The Missing
Thank you to the kind souls who reviewed the last 2 chapters. Hope this one passes muster.
La Casta: I'm not worthy!!! Honestly sweetie, you are the best.
Chapter 3
Chloe smiled with a satisfaction she hadn't felt since this investigation started. She hit the Enter on the keypad and allowed herself a moment to relax. She'd cracked the password of one of the researchers and was now downloading what data she could. A minor victory after searching the entire room for a key into the cells where she had seen Jodi Mellville.
Chloe rubbed the back of her neck and tried to massage the tension out of one shoulder. She'd slept a bit after her night shift, then came back in the day to crawl through the ducts and spy on the daytime activities in the records room.
She'd sat for hours propped in the confined space listening to the occasional conversation. This was the only duct big enough for human passage, being in an older part of the building. The others made movement too difficult as Chloe had discovered while trying to find a way to look in on Jodi and the others. Chloe was convinced this would be a Smallville reunion and her meteor mutant radar, that she'd thought was long buried, was back in full force.
She'd also brought with her some spy equipment. Well, actually, it was her bicycle rearview mirror tied to a coathanger. She could slip it through the grate and get a view of most of the room. It was, however, a wide angle mirror and things were slightly distorted.
Chloe watched the download in progress and let her mind return to the only real conversation she'd overheard during her airduct vigil. Two people in lab coats had entered the room, voices raised in the middle of a heated argument. Chloe had been drifting off and the volume had immediately returned her to her senses.
"I never authorised this. You had no right." The female voice was indignant.
"You may not have the clout you think you do. My experiments and data have just as much weight with the board."
The man was tall and in his thirties. Chloe would have called him handsome, except perhaps for the beginnings of baldness along his high forehead. The woman appeared younger, late twenties perhaps, also attractive with fashionable glasses and long hair tied in a sensible bun at the nape of her neck. They both wore lab coats over their street clothes.
"I just don't see the point of hurting him any more," the woman replied with exasperation. "You learned the limits of his physical abilities within the first six months he was here. We should have been studying his mental capacity by now... if you hadn't gone and destroyed all hope of that."
Her companion's mouth flattened to a thin line in annoyance. This was obviously an old argument. "We could not have anticipated or prevented the accident that occured. It's been a month now. Get over it."
"Easy for you to say. I'm a psychiatrist and this would have made my career. Now I'm stuck trying to get some sort of coherent profile out of a stick figure, a ghost and a popsicle." Chloe moved the mirror trying to get a better view. The woman had crossed her arms in anger but Chloe had trouble seeing her features distinctly. "I can't make any headway while he remains this unresponsive. Keep pushing him this way and you could cause another incident. I can't guarantee that he won't get violent again."
"He can't get out of that room. Security changed everything after the last time. Why do you think the walls are now this lovely green? He passes out before he can get to the end of the corridor. You're not getting anywhere anyway." The man sounded defensive and a bit nervous, reassuring himself as much as his co-worker.
"Look, your current series of tests are pointless. You haven't gathered anything new in 2 months. He still shows emotions. He's not completely withdrawn. That last test upset him enough that I had to bring his mother in to calm him again. Thank god she's co-operating now." The woman picked up some files from the desk. "Look, we've got to meet with the chairman and I've got to do the damage control. Your tests are setting back any hope I have of restoring his ability to communicate..." Chloe watched the two exit the room, continuing the argument, but she was no longer able to hear them. Could they have been talking about Clark? What had they meant by his abilities? Chloe's stomach was a hard knot remembering Clark's 'adrenalin' rushes. What had they done to him?! Surely they meant Martha when they referred to his mother.
Chloe had decided to go haome and get some sleep. She would try to break into the computers tonight and she'd better have her wits about her. She needed to find out what was going on. She also needed to find a way into those cells.
For this reason, she'd ditched the cleaning crew as soon as possible to sneak into this room and search for a key to the cells. She was convinced that the subject they had been describing earlier was Clark Kent. The ghost, the popsicle...Chloe had a feeling these might be old friends. Jodi Mellville and Martha Kent in the same building was too much of a coincidence.
Chloe now knew she was not the only one to have connected the dots, or meteors in this case, to get a bigger picture. Her research had lead to the Wall of Weird. Whoever was behind this was looking for more.
The downloading files were progressing nicely and she expected to be able to slip back soon. She'd searched the ward and could find no pass keys or security cards to open the cell doors. She'd have to see what she could glean from this data. The last file was finally transferred onto a floppy and she pulled it from its slot. As she did this a voice from behind startled her into dropping the disc.
"Whatcha doin?"
Chloe turned slowly to look directly into the startling blue eyes of Jodi Mellville.
"Jodi?" Chloe almost croaked. She didn't recognize any of the sweetness and intelligence of the girl she had known in this emmaciated and unkempt girl. Her eyes had a calculating expression that made her look old, though Chloe knew they were the same age. She stood quietly assessing Chloe, mouth pursed in thought.
"Jodi? It's me, Chloe. Chloe Sullivan, do you remember me?" Chloe held her hand out, palm up as if trying to approach a wild animal.
