Frantic to save her partner she re-keyed the mike. "Henry-Victor seven requesting a 10-50...I repeat I have an officer down, requesting..."
"I wouldn't advise finishing that call in..." Luthor stepped forward, letting his intense gaze wash over the scene. Satisfied he was in control, he bent low over the fallen cop. Clark writhed from the kryptonite bullet burning within him, but managed to stare Lex right back in the face. "Make that call and you're signing Clark's death warrant..."
Lois ignored him and bravely dived back at her weapon, but Lex was far faster and a 45 of his own magically appeared. His grip was firm and unwavering. Not wasting time on words, he aimed and took out the Ford's radio unit with just one precise shot. The hiss and electrical sparks told him that he had accomplished his task, and he turned, his eyes narrowing to points as he scrutinized Lane. Then unexpectedly, he re-pocketed the gun and leaned forward over Clark.
"I didn't want it to come to this, forgive me..." Real sorrow filled the millionaire's countenance, then as Clark tried to gurgle a response Luthor grabbed his uninjured arm and tossed him over his shoulder. Blood dripped onto the roadway as Lois stood open mouthed.
"Hey!" Lane took her weapon and tried again to stop him, but Lex still bravely chose to ignore her.
Deftly he placed Clark on the rear seat of his one off vehicle. "If you're not going to shoot me, either get in, or shut up!"
From the look on Luthor's face Lane knew this was a once only offer, and determined to take her chances. Whatever was going on here, all she knew was Clark was bleeding from what her dad called a 'sucking' chest wound, if he didn't get help soon Manning would be making that call to his parents after all. "You better tell me you're headed to Metropolis Memorial..." She hopped in the back with her fallen chum, then placed the barrel of her gun to Luthor's neck. "I don't know what your game is shooting Clark, then trying the hero thing...but it won't work...you're going down."
Lex disregarded her remarks, and the weapon that was being pushed very close to his cranium. "I don't play games Miss Lane." He rammed down the gas pedal, then as the car's engine hit maximum revs he dipped the clutch and forced it into second. "I don't have the luxury of time to explain either. Just keep him conscious..." Skillfully he slowed just enough to guide the perfectly designed Interceptor through a chicane like section of road, concentrating to keep up as much speed as possible. Once out of the tight turns he poured on more gas till the car could give no more.
Lois stole a glance to see Clark clutching at the hole in his chest, as dark red blood poured through onto his fingers, and was lost on the lush upholstery below. He looked at her pale and dazed, then back to the very bald head in the driving seat.
Confusion played across his features as he tried to comprehend what had happened. "Get bullet out...call parents..." He coughed a little, not from the wound, but from the evil green projectile within. "Dad, mom, they ...can explain..."
Lex took his eyes from the blurring road ahead and turned. "What's he saying?"
"He's delirious! Dammit he's dying!" Lane thrust her gun harder till it bit into Lex's neck, "And this isn't the way to the hospital..."
A Secure Lab Facility,
Somewhere in Metropolis...
The shapely sports car finally slowed as a vast state-of-the-art building loomed ahead, its silver gray walls reflecting the stark moonlight. Lex checked his mirrors, whilst flipping the cell phone he had been urgently using closed with just one hand. Lane watched him, wanting to pull the trigger of her weapon and get her partner to a hospital, but she just didn't have the nerve and he knew it. Instead she looked on in awe as he drew into a tight parking spot hidden from view. The board beside it read a simple message: Directors only. Reserved for H Tullor. Had it not been such a serious situation she would have laughed at the obvious joke, as it was she scowled even harder at Lex.
"Just what do you think you're doing?"
"If you take him to the hospital, your shooter will be waiting to finish the job. Best case scenario, and he isn't there, Clark becomes someone's lab rat instead." Luthor tugged back his seat and began to drag the young cop back over his shoulder. Clark groaned, still tenuously holding onto consciousness as his body was hauled to some unknown destination.
Lois looked longingly at the car keys, still dangling in the ignition. They beckoned her, and she was tempted to jump forward and steal the car. Reinforcements could be here within minutes, but what about Clark? Even now as Luthor carried him she could see his rapid, shallow breaths. No, she couldn't leave him.
Luthor was entering the building now, and as Lois raced to catch up she noted the company name emblazoned on a small but functional sign.
"Star Labs? You brought us all the way out here to a lab, not a hospital? Boy Luthor, you've got some nerve!" The abrupt realization that her partner was about to die finally hit a raw nerve, and she fired her weapon skyward in a fit of temper, "another move and you get the next slug..."
Lex stifled the urge to drop his heavy burden and teach this uneducated cop a lesson. He whirled, about to give her a round of verbal tutoring, when Clark stirred from his stupor. "Lois...he's right...please..."
Lane studied the injured cop, unsure where her priorities should lie. If she ignored his wishes and anything happened she would be responsible, but why did he trust a murderer now?
Noting her pause, Luthor returned to the task at hand and placed his thumb on a tiny scanning device. It determined he had the authority to access this part of the plant in less than a second. "Voila..." Without looking back he scurried inside and the passage lights illuminated automatically. As the trio moved along their way, the lights dimmed, then switched back off behind them.
Tiny drops of blood dripped onto the immaculate floor, making minute splashes as Clark watched helpless from his inverted position. Will they mop that up, or analyze it...
More lights flicked on, and this time they stayed that way as Lex all-but kicked open the office door before him, then carefully laid Clark on his own personal couch. He had brought it back from a business trip to Germany, thinking it would be ideal to relax on after a hard day in the city. Now it was ironic that he should use it to comfort his dying friend.
Clark moaned again softly as his wounded body hit the soft leather, then he gazed up at the man before him, the man who was acting like a savior. Could he trust again as he once had? The bond was still there, he could feel it, sense it, but was he merely wishful thinking before his own death? As every minute passed he could feel the kryptonite drawing him closer to the edge, closer to oblivion. There was no way he could convince Lois to help, of that he was sure, but if Lex was half the man he once had been...
He reached out a shaking blood covered hand. "If you didn't do this...prove it...dig it out..." His voice wavered, then the pleading hand dropped limply to the carpeted floor.
Lois could take no more and rushed over, tossing her weapon on the nearby desk in frustration, she gently reached down and felt at his neck. "He's bleeding to death. You have the resources to get a Lifeflight out here. It's his only chance now...please!" The timbre of her voice raised in an almost beseeching cry.
Lex licked his lips, then overlooking her pleas grabbed the nearby phone, desperate for a reply. He began to perspire heavily as the ring tone seemed to take forever to chime in his ear. "Klein! Where the hell are you? I'm running out of time...what do I do?" The receiver shook in his hand.
The other man's words appeared to offer no consolation, and Lois suspected she was seeing Luthor unnerved for the first time in his whole life. Panicking, she tore a strip of material from Clark's shirt and wrapped it tightly around his still bleeding arm, then applied more pressure to the oozing hole in his chest. As she watched Luthor began rummaging in his desk drawer, searching desperately for something. He mumbled to the man on the line, then retrieved the item, his appearance turning almost as pallid as her partner's...