Yes, I know. The story is affected by that classic problem: uncontrolled growth. I'm guessing it will only be one or two more parts, but only the fanfic muse knows for sure.
Games People Play: Part 4 of 5 (or 6)
by Nan Smith
Previously:
Clark sealed the envelope. "I'm not one hundred percent sure," he said. "But I think it's solid rocket propellant. Just a few pieces of it."
"Rocket propellant," Lois said blankly. "What would something like that be doing down here?"
"Good question," Clark said.
"Evidently sitting in the hands of someone that really has no business to have it at all," Lois said, a little harshly, answering herself. "How did Lex get hold of something like that?"
"I'd guess illegally," Clark said. "I think we've uncovered everything about Lex Corps, and we turn around and find something all the way from ordinary to the practically impossible."
"How the heck do we ever come off ahead of these people?" Lois asked what she was sure he knew to be a rhetorical question. "Where would Lex get hold of something like rocket fuel? And why?"
And now, part 4:
**********
"With Luthor, I'm sure it's nothing good," Clark said. "I always wondered what would have happened if he'd gotten Space Station Luthor into orbit and operational. What if he'd managed to get some kind of weapons delivery system on board? It might have gotten pretty bad."
"What do you mean?"
"What if he'd threatened the world with nuclear weapons from space?" Clark said in a low voice. "We might have been under the reign of Luthor the First."
Now that was a scary thought. "It sounds like something from some of those old Flash Gordon comics," Lois said. "Do you really think Lex would do something like that?"
"Well, he funded Miranda's 'Revenge' for some reason," Clark said. "We know that from the records. He claimed he had no idea what she was doing, but I'm not so sure. What if he was interested in political power? Can you imagine what use millions of persons, influenced by the pheromone, might be to an ambitious man. And that's only one possibility."
She hadn't thought of that but, now that Clark had mentioned it, all sorts of hair-raising possibilities began to lift their heads. Lois shuddered. "I get the idea. So what do you think we should do now?"
"The only thing I can think of is to look around some more and see what we can find out. I wish we had a map of this place."
A faint memory of something that she had seen during her escape nibbled at the back of her mind. "I think I know where there's one. When I first got out of my 'apartment' there was some kind of a diagram on the wall next to the elevator, like the kind you see in department stores that show you where all the different sections are. I think it must have been a map."
"Where was it?" he asked at once.
"It was on the wall beside the elevator. Maybe there's one on this floor, too."
"Maybe," Clark said. "They might have them on every floor so the employees can find everything they need. Stay here. I'll go check."
Lois thought that one over for a bare second. She was tempted to agree, but that wouldn't be in character for her, before she knew his secret. "No way, Kent. This way." She stepped out into the pathway between the crates and made for the door that must open into the hallway, if this floor followed the same floor plan that all the others did.
A moment later, they paused by the door. Lois put her ear against it, and Clark did the same.
Silence, except for the sound of blood thrumming through her ears. She looked at her partner. "Anything?"
He shook his head. "I don't think so." He grasped the knob. "Locked. Got that magic lock pick of yours?"
She produced it from a pocket of the coveralls. "Someday I'm going to have to show you how to do this."
"It would be nice to know how," he agreed. He cocked his head and then leaned forward to put his ear against the door again. "Nobody there that I can tell. Do your stuff."
There was no one in the hallway when Lois eased the door open a moment later. She slipped through and Clark followed her. The elevator was only a short distance away, and, as there had been on the level where the duplicate of her apartment was located, on the wall next to it was a schematic drawing that must be a map of this complex.
Or at least one floor of it, she realized a moment later. On one side of the map was a listing of the other levels -- all 94 of them, along with labels that detailed the general purpose of the floor such as LVG QTRS, HDRP GRDNS and so forth. Lois squinted at the column of incomprehensible abbreviations and looked helplessly at her partner. "Great."
"Abbreviations," Clark said. "'LVG QTRS' must mean living quarters, I'd guess."
