Dreaming the Wolf - Chapters 7e and 7f
Title: Dreaming the Wolf
Rating: R
Category: Angst
Summary: After the events of Freak, Chloe finds herself changed more than she thought possible. A spin on the classic tale of girl becomes werewolf.
Spoilers: I haven't been actively watching SV for a long time now, so anything goes and I take liberties. This is set after the episode Freak and careens madly and gleefully towards AU.
Disclaimer: If I owned anything, then there would be no need for me to write fanfic or read it.
A/N: Just to make sure, we are still in the past. We'll be in the present when we get to chapter 8.
Chapter 7- Origins of the Wolf
Part V- Night Terrors
Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself -- a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred.
Frank Herbert, Children of Dune
Serena Edgler woke from a dead sleep. Abrupt. Pained. Her heart thundered in her chest. Her eyes darted across the room frantically. She was panting. She couldn’t catch her breathe. But under all of that was the deep hatred and loathing of the people who made her weak like this. Even deeper still was Serena’s hatred of herself. The abiding self-loathing that never went away no matter how hard she tried to force it gone. The discontent and restlessness that burrowed its way into all aspects of her life. Serena had no peace. No solace. It was always with her. Staring at her. It was a weight that settled on her chest like the torture press of old. No relief.
She felt a burning sensation in her throat and ran to her restroom. Serena just barely made it to her toilet before she vomited. The contents of her stomach emptying in a torrent. The burning low in her gut migrating to her throat. She felt the tears trail down her face as she stared at the mess she had made. “Pathetic.” With trembling hands Serena wiped her mouth and flushed the toilet. Days…nights like this had worn her down. Made her remember everything that she wished she could forget. Made her feel the weakness…the helplessness…the violation all over again. They were monsters and they did this to her.
The worst part had been their eyes. The way they had stared. Assessing her. Making her feel less than human. As if she was nothing. They had all the power and knew it.
Serena Edgler had been normal. She had a promising career as an accountant waiting for her. Her life was boring, but it was hers. Serena was raised in the WASP tradition. She was a debutante. Her life charted and well on its way to fulfillment, but she was happy with that. Serena wanted to be a simple accountant. Numbers were her life. Serena saw them in everything she did. They were poetry. She wanted to marry a man named Chet and have her 2.5 children and a dog. That was her vision for life. She made her place in life, but then all that was changed. In the span of a heartbeat, it had changed.
She stared at her reflection in the mirror. It was wrong, all wrong. Her hair should’ve been brown not red. Her eyes should’ve also been brown, but they were green. An unnatural green. Whatever they had done to her, the long buried attributes of her Irish ancestry had come out for all the world to see. There was no way that her family would be able to recognize her. Nothing was her own anymore.
Yelling her fury and pain into the mirror, she lifted her fist and rammed it into her reflection. Serena didn’t stop until her mirror was demolished. That person should not have been her. That person was created by them. She had nothing of her father and mother. She had nothing of her twin. Serena was alone.
Serena stared at her hands and watched as the cuts healed. She watched them become claws and sprout red hair. With another inarticulate cry of fury, she left her restroom and proceeded to destroy every mirror in her apartment. She had to focus this and not change. She couldn’t control herself while changed. Serena knew that the more she changed, the harder it would be to join the human world. She’d read their reports and she had to find a way to stabilize herself and the others. No doubt it would come at a high cost, but this was survival.
Lex Luthor had gotten far too close. She could only shield him from their eyes for a short time. He was too useful to be lost to them. His project was the key. They had so completely subverted key aspects of it that Serena knew that it was only a matter of time before she knew everything, but she had to fly under the radar. Her chances of success depended on it.
Serena knew Lana was also key to them, but she didn’t know why. All she knew was that Dr. Langston had been communicating with her enemies for quite some time. It was time for Lana to be turned to her cause.
When Serena had first devised this plan of hers, it became paramount that she find someone that could be ruthless and work independent of her plan. An outsider, who had their first loyalty to her or at the very least, her money. She was fortunate enough to find it in Samuel Kale.
