Chapter IV
A Missing Chum
The party went well. Chloe forgot her anger quickly, as Clark had predicted. She danced with almost every boy there, including Clark and Lex, and she promised them that she'd ask Andy to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Lana and Pete only appeared intermittently, and Lana's increasingly disarranged hair prompted a certain amount of giggling and eye-rolling among the other girls present. Everyone was grateful to be spared the sight of pancake kisses.
People started heading home at about eleven o'clock.
Lex was watching Clark stack chairs when Lana came out of the kitchen and asked, "Where's Pete?"
Chloe looked up from her broom and dustpan. "He was here a little while ago."
"I think he took some trash bags out to the alley," Lex put in. He frowned. "That was about fifteen minutes ago."
"It shouldn't take that long to take out the rubbish," Lana worried.
"I'll go look for him," Clark volunteered. He put down the chairs and went out the back door to the alley. There was a big trash bag spilled across the pavement near the dumpster, and Pete was nowhere to be seen
Adjusting his senses was practically second nature to Clark, now. He used his super-sensitive hearing to cast around for any clues to Pete's whereabouts. Far off in the distance he could hear an argument of some kind, and he thought Pete's was one of the voices he could almost make out.
Clark was nearly deafened by the squeal of Lex's tires as the convertible pulled up in the alley. "Pete's truck is still parked out front," Lex said.
Clark hopped into the car without opening a door. "Pete wouldn't have left the garbage like that. Something happened. Drive that way." Clark waved in the direction that the argument had seemed to be coming from.
Lex looked a little dubious, but did as Clark asked. It was hard for a man as curious as the young mogul to avoid asking questions, but he forced himself to try around his evasive friend.
Clark found that tracking the argument wasn't hard with Lex doing all the driving. He gestured to indicate his best guess of their route at every intersection, and it wasn't long before Clark's telescopic vision picked up a plain white van on the straight, lonely Kansas road. Lex always drove like a maniac, and there was no way the van could outrun them. Focusing his x-ray vision inside the leading vehicle, Clark saw a big guy slap Pete with a pistol.
Clark growled, "Faster, Lex. We have to catch that van!"
"That white one way up there? How do you.... Never mind," Lex said. He drove faster, and in a few minutes the two vehicles were neck-and-neck.
"Hold 'er steady for a minute!" Clark shouted, and then he leapt from the open convertible to the roof of the van.
"Jeeze," Lex whispered. He didn't have time to marvel at his friend's abilities for long, though, because the other driver seemed to have finally realized that something was going on. The van swerved at Lex's car, and it took some fancy driving to avoid being run off the road.
Meanwhile, Clark wasted no time. He dug through the sheet metal of the roof with his fingers and pulled. The wide-eyed driver slammed on the brakes in terror at the sight of a big guy, dressed as a vampire, ripping his way in through the roof of his van.
Clark dropped down into the vehicle and confronted the other miscreant. "Let him go!" he yelled.
The second criminal wasn't as easily cowed as the driver was. He pointed his gun at Pete's head. "Get out of the van, chump, and walk away, or else Baldy here gets it," he menaced.
Clark froze. He knew he was faster than a speeding bullet, but he'd have a lot farther to travel to reach the gunman than a bullet would have to reach Pete's head. He couldn't just get out and walk away, though. They were at an impasse.
Suddenly the front door of the van was wrenched open, and the driver (who had been staring in disbelief at the tense situation between Clark and the other kidnapper) let out a strangled yelp as Lex tasered him into unconsciousness.
That was all the distraction Clark needed. He launched himself at the gunman. Pete took the opportunity to squirm loose and dive for the floor at the same time, so the three rounds the perpetrator squeezed off before Clark knocked him out hit no one. There the three boys were, with two unconscious would-be kidnappers and a partially wrecked van.
A Missing Chum
The party went well. Chloe forgot her anger quickly, as Clark had predicted. She danced with almost every boy there, including Clark and Lex, and she promised them that she'd ask Andy to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Lana and Pete only appeared intermittently, and Lana's increasingly disarranged hair prompted a certain amount of giggling and eye-rolling among the other girls present. Everyone was grateful to be spared the sight of pancake kisses.
People started heading home at about eleven o'clock.
Lex was watching Clark stack chairs when Lana came out of the kitchen and asked, "Where's Pete?"
Chloe looked up from her broom and dustpan. "He was here a little while ago."
"I think he took some trash bags out to the alley," Lex put in. He frowned. "That was about fifteen minutes ago."
"It shouldn't take that long to take out the rubbish," Lana worried.
"I'll go look for him," Clark volunteered. He put down the chairs and went out the back door to the alley. There was a big trash bag spilled across the pavement near the dumpster, and Pete was nowhere to be seen
Adjusting his senses was practically second nature to Clark, now. He used his super-sensitive hearing to cast around for any clues to Pete's whereabouts. Far off in the distance he could hear an argument of some kind, and he thought Pete's was one of the voices he could almost make out.
Clark was nearly deafened by the squeal of Lex's tires as the convertible pulled up in the alley. "Pete's truck is still parked out front," Lex said.
Clark hopped into the car without opening a door. "Pete wouldn't have left the garbage like that. Something happened. Drive that way." Clark waved in the direction that the argument had seemed to be coming from.
Lex looked a little dubious, but did as Clark asked. It was hard for a man as curious as the young mogul to avoid asking questions, but he forced himself to try around his evasive friend.
Clark found that tracking the argument wasn't hard with Lex doing all the driving. He gestured to indicate his best guess of their route at every intersection, and it wasn't long before Clark's telescopic vision picked up a plain white van on the straight, lonely Kansas road. Lex always drove like a maniac, and there was no way the van could outrun them. Focusing his x-ray vision inside the leading vehicle, Clark saw a big guy slap Pete with a pistol.
Clark growled, "Faster, Lex. We have to catch that van!"
"That white one way up there? How do you.... Never mind," Lex said. He drove faster, and in a few minutes the two vehicles were neck-and-neck.
"Hold 'er steady for a minute!" Clark shouted, and then he leapt from the open convertible to the roof of the van.
"Jeeze," Lex whispered. He didn't have time to marvel at his friend's abilities for long, though, because the other driver seemed to have finally realized that something was going on. The van swerved at Lex's car, and it took some fancy driving to avoid being run off the road.
Meanwhile, Clark wasted no time. He dug through the sheet metal of the roof with his fingers and pulled. The wide-eyed driver slammed on the brakes in terror at the sight of a big guy, dressed as a vampire, ripping his way in through the roof of his van.
Clark dropped down into the vehicle and confronted the other miscreant. "Let him go!" he yelled.
The second criminal wasn't as easily cowed as the driver was. He pointed his gun at Pete's head. "Get out of the van, chump, and walk away, or else Baldy here gets it," he menaced.
Clark froze. He knew he was faster than a speeding bullet, but he'd have a lot farther to travel to reach the gunman than a bullet would have to reach Pete's head. He couldn't just get out and walk away, though. They were at an impasse.
Suddenly the front door of the van was wrenched open, and the driver (who had been staring in disbelief at the tense situation between Clark and the other kidnapper) let out a strangled yelp as Lex tasered him into unconsciousness.
That was all the distraction Clark needed. He launched himself at the gunman. Pete took the opportunity to squirm loose and dive for the floor at the same time, so the three rounds the perpetrator squeezed off before Clark knocked him out hit no one. There the three boys were, with two unconscious would-be kidnappers and a partially wrecked van.