Chapter 83 [Next Afternoon—Torch]
Chloe's fingers flew across the keyboard. Jasmine's stock acquisition went through that morning. Naturally Chloe swooped in for the scoop interview. She had Clark and Lana interviewing Peter and Gwen respectively. She still waited for a response from Lex about the Talon interview.
Still she savored Come-Uppance's vibe especially where a certain publisher was concerned….
Treat people like garbage will you? She hit save on the article. She gulped a mouthful from the plastic tankard to her left. Let's see the kind of stuff you'll run now. She shook her head.
"Hey, Chloe!" Clark hustled in with Lana and Pete. "Is that it?"
"Why yes! I do believe it is! Our illustrious Princess 1 Big Mouth Publisher 0!" Chloe smirked. Her phone buzzed. "That's Ms. Travers!" She got on. "Good afternoon, Ms. Travers!"
"Man! Chloe is on the jazz!" Pete shook his head. "And now the Daily Planet's calling her?"
"Yeah seriously." Clark watched Chloe exchanging information and then sending the file to the editor's account. "Wow. She sent it."
"You should've seen her this morning." Lana shrugged. "She was kind of intense."
"Oh yeah. Guess that Jameson guy shouldn't have insulted Jasmine." Pete shook his head.
Chloe listened. "Sure. Just a second, Ms. Travers." She turned. "Hey. Can one of you get Jasmine on the phone? I need to ask her something."
"Sure." Lana got on her phone.
"Hello, Lana? I am sorry. I am busy with the newspaper," Jasmine informed her.
Lana grimaced. "Sorry to bother you. Congratulations by the way from Clark and me. That's really great. Chloe wanted to talk to you about that. Hang on." She handed her phone to Chloe.
"Hi! I have Ms. Travers from The Daily Planet on my phone. She wants to run the piece I was writing for The Torch. I thought I'd give Lex and you the heads up." Chloe scanned the article yet again.
"That would be fine. I know you will be professional. Please give Ms. Travers our regards. Thank you." Jasmine agreed. "As I told Lana, we are in the middle of discussions."
"No problem! Thank you for letting me break in like this. Take care!" Chloe hung up and handed Lana's phone back to her. "Thanks." Then she got on the phone with Travers again. "Thank you for holding. We're good."
"All right, Miss Sullivan. I'll look it over and get back to you shortly. Talk to you then." Tarvers hung up.
"You really just turned the Torch front page into another article in the Daily Planet? I hope Reynolds is all right with that." Pete exhaled.
"I hope Mr. Parker doesn't get it from New York for that either." Clark grimaced.
"That's why, Clark, I left him out of the loop. It's a little thing called Plausible Deniability." Chloe wheeled around in her chair. "How are we doing on those interviews for Mr. Parker and Miss Stacy, Guys?"
"Miss Stacy and I are talking at the Talon later," Lana reported.
"Lex and Mr. Parker are coming by the farm to talk with Mom and Dad. I was going to listen in." Clark tapped his fingers on the desk. "Maybe he might let me interview him too?"
"Depends, Clark. There's a lot of stuff that'll be talked about." Chloe took another hit from her tankard. "I talked with Mr. Dubois. There's a lot of history. Now I really want that one on one with Spider-Man. He apparently has survived a fight with the Pilgrim Stalker guy."
"Great. Like I want to know more? That creep's like my great uncle or something. Terrific." Lana shuddered. "I'm just glad I can talk to Miss Stacy about normal stuff."
Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Lana, this is Smallville. Remember?" For emphasis, she pointed to the Wall of Weird.
"Just because that stuff's around us, we don't have to run after it. Sorry, Chloe. I've got a shift at the Talon. See you tonight. Congratulations on your next article. Come on, Clark."
"See you both later." Clark hustled off after Lana.
"Sure hope you know what you're doing, Chloe." Pete leaned against the wall. He watched her reading an email.
"Jameson's going to hear this." Chloe nodded while looking at the computer screen.
He would all right….
