From part 9:
“Hmmm…” Lois murmured against his lips, “We need to practice keeping you grounded, Clark… which could be quite enjoyable…”
Clark wrapped his arms more firmly around her. Holding her, kissing her, being close like this was more than enjoyable, it was paradise, the culmination of his dreams. Looking into her eyes, soft with love - for him - was elating <elevating> and he had never been as happy as he was now.
And now, part 10:
-----
Clark woke up first, lying in the luxury of the Honeymoon Suite’s big bed. He didn’t want to move; Lois was still wrapped securely in his arms, although they weren’t floating.
They had both dozed off on the couch, waking hours later to a blue screen.
He’d floated to his feet and carried Lois into the bedroom, placing her gently on the bed. He’d kissed her lips equally gently, and had straightened to return to the couch in the main room.
She had stopped him, shyly, saying “Clark… would you… would you like to sleep in here? With me? I… I mean, just to sleep, okay? I… like you holding me, and…”
“Lois, I would *love* to hold you,” he had answered, “I wanted to suggest it, but I didn’t want to seem… pushy, or make you think I wanted more than you’re ready to give…”
In answer, she’d smiled and lifted the blankets for him. He’d slid in next to her, gently gathering her into his arms, and they had relaxed into the pillows - until once again, they’d found themselves airborne.
“Clark,” she’d said, as her legs slipped back towards the bed, “we need to do something about this, at least for tonight.”
He’d rolled them so that she rested on him, fully supported, still floating above the bed. “That’ll work,” she’d said around a huge yawn, and had tucked her head against his neck. Within moments she was asleep.
Now he lay on his side, Lois snuggled tightly against him, and he wasn’t floating.
Had he managed to conquer his reaction to her? Was it like the early days, where he’d reacted strongly to her intial touches but had become used to them after a while? After all, he no longer floated at first sight of her - usually, anyway. She still managed to surprise him sometimes. And he kept his feet on the ground - mostly - when she tapped him or leaned on him.
Lois stirred against him, tucking one leg between his and murmuring his name sleepily, her breath warm against his throat - and he rose into the air with her, restrained partly by the blankets.
She woke fully with small shriek as they rose, but to their surprise, she stayed completely airborne with him.
“I’m not falling off you, Clark, why is that?” she asked, ever curious - even early in the morning before her daily caffeine. “No, stay on your side, Clark, I want to figure this out,” she continued as he began to roll.
He subsided as she continued, apparently talking mostly to herself, “Okay, let’s see, I’m hanging onto you pretty tight…” So saying, she loosened her arms from around him, not entirely letting him go. She remained floating with him above the bed.
She untucked her leg from his - and immediately slipped partway toward the bed.
He brought them both down as she exclaimed, “Aha! If I stay mostly pressed against you, even loosely, I float with you. You’re not holding me that tightly, the muscles in your arms aren’t tight… well, they *are* tight… firm, I mean… so is your chest and your shoulders…” Her hands stroked across his shoulders and onto his chest and he rose an inch off the bed again.
“Oh, uh… where was I?” she asked, a bit sheepishly, as he laughed softly. “…So if I’m just touching you with, say, my arm - “ So saying, she loosened her hold so that her arm was merely draped loosely across his chest - “and tuck my leg over yours… “ She rested her knee over his leg just below his own knee. “Up,” she demanded, and he floated higher above the bed. “…I should stay up here with you!” she exclaimed triumphantly.
She did.
They did.
Laughing, she stretched along him, lifted her head and kissed him, a gesture he returned with a wealth of affection and enthusiatic dedication. After several delicious moments of exchanged kisses, they both pulled back, breathless.
“Good morning, Lois,” he whispered, smiling at her with all his love in his eyes.
She caught her breath as she stared at him, then whispered, “Wow, flyboy… You really put your heart into your good mornings, Clark.”
“Only for you,” he murmured. Their mouths met again in a kiss that was gentle and reverent, full of promises… a kiss that seemed to reach to their souls.
She rested her head against his neck for a moment, overcome, as was he. After a few moments, he floated them back down to the bed.
She suddenly laughed, and he tipped his head as she raised hers to look up at him, grinning merrily.
“What?” he asked.
“I guess I won after all,” she said cheekily.
“Won what?” he asked, confused.
“The whole bed thing,” she answered him, giggling. “We’re *not* alternating nights, Clark! I didn’t sleep on the couch.”
He laughed and rolled until she was under him, then proceeded to kiss her senseless.
Raising his head, gazing smilingly into her dazed eyes, he whispered, “I think *I* won the ultimate prize, Lois… your love.”
He kissed her again, gently this time, and rolled to the side. They lay there together for a few moments, then separated - reluctantly, but smiling at each other.
“We have a couple of bad guys to expose…” he started, somewhat ruefully.
