I figured that while I'm working on the last part of Home: Vendetta, I should give you some meaty reading material, so without further ado, I present:
Halloween: 3/?
by Nan Smith
The realization was enough to prevent her getting any of the sleep that she had intended to get. After tossing and turning fruitlessly for forty minutes, she gave up the attempt and lay staring upward into the dimness of the room.
She had been thinking about this situation almost constantly since this morning, and had begun to come to some conclusions. If this wasn't all a hallucination or a dream, then what had happened to her? Common sense said this couldn't be, and yet it was. There was nothing in her knowledge that could explain it but unless she was going to accept the notion that she was completely insane, she was going to have to make a few pretty far-out assumptions. She'd seen a television show recently that had a few ideas that might explain what otherwise couldn't be.
Lois laced her fingers behind her head, thinking about it.
Suppose the time in her world was like a line on a piece of paper, and suppose there were a lot of parallel lines, like on a sheet of ruled notepaper, all representing other timelines. And suppose she could only walk along one line -- unless something moved her to another one. Was that possible? A world similar to hers, but of alternate chances, alternate choices, where things had worked out a little differently than in her own....
It sounded like wild science fiction, even fantasy, and under ordinary circumstances she wouldn't have given the idea a second's consideration. But three years ago, the idea of a man from an alien planet, who flew around the skies of Metropolis, would have been just as incredible and just as unbelievable.
Suppose, then, that someone had found a way to accomplish this weird kind of time travel, and suppose that somebody, or someone who knew what he had found, wanted very much to get rid of Lois Lane without killing her and having the inconvenience of a body to deal with -- and maybe as a cruel joke into the bargain.
It might result in what had happened to her. And maybe that somebody would come by occasionally to enjoy the results of his handiwork. It was barely possible. If she accepted this theory, she would have to remember to watch for someone keeping an eye on her besides Lex and his minions -- someone that she remembered from her own world.
The man she had seen today at the park came to mind. It was interesting how he had seemed to turn up out of nowhere like that. On the other hand, he might be totally innocent -- or not. But she would be on the watch for him if he should show up again.
Surprisingly, now that she had come up with at least a partial theory for the impossible situation in which she had landed, she found that fatigue was creeping over her and she was glad to close her eyes. Lois turned on her side and drifted off to sleep.
**********
She awakened some time later to the sound of someone knocking on the door. A woman's voice called, "Mrs. Luthor?"
She pushed herself slowly upright, glancing at the clock on the nightstand. It was just after six. Lex always preferred cocktails at six-thirty and dinner at seven, she recalled. It gave her about twenty minutes to get dressed.
The knock came again. "Mrs. Luthor?"
"I'm awake," Lois called. "I'll be there in twenty minutes!"
"Yes, ma'am," the voice said. "Dinner will be served in the study tonight, ma'am."
Lois turned on the lamp and stood up, yawning. She felt better, although the back of her head was still extremely tender. She went to the closet and began to examine her choice of clothing. She had no idea what Lex expected her to wear except that it would have to be dressy, and she knew he preferred her to be clothed elegantly, so finally she decided on the simple little black dress and a string of milky pearls. She hunted around in the enormous shoetree to locate the shoes that went with the dress, and hurried into the bathroom to refresh her makeup before dressing. It was as she was struggling to zip the dress, and peering in the mirror to see herself from every angle, that she noticed the elegant, black shoulder bag made of leather hanging neatly from the antique wooden coat tree in one corner of the room, obviously placed there deliberately by human hands. The real Lois Luthor's purse, if the LL embroidered on the leather was any clue. It certainly wasn't likely to be Lex's.
She finished zipping the dress, ran the brush through her hair and crossed to the coat tree.
The bag was moderately heavy, as she expected it to be. She had always had a tendency to load her purses to the breaking point, and apparently the elegant Mrs. Luthor had continued with the habit. Quickly, Lois rummaged through the purse and emerged with an expensive leather wallet, tastefully tooled for a lady and, flipping it open, she found herself looking at Lois Luthor's driver's license, her press pass, her membership card for the National Organization of Woman Journalists, and half a dozen credit cards. Apparently her counterpart hadn't taken the bag with her when she had gone to the Halloween ball. Lois frowned. She hadn't either, of course, but she had taken a small, satin purse, with her wallet, lipstick, compact and car keys in it. There were no keys here, but the gold compact that she had broken in her world, only to find the eavesdropping device, was in a side pocket. This was definitely strange.
