Halloween: 7/8
by Nan Smith
Gallery Street was a loud, busy street in downtown Metropolis. Clark drove with extra caution, Lois noted, and it turned out to be a good idea when a bicyclist emerged from a side street practically on the VW's front bumper. They jolted to a stop as he slammed on the brakes, and Lois grabbed the safety handle.
"Idiot!" she said.
Clark started the car again and they moved slowly forward. "There's the pool hall. What now?"
"Well, we *could* stroll over to see if Bobby's there. If your Lois met him, he might know where she is. Or, I guess we could follow him and talk to him when there's no one around to see us."
Clark shrugged. "I guess so. You're going to have to point him out."
He found a parking space for the VW -- something of a miracle, but the car was small and was able to fit in a space that none of the larger ones could negotiate. Clark cut the engine and glanced around doubtfully at their chosen parking location. "I'm not sure this is legal. We might come back and find a ticket on it."
"If there is, we'll pay it," Lois said. "Mortie and whoever he got the car from never need to know about it."
"Yeah, I guess so." Clark turned to look through the back window of the car. "We can see in the front from here. I put a pair of binoculars in the glove compartment. See if you can see anything with them, first."
"Good idea." Lois fished out the binoculars and twisted around to peer out the tiny rear window of the Volkswagen. "How do you adjust...ah." She found herself looking into the pool hall's front window. Several men and one woman were clustered near one of the pool tables, apparently watching the game. But behind them, barely visible, was the snack bar, and seated on a stool, a cellular phone to his ear and munching on what appeared to be a sandwich, was Bobby Bigmouth.
"He's there," she said. "Talking on a cell phone." She passed the binoculars to Clark.
Clark took the binoculars and lowered his glasses, looking over them in the direction of the establishment. After a long minute, he put the binoculars to his eyes. "That scrawny guy with the tuna sandwich?" he asked after a moment.
"How can you tell it's tuna?" Lois asked.
"He just dripped some on his chin. It looks like tuna," Clark said. "He's sitting on the third stool from the left. Is that him?"
Lois took the binoculars and checked. "That's the one. Now what?"
"Let's just wait," Clark said, after a second look. "Maybe he'll come out. I don't know about you, but I don't want a lot of people to see us walk in there -- and I doubt he does, either." He raised the binoculars to his eyes again.
"Yeah, probably not," Lois agreed. "What's he doing?"
"Talking on his phone. Just a minute. I'm trying to see what he's saying."
"What do -- Oh yeah, you read lips." Lois didn't see how he could possibly tell what the man was saying from this distance and that angle, but she fell silent, waiting.
"He just said 'Lois'," Clark said suddenly, setting down the binoculars. "I think he's -- yes, he's leaving!"
Less than a minute later, they were out of the car, standing facing each other in apparent conversation, waiting tensely for Bobby Bigmouth to appear.
Lois maintained a casual posture, watching out of the corner of her eye as Bobby Bigmouth emerged from the pool hall. The Bobby Bigmouth of this timeline looked exactly the same as the one in hers, she thought as she watched him look around with apparent disinterest. He paused, popping what was probably the last piece of sandwich into his mouth, and then turned to stroll down the sidewalk with all the appearance of a man with no place in particular in mind, but walking all the same.
"He's coming this way," she said, softly.
"Maybe he's headed for the crosswalk," Clark said, his voice equally low.
"Maybe. Here he comes."
A moment later, Bobby's drab figure ambled past them. Lois and Clark waited a moment and then followed him, moving at a leisurely pace. Bobby stopped at the corner and punched the crosswalk signal button.
Behind him, Lois and Clark shuffled along, attempting to stay well behind the snitch. As they approached the corner, the light turned green and at the same instant, the "Walk" sign lit up. Bobby started across and Clark said audibly, "Hurry up, Mary, we're going to miss the light!"