"Well, that isn't important right now," Lois said. "The map of this floor is what we're interested in." She regarded the spiderweb of hallways and rooms, labeled with numbers and letters, as well as abbreviations detailing, she supposed, the functions of the individual rooms.
Clark leaned forward, studying it. "There's a lot to this place. How do you suppose he managed to build it without anyone being aware of it?"
"I'm beginning to wonder if there's anything he can't do," Lois said. "At least he didn't manage to drive Superman away."
Clark smiled faintly. "Because of you," he said. "Both times. I think that Lois Lane is more than a match for Lex Luthor." He went back to studying the map while Lois felt her jaw drop involuntarily. Did he actually credit *her* with saving Superman? Wow!
She took a split second to recover from the remark and Clark continued to frown slightly at the map. To cover her confusion, she also leaned forward to study it. "Can you make anything out of this?"
"I think so." He traced one of the lines with a finger. "This is where we are, and this place here is the storeroom. The rest of these seem to be more storerooms and some kind of administrative center, or something, over that way." His finger traced the spaces labeled as such and one large room marked "CTRL." "This hallway must go for miles under the city," he added, indicating a long passageway running roughly west from the main complex. "I'm not sure what this abbreviation stands for, though." He indicated the large roughly circular area some distance from their location at the far end of the western passage. "It's a pretty long way from the rest of the complex. I wonder --" His voice trailed off.
Lois squinted at the tiny letters. "OP EMP? What does that mean?" At his shrug she continued, "Well, I guess we could go see."
Clark hesitated, glancing at his watch. "It's quite a walk," he said. "Probably several miles. Are you sure you want to?"
Lois nodded. "If you can do it, so can I. There has to be a reason he's got this one thing so far from everything else. Besides, maybe we can find some kind of transportation. I can't see Lex wasting time by making his employees walk all that way. Let's go."
Clark seemed to hesitate for a split second and then he nodded. "Okay."
**********
Clark surveyed the map one more time. As Superman, he could have checked out this thing in less than a second, but Superman was pretty much grounded at the moment. It was too bad that Lois insisted on exploring this particular lead, but there wasn't much choice. His volatile partner was nothing if not persistent, and it was probably a good thing that she was, even if it sometimes nearly gave him heart failure, he pointed out to himself. She hadn't given up on him after she had found him in Suicide Slum, following his uncontrolled plunge to Earth, and in the end her scream for Superman was probably the catalyst that had forced him to remember. Not only Superman but Earth itself owed Lois a debt for her tendency to attract trouble.
But now he was really beginning to worry about what they had found. Lois's instincts had been right on the mark, as usual. Luthor hadn't constructed this huge complex under Metropolis so that he could have a place to hide from stray killer asteroids, and he doubted that the man would build an underground ark this way unless he had something very definite in mind -- something that the rest of the planet would likely find detrimental, to say the least. He had hidden it with lead lining from Superman, and now it seemed that there was something on this bottom layer of the mysterious "ark" that he kept at a considerable distance from the rest of the place. Somehow, that wasn't very comforting.
"Are you coming?" Lois asked impatiently.
"Just memorizing the map," he assured her. "We don't want to get lost, and I don't want to have to count on finding more maps conveniently posted so we don't get turned around."
"Oh. Okay." She eyed him thoughtfully. "Are you going to be able to remember all this?"
"Sure."
Lois had an odd expression on her face that he couldn't figure out. Frequently he could read her expressions fairly well, but there were times that she baffled him. "What's the matter?"
"Oh, nothing," she said airily. "Are you ready?"
"Let's go." He gestured her ahead of him. "The first turn is the one ten doors down to the left."
Lois started off briskly and he followed, still puzzling over Lois. It was almost as if she were watching him, waiting to see what he would do. Maybe, he reasoned, she wasn't quite sure that his memory was back to normal after his bout with amnesia. He could see how that might make her a little unsure of his capability. Well, after he demonstrated that his memory was working normally, it ought to reassure her on that point.
