Chapter Seven
Lois was still frustrated. So far she’d gotten about two sentences worth of information for her profile on Metropolis’ most eligible and richest bachelor. She focused on cutting her filet mignon – not that it needed much cutting, since a filet mignon at Lex Luthor’s table was of the absolute highest quality, just like everything else in his life. All of her surroundings were expensive and rare, and the decor rivaled that of any European royal residence.
She’d been probing for personal information, background data for her profile of him, and he’d been dodging her adroitly since her first query. But she had to keep trying. “Your mother and father both died when you were fourteen, correct?”
He straightened and wiped his mouth with the twenty-dollar napkin from his lap. “Why don’t I just have my office fax you my biography?”
“I don’t want that. I don’t want the standard line. I want to know the real Lex Luthor.” She paused and he gestured for the waiter – the man had a waiter at a private dinner for two people! – to pour more wine. She glanced at the man, then continued, “I want to know what makes you tick, what you strive for, what you want.”
He lifted his glass and sipped quite elegantly. “Pleasure. The pursuit of pleasure.”
She lifted an eyebrow in response. He tilted his head to one side and asked, “Does that surprise you?”
“I would have guessed you’d say power instead of pleasure.”
“Power is a means, not an end.”
She waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t. Next question. “You took over your first big company when you were twenty-one, right? There were rumors that the buyout was coerced. Is it true that the board of directors were given – ”
“Was the food to your liking?”
He was trying to throw her off her game. And it was working. “It – it was delicious.” She smiled and turned away as if embarrassed to be so single-minded. “It’s just that when I work I – I don’t – “
“Hmm,” he murmured, “all work and no play. Is that your credo, Lois Lane?”
He leaned forward and smiled. It was a powerful, all-encompassing smile, one which spoke of confidence and interest and secret pleasures shared by only two. The palpable impact of that smile broke her concentration and purged her mind of her list of questions and topics for the interview.
He’d rattled her and she didn’t know how to react. She stammered, “I – I don’t think that we should – “
He picked up her wineglass and handed it to her. “Why don’t we just enjoy the evening, enjoy each other, let down your hair, loosen the tie?”
They touched wineglasses and Lois smiled. “I’m not wearing a tie.”
“It’s an expression, one which might apply more to me than to you.” His voice was so warm it could melt butter from three feet away. “You’re so tense,” he purred. “Why don’t you just – “ he put down his glass and gently grasped her hand “ – let your defenses down?”
He was charming, he was urbane, he was smooth as silk underwear, and she couldn’t help but compare him with Clark Kent – and Clark kept winning in that mental comparison. “I think you’ve gotten the wrong idea about this dinner, Lex.”
He sighed and backed off a little. “Look, I hope you don’t think we’re here merely because you’re a beautiful young woman. It wouldn’t speak very well for either of us.” He picked up her notepad and flipped through it without reading it. “You want an interview, a scoop? I understand that. Quid pro quo, let me tell you what I want.”
He leaned closer and his eyes lit up with a manic intensity. “My talent in life is not making money,” he said. “It’s not juggling companies. It’s character assessment.”
His gaze was intense and piercing, cutting through her defenses as if they didn’t exist. “And I sense things about you,” he continued. “Possibilities, potentials – you have the intelligence, the spirit, and the vision to transcend the mundane.”
He paused and gently pulled her hand toward him and rubbed the back with his thumb. “And just so there are no misunderstandings, you are beautiful.”
This was not good. She’d lost control and she didn’t see any way to recover. She had to get out of there. She had to escape somehow, and she fell back on the work excuse. “Lex, I have a story to write. Tonight.” She tugged her hand away from him and leaned back. “I should get going.”
He lifted his head and said, “No dessert?”
It was a double-edged question. He wasn’t talking about any baked Alaska or chocolate cake, and they each knew that the other knew it. “Um, heh-heh – no, I never have dessert.”
Had Lex been sitting next to a snake, Lois might not have been able to tell the difference – his gaze was that mesmerizing. “Really? You don’t know what you’re missing.”
She was a little bird and he was a hungry cat stalking her. She was a mouse and he was an owl swooping down on her. It was time to escape while she still could.
She stood as calmly as she dared and said, “Thank you for dinner. It was really quite delicious.”
He stood with her, took her hand against her will, and bowed over it. “We’ll have to do it again some time.”
She smiled and turned to the door. “Of course.”
*****
She fumed at herself during the entire ride home. Lex pretended not to notice her squiggling around on the huge leather seat, and he even made convincing small talk about sports, the weather, the prospects of Senator Kelly’s re-election bid, and she eventually calmed down. The driver pulled the big Rolls-Royce limo to a smooth halt in front of her apartment, and the tall dark-skinned man wearing a turban leaped out and opened the door for them.
