TOC
here And here, part 7:
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When hearing Clark’s words, Lois opened her eyes and mouth, surprised, and Rachel turned her back to them, covering her face with her hands and murmuring “Oh, no…”
“What…” Lois was about to ask Clark, but her attention was distracted by Rachel’s reaction. She turned to her. “Rachel!” she said.
Rachel was still holding her mouth, not saying anything. Her eyes were closed, and she was thinking intensely and desperately.
“Rachel, what’s going on?” Lois asked her kindly and sweetly, giving the baby to Clark, getting closer to her and holding her from her shoulders. Clark approached them, too.
“I can’t believe it” Rachel murmured. “It ‘s not happening. It is not happening. Oh God…” And, saying these last two words, she hid her whole face in her hands.
Lois looked at Clark, biting her lip. This was the worst moment to ask her about her plans… or the best one?
She finally took the risk.
“Rachel, don’t worry… it’s not that terrible.” she said, comfortingly, caressing her arms. She set her eyes upon Clark to encourage herself, and finally, let it go. “Why are you so worried about it?”
Rachel opened her eyes, crossed her fingers right in front of her mouth and, without moving her hand, looked at Rachel. “I think that you haven’t realized the seriousness of the situation.” she commented, almost scornfully.
“Why don’t you explain it to us, then?” said Clark, before Lois, who turned to him, surprised, had the time to open her mouth. He knew that Lois wouldn’t have liked Rachel’s comment, and that she could react in a catastrophic for their plans way.
Rachel closed her eyes and bent her head. Her hands came on her forehead. Then, she grabbed her head for a moment, opening her eyes, and then let her hands slip on her head, her neck and then she put them round her waist, sighing “OK”. She stared at them, who were staring her back, and caught their look. They were not condescending any more. They had a determined look on their faces, not unfriendly, but strict. They were demanding an answer she didn’t want to reveal. Her face became like theirs, in a natural way of self – defense. She had decided not to lose control of the situation – or, at least, not to show that she had lost it.
“What do you want to know?” Rachel asked, firmly.
“Why would someone bug your lab.” Lois said, in the same tone.
Rachel turned in a way that they could only see her left side, and brought her right hand upon her forehead. Then, she turned to them again.
“Look, I ’ve already told you that I ‘m working on a medicine.” she told them, in a tone which was like warning them that they shouldn’t ask too much. “I can tell you more.” She lowered her voice. “Can’t you see it’s dangerous?”
“It will be more dangerous for you, if you refuse our help!” Lois whispered, nervously.
Rachel did the same moves as before, and turned again to them. She was anxious, and, obviously, feeling uncomfortably.
“I am working on a medicine!” she whispered intensely, waving her hands.
“What medicine?” Lois whispered, in the same tone.
Rachel looked behind her, made sure that no one was watching, and whispered, nervously, but almost without making a sound: “I ‘m trying to invent a medicine for John.”
This was the last thing Clark and Lois were expecting to hear.
They couldn’t say anything more, they just stared at one another and then back to her, questioningly.
“So, is it OK?” Rachel asked after a while, still nervous, but now it was not because of fury, but because of fear. What if they reveal her secret?
“Tell us about it.” Clark whispered, calmly.
Rachel looked behind her back again. “Not here.” she whispered. “It is not safe.”
“Let’s go in and deactivate the bug.” Clark whispered, bending slightly for a moment his head towards the laboratory’s door.
“Deactivate?” Lois turned to him. “Why not destroy it?”
“It can be useful.” he explained. “What do you think, Rachel?”
Rachel bit her lips. “Let’s go in,” she said, taking deep breaths and waving her hands, “deactivate it, talk about whatever you want, and then we’ll plan what we’re going to do next. Is that OK?”
Lois and Clark looked at each other and nodded. “Why not?” Clark said.
“OK.” said Rachel. She unlocked the door, and walked in carefully, looking around. She waved to them and they came in, walking as silently as they could.
Rachel locked the door, trying not to be noisy. “Where is the bug?” she asked then Clark, just moving her lips.
“It ‘s there.” He moved his lips too, gave Sharlynn to Lois and pointed to the table. Then, he walked the same way until he reached it, put his hand under it, caught the back, unstuck it and showed it to the women, moving his lips again: “This is it!”
The women began to walk towards him, silently as before. When they reached him, Lois asked the same quiet way: “Why are we walking like this?”
Clark opened his mouth to say something, but Rachel answered before him: “Precaution.”