A glance at her watch told her that it was almost time for her to join Lex in the study for dinner. Quickly, she replaced the wallet and closed the bag, noting without surprise that a cellular phone was clipped to an inner pocket of the purse. Lois Luthor had apparently failed to take her cellular phone with her last night as well. That was pretty odd, too. She would have to think about this later, but keeping Lex waiting probably wasn't a good idea. Taking a last, quick glance at her image in the mirror, she gathered her courage and left the bedroom, closing the door behind her.
Lex was waiting beside the elevator when the doors opened on the lower level and when he saw her he smiled the very familiar smile that she remembered. "You look beautiful tonight, my dear."
"And you look handsome, as always," Lois countered.
He offered her his elbow, and they entered the study. The little table where she had eaten with him many times before, when they had been dating, was already set and waiting.
He held her chair with perfect courtesy and after she was seated, he took the place across from her. Lex never neglected such small details, she recalled, which was one of the things that had charmed her about him in the beginning. Within a few seconds, as if it was timed -- and it probably was, she thought -- Asabi approached to set a bottle of what Lois assumed to be wine on the table, but Lex surprised her.
"Gretchen says it would be inadvisable for you to drink alcohol so soon after a concussion," he said. "Tonight we're having non-alcoholic wine. I trust that will be satisfactory."
She nodded, and he picked up the bottle to pour for both of them. A second servant approached with bowls of soup, and the dinner began.
Lex kept up a light conversation during the dinner, and she responded appropriately, thinking all the while that she had never noticed while he was courting her how superficial their relationship really was. Lex was an astute businessman, and apparently didn't feel it necessary for his wife to be informed about his business -- something that she had wondered a little about before, but hadn't understood why. Lex apparently loved her, but considered her, like everyone else, his intellectual inferior. His trophy wife, she thought.
"You seem a little quiet tonight," he remarked.
She smiled dutifully. "I have a little of the headache left, and the back of my head is awfully sore," she said. "I hope it will be better tomorrow."
"I'm sure it will if you take care of yourself tonight," Lex said. "My prescription for you would be to go to bed soon after dinner and to sleep late tomorrow."
"I intend to," Lois said. "The nap this afternoon seemed to help."
He nodded. "As I was sure it would. I don't suppose I can convince you to allow me to send an escort in my place when you attend these charity things, my dear. I know I'd certainly feel better about your safety. Last night could have as easily turned out to be fatal."
"I'll remember to be more cautious the next time," Lois said. "Lex, I'm so sorry about the rings."
He shrugged. "They can be replaced. Both were covered with insurance."
"Still, --"
"Don't fret about them, Lois," he said. "I regard them as a small loss. Next time it could be your life."
"You knew when we married that my job was sometimes dangerous," she said. "Just because I'm your wife doesn't mean that there aren't some people out there who might still want revenge -- or realize that I might be wearing expensive jewelry. I won't get complacent again. I promise."
"If I find out who was behind it, he's going to regret it," Lex said. "I've put inquiries around in certain circles. People are looking for any sign of your rings. If we find them, they should lead us to the thief."
"I imagine you have pretty efficient investigators on your staff," she said. "I'm surprised anyone actually dared to assault me, actually."
"So was I, a little; however, there are always fools in any group. This fool is going to regret his action."
Lois nodded and decided that a change of subject would be in order. "So, how did your business meeting go?" she asked.
"Very well," he replied. "LexCorp acquired a controlling share of Belco Petroleum, so I'm very pleased with the whole endeavor."
"Another triumph to add to a formidable list of them," Lois said, laying her fork down. "Congratulations."
"Thank you." He appeared to accept her praise as his due. Asabi materialized silently to remove the plates and a moment later reappeared with dessert. Lois ate half of hers and laid down her fork. "It's delicious as usual, but if I eat all this I'll be paying the consequences in extra treadmill time for a week at least."
