PREVIOUSLY...
“Let me see if I have anything,” Clark said, scrolling through the stories on his computer before one finally caught his eye.
“What? What did you find?” Lois asked when she saw the look on his face.
When he didn’t answer, she rose to her feet to come over to his computer. Leaning over his shoulder, she read his screen.
‘Perry White Takes Bribes; News Stories Fabricated,” by Clark Kent and Linda King.
“No way,” Lois said. “I don’t believe it. Here... move over.” Without waiting for his response, she pushed onto his chair next to him and began scrolling through the article as fast as she could read. “Oh, god,” she breathed as she reached the end. “I think we might have just found the reason Perry dislikes you.”
AND NOW...
* * * * * * * * *
Chapter Fifteen
* * * * * * * * *
Lois looked over at Clark when he didn’t respond. He was staring at the article, but she could tell he wasn’t reading. He was just staring blankly at the screen.
“Clark?” she asked.
He didn’t respond.
“Clark!” she said a bit louder this time.
“Hmm?” he asked, finally looking at her, a slightly lost expression in his eyes.
Worried now, she reached over, softly touching his cheek. “Are you all right?”
“Me? How can you even ask me that.” He sprang to his feet and began pacing. “The things I wrote in that article. The things I said about Perry. No wonder everyone hates me.”
“Hey!” Lois jumped to her feet, placing herself directly in front of her husband, forcing his pacing to come to a halt. “You didn’t do anything! This is some sort of screwed up, altered reality. Okay, so maybe we’re the ones who screwed it up. But this isn’t real. None of this is real. Perry thinks of you as a son. And we’re going to straighten it all out.”
“But, Lois...” He pointed at the screen. “How could I have accused Perry of something like that? We both know that Perry would never do such a thing.”
“Yes we do. That’s how I know that you would never write such garbage.”
“But...”
Her hands came up to cup his cheeks. “Don’t do this, Clark. We will get this all straightened out and then this will never have happened. Say, ‘Yes, dear. I understand, dear.’”
“But, Lois...”
“No! It’s ‘Yes, dear. I understand, dear.’”
Clark’s lips gave a small twitch, causing Lois to believe she was finally getting through to him.
“Yes, dear,” he finally responded obediently. “I understand, dear.”
“Good!” she declared. “Now...” She glanced back at the computer screen. “Before we start on figuring out what happened to cause that article to get written...” She deliberately avoided saying who had written it. “...I think we both need a break. So how about it, flyboy? Care to take your wife to the Fudge Castle for the Chocolate Lover’s Supreme? Or do you want to watch your wife suffer from chocolate withdrawal instead? In case you didn’t know, she tends to get really cranky when she doesn’t get her regular supply of chocolate.”
Clark seemed to relax, if only slightly. “I recall reading that somewhere when I was studying Lois Lane 101.”
“Then, what are we waiting for?” she asked, turning towards the door. It might seem a frivolous waste of time, but chocolate always made her think better. And right now, Clark was too distracted to think.
“Wait!”
“What?” Lois asked impatiently.
“Lois, we don’t have time for...”
“We’ve been going at this for hours, Clark. I need a break. And I know you do. Besides, I’m hungry. Lunch was great. But it wasn’t exactly... filling.” The final word was said giving him a wink. The aborted attempt at a smile he gave her in return strengthened her resolve to get him away from the Daily Planet for a time. If memories of their lunch hour activities couldn’t make him smile, then something definitely needed to be done. “We’ll be quick, but right now, we’re getting out of here.”
Clark let out a breath. “Okay, but...What do we do for money?”
Lois opened her mouth and then closed it again. A moment later, she walked towards the door, mumbling under her breath. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this.” Then, opening the door to the conference room, she bellowed a single word. “Jimmy!”
* * * * * * * * *
Clark watched in amusement as his wife dug into her dessert with gusto. The Chocolate Lover’s Supreme. Chocolate ice-cream, covered with three different types of chocolate sauce. Of course, none of the three were white chocolate - which Lois often referred to as blasphemous. An imposter, merely posing as chocolate with the hopes of luring in the uninformed. Then the whole thing was topped off with chocolate sprinkles and a piece of chocolate fudge on the side.
The original creation came with a cherry on top - which Lois always removed immediately and handed to Clark for disposal. Then, very carefully, she used her spoon to remove whatever chocolate had been defiled - as she put it - from contact with the cherry juice before eating. Today had certainly been no different.
