For those of you who've hung in there gamely, thank you. For those of you who've posted feedback, thank you very much. For those of you just clicking in to see what's going on, I hope you read the WHAM warning thread at the top of the main page.
I hope you like the last two chapters half as much as I enjoyed writing them!
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Chapter Seventeen
Lois knelt beside Lana, fuming silently. It galled her to admit it, but they probably weren’t getting out without help. If Lana was losing it mentally, and Kent was no more Superman than Lois was Queen of England, then she didn’t think she could get Lana to safety without some kind of outside intervention. The only thing she could think to do was to get to the radio room and call for help.
She glanced at Lana, who wasn’t doing well at all. “Hey. Hey! You still with me, kid?”
“I’m not – cough – a kid. Specially not your – your kid.”
“Yeah, right. So how are you doing, your highness?”
“That’s better.” Lana nodded without opening her eyes. “Don’t know – how much longer – cough-cough – I can stay awake.”
Lois made her decision. “Look, I think I can get to the radio room and call for help. Can you wait here alone for a while?”
“Not gonna – cough – wait for Clark?”
Lois shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t believe you. I just hate depending on other people. I won’t go if you don’t think you can wait here alone.”
Lana took two deep breaths. She winced visibly after the second breath. “Guess I’ll – cough – I’ll have to. You – you go. I’ll get – get ready.”
She put the deadman switch under her thigh. “Take a look. Red light – cough – or green?”
Lois looked. “Still green. Hey, don’t get up on my account.”
Lana almost smiled. “I’ll hide it – cough – under my leg.” She waved at Lois. “Get going. Take the pistol. Leave me the SAW.”
Lois frowned. “I dunno, Lana. That thing kicks more than just a little bit.”
“They don’t – cough-cough – know how badly I’m hurt. I’ll keep them – keep them busy while you climb up there. I won’t – cough – have to aim too well, just – cough-cough – just make lots of noise.”
“If you say so. I’ll come back for you as soon as I can, okay?”
Lana nodded. “Okay. Hey.”
Lois turned back. “What?”
“If I don’t – get out of here – “
“Whoa! Uh-uh! Don’t talk like that! We’re both getting out of here. Besides, you still owe me a drink.”
“You got a – cough – a cream soda.”
“That one was from Clark and it doesn’t count. When this is all over, you and I are gonna paint the town red and green and any other color we feel like. We’ll be three sheets to the wind, whatever that means. You got that?”
“I got it. Just promise to tell Clark – cough – tell him I love him.”
Lois shuddered to herself but frowned at Lana. “Tell him yourself, girl. I hate mushy stuff like that. Besides, if you think I’m telling Clark you’re going to miss your anniversary, you’re crazy.”
“I’ll be there if – cough – if I can.”
“Hey, you’d better. He wouldn’t want to hear from me that you’ll be late.”
“Yeah. The late Lana Kent.” Lana chuckled, then gasped and coughed. “Lois?”
“Now what?”
“Take care of him, okay?”
Lois stared in amazement. “Do – do what?”
“I want you – cough – to promise me you’ll take care of Clark.”
“You – you’re out of your mind! He doesn’t even like me!”
“I know.”
Lois scowled. “You’re supposed to tell me that’s an act, that he really respects me and thinks very highly of me.”
“Don’t have – cough – the breath to lie.”
Lois slowly grinned. “That’s pretty good. I suppose you want your own office now.”
“Got one. May not – cough-cough – see it again.”
Lois reached out and touched Lana’s hand. “Don’t think like that. Don’t talk like that. We’re both getting out of here, I promise.”
“Your mouth’s writing – cough – writing checks your body can’t cash.”
“Look, Lana – “
Lana grabbed Lois’s wrist with frightening strength and spoke with terrible urgency. “Promise me! Promise me you’ll – cough – you’ll take care of Clark for me.”
“I thought he was Superman.”
Lana’s grip eased. “Even Superman has – cough – has a fragile heart.” She panted a couple of times. “Took me quite a while to learn that, but he – cough-cough – he does.”
