Part 29 “What have I gotten myself into?” Lois repeated to herself once she got back to her apartment. Luthor had tried to talk her into spending the night at the penthouse but she begged off once again. Morning and her first day at LNN was going to come too soon.
But sleep has a luxury she wasn’t to have. She couldn’t understand what had happened to Clark. How had the infirmary doctor gotten a blood sample? Had Clark been exposed to kryptonite or had something else happened? Henderson had been wearing his Azure Brotherhood ring which meant strange things were afoot. And he had said something about a ‘psychic attack.’
‘You don’t believe that we’re soul mates?’ Luthor had asked. ‘You don’t feel the eternal connection between us?’
She didn’t dare tell him she knew who her soul mate was, and it wasn’t him.
Lois didn’t often pray. Church had been hit or miss while she was growing up and by the time she reached high school she was firmly agnostic. But now she prayed – for herself, for Clark strapped down to a bed in the city jail, for Perry and Jimmy and everyone else she cared about.
Why had she worn Clark’s sweatshirt to Luthor’s penthouse?
She was still trying to figure that one out when she fell asleep.
“No need to worry, m’lady,” Baron Tempos was saying. “I believe the best way to gentle a horse is with a firm but gentle hand.” They were walking down the aisle in the manor’s chapel. A priest she didn’t recognize was waiting for them. She realized there was no one in the chapel that she knew, not even her parents.
She had watched Charles and his small band leave, accompanied by a small contingent of the baron’s soldiers. Charles was leaving, never to return. In return for his life, she had promised her fidelity to this man, this monster.
She knelt and prayed to Mary, blessed mother of sweet Jesu, for deliverance. And if not deliverance, for mercy.-o-o-o-
Lois got up early, collected the research she had hidden at home, including Superman’s notes, and headed over to the district attorney’s office. A.D.A. Drake was one of the new assistant district attorneys – young, aggressive, smart, and female.
“Inspector Henderson asked me to bring these to you,” Lois told the woman, handing her the box of evidence. Drake was about Lois’s age, but blonde and buxom. Mayson Drake looked more like a cheerleader than a lawyer. Maybe that was one of her strengths – people underestimated her.
“The inspector told me you and Kent were looking into Luthor’s possible criminal activities,” Drake said. “Do you think your investigation could have been a motive for the bombing of the Planet Building?”
“I don’t know,” Lois admitted, twisting the engagement ring on her hand. “We tried to keep it under wraps. As far as I know, the only people who knew about it were Clark Kent, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, and myself.”
Drake had been taking notes but looked up in surprise when Lois said the names. “So few?”
“Mister White felt it was better we kept everything low profile,” Lois explained. “A large task force would have attracted attention.” She was still twisting the ring.
“Miss Lane, is everything all right?” Drake asked. She was watching Lois, eyebrows drawn together in concern.
“No,” Lois told her. “My partner and best friend is in jail for something he didn’t do and…”
“And what?”
Lois sighed. “Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you have to do something you find repugnant in order to keep something worse from happening?”
“You mean like cutting a deal with scum to get the goods on their boss?”
Lois nodded.
“It’s part of my job, but yeah,” Drake said. “I’ve even gone undercover, pretended to be… well you can imagine… You have to do what you have to do.” She studied Lois, eyes finally lighting on the ring. “You want to talk about it?”
Lois took a deep breath. She really didn’t want to talk about it, but Drake could well be in a position to help. And a woman might understand her position better than one of the guys. “Ever since that pheromone poison incident last year, Lex Luthor has had an abnormal fixation on me, probably because of my relationship to Superman,” she explained. “Then I discovered I was under surveillance. My apartment had cameras and audio pickups all through it and Luthor knew things that happened there he couldn’t have found out any other way.”
“Who else knows about this?” Drake asked.
“Clark,” Lois answered. “Someone tried to get in and bug his place too. His parents caught it and stopped it.”
“Good for them. But of course you can’t actually trace any of this back to Luthor.”
Lois shook her head. “I had an acquaintance take care of the bugs and according to him they were made by LexCorp and were supposed to go to the government.”
