Part 24
“Lois, I thought we’d agreed you wouldn’t go after him personally unless all other options had failed,” Perry was saying.
“Perry, everything has failed,” Lois told him after she and Clark had come back from lunch. “Even the notes Superman left… you know all we’ve got is hints and bits and nothing to tie them together.”
“We do have a lot of hints and bits,” Clark added. “But Luthor is a genius at covering his tracks. We can’t even tie Carpenter and Stark back to Luthor, only to his assistant.”
Perry eyed Clark for a long moment. “Are you okay with this, son?”
“No,” Clark admitted. “But as much as I hate to admit it, Lois has the best chance of anyone for getting in beneath the radar. Hopefully he’ll slip and she can catch it. In the meantime… I think it might be even more convincing if… I know it sounds cheesy, but if I do the jilted suitor thing. You know, start digging into his past, former girl friends, that sort of thing. He’ll be expecting it and who knows, I might find something usable.”
“How about, instead of ‘jilted suitor’, you do ‘worried partner’?” Lois suggested. She thought she caught of flicker of disappointment cross his face before he nodded agreement. “Uh, Clark, I just think it might be better if he doesn’t have you pegged as the competition,” she added to take the sting out of her suggestion. “We both know he considered Superman to be the competition.”
“And now he’s dead,” Clark completed the thought for them both.
“So, when do you plan to start?” Perry asked after a moment.
“I have a date with him tomorrow,” Lois told him. “Dinner and an opera. Madame Butterfly.”
-o-o-o-
Lois spent the day cleaning house and getting ready for her ‘date’ with Lex. She knew something about opera, enough to know she usually found it boring, listening to singing in a language she didn’t know and couldn’t follow, and story lines that were overblown and overly dramatic or just plain silly. She knew that Madame Butterfly was one of Lex’s favorites and she pulled out her copy of Great Opera Explained to review the storyline.
Lieutenant Pinkerton, U.S. Navy, marries a young, naïve Japanese girl from a disgraced family who believes he will be hers forever. Then, when his tour of duty is over, he abandons her, not knowing she is pregnant with his child. When Pinkerton finally returns to Japan, it’s with his American bride. Distraught and even further disgraced, Cio-Cio San kills herself, leaving her child to Pinkerton and his new wife.
Lois knew that Puccini’s opera was one of the staples of every opera company in the U.S. if not the world, but she had to wonder why Luthor liked it so much. She doubted it was because the music was so beautiful. Maybe it was because the Cio-Cio San not only gives up everything for the man she loves, even her life, but the man then walks away with all the prizes, seemingly unscathed. Was that how Luthor looked at the world? That the Pinkertons of the world had the right to lie and cheat and abandon the people who cared for them because they could get away with it? Because their own twisted morality said that women, especially working women, had no value?
She knew deep down that Clark didn’t believe that, but too many of the men in her life saw the world that way, including her own father. She still wasn’t sure which came first, her mother’s drinking or her father’s infidelity. But in the end it was the same, each one using the other’s failings as an excuse for their own hateful actions. Neither of them had given a moment’s thought to what it was doing to their children.
She found she actually envied Clark, at least a little. His parents loved him and were proud of him and they made sure he knew it. They were moral, honest, hard-working people and they had raised him to be moral, honest, and hard-working. He had never come home to his mom passed out on the couch and his father off with another woman.
-o-o-o-
The limo was right on time to pick her up and take her to the LexCorp tower and Lex’s penthouse. Dinner was ready when she arrived. Lex hated to be late for the opera.
Again, Andre had produced a masterpiece, even if Lois couldn’t identify the dishes. It was a Japanese theme this evening, in honor of the opera. Lex ostentatiously pulled out a pair of ebony chopsticks to eat his meal with. Lois chose to stick with her fork. She knew how to eat with chopsticks, even if poorly, but she had the feeling that Lex would start lecturing her on proper Far Eastern etiquette rather than let her enjoy her meal.
Clark would laugh with her instead of at her, correcting her hold on the chopsticks and sharing cultural tidbits he’d picked up on his travels. But Clark would never lecture for the sake of showing off.
