Lois stood staring at the the 1964 Aston Martin DB5. It was sleek and silver with mirrors set further forward near either bumper and a slightly raised intake on the hood. Over a third of the car was nose, and the back window curved down slowly to help manage wind resistance. While the words, James Bonds' car! jumped around in her brain, what Lois actually said was, "You're shitting me!"

Raising one eyebrow, Lena sniffed politely as she walked past Lois to the right side of the car and said, "I don't believe I've ever done any such thing."

"Hey, I thought you were dri—" Looking down at the license plate that stated 'LL007', Lois became momentarily distracted. When she looked up, Lena had climbed into the passenger side, so the reporter headed over to the driver's side and pulled open the door. "Hey, I thought you said you were...?" A look of dawning realisation crossed her face as she also climbed in. "Oh, the wheel's on that side. How British. You know, I'm getting a very James Bond vibe about all this, which is quite frankly awesome." Lois ran a hand appreciatively over what looked to be either a very, very antiquated GPS device, or some kind of radar scanner in the centre of the dash console beneath the radio.

Lena started the car with a healthy thrum of the engine, which received an excited chuckle from the passenger's side, then she checked her mirror before putting the car into reverse and pulling out of the space. "I need to stop by my place before we head to the warehouse. I just need to pick something up."

"Ok, sure," Lois looked around at the cabin of the vehicle with its dark leather seats, brown, wide steering wheel, numerous dials and odd switches and covered things that seemed out of place. "Hey, you know this really REALLY looks likes James Bond's car. Is it like some kind of replica? Are you a secret James Bond fanatic?"

Clearing her throat, the young CEO pulled carefully out into traffic. "Well, it is a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, the same model that was used in Goldfinger. So yes, you could say it's a James Bond car."

"I did say it. Well, I said it was like it, not that it was it. Because that would be insane."

"Did you know there were two of them?"

"Two of what?"

"There were two identical cars used in the movie - two cars used by James Bond. One was used for many of the close up scenes, and the other was the one that was actually outfitted with many of the gadgets and devices seen in the movie. It's what was called the 'props cars'," Lena informed casually as she drove the stick shift vehicle like it was second nature to her.

Lois blinked several times, taking that all in. "Oh. Well, I guess that makes sense. They trashed about seven of the ten DB10s in Spectre. So, did you buy one of those Bond cars, then?"

"No."

"Oh." Lois deflated back into her seat and pulled out her phone. "So this is just a regular, mundane Aston that just looks like the one from the film? Boring. Quaint, but boring. I'm going to start on my calls."

"In 1997, the props car went missing from a warehouse where it was being stored in Florida."

It was such a casual, throwaway comment, it was almost as if she'd been talking about the weather. But it had the desired effect as Lois sat bolt upright again, turning to smile at the CEO as her eyes lit up with hope "Alright I'm listening. What happened to it?"

Lena shrugged. "No one knows. The insurance company paid out the claim - over a million dollars in liability. It's become one of life's great mysteries, and no one has ever seen the car again." Turning to look at Lois briefly, a sly little smile touched Lena's lips and she shrugged. Almost as if there was something funny - an inside joke, or something only she knew. "No one."

Lois was quiet for a moment, and then she very nearly exploded with excitement. "Holy fuck! Are you saying this is the missing Bond car?!"

Looking at the road again, Lena shrugged. "I didn't say that."

"O… kay. Are you saying this isn't the missing Bond car?"

There were several moments of silence, and then Lena pulled up at a red light. Turning to look at Lois again, she slowly lifted one eyebrow while her lips curled up at the corners. "Well, I didn't say that either."

"I knew it! This is the missing Bond car!" Lois bounced in her seat as excited as a child on Christmas morning. "Does it do stuff?! What does it do!? It does stuff, right!?" She started to reach out and touch things, pressing panels to look for secret compartments, looking for dials and switches with which to play. Suddenly Lena grabbed her hand, pulling the excited reporter's attention back to the driver.

