Chapter Twenty-three
>>>Monday, 9:43 AM
Nigel smiled from the safety of the abandoned railroad car across the road as he watched the lab building collapse in on itself. LexLabs would have to rebuild the facility and re-staff it. Months of research and construction on the shuttle would have to be re-done, which would take even more time. Platt would no longer complain about the cost-cutting efforts of the team Baines had assembled, or about his own small part of the project. Baines herself would no longer be around as a possible prosecution witness, nor would she again pester him for more money or more influence in planning his operations. And he felt a sense of ironic conquest that he’d guaranteed her presence by allowing her to think she would murder Platt and the reporters for him. She had even believed him when he’d told her that she’d get away with it.
Best of all, Lois Lane and Clark Kent would no longer nip at his heels.
He pulled out his special cell phone to report in.
“I hope you have good news for me, Nigel.”
The voice seemed to communicate irritation, even through the electronic distortion. “There will be no more interference from either Dr. Baines or Dr. Platt. The entire lab is nothing more than a pile of rubble.”
“And the reporters?”
“They were inside the same lab with Baines at the time of the explosion. It would have taken a miracle for either of them to have survived the initial blast, much less the collapse of the structure.”
The voice sighed. “Very well. It’s too bad about the woman, though.”
“The woman?” wondered Nigel. “Do you refer to the inquisitive and bothersome Miss Lane?”
“No, no. I meant the Baines woman.” The voice paused. “She was so very eager to please me.”
“I understand. It was, after all, a regrettable necessity.”
“Yes, that’s true.” The voice perked up. “Good work, Nigel. Your bonus is on its way.”
“Thank you. Will there be anything else?”
“No, that’s all for now.”
The connection was terminated from the other end. Nigel put his phone back in his pocket and thought, yes, Antoinette had been most eager to please.
But then, women such as she were both plentiful and inexpensive. There would be many others just as eager, and most would be younger and more easily trained.
*****
Clark cracked open his eyelids and immediately closed them again. The thick dust in the air bothered even his Kryptonian eyes. He’d have to breathe carefully, too, or he’d be exhaling dust for several hours. He just hoped there wasn’t any Kryptonite dust floating around –
Then memory returned and he panicked. Lois! Lois was in there!
“Lois?” He turned his head and tried not to cough. “Lois! Where are you?”
“Here.”
“What?” Her voice was muffled. “Lois, where are you? Are you hurt?”
“I think I’m directly under you. There. Is that your leg?”
He felt a hand grasp his ankle and he straightened carefully. “Yes, that’s me. Are you pinned down? Is anything broken?”
“Huh.”
The fear that had subsided at the sound of her voice returned. “That’s not a very reassuring sound.”
“Sorry, Clark. I think I’m okay.” A piece of concrete under him shifted slightly and he reached down to lift it. “I think you took the worst of it.”
“Weren’t you hit by the debris?”
“I don’t think so. It feels like you shielded me from the falling junk.”
“Good. Are you sure you – “
“Let’s just get out of here and worry about any broken fingernails later, okay?”
Despite their situation, he grinned a little. If she was that snarky, she couldn’t be hurt too badly.
He paused and scanned the area with his x-ray vision, pausing when he found the crushed bodies of Samuel Platt and Toni Baines. “Oh.”
“What? ‘Oh’ what?”
“I – I found Dr. Platt.”
“Oh.”
“And Dr. Baines.”
Her voice was tighter this time. “I see.”
“Actually, I’m glad that you don’t see.”
She paused. “That bad, huh?”
He started to explain what had happened to them, but decided she didn’t need to know all the details.
And he wished he could forget those same details.
Almost as an afterthought, the smell assaulted him. He groaned and coughed.
“Clark? Are you okay? Is it more of that green dust?”
“N-no,” he stammered. “Just – the smell – it reminds me – the ship.”
Her quick intake of air told him she knew which ship he meant. “Ick. I can smell it too. Okay, then, you need to get us out of here as quickly as you can.”