“Any chance the feds were keeping a brotherly eye on you?” Drake asked.
“I wasn’t working on anything that would have gotten their attention and it’s not their style,” Lois explained.
“Very true,” Drake agreed. “Go on. What else?”
“Last night I agreed to marry Luthor because I believe if I put him off any longer, or if I say ‘no’, people around me will get hurt. And I’m positive that Clark is at the top of his list of people to ‘deal’ with.”
“Then it’s a good thing we moved him to a more secure location,” Drake told her.
“Where?”
Drake smiled and shook her head.
“Look, at least you know he didn’t do it, don’t you?” Lois asked, pleading.
“We’re not pressing charges at this time,” Drake told her. “But he is a material witness currently in protective custody and we’d rather his change in status not be publicized.”
“Is there anything you can tell me?” Lois insisted.
“We know that the evidence was planted in his apartment,” Drake said. “Lucky for him it turns out the security in his building was recently upgraded to include video cameras in the hallways and on the stairwells. Two men were caught on tape bringing the stuff in immediately after the bombing.”
“Do you know who they were?” Lois asked.
“This is strictly off the record,” Drake warned her. Lois nodded agreement. “Two guys with long histories in the Metropolis court system. They were paid a lot of money to plant the evidence but they can’t, or won’t, tell us who gave them the stuff or who paid them. They claim it was all a hush hush spy kind of operation. But while in custody, they were boasting their orders came straight from the ‘Boss’.”
“Who may well be Lex Luthor,” Lois said.
“Maybe what you brought me will help prove it,” Drake told her but her tone indicated she wasn’t confident the proof was in the box on her desk. “Thank you.”
Lois turned to leave. She was going to have to hurry if she was going to make it to work on time.
“And Lane,” Drake added. “If you find out anything else, anything at all, don’t hesitate to call me or Henderson.”
Lois nodded. Maybe things were starting to look up. Maybe.
-o-o-o-
Lois’s new office was large and bright with a modern steel and glass desk and credenza. Her desk chair was white leather, as were the two side chairs. But the room felt empty, lifeless. She had brought a selection of books from home to start filling in the bookcases – history, biographies, cultural studies. It didn’t help to bring life to the office. Maybe some plants would help.
She considered calling some of her friends then realized, not for the first time, that most of her friends had been at the Daily Planet. She had called Perry earlier from a payphone and left him a message about her engagement and about meeting with A.D.A. Drake. She didn’t expect to hear back from him until later.
A yawn escaped – the dreams were keeping her from getting any rest. Loisette’s life, her choices, was haunting Lois’s dreams. But Loisette hadn’t really had any choices, had she? She was a prisoner of her times, her society. She had made a promise and she’s had to keep it.
Lois leaned back in her chair then sat forward, afraid that if she relaxed, she would fall asleep. And sleep would bring more dreams. She was arranging her pencil cup when she heard something happening outside her office.
She hurried out to the LNN newsroom to find LNN’s star reporter surrounded by a group of staffers. They were excited, frustrated, talking over one another a mile a minute.
“What's going on?” Lois asked.
Sandra Ellis, LNN’s on camera star looked up. “Sources inside the courthouse tell us the Grand Jury may be about to come back with indictments against two city councilmen.”
“The Redevelopment Fund scandal?” Lois asked. It was a story she had been working on before… before the nightmare.
Ellis nodded. “Yep. We have a camera crew there, but they've been denied access,” she said. “We don't know which two were named, or even if our information is accurate.”
“Until you know that, there's no story,” Lois told them.
“But we also hear CNN's about to go with it,” Ellis added. “So...”
“So they know something we don't know,” Lois reasoned. “Let me make a few calls. I know some of the bailiffs.”
“I'm on the air in four minutes,” Ellis warned.
“Not unless you've got something to report,” Lois retorted.
Lois grabbed the phone and called her friends at the courthouse.
“The Grand Jury today handed down indictments calling for the arrests of Metropolis City Councilmen Ferdig and Montang,” Ellis announced to the world three minutes later. On the screen behind her was footage of the two councilmen trying to hide their faces from the cameras as court bailiffs grinned and waved.
