Part Seventeen: Developments
ROBOTICIST KILLED IN EXPLOSION
FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED IN DEATH OF JOHN CORBEN
"The official police report credits the mysterious death of obscure roboticist John Corben to a gas leak. However, many people - including some within the Metropolis Police Department - strongly believe there is more to the story. Although no formal charges were brought against him, Corben was suspected to be the mastermind behind the recent attack on the city."
Lois leaned back in her chair and stared intently at her computer screen. The cursor blinked mockingly, teasing her with words and phrases that were yet to be typed. Lois had stayed late at the Planet to work on this article, as she so often did. She enjoyed the solitude, but there was another motivation behind it. Lois didn't want anyone to see her work. The truth was that Lois never felt satisfied by her writing. She would often slam down on the backspace button, pulling at her hair in frustration. Everything always needed to be perfect. After all, she had something to prove - except that she really didn't.
Thus, she had mixed feelings when her fiance, Lex, decided to make an unannounced visit. She was glad to see him, of course, but she was also trying to stay focused. She needed to finish the article for Perry by the morning. The way she currently felt, she didn't think the article would
ever be ready - especially not if she had to hold up a conversation with Lex simultaneously. Multitasking was practically a prerequisite for living in Metropolis, but Lois didn't like to divert her attention away from writing. For this reason, she didn't mind when Lex had to step out to answer a call.
Lex was perplexed and annoyed when he saw that Dr. Michaels was calling him. He heard the furious clacking of the keyboard die out as he got further away from the newsroom. Taking shelter in an old-fashioned phone booth, Lex answered his vibrating phone. "What is it, Michaels?" he asked impolitely.
"You told me to keep you updated on any developments, sir," Michaels answered obediently. He always spoke to Lex with a tone that conveyed, at best, uneasiness - at worst, fear. Normally, Lex enjoyed that sort of thing. In Michaels' case, it was a nuisance.
"Yes?" Lex stated impatiently.
Clearing his throat weakly, Michaels began, "Well, we hooked up the portal with just about every kind of monitoring device possible. And we've been collecting data nonstop from each of them, examining the data on a day-to-day basis." Lex rolled his eyes. He already
knew all this. "So far, nothing particularly interesting has been yielded from these tests. Until this afternoon, that is."
Lex tapped his foot as he heard Michaels shuffling papers around.
"I would have notified you sooner, but I didn't want to come to you until all the data had been analyzed and reanalyzed," Michaels explained apologetically. Stammering, he continued, "We, uh, we picked up audio output. Very faint. I had the men run it through a couple of machines, enhancing it as best we could. It's...well...here."
Lex heard a click and then a strange sound. The static - both from the cell phone
and the transmission itself - made the sound hard to distinguish, but it was
something. After a moment, the sound faded again until all that was left was static. Lex thought for a moment.
"As I said, it's very faint," Michaels stated hesitantly. "And with the number of machines we have running down here, there's a high possibility that we could have just been hearing feedback from one of them. But, assuming that this
is something, it almost sounds like--"
"Voices," Lex interrupted.
"It
would support our 'interdimensional portal' theory," Michaels agreed. The excitement in his voice was largely subdued, but it was there. Lex could understand it. On some level, even he was feeling a little excitement. "Again," Michaels began, "It could be nothing."
Lex closed his eyes. "Or it could be
everything." Lex thought of the possibilities. They were on the brink of one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in recorded history. His fame had already been solidified, but Lex would forever be remembered for this achievement. Hell, maybe even Michaels could get a little credit. A
little.
Interrupting his own grandiose thoughts, Lex announced calmly, "Keep running the tests. Analyze every single piece of data extracted. I don't care how minimal it seems. Break it
all down."
"Yes, sir."
Without the simple courtesy of a goodbye, Lex unceremoniously hung up the phone. Going into the phone booth, he had been dreading the call. But the good news had livened his spirits. In fact, now a part of him even looked
forward to Michaels' next call. The weight of this experiment was astronomical. It almost made Lex forget about his
other experiment.
Lex reentered the newsroom to find Lois leaning with her nose only inches from the computer screen. Her fingers rested helplessly above the keys, unable to find the right letters to make the right words to make the perfect article. In her case, Lois's ineptitude was amusing to Lex. He found it quite adorable.
"Having problems?" Lex asked hypothetically with a sly grin on his face. He pulled up a computer chair and sat behind Lois, peering over her shoulder at the screen. She was doing the piece on Corben's death. The issue was a personal one for Lex. He was forced to fire Corben after the attack on the city. And he had Superman to thank. "So where's this 'Clark' that I've heard so much about?"
Without looking away from the screen, Lois replied, "Apparently, Jimmy invited him to a Monarchs game." The Metropolis Monarchs were a relatively good baseball team. "I must say that I'm glad they're
both getting out and about the city. God knows they need it."
Lex nodded. He had met Jimmy before. Quite the irritating kid, if he remembered correctly. Lex figured that Jimmy must have been a damn good photographer if Perry had kept him around this long. Someone like that on the LexCorp staff wouldn't have survived to see a second day. Then again, who was Lex to lecture about how to run a business? Sure, LexCorp was the most influential powerhouse in Metropolis, but he didn't want to brag.
Not to someone as insignificant as the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Planet, anyway.
"I managed to snag reservations at that Blue Moon restaurant that just opened," Lex announced proudly. It hadn't been hard for him to get reservations, of course. He just wanted to fabricate a little to impress Lois. However, much to his surprise, she had no reaction at all. She just typed away as if he hadn't said anything. Slightly perturbed, Lex added jokingly, "I suppose LexCorp can survive
one night without me." Again, no response.
Lex grimaced. She
always got like this when it came time to write an article, but it still annoyed him each time.
"If I put on a red cape, would that get your attention?" Lex asked angrily.
Lois finally turned around. "What's
that supposed to mean?" she responded defensively. She arched an eyebrow and folded her arms. She was interested to hear what Lex had to say about Superman. Lex hadn't talked much about him around her.
"Oh, give me a break, Lois!" Lex cried out in exasperation. He stood up and threw his hands into the air. "I see the way you look at
him - the way you
all look at him." His tone was venomous. "Your pedantic lives are so
meaningless that you have to look to the skies for some self-righteous fraud in order to find any sense of purpose! This 'man' doesn't
care about any of you! He gets off on being put on a pedestal! Oh, and I'm sure naming him SUPERMAN didn't boost his oversized ego, either." Lex rolled his eyes.
Lois bit her lip for a moment as she processed Lex's rant. "I see," she stated simply. Her calm tone belied a bitter disagreement with Lex's words. "And that applies to me as well?
My life is 'pedantic' and 'meaningless?'"
Lex groaned. Somehow, Lois had yet again found a way to twist Lex's words against him. He didn't know how, but she always seemed capable of turning any rational debate into an argument. Perhaps she was too thin-skinned under all her bravado, but Lois always took things personally. It was almost at point where Lex found it utterly pointless to even converse with her to begin with.
"Y'know, I really need to finish this article," Lois announced. "Thank you for keeping me company, but you know how I am. I'll just
think better if I'm by myself." Her reasoning was believable enough, but her tone said it all. Lois was kicking Lex out because he hurt her feelings. He spoke ill of this "Superman" that everyone seemed so willing to fawn over. It only strengthened Lex's resolve.
He was going to tear down Superman - even if he had to get his hands dirty to do it.