Lex smiled indulgently. "I doubt it. You have a beautiful figure, Lois, and it will take a lot more than Andre's chocolate cream pie to ruin it."
"Only because I work to keep it that way. I want you to be proud of me," she added.
"Then you've succeeded, my dear. I'm very proud of you. But now --" He glanced at his watch. "Gretchen specifically ordered that you be in bed by nine tonight. Hopefully that will clear up any lingering effects of your ordeal, and our lives will get back to normal." He stood up. "Would you mind if I escorted you upstairs again?"
"Of course not," Lois said. "I'd be hurt if you didn't."
She watched as he preened slightly at her compliment, and pushed back her chair.
He escorted her to the bedroom and kissed her knuckles lightly. "I have a few more business details to take care of, but I'll be up in an hour or so. Sweet dreams, my dear. Don't wait up for me."
After he had gone, Lois changed slowly out of her dinner dress. She'd had a reprieve tonight, but that was all it was. If she didn't come up with some sort of results by tomorrow night, she was going to be in the soup.
Pulling on the satin nightgown that she found laid out for her on her pillow, she found herself wondering, not for the first time, where the Lois whose place she was taking was. It was obvious that something had happened, since she wasn't here, exposing Lois as a fraud, but where was she? Apparently she had gone to the Metro Halloween Ball and disappeared.
For the first time, she wondered if the watch, lying on the dresser, and the elegant shoulder bag hanging from the coat tree might have been left there by design. Could her disappearance have been planned by Lois Luthor, herself? If Lois was right, her counterpart had left behind everything that could possibly be a tracking device. The watch, the compact, the cell phone and who knew what else?
The thought was a new one, and she tried to consider it dispassionately. Was it possible that Lex Luthor's wife had discovered something about her husband, and as a consequence had decided to disappear? What could she have discovered?
Put that way, the field was wide open. Assuming that this Lex Luthor was as deeply involved in crime as the one in her world had been, and that the other Lois's tendency to snoop hadn't disappeared with her marriage to Lex, just about anything was possible. But if Lois Luthor had discovered something that had made her run, it might be very important that Lois Lane find out, too.
Lois glanced at the clock on her nightstand. She had been here for fifteen minutes, and Lex had been extremely agreeable, even insistent, about her going to bed by nine. Maybe it was because of concern for her welfare, but maybe it wasn't. The thought occurred to her and, a second later, she had translated the thought into action. If it should happen that Lex was simply finishing a bit of business that he hadn't had time to take care of before dinner, that was okay. She would explain that she felt lonely in the big room, all by herself. On the other hand, if something else was going on, she wanted to know.
She slipped her feet into the furry bedroom slippers and hastily shoved her arms into the sleeves of Lois Luthor's dressing gown. A moment later, she was striding down the hallway toward the stairs that led to the lower level of the penthouse.
The servants had apparently finished cleaning up in the study and were back in the kitchen or servants' quarters, or something, for she saw no one when she arrived at the lower level and peeked cautiously around the corner. The hall was dim, lit only by the nightlights that glowed in every electric socket. Quietly, she moved down the hallway, striving to look casual and unhurried, toward the door of Lex's office. She could see a faint line of brighter light along the bottom of the door that suggested that her supposed husband was in there.
Outside the door, she paused, listening.
There was movement in there and, as her ears adjusted, the sound of voices leaking faintly through the closed door became evident. She identified Lex's distinctive voice, and an instant later, the voice of Mrs. Cox, Lex's personal assistant.
She stood still, straining her ears to catch the words. "...Under no circumstances are you to allow Lois to become suspicious," Lex's voice was saying. "Kent is a thorn in my side. His series on the gunrunning operation was much too close to the truth for comfort. I want him removed."
Gunrunning operation? Lois stood still, barely breathing. And Clark. Lex was after Clark. She had to warn him as soon as possible.
"Of course, Lex," Mrs. Cox's voice said.
