A/N Hi all. I'm back from RL. If you watched the Golf US Open at Bethpage Black, you know what kind of weather I had on my vacation! It was an adventure. I managed to get just a little done while I was gone, but now RL has calmed down and I will move faster. I promise that at the end of this story Lois will find out Clark's identity.
Previously in “All the Daytime and the Nighttime"...
Clark signaled to Frank he was taking a break. He just had to go backstage and see Lois. On his way there, he looked into Toni’s office and saw that she was watching TV avidly. The sound was turned down low, but he could hear it. LNN was covering a new fire set by the Toasters. He was aghast when it realized it was his hotel, the Apollo. There were poor souls living there because that was all they could afford. Not to mention that his equipment was stashed under the bed. He had to help – somehow. But first he had to warn Lois so she could get out of there.
He saw Lois coming toward Toni’s office, no doubt to spy on her again, and grabbed her by her arm. “Lois,” he said in a low intense voice, “you have to get out of here now! Things are getting bad fast!”
Lois looked up at him, startled by the use of her real name. “How do you know my name,” she said sotto voice.
Clark had to think fast. What would persuade her to leave? “The Toasters just torched the Apollo Hotel.” He didn’t mention that was his hotel. “I think Toni is on to you after this morning’s article in the paper. She was pretty intensely upset by it. She knew it had to be from someone who was here the when showdown with Johnny happened.”
Lois quirked her lips in a smile. “What, she didn’t believe our kiss was genuine?”
Clark smiled back. “Oh, but it was. But you are in danger. You have to leave.” He looked her over appreciatively, “But first, I suggest you change clothes into something less conspicuous.”
“But I have another set.”
“Cancel it. Your life is more important than a story.”
“Well, it’s clear you are not a journalist.”
Was she kidding? He drew back and looked into her eyes. She was. Kidding that is.
“Go back to the Planet. I’ll give you the rest of the story later.” ‘As much as I can tell you,’ he thought. With that, he released Lois’ arm, went to his locker and grabbed his dark sweater and black jeans. He left out the back door as fast as he decently could.
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Chapter 5
Lois Lane stood stock-still in surprise, or maybe shock, looking at Charlie King disappear through the back door. As she watched she relived the memory of seeing his naked back when his clothes had been scorched off by one of the Toaster’s flames. The flame that was meant for Johnny, but would have hit her square on if he hadn’t gotten her out of the club somehow. She really did not have a clear memory of exactly how that had all transpired.
All she knew was that one moment she was in the club and the next she was on the sidewalk being held upright in his strong arms. She tried to keep him from going back into the club, but he had insisted. She followed him into the club moments later and saw the clothes burned away from his back. Luckily for him, his back did not seemed red and burned. What she had noticed was the very strong musculature revealed. Then they turned to see the “Toasters” name singed in black on the back stage wall.
Lois had come to the Metro Club as a ploy to meet Lex Luthor and get him to notice her. Her hope was to get the first one-on-one interview with the second wealthiest man in the world and Metropolis’ greatest philanthropist. Along the way, she had come to discover Toni Taylor’s involvement in the current gang war, which netted her an even bigger story and a front page one at that.
Speaking of that, she had come back here to spy again at the peephole and find out what Toni was doing. Shaking off Charlie’s warning in her head, she went to the hole and moved the covering plates aside again.
Toni was all alone in her office watching a TV tuned to LNN and it was showing a raging fire in a run-down single resident only fleabag hotel. To Lois’ on looking horror, Toni suddenly smiled broadly and said something softly that Lois couldn’t understand. What she could understand was Toni going to the wall safe, entering the combination and removing stacks of money. She retrieved a briefcase from under her desk and hastily stuffed the money inside. She then went inside the office bathroom and came out in pants and blouse and hurriedly threw on a trench coat.
Lois ran to her locker and quickly changed her spike heels for tennis shoes and grabbed her own raincoat and went to the back exit, waiting for Toni to emerge. Silently and in the shadows she followed Toni down the street.
Toni finally came to a burned out building with a sign still legible, saying "Future LexHarbor Development Site," along with a drawing of an ultra-modern building. Toni slipped into the condemned shell, still carrying her briefcase.
Lois walked down the alley at the side of the building Toni had entered, looking for a back door. Finding the back door, Lois slipped silently inside. She had begun maneuvering herself closer to the front when she accidentally tripped over a dangling cord. A rusted old toaster fell off the crate next to her. She frantically caught it before it crashed to the floor and revealed her presence.