He bent down and looked in another direction. “This is the quickest way out of the building. Can you follow me?”
She reached up and grabbed his wrist with surprising strength. “Just make a tunnel and I’ll get out of here if I have to crawl.”
“Okay. It’s only about eight feet or so, but I’ll have to shore up the passageway as we go.”
“No problem. I’ll be right behind you.”
He glanced around and saw that there were enough larger pieces of concrete to temporarily hold up a small tunnel in the rubble. He worked quickly but carefully, and they made good progress. Lois didn’t say anything or send anything to him, probably because she didn’t want to distract him. For once she was being prudent.
Of course, almost being killed would tend to make almost anyone more prudent.
As he pushed the last large piece out of the way and stepped into the light, he turned and held his hand out for Lois. She took his hand and fairly leaped out of the wreckage. Then she took a deep breath and turned to look at the remains of the building.
She gasped. The five-story building was now only a pile of rubble a few feet tall. “Clark? What happened? I thought I heard Platt say something about the ground switch and then – nothing.”
He led her away from the pile of concrete and rebar as it continued to shift and settle. “That’s about it for me, too.”
“You mean you don’t remember rescuing me?”
“No. It must have been a reflex of some kind. I guess I pulled you underneath me and took the brunt of the collapse on myself.”
She began dusting off his jacket. “Your suit’s ruined and your glasses are gone. Are you hurt?”
“No. And your clothes are pretty much a total loss, too. How about you? Are you hurt?”
She flexed her hands and legs, then shook her head. “Nope. I guess you did a great job of protecting me.”
He looked at the remains of the lab. “I didn’t help the rest of them, did I?”
Her tone softened. “You didn’t have a chance to help them, Clark. I know you would have helped all of them if you’d had the opportunity. But hey, I’m kinda glad you saved me. That’s one less person buried under all that.”
He looked into her eyes and spoke more softly also. “You seem to be taking this pretty well.”
“You think so? Maybe you should sit in on my next session with Dr. Friskin. I have a feeling it’s going to be a humdinger.” She took a few steps towards the parking area and spied the remains of her Jeep. “Oh, no! My Jeep is crushed!” She turned and yelled, “They broke my Jeep! Look at it! They dropped a piece of concrete on the hood! The windshield is smashed in and the engine is ruined! It’s a total loss! Those – they – ”
Clark recognized the signs of post-stress reaction, and he reached for her to offer what little comfort he could. But before he got there, she swung her fist at the piece of concrete sitting on the flattened hood of the Jeep.
It exploded into hundreds of pieces, all which went flying off in different directions.
Lois stood frozen to the ground, as did Clark. Both of them stared slack-jawed at her hand as she held it up as if for inspection. She finally turned her head and squeaked out, “C-Clark? What happened? W-what did I do?”
Slowly, and with great care, he stepped forwards and took her hand. “Lois? May I look at your hand? In case you hurt it.”
She nodded slightly. Clark tried to x-ray her hand, but his vision gizmo couldn’t penetrate her skin.
This was way past odd. He knew his powers still worked, but something had happened to Lois, and her body seemed to have taken on his own extreme molecular density. And it had already shown itself as invulnerability and great strength.
Then Lois’s head snapped up. “Sirens. I hear sirens coming closer.”
Clark listened for a moment, then realized that she’d heard them from a distance of at least four miles. Apparently strength wasn’t the only thing she’d picked up from him.
He turned to her and grabbed her hand. “Lois? We have to make some decisions, and we have to make them quickly.”
“What? Why? The police and fire departments are coming. They’ll take care of us.”
He shook his head. “Something happened to you in there. Something – I don’t know how, and I sure don’t know why, but I think you’ve taken on at least some of my powers.”
She squinted at him. “How did I do that? How could that have happened?”
“I don’t know. As far as I’m aware, it’s never happened before.”
“Never?” He shook his head. “Then what am I supposed to do now?”
He flicked a glance in the direction of the approaching emergency vehicles. “I think we should get out of town for a while. Someone tried to kill us, and if whoever it is thinks we’re dead, Perry will have a better chance of picking up clues that might lead us to him or her.”
“What about the other people in there? Shouldn’t you stay and help them? I mean, shouldn’t Superman stay and help?”
“I would if there were any other survivors.”
Her eyes widened. “You mean – no one else – there’s no other – “
He sighed. “I checked already. No moving bodies, no heartbeats. If we’re going to help them, we’ll have to do it by finding out who killed them.”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, that actually makes sense, or it would if I were normal.” She shuddered. “I don’t understand! I don’t feel any different than I did before – before this morning. What else can I do?”
“I don’t know, but I think we should get out of here as quickly as we can.”
“Any particular destination in mind?”
“Yes, if you’re willing to go there.”
She sighed. “Let’s hear it.”
He hesitated. “I was thinking of going to Smallville.”
She paused and pondered his suggestion, then nodded again. “Okay. Let’s go, partner.”
*****
They were up in the clouds before Lois said anything else. “Why didn’t you change into the Superman suit?”
“These clothes are too dusty. They needed a good airing. Besides, I thought we needed to leave as quickly as possible.”
“Uh-huh. So, what else do you think I can do now?”
He looked into her face. She didn’t look excited about the prospect of having super-powers. In fact, she looked almost scared by the thought.
“Well – you might be able to fly.”
She perked up slightly. “Really? Do you think so?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
She glanced down. “How high up are we?”
“About twenty-five thousand feet. Don’t worry, we’re not in the path of any airliners right now.”
“Oh. Okay.” She shifted in his arms. “Actually, I was thinking about how big a hole in the ground I’d make if I fell from up here.”
He almost smiled. “I won’t let you fall, Lois.”
She almost smiled back. “I know that, Clark.” She hitched one leg past his arm and let it dangle downwards. “Shall we give it the acid test?”
“If you want to. You don’t have to, you know.”
“I need to know one way or the other. I think not knowing is worse than anything else.”
He nodded. “Okay. You want any advice?”
“Are you kidding?” She glanced down again. “All I can get, yeah.”
He did smile this time. “What I do is just think ‘up’ and I go up. I think ‘forward’ and I go forward.”
“Sounds easy enough.” She lifted one arm away, then stopped. “Maybe it would help if you just kind of floated in one place beside me for a minute or so.”
“Sure.” He slowed to a stop above the clouds, then slowly took his arms out from under her. Sure enough, she floated in place, even if she was a bit unsteady.
Then she began sinking, as if she were standing in quicksand. “Clark! What now?”
He dropped to her level and gently grasped her hands. “Just think ‘up,’ Lois. You’ll get the hang of it.”
She closed her eyes and focused. They fell a few more feet, then slowed to a stop. Almost imperceptibly, Lois began to rise under her own power. She opened her eyes and looked around. “Hey! Nice. Are you sure you’re not holding me up?”
“No, you’re doing this all on your own. I’m just here for moral support.”
She glanced around again and nodded slowly. “This isn’t so bad after all.”
“I think it’s a lot of fun. You want to try going forward now?”
She shook her head. “No. Not right now. Let’s just get to Kansas and see what Bob has to say about this new development.”
Surprised, he blurted, “Bob? You want to ask Bob about this?”
She frowned. “Well, I doubt Dr. Friskin knows how to explain this to us. And as wise as your parents are, they had nothing to do with you getting your powers, did they?”
“No.”
“Then they can’t help us, except to give us a place to stay for the time being. I think we should tell them everything except the part about my maybe having some super-powers. Okay?”
“There’s no ‘maybe’ about it, Lois. You’ve got my powers.”
“I still don’t want to tell anyone about it yet.”
He frowned back. “They’ll eventually figure it out. You won’t be able to keep from using your powers once you get control over them.”
“You’re assuming they’re going to stay, and you’re also assuming that I want them to stay.”
