"Can you pull up the phone records for Lionel's office?" Clark asked as he leaned over Chloe's shoulder.

The two had been running searches through Chloe's contacts all afternoon and Clark was running out of ideas. So far all the leads they had started pursuing had come up empty and Clark's frustration was showing as he stood and ran his hand through his hair.

"I'll try." Chloe shrugged. She had recently been warming up to Clark's quest for Lex since it was unlike the millionaire to be AWOL for this length of time without so much as a call to Clark.

Clark paced the floor in the torch office as he tried to think of other angles to tackle in locating his friend.

"Maybe Lex doesn't want to be found Clark." Chloe offered feebly.

"Chloe." Clark sighed for what felt like the thousandth time.

She smiled to herself thinking that if the search for Lex was pointless at least it served her best interests by being able to spend some Lana free time with Clark.

Clark's cell phone rang, shocking them both out of their individual thoughts.

Clark looked at the number on the display screen and didn't recognize it. He gave Chloe a quizzical look as he raised his finger to his mouth to request silence.

"Hello?" Clark's tone was more of a question than it was an answer.

"Hi Clark."

The sound of Lex's voice shook Clark through his entire body. His mind went into over drive with a thousand questions and a mixture of relief and anger.

"Lex! Lex where are you? Are you okay? What happened? I went to your apartment and-"

"Whoa, whoa Clark calm down." Lex was actually surprised with the humor he heard in his own voice. He didn't think that after the last week, especially the last few days, he would ever find anything amusing again. Clark's concern and boyish mannerisms reminded Lex why he valued Clark's friendship in his life. Clark was proof that despite his upbringing and current situation there were still good people in the world. People who cared about the person he could become.

"Lex, where are you?" Clark tried to calm himself.

"I'm just away taking care of some," Lex looked up at Joshua and nodded, "business. Look I'm sorry about the game the other week. Something came up and I had to leave in a bit of a hurry."

"Lex are you sure you are okay?" Clark asked suspiciously.

"I'm fine Clark, I just need to be away for a while for work. Look I'll make it up to you okay. When I come back we'll go to the next game but in the meantime you can borrow the car that I gave you the key to last week."

Lex hoped inwardly that Clark wouldn't ask any questions and rushed to finish the conversation. He was pretty sure that someone as devious as Joshua would have the conversation taped to analyze for tricks later.

Clark thought back to the last time he had seen Lex and the key that Lex had given him. Instantly his suspicions that something was wrong were confirmed.

"You'll need the code to the garage at the mansion." Lex avoided eye contact with his capture who was standing far to close for his liking. "Have you got a pen and paper?"

"Lex?"

"Clark do you have a pen?" Lex cut his friend off hoping Clark would get the hint.

"Yeah go ahead."

"The code is 10-2-18-21-8-1, got it?"

"10-2-18-21-8-1 got it." Clark read back.

Lex looked up at Joshua who was signally for the conversation to be terminated.

Lex nodded his head. "Clark, I'm sorry but I have to let you go. I have a meeting I have to get back to, I'll call you later okay."

"Yeah, okay, sure." Clark's voice sounded disappointed.

"Good bye Clark." Lex finished the conversation but wasn't ready to give the phone back just yet.

"Bye Lex."

Lex stood gripping the phone, reluctant to give it to Joshua's assistant. It was the closest he had come to help in a week and he couldn't bring himself to let go of that.

Eventually the phone was taken from him and Joshua moved to stand behind him. Placing both hands possessively on Lex's hips he leaned in and brushed his lips against Lex' ear.

"Good boy." He mumbled before he stepped away.

Lex stood silently in the middle of the room willing himself to stay strong. He didn't want to break down, not here, not now. Clark's voice had almost pushed him to the edge. It was a hard and fast reminder of what he had lost.

"Lex are you listening to me?" Joshua's voice cleared his thoughts.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said that there is much here for you to enjoy but there is work to be done before you can be truly free to enjoy it. My house will become a home for you once we have finished clearing up some of the loose ends."

"Loose ends?"

"Your business needs to be converted over to your father and all your worldly possessions to your brother. In releasing these items you will demonstrate to me that you are ready to become a willing resident of my home."

Lex suppressed the urge to spit in the man's face. " I will never be a willing resident here."

Joshua ignored Lex's attempt at rebellion. "Come, let me show you what will soon be your new home."


"What was that all about?" Chloe rose from her chair to take the paper in Clark's hand.

"It was Lex."

"Is he okay?" Chloe asked with honest concern.

"He sounded okay but I don't know."

"What do you mean? What did he say?"

"He gave me the code to the garage at the mansion but the garage doesn't need a code to get in to it."

"What do you think it's for then?" Chloe asked as she stood examining the numbers.

"He mentioned the key that he gave me last week to his safety deposit box and then he gave me those numbers." He said as he pointed at the paper in her hands.

"Wait a minute," Chloe exclaimed as she reached for her pen and started counting out loud using her fingers. She scribbled some letters on the paper and looked up at Clark with a smile on her face. "Don't you know what this is?" She waited briefly for is reply.

"Clark it's a code. It's a fantastically simple code that high school students use to pass notes to each other. See look here," She placed the paper on the desk in front of him. "The 10 takes the place of a J and the 2 is a B." She kept talking as a name appeared before them on the paper.

"J. Bruha." Clark read out loud. "Ever heard of him?"

"No but we can look him up." The excitement mounted in her voice as she sat in the chair and started typing.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the screen, "Well unless Lex has been kidnapped by an optometrist or a pattern recognition specialist our google query won't be much help. I'll have to do a little digging."

"Great, I'll call you later to check in."

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"Now that we are sure Lex is in some kind of trouble I think it's time I tried out the key he gave me." Clark's voice dwindled as he rounded the corner and out into the school hallway.

She smiled to herself as she started typing away at the keyboard.