He could never know that his last few jobs were orchestrated by her. She needed to weigh and access his value. The man was a virtuoso in his field. Kale had killed Chase and his family with an uncanny precision and utter lack of morality. Serena had been awed and terrified. She had mourned those lives taken. They were innocent, but the end game was so very important.
When she had given him vague orders to cause a distraction with the same mine, he had been even more masterful if that was possible. What sane person would target Lionel Luthor? And in such a fashion? But it had yielded the results she wanted. That singular act of Kale’s had propelled her plan forward like nothing she had done prior. Kale played his version of intrigues with a deft touch. Serena wondered what he could’ve been if he hadn’t been so ruined by his past. She sat on her bed and realized that she couldn’t live with this but she had too.
His ignorance would not make him a more useful tool. It was a delicate tight wire she walked. Samuel had to be a player in this game. He had to have specific pieces of knowledge, but she couldn’t be the one to direct him there. Samuel’s mind had to be allowed to work to its fullest. She couldn’t let her own biases cloud his judgment. He had to see this puzzle through his own, unique lens. Only then could Serena see what she had missed.
Oh she knew that he was investigating Smallville and the major players of the town. She also knew that he had harbored the thought that Lex Luthor had hired him and she was just a cover, but he had to work out why he was wrong on his own. Serena was glad that he took the initiative. He came highly referred and now she knew why.
Serena felt her claws prick her temples. She felt and smelled the sweat produced from her earlier exertion. She sighed and stood. There would be no sleeping tonight. Hard-wired for movement and restless, she decided to get her day started. If she wasn’t going to sleep then many of those in her employ wouldn’t either.
She picked up her phone and didn’t wait for an answer, “Kale, meet me at noon.”
Serena hung up before he could say a word. She didn’t have time for pleasantries and he didn’t require them. Once again she dialed, “Langston, step up plans with Lang.”
She would’ve hung up on him as well, but his fearful protestations could not go ignored. She was tired of him thinking that he actually had a say in the matter. Serena was also tired of the fact that he feared the Luthor brat more than he did her. It was time to disabuse him of the notion that he was irreplaceable.
“1710 North Summerville Drive. Let me speak plainly. You work for me and I did not ask you what you wanted to do. I told you what you were going to do. There is a very important difference. You are valuable to me inasmuch as you follow orders. Luthor will only kill you. I’ll keep you alive. Now, get it done before you become more than an irritant and I am forced to hurt you.”
She hung up before he could say anything more. If he didn’t do what she wanted, or if he gave her any problems, then Samuel Kale would be paying that address a visit. She knew Samuel’s particular brand of psychotic and no one at that address would live. Serena did not want to do it, but Langston and those he cared for were not her concern.
Serena hadn’t actually had a face to face meeting with Kale since they had attended Lionel’s funeral. She had wanted to see the aftermath. The consequences of her actions had to be seen. Serena needed to ground herself. She could never become inured to the horror she caused. There would be a special place in hell for her and she knew it. A small part of Serena hoped that one day the people she did this for would understand. The rest of her hoped that they forgot her and what she did. That they remembered her the way she was and not how she ended.
“I wish I were a stronger person.”
********
Noon saw Serena in her penthouse preparing for Kale. Ostensibly, it was being rented by a stockbroker, Timothy Salinger, and she was only the secretary. The credentials were flawless and the men who had made them were dead. There couldn’t be a trail; and there wouldn’t be if she didn’t do anything extravagant under his name.
She heard Kale long before she saw him. He buzzed her office and she let him in. He unnerved her because it was so easy to dismiss him; but then with one action, he could become dangerous. This was a man who could talk endlessly about the weather and then kill you with the same bland expression.
Serena was typing away on her computer when he walked into her office. She heard him sit down in the only comfortable chair in the room. He smelled nervous. No doubt it was because his back was to the door. People like Kale couldn’t stand even the hint of a cage and she hated the fact that she was now someone like Kale. He must’ve been a child that enjoyed the outdoors. It probably had little to do with his actual home life. There were times when she was sure that he showed the classic signs of attention deficit disorder. His muscles would give minute jumps as if he were holding himself in tight check to prevent himself from moving like he wanted.