The ritual always amused Clark. And it was much more fun to watch than it was to eat his own dessert.
“What?” Lois asked, looking up suddenly.
Clark just smiled and shook his head.
Lois rolled her eyes in response before returning to her food, this time, however, not quite as intently - given that the initial chocolate rush was finally kicking in and calming her.
“I still can’t believe we’re borrowing money from Jimmy,” Clark said.
Lois looked up at him. “Yeah. I’m not sure he really believed it was happening either. You know, if I play my cards right, I bet I can convince him that he’s really the one who owes me forty bucks.”
“Lo-is.”
“All right. All right,” Lois said, raising her hands in surrender. “So what are you? The honesty police. Don’t you know when I’m joking, yet? I mean, I just like a challenge and I thought... On the other hand, convincing Jimmy that black is white is a little on the under-side of challenges.”
Clark smiled, recognizing what she was doing - trying to distract him from what they’d discovered mere minutes before. But how could he forget? He’d publicly accused Perry of subverting the truth for money. How could he have possibly done that? His smile faded and a small frown pulled down at the corners of his lips.
“You know,” Lois said. “I remembered something else while we were walking over here.”
Clark again met his wife’s eyes. There was something in her tone that told him whatever she was about to tell him was on the same level as what she’d done before - something she was telling him to get his mind off Perry. “What?” he asked, knowing that was the proper thing to say, but doubting that she’d be able to distract him.
“Well, after our escapade with the terrorists at the Planet, when Lex took me home...”
She paused and he leaned forward in his chair, not realizing that she had succeeded in doing exactly what she had set out to do - distracted him.
“Anyway,” she said, “Lex walked me to my apartment. He was talking, but I wasn’t particularly listening. I was... sort of thinking about something.”
“What?”
**That was the third time Kent had saved her life. Although, where had he come from? How had he managed to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time? Oh, he’d told the police that he’d just happened to overhear the terrorists talking as they were approaching the building and had snuck into the building, trying to get the story, during the confusion that had taken place when the police had been emptying out the building. But... there was something about the way he’d saved her. She had been certain she’d fallen a lot further than she had before she’d felt his hand grabbing her wrist. How far did one fall during a scream?
She rotated her shoulder slightly, wondering why it didn’t hurt. When he’d grabbed her, shouldn’t it have practically torn her arm out of its socket? So why didn’t it throb, even a little?
“Did you hear what I said?” Lex asked as they neared the door of her apartment.
“Hmm?”
“I just said that I’d ask around about, see if anyone has heard anything about S-126 and call if I find anything.”
“Fine,” Lois said, returning to her previous thoughts. What was it about Kent? That was the third time they’d kissed. She wasn’t attracted to him, so why did it keep happening? What was it about him that seemed to... make sense to her?
Although, to be honest, a large part of him made no sense whatsoever. It was a contradiction. A paradox she couldn’t solve. On the one hand, he had betrayed her twice - proving he couldn’t be trusted. On the other, he’d saved her life three times - proving he could. He hadn’t taken advantage of the situation when she’d been under the influence of the pheromone compound - always assuming, of course, that he hadn’t realized she was under the influence of the pheromone spray until he’d stopped them. Of course, he hadn’t tried to take advantage of her when she’d gone to his place when she’d been afraid that Trevino was trying to kill her. And yet, what he’d done to her last year had been... unforgivable.
“Well, I guess this is where I say goodnight,” Luthor said, pulling her out of her thoughts.
“Oh. Right.”
“You seem quite distracted tonight, my dear. Is everything all right?”
She jerked instantly out of her thoughts. She was here with Lex and she was thinking about Kent. How rude was that? “Oh, yeah. Fine. I guess I’m still sort of in shock. You know... almost getting killed.”
He nodded before leaning over to kiss her.
Why she tuned her head at the last possible moment so that his kiss landed on her cheek instead of her lips, she had no idea. He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment.
“This wouldn’t have something to do with the guy I saw you kissing on the roof of the Planet would it?” Lex asked.
“What? Him? No. Of course not. I was just... that was just... I mean, I was just grateful that he’d rescued me.”
“Hmm,” Lex said, looking at her until she was forced to look down. “Goodnight, my dear,” he said, not commenting further. “I’ll be in touch.”
Without watching him walk away, Lois turned her attention to the locks on her door, desperate to get inside where she could put her thoughts of Kent into some sort of perspective.**“Wait a minute,” Lois said, interrupting her own story. “Why didn’t Lex seem to particularly care that he’d seen me kissing you?”
