It had been a week since Lex's disappearance and Clark was no closer to finding him. He had searched all the places he could think of that Lex had frequented in the past. Given that their friendship was still somewhat new he had little to go on other than what he could learn from the mansion servants and some of the people Lex worked with.

Searching the seedier side of Metropolis had given Clark a glimpse into the life Lex had led before he came to Smallville. Clark didn't know if he felt sorry for Lex or was angry with him. The people who knew Lex in these places told him stories that made Clark think he really didn't know Lex at all. He rationalized that he didn't have the right to judge or be angry at Lex for his past, after all everyone had a past right he thought to himself as he pushed his way out the door of Club Zero. (Leaving the clubs was always easier than sneaking into them underage).

He didn't have a past he thought briefly to himself thinking about his childhood on the farm. He smiled to himself when he realized his past was more of a secret than Lex's would ever be.

He felt somewhat uneasy learning Lex's deepest, darkest secrets given that Lex didn't have insight into his secrets. He had struggled with telling him, Lana and Chloe everything but his better judgment always won out.

He had gone into every backstreet bar in the city during the evenings and followed Lionel closely during the day. He was confident that Lionel had not seen him until today. He had gotten a little to close and was distracted by the sound of a car accident happening behind him. He had turned to see what was happening and when he turned back there was Lionel, staring right at him. There was no mistaking the look on Lionel's face as he acknowledged Clark's presence.

Clark silently cursed himself for his sloppiness. The most disappointing part of it all was that Lionel was clean. He didn't appear to have any knowledge of his son's whereabouts. None of his associates were of help, no friends of Lex's could be found (that is if he had any friends Clark thought) and Lucas was strutting his stuff all over town as the new rich kid.

Lucas must have had something to do with Lex's disappearance. He had the most to gain with Lex out of the way. He had been following Lucas' tracks all week as well but found no evidence of involvement either.

At one point he had confronted Lucas similar to how he had approached Lionel. His efforts were rewarded with an escorted trip out of the building courtesy of Lucas' bodyguards.

His parents were little help; they weren't concerned in the slightest about Lex or his disappearance. Truth be told no one seemed to miss the eccentric son of a billionaire. No one that is except Clark. He was the only one who seemed to care; even Chloe who could always be relied on for her flare for the mysterious chalked it up as unworthy. She was convinced that he would reappear in a few weeks and resume with business as usual.

He let out a sigh and headed home at high speed, hopeful that his parents hadn't been looking for him.

Lionel had in fact seen Clark. As a matter of fact, he had been notified of the boys appearance numerous times through out the week. He was beginning to worry that the farm boy's tenacity was parallel to that of Jonathon Kent's. Lex must have made quite an impression on the young man for Clark to continue to pursue the truth so diligently.

He picked up the phone and dialed the number to the Sudan operator.

"Yes patch me through to the home of Joshua Bruha." Lionel spoke into the phone slowly for the operator's sake with the somewhat bad connection.

As was the process over the last week Lionel left a message with the head of communications in the mansion in Sudan. Joshua was given the message and phoned Lionel's personal line at a time that was convenient to him.

He was interrupted from his work when the phone rang some time later.

"Lionel Luthor." Lionel answered.

"Hello Lionel, how are you today?" Joshua's voice broke the silence on the other line.

"Joshua. I'm fine. We do seem to be developing a slight problem though."

"And what problem is that?"

"One of my son's friends, his only friend actually, has been poking around looking for him."

"That must be Larry Mathews, your son told me about him." Joshua confirmed.

"Larry Mathews?" Lionel's voice was confused.

"Hmm." Joshua confirmed, "Your son told me his iis his best friend."

"Did he really?" Lionel's laughter filled the phone line. "Well I am afraid that my son had fed you quite the line of bullshit. Larry Mathew's is an employee of mine who I hired to keep Lex in line during his wilder days. He certainly is not my son's friend, Lex hates him."

"Is that so." Joshua's voice took on a tone of deep, calm, unnerving anger. His boy had lied to him. He had thought Lex was doing well; he had earned enough links in his chain in the last week to allow him to kneel up. Because of his cooperation he had been given some graces such as bathroom and shower times as well as some basic meals. Joshua thought briefly that he should revoke all privileges and links and start at the beginning, this time without the lies. If Lex had lied to him at the start, how many other things had he lied about?

"Are you listening to me?" Lionel hollered into the phone.

Shaken out of his thoughts of retribution Joshua resumed the conversation, "Sorry you were saying?"

"Clark Kent is snooping around and frankly I don't like it. You are going to have to get Lex to convince Clark that he is fine and just away on holidays or he may very well uncover something. We need to suffice his interest in this until we can arrange for Lex's death."

Joshua thought about it briefly, "Leave the boy to me. I will have Lex contact him and let him know that everything is all right. You may have to wait for a while until I can be sure that Lex can be trusted to make such a phone call. Leave the boy's number with my assistant."

"Joshua, I need this dealt with." Lionel warned, conveying the seriousness of his request in his tone.

"It will be." He assured Lionel and hung up the phone. So Lex thought he could lie to him and get away with it did he? Well he would quickly learn his place.

Joshua hung up the phone and then in a momentary afterthought he picked it back up and threw it across the room, smashing it against the wall.

A devious smile crossed his lips as he realized the power this knowledge would give him over Lex. He must care very deeply for this boy Lionel spoke of to have risked the ramifications of being caught in a lie, especially so early on in his captivity.

He picked up a black bag from his office closet and headed off towards the room that Lex was being held in. This would be a true test of his power over Lex. Lex would call this Kent boy and he would learn the ramifications of lying in the process.