In case you missed it…
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Operation ArgusPart 6
The rest of the day disappeared quickly. Lois cleaned up her piece on Superman’s appearance at the Stratus Ave accident before sending it to the editing queue, and then pulled up her notes on Church Construction & Demolition to update them with the info from the foreman. She added a reminder to check into how quickly CC&D was getting its permits approved and by whom, and the name of the investigator to follow up with later that week. However, she had a feeling he wouldn’t be very forthcoming with any preliminary results.
Lois also spent some time on the smuggling case. She’d written down the names of several military-grade products after leaving the station, before they faded from memory. Once she typed up the list, she fired off a request to Stephanie to look into their production chains. She also pulled up a digital map of 4th and Clinton, noting it was in the warehouse district near Hob’s Bay. That could mean the truck was coming from Hob’s Bay, or bringing materials to a warehouse, or both. It wasn’t too useful, but she saved the map into her files anyway. She made sure to mark her notes from the afternoon as “sensitive background” as a reminder to avoid referring to anything directly when she had enough to write up the story.
It was 4:00 before Lois had a chance to look at the files Stephanie left looking into Argus. It looked like General Newcomb had been a member of Project Blue Book back in the 60s, then was transferred to an army unit in the 70s after officer training. He’d actually retired in the 90s, but they called him back into service about 5 years ago to be Fort Truman’s commander. Being recalled wasn’t too much of a surprise - the U.S. military was significantly drawn down in the 90s with a series of voluntary retirement programs and reduced promotion quotas, but the trend reversed after Zod’s attack in 2001 and retired officers were some of the first called back to active duty. But being called back as a base commander and still being there five years later, that was unusual. Stephanie had found a number of related articles and documents, and Lois tucked them away in her briefcase to look over at home. There were also several documents waiting in her email inbox, but after a quick glimpse, Lois decided to read through them later in the evening, and gathered her things up to leave for the day.
The next morning, she was assigned to three different press conferences downtown and didn’t have a chance to return to further research until mid-afternoon. She’d only been at her desk for a few minutes before Karla Keane, the Daily Planet’s society columnist, slithered into a nearby chair with a printout in hand. “Lois, you’re looking just beautiful today! Have you done something new with your hair?”
Lois responded with a skeptical glare. In the year and a half since she’d replaced Cat Grant, Lois had never been able to warm up to the woman. Aside from being ridiculously beautiful with her Latin features and endlessly long (and endlessly displayed) legs, one of her earliest columns had been about nepotism in the workplace, and she’d included Richard in it - granted, as an example of how a company could include family members while putting in place protections against favoritism. But it had drawn a lot of ire from competing papers and put Richard’s relationship with Lois under a spotlight as well. It hadn’t exactly been an inspiration for friendship, and the two women generally avoided each other.
So, if Karla was trying to ingratiate herself… “What do you want, Karla?”
“Oh, just a little fact checking.” Karla flipped her hair behind a shoulder and smiled warmly at a man passing by. “Diane has me writing up a piece on Superman, and after all, you
are the expert.”
Lois begrudgingly held out her hand for the papers, and Karla handed them over with satisfaction. As Lois skimmed through the article, making a few notes for changes, Karla leaned back and kept up a light chatter. “I do hope I have a good understanding of the man, he’s
such a figure of importance, but I never realized before just how private he is. I didn’t really pay too much attention before he left, still being in school.”
Lois snorted softly at that. If Karla had still been in school 5 years before, then she’d certainly taken her time finishing her degree.
“But hardly anyone knows anything about him, or will admit they do. However did you manage to learn so much, Lois? What’s your secret?”
“I asked,” Lois answered sharply. “Well, it looks like you have the basics down, 6’4”, 225 pounds - though, I wonder if that’s still accurate, he looks like he’s lost weight.”
She regretted the comment instantly - Karla’s eyes lit up and she leaned forward. “
Really, Lois, you know him well enough to tell that just by
looking at the man?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Karla -“
“Hi, Lois, hi Karla.” Suddenly Richard was standing just behind Lois, and she nearly jumped at his voice. “Working on anything special?”
