Chapter 12 - 33.1

Lex woke at a little before three in the morning and snuck out of the farm house.

It had taken a lot of convincing to get Clark to write 3AM as the meeting time with Lindsay, but it was crucial to choose a time when Martha and Jonathan would be asleep. If they were awake, they would ask questions, and they'd begin to suspect Lex wasn't what he claimed to be. Of course, Lex knew it was a matter of time before he lost their trust, but he didn't want to push that day any sooner than it had to be. This way, though, Clark would actually keep the meeting secret from his parents all together. Neither Martha nor Jonathan had ever actually specified a rule against sneaking out in the middle of the night, but the curfew seemed to imply it.

He was lucky the walk to the caves wasn't terribly long. He didn't really want to risk driving; the Kents might hear his car start.

"Don't do this," his weakness implored him on the walk over. "What's the point? They're going to find out, and then you'll never gain their trust back."

Lex smirked. His weakness never seemed to understand. The Kents' trust only mattered as a means to his research projects. It wasn't an end in and of itself.

Down in the new cave passage with the stone table, Lex put his hands in the pockets of his long coat, keeping his back very straight and stiff, the way Lionel had taught him to wait for meeting attendants. He didn't have long to wait.

Lindsay appeared at three exactly, still wearing the flannel shirt the Kents had lent to her. Appeared was the correct word, too. He doubted she'd actually teleported in; his suspicion was that she'd run faster than his eyes could see.

Like Clark could.

"No, no. Please, don't do what you're thinking. You're in over your head."

Lex didn't let himself grin, even though he felt the gratification rush through him. She was so much more than he'd dared to hope for.

Her eyes, however, narrowed as soon as they fell on him. "You are not Kal El."

"No, I'm not," he said, and he took the lead box out of his pocket and opened it. The small piece of meteor rock glowed in the low light, and she doubled over in pain.

"You are . . . Sageeth . . ."

"As fascinating as that is," he said, stepping over to her and grabbing her by the hand, "I'm really more interested in you. Lindsay Harrison, isn't it?"

"You don't know what you're doing."

He pulled both hands behind her back—it was even easier than he'd anticipated. "Yeah? Why is that?"

"Kal El will destroy you. It is his destiny."

This was going to get annoying fast. He considered knocking her out, but opted for instead slipping the piece of kryptonite into her pocket, after which she went silent, falling to her knees, her eyes closing. He swept her up in both arms—unfortunately, she was a lot heavier than she looked—and carried her out of the cave.

Once again, he was thankful he'd convinced Clark to hold this meeting in the middle of the night. He carefully laid Lindsay down in the back seat of his car—he had left a car at the cave site, along with a backup stash of meteor rock in his glove compartment, just in case—and began the drive toward the lab.

After a minute on the road, she said in a weak voice, "You are Sageeth."

He raised his eyebrows, curiosity getting the better of him. "Who's Sageeth?"

"The mortal enemy of Naman, the last son of Krypton."

"Clark."

She was silent. He angled the rear view mirror toward her, and caught her eyes glistening.

"It's an old Kawache legend. They didn't know about Krypton, but they knew Naman would come. They called him . . . the man with the strength of ten men, who could shoot fire from his eyes, who fell from the stars."

"And Sageeth?"

"He was like a brother to Naman until he turned against him. He was always destined to do so."

Lex wished he had knocked her out. It'd be better than listening to this.

Back at the lab, he led Lindsay into the back door of the building, down a hallway, and into an empty cell. He kept most of the meteor mutants he'd taken from Belle Reve in identical cells, though some required modification to the security, to account for their particular powers. Lindsay wouldn't need any. A bit of meteor rock would keep her subdued, at the very least until his team arrived for the day to begin experimentation.

Over the past month, Lex had swapped out almost all of the scientists on his team. Most of them had some, but not all, of the qualifications he needed. A few weren't quite smart enough; most weren't visionaries; many had reservations about human experimentation, no matter how justified—or lucrative—the cause might have been. The hardest to replace had been his mineralogist, Henry Criton, who had taken the news of his firing very poorly, especially since he'd just been promoted to head scientist. After interviewing around for a little while, though, Lex had found the perfect replacement.

His name was Milton Fine, and he was perfect.

Brilliant, ruthless, future-minded, and had no qualms about the kinds of projects Lex wanted to work on. He had so many degrees and credentials in various medical sciences and engineering that Lex was surprised he'd never heard of him before, but his resume checked out. Lex's weak side hated the man, which was always a bonus; it was quieter and more subdued when Lex spent time around people it didn't like. Dr. Fine also liked to do his work early in the day; he would be arriving around five.

Lex checked his watch. It wasn't quite four in the morning yet. He had plenty of time before Dr. Fine would arrive. He went up to his office to make himself some coffee, and he brought it down to the sitting area outside the lab to wait.

Dr. Fine arrived right on time, and he gave Lex a curt nod. "Morning, Mr. Luthor."

"Morning," Lex said. That was another thing Lex liked about Dr. Fine. Most of his employees were used to calling him by first name, upon his weakness's insistence. It had made some amount of sense to insist upon a different name than Lionel, but the old bastard was dead now. He much preferred to be known formally. "New subject for us today."

