Chapter Sixteen
Lana twisted her fingers together. "I'm bored."
"Don't care."
"I'm bored and scared."
"Still don't care."
"Lois, the ship left the harbor hours ago! We need to do something other than watch each other use the toilet."
"Speak for yourself. You aren't exactly my type and watching you pee does not qualify as a spectator sport in my book."
"I can't help it! I'm nervous."
"Can't you be quiet while you're being nervous and bored and scared over on the other side of the room?"
Lana forced herself to be calm. Clark would find them. Clark would save them. But she couldn't say that to Lois. "Look, let's at least pass the time constructively. You tell me about your family and I'll tell you about mine."
Lois rolled her head on the dirty pillow and opened her eyes. "Oh, crap! Here we go."
"What do you mean?"
"You're going to try to make friends with me now, aren't you?"
"It's better than being enemies!"
"What genius told you that fairy tale?"
Lana stopped and took a deep breath. "Look, Lois, I don't like unnecessary conflict. There's no reason for us to fight, especially right now."
"What's your reason not to fight?"
"Because I really don't want to hate you! Besides, my life's on the line here too."
"You saying you'll die more comfortably if we get to be great buddies?"
Lana huffed and threw herself down on the other bunk, facing away from her fellow captive. "Never mind! I'm sorry I said anything at all! Just forget it!"
Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Then Lois said, "I think my sister will mourn me."
"What?"
Lois sat up. "I was just thinking about who'd miss me if they - if I don't survive this thing. All I could really come up with was my sister Lucy. Assuming she isn't too involved with some new guy."
Slowly, cautiously, Lana rolled onto her side. "What about your parents?"
Lois shrugged. "You met my dad. He'd just bury himself in his work and his latest `research assistant.' My mom would cover any grief she might feel with booze, assuming she hasn't already died of liver failure."
Lana frowned in sympathy. "You too, huh?"
"Me too what?"
"Your mom drinks."
"Oh. So now we're the local Al-Anon chapter?"
Lana abruptly sat upright. "Can't you be serious? We're in danger here!"
"Sorry, it's a defense mechanism to distance me from painful circumstances." Lois's face caught and she shuddered briefly. "Whoa. Where'd that come from?"
"The truth is inside you. At least, that's what they say at the Al-Anon meetings."
Lois sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Yeah, that's what they told me, too."
Lana relaxed. "We're not so different after all, are we? We're both driven by the memory of rejection by someone very close. Your mom rejected you for a bottle. Mine rejected me and my dad for a man she doesn't really love, but who gives her all the pretty trinkets she can display. Didn't you see her at the reception?"
Lois frowned. "Which one was she?"
"The loud one trying to get a few more drinks from the bartender."
Lois chuckled ruefully. "I thought it was my mom for a minute, until I looked closer." She turned towards Lana. "How about your dad? Did he go chasing the sexy coeds too?"
Lana smiled. "No. My dad's great. He doesn’t flirt with his female students. He's been Dad and Mom to me since I was nine, and he's never let me down. He's even found a nice lady I think he should marry."
"You tell him that?"
"I told him it was his decision, not mine. I wasn't going to live with her."
Lois grinned. "Nice phrasing."
"Comes from being married to a writer."
"So your dad would miss you a lot." Lois looked at Lana. "And Clark will - Clark would mourn you."
"You really think so?"
Lois's eyes flashed for a moment, then she shook her head ruefully. "I guess I had that one coming."
"You did. Besides, our anniversary is coming up in about ten days. Can't miss that."
"No, you can't." She let out a deep sigh. "Clark's not really so bad, you know. Besides, I think he really loves you."
Lana smiled and clasped her hands across her knee. "He does. And he's very good at what he does, too."
"Good. He can report the story and make me the tragic heroine. `Intrepid reporter dies chasing banner headline.'" Lois stood and crossed her arms. "He'd probably make every reader cry, and then he'd get a Kerth and a Pulitzer and dedicate them to our memories." Lois stepped to the tiny porthole, now illuminated by daylight. "Yeah, he'd probably work in some mention of you, too. You can be my faithful sidekick. What do you think?"
"I think Clark will find us."
Lois snorted. "Right. We're at sea, been out of sight of land for over three hours now. I can't tell where we are. I don't even know for certain what direction we're going. What are you going to do, hang your underwear out the window?"
That just might work, she thought, but she said, "Trust me, okay? He'll find us."
"Mmph. I'd rather have an Uzi and a grenade launcher."
