Yes, we're kinda, sorta winding down... (or ARE we?)
Part 23To Lois’s surprise, Linda agreed to meet her for breakfast at the Press Club.
Lois let Clark lay out the evidence. She knew her own dislike of the woman would keep her from being helpful.
Linda simply stared at them when Clark was finished. She pushed back from the table so hard the coffee sloshed in the cups. “That can't be true. It can't be,” she protested.
“Think about it,” Clark urged. “Carpenter always calls to verify your location, right? He's the publisher. He doesn't need to do that.”
“Unless he needs to make sure his man, or woman, is in place before he pulls the trigger on whatever he's got planned,” Lois added.
“Like the elevator. The police have established it was no accident. You just ‘happened’ to be there. Just like you ‘happened’ to be at the fire,” Clark said.
“Just like Carpenter ‘happens’ to have a page ready to run in the same edition,” Lois added.
Linda stared at them. It had to be a blow, discovering you’d been used. Linda took a deep breath, blowing it out her nose.
“I feel so... so...”
“Abused? Duped? Used?” Lois listed cheerfully.
“What are you, a thesaurus?” Linda asked.
“Why don't you both put this on hold?” Clark interrupted them. “We have a lot of work to do.”
“We? ‘We’ is an inclusive term Clark, one used to indicate all people present. That would be a clear misuse,” Lois stated.
Linda stared at her. “You’re a dictionary?”
Clark took a deep breath. “Bottom line, it's a Planet story.”
“Absolutely!” Lois agreed brightly.
“Which we can't possibly prove or print without Linda's help,” Clark added. Lois sat back, folding her arms over her chest. She knew Clark was right, but she didn’t have to like it.
“Exactly!” Linda chimed in. Then she seemed to recognize what Clark meant. “What am I supposed to do? Walk up and say, 'Hi, boss, where are you staging your next disaster?'”
“You need to get Carpenter out of his office long enough for us to get into his computer,” Clark told her.
“How?” Linda asked.
Lois couldn’t keep from smirking. “You could use your 'other talents.' It wouldn't be the first time.”
Clark glowered at her then turned back to Linda. “You said he'd been hitting on you. Maybe you could... hit back?”
Linda nodded. Lois could tell the wheels were turning in Linda’s bleached blonde brain.
-o-o-o-
Lois hid with Clark behind the door to the fire stairs. It seemed to be taking forever and Lois could only imagine what Linda was telling Carpenter to get his interest. Lois had to admit, there were times that she had used her gender to get a story. She had even gone so far as to string a man along to get the information she needed. Lois was surprised to find she was actually a little worried about Linda. Carpenter had a reputation for having ‘interesting’ appetites and she wasn’t sure how Linda would handle herself.
Finally the door to Carpenter’s office opened and Linda and Carpenter stepped out. Carpenter closed the door, making sure it was locked. As he started toward the elevator, Linda slipped her arm through his and gave him a seductive smile.
“You're a very interesting woman, Linda,” Carpenter was saying.
“And the day is still young...” Linda responded, a little too cheerily for Lois’s taste.
It was all Lois could do to keep from groaning. Linda wasn’t going to have any problems handling Carpenter.
Clark checked to make sure the hallway was clear and stood watch as Lois made quick work of the lock. The door opened and they both slipped inside. Lois spotted the computer on Carpenter’s desk and headed for it. Behind her, she heard Clark lock the door.
Carpenter’s computer was still on. Lois studied the monitor. “We're in luck. I know this system.”
Clark came to watch over her shoulder as she began to search through the file directories
Suddenly, the doorknob jiggled and she looked up to see a shadow fall across the frosted glass of the door. Keys jingled as the shadow put a key in the lock. Clark pushed Lois under the heavy desk. There was only enough room for one of them but there was no time to think.
The door opened and heavy footsteps crossed the floor. The footsteps stopped then retreated to the door. Lois breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed again.
“That was close,” Lois murmured. Clark helped her out from under the desk. “Where did you hide?” she asked.
He pointed to the potted plant in the corner, giving her a sheepish look. “Let's not waste any time in case he comes back,” he suggested before she could ask any more questions. She knew he had to have hidden on the ceiling and wondered how often he’d done it before while they were breaking and entering.
Lois sat back down at the computer, tapping a few keys. “We're in... I'm betting this is his subdirectory... Yep.”
“What's that file? 'Musings?'” Clark asked. Lois opened the file and they both started reading.
“Looks like a personal diary,” Lois said as she scrolled down the file. But it wasn’t a diary or if it was it was evidence of an extremely disturbed mind and a possible sexual predator. “This man is very sick. In an x-rated kind of way.”
“Let's hope Linda doesn't have to call his bluff,” Clark told her.