"Oh, yeah?" Dr. Fine walked right past the coffee pot—he wasn't a coffee drinker, didn't really seem to eat or drink at all while he was working as far as Lex could tell—and went into the lab.

Lex followed him. "A Lindsay Harrison."

They walked together down the hall of cells, and Dr. Fine looked down at the crumpled figure of the girl in the flannel shirt, who appeared to be asleep. There was a flicker of something like recognition in his eyes, but all he said was, "What's her story?"

"She died. The day of the meteor shower."

"How old was she?"

"Same age as she looks now."

"Why am I not surprised?" Dr. Fine muttered.

"Think you can get a team on her?" Lex asked.

"Of course. We're not exactly short staffed. And we have you to thank for that."

"How are things with the staff?"

"Henry Criton keeps calling. The threats are getting more severe."

Lex nearly rolled his eyes. "I'll double up on security."

"Take care of yourself, Mr. Luthor. His threats are mostly about you."

Lex gave a brief nod. "I'm heading out on a trip to Egypt tomorrow morning."

"Ah. Business or pleasure?"

"Bit of both," Lex said. "I know this is putting you on the spot, but I'd like a brief report of our current status on projects before I go."

Dr. Fine nodded. "Come with me. I think you'll like this."

Lex followed him into another part of the building, the analytical lab. It was where they usually ran the tests on Clark's blood, as well as on the tissue samples they collected from other research subjects, but there were new samples in the refrigerator that Lex didn't recognize.

"What are these?" Lex asked.

"Look closer."

Lex knelt down to the refrigerator and squinted as he read the labels. Then his eyes widened. He wasn't sure if the dread he felt was his weakness's or his own. "These are viruses."

"You're quick, Mr. Luthor."

"Some of the most deadly in the world. I didn't give you authorization to order these samples."

"No, but you did give me authorization to make use of the samples we had in the way I saw fit. Still wish you'd tell me where they came from."

Lex didn't respond to that last piece. "The samples I give you have the potential to cure diseases, save lives. Your samples have the potential to end them." That seemed to be the only reason his weakness didn't throw a tantrum every time he stepped foot in this place. The reality was, the research he was doing would save a lot of lives, even if that wasn't the reason he was going it

"As lucrative as it might be, Mr. Luthor, we're not in the business of bio weaponry."

It hit him at once. He should have realized it. "You're developing a vaccine."

"A universal vaccine. Death by disease would be a thing of the past."

"And the cells I've given you will be sufficient?" Clark's cells, but Lex trusted Dr. Fine would know what he was talking about; he'd kept Clark's secret. No need for anyone else to know his secret weapon.

"The marrow was helpful, but we can always use more raw material."

"I'll make sure you have it. This is good work, Dr. Fine."

"Thank you, Mr. Luthor."

"I'll be back in a few hours to oversee operations, but I need to run an errand first. You can hold down the fort here?"

"Of course."

Lex gave Dr. Fine a nod and exited the laboratory.

He drove back to the farm, arriving just as the first rays of sunlight were starting to peek their way out from behind the horizon. He changed into a set of work clothes he'd stored in the trunk of his car and went directly to the horse stalls. Ignoring the nausea as best as he could, he began mucking out the stalls.

Jonathan was the first to find him there. "Lex?"

Lex set down the pitchfork. "Morning, Dad."

"You bastard. He's not your father," the voice said.

But Lex watched Jonathan's expression soften with Lex's use of the title. He'd been right to use it; it was going to buy him a lot of time. They would be awfully hesitant to distrust him while he was calling them his parents. "Morning, Lex. Couldn't sleep?"

"Ah, I thought I'd get a head start on the chores this morning. Seeing as you need to rest, and Clark and I are going to be out for the next week."

"That's very thoughtful of you, son."

Lex gave him a bright smile. He was winning a lot of points with the Kents today, especially since he'd set the bar so low over the past few weeks.

"Well, I was going to come get this one before breakfast, but it looks like you're just about done."

"Just about."

"Let me finish up for you. Why don't you go on inside and get cleaned up?"

"Thanks, Dad."

Jonathan grinned and patted Lex on the back before picking up the pitchfork himself. Lex headed toward the house.

When he was halfway from the stables to the house, Clark came jogging over to him. He gave a slight wave and smile, and he asked in a low voice, "What did she want?"

"Ah, Lindsay?"

"Yeah."

"She was a no-show."

Clark's face fell. "Really?"

"I dunno, Clark, maybe the cave thing was a coincidence."

"You said she rose from the dead."

"Kryptonite's had stranger effects on people."

Clark's head lowered. "So what now?"

"We go to Egypt in the morning. We find that stone, then we find the other two and fill out that table." Lex clapped him on the shoulder. "That's the best we can do right now."

Clark sighed. "Yeah. Okay. Hey . . . I know Dad said once a week, but do you think I could donate blood one more time before we go?"

Lex put on his best concerned face. "You're sure you're up for it?"

"I'm sure."

Lex forced himself to pause, then he nodded. "Tomorrow morning, before the jet takes off. But you're going to drink lots of water before we get on the plane."

Clark gave him a wide grin. "Thanks so much, Lex."

"Thank you, Clark," Lex said, and he grinned himself.