Lois looked for a way to see the cleared area at the front unobstructed, and found some stacked crates that seemed pretty solid. She climbed up, thanking her climbing wall work at the local sports megastore, then watched as Toni moved around fallen walls and demolished furniture from the front door.
Toni stopped, standing in the center of a large eerie and dark space holding the briefcase out, as if it were an offering. One by one, each of the Toasters appeared, stepping out of different hiding places, holding their weapons and surrounding her.
Toni looked around at the group fearlessly. “Is this really necessary?”
After a moment the first Toaster took off his mask and asked roughly, “Did you bring the money?”
After a moment of staring and stony silence, Toni opened the briefcase, balancing it awkwardly on her uplifted knee. “One hundred thousand in Benjamins.” After lowering her foot to the floor, she turned it and presented the open side to the Toaster so he could see.
The head Toaster was angry. “You said two.”
Toni bit back, “Considering how badly you botched the hit on my brother, you're lucky
I'm even here and willing to pay you. Do you realize I could have been killed?”
“Yeah, that would've been a real shame.”
Lois, observing from her perch, was surprised a thug knew sarcasm. This was interesting, surprising and damming for Toni. She wished she had her camcorder with her. What a great story this will make. Not only was Toni the head of Metro Gang, but also she had paid off the Toasters to torch the Riverfront area and take down her brother so that she could be the head of the gang. Talk about sisterly love!
Toni continued, unaware of Lois’ presence, “Just don't forget who's running the show. The fires were supposed to stop as soon as I took over. What do you think you've been doing? Why torch that flea-bag hotel?”
“Having fun.”
“Well, the fun stops now.” Toni held out her hand for the flame weapons.
“Give me those things.”
“Maybe I’ll take this instead.” The leader grabbed the briefcase from Toni.
“We've kind of decided to hold on to these handy gadgets.”
“Listen punk –“
“No, you listen for a change. You and the Metros, you're nothin'. We could wipe you out by just pullin' a trigger.”
Toni was furious. She had planned long and hard on the takeover from Johnny and beating Lex Luthor at his own game. “I made you! I gave you those weapons.” She was not about to admit the source of the weapons.
“Yeah, and we're real grateful.” The Toaster leveled his weapon directly at her and told the gang, “Take her.”
Lois had moved even closer on the top of a very large crate, avid to hear every word. She watched in amazement and a bit of relish as the Toaster snatched the briefcase and his men grabbed Toni and wrapped her wrists with duct tape.
Toni made good use of what was left to her, her mouth. “Four of you against the Metros?
You don't have a chance.”
“Why just four? Why not forty? Or four hundred. Recruiting's a snap. Plenty of guys out there love to see things burn.
“Ah, genius, you don't have the weapons for them.”
“Not yet, but we'll figure out how to make more. We're not as dumb as you think. And there are smart guys out there who like to see things burn too.”
Lois in her hiding place tried to change her position and accidentally hit a bottle lying beside her on top of the large crate. She watched helplessly as the bottle rolled off the crate she was on and crashed to the cement beneath. The Toasters were startled at the noise and two of them rushed toward her vantage point. The noise covered the sound of Lois moving on to a rafter beam.
Toni looked over in hope that someone is there to rescue her.
“Anything?” the leader asks his men as they returned to him. His men shook their heads.
“A broken bottle, that’s all.”
The leader said with some relish to Toni, “You wouldn't believe how big the rats get around here.”
“Oh I believe it.” Toni was still undefeated, giving the leader a fierce glare. Loyal Lou would find her and bring help. “What now? What about me?”
“Well, we've got a little bar-b-que planned for tomorrow. We thought we'd start with the wharf and work our way back to the Metro club. When we're done with that, we'll get back to you. If the rats haven't gotten you first.” The leader turned to one of his henchman and ordered, “Keep an eye on her.”
Toni watched the Toaster settle against a crate for the first watch with a shake of her head and a sigh. At least they had tied her to a chair so she wasn’t still standing and none of the large rats were in her vicinity.
Lois, still up on the beam, was trying to find a way down and out to the back door to get help from the MPD. She had her cell phone, but couldn’t call in the presence of the armed Toaster. And then, to her horror, she found she was eye to eye to one of the large beady-eyed rodents. Right now, Lois was stuck between a rat and a hard place.
