Hey all
Here's part 17. I hope you enjoy.
See ya,
AnnaBtG.
TOC here From part 16: “I have an appointment with Lex Luthor tomorrow afternoon!”
“Really? That’s great!”
“Yeah, isn’t it? Anyway, I’m going to prepare my questions and stuff for tomorrow. This is going to be the best interview you’ve read in a long time.”
“I hope so.”
“Can you come to my place tomorrow evening? He may tell me something of interest for you.”
“Okay.”
“And, if it’s not big trouble, could you bring some pizza too?”
Clark grinned. “Okay. See ya.”
“Goodnight.”
Part 17:Next day, Clark went to the EPRAD plant, where he met Dr. Antoinette Baines, a beautiful blonde.
“And do you know what caused the explosion?” Clark asked her.
“Not yet. The wreckage must be examined first. Just now, we’re in the process of moving it to a hangar for inspection.”
“Could I see it, once our talk is over?” Clark said, giving her one of his sweetest smiles.
Luckily for him, his charm worked. “I’ll see what I can do,” Baines replied.
“Thank you. Now, about Dr. Platt…”
Baines didn’t wait for him to finish his question. “I have his file right here. A real waste of talent. Seems that the pressure of building the space station, along with his divorce, finally got to him. He started drinking and taking drugs. It went from bad to worse. We kept him on as long as we could. But, after he set fire to one of the laboratories, we had to let him go.”
Clark remembered Platt telling him that ‘they had drugged him’. Taking another look at the woman, who was now carefully detailing him from head to toe – making him feel very uncomfortable - he wondered who was right.
“He said he submitted a report to you,” he said.
Baines looked up. “Report?”
“Yes. One about coolant systems being installed to the Messenger instead of heating devices.”
“I don’t recall any report. I could check my records.”
Clark decided to follow Lois’s method, ‘I’ll press her until she gives me what I want just to get rid of me.’
“Could you do that now? Or should I come again in the afternoon?”
He saw Baines trying to hide her uneasiness. “I’ll take you now to the hangar where the Messenger is kept, provided that the transportation is finished already,” she said, checking her watch. “In the meantime, I’m going to my office to search for that report. When you’re finished, ask someone to tell you where it is and meet me there.”
“Thank you, Dr. Baines.”
-----
She took him to the hangar. He was glad to see the transportation was already finished.
“This is what’s left from Messenger,” she said with a sad expression Clark found fake. “I doubt you could find anything useful though, given its state. Lecher!” she called for a security guard who was standing outside the hangar.
“Yes, Dr. Baines?” he said, coming in.
“Make sure Mr. Kent doesn’t damage the wreckage.”
“Yes, Dr. Baines.”
“I’ll see you in a while,” she said to Clark, while exiting the building.
Clark was left alone with the guard. Hoping it wouldn’t raise any unpleasant questions, he lowered his glasses and X-rayed the inside of what once had been the Messenger.
He walked around as he did it, giving the guard the impression that he was just taking a look. Suddenly, he spotted the coolant systems Platt had been talking about. Yes, these systems were definitely coolant and not heating ones.
He examined the rest of the ship once again. Nothing else looked suspicious.
“Thank you,” he said to the guard. “Now I’d like to see Dr. Baines again. Do you know where her office is?”
He pointed to a staircase outside the hangar. “Second floor, last door on the right.”
“Thank you very much.”
-----
Clark knocked on her door. “Come in!” Dr. Baines called from inside.
He opened the door and entered the office.
“Mr. Kent,” she said. “I didn’t find any report. I’m afraid it was just in Mr. Platt’s imagination.”
He noticed an open drawer behind Dr. Baines desk. “That’s where it should be?”
“Yes,” she said, “but it’s not. I have several reports of Mr. Platt’s, but nothing about Messenger being sabotaged.”
“Oh.” Clark nodded. “Thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome. Have a nice day.”
Exiting her office, Clark smiled. He hadn’t even mentioned the word ‘sabotage’. Either she had understood that this was what he was suspecting, or she’d left it slip out because she *knew* about it.
He turned around and x-rayed inside the room. Dr. Baines staring at some papers in obvious discomfort.
So, not only did she know about the sabotage, but she was a part of it, too.
Suddenly struck by an idea, he knocked the door again.
Through the door, he saw her quickly place the papers in the drawer. “Yes?” she then called, her voice somewhat panicky.
He opened the door. “It’s me again, Dr. Baines,” he said. “Would you mind if I used your telephone? I, um, don’t have a car, and I would like to tell my girlfriend to come and pick me up.”
“Oh,” she just said.
“So… could I?”
“Oh! Um… forgive my hesitance, but… I have important papers here, and… savoir vivre says I should leave you alone to make your phone call.”
Clark was in a dilemma. He definitely couldn’t steal the report with Baines in the same room.
“Then maybe there’s another telephone around here?” he suggested.
“Oh! Yes, right next door. It was Dr. Platt’s office, but it’s not used anymore. You can call from there.”
