Clark had led the two women down the narrow concrete stairway. The light from the bare bulb hanging above them cast harsh shadows. As they descended the stairs Chloe suddenly remembered that Lois would be trying to contact her. She dug her cell phone out of her bag. The reception was terrible, and she kept losing service. She made sure the ringer was on silent and held the phone in her hand.
Clark stopped at the base of the stairs. They were at another door, apparently made of solid metal. He tried to look through it with his X-ray vision, but saw nothing. iLead/i, he thought with as a feeling of unease. He felt the two girls behind him, waiting.
This is wrong, he thought. We shouldn't be here.
"Solid Lead," he turned and whispered. Even at a whisper, his voice echoed in the empty stairwell.
Chloe nodded, narrowing her eyes in thought.
Lila looked at the two of them, again confused at their nonverbal communication. She wanted to ask how they knew it was lead. But she kept quiet.
"Stay back," Clark said quietly. Chloe pulled Lila back up a few steps.
Clark slowly turned the handle of the door, it was unlocked. There was a loud click, and all three of them winced. Clark took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. Thankfully it was silent on its hinges.
He glanced back at Chloe and Lila, giving them a reassuring smile. They both forced weak smiles back. Clark slowly stepped around the door, into the lab. It was apparently deserted. He let out his breath, unaware he'd been holding it. He opened the door all the way and motioned for the two women to enter.
Chloe and Lila stepped into the room, and they shut the door behind them. They all stood there for a minute, looking around. Clark looked to Lila for an explanation.
"This looks like another lab," she said.
"Another lab to build an android, I mean," she added.
She walked into the room, looking at all the equipment and tools lying around. She turned back around to face Clark, and Chloe.
"I don't like the looks of this," she said.
One level up, Katherine Trumpet entered the main lab followed by two of the goons who had mistakenly snatched the Lana earlier in the day. Katherine had been paged 911 by Dr. Hines, and this meant major trouble.
Katherine looked around the lab, and when she saw the doors of the cabinet leading down to the secret lab wide open, she jogged over and descended quickly with the two hired guns close behind.
Chloe found a spot in the lower lab where her cell service seemed to be working. She hit the speed-dial for Lois. Her call was answered on the first ring.
"Chloe! It's about damn time you returned my call, I've-," Lois started to say before Chloe interrupted her whispered anxiously.
"Lois, shut up and listen, we're at Luthorcorp, there's a-,"
Suddenly two men and a woman came bursting through the door that Clark, Chloe and Lila had just entered through. Chloe paused and turned to face the door. The woman was to her in a minute, slapping the phone away from Chloe's ear as one of the men grabbed Chloe's arms and held her still. At that same moment there was a loud, blood-curdling scream from across the room.
Lex and Lois had walked the path the doorman indicated Lana took, and had seen nothing. They were walking back to the front entrance of the building when Lois's cell phone rang.
Lois flipped it open on the first ring, glancing quickly at the display. It was Chloe. She breathed a sigh of relief as she answered.
"Chloe-it's about damn time you returned my call, I've-,"
"Lois, shut up and listen, we're at Luthorcorp, there's a-,"
Chloe paused, and Lois heard a loud crash and woman scream. Her eyes widened as the line went silent.
"Chloe!"
Lex reached his hand to touch Lois's shoulder as she slowly lowered the phone from her ear.
"What happened?" he asked.
"That was Chloe, she said they were at Luthorcorp," she looked at Lex, confused. "She was about to tell me something when there was a loud crash, then a scream."
Lex just looked back at her.
"We have to get over there!" Lois exclaimed, as she suddenly realized what she'd heard. She started to panic, worrying for Chloe and Clark.
Lex grabbed her arm again, as she started to turn.
"Wait," he started.
"Lex! This is Chloe, my cousin, my best friend! She's in trouble! You didn't hear her, she sounded like she needed my help," Lois started to quake with emotion, and her voice cracked as she spoke. Her eyes started welling with tears, the question of Lana's whereabouts momentarily forgotten.
She raised her shaking hands and rubbed her eyes to clear them. iNo time for an emotional breakdown/i, she thought as she struggled for control.
"Okay, Lois. I just don't want you to get hurt either," Lex replied, looking at her sheepishly.
Lois bristled. She hated when Lex tried to play on her emotions.
