Regroup

Day 32, Friday, 9:10AM (Central Time), Chicago

Richard White waited quietly in the visitor area of the Cook County Jail for the guard to bring Kitty Kowalski to meet him. She had remained silent since her arrest the previous night, despite her obvious anger at being ditched at the opera house by Lex Luthor. Clark and Lois had both wanted to press her for details, but they feared what she might reveal about their son on a recorded conversation. Richard was the obvious alternative, since he already knew those secrets but was more likely to be seen as a neutral party. Superman had brought him to Chicago earlier than morning for that purpose.

Clark and Lois had prepped him for the interview the night before, and the three of them had come up with a list of questions and strategies for extracting information from her, while preventing anything revealing from coming out. As Richard waited, he reviewed his notes, looking up through the glass each time he heard the buzzer that indicated the door opening on the other side. Finally, Kitty was escorted through, and picked up the telephone handset on the other side of the glass.

"You're my visitor?" Kitty asked derisively.

"Richard White, Daily Planet," Richard informed her. "I have a few questions for you."

"Didn't the police tell you that I wasn't talking?" she admonished him.

"It can stay off the record, if you like," Richard assured her. "We'd just like to verify some information we got from other sources. You won't be telling us anything we don't already know, and we won't attribute anything to you."

"If you already have the answers, why waste the trip?" Kitty inquired.

"The Planet isn't a tabloid. We never go to press unless our facts are corroborated," Richard told her emphatically. "Your off-the-record comments are enough corroboration for us to go to press, and we'll attribute others as our primary source." After a moment, Richard casually asked her, "So what did you think of Iphigénie en Tauride last night? I hear that it's a good show…"

"That crap?" Kitty exploded. "Of all the places in the world for that son of a bitch to leave me stranded, he picks somewhere with that nauseating noise! He's the bastard that dragged me there in the first place, then a page on his PDA and he's high-tailing it out of there and leaving me behind! You'd think that after everything, he might have warned me!"

"So, given your obvious distaste for Lex Luthor, why not just tell the police what you know?" Richard asked politely. "Wouldn't you earn leniency from the court if you did?"

"Leniency won't help if I'm not alive to enjoy my freedom," Kitty told him angrily.

"I understand," Richard told her. "So Lex got a page at the opera. What time was that, around eight?"

"I guess," Kitty mumbled. "Is that one of the questions you already knew the answer to?"

"Yep," Richard told her. "Do you know how Lex got away?"

"If I did, would I be here now?" Kitty inquired disdainfully.

"Probably not," Richard agreed. After a moment, he calmly stated, "Lex was planning something, or rather, plotting revenge against someone. Do you know who he was targeting? Besides Superman, that is."

"Who else is there?" Kitty asked incredulously, "I mean, besides the ki—"

"So he is plotting revenge against Superman," Richard interrupted. "Does he have more kryptonite?"

"Huh? I thought you knew all the answers," Kitty accused, her eyes narrowing.

"I'll take that as a no," Richard stated quietly. After a moment, he set down his notepad, and casually told her, "You know, I think that it's interesting that of all of Superman's enemies, Lex Luthor is the only one who's ever managed to track the stuff down. I can't help but wonder where on earth he managed to find it the last time…"

"He stole it from some museum in Metropolis while I was distracting Superman," Kitty told him proudly.

Ten thousand feet above the prison, Superman's eyes widened as he recalled an argument between Lois and Perry as their editor pushed her for a Superman story. There had been a robbery at the Metropolis Museum of Natural History the night that he had 'rescued' Kitty from her runaway car. So that's where it came from, Superman observed as he continued listening in on the conversation.

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Day 32, Friday, 4:55PM, Metropolis, Daily Planet Newsroom

It was another busy day at the Daily Planet, as yet another exclusive feature on the Luthor saga had graced its front page that morning. Lois and Clark had been busily chasing down leads, and following up on the information that Richard had gleaned from Kitty. "So, it's all accounted for then?" Lois asked into her headset. "…Uh huh. When did they ship that?" Lois looked up at the ding of the elevator to see Clark walk into the newsroom. She could tell from his expression his search for Lex Luthor had not been successful. "Thanks, Bruce… He just walked in if you want to talk to him… Okay, I'll tell him."

As Clark walked up and sat against the edge of Lois' desk, he was surprised to hear Jason's voice as he ran out from Richard's office, with his latest picture. "Clark!" the boy hollered, "See what I made for you!" It was another picture of Superman with Jason, this time in the Andes Mountains where they'd trained in recent days. Clark noticed that his son's artistic skill had been improving dramatically along with his other abilities. They'd have to address that soon, but not today.