“Thank you very much,” he said. Not keeping his eyes off her, he entered the room. He saw her picking up the phone and dialing a number.
“Can I talk to Mr. Luthor, please? Antoinette Baines. … Lex? … Yes, yes, I know, but I have a problem. … This reporter, Kent. He’s talked to Platt. He knows about the report! … Yes. … No, no, I told him I don’t have it. … You think I shouldn’t worry about it? … I’m afraid someone could find it. … Yeah, I guess that’s the best solution… could you wait a moment, Lex?” Someone was knocking on her office door. “Yes?”
Clark saw a uniformed man open the door. “Dr. Baines, Dr. Harrison says he needs you as soon as possible in the lab no. 4.”
“I’ll be right there, Holland. Sorry, Lex,” she said, speaking into her phone receiver again, “I got to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
With that, she followed Holland outside her office. When they were out of sight, he rushed in the office. First thing he did was call Lois.
“Hello?”
“Lois! I’m in a hurry, so just listen. I discovered that Platt was right. He had given a report to Baines and she has it here. She was talking on the phone with Luthor, they’re planning to destroy it! They’re the ones behind it!”
Lois had no trouble understanding what had happened. “Do you have solid evidence?”
“The report has her fingerprints on it. I have no evidence about Luthor’s involvement, though.”
Lois thought quickly. “Take the report, without leaving fingerprints, if possible. I think it’s enough to prove her involvement. Take it to the police right away. I’ll see if there’s some way to track her calls. Even if Luthor’s behind all this, we can’t let her on the loose, or there will be more lives at stake.”
“That’s what I thought, too.”
“Good work, Clark.”
“Thanks. Talk to you in a bit.”
“Bye.”
Clark looked around and spotted a pack of tissues on Baines’s desk. Using one, he grabbed the report, tugged it into his waistband and under his shirt, then coolly headed out.
-----
Next morning, the front-page article under Clark’s byline was a huge success.
Lois arrived at the Planet later than he did, waving a copy of the paper to him. “Clark! You did fantastic!” She fell in his embrace.
“Thanks, Lois.”
“I’m so happy for you!”
He smiled. “Too bad I did it all alone.”
“Ah, Clark, enjoy your success! You’ll have all the time in the world to be jealous tomorrow, when I’ll get the best Lex Luthor interview ever printed!”
They both laughed. “Okay. Now let’s move on to the important things. How are you feeling?”
“Fine.”
“And have you made up your mind about the baby?”
Lois sighed. “It’s a difficult decision, but I think I’ll stick to ‘don’t care what the others say’. And I’ll keep Saulter away from me and the baby.”
“Wrong as it may be?”
“Wrong as it may be. I don’t care. You said I had to make choices, and that’s what I’m doing.”
“Don’t do it just because I told you…”
“No!” she cut him. “I’m doing it because I must.”
“Okay. Now, where do you want to go tomorrow evening? We’ll have to celebrate our successes!”
“Umm…”
“Anywhere.”
“Anywhere in the world?” she asked mischievously.
“Yes.”
She thought for a few moments, but she couldn’t think of anything good enough. “Would it be wise to let you choose?”
“If you let me choose, I’ll take you to a deserted beach not away from Metropolis.”
She stared at him, intrigued. He was up to something. Something good, more likely. And she wouldn’t ruin it.
“Only if you bring Chinese.”
“Deal.”
-----
In the afternoon, Lois went to the LexCorp building for her meeting with Lex Luthor.
After she spent a few minutes in the waiting room, Luthor accepted her in his office with a very broad smile, which Lois found highly suspicious.
“Please, come in, Ms. Lane.”
“Thank you for agreeing to see me, Mr. Luthor.”
“My pleasure. I don’t get to meet such beautiful ladies very often.”
Although this was a compliment, his manner was making her sick. “I guess you wouldn’t say that if you read the Metropolis Star,” she said, hoping that he had indeed read it and that he’d quit complimenting her.
“I do, actually. I read all the papers in Metropolis. I like to be well informed. Please, have a seat.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I don’t suppose you mind…?” she said, pulling her tape-recorder out of her purse.
“Of course not.”
-----
After they went over the typical questions, Lois decided to ask about the Messenger and see what she could get from him.
“I suppose you have read the latest article on Prometheus…”
“Antoinette Baines accused of sabotaging the program. Yes, I know.”
“Bearing in mind that you also have a space program waiting to be approved, how does that make you feel?”
He talked slowly and, to Lois, choosing his words very carefully. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t concern me directly. Someone else will probably take on the leadership of the project and it will continue as scheduled. I understand that the Congress of Nations would be less likely to approve of a second program with the same purpose. Actually, I decided to found Space Station Luthor because I was afraid that Prometheus would be cancelled. But, even if it’s not cancelled, which I heartily hope, the chances of approval for my space station are still good, in my view.”
“Other than…”
She was cut by Luthor’s secretary, who noisily opened the door. “Excuse me, Mr. Luthor, but there are policemen outside… They want to talk to you.”