They crossed behind Bobby. Lois saw the man speed up his steps measurably, and a moment after reaching the sidewalk, he turned right toward the Imperial Panda House, four buildings down.
He couldn't be going in there, Lois thought. The restaurant was closed.
Bobby went on by, and stepped into the narrow alley that ran between the Imperial Panda and the dry cleaning business next door.
Clark had pulled down his glasses again, she noticed abstractedly, and was looking after the man.
"This way," he said suddenly. "There's an alley behind the restaurant. It opens on Cypress."
Cypress was the cross street. Clark led the way briskly down the sidewalk, and sure enough, when they passed the shabby, brick building that occupied the corner, Lois saw that a narrow alley filled the space between it and the one next to it. Water ran down the middle of the alley in a thin, sluggish stream, and the pavement was in a deplorable state of disrepair, but it was a way to follow Bobby without him knowing it, Lois thought, as long as he did what they thought he was doing.
They hurried down the alley, trying to avoid the water and the chunks of broken asphalt. A clothesline hung directly across the alley to the adjoining building, and the dangling clothing half obscured what lay beyond. They ducked under the hanging clothes, trying to be quiet, and ahead, Lois could see the back of a building that had to be the Imperial Panda. Parked next to it was an enormous dumpster.
Clark lifted a finger to his lips. "There's somebody on the other side of the dumpster," he whispered.
"Waiting for Bobby?" she whispered back. She actually had no real fear of being overheard. The sound of traffic passing by on Cypress was enough to drown out anything but the loudest conversation.
"Maybe. I think it's a woman."
"Lois?" she breathed. She hadn't seen anyone, but somehow Clark must have, she thought.
He didn't answer. Together they hugged the bricks of the building next to them, trying to keep the body of the dumpster between them and whoever the person waiting ahead might be.
"Hurry," Clark whispered. "Bobby will be there any second."
Trying to be as quiet as possible, they moved quickly toward the dumpster and pressed their backs against the metal side. Lois nearly held her breath. On the other side of their cover a woman, very possibly the Lois of this universe, was waiting for Bobby Bigmouth.
This close, she could hear the faint scraping of feet as the other person shifted position slightly. The traffic sounds on the street were more muted here, and if she or Clark made a noise, the other person was bound to hear. If it was indeed Lois Luthor, Lois knew she would be listening with every pore of her body. She would be alert for anything that might mean somebody else was nearby.
Even so, she almost jumped when she heard Bobby Bigmouth's approaching footsteps and his cheerful, "Hi!"
"Shh!" The other person shushed him quickly.
"Nobody followed me," Bobby's voice was softer. "You got my lunch?"
"A king-sized deli sandwich, chips, a milkshake and a torte, straight from Dana's bakery," her own voice replied.
"Great!" There was a rustling of paper as Bobby checked the offering. "Okay, whatcha need from me?"
"What's the word about...me?"
"It's out this morning. There's a hunt on for you."
A soft, indrawn breath. Then: "I figured. I'm just surprised it took so long."
"Yeah," Bobby said. "My source says they discovered it last night. *He* got home late and you weren't there."
A pause that held a surprised quality. "What?"
"That's what I heard."
"That's not possible. I disappeared on Halloween. How could they not have noticed? What's he up to?"
Lois could almost see Bobby's shrug. "Dunno."
Silence again. Then: "I have the stuff I told you about. Can you get it to Henderson without getting caught?"
"Sure," Bobby said. "Might take a few days."
"Be very careful," Lois Luthor's voice said. "You know what will happen if he even suspects you have it." Lois heard a rustling noise, and then silence.
Bobby whistled softly. "Hot stuff. I oughta charge extra for this."
More rustling. "That's for a Peking duck dinner. Don't let me down."
Bobby's voice again. "I won't. You know my word's good."
"Get out of here, now," Lois's voice sounded as if it had suddenly run out of energy. "I don't want to risk anyone seeing you with me."