“Maybe so. Maybe I just like the idea of having another person close to me who can do some of the same things I can do.”
She paused and softened her tone again. “I hadn’t thought about that, Clark.” She looked into his eyes and asked, “Are you really that lonely?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t think this is the time and place to have that conversation.”
“Right.” She looked off into the west and said, “I think we need to change altitude. There’s a jet airliner headed our way.”
Clark looked in the same direction. “Whoops. We’re off course, too far north and too low. Follow me and I’ll get us there fast.”
“Just – you don’t have to carry me, but – but I’d feel a whole lot safer if you’d hold my hand while we fly.”
He nodded and took her left hand in his right. “Okay. Ready?”
She exhaled noisily. “There’s no time like the present, I guess.”
They rose and headed southwest to Kansas.
And Clark hoped they’d leave Lois’s last question, her question about whether or not he was lonely, far behind them.
*****
Martha had finished washing the breakfast dishes, fed the chickens, weeded her vegetable garden, done two loads of laundry, and was folding the last few pieces when she heard a telltale ‘whoosh’ outside.
She smiled. She always enjoyed these impromptu visits from her son. She thought for a moment, and decided that the blueberry pie in the refrigerator could stand the loss of a piece or two. Jonathan wouldn’t care, not once he found out who’d eaten it.
So she was more than a bit surprised when Clark knocked on the back door instead of simply walking in. She opened the door and was surprised again.
Lois stood beside Clark. Both of them appeared to have been fighting and rolling around in the dustiest and dirtiest hole in the ground they could have found. And their faces looked bleak and empty.
“What – come on in, you two! My goodness! What happened?”
Clark let Lois enter first. “Someone blew up a building we were in, Mom.”
“So that’s why you’re so dirty and – wait. There were other people in the building, weren’t there?”
Clark nodded soberly. Lois closed her eyes and tried not to cry.
Martha’s maternal instincts took over. “Well, the first thing we need to do is to get you two out of those nasty clothes. Lois, you get the shower first. I don’t have anything in your size, but maybe you can wear some of Clark’s old sweats until you can get something else.”
Lois opened damp eyes and lifted her hands. “Clark? I’m almost certain I left my purse inside Platt’s lab.”
He nodded. “No credit cards, no cash, right?”
She assayed a tiny smile. “You keep your life in your hip pocket, mine hangs from my shoulder. I’m pretty much out of luck until I can get all that stuff replaced.”
“I could fly back to your apartment and pick up some clothes.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have my keys, either, and I’d rather not have to explain why Superman was burgling my apartment to raid my closet.”
He quirked his mouth to one side and almost grinned. “That’s a good point. Okay, no super-burgling today.”
Martha shooed her towards the bathroom. “No problem. I’ll drive over to the Wal-Mart in Bakersville. I’ll get some jeans and shirts and several changes of underwear. Oh, and some socks and a pair of tennis shoes, if that’s okay.”
“Oh, Martha, you don’t have to – “
“No. I insist. No way we’d let you run around naked.” She was pleased by the tiny glint of amusement she saw in Lois’s eyes before she turned to her son. “Clark, you probably need to make some phone calls, don’t you?”
He nodded wearily. “Yes. I need to call Perry and let him know we’re both okay.” He looked at Lois with an intent that Martha recognized but couldn’t decipher. “Lois? What should I tell him?”
Lois bit her lower lip in thought. Hard. And when she released it, Martha saw that there was no mark on it. “Tell him that I’m fine. You were right. We need to sit down and get our stories together and decide what to print. It’s a pretty sure bet that whoever set off that bomb thinks we’re dead. Maybe if we let him think that for a while, we can learn something.”
He nodded. “Will do. Take your time in the shower.”
Martha took Lois’s hand and gently guided her to the bathroom. “Bath towel, hair towel, wide comb and hairbrush on the counter, shampoo – sorry, probably not your brand – my bathrobe and slippers. You can use them until you can change. I’ll lay out some of Clark’s sweats on the bathroom countertop, and you can put your clothes in this hamper. I’ll see if they can be salvaged, but as badly cut up and burned as they are, I wouldn’t hold out much hope if I were you.”
