Chapter Thirty-two
>>>Monday, 7:25 AM
Clark stepped out of his shower and toweled his hair dry. He wondered briefly when Ultra Woman would make her public debut, then he shook his head and decided not to worry about it. He brushed his hair and reached for his underwear.
Then a fire rescue emergency broadcast about a school bus in trouble on a bridge just outside Metropolis caught his attention. He listened for a moment, realized that the rescue units were still several minutes away from the bus, and decided that it was indeed a job for Superman. He spun into a clean suit and whooshed out the window.
*****
He arrived on site within thirty seconds. The bus had been sideswiped by a pickup truck and had been pushed into and then partly over the side railing, and now it lay there precariously balanced. The kids were bunched towards the front of the bus, but they couldn’t get out because the door had been crushed by the impact. And the emergency door in the rear of the bus overlooked a drop of several dozen feet to the river below.
Superman looked under the bus and decided that dragging it back onto the roadway wasn’t the best course of action. The undercarriage was impaled by at least three broken concrete fence posts, and the body of the vehicle appeared to be bent and cracked near the middle. Lifting the damaged vehicle was an iffy proposition, too. Too much stress would simply tear the bus apart and drop the back end into the water.
Then the driver saw him and began shouting and gesturing towards the back. Superman peered in and saw two students lying on the floor, both with injuries which prevented them from moving.
He decided he could use some help.
-* Lois? I mean, Ultra Woman? Are you listening? *-
-* I’m right behind you, Clark. *-
He spun around, surprised, and saw her standing just a few feet away. “I’m glad you’re here. Are you ready to make your debut?”
She nodded. “I’m as ready as I can be.”
“Good. Since everybody already knows who I am, I think you should hold down the front of the bus while I open up the doors to get the kids off.”
She nodded and quickly moved to the front bumper of the bus. She slowly put pressure on it until the front tires settled onto the pavement.
Superman sent her a quick nod of approval, then gently worked the crumpled doors partly open. “Hi, kids. You can get off now. I want the youngest ones first, okay?”
“Superman!” the driver shouted. “There are two fifth-grade girls in the back of the bus. They’re hurt and I can’t get to them!”
“It’s okay, sir, I’ve already seen them. We’ll take care of them as soon as the other kids get off safely. Will you help keep them organized in there?”
The man nodded and took a deep breath. “Awright, little ones first! That means kindergarten and first grade. Debbie, Karen, you make sure the second-graders stay in line back there. Third-graders and fourth-graders move aside into the seats for now. Superman will make sure everyone’s okay.”
The doorway was crumpled inward and blocked the bottom of the steps, so Superman had to lift each child out of the bus one at a time. There were three adult bystanders, one of whom had called in the emergency, who herded the kids out of danger to the end of the bridge.
The oldest students were about to get off when Ultra Woman called out, “Superman, the ambulance is almost here. Are you ready to get the injured kids off now?”
“In a minute. All right, young lady, are you the last student?”
The girl nodded as he set her down on the pavement. “Except for Angela and Kim. They’re in the back of the bus. They’re hurt.”
Superman smiled. “I know. I’m going to get them off now. You go with the other kids and help keep the little ones calm, okay?”
“Okay, Superman!”
The girl turned and trotted towards the rest of the students. Two police cars had arrived, and the officers were taking names and making calls to parents. The ambulance pulled in and turned off its siren as Superman lifted the driver out.
“But I should go help those girls!” he protested. “They’re my responsibility!”
“I appreciate your sense of duty, sir, but the best thing you can do right now is to make sure the other kids stay calm and safe. Ultra Woman and I will take care of the injured girls.”
“Ultra Woman, huh? She your girlfriend or something?”
He shook his head. “No. She’s just helping me.”
The driver grinned. “Whatever you say. I’ll get out of your way now.”
As the man hustled past him, Superman called, “I’m going in now. I’ll float above the floor.”
She nodded abruptly. “Don’t take too long. I think the edge of the bridge is starting to collapse.”
As he floated over the seats to the back of the bus, he could hear one of the girls moaning in pain. That girl was lying on the floor and had slid under one of the seats. Her lower leg was bent at an unnatural angle, and slivers of white bone poked through the skin over her shin.
The other girl was sitting up, holding her arm tenderly across her stomach. Superman quickly x-rayed it and saw the cracked upper arm bone. “Hi,” he said softly. “Which of you is Kim and which is Angela?”
The girl sitting up gasped, “I’m – I’m Kim. That’s Angela. She’s – ahh – she’s hurt worse. Take her first.”