At any rate, she was about to dump exposition on him. She wished that she had the time to properly detail this, but her creativity was running low. Drawing this out any further would probably serve to squander whatever good will she had accrued with him. He may play the patient snake in the grass now, but it was probably wearing thin.
She also liked that he wasn’t going to speak until she did. He’d probably learned that at the hand of his father. “What would you be, Kale, if life had not ruined you so thoroughly before you had a chance to be a man?” Serena wondered if he ever asked that question or if it was too hard for him. Or even if he knew to ask that question.
She looked him in the eye and spoke, “How is your investigation into the seedy underbelly of Smallville coming?”
Kale cocked his head. He should’ve known that his boss would know what he was doing.
“Confounding and nonsensical. These people are a…contradiction.”
Serena laughed a little. Kale was like a little boy when confronted with something outside of his frame of reference, but she could understand where he was coming from. Common sense was lacking all around. It was mind boggling. She did realize that it was easy for her to pass judgment since she wasn’t deeply and hopelessly entangled with their odd brand of drama.
“Yes, they are.”
Kale wished that she would expand her answer, but she was the type of person to keep her mouth shut just to spite him. With anyone else he would’ve called it petty, but he recognized it as the strategy of someone with a deeper game. Serena was a deliberate and methodical person.
Serena raised an eyebrow. His mouth pursed ever so subtly.
“I suppose you finally believe that I am your boss? Tell me, did the funeral confirm it?”
Kale raked his hand through his hair, “No. The day I told you about Clark Kent was when I knew for certain. Until then, every order you gave me could’ve easily been delivered by a lackey. Telling me to do whatever I want with the mine was something that only a person with full command of the situation would’ve done.”
Serena had figured that was when he believed her his employer. His voice tone on every correspondence after was more deferential. Kale had also become more interested and excited.
“Now that you have been confronted with the reality of Smallville, it probably makes no sense that our government has been uninterested, right? Well, they aren’t exactly uninterested. They’ve just outsourced their interest,” at his nod of understanding she continued, “Even if the meteor rocks did not bestow mutation; imagine other scenarios. The value in meteor rocks isn’t just what they can do. It’s also what they bring. They have traveled in space and with them they bring things that don’t exist on Earth. Microbes, random dust, or maybe a new element on our Periodic Table. How valuable would that be?”
Kale realized that he had thought of the rocks in too small terms. He was blinded by what they had been doing to people and not what they would and could do to the Earth itself. It meant so much more than life on other planets. But there was definitely no way that the government, The United States or any number of others, would not find a way to market this. “Unless this town is one, giant laboratory.”
“May I call you Samuel? You may, of course, call me Serena. We’ve committed crimes together and standing on formality is nothing but pretension.”
At the inclination of his head, Serena continued, “Smallville has to stay small. Luthorcorp has done well, but not so well as to attract other businesses. The trick is to minimize what the meteor rocks represent. You don’t lie about them per se because such falsehoods would be spotted immediately. You simply call them rocks and people do the rest; especially if the United States hasn’t published any reports on them. If the United States doesn’t care, being the opportunistic bastards that we are, why should any other entity care? By outsourcing interest, we can honestly say that we aren’t doing anything with them. And no one can trace it. So what do you do?”
Serena stopped speaking and Kale realized that she wanted him to participate. He realized that she valued him.
“It only works, Serena, if you hijack what someone else is doing. Private researchers don’t have the resources of the government and they’ll be limited without funding. So you plant people in an organization, misdirect people you can’t trust, and collect the data. It leaves the original designers of the project in the lurch; especially if they don’t even consider that their project could be compromised. Luthor was the unlucky victim wasn’t he?”
Serena smiled broadly. She struck hit-man gold with Samuel Kale, “Yes, he was. He provided the route to them. Other researchers limited themselves to the land and general environmental impact. He targeted the meteor infected themselves. This town is unusually healthy and the conclusion was reached that everyone in affected. Not everyone will manifest a strong mutation, but they are all infected. The hospital reports less actual illness and more things with physical problems. That is, broken bones and the like are more common.”