Clark shrugged, not sure what she was getting at.
“Something just occurred to me.”
“What?”
“Well, in our reality, Lex asked me out... sort of on a random basis. No real pattern to it.”
“And that’s different here?”
She thought about it for a moment before nodding. “Here... the only times I can remember him asking me out were where when I was pursuing a story that might have interested him. I mean, during our first date, he asked about the story I was working on at EPRAD. Why that no good, dirty...” Her voice trailed off in disgust. “I guess with no Superman around, the only use Lex really had for me was as a source of inside information - to let him know if I was getting too close to his dirty dealings. Or maybe so that I’d be less inclined to think he was involved in the event that I did come across something that might raise some questions. No wonder he didn’t particularly care if I was kissing someone else. To him I was nothing more than a useful tool to use on occasion. In our reality, I can remember his irritation when I kissed Superman. Here... nothing.” She gave her head a shake to clear it.
“So what happened when you got inside your apartment?” Clark asked.
Lois gave him a smile, reaching over to run a random pattern on the back of his hand. “Curious what I thought about you, are you, flyboy?”
**Lois closed the door and removed her coat before plopping down on the couch, her thoughts filled with Kent. What was it about him? Why did she feel such an unrealistic pull in his direction? It seemed that all he had to do was to come within ten feet of her and all her good sense when it came to men flew out the window.**Clark’s bark of laughter pulled her out of her story.
“Hey! You want to hear this or not?”
“Sorry,” Clark said contritely.
Lois gave him one final, stern gaze before resuming her story.
**Maybe her initial impression of him had been wrong. Maybe she shouldn’t have dismissed his claims of innocence so lightly. Maybe she at least owed him the chance to tell his side of the story.**“Wait! My claims of innocence? My side of the story?”
“I don’t know what it means, Clark. Trust me, I’d tell you if I did.
He nodded. “I know you would.”
**She rose from the couch. She would have to think about this some more. But maybe, when things calmed down a bit, she’d go see Mr. Kent and maybe... just maybe...
She didn’t allow herself to complete her thought - except to say that Kent was a puzzle she was suddenly determined to figure out. Something told her it was important. And it wasn’t just the way he could make her feel when he kissed her, either - regardless of how that little voice in the back of her mind taunted her.
With that decided, she ambled towards her bedroom. Seven a.m. always came too soon.**“Okay, so it looks as if there’s some hope here,” Clark said. “But still... if that’s the case...”
“...why don’t your parents know who I am?” Lois concluded. She glanced down at her half-eaten ice cream, before pushing the remainder over to Clark.
Understanding the unspoken message, Clark immediately picked up his spoon. Her chocolate craving was satisfied for now. Time for him to finish up so that they could get back to the Planet and continue with their research.
* * * * * * * * *
Going into the Daily Planet was no different this time than it had been the first time - with the exception that it was different people staring at him, different people whispering about him under their breath. Or, at least it was no different until he got into the newsroom.
“Clark Kent?”
There was something about the way the feminine voice spoke his name, the way the soft growl seemed to roll off the owner’s tongue that caught Clark’s attention. Her turned in time to see Cat slinking towards him, like a tigress on the prowl.
“I wouldn’t have expected to see you here,” she said, her eyes running down his body appraisingly.
“Hi, Cat,” he said, suddenly feeling like the deer trying to avoid the large, ravenous lioness.
“Clark and I have work to do,” his wife said immediately, grabbing Clark’s sleeve and pulling him towards the conference room.
“I think you’re supposed to call me ‘Kent,’” Clark said when they were far enough away that he was certain Cat wouldn’t overhear.
Lois cringed before glancing back over her shoulder to look briefly at Cat who was watching them speculatively.
“Damn,” Lois whispered. “She knows something’s going on.”
“Okay, well, let’s not worry about it now. If we can get things straightened out, it won’t matter anyway.”
“So what’s she doing here? She left right after the Daily Planet was destroyed.”
“Maybe it wasn’t destroyed in this version of reality,” Clark said. “After all, it seems Luthor wasn’t trying to woo you away from it.”
Lois nodded, letting go of his sleeve. The rest of the trip to the conference room was made in silence.
Once they were back behind closed doors, Lois looked reflectively at Clark. “Are you okay to do this?”
He took a deep breath, taking a look at the headline still on his screen, before nodding.
“Okay, well starting at the beginning has worked for us so far so let’s try that again. What do you remember?”