“…But if we can wrap that up today…” she continued for him, “We still have one more full day here…”
“…And Perry owes us time off, anyway,” Clark added. “After this is over, how about that tropical paradise you mentioned? I know one that’s pretty secluded and just beautiful…”
“I’d like that,” she told him. “I’m not really ready to share you with anyone yet.”
Clark made a huge effort to stay grounded.
It didn’t work - he floated a few inches off the bed.
Laughing, Lois sat up, then rose to her feet, saying, “C’mon, hoverboy, let’s get busy and get these guys caught so we can go on with what’s really important - us.”
---
Since Clark needed very little time to get ready, he showered first - in a matter of seconds - and then set about getting breakfast ordered and delivered while Lois showered and dressed.
Neither the microphone nor the video camera had recorded anything new; the Apocolypse Consulting office had been dark and silent for the remainder of the night. Roarke had said he had all of the information he needed, so maybe he was going to just play a waiting game until test time.
They had decided to wait until daylight to break in to the office.
Lois had brought the subject up again last night, asking him, “Clark, *can* you get us into that office?”
“We could wait until later tonight…” she’d coaxed, “It’s not really tresspassing since it’s rented under a false name for illegal purposes…”
“It already *is* later tonight, Lois,” he’d replied dryly, “and I’m not sure that argument would work in a court of law… Still,” he’d continued before she could argue further, “it works for me. They do need to be stopped.”
He’d been rewarded for seeing it her way with an enthusiastic kiss, which distracted them both for quite some time.
Once they’d caught their breaths again, and after discussing the pros and cons of trying to break in to the office at night - the time Roarke and company most often showed up - they’d finally agreed that accessing the office in the daytime was probably the better idea.
With the exception of that one recorded phone conversation, Roarke and the others had only been at the office at night. Searching in the daytime had the added advantage that they wouldn’t need to search by flashlight - not that Clark needed much light to see, but Lois would.
“And now we have an ‘ally’ who’s the supreme lookout…” Lois had added teasingly, “Good thing Superman’s one of the good guys.”
They knew they were running out of time, so their plan of action was this: they would stop at the Planet first, for the morning meeting, and then work some of their sources. While they were waiting for their inquiries to be returned, they would… investigate… the Apocolypse Consulting office in the hopes of shedding some light on what, exactly, the test involved.
They ate another superb breakfast, then headed in to the Daily Planet.
Clark collected two cups of coffee on their way through the lobby, handing Lois hers when they entered the elevator. They were the only two passengers; she sent him a grateful smile and took a few sips, then stood on tiptoe and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, uttering a contented “Mmmmmmm…” as the elevator doors slid open.
“Lois!’ he hissed as his feet left the elevator floor. “What if someone sees…”
She laughed and looped her arm in his, pushing down at the same time, and he settled back onto the floor, albeit lightly, as they stepped out of the elevator.
Shaking his head ruefully, he allowed her to guide him down the ramp until he felt he was back in control, then leaned down and whispered into her ear, “Now I’ll have to think of a good retaliation, won’t I?”
Both of them were laughing as they settled into adjoining chairs in the conference room. Many of the staff already present studied them while pretending not to, but no one said anything this time.
One look into Lois’s deliberately Mad Dog expression decided the few persistently foolhardy ones, who might have otherwise said something, against it. Everyone contented themselves with simple ‘good morning’s and returned to their notes or coffee or donuts.
Clark noticed that Lois avoided looking him in the eye; laughing out loud would have ruined her whole Mad Dog act.
“All right, people, let’s get going!” Perry bellowed as he came through the conference room doorway.
Lois and Clark had very little new information to report.
“We know the test - whatever it is - is tomorrow morning,” Lois stated.
“None of our usual sources seem to know anything,” Clark added, “although we’re still waiting on some of them to get back to us.”
“Who's behind Shock Wave, do we know?” Perry asked them.
“Luthor Technologies,” Jimmy spoke up. “I found that out this morning, you guys,” he told Lois and Clark. “It’s the *only* thing I’ve been able to dig up - and I’ve been digging in some… unorthodox places.”
Lois and Clark looked at each other.
“I think we need to…” Clark started.
“…go talk to Lex Luthor.” Lois finished for him.
They both looked at Perry.
“Go,” he said, with a shooing motion, “You’re - *we’re* - running out of time.”
Lois and Clark left the conference room as Perry continued with barely a pause, “Edwards! What have you got for me on that trading scandal?”
“Boy, Lex has some pretty diverse interests,” Lois commented as they stopped at their desks.
That was another thing he needed to tell Lois about, Clark thought, as she stuffed her purse into a bottom drawer. He really should have expected Luthor’s name to come up; he wondered if the man was somehow working a sabotage of his own system for some sort of gain, or if this was truly one of Luthor’s legit <well, *more* legit, anyway> ventures.
