Last time:
Lois
"What about me, Perry?" I asked a minute later as Clark and Billy headed into the elevator.
"Work on the follow-up on the Toyman, darlin'."
I sighed and turned back to my computer. Figured. Clark would get today's big story.
His hand rested on my shoulder. "Have you even seen today's paper yet?"
I shook my head. "No, not yet."
He tossed a copy on my desk. "Take a look."
I looked it over as he walked off. It looked about like I expected – like what Perry had set up.
"'Toyman Captured; Latest Victim Recovered Safely' by Lois Lane-Kent and Clark Kent with special contributions from Billy Judd, Serena Norcross-Judd and James Olsen," I read to myself.
What?
"Lois Lane-Kent?" I looked up to see Perry watching me from his doorway. He winked at me and turned with a smile.
Where had that come from? I'd have to ask Clark later if he knew anything about it.
I reveled in my first front page story for a long moment and then turned back to the follow-up.
After all, you were only as good as your next story.
*~*127*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I felt a bit bad for Lois. She was stuck in the bullpen working on the Toyman follow up and I was with Billy heading for EPRAD to try to get the story on the fire.
"Who's Platt?" I asked as we worked our way towards the space facility.
"He came in last week," Billy told me. "You guys weren't here. He looks like a bum, but he's a brilliant scientist – if you can read his notes. He gave us a bunch of papers that may or may not indicate this was going to happen."
We got to the facility and were told that there were no comments for the press at that point but I saw someone I recognized walking by.
"Dr. Baines," I called. I'd seen her on TV at some point.
She stopped and looked at me. She ran her eyes up and down, making me supremely uncomfortable.
"Can I help you?" she finally said, walking towards us.
"Clark Kent, Daily Planet. I'm working on this story with my colleague, Billy Norcross." I sounded so grown up, I mentally rolled my eyes.
She shook hands with Billy before turning to me and holding out her hand, palm down. It was awkward at best, but I shook it. I thought she wanted me to kiss it and that wasn't going to happen.
"Naturally, we're all still in a state of shock," she told us as we walked... somewhere. I wasn't sure where we were headed. "I don't suppose I have to tell you what a catastrophe the explosion was. Commander Laderman... he was one of our best. Three kids, his wife, Anna..."
"Dr. Baines, what's being done to investigate the cause of the explosion?" Billy asked.
"Well, we won't know anything until we examine the burned wreckage. We're in the process of moving it to a hangar for inspection."
"Can we take a look at it?" I didn't think Billy was holding his breath that we'd be able to, even as he asked the question.
"Sorry. No press allowed." She smiled politely at him.
"No exceptions?" I asked, smiling at her and hating myself as I did it.
She gave me another of those up and down looks.
"I'll see what I can do," she said, holding my eyes with her own.
"On the subject of Dr. Samuel Platt," Billy started.
"I have his file right here. A real waste of talent. Seems that the pressure of building the space station, along with his divorce, finally got to him. He started drinking and taking drugs. It went from bad to worse. We kept him on as long as we could. But, after he set fire to one of the laboratories, we had to let him go," she told us.
Billy looked at her thoughtfully. "Dr. Platt said he submitted a report to you... something about coolant devices installed to freeze the ion particles?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Coolants? No, I don't recall any report. I could check my records."
"Could you? And give us a call?" Billy asked with a smile of his own. He handed her a card.
"No problem at all." She paused and gave me another significant look. "Let me know if I can be of further assistance."
A few minutes later we were walking through the parking lot.
"She seemed... cooperative," I said with a smirk.
"I don't trust her," Billy said, echoing my own sentiments. "Very attractive."
"Young for a woman in her position," I added.
"We're supposed to immediately assume she's telling the truth. Still, I'm glad I wasn't you."
I winced. "I can't believe how forward she was. I wear a ring for crying out loud. And I can't believe I even *contemplated* flirting with her a bit to get some information."
He laughed. "All you had to do was smile, my friend. No actual flirting required."
"Thank goodness. Lois would *kill* me." That was the truth. "Where's Serena anyway?"
Billy sighed, but didn't give another response.