“Can’t they wait?”
“No, they…”
“Okay, okay, I understand. Ms. Lane, would you mind waiting outside?”
“Not at all,” she lied, and left the room just when as the policemen were entering it.
-----
She was sitting on the couch, absent-mindedly turning the pages of some magazine, when Luthor’s office door opened. The policemen were going out, and Luthor was among them… handcuffed?!
“Hey! What happened?” Lois rushed towards them.
“Not now, Ms. Lane,” a policeman said.
“But…”
“Not now,” he repeated. “You can talk to Inspector Henderson, if you prefer.”
“You bet I will,” she said, eyes flashing.
-----
She got to the police station before Luthor and the policemen. Inspector Henderson, who knew her well, agreed to give her the exclusive by filling her in on Luthor’s case.
Baines, wanting to take at least part of the blame off her, had finally confessed that it was all Luthor’s master plan. As a sign of her good will, she told the police that, as a protection against espionage policy, all calls to and from the EPRAD plant were recorded. As ordered by him, she used to destroy the tapes of her calls from and to Luthor every day, so that no one would check them the next day, but the day of her arrest she hadn’t had the time to. The men that were in charge of retrieving and testing the tapes had found the one condemning Luthor just when Henderson and his men were questioning Luthor on the Messenger accident. While Lois was waiting for them to be finished with Luthor, Henderson had called them and given them new orders: Luthor was now accused as responsible for sabotaging the Prometheus space program.
<If this isn’t the article of the century, then nothing is>, she thought, while driving to the Planet. It’d get her one Kerth at least. And Clark could protest as much as he wanted, but it’d be ready for next morning’s edition even if it meant she not getting a wink of sleep that night.
And, she thought with a sly grin, it would make a better reason to party with Clark tomorrow. Maybe he’d give her some kind of ‘reward’.
Yeah… On second thoughts, the deserted beach was the most appropriate place.
With her thought on next evening’s private party with Clark, the feeling he had given her earlier was back too, more insistently now.
Why in the world had he made that choice? He couldn’t hide from her; he definitely had something in mind. And the reporter in her wouldn’t let it go. She’d figure it out, or her curiosity would kill her.
<No.>
In a sudden change of heart, she decided that she didn’t want to figure it out. If Clark hadn’t told her anything, it clearly meant that he intended to surprise her. And she wouldn’t be a spoilsport; she’d let him surprise her.
There was, of course, another possibility: that he had nothing particular in mind, other than, obviously, being alone with her in the beach.
She blinked. Now, where had all these thoughts come from? Wasn’t she thinking about her story just a minute ago? Man, she was seriously in love with Clark.
She smiled. That felt soooooo good!
-----
<<Yes.>>
<No.>
<<Yes.>>
<No.>
Yes?
Now that Luthor’s story was written, emailed and waiting to be printed, her mind was empty of everything except for that nagging feeling.
The suspicion was growing stronger by the minute and she was pacing around nervously. She felt as if her curiosity was ready to choke her, and she was unable to resist.
She glanced at her watch. 11:30 p.m. Maybe he’d be asleep by now…
…No, he wouldn’t.
In a rush, she picked up the phone and dialed his number.
“Hello?” His voice indicated she hadn’t interrupted his sleep.
“Hi, Clark!”
“Lois? Have you finished your story?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Is everything okay?” he quickly asked.
“Clark, are you intending to propose to me tomorrow?”
“Umm…” He hesitated, unsure of how to handle this unexpected question.
Lois, hearing his silence, closed her eyes and prayed she hadn’t completely messed up.
“Lois? Are you there?” he asked a few moments later.
“Yes!”
“Umm… See, I was…. I am, actually. Sort of.” He mentally slapped himself. “I mean, I am, I… I want to propose to you, just now that you know it… I mean… how do you know it?”
“I just figured it out,” she timidly replied.
“Oh. So, umm… will you marry me?”
Her face shone. “Clark, I…”
“I’ve bought you a ring,” he said, opening the nightstand drawer as if he wanted to make sure it was still in there. “I could come and give it to you now, if you want…”
“No,” she cut him.
“No?”
“No. I mean, not now. I mean, you shouldn’t just come give me the ring and then leave, just because I called you. I mean, the proposal must have a very special timing, ‘cause it’s a very special moment for a couple, and…” She bit her lip. “…I just ruined it, didn’t I?”
Lois’s nervous babble loosened Clark up and he broadly grinned. “No, you didn’t. Actually, I think that you made it even more special.”
“Ah. Okay.” She wasn’t convinced yet, but she didn’t trust herself to argue with Clark at this moment. “Um… Gotta go. See you tomorrow.”
“Okay. Sweet dreams. I love you.”
Lois felt a warm, soothing feeling overwhelming her. “I love you too.”
She hung up the phone and stared at it for a few seconds. Then she came back to reality.
She had been right! He wanted to propose! And, actually, he had!!
“Yes!”
She danced her way to the bedroom. She was definitely going to have the sweetest of dreams tonight.
-End of part 17-