Lana pondered for a moment. "I'll bet there's all kinds of stuff in the hold."
"Which we can't get to and couldn't use if we did."
"I can."
Lois slowly turned and raised her eyebrows. "You wanna clarify that?"
"I've been studying the Anarchist's cookbook. There's a section - "
"Where did you get that thing?"
"Internet. Anyway, there's a section in it about personal weapons, both military and civilian, how to load and clean them, do field repair, and how to ready them from storage to action. Besides, I grew up in Kansas. Everybody uses guns out there, either for hunting or self-defense or sport shooting, me included. If this is your gun-running ship, there's an arsenal in the hold right below us."
Lois's eyes widened. "You know, with all that's happened, I never thought of that. Maybe you aren't totally useless after all."
Lana grimaced back. "Thanks a lot. You want to try it?"
"We have to get out of this room first. That's our most important - " Lois snapped her hand up. "Someone's coming! C'mere and hold me up. I'm hurt bad - no, I'm dying and I want to see the sun one more time."
Lana popped off the cot. "How good an actress are you?"
Lois laid her arm on Lana's near shoulder. "As good as I have to be."
"Hope so. Break a leg."
"Now you decide to be funny." Lois slumped against Lana and whispered, "If I can knock him down, you grab his gun if he has one."
"Right."
The lugs crept inward as the hatch was opened from the outside. A young man they hadn't seen before leaned in cautiously, holding a pistol in his left hand. "Okay, you two, come with me."
Lois stood still, leaning unsteadily on Lana's shoulder, and moaned. She reached out and touched the porthole. "Ohh. So pretty. So pretty."
"What's she doing?"
"She - she wanted to see the sun once more."
The youth looked at Lana relaxed slightly. "What's wrong with her?"
Lana replied with what she hoped was the proper combination of anger and fear. "One of your friends hit her in the head. She's hurt! She needs a doctor or she might die!"
He shrugged. "That ain't my lookout. I just gotta get you two up to the first mate's cabin. Come on."
"I can't carry her and she can't walk!"
He hesitated, then shifted the pistol to his other hand. "I'll help you."
As soon as he stepped close enough, Lois drove her elbow into his face and broke his nose, then turned and kicked him in the groin. When he bent over, she drove a fist into the back of his neck. He fell to the floor, dishrag limp. The attack was so sudden that he had no chance to cry out.
Lana snaked her arm out and picked up the pistol, then checked him for more ammunition. "Nuts! No more ammo. I guess he didn't expect to get into a shootout."
"With two unarmed and helpless women?"
"Yeah, you're right." She nudged their unconscious victim. "Stinks to be you right now, don't it, pal? That'll teach you to pick on us helpless women." She dropped out the magazine and examined it, then slid it back in. "Eight rounds of three-eighty auto and one in the chamber. Not a real heavy caliber. Nine shots and we're helpless."
"Then let's go find some bigger guns and more bullets."
Lana gagged the unconscious youth as Lois tied his hands behind him with a wet sheet. Lana saw it and grinned. "Nice touch. They might have to cut him out of it after it dries and shrinks."
"Let's not be here when they find him."
"No argument from me. You know the layout of the ship?"
"I looked up some ship blueprints at the Planet as background for this story. I think I can find the main hold."
"Good. You lead and I'll be the rear guard."
Lois pointed at the pistol in Lana's hand. "You just might have to shoot somebody with that thing. Think you can?"
"I can make it go `bang' and scare them."
Lois arched her eyebrow. "Yeah, but could you put a bullet in one of them?"
"Only one way to find out. Let's go."
*****
Superman flew over the Atlantic, searching for any westbound or southbound freighters. He'd spotted and examined three from the air already, had come up empty all three times, and he was getting antsy. He stopped and hovered as he ticked off his facts on his fingers.
"One: They're on a small freighter headed across the Atlantic, probably the `Star of the Amazon.' Two: The ship is trying to avoid the authorities and probably isn't following the normal routes. Three: They've probably upgraded the engines to go faster. Four: There are more ships north of the direct easterly line from Metropolis than south, so they're almost certainly moving on a line between straight east and straight south. Therefore, I need to check for freighters sailing out of the usual lanes of traffic and moving faster than normal. Let's see, a two hundred mile radius with a search grid covering a ninety-degree variance should do it. That's a lot of water, so I'd better get started."