"You really getting good at these drawings," Clark observed. "Did you make this in school today?"

"Nuh uh," Jason told him as he shook his head. "I was drawing in Richard's office."

"That's right, you get to spend the weekend with him, don't you," Clark reminded him, at which point the tyke grinned widely.

Lois couldn't help but notice how much her son's expression resembled Clark's goofy grin. Thank God nobody else has noticed that, she thought. Turning to her son, Lois matched his smile as she gently told him, "Sweetheart, Clark and I have some important work to do. Why don't you go back to Richard's office and make us another drawing?"

"Richard's office is boring," Jason complained.

"It's not for much longer," Lois reassured him. "I promise."

After giving his son a hug, and sending him back to Richard's office, Clark whispered to Lois, "I'm sorry, but it looks like Luthor slipped through our fingers again. If only I'd been—"

"Stop that right now!" Lois admonished in a whisper so quiet that only he could hear. "Don't you dare blame yourself. How were we supposed to know that he'd have motion sensors on a penthouse balcony?"

"I still should have been—"

"Stop it," Lois commanded. "It's not over yet." Clark clenched his jaw, and nodded meekly, as Lois informed him in a whisper, "I've got some more information on the museum robbery. The stolen rock was from a meteor shower that rained down across Africa in 1978 from Ethiopia to Cameroon. There were 28 meteorites recovered, two of which are now missing, both stolen from the Metropolis Museum of Natural History. One was taken shortly after Superman appeared on the scene the first time and the second was taken shortly after he returned from his recent trip to Krypton. I think that it's safe to say that Luthor was behind both robberies."

"What do we know about the remaining 26 samples?" Clark inquired seriously.

"All present and accounted for, though there was a close call on one of them," Lois told him. "An anonymous buyer had arranged to purchase the sample from Addis Ababa University. Our friend in Gotham pulled some strings to block the shipment. He's still trying to confirm the address that they were going to ship it to, though we've had no luck there yet. It's hidden behind lawyers and front companies, just like some other things that we've run across lately. Someone might have to pay a visit to their offices tonight."

"I think that can be arranged," Clark offered. "Anything else?"

"Yep," Lois told him. "All of the remaining samples are held overseas. There hasn't been much enthusiasm in loaning the meteorites for display in American museums, given security concerns and the past thefts from the Metropolis museum. However, some anonymous donor has been greasing palms in Algiers to encourage their museum to reconsider. The sample will be part of a meteorite exhibit on display at the Carnegie museum next week."

"How long will it be on display?" Clark asked, wide-eyed.

"Three weeks," Lois told him directly. "Then it's back to Algiers. Our Gotham friend thinks that'd be a good opportunity to set a trap for Luthor. He's suggesting a bait and switch."

Clark nodded in agreement, before dropping his head pensively into his hand as he rubbed his chin. After a moment, he quietly commented, "Lex isn't just a fugitive anymore. He's a clear and present danger, and we're going to have to take extra precautions."

"I know," Lois muttered. In a quiet whisper, she added, "Well, we can't print any of this. The last thing we want to do is advertise to other criminals where they can find kryptonite. Have you got anything that we can go to press with?"

"Yes," Clark told her as he let a small smile grace his features. "Richard was really outstanding with Kitty. We're going to have to find some way to properly thank him for that—"

Clark was interrupted by Perry's booming voice, "Kent! Lane! My office."

Lois and Clark obediently reported to Perry's office, where Richard was waiting for them with their editor. As they took the visitor seats, they noticed the corners of Perry's mouth struggling to resist a smile as he cheerfully told them, "Great work again, you two."

Both thanked Perry for the compliment, as Clark stuttered out, "We… we can't take all the credit, Chief. We wouldn't have had nearly as much information to go on if Richard hadn't so expertly pulled it out of Kowalski this morning."

Perry's effort to suppress his smile now failed completely as he looked over at his nephew, though Richard's expression remained neutral. "Well, maybe I need to make the three of you a team," he suggested jovially, before pushing the emotion back down, and returning to the question at hand. Turning back to Lois and Clark, he inquired, "Where do we stand on the follow-up stories?"

"They found the plane that Luthor had been using, and we've traced the flight plans to map out his movements since he slipped away in Baton Rouge," Lois told him. "FBI forensic teams are combing over it, as well as over the condo. They've recovered a laptop, but unlike Pruitt's, everything on the disk is encrypted. Off the record… they've turned a copy of the encrypted disk over to Superman. His technology may have a better chance at breaking through the encryption."

"What about the hunt for Luthor?" Richard inquired. "I saw the revised mug shot on the noon newscasts, with a blonde wig and beard superimposed. Have there been any hits on that?"