“Don't worry,” Lois said grimly. “They're probably perfect for each other.”
“We need proof, not scandal,” Clark reminded her. “Try another file. That one.” He pointed at file labeled ‘camelot’. Lois attempted to open the file but a password request came on the screen.
“This must be it. But we need a password to get into it.”
“Try Kane. K-A-N-E,” Clark suggested. “Linda says he's got a Citizen Kane fixation.”
“No kidding,” Lois muttered as she typed it in. “Nope. Let's see… How about... Rosebud?”
Clark said it at the same as she did.
“Great minds think alike,” Lois said with a grin. “We're in.”
“Look!” Clark pointed at the document on the screen. “There's the editorial that went with the hotel fire.”
Lois scrolled down the page. “There's the one on building inspections that ran with the elevator accident.” She scrolled down further. “Wait a minute. 'An eye for an eye is the only course this country can take after today's brutal assassination of Secretary Wallace at his hotel by Omir extremists...'” she read aloud. “Wallace isn't dead.”
“Yet.”
“Carpenter's willing to kill a member of the cabinet to sell a few papers?” Lois asked.
Clark nodded. “To drag us into a war. And he'd also be willing to kill Linda if he knew she was on to him. Let's go.”
Lois hesitated. There was more to the document than they’d read. She hurriedly put a floppy disk into the drive and copied the file. Clark glared at her. “I'm coming already!” she said, grabbing the floppy and following him out.
-o-o-o-
Wallace was staying at the Grand Hotel, not far from the Omiri Embassy.
The taxi pulled up in front of the hotel and Lois and Clark were out of it almost before it stopped. Lois spotted Linda running toward them from the ground floor restaurant.
“What are you doing here?” Linda hissed at them “You'll blow everything.”
“Carpenter's going to kill Secretary Wallace!” Clark told her.
“He's already written the editorial,” Lois chimed in. “All he needs is your 'exclusive' report.”
“Stay here,” Clark ordered. “I'm going in to warn the Secretary.” He ran inside the hotel before Lois could protest. Linda just raised one eyebrow at Lois.
“'Stay here.'? Guess we know who calls the shots on your team.” Linda said.
“You have no idea,” Lois told her. She wasn’t about to explain Clark’s protective streak, or anything else, to the woman.
Linda shrugged. “I just know what I see.”
“Stay here,” Lois ordered. “I'm going after Clark.”
Linda grabbed Lois’s arm, keeping her from leaving. “Nice try.”
Lois and Linda ran to the front door, following Clark. Lois looked for him, but he had vanished.
“There they are!” Linda pointed out four men entering the elevator. Lois recognized Carpenter and the man who had been with him at the party. The other two were strangers, dressed in hotel uniforms. The elevator doors closed on them and the level marker indicated the elevator was heading down.
Lois ran for the nearest stairwell, Linda on her heels. They got to the lower level and peeked out the stairwell door to see Carpenter and the three other men passing through swinging doors at the end of the corridor.
As they hurried to the doors marked ‘Banquet Kitchen,’ and peeked through the door portholes. Beyond the doors was an empty kitchen, empty except for Carpenter and the three men with him. The four men were huddled around one of the prep tables.
‘”One of us should notify the police. The other should stay on the story,” Lois said, keeping her voice low.
“Great,” Linda agreed. “You take the police.”
“I was thinking you would handle that.”
“Think again,” Linda announced, pushing open one door and dropping to a crouch. She was inside the kitchen before Lois could grab her. Furious, Lois dropped down and followed Linda into the kitchen. The two women approached the men under cover of the kitchen’s large appliances.
“I'm here, on the roof across the street,” Carpenter’s assistant was saying. “You two set up here, and here. Fire when you hear my shot.” He turned to Carpenter. “What about your 'friend?'”
To answer, Carpenter pulled a cell phone from his pocket and keyed in a number.
Suddenly, Linda's cell phone rang. Lois and Linda grabbed for it but it was too late. The men had heard the sound.
“Linda, dear,” Carpenter began as he stood over them. “I guess I don't have to tell you I've been detained, do I?”
Within minutes Lois and Linda were sitting on the floor of the hotel’s walk-in freezer, tied up back to back, hidden behind a tall stack of hamburgers in cases. Stark – Linda had told Lois who he was - checked their bindings one last time as Carpenter watched.
“I can't tell you how truly sorry I am that things turned out this way,” Carpenter told them. He didn’t seem at all concerned about what was happening. “On the other hand, you two are going to be part of a fabulous forty-eight point headline.”
He walked out, followed by Stark. Lois heard the heavy door thump closed behind them. The two women struggled against the ropes but Stark had done a professional job in tying them. The ropes cut tighter the more they struggled.