“Karla’s writing something on Superman,” Lois handed him the papers, “and she asked me to do a quick review of the basic details.”
“Diane’s idea,” Karla piped up. “Said it wouldn’t be an authentic Superman exposé without a Lane stamp of approval.”
Richard smiled and handed the papers back to Lois. “Looks like it’ll be a winner. It’s always fun to talk about all those different powers. I love that he can see through anything - I’d have fun with that.”
Lois’s jaw dropped as she looked up at Richard, and he blushed slightly. “I mean, think about all the great news stories you could get peeking through files and stuff.”
“News stories,” Karla repeated. “That’s what you’re going with, Richard?”
“Uh uh,” He was obviously looking to recover from his faux pas. “And that super-hearing, how does that work Lois, does he hear each sound by itself or everything all at once?”
“Both,” she responded slowly, still not sure she was going to let him off the hook.
“And he’s taller than I thought.”
“Faster than a speeding bullet, draws his powers from the sun, invulnerable to anything but Kryptonite, and he never lies,” Lois rattled off. Richard’s chagrin deepened, as though she was twisting a knife.
“Kryptonite?” Karla asked.
“Radioactive pieces of his home world. It’s deadly. To him.”
“Huh, I didn’t see anything about that. That trip home must have hurt, then.”
Lois’s heart seized up, and she turned her attention back to the town gossip.
Me and my big mouth! “Don’t print that. It’s never been officially confirmed.”
Karla eyed her. “You seem pretty anxious about it, for an unconfirmed rumor.”
“Please, Karla. You try to print that, I’ll deny to Diane I ever said it.”
For a minute, it looked like Karla was going to blow her off - then, she was surprised when the woman shrugged. “Doesn’t really fit the tone of the column anyway, since it’s supposed be about how fabulous he is. Every woman’s dream, every man’s nightmare, right Richard?”
“That’s… not exactly how I would put it, Karla.”
“Hmm, maybe not. After all, you do seem to have a leg up on him.” Karla eyed the two of them significantly, then gracefully stood from the chair and took her printouts back from Lois. “Thanks, Lo, you’ve been a big help.”
Richard quickly took the vacant seat. “Sorry, for interrupting, I just wanted to catch you before I left to pick up Jason.”
“Don’t worry about it. What did you want?”
“Just to check in, see how your day’s going. See if you wanted anything in particular for dinner.”
Lois sighed and looked back at her desk. “Well, it’s been busy. I’ve got three short pieces to write up in the next hour and then I really wanted to work with some of the research Stephanie gathered for me yesterday. I guess I’ll be bringing work home again with me.”
“How about this,” Richard propped himself up with his elbows on his knees. “I’ll pick up Jason and let him burn off some steam in the playground, then we’ll bring dinner back here and I’ll see if I can help you with some of your research.”
“Really?” Lois smiled. “You don’t have to do that.”
“With both of us working on it, maybe we’ll have a little time this evening without any work for a change.”
“All right.” As he shifted to stand up, Lois reached over to pull him close for a kiss. “Thank you, Richard. And…” she smiled with a sparkle in her eye, “I’ve always thought having x-ray vision would be pretty cool, too.”
Richard’s smile filled his entire face, and he leaned forward to kiss her again. “I’ll see you later. Love you.” He left with a lighter weight to his shoulder, and Lois was glad she forgave him for the vision crack. Sure, it had been a bit unexpected, but she should have realized it would appeal to his sense of humor.
<~S~> <~S~> <~S~> <~S~> <~S~>
An hour later, Lois was typing up her last article, detailing the city council vote to reduce the number of flights coming into Neill International Airport between 10pm and 5am. She kept one eye on the clock as she skimmed through the piece for any missing pieces, adding a couple of extra details on how the original limits were created before the airlines started using larger and noisier jumbo jets.
In the last few minutes before deadline, the newsroom typically had an eery calm to it. The sound of typing on plastic keyboards provided enough white noise to mute the few low conversations taking place, and anyone not typing knew to keep their voices down so as not to disturb those who were. Perry was in his office with the photo editor, starting to plan out the look of the paper based on the day’s materials. The assistant editors were roving amongst their reporters, checking on whether they would be making their deadlines.