“As you can see from this exclusive tape taken outside the courthouse,” Ellis continued. “The councilmen have already been remanded into custody and we'll be covering their arraignment later this afternoon. For now, this is Sandra Ellis for LNN News.”
The director signaled the end of the broadcast and finally, the newsroom broke into applause. Lois grinned and bowed. Maybe working for LNN wouldn’t be too different from what she was used to. The rules of journalism hadn’t changed. The pace was faster, deadlines more immediate, but she could handle it.
Maybe things weren’t quite as bad as she’d thought.
-o-o-o-
The job at LNN proved to be as exciting, and almost as comfortable, as Lois had hoped. Ellis was a competent broadcast journalist and Lois was learning a lot from the LNN team.
But in the weeks after her move to Luthor News, Perry had only called her once and that was to leave her a message that Jimmy had moved in with him and Alice – his venture into entrepreneurialism had failed disastrously – and that Clark was still in custody, somewhere.
It hurt that Perry wasn’t talking to her, even though she knew he didn’t really want to hear how great electronic media was. But he was also leaving her out of their investigation into how the Planet had fallen into financial ruin. And she was worried about Clark. Henderson wouldn’t tell her where Clark had been moved to, only that he was safe and doing well.
Lois felt she was in limbo as far as her old friends were concerned. She couldn’t be sure, but she suspected that her association with Luthor was keeping them away. Even Cat Grant hadn’t returned her calls. Were they afraid she had joined the enemy? It was a question that had come to her more and more often in recent days.
Lois hadn’t had a chance to do any investigating on her own. She was never allowed alone in Luthor’s office and any questions she asked of the various members of the staff she met were politely but firmly rebuffed.
Luthor had set the wedding date without consulting her. It was now only a few days away. Mrs. Cox was handling the wedding arrangements and Lois’s input was minimal. It certainly wasn’t how she had envisaged how her wedding would go. She had always expected her mother to be involved, to fight with her over the arrangements. Mom would want ridiculously expensive and garish things like doves or bell ringers, anything to make her
Mrs. Cox’s arrangements would be tasteful and befitting the wedding of Lex Luthor. But no one seemed to really care what Lois Lane wanted.
Lois sighed as she looked at the floor plans Luthor had spread out on his desk. Luthor’s new country estate in upstate New Troy. She had wanted to go to the opening of the Superman exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. In fact, she had originally been scheduled to make a presentation but somehow that got cancelled.
“This is wrong. I wanted the doors off the master side balcony to be sliders,” Luthor complained. She gave him a curious look and he went on. “French doors make the room look smaller.”
“Lex, the master bedroom is three thousand square feet. That's more than twice the size of my apartment,” she told him.
“Well, what about the exercise area? Should we put it back on the ground floor?”
She studied the bedroom plans. It was huge and the centerpiece was a custom super-king bed reminiscent of the beds used by the wealthy in the middle ages but on a larger, more grandiose scale. In fact, the entire house bore an uncanny resemblance to an ancient manor house. She suppressed a shudder at the realization. All that was missing was the chapel.
“No, I think this is right,” Lois managed to say, trying to get back on track. “It'll be great to get out of bed and have that stair climber staring me right in the face saying 'Now, Lois. Now.'”
“But, darling, that'll be my line,” Luthor told her with a smile. He kissed her and she forced herself to return it. He tasted like stale tobacco. He reached for her breast and she shied away. He backed off but she knew he wasn’t happy about it.
“Thank you, Lex, for understanding about my wanting to wait... for our wedding night. I just want it to be special,” she told him.
“It will be,” he promised.
There was a knock on the door and Mrs. Cox walked in. She gave Lois a cool look before speaking. “Lex, could we run through your schedule for tomorrow?”
“Of course. Come in, Mrs. Cox,” Luthor said.
Cox laid a leather bound daily calendar on top of the blue print. She pointed to one entry where an entire block of several hours had been marked off. “Asabi hopes that you’ll be able to join him for his ‘experiment’.”
