A/N: Super sorry for the delay. I was having trouble uploading to FF. Hope this makes up for it. ~*~*~*~*~

Putting on her game face, Chloe walked beside Lex following after the butler. Adams walked behind them, and Chloe could hear the quiet click of his heels as he walked.

After some corners and some stairs, the butler stopped. He indicated a heavy wood door. Then he bowed. "Good evening gentlemen." He said, before turning and walking back the way he had come.

They waited until the butler was out of sight around the corner. Then Adams upholstered his gun. He waited until Lex had pulled his gun out, before he kicked the door down, and rushed into the room. Lex following close behind.

The leader of the kidnappers was sitting at a large desk, lighting a cigar when they broke into his office. He stared, rooted in shock, as he watched Lex was calmly into the room.

He glanced at Adams, immediately recognizing that his most dire threat would come for there. He inched his chair away.

"How did you get in here?" he asked quietly.

Lex put his finger to his lips in a movement strangely menacing. "Shh." He said. "I'll ask the questions tonight."

The leaders eyes bugged out even more when he noticed that girl walk into the room as well. She looked different. Less scared, more in control. He imagined her confidence came from being on the right side of the guns, but maybe not. Anger smoldered in her eyes, not fear or confusion.

"Chloe, please close the door." Lex said quietly, without turning towards her.

Chloe shut the door, pushing till it clicked quietly. She was beginning to get the vibe from Lex and Adams. No need to be noisy or violent when controlled movement was so much scarier. It was why Adams was so effective.

"Now we can talk." Lex said. He nodded to Adams, who moved in on the ringleader. He took out a pair of silver handcuffs, and cuffed the man's hands behind his back, through the chair arms, holding him immobile.

"Let's start with simple questions, shall we?" Lex asked, deliberately speaking in a genteel manner. "What is your name?"

The man tried for bravado. "My men will be here soon, and we outnumber you!" He snapped.

Adams backhanded the leader abruptly.

"Wrong answer." Lex said. "And I will point out that we are evenly matched. You see, Ms. Sullivan is armed as well."

Chloe dutifully pulled here gun from her hip, smiling sweetly. She positioned herself where she could see anyone coming through the door, before they could fully see her. "Mr. Luthor is right." She said, making her voice match Lex's tone. "You'd do well not to underestimate me."

"Now, let's try again. What is your name?"

The leader growled, and didn't answer. Lex nodded to Adams, who hit him again.

Lex sighed. "Do we really have to do this the difficult way?" He asked rhetorically, like there might be another way. "I mean, violence in front of the lady is so undesirable."

Chloe sighed. "Hey if it has to happen." She said simply, indicating she wasn't going to stop them

Lex shrugged, still watching the kidnapper for reaction. "Well, there you are. Now that we have that little issue out of the way..." He trailed off, and Adams raised his hand to hit him again.

"All right, all right." The man said finally. "Jeez, I never signed up to get the shit beat out of me, and I suppose that's what you're going to do anyway. My name is Paul Mackenzie. Most people call me Mac."

Lex looked thoughtful. "Now, how am I supposed to know that's the truth?" He asked no one in particular.

Adams shrugged, then raised his hand to backhand Mac.

"It is the truth!" Mac said quickly, as the truth began to dawn on him. He had definitely crossed the wrong people, and he wasn't going to get off easy.

"All right." Lex said, "I'll accept that for now, but if I find out that you lied, about *anything*, the consequences will leave you near death. Do I make myself clear?"

Mac nodded, not speaking.

"Very well, once more for the record, your name is?"

"Mac."

"Fine. Who hired you Mac?" Lex asked.

"What?" Mac stalled not sure how to proceed. He didn't want to die, but he was also worried about the very people Lex was asking about.

Adams wasn't happy with his stall tactics. He grabbed him by the hair and tipped his head back. Then he pulled a knife from his thigh.

Not sure what Adams was planning to do, Chloe looked away. She knew in some part of her that roughing the guy up was the only way to figure out their predicament, but she didn't want to watch the whole thing. She heard Mac cry out, a quick sharp sound. She turned back. There was a thin red line, beginning to ooze blood along his jaw line, below the ear. It didn't look deep, but Chloe could tell from the look on Mac's face that it hurt.

"Now, no more stalling or this will only get worse." Lex said. "Who hired you?"

"I don't know!" Mac gasped, and tried to shy away from Adams as he answered. "I'm just your run of the mill thug! I swear. I got a job offer, and half the money. If I took the money, I accepted the job, and I'd get the last half when I was done."

Lex rolled his eyes. "You expect me to believe that shit? Cloak and dagger, no names..." He shook his head. "I don't think so." He paused, letting the silence deepen, waiting for Mac to fill it. Adams leaned menacingly closer.

"All right, I don't know who hired me, but there was a guy, who brought the money. He might know!"

Chloe shook her head, and spoke for the first time. "Oh please. Isn't that always the first thing to do when you're in shit like this?" She asked. "Blame it on someone else? Set the thugs onto some hapless uninvolved victim?"

Lex pretended to look thoughtful. He glared at Mac. "She has a point."

Mac shook his head. "You don't understand, it's for real. The deal was two hundred thousand before, two hundred thou after. I break into Luthor Manor, kidnap you, and haul you out here. They would let me know when to release you, but not a second before they said to. I don't know who gave the orders; I just carried them out. I'm a grunt, bottom of the food chain. I don't know anything about why they did this!"

"Again, and this is the last time I'm gonna ask this, who is 'they'?" Lex demanded.

"I don't know!" Mac was starting to get hysterical, and Lex was beginning to wonder if Mac wasn't telling the truth. Anyone who got hysterical this fast was definitely not leader material.

"Give me a name then." Lex said finally. "Someone to go after?"

"Stanley Carlton." Mac gasped out, relieved that they believed him.

Lex sighed. Then nodded to Adams.

Adams drew his gun out, and Mac visibly paled. The blood drained out of his face, and his eyes glazed over, like he was about to faint.

"I thought you believed me!" He whispered.

"I do." Lex said coldly. "But I can't very well leave witnesses lying around." As he finished speaking, Adams clubbed him at the base of his skull. Mac's head slipped forward, and he slumped in his chair.

Chloe walked over to where Lex was perched against the desk.

"You didn't kill him?" She asked, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice.

Lex shook his head; not explaining his motives any further. "This is you time to shine. Do your reporter thing. Toss this office, see what you can find out, about anything, but specifically Winston."

"But he said Stanley Carlton." Chloe said, intrigued.

"I know. Stan is one of Winston's rarely seen right hand men."

Moving around behind the desk, Chloe shoved the chair aside, with Mac in it. She moved the mouse to wake the computer up, and was pleased to see it was already logged in. She wouldn't need a password.

Adams brought the chair back, minus Mac, and Chloe didn't even bother to look around and see where he'd gotten to, she just settled down to checking the computer for information.

Lex stood quietly off to the side of the door, alert for anyone walking in the halls. He watched Chloe out of the corner of his eye. She seemed at ease at the computer, typing away. He was glad that he had brought her, because he knew that Adams was useless with a computer, and while he might have discovered something, Chloe was guaranteed to turn something up. If there was dirt to be found, Lex was confident that Chloe would find it.

"Lex." She said quietly. "I think I might have found something."

He motioned for Adams to watch the door, and walked around behind the desk.

"Show me." He said simply.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure what to make of this, but look." She clicked the mouse and a new window filled the screen. It seemed to be a record of dollar amounts, dated and increasing in value with each seceding date. Beside each dollar amount was a five-digit code.

"So what is this?" Lex asked, not seeing why she thought it was important.

"Well, normally I wouldn't have thought it was important, and if I'd seen it first, I wouldn't have noticed..." Chloe trailed off, and clicked. Another window filled the screen.

Lex immediately noticed why Chloe had thought it was important. The window was a split screen, one half listed five digit police codes for contraband items, and the other half of the split screen was shipping records from Lexcorp... with a matching five-digit code beside each shipment.

For a brief second Lex couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Chloe, bring up the other screen, so I can see everything." Lex instructed.