She’d be cutting it close, but Lois knew she could finish her article by deadline. She turned to flip through her notebook once more, feeling like there was something missing. Finding a note about how international flights were scheduled to accommodate restrictions on both the departure and arrival times, she swung back to her computer.
Just in time for it to blink off along with all the other lights in the newsroom. Instantly, people were shouting about losing their work. Lois felt a momentary panic as she wondered when she’d last saved her article.
“My camera’s not working!” Jimmy shouted over the noise, drawing everyone’s attention. He pulled out his cellphone, then waved it. “And my phone’s not working. It’s another black-“ the lights suddenly turned back, along with the television screens placed strategically around the room. “-out.”
Perry strode out of his office and looked around the room while everyone rebooted their computers. “Keep it going, people, we still have a deadline in 7 minutes!”
Lois sighed in relief when she logged back in and found her document had automatically saved before she lost anything important. She quickly tapped in a few last sentences and then sent it off for editing. Once done, she rushed over to Perry’s office. “Perry, that was another blackout just like the one last week!”
“I know,” he responded off-handedly, his attention on the photos spread before him on his desk. Jimmy smiled at her from his spot next to the photo editor.
“Chief, these aren’t normal blackouts - a power outage doesn’t affect cell phones and cameras,” a shout from the newsroom behind her drew their attention to the television screens, where Superman was helping a disabled airplane to land at Neill, “and airplanes. Still believe that official line about a solar flare?”
“Lois, we’ve already got Brian on the blackout story.”
Lois snorted. “Brian writes up whatever is printed in some press release or AP report, he won’t look any further than that!”
“Lois.” This time Perry stood up and glared at her. “In case you didn’t notice, we’re in the middle of something here.”
“That’s fine, I’ll just go get started on-“
“Now hold on there!” Perry pointed at her. “I want you on Superman and working with Kyle on that Argus story. Brian has the blackout.”
“But, Chief -“
“Superman. Airport. Now.”
She huffed and spun on her heel, marching to her desk. “By the time I get to the airport in rush hour traffic, he won’t be there anyway.” But she grabbed her purse anyway. After all, airplane rescues did tend to take a bit longer than other Superman rescues. Maybe there was a chance she’d see him there. And, if she just happened to ask a few questions about how the blackout was affecting the airplanes, so much the better.
<~S~> <~S~> <~S~> <~S~> <~S~>
As predicted, Superman was again gone by the time Lois arrived at the airport. So she asked some questions about the rescue, and then even managed to talk to a few technicians about how the blackout was affecting the airplanes. According to the control tower crew, only the airplanes within about 50 miles of Metropolis were affected this time, unlike the last blackout that had covered most of the eastern half of the United States. The plane Superman brought it had just started to put the landing gear in place when it lost power - when power returned, they couldn’t get the process to complete, leaving the wheels stuck between positions. One minute either way and the plane wouldn’t have suffered more than a momentary loss of altitude.
In addition to the visit to the airport, Lois received a very interesting phone call from her Uncle Mike Lane. He told her there’d been some young GIs hanging out in his bar, The Tank, on Sunday night, and they’d been talking about the blackout. He didn’t think much of it until the second one, and decided to call Lois about it. Apparently, the GIs were bragging about a facility on Fort Truman that had kept power during the blackout. He hadn’t caught their names, but he’d heard them make plans to return on Thursday evening if Lois wanted to come past and ask them anything.
By the time she got back to the Planet, Richard and Jason were already waiting for her with takeout food. Jason played in Richard’s office as the grownups worked through the files. Richard offered to focus on Dr. Goodman’s profile, leaving Lois with General Newcomb. Lois noted that Newcomb had worked with the National Security Director, George Thompson, for a while back in the eighties. That might explain the extended return from retirement. Digging further back, she found that Newcomb had originally started his career in the Air Force with Project Bluebook in the late 60s. Richard was appropriately impressed by this when she pointed it out - as a fan of the scifi and horror genre from the period, Richard was familiar with the program’s history.