“Life is cruel,” Lois muttered. She didn’t remember how long it would take for hypothermia to set in but she knew the freezer’s temperature was well below zero Fahrenheit.
“Don't get philosophical,” Linda groused. “It's never been your strength.”
“Well, doesn't it strike you as ironic?” Lois asked. “That the two of us should have to die together?”
“We were best friends,” Linda reminded her.
“Were.”
Linda snorted. “Let's clear this up once and for all, okay?”
“Let's not and if there's anybody on the other side who asks us, let's just say we did.”
“You think I stole Paul Bender from you. But I didn’t,” Linda said, obviously ignoring Lois’s wishes. But that was just like Linda, ignoring other people’s needs and wants. “You weren't even dating him.”
“But I really cared for him, and you knew it.”
“He came on to me,” Linda told her.
“And you had no will power, huh?”
“None,” Linda cheerfully admitted. “I would have done anything for Paul.”
“And I guess you had no will power when you stole my story?”
“Okay. I'm weak. It doesn't mean I wasn't a good friend,” Linda said. “It just means I wasn't as strong as you are.”
“Wait a minute. You're backing into an apology by arguing that you stole a story and a guy because you were under the influence of your hormones and because I was your best girlfriend at the time that I should have forgiven you then and not make a big deal about it now?”
“Right,” Linda agreed.
Lois couldn’t feel her feet and the cold was creeping into her bones. Her breath was beginning to freeze on her face. But even half frozen she knew Linda’s argument had major holes in it. Lois just wasn’t in the mood to work them out with a half-frozen brain.
“Okay. I forgive you,” Lois said. “But what about Clark?”
“I never cared about him,” Linda said but there was something in her voice that told Lois she was lying. “Take him. He's yours.”
“He's not mine to have.”
“Well, you can have him if you want,” Linda offered.
Lois just shook her head. She was beginning to hope the cold would get to them fast. Otherwise, she was going to go quite mad with her unobtainable desire to choke the life out of Linda King.
-o-o-o-
She didn’t know how much time had passed. She really didn’t care. The cold had finally crept up on her and unconsciousness was a blessed relief. Linda had slipped into unconsciousness sometime before Lois did.
Then the pins and needles pain of returning circulation forced her to open her eyes. Lois looked up to see Clark’s worried face.
“You'll feel better in a little while,” Clark reassured her. She had started shivering again and someone wrapped another blanket around her.
“Did you… did you… stop them…?” she managed to get out.
“Yes,” Clark said. “Carpenter, Stark, and their two accomplices are in custody. Wallace is on his way to the airport.”
“And Linda?” Lois croaked out.
“She should be fine,” Henderson’s voice said from somewhere near. “Now, just lay back and enjoy your ride to the ER so they can check you out…”
-o-o-o-
The Daily Planet’s headline read ‘NEW AGE KANE NABBED IN ASSASSINATION PLOT’.
“Great story,” Jimmy was gushing at her and Clark over coffee in the lobby coffee shop. Lois had to admit, it was a good article – well-written, factual yet punchy. Clark had done his usual good job on it, not that she would ever tell him that.
By the time she had gotten to the ER, Lois had mostly stopped shivering. The doctors kept her for observation for a few hours and released her. She promptly headed to the Daily Planet to write up the story only to find that Clark was nearly finished with it. He had only needed the addition of what Carpenter and Stark had done to her and Linda to add the last coffin nail to Carpenter’s publishing career, and the Star’s dominance in the Metropolis news market.
Lois read the paper in front of her more carefully. “She did it again,” she growled.
Jimmy and Clark both gave her curious looks. “What?”
“The by-line, Clark,” she said, pointing it out to him. “'By Clark Kent and Lois Lane.' 'Special' contribution by Linda King.” She let her voice drip with sarcasm. “Right.”
“Now how did she do that?” Clark wondered aloud. He honestly sounded as surprised and annoyed as she was.
Jimmy nodded toward the elevators. Perry was saying goodbye to Linda. The older man spotted Lois and Clark and disappeared into the elevator. Jimmy apparently decided that discretion was the better part of valor. He took off as Linda approached the two Daily Planet reporters.
“Mister White is such a generous man,” Linda gushed, indicating the newspaper.
“You have no shame,” Lois stated, crossing her arms like a disapproving school marm.
“Yes, I do!” Linda protested. “Not a lot, but some.”
Clark shook his head and smiled. “So, what's next for you?”
“I've taken a job on the west coast,” she said. She laid a hand on his arm suggestively. “You want to keep the team together, come with me?”
Lois glared at her.
“I'm kidding, I'm kidding,” Linda protested with a smile. “Lois, I have something to say to you.”
“Don't,” Lois warned.
“When you told me you accepted my apology… that meant a lot to me.”
