They finished the dishes and changed into warm, dark clothes and headed out to Lois’ Jeep. She tried to play it cool, but kept sneaking peeks at Clark from the passenger seat while he drove out of the city to a small nature preserve where she knew there was a scenic overlook where they could leave the Jeep.
He reached over and squeezed her knee as he drove, and she looked up at him and smiled.
“I love you so much,” he said. “I love that you’re so excited about this. That means...so much to me.”
She reached her right arm across her lap, since her left was tucked in the sling, and squeezed his hand.
Finally they arrived at their destination and parked. There was no one around for miles – Clark had checked – and they had a beautiful view of the mountains to the north and the city to the south.
Clark looked out over the city and then turned to her, eyes narrowed. “How did you know about this place?” he asked.
Lois raised her eyebrows and smirked.
“If we were here on a weekend, would we find couples from Metropolis High parked here…getting to know each other?”
“That’s…a distinct possibility,” she said with a laugh.
He looked at her, scandalized. “Did you-”
She gave him a mock offended look. “Is that a problem-”
He raised his hands in surrender, his face immediately contrite, and she laughed. “I’m just teasing you. I never came up here. But plenty of my friends did. And Lucy practically lived up here when she was in high school. I wasn’t exactly one to come up here for a good time.”
He laughed and held out his arms to her. “Come here,” he said. “I’ll show you a good time.”
She went to him and slid her hand around his neck, tugging him down for a quick kiss. “Okay,” she said with a big smile as she stepped back. “How do you want to do this?”
“I’m going to carry you,” he said. “Like I did yesterday. Just wrap your arm around my neck. You don’t have to tuck in tight against me like you did before. Just relax.”
She nodded, and he scooped her into his arms. Her mind immediately went back to Friday night, when he had swept her into his arms the same way and then carried her to the bedroom and made love to her. She inhaled sharply, her body responding to him immediately.
“Are you okay,” he asked. “Your heart rate just skyrocketed. Are you nervous? Do you want to take a minute?”
She just looked at him for a second and then lost her battle to keep a straight face. She burst out laughing, her cheeks burning. “I’m not nervous,” she said with an embarrassed giggle.
He looked at her in confusion for a moment, and then she watched understanding dawn on his face and his cheeks pinked as well.
“Oh,” he said simply, and she laughed harder. He shook his head in amusement and then bent his head and kissed her.
When he straightened, she stroked his neck and smiled at him. “Okay,” she said. “What are you waiting for?”
He laughed, and then the ground dropped away from them, and they were hovering among the treetops. She looked up at him, wide-eyed, mouth open.
“Ready?” he asked. “We’ll just…go fly around a bit?”
She nodded eagerly, and then he tilted forward until his body was parallel with the ground, and she was cradled in front of him, and he began to accelerate.
They went slowly at first, looping in wide arcs. But after a few broad circles, when it was clear that Lois was enjoying herself, he began to vary his pattern more, rising and falling, weaving through the trees.
She laughed with delight, absolutely stunned by what was happening. It was better than any rollercoaster; better than any dream.
He looked down at her, eyebrows raised and slid her hand from the back of his neck to his cheek. “This is amazing,” she said, unable to hold back her smile.
“Yeah,” he said, his grin matching hers. “You ready to go higher? Farther?”
She nodded eagerly and moved her hand back to his neck.
“Ok, here we go,” he said.
And then they were flying. Really flying. Not just swooping among the trees, but soaring above them.
They flew north first, over the mountains, and then east out to the ocean. She watched the waves crash beneath them, thrilled by the occasional whale or dolphin spotting. She could feel Clark experimenting with speed and altitude, but she was far too enthralled to ask many questions.
He flew faster, the ocean melting into a blur below them. She wondered how far they were going and why the wind didn’t seem to bother her. But she didn’t waste too much time worrying about those things. She was too overwhelmed with awe to analyze it.
“You still having fun?” he asked after a while.
The tone of his voice and then smirk on his face said he knew the answer to that question, but she didn’t hesitate. “Clark, this is….amazing.”
He looked so pleased with himself that she couldn’t help but smile. “I have a surprise for you,” he said.
He banked to the right, setting them on a slightly different course, and after a few minutes, she saw lights in the distance. She watched as they grew brighter and the city grew closer and closer. As they began their approach, she squinted, trying to recognize this part of the city. None of it looked familiar.
As they glided over the city, a large bridge took shape in front of them, the warm glow of the city lights reflecting off the silvery cables. It spanned a wide river, the riverwalk beside it dark and quiet at this hour, and she knew immediately they weren’t in Metropolis. There was no riverwalk – no bridge – in the Metropolis city center.
She looked at him, the question unspoken, and he grinned.
“Where are we?” she asked finally.
“Savannah,” he said, obviously pleased with himself.
She squinted up at him, trying to make sense of that answer. “Savannah? Savannah, Georgia?”
He nodded and laughed, and her mouth fell open.
“I definitely can’t fly as fast with you as I do alone,” he said. “But I can fly….pretty fast.”
She laughed, unable to form a response. They had flown all the way to Savannah, Georgia.
He flew them back out of the city to the port, and then turned north, flying up along the coast. “I stayed a couple miles out to sea on the way down, because I wanted to surprise you,” he said. “But we can fly home up the coast.”
It was enchanting. He pointed out each city as they passed, an impromptu geography lesson on the eastern seaboard. The low country bled into the long strand of islands along the coast of North Carolina where he promised to bring her back to see the wild horses, and then the stately mansions of Virginia culminating in the nation’s capital, where she gazed at the monuments aglow in the quiet night. And then finally gliding past the familiar Metropolis skyline, and veering north of the city to the scenic outlook where they had begun their journey.
He dropped to the ground easily, the landing smooth and comfortable. He held her for a minute while she gazed at him in awe, and then bent and released her legs so she could stand. She took a step back, her hand going to her mouth, as she processed everything she had just seen.
“That was…. Wow,” she said finally, having lost all ability to be articulate.
He nodded, the smile on his face tender and awed. “I had no idea,” he said softly. “When you said…. That night on the phone, when you said you dreamed of flying, I thought…. I don’t know. I thought I could just take you on a little…. But this was….”
“Can we do that again?” she asked, laughing.
He laughed too. “Honey, I will take you flying any time you want. Anywhere. I want to show you so many things. I’ve spent years…. There are so many wonders. So many things I’ve never been able to tell anyone; show anyone…. I don’t even know where to start.”
She stepped forward, back into his embrace. His hands went automatically to her waist and she reached up to stroke his cheek, and lifted her chin in invitation. He kissed her immediately, slow and tender and gentle.
When he pulled back, his smile was so wide she thought he would explode from the joy of it all. “I lied,” he said. “I know exactly where I want to start. I want to show you something. Come with me?”
She laughed – as if she might say no to that invitation. She started to step back, so he could scoop her into his arms, but he shook his head and tightened his grip on her waist.
“I’ve got you,” he said. “Ready?”
She nodded, and he began to rise – not flying forward like he had before, but rising straight into the clouds above. They went up and up, until they broke free from the clouds and floated above them. Below, there was only the thick gray clouds that blotted out the city lights. Above…. Above was the endless night sky. More stars than she had ever imagined possible twinkled around them. She gasped and turned her head from side to side, taking in the impossible grandeur.
When she turned back to face him, he was gazing at her with the same wonder she had felt for the stars. She whispered his name, and he kissed her gently. Then he too looked around at the stars, gazing at their splendor.
“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered.
“I used to come up here a lot by myself and just…drift,” he said softly. “Not a part of the stars. Not a part of the Earth. Not really knowing where I fit in. Until I met you.”
“Oh, Clark,” she breathed. Her heart ached for him. The loneliness he must have felt. His resignation that he would never find love, would never have a family of his own, would never belong the way he longed to. She reached up and stroked his cheek.
“I love you,” she whispered, her voice full of both heartache for what he had once felt and wonder at what they had found together. “And you’re not alone anymore.”
He kissed her as they drifted below the stars, the endless sea of the universe sprawled before them. He kissed her until she was lightheaded, dizzy with pleasure, drunk on his love. She rested her head against his chest, her breath coming in short, trembling puffs, her heart racing.
He stroked her cheek and then her hair, his other arm wrapped securely around her waist, holding her to him as they floated. “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
She felt the tears well up in her eyes, the lump form in her throat as she wondered what she had ever done to deserve this man, deserve this love. They floated silently, content in each other’s arms for a long time.
Finally, he stroked her hair and took a deep breath, and she knew he was about to tell her they should head back, head home.
“We should probably go,” he said. “If we’re going to look for Luthor tonight, we need to get started.”
She pulled back, and looked at him, eyes wide with excitement.
He laughed. “Yes, you win,” he said. “I want him gone so we can get back to normal. Or…work on creating our new normal. I don’t want his presence hanging over us. Let’s…find him and move on with our lives.”
She nodded enthusiastically, and he lowered them through the clouds and back to the ground. She stretched and wiggled for a moment, and then lifted her arms to him, and he scooped her into the increasingly familiar cradle hold.
“Where to first?” he asked.
They decided to start at the places they knew Luthor had been. They visited the spot where he had snagged Lois in the alley, the hideout where he had held her, and the small spur where the body of his accomplice had been found only hours earlier.
Each time, they left disappointed. Clark scanned and scanned – around, above, and below the sewer tunnels, looking for any additional tunnels or rooms or paths that would connect. They traveled the lines between those points, looking for any sort of break in the line where he could have entered and exited the system. But still, nothing.
“We’re missing something,” Lois said, increasingly frustrated as night dragged toward dawn.
Whatever they were missing, the police were missing it too. They had traveled the same paths through the tunnels and above ground, looking for any evidence and had come up empty handed as well.
“I think we’re going at this backwards,” Clark said. Lois looked up at him, and nodded for him to continue. “We’re starting at the points where he was seen. But those are all destinations. He was in that alley by your work because he knew you would be there. He didn’t direct you there. He put out that Lot Full sign to keep you from parking in the deck, and he probably kept that spot you parked in open so you would find it. But that was…opportunity. He knew where you would look for street parking and found an alley along the path. He didn’t direct you across town.”
Lois nodded again, not entirely sure where he was going with this, but waiting and listening as he worked through his theory.
“And the area where he held you…. There were only so many rooms of that size. That was the only one between where he grabbed you and CostMart headquarters. It was just convenient.”
She nodded again, beginning to see. “So these locations aren’t really significant,” she said. “Not the way we were thinking. He’s just using the sewers to travel. But he could be entering and exiting anywhere. Not just along these routes. The sewer traverses the whole city. He could be anywhere.”
“Where would he go?” Clark asked. “You know him. Don’t think about where he's been spotted or what he’s been doing. Think about Luthor. Where would he go?”
“Luthor Tower,” she said immediately. “It’s not just his home. It’s his palace.”
They were quiet for a minute. “He did head straight there,” Clark said quietly. “When he escaped, that’s where he went.”
Lois nodded thoughtfully. “And they never did find evidence that he left. They assumed he snuck out the way he came in – in a box or suitcase or some other thing he could be smuggled in. But…what if he didn’t? What if he never left? What if….he’s still there. But not in the penthouse. Not in his office. What if he’s under Luthor Towers?”
Their eyes met in silent agreement, and Clark banked hard speeding across the city until Luthor Tower rose before them like a beacon. He hovered above, focused entirely on the ground below, and she knew he was excavating with his eyes, removing layer after layer to uncover what lay beneath.
Suddenly he gasped.
“What?” she asked immediately, desperate to see for herself.
“I…. I don’t know,” he said. “There’s something. Something big.”
“What? How big? What kind of thing?”
He shook his head, continuing to search. “I don’t…know. I can’t see…. There’s something big. Something huge. Way down at the bottom. Under the building. Under all the basement levels. There’s a…tunnel…and then a gap where there’s just earth. And then…whatever it is. Lois, it’s enormous. It’s the length and width of the entire building. And multiple stories deep. It’s like…an entire building…under the building.”
“What’s inside it?” she asked, shocked.
“I have no idea! I can’t see through it.”
“What?” she said. “I thought you could see through-”
“Anything but lead,” he said. “It has to be made of lead. A huge underground structure made of lead….It’s a bomb shelter!”
She looked up at him, stunned.
“I’ve seen them before,” he said. “Not this big; not anywhere near this big. But that’s exactly what it is. It’s an enormous bomb shelter. There are some left in the ground from back during the Cold War. I’ve run across a few over the years. In the country, sometimes, there’s a tiny little hatch or door or building that pokes out of the ground. If you know what to look for, you can recognize them. When I first started flying, I would just…fly around looking at stuff. I never went too far from home at first, because I didn’t know my limits. Didn’t want to wear myself out and be half a world away and unable to get home. So I just…practiced. And I would fly around testing my other powers, working on honing them; controlling them. I ran across a few old abandoned bomb shelters back then. They were made of lead and buried deep in the earth, just like this. But this one…this one is huge. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Is it connected to the sewers?” she asked, her whole body tight with anticipation.
He scanned quietly, and then suddenly his face burst into a grin. “Yes! I see it! It’s definitely connected. It looks like the sewer ends. From the inside, it looks like a solid wall. But on the other side, there’s a tunnel and pipes. It looks like he tapped into the sewer system when he built the building. There’s some sort of…gear or crank. It must open that wall.”
“You did it,” she whispered. “That’s his access point.”
“What do we do now?” he asked.
“We need to go down there-”
“What?! No!” Clark cut her off. “We can’t just go bursting in there.”
“We need to know what’s inside that lead structure!” she said. “If you can’t x-ray it, we’re going to have to go down there and look for ourselves.”
“He could have anything in there,” Clark said, his voice rising with agitation, his head shaking side to side. “It’s enormous. And he could have all sorts of security systems. He could see us coming. And we won’t be able to see him, because I can’t see through lead. It could be a trap! He could ambush us. I can’t- Lois, I won’t put you in danger like that. I’m sorry, honey. No.”
She was quiet for a minute, swallowing her frustration. And then she looked at his face, and saw the fear and the worry. He wasn’t arguing with her to be right or to win. He was desperate to keep her safe.
“Okay,” she said quietly. “Then what do we do? If we don’t go down and explore for ourselves, what do we do?”
“We could go to the police?” Clark said timidly.
“And tell them what?” she asked. “We have a feeling there’s a bomb shelter under Luthor Tower? Because we certainly can’t tell them how we know.”
He sighed. “Can’t we…make an anonymous tip? Or you could say you got a tip from a source? About the bomb shelter?”
She was quiet for a minute, considering. It wasn’t a terrible idea. “If we make the tip anonymously…there’s a good chance they aren’t going to take it seriously. They’ve already searched Luthor Tower from top to bottom. Searching it again isn't going to be a priority. I could tell them I got a tip from a source. But again…they probably aren’t going to make that a priority unless I go out on a limb for this source. If I’m vouching for their reliability, they are going to be suspicious. They’re going to want to know who the source is. I don’t… I can refuse to name my source, but I don’t want that kind of scrutiny….”
He nodded, and she knew he wanted to avoid anything that brought undue attention to him. “What would you do if I wasn’t here?” he asked. “If you got this information from a source who didn’t want any attention.”
She was quiet, thinking for a minute. “I’d independently verify it before I took it to the police.”
He looked at her, eyebrows raised, waiting for her to go on.
She nodded, a smile spreading across her face. Of course. She had been so focused on what he could do, she had forgotten what she could do. “I would independently verify it,” she repeated. “I’d find proof. A structure this big…there has to be records somewhere. There have to be people who know about it. Luthor didn’t build it with his own hands.”
“So we find those people?” Clark said.
“We have to follow the money,” she said softly. “He paid someone to build that shelter. It must have been a part of the construction. An early part. He had to have commissioned it as part of the building process. There have to be blueprints. If we can find proof that it exists, we can take that to the police. We won’t need a source. We can just say we were thinking about how he could be getting in and out of the sewer and where he would hide if he could hide anywhere. And then skip to looking for the records. We can skip the part where you flew over the city and x-rayed the building.”
She grinned at him, teasing, and he laughed. “Yeah. Good idea to leave that part out.”
“You gonna help me?” she asked, excited to work with him. “You want to do the boring part of investigative journalism? Help me dig through financial records and building contracts? Make a bunch of phone calls to people who definitely don’t want to talk to you?”
He nodded, grinning. “Oh, yeah. I want to help with that.”
She smiled back. “We can go into the newsroom first thing tomorrow morning and hit my rolodex. Get Jimmy to pull the contracts for us. You ready for this?”
“So ready,” he said softly, and she could see how much he wanted to work with her too. The taste they had gotten of it on Wednesday and Thursday had just whetted their appetites.
“Good,” she said. “Let’s go home.”