Considering the fact that Newcomb now presided over a program for planetary security and was working with Superman, an alien, Lois thought trying to follow through Project Bluebook’s history might be useful. She ran a computer search, and found some references online tying the program with the task force that had faced Zod and his compatriots during their assault in 2001. She found a list of the surviving officers from the task force. The ranking officer was Colonel Jason Trask. The name was somehow familiar, and she made a note to look deeper into his history.
A loud smacking sound startled Lois from her work, and she looked up to see her son had just run into the glass door with a plastic wastebasket over his head. She glanced at the clock and saw it was past 8. She and Richard looked at each other, both with wry smiles. “I guess it’s past time to get home, huh?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Richard stood up and pulled the basket from Jason’s head, who protested loudly. “Come on, kiddo, let’s go make a trip to the bathroom before heading home.”
After quickly cleaning up the paper files and shutting down the computer, Lois gathered up their bags and met Richard and Jason in the hall. Despite the boy’s protests that he wasn’t tired and didn’t want to go home, he was sound asleep by the time Lois pulled the car into the driveway. She followed Richard up the stairs as he carried their son, and each kissed the boy after he was tucked into bed. Jason murmured sleepily and turned over as they snuck out.
Back downstairs, Lois pulled out a bottle of wine and offered a glass to Richard. They exchanged a little small talk about their days. Lois was having trouble paying attention, her mind still working through theories about the blackouts and trying to remember when she’d heard the name Trask before. She absently described the scene at the airport from that evening.
Richard spoke up with a tight tone in his voice. “Lois, about your Superman article.”
She looked at him over her glass of wine in confusion. “Which one? I wrote dozens of them, I was practically his press agent.”
“The one from years ago, before we met.” He shifted on his feet. “
I Spent The Night With Superman.”
Lois groaned. “Richard, it was the title of an interview. Besides, it was your Uncle Perry’s idea, not mine.”
“I know.” He hesitated, and she rolled her free hand at him, telling him to get to the point. “Were you in love with him?”
Lois knew she must look like a fish, with her mouth flopping open. She fumbled for something to say. “He was Superman.
Everyone was in love with him.”
“But did
you?”
Lois stopped herself from snapping off a quick response. Richard was watching her carefully, and she knew whatever she said would carry weight with him. Strangely, instead of directing her thoughts to Superman, the conversation brought back memories of Clark.
“Him again, huh? Gee, Lois…”Her breath hitched a bit. “No,” she finally responded. “I might have thought, at one time, that I was. But… no.”
Richard nodded, satisfied with the answer. “I’m sorry, it’s just, after what Karla was implying this evening… I just had to know.”
She sat down her wine glass and walked over to Richard, sliding her arms around him and drawing him close. “Richard, even if I had loved him. He’s not the one who stood by me the last few years.”
He smiled, and pulled her in for a deep kiss.
<~S~> <~S~> <~S~> <~S~> <~S~>
Lois was still mulling over the conversation the next evening as she sat in her car outside the city offices, waiting for Deputy Mayor Gray to leave for his mysterious meeting. Richard had never really asked about her past before. They’d started dating after Jason was born, and so it was rather obvious she
had a romantic past; but, but refusing to identify Jason’s father, it was just as obvious she didn’t want to talk about it. And he’d left it alone. She’d been grateful for it, especially since she didn’t have answers to all of the questions he could ask her. And it had been one of the most refreshing aspects of their relationship early on.
Richard didn’t join the Daily Planet until 2002. He hadn’t seen her in those early months of her pregnancy, when she’d been worried out of her mind about Clark, and frantically trying to find Superman. He hadn’t been there for the arguments in the weeks before Clark disappeared. He hadn’t been there in the days after Zod’s attack, as Lois came to grips with the fact that she
couldn’t remember those harrowing days.
She could remember being sent on assignment with Clark. She could remember their arrival at that horrible honeymoon hotel, as Clark teasingly carried her across the threshold, almost dropping her in the process.
Her next clear memory was waking up in the hospital 5 days later, Clark sitting next to her with his head in his hands. A concussion, the doctors said, with retrograde amnesia. They’d needed to operate to relieve the pressure in her skull. The psychiatrist told her not to push for the memories, that if she could recover them, they would come on their own. She made the mistake of telling this to Clark, who then refused to answer any more questions about what happened. All she could learn was that she’d been taken from the Daily Planet by Luthor, Zod, Ursa, and Non, and that Superman brought her back to the hospital after she was injured and the other Kryptonians defeated.