"I don't have time for this, I'm going over to Luthorcorp to help my cousin, if you want to come with fine, but you're not going to stop me from helping her, or Clark," Lois replied angrily, her tears dry now. iSometimes he was so selfish/i, she thought.
Lex dropped his arm, which still had a grip on Lois, and nodded. His expression cleared. He didn't see this side to Lois very often-her independent, domineering side.
"Let's go," he said blankly.
Clark was caught unprepared during all this. He was stuck halfway across the room. On one side Chloe was being restrained by one of the goons, and on the other, the scream from the unknown and unseen woman.
Clark used his X-ray vision to try and find where the scream came from. He looked carefully at the far wall, and saw what he must have missed before, what looked like a handle to a door. The room must be lead-lined all the way through, he thought. He started to walk towards the hidden door.
"Stay where you are," Katherine Trumpet said loudly.
Clark glanced over his shoulder towards the voice with no intention of stopping. But he did stop when he saw the tall woman holding a gun at Chloe.
The second man had quickly moved around the room, and was drawing another weapon which he leveled at Lila.
"Katherine, what are you doing?" Lila finally spoke, unbelievably.
"Katherine Trumpet?" Chloe asked as she looked sideways at the tall blonde woman who was holding a gun to her head.
"Here, take this," she shoved her gun into the hands of the man who was restraining Chloe, ignoring her comment.
Clark watched the scene before him unfold. Now two women he cared about were being held at gunpoint. He couldn't save one without possibly endangering the other. Clark felt trapped. He followed Katherine with his eyes as she crossed the room towards the secret door he had been headed for.
Katherine flung the door open, and there stood Dr. Mason Hines.
Inside the vault, Dr. Hines was fuming mad. The damn girl had screamed. Lila and her two friends would find them for sure.
He had heard the handle click, and as he prepared himself to fend off the reporter, he was shocked to see Katherine Trumpet, not Clark Kent, at the door. He stepped forward out of the vault and was curious to see Lila, Clark and the other woman he didn't know, staring at him. Then he saw the guns pointed at the girls, and his stomach fell.
This is a disaster, he thought.
"You might as well let her out," Dr. Hines hiked his thumb over his back, indicating Lana. Katherine entered the vault and pulled Lana, still blindfolded, to her feet and led her out of the vault.
"Lana! Are you okay?" Clark said as he saw the cuts down the side of her face and dried blood on her shirt. His eyes were anxious with worry over her well-being.
"Clark? Yes, I'm okay," she answered. She was so happy to hear Clark's voice; he was here to save her, again. "Can you take this blindfold off me?"
Lana had assumed she was rescued. She had no idea that they were still at a disadvantage.
"Uh," Clark stalled, as he looked at Dr. Hines, then Katherine. Dr. Hines shrugged his shoulders angrily.
"What does it matter now," he spat.
Katherine shoved Lana in the direction of Clark, and as she was about to stumble and fall Clark caught her. He gently lifted the small blindfold off her eyes and brushed some loose strands of hair from her bleeding face while she blinked furiously, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness of the room.
"Are you really okay?" he asked, with obvious concern.
Lila and Chloe watched this tender interaction, each with mixed feelings.
Lana nodded tiredly. She was about to ask for the ropes to be cut, freeing her hands, when she saw Lila, and Chloe, both with guns pointed at them.
Her smile faltered as she realized she wasn't rescued, and she wasn't the only captive anymore.
Inside the vault where Dr. Hines had hidden himself and Lana was a device. The casing of the device was lead and was about the size of a Kleenex box. Connected to this device were copper wiring and a detonator. The detonator on the small device was set to trigger when a specific density of air was reached; specifically the density of air that Clark Kent created when he entered a room.
While Clark and Lana were reuniting there was a silent flip of the switch, and the clock on the bomb started counting down from 30:00 minutes; no one knew it was there.
Connected to the device was a second piece of equipment. This apparatus had two eighteen inch diameter white PVC pipes snaking their way out and along the ceiling of the lab. The pipes were spaced evenly apart, and ran the entire length of the room. Every few feet along the pipelines were placed plexi-glass windows, allowing whatever was contained within to be visible to the people below.
With another silent flip of the switch, the pipes leading from this equipment started filling with a glowing, green fluid, and began to fill up and flow across the length of the room.