Clark took one final deep, cleansing breath before beginning. “I think it all started when Luthor took you home after the terrorist incident at the Daily Planet...”
**Clark watched as Luthor led Lane back towards the stairs. There was something about that guy Clark didn’t trust. And it wasn’t that he currently had his arm around the woman Clark was coming to believe he loved. No. He hadn’t trusted Luthor even before he’d realized that he was dating Lane. Okay, so maybe he hadn’t liked seeing Luthor dance with Lane at the White Orchard Ball. But that wasn’t the reason either. No, this was something deeper than that.
He turned to gaze out over the city. Reporter’s instinct, perhaps? But something about the arrogance in Luthor’s stance, the smooth way he charmed the public, the way he flaunted his ‘good deeds’ told Clark that the man was dirty. Clark very much doubted that the man had ever done one good deed in his life where he hadn’t been able to take credit.
Even dropping a couple of bucks into a beggar’s dish would not be done without a news camera, business associate or woman he wanted to impress in the vicinity. And then, it wouldn’t be a couple of bucks - after all, who would notice a couple of bucks? No, it would be a couple of hundred bucks. A couple of thousand even.
No. Something about that man screamed that he was dirty - and one of the biggest frauds Metropolis had ever seen.
“Mr. Kent?” A man’s voice coming from the direction of the staircase pulled Clark out of his thoughts.
“Yes?” Clark asked, turning to see the police officer standing in the doorway.
“I was told you were up here. We need to get your statement.”
“Oh, right,” Clark said, pushing thoughts about Luthor out of his mind for the moment. Right now he had to figure out how to tell the officers what he knew without giving away anything else in the process. On the other hand, he had done a lot of that over the years, so he wasn’t too worried.
Clark gave one final look at the place where he’d almost lost Lane before following the police officer off the roof.**“So how does that relate to...” Lois gestured to the headline on the monitor.
“I’m getting to that,” Clark said. “But you’re going to have to let me find my own way there. Because I’m putting the pieces together as I go.”
Lois nodded. She knew what that was like.
**The next morning, Clark walked into The Star’s newsroom and looked around. His eyes landed on his target: Linda King.**“I can already tell this is trouble,” Lois said.
“Lo-is,” Clark growled.
“Okay, okay. I’m just saying.”
**Clark hesitated for a moment. He was about to suggest an investigation into the most respected businessman in the city. Man of the Year for the past several years. Keys to the City. Honorary degrees in business from Metropolis University as well as Harvard, Princeton and Yale. A self-made man who had worked his way up from nothing. No family fortune to aid his efforts. He was in every sense proof that the American Dream still lived.
In addition, he was considered the biggest humanitarian in the city. He had created and was the sole source of funding for the Luthor House for Homeless Children, Luthor Hospital, Luthor Foundation for the Arts, Luthor Center for the Blind as well as dozens of other charitable organizations. He was on the board of directors for dozens of local charities and had received highest honors from the Red Cross Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Alzimer’s Society, the MS Society and the Autistic Society and was known for being a big supporter of research into breast cancer. He had even been honored by the Daughters of Metropolis.
He funded hundreds of scholarships every year for well-deserving young men and women. He also funded a number of apprenticeship programs. In fact, the list of honors he had received and good works he was involved in were endless. Clark knew. He had read about all of them.
Linda was going to think he was crazy. Still... he knew he was right. Taking a deep breath, he set out towards Linda. Well, nothing ventured and all that.
Linda looked up as he approached, giving him a welcoming smile.
”Hey, Clark. What’s with the serious look?” Linda asked when Clark arrived at her desk.
Clark took a seat on the edge. “You believe in reporter’s instinct, don’t you?”
“Of course. I think it comes from doing this long enough, learning to read people. Why?”
“I need your help. There’s a businessman in town that I think is dirty. When I originally started working for the Star, investigating the explosion of the messenger, a couple of things happened that made me think he was involved.”
“Dr. Baines had a partner?”
Clark nodded.
“Why didn’t I ever read about it?”
“Because I couldn’t prove it. This guy is slick, but... I want to investigate him. I’m sure he’s dirty.”
“Do you have anything except your suspicions?”
Clark shook his head.
“Carpenter is never going to approve an investigation based on that.”
“I know so... Are you up for a little unpaid overtime?”
The way she smiled at him in response had him shifting uncomfortable. What exactly was he letting himself in for here?