Staring at her passenger, Lena said quite seriously, "Lois, I'm the CEO of one of the largest media companies in the country, and I'm still responsible for my family's business on top of that. I'm the only Luthor not dead, incarcerated, or sought by the federal authorities for attempted genocide. Since I was a teen, my pursuits have been curing cancer and finding a way to bring clean and renewable resources of energy to every corner of this world, as well as advancing medicine to benefit the future of mankind." Pulling back her hand, Lena suddenly smiled an actual, proper and genuine smile, her nose crinkling up. "Of course, it does stuff! I'm a bloody engineer first!"

Lois' smile lit up the entire car. "Make it do something! Make it do something!" Reaching out she flipped open the top of the gear stick, hoping and praying to any and all gods out there that - yes! There it was! The big, red button!

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Lena chuckled as the light turned green and they pulled off again. "Because you'll end up out there." She raised a hand and pointed to the roof, and her meaning became suddenly very clear. Slowly, Lois closed the flap again and retracted her hand.

"Ok, point made. Do these all do things?" Her hand moved to the somewhat safer display of switches built into the armrest between the seats, and accessed when she flipped it open. Glancing down, she read the various descriptions of each switch.

"Oil… nails… smoke… M-guns? What's - oh wait machine guns! Cool! Out rear and out front?"

"Extendable bumpers to use as battering rams."

"Ooooh! Plates?"

"Changes the number plates."

"Bet that's handy for speed traps."

"I wouldn't know."

"You mean you've never been tempted to go through a speed trap deliberately fast and then switch the plates when the cops pull you?"

"I can safely say that thought never crossed my mind. I don't go out looking for trouble, Miss Lane."

"Ugh, what a horrible way to live… aha! Is this one the—" She didn't finish her sentence because she was already turning in her seat, having flipped the last of the switches which read 'bullet screen'. A no doubt bulletproof (given its name) sheet of metal slid up into position from the trunk of the car, to completely cover the back windshield, blocking it and protecting it from gunfire.

"Yes!" Lois mini-punched the air, flipped the switch and watched the sheet retract back into its original position so she could see out of the rear window again.

Lena couldn't help it, and chuckled at Lois' sheer enthusiasm. "I take it you're a big Bond fan?"

"Huh?" Lois turned and sat properly back in her seat again. "Oh, not at all. Well, not the man himself. Though I do love the cars and the gadgets. It's all just so… spy-fi!"

"Spy-fi?" Lena raised an eyebrow.

"Uh huh. Like sci-fi, but with spy stuff instead of space."

"Sci-fi isn't all about space, you know," Lena rolled her eyes. "It's called Science Fiction, not Space Fiction."

"Actually, James Bond went to space in Moonraker."

With a loud sigh, Lena pulled over to the sidewalk and cut the engine. "Stay here and don't touch!" She warned, pulling the keys from the ignition and taking them with her. Lois pouted, but made no further protests - mainly because as soon as Lena had run inside the building she'd parked in front of, Lois began pressing buttons and turning dials, only to find that none of them worked. Lena had rigged them all to work only when the keys were in the ignition.

"Spoilsport," Lois pouted again, pulling out her notepad and flipping it to the page of contact names and numbers Perry had given her. Dialling the first number on her burner phone, she set about arranging times and meeting places for these contacts, whilst she waited for Lena.

…..

It was about fifteen minutes later when Lena returned from whatever she was doing upstairs. She placed a laptop bag on the floor behind her seat then climbed back in and started up the engine again.

"Yeah, yeah, hold on a sec," Lois said, sticking her thumb over the mic of her cell phone. "You get what you needed?"

"I did indeed," Lena replied, checking traffic again as she pulled out into the flow. "I'll need a decent system if we're to retrieve data from the warehouse. I trust I didn't keep you waiting too long."

"It was fine." Lois looked at the bag in the back. "It took you that long to get a laptop?"

"Well, if I'm going to be out of the office for an extended period, I needed to get someone to come in and cover CatCo. I called the former acting CEO, and he was able to free himself to return to the office. We had to cover a few business items. Then I had to phone my CFO at L-Corp. I didn't think you cared to hear boring business talk though."

"Not really. So who'd you call? Your former acting CEO and CFO. Who are they?"

"James Olsen and Sam Arias."

"James? You called James?"

Glancing over at Lois, Lena nodded. "Yes, do you know him?"

"Yeah, you could say that. We used to work together. He was my photographer out in the field. Did you mention me? Did he ask about me?"

"I don't make it a common practice to speak about personal matters with my employees," Lena replied, fairly tartly, Lois couldn't help but notice. "Kara's an exception, but she was a friend before we started working together. Likewise with Sam." Taking the exit for the highway, Lena asked, "So is there a message you'd like passed onto Mr. Olsen?"

"What? No. I think your 'no fraternization policy' is a - Oh, Eddie! Sorry, I totally forgot… yeah, sorry. Okay, so where is the bar located?" Lois took notes while making encouraging noises. "Great, just great. Now did you say this guy's name was actually Peewee or does he just go by Peewee, like a nickname? Okay, got it. Eddie, thanks a million. I owe you one. If there's anything I can do… Italian Pastries? Sure. Where's the shop located?" Taking notes on the name and address of the shop, Lois added an extensive order of the exact type of pastries and cookies to be ordered. She tapped her pen on the pad. "Got it. I'll pick that up when I'm heading back to Metropolis. Eddie, it's been a pleasure. Take care."

"A successful endeavor?"

"Eddie's got a sweet tooth."

"Apparently. The next exit is ours." Lena pointed to a sign saying there was an exit in three miles.

They sat in relative silence for the next three miles, and then took the exit. They wound their way through a few city streets before finally coming out in an area that was a series of warehouses and other urban facilities. After a few turns, they came to a fenced-in warehouse that looked much like any other and was only identified by its address. The gate outside was large with barbed wire around the top, security cameras, and an inner gate with a sign warning that the fence was electrified. Uniformed men roamed the facility in groups of two with a dog, each close enough that they could see the next in the distance. There was one gate in and one gate out, and a security booth stood there, one guard remaining inside and the other coming out to meet the ladies when their car stopped.

Leaning down, the security guard said, "I'll need to see some identification."

"Uh, I got one of these?" Lois said hooking her thumb over toward the driver's side where Lena sat.

Frowning at the passenger where a driver normally sat, the security guard looked past Lois as his expression changed to one of startlement. "Miss Luthor! Ma'am, we didn't know you were coming."

"Surprise inspection. Open the way for us, won't you?"

"Yes, ma'am. Right away, ma'am." Snapping upright, the guard spun and began hurrying the other guard to open the way.

As the gate opened and the car slid through, Lois laughed. "Well, that was fun. Is your life always like that, people jumping and hurrying to do what you want when you glare at them?"

"On the good days, yes."

Pulling up into a space near the front of the warehouse building, Lena killed the engine and stepped out.

Lois climbed out a little more slowly, almost reluctant to leave the amazing James Bond Gadget Car, but knowing she couldn't stay in it forever. Shutting the door carefully, as Lena leaned into the back to retrieve her laptop bag, she suddenly let out a loud exclamation.

"Oh crap!"

"What?" Lena stood up sharply, looking at Lois and seeing, perhaps for the first time, a look of genuine panic flicker across the other woman's face. Following Lois' gaze towards the gate they'd only recently driven through revealed a black SUV that had pulled up. "I assume you know who they are?" she asked, turning to look back at Lois for confirmation - only to find that the woman had vanished. Blinking in surprise, Lena looked around for a moment, then stepped round the car to find Lois crouching beside the front passenger wheel, peering over the hood of the car. "Um, what are you doing?"

"Huh?" Lois jumped, startled. "Oh, stone in my boot. Don't mind me." She was making no move to do anything with said boot, however, and was simply staring at the black SUV still.

With a sigh, Lena turned back toward the two federal type agents that had now stepped out and were flashing what appeared to be badges at the security guards. Leaving her laptop bag with Lois, Lena stormed over to the gate, and as she got closer, snatches of what the two agents were saying became audible.

"'It's a federal issue… need to know basis… you don't want to hamper a federal investigation… how do you spell your full name again?..."

She stopped by the gate and cleared her throat, getting their attention. "Can I help you? Because this is private property, and you're trespassing."

"Agents Vasquez and Johnson of the FBI, ma'am. We're here on federal business," one of the two agents turned to her, flashing her FBI badge and stepping forward, clearly used to this working and allowing her entry to most places.

But Lena didn't budge. She simply folded her arms across her chest and glared sternly at the two agents. "What federal business?"

"I'm afraid it's need to know, ma'am. Now please, you're blocking our investigation and—"

"And unless you have probable cause or a search warrant to enter these premises, you're going to turn round and leave again," Lena said calmly, cutting Agent Vasquez off, mid 'federal' spiel. "Though I'm assuming, being that you're with the FBI and all, that you've done your research and have such a warrant in hand already? In which case, it should be presented to the owner, who happens to be myself. So may I see it please?"

The two agents looked uneasily at one another for a moment, then shook their heads in defeat.

"I see. Well, in that case, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave. And if I might remind you that this property contains all the land between this point and the city street? I'll be happy to call a few friends at Quantico, Agent… Vasquez, was it? Should you need clarification on where exactly the boundaries of my property end."

"That won't be necessary, Miss Luthor. Thank you for your time." The two agents hesitated for a moment longer, and Lena raised an eyebrow. Taking this silent cue that they'd outstayed their welcome, they climbed back in the SUV and put it into reverse.

Lena watched them pull away, waiting until they disappeared from sight before she nodded slowly. She turned to the guard at the front gate. "No one gets in here but me or someone with me. I want all transportations suspended, in and out, deliveries both ways, until further notice. Is that understood?"

"I… I… Yes, Miss Luthor."

"Excellent. That order doesn't get lifted until you hear it from me either in person or over the phone. That means verbal confirmation, nothing in writing or via email. Oh, and we're also going to enact beta protocols."

Brow furrowed, the guard asked, "Beta protocols, Ma'am?"

"Yes. Look them up. Today's password is chromosome. You'll need to go confirm that." She waved the man off, back to the guard shack, with one hand.

He hurried away and came back moments later. "Password confirmed. Thank you, Miss Luthor."

"Thank you. Remember, not even I get in without that password. Any questions?"

"No, Miss Luthor."

Glancing over her shoulder to make sure the SUV was still out of sight, Lena said, "And if the FBI comes back—"

"They won't get in, and you will hear about it, Ma'am."

Her smile was small but satisfied. "Excellent." Lena strode back to fine Lois standing by the hood of the car now. "Everything all right?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't it be? I was going to ask you that. Who were those people?"

Eyes narrowing nearly imperceptibly, Lena grabbed her laptop bag. As she headed toward the warehouse entrance she said, "FBI. They wanted access to the warehouse."

"Why?"

With a little grin over at her companion, Lena replied, "Let's see if we can't find out."

Lois grinned in reply. "Well, now you're talking, Luthor. If the FBI want in, we must be on the right trail. Let's crack this egg and see what the yolk's made of."

They were about halfway to the entrance when Lena held out a hand, stalling Lois' progress. "Careful, don't step on the snake."

"The fuck?!" Lois shrieked, leaping a good few feet backwards in alarm.

"Seriously?" Lena crouched and carefully lifted the small green garter snake, moving it off to some shrubs along the side of the building and away from the walkway. Smoothing her skirt, she shot Lois a withering glance. "I thought you were Lois Lane, the intrepid and fearless investigative reporter."

"Intrepid? Absolutely. Fearless? Definitely. Most of the time. But, but…" she pointed to where Lena had set the snake down. "Snake! Big fucking snake just walked right in front of us and you just picked it up and why did it have to be snakes? I hate snakes!"

"Big? That one couldn't have been more than a foot long. Lois, garter snakes are harmless. "

"Size isn't everything!" Lois snapped as she stormed towards the warehouse, her hands clenched into fists by her sides as she focussed continually on the shrubs, almost as if she was daring the snake to "walk" right back out again.

With a head shake and a sigh, Lena hurried her pace and caught up to Lois. "I apologize. We all have our fears, and it's justifiable. For instance, I'm terrified of family reunions."

Lois tried and failed to contain a snort of laughter at that, covering it up with a poor attempt at a coughing fit. "Yes well, you know one of mine. I'm not telling you my other one."

"I won't press." As they reached the warehouse, Lena entered a security code and pulled open the door. "Come along, Indiana Lane."

Lois opened her mouth to protest, realised what Lena had said and grinned a huge grin instead, her 'snake ordeal' forgotten at last. "Hey, I like that. Indiana Lane." She repeated it, as if testing it to see what it sounded like, then nodded, grinning. "Alright, I'm right behind you Luthor… Lena Luthor."

Lena glanced over at Lois but only shook her head, saying nothing.

The warehouse was like nothing Lois had ever seen before, as she stepped through the heavy iron doors and stared upon a tall and long building, filled almost to the brim with crate after crate stacked high upon pallets. There were section markers both painted on the floors and hung high from the ceilings. It stretched longer than the eye could see, and the boxes were only coded with alpha-numeric markings that made sense to someone but without a legend were total gibberish.

Letting out a long, slow whistle, Lois looked up and around as she trailed after Lena and held up two fingers. "Okay, two questions."

"Go ahead."

"Number one: where are you keeping Jimmy Hoffa in here? And number two: jumping back on the Indiana theme, which one of these things has the Ark of the Covenant in it?"

With a quiet chuckle, Lena replied, "Oh, the Luthors had nothing to do with Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance. Feel free to publish that. You won't find him here."

After several beats of silence, Lois asked, "No witty comeback about the Ark?"

Smirking over her shoulder, Lena tilted her head to the side then marched onward, head forward.

"Hey, whoa whoa whoa, hold up there Indy! After the Bond car, you can't just lead a girl on like that!"

Lena crooked a brow. "Not familiar with Luthor foreplay?"

Opening and closing her mouth, several comments flew through the reporter's mind. Finally, Lois made the rare choice to say nothing and, head down, trudged past the CEO.

"Do you know where you're going?"

"Yeah, I uh…" Lois' head swiveled left and right before her gaze fell upon a computer terminal and she smiled. "Right there."

"Fine investigative skills there, Miss Lane."

Both women made their way to the computer. Pulling out her laptop, Lena powered it up. She dragged out a cable and plugged her system in with a USB cord. There were several commands entered as the warehouse's desktop responded.

"Does this place seriously not have wireless?"

Lena shook her head. "All records are brought over to L-Corp by courier daily. The system is segregated and secure. There's no internet."

"No inter…" Looking around again, Lois let out a breath, "Okay, now I'm only half-joking about that Ark of the Covenant. It's not in here, is it?"

Lena shrugged. "This was Lex's facility before it was mine. Soon we'll have the complete log and a listing of all the contents. I'm asking for dates things were shipped in and out in the last year along with the volume and weight of everything here just in case anything stands out. If we have a crate of… oh, say a thousand ping-pong balls and they way a half-ton, that's a discrepancy."

"Or someone takes ping-pong way too seriously," Lois joked. "So, a list of the complete contents of this facility, huh? You do realize you let a reporter in here, don't you?"

"Oh, it's much worse than that." Lena looked up from her typing to see Lois' furrowed brow and added, "I let Lois Lane in here. Some might say I let THE reporter in here."

Mouth hanging open for three heartbeats, Lois suddenly broke into a bright smile and said, "Hey, thanks, Luthor. I take that as a compliment."

"I had no doubt that you would." With a final keystroke, she moved her hands away from the laptop. "All right, that should do it. It's downloading the data now. Time to download is approximately four minutes." Lena's brows furrowed as she rubbed her hands together.

"What is it?"

"Hmmm? Oh, I just hate wasted time. I can't help but think about how I could be making better use of these minutes."

"Four minutes?" Lois shook her head. "Jeez, and Clark says I'm a fidget. Hey!" Stooping down, Lois stood up again with a crowbar in hand. "Want to crack a few of these open and see if we can find Mr. Hoffa?"

"Again, we had nothing to do with his misadventures."

"Jimmy Hoffa was before your time, sweetheart. You weren't even born in 1975. Hell I wasn't even born then."

"Neither was Lex," Lena countered. "When Hoffa went missing, my father was still running Luthor Corp. Lionel had many shortcomings, but he was a good man."

"It sounds like you miss him."

Playing with the edge of her jacket, Lena's fingers moved up and down while she seemed to consider her response. "He brought me home when my birth mother died, took me in when I had nowhere else to go. He was always kind to me, always made me feel loved." Meeting Lois' gaze, she added, "There are things I wish I had know about him before he… well, I wish I had gotten to know him better, but I feel lucky to have known him."

"Sounds like you loved him," Lois said with a gentle smile.

"Very much, and I was loved by him." Clearing her throat under Lois' gaze, Lena asked, "What about your father?"

"The General?" Lois laughed without humor. "Oh, The General and I have a complicated relationship."

"The General?"

Lois nodded.

"Hmmm. Well, complicated sounds like my mother and me."

"Lillian Luthor?" Eyes bright as pennies, Lois leaned forward. "Now that is a woman I'd love to meet!"

"You're kidding!"

"Nope!" The reporter's grin grew. "There are so many things I'd love to ask her. Boy-o-boy, that would be the interview of a lifetime. I mean, given my well documented relationship with The Man of Steel, that lifetime might not last terribly long, but what's life without a little risk, right?"

"You're a bit of a madwoman, aren't you?"

Lois continued to grin. "Now you sound like my fiancé."

"Clark Kent? I met him once. I liked him. He was… There was a bit of steel under that Kansas wheat."

Lois blanched and looked away, checking the download time remaining on the laptop.

"If it's ever possible, I'll see if I can arrange that interview."

"Hmmm?" Lois turned back to the CEO.

"My mother, if the authorities ever catch up with her, I'll see if I can arrange an interview for you. Of course, whichever federal agency will have to agree, but I'll put in the good word with my mother for you."

With a loud clang, the crowbar fell from Lois' hands and rattled against the cement floor. "Are you serious?"

Lena startled momentarily but recovered quickly. "I don't see why not. The only other friendly reporter I know is Kara, and she wouldn't want to see my mother nor do I expect my mother would agree to speak with her."

"I'll hold you to that, Miss Luthor. Thank you."

Lena smiled and nodded, then went back to her laptop. The download was halfway there. As Lois fidgeted nearby, growing restless again, Lena struck up further conversation as they passed the time. "So you call your father 'The General'. Why?"

"Because that's what he is. A General."

"My father was a businessman, but I still called him Father."

"Like I said, The General and I have a complex relationship. And by complex, I mean we just avoid one another these days and don't talk unless we absolutely have to." She hopped up to take a seat on one of the nearby crates, her legs swinging back and forth a little as she glanced down at her feet.

"When my mother died, he was unable to cope with raising two daughters alone. So he modelled his parenting on what he knew best - the army. He implemented a chain of command, so he was in charge of me, and I was in charge of Lucy. We both resented him for it, but it was the only way he knew how to deal with the hand he'd been dealt. We tried our best to fall in line and be the good little soldiers he wanted us to be. Yet my best was never good enough. Lucy joined the army, worked her way up to Major, and became Daddy's Golden Girl. While I became a huge disappointment in his eyes. I was the failure, and Lucy was the star."

"Because you became a journalist?" Lena asked softly, surprised by this new, almost vulnerable side to a woman who had, until then, been all brass and mouth and confidence on two legs.

"No. Because I got involved with Superman." Lois jumped down off the crate again, clearly still in fidget mode despite her sombre tone. "The General is, to put it bluntly, a huge opposer of anything and everything alien. My journalist career wasn't so much a problem until the Man of Steel arrived. He saw how close I was getting to this "off world security threat", and he warned me to back down. I refused, we argued and needless to say, our relationship has been somewhat strained ever since.

"Sounds like he and my mother would get along far too well. She hates aliens too."

"Well, actually, there's only one thing he hates more than aliens, and that's fugitives who evade capture."

"Perhaps not then," Lena nodded.

There was a moment of silence that quickly became too uncomfortable for Lois, but she couldn't think of anything else she wanted to say on the matter - she'd said too much as it was, in her eyes at least. Lena was still a Luthor, after all. A rather likable Luthor, but a Luthor nonetheless.