Lois tried to steer the dinner conversation to the events of the past week, to Carpenter and Stark and Linda King.
“Miss King?” Luther repeated, puzzled. Then his expression cleared as though he had made the connection. “Charming young woman. Very talented. She’ll make a fine addition to LNN’s L.A. bureau.”
“I’m glad,” Lois managed to say. “Did you know Stark?”
“I may have met the man at some function,” Luthor told her, giving her a puzzled look. “But I meet so many people.”
“He was an associate of Nigel St. John.”
At that Luthor chuckled. “Nigel has many associates, former and current, who I would not want to meet in a dark alley. But that’s one of the things that makes Nigel so valuable to me. He handles the dirty little details that even the most honest business man has to come to grips with from time to time.”
“And Asabi?”
“My, you are curious this evening,” Luthor commented.
“A hazard of my profession,” Lois said with a smile. “I can’t help but ask questions. So, tell me about Asabi.”
Luthor smiled amiably. “Asabi is – how shall I put it? My spiritual advisor. He’s the one who assured me that we were destined to be together. Forever. As soul mates.” As he spoke, he took her hand. He moved to kiss it but she slipped her hand away. She thought she caught a flash of anger in his eyes before his face returned to its usual mask of urbanity.
“I don’t know much about soul mates or reincarnation,” Lois told him. “Maybe Asabi can explain it to me sometime.”
“I’m sure he’d be delighted.”
“Then, maybe I can ask him about the man I saw him with as I was leaving last time,” Lois said. “I thought I recognized him…”
“Recognized who, Miss Lane?” Asabi asked. She looked up to see him standing beside her. She hadn’t seen him enter the room.
“The man you were talking to in the corridor as I was leaving last time,” she said.
“I do not recall the incident,” Asabi said. “Do you know who the man was?”
Lois shook her head. “Someone involved in a story I covered a while back. I’ve been trying to identify him. He may have been a witness to a crime,” she added for good effect.
“I’m afraid I cannot help you, Miss Lane,” Asabi told her. “I do not know the man you are referring to.”
-o-o-o-
The limo was nearly to the opera house when Lois’s pager went off. She checked the number – one of her sources at MPD headquarters. Luthor let her use the limo’s mobile phone to return the call.
“He what?” she nearly shrieked into the phone. Her main source of information on a story on drug counterfeiting had just been arrested for solicitation. “Thanks Joey,” she managed to mutter before ringing off.
She turned to Luthor. “This’ll only take a minute, but I have to get to the Planet.”
-o-o-o-
Luthor had been visibly annoyed, but he ordered the driver to take them to the Daily Planet building.
“Lois, the opera begins in thirty minutes,” Luthor reminded her again as the elevator doors opened onto the darkened newsroom floor.
“Well, how did I know one of my sources would get arrested? I have to rewrite my lead,” she explained. She led the way through the maze of desks toward her own desk. There was a light on in Perry’s office and at least one computer was still on. As she got closer she could see Jimmy and Perry working in Perry’s office. A pile of junk on the floor indicated Jimmy had been tapped for Perry’s annual, and utterly futile, spring cleaning.
Clark was at his desk, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt while someone else was playing a game on his computer.
“Don't any of you people have homes?” Luthor asked. There was an odd touch of petulance in his voice.
Clark looked up then focused on Lois. “Evening, Lois.”
“Clark, what are you doing here?” she asked. She was sure he’d told her had plans for the evening.
“Taxes,” Clark answered.
“It was supposed to be a movie,” the young man playing the game said. Lois finally recognized him. Jack, the boy who had robbed Clark’s apartment. She recalled Clark mentioning getting the boy a job at the Planet as a gofer as part of his rehabilitation.
“We can still make the late show,” Clark told Jack. He turned back to Lois. “Aren't you a little over-dressed for a night at the office?”
Lois ignored him as her computer finally booted up. She began to type furiously on her document.
“We were on our way to 'Madame Butterfly,’” Luthor explained.
“Ten minutes,” Lois said without looking up. “All I need is ten minutes.”
“Super Bowl Twenty, Bears and the Pats. What a blow out,” Perry said from somewhere behind her.