"What?"
"She'd be okay with me telling you..." He sighed again. "She had a miscarriage. We've known it was coming for a week or so, but the physical process really started yesterday."
"I'm so sorry," I said quietly.
He shrugged. "They said it was just one of those things – that most likely the baby wouldn't have been viable anyway and that's why, but that doesn't make it any easier."
"Let us know if there's anything we can do – anything at all."
"I don't know what that might be, but if something comes up, we'll let you know."
"Hey, we're not too far from your place. Do you want to stop in for a minute?"
His phone rang at that point. "That's her. Hang on." They spoke for a minute before he hung up. "She wants me to stay on the story." He shook his head with a slight grin. "Right now, she's jealous that you were at EPRAD with me instead of her. I think it's partly bluster but... She still wishes she was here. She said she's feeling a lot better and she might go into the office."
"I bet."
We headed towards the address Platt had given Billy and Serena. It was an abandoned, run down building that looked like it could either fall over or go up in flames with only the slightest provocation. He was obviously squatting.
He was nowhere to be found and, while we found the room he'd been living in, we didn't see anything immediately useful. At least not to us.
"Now what?" I asked. I looked at my watch. "I have about an hour before I need to leave for the museum thing."
He grimaced. "Better you than me, man." He stopped. "Let's go back over to EPRAD and see if we can at least get a glimpse of it while they're moving it."
I nodded. "Let's go."
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I sighed as I finished typing up the follow-up. I'd talked to Henderson and he'd given me a little more information, but not much. The follow-up was pretty easy.
"Ms. Judd? Ms. Judd?" I looked up to see man who looked suspiciously like a bum was walking down the ramp.
"Ms. Judd's not in today," I told him. "I work with her pretty often. Is there something I can help you with?"
"Where's Mr. Norcross then?"
"He's out working on the Messenger story."
"Who are you?"
"Lois Kent," I told him.
"Lois Lane-Kent?" he asked suspiciously.
I nodded.
"I've read your columns about your little boy. I'm glad he's doing well. And the story this morning was good work," he said warily.
"Thank you. He's doing very well now – we're very fortunate."
"And your husband? Where's he?"
"He's with Mr. Norcross and then going to the Orani Jewels presentation this afternoon."
He nodded. "Okay then. I gave Mr. Norcross and Ms. Judd some information last week. This is more on that. The coolants weren't supposed to be there. That's why it exploded."
He shoved his package – a full brown paper shopping bag – at me.
"It's all in there." He looked around nervously. "I have to go."
"Wait," I said. He stopped and turned. "Who are you?"
"Dr. Samuel Platt. I talked to them last week. I said the Messenger was going to explode and it did. The transport will, too, unless someone does something." He came back to me, putting his hands on my shoulders. "My wife and daughter are going up on the transport this week, Ms. Kent. Someone has to do something."
"We will," I promised him. "If there is *anything* we can do, we will."
"Please, Ms. Kent. Make sure the story gets out."
"We will, Dr. Platt."
He looked around nervously. "I have to go. They're following me." He turned and practically scampered off.
I wasn't sure he wasn't crazy. Of course, it also wasn't paranoia if someone was really following you.
I headed to Perry's office, bag in hand. "Perry, Dr. Platt was just here. He dropped all this off."
He raised an eyebrow. "What exactly is all that?"
I shrugged. "I don't have any idea. Something that's supposed to prove that the Messenger was sabotage and that the transport will have the same problem."
He sighed. "Head into the conference room and start trying to figure it out. If it's anything like the notes he dropped off last week, it'll take a while to get them all in order." He looked past me. "Serena just walked in. I'll have her work with you."
I turned to watch her putting her things at her desk and then she noticed Perry waving her in.
"I couldn't stay at home with all this going on," she told us without preamble.
"How ya feelin'?" Perry asked her quietly.
She shrugged. "I'll be okay as long as I don't overdo it."
"What's wrong?" I asked her. "Should you be up and around? You don't look so well. And you've looked a bit under the weather for a week now."
She smiled weakly. "Nothing like that." She leaned against the wall. "Billy and I found out two weeks ago that we were having a baby."
Something about the way she said it was off – and it wasn't good.
"Last week, I had some cramping and we went to the ER and they told us that I was having a miscarriage – it was just a matter of time. It started last night, but I can't miss this. I don't want to be out on the beat, but I can work from here."
"Go into the conference room and you two start trying to figure that mess out," he told us.
We headed into the conference room and I pulled a handful of paper out. I sank into a chair and sighed. "This is going to take forever."
"It took almost two days last week and it wasn't this much information," she told me, taking a seat on the other side of the table.
I wasn't sure what to say. I was barely twenty-two and had two, mostly, healthy children. I'd never lost a baby or... I wasn't sure what I could – or should – say to her.
"I'm sorry," I finally blurted out. "I can't even imagine..."
She shrugged but I could tell she was struggling with tears. "It wasn't planned. But even in this day and age..."
"Still..."
She nodded. "I wanted this baby, once I found out about it and so did Billy. I think he's more devastated than I am."
"If there's anything we can do..."
She nodded again. "I'll let you know."
The door between Perry's office and the conference room opened. "Lois, there's a warehouse fire down near the wharf. I need you to head over and cover it for me. Billy's on his way back here and can help Serena. Clark's on his way to the Orani Jewels presentation."
I nodded, squeezing Serena's shoulder slightly as I walked by. "On it, Chief."
I grabbed the briefcase Clark had given me for Christmas – that now also housed a digital camera so I wouldn’t need to use my phone if the need for pictures arose. They'd used stock photos on the front page but the cell phones ones made it on the website - they weren't good enough for the actual paper.
The taxi dropped me off about a block from the warehouse.
It took several minutes to work my way over. So far, the fire was contained to one area but it had been dry for several weeks and the wind was picking up again. I saw the rest of the press that was already there, but decided that wasn't where I wanted to be.
I looked around and when I was sure no one was watching, slipped under the yellow tape.
"Ma'am!"
I sighed. So much for that plan.
I turned, a bright smile on my face. "Officer Zymak, a pleasure to see you again," I said when I recognized him.
"Mrs. Kent, you can't be in this area."
"I'm so sorry. I thought I saw someone over there." I pointed vaguely in the direction of the warehouse.
"I'll have someone check it out, but for now you'll have to get back behind the tape. I'm sure Henderson will give you a statement later." His eyes softened slightly. "It was a good article this morning. Thank you for helping us catch him, but really, you need to stay behind the tape unless one of us lets you by."
I nodded and slipped back under the yellow tape. I pulled my notepad out and started scribbling notes down. "Is there anything you can tell me, Officer Zymak?"
He hesitated. "It'll be public information soon anyway, and it's not like you can get to press before it will be, but you didn't hear this from me, got it?"
I nodded. "You have my word."
"It was arson, but that's all we know. A couple of the bums who live on the streets nearby say that someone's been living here. They won't even stay here because the building's so dilapidated. We're not sure at this point if he was the arsonist, a target of some kind or if he's unrelated to this at all."
"Why would someone want to burn down a building over a squatter though?"
Zymak shrugged. "He's some kind of scientist. Used to work for EPRAD. Maybe he knew some trade secret they didn't want to get out. I don't know though, that's pure speculation on my part."
"Got it." He didn't mean Platt, did he? Surely that would be *too* much of a coincidence. Right?
There was a shout from the crowd.
"What the hell is that?" one man yelled.
"Is it a bird?" another hollered.
"Too small for a plane." Zymak said shading his eyes as he looked over my head. "Dear God, I hope it's not a missile or we're all dead."
Another police officer nearby held up a pair of binoculars. "Nope. It's a guy in a pair of tights. He's flying."
My head jerked up and around as the black streak came to a stop above the building just as the fire jumped from the shorter office area to the roof of the main building.
It was a man.
In black.
Black spandex.
He had dark hair but that was all I could tell from this distance, but it had to be Clark – who else could it be?
I was going to kill him.
As everyone watched he took a deep breath and blew in the direction of the warehouse, dousing the flames.
I was going to kill him dead.
*****
TBC