Clark’s refusal to talk about her missing memories infuriated her. She could tell he knew more than he was saying. So she poked and prodded, wheedled and schemed, used everything in her repertoire to break him down. But he always caught her, and always moved back to the psychiatrist saying she should “discover it on her own.” How the hell was she supposed to discover anything if no one would
tell her anything?
So she tried to get it out of Superman. After all, it sounded like she’d been taken as bait for him, and he’d brought her to the hospital, so he must have known something. But he refused, too. When she asked him, the last time they spoke together on the roof of the Daily Planet, he sighed and looked down at his boots. Then he looked up at her and said, “Maybe it’s better that you don’t remember.”
He’d had tears in his eyes that pulled at her in an odd way. In hindsight, Lois blamed early pregnancy hormones for not pressing him any further on it, but instead letting him leave and then curling up in the staircase for a good cry.
She finally stopped asking, though her temper continued to flare up unexpectedly in the office. There were days it seemed no one but Clark was willing to come anywhere near her - even Perry threw Lois out of a meeting, telling her to go somewhere and cool off. The psychiatrist said it was a normal reaction after such a bad concussion, and not to worry about it unless it persisted.
Then Clark disappeared, and the newsroom was treated to two weeks of Lois Lane without a filter. She was mad that Clark left in the middle of their series on the reconstruction efforts around the country. She was mad that Superman hadn’t revealed what he decided to do with Zod and the others. And she was furious when Luthor was released from prison on a ridiculous string of technicalities.
Sometimes, Lois wondered how she hadn’t been fired in the midst of it all. She certainly didn’t have many friends left. Once her attention shifted to searching for Clark and Superman, and then learning she was pregnant, her temper cooled significantly but her focus excluded anyone she didn’t immediately need. So by the time Richard joined the Daily Planet, with a fresh face, a bright smile, and no history of Lois Lane screaming at him - it was a relief.
So she didn’t like bringing up her past, and it was unsettling that he had brought it up. It reminded her of so much she held back from him, and how carefully she’d built her little family.
Her introspection was interrupted by Gray leaving the building. A car was brought around for him, and he walked around to take the driver seat. Putting her car into gear, Lois carefully tailed him through the city streets. She expected him to head toward the Church Construction offices in midtown, and so she was surprised as he turned into the warehouse district near Hob’s Bay. Gray was a sophisticated, upperclass guy, and Lois wouldn’t have expected him to be familiar with the working class side of Metropolis.
He pulled to a stop next to a warehouse on 6th street. Lois passed and turned a corner another block and a half down, then parked and quickly jogged back to see what he’d do. The sun was low enough that the street was shrouded, giving Lois a good opportunity to watch from across the street without being seen. She watched as Gray stopped at a door and rapped it quickly with his knuckles. The door opened, with one man coming to stand outside and another staying in with the light shining behind him. Lois pulled out her digital camera and zoomed in, trying to see the other men’s faces, but the lighting didn’t cooperate. She snapped a couple pictures anyway. Gray handed over a manila envelope, and the men swapped it for a briefcase. Lois bet there was probably cash in there, along with a new version of the contract proposal if Joann was right. Then Gray walked back to his car, and the two men closed the door behind them as they went back into the warehouse.
Lois stayed crouched down as Gray drove past her, then popped her head up to look around a bit more. There was nothing on the building to indicate it belonged to Church or any other particular company. She pulled out her notebook to jot down the address, then jumped as she heard one of the loading bay doors roll up. A truck pulled out of the warehouse, lumbering down the street. Inside, she could see crates stacked up in the low light. Making a split minute decision, Lois dashed across the street and ducked under the door as it closed. She quickly crouched behind a crate, listening for any indication she’d been seen.
Satisfied her entry was undetected, she stood up to survey the area. To her right were a number of small offices, closed off with large, dingy windows and flimsy doors. In front of her were several large crates, looking like they’d either just been brought in or were waiting to be picked up. Past the crates and slightly to the left was an open door that led to a brightly lit room. From the sounds emanating, it was a break room or kitchen area with at least 3 people inside.
