First off, I;m so sorry this is horrendously late. I moved (again), and this time to a smaller town and the library internet was nearly impossible to have access to, and it's taken me this long to set up my home internet.
Anyway, now we're back to the story. And I won't be moving again until Aug/Sept so I have a little more stability.
Thanks to Carol for the speedy and excellent BR.
Previously...
“Hello?”
“Is this Mr. Newtrich?” Lois asked, sitting forward in her seat.
“Who’s calling?” he demanded.
“I…” Lois hesitated. If Newtrich was a dangerous person, she did not want him to know that Marli had been the one to tell her about him. Yet she had to explain how she got the number somehow. She probably should have thought this through before she called.
Her brief hesitation was too much time for Newtrich.
“I don’t know who you are, but don’t call this number again,” he demanded shortly, and then hung up.
“Wow.” Kal’s eyebrows lifted. “He really didn’t want to talk to you.”
“Yeah,” Lois agreed. “I don’t know who he is, but he’s definitely got something to hide. First thing tomorrow, we’re finding out more about this Newtrich guy.”CHAPTER NINETEEN
Lois had just come into the newsroom that morning when Cat sneaked up to her, looking strangely agitated.
“I need to talk to you,” she whispered to Lois intensely. She grabbed hold of Lois’ arms and steered her into the conference room.
“Cat, I just got in,” Lois groaned. “Give me a chance get some coffee, check my messages, or at least take off my coat.”
Cat slammed the door shut, and plunked Lois down in a chair by the table.
“Okay, normally, I wouldn’t talk to you about this. About anything important, really. But I could really use a friend now and you’re about the closest thing I have to one.”
Lois stopped in the middle of forming her next complaint. Cat was actually acknowledging that she needed Lois? It must be something serious.
“What is it, Cat?”
Cat paced around the room, wringing her hands nervously. Finally, she blurted it out.
“Arthur asked me to marry him last night.”
“What?”
“It was so unexpected,” Cat continued. “He invited me over to his place for dinner, and I noticed that he put in a lot of effort to make the evening special, but then he got down on one knee and he had a ring…”
“What did you say?” Lois asked, her mouth dry.
“I told him I’d have to think about it. I mean, we haven’t really been dating that long and it seems way too early to be thinking about *marriage*, but there’s some part of me that wants to say yes. Sure, I started dating him just because he was rich, but now things are so much deeper between us. I feel like I can be the real me when I’m with him. I’ve never felt that with *anyone* before. And the thought of us spending the rest of our lives together just makes me feel so disgustingly happy, you know? It’s like there’s nothing I want more in the world.”
“You’re going to tell him yes,” Lois realized.
“I guess I am,” Cat thought aloud, a dreamy smile floating across her lips. “Just thinking about it, it all seems so perfect, you know?”
Lois had to say something. Arthur Chow was still on her list of suspects of people who could have been responsible for the Prometheus sabotage. What if he was the new criminal mastermind in Metropolis?
“Are you sure you know him well enough to get married?” she asked Cat gently. “You can’t possible know everything about him.”
“I know enough,” Cat shrugged. “I know that I love him.”
“But what if he was hiding something?” Lois continued. “Something bad that he’s kept hidden from you?”
“What are you saying, Lois?” Cat asked suspiciously.
“It’s just… His name might have come up in an investigation,” Lois confessed.
“Well, you didn’t find anything.” The way she worded it, it wasn’t a question.
“No, but that doesn’t mean any-”
“Yes, it does. It means that he’s innocent. I can’t believe you would do something like this, Lois! You pried into his private life.”
“Cat, I just think that you’re rushing into this too soon. Arthur Chow is a wealthy man with a lot of connections to some very powerful people. And I’m suspicious of that.”
Cat shook her head in disgust. “Just because you haven’t been able to find anyone who you’re willing to love yet, doesn’t mean you have to sabotage my relationship, Lois. I came to you for advice, and you couldn’t give me anything worthwhile. We’re getting married, okay? I’ve decided that now, thanks to you. And I don’t ever want to hear that you’re investigating my *fiancé* again.”
Lois flinched as the door slammed behind Cat.