Lois hesitated, then sighed. “All right. I promise.”
“Cross your heart and – cough – hope to fart?”
Lois grinned. “Sure. I’ll even set fire to it if you want.”
Lana almost laughed, but instead she coughed even harder. Blood flecked the floor beside her. She leaned back and panted, “Go. Now.”
Lois stuck the pistol in her waistband and crawled to the side of the hold, then made her way to the far end, opposite the hatch where Roger had spoken to them. She climbed the utility ladder in the wall, then cautiously lifted her head to the deck floor.
No one was there. She scrambled up and over the edge just as a bullet spanged off the wall under her foot. A burst of fire from the SAW against the far wall made the shooter dive for shelter and covered any noise she might have made leaping into the corridor.
She paused and shuddered. Beside her feet were two bodies, each with several bullet wounds. It seemed that Roger hadn’t been lying to her after all.
She’d deal with it later. Right now, she had a date with a radio.
*****
Superman strained to listen. He thought he’d heard individual gunshots to the southwest of his position, but he wasn’t sure, so he continued his grid search. Then he heard the chatter of an automatic weapon. That decided him. That had to be his target. He headed in the general direction of the sound, searching for any ship that might fit the profile.
He looked closer at one ship, then another, then spotted a third. He heard the rapid firing again, and he was sure it came from that ship. He focused on the bow and read the name: Star of the Amazon.
Bingo. Now to see just how much trouble Lana and Lois were in.
He found Lana deep in the main hold. She was pointing a long-barreled weapon at the stern wall. He looked further in that direction and saw two men lying still and alone in the passageway, along with three others apparently being treated for injuries.
He tried to feel some compassion for them but failed. Serves them right, he thought, for messing with my woman. He looked higher up and finally spotted Lois on the foredeck, hiding from two men pointing shotguns at her position behind a hatch cover. She held a pistol ready to shoot, but couldn’t aim without putting herself in their line of fire.
He almost angled towards Lana’s hiding place, but Dennis Lang’s lecture on how he decided who to save first popped into his mind. Imminent danger, he thought, and right now that’s my coworker and not my wife. He swooped down, moving too fast to be seen, to land behind Lois.
She tried to spin and shoot at this new threat, but Superman snatched the pistol out of her hand. “Shh! Don’t let them know I’m here! Are you hurt?”
“No! They’re lousy shots, even with shotguns. They couldn’t hit the wide side of an elephant’s butt with those things.”
“Good. I’m going to get you out of here.”
“Okay!” she whispered back. “How?”
“I’m going to grab a life raft and put you over the horizon, then come back for your friend. Ready?”
“But you – ”
He grabbed Lois before she could finish her sentence and launched himself over the side of the ship too quickly to be spotted. The abrupt takeoff jarred Lois’s breath from her body, and she clung to him for all she was worth. He sped alongside the ship for a moment, then angled up and grabbed the raft. As soon as he had it, he flicked over the ship and vanished against the surface on the other side.
Lois quickly decided that she didn’t like this kind of flying. Bent almost double over his arm with her stomach compressed, she couldn’t breathe deeply or change her position enough to prevent severe nausea from welling up inside her.
As soon as he thought they were far enough away, he opened the auto-inflation compressed air canister on the raft and dropped it onto the ocean’s surface, then he orbited rapidly as it inflated. As soon as it was full, he lowered Lois down on it and grinned as she leaned over the edge and vomited into the ocean.
He hovered above her head. “You don’t like flying, Ms. Lane?”
“Anybody ever tell you – “ she leaned over the edge to vomit again “ – you got a real nasty streak?”
“I’m just glad you waited until I put you down.”
She tried to respond but bent over the edge of the raft yet again. After a long moment, she straightened. “Nuts. I hate dry heaves.” She spat into the water and rinsed her mouth as best she could, then looked up and saw his smile. “This isn’t funny, Kent. I don’t like being tossed around like a sack of potatoes.”
“You just don’t have the stomach to – “ and it hit him. He floated lower and looked directly into her eyes. “What did you just call me?”