“Not to me. I thought I was dying and I wanted to clean the slate.”
“You don't mean that,” Clark told Lois. He turned to Linda, “She doesn't mean that.” Lois glared at him. “She means it.”
“Look at it this way, Lois. Maybe you're the reporter you are because of the competition you felt with me.”
Lois was appalled. “Not only am I supposed to accept your lame apology, but now I'm supposed to thank you?”
She looked to Clark for support but to her annoyance, he only smiled at her.
“So, Linda, which paper are you headed to next?” Clark asked.
“No paper,” she said. “LNN offered me the morning anchor spot at their L.A. bureau. In fact Mister Luthor offered it to me personally. I’m flying out tonight.”
-o-o-o-
“I can’t believe it,” Lois moaned to Clark over lunch. “I mean, first she talks Perry into giving her a piece of our byline and then Lex personally gives her a job in L.A. What am I doing wrong? I’m a good reporter. I’ve won three Kerths. I have the respect of my peers… Don’t I?”
“Of course you do,” Clark assured her. “And… well, Linda was a little… ‘predatory’. I know she was out of the loop as far as Carpenter was concerned, but I have to wonder exactly how innocent she really was. I mean you and I, even Jimmy, realized there was something fishy going on with them scooping us so conveniently.”
"But when did she find time to get to Lex?" Lois asked. She stabbed her spoon into her dessert, chocolate ice cream with raspberry sauce, one of her favorites.
"Stark, probably," Clark answered. "Henderson let me look at the background check they did on him. He's ex-NIA. Got let go for being a little gung ho when it came to creating politically expedient 'accidents' and his politics were a little suspect. But get this. One of his close liaisons was a man named Nigel St. John."
"Who now works for Lex," Lois completed for herself. "So, do you think Lex was behind Carpenter?"
"Lois, you know my opinion of Luthor,' Clark reminded her, "but, if Luthor was involved, I'd place my bets on Stark being the one on Luthor's payroll and I'd bet his orders were to keep Carpenter busy until Luthor was ready to make his move, whatever that was, or will be."
Lois sighed. "Clark, I know I promised you and Perry I wouldn’t do it. And I know how upset you were when I went to lunch with him…"
"Lois, you're a big girl," Clark told her but she could see the stiffness in his posture, the little muscle in his cheek that twitched when he was trying to hold his temper.
"I know that's what you told Lex," Lois told him. "Clark, our investigation into Superman's notes hasn't got us very far. All we have are hints. Even the other files haven't really led anywhere. I'm the only one who can get close enough to him to find out anything. I know it's dangerous. I know he has a reputation of bending people to his will. But I need to know that you'll be there when I need you. That you won't get all bent out of shape if it looks like… I need you to help keep me grounded."
"Lois, there has to be another way," Clark protested. "He's obsessed with you. The idea of you and if… if he finds out you're playing him, he could very easily kill you."
"Clark, I know I wasn't very nice when Linda went to distract Carpenter, but after I read what he wrote, after I realized she knew what he was like… Clark, somebody has to go after him. I'm the one with the best shot and we both know it," Lois told him earnestly. "Besides, I saw him when I was under the influence of Miranda's spray, remember? I wasn't attracted to him. I walked right past him because I wanted someone else. I'm not going to fall for him."
Clark bowed his head and nodded and she knew she'd won this battle.
"We need to let Perry know what we're planning," Clark said after a moment.
"I'll brief him in the morning," Lois promised. "Lex has been trying to talk me into going with him to see Madame Butterfly. I'm sure he'll be happy I've finally agreed."
"I just hope you've read him right and you're not getting in over your head," Clark said quietly.
'I hope so too,' Lois thought. 'I hope so too.'
----------------------------------------
A/N: I've worked in restaurants and hotels all my working career and the freezer sequence has always irked me to no end.
1: a walk-in freezer has no inside pipes except for the conduit for the lights. The refrigerant is NOT carried in pipes inside the freezer - the refrigerant is in a sealed system OUTSIDE the freezer - usually on the top but sometimes on the side and the cold air is carried into the freezer via a fan through a vent. (Think of your window AC unit - a fan pushes the hot air past a condenser which removes the heat then pushes the air into the room.)
2: Freon is not poisonous per se. It
is toxic but death would be by asphyxia - replacing the air (and there's usually not enough refrigerant to in a system to cause asphyxia). BTW Asphyxia is not fun.
3: Luckily the bad guys were smart enough to tie Lois and Linda up because you can't actually lock someone IN a walk-in unless you actually barricade the door or weld the hinges closed. Unless deliberately modified in violation of safety regulations, all wall-in refrigerators and freezers can be unlocked from the inside by simply unscrewing a plastic handle.
I can go on but you get the idea....