* * *
It had taken Kal longer than he thought it would to get to the Daily Planet building. His powers had still not returned, and the traffic moved a lot slower when he was actually a part of it rather than observing from above.
In a way, it was comforting to be without his powers. He didn’t have to think so hard about controlling himself, and he felt more like he used to back on Krypton. But at the same time, it was unsettling to be without them. He had gotten used to them. They helped him to feel safe while adjusting to this planet. Now, he was discovering just how many ways a person could have a serious accident on this planet. He had tripped over every stair that he climbed so far today. Apparently, his powers helped to make him more coordinated.
When he met up with Lois, he was surprised to see that her eyes were puffy, and a little red.
“Have you been crying?” he asked her gently.
“Yes,” she admitted. “Only a little, though. I just got in a fight with someone. Don’t worry about it it’s just a personal thing between us. Have your powers come back at all?”
“I think I might have some fuzzy x-ray vision, but nothing beyond that.” He watched her closely. She didn’t seem too upset anymore, and he decided to just let it slide. If she wanted to talk about it, she would.
“Well, I’m sure they will.” Lois patted his arm. “Did you eat a good breakfast?”
He mentally calculated all he had eaten. Three eggs, four pieces of toast, an orange, two large pancakes, and five strips of bacon. Did that count as a good breakfast?
He nodded. “I’m still getting hungry. I must need the extra energy to heal.” He had wanted to eat more bacon, but he had heard about cholesterol, and apparently it was bad to have too much of it.
“I have Jimmy trying to find out as much as he can about that phone number, and about Gene Newtrich,” Lois informed Kal.
“Lois, that man is staring at you,” Kal informed her.
Lois glanced back to see the man looking at her from behind the glass door. “That’s Perry. My boss. Do you think you can watch out for yourself for a bit? I think he wants to talk to me about something.”
“Sure,” Kal shrugged.
“If my phone rings, answer it. It’s probably the Kents.”
She left him to twiddle his thumbs for a while until the phone rang.
“Hello?” he answered.
“You’re not Lois,” a strange voice replied.
“Uh… No. I’m Clark Kent, a friend of hers. Do you want me to take a message?”
“A friend, huh? I’ve yet to meet a friend who Lois will let answer her phone. You must be some friend.”
Kal didn’t know how to respond to this, but it turned out he didn’t have to as the strange man continued talking.
“Anyway, tell Lois that I’ve got something for her that’s juicier than Peking duck, and if she wants it, she’ll have to bring me a double serving. Got it?”
“Uh… yes.”
“Good.”
The man hung up, and Kal stared at the phone, puzzled. The world of reporting was certainly strange, he thought as he scribbled the message for Lois onto a pad of paper. He didn’t want to take a chance of forgetting to tell her.
When the phone rang again, he answered it with hesitation.
“Hello?”
“Kal, is that you?”
“Yes, Martha. How are you?”
“Oh, we’re fine, honey. How are *you* feeling?”
“Still no powers to speak of, but I’m feeling well regardless. Did you manage to find the rocks?”
“I’m sorry, Kal, no. We walked all over the field, and didn’t see anything.”
“Oh.”
“Well, it might not be as bad as you think. Maybe they got buried underground because of the wind, or the snow or something.”
“Maybe,” Kal agreed, but he still doubted it. It seemed most likely that someone had come and found them already.
“Well, I hope you can find out more on your end,” Martha told him. “Good luck, sweetie, and I’m sure that you’ll feel better soon.”
“Thanks.” Kal hung up, thinking over what Martha had told him. He knew that the owners of the field he had been found in rarely went out on the property. They were both old, and no longer had the physical ability to check on it regularly. As a favor, Jonathan often checked up on the property, but he wasn’t there all of the time, and it would have been easy for a crew to slip in during the night and comb the field for any rocks.
“Clark?”
Kal turned around to see Lois standing there with her boss hovering beside her.
“Clark, I’d like you to meet my boss, Perry White,” she introduced impatiently. “Perry, Clark. Clark, Perry.”
“That’ll do, Lois,” Perry stopped her. “Why don’t you get yourself a cup of coffee while Mr. Kent and I talk?”