“Hopefully it will be more successful than his last one,” Luthor commented sourly.
“He has high hopes for its success since he now has the abbot’s ring,” Cox said.
The phone rang and Cox picked it up. She listened for a moment then put the caller on hold. “Bagdonis in Chicago.”
“I'll take it in the library,” Luthor announced. He left Lois alone with Mrs. Cox.
After a moment Lois asked, “What sort of experiment is Asabi doing?”
Cox gave a dry chuckle. “He thinks he’s something of a wizard. Has this idea he can cast a spell, call up the spirit of a dead man, and get his secrets.”
“And Lex has bought into this?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Both women looked over at the door as it opened and Luthor walked back in. He nodded to Mrs. Cox. “Anything else?” he asked.
“Nothing I can't handle,” the woman assured him.
“Thank you, Mrs. Cox. That'll be all for now,” Luthor said, dismissing her. Lois watched her leave, wondering why Cox had been so forthcoming about Asabi’s plans.
“Interesting woman,” Lois commented.
“She's easily the best assistant I've ever had, but, if you object to her, I'll...”
“Why would I object to her?” She stood up and walked out onto the balcony. It was cold but she didn’t mind. Luthor followed her out.
“What is it?” he asked. “You seen distracted this morning.”
“Well, with my mom getting out of treatment and coming in…”
“What else?”
“Oh... I was just wondering how everybody was. I haven't spoken to Perry, or Cat, or Jimmy in weeks.”
“Why don't you give them a call?
“I think I will,” she said but she already knew they weren’t likely to call her back. “Any news about Clark?”
Luthor shook his head. “The police still have him in closeted away. I’ve made inquiries, had my legal people look into why the case hasn’t been taken to the grand jury and why Clark’s still being held if the district attorney’s not intending to press charges.” Luthor shook his head. “The man’s obviously a fool and I won’t be supporting him for reelection… But I have tried. I even went so far as to ask one of the city’s most noted psychiatrists to be allowed to examine Clark but the officer in charge of the investigation refused to allow it.”
“Henderson’s a good man,” Lois said. “I’m sure he had a good reason to turn down your offer.”
“Henderson’s a…” He stopped himself and seemed to weigh his words before he began again. “Darling, I know you’re worried about Clark, and so am I. But there’s nothing I can do to help him,” Luthor said. He seemed sincere, but then he always seemed sincere. Luthor continued. “He didn’t want my help when I offered it. One of the best criminal lawyers in the country and he fired him without hardly talking to him. Is that the act of a balanced mind? And now the police appear to be holding him incommunicado.”
“I’m sure it’s not like that,” Lois told him, but she wasn’t sure which one of them she needed to reassure more.
Luthor shrugged and gestured to the blueprints inside on the desk.
“Now, did we decide on the twelve car garage, or the fifteen?” he asked.
-o-o-o-
Lois had hoped that going to work would raise her spirits. She also hoped that Perry or Jimmy would finally call her and let her know what was going on with Clark and their own investigation into the fall of the Planet.
She was surprised however, when she walked onto the LNN newsroom floor and Lorna, her secretary intercepted her.
“There’s a man here to see you,” the woman told her. “He refused to give his name… I assume he’s one of your sources?”
“Where is he?”
“In your office.”
Lois rounded the corner to look through the glass partition to her office, Lorna still by her side. She couldn’t imagine who would be waiting for her. The man was slender and of average height, dressed in a suit. He turned and grinned as she opened the door.
“Jimmy?” Lois turned to Lorna. “It’s okay, Lorna. I know him.”
Lorna gave her a disapproving look as she left, closing the office door behind her.
Lois ignored her, pulling Jimmy into a hug. “I’ve missed you guys so much…” She stepped back and inspected him. He’d had a haircut and looked every bit the young professional. “Perry left me a message that he and Alice had taken you in after…”
Jimmy shrugged. “My old ‘buddy’ was up to his old tricks. Took me for everything he could. Jack’s kid brother found me. We were going to stay over at Clark’s since… well, you know… but his parents are staying there. They hooked us up with Perry. The rest is, as they say, history.”
