Games People Play: 11/11 (not including epilogue)
by Nan Smith
Previously:
The two electric cars driven by Henderson and his men emerged from the door after her. Lex looked at her with a faint, enigmatic smile. "I should have known," he said dryly. "'Twas Beauty killed the beast.'"
"King Kong," Henderson said, deadpan. "Faye Wray has nothing on Lois Lane."
"Don't be ridiculous," Lois said crossly.
**********
And now, Part 11:
"Just one thing," Henderson said. "How did you and Superman happen to arrive so conveniently?"
"We followed you," Lois said, looking past Henderson through the door from which they had just come.
"Why did you follow us, and how?" Henderson pursued. "And for that matter --"
"Look," Lois interrupted, "can't this wait? I'll answer all your questions later. I've got something else to do right now."
"If you're planning on going back that way, I'm pretty sure part of the tunnel collapsed from the explosion," Henderson said, nodding at the door. "Superman will probably be waiting for us when we get back upstairs. Do you want to ride with us, or do you plan on using that thing to ride back in?"
"I'll go by myself, thanks," Lois said, shortly. "And I'll come by to the station later to give my statement, if you don't mind."
Henderson found himself stifling a laugh. Lane was in fine form this early morning, setting down the conditions as if she were the one in change, as usual. Well, he figured he probably owed her something, after that rescue by Superman a short time ago. Luthor had seemed to have some sort of weapon against Superman, judging by what he had said, and Superman's appearance wearing what looked strongly like one of those lead aprons that they used to protect you from radiation in the x-ray department at Metropolis General. Lane had taken Luthor's watch and removed it quickly from Superman's vicinity, so it looked as if she knew something that he didn't. Henderson was itching to ask her about it, but he suspected that she wouldn't answer him, and it was just as well not to bring the matter to the attention of his men. If there was something around that could harm Superman, the fewer people who knew of it the better.
So he ignored the fact that she was wearing Luthor's watch on her forearm, and nodded. "Suit yourself. I'll expect you to come by later and give me your statement. Deal?"
"Whatever," Lois said, forcing Henderson to exercise heroic self-control to maintain his deadpan expression. She put the forklift in motion again and accelerated away from them at a speed that looked downright dangerous in the confined space of the tunnel. He hoped she didn't crack up before she got where she was going.
**********
Ten minutes later, Lois drew up by the elevator. She braked with a screech of tires, jumped off the forklift and pressed the call button with unnecessary emphasis. Darn Clark anyway! He must know that she would be worried about him. If he was all right, why didn't he show up and let her know?
The elevator arrived and Lois boarded. As she did so, she glanced at Lex's watch on her arm. That might be part of the reason he hadn't shown up. She needed to get this thing somewhere safe, encased in lead, and she needed to retrieve the chunk hidden under the treadmill in Lex's gym, upstairs, somehow. And then she needed to get that one shielded, too. Hopefully Clark -- Superman, she corrected herself mentally -- would find her in the meantime. He just had to be okay, she repeated silently. She would never forgive herself for abandoning him if he didn't, even if it had been the only thing she could sensibly do.
She silently counted the seconds that crawled by with unbelievable slowness as the elevator ascended to the top floor, which was Lex Tower's basement. When the doors slid open she disembarked, squinting around in the Stygian gloom. Didn't this horrible place have a light switch? It must! If Lex came down here at all frequently, he wasn't going to grope around the place with just a flashlight to guide him.
She brought out her own flashlight and flicked the beam over the walls, and, of course, now that the idea had occurred to her, the switch was easy to find on the wall at the bottom of the flight of stairs that led out of this place. Lois flipped the switch with an almost defiant gesture and at once the sinister basement was flooded with the warm light of several electric light bulbs hanging from the ceiling.
Lois looked around almost incredulously at the basement. There were what looked like oaken wine casks by one wall, and, of course, there was the Egyptian sarcophagus in all of its scorched splendor. And the white-furred thing with its mouth wide open, baring fearsome fangs.
She had seen it the first time on the way into the bunker and refused to let herself think about it. Its mere presence was bad enough, if she thought about it too hard, but the implications that attached to it were even worse. People told stories about these things, and the stories often implied that these creatures were intelligent. And this one was Lex's trophy.
She looked quickly away from it, resolutely refusing to acknowledge the shiver that ran down her spine. Could that thing possibly really be what it looked like? But that meant that Lex -- or somebody -- had actually shot one, and.... No, absolutely not. She positively did not believe in abominable snowmen, yetis, Loch Ness monsters or even Bigfoot. Maybe it was a mutant polar bear or something. But maybe, somewhere in this den of impossible artifacts, she could find some container made of lead that was big enough to hold Lex's watch and the chunk of meteorite that she had left upstairs.
On one side of the room was a wide shelf, fastened to the wall several inches above her head. All sorts of small items that apparently had no relationship to each other were set neatly along its length. Lois surveyed them, then stood on tiptoe and cautiously picked up one that appeared to be some sort of pot, but it was too light to be made of lead and she replaced it carefully. And then her gaze fell on what appeared to be some kind of old-fashioned jewelry box, encrusted with what looked very much like rubies. Cautiously, she picked it up.
It was surprisingly heavy, and the silvery metal in which the stones were set could very well be lead.
It didn't look like silver to her, or iron, and besides, it was too heavy to be made of anything else, except maybe gold, and it wasn't the right color for gold. Well, if it wasn't lead, she would soon find out, and she could return it after she and Clark disposed of the Kryptonite. Quickly, she opened the box, pulled Lex's watch from her arm and dropped it into the box.
Hopefully, no one would be waiting for her upstairs she thought. She was going to have to dodge Lex's people and maybe the SWAT officers. Uneasily, the memory of the female officer, whose property she had borrowed came to mind. Well, hopefully, she could get the stuff back to the woman anonymously.
Lois started for the flight of stairs and paused. In the wall, directly opposite the one where the elevator to the nether regions of Lex Tower was located, was another elevator.
Well, it probably was simply another entrance to the bunker, but it was worth a look. Lois crossed to it and pushed the call button.
The car was apparently not far away for the doors slid silently open in under a minute and Lois peered inside. The car was carpeted with the kind of rug that you could lose your feet in, the walls seemed to be covered with some kind of elegantly designed tiling, and the railings seemed to be of polished mahogany -- definitely unlike the utilitarian one that ferried passengers down into Lex's bunker. The row of buttons within, one of which was marked "penthouse," was more welcome than she could have believed and she boarded.
Judging by the buttons beside the door, this must be a private elevator that skipped the lower floors of Lex Tower, for it granted access only to the basement, the first floor and the top four levels, which included both floors of the penthouse and the two directly beneath it. Lois jammed her thumb on the one that would take her to the floor where Lex's office was located and leaned back against the wall as the device slid into motion. All of a sudden she was immensely tired, but she couldn't rest until the Kryptonite was under wraps and she knew that Clark was safe. Once she was sure of those two things, she planned on sleeping for a week. She certainly had enough vacation time saved up, considering that she had skipped vacation every year since she had gone to work at the Planet. Perry was bound to wonder if she was sick or something, but she didn't care. She could never remember being so tired in her life -- not even the nights she had spent awake on surveillance could measure up to this one.
The elevator sliding to a stop jolted her out of the doze into which she had slipped. Lois shook herself awake and straightened up. If Nigel St. John was waiting for her, she'd better have her wits about her, but the room where the elevator had deposited her was surprisingly empty. The penthouse wasn't, however. From somewhere not far away she could hear the sound of several voices raised in simultaneous conversation. Lois stepped out into the carpeted room, looking around and trying to orient herself.
She was in Lex's office. And when she turned, she saw that the doors to the elevator appeared to be plain wall -- if you could call the hardwood paneled walls plain. Rapidly, Lois made a beeline for the gym and the treadmill.
The Kryptonite was still there, and within seconds it nestled on the velvet lining of the jewelry box. Lois closed the lid and fastened the old fashioned catch. Now, she only hoped all this sneaking around wasn't in vain, and that Clark was all right and able to answer her. She stepped out onto the balcony. From this vantage point, the whole city of Metropolis was laid out below her, bathed in the ruddy light of a brilliant sunrise, but Lois paid no attention. There was only one sight that she wanted to see right now. She opened her mouth and shouted at the top of her voice, "Help, Superman!"
A whoosh of air answered her, and a familiar caped figure was hanging in the air ten feet away. His Suit was smudged and dirty, as were his face and hands, and the cape was slightly frayed along the edges, but he was very much alive.
"It's about time you showed up!" she snapped. "Didn't you know I was worried?"
He looked slightly guilty. "I had to catch St. John. He was high-tailing it out of Lex Tower," he explained. "And I had to return the lead apron. I figured you knew I was okay."
"Well, I didn't! I knew the Kryptonite in Smallville took away your powers! How was I supposed to know that it hadn't happened again? I was afraid you'd been blown up by the bomb!"
His eyebrows flew up. "How did you know about the Kryptonite in Smallville?"
"I've got a brain," she said shortly. "Once I knew you were Superman, a lot of things suddenly started making sense." She held up the box. "Is this lead?"
He squinted at it. "Sure is. Where did you find it?"
"Lex's basement. I put both pieces of Kryptonite in it. Can we just get out of here, now?"
Clark smiled suddenly. "We sure can." He settled gracefully down onto the balcony and lifted her effortlessly in his arms. "Someday you're going to have to explain why I was able to do without your help for so long."
"I can't figure it out either," Lois said, with a wide yawn. She probably ought to tell him, she thought, that she had figured out his secret a couple of months ago, but she was much too tired to go into all of that at present. She had the sneaking suspicion that it was going to be a discussion that would demand that she be at her sharpest. Right now, she could barely keep her eyes open.
Lois wedged the box down firmly in her lap and against Superman's side so that it wasn't likely to slip if her grip on it relaxed. His shoulder was looking more and more tempting by the second. After a few second's deliberation, she rested her head against the smudged blue spandex and closed her eyes.
**********
tbc