“Why, it's a party.” Luthor stated, but there was something condescending in his voice.
“Evening Mister Luthor, Lois. Just getting rid of a few things,” Perry explained.
“Anybody want a pizza?” Jack called out.
“Sure. Fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, olives…” Jimmy yelled back.
“Hey, if it goes on a salad, it doesn't go on a pizza,” Jack told him.
“Elvira, Mistress of the Dark,” she heard Perry muse. There was a sound from Luthor and she looked up at him, then over to where Perry was gazing lovingly at a cardboard cut-out of the late-night movie vamp.
“She's a little scary to me, boss,” Jimmy said, shivering just a little.
“Not to me, son. She's the reason I've seen Godzilla a hundred and sixteen times,” Perry told Jimmy as Lois returned to her work.
The stairway opened and someone stumbled onto the floor. Lois looked up to see Cat locked in a passionate embrace with… someone.
“Oh. Hi, everybody. This is. George,” Cat managed to get out. ‘George’ gave them an embarrassed wave.
“What are you doing here?” Lois asked. Seeing Cat on a Saturday night wasn’t her idea of a good time. The edits were taking more time than she had hoped and she knew Luthor has getting impatient.
“It's what we were going to do here, but it's a little crowded,” the gossip columnist said with a grin.
“I could've lived without knowing that,” Jimmy stated. His arms were full of Perry’s junk and he seemed to be heading for the storage room.
“Come on, George, I think the observation deck at the Metropolis Tower is still open,” Cat told her date, grabbing his arm and leading to the stairwell.
The elevator doors opened once again and a very old man in a security guard uniform stepped out.
“What's going on here?” the old man demanded as he surveyed the group.
“Hey Willie, it's just us,” Clark announced.
“You're not supposed to be here now,” Willie complained, checking his pocket watch.
“Everything's fine, Willie,” Perry assured the old man without paying much attention. “Don't you worry about a thing. Keep up the good work.”
“Yes, sir, Mr. White,” Willie said. He hobbled back into the elevator and the doors closed behind him.
Then Lois heard Jack yelling into the telephone. “Hello? Anybody there? All right, who cut me off?”
At the same time, her story disappeared from her monitor and a blue and white box came up. ‘Unable to contact network’. She growled in frustration. “The system's down. I lost my story.”
“Better luck tomorrow,” Luthor said, holding out his arm for her to take. “Shall we?”
Suddenly the lights flickered and Lois realized there was something seriously wrong. She saw that Clark knew it too, even if the others hadn’t realized it yet.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open to reveal five people dressed like SWAT team members and carrying automatic weapons. The five spread out across the newsroom. One, a tall woman with dark hair and a hard expression, sprayed the ceiling with bullets.
“What in the Sam Hill is…?” Perry began, coming out of his office. One of the invaders grabbed him while the apparent leader, a slick, ominous looking man in black leather fired a few more rounds into the ceiling.
“The Daily Planet building is now ours,” he announced. “I suggest you cooperate and everything will go smoothly.” He nodded to the man who had grabbed hold of Perry. “Let him go.”
The invader released Perry, pushing the older man to stand by Jack and Clark. Lois noted that Jimmy was nowhere to be seen. The woman tossed the leader a nylon bag. He unzipped it and pulled out a small black device with a digital readout on the front and several buttons.
“And in case any of you feel the need to contact the authorities,” the leader continued. “You can tell them I'm holding a small but dirty nuclear device and if I catch so much as a glimpse of a badge, this building and the gene pool of Metropolis will pay the price.”
The leader held the device up so they could all see that it was armed and he had his finger on the button. Someone put their arm around Lois’s shoulders in a protective gesture. She glanced over and realized it was Luthor. Clark appeared to be studying the situation.
“So relax,” the leader continued. “By morning this will all be over, one way or another.”
They were herded into the conference room. One of the invaders, a big, beefy man, was ordered to stand guard. He stood with his back to the door, sub-machine gun in his hand.
“No telephones, we're too high up to signal for help,” Lois listed off. She kept her voice low. “It could be morning before anyone even realizes something's wrong.”
“That's what they're counting on,” Perry said.
