Lana heard a man's voice, obviously angry, as her mind came back to her.
"You stupid idiot! How could you make this kind of mistake!"
Lana tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids were unbelievably heavy. Her head was hanging low, her chin practically touching her chest. Lana tried to bring her hand up to her face to rub her eyes open, but she couldn't move her arms. She focused her energy, and tried again. This time there was sharp pain in her wrists and she realized her hands were tied behind her. Lana couldn't quite remember what had happened. She strained to think back, and as the events of the afternoon came flooding back to her, Lana tried to remain calm against the fear of this situation she was in.
Lana took a deep breath to calm herself and felt a rope cutting into her chest, strapping her to a chair. She tried again to open her eyes, this time succeeding, but she still saw only darkness. For a minute Lana panicked, afraid she'd been blinded by whatever she'd been drugged with.
Her panic lessened as her eyes quickly adjusted to the quasi-darkness. Lana tried to open her mouth to speak, but couldn't. iTape/i, she realized. She tried to move her lower body, and discovered her legs and her ankles were also tied together, and tied to the chair she was seated in. Lana slowly raised her head, wincing at the stiffness in her neck. As she raised her head, she saw tiny pinpricks of light through the covering over her face.
"She's awake, I'll discuss this with you later," Lana heard the man say as he hung up a phone.
Lana sat still, waiting, her heart pounding in her chest. She had absolutely no idea what was going on here. She couldn't believe she'd been back in Kansas for only a few hours and had been kidnapped for reasons unknown. It was like a very bad dream.
Lana heard heavy footsteps circling her. She slowly followed the sound of the footsteps with her head. The man stopped behind her.
"Nod your head yes or no," he instructed, "Do you understand me?"
Lana nodded very slowly as her head had started to throb, probably an after effect of the drug that had been used on her.
The man started moving again, this time pacing back and forth behind her.
"You aren't supposed to be here," the man said. Lana sat still. It hadn't sounded like a question, but she wasn't sure if he was waiting for her to respond.
"The men I hired made a stupid, stupid mistake. Obviously they didn't study the picture I provided them close enough," he stopped pacing again.
Lana sat there, trying to regulate her breathing to calm her pounding heart.
"You are amazingly similar in appearance, I can see why they might have mistaken you for her," the man was very close to her now, and spoke this directly into her ear. Lana jumped at the sudden closeness of his voice.
"No need to be afraid," he laughed coldly when he noticed her flinch. She heard him take a step back.
"As long as you do what you are told, you'll be fine," he added.
Lana nodded even though he hadn't asked her a direct question.
"Good. See, we are communicating already," he said to her as he started walking again, this time away from her. Lana heard him rummage through something, tools, she assumed from the sounds. The heavy footsteps approached her again.
"I'm going to take off this hood, and if you make any move to try and look at me, I won't hesitate to thrust this knife I'm holding into your heart," he whispered coolly directly into her ear as he pressed the cool, metal, knife blade against Lana's exposed neck.
Lana nodded furiously, her panic trying reappear and her throbbing head forgotten.
The rope tying the hood on her head was pulled tight for a moment, and then it fell away. She felt it land on her lap. She closed her eyes as the hood was lifted off. She didn't move a muscle. Slowly she opened her eyes, and had to squint at the sudden brightness of the lab. She took in the objects that were within her direct line of sight, it looked like a labratory.
"Close your eyes," the man ordered.
Lana nodded, and tightly closed her eyes, again. She heard the man move behind her, slowly, hesitantly.
"Good," he said, "now I'm going to pull the tape of your mouth. There's no point in you screaming, as we are in a completely soundproof area. Metallica could perform a concert in here, and no one would be the wiser."
Again, Lana nodded, bracing herself.
There was no warning as the tape was brutally ripped from her face-and Lana moaned at the pain and the stinging of the freshly exposed skin. She turned her head away from the direction the tape was torn, and immediately licked her bleeding lips, feeling torn skin.
As she recovered from the shock of the tape, she felt something else being slipped over her head. Defensively, she shook her head.
"Relax-it's just a blindfold," she heard the man say, as her eyes were once again covered.
Lana opened her eyes, and it was black again. She realized she could see just a little bit out of the bottom of the blindfold. She looked down with her eyes, and saw the cut piece of rope from the hood lying in her lap.
"What are you going to do with me," Lana asked in a small voice. Her throat ached with dryness, and cracked when she spoke.
"I'm not sure," the voice replied. Lana heard him move.
"Here, have some water."
Lana felt a straw against her lips so she opened her mouth and took several long drinks of the cool water. She stopped and took a breath, and the straw was withdrawn from her mouth.
