Chapter 21
From five hundred feet, straight up, in the air, Superman looked down on the scene with a degree of satisfaction tinged with exasperation. He'd intercepted the bullet and bound the gunman all without even being seen. Lois would know what had happened, but it would certainly be a lot easier if he wasn't worried about her seeing his face at such a close range. At least he'd found her in time.
Tell her.
The mantra played through his thoughts every day now. It was looking more and more like a good idea, especially if she was going to do such foolhardy things on a daily basis. Even if things didn't work out between them. What did that matter?
He watched her look around her trying to figure out where he'd gone. She pulled out her cell and he heard the tones for 911 as she pressed the buttons. Would she choose to stay and explain to the police? The man would have murdered her in cold blood.
But no, this was Lois Lane, intrepid reporter. She climbed into her car and pulled out of the muddy, rutted drive and onto the road back toward the heart of Metropolis. She knew the police would want to know why the man had tried to kill her, and the "why" was in the envelope. She couldn't afford questions until she got that back to the Planet safely. The story came before justice.
Someday he was going to have to have a talk with her about that.
********
A fire, two car wrecks, and one rescued, high steel worker later, Clark was back at his desk before Lois even made it to the door of their nice, new office. She entered triumphantly and pitched the yellow envelope onto Clark's keyboard.
"What's this?" he asked innocently.
"Oh, just the icing on the cake, the cherry on top of the banana split, and the paper umbrella in the girlie drink!" she announced, as he opened it and began pulling out picture after picture of one very old Senator Jergens and one very young, jailbait of a girl.
"You got him," Clark said appreciatively, but he was pointing at his computer screen somberly. "And the story just got bigger."
"What?" She leaned over to read the latest police news flash and he saw the color drain from her face. "Oh, no."
"Yeah. Dead. They fished her out of Grell Lake yesterday morning, did a preliminary ID this afternoon. They estimate she's been dead for two weeks.
"How?"
"Gunshot." Clark watched her for a reaction. "To the heart."
She swallowed hard and lowered her head. Then she went around to her side of the desk and said, "Then let's get him."
"Lois, the police called. They want you to give a statement on the gunman at some garage?"
She looked at him in surprise.
"Superman gave his already." Clark came around the desk to face her. "Were you even going to tell me you almost got killed today?"
"Clark…I…"
The door flew open and they turned to see Perry White motioning them both to get out of the office.
"Clark, take her somewhere, anywhere…anywhere but her apartment. The feds want those pictures."
"But, Perry, shouldn't we…"
"No! Clark, they'll get them, but not before we—" But at the reproachful look Clark gave him, he gave in and said, "Oh, all right! Lois, give me the one that we'd be least likely to print."
Lois quickly pulled the raciest photo from the package and handed it to him.
"Okay, I'll give them this. We keep the rest. But frankly, Clark, I'm not entirely sure they're the real F.B.I. if you know what I mean. Now, get going!"
Clark grabbed Lois by the hand and pulled her down the hallway as Perry went the other direction, back towards his own office. Hopefully, they'd be able to make it down the freight elevator and into the parking garage before anyone knew they were not in their brand new, spiffy office.
Tell her.
The thought resonated once more through Clark's brain. If he had told her, they'd be escaping through the skylight right now and halfway to…
Where should he take her? If they were truly federal agents, they'd be showing up in Smallville.
As usual, when they got to the car, Lois got in the driver's seat, but he motioned her to scoot over and, seeing the dark look on his face, she scrambled across the seat as he wanted.
When they reached the exit to the parking garage, they stopped only for the briefest of moments. Then Lois watched in surprise as Clark, very uncharacteristically, peeled out of the underground parking area with squealing tires, driving very much like Lois herself.
"Clark, where are we going?"
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking." It was the most logical place, even if the penthouse apartment of her maybe-ex-boyfriend was the last place he wanted to take her right now. Maybe he was a "dorky farm boy" for even considering it. Under his breath, he swore lightly and said, "I'm such an idiot!"
"What?"
"Nothing." Clark frowned as he stopped at an intersection one block from the Planet and looked back and up, toward the top floor of the building. The men were only just now being led to the office he and Lois had just left.
"It's green," Lois prompted, as horns began to honk behind them.
But Clark was watching carefully as one of the men took off his hat to look around the room. It was the same man he'd left tied up in front of the garage. The one who had tried to murder Lois. Either he'd already made bail, or he'd escaped police custody.
"Clark, it's green," she said again, as she watched him pull out his cell phone and hand it to her.
"Lois, call Perry. Tell him they're not F.B.I. and that I said to be careful. Keep it brief." He didn't want her cell number showing up on Perry's phone for those men to see. "And give me your phone. Hurry!"
The sound of angry motorists behind them was nearing a crescendo. "Clark, what are you—?" But the look in his eye made her follow his instructions. Nervously, she fumbled for her phone to hand to him even as she talked to Perry.
Clark dialed 911 and spoke with complete authority. "There's been an accident at the corner of 8th and Hughes," he said into the phone. Then to her, he said, "Lois, I'm sorry, but you'll be safe. The police are only a block over."
Then she watched, horrified, as he suddenly pulled out into the intersection at an angle and stopped the car, barely avoiding two collisions, and halting traffic from all directions. He directed his heat vision to melt some wiring under the dash that would provide an explanation of sorts; it was the best he could do.
In the blink of an eye, he was gone, and she was sitting in the passenger's seat of her driverless car being deafened by honking horns and the shouts of furious drivers.
********
Superman flew through the Daily Planet's hallways and stairwells, weaving around surprised reporters, secretaries, and copyboys, before coming to a stop in front of the new office of Lane and Kent. He paused only momentarily to scan the room through the door to make sure what he was going to face.
There were four men besides Perry White. Three were trashing the place, pulling out drawers and scattering the contents. A broken monitor and a printer lay on the floor amid papers, pens, and broken coffee cups.
"You'd better hope we find them all," the fourth man was saying to Perry, who, to his credit, was keeping very calm with a gun pointed at his head.
"You're making a mistake," Perry said.
"Oh, he's made a couple of mistakes already today," Superman said from the doorway.
The gun fired and, from Superman's point of view, the room froze. He lunged forward and batted the bullet away, took the guns from all four men, and had them face down on the floor, their hands tied behind their backs with the cords from the blue drapes.
The sound of the firing gun still hung in the air when Perry realized the bullet, the gun, and the man who had fired it were no longer a threat.
"Superman!" He heaved a shaky sigh of relief and then joked, "Cutting it close there, aren't you?"
"Are you all right, sir?"
"Yes, yes. I'll be fine. And Lois?" Perry saw Superman look at him sharply, and he added, "And Clark?"
"They're fine. Although I think Lois may be a little mad at Clark right now."
"She'll get over it. She always does." Perry stepped over one of the men to get to the desk and reached for the phone, but Superman put a hand up to stop him.
"There's no need. The police are downstairs already. I can hear them in the elevator. I'll wait. I need to talk to them about this one. He tried to murder Lois earlier."
"He did?" Perry viciously kicked the man lying prone on the floor in the ribs.
"Mr. White!"
Perry looked sheepishly up at Superman. "Sorry, trick knee. It does that sometimes."