Of all the ways Chloe had expected to spend her night, sharing a couch amicably with Lex Luthor was not even on the top 100 possibilities she would have picked. In fact, being within a mile radius of Lex Luthor or his mansion hadn't even cracked the top 500 options she would have expected. That she was close enough to smell the scent of his cologne (something clean and fresh-smelling) and the surprising warmth radiating from him, would normally have only gotten a laugh at the sheer impossibility of it. She couldn't remember the last time their interactions hadn't been tainted with something - suspicion, hate, anger, and even pity. But this was...none of those things. This was...almost familiar, but from so long ago it was nearly forgotten.
Working together - with Lex Luthor - to take down a dangerous evil.
And they hadn't even tried to kill each other yet.
But then again, hadn't he just given her the chance to do what she lived for? Investigate and expose the truth to protect people?
She slanted a look at the man next to her. Though the "expose" part may or may not happen. She didn't trust for one moment that Lex wouldn't do whatever he saw fit to protect his company, his name, and his freedom. So it was up to her to do the same for her father.
She pulled her attention back to the task at hand. Her investigation had already yielded some results. She pulled up the transfer order record from the Luthorcorp server and tilted the laptop slightly to face Lex. "So it looks like the tainted material was sent to a company called Optimus Enterprises for destruction in specially marked Luthorcorp shipping containers. These containers were then returned to Luthorcorp after the material was destroyed to be reused when and if more tainted material was found and also needed to destroyed. It looks like the return of these containers was taken as 'confirmation of destruction' by my fath- by Luthorcorp."
"You should just say it, you know." Lex responded, leaning in close to look at the manifests that Chloe had pulled up. His scent filled her nose in a strangely distracting way.
"Say what?" she replied, trying to sound innocent and not at all aware of his unusual closeness.
"You should just say 'my father.' You keep trying to make this look like it was a corporate action, Chloe, but it wasn't. This wasn't Luthorcorp being the Big Bad." He paused and caught her eyes, smiling. "This wasn't me being the Big Bad." Then he looked back at the manifest again. "Believe it or not, there was a time when I was trying to do right by this town and its people."
Chloe didn't know how to respond to that. He was right, of course. There had been a time he had tried to be a good man in ways both big and small. Once he had offered himself as a hostage to the meteor infected Earl Jenkins to save her and the rest of her captive Smallville High class. Then when his father was going to close the plant that was the lifeblood of the town, he had stood up for them and gone freelance. Even when the Kents were about to lose their farm, he had stepped in and saved it in thanks for a small token from Johnathan Kent. But mostly, she thought of how he had risked his own life and hers to seek justice against his father for the murders of his grandparents. She thought how much he had risked to keep her safe and...No.
That was many years ago. He wasn't that man now.
Now he was the man that experimented on the meteor infected...those like her and her mother. He was the man that gave his own wife hormones to make her think she was pregnant. He was the man that if he learned about Clark, would do only-God-knew-what to him.
Still a part of her whispered...But here he was now, trying to keep the hazardous material from getting out. Trying to protect people from the poisoning, when he could just let it happen. It would be so much easier to just set her father up as a patsy to take the fall. Instead, Lex was taking a risk in involving Luthorcorp in the search, when he could have been focusing on damage control.
Chloe cleared her throat, pushing the confusing thoughts aside. "Anyway, I think that is where we should start. We need to track down those shipping containers. The ones Luthorcorp used were specifically made to contain the contaminated material. They were lead-lined and had individual serial numbers. We should compare the manifests to the serial numbers of the barrels that Luthorcorp has. If those barrels have been modified, or the serial numbers don't match, or are missing, that would give us a clue as to where the material may have gone missing."
Lex nodded and looked at the laptop screen. "Makes sense. Where are the barrels supposed to be now?"
Chloe smiled and pointed to the correct section of the screen. "Well at the Smallville #3 plant of course."
"Ah yes, of course." Lex smiled back and it was strange to see his eyes fill with humor. "And for once, you won't even have to break in to a Luthorcorp facility to investigate."
Chloe chose not to comment though her smile did broaden.
As Lex had promised, they walked right in through the front door even though it was the middle of the night. The security guard at the gate was surprised to see them, but Lex was pretty unmistakable. The guard waved them through without comment, not even asking who Chloe was.
She raised a brow at that. Lex just shrugged. "You're with me. He assumes you had business here."
Well, that was actually true. Strange, but true.
Lex pulled into the parking spot right next to the plant entrance that had a "Reserved for Lex Luthor" placard on it. The only spot closer had a similar placard reading "Reserved for Lionel Luthor". Lex swiped a keycard through the reader next to the door and they were in. Placing the card back inside his jacket, Lex said, "Not that I don't trust you, Chloe, but I'll be getting a new keycard in the morning. So if this one should happen to 'disappear' it won't do much good for anyone that should find it."
Chloe smiled her sweetest smile in reply. "Oh, Lex, you really think I'd need your keycard?"
She only took a moment to enjoy Lex's expression which showed elements of surprise, confusion, and curiosity before moving on.
She knew exactly where she needed to search first. The storage room for the barrels and then the records room.
It felt strange working on an investigation without Clark. She had considered telling him about the missing meteor rock fertilizer, but had decided against it. First, meteor rock tainted material in the quantity they were searching for could be deadly to Clark. He was likely to rush in, and if it was no longer contained in lead-lined barrels, Clark would be in serious trouble. Secondly, so far the evidence seemed to indicate that her father may have been complicit in hiding that the material hadn't been destroyed. Lex hadn't said as much, but they both knew that just accepting that the barrels were sent back empty would not normally have been considered enough to confirm the material was destroyed properly. So could it be that her father was involved? If so, she needed to figure out a way to protect him. He may have turned his back on her, but she had never turned her back on him.
Clark wouldn't understand that. He would believe her father should be punished if he was guilty. It was just how Clark was built. He wouldn't let a criminal go free just because he was her father.
She couldn't do that, to either of them.
So here she was at the #3 plant in the middle of the night with the devil's bald representative on earth. There had to be more records that could tell them what went wrong. Records of the actual destruction being performed. Records that might clear her father and show what actually happened.
But first things first, they needed to search out the barrels.
"Lex, I don't think these are Luthorcorp barrels at all. Look." Chloe pointed to the serial number placard on the side of one of the barrels. The metal strip was considerably more worn that the metal of the barrel it was attached to. It also seemed to not quite fit the barrel correctly, as if it was still adjusting to the shape of the barrel behind it.
Lex hunkered down next to Chloe in the dim light of the storage room. Even with the overhead lights on, they were using flashlights to read the small embossed print of the barrel labels.
"I think you're right, Chloe." Lex rapped his knuckles against the side of the barrel, which rang with a low hollow note. "Sounds like they are heavy lead-lined barrels though. So why replace the Luthorcorp barrels with newer versions of the same barrels? Why the deception? Why not just send back the original Luthorcorp barrels?"
"Would it have been noticed if the type of barrel was changed? From the heavy lead versions to a lighter metal?"
"Maybe. The barrels are filled based upon weight. A lighter barrel would throw the scales off." Lex was silent a moment, before springing back to his feet with a cry of "Shit!" He ran a hand over his bald head in a gesture of frustration and started to pace.
"What? What is it?"
"They want Luthorcorp barrels!"
"Yeah, got that, but -"
"No, think about it! They want to make sure they had genuine Luthorcorp barrels."
"Umm, ok. Why?"
"Because when the real Luthorcorp barrels are found, there won't be any doubt to whom they belong. Someone is setting us up. Someone is going to a lot of trouble here - making sure toxic material is being introduced into clean soil, acquiring genuine Luthorcorp shipping barrels. They are building a disaster with all the evidence pointing straight at Luthorcorp. And I bet they even..." He spun on his heel and marched toward the door.
Chloe rushed after him. "What, Lex? What is it?"
"Records. The records you were looking at online were digital copies."
"Right. Yeah. I was trying to trace the trail of those barrels, but everything looked in order."
"Yes, online. It's easy to modify online records if you can crack the system." He shot her a sideways glance. "As I'm sure you know."
Chloe chose not to dignify that statement with an answer beyond a little smirk of her own. She had a sudden inkling what Lex was getting at. She rushed to keep up with Lex's fast strides. A few moments later he paused in from of a room with a simple placard reading "Records Room."
He shot a victorious smile down at her and Chloe found herself grinning back. Lex swiped his keycard against the reader, unlocking the door. As the door swung open on the dark room, he said, "I'd bet my Porsche they didn't think to change the paper records. They probably only switched out the digital versions."
Chloe wasn't about to take that bet.
They made their way into the records room, Lex hitting the light switch next to the door, illuminating the space. The room was large, nearly the size of a basketball court, and stuffed full of neatly organized rows of shelving and document boxes. Chloe knew from her previous snoop...uh..."investigations" that paper copies of important documents were kept here for a period of ten years before they were destroyed. That added up to a huge amount of paper, and took a lot of manpower to keep it updated and organized. She had thought it to be overkill in the digital age. Now she wasn't so sure. Those paper copies may be the key to tracking down the mystery of the switched barrels.
There was a computer at the front of the room and Chloe made her way over to it. The easiest way to locate a specific record in the mountains of paper was to use the index on the terminal. She swung out the desk chair and was in and searching a moment later. She felt Lex looking at her sardonically as he drawled, "Why of course, Chloe, make yourself at home."
"Oh please, Lex. This is a generic database terminal. Nothing special or Luthorcorp specific about it, so don't get your panties in a bunch. The average fifth-grader could do this, so quit being so huffy about it being 'your property' and accusing me of misdeeds."
Everything she had told him was of course all true, but that didn't mean she hadn't done this all before without his knowledge.
"Ok, the shipping records concerning that shipment are stored in section 124-C. Second shelf in a box labeled 1080-LC-OT."
"Alright, I think that is down this way." Lex began making his way down between rows of shelving stacked high with meticulously labeled document boxes. Chloe got up from the terminal and followed behind.
They located the proper section, Lex hunkered down to better see the boxes on the second shelf, which was about hip high. Chloe watched as he trailed a finger over the labels on the boxes. When he had identified the correct box, he heaved it from the shelf, and onto the floor. Chloe moved around to better see into the box as Lex began working at the lid.
Flipping through the files with long, dextrous fingers, Lex located the correct one quickly. "Here we go," he said, pulling out the correct file and flipping it open. Chloe leaned in close to peer at the file around him. There was a history of shipping manifests of Luthorcorp sending tainted materials out with a company called Optimus. Each manifest had three parts - the outgoing shipment, confirmation of destruction, and the return of the empty barrels.
Except for one shipment which didn't follow the pattern.
"Hmmm," Lex paused, looking over the irregular shipment. "You seeing what I'm seeing?"
Chloe's brow was creased in concentration as she reviewed the same document. "Yeah. This isn't what the online records showed." She looked up and met his eyes. "Who is Savage Inc. and why were they the ones to deliver the barrels back to Luthorcorp?"
Then they both heard footsteps moving down the hallway outside the records room and froze. They stayed still, listening. The footsteps were joined by off-key whistling.
Security Guard, Lex mouthed at her silently. She nodded to show she understood. Hopefully he would just keep walking by, but then she looked up, realizing the room lights were on. The guard would see the light showing under the door. Lex followed her gaze and she saw that he comprehended the problem as well. While Lex had every right to be here, they didn't want anyone to know they had been looking at the shipment records. If they were caught here in the middle of the night, even the most oblivious security guard would wonder why. While Lex could threaten the man into silence, but who could say if that would work? Or that the guard wasn't part of the setup operation?
The records had given them their first real lead, but no one could know that. They couldn't risk tipping their hand and letting the bad guys know they were on to them. Chloe looked around frantically for a place to hide, but the aisles were bare of anything except the shelves of boxes. The shelves themselves were packed full and even the computer desk was a poor place to hide. She looked up to see if they could maybe climb the shelves or access the drop ceiling, but that would take too much time. The guard was in front of the door and they heard a electronic ding as he swiped his own badge to access the room.
Then the world was spinning and Chloe found herself sitting on the cold metal wire of the shelving in the spot the records box had previously occupied. She only managed to get out a short squeak of surprise before Lex sealed her mouth shut with his own.