"Secondly, Superman." Lex's voice hadn't changed its inflection at all. He was talking about killing a man, she thought, and it was as if he were discussing any ordinary business. But that was what he was doing, she thought. Discussing business. "He'll have to be immobilized. He somehow escaped the cage at the wedding, so the next time he'll have to be chained."
"He'll simply break the chains unless --"
"You underestimate me, Mrs. Cox. I still have the cage. If he's chained, he won't have the mobility to escape from it again. It's that simple. Now all I have to do is provide an irresistible lure. I think my dear Lois will serve, once more. Of course, she is to know absolutely nothing about it."
"Naturally," Mrs. Cox said.
"Have there been any results concerning the rings yet?"
"None," Mrs. Cox's voice said. "Whoever took them is apparently lying low. He may have realized by now that the woman he assaulted was your wife. The rings could be at the bottom of Hobbs Bay."
"I doubt it," Lex's voice said. "The diamond is worth half a million as is. Cut, it's worth almost as much. I trust the gem cutters who do work of that sort are under observation?"
"Yes, Lex."
"Then that concludes our business for the evening," Lex said, pleasantly. "Now, as my wife is still recovering from her concussion, I'll need a substitute tonight."
"Of course," Mrs. Cox's voice said. There was silence for several seconds. Then Mrs. Cox's voice, sounding almost breathless. "It's been too long, Lex." Her voice trailed off into a faint moan.
Lois turned and walked away in disgust. For a short time she had wondered if perhaps the Lex of this strange world might be a better person than the Lex of her memories, but in the space of five minutes that small hope had been killed and buried. Lex was the same criminal here that he had been in her own world.
What had that business about a cage meant? And chaining Superman up? But a cage wouldn't hold Superman unless there had been Kryptonite somewhere nearby to prevent him from simply bursting the bars.
But in her world, Superman had told Clark, and Clark had told her how, the day before her wedding, Lex had imprisoned him in a cage, the bars of which were coated with Kryptonite. He had intended to let Superman die in that cage, and it had only been the Man of Steel's determination, combined with Lex's arrogance, and sheer dumb luck, that had allowed him to free himself. If that had happened here, and he still possessed the cage, it sounded to her as if Lex was planning not only Clark's killing, but the cold-blooded murder of Superman as well. If Lois Luthor had discovered that, that might have been the reason that she had disappeared.
At a measured rate that showed no sign of the agitation she felt, Lois climbed the steps back toward the upper level. One of the maids was coming down the stairs and looked at her in surprise. "Mrs. Luthor?"
"Do you know where my husband is?" Lois asked, keeping her voice level. "I was looking for him."
"I believe he's in his office, ma'am."
"At *this* hour? I swear, the man thinks of nothing but business. All right; I don't want to interrupt him if he's working. I guess it can wait until morning." She continued past the maid and up the steps, keeping her expression blank. Three steps farther up, she turned. "Would you please tell whoever is in the kitchen right now that I'd like a cup of hot chocolate in my room? Since I'm not allowed to take anything for sleep, the hot chocolate will have to do."
"At once, Mrs. Luthor," the maid said.
"Thank you," Lois said. She continued on up the steps.
Ten minutes later, in the master bedroom, she found herself pacing back and forth, trying to decide what to do with the information she had acquired. Somehow she had to get a message to Clark, but a phone call from here was bound to be monitored, and the cell phone in Lois Luthor's purse most likely was, as well. Somehow she had to figure out how to get out of here to warn him that Lex had ordered him killed, and was after Superman as well.
There was a soft rapping on the door and Nigel St John's voice said, "Mrs. Luthor?"
Her heart jumped before she remembered that she had sent for hot chocolate. This was probably it. Quickly she pulled off her dressing gown, kicked off her slippers and scrambled into bed. "Come in!" she called.
The door opened, revealing Nigel St. John with a silver tray, on which reposed her hot chocolate. The butler entered the room and set the tray neatly on the bed, across her lap. It was, she realized, a tray designed for just this purpose. "Is there anything else you need, Madam?" he inquired.
"No, thank you," Lois said. "Is Lex still working? I was hoping he wouldn't stay up too late tonight."