Twenty minutes later, they came to the main route that would lead them directly to the room marked "CTRL" on the map. He figured it must be some kind of control room for the complex. Maybe that was where they coordinated things like distribution of the food supply, or the power or air circulation, or something. Those things would have to be regulated somewhere, after all. The hallway proceeded on past "CTRL" and led directly toward the "OP EMP" room, whatever that was. Judging by the scale of the map, it was still several miles away. As a matter of fact, it might actually be physically located beyond the boundaries of the city proper, and that meant they were in for a very long walk unless they could find some faster form of transportation than their feet. It seemed likely that Luthor would have some quicker mode of getting from here to there for his employees. Insisting that they walk all that distance didn't sound very efficient.
The sound of footfalls ahead of them warned him and he touched Lois's arm. "Someone coming," he informed her in an under voice.
Lois paused infinitesimally and then resumed her businesslike stride. "Act confident," she whispered.
Clark grinned, familiar with the tactic. It had gotten them out of inconvenient situations before. He continued to walk steadily forward beside her. Ahead of them another man, dressed in an identical coverall to the ones they wore, rounded the corner of an adjoining hallway. He barely glanced at them as he passed.
He had to exert a fair amount of self control not to look over his shoulder as the footfalls retreated, and the back of Clark's neck prickled. It was obvious that, although they were sparse, some inhabitants of this place were abroad. He hoped none of them would see fit to ask Lois or him questions, since neither of them had the slightest idea what kind of answer would be acceptable.
Lois glanced quickly back over her shoulder. "He's gone," she said. "I'm glad he didn't stop to talk to us."
"Yeah, me too." Clark lowered his glasses, looking over them to check the immediate area. What he was searching for wasn't far ahead -- another storeroom where numerous little carts were neatly parked in rows near the front. Behind them were larger pieces of equipment, evidently meant for moving heavier items, somewhat like they had seen in the first storeroom they had entered. "I think there's a room a little way ahead where we can get some transportation. If I read the abbreviation right."
"I'd like that," Lois said. "Otherwise this could be a very long walk." She paused. "You've got a good memory."
"Yeah, pretty good," Clark agreed. He resisted the sudden entirely unexpected temptation to tell her the truth. Lying to Lois, even by omission, went against the grain. He pushed the temptation down again. When he worked up the nerve to actually tell her the truth, he didn't want it to be in the middle of a touchy investigation, in the middle of an enemy fortress. "Come on before we run into somebody else."
The room in question was only a short distance farther down the passageway, and the door was unlocked. Clark scanned the place thoroughly with his x-ray vision before Lois opened the door, making certain that they weren't going to meet any surprises.
Lois flashed her light over the rows of vehicles. "Wow. This ought to speed things up a lot." She glanced at him and then moved forward toward the nearest cart. Clark followed.
"I hope the keys for these things are in the carts," she said. "I've never hot wired a golf cart before." She leaned into the cab. "No key."
Clark peeked over the tops of his glasses, scanning the vehicle from one end to the other. He lifted a seat cushion. "Here it is."
"How did you know to look there?" Lois asked.
"I didn't. I just guessed."
"Good guess. Let's get moving. We haven't got all night."
"Don't you want to drive?"
She got into the driver's seat. "Of course. You hold the door for me."
Clark obediently went to the room's door and opened it wide while Lois started the little car and maneuvered it out of the room. He closed it carefully behind her, making an effort to do so as silently as possible, and then jumped in beside her.
Despite Lois's remark, it wasn't really a golf cart, but a small electric vehicle of about the same size: sort of a miniature car. Clark scanned the controls, noting that the thing was apparently capable of speeds up to sixty miles per hour, although he couldn't quite imagine anyone driving one of these things through the halls of this complex at that speed.
Lois pushed the pedal down and they glided forward silently. Slowly, she accelerated until the vehicle was moving at about four times the speed of a brisk walk. That was probably the fastest they ought to go in the hallway, Clark thought. Besides the safety concern involved in steering in the relatively close quarters of the hall, there was the issue of occasional pedestrians. If they rounded a turn and found someone in their way, the last thing they wanted to do was run over him. In addition to the obvious, running someone down was bound to attract unwelcome attention.