“Let’s go, Clark,” she said, interrupting his musings.
“Office first, then Luthor?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she told him. “Clark, I’m really worried. What we told Perry is true - none of our sources know anything about this. Not even Bobby Bigmouth, and he’s *never* been unable to deliver information if I’ve needed it.”
“Maybe we’re going to have to visit Harrington,” Clark said, “although we’d have to find him first. Want to have Jimmy check around and see if he’s still… okay? Remember Roarke saying he thought Harrington was too much of a liability?”
Lois pulled out her cell phone and was dialing the Planet’s number even as Clark finished speaking.
“Lois Lane here - get me Jimmy Olsen,” she demanded into the phone, and then, “Jimmy! See if you can locate Congressman Ian Harrington - bring him to the Daily Planet if you can find him, okay?” And at Jimmy’s apparent assent, she bit out, “Thanks!” and shut the phone.
They caught a taxi back to the Lexor, but instead of entering the building they continued down the block and around the corner to the building that housed the Apocolypse Consulting office.
The building was open, of course, since many legitimate businesses leased space in it. There was a First Bank of Metropolis in the lobby, and the directory board next to the elevators listed many professional firms and medical offices.
Apocolypse Consulting was not listed.
They rode the elevator to the top floor, exiting onto a deserted hallway. Many of the offices up here seemed to be for lease, and Apocolypse Consulting had unoccupied offices on both sides.
There was a suite of offices several doors down with a small, discreet sign identifying ‘Northside Fertility Consultants’ as its occupant.
“Excellent, Clark,” Lois whispered, “If somebody sees us before we get into Apocolypse Consulting we can pretend to be turned around and say we’re exploring fertility options. It’s believable; we already have wedding rings.”
Clark felt his feet leave the floor at the thought of… *babies* with Lois.
Marriage.
Babies.
Children, a family.
“Clark, concentrate!” she whispered fiercely, yanking down on him. “We can think about that stuff later, okay, hoverboy? Right now, we’ve got some information to find! And not much time!”
Clark blinked, and returned to the floor. “Sorry,” he said softly, “it’s just…”
“I know, Clark - later, okay?” she replied softly. “Here, can you get us inside there before we encounter anyone? Shall I pick the lock? The offices are empty, right?” she added as an afterthought.
Clark looked through the wall nearest him. “Yes, the coast is clear,” he confirmed, “and no, picking the lock may take too long. Here - “ and he reached for the doorknob, twisting it gently but steadily.
There was a subtle <crunch> as the lock broke, and he opened the door.
“Wow,” he heard Lois mutter under her breath.
“You take the desk, Lois, and stand by to copy,” he told her.
“Why?” she asked him.
He opened the top drawer of the file cabinet and rifled through it at superspeed.
“Uh, never mind,” she said, gaping slightly at him. “You know, Clark, this could *really* come in handy in the future… this sort of thing could be a real advantage in our line of work, flyboy.”
“As long as it’s nothing illegal,” he said. “I’m just glad you know, Lois,” he continued, “It’s so nice not having to hide what I can do around you.”
“See that you don’t,” she told him with some asperity.
Finding what appeared to be the first group of documents, entitled ‘Shock Wave System Specifications - Top Secret, Eyes Only,’ he handed it to his partner.
“Good work, Clark! I’ll copy these, you keep looking,” she told him, already laying the documents out and running the portable copier over each one rapidly but thoroughly.
They were done and ready to leave the office within an hour, and Lois tucked the copied documents into her briefcase as Clark returned the files to their places in the filing cabinet.
“How do we secure the outer door?’ Lois asked as they were leaving. “If Roarke *should* come back, I don’t want to tip him off that somebody’s interested in what he’s doing.”
“He’ll find that the cheap locks in this building just don’t hold up to regular use,” Clark said with a smile.
He pulled the outer door closed as they stepped into the still deserted hallway, and directed a bolt of heat vision through the door and the locking mechanism. “It will appear that the rachets were poorly formed, and that the lock jammed as a result,” he continued.
Lois laughed as they headed back toward the elevators, and they rode down and exited the building with no difficulty.
“This is turning into a pretty productive day already,” Lois said with satisfaction, as they walked across to the Lexor.
“Let’s collect all our evidence, grab lunch quickly, and go talk to Luthor,” Clark suggested, as they retrieved the audio and video tapes from the suite.
He disassembled the surveillance equipment and stowed it in the bag Jimmy had brought it in, while Lois closed the laptop and secured it in its case.
They tucked the tapes into Lois’s briefcase, and Clark carried the laptop slung over his shoulder as they left the suite.
---
Later that afternoon, Lois and Clark sat in the conference room with Jimmy and Perry. They were studying the documents Lois and Clark had copied at Apocolypse Consulting, and discussing what they knew so far.