He peeked back towards the coast and lined himself up on a heading directly east from Metropolis. Then he flew out to the two-hundred mile mark and began searching the area. He ignored anything heading west or north, judging that the criminals wouldn't risk backtracking, especially since they had no idea he was looking for them. With his plan now laid out, he began to search the grid hoping that he'd find the ship in time.
He hoped desperately that he could find them before it was too late.
*****
Lois led them along a series of narrow passageways. Twice they ducked into open hatches to hide from individual sailors moving along the passageway. Neither man seemed to be looking for them.
Lana held the pistol down and to one side with the safety off and her index finger along the trigger guard instead of on the trigger. Her shooting instructor had taught his class that inexperienced combat shooters who swung a pistol into action often fired early, so lifting a pistol to aim would at least direct the bullet towards the target's legs. It would also enable them to bring the weapon to bear on the target more quickly.
They came to a corner where they heard conversation, so Lois motioned for them to move backwards. Before they could hide, however, Shotgun Man came around the corner they had just rounded and shouted, "Hold it!"
Her instructor had also told them not to try to reason with someone aiming a firearm at them, and if they had a choice of targets to take out the shotgun first. Lana swung the pistol up, and just as her instructor had warned, she fired before it came level. But the bullet found the man's lower leg and knocked him down.
Lana hesitated. Shotgun Man looked up into her eyes, and she saw the fear there. He tried to roll to one side but his wounded leg wouldn't cooperate. Lana pointed the pistol at his torso, holding it with two hands as she'd been taught.
Lois called, "We can't stay here! We have to go now!" Then she turned and sprinted towards the corner they'd turned away from and slammed into the two unsuspecting crewmen who were just peeking around the corner to see what all the noise was about. She yelled again. "Come on! Two more ladders and we're there!"
With a final nod to the man she'd shot, Lana turned and ran past the crewmen sprawled on the deck. She didn't see the man pick up his shotgun and squeeze the trigger twice in succession just as she rounded the corner. The two crewmen covered their heads and tried to burrow into the steel deck. The buckshot pellets ricocheted off the metal wall and ceiling and spattered along the corridor where the two women were running.
Lois yelled and jumped in the air and grabbed her left hand. "Oww! Stupid shotgun! You shoulda killed him!"
"I'll make them keep their heads down." Lana turned and squeezed off two rounds at the ceiling. "The ungrateful wretch, shooting at us like that."
Lois hissed in pain. "Yeah, and after you didn't kill him, too."
"You hit bad?"
She looked closer as they ran. "Cut a furrow along the back of my hand. Burns, but not bleeding, just seeping a little. You okay?"
Lana was suddenly panting. "Out - out of breath. Gotta stop - soon."
"Down this ladder. Hey! Come on! You can't slow down now, we're - "
Lois put her arm around Lana to help her and felt dampness at the small of her back. She looked at her hand and saw blood on her fingers. "Lana, you're hurt! We have to make it to the hold. Can you get down this last ladder?"
"Have to - don't I?" She stumbled down the ladder and fell into Lois's arms at the bottom. "Good catch. Thanks."
Lois hauled Lana to her feet and tucked the pistol into her waistband. "Don't thank me yet. Here, that should be the hatch we need."
"You said - two ladders."
"So if they heard me they'll think we went lower. Maybe they'll miss us. Hope we hit paydirt here."
Lois helped Lana stumble through the hatchway. Their pursuers had been disinclined to follow them closely after they found that their victims were willing to shoot back. Lois dogged the hatch shut from the inside and looked around hurriedly for a piece of wood or pipe to force through the spokes of the hatch cover wheel, but she didn't find anything and decided Lana needed immediate help. Only then did she turn around to look where they were.
The hold was crammed full of pallets loaded with boxes of varying sizes and shapes. Lana leaned against the nearest crate, looking extremely pale. She also was having trouble breathing. Lois looped the smaller woman's arm over her neck and half-guided, half-carried her deeper into the maze of crates.
Lois set Lana down beside a pallet with red crosses showing through a tear in the tarp. She untied the rope holding the tarp down and popped open the top crate. It was filled with field medic parcels, and Lois grabbed two off the top and turned back.
Lana was trying to pull up her shirt. "Hey, easy! I'll do that, I'm the doctor's daughter, remember? You just lie face down and let me take a look."
The wound was bleeding steadily but not quickly, and the blood flow was even and not pulsing. "I don't think it hit an artery. I'm going to plug the hole with antiseptic and cotton and put a bandage over it. I think you only caught one pellet."