Lois nodded. Then, Clark brought the back right before his eyes, and started to examine it thoroughly, while the women were watching him. After a few moments, he found a small, tiny, red button. He lowered the glasses on his nose and x – rayed it. There was no doubt: this was the “RECORD” button.
“Do you have a pin, a needle, something?” he moved his lips to Rachel.
She opened her mouth, bit her tongue and looked around, in an attempt to think. Lois, watching her, thought that she had a very rich body – language vocabulary.
Just one second later, Rachel wore her I – have – a – beautiful – idea look. “Wait!” she said to Clark. She tiptoed a few steps to the left and reached a glass, which was full of syringes, thermometers, pencils, pens and other stuff. She took one of the syringes and checked its needle.
“This one?” she asked him, silently.
“Yes.” he nodded and took it from her hands. He pressed the little button carefully.
“That was it!” Clark said, with his original voice.
Rachel had walked to her previous position. “Are you sure?” she asked, with a look full of doubt and fear.
“Positive.” he smiled and let the bug and the syringe on the table. “It won’t bug us anymore.”
He was in his joke – mode, trying to make the situation more pleasant. And it worked: Lois was staring at him, smiling, and Rachel leaned onto the table, obviously relaxed and with the beginning of a beautiful smile on her lips.
“So, will you now tell us the story of your experiment?” Clark turned to her, still smiling.
“OK.” She smiled, at last. She grabbed a chair, pulled it to where she was and sat on it, comforting herself. “But there’s not much for you to know. Sit down, if you want.” She showed them the other two chairs.
Clark pulled them both near Rachel, and then he and Lois sat on them.
“Well,” she began, “about a month before, I decided that I could never make a philosopher’s stone. I was about to give up, when I had a strange idea: The Kryptonite had never been used before as an ingredient for medicines. Maybe it had special qualities. I made a solution and injected it to a mouse. I saw that it had affected its nervous system. And, as the brain belongs to the nervous system, I decided I should try to create a medicine to cure mental problems. After all, my brother needs something like that, doesn’t he?” She raised her eyebrows giving herself a questioning look, waiting for an answer to her rhetorical question.
Lois and Clark looked at each other for a moment. “Yes, sure.” Clark said.
“Pleased?” Rachel asked, with a strange smile. It was beautiful and revealing that she was pleased with the way things had turned out, but… there was something wicked about it.
Clark, as an answer gave her a slight nod, thinking. This woman was weird, that was for sure. She could act very convincingly, but they wouldn’t believe her. He and Lois had been investigative reporters for many years and could easily tell whether someone was lying or telling the truth. But now, they were in front of a woman who had participated in a big lie, and she was now giving them signs that, under any other circumstances, would be certain proof she was lying. She was smiling wickedly, suspiciously, and giving them an explanation that, OK, could be doubted. But he believed her, he was sure she was telling the truth, even though he didn’t know why.
Puzzled, he turned to Lois, and, by the look on her face, he realized that she was thinking exactly the same thing. But they couldn’t discuss the matter right now, in front of her, but they had to continue and see where she could lead them. But, still, could they risk trusting in her?
Yes, Lois was thinking almost the same things, and understood the dilemma her husband was running into. Making up her mind for both of them, she decided that they should run a more thorough examination.
“Rachel, I don’t mean to be rude, but, how are you so sure that you could make a medicine? I mean, you’re still too young, you ‘re not experienced enough.”
Rachel raised her eyebrows again. “I can try.”
Clark was working out on his mind something else. “And you ‘re going to try this experiment on your brother?”
She hesitated. “Yes, sort of…” She began once again to wave and grimace, as every time that she was in a difficult position. “When it is ready, I ‘ll give it to him. I can’t experiment on mice, because… Well, how do you know that a mouse is retarded, or, after taking a medicine, that it isn’t anymore? It ‘s a risk, but I should risk it, if it is going to make him a normal person.”
“Maybe this is what the Black Team was talking about…” Lois said and turned to Clark. “Didn’t you say that they said that Rachel and Jane were planning to do “something” to John?”
“In fact, they said that Sharlynn and Jane are. They don’t know about Rachel’s existence, they think she ‘s dead. But, yes, they could be talking about it. Rachel, did you talk to anyone about it inside this room?”
“No. Nor inside this room, nor outside this room. You ‘re the first people that ever hear about it.”
“Maybe there’s a camera, then… How could they know?” Lois asked. Clark began to look around, but Rachel had an idea.
“No! Wait! I know!”
“What?” they both turned to her.
“They must have recorded me while talking to myself. I use to do this a lot while working.”