"I believe so, Madame." If Nigel knew what was occupying Lex at this point, he didn't let on by word, expression or gesture.
"Oh," Lois said, striving to sound disappointed. "Well, thank you, Nigel."
When the butler had gone, she picked up the cup of chocolate and tasted it carefully. It was hot but not too hot, and she sipped it, thinking.
Lex was bound to be busy tomorrow, at least part of the day. Going straight to Clark after the maid had seen her on the stairs a little while ago might not be a good idea, but there were probably others who had worked at the Planet still in town, working for other publications, or in other jobs. If she looked them up, maybe she could get hold of one of the ones that she trusted to carry a message to Clark. It was worth a shot. And then, maybe, if she could get hold of some kind of evidence against Lex, Clark could take it to some of the authorities that weren't on Lex's payroll, and perhaps bring the House of Luthor down, once and for all. It was the only chance she had.
And maybe, somewhere in all this, she could figure out how this switch had been made, and how she had wound up here. If she did, there might be a very slight chance that she could get home.
**********
Lois woke at six a.m., and became aware within seconds that she was not alone in the bed. She could hear the breathing of another person and turning her head, she saw, without surprise, that Lex was sleeping beside her.
No one had knocked on the door to awaken him, so she assumed that his habit was to sleep until seven or eight, but knowing Lex it was more likely to be seven. Quietly, she got out of bed and went into their huge bathroom to shower and dress.
The bright green jogging suit lay folded on top of the towels in the towel cupboard. She dressed quickly in the outfit, pulled on athletic socks and white jogging shoes and was ready to go. She was quite sure that the emerald green suit had been selected to make it easy for Lex's employee to spot her, so she would use it to avoid him this morning -- when she chose to do so. Again she tucked money into her bra and stuffed a handful of loose change into her pocket.
Ready at last, she pinned the note, which she had written carefully last night in preparation for a quick exit, to her pillow, and left the room.
She descended to the ground floor by way of the private elevator and left the building through the private entrance, aware that this morning a different man had replaced the youthful skateboarder of yesterday. This guy looked pretty fit, she acknowledged, and he was wearing jogging gear, so she had to assume that Lois Luthor often made a habit of running early in the morning. Fortunately, so did Lois Lane.
She started out at an easy clip, headed for Centennial Park. The morning was cool, but running was bound to warm her up pretty fast, so she kept the same pace until she reached the park.
The vendors were already there, setting up their stands for the business of the day. Lois stopped at the coffee stand to buy a cup of coffee and a sweet roll. A glance at the gold watch told her that it was seven o'clock. Lex was probably getting up about now, and would find her note telling him that she had gone for a morning run and intended to stop at the library before coming back.
The bench near the stands was empty again this morning, and she sank down to eat the breakfast that she'd skipped at the penthouse. She ate slowly, looking around at early morning Metropolis. The man assigned to follow her had somehow acquired a cup of what was probably coffee and was sitting on a bench some distance away, drinking the contents and apparently reading the early edition of the Star. Lois killed twenty minutes sitting on the bench, and then swallowed the last of her coffee, finished the final bite of sweet roll and stood up. She tossed the paper cup and napkin into a wire trash container and started down the path at a run, not looking back. Assuming Speedy back there was on his toes, she'd got a few seconds' start on him.
She ran, pacing herself. It wasn't her intention to look as if she was trying to escape -- merely to gain a little distance on him. She ran down the path, keeping her gait even and steady. It was chilly in the shade. She kept running, following the winding path through the trees and the children's playground, careful never to deliberately look back. It was his job to keep up with her, not hers to watch him, after all. She had covered two miles when she saw another bench and stopped to sink down on it to rest. A casual survey of the park landscape informed her that her tail had kept up with her. He was some distance away, sitting on another bench. His grey jogging suit was completely unremarkable, and she would have had difficulty identifying him but for the blond ponytail.
She glanced at her watch. Seven-forty-five. The library opened at nine. She had an hour and fifteen minutes to kill. Part of that time would be occupied at Broadhurst's Department Store, of course, but she doubted it would take up more than half an hour of her time, if that.