Lana coughed twice. "Good. I think - you're right. Don't feel - any more - punctures back there."
Lois wrapped the gauze holding the bandage around her patient's abdomen, then pulled Lana's shirt down and sat back on her heels. "That's the best I can do until we get you to a doctor. I think the pellet penetrated the lower lobe of your lung, and you've lost a lot of blood. You're probably bleeding internally, too. You shouldn't move around much."
"Fix your hand."
"What?"
"Fix - cough - fix your hand. Don't want you getting some - cough - nasty infection."
Lois checked the back of her left hand where the pellet had scored the skin. "Sheesh. You got a phobia about infections or what?"
"Hey, if you - cough - if you don't have your health - "
"Never mind. I'll take care of it." She put antibiotic ointment on the wound and wrapped a bandage around her hand. "I think that's gonna leave a mark."
"Better there than - cough - somewhere else."
"Oh. I'm sorry, I forgot for a second. Hey, you need to be still. That's what they say in all the war movies when somebody's shot. Be still and wait for the medic."
"You're the - the field medic here, remember?"
"Then be still until we can find you a doctor!"
Lana painfully pushed herself upright. "Ordinarily - you'd probably be - cough - right. This isn't ordinary. Gotta - get some weapons and - cough - hold them off."
Lois frowned. "Until when? I don't think I can carry you to a lifeboat and I'm not happy about leaving you here."
"Don't have to. Clark - cough-cough - will find us."
"Yeah, right. I told you before, he's no Superman."
Lana chuckled until she coughed again, this time more violently. "Actually, he - cough - he is."
Lois looked at the blood flecking Lana's hand, blood that Lana had just coughed up. "Sure he is. He's a real animal when you two are alone, isn't he?"
"When he's not - cough - on patrol, yeah, he is."
"Patrol?" Lois scrunched her face in thought, then opened it in amazement. "You're not saying - you aren't telling me - you mean that Clark Kent really - "
"Inside voice, remember? Yeah, that's - cough-cough - what I'm saying."
Lois paused for two long breaths. "I don't believe you."
Lana seemed to relax a bit. "Okay, but it's true."
"No. No, I don't buy it. Clark's not as tall as Superman. I've seen him up close at a couple of press conferences, and I met Superman in person that time he came to my hotel on that story about the Foundation. He's huge around the chest, too, not that Clark's not built pretty good, but he's not that big."
"Part - of the act. Clark wears thick soles - in his boots. Crosses his arms. Wears a tight outfit. Looks - cough - looks really stern. Nobody - sees him, they just see - see the hero. You see what - cough - what you expect to see."
Lois shook her head. "Okay, fine. Clark Kent is Superman. Assuming that's true, what do we do now?"
Lana turned her head and looked at the crates around them. Her color seemed better to Lois. "We delay them. We make it - cough - too expensive for them to take us."
"How do we do that?"
Lana pointed. "Open that crate. Markings say it has boxes with - Semtex and detonators and wires."
"What's Semtex?"
"Plastic explosive. Very powerful."
"Explosive! Are you crazy?"
"Don't worry. Won't go off - cough - in your hands. Just bring the case to me. I'll show you."
Lois pried open the crate, then cautiously worked one of the long cases to the deck and slid it in front of Lana. "I hope you've done this before."
"Read about it." At Lois's expression, Lana smiled and said, "Has to be easier - cough-cough - than delivering a baby."
"Helped my dad do that once. Babies don't blow you to kingdom come."
"Even trade. This stuff - cough - won't spit up on you. Gimme the pistol. I'll - cough - I'll cover you if someone comes in."
Between them, they packed several charges of explosives along a seam in the bottom of the hold, along with putting some on several of the solid containers. Lois was increasingly edgy the more she worked with the material, but she molded the plastic explosive into the shapes Lana recommended and attached the wires to the detonators, then pushed the detonators into the soft plastic.
As Lana tied the wires together and worked with a handle-shaped device, Lois hunted for heavier weapons until she opened a case and found what she thought was a light machine gun. She brought it to Lana, who looked at it and said, "Saw."
Lois shook her head. "It's a gun, not a woodworking tool."
Lana smiled weakly. "No. Army calls it the M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon. The initials - cough - spell SAW. All capital letters. This one is the short version. Used by - cough-cough - airborne troops and commandos. Uses the same cartridge - cough-cough - that the M16 uses. Should be a box of ammo nearby."