“My driver should realize there’s something wrong,” Luthor put in.
“Unless someone told him you were staying longer than you’d planned and he should take the car back,” Lois suggested.
“But what do they want with the Daily Planet?” Perry asked.
“And what are they going to do with us when they're finished?” Jack wondered aloud.
The boy was right. “We've got to find a way out of here,” Lois announced.
“Negotiation,” Luthor stated. “I've dealt with worse across a boardroom table. We find out what they want, then offer them a better deal.”
“If we had a way to disarm the bomb…” Clark muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache coming on. “Too bad Superman’s not with us anymore.”
“I have a feeling they’d go ahead and press the button if they saw anything resembling a red cape,” Perry commented.
“It's five against five,” Jack put in. “I say we take 'em. I bet that bomb's not even real.”
“We don’t know if it is or not,” Clark argued. “Besides, in case you hadn’t noticed, they’re armed and we’re not. Maybe Superman was faster than a speeding bullet, but I don’t think any of us can… I mean, we can't take that chance, can we?”
“Clark, they're going to kill us,” Lois said. She wasn’t sure what his problem was. It was almost as if he was afraid to act, and he kept rubbing the bridge of his nose like he was in pain.
“We don't know that,” Clark said, his voice low.
“We can identify them,” she reminded him.
“The safest thing for all of us to do is just wait,” Clark insisted.
“What about Jimmy?” Lois asked, looking around pointedly. “Maybe Jimmy can save us.”
“Jimmy couldn't save baseball cards,” Perry groused.
“I know these kinds of people,” Luthor broke in. “We should consider ourselves dead. In that regard, we have nothing to lose. We must take the offensive.”
“Luthor, what if he’s telling the truth about that being a nuclear device?” Clark asked. “Don't do anything to provoke him.”
“Well, now that we know what Mr. Kent is made of,” Luthor sneered. “It's obvious we need someone with a cool head and a keen sense of judgment to take charge.”
“You?”
“I have thousands of employees...”
“Now, just a doggone minute,” Perry interrupted. “This is my ship and I'm still the captain.”
“Yeah, the Exxon Valdes,” Jack muttered.
Through the glass door, Lois could see the leader and the woman cross the floor to the elevators. They disappeared inside of one of them. The beefy guy was alone. Now was their chance.
“Lex is right, we need a plan,” Lois announced.
“It's too risky, Lois,” Clark protested.
“We're wasting time,” she said. She turned to Luthor. “I'll create a diversion. You hit him with a chair.”
“Lo-is…”
She ignored him. She didn’t have time to try to coax him into doing what needed to be done.
“Chief, sit down,” she ordered. “You're having a heart attack.”
Perry just looked at her in confusion. She pushed him into a chair then ran to the door, banging on it to get the guard’s attention.
“Help! Help us! He's having a heart attack. Quickly! He needs a doctor.”
Perry had no choice but to play along. He clutched his arm and started to breathe hard. The guard opened the door and looked in, training his weapon on Lois.
“Do something,” Lois ordered. “He's going to die and then where will you be? On trial for murder that's where.”
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Clark moving closer to the guard, ready to jump. Then the leader and the woman appeared in the doorway. They both had their guns drawn. Lois backed away as the leader pointed his gun in Perry’s direction and fired. No one moved. After a moment Lois realized that Perry wasn’t dead.
The leader had fired at the floor.
The man smiled – a cold, brutal smile. “A nine millimeter automatic. Better than a triple by-pass.”
Perry nodded. He was almost pale enough to be having a real heart attack. The leader moved closer to Lois, staring her down. “There will be no more tests of my patience, is that understood?”
Lois was about to argue when Clark interrupted. “She understands, sir.”
She gave him a dirty look before moving to stand next to Luthor. She knew Clark had managed to defuse a tense situation, but she hated it when he, or anyone else for that matter, spoke for her.
A loud nose by the elevators caught everyone’s attention. The other two members of the gang were moving some heavy equipment off the elevator.
“They're on the wrong floor,” the leader said grimly. “Schumak, go. Tell them it's down one.”
They left the conference room, shutting the door behind them. The leader and the woman began to talk. The woman was waving her arms, pointing to the conference room.