More silence, and then the sound of Bobby's retreating footsteps.
Lois started to push away from the dumpster, but Clark's hand on her shoulder stopped her. He had his finger to his lips again. Lois held her breath.
Silence, and then the faintest of sobs. The other woman was crying. Clark's hand squeezed her shoulder and then with a swift, silent step, he had moved away from her and ducked around the corner of the big dumpster. She heard his voice.
"Lois."
A shrill gasp, and then silence. A long silence. Then:
"Clark? What are you doing here?"
"Trying to find you," he said quietly.
"Clark, it's dangerous! I didn't want to involve you in this!"
"I know," his voice said, still very quietly. "But I'm already involved. You're my partner, and you're in trouble. Let me help."
"Clark, if Lex finds you with me he'll kill you, too. You have to get away from me and stay away."
"I'm already on his hit list," Clark said softly. "My spies say he's ordered me killed, as well as Superman. When I found out what you'd done, I knew I had to find you before he did."
A long silence, and then the sudden rustle of movement. Clark said softly, "I won't let him harm you. Trust me."
"Clark, you know what he's capable of better than anybody! You told me what he was!"
"Yes, I do know. But you're safe with me. I guarantee it."
How could he guarantee Lois Luthor's safety? Lois wondered. He couldn't even guarantee his own.
"Clark, don't be crazy! He's going to kill both of us if he catches us!"
"If he tries, we'll get him on attempted murder." Clark sounded very sure of himself. "Don't you think I'd get some backup? Superman is keeping an eye on us right now, but we need to get out of here before anybody gets curious."
"If I go back to your place, they'll just be waiting for me to show up there. That's why I didn't go there when I got away," Lois said. "They may have followed you, today."
"They would have, I'm sure, if they could have found me," Clark said quietly. "But you see, I knew they'd be watching my place as soon as I realized what you'd done -- and I realized it before they did. I've been -- somewhere else."
"Oh. But Clark, how did you find me? Bobby said he's never met you, and I didn't tell you about him."
"I know. But somebody else did. She knows you pretty well."
"She?"
"Yes. There's more going on here than you realize. Somebody helped me. She wanted to find you almost as much as I did."
"Who --"
"Lois," Clark said. "Come around here, will you? I'd like you to meet Lois."
"Are you cra --" Lois Luthor's voice broke off as Lois stepped around the side of the dumpster. Her eyes widened.
"Lois," Clark said, "meet Lois."
"What on Earth --"
"I'll explain," Clark said, "but I think we ought to get out of here before somebody notices us, don't you?"
"Definitely," Lois said. She smiled at her counterpart. "Clark's right. We'll explain everything, but I think we should do it somewhere other than here. The last thing we need is for somebody to draw Lex's attention to this part of town -- and Bobby. Don't you think so?"
Lois Luthor stared at her, and then, to Lois's surprise, seemed to completely shelve the mystery in front of her in favor of action. "Okay, but you can bet you're going to explain later! Do you have transportation out of here?"
"We have a car across the street," Clark said. "If you two will wait in the alley, I can go and get it."
**********
"Don't tell me you actually bought a car," Lois Luthor said. "A classic VW bug doesn't seem quite you, Clark."
"It's borrowed," Clark said.
"Where are we going?" Lois asked. She reached down and gingerly felt the bandaged ankle. It hurt. Running around town on foot definitely wasn't good for it.
"Until we figure out what to do, none of us dares to stay in one place very long," Clark said. "Luthor's going to keep looking for Lois, and a stationary target is easier to hit. He's probably already got his goons checking out the motels around Metropolis."
"Probably," Lois said.
Lois Luthor looked at her the same way she had been doing since the two of them had first seen each other. "Exactly how do you fit into this?" she asked. "Who are you?"
"That's going to take some explaining," Lois said. "Clark believed me, but only after I gave him some information that I couldn't possibly know unless my story was true."