She scooped some seawater and rinsed her mouth again. “Kent. You’re Clark Kent. Your wife told me who you were.” Lois’s eyes bulged and she stiffened. “Your wife! Oh! Go get Lana! She’s in trouble!”
“She’s holding them off with a machine gun. You were about to be a target practice dummy.”
“No, you super-moron! She’s been shot! She needs a doctor right now!”
Superman didn’t wait. He spun and rocketed away towards the ship at supersonic speed. He didn’t hear Lois trying to tell him about the explosives that she and Lana had planted.
*****
Footsteps sounded in the hold, then stopped just around the corner from Lana’s hiding place. “Lana? Lana, it’s Roger. Are you there?”
She coughed. “Yes. I’m – still here.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry all this happened.”
“Not – cough – not worth squat.”
“Please, Lana, let’s not be rude. Actually, none of this would have been necessary had you not contacted that reporter.”
“What – cough – what are you talking about?”
“Don’t be coy. She’s trapped on the bow of the ship. We’ll have her in a few minutes, assuming we don’t already.”
“I – cough-cough – I wouldn’t make book on that. She’s – ahh – she’s pretty resourceful.”
“Let’s not dance around this.” His shoes scraped closer. “You called Lois Lane of the Daily Planet. She came to your apartment last night.”
“No, Roger. She – cough – she called me.”
Roger hesitated. “What do you mean, she called you?”
“She called me – cough – last night. Said she had some information for me. When she got to my place, she – cough-cough – she wanted me to let her into the museum to check the holding room. I – ohh! – I was about – cough – to throw her out when your friends – cough – burst into the room and snatched us.”
“You mean – you didn’t – she was watching us?”
“I guess so.”
Lana could hear Roger fidgeting around. “This changes everything. If the Daily Planet is investigating us, we probably can’t go back.”
Instead of answering, Lana moaned. Roger tried to sound as if he cared. “You’re hurt badly, aren’t you, Lana?”
“What was – cough – your first clue?”
“The blood on the stairs. I was hoping, if someone had to be hurt, that it would be the very rude and very nosy reporter, not you. I respect you, Lana, and I like you. You’re going to be the next big star in archaeology.”
“Glad to hear – you say that, Roger. You have a doctor standing by to – cough-cough – to fix me up?”
He stepped around the crate with extreme caution. “Actually, we do. If you’ll just come with me – “
“Don’t trust you that far.” She reached under her leg and slid out the deadman switch with her left hand, then squeezed it shut. “Got a red light here.”.
“I don’t understand what you mean, Lana. What is that?”
“You’re good – cough – good at games, Roger. Guess what it is.”
His face paled as he realized what she held. “Lana, please shut it down! Please!”
“I guess that means you – cough-cough – figured it out.” She wiggled it at him. “Can’t put it down. It’ll – cough – it’ll blow up. Pull the wires out and it – cough – closes the circuit. Cut the wires and it closes the circuit. You have to take this ship – cough-cough – back to Metropolis – before I pass out and let go of it.” It wasn’t true, not completely, but Roger didn’t have to know that.
“We can tape it shut so it doesn’t go off! Lana, please let me – “
“No way, Roger. Anyone steps closer to me and I shoot. I still – cough-cough – have a machine gun.” She lifted the SAW with her free arm and waved it unsteadily. “Now turn – cough-cough-cough – turn this ship around.”
“We can’t do that! You have no idea – “
“Don't care. Get everybody out of the – cough – hold and turn back to Metropolis.” Roger’s eyes betrayed his terror. Lana forced herself to stand, still holding the SAW under her arm, and brandished the triggering device at him. “Turn back! Now, Roger! I don't know – cough – how much longer I can hold this. After all, I’ve already been shot once and I don’t have – “
The sniper in the far hatchway saw Lana stand. He settled the .270 bolt-action Winchester rifle in his arms. He put the crosshairs in his telescopic sight squarely on the side of her head.
He squeezed the trigger.
