Chapter 31 – The Shadow Spins a Web
Chloe sat at her desk at the Daily Planet barely able to keep her eyes focused on the screen. She blinked repeatedly as she typed. "Hey! You ok?" Startled, she looked up and grabbed at her chest as Clark sat down in the chair next to her desk.
"Don't do that? And no I'm not ok; I slept about two hours last night between the fits of morning sickness. Lex isn't much better for wear. He called me about an hour ago and said I should come home where I could go back to bed with him. Clark, you think I'm nuts for trying to balance all of this?" Chloe pushed the chair back from the desk and pointed at the desk and her still flat belly.
Clark shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Chloe, you aren't nuts – just overly involved."
"So, what did you come here for anyway? I know you don't just up and come for nothing," she spoke as she slowly made her way to an empty conference room to devour the crackers from her desk drawer.
Closing the door behind him, Clark sat down next to her and his expression changed. "What's Lex found on his father?"
"Nothing – the informant turned up missing about a month ago – the day after we announced my pregnancy."
Clark moved in closer to her and handed her the file that she had given him of the blueprints that Lex had on the computer. "I've taken several spins around and the only thing that remotely looks like what Lex gave you is this set of bunkers built in the River of No Return Wilderness area. Supposedly there's nothing there, but there's a tunnel under one set of falls that leads to a very large setup under one of the most famous mountain systems ever painted."
He stopped and waited until Chloe had finished her water and flipped through the pictures he had taken carefully while there.
"Chloe," he took her arm in his hand, "Lionel's not there – at least not anymore. But go home and watch this. And watch your back." Clark waited for her to respond.
"What did you see there? What's he doing?"
"The 33.1 emails that you saw on Lex's computer – those were directly related to this project that his father has evidently had in the works for a long time. The files that Lex's alter ego stole from you – those people have all been collected and are being held in this jail underground. I think he plans on using them for his personal gain."
"You think? Probably to kill me or something. Clark what are we going to do?"
Clark calmed Chloe down by sitting her down in the chair. "Go home – stay with Lex – stay close, don't come to work – say you have really bad morning sickness but don't leave the mansion until we fix this." Chloe shook her head and called for Lex's helicopter.
Lex walked out to the pad to see Chloe exit from the helicopter. "I heard you were on your way home – feeling worse?" Chloe nodded in affirmation and followed Lex in as he wrapped his arm around her body.
She walked into the bedroom and waited for Lex to close the door. "Lex, Clark sent something to me I think you need to see. He wouldn't tell me where he got it but you need to trust him like I trust you. Ok? No questions. You promise?" Lex sat down on the bed next to Chloe and watched as she shook hitting the buttons on the remote.
When the TV clicked on, he could see why she was terrified. His father was in the video torturing a man shackled to a table and yelling at him to 'complete the task.' Chloe glanced to see Lex cringe every time his father hit the man across the face. She squeezed his hand as he pulled her closer to him.
"Shut up – complete the task and this will all stop! Do it! Do it now!" Lionel was yelling from another room now and more intensely as now one of his guards hit the young man. Suddenly, the young man reached out with his hand and grabbed the guard who instantly turned to dust.
Lex's eyes widened as he watched. To not worry Chloe, he masked his feelings for the first time in years. He stopped the disc and as Chloe ran for the restroom. Running behind her, he held her hair back as she vomited again whether from fright or illness.
"I'm ok." Chloe shooed Lex off as she wet a washrag and continued watching the disc. The man who lit objects on fire – the woman who breathed and got the guard to tell the truth about how he felt about Lionel. Chloe and Lex looked at each other in aghast – that was Lex's experiment that he thought he had destroyed. His father had been collecting all this time. Another man touched the guard and switched bodies with him. A little girl melted metal with her touch. Lex by this time had started making phone calls to his new informant about them stepping up their search.
"I don't care – I want as many people on this as possible. Yes, the River of No Return.
I really don't care what you think of the name – get a team together and head that way. I will…" He was interrupted.
"Lex. Put the phone down." Lex clicked the phone closed as Chloe crawled off the bed and over to the television. She hit pause on the disc player and ran her hand along the picture on the television.
"What is it?" Lex walked up and put his hands on her shoulders. He knelt down behind her and enclosed her body in his arms as he felt tears drop on his hands.
"It's my mother."
