Chapter: 3
LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant Level 3 – Smallville 8:00 p.m.
Lois parked her car as close to the plant as possible without it being seen. She quietly got out of it, and closed the door as silently as she could. From a distance she could see Lex getting out of his car and heading towards the entrance of the building.
'I need to find a way to get in the plant quickly or I'm gonna miss whatever it is the meeting's about' she thought to herself. Just then she saw one of the air vents open up miraculously by itself. She smiled as she looked and whispered "Thanks!"
She ran as quickly as possible towards the building and started to climb the 3 – storey high building. This was one of the very few times that she was thankful that her father was a three-star general in the army and had made her complete obstacle courses when she was younger, otherwise she knew she would have never made the monstrous climb. Once she reached the top she took a few breaths to regain her composure before bracing herself for the cramped space and intense heat of the vent. Now the next thing she needed to do was to locate which way Lex was headed. Luckily for her the man of the moment had just appeared turning a corner to the far left. She followed him. As quickly and as quietly as she could, which was extremely difficult as the confined space of the vent had begun to make her lose her breath? She was ever so grateful when he stepped through giant doors and hopped into one of threat large leather seats in front of a large round table. On the table in front of the chair he was sitting at were to large folders that were identical in every manner except one had printed on the cover 'FOR C.K.' Lex grabbed the folder and started flicking through it. Lois made her best possible attempt to make out what was in the folder but all she saw were pages with text on it, and a few photos. One of the photos had a picture of someone who looked remarkably similar to Clark.
She was interrupted from her train of thought when one of the guards walked up to Lex. "Excuse me Mr. Luthor, your father has arrived."
"Send him in" said Lex with an emotionless expression. As Lionel walked in Lex rose to his feet.
"Lex, son. You don't know how happy I am to finally be able to work on this project together as father and son."
"Don't get too excited dad, the only reason I agreed to do this together is because I was getting no where on my own. So if you think that this little project is going to work wonders for our relationship then think again."
The smile that was on Lionel's face disappeared. The two were now locked in an intense stare. 'You could cut the tension with a knife' thought Lois.
"So where is this agent? I don't like to be kept waiting…" Lex began
"Patience Mr. Lex" All three faces, Lionel, Lex and Lois turned to the direction that the voice came from. There stood a six foot four man whose face was still hidden due to the dark spot he was standing in. He slowly moved forward into the light, revealing himself to the Luthors and Lois. Lois however was unable to get a clear view of his face because of the angle she was at from the vent, however his jaw line did look remarkably similar to that of someone else she knew, so was his voice but who? She didn't know.
"The world's greatest armies were brought to their knees because they moved to soon. Now I am sure you wouldn't want the same to happen to this operation now would you?"
"Agent Cevin Klein I presume…" began Lionel.
"Mr. Lionel, Mr. Lex – nice for me to finally meet you both." Cevin claimed.
"How'd you get in here?" Lex asked skeptically.
Cevin began to look around the room as if searching for something "Through a really technologically advanced device called a door!" he replied matter – of – factly.
'I'm starting to like this guy already' thought Lois, who found his sarcastic remark most amusing.
"No, I mean get in here without being detected." Lex continued.
"With all due respect Mr. Lex isn't the reason for you two fine gentlemen wanting to personally hire me, my stealth. If I was detected on my way in or out of here I'm not the man you want now am I?"
"Quite right!" answered a most-impressed Lionel.
"Even though I am enjoying this chit-chat we're having, I have places to be. So what's so urgent and dangerous that 'only my skills can manage such devastating task'" he said, with the last part of the sentence sounding exactly as if Lionel Luthor had said it himself.
"Quite the imitator aren't you, Agent Klein? But you're right, to business! What we would require for you to do is heavy-level, top secret surveillance!" Lionel stated.
"Surveillance? That's what's so dangerously devastating? You want top quality surveillance get some kid to do it for you. Whoever your investigating will never suspect a thing, and it'll only cost you a buck – don't waste my time! You brought all the way out here from Washington just to tell me to spy on someone. Please!" he said as he began to walk away but was stopped by Lex's voice.
"If our suspicions are correct you're more likely to be investigating a something rather than a someone."
"Explain!" Cevin said.
"About 20 years ago Smallville was hit by the world's biggest meteor shower to date…"
"I know all about the meteor shower Mr. Lex I read it in the newspaper, and quite frankly don't need a history lesson from you."
"But what the papers didn't say is that on that day a spaceship carrying some sort of extraterrestrial life landed somewhere in Shuster's field, and we believe that this alien has been living amongst us ever since."
"No offense Mr. Lex, but wouldn't this alien as you say be little and green. He'd stick out like a sore thumb!" Cevin chuckled.
"I'm sure agent Klein that your work in the CIA has showed you that things aren't always what they appear to be. He looks just the same as we do…"
"He? I thought it was a something, when did it become a 'he'?"
"Like I said it looks just the same as any ordinary male human would, come to think of it he looks remarkably similar to you."
"So this alien looks like me, eh? Well then it's settled I'll find this 'alien' kill him and then it's settled. No one can look like me."
"First I didn't say he looks exactly like you, just similar. And we don't want him killed."
"We just want him analyzed so we can find away to incorporate his genes into our own" continued Lionel. "If we manage to do that, there'd be no need for machines, or cars or public transport – the energy supply of the world would no longer need be as high. People would no longer starve to death as they'd no longer need be fed as much. People would finally be immune to all types of disease; even paralysis…
"Mr. Lionel cut the crap you're trying to tell me…" Cevin interrupted. "Everyone in this room…" he paused and looked at the air vent that Lois was hiding. 'How'd he know that I was here' she thought. She started to panic but immediately relaxed when she saw that Cevin had given her a quick wink and went on talking… "knows that the only reason that you and your son are interested in this whatever it is because you are more likely to create an army of super soldiers and sell them to the highest bidder. I don't need you to sell me all this nonsense about it's for the good of mankind, I just need you to give me a reason as why I should waste my time on surveillance? In case you haven't read my file I only take cases that no other man can take."
"This is where you come in." began Lex. "You see this alien, if he turns out to be alien, can do unbelievable things. Things you could only dream of. He can bench press farm tractors without breaking a sweat and run virtually at the speed of light as well as he doesn't get sick. I see that you are impressed, does that mean you accept our offer?"
"On one condition… if what you say about this alien is true, then the price of $500 million each would no longer be required… but should this turn out to be a façade… the price is doubled to $1 billion each, do we have an agreement?
Both Lionel and Lex nodded their heads in approval. As Cevin began to walk out Lex called out to him. "I think you'll be needing this!" he said and slid one of the folders he was holding along the table till Cevin stopped it.
"What is it?"
"It's all the information we have gathered over the years, everything ever had on the suspect is in that file" explained Lionel.
"That's ok, I won't be needing it! When I do surveillance work I never go in with presumed knowledge I collect my own info – I'll just need the name of our suspected E.T."
Lex smiled at the attempted humor before answering the question "His name is Kent, Clark Kent!"
Lois let out a breath of disbelief, which caused all three faces to turn in her direction towards the air – vent.
"I think you should tighten your security sirs…" Cevin began causing Lionel and Lex to face him. "You wouldn't want any spies coming in through your air vents!"
Lois began to slowly recede just as Lex and Lionel looked up. No one of the three observers saw Cevin super speed out of the room.
"I'll get right on it!" said Lex – before turning to find that Agent Klein had disappeared just as quickly and mysteriously out of the room as he did in.