Superman nodded, then sent, -* Two girls, both about eleven or twelve, Kim and Angela. Kim has a fractured upper left arm. Angela has a compound fracture of her lower right leg. Angela has some blood loss, but it doesn’t look dangerous at the moment. Ask the paramedics which one they want first. *-
He waited while Ultra Woman relayed his message. She sent back, -* Whichever one comes out easier. They have stretchers and teams ready for both. *-
-* Thanks. *-
He glanced around at the front of the bus and saw how awkward it would be to take either girl out that way. Then he looked at the emergency exit at the back. “Kim, I’m going to carry you out the back door first because I’ll have to pull up one of the seats to get to Angela, and I don’t want you to get hurt while I’m doing it. Okay?”
Kim nodded and gasped again. He floated to the back door and opened it carefully, then floated back and gently picked her up. “Just take it easy, Kim, you’re doing great. Angela, don’t go away, okay? I’ll be right back.”
Angela nodded and tried to laugh, but only groaned again. He carried Kim to the first stretcher, then glanced at Ultra Woman. “Okay so far?”
“I’m fine,” she said, “but this bus isn’t. You’d better hurry.”
The vehicle groaned and creaked as if underscoring her statement. “Okay. Be right back.”
He floated back into the bus and found that Angela had lapsed into unconsciousness. Cautiously, he snapped the seat supports on the bench above the injured girl and laid the seat across two others in front of her. Then he gently lifted Angela and floated her out of the bus to the second stretcher.
He helped the EMT arrange her for transport. “That’s the last one. Is everyone accounted for?”
“I think so,” the young man replied. “We’ll take it from here.”
Superman nodded and stepped back, then turned and looked at the bus again. “Ultra Woman, you anchor the front and I’ll lift the back end onto the roadway.”
“I hope it doesn’t fold up like a lawn chair.”
“It might still do that. That’s why I wanted the kids off first. Ready?”
She nodded. In seconds, the damaged school bus was safely resting on the roadway, further bent but no longer a hazard to traffic on the bridge or to passersby below.
As Superman walked to the front of the bus, he whispered, “Let’s go meet some of these kids whose lives we just saved.”
Alarmed, she responded, “What? Meet them? You mean – talk to them?”
He took her elbow and guided her towards the group of kids. “Sure. They’ll remember this all their lives, how they were the first ones saved by Ultra Woman.” He looked into her eyes. “And it’ll be good for you, too. This was one of the good rescues, and you got your start with it.”
She hesitated, then nodded. “Okay. For the kiddos.”
One of the older girls stepped forward and said, “Hey, you’re a girl just like me!”
Ultra Woman smiled slightly. “Well, maybe not just like you, but I am a girl.”
“What’s your name?”
“There are those who call me Ultra Woman.”
The girl’s eyes opened up and she breathed, “Ooh, Ultra Woman! That is such a cool name!” She took Ultra Woman’s hand in hers, turned to the other kids, and shouted, “Hey, guys! This is Ultra Woman! She saved us!”
The kids cheered and rushed to surround her. There was no way to get away from them without injuring one or more of the kids, so Ultra Woman just stood there listening to their shouts.
Then one first-grade boy wrapped himself around her leg and shouted, “Thank you thank you thank you oh thank you!”
Ultra Woman looked to Superman for help, but he just smiled. “I think you’re a hit,” he called out. She smiled cautiously and patted the boy on the back. Clark nodded to himself. She’s being a bit formal, maybe even standoffish, he thought, but she’s still handling it well.
Then Superman noticed that one of the bystanders had a home video camera up and running. Well, he mused, a debut isn’t a debut any more without a video record of it.
*****
Perry burst out of his office and stared at the television on the wall. The scene showed Superman and a garishly clad, apparently super-powered woman lifting a school bus off the guardrail of a bridge and onto the roadway. The announcer intoned, “This was the scene this morning in rural New Troy as Superman and his new assistant, a costumed woman calling herself Ultra Woman, rescued a bus full of elementary school students. Two students were transported to the local hospital, where they are both reported to be in stable condition. No other injuries were reported, although it appears that several people were treated at the scene for minor scrapes or cuts. Again, the accident was caused by a pickup truck driven by a young man who had apparently fallen asleep at the wheel. We don’t believe the young man was injured, and no arrests have been made at this time. However, authorities have not ruled out filing charges.”