"Then why not tell me?"
Lois bit her lip. "I guess I'd probably better," she said. "But please try to keep an open mind until I'm finished. It's a pretty unbelievable story. This all started for me on Halloween night -- at the Metro Halloween Ball..."
She talked while Clark drove, describing what had happened to her, and finally presenting her conclusions. Lois Luthor listened to her in complete silence until she finished.
"And that's it," Lois said, finally. "It's a crazy story. Nobody knows that more than I do, but that's the reason Lex didn't realize you were gone until last night."
"I found the Kryptonite cage," Lois Luthor said abruptly. The words dropped into dead silence.
"You *found* it?" Clark said, his voice oddly tense. "Superman tried to find it afterwards, but it had disappeared. Where was it?"
"In the basement of Lex Tower." Lois Luthor's voice was flat. "The sub-basement, actually. It was in a room underneath the wine cellar, completely lined with lead. I found it while I was looking for -- something else. I knew what it was. I'd already seen the report on Series K."
"Series K?" Lois asked, although she could guess what it was. "Mrs. Cox mentioned it to Lex while I was in his office one day -- back in my world."
"The Kryptonite experiments," Lois Luthor said. "The cage was part of it. The man I married was trying to kill Superman."
"I know," Lois said.
Clark, Lois noted, said nothing, which she expected. Clark never said I told you so, no matter how richly she deserved it. It probably meant that he was a much better person than she was, she thought. In his place, after the way she had treated him, she wouldn't only have rubbed the outcome in, she'd have ground it in as hard as she could. Very few people could say that Lois Lane was a gracious winner or a good loser; as a matter of fact, she knew quite well that she wasn't -- not that she would ever admit it to anyone else.
"Is it still there?" she asked.
Lois Luthor shrugged. "I don't know. Probably. There was no reason for Lex to know that I'd found it." She turned to look at Lois, sitting in the rear seat. "So I know that part of the story is true. What did you tell Clark to convince him of the rest?"
"She told me how Superman escaped the cage," Clark said. Lois thought she had never heard his voice more expressionless. "No one else knew that except me."
"How did you know?" Lois Luthor asked her.
"My Clark told me," Lois said. "I wondered why Superman didn't save Lex when he dived off Lex Tower. It wasn't that I doubted Superman, it was that I needed to know why things happened the way they did. Superman couldn't save him. He was trapped in that cage for a day and a half, and just barely escaped with his life. His powers were completely knocked out for nearly three days afterwards. I already knew about Kryptonite, after Arianna Carlin tried to kill Superman with it, so Clark told me what Superman told him."
Her counterpart's face had gone a shade paler. "While I was at the opera that night, Superman was dying in that cage. Lex took me to dinner and dancing, and on the way home, he was talking about the performance. I asked him about the insurance on the Planet and he told me it was underinsured and it wasn't cost-effective to rebuild it. I believed every word he said." She wiped away a stray tear on her cheek. "It's going to be a long time before I forgive myself for what I've done."
"Lois --" Clark said.
Lois Luthor ignored him. "After I married Lex," she said, "I started to notice things. Little things, like the way my executive assistant always managed to undermine me. Never anything obvious. And how Lex always promised to change things -- but they never changed.
"At first I tried to deny it. I'm pretty good at lying to myself."
"I know," Lois said. "So am I."
The other woman smiled without humor. "I might have been blind about Lex, but I'm not completely stupid. My father used to lie to my mother, too -- never as well as Lex lied, but after a while I began to realize that he was manipulating me -- and that I was being watched everywhere I went, if I was away from the penthouse. It made me suspicious and I started snooping around. When I threw my compact against the wall and found the bug --" She stopped. "I glued it back together so Lex wouldn't realize what I'd found," she continued.
