearly as down or tired as he had when he'd arrived home.
When he finished recounting the duties he'd performed, he hesitated, wondering if he should share his concerns over the strange occurrences that were nagging at him. Finally he decided to go for it.
"You know what, though, Lois? I was too busy to think about it at the time, but by the time things started to slow down and I had a chance to reflect, there were some things that seemed a little..."
"A little what?" Lois prompted.
"Well, strange."
Lois's voice reflected her surprise. "Strange? What do you mean?"
He hurried on to explain about the two suicidal jumpers, and how they'd jumped from two of the tallest buildings in Metropolis on completely opposite ends of town within seconds of each other.
"Doesn't that seem a little odd?" he asked. "I mean, it's not like Metropolis never has suicidal jumpers, but to have two of them jump from the tallest buildings in the city within moments of each other.... I don't know. At the time I didn't think about it, but then there was the situation with the bomb in the Carlin building."
He told her how he'd heard that the bomb squad was being dispatched to the building, and had flown over to help. He'd been glad he did because he'd convinced the leader of the squad to let him go in to take care of it, and it had gone off as soon as he had. He'd come out of it unscathed, but he hated to think what might have happened had those men gone in instead.
"What shocked me, though, was what I found out afterward," he told Lois as he shifted his position on the couch. "I talked with one of the members of the bomb squad as Clark afterward, and he told me that the explosion had been remote controlled, and set off from somewhere within a mile radius of the building. They'd found security cameras installed in the lobby that were not a part of the buildings system, and suspected the two things might be connected."
"You mean somebody watched you go in, then detonated the bomb?" Lois asked incredulously.
"Apparently."
Lois was speechless. After a moment, she began to stammer. "But--but why? That doesn't make sense. Do you think someone was trying to get rid of you?"
Clark shook his head. "I have no idea. I wouldn't rule it out. You said yourself that the criminals in this world probably aren't too thrilled with me. I'm just glad whoever did it didn't have any interest in hurting the people on the bomb squad. Better me than them."
"Yeah, but..." Her voice drifted off as she thought over the situation. Finally she continued. "I know I said that, but to hear somebody actually tried to do it.... Did you tell your parents about this?"
"No!" The word flew out of Clark's mouth before he could stop it. Realizing how harsh he had sounded, he took a breath and spoke again, this time his voice softer. "No, I don't want my folks to know. My dad already thinks this whole superhero thing is a bad idea. I don't want to give him even more cause to worry. Besides, I'm not convinced someone did that to try to kill me."
There was silence on the line for a moment. "You don't?" Lois finally asked, her confusion evident in her voice. "Then why do you think someone did that?"
Clark sighed. "I don't know. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I began to wonder if...well, if maybe those incidents had been staged."
"Staged?" she exclaimed. "You think somebody was trying to test you?"
"My powers, maybe. How else would you explain the situation with the jumpers and the remote-controlled bomb and the video cameras? The guy with the bomb squad really made me think."
"Do you have any idea who would try something like that?" she asked. "Anybody you've talked to recently that struck you as staging these incidents?"
"Nobody. I'm going to keep my eyes and ears open, though. Something was weird about it, and I'd like to get to the bottom of it before one of those 'tests' hurts somebody."
"What about the jumpers?" Lois inquired thoughtfully. "Do you have any information on them? Maybe there's a connection there that would give you a lead."
Clark blinked. He hadn't thought of that. "That's a good idea. I'll have Jimmy track down their names and backgrounds."
"Good. Let me know what you find out." There was a pause, then he heard Lois laugh a little. "Speaking of strange, I should tell you what happened to me today."
With a smile on his face, Clark turned and laid back on the couch, propping his feet up on the armrest. It felt so normal to be talking to Lois like this, comparing notes on their days. He suspected this could become a nightly occurrence. But then he grimaced. If it did, he was sure his phone bill--and Lois's--wouldn’t be pretty.
"What happened to you today?" he asked, staring up at the ceiling contentedly.
"I was out talking to sources about the shipping company and its clients when this tabloid reporter from the city overheard me giving my name to someone. He came rushing over and asked if I was the one who'd interviewed Superman last week. When I told him I was, he offered to pay me a lot of money if I would give him some dirt on Superman. He figured that since I'd managed to get an exclusive, that I might be able to pass on something juicy. It cracked me up. Of course I told him to jump in a lake, but I thought it was too funny, the lengths tabloid reporters will go to to get a story." She paused as a grin spread across her face at the memory, and her tone was teasing as she continued. "I think you owe me a really great night out for maintaining my silence."
Clark raised himself up on his elbows and frowned. She'd been approached by a tabloid reporter? That meant people in her area were starting to think she knew Superman since she'd managed to interview him. She lived a long way away. What happened if someone tried to single her out because she was the only one on her coast who'd met the man of steel, and try to use her to get to him?