Lois rolled her eyes but left anyways. Perry sat in the chair beside Lois’ desk.
“What can I do for you, sir?” Clark asked, feeling a little nervous.
“It’s Perry,” the man corrected. “Only copy boys call me sir, and I hope you’ll be a lot more than that.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ve read some of your stories, Kent. Not only do I like them, but it seems the people of Metropolis like them as well. I’d like to offer you a column in the Daily Planet.”
“Really?”
“I’m not sure what about yet. We can hammer that out together. All I know is that readers will be happy to get more of you. What do you say?”
“That sounds great, Perry.” Not only would the column give him steady work, but he would be working out of the Daily Planet office, a place that had always fascinated him.
“Wonderful. Now, I don’t want Lois to hear this, but I’m hoping to pair you two up occasionally. I know you were here helping her with the pheromone story, and here you are again. It isn’t often that Lois will willingly work with a partner, and having you around would be a good thing. Just don’t tell her that.”
“Um…” Kal glanced up to where Lois was hovering over Perry, a cup of coffee clutched in her hand.
Perry looked up and winced. “Now, Lois,” he began cautiously. “I didn’t mean…”
“It’s fine, Perry,” Lois shrugged. “Clark’s one of the only ones who can keep up with me, that’s all.”
“Huh,” Perry grunted, obviously pleased. “Well, Clark, if you come with me, we’ll head down to HR.”
“Here’s everything I found out about Gene Newtrich,” Jimmy announced, slapping a folder onto Lois’ desk.
Perry chuckled, looking at the thick folder. “How about I leave you two to tackle this? HR can wait. And Lois, as soon as this story is ready, I expect to hear everything you won’t tell me about it.”
He got up and left to go back to his office as Lois flipped to the top page.
“Okay, here’s the stuff about his early career we discovered last night. It seems that he worked a bunch of odd jobs for a while, nothing really related to his field of study. Then just recently, he was hired by an independent company. ACL Mining.”
“What does the company do?” Kal asked.
“I could hardly find anything on them,” Jimmy butted in. “They must be really small time. There were a couple projects they funded overseas, but that’s pretty much it. All I’ve got beyond that is an address.” He pulled the information out of the pile
Lois snatched the address from Jimmy’s hand. “Newtrich is too educated to be worrying about jewelry. And the fact that he’s hired by a mining company makes me think that they’re looking at more than souvenirs with those rocks. We’ll have to go visit him,” she decided.
“Lois, we can’t just run into an office and start asking questions,” Kal protested.
The phone rang yet again, and Lois grabbed it.
“This is crazy,” Kal complained to Jimmy.
“It’s Lois,” Jimmy shrugged. “That’s who she is. We’ve learned long ago not to try to stop her.”
“That was Brian,” Lois told Kal, hanging up. “He’s meeting us there.”
“Great.” Between a reporter anxious to find the person responsible for hurting her friend, and a police officer desperate to find the person who used his wife, Kal didn’t see what a powerless superhero could do to stop this.
* * *
Brian was careful to park his car a few blocks away from the building. He wasn’t here on official police business, and he didn’t want any of his actions to get back to the station. At least he didn’t have to wear a uniform anymore, so he didn’t have to worry about changing.
He met up with Lois and Kal by Lois’ Jeep. “Do you have a plan?” he asked the pair.
“Go in, make him give back all the Kryptonite, and get him to tell us who hired him,” Lois replied.
“He probably won’t know what ‘Kryptonite’ is,” Kal smiled.
“I don’t know what it is,” Brian mentioned.
“Kal’s name for those awful rocks,” Lois replied. “Look, let’s just go in, okay? I’m really good at winging it.”
“Are your powers back yet, Kal?” Brian asked as they crossed the street.
“I have a little bit of x-ray vision, but that’s pretty much it,” Kal replied.
“Well, at least it’s something.”
Newtrich’s office was upstairs in a rented building. It was possible that the other businesses in the building were part of the plan, whatever that was, but they had no reason to suspect any involvement, so it was best if they focused on talking to Newtrich.
When they reached the reception desk, Lois spoke for the group through silent agreement.