She wasn’t telling him everything. Samuel got the feeling she was waiting for the correct question from him. When he finally found it, he could’ve slapped himself. It was so obvious.
“What did they do to you?”
“Finally! He asks the money question.”
“I am meteor infected. But I and a few others were the first the government mucked around with. They messed with our mutation directly. I don’t know how, but as a result we are unstable.”
“What is your mutation?”
Serena looked away from him for a moment. This was difficult and her bloodlust was so easy to arouse.
“I think they were messing around with animal DNA or something. Meteor rocks just don’t follow our scientific principles and something unexpected happened I think. I don’t know why I was chosen. I think it was a random thing. At any rate, I’m as close to being an actual werewolf as you’ll ever get.”
Kale was shocked. He’d seen some weird things, but a werewolf was something else. The meteor infected looked normal. Her change was unnatural. It didn’t seem like it was following the admittedly crazy blue print of the meteor rocks.
“So what are you trying to do?”
“Whatever Lex Luthor was doing, the government took the next step that he didn’t. What do you think of Lana Lang?”
Her last question was random. “Why would she bring up that girl?”
“She’s a pitiful excuse for a human being.”
Serena chuckled, “Yes, she is. She isn’t pregnant.”
She saw him become angry and held up her hand, “No, she isn’t faking it. She genuinely thinks she’s pregnant.”
He didn’t believe her. No woman was so clueless as to think they were pregnant when they weren’t. If she was, then he would kill her on principle. Someone that simple was a waste of resources that should go to someone else.
“Before you condemn her to a painful and torturous death, know that she’s being duped by the best. Her doctor is giving her a slew of drugs to keep her in the dark. He’s probably got a very impressive faked sonogram and such. I think that she is a key to what’s happening.”
“A key?”
His quick mind was such an asset. She liked that he picked up on the important part of that, “I think Chloe Sullivan is the other. I wasn’t sure before, but her base scent has altered. It’s closer to what mine smells like. I think she’s like me.”
It was Samuel’s turn to quirk his eyebrow, “Like you and these others you keep mentioning?”
“Yes.”
“So what does this mean?”
“Samuel, it means we continue to watch and wait. It means that you can’t kill the meteor infected anymore. I need to decipher them. Before you got here, many of the infected were retrieved by whoever is shadowing Luthor’s project. I want them alive. They don’t deserve the death you’ve been giving them.”
“Then why am I still here?”
“Because you want the challenge. It’s not going to be easy, Samuel. Clark Kent will be a factor and a few of his friends. Luthor is a factor. I need you to be more than a hit-man. I want you to be my eyes and ears. My focus needs to be elsewhere.”
Kale could accept that. He did need the challenge; and he wasn’t so twisted and bloodthirsty that he would kill just to kill. He considered her. There was one more thing that he needed to know, “Why the drama around the mine?”
“Luthor needed to be distracted. I covered a few tracks and planted a few false leads if he or anyone else should discover something. Chloe Sullivan has already been making waves. Luthor is a useful cover, and the people shadowing his project must believe that they are clever. They must believe that they are in full control. Besides, I could not pass up creating such chaos for Wayne and Luthor. It’s satisfying to know that they are in turmoil because of me,” Serena continued, “I need you to involve Lana Lang somehow. Get her to plant bugs or something. I need to keep track of her and Sullivan. Dr. Langston has been turned to our cause. He doesn’t know the reasoning behind his orders from his other bosses, but he’ll tell me what I need to know.”
Kale recognized the name of Lang’s doctor. “I guess he is the one fooling Lang.”
Serena gazed at Kale for a moment. She had to know one thing as well, “Why did you shave him?”
Kale cocked his head. He considered not answering her, but he would respond to her honesty with his own, “My grandfather was a barber and he used to have a straight edge razor. It was very ornate and beautiful. Far too decorative for the task. He passed it on to my father. