Lex thought about what Chloe had said on the drive back to the manor. He knew Bradford Jones slightly and the times he had met him had been impressed at how cultured and mannered he was. Maybe Chloe had caught him on a bad day or maybe she had been a bit too nosy. Either way, it was interesting to know about this other side of the man. Information he would have to keep stored up for later. At the moment he had more important things to worry about than dual personality newspaper barons.

Turning off the engine he noticed something glinting on the floor on the passenger side. Leaning over he picked up a disk labelled CHLOE. With a smile that quickly turned into a grin, he dropped it in his pocket and made his way inside.

Chloe frantically searched her room. "No way. There is no way" she kept repeating as if that would make the disk turn up. Dropping it in Metropolis, someone crushing it with some muddy boot and it falling into the sewage system was a fate better than it being in the hands of Lex Luthor. Semi-wailing she dragged herself from the floor and sunk deep into her bed. This was not good. Not good at all. That disk had her ideas for stories and Luthercorp featured heavily. Lying quietly for a few minutes, she composed herself and thought of a strategy, before leaping up and heading to the manor.

Lex toyed briefly with the idea of respecting Chloe's privacy before inserting CHLOE into his laptop. Maybe briefly was overstating it slightly. Making sure he was comfortable in his chair he browsed through the folders. He wasn't expecting to find anything mind blowing but from his limited contact with Chloe he knew she was tenacious and intelligent and that she may have picked up some gems that she may not even know the significance of. A large yellow icon bearing the name Luthercorp flashed out at him. Settling further into his chair his eyes narrowed in total concentration.

'Damage Limitation' was the one thought going through Chloe's mind. It was a given that Lex would have gone through the disc and seen her notes on Lionel and the company. There was a lot of rambling in there and she had been careful to code the sensitive stuff. All the true gold dust was in her head. She had received some news of some very dodgy dealings by Luthercorp which potentially ran into drug running, and not the asprin kind. She had read enough crime novels to know that many saw a foray into the wonderful world of crack as a bad business move leaving you unnecessarily open to the authorities. Although she wasn't surprised someone as arrogant as Lionel would forego such mortal concerns. She was also pretty certain that Lex had no idea this was going on. She would have to tread carefully with the bald one.

"Chloe, this is a pleasant surprise...twice in day, I'm flattered" Lex said looking up and leaning back into his chair.

"Now that you've had a good snoop, can I have my disc back please? Don't even bother denying it by the way, I would actually think less of you if you hadn't gone through it" Chloe retorted.

"Some interesting thoughts on this" He said handing it back to her, "Have you got anything to back them up with?"

"I plead the fifth, and since all the most interesting thoughts were in code, I know you're playing me and trying to find out more" Chloe snatched the disc back and stuffed it in her pocket. Her zip pocket. Not the fool twice she thought.

"I think you're underestimating me" Lex replied looking at her intensely.

"Maybe, but I think not. Unless you have developed special powers that enable you to read the made up language of Chloe, I think I'm pretty safe."

Walking out she turned, "And Lex, that whole intense, hypno thing you have going really has no effect on me, just a heads up for future reference."

Lex couldn't quite stop the smile from coming out. "I'll remember that."

"You do that Luthor, you do that." She smiled in return and walked out.