He stopped talking for a moment as the children mobbed the new heroine. “As you can see, the purple-clad model calling herself Ultra Woman mingled with the school children from the bus after the rescue. At this time, the actual identity of this woman is unknown, nor is it known how she might have acquired powers which seem similar to Superman’s.”
The talking head on the screen paused and leaned to one side. Perry stepped forward and shouted, “All right, who’s got this story? Who can tell me anything about this – what did that moron call her?”
“Ultra Woman,” called out a chorus of male voices.
“Ultra Woman, huh? What do we know about her?”
“She can fly.”
“She’s about as strong as Superman.”
“She’s really hot!”
Perry’s gaze focused on Jimmy, who suddenly blushed and muttered, “I can’t believe I said that out loud!”
“Never mind!” shouted Perry. “The rest of you get started on this story!” He turned and glanced at two particular desks. “Olsen! Where’s Lane and Kent?”
Jimmy looked around. “I – I dunno, Chief. They haven’t called in and I haven’t seen them.”
“Find them! And they’d better have a dynamite story for the evening edition when they get here!”
He turned back to the television. So, Lois is calling herself Ultra Woman, he thought. Not bad. Not bad at all.
But her outfit – she could have done a lot better than that. Although he’d seen worse on Elvis a time or two.
*****
LNN ran the rescue story intermittently all day, showing the amateur video repeatedly, accompanied by interviews with everyone who’d seen Ultra Woman that morning. All the news networks’ talking heads talked themselves hoarse while saying nothing new about her. The wire services hummed with rehash and empty speculation on this new super-powered character. Editors all over the eastern seaboard reviled their reporting staffs for not anticipating the new heroine’s advent, or, failing that, for not securing the exclusive story of her origins and her relationship with Superman.
The Whisper printed a borderline slanderous article on “The New Super-Hottie In Town,” including badly posed fake photos of a pink-and-purple clad woman in a passionate clinch with a man wearing a Superman costume and an obvious toupee. The woman’s outfit lacked the yellow stripe on the left leg – and the petite figure of the real Ultra Woman – and the man’s suit showed more flesh in the middle than in the shoulders, so nearly everyone who saw it merely laughed aloud.
The Star printed an article which included a number of quotes from borderline political figures and wannabe celebrities conjecturing about Superman’s relationship with this new figure. The prevailing sentiment seemed to be that it was about time Superman got himself a girlfriend, although some of the women quoted in the article expressed regret that someone had beaten them to that lofty and very desirable position. One starlet with more physical assets than acting talent even offered to “fly stand-by” for Superman in case the “relationship” with Ultra Woman didn’t work out.
No response from either Ultra Woman or Superman was noted in the article, or in any of the follow-up articles later in the week.
The evening edition of the Daily Planet had the only actual interview with Ultra Woman, written by Clark Kent. She declined, of course, to answer any personal questions, nor did she reveal any information about the origin of her abilities, but she did say that she hoped that she could help people in need and fight crime, much as Superman had already done. When asked if she considered Superman a mentor, she acknowledged that he had blazed the trail for her, but that she also wanted to have the freedom to pursue her own path. She firmly denied any hint of a romantic relationship between herself and Superman.
Her response to Clark’s question about her mask was simply that she didn’t want people to chase after her. She only wanted them to let her help them when they needed it, and that her face and real name were secrets that she didn’t want published.
Lois Lane contributed a companion article describing Superman’s reaction to her new associate. He was also firm in denying that any kind of relationship beyond the professional one existed between the pair, but he also expressed the hope that both Metropolis and the world beyond would benefit from having two super-powered heroes available to fight for truth and justice.
When asked if he might be a little jealous of the attention given to the new heroine, Superman responded that he welcomed her assistance, and he hoped the public would treat her as courteously as they had so far treated him. Far from being envious, he was pleased that someone else was willing to reach out and help others in need, since he certainly couldn’t be everywhere at once.
Franklin Stern called Perry at home that evening to congratulate him on scooping every news organization in the country. Perry smiled and accepted the accolades, promised to pass them on to Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and decided that neither Clark nor Lois was actually cheating. But he did make a mental note to advise Lois to spread her press coverage around. It wouldn’t do for her to be too closely identified to the Planet. Someone might decide there was a definite connection.
*****
Cat Grant sat in her car in the Planet’s parking garage and lifted her special phone.
She hated that phone. She hated the person on the other end of the line, and she didn’t even know if that person was a man or a woman. She hated the calls she made, and she hated the words she spoke even as they came out of her mouth. She hated the immense gambling debt she’d incurred in college, and she hated the gangsters who’d laughed at her and sold her debt to the mysterious person she kept calling. She hated the candid photographs of her parents which appeared at odd intervals.