*+*+*+*+*+*+
Clark had left the Metro Club as fast as he dared. Fortunately there were not many lights out back and the neighborhood of the club was not well lit. He jumped up to a four story building next door and rapidly changed to his tighter black pants and sweater. He had found, through trial and error, that the tighter clothes did not burn off of him in a fire. He still shuddered at the memory of the fire in the women’s dorm at KU. He barely got out of there with his modesty intact after putting out the small fire.
At rooftop level, Clark sped rapidly to the Apollo. He could see the fire had been started at the first floor and in the debris of the cluttered dingy alleyways nearby. That left the roof and upper floors pretty much intact. The fire trucks were arriving and starting the fire hoses. The ladder trucks had not yet extended their equipment. Unfortunately he also saw that the water pressure in the fire hydrants was not very much in this neglected part of town.
Flying over to the top of the rusty fire escape, he avoided the lights playing over the building and entered the top floor through the end window. He opened doors along the way, telling each of the occupants to get out down the fire escape outside the hallway window. When he had them going out, he rushed over to the stairwell and played his freezing breath down at the flames. Taking a moment to grab his suitcase with his electronic equipment, he went down to the next floor and got those residents going out the other fire escape on the front. He checked the equipment inside his briefcase with his X-ray vision, found it was intact and then continued fighting the fires through the remaining floors.
*+*+*+*+*+*+
Bill Henderson had hopped a ride in a squad car when he found out there was a fire at the Apollo. He stood back, across the street and watched the firemen work. All of a sudden, he heard a voice by his ear.
“Bill, my gear is by your foot. Take it to the precinct and lock it up, please. I’ll come and get it later.”
“Kent?”
Henderson looked around, but no one was there. There was, however, a battered small suitcase standing by his left foot. As he watched the fire further, men began coming down off the fire escapes and out into the street. The fire seemed to be dying down, almost of its own accord.
*+*+*+*+*+*+
Satisfied that the fire was under control, Clark returned to the Metro Club to get the bug in Toni’s office. He left his “rescue” clothes, which still stank of the fire and the chemicals the Toasters used in their flame guns on the roof of the building next to the Metro Club. He came in the back entrance wearing his bar clothes. A quick X-ray scan showed him that Lois was not in the building. Toni was not in her office and neither was her crew. He pulled the bug through the hole and put it in his pocket, trying to figure a way too get it to MPD.
When he got to the bar, Frank signaled he wanted a break, and Clark was left alone behind the bar, pondering what to do next. He made and drank a large glass of water. For some reason, fighting fires made him thirsty.
Maurice, the Matre D’ who doubled as the stage manager, came up to Clark and said, without his fake French accent, “Have you seen Lola?”
Clark turned, startled. “No. I haven’t since her last number.”
“Well, she’s due on again and we can’t find her.”
Clark was trying to think of a cover story for Lois, when Lou rushed up to him. “Do you know where Toni went?” Lou looked at Maurice and he slunk away.
“I last saw Toni head for her office right at the end of Lola’s number.”
“Toni told me you were going to help us out around the club more. True?”
“Yeah, she offered me a pay raise for it. I can always use the money.”
Lou leaned over the bar. “Well, I have an idea where she is and she might be in trouble. Wanna come?”
“Yeah, sure. But Frank’s got to cover the bar and he just left.”
“I’ll go get him. He smokes too much anyway. Meet me by the back door.” With that Lou left for the back.
Just then Sgt. Gomez walked up to the bar dressed in a nice suit, blending with the patrons. Clark tried not to react in surprise.
“What beer do you have on tap?”
Clark named the brews and stared at Gomez, trying to divine what he was here for. Suddenly it hit him. The bug. Gomez ordered his glass and Clark filled it and put it on a coaster in front of him with a flourish. “That will be $9.20”
“Wow, expensive beer,” Gomez said and laid out a ten.
Clark took the money and got the change and the bug and handed it to Gomez. Rather than just lay the money on the bar, as was the standard practice, he held it in his right hand and waited for Gomez to extend his hand palm up and then placed the change in it. Gomez put the change in his pocket and turned, surveying the room and casually drinking his beer.
Just then Frank walked back up. “Charlie, Lou wants to see you out back.”
Clark turned to Gomez and said with a smile. “Frank here will take care of you. I’ve got to find a friend.”
With that strange comment, Clark left Gomez standing at the bar looking puzzled.
*+*+*+*+*+*+
tbc
