Smallville loomed on the horizon. For more than ten years, Clark had done everything he could to leave the past behind him, and he’d believed that he’d never return. Becoming the sort of man his parents would have been proud to know hadn’t been easy; he’d had to struggle to change. Leaving Smallville had been the best thing he could have done; leaving being who he was and starting an entire new life for himself.
Yet with every advancing mile, he could feel the old persona settling back into place like an old tattered coat. Returning to Smallville was a mistake; Clark knew it with a sense of uneasy certainty. He was a new man, but the people of his youth wouldn’t allow him to be.
Despite himself, he found himself growing more silent the closer he came to home. Lois, fortunately, didn’t seem to notice.
“It doesn’t look like much,” Lois said, looking up from the stack of papers in her hand. She’d been silent for much of the journey, poring over the sketchy information in the files again and again, as though she’d be able to read something hidden between the lines. “Perry hasn’t given us anything concrete to work with,” Lois continued. “Just rumors of a hoax.”
“There’s probably nothing to find,” Clark said. “Sometimes a hoax really is just a hoax.”
“There’s something here, or the government wouldn’t have such an interest in it. I’m not sure that I buy the idea of little green men in Kansas, but generally, when people try to hide something, it’s because they have something * to * hide.”
“So you think that the government is really trying to cover something else up? Smallville isn’t exactly the place where you’d expect to find spies or weapons’ testing.”
“Which is why you’d have them in a place like this. It’s the last place that anyone would expect.”
“You can’t hide anything like that in a small town, Lois. Everyone knows everyone else, and people have a tendency to talk.”
“Small towns are full of secrets,” Lois said. “Sex, crime, deceit. Human nature doesn’t change just because you change your street address.”
Lois was more right about that than she knew.
Clark forced himself to reply. “A government facility would either have to hire a lot of locals, or it would at the very least involve a lot of strangers moving through town. It’s not exactly the sort of thing you can hide in the back of a closet.”
“What do you have in the back of your closet, Mr. Kent?” Lois looked at him curiously. “You haven’t exactly been thrilled about coming to Smallville.”
“I’ve already told you that I didn’t have a happy childhood. My parents died and I was bounced around from foster home to foster home.”
“It looks like you’d want to come back and show everyone what a success you’ve become.”
“I haven’t exactly made the sort of life that most of the people in Smallville would respect. I’ve never been married, I have no kids, and I’ve never lived in one place for more than six weeks since I got out of college.”
“You’ve been to a lot of interesting places,” Lois said. “And you are working for the best newspaper in America.”
“That’s not something I’m going to be able to talk about though,” Clark said. “Writing a few travel guides is hardly the sort of resume to impress. If I’d become a doctor, or even a lawyer, maybe.”
Given his past, he doubted they’d have accepted him even then, any more than he’d have wanted their acceptance.
The first buildings came into view just as Lois was turning to ask him another question. She reconsidered, then spoke.
“We’ll drop our bags off at the hotel, then go directly to the farm of this man Irwin, who says he saw the UFO.”
‘Irig...the man’s name is Wayne Irig.”, Clark said absently. He hadn’t realized how viscerally the sights and sounds of Smallville would affect him, how much they’d take him back to a time he’d rather have forgotten.
“Whatever,” Lois said dismissively, flipping through the papers. “We’ll probably get the run-around by the government people, but I’ll have Eduardo run background checks on the people we talk to. If they aren’t really employed by the agencies they say they are, we’ll have them.”
“I’d imagine they’d have something like that covered, Lois.” Clark said.
“That’s what you’d think,” Lois said, “But we might get lucky. They haven’t had a lot of time to set all this up; according to what Perry was able to discover, the craft was only discovered four days ago.”
Clark made a right hand turn and grimaced. The incident would still be fresh in everyone’s minds. “They’ll have moved the ship, if there really is one. If Wayne Iwig was able to carry it around in the back of his truck, it’d be easy to move to some undisclosed location.”
Lois scowled as Clark pulled into the cracked driveway of a dilapidated motel. “The Feds are still here; that means they are still looking for something.”