Lois nodded. “Thank you, Martha. I can’t tell you how much – “
“Oh, pish tosh. Your Clark’s friend, you’ve eaten with us, and that practically makes you family already.”
The tears came and Lois sat on the edge of the tub. Martha knelt down in front of her and held her hand. “Lois, honey, it’s okay. You were nearly killed today. That’s got to be a terrific shock.”
“Oh, it is, Martha, it is.” Lois wiped her eyes with her hands, which only smeared wet dust over her face. “This is the second time in less than a year that I’ve survived a sure-death situation. I’m beginning to wonder whether I’m a jinx or I’m cursed or something.”
“No, dear, no! You’re not a jinx and you’re not cursed! You’re a very brave young woman who’s facing a terrible situation. Give yourself some time to deal with this.”
Lois wiped her eyes and nodded. “At least I didn’t precipitate this explosion. Even if Clark and I were targets, whoever it was wouldn’t have set off a bomb that would destroy an entire Luthor Technologies laboratory just to kill us.”
“You’re probably right, Lois, but I think you should put those thoughts on the back burner and get yourself cleaned up. I’ll be back as soon as I can, but it’s quite a drive. Give me your sizes and I’ll see what I can do.”
Lois smiled through her tears and smears. “Oh, Martha, you’re a wonder! Thank you so much!”
Martha hugged her quickly and stood. “You get in the shower, dear. I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”
Martha jotted down the numbers Lois gave her and smiled encouragingly. As she pulled the bathroom door shut, Martha wondered about the state of Lois’s clothes. She’d seen Clark’s garments damaged that badly on occasion when he’d just finished a dangerous or dynamic rescue, especially during the time before Superman made his public debut, but she’d never seen a normal person’s clothes in any condition close to that while the person still wearing them was still alive.
Something else was going on between Clark and Lois, something that went beyond the story in which they were involved. She hoped that at least one of them would trust her enough to share it before they went back to Metropolis.
*****
Martha heard Clark on the phone before she entered the kitchen. “Yes, Perry, we’re both fine. No, no green dust, just concrete and rebar and – oh.”
He listened for a moment, then he groaned. “I knew there were casualties, but so many – no, I had no warning at all. It caught me completely off-guard. I didn’t have any chance to help anyone else.”
He listened some more. “No, we think you should be the only one who knows we made it out, at least for the moment. The authorities will be working for a while to find any survivors, and then pulling out the bod – the victims – but I’m certain we’re the only ones who got out alive. You can watch for suspicious behavior. I think we’ll be here in Smallville for a couple of days, at least.”
His eyes squeezed shut for a moment, then opened. His voice had a slight hitch in it. “I just – I couldn’t stay, Perry. I just couldn’t. It smelled like – like after the ship blew up.”
He listened and nodded. “Okay, I’ll tell her. Thanks, Perry. I appreciate it, and I know Lois does too.” He hung up the phone and turned to see his mother. It was a sign of his state of mind that he hadn’t known she was there, and that he showed no surprise at her sudden appearance.
“Oh. Mom. You heard?”
“Part of it, yes. You know you and Lois are welcome to stay as long as you need to be here.”
He slowly sat on the stool below the wall phone. “Thank you. And Perry said to tell you that the Planet will reimburse you for anything and everything you spend on us. As of now, Lois and I are on an undercover assignment in Smallville.”
She put her hand on his shoulder. “That’s not necessary, honey, but thank Mr. White for us.” She shifted her purse on her shoulder. “Now I have to go so I can get back in a reasonable period of time. Lois will be done with the shower in a little while, and we still have some of your clothes in your old room. You can change into them after you get cleaned up.”
“Okay, Mom. You go, we’ll be fine.”
She knew it wasn’t true at the moment. But she hoped it would be true soon.
