A/N: It many seem a little Nancy Drew, but this is Chloe were talking about, she likes mysteries. It will seem less Nancy Drew-like in the next chapter.

Disclaimer: Check out chapter one.

Chapter 2: Coded

"Who took Chloe?" Clark asked, now very worried.

Lex jumped up and began looking in the adjacent classes and hallways. "Those men!" he answered.

"What men?" asked Lana, thinking her friend was hallucinating.

Lex sighed heavily at not finding Chloe hiding away. He leaned against the wall and slowly slid down it so that he was sitting. "The men that knocked me out. They were after Chloe; I don't know why."

"Lex," said Lana, "tell us exactly what happened." Lex then commenced to relay the story to the two frightened teens. When he had finished, Lana thought for a moment, and then said, "We need to call the police."

Clark nodded. Lex stood. "You two do that; I'm going to call Gabe."

An hour and a half later, Clark parked his truck in his family's driveway. He turned off his truck and sat staring out the side window. He couldn't believe it. Chloe had finally gotten in too deep, and he wasn't there to save her. Clark replayed the last two hours in his head. After the police had arrived, he, Lex, and Lana had told the police everything they had seen. Lana took Gabe home after about a half an hour, he couldn't handle it. Clark was just glad Lex had been there; he would make sure the police didn't drag their feet. Clark dejectedly exited his car, and made his way to his house.
The next morning, Clark awoke to his mother shaking him. Clark groaned and covered his head with his pillow. "What time is it?" he mumbled.

"Eight o'clock," Martha replied.

Clark suddenly sat straight up in bed. "Eight o'clock! I have to go to school!" Clark jumped out of bed and was about to run to the bathroom when Martha stopped him.

"School's closed today," Martha explained. "It's still a crime scene."

Crime scene? Clark thought. Then the events of the previous night came back to him like a strong punch in the stomach. "Chloe!" he whispered.

Martha looked at her son sadly. "Lex called," she said. "He was able to get the video from the hallway in which Chloe was taken. He thought you might like to see it. Lana's on her way there."

Clark nodded and began getting dressed.

Clark arrived in Lex's study and saw Lex and Lana talking solemnly. When Lex saw Clark, he stood. "Hi, Clark. I've got the video set up." He turned to a large TV, and turned it on. He then pressed play on the VCR.

On the video, there was a dim, grim-looking corridor. Lex Luthor strode down the hallway. Chloe peeked out from a dark classroom and grabbed Lex, pulling him inside. After a few moments, two rough-looking men came onto the screen. One of the men was clean-shaven with shoulder-length, greasy hair. He wore a loose shirt, concealing his lanky body. He was also carrying some sort of gun. The other man was bald with a goatee. He was wearing a tight shirt, showing off his abnormally large muscles. He did not carry a gun, but he was definitely the more frightening of the two. His eyes shone, even on the tape, with a kind of inner cruelty. After a couple of minutes, the men walked out of view of the tape.

"Do the police know who they are?" Clark asked.

"No." Chloe and Lex reappeared from the classroom. They could see tears staining Chloe's usually bright face. Chloe pulled Lex down the hall, the opposite way the men had gone. Seemingly out of nowhere, a tranquilizer dart zoomed across the screen and hit Lex who fell to the ground. Chloe ran to him. She knelt beside him for a moment, before standing. She shifted the piece of paper she was holding from her left hand to her right hand and attempted to pull Lex to safety with her. Chloe looked down the corridor to where the men must have been. Sheer panic spread across her face. If it hadn't been a video, Clark would have reached out and held her. Chloe looked down at Lex. She knelt beside him, leaned down, and kissed him lightly on the lips.

Clark grinned and turned to Lana. She was smirking, too. They both glanced at Lex (the real Lex, not the one on the video). His eyes were wide and his cheeks were slightly red. Clark would have laughed if he wasn't so worried about Chloe. He had never seen Lex blush. They turned back to the video. Chloe had stood and was running down the hallway. The men appeared on the screen and shot at Chloe. She was hit and went down hard. Lana whimpered, imagining the pain her friend must have been in just before she passed out. The men walked over to Chloe, picked her up, and left.

"I guess that's it," Lex said, finding it more than a little hard to talk.

As he was about to turn off the VCR, Clark said, "Wait." Lex turned to Clark, slightly confused. "Rewind it," Clark demanded. Lex hit the rewind button. After a few moments, Clark said, "Stop." It was the moment that Chloe had kissed Lex.

"Clark!" Lex exclaimed.

"No, listen, Chloe had a piece of paper in her hand, then she kissed you, and it was gone," Clark explained.

"What happened to it?" Lana asked.

"Look," said Clark, pointing to her right hand. Her hand was slightly in Lex's coat pocket. "She slipped it into your pocket."

Lex now had conflicting emotions. He was happy about this new piece of information, but he was also slightly sad that the kiss was simply a cover for her other action.

"Lex?" Lana broke Lex out of his thoughts.

He stood. "Let me go get that coat." Lex left the study. Clark and Lana gave each other a knowing smile.

A few minutes later, Lex returned with a note in his hand. "You were right, Clark. But I don't know what it means. It's just a bunch of numbers."

Lana perked up at this. "Numbers?" she asked, grabbing the note. It read: 252 402 654 284 452 736 91 139 230 174 270 444 307 489 796 31 47 78 252 398 650 121 193 314 53 77 130 304 486 790 65 105 107.

Lana smiled widely. "It's a code," she clarified.

"A code?"

"Yeah, Chloe created it last year for all of her sensitive information."

"Why didn't she tell me about it?" Clark asked, slightly offended.

Lana smiled again, "It's a sister thing." Clark rolled his eyes.

"Do you know what it says?" Lex inquired.

"Well, I can translate it. It's a simple matrix code."

"That's great if you know the matrix."

Lana seemed a little put off. "Of course I do."

Clark interrupted. "Wait, I thought Chloe wasn't very good at math."

Lana laughed. "Well, she's no Clark Kent, but she can do a simple matrix equation." Clark blushed. Lana turned to Lex. "Can I use you calculator?"

"Of course. What is the matrix?"

"A common pattern," Lana answered, beginning to type on the calculator.

Lex thought for a moment. "The Fibonacci Sequence?" he guessed.

Lana looked at him oddly. "How did you know?"

"The pattern may be completely natural, but it definitely belongs on Chloe's 'Wall of Weird'."

Lana just smiled, and Clark chuckled softly to himself. Lana typed the following matrix into the calculator:

1 1 2
35 8
13 21 34

Lana then carefully decoded Chloe's message. Once she had the new sequence, she assigned each number its corresponding letter (Space is 0, A is 1, B is 2, etc.).

Lex and Clark stood nervously while Lana worked. Eventually, she squealed. Clark and Lex ran to her. "I've got it!" she said.

"What does it say?"

Lana read the message, "'Look under loose board in closet'."

"What closet?" Clark inquired.

"Chloe's closet?" Lex volunteered.

Clark shook his head. "Chloe has carpet in her room, not wood."

Something dawned on Lana. "In her room, yeah, but there are extra storage areas in the back of the closets, and they have the original wood floors."

Clark almost jumped. "Let's go," he shouted as he dashed out the door to Lex's study.

A/N: Don't worry; we'll see Chloe in the next chapter! The Fibonacci Sequence is a famous pattern that is found in the arrangement of petals on flowers, the shape of seashells, and even the arrangement of stars on galaxies. I know I'm a math geek, but some of the stuff is just so darn interesting.