Most of all, she hated herself for being too weak to stop.
No matter what she did, she was certain that someone she cared about would be hurt, maybe even killed, if she kept making those calls. And the same thing might happen if she stopped making them. She had to decide whether or not to keep calling, and if she did call, what she would and would not report. She had to decide either to break off all contact and risk that the person wasn’t bluffing, or ignore her personal ethics and keep making the calls.
She sighed and decided to defer that decision for the next day. Or maybe the day after.
She dialed and waited. The voice at the other end was as matter-of-fact as usual. “Yes, Miss Grant?”
Cat hesitated, then said, “Clark and Lois got one-on-one interviews with Superman about Ultra Woman and Ultra Woman herself.”
“Interesting. I understood that the media had been having great difficulty in making contact with either of them.”
“Everyone else is. They got the stories. You can read them in this evening’s edition of the Planet.”
“I shall. Is there anything not printed in the stories that you’d like to share with me?”
“What? Wait a minute, I don’t know anything beyond what Perry printed! I wasn’t there when they did the interviews, and I haven’t looked at their notes!”
“I would like for you to do just that, Miss Grant.”
“Their notes?” This was more than just reporting in. This was close to burglary, and it was definitely outside the ethical bounds of the newsroom. “I can’t look at their notes! They wouldn’t let me! I don’t even know if they wrote down notes on this story! Besides, that’s not part of our agreement!”
“It is now. I want copies of their notes by nine tomorrow morning.”
“But – “
“Do not fail me on this, Miss Grant. Your parents will pay the price if you do.”
Trembling, Cat swallowed hard. “What if – what if there aren’t any written notes?”
“Use your ingenuity, your wiles, your sex appeal, your rapier wit, I don’t care. Just get me all the information on Superman and Ultra Woman you can lay your hands on. And do it by nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”
The connection was severed at the other end before Cat could protest again. She’d just been ordered to do something she couldn’t possibly do. This was too much! Not only were the notes off limits, she had no idea where they were stored. If they were on the computer network, she was really out of luck. Lois usually kept her notes on her computer, so unless Cat wanted to hack into the Planet’s system – which she strongly doubted she could do by morning without getting caught – those notes were out of reach, but perhaps Clark had written his notes on paper. She knew that he often did, and if she could get those notes, maybe it would be enough to satisfy her keeper.
She closed the phone. It was time to decide.
And she wasn’t sure that she could.
>>>Tuesday, 5:05 AM
Cat sat down heavily at her desk without looking at the other three people on the news floor. She hoped her body language would say that she was in early, didn’t want to be in early, and especially didn’t want to talk to anyone about anything.
It seemed to work. None of the people on the night shift spoke to her, nodded to her, or even seemed to acknowledge her existence. She turned on her computer and opened an article she’d been working on that wasn’t due until Wednesday afternoon, but no one else knew that.
She typed furiously for almost twenty minutes, then leaned back and stretched. With a dramatic sigh, she rose and ambled tiredly towards the coffee station, hoping that the others would leave her alone.
Again, no one bothered her. She poured a cup of the evil-scented evening brew and leavened it with large dollops of creamer and sugar. Even with the extra flavoring and thinners, the harsh, acidic aftertaste nearly severed her tongue from its roots. She decided not to subject herself to the night shift’s highly questionable concept of drinkable caffeine ever again.
While pretending to sip, she ambled aimlessly to Clark’s desk and sat down heavily in the chair, hoping that anyone who saw her would assume she was simply taking a break. She leaned back and felt the imprint of his body on the chair and closed her eyes for a moment, imagining that she was leaning against Clark.
But that could never be. A man as good and honest and trustworthy as Clark Kent was so far beyond her reach as to be almost invisible. Someone like her could never aspire to be loved by someone as good and fine and honorable as Clark Kent. She was as far below him as man was below the archangels, and the most painful part of it was that he had no idea of the truth about her.
She dashed away the sudden tears and returned to the real reason she was sitting at his desk, which was to find out what he knew about Ultra Woman. A quick visual scan told her that he’d left nothing on top of his desk that might be helpful. His unlocked desk drawers didn’t yield as much as a sticky note about the new heroine.
This was not good. Her mysterious ‘employer’ had been adamant about finding something, anything about Ultra Woman, but there simply wasn’t anything which she could get to with any information she wanted. She stood and meandered back to her own desk, lost in thought and trepidation about how that phone call she would make soon might go.