Jodi suddenly relaxed from rigid wariness to boneless childlike restlessness. She shifted from one foot to the other and a finger began to twirl in her hair. The feral expression was gone with a high pitched giggle. "Chloe?... How's Pete?"
"He's fine, Jodi. How are you?" Chloe didn't move a muscle for fear of losing this friendly face to the one that had been here before.
"I'm hungry. Is Pete here?" Chloe tried to suppress the feeling that Pete might be the answer to her hunger. Jodi looked anorexic. Her skin stretched tight over her bones, reminding Chloe of a Holocaust victim.
"Pete moved away last year. I'm sure he'd like to know that you're OK." Chloe tried to sound friendly and open while her stomach churned with revulsion and pity.
Jodi pouted. "Pete was cute but he let them bring me here. Dad sent me away too." Jodi looked about to cry but her mood again made an instantaneous change. "I've got a new boyfriend." Her smile showed far too many teeth. "Want to see him?"
Chloe was unsure but decided to follow Jodi's lead for now. "Umm. Sure." Jodi took her hand, as if they were best friends, in on a secret together and not separated by two years and an unimaginable chasm of opposing experiences. Chloe felt the dry, skeletal fingers close around hers and swallowed down the urge to pull back.
"Come on." Jodi pulled out a security card. "I stole it a month ago when they were changing the doors. No one knows I have it." She put her fingers over her mouth and raised her shoulders in a macabre parody of a childish giggle. "I'm good at keeping secrets."
Chloe remembered the friendly chubby girl she had known in school and pulled back on Jodi's hand. She raised her other hand to Jodi's cheek and stroked it gently. "Oh, Jodi. It breaks my heart to see you like this."
Those bright blue eyes misted as they looked back at her and the voice was that of the Jodi she'd known. "It's not your fault, Chloe." Then the moment was lost and she giggled again. Jodi led her down the green hallway and passed the card over the small red light by the last door. The light changed to green with a faint click. Jodi opened the door and Chloe followed.
"He's in here." Jodi was now using a stage whisper. "Isn't he pretty?" She walked quietly up to the figure sleeping on the bed. His back was turned to them and his dark hair was long and curled on the pillow behind him. One impossibly broad shoulder rose high above the mattress followed by a strong back, then lean hips covered by just a sheet. Long legs continued the silouette, tapering down to bare feet peeking out the bottom of the coverings. Even though Chloe couldn't see his face she knew she'd recognise Clark Kent anywhere.
Thank you to the kind souls who reviewed the last 2 chapters. Hope this one passes muster.
La Casta: I'm not worthy!!! Honestly sweetie, you are the best.
Chapter 3
Chloe smiled with a satisfaction she hadn't felt since this investigation started. She hit the Enter on the keypad and allowed herself a moment to relax. She'd cracked the password of one of the researchers and was now downloading what data she could. A minor victory after searching the entire room for a key into the cells where she had seen Jodi Mellville.
Chloe rubbed the back of her neck and tried to massage the tension out of one shoulder. She'd slept a bit after her night shift, then came back in the day to crawl through the ducts and spy on the daytime activities in the records room.
She'd sat for hours propped in the confined space listening to the occasional conversation. This was the only duct big enough for human passage, being in an older part of the building. The others made movement too difficult as Chloe had discovered while trying to find a way to look in on Jodi and the others. Chloe was convinced this would be a Smallville reunion and her meteor mutant radar, that she'd thought was long buried, was back in full force.
She'd also brought with her some spy equipment. Well, actually, it was her bicycle rearview mirror tied to a coathanger. She could slip it through the grate and get a view of most of the room. It was, however, a wide angle mirror and things were slightly distorted.
Chloe watched the download in progress and let her mind return to the only real conversation she'd overheard during her airduct vigil. Two people in lab coats had entered the room, voices raised in the middle of a heated argument. Chloe had been drifting off and the volume had immediately returned her to her senses.
"I never authorised this. You had no right." The female voice was indignant.
"You may not have the clout you think you do. My experiments and data have just as much weight with the board."
The man was tall and in his thirties. Chloe would have called him handsome, except perhaps for the beginnings of baldness along his high forehead. The woman appeared younger, late twenties perhaps, also attractive with fashionable glasses and long hair tied in a sensible bun at the nape of her neck. They both wore lab coats over their street clothes.
"I just don't see the point of hurting him any more," the woman replied with exasperation. "You learned the limits of his physical abilities within the first six months he was here. We should have been studying his mental capacity by now... if you hadn't gone and destroyed all hope of that."
Her companion's mouth flattened to a thin line in annoyance. This was obviously an old argument. "We could not have anticipated or prevented the accident that occured. It's been a month now. Get over it."
"Easy for you to say. I'm a psychiatrist and this would have made my career. Now I'm stuck trying to get some sort of coherent profile out of a stick figure, a ghost and a popsicle." Chloe moved the mirror trying to get a better view. The woman had crossed her arms in anger but Chloe had trouble seeing her features distinctly. "I can't make any headway while he remains this unresponsive. Keep pushing him this way and you could cause another incident. I can't guarantee that he won't get violent again."