Lois reached into the cushioning foam and pulled up a box-like object. "Like this?"
"That's the spare magazine. The SAW uses either M-16 clips or belt ammo. Try to find a box of belts. Two - cough - two hundred rounds per belt."
Lois started looking, then ducked down as the hatch at the far end of the hold swung open. " - can't be in there! That would be stupid beyond belief!"
A refined voice that Lois recognized but couldn't quite place spoke next. "Then where are they? This is pretty much the only place we haven't looked."
"What about - the lifeboats! We haven't checked the lifeboats!"
"No one's launched any lifeboats, Martin."
"But they might be hiding in one of them! We need to check them first!"
"You really don't like being this close to so many weapons, do you?"
"The guns and the bullets don't bother me. It's all those containers of jet fuel. There's tons of that stuff down there!"
"One hundred thirty-seven thousand pounds on board all together, according to the manifest. I wouldn't smoke in here if I were you."
"You mean there's - there's seventy tons of gasoline on this boat?"
"Almost. Fifty-five thousand pounds in the stern hold, another forty thousand in the forward hold, and the rest here in the main hold with the guns and ammunition."
Martin whistled. "That's a lotta gas."
The other voice let out a dignified chuckle. "Nearly as much as you have."
Martin impolitely expressed his deleted opinion of the entire censored matter and slammed the hatch shut. Lois peered at more boxes until she found one labeled M-249 SAW - BELT AMMO. She tried to pick it up and almost dropped it, then recovered and carried it back to the machine gun.
Lana was sitting up, holding the pistol they'd taken from the first young man, and crying. "Hey! Your back hurting you?" Lana shook her head. "What's wrong?"
"I know that voice."
"Yeah, one guy was named Martin something or something Martin. Look, I found - "
"The other one - cough - the other one was Roger."
"Roger who?"
"Dr. Roger Bean. From - cough - from the museum."
"Oh. Yeah, you're right. I talked to him on the phone a week or so ago. I thought I recognized the voice. So?"
Lana wiped her eyes. "Roger is a world-renowned cultural archaeologist. For his age, he has no peer. He's - cough - been published in most of the best journals. I studied - ow! - I studied some of his articles in college. I just can't believe he's mixed up in this."
"Well he is! Now get yourself in the present and help me! I can shoot this gun but I don't know how to load it! Show me!" Lois grabbed Lana's shoulder. "Look, we can mourn Roger's fall from grace later! Right now I need your help!"
Lana looked into Lois's eyes. "Never thought I'd - hear you say that."
Lois shrugged. "Nobody does everything perfect all the time."
Lana smiled. "Okay. See this lever? Push it forward and - cough - lift the loading port cover. That's it."
They had the SAW loaded and ready to fire just before the far hatch popped open once again. Two men's voices that they hadn't heard before called out.
"Hey! Girls! Y'all in there?"
"We know you're not hiding in the lifeboats, and ya ain't anywhere else. C'mon out. We ain't gonna hurt ya."
"Yeah, come on out like the cute little bunnies y'all are."
Lana whispered, "A rabbit's best - ow - best defense is to hide, Lois. Be vewy, vewy quiet."
Lois wiggled the SAW. "Elmer Fudd was the one with the gun, remember?"
Lana put a finger to her lips and made a "be quiet" motion. The second voice called out, "Come on, girls, we just wanna make sure you're safe."
Lois snarled back, "Like we believe you!"
Lana grimaced. "Great. Oh, yeah, we're just gonna hide like little baby rabbits until - cough - the bad guys leave."
"Girl, this rabbit has some real teeth. Watch this!"
Lois pointed the SAW at the open hatchway and squeezed the trigger. When she released it, more than forty empty shell casings were bouncing around the deck at her feet. "Lana? Finish connecting that detonator."
Lana whispered back, "Not so loud!"
Lois raised her voice even more. "They need to know we've set up a bomb in here that'll sink this ship if they mess with us. Hey! Listen up! You clowns make any stupid moves and we'll blow this ship apart!"
Quiet descended on the hold, both inside and out. Lana watched Lois's face closely. Lois suddenly giggled. "You know, this is the ultimate in point-and-shoot."
Lana frowned. "It's a weapon, Lois. It's used - cough - it's used to kill people."
"Maybe so, but it's fun! I can't believe what a blast that was!"
"You might have shot someone."
Lois scowled. "I was just trying to make them keep their heads down. Besides, they were hunting us first. You really think they plan to let us live?"