She put her cup down on her desk and sat down. Maybe, thought Cat, I can at least finish polishing my article, even if it’s my swan song.
She worked on it for another fifteen minutes, rearranging sentences and trimming her deathless purple prose, finally getting it ready to send to Perry’s blue pencil.
So intent on her work she was, that when a hand descended on her shoulder, she squealed and jumped and nearly fell onto the floor.
She turned saucer eyes to the intruder and saw Clark standing behind her, a slightly bemused expression on his face. “Cat? I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to scare you. In fact, I was trying to let you know I was in early so I wouldn’t scare you.”
She grabbed her chest and tried to let her heart know that death was not yet stalking her. “O – okay.” She panted several more times, and she slowly calmed down. “I – I had to come in early and finish something.”
Clark smiled brightly. “I understand. I have something I have to work on, too. I’ll see you later.” He took a couple of steps, then stopped. “And I’ll try not to sneak up on you again.”
She managed a weak smile. “At least, not today.”
He chortled deep in his chest, like her father used to. He sat down at his desk and hesitated, looked around, and frowned. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he stared at his desk and then at his computer keyboard. He bit the inside of his mouth as if in deep thought, then he shrugged and began his computer logon sequence.
Cat tried not to sigh. Had he realized that someone had been snooping, and if so, would he suspect her? Was her cover story about coming in early to work good enough?
After a moment, she frowned to herself. If he’d suspected her, he would’ve confronted her then and there. If her cover story hadn’t been good enough, he wouldn’t have been so friendly. Besides, it wasn’t as if she never came in to work that early.
Because she did. Sometimes the pressures were too much for her, and she retreated to her job, the most stable part of her life that she knew.
Yet, ultimately, it wasn’t an idyllic retreat. She knew she’d have to make that call soon, and she desperately feared the outcome.
Cat glanced at the clock. Ten minutes before seven. Just over two hours before she had to make the call and confess her failure, refuse to make the call and risk reprisal, or grab what little money and what few possessions she could carry and leave town.
The third option was the most appealing to her. Not only would she not have to make any more calls to her keeper, she’d be on her own for the first time in her life. She’d be free to do whatever she wanted, go wherever she wanted. And she had the distinct impression that the person on the other end of the line would indeed kill her if she could be found, but that the farther west she might run, the safer she’d be.
All she’d have to worry about is whether or not her parents would live until nightfall.
No, running wasn’t an option, not yet. And simply not making that call was just as bad, with the added complication that she’d still be in the target zone. So she’d call.
She wasn’t sure what she could say, but she’d call.
Then she heard Lois come in and call to Clark. “Hey, partner. You get that exclusive on Ultra Woman?”
Cat’s ears rotated forward. Maybe she could postpone her personal day of judgment after all.
“Of course I got it, Lois. Ultra Woman gave me the story herself.”
Lois grinned as she hung up her sweater. “You were lucky, Kent. You just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”
Her smile seemed to defuse the sting of her words. Clark leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “Well, if I could bat my eyelashes at Superman and get an exclusive from him, I’d do that.”
“As if!” Then Lois snapped her fingers. “Hey! You made me think of something. Superman and Ultra Woman both insist there’s nothing romantic between them, right?”
Clark frowned slightly and nodded. “Yeah, so?”
“And we’ve never seen or heard of Superman being on a date, have we?”
Apparently unsure of where she was going with this, he cautiously responded, “Not to my knowledge, no.”
Lois’s face almost split from suppressed laughter. “So, maybe that’s because he’s just not interested in girls.”
The light came on for him. “Oh, no, don’t go there, Lane! You and I both know that Superman is – “
“Is gay! Has to be!” she finished brightly. Then she skipped across the newsroom floor to her desk.
Clark spluttered shortly, then called back, “So, does that mean that because Ultra Woman isn’t interested in Superman she’s gay, too?”
Lois came to an abrupt stop. “You had better NOT go there, Kent!”
Clark didn’t speak, but his face looked funny for a moment. Then Lois’s face looked funny, and they both chuckled.
And they kept on spitting out alternating bouts of laughter for the next fifteen minutes. Either they were the company’s quickest typists and were sending each other goofy e-mails, or they were telepathic.
Had to be quick fingers, Cat decided.
The tidbits about Superman and Ultra Woman weren’t what Cat had expected to learn, but at least she had something to report now. Even if it wasn’t true, it might get her off the hook for the day.
>>>Tuesday, 11:25 AM
Perry leaned out of his office and shouted. “Kent! Lane! Olsen! In here right now!”
