Clark and Lois The Lost Years Matchmaker Chronicles Vol 3 40/46
By Ken Janney
This version is rated PG-13
* denotes emphasis *
< denotes thoughts >
[ playback of a recording or TV Commentary]
/ telepathic communications /
(#) footnotes
As always comments are welcome. (ken.janney@kjanney.com)
Reminder:
Universal Locator Designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 - Canon Lois and Clark universe also called – Prime
Alpha 023 x Gamma 025 x Tau 036 – Canon Alt Clark universe also called – Alt 1
Previously:
In another room a technician was sitting in front of a bank of monitors. He was watching the high-profile subject with one of the girls when all of a sudden the monitor he was watching went blank. He had a brief impression of a red flare just before it went dark. “Now how the hell did that happen?” <I checked those cameras earlier this evening to make sure they were ready for tonight. That shouldn’t have happened! Oh well. At least we have the other camera. We should still get some usable footage from it. We’ll need it if we want to have any leverage with him.> Just then the second screen went dark. “What the … That can’t happen! They can’t both go out like that! Something’s going on and I don’t like it.” He picked up a phone and dialed an extension. “Mitzie, Greg. We’ve got a problem.”
Within a minute of getting the call Mitzie was in Greg’s room and he was showing her what he had been able to record from the presidential suite. On both tapes just before the tape went blank there was a red flare which Greg could not account for. Mitzie looked at Greg and asked “What can we do? This is a high profile target. We have to get something.”
”We still have the audio feeds. You might be able to use that?”
“It’s not as effective as having a tape of the target in a ‘compromising’ position, naked in bed with a prostitute. Lex isn’t going to be happy, but, I guess it’ll have to do.”
Just then over the speakers they heard the beverages and finger foods delivered to the presidential suite. There was a time where all that could be heard was the clinking of glasses and a rustling as the food was being consumed. After a while they could hear the sounds of kissing and moans and groans. Then a female voice said [“You look awfully uncomfortable in that suit. Wouldn’t you be more comfortable removing your jacket and loosening your tie? … There now, isn’t that better? … Now let’s undo your shirt a little. … My, what a strong neck … It’s hard to see with that beard.”] Sounds of more kissing. [“I like kissing your neck. Do you like it?”
“How could I help it with someone like you?”]
Things seemed to be progressing satisfactorily so they muted the speakers and allowed the tape to run. Mitzie said, “I’m expecting more customers. Make sure that we don’t have any more equipment failures.” She left.
And now:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 40 – Dan Scardino
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Clark had been filling Lois in on what was about to happen. /So Henderson should be here within an hour. Where is your jewelry?/
/In my bag, down the hall./
/Let’s see if we can come up with an excuse for you to go get it. I have it. Why don’t I ask to see your health certificate?/
/But, I don’t have one./
/They don’t know that do they?/
/No, I guess they don’t. It might work. I don’t think they lock us in. I should be able to just walk down the hall and get it./
/As soon as you touch your bag you should have your powers so it shouldn’t matter what they try once you have it in hand. Try not to reveal what you can do though. Be careful. Okay, here we go. Let’s make it sound good./ He said out loud “My dear, I hate to interrupt what we are doing to ask something so crass, but, could I see your health certificate? I couldn’t afford to take a chance of catching anything.”
“I assure you that I don’t have any diseases.”
“Thank you, my dear, for that assurance, but I would still like to see the actual certificate. If you don’t mind.”
“If you insist. It’s in my bag, down the hall. I’ll be right back.” Lois exited the suite and moved down the hall.
On her way she was stopped by another one of the clients.
The guy that accosted Lois in the hall had apparently already been drinking and was a little sloppy. “Hey, babe, where have you been hiding? Care to join me?”
She responded to him in a sharp tone, “Sorry, I’m occupied. You’ll need to find yourself another girl.” She tried to move past him.
As she did he reached out and grabbed her from behind around the waist and started moving his hands up toward her breasts. She reached down and placed her hands over his. With this move he felt some encouragement and started moving his hands even faster. Suddenly she shifted her grip and grabbed his index finger on each hand and bent them both back. This move got his hands off of her and caused him some pain in the process. She pushed back on his fingers knocking him off balance, neatly dislocating his fingers in the process. He fell backwards, against the wall. She turned to face him and said in a very threatening tone “Couldn’t you hear or are you too drunk to understand? I said I was occupied. Now, keep your hands off! Got it?”
“Why you, no bimbo hooker does that to Dan Scardino and gets away with it.” He lunged at her.
Lois sidestepped grabbing his right wrist as she did and pulled while placing her right foot so that he tripped over it causing him to hit the opposite wall head first. He slipped to the floor, unconscious.
Looking down at his unconscious form she said, “I told you I was occupied and to find another girl but you wouldn’t listen to me.” She stepped over the body and hurried down the corridor to the wardrobe room where her things were in a gym style wall locker where she completed her errand. As soon as she had her bag in her hand she felt her strength and other abilities return in a flood. Just for good measure she stuffed her dress into her bag thinking <I’ll worry about the wrinkles later, if at all.>
As soon as she finished stuffing her dress into her bag she stuck it under her arm and exited the wardrobe area. When she stepped into the hallway she saw Constance bending over the unconscious Scardino. Constance looked up and seeing her asked “Why aren’t you in the presidential suite with your customer?”
By way of reply she indicated her bag and said, “I had to get something to satisfy the customer that I’m healthy.”
Constance replied, “Well, okay.” Indicating the unconscious Scardino she asked, “Do you have any idea what happened to him?”
With a look of utter disdain she replied, “He looks like a passed out drunk to me. Do you want any help with him?”
“No, that’s okay, I can deal with this. You need to get back to your customer.”
Without another word Lois returned to the suite. As she was walking down the corridor she thought, /I had a little trouble./
/I know, I was watching. I figured you could handle it powers or no powers so I decided that I didn’t need to interfere./
As she closed the door behind herself she thought, /We still have some time until Bill gets here. Shall we avail ourselves of the facilities?/
She didn’t need to see the look on his face to pick up his joy as he thought, /I thought you’d never ask./ She started removing the teddy as he started to unbutton his shirt. /You’re sure you disabled all of the cameras?/
/It wouldn’t hurt for you to double check./
She did a quick scan. She found both of the disabled cameras and both listening devices. She thought /We could really give them an earful or we could be quiet. What do you want to do?/
/Just be yourself, but remember – Charlie, not Clark./
Three quarters of an hour later they heard a commotion outside the room. They both used their x-ray vision to check and saw Bill Henderson and a squad of police in the lobby with Mitzi. They both tuned in with their super hearing to listen to the by-play. Bill was just handing Mitzie a piece of paper, probably a warrant. Mitzie was complaining quite loudly about how this was an illegal raid. Realizing that time was of the essence they both hurriedly got dressed and exited the room. They moved to the ‘lobby’ and as soon as Bill Henderson spotted them he turned to Mitzie and said “I am taking some of your girls and their ‘clients’ into custody.
Mitzie was just standing there holding the piece of paper, dumbfounded. She couldn’t understand it. Because of Luthor’s influence and the members of the judiciary that he had in his pocket they had never been able to get a warrant before. Luthor had always taken care of that.
As Lois and Clark approached him Henderson recognized Lois but not Clark. He assumed that it was Clark because he was with her. He had brought Detective Muggervan from the Vice squad along. Muggervan was taking his cues from Henderson as he said, “Take these two into custody.” In an aside to Lois Henderson said “can you ID those new girls you were talking about?” She pointedly looked at the three girls and Bill nodded his understanding. He pointed to the indicated girls and Muggervan said “Okay we don’t have room for all of you. You, you, you and you.” Pointing at the girls Lois had ID’d and Dan Scardino “Go with these officers.” The girls were directed to accompany a couple of police women who took them to wardrobe to recover their own clothes before being taken downstairs.
They all went down in the elevator. It was crowded but Lois didn’t mind as it gave her an excuse to hug Clark all the way down. To maintain appearances Bill had a ‘paddy wagon’ waiting at the front door. The three girls, Lois and Clark were all loaded into the back of this while Dan Scardino was loaded into a black-n-white.
After the back doors were closed and the driver got the vehicle moving Lois addressed the three girls. “Did any of you have to ‘perform’ for a customer this evening?”
They each had been feeling miserable. They hadn’t wanted to be there to start with and then to be picked up in a raid, that was just too much.
Seeing that they were obsessing over the circumstances Lois sharpened her tone “Listen to me! Snap out of it! You’re safe now. Luthor isn’t going to harm you.”
That got their attention. At the mention of Luthor’s name they all looked up and at Lois. Lois tried again. “Did any of you have to ‘put out’ for a customer tonight?”
They all shook their heads. One said “You’re the only new girl that was chosen. I really feel sorry for you.”
Lois laughed and responded “You don’t need to be sorry for me, this is my husband. We were there to get you girls out before you were degraded by that bastard Lex Luthor. He’s the one behind what happened to you. Tell me, each of you worked for a division of LuthorCorp didn’t you?”
They all nodded in unison.
“You were all recently fired, for no apparent cause?”
More nods.
“Which of you are the two with car loans?”
Two of them raised their hands.
Looking at the third girl “I guess that leaves you as the one with the ailing parent.”
“How do you know all of this about us?”
“My husband and I are reporters for the Daily Planet and we have, along with the police, been investigating Luthor. If you girls are willing to testify about what he did to you we are sure we can get you jobs in the private sector similar to the ones you had. Until the trial the Daily Planet will put you up in a safe location. Are you willing to help us put this sleaze bag behind bars?”
As Lois had been talking all three of the girls had gone from disconsolate to happy, even eager. All three assured Lois that they would cooperate in any way that they could.
Lois moved up to the front and banged on the wall. A window opened and Bill Henderson looked back.
“It’s okay Bill. They are willing to testify. Can you take us to the hotel?”
“You got it.” He closed the window and they felt the van change direction.
The police van took them to a motel on the outskirts of town and rooms were arranged. After dropping the girls off at the motel Bill took Lois and Clark back to the precinct with him. When they walked in they saw Dan Scardino lounging in the waiting room. Lois got a sour look on her face as soon as she spotted him. As they were passing by Bill signaled for him to accompany them back to his office. When he did this Lois’ brows raised almost far enough to be hidden in her hairline.
Addressing Bill In a somewhat angry tone she asked, “What’s he doing here?”
“Lois, allow me to introduce Dan Scardino …”
Lois interrupted with an angry tone of voice as she stepped forward virtually nose to nose with Scardino and said, “We’ve met!”
Bill, trying to be the peacemaker replied, “I don’t think so. This is *agent* Dan Scardino. I recognized him when we did the raid. In order not to blow his cover we had to pull him in as well. Seeing him there I would think that means that the FBI is also interested in Luthor. That is, of course assuming that you weren’t there for ‘relaxation’.”
Lois was aghast, “FBI?? That doesn’t give you an excuse for pawing me!”
Scardino took a step back and put his hands up defensively. He said, “Sorry, I didn’t know! I was undercover and acting a part just as I take it you were. You are more than capable of defending yourself as I can attest. Besides, you sure looked good in that teddy. I would like to see more of you. Would I still have a chance?” He smiled at her as he made this play on words.
Lois put her arm around Clark and said, “Oh, you would, would you? You can forget you ever saw me in that. Allow me to introduce my customer of the evening who just happens to be my *husband*. This is Clark Kent.” With a flourish Clark took off his wig, beard and mustache.
Lois smiled in pleasure at getting Scardino’s goat.
More than a little chagrined, Scardino addressed Clark, “Sorry, old man, I didn’t know.”
“That’s okay, but now that you do know, I expect it to be hands off.”
Scardino replied, “You really don’t have to tell me twice. Besides, I wouldn’t want to have met her in a dark alley. I might not have gotten out in one piece.”
His statement broke the tension in the room and they all had a laugh at that line.
Scardino said, “Well it looks like you’re already in the process of building a case. We were just starting. Do you want us to take over?”
Bill said “Not on your life! This is an ongoing investigation. Is there anything you can provide to us?”
“As I said, we were just starting. Treasury had noticed fund transfers causing bank loans to shift hands. It had been going on for some time and we were starting to get curious. It appeared that all the loans belonged to young women. They thought it looked suspicious and passed the information off to us to investigate.”
Lois decided to fill him in. “Here’s the explanation. Luthor fired girls that had no close family or friends. If they had a loan he would have it transferred and then used it as leverage to force them into prostitution. Those three girls we took out of there, well, it was their first night. They are all willing to testify.”
“If you could provide us with that data we’d appreciate it.”, Bill stated.
Scardino replied, “I’ll send it over by courier tomorrow.”
Reaching out to shake his hand Bill replied, “Thanks, we’ll put it to good use.”
They shook hands all around and Lois and Clark headed home.
Once they arrived home Clark suggested, “Let’s change into our surveillance outfits and make sure that you have a ski mask. Even though somewhat mystified by this Lois got out her outfit.
While they changed clothes she asked, “What are we doing?”
With a somewhat mischievous look Clark said, “I just thought that it’s still early. I thought we’d get Perry that scoop he wanted. Here’s what I thought … “
To be continued in Chapter 41 – Luthor
Last edited by KenJ; 04/30/14 02:10 AM.