“Lois,” Perry began, interrupting her observation of the two intruders. “I swear, if you ever rope me into anything like that again, you'll be writing recipes for the food section.”
“There won't even be a food section if we don't do something to stop them,” Lois spat back.
“Division among the ranks is a sure sign of weakness,” Luthor status. “I suggest we put this incident behind us and concentrate on learning their next move.”
Clark appeared to be ignoring Luthor but Lois suspected he was listening in on the conversation outside.
“They’re waiting for someone they’re calling the ‘boss’,” Clark said, confirming her suspicion. “The woman wants us dead now, but the man is saying they have to wait for instructions.”
Luthor scowled at Clark. “And how could you possibly know that?”
Clark shrugged. “I can read lips.”
“You really believe that's a nuclear bomb?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know,” Clark admitted. He turned and looked at the younger man. “We're going to be fine.”
“Yeah, I hear you hardly feel a thing at ground zero,” Jack muttered.
“You don't think they'd really blow themselves up do you?” Lois asked.
“Terrorists know that the value of one life, even it it's their own, doesn't equal the importance of their cause,” Luthor explained.
“I don't think we need worst case scenarios right now,” Clark told him.
“The point is, it's up to us to stop them,” Luthor insisted.
“It's up to us to stay alive anyway we can,” Clark stated.
Luthor’s expression turned ugly. Lois knew he wasn’t used to people questioning his judgment and it was obvious he didn’t like it. “Then what do you suggest, Mister Kent? That we just sit here? Let them do whatever they want, then wait for them to kill us?”
“We need to find out what’s going on, what they’re after,” Clark said. “I don’t think they’re terrorists. They haven’t made any demands. No manifestos, no political statements. I think they’re a well organized gang and they didn’t think anyone would be here tonight.”
“And now you’re an expert in criminal psychology?” Luthor asked. He was taunting Clark and it seemed he no longer cared if Lois knew how poor his opinion was of her co-workers. Clark didn’t rise to the bait. Instead he was concentrating on what was happening outside the room. But Lois noticed he was still occasionally rubbing his temples.
-o-o-o-
An hour passed. The little group of prisoners – Lois wasn’t sure if ‘hostages’ applied since that implied they were being held hostage against someone else’s actions and no one even knew they were in trouble – settled into relative comfort in the conference room. There were snacks and water – at least they wouldn’t starve in the short term. Lois poured herself another drink of water from the pitcher. She drank it down as she watched Clark. He was still watching the two gang members that had remained in the newsroom.
“I wonder if they'll let us go to the bathroom?” Jack asked.
Lois abruptly realized that drinking the water may not have been one of her brighter ideas. “I have to go.”
“Okay, see you tomorrow,” Jack said.
Lois glared at him. “No, I mean, I have to go.”
“All of a sudden?”
“No! Just since you mentioned it, thank you very much,” Lois retorted.
“They have to provide us with the means to sustain basic human needs,” Luthor mused.
“I don't think anyone told them that,” Lois came back.
“I think you should tell Miss Congeniality out there that it's her responsibility to escort you to the facilities,” Perry suggested.
“Or you can hold it. Indefinitely,” Luthor suggested.
Lois chose to ignore Luthor’s snide remarks. She went to the door and started banging on the glass. After a moment, the woman opened the door.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Lois told her.
“Too bad,” the woman said.
“You can't treat us like this,” Lois protested.
The leader came to the door. “I thought I told you not to make trouble.”
“Evidently my bladder didn't hear you,” Lois complained.
She watched as the leader considered the problem. Finally he turned to the woman. “Take her. I'll watch them.”
The woman grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the ladies’ room. She stood outside the stall as Lois completed her business. Lois weighed her options. She was good at tae kwon do, although not as good as her teachers. But the other woman was armed with a semi-automatic and Lois was wearing an evening gown. There was no way she was going to be able to kick the gun out of the woman’s hands. Clark was right – they were simply going to have to sit it out and hope for an opportunity to escape.
Suddenly she heard a fire alarm and water running. It sounded like the sprinkler system. Then there was the pop of gun fire.