"It was after that that I overheard him on the phone and everything fell into place." She bit her lower lip. "It wasn't hard to figure out where to look once I realized what Lex was doing and what I was looking for. He has an enormous ego, you know. He keeps private records. That was what I gave Bobby to give to Henderson. It won't take him long to verify it. Those records will solve the murders of at least a dozen city officials and a number of business leaders, the destruction of the Daily Planet and the death of the last mayor. Mayor Burns is on his payroll. He was behind the Messenger sabotage, the Smart Kids, the nuclear plant mess when we had the heat wave in November of last year. All of it. The information on the Kryptonite cage -- the Series K research --" She stopped. "I took that. I didn't think people needed to know about Kryptonite. I hid it in case it's needed, but I don't think it will be. There's plenty of evidence."
"So," Clark said, "Basically, we have to keep you away from Luthor until Henderson verifies the evidence and arrests him."
"More or less," Lois Luthor said. "It shouldn't take very long. I took advantage of the Metro Halloween Ball to slip away, you know. I went to that women's shelter --"
"And you weren't going to come to me?" Clark asked. "Lois, you had to have known I'd help you, no matter how much we fought when --" He broke off.
"When you were trying to tell me the truth," she said. "Yes, I knew -- but I couldn't involve you, Clark. I knew that, once I ran, he'd be after me. Lex discards women; he doesn't let them leave him, and he doesn't share. If I involved you, your life would have been in danger, too. If he thought I'd run to you --"
"It doesn't matter," Lois said. "I heard him order Mrs. Cox to have Clark killed. And I heard him planning to kill Superman by using you -- me -- to lure him in. Clark is involved, whether you want him involved or not."
"I know that, now." She glanced at Lois and smiled fractionally. "Thank you -- for helping Clark find me. I didn't know what to do. I was going to try to get out of Metropolis, but Lex's tentacles reach a long way." She turned to look at Clark. "Can you ever forgive me for the way I treated you?"
"Do you even have to ask?" Clark hadn't taken his eyes off the road except for one glance at her, but Lois could hear the feeling in his voice as he spoke to Lois Luthor. There was no question in her mind that Clark still loved the Lois of his world in spite of everything she had put him through. It was something she was going to have to think about, when and if she made it back to her own world. If she ever could. If she wasn't marooned here for life.
"Where are we going?" Lois Luthor asked.
"Mortie Engelman's," Clark said. "We need a safe place to sit down and decide what we should do next."
"How are we going to explain two of us?" Lois asked.
"We don't," Clark said.
"Why Mortie?" Lois Luthor asked. "Where does he come into this?"
"He's working with Henderson to try to bring down Luthor," Lois explained. "I guess Henderson figures he's a little better able to take care of himself than your average reporter."
"Oh yeah," Lois Luthor said. "The Navy Seal background."
"I thought he was with Army Special Forces in Vietnam," Lois said. "At least the Mortie in my world was."
"No," Clark said. "Not *our* Mortie. He was in Vietnam, but he was a Navy Seal."
"Oh," Lois said.
"I guess not everything is the same between the two timelines," Lois Luthor said.
"I already knew that," Lois said. "Mortie seems to be the one with the biggest differences, at least so far. In my world he's an alcoholic, but he dried out about three or four years ago."
"Well, he picked similar professions," Clark said. "In any case," he added, "I have to return the car, and then maybe he can help us figure out our next move."
"Is this *his* car?" Lois Luthor asked.
"He borrowed it from a friend. Before we get there, though, I think we need to decide what to call the two of you. 'Lois' isn't going to do."
"She can be Lois," Lois said, nodding at her double. "She was here first."
"What do we call you, then?" Lois Luthor asked.
"Do you have a sister named Lucy?" Lois asked.
"Sure. She's in college right now -- studying to be a vet."
"Then call me Lucy," Lois said. "It's easy to remember and I might even realize you're talking to me."
"Sounds good," Clark said. He turned off the main street into the rundown neighborhood where Mortie lived. "We'll be there in a moment."
**********
tbc