"No. I - cough - I doubt it. But could you live with it if - cough-cough - if you did kill someone?"
"I could live with it better than they could."
"Very - cough-cough - very funny."
"Sorry, I wasn't trying to be funny. It's just - "
"I know. Just don't - cough - don't have too good a time with that thing."
Before Lois could reply, Roger called to them from the hatchway. "Lana? Are you in there?"
Lois looked at Lana, who nodded. "Yes, Roger, I'm here."
"Good. Did you shoot at us just then?"
"No. My irritable friend - pant-pant - with the - cough - the automatic weapon and lots more bullets did."
"Irritable friend?"
"She's - cough - she's out of chocolate. Why do you ask?"
"Because we have a dead man up here, and two others wounded. You two need to stop playing with your toys and let us try to figure out how to resolve this situation before more people get killed."
Lana watched Lois's face go bone white. Lois knelt down suddenly and leaned against the nearest pallet, panting with shock. Lana called out, "Gone too far now, Roger, old buddy. Lois was right. Us rabbits have some bite."
"Come on, Lana, you're bluffing and we both know it."
"No bluff, Roger." She winced and paused to breathe. "We have Semtex planted along the seam of the hold. Altogether about eighteen pounds - cough-cough - at six different points. I figure the ship would - cough - would split apart and sink middle first if we touch it off. Not much time to get away. That's - cough-cough - that's assuming the rest of the goodies down here don't blow up - cough - along with it. That would probably vap - ahh! - vaporize everything within two hundred meters of the hull."
"You're crazy! The blast would kill you too!"
"You're not gonna let us live, Roger. We - cough - we know too much."
"Wait! Don't do anything stup - anything rash. Just let me talk to the captain. Maybe we can make a deal."
"Good. We'll - cough - we'll be here."
Lois looked at Lana with a stricken expression. "I - I didn't mean to kill anyone! I was just trying to scare them!"
"I know. It's okay, Lois. Hey, don't - cough - don't forget to breathe. In, out, in, out - "
"But - that man - I killed him!"
"You don't know that. Roger could have said that - cough-cough - just to make us think twice about shooting at them."
Lois gulped and nodded quickly. She dashed the unshed tears from her eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right! He's just playing mind games with us. Well, it's not gonna work!"
Lana watched the color creep back into Lois's face. "Good for you. Can you - cough - can you watch for them while I work on this?"
Lois lifted the machine gun to her shoulder again. "You got it, partner."
Lana shot her a glance. "Partner? You mean I got - cough - got promoted from sidekick?"
Lois almost smiled. "Yeah. Hey, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. You're - you're okay. I'm really sorry we're in this mess, but if I have to be here I'm almost glad I'm in it with you."
"Thanks. Me - cough-cough - me too."
Lois looked at her tenderly. She almost said something, then thought better of it and turned back to her self-assigned guard duties.
Lana decided Lois probably would be okay until Clark found them. If not, she'd handle it somehow. She pulled the various wires into a bundle, which she hooked to an odd-looking handle-shaped device, and as Lois finally glanced over, she connected more wires from the device to a battery.
"What's that?"
"Deadman switch."
Lois shuddered. "Lovely name. How's it work?"
"Simple. See that green LED? It says the power's connected but it's - cough - it's still in safe mode. Squeeze the - cough-cough - squeeze the handle once and the red LED comes on. Let it - cough - let it go again and - boom."
"Boom?"
Lana looked Lois in the eye. "Boom."
"Not ka-blooey?"
"No joke, Lois, this - cough - this is for real. Very big, very loud, very real boom. No retry, no new game, no restore saved game, no - cough-cough - no cartoon powder burns. If this stuff goes off with us in here, there's - ahh - there's no way for us to survive. We'll both die."
Lois hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah. Big dead ba-da-boom."
Lana paled and she flinched again. "It's this or them. I prefer - cough - the illusion of control."
"I prefer not being dead, thank you very much."
"Clark's coming for us, Lois. He - cough - he won't let me down. He'll find us. We just have to give him - cough-cough - ohh - give him enough time."
"I still don't like it. Why can't we just keep the machine gun going and scare them away?"
Lana took a shuddering breath. "We have to - cough - make them think they're all in - cough-cough - as much danger as we are. They can hide from the SAW, but they can't hide - ow! - they can't hide from a sinking ship."
Lois didn't answer. She lifted the SAW and nervously thumbed the safety on, then off again, all while staring at the far wall of the hold.
