Chapter 20
Lois shifted in her seat when her father came in on Lucy's arm. He was weak, that was obvious. The minute she got him near a chair, he fell into it. The phantom zone virus he'd caught had changed him from the burly, loud man Chloe remembered to this frail thing for whom it seemed a chore to sit up.
She noticed Lois gazing at him from time to time and renewed her resolution to talk to Lois. Sam Lane didn't have much longer.
Victor stood tensely near the dry-erase board and waited. There really was nowhere to sit, so Chloe hunkered down on the floor, pulling Clark down next to her.
"I have this planned. If anyone can think of a better way than what I am about to outline, tell me as we go. Do not wait until tomorrow morning. We leave at first light. Everyone will be equipped with headsets that allow us to communicate, both with each other and with base." He uncapped his marker and wrote as he spoke. "We've already discussed that everyone is to wear white. With the snowy landscape, it's our best chance of cover. Does everyone have something?"
Oliver turned to Clark from the lovesesat. "I'll set you up."
Clark nodded for Victor to continue, but Lucy cleared her throat. "I only have what I wore here."
"You're not coming," Lois said shortly.
"What? But you need everyone. Victor, you even said that..."
"Lucy," Victor sighed. "You're a great kid..."
"I'm older than he is." She pointed at Bart, who looked mildly offended.
"Bart is specially... abled," Chloe explained hesitantly, ignoring Bart's second dirty look. "It's different."
Victor turned to her. "I know you want to help, but we can't afford to have someone that's not trained..."
"Lois is coming," she yelled.
Oliver stood. "Lois has had martial art's training and target practice. As long as she wears body armor..." He looked hard at Lois, who rolled her eyes and nodded, "then she's an asset. I'm sorry, Lucy. But I'd like you to stay and listen, so you know what to expect." At that, he turned to Chloe. "And Chloe... we've been talking. After last night and the avalanche... Well, you're smart and very good at..."
"I hear a but," Chloe said. "But I refuse to acknowledge it. I have worked hard on this. I'm going." She looked around her, but no one made eye contact. "Clark?"
"Chloe, if Victor thinks..."
"No. It's what you think. And I bet it was your idea," she said firmly.
"But we need you with the computer," Oliver said, trying a smile. "Come on, Watchtower..."
"I'll do it." Everyone turned to Sam Lane as he spoke. "I can probably help more than anyone that way. I know the system."
"There," Chloe said, nodding. "And something could happen to any one of you super-humans and you might need a mere mortal like me to carry on. I'm not here for nothing."
Victor nodded. "Fair enough. Onward... I've arranged for a Sno-cat that seats six, those who aren't part of wave one will be there."
"Who's wave one?" Bart asked.
Victor pointed at him. "You and Boyscout." He started writing again as he spoke. "We start at the pass. Boyscout and Impulse, here, will go ahead, take out each guard in each shack with trancs, then speak to General Lane about disabling security. We follow, obviously way behind. As Bart and Clark take out anyone they can, they make their way to surveillance and disable all cameras." He turned to Bart. "No power surges this time. If the system goes on back-up, I can't do what we came to do."
Lionel stood up in the back. "What about my son?"
"We will tranc him with the rest. No one will be equipped with bullets. We'll honor our promise not to kill him." Victor didn't add "grudgingly," but it was implied.
He took a deep breath. "There are more than fifty men in the complex, not including doctors and superiors. Whoever Bart and Clark don't take out, we will, clearing our way to the holding room. He smiled. "That's where I come in. I have the codes necessary and the means to communicate with the computers. I will destroy the clones." He looked at them seriously. "The police are to be called by ten a.m., allowing them time to get to the complex before the trancs wear off."
"And then?" A.C. asked.
"We leave," Victor said.
"And have a giant kegger?" Bart asked hopefully.
"Don't plan any celebrations," Victor said darkly. "We may not have rifles, but you can bet everyone on that complex will and they have orders to shoot to kill." He looked to the general, who looked down. "We're all in body armor and we're all going to shoot for the neck. It gets the tranquilizer into the blood stream faster." He looked around. "Is everyone ready?"
Bart shrugged. "Nothing better to do."
"Good. Get some sleep."
"Dude," A.C. groaned. "It's like two o'clock. It's still light out.
"We've all been up for well over a day," Oliver said. "Victor's right."
Chloe got up quickly and moved to Lois. "You need to talk to your father," she whispered before Lois could say a word.
"I don't need to do anything except get some sleep."
"Lois, I talked to him earlier. He... He doesn't have much longer and he has so many regrets."
Lois bit her lip and studied the floor. "Chloe, you don't know how he is, how he's always been. He's never there and, when he is, he treats us like either employees or idiots and..."
"So let him apologize," Chloe pleaded. "At least give him that."
Lois looked at the ceiling, her eyes misting. "I... I can't make any promises." She touched Chloe's arm. "But I'll talk to him for you."
As soon as Lois vacated the couch, Bart launched himself onto it. "A.C. got the fuckin' bed," he grumbled.
"You have a room."
"Yeah. With a guy and his daughter taking over."
She looked to Victor. "Where are you sleeping?"
He gestured to the chair in the corner as he pulled out a generator. "Where I sleep's not that important to me," he said, pulling a wire from the generator as the skin on him arm seemed to slide back.
She looked away. She supposed the guys were used to it, but skin that slid? She shuddered and walked out, looking for Clark. She found him downstairs in front of the fire in the lobby, staring into it. She sat on the sofa behind him.
"Can't you just stay behind?" he asked, not turning. "Four times in my life, I've had to watch you die."
"It didn't stick," she said, wanting to reach out and knead his shoulders.
"You could die for real this time, Chloe." He turned then, on his knees before her. "Just... promise me you won't rush forward. Promise me you'll only get in there if you have to." He moved closer. "Please."
She leaned against the cushions and touched his hair. "I might not have to. If you and Bart speed around, giving these guys the business, I might find this no better than a boring field trip." She pulled his head to her lap and he seemed to relax.
"Okay. I'll make sure it's the most boring day ever."
She smiled. "See? Nothing to worry about."
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It was dark when she woke, sweating. She looked to the fire. It was too hot. She and Clark must have... She sat up suddenly, scanning the lobby. No Clark. No one at all.
She stood, half worried she'd slept so hard, everyone had left without her. But a large grandfather clock told her it was only nine. She stretched and shuffled to the stairs. She was looking forward to a bed.
Her room was empty. She stepped out toward the general's room to check on Lucy. Lucy was in there, still in her clothes. But so was Lois. The Lane girls flanked their father on the bed as if guarding him in their sleep. She smiled and stepped in, taking a spare blanket from the small closet and covering all three. Lois' face looked swollen and she wondered how many tears had been shed this night.
When she went back to her own room, Clark was there, sitting in a chair. The light from the hall reflected in his sunglasses. "You'll wear body armor?" he said without greeting.
"Of course."
He stood and came toward her. "Never take your ski mask off. I don't want him to see you."
"I won't," she promised.
He got up and reached behind her, shutting the door. She quickly pulled her shirt over her head. He stilled her hands when they reached behind to undo her bra. "You need to sleep more."
She shook his hands off and finished, taking it off and dropping it on the floor. "I just had a nap."
"After over a day of..." He stopped and hissed in a breath as her cupped him through his jeans.
"I feel fine," she whispered, moving her hand down his leg as she moved with it, sinking to the floor.
He moaned as she undid his pants.
"Better than fine," she whispered, letting her hands and mouth take over the convincing.
He didn't argue again.
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Chapter Twenty-One
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