Dr. Caselli swore. Nothing was going right. First there'd been the surprising court loss, after he was told that the documentation would ensure their victory. Then the temporary elation resulting from tracking down Reilly and his daughter and arranging their kidnapping was canceled out by the absolute disaster of that scheme.
Not only had the abduction failed, with no sign of where Reilly had disappeared to, but there was worse. Padgett was dead. His long-term ally, henchman, minion – call him what you will, but Caselli had lost a loyal, trusted employee. An employee who had no troublesome scruples.
Adding insult to injury was the simultaneous death of the Mafia enforcer who'd been paired with Padgett. Caselli had had to make some promises to get him, and now it looked like the good doctor wasn't going to be able to keep those promises.
Caselli knocked a pile of patient folders off his desk in anger. Paper spilled out, a sudden blizzard of white obliterating the carpet. He pounded a fist on the corner of his desk in frustration.
How had Reilly done it? Caselli knew that Padgett had gotten Reilly and the daughter into the car; a pre-arranged code on a ten-second phone call had confirmed that. Ever wary of leaving traces, Caselli had told Padgett to make no calls after that, not until they had the specimens safely at Reeves Dam.
How had Reilly escaped from Padgett, and gotten his daughter away too? Caselli hadn't thought that Reilly's meteor power extended to controlling a host's mind, enough to do murder or suicide. But two dead bodies were a potent argument to the contrary. If Reilly's meteor ability was that strong, Caselli had to have it. What could he get from Lex Luthor for that?
Lex Luthor. Caselli shivered. Despite his best efforts at keeping the Reilly disappearance under wraps, Luthor had somehow found out. To say he was displeased was an understatement. Lex Luthor had summoned Caselli to visit him in his sanctum. There, Caselli was pointedly left standing in front of the desk, not offered refreshments.
Luthor had bluntly told him to fix this, now. Reilly had to be found and brought under control. He wanted Reilly's meteor power, and the research team lacked data to duplicate it. And Lex Luthor wanted Reilly silenced.
"You've gotten careless, Dr. Caselli," Lex Luthor had said in his cold voice. "Do you think Mr. Reilly will be able to make any connection between Belle Reve and Luthorcorp?"
"No, Mr. Luthor," Caselli said nervously. "It's all confined to Belle Reve. It won't go any further."
"That's good for you, doctor," Lex had said coolly. "If evidence of some sort of connection to me or to Luthorcorp were to leak out, it would be unfortunate."
Caselli swallowed convulsively. He'd been around powerful men enough to know the meaning of such understated comments such as "it would be unfortunate" or "that would be ill-advised." Statements like that tended to be lethal – to someone.
Lex continued. "Also, doctor, if Mr. Reilly were to talk, that would be your problem specifically. As you recall, our agreement was that I was not to appear in any way. Any medical licensure or malpractice problems are your own responsibility." He gave a thin smile. "I hope your professional liability insurance is paid up."
Bastard! Caselli thought. But Luthor had him and he knew it. Caselli had gotten careless, and now he was going to pay.
"There has to be some connection with Sullivan, or Kent," Caselli said, returning to the here-and-now. "I sent Reilly after Sullivan, and she's been poking around. And the daughter ended up at the Kent Farm." He tapped his fingers nervously. From his surveillance and sources, he'd also found that Sullivan was a good friend of the Senator's son. And Padgett, before his untimely demise, had placed Reilly and the daughter at the Talon with who else but Sullivan, Senator Kent, and her son. There had to be some sort of link.
The phone rang. Caselli restrained himself with difficulty from throwing it on the floor.
"Yes?" he snarled.
"Dr. Caselli?" came the bored tones of the Belle Reve receptionist.
"Yes?" even more angrily.
"You have a call from a Chloe Sullivan from the Daily Planet," the receptionist said, snapping her gum between words. "Are you available?"
Surprise overtook Caselli. Then a slow smile crossed his face.
"I'm always ready to speak with a member of the media," he said quietly. "Please put Ms Sullivan through."
A few days later at lunch, Clark took a call from Chloe.
"Hey, Clark, can I ask you something?"
Hope rose in him. At least she was talking to him. Despite their rapprochement, awkward silences came up at inopportune moments.
"Sure."
"Can you get me an interview with Mrs. Daugherty? You know her better than I do. I have to get a final interview with her about the article," Chloe said.
"When?"
"ASAP. This story is getting bigger and bigger."
"OK, I'll see what I can do." He disconnected Chloe and called Mary. They quickly reached an agreement, and Clark contacted Chloe again.
"She says we can come tonight, if you can make it. She'll be in Perdita's hospital room," Clark informed Chloe.
"Darn! I've got to work late tonight," she grumbled. A pause.
