"Remain calm," Lois told Rob. "Clark and I will think of something." Then she looked around for Clark, but he was gone. "Or I'll think of something."

"Baptists, huh?" came Hanson's gruff voice. "You look more like snoops to me."

"We really are Baptists," Katie assured him. "We're gambling Baptists, but we're Baptists."

"I can't tell you how much that pleases me," Hanson said. "You won't be afraid when you meet your maker then."

There was a click of a gun. Lois was about to shout run but the sound of the door opening and closing was heard and then a thud. "What was that?" she asked.

"I don't know," Rob said. "There was wind and then Hanson just fell over unconscious."

Lois shook her head. The couple was even more stupid then she had originally thought. Katie had probably gotten distracted by a bird flying by and Rob probably had some sort of memory lapse to keep them from seeing what really happened. Then she saw Clark beside her again. "Where did you go?"

"I've been here all the time," he said innocently.

Lois got a little worried about herself. It appeared Katie and Rob were starting to rub off on her. "Rob keep looking. You'll have a little time if Hanson's been knocked out."

"I want to retire from being a detective," Katie moaned.

"You're alright," Clark assured her patiently.

"I think I found something," Rob said, after a couple of minutes of looking.

"He thinks he found something," Lois told Clark excitedly. "What?"

"Well, it's a document," Rob said.

"And?" Lois prodded after a few seconds of silence.

"It says…"

"It says what?" Lois asked. "Rob, I have to warn you I'm running dry on patience."

"You're going to think this is crazy, but it says that the gambling machines are sending out coded messages that tell your subconscious to gamble."

"It's not that crazy," Lois said. "Take it with you and meet us in the alley."

Lois told Clark about it.

"Another one of Lex's weird experiments," Clark said with a shake of his head.

"Yeah, and this time we may have him."

Rob and Katie came out and Rob gave Lois the paper. Clark held onto one side of the paper and they both read it together.

"It's a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo," Lois said when she got to the end of it, "but I think this is just what we need, don't you?"

"I think we should take this to the police," Clark agreed. "Katie and Rob you've been a big help. I would recommend finding another hotel and we're sorry for interrupting your honeymoon."

Katie, who had looked still looked a pale, now had color in her cheeks again and appeared to have recovered from her ordeal. She said, "It was actually kind of fun. What about you guys? Where are you staying for the rest of your honeymoon?"

Clark and Lois looked at each other with a little bit of incredulity. "Actually we're not really married. It was just for the case. We'll be getting an annulment as soon as possible," Lois said.

Katie looked heartbroken like a child who'd been told her parents were splitting up.

Clark felt bad for her. He put an arm around Lois, "We're friends though."

Katie's eyes looked watery.

"Best friends even," Clark said comfortingly.

"That's pushing it, Smallville," Lois said, knocking his arm off.

That sent Katie over the edge and she began to cry. Even Lois felt bad for her at this point. "Clark and I are bad for each other. We fight all the time. We're happy not to be married, more than happy."

Rob had put an arm around Katie. "She'll be okay. She's just sensitive. It's one of the reasons I love her. She'll be fine. You'd better go to the police before it's too late."

Clark and Lois headed out of the alley and they could hear Katie sobbing, "But they were such a cute couple."

At the police station, the cops picked up Lex Luthor for questioning. Clark and Lois waited for the results in the waiting room. Lois had made a good start on the article on her notepad. Her cell phone rang and she answered it, "Lane."

"Don't you mean Kent?" Clark whispered.

She smacked him. Then listened carefully. "Who is this?…Katie, I don't care if he is the best in the business. We do not need a marriage counselor. There is no marriage to fix. There never was. Goodbye."

Clark was laughing.

"You know what the scary part is? How did she get my number? Remind me to get it changed."

Clark was still smiling, "She means well."

"So how do you go about getting an annulment?"

"Well, you have to apply-"

Clark didn't complete his explanation when they saw Lex Luthor stroll out the door. He looked very smug, but he didn't say anything.

Clark and Lois got up and asked the sergeant, who'd been questioning him, what was going on.

The sergeant shrugged, "What he did was legal."

"Legal?" Lois echoed. "In what universe?"

"It was a secret government operation conducted by Luthor. They wanted to use his hotel. The property will be returned to the couples, who will be none the wiser. The trial period will be over tonight at 6. It was only going to last a month."

"Just how is the government going to use these coded messages?" Lois demanded.

"That's hard to say. Mr. Luthor gets a nice bonus for doing this and the government has their guinea pigs. Of course, this was supposed to stay under wraps until you two came along. The government has asked, and when they ask, there is no ask to it, that you not print this."

"What about the gun?" Lois asked. "One of Lex's goons was going to kill our friends."

"They were trespassing," the sergeant explained. "The goon was protecting a government secret."

Lois stormed out in anger. Clark followed closely behind.