"Yes, unfortunately," Clark answered grimly.

"What do you mean, 'unfortunately'?" Richard asked in surprise.

"He killed a New York City cop at Penn Station about an hour and a half ago," Clark answered. "The surveillance footage showed the cop stopping Luthor, before he was shot twice in the heart. Then Luthor calmly walked out the 7th Avenue exit."

"Oh, my God," Lois muttered under her breath, as she raised her hand over her mouth.

"Any luck picking up the trail from there?" Perry asked.

"No," Clark answered grimly. "He didn't attract a lot of attention at the time because he had a silencer on the gun, and he had the pistol hidden inside his jacket. It looked like he had his hand through the jacket pocket to his sidearm hidden inside. He also had a fifteen minute head start before they reviewed the surveillance tape, and another ten before anyone identified the shooter as Lex Luthor. Superman scanned the streets and subways, but he's come up empty so far. He's been working closely with NYPD, who are taking this very personally and marshalling all the manpower they can to bring him in."

"Sounds like we have tomorrow's page one," Perry commented sadly.

"We'll have the story in by deadline," Clark promised. "There's a lot more work to do before then, however, and I need to get up to New York City—"

"Then I won't keep you any longer," Perry informed him. "Get going… and Kent?"

"Yes, Chief?" Clark answered.

"Be careful," Perry told him sincerely. "That lunatic has already tried to kill you once." Perry shuddered unconsciously as he recalled the grenade attack on Clark and his nephew that had happened just a week ago.

"I will be," Clark promised as he darted out the door.

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Day 32, Friday, 6:30PM, The Bronx, New York

Lex Luthor ate his dinner cautiously, as he eyed his 'hosts,' both sitting cross-legged on the floor facing the wall opposite him with their hands behind them, as he had instructed them. Enrique "Ricky" Hernandez was a quiet man that Lex had briefly encountered during his incarceration. Exceptionally bright for his circumstances, he'd been one of the few inmates that Lex was able to hold an intelligent conversation with.

Ricky's criminal career as a car thief had been put to a stop at age nineteen by the reckless boasting of his partner. He had accepted that, and spent his seven years behind bars earning his GED and a college degree in computer science. Since his release from prison three years earlier, he'd become a certified Microsoft Windows Engineer, and had been making an honest life for himself. That life now included his four-months pregnant fiancée, Rosa Duvall, who now sat with him facing the wall. Ricky wasn't Lex's first choice to replace Henry Morrison, whom he had concluded had been compromised. However, he'd left Chicago in a hurry and had selected Ricky as the best choice in the New York City area. The young man's reformation had been an unexpected disappointment, but there was little he could do about that now.

Lex kept a hand on his pistol as he finished his meal and caught up on the latest news from the local television broadcast. Of course, the top story had been that afternoon's murder of a police officer in Penn Station. Lex had been identified as the shooter, and a still from the surveillance camera had been shown along with a mug shot, revised to show his blonde beard and wig.

"It looks like I'll need a new look before we head out," Lex mentioned casually.

"We?" Ricky questioned in surprise. "I can't help you, L—"

"Don't say it!" Lex bellowed. "You mention my name aloud again, and things could get quite unpleasant for you."

"I'm making an honest life now," Ricky pleaded. "We won't say anything – we know better than that. But… I have responsibilities here."

"The sooner we finish our work, the sooner you can get back to those responsibilities," Lex told him, unmoved by his pleas. "We'll also need to make a little road trip."

"How long will this take?" Ricky asked nervously. "I don't get a lot of time off, and I need to save it for when the baby comes."

"You won't need to worry about that job," Lex told him. "You'll get paid more than enough to make up for it, as long as you don't let me down."

"I—I'd rather keep an honest job and set a good example for my kid," Ricky told him nervously. "I'll help you find someone else, but I can't—"

"I'm tired of hearing 'can't' and 'won't' out of you," Lex told him impatiently. "Unless you want something unfortunate to happen to the happy family here, you'll stop complaining, and do as I say."

Ricky glanced over at his fiancée, who was still quietly crying, her head down. He reached over and gripped her hand in his, trying to conceal the sad expression on his face with a weak smile as she looked up at him. Ricky closed his eyes for a moment, before looking over his shoulder at Lex and asking him, "Okay, what do I need to do?"

Lex smiled menacingly, as he provided his reluctant new lieutenant with his instructions.

Author's Notes:

I'm trying to keep the story interesting, which I believe calls for a balance between the Lois & Clark fluff, and the drama from the Superman/Lex cat and mouse game. That drama also requires a fairly level playing field between the two teams. I can't make it too easy, now can I?

Also, thanks to htbthomas for the beta.