“Talking to yourself?” Lois repeated.
“Yes… You know, commenting my actions, stuff like this.” She turned right, where was her desk and the glass from which she had took the syringe earlier. She began to take each instrument out of the glass and letting it on the table, saying: “This one goes here, this one goes there, this one goes there…” She then turned again to them, not telling them anything, but she raised once again her eyebrows and on her lips was drawn a smile saying: “See?”
They were just gazing at her, without saying anything. After all, if this was her way to work, they should respect it.
“But the Black Team probably knew it.” Clark commented, after thinking for a while.
Lois turned to him, and he turned to her. Rachel, on the other hand, was also looking at him, but just because he was in front of her; she couldn’t see anything on that time. She had bent, laying her head on her right hand, while her right elbow was leaning on her knees, and thinking.
“You said that the Black Team might be working for someone.” Lois said to Clark, breaking the silence.
“Yes.” Clark replied.
“Right, it could be.” Rachel said, like waking up from a dream. She sat back in her chair and began to unwind her hank of thoughts to the reporters, waving as usual, something that was beginning to irritate, confuse and stun Lois. “You know, the Black Team is just a few guys who beat people when they ‘re ordered to, and paid for it. They wouldn’t get into so much trouble just for themselves, since they wouldn’t even be able to take advantage of a medicine that they ‘d steal. After all, this bug and any other stuff they ‘ve used, would need technological knowledge to be manufactured, something they certainly don’t have. Plus, it would take a lot of money, something else they certainly don’t have. So, they ‘re working for someone, and we need to find who this someone is. Good idea.” she said to Clark, finally.
“Maybe,” Clark began, “but maybe they ‘re more clever than you think they are. They might have stolen money, and then bought or stole whatever necessary, and it doesn’t really take a lot of medicine knowledge to sell a medicine on a high price.”
“They wouldn’t be clever enough just to think of such a plan.” she smiled in her old way.
Lois smiled. Until now, all she could tell about Rachel was that they shouldn’t trust her, as they didn’t know her well yet. But now, she was starting to like her. Even though they still didn’t know her, she seemed to have these characteristics of a dynamic person – smartness, self – confidence, a bit of wickedness – and yet she loved and cared for her family… She reminded her of herself.
Then, Sharlynn began to cry, and the three heads turned to her.
“Oh,” Lois grumbled, “was that now this necessary? I think she ‘s hungry.” she said, looking at Rachel, apologetically.
Rachel grinned, showing that she was not annoyed at all by the baby’s cry. “No problem. In fact…” She stood up and opened one of the drawers underneath the table. She took out of it a small carton of milk and showed it to Lois. “…would you like to feed her with this one?”
“You keep cartons of milk down here?” Clark grinned.
“Yes.” she said. “In this drawer I keep always a carton of milk, with or without cocoa, chocolates, biscuits, and a few comics.”
“Comics?” Clark grinned.
“Yes, something to enjoy while having a break.” She grinned, too, and handed the milk to Lois.
“It has to be boiled first.” Lois reminded her, grinning as well, while rocking the baby to make her stop crying.
“Oh, right!” Rachel rolled her eyes. “Seems like I know an awful lot about babies!” She put the milk in a small, iron saucepan and then put the saucepan onto the small gas – stove on the table. “Don’t worry, I always sterilize my utensils after using them.” she said, catching the investigative look in Lois’ eyes.
“No, I was just looking…” she apologized.
“So, who chose the baby’s name?” Clark asked.
“Jane.” Rachel answered, not taking her eyes from the saucepan. “She said she wanted to forget her past, even though her present wasn’t much better, and would name the baby boy John and the baby girl Sharon Lynn.” She sounded as she didn’t like so much Jane’s decision.
“And your name?” Lois asked.
“She said that Rachel was her sister’s name too, and that she didn’t want it for her daughter.”
She was still watching the saucepan, not letting the couple see her face. But by the sound of her voice, they could easily tell she was disappointed and angry with Jane’s choice.
The milk was finally boiled. After one or two minutes, Rachel took of the needle of a big syringe, and put the milk in. She gave it carefully to Lois, saying: “This is the best I have.”
“It’s OK.” she said, and began to feed the baby. Rachel put aside in the table her tools and sat on it.
The atmosphere in the room wasn’t pleasant at all after the conversation about the baby’s name. Nobody was speaking, and the only sound was Sharlynn drinking the milk.
Then they heard a banging on the door, and heard Sharlynn Thorn’s desperate screams.
“Rachel! Open the door!”