Lex stepped out and helped her exit the limo, then he faced her and adjusted the wrap around her shoulders. “It’s a little chilly tonight. Wouldn’t want you to catch a cold.”
She smiled thinly. “Thank you, Lex. But I’m a big girl and I can take care of myself.”
“I never thought otherwise, my dear. But courtesy demands, at an absolute minimum, that I accompany you to your door.”
She unlocked the outer door of her building and stepped to the elevator, grateful that it was working tonight. He stood close to her on the ride up, not quite close enough to lean against her, but inside her personal space. He even held the elevator door for her when it opened on her floor.
Then, instead of smiling and bidding her good night at her apartment door, he circled around her, moved his lips close to hers, and leaned in to kiss her. Once again, Lois thought about snakes, this time of the constrictor variety, the ones who wound themselves around their prey and crushed the breath from their lungs until they suffocated.
She thought about pushing him away, but she still hadn’t gotten that story on him and didn’t quite want to offend him. She considered turning her cheek toward his mouth, but his gaze pinned her as effectively as a sword thrust between her eyes. At the last moment, she let his lips descend on hers, but she held back and didn’t return the kiss. Thankfully his tongue didn’t put in an appearance, although she wouldn’t have been surprised to see it flicker in and out of his mouth as if tasting the air around them as he broke the kiss.
Then he leaned back and smiled again. “Good night,” he whispered huskily. Then he turned and walked away without a glance back at her.
*****
I’d followed Luthor’s limo from his ‘home’ in the tower – no one could possibly use all that living space – through back alleys and over rooftops, and now I stood back in the shadows across the street from Lois’s apartment building. I could never let Lois know that I’d been watching over her, but at the same time I couldn’t let that base creature have any opportunity to defile her.
Base creature defile her? Oh, great, now I was thinking like him! What a horrible concept!
I put it out of my mind and watched him escort Lois to her door. If he’d held that kiss a few seconds more they’d have been lighting cigarettes for each other instead of wishing each other a good night. And I couldn’t help but think that Lois hadn’t exactly fought him off. Was she blinded by his charm and money? Or was she still angling for that interview? I’d watched him deflect her questions at dinner, and I knew she didn’t have anything close to a story on him yet.
Would she let me help her? Or would she shove me away for butting in? Was she too proud to accept my help, or was I still the hack from Nowhereseville? I didn’t know, and until I knew, I’d have to be careful.
I almost left to fly back to my hotel room, but instead I floated up to her apartment window to eavesdrop on her. Yeah, I know, my mother would have tanned my hide, but I was worried about her.
That was my excuse, anyway.
I was encouraged by the sounds I heard from inside. I hoped that a woman slamming the front door and then throwing her purse and coat on the sofa meant the same thing in Metropolis that it meant in Smallville. If so, it meant that she was angry about not getting the goods on Luthor.
And that meant that she might accept my help with the story. Better yet, it meant that she might still accept me.
That was another scary thought.
*****
Lois growled at her purse and coat and snarled at the ceiling. “Well?” asked Lucy.
“Oh, I blew it! I didn’t get the interview!”
“No,” said Lucy, “I meant, did he ask you out again?”
“There are more important things in life than a second date!”
Lucy’s hands found Lois’ shoulders and began to rub them gently. “That’s true. There’s unexpected phone calls, the third date, chocolate, the fourth date, flowers, the fifth date, birthday presents – “
“Come on, Punky!” Despite her anger at herself, Lois chuckled at her sister’s attempt to distract her. “I think he did ask me out, actually. But I’m not sure.” She sighed deeply. “And even if he did ask me, I’m not sure I want to date him.”
“Really? That’s an interesting point of view. The third richest man in the world asks you out on a date and you’re not sure you want to go? Isn’t he the one voted the world’s most eligible bachelor last year?”
“I’m holding out for this year’s model.”
Lucy gave her sister a gentle shake. “Lois! Come on! You can’t wear black for the rest of your life.”
Lois pulled away. “Claude was a good man, Luce. And I still miss him.”
“He wasn’t perfect. He did have flaws, you know.”
“Don’t start that again! I don’t care if he wasn’t perfect! When he – he left a hole in my life that I don’t think anyone will ever fill.”
“I understand that. Besides, you’re right, he was a good man. And you shouldn’t try to put him out of your life. You should remember him. You should cherish your memories of him. They’re important to you, and they should be important. They’re a part of who you are.”
Lois frowned. “That’s funny. Someone else said almost the same thing to me not long ago.”
“See? You have lots of smart people in your life.” Lucy stepped close and hugged her sister. “I believe there’s someone out there for me. And I believe there’s someone out there for you, too.” She smiled and pointed at the window. “Just think, Lois, Mr. Right could be right outside your window now.”
For a moment, Lois tried to believe her sister’s words, tried to buy into the idea that they really was someone out there for her. But her grief and loneliness chased the rainbows away once more. “Oh, come back to Earth, Lucy! This is reality we’re talking about, not the nice-girl dreams we had when we were kids.”
“I still have them. I think you should too.”
Lois walked to the window and looked down at the street, trying to imagine a man who’d accept someone as damaged as she was. She tried to picture a man to whom she could give her broken heart, a man who wouldn’t mind being second best in her life.
Then she rolled her eyes and yanked the blinds shut. “Not gonna happen, Punky. Not in this lifetime.”
*****
By mid-afternoon the next day, the body of the Messenger sabotage story was ready to present to Perry. Lois grabbed the sheets from the printer’s output tray and motioned to Jimmy to follow her. She gathered Clark with a tap on the shoulder and the three of them marched toward the editor’s office. “I’ve got a really good feeling about this,” said Lois. “I just know this is going to be a huge story.”
“Yeah, just don’t forget what I contributed.”
“We won’t forget, Jimmy,” Lois assured him. “You’ll get all the credit due to you.”
Lois led the trio into the office, laid the document on the editor’s desk, and stood straight and tall before him. “Chief, I think this – “
Perry stopped her with an upraised hand. Then he picked up the printout and held it up in front of them. “This is the story you’re turning in? All three of you?”
Lois glanced at Jimmy and Clark, but they had apparently decided to let her be the spokesperson. “That’s it. It’s all there, too, a really juicy scandal and sabotage and – “
“Hold on now. Let me read through it to make sure I understand what it is you want me to print, okay?”
“Well – sure, Perry. Peruse away.”
The three reporters stood waiting patiently as the editor grunted his way through the document. Occasionally his eyebrows would rise, and once he frowned and grunted at the same time. Lois had seen this act before, usually every time she’d turned in something really hot, but Jimmy hadn’t seen it first-hand and Clark hadn’t seen it at all. She could feel them getting antsy behind her, and their trepidation began to affect her. But she couldn’t interrupt the process. This was how Perry worked, and no one could hurry him when he was in editor mode.
Finally Perry leaned back in his chair and held the document up in front of his face. “All right,” he said, “let me see if I’ve got this straight. You want me to publish a story that says the Prometheus project is being sabotaged, that the space transport Messenger exploded because of that sabotage, and that the transport carrying the habitation modules to the space station Prometheus – scheduled to be launched in less than three days – is probably also going to blow up. And all of this information you got from interviewing Samuel Platt, a man who was banned from the scientific community, underwent psychiatric treatment, and committed suicide! Although he was – “ here Perry leaned forward and made air quotes with both hands “ – probably murdered. Now – does that about sum it up?”
The good feeling Lois had carried into the editor’s office had vaporized like an appliance repairman’s appointment. “Chief – “ she tried to start.
“Hard facts, people!” Perry bellowed. “Hard facts! That’s the name of this game! Now go out there and get me some!”
He thrust the printed summary into Lois’ hands as he glared at all three of them. There was nothing for them to do but leave and do as they had been bidden. She’d been thwarted, but only for the moment.
Lois led the parade onto the newsroom floor, determined to do what had to be done. And Kent wasn’t ready for this kind of investigative activity. Besides, she was still mad at him for the cutting comments he’d made to her the previous day. “What we need is physical evidence,” she called over her shoulder to him. “We’ve got to get something concrete about the destroyed shuttle.”
“I’ll call Dr. Baines and see if I can get permission to set up an independent examination of the – “
“Clark, Baines is not going to let you do that! She could be involved. Besides, we don’t have time to play by the rules. The colonists’ transport goes up in two days.”
She snatched her coat away from his helpful hands and put it on without his officious assistance. “I’m making the call,” he insisted. “Maybe someone else at EPRAD will authorize it.”
“You do that,” she snapped. “And be sure and let me know how it works out.”
As Clark headed for his desk, Lois stalked toward the elevators. “Where are you going?” asked Jimmy.
“Nowhere.”
“I’m coming too!”
Great. That was just what she needed. Add hopeful Jimmy underfoot to naïve Clark underfoot. At least Jimmy knew his way around a camera. Maybe he’d be more useful than Mr. Green Jeans and his soft-headed head-in-the-sky dreamerism.
She paused in the elevator to tell herself not to make up words for Kent ever again. He just wasn’t that important to her.
She wouldn’t let him be important to her. It hurt too much when people got close.
*****
By the time they put together everything they needed for their little foray into the hidden corruption in EPRAD, the sun had set and Jimmy’s courage had evaporated with it. “I guess I don’t need to point this out to you, Lois, but what we’re doing is dangerous.”
She was too close to the truth to be stopped now. She’d go the rest of the way alone if she had to. “Fine!” she snapped. “You go back to updating obituaries. I’ll grab the scoop of the century all by myself.”
They stopped outside the hangar where EPRAD was working on a shuttle hull. Welders showered sparks from a number of different locations both near the floor and high up on the sides of the hull. Several workers hauled cables of different sizes from one level to another. A trio of better-dressed manager types were standing several yards from the base of the upright hull, holding a roll of paper which looked like a blueprint and alternately pointing at various locations on the scaffolding surrounding the hull.
Jimmy frowned. “How do we get inside?”
“We don’t have to.”
“What? Why not?”
“I watched them load the Messenger wreckage into the truck. The whole left side of the shell was bashed in. That one isn’t.” She paused and a realization struck her. “They’re working on a phony shell.”
“Smooth,” Jimmy said. Then he looked at her expression and stuttered, “If you’re into the whole ‘hide the truth’ thing, of course.”
“Right. Well, we’re not hiding the truth, we’re here to reveal it. Where’s the hangar they drove that truck to?”
Jimmy stepped back to get his bearings, then pointed. “Over there. About a quarter-mile that direction.”
He led them through alleys between buildings and ended up at another hangar. She headed for a steel door with a small window at eye level. Lois tried the doorknob, but it was locked, and the door also had a deadbolt above the knob.
Jimmy fished a small packet out of his pocket and pulled out several small but stiff wires. After a few seconds work, he had both the deadbolt and the doorknob open. “You’re amazing,” said Lois. “Where’d you learn to do that?”
“Reform school. It was a bum rap.”
At that moment Lois didn’t care if he’d done time for breaking into the White House. They were in.
Her companion chirped like a real-life Jiminy Cricket. “Lois, what do you expect to find here? Do you know what particle isolators even look like?”
She didn’t answer. They turned a corner and found what appeared to be one of the shuttle’s thrusters lying on its side. There were burn marks around holes in the sides and fused components inside the holes.
“Wow,” breathed Jimmy. “Smooth.”
Pay dirt. They’d found what they’d come to find. “Take pictures of everything that isn’t pristine and brand-new. We’ll have them analyzed later. Then we’re going to have to break into Dr. Baines’ office. I’m positive she’s lying about that report. I never trusted her, not from the very first time I met her. The way she looked at Clark – very unprofessional.”
She suddenly realized that she couldn’t hear his camera snapping. “Jimmy? Jimmy, where’d you go?”
She suddenly sensed a presence behind her. She turned and saw a tall blond man wearing a black muscle shirt, black slacks, and an air of menace.
It would have been polite to ask him what he was doing there. Instead, Lois swung her purse into the side of his face and kicked him in the crotch, then slammed her purse into his head once again as he knelt in agony. A second kick to his side drove the air from his lungs and he fell over with a breathy groan.
She stepped back and looked around, then found Olsen on the floor of the hangar. A bloody cut on the back of his head told her that she’d been right in her assessment of her victim.
“Jimmy!” she urged. “Come on, get up! We’ve got to get out of here.”
The only response was the snick of a switchblade knife behind her. The man she’d knocked down was tougher than she’d thought. He was moving toward her in a crouch, holding a wicked-looking knife in his right hand. He thrust it at her and she deflected his arm, then pulled it down and slammed her knee into the back of his elbow. The sudden pain cost him his grip on the knife, and Lois punched him in the face. As he straightened, she drove her spiked heel into his stomach, and when he bent over she threw a roundhouse punch at the side of his head.
He went down without a sound. Lois flexed her hand and decided it was bruised but not broken, then turned to revive Jimmy and get out fast.
But the sight of a grim Antoinette Baines pointing a pistol at Lois’ midsection from six feet away dissuaded her. “Very impressive, Lois. These days, a woman has to know self-defense.”
She stared at the pistol Baines held with steady competence and decided that making a move for it would be suicide. “Yeah. Look, I know you’re busy, so I’ll just take my friend and leave you to – “
“No,” Baines purred, “I don’t think you will.”
A large meaty hand dropped onto Lois’ shoulder. She turned her head to see her former sparring partner glaring at her, his eye swollen and bruised and a cut on his cheek leaking blood. He grabbed her other arm, turned her around, then forced her to walk in front of him.
She didn’t bother to ask where they were going. She knew she’d written her last banner. The next time her name appeared in the Planet, it would be in the obituary section.
She hoped Jimmy had updated hers.