"I could, um, you know, pick you up," Clark offered. He missed Chloe. Their conversation had been stiff and strained the last few days, even with the clearing-the-air evening talk in Metropolis a few days ago. Clark hadn't realized till now how much he enjoyed, no, depended on Chloe's snarky sarcasm and rapier wit to help him make sense of the absurdities and trials of everyday life. Frankly, life was boring without her. "That way you'd make it in time."
Another pause. Clark shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Would Chloe's passion for her story outweigh the awkwardness she still exhibited around him?
"OK, I guess," she said hesitantly, then firmed up her voice. "Yes, Clark, I'd appreciate that."
"Eight o'clock?" he asked.
"That's good."
"OK, I'll see you at the Planetat eight tonight," Clark said, confirming.
"Thanks, Clark. 'Bye."
Clark smiled. The day was looking up.
Clark met Chloe that evening at 7:50. "Hey, Chloe," he said, trying to be casual. "What've you got?"
She pointed to an older man, just leaving the bullpen. "That's Bill Wambsganss," she said. "We've been working together." A gleam in her eyes told Clark that she was hot on the trail of a big story. "Clark, you won't believe it! We've got proof that over ten people have been wrongly imprisoned in Belle Reve, some for over three years!"
"Wow," Clark said. "I guess it was good that Mike came to us and started the whole thing."
"It could be any of us locked up in there," Chloe said pensively. "All you have to do is show some sort of meteor power, and wham! You're in stir and you can't get out. It's downright Kafkaesque."
Clark said nothing. He knew Chloe's fear that she would become like her mother, mentally ill and needing to be institutionalized. He couldn't say that he was safe, either; if anyone caught him displaying his powers, it would be attributed to a meteor ability, and Clark would be at risk too.
"Those documents that Mary Daugherty gave us are the clincher," Chloe said eagerly. "We have enough to kick booty and take names. Dr. Caselli is going down." She turned to look at him. "I just have to get a final interview with Mary," Chloe said. "Um, thanks for offering the ride, Clark." Still a little strain in her tone.
"You're welcome," he said, equally awkwardly. Clark gestured to the stairs. "You ready?" he asked.
"Just let me gather up my bag," Chloe said. They walked together up the stairs and out the Art Deco doors. Despite the evening hour, pedestrians still flocked the sidewalks. Clark and Chloe looked at each other, then wordlessly trekked down the block to a secluded alley they were very familiar with. Clark looked down at Chloe; she nodded. Making a last quick check for witnesses, Clark swung her up into his arms and took off.
He stopped at a secluded spot in the parking lot of the Smallville Medical Center and set her down.
"Thanks," she said, a little stiffly.
"You're welcome," Clark replied. Chloe was still nervous around him – she'd stopped thanking him for the super-speed rides, except on special circumstances, some time ago. It was just part of what he could do, what friends would do for each other. And now she was retreating behind the mask of formality again.
They made their way through the SMC halls to the familiar room. Mary was not in the room; Perdita remained comatose, unmoving in her bed, no change in the monitor displays.
"I really thought we did something," Chloe said, disappointed. "I mean, we went through all that, and, well, I thought something was going to happen…."
"I know what you mean," Clark said. "I mean, you were closer to Mike than I was and maybe you saw what he was doing more than I did –"
"I didn't understand it then and I don't understand it now," Chloe interjected.
"—but I was really hoping that Perdita would do better," Clark finished.
"Me too," Chloe said. "I'd hate to think it was all for nothing." She looked around, saw no one near. "Clark?"
"Yes?"
"Can you look with your Aura-Vision?" she whispered. "Can you see if anything is different about Perdita?"
Clark obediently called up the altered sight. "She doesn't look a lot different, Chloe," he reported unhappily.
"Clark! Chloe!" The quiet call came from the door. Mary Daugherty came in and shook their hands. They sat down.
"Mrs. Daugherty, I'm grateful to you for the documents that you gave Clark for me," Chloe began in a formal tone. "I'm also grateful that you've consented to this interview."
"Thank you, Ms Sullivan," Mary replied just as formally. "Do you need to record this?"
"Yes, if I may," Chloe said, pulling out her small voice recorder. She turned it on. "If you're ready?"
"Go ahead," Mary said.
"Well, then, Mrs. Daugherty, can you explain for the record how you discovered the problem at Belle Reve and…" Chloe began her questioning.
Clark remained mostly silent throughout the interview, interjecting questions now and then to satisfy his own curiosity, or to make a point that he thought Chloe had missed. There were few instances of the latter. Chloe was definitely the brains of their outfit.
Chloe was well into the conclusion of the interview when she suddenly shivered. "Mrs. Daugherty, can you excuse me for a moment?" she asked, switching off the recorder. "I've got to powder my nose." She gave Clark a significant glance; unseen by Mary, she made a "come-along" gesture.
"Um, I'd better go too," Clark said, unfolding himself from the hospital chair.
They got out into the hallway and out of Mary's earshot. Chloe turned to Clark and hissed quietly, "It's Mike! He's here!"