Suddenly there was a beeping from the far right side of the room. Lana instinctively turned her head in that direction.
"Damn!" she heard the man exclaim. His footsteps moved quickly away from her towards the sound of the beeping. She heard buttons being pushed.
Lana slowly raised her chin, trying to see out the bottom of the blindfold. He was too far across the room and she couldn't see that far. She lowered her chin, and tried to listen for any clues.
"Damn that woman!" she heard the man say under his breath.
Lila, Clark and Chloe had stepped out of the elevator into the empty hallway. They proceeded down the hall, following the signs marked Technologies Research.
When they reached the end of the hall, Lila used her ID card to open the security door and she led them into an entryway. Chloe and Clark stepped in after her and the door closed behind them. There was a rush of cool air as they were blown free of contaminants and dust particles. Lila used her ID card again to open the second door in front of them. The solid door slide open, and the three of them walked into the lab, surveying the scene.
The lab was deserted.
"That's weird," Lila said, walking towards one of the many lab benches.
Chloe looked at Clark and raised her eyebrows.
"What?" she asked, as she started after Lila.
Clark took a breath and followed after them.
"This is Dr. Hines laptop. He would never leave it here in the lab for anyone to see," Lila looked around like she expected to see Dr. Hines lurking in a shadowy corner.
"Maybe he had to use the bathroom?" Clark offered.
Chloe shot him an exasperated look. Lila just shook her head.
"No, I've shared a lab with this man, and he never once left his laptop alone, out of his sight," Lila explained, as she sat in front of the computer. She disabled the screensaver and examined the data on the screen. Lila furrowed her brow as she scrolled through the pages. Clark and Chloe watched over her shoulder. The computer screen looked like Greek to them.
"What are we looking at," Chloe asked.
"Some of the early design specs for I.O.N.A. 1," Lila answered as she read over the pages of data.
"But none of this has anything to do with the problem we're having with I.O.N.A. 1 now," she said, "and there are some adjustments here to the design that I didn't write."
Clark and Chloe looked at each other.
"Problem?" Chloe asked.
Lila cursed herself as she realized that she just told two reporters that the android wasn't without problems.
"It's a tiny, tiny problem," she tried to gloss over, "we just can't get the android to pour alcohol."
Chloe and Clark looked at each other and Clark raised his eyebrows. Chloe started to giggle, she couldn't help herself. Lila turned and looked at the two of them. Clark pursed his lips into a tight smile, while Chloe tried to stop her giggling.
"It is ridiculous, isn't it," Lila said, smiling at the thought.
"Yes, it is," Chloe confirmed.
Lila started laughing with Chloe, and Clark enjoyed the moment, watching Lila laugh like he hadn't seen since the night before.
After a few minutes the girls' giggling subsided.
"Why don't Chloe and I look around the lab while you look through the computer?" Clark offered. Chloe nodded in agreement and immediately began rummaging through drawers and files.
Clark slowly walked around the lab, using his X-ray vision to look through every wall, and every drawer, and every cabinet. He reached the back wall of the lab, where the fire door was located. He was reminded of his visit earlier and his pseudo-conversation with Dr. Mason Hines.
"Weird guy," he said quietly to himself. He looked through the wall at the back of the lab; nothing but solid cement and the empty hallway behind. He turned his attention inward, and looked through the benches at the rear of the lab. They were mostly empty. Clark reached the adjoining wall, and started walking back towards the front of the room where Lila was on the computer, and Chloe was rummaging through a freestanding desk.
Clark scanned the wall, which was bare save a few charts of circuits and basic electronics. Ahead of Clark was a large, metal cabinet. Clark focused his sight again, and was shocked to find what appeared to be a secret door and stairwell, leading from inside the cabinet. Clark opened the doors to the cabinet-which served as a closet for lab coats, and threw all the coats and their hangers on the floor. The commotion he caused made Lila and Chloe turn his way. Chloe immediately stopped her search and walked over join Clark.
"What did you see?" She asked quietly.
"There's a door and stairwell behind this cabinet," Clark whispered, feeling inside the metal edges for a latch, or a switch to release the door. He couldn't fling it aside like he wanted too, because Lila was right there.
"Did I hear you say there's a door in the cabinet?" Lila asked, as she came up to them.
Suddenly there was a click, and the back of the cabinet swung away from them, revealing a dimly lit, concrete stairwell.
Lila looked at Clark with amazement.
"How did you find this?" She asked her eyes wide.
Chloe hid a small smile, while Clark tried to think of a viable reason.
"Oh, I felt a draft," he lied.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's check it out!" Chloe said quietly, as she entered the cabinet to descend the stairs. Clark pulled her back, and entered first. Chloe followed and Lila came last.