“We represent Lane Equipment,” she told the receptionist. “We supply... uh, scientific equipment to researchers and we would like to talk to Mr. Newtrich regarding his supply needs.” The receptionist gave Lois a blank stare, so she continued talking. “We guarantee we can give him a better deal than what he’s getting right now. I bet he’s paying twice as much as he should be for... test tubes and...”
Kal gave her a subtle nudge, and she stopped talking.
The receptionist looked justifiably wary. “Do you have a card?”
“Unfortunately, we’re all out,” Lois shrugged apologetically. “There was a mishap with our printing order.”
“Mr. Newtrich is very specific about not letting visitors up into his office,” the receptionist explained. “The best you can hope for is to leave a number and see if he’ll call you back.”
“Fine,” Lois grudgingly agreed. She scribbled a number on a piece of paper that Brian didn’t recognize, and pushed it towards the receptionist. “By the way, we’ve had a long drive into the city. Are there any bathrooms on the main floor?”
Quick directions were given, and Lois led the small group off in the general direction, only to veer off towards another door that was marked as the stairwell.
“In here,” Lois beckoned.
“Lois, we’re not supposed to be here,” Kal protested.
“So? This way we can get in to see Newtrich. He’s on the fourth floor it’s not going to be that difficult to get up there.”
“I hate stairs,” Kal muttered. But he still followed Lois up the steps.
Brian followed silently. All he could think about was that he was going to meet the man who had placed his wife in danger. Whatever Newtrich was planning to do with the Kryptonite, it couldn’t be legal, or good. What would have happened if Marli had stumbled too close to the truth? He could feel his heart pounding in his ears.
They got to the fourth floor, and Kal stopped as they stepped out of the stairwell.
“I can feel Kryptonite,” he announced.
“You should go back,” Lois decided.
“No,” Kal shook his head. “It’s very faint, and I want to find out what this guy’s up to.”
Brian was barely paying attention at this point. Newtrich was just on the other side of the door, and it was all he could think about. He need to make sure Newtrich could never hurt his family again. In two steps, he had reached the door, and he flung it open. A man behind a desk looked up in surprise, rising to his feet and stepping out from behind the desk.
“Are you Newtrich?” Brian demanded.
“Yes,” the man replied, which was about all he could get out before Brian and crossed the room and pinned him against the wall.
“Brian!” Lois shouted sharply, but Brian didn’t pay any attention to her.
Brian had feigned aggression before, as a way to scare someone into talking. But he couldn’t remember ever feeling this genuinely angry before.
“Where did you find those rocks from?” he demanded. “Who’s funding you? What are you planning on doing with them?”
Newtrich made no reply. All he did was smirk and ask innocently, “What rocks?”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know!” Brian snapped, pushing his arm further against Newtrich’s windpipe. “The rocks from Krypton. What are you doing with them?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Brian, stop it,” Kal spoke calmly, although there was an underlying strain that indicated the Kryptonite was bothering him. “This is not going to help.”
“I’m going to make you pay for what you’ve done,” Brian threatened.
“I haven’t done anything illegal,” Newtrich replied serenely. “Even if I did know what you’re talking about, there is nothing wrong with carrying out research on some interesting minerals provided by a private employer. No matter how hard you search the law books, you won’t find anything.”
Brian’s arm sagged. Newtrich was right, unfortunately. Although his intentions were obviously impure, he hadn’t actually done anything illegal. And yet Brian was risking a lot by running in here and assaulting the scientist.
He took a step away from Newtrich. He glanced back at Lois and Kal. Lois looked relieved, and Kal was looking sick.
Newtrich stretched out the muscles in his neck, and then stepped behind his desk. “Now, I believe you three were not invited up here by the reception staff. That means you’re trespassing. If you leave now, I won’t press charges.”
Brian threw a desperate glance back at Lois, but she appeared as defeated as he felt. Thanks to his blunt entrance, there was no way they could try a subtle approach. And Kal was looking steadily worse. They had no choice but to leave, with no more information than when they came. Thanks to him and his uncontrollable temper.
Brian shook his head, trying to clear it. Normally, he never had a problem in dealing with all sorts of scumbags. But this time it was different. This time, his family was in danger.