As Clark pulled into a parking space near the front entrance, Lois said, “You couldn’t find us anything better?”
Shaking his head, Clark said, “There’s a bed and breakfast down the road, but the Feds have taken all the rooms.”
“If I have to fight off roaches the size of poodles, I’m coming after you Kent.”
Clark shrugged as Lois shoved her door open. While he hated making her uncomfortable, having her distracted might be for the best. The sooner she wanted to leave the better.
********************
“We are conducting a routine investigation, Ms Lane, into the possibility of soil contamination.” The African American woman facing them appeared to be the epitome of the professional businesswoman, appearing as though she’d be more comfortable in a boardroom than as a government spokesperson.
“This seems to be a large scale investigation,” Lois said. “There have been government agents seen all over the county.”
“It’s in the best interest of the public to discover the true extent of the contamination before it spreads. Most of our searches have turned up negative results, but we couldn’t know that until we looked.” The woman gave an obviously rehearsed smile.
“So the fact that the owner of this property was seen around town showing off an unknown piece of equipment and claiming that it was a UFO has no bearing on your investigation?”
The woman shook her head. “I can’t comment on Mr. Irig’s mental stability, or about his sense of humor. Our concern is to keep the public as safe as we possibly can.”
“Speculation around town is that an experimental aircraft from the McClellan Airforce base crash landed around here, and that the government is trying to cover it up.” Clark looked hopeful, as though he actually expected the woman to change her story in midstream. Despite his experiences in foreign countries, Lois suspected that he had a great deal to learn.
“Speculation isn’t reality, Mr. Kent. Do you have any other questions?” Glancing conspicuously at the clock on the wall, the woman rose o her feet.
“If this is an EPA Matter, why are there several army units stationed outside?” Lois asked. “Before my father went into sports medicine, he worked as an army doctor, and I know the look.”
“Several governmental organizations are working in concert on this operation, in an effort to best serve the public.”
Given the usual interdepartmental strife, that was in itself suspicious. Lois allowed herself to smile weakly. “I’m sure the public would be pleased to know that it was being so well served.”
“Despite the beliefs of the lunatic fringe, the people ARE being well served, Ms. Lane. We live in an era of unprecedented governmental cooperation.” The woman spoke stiffly. “We’re here to do what’s best for the people of Smallville, and of the United States.”
“Who gave you the right to decide what’s best for the people?” Lois scowled.
“You did, Ms Lane, along with the millions of other voters who elected people whose job is to make those decisions, and to hire others to implement them. The law is representative of the will of the people.”
“Is there anything else you can tell us about what’s going on here?” Clark asked smoothly.
“I have no further comment at this time, Mr. Kent. If that changes, I’ll have my secretary contact you.”
Ready to protest, Lois began to speak again, only to stop when she felt Clark touch her arm. Glancing at him, she saw him shake his head slightly. Turning back to the woman, she sighed. The woman most likely wouldn’t budge, and pushing any further would only serve to antagonize her. If they were able to confront her with more evidence, they might be able to get a more honest answer.
“Thank you for your time, Ms. Houston.” Lois said. “If we have any more questions, we’ll be in touch.”
The woman nodded, dismissing them with a look. Lois turned to Clark and followed him out of the makeshift tent that had been set up as the local headquarters of the “EPA”.
“She’s hiding something,” Lois said. “I could see it in her eyes.”
Clark had a far away look for a moment. He hesitated, then said, “She was irritated with having to waste time talking to us. I didn’t see anything to suggest otherwise.”
“That’s why you’re the rookie and I’m the experienced reporter. Sometimes you have to look beneath the surface.” Lois grinned at Clark’s expression. “Despite all appearances, you aren’t on the farm any more.”
***********************
“It’s started.”
The woman spoke only two words into the phone, and all Clark could hear from the other end was the ever-present electronic hum of the telephone and the sound of an indrawn breath. The woman tapped the receiver once, cutting off the connection and immediately began dialing another number.
Lois spoke, and Clark grimaced. Focusing on her words wasn’t easy, but Clark managed. “You’re looking for aliens, Lois. You can’t tell me that makes you feel validated as a reporter.”