“Here’s something. ‘Shock Wave / Preliminary Analysis,’ guys,” Jimmy said.
Clark took it from him, barely restraining himself from super speed-reading it. “This is it - Project Shock Wave - an experimental coastal defense network,” he said, skimming the page. “Let’s see… a couple of years ago, the Navy began lobbying for their own version of a Star Wars system… Several proposals were made. The Navy picked Shock Wave. …Roarke's system was the runner-up.”
“Why Shock Wave?” Perry asked.
“It says here it’s the more sophisticated system,” Lois said. She was leaning over Clark’s shoulder, reading along with him – and, incidentally, keeping him grounded.
He’d started to float upward when she’d first leaned against him, her breath warm near his ear, but she’d rested one forearm along his shoulder, pressing downward, while she’d apparently casually rested her other hand on the arm of his chair. She was essentially holding him in his seat.
“It’s …’designed to automatically analyze any object within sensor range and calibrate an appropriate response’, it says here,” she continued.
Clark joined in, “It acts as a sonic 'curtain’. Sonic vibrations providing an impenetrable barrier that would disable whatever tried to pass.”
“Have you talked to Luthor?” Perry asked, and at their nods, “What did he have to say?’
“He said Luthor Technologies has approximately half a billion dollars in research and development tied up in the project,” Lois said, “…and that even the name is top secret. That’s how we got in to see him,” she added. We told his secretary to tell him we thought Thaddeus Roarke had some questionable interest in a project called Shock Wave.”
“He called Roarke ‘a man with whom I've had previous unsatisfactory dealings’, and said Roarke is a weapons system expert,” Clark said.
“We asked Lex how his system could be sabotaged, and he said as far as he knew, it couldn’t,” Lois continued. “We asked about a power failure, but he says there are too many back-ups.”
“Besides, Roarke hinted at more than a simple breakdown,” Clark added, “Something... bigger.”
“Another pretty unproductive meeting,” Perry commented.
“Not entirely,” Lois said. “It confirms our suspicions. But the test is scheduled for dawn, and while Lex described his system to us, we *still* don’t know exactly what Roarke has planned.”
“I called everyone I know in Washington,” Perry said, “No one's interested. And, as far as the navy's concerned, there *is* no test.”
“Harrington’s in over his head,” Clark said, “If we can talk to him, he may turn state’s evidence… he *must* know what Roarke has planned. Jimmy! Were you able to find him?”
“Nope, CK - he’s dropped out of sight,” Jimmy said. “His office staff, his wife, his cronies - nobody’s seen him. He’s either hiding, or…”
They all sat for a moment, thinking.
“*I* say we publish,” Lois said decisively, “We gather up everything we've got, video, audio, research, and put it in the early edition. Roarke really does scare me, and you know I don’t scare easily. Apparently everything we've heard about him *is* true... and he has *got* to be stopped.”
The conference room computer beeped.
While the others watched, Jimmy got up and went over to it, tapping a few keys.
“I set this up for an automatic search,” he said, “…Here! Ships just off the coast, for a training exercise… Could they be the ships you guys were talking about? That would fit, right? Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot - remember when I tailed Bart to a Pier 31 warehouse? Guess who it’s leased to? …Apocolypse Consulting.”
Lois and Clark looked at each other.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Lois asked Clark.
“…I think so. A test at sea…” Clark mused.
“…and Roarke said a reaction to end all reactions…” Lois continued.
“Essentially, an *over*reaction…” Clark said.
“…It’s called a ‘sonic curtain’… Shock Wave,” Lois replied, “and Apocolypse Consulting…”
“…has a warehouse on Pier 31…” Clark continued.
“Shock Wave… Shock Wave…” Lois said.
“If undersea tremors can cause giant waves…” Clark said.
“…Couldn’t huge vibrations…” Lois continued.
“Cause a tsunami!” they exclaimed at the same time.
Perry and Jimmy had been looking back and forth between Lois and Clark in fascination. Now what they’d said percolated through Perry’s and Jimmy’s minds.
“ Great shades of Elvis!” Perry exclaimed.
“Holy smoke!” Jimmy added.
Lois turned and looked at Clark, eyes wide, and in a voice faint with worry urgently said, “Clark!”
“That’s it, Lois! We’ve got ‘em,” Clark said. Eyes warm, he flashed her a quick wink, hoping she would understand his unspoken message.
Immediately, she relaxed, and taking a deep breath, said for the benefit of the others, “Clark! Try to find Superman! I’ll call Inspector Henderson!”
Clark left the conference room at a jog and headed for the stairs. That was his Lois - quick on the uptake and with a brain so adroit he suspected he’d always have trouble keeping up with her. He smiled as he reached the roof, spun into the suit, and took off toward the harbor and the sea beyond it.
-----
tbc