The three reported in short order, and he gestured for them all to take a seat. Lois frowned and asked, “Is something wrong, Perry?”
“Naw,” replied the editor. “I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page with the LexLabs bombing. Y’all let me summarize and then you can fill in any blanks I missed, okay?”
They nodded and Perry began. “First off, I want to let you know that this is all anybody has on this case. LexCorp security, the US Army, the FBI, and the Metropolis PD have all pooled their knowledge to come up with the contents of this file.” He lifted a manila folder from his desk and displayed it for a moment. “But this knowledge does not leave this room. Got it?”
Three heads nodded as one. “Good. First, we know that the explosives and the detonators were military grade like the ones stolen from Army bases last year and the year before and sold to various military factions in Africa. So whoever did this is probably part of that outfit.”
The other three glanced at each other and nodded. “Agreed,” said Clark.
“Second, the police have no leads on who might have actually placed those explosives, except that it was someone who knew his business.”
Lois lifted her hand. “Isn’t it possible that ‘she’ knew ‘her’ business?”
Perry made a face. “Possible but not likely. The FBI profilers say that the bomber is a man who has a military background, probably in some kind of secret behind-the-lines outfit, and a history of violence in civilian life. They also say that he’s very careful and unlikely to make a mistake.”
“But it’s possible for him to goof up, isn’t it?” inquired Jimmy.
“Possible. But he didn’t, not while Clark and Lois were playing dead. And even the Dangerous Boys didn’t dig up anything that would point towards any specific person. There wasn’t even any way to trace anything back from Dr. Baines. And y’all couldn’t track any money changing hands anywhere that sent up any red flags.”
Jimmy scowled. “We found a bunch of transfers to that Cayman Islands bank! And we know that Baines had an account there! Doesn’t that count as a clue?”
“Sure it does, son, but it’s just not enough to indict anyone. We don’t even have a name to go with that info.”
Jimmy shifted in his chair but didn’t say anything else. Perry continued, “That’s number three. Number four is, we know there’s a ‘Boss’ out there somewhere pulling lots of strings on lots of criminal activity, and we’re pretty sure that this same ‘Boss’ was involved with that gun-running ring, but we can’t get a handle on who it is. And we think that the ‘Boss’ was connected with the bombing, but we don’t have any hard evidence. Lois, any of your snitches come up with anything yet?”
She shook her head. “No. Not even Bobby Bigmouth has heard anything definite.”
“Clark? How about you?”
He frowned. “No go, Chief. Not even Superman has heard anything, and he’s been listening for it.”
“Jimmy?”
Jimmy sighed. “Not unless you give us the go-ahead to hack into that bank’s computers.”
“And you’re not gonna get it from me! It’s not only nine kinds of illegal, it’s too dangerous. Even if you got something, it would never hold up in court, and we could be sued from here to Tuesday if we printed something like that. Now do you have any hard evidence we can use?”
Jimmy sighed again and shook his head. “That’s what I thought.” Perry lifted his hands and let them drop. “That’s about it, kids. I wish we had more, but we don’t. We’re stuck. So from this moment, we put this on the back burner and work on stories we can print.”
Lois lurched forward and might have jumped to her feet if Clark hadn’t put his hand on her arm. “Perry, you can’t take us off this! We’re close, I can feel it!”
Instead of barking back, Perry’s voice got lower. “I believe you. But my belief does not validate your feelings. I can’t print your beliefs any more than I can eat ‘em.” He lifted his hand as Lois took a breath to continue. “Hold on! I said, put it on the back burner, not drop it. I want you three to keep on this and keep me updated. But it has to be secondary to the stories we need to fill up column inches. Savvy?”
Lois crossed her arms and sat back to pout. Jimmy ducked his head and leaned his elbows on his knees. Only Clark seemed to accept his boss’s decision gracefully. “We understand, Chief. And when we get to the bottom of this, you’ll be the first to know about it.”
“Good! Now the three of you either go back to work or take an early lunch and get something solid this afternoon. I’m up to my elbows in alligators and I need some hard-hitting stories for tomorrow’s morning edition.”
The three of them filed out with varying degrees of resignation and determination showing on their faces. Perry sighed and pulled out his tin of paava leaves. Even without enhanced hearing, he picked up on Jimmy’s complaint that sometimes this job stunk. And Lois’s answering snarl showed that she agreed with him.
Perry shook his head sadly. I know how the kid feels, he thought. Sometimes I’m not real fond of this job myself.