"He can't get out of that room. Security changed everything after the last time. Why do you think the walls are now this lovely green? He passes out before he can get to the end of the corridor. You're not getting anywhere anyway." The man sounded defensive and a bit nervous, reassuring himself as much as his co-worker.
"Look, your current series of tests are pointless. You haven't gathered anything new in 2 months. He still shows emotions. He's not completely withdrawn. That last test upset him enough that I had to bring his mother in to calm him again. Thank god she's co-operating now." The woman picked up some files from the desk. "Look, we've got to meet with the chairman and I've got to do the damage control. Your tests are setting back any hope I have of restoring his ability to communicate..." Chloe watched the two exit the room, continuing the argument, but she was no longer able to hear them. Could they have been talking about Clark? What had they meant by his abilities? Chloe's stomach was a hard knot remembering Clark's 'adrenalin' rushes. What had they done to him?! Surely they meant Martha when they referred to his mother.
Chloe had decided to go haome and get some sleep. She would try to break into the computers tonight and she'd better have her wits about her. She needed to find out what was going on. She also needed to find a way into those cells.
For this reason, she'd ditched the cleaning crew as soon as possible to sneak into this room and search for a key to the cells. She was convinced that the subject they had been describing earlier was Clark Kent. The ghost, the popsicle...Chloe had a feeling these might be old friends. Jodi Mellville and Martha Kent in the same building was too much of a coincidence.
Chloe now knew she was not the only one to have connected the dots, or meteors in this case, to get a bigger picture. Her research had lead to the Wall of Weird. Whoever was behind this was looking for more.
The downloading files were progressing nicely and she expected to be able to slip back soon. She'd searched the ward and could find no pass keys or security cards to open the cell doors. She'd have to see what she could glean from this data. The last file was finally transferred onto a floppy and she pulled it from its slot. As she did this a voice from behind startled her into dropping the disc.
"Whatcha doin?"
Chloe turned slowly to look directly into the startling blue eyes of Jodi Mellville.
"Jodi?" Chloe almost croaked. She didn't recognize any of the sweetness and intelligence of the girl she had known in this emmaciated and unkempt girl. Her eyes had a calculating expression that made her look old, though Chloe knew they were the same age. She stood quietly assessing Chloe, mouth pursed in thought.
"Jodi? It's me, Chloe. Chloe Sullivan, do you remember me?" Chloe held her hand out, palm up as if trying to approach a wild animal.
Jodi suddenly relaxed from rigid wariness to boneless childlike restlessness. She shifted from one foot to the other and a finger began to twirl in her hair. The feral expression was gone with a high pitched giggle. "Chloe?... How's Pete?"
"He's fine, Jodi. How are you?" Chloe didn't move a muscle for fear of losing this friendly face to the one that had been here before.
"I'm hungry. Is Pete here?" Chloe tried to suppress the feeling that Pete might be the answer to her hunger. Jodi looked anorexic. Her skin stretched tight over her bones, reminding Chloe of a Holocaust victim.
"Pete moved away last year. I'm sure he'd like to know that you're OK." Chloe tried to sound friendly and open while her stomach churned with revulsion and pity.
Jodi pouted. "Pete was cute but he let them bring me here. Dad sent me away too." Jodi looked about to cry but her mood again made an instantaneous change. "I've got a new boyfriend." Her smile showed far too many teeth. "Want to see him?"
Chloe was unsure but decided to follow Jodi's lead for now. "Umm. Sure." Jodi took her hand, as if they were best friends, in on a secret together and not separated by two years and an unimaginable chasm of opposing experiences. Chloe felt the dry, skeletal fingers close around hers and swallowed down the urge to pull back.
"Come on." Jodi pulled out a security card. "I stole it a month ago when they were changing the doors. No one knows I have it." She put her fingers over her mouth and raised her shoulders in a macabre parody of a childish giggle. "I'm good at keeping secrets."
Chloe remembered the friendly chubby girl she had known in school and pulled back on Jodi's hand. She raised her other hand to Jodi's cheek and stroked it gently. "Oh, Jodi. It breaks my heart to see you like this."
Those bright blue eyes misted as they looked back at her and the voice was that of the Jodi she'd known. "It's not your fault, Chloe." Then the moment was lost and she giggled again. Jodi led her down the green hallway and passed the card over the small red light by the last door. The light changed to green with a faint click. Jodi opened the door and Chloe followed.
"He's in here." Jodi was now using a stage whisper. "Isn't he pretty?" She walked quietly up to the figure sleeping on the bed. His back was turned to them and his dark hair was long and curled on the pillow behind him. One impossibly broad shoulder rose high above the mattress followed by a strong back, then lean hips covered by just a sheet. Long legs continued the silouette, tapering down to bare feet peeking out the bottom of the coverings. Even though Chloe couldn't see his face she knew she'd recognise Clark Kent anywhere.