Checking dates, shipments, codes and monetary amounts, there was nothing else to conclude but that Lexcorp was being used as a front to move illegal goods; judging by the codes, everything from guns and drugs to illegal immigrants.

"How could someone do this without you knowing?" Chloe asked, as the information sank in. She paused. "You *didn't* know, right?"

Lex shook his head. "I didn't know. But I imagine that Winston will have a good idea. I think it's time to pay him a visit." He turned to go. "Oh, Chloe why don't you make a copy of that, in case we need it."

Chloe nodded, then copied the information onto a disk, and printed a copy to be on the safe side, before following Lex and Adams out into the hallway and back to the car.

They left unmolested. The butler appeared after they left the office and showed them the way back to the front door. He nodded to them, before turning and going about his business.

In keeping up appearances, Adams opened the door for Lex and Chloe before getting into the driver's seat, and pulling away from the mansion.

Lex said nothing, but took the hardcopies Chloe had made, studying them.

Adams pulled onto the highway, heading for Seyer Bay. Chloe sat up.

"Where are we going now?" She asked.

"I'm not really sure." Lex said. "Where ever Winston is. I'll use a pay phone in Seyer Bay." He explained.

"What about Angie?" Chloe asked, feeling slightly guilty about taking the girl's clothes, leaving her tied up and unconscious in her closet and generally mentally scarring her for life.

Lex smiled a little. "I'll send a hefty check. And he butler will find her eventually. When she wakes up she'll make enough noise to wake the dead, I'm sure."

The rest of the ride to Seyer Bay was in silence. Adams didn't speak at all, and Lex was engrossed in the information he held in his hands. Chloe sat, staring out the window as Adams pulled into a gas station on the outskirts of Seyer Bay.

Lex got out, pulling Chloe with him. He opened the phone booth, pushing her in.

"This is the number you need to call." Lex said.

Chloe twisted in the small space, so that she could look over he shoulder at him. "Why me?" She asked.

"Much less likely that a female voice will be tied to me. Just say you're a school reporter looking for an interview. Be persistent, find out where he is now."

Chloe nodded. "All right. You got any quarters?"

Lex handed her a couple of dollars worth. She shoved them into the phone and dialed the number.

"Hello, THW Enterprises. Can I help you?"

"Yeah. My name is Candy Brown and I'm a high school reporter. I was hoping I could do an interview with Mr. Winston." Chloe said.

"Well, you'll need to make an appointment. I'll connect you." The line clicked off before Chloe could interrupt.

"Public Relations, THW Enterprises. I understand you'd like to make an appointment, Miss Brown?" A friendly voice said, when the line clicked back on.

"Well, I'm kinda on a deadline. Could it be today or tomorrow?" Chloe asked.

The PR person managed not to laugh. "Mr. Winston has a very busy schedule, and won't be available for several days, Miss Brown. Perhaps an appointment next week, to make a different edition of your school's paper?"

"No. It needs to be this week. Where is he?" Chloe asked brazenly. "I can travel. That's no problem."

"He is out of state Miss Brown..."

Chloe interrupted, sensing she was nearing the end of the PR person's patience. "Wait, how far out of state?" She pushed. "I mean, I don't mind driving!"

"Kansas!" The person snapped suddenly. "Look, kid, no offence but you're the bottom of the food chain. Mr. Winston has a lot more important people to talk to than a High School Reporter, so either you take the appointment next week, or wait a couple of months."

"Where in Kansas?" Chloe continued, as if she was ignoring the person on the other line. "I have a friend there, maybe *they* could do the interview!"

"It's a crappy little nowhere town called Smallville. I'm sure your friend is nowhere near there!" The PR person sounded angry and was obviously fed up. "Good day Miss Brown!" The line went dead.

Chloe slowly hung the phone up and turned to face Lex, surprise evident on her face.

"What?" He asked.

"Winston is in Smallville." Chloe said.

Lex looked shocked. He glanced at the papers he held in his hand. "What is he doing in Smallville?" He asked no one in particular, before ushering Chloe back to the car, and instructing Adams to get them to an airport, posthaste.

TBC...