"You're not laughing." Lois's voice pulled him out of her reverie.
He shook his head in an effort to clear it. "Sorry, Lois, it's just...you say something like that and think it's funny, but it worries me. What if someone decides to do something to you in an effort to get to me? I don't like that thought."
She made a disgruntled noise and he could picture her rolling her eyes. "Clark, you worry too much. Has anybody ever told you that?"
"My parents," he confessed sheepishly, "but that's not the point. I just don't want anybody hurt because of me. Just promise me you'll be careful, okay?"
"I will, Clark, but honestly you don't have anything to worry about. I can take care of myself."
Clark grinned at the memory of her run-in with the would-be mugger in the Metropolis alley...and her torn skirt. His heart skipped at beat when he remembered the glimpse he'd gotten of those long, incredible legs. But as quickly as the thought had come, he forced it away, feeling guilty for taking pleasure in a sight she hadn't really intended for him to see.
Deciding to change the subject, he asked, "You said were out checking on things with our investigation. What did you turn up? Anything?"
He listened as Lois explained the connection she'd been able to make between the board members of Mesopotamia, Inc, and the handful of smaller companies she suspected as being shell companies, and about the one company shut down when it was suspected of money laundering.
"So maybe Mesopotamia, Inc. is trying to hide its illegal earnings by hiding it in one of those companies?" Clark asked.
"I wouldn't rule it out. Or maybe because the companies are small, they get some kind of tax break or government grants that a bigger company would never get. There are all sorts of possibilities. I am having a tough time following the paper trail, though, so it might take me a while to figure everything out."
"Well, I'll help," Clark offered. "I told Jimmy to pull up some more information on the Metropolis shipping company, so maybe we can get together a night this week and go over the new information we have."
"I'd like that," she told him, her voice soft. "Any excuse to see you is fine with me."
Clark smiled against the phone. He loved that she felt the same way about seeing him as he did about her. He heard her clock chime in the background and glanced down at his own watch. He groaned. "As much as I hate to, Lois, I'd better go. Perry's starting to give me that look that says he thinks I'm not pulling my weight, with as much as I've been gone lately, so I was hoping to make up for it by finishing a couple of stories tonight that he assigned me."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Lois said quickly. "I didn't mean to interrupt your night. I'll let you go."
"No, wait." Clark sat up and clutched the phone more tightly to his ear. "I didn't mean to imply that you were interrupting. In fact, I'm really glad you called." His voice drifted off, and he looked down and started to finger a loose thread on the seam of his jeans. "This dual life has been hard to adjust to, and I can't tell you how nice it is to have someone to talk to about it. Anyway, I just wanted to say...thanks for listening."
The smile was evident in Lois's voice as she told him, "Anytime. But just so you know, I'm not being entirely selfless, here. I love talking to you, too."
Clark chuckled as he switched the phone from his right ear to his left. "In that case, I think we're going to be in big trouble."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you have any idea how much our phone bills are going to be?"
Lois laughed. "I hadn't thought about that. Maybe I'd better get a second job to pay for it."
"Or maybe I'll just save us both some money and pop in more often."
There was a pause, then Lois said softly, "I'll hold you to that, you know."
Clark's heart warmed at her words and he found himself wondering why he was sitting here talking to her when he could be there holding her and kissing her. But then he glanced at the clock and knew he couldn't. One hour would turn into two, then maybe even three or four. As much as he liked the idea of being with her, he knew he had stories to write.
"I guess I'd better go," he said finally. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, though, okay? But maybe I'll email you to save the money."
The sound of her lilting laughter made him smile. "It's a deal. Good night, Clark."
"'Night, Lois."
He heard the phone click, but he continued to hold the phone to his ear for several more moments. Reluctantly, he finally clicked the 'off' button and walked over to set the phone in its base.
Then, feeling happier than he had been in a very long time, he found himself whistling as he walked over to computer to get to work on his stories.
**********
Lex sat in his favorite leather chair in his den, a fire crackling in the fireplace and the lights around the room dimmed. The ambiance was lost on him, however, as he studied the report in his hand.
"It appears Superman will be a formidable adversary," he told Nigel, who stood motionless in the room after delivering the testing results on Metropolis's superhero.
"Formidable, yes." Nigel nodded, watching his employer carefully. "It appears he's invulnerable. Clearly not what you were wanting to hear."
But Lex appeared unruffled as he smiled a little as pursed his lips. "No, but I have to admit, I like the idea of having a challenge. All great men in history were challenged, yet rose above. This is my chance to do the same." He stood up and tossed the stapled pages onto his desk. "It may appear this 'Superman' is invulnerable, but I intend to find a way to eliminate him. It's only a matter of time before I do."
With a confident nod thanking Nigel for the results, he walked from the room. He had things to do and a strategy to plan.
**********
to be continued in part 17...