A closer look at the offices told Lois they were empty, so she quietly crept to the first one. The door was locked, but with a little pressure it swung right open. She snorted at the shoddy workmanship, but quickly closed the door behind her and crouched below the window level.
She pulled open a filing drawer, and found a number of files inside for Church Construction & Demolition. She snapped some quick photos with her camera, then moved onto the next drawer. She found what looked like a number of shipping manifests for construction material. She took pictures of a couple documents, just in case, then tried another drawer. This one was empty. She moved on to the desk. While the desktop itself was clear, she found a folder sitting on the desk chair and flipped it open. It contained carbon copies of inventory lists, too faint for her to read in the dim lighting. But she snapped some pictures with her camera, hoping Jimmy could clean up the photos enough to make out the text.
She heard a shout from out in the warehouse, and ducked over to the window to peek out. It looked like the guys in the break room were getting ready to come back out to work, meaning Lois had to get out of that office and find a way to the outer door without being seen. She carefully slipped out, and just made it behind the crates before she saw a large, brawny man stride out of the break room. Others followed him, and soon she could hear a forklift starting up amidst shouted orders. Resigned to staying put for the moment, Lois tried to find a more comfortable position to sit and then looked around herself more carefully.
One of the crates near her had open slats, leaving the contents slightly exposed. She tried to peer between the slats and make out what was inside. It didn’t look much like construction equipment, though she certainly wasn’t an expert. But after sitting still another ten minutes, her curiosity (not to mention her hamstrings) was burning, and she carefully repositioned so that she could lift the top off the crate.
Once she opened it enough to see inside, she gasped. The crate was full of machine guns. This certainly wasn’t any type of equipment CC&D should be using! Fumbling in her purse, she found her camera and tried to take a couple pictures. She couldn’t use the flash without giving herself away, so they might not turn out. But it was worth a try. Carefully, she lowered the lid back down, then speculatively looked at the other crates. Opening up a second, she found loads of ammunition carefully packed together. In a third, she found what looked like packaged explosives. Granted, CC&D would use explosives in their demolition work, but after the guns and ammunition Lois was willing to bet this stuff wasn’t supposed to find its way to any legitimate work.
As she lowered the lid to the third crate, a splinter caught in her finger and she jerked away reflexively. The crate lid slammed down with a loud
BANG.“Hey, what was that?”
Lois swore under her breath - she’d be a sitting duck once they started searching for her. She took a deep breath and ran for the exit door, keeping her head down.
“Hey, you! Stop!”
She hit the bar to the door and stumbled outside just as she heard a gunshot, followed up with, “You idiot! You wanna blow us all to hell?!”
Lois took off running down the street. Behind her, she heard the door slam open again and knew they were close on her heels. She swung her purse strap to hang diagonally across her chest so she could free both arms, and ran with everything she had. Another shot hit a brick wall beside her, and she ducked to avoid any fragments. She tried to remember everything she knew about this neighborhood. There should be an alley coming up that would cut across to a main avenue - one more brightly lit, but also with more traffic and open businesses she could run into. She drew deep within herself to run faster and make it to the alley. She swung around a corner, leaning to keep her balance and tried not to stumble when she heard another shot fired at her. She looked up, and then stopped herself just short of running into a chain link fence.
Either she’d picked the wrong alley, or someone had done a little remodeling since she was last in this neighborhood. Either way, she was screwed.
Before she could even start to figure out whether the fence was climbable, she heard the men at the entry to the alley. She turned around and saw two men between her and the street. One of them leered at her, while the other brandished a handgun. Lois looked around for any idea on how to get out of this spot, her heart pounding. Only one thing came to mind, and Lois knew it was a long shot.
“Help, Superman!”Mr. Leering burst into laughter. “Yeah, right, lady. Like Superman’s just gonna show up and-“
And suddenly Lois was whisked off her feet and flying up into the air, leaving the two men gaping in the alleyway.
<~S~> <~S~> <~S~> <~S~> <~S~>
Please please please remember to
comment !