“What, proof that we aren’t alone in the universe? You don’t think that would be worth sharing with the world?”
As far as Clark could tell, the next number the woman called was innocuous, simply business as usual.
Lois was still speaking. “What if Woodward and Bernstein had said, ‘Conspiracy? Cover up? Naahhh.”
Clark deliberately began to head in the direction of the rental car. “The problem with most conspiracy theories is that they make the government seem a lot more competent than it really is, Lois. Given the gaffes and the fiascoes of the last few years, I can’t believe that you’d think that...”
“What if I’d just thrown the whole ideas of clones out as ridiculous?” Lois said, interrupting him. “Two years ago the whole idea of people using clones to replace major political figures would have been considered as much a fantasy as the whole idea of aliens.”
“The clones were created by men,” Clark said stubbornly. “The technology was there all the time, and it would have become mainstream sooner or later. Aliens though...even if they existed, why would they bother to visit our planet? They’d have to be less than fifty light years away to know that we’re even here.”
“Why fifty light years?”
“Broadcast television. I doubt radio signals would have been strong enough to have been detectable before television entered the picture.”
“Maybe the aliens have already been here a long time ago,” Lois said. “A whole lot of people seem to have stories about ancient astronauts.”
“A whole lot of people seem to have stories about a lot of things. There’s an awful lot of Santa sitings around Christmas, and if you believe the tabloids, he’s really President Presley 364 days a year. If you keep this up, you’ll be writing about Buddy Holly sitings and potatoes in the shape of John Lennon’s head.”
Clark reached the car door and grabbed irritably for his keys.
Lois tapped on his shoulder and said, “We’re reporters, Clark. That means that we take risks. I took the risk of being made a laughingstock with the clone story, and if I hadn’t, where would we be now?”
“You have to learn to look before you leap, Lois.”
Grabbing his keys, Lois said, “If I looked where I was leaping, I probably wouldn’t jump. I’m driving, Clark.”
Sighing, Clark stepped back. Lois was in the driver’s seat, and it seemed that she intended to stay there. Throwing her off the trail wouldn’t be easy.
*************************
The police car sat silently, brooding as the car pulled out of the parking lot. Within the confines of its dark interior, Rachel sat, numb. She’d never really expected Clark Kent to return to Smallville, and yet somehow, she’d known she’d see him again.
She’d gotten over him, made peace with the situation. That’s what she’d been telling her family for years. Having him return to Smallville shouldn’t make a difference. The public humiliation she’d endured was a thing of the past; people had forgotten, or so she’d been telling herself.
They’d elected her sheriff at an age when most women were just entering the field. She’d had to work harder, be more professional just to overcome the stigma of her past with Clark Kent. She wasn’t the same person she’d been ten years before.
The truth was, in small towns, people never forgot. Every humiliation, every scandal was like a brush fire. It might die down at times, but al it took was the slightest breath of air to start it smoldering again.
Grimly, Rachel started her engine. Clark Kent was bad news. She’d known it before she’d ever started dating him. He’d made the right decision in leaving all those years ago. Now she had to convince him to make the right decision again and leave, before it was too late.
There were some in Smallville who wouldn’t be nearly as polite in asking him to leave. There hadn’t been a violent crime committed in Smallville in almost ten years, and Rachel wanted to keep it that way. The thought of what some in the community might do was enough to make her grit her teeth.
That there were federal authorities in town made it even worse. Rachel had her suspicions about what was happening on the old Irig farm. Wayne hadn’t been seen in days; the last time he’d been seen, he’d deposited large amounts of money in multiple bank accounts. The checks had been from the federal government.
In a small town, secrecy was almost impossible. Neighbors watched neighbors, bank tellers talked, and Rachel kept her ear to the ground. It helped, knowing that several boys from the plant had stayed home drinking. It helped Rachel head off possible fights.
It wouldn’t be long before the news of Clark’s return reached the wrong ears. Rachel would have to get him out of town before that happened.
She was the law, and this was what she had to do, even if deep inside she really wanted to shoot him dead.
The bastard really should have stayed away.
