"Hey, guys," Clark said as he walked into The Torch office. Chloe was at her computer, typing away. Pete was standing behind her, looking over her shoulder. The early morning sun was causing a glare off of the monitor.
"Ok, Clark, tell me what you think," she gestured toward her computer screen, not looking at him.
Clark began to walk over to his friends. Pete said, "I don't know, Chloe. I thought this was a school newspaper, not a tabloid."
Clark stood next to Pete and looked over Chloe's shoulder. It was another meteor theory article. "Maybe you should save those for when something weird actually happens," Clark suggested.
"Clark's right, it's been pretty quiet around here lately," Pete was thankful that Clark agreed with him. Chloe never got upset with him if he erred on the side of their mutual friend.
Chloe sighed, "A good journalist…"
She was cut off by a brisk knock on the door. The three looked over in unison. A girl with shoulder length chestnut hair stood in the doorway, holding a white envelope.
"Adra," Chloe said in a mildly surprised voice. Clark offered a closed lip smile and Pete gave a small wave. The girl in the door was rarely seen outside of a classroom or the school agriculture department. Chloe stood up and began to walk over to her. "Is there something I can do for you?" Chloe asked.
Adra stoically looked around the room and appeared to be committing everything in it to memory. "This was delivered to the agriculture green house by mistake," she said plainly as she offered an envelope to Chloe.
Chloe gave Adra her best smile as she went to take the envelope from the girl. There was a large bandage on Adra's hand. "Ouch, are you all right?" Chloe asked as she took the envelope. She looked at the envelope; it was addressed to "Ms. Sullivan, Care of The Torch."
"Fine," Adra said.
"What happened?" Pete asked.
She sighed. "I was out collecting soil samples from a meteor crash site, to see how it might have affected some of the local flora. I slipped and cut myself on one of the damn things," she said, slightly annoyed.
Clark instinctively took a step back – no one noticed. He didn't feel sick, but he had been in some less-than-good situations where things had started out in a similar way.
Adra turned and left without another word. "Adra Arden, now there is someone for your Wall of Weird, Chloe," Pete said as he looked at the now empty doorway.
Chloe didn't hear Pete. She had opened the envelope and was reading the letter inside.
Clark noticed the smile on her face. "What is it?" he asked.
"This is so thoughtful," she said as though Clark and Pete had vanished. They both took a few steps toward her to find out what was going on. She folded up the letter and held up a check for two hundred dollars.
"What's that for?" Pete asked.
"I was at the office of the Smallville Ledger a few days ago, doing some research. To make a long story short, I started talking to some of the people that work there about how sometimes we don't have the supplies we need because of the budget. And they took up a little collection for the budding journalists at Smallville High," she said with a laugh.
"That's great, Chloe," Clark said with a smile.
"What are you going to spend it on?" Pete asked, nudging her.
"If you are implying that I would embezzle it," she said with a pause, "You're sadly mistaken. I think I am just going to pick up some things that we need around here."
"What, like thumbtacks?" Pete made an obvious look to The Wall of Weird. Clark had to stifle a laugh.
"Come with me to cash it after school and help me decide?" Chloe offered to her two companions. Clark and Pete both nodded.
Lex walked past his assistant. He was putting the bottled water he held in one hand in his jacket pocket, making sure not to spill the coffee in his other hand. He didn't look at her, still slightly perturbed from the events that transpired yesterday. "Mr. Luthor," she began.
He stopped and looked at her with the words "You're fired" poised to leave his lips.
"Gabe Sullivan is in your office," she said plainly, handing him a few messages.
Damn. He had completely forgotten that he was scheduled to do an overview of the entire plant today. He had plans for today – like taking a certain supervising invoice auditor out to a nice lunch.
The plant was huge; taking a normal tour of it would take hours. But with Gabe Sullivan leading the way, Lex realized he might not see the light of day – ever again. Gabe was a nice guy, but he took things around here a little too seriously. Like processing manure was the most important thing that had and will ever happen. He never spared details about anything or realized that there were certain people who didn't find his puns very amusing. More like tedious.
Lex's assistant watched him as he went through a range of exasperated emotions. It wasn't that she didn't sympathize; she knew Gabe Sullivan and his infamous tours or his explanations of – well, anything.
Lex let out a barely audible sigh and turned to head for his office and a very long day.
Lex's assistant was on the phone at her desk. Rhone walked up to the desk and leaned against it, waiting for her to finish her conversation. She adjusted the artist's tube on her back as she waited.
As soon as she hung up the phone she turned to Rhone. "Mr. Luthor isn't in his office," she said with a sorry look. She was old enough to realize that the two of them complemented each other nicely. The few other women she had met that her employer associated with were – snotty. And that was putting it nicely.
"Is he out to lunch?" Rhone asked trying to sound nonchalant. It was a little past noon and very possible. She was disappointed – no, she was just wondering why he hadn't called for her, like he had every other day that she was here…
"No, he had to take an internal inspection of the plant today -- with Gabe Sullivan. He left as soon as he got here, around 9," she looked at her watch.
"Well, Claire, they must be having a lot of fun together, to be gone so long," Rhone said with a sarcastic smile. She had had a few brief interactions with Gabe Sullivan when she arrived early in the morning. Nice enough, but he was a little too committed to fertilizer and a cliché set of jokes.
Lex's assistant knew it was all right to laugh; this girl had a sense of humor. "Knowing Gabe, they will be 'having fun together' until it's time for dinner," she said, making quotation marks with her fingers when she said 'having fun together.'
"That bad?" Rhone asked. Claire raised her eyebrows and nodded. "Is this a – compulsory tour that Mr. Luthor is on?" Rhone was still trying to sound indifferent.
"Honey, for people with that much money, nothing is compulsory," Claire said with a wry smile.
"Right you are," Rhone smiled. "See you later," she turned to leave.
Rhone walked down the empty hallway holding a manila folder. She listened for anyone that might be around. She didn't have a valid excuse to be in this part of the plant. Not that she couldn't bull shit one easily enough. Security at Plant Number Three was probably worse than what Lex had at the castle. She shook her head at that thought.
She had seen the blue prints for this place too. She came to a door and listened in an attempt to hear anything on the other side. She heard – a television. She shook her head again and rolled her eyes. She straitened her dark green pants suit. She opened the door, held up the folder, and was about to explain she was lost to – no one.
She looked around the room, with the exception of a large number of surveillance monitors, a small television/VCR combo that was showing entertainment of the – strictly adult nature -- on a desk, and an empty office chair, she was alone. She felt the cup of coffee on the desk – cold. No one had been in here for a while. And from what she had seen of the general quality of the security around here, they were probably outside playing badminton or, from the nature of their viewing habits, on a very important phone call to a 1-900 number.
She sat in the office chair and started looking at the countless surveillance monitors. She scanned each of them quickly.
There he was, Rhone noticed that the monochromatic monitors made him look completely white. His bald colorless head contrasted sharply with his dark jacket and pants. He was lazily standing with his hands in his pockets. He looked completely bored walking behind Gabe Sullivan.
She watched him for a moment – a long moment. She caught her hand moving up to the monitor. She instantly stopped and shook her head. What was she going to do, touch the monitor because he couldn't stand to be touched by her? At least no one was around to see that. She looked at the label on the monitor, Main Control Room.
She turned to leave the room, manila folder still in hand. She stopped and turned to the adult entertainment that was – screaming on the only color television in the room. She stopped the tape and reluctantly took it out of the VCR. She set it on the desk and slowly poured the cup of cold coffee over it with a grin. She wiped the hand she had touched the tape with on her pants and walked out the door.