Time to give Speedy a rest and establish herself as completely harmless and unaware of any observation. She looked around again. There was a children's playground a short distance away, and she strolled toward it. Glancing around, as if to assure herself that she was unobserved, she sat down in one of the swings and began swinging.
Speedy was observing her from the shelter of a large oak tree. He leaned against the trunk, arms folded, apparently indifferent to her peculiar behavior. Lois swung higher and higher, singing softly to herself, a little children's song that her father had taught her when she had been small.
"How I do like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air, so blue,
Oh, I do think it's the pleasantest thing,
Oh, I do think it's the pleasantest thing,
Ever a child can do,
Ever a child can do!
"Up in the air and over the wall,
'Til I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all,
Over the countryside,
Over the countryside.
"'Til I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roofs so brown,
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down,
Up in the air and down!"
It was an old-fashioned song, but it had always been one of her favorites, although she'd never considered the reason. Now she wondered if it wasn't the song's association of swinging with flying. As a child, she had worried her mother and various observers by swinging as high as it was possible to swing. The exhilaration of soaring through the air, free of the bonds of gravity for a few seconds had been a lure that young Lois Lane had found impossible to resist. In a way, it might be one of the reasons that Superman had dazzled her so thoroughly. Not the only one, of course, but certainly one of the most astounding. That first flight with him, soaring through the air without the help of a plane or helicopter, nothing around her except the powerful arms that held her -- certainly a reason to be dazzled, all right.
Speedy's attention was wandering, she noted. She continued to swing, looking around for other observers as she did so. To her satisfaction, she could see no one, and gradually she allowed the swing to slow, swinging in lower and lower arcs until she put a foot down to stop herself. A quick glance at her watch told her that she had managed to kill another fifteen minutes. She stood up and walked through the damp grass to the path once more.
Presumably Speedy was still following her. She began to jog, not running all out, but enough to make him put some effort into keeping up. She reached a spot where the path branched and took the left-hand fork. A twist in the path around a large tree allowed her to catch, for a second, a glimpse of her tail. From the little that she could see, he had a grim set to his jaw, and he was jogging doggedly along after her. She ignored him and kept moving.
There was a water fountain up ahead and to the right. She slowed to a walk and paused to get a long drink. Finished at last, she returned to the path glancing at her watch, and began to jog again. Her tail followed.
After another ten minutes, she slowed to a walk, giving herself time to get her breath for the next long run. It was time to head for her next goal -- the department store two blocks from the city library. By the time she got there, she figured she would have covered a good five miles, allowing for the stops to rest and to kill time. She increased the jog to a run along the meandering paths, aiming ultimately for the western side of Centennial Park, where it bordered on the business district. Metropolis City Library was located there, and it was her ultimate destination.
She was breathing hard now, and drops of sweat ran down her face as she pounded along. Her tail had fallen back a little, she noted once, when the path nearly doubled back on itself. At last she was approaching the edge of the park that bordered on the street that was her goal. She slowed as she reached the sidewalk once more and set a steady pace toward Broadhurst's.
The store was just opening its doors as she arrived. She slowed to a walk and strolled through the entrance, smiling at the woman who had just unlocked the doors. Speedy was half a block behind, and she needed to be out of sight before he arrived. She moved at a brisk pace toward the escalator that led to the second floor where the women's clothing was located.
Once there, she made her selections quickly, glancing over her shoulder frequently to see if Speedy had arrived yet.
However, the clerk was handing her the sales slip and the large plastic bag that held her purchases before Speedy arrived at the top of the escalator. Lois thanked the woman cheerfully, and glanced at her watch. Time to head for the library. She breezed past Speedy without a glance and stepped onto the down escalator. She could have sworn she heard the man growl faintly as he followed.
**********
Even this early, the library had patrons, although not as many as would be present later in the day. She went up the stairs to the main entrance without glancing back and once inside, stopped at the paperback bookrack near the checkout desk to scan the selections available, all the while keeping an eye out for Speedy.
There he was. He came up the steps of the library and peered through the doors. Lois kept her face turned away, apparently focusing on the romance novel in her hand, but she could see his image reflected in the shiny metal side of a book cart parked nearby with a load of returned books waiting to be checked in.