Thankfully, said Luthor came to her rescue by providing a new topic of conversation for them both. "So, you and Superman?"

"What about us?" Actually, Lois had changed her mind. She didn't like this topic any more than she had liked the last one.

"Well, I've read a lot of your articles about him. It's clear through your writing that you care a great deal about him."

"Of course I do," Lois nodded slowly again, sensing a trap.

"What does Clark say about it?"

Lois blinked for a moment, then laughed. "You think that because Superman and I are close, we're romantically involved, even though I'm engaged to Clark Kent?"

"Well, I wouldn't have put it like that exactly…"

"But you wanted to know if I had any dirty little secrets about my love life with Clark Kent, and my non-existent, so called affair with Kal-El, the Man of Steel from Krypton?"

"You know his name."

"I know your name. Does that make us an item?"

Lena scoffed and shook her head. "No offence, Lane, but you're not my type."

"And you're not mine either." Rather than be annoyed by these comments, Lois was actually highly amused. "Oh honey, if I had a dime for every time I've been asked that question about Superman…"

"You still haven't answered it, though."

This momentarily wiped the smile off Lois' face. "Huh. Good detection skills you got there, Poirot. We'll make a reporter of you yet."

"I have no desire to become a reporter."

"Says the woman who just bought an entire media company."

There was another moment's silence, and then Lena chuckled. "Touché."

Thankfully, Lois was spared any further discomfort in this particular line of questioning by a beep from the laptop to indicate the transfer was complete.

"Looks like our files are ready," Lena noted.

"Ah, great. Maybe we can start to solve this little mystery. What does it tell us?" Lois asked eagerly, glad the topic had finally steered away from her once more. She wrote the news, after all. She wasn't comfortable being the centre of it.

"Well, there's still a lot of data through which we'll need to dredge. It's going to take some time. I also added the video files for the past two weeks. I'm curious as to who made that delivery and took delivery of the time in question… if indeed we do have something that's gone missing."

"Okay, so what do you need to sort through all of this?"

"Just me and my laptop. It will be rather boring for you I'm afraid. I'd suggest we—"

"How about lunch?!"

Lena blinked several times. "Lunch?"

"Well sure." Looking down at the time in the corner of the laptop, she looked back at the CEO. "It's after one. I don't know about you, but reporters don't work without a constant influx of fuel. Take me to your local hotdog cart."

Eyebrows skyrocketing, Lena took a half-step back. "Oh, good lord. Perhaps it's just a reporter thing. Kara's eating habits are clear now."

"Excuse me?"

"That, Miss Lane, will not be happening. Have you ever been to Sheerwater in Coronado?"

"Ah… I can't say that I have."

Shutting down and closing up her laptop, Lena began to put everything back in order. "We'll get my usual table. It will supply us with ample privacy and protect our arteries from heart disease."

Lois laughed. "I should have known you'd be one of these health nuts. Low carbs, no fat, skinny vegetable crap. Honestly, a good old fry up every now and then never killed anyone, you know?"

"The American Medical Association would disagree." Slinging her laptop bag over her shoulder, Lena asked, "Ready to go?"

"As I'll ever be," Lois shrugged. "Though I'm making note of the exact location of this place because one day I will be coming back, and I will be finding that Ark!"

"Good luck with that, Indiana Lane."

Lois' eyes lit up. "Indiana Lane? I really do like that! What are my chances of convincing Clark to like it too?"

Lena faltered slightly but then recovered as she headed for the exit. Looking over her shoulder at the woman next to her, the CEO grinned. "Well, I barely know this fiancé of yours, but you do rather seem to be a force of nature. I assume convincing people of things you want is part of your DNA."

"Nah, usually I just ask, and if that doesn't get me anywhere, I take," Lois shrugged, giving no indication at all if she was joking or not. Then she tilted her head, looking up as if she expected to see something there. "How do you think I'd look in a fedora?"

Pausing at the door, Lena shook her head. "Like you left your bullwhip at home. Let's go, Miss Lane. Lunch awaits."