“So what did you have in mind, sailor?”**Lois was biting her lip, trying very hard not to respond. The only good thing she could see about this story so far was that Clark didn’t seem particularly pleased with Linda’s attention. Still, her heart was in her throat as he continued to tell his story.
**“So who is this target of the latest Kent and King exclusive?” Linda asked when Clark didn’t respond to her last comment.
“Luthor,” Clark responded, cringing slightly when her eyebrows shot into her hairline.
“Lex Luthor?” she asked when she appeared to recover the power of speech.
Clark nodded.
Linda looked at him for a long, steady moment. “Are you sure about this?”
“No.”
For a moment, he thought she was going to tell him he was nuts, that he’d lost his mind. Then, finally, she shrugged.
“So where do you want to start?” she asked.**“Well, of course, any plans to begin our investigation of Luthor had to wait until the work day was over. We decided to grab a bite to eat that evening and plan our strategy. Not that we came up with much. I had already researched all of the public information on Luthor the previous night.”
When Lois’ eyebrows rose, he explained.
“I was sort of motivated, I guess. So I spent the entire night reading everything I could find, backdated newspaper articles, public records, even all five of his unauthorized biographies.” He shrugged. “I guess the ability to super speed-read does have some advantages, even when you’re not ‘officially’ using your powers. Anyway, since I hadn’t found anything in the public domain, Linda suggested that we do some leg work.”
“I’ll just bet she did,” Lois mumbled.
Clark ignored her comment. “We decided to talk to former employees, people who’d had business dealings with him, maybe even see if we could talk to Luthor himself. We certainly found a number of people who were not particularly... fans. But no one seemed to have anything solid. That was when we got our big break.
“We had gone to Lex Towers to try to get an interview with Luthor. We were trying to persuade his personal assistant to set up an appointment for us when...”
**“Mr. Luthor never gives one on one interviews to the press,” Mrs. Cox informed them.
Clark smiled at her. He wasn’t completely unaware of the effect his smile seemed to have on the female members of the population. “Surely, there must be some exceptions.”
Mrs. Cox merely raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, he felt somewhat foolish for thinking that a winning smile would be enough to get this woman to give him an interview with Luthor. If she was his personal assistant, she probably knew where all the bodies were buried. And no one would rise to the position of Luthor’s personal assistant without being absolutely loyal.
“Mr. Luthor,” Linda suddenly said.
Clark spun around to see Luthor crossing the room apparently on the way to his office.
“Yes?” Luthor said.
“These two reporters,” Mrs. Cox said, emphasizing ‘reporters’, “were just leaving.”
“Uhh...” Luthor said, slipping past Linda and Clark.
“Mr. Luthor,” Linda said, “do you have a few moments for us?”
Luthor paused momentarily. “I hate to disappoint a beautiful woman, but as I’m sure my assistant told you, I don’t give interviews.”
While he spoke, Clark moved around next to him, bumping into him slightly.
Luthor turned to look at him.
“I’m sorry,” Clark said, backing away.
“Anyway,” Luthor said, turning his attention back to Linda, “I’m sorry I can’t help you.” Without waiting for her response, he turned towards his office.
Once he was gone, Linda and Clark turned back to Mrs. Cox.
“I assume you have nothing else you need to ask,” Mrs. Cox said.
Linda and Clark, taking the hint, left the room.
“Is it done?” Linda asked as they stepped out into the hallway.
“I put it in his pocket,” Clark responded.
“I know you weren’t keen about doing that, Clark,” Linda said.
“You were right. Luthor is a slippery customer. It’s the only way. But... promise me if we don’t find anything, we destroy the tape - and never tell anyone what we might learn about Luthor’s business deals.”**“Is what done?” Lois asked. “What did you do?”
“Do you remember that pen Jimmy gave you to spy on Lenny Stoke in our version of reality?”
“Yeah.”
“I slipped one similar to that in Luthor’s pocket.”
“So... how does any of this lead to Perry?”
“I’m getting to that... or at least I think I am. This is just what I remember when I think about that headline so...” He shrugged.
She nodded. She knew exactly how he felt. It would be so much easier if they could just remember what they wanted when they wanted. But unfortunately, they seemed to be unable to control how these memories came out. “Okay, so what do you remember next?”
“Well, we had to stay in Lex Towers since the pen only had a broadcasting range of about five hundred feet. So we got in the elevator and went down one floor and then found a place to wait. Of course, we sent the elevator down to the lobby in case Mrs. Cox was watching the numbers. We even hooked up a tape recorder so that we could be sure to have proof if we did get anything useful. By the time we got it set up, about ten minutes had passed. Luthor was on the phone with someone.”