“You’re lookin’ good,” Lois commented. “Any news on…?”
“How about I buy you a cup of coffee?”
-o-o-o-
Jimmy took her to a small coffee shop several blocks away from the LNN building. He led her to a back booth where two men were already seated. She recognized Perry, of course, but the other man was hunkered down in the corner with his back to her. He looked up as she slipped into the booth beside Perry. Clark.
She wanted to move to the other side and hug him, but Jimmy had slid in beside him.
His hair was longer and he’d changed his large eyeglass frames to something smaller. He was sporting a little goatee and moustache. It made him look dashing and dangerous, especially with a black shirt and jeans. He also looked tired and she suspected he’d lost weight. She noted that he was fidgeting with a ring on his right hand - with an ornate ring with a blue stone.
“I guess this means you’ve been cleared?” she said hopefully.
“I was a suspect for all of six hours, if that,” Clark told her. “Henderson and his people were hoping the other side would show their hand if I was on the inside.”
“Did it work?” she asked.
“We know who actually planted one of the bombs,” Clark told her. “And who planted the evidence in my apartment.” He nodded to Jimmy.
The younger man picked up the narrative. “A guy named John Black. He’ll do just about anything he’s paid to do: break in, plant explosives, anything. Just like he did for a woman named Cox in Clark’s case. He even gave me her number... for a reference.”
“And Henderson knows this?”
“Oh yeah,” Perry told her. “Don’t think we haven’t been working with him on this. Bill and I go way back.”
“Okay, so why the charade that Clark’s being held incommunicado by the police?” Lois asked.
“Aside from what Luthor’s lawyer did to me, there were two attempts on my life while I was in lock-up,” Clark told her. “The first one you know about.”
Lois nodded.
“The second one was after McCorkle took me off of suicide watch and I was back in with the other prisoners. One of them came after me with a knife.”
“That was what led us to Black,” Perry added. “The attacker’s only visitor while at central holding was Black’s brother and that happened only an hour before the attack on Clark.”
“And Black led back to Mrs. Cox, Luthor’s assistant,” Lois added.
Clark nodded. “Henderson, Drake, and I agreed it would be better if I dropped out of sight for a while.”
“And you won’t tell me where?” she asked.
Clark smiled and shook his head. “Believe me, it’s better you don’t know.”
It was the answer she expected, even if it wasn't the answer she wanted.
“So, what have we got on Luthor’s take-over of the Planet?” Lois asked.
“The old Board of Directors didn’t want to talk to me, but with a little help from Jimmy and Cat… The Planet board originally voted not to sell to Lex Luthor. Then, suddenly, they all changed their minds. They were all also driving new Ferraris. Luckily for us Simon Truesdale, former Daily Planet board member, had a sudden attack of conscience. He 's confessed to receiving a substantial cash 'inducement' I think he called it to support the sale of the Planet to Luthor.”
Lois narrowed her eyes at him. “Any particular reason for this 'sudden attack of conscience'?”
Jimmy grinned. “It might be related to a certain video tape he's hoping his wife never receives.”
“Poor woman,” Lois murmured.
“Not after the divorce settlement,” Perry said with a chuckle.
“But this can’t be all,” Lois pointed out.
“It isn’t. There was additional insurance on the Daily Planet building through a subsidiary of LexCorp called Lexel Investments. About twice what it would've cost to repair it,” Perry told her. “Lex Luthor cleared a cool seventy-five mil on the deal.”
“Lex told me he’d taken a major loss on it,” Lois told them. “It wasn’t worth it to rebuild.”
“Lois, hon’, a newspaper isn’t a building,” Perry said very seriously. “It’s people and a printing press. People can work damn near anywhere and you can borrow or rent a press. Hell, the Star would probably have agreed to help us out in the short term if Luthor had just given the go-ahead.”
“But what about the advertisers?” Lois asked.
“Bob Macklin from ad sales has been checking into that,” Perry said. “It seems the first ship jumpers were from the three big ad agencies in town and guess who owns them through a series of dummy corporations and subsidiaries?”
“Luthor,” she answered.