But no one was to be seen. Clark scanned ahead of them, looking over the tops of his glasses the few times they approached another, crossing hallway, although as they went on they encountered few such intersecting passages. They passed the cluster of offices and the one marked CTRL without encountering anyone, to Clark's relief, and silence greeted his ears when he listened for any activity behind the closed doors. At last they were past the doorways and headed down the long corridor that lead to the OP EMP, whatever it was. With the long, straight empty passageway in front of them, Lois pushed down harder on the accelerator. Clark gripped a handhold and said nothing.
"This is spooky," Lois whispered after a while.
Clark didn't blame her. The engine of the electric cart was completely silent, and around them the long tunnel was devoid of sound. In contrast, her whisper seemed loud. Even Clark found himself straining his ears for a sound that wasn't there. Time passed as they flew along, and still there was no sound except for the faint swish of the tires on the concrete floor.
Because of that, when a sound finally did reach his ears, he nearly jumped out of his seat. They were approaching the OP EMP room. Not far ahead was another of the rooms with the same abbreviation on the door as the one from which they had acquired their pseudo golf cart, and the OP EMP room was some distance beyond that. From somewhere ahead came the sound of a door opening on non-too-well lubricated hinges. A voice was suddenly speaking.
"That's it. Everything's ready to go. Finish that stuff and let's get out of here."
Clark lowered his glasses and looked ahead.
The passage curved slightly a short distance away and the voice was coming from around that curve. A glance at Lois told him that she had heard nothing.
Ahead, he heard the distinctive click of a door closing, followed by the sound of two men walking toward them. The sound nearly made the hair rise on his scalp.
"We're getting close," he said, quickly, keeping his voice low. "We'd better not go any farther in this thing."
Lois immediately took her foot from the accelerator and applied the brake. The car came to a gentle stop. "What do you want to do?"
A little surprised at her quick acquiescence to his suggestion, he pointed to where a wide door broke the blankness of the wall.
"I think that's another 'garage' like the one where we found this thing. It should be, according to the map. Let's park it there, out of sight, and go ahead on foot."
"Good idea." Lois piloted their silent little car to the door and Clark jumped out to open it.
The room wasn't lit, but he could see the interior from the light that filtered in from the passageway. It wasn't as large as the place where they had acquired their transportation, but parked inside was another small vehicle just like the one they had borrowed. To the rear of the room a somewhat heavier, but not much larger machine, that looked like some kind of specialized forklift, sat askew.
Lois drove through and at Clark's gesture piloted the small car into the back of the garage to a far corner, where it was partially concealed by the somewhat larger vehicle. Hopefully the approaching persons wouldn't notice the presence of an unexplained car, or wouldn't think it unusual. He hoped.
The footsteps were closer, and someone coughed, the sound loud in the silence around them. Lois had heard it too, for she glanced quickly around. "Someone's coming!" she breathed. "What'll we do?"
Clark looked frantically around. There was nowhere to hide, except the forklift. He hurried to it and checked the cab.
Not much room for a full-sized man to conceal himself, but Lois might just conceivably be able to scrunch down far enough to be out of sight. "Get in here and don't move," he whispered. "Hurry!"
Lois did so, looking back at him with that odd expression. "What are you going to do?"
"Never mind! Get down on the floor and don't make a sound!"
Lois didn't waste time debating but slid onto the floor of the forklift, wedging her body into the painfully tiny space. Her head came just below the level of the metal side of the machine. Clark moved quickly to close the door and then floated straight up to lie flat against the ceiling.
With the door shut the room was completely dark. Lois's heartbeat was loud in his ears, and he had to remind himself that the intruders wouldn't be able to hear it. He held his breath, hoping that the approaching men wouldn't come into the room, but he heard the footsteps and voices approach the door, and, an instant later, the door swung open.
**********
tbc