** “Don’t worry about it,” Luthor said. “S-126 will not be a problem. The plan is already in motion.” There was a pause. “The Daily Planet. No, I’m sure. So don’t start selling off my shares of Metropolis Electric. Once I’m done with it, no one will want electricity produced by S-126.” Another, longer pause. “Well, if you must know, it did cost me a lot of money. But then, I wouldn’t have expected to buy off this particular customer without a lot of money.” Another pause. “No, I don’t think you need to know his name.” One final pause. “The first story leading to the destruction of S-126 should be in the next edition of the Daily Planet.”
Clark glanced up at the ceiling, x-raying it, so that he could watch the phone being replaced. He watched as Mrs. Cox walked into the opulent office before he heard her voice come over the receiver.
“Lex?”
“Yes, Mrs. Cox?”
“I have a few papers for you to sign.”
“Very good. By the way, is my appointment with Perry White still on?”
“Seven o’clock as you requested. You’re to meet him at the Press Club. I looked up the address, and it’s on your way.”
“And my other appointment?”
“It’s on, too. I’ve already sent for the limo. And here’s the cash you requested.”
Clark continued to watch through the ceiling as Mrs. Cox handed Luthor an envelope.
“Oh, and I suppose you’ll want this, too,” Cox said, handing Luthor a second envelope.
Luthor looked inside each envelope before putting both in his inside jacket pocket. Clark quickly x-rayed the envelopes. In one was a large amount of cash. The second contained only a single piece of paper. A cheque, it seemed, made out to the Metropolis Literary Society in the amount of five thousand dollars.
“Thank you, Mrs. Cox. Efficient as always.” Luthor withdrew the pen Linda had placed in his pocket, before looking at the papers Mrs. Cox had handed him. He seemed to examine the pen for a moment before attempting to write. “What the...”
“Lex?”
“This pen doesn’t work.”
“Let me take it for you. Here’s another one.”
Luthor handed her the transmitter and proceeded to sign the papers with the pen Mrs. Cox had provided.
“Well, if that’s it,” Luthor said, rising to his feet. “I’ll be leaving now for my appointments.”
‘Will you need me any more this evening?”
“No, Mrs. Cox. That will be all.”
A moment later, Mrs. Cox left Luthor who was putting on his jacket and straightening his tie.**“No. That’s not possible,” Lois said. “Perry would never agree to plant a phony story in the Daily Planet.”
“I agree. But you have to remember that in this altered reality, I didn’t know Perry. If I had...”
“I know, Clark,” Lois responded, reaching over to lay a hand on his arm. “But surely that wasn’t enough to go to print with this story.”
Clark shook his head. “Once we realized Luthor was leaving the building for his meeting with Perry, we left Lex Towers, intent on beating Luthor to the Press Club. We did. When we saw Perry there with Alice... Or at least, I realize it was Alice now. We found a table that was situated close enough to Perry’s to see what was going on, but far enough away to be inconspicuous.”
**They had just settled into their seats when they saw Luthor come through the door to the Press Club. He spoke to the hostess briefly and she pointed him in the appropriate direction. As he walked towards the table where Perry White was seated, Clark activated his superhearing.
“I wish he still had that pen,” Linda said into his ear.
He cringed, turning down his hearing. He noticed that Luthor seemed to look in their direction briefly and for a moment, he thought they’d been spotted. But then Luthor looked away and continued towards Perry White’s table while Linda continued to speak.
“The guy who sold it to me told me that in addition to being a transmitter, it could be used as an ordinary pen as well. I guess I should have tried it. Made sure it was working.”
Clark fumbled for a bit, wishing he could make Linda stop talking. He couldn’t superhear with her voice ringing in his ears. Still, Linda kept talking, providing a running commentary on what he himself could see.
Perry White stood up when Luthor approached. The two men shook hands and exchanged a few words before Luthor turned to the woman at the table, exchanging some words with her as well. Then Luthor pulled an envelope out of his pocket.
Finally, Linda stopped talking as she began snapping pictures. Clark breathed a sigh of relief and activated his hearing.
“As we discussed,” Luthor said, handing White an envelope.
Clark quickly lowered his glasses. His eyebrows rose when he quickly counted the number of thousand dollar bills he could see inside. There were fifty.**TO BE CONTINUED...