Apparently satisfied that she was safely corralled for the time being, he turned and walked deliberately to one of the stone benches near the front of the building and took a seat. He was probably glad to get some rest, Lois surmised, and he must think that all he had to do was to watch the entrance to see her when she left.
Fortunately, he apparently didn't know that Lois had used this dodge some years ago. There was a little-known exit from the rear of the library, a locked door through which she could exit in a pinch.
Once she was certain that Lex's man was settled in one spot, Lois strolled back into the main body of the library. There was a room off to one side with a sofa and two overstuffed chairs as well as a table with four straight-backed wooden chairs surrounding it. There was no one here yet, and Lois made quick work of changing into the outfit that she had purchased at Broadhurst's -- a much less noticeable ensemble consisting of a pair of ordinary jeans, a tan, long-sleeved shirt, and black tennis shoes. She fastened her hair back with a hair tie, slipped on a pair of sunglasses and regarded herself in the glass of a decorative mirror that adorned the wall. Not bad. She sure didn't look like the woman who had come in here ten minutes ago.
Now for the next part. She removed the watch that was almost certainly a tracking device and dropped it behind the cushions of the sofa, then rolled up the jogging suit and stuffed it into the bag that had held her purchases. Wadding it up, she tucked it under her arm and, crossing her fingers for luck, Lois exited into the main body of the library again and made her way to the rear of the building.
Technically, she wasn't supposed to be in this part of the building, but such facts had never bothered her before, and a short time later she exited from the door that had been her goal. Hopefully, Lex's man wouldn't feel it necessary to check on her for a while. In any event, to cover her tracks, she intended to tell Lex, when she got back to the penthouse, that during her jog this morning she had noticed a pony-tailed man following her, and after the event at the Halloween ball, had been concerned enough that she had taken measures to escape him. Lex might not know whether to believe the story, but he would have to accept it, at least on the surface.
In any case, this little subterfuge was absolutely necessary because she needed help and she needed it badly. She couldn't let this Lex hurt Clark, no matter which world he came from, and Clark could pass along her warning to Superman. And equally important, she needed some kind of help to try to figure out how this had happened to her and how she could get home. That last might not be possible, but Lois Lane didn't give up without a fight. She had a hunch that the bearded man that she had seen twice now -- once at the party and once at the park -- might be involved in the mess, but she had nothing solid to base the feeling on. Still, she would keep an eye out for him.
She had thought this out carefully. Making a phone call from the penthouse was asking for someone to listen in on her, and trying to make one while out jogging was going to be reported. The only way for her to be able to do so unobserved was to shake the man assigned to follow her, which she was pretty sure she had done.
There was a restaurant a short distance away, where she was sure to find a phone. A few minutes later, she entered Diego's Family Restaurant and a few seconds after that was dialing a cell phone number. She waited while the phone rang, crossing her fingers that the Mortie Engelman of this world had the same cell phone number as the Mortie of her world, and that he hadn't changed it since the destruction of the Daily Planet. A lot of this was depending on luck, of course, but with only a tiny amount of that luck, this Mortie, like his counterpart, was a decent guy, who had decided that alcoholism was more trouble than it was worth....
"Engelman," a familiar voice said.
She gave a faint gasp of relief. "Mortie, it's Lois Lane -- Lois Luthor. I'm in trouble."
"Lois?" The surprise in Mortie's voice was quickly submerged by concern. "Are you all right?"
"For the moment, I am. I've found out some things that I need to tell Clark. Can you get a message to him for me?"
"Sure," Mortie said. "He's out of the office at the moment, but he should be back soon. What's wrong?"
"I might not have a lot of time. My minder thinks I'm in the library right now. I want you to tell him this word for word."
"'Minder'?"
"Yes," Lois said. "Tell Clark that everything he said to me about Lex was right. And tell him to warn Superman that Lex is about to try what he tried on my wedding day, again. To both Clark and Superman. Got it?"
"Got it," Mortie said.
"I have to go," Lois said. "I'll try to call back when I can." She hung up.
**********
tbc