“And once the big guys bailed, it was only a matter of time before the little guys started to get worried,” Perry continued.
“Not to mention the fact that many of them where given heavy incentives to move their business to the Star or one of the other papers,” Jimmy added.
“What kind of ‘incentives’? Lois asked.
“Anything and everything,” Clark answered. “Changes in their merchant card terms, their financing, threatened union problems, supplier problems, legal problems, physical threats. Whatever it took.”
“So, you guys have everything sewn up,” Lois told them. She felt left out – they’d done everything without her. She knew she shouldn’t feel hurt at being left out; she’d been too close to Luthor and she knew that he was suspicious. Still, she was supposed to be the investigative reporter. It was a come down to realize they hadn’t needed her.
“You guys know that none of this'll bring back the Planet,” she reminded them.
Perry shrugged. “Elvis, first recording session for Sam Phillips, June of '54 it was, didn't turn out too well, but darned if he wasn't back in that studio in July and turning out his first couple of hits.”
“You just know there's a point to that story,” Jimmy commented to no one in particular.
Perry looked straight at Lois. “Elvis didn't give up; we won't either. Got it?”
“Got it,” Lois told him. “So, when is Henderson taking him down?”
“Drake and the D.A. are reviewing everything now,” Perry said. “I’m hoping Clemens will authorize an arrest today. Henderson thinks tomorrow is more likely.”
“Perry, I’m getting married to that monster tomorrow,” Lois reminded him.
“We know, hon’,” Perry said. “We’re hoping we can get it done before you have to go through with it.” He patted her hand. When Luthor made that gesture, it was patronizing. When Perry did it, it was comforting.
“I’ve missed you guys so much,” she told them. “I’ll be so glad when this is over.”
“We all will, Lois,” Perry said quietly. He checked his watch. “I have to meet someone,” he announced. “Jimmy?”
Lois got up to let Perry out. “Can I speak with Clark privately for a few minutes?” she asked. Perry gave Clark a worried look and the younger man nodded.
“I’ll grab a cab,” Clark assured him.
Perry nodded, paid the waitress and disappeared out the door with Jimmy.
Lois slipped into the seat beside Clark. “I was really worried about you,” she began. “I mean the last time I saw you…”
“I was a little worried too,” Clark admitted. “The evidence against me looked pretty convincing. Luckily the fire went out faster than the arsonists planned and enough evidence survived to raise serious questions about what really happened.”
“The second explosion?”
Clark nodded. “High temperature accelerant. If it had burned as planned, there wouldn’t have been enough of the building left to even consider rebuilding.”
“Then it’s a good thing it didn’t burn as planned,” Lois told him. She studied his face for a long moment. She recognized the look, the pensive sadness that he hadn’t been able to do more. “Clark, you did everything you could, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t stop the nightmares. I hear them screaming, the ones trapped when the HTA exploded. Jack running back to help, getting caught in the flames.” For a moment Lois thought he was ready to burst into tears then he caught himself. “As fast as I am, as strong as I am, I couldn’t save him. He died right in front of me and I couldn’t do anything for him.”
“Clark, even Superman couldn’t save everybody,” she reminded him.
“I know. But it doesn’t make it any easier.” He was silent for a long moment as he sipped his coffee.
Lois took a deep breath. “I didn’t want to ask in front of Perry or Jimmy, but in the jail, how did they get blood from you?”
“We’re still not sure,” Clark said, keeping his voice low. “But Jackson thinks the first psychic attack may have temporarily depleted my aura.”
“And what about…?” She made a sideways motion with her hand to indicate flying.
“Things are coming together more and more,” he told her. “But I don’t know if I can do that again. I don’t know if I can be that person anymore.”
He was fidgeting with the ring again.
“Clark, it’s okay. Really,” she assured him.
“I wish I could believe that,” he told her. He sighed. “I have to get going.” He started to get up then stopped. “Lois, if we can’t get there before… Just do what you have to do to stay alive, okay?”
She nodded. “I will. And Clark, be careful.”
“Aren’t I always?” he asked with a cheeky grin. Then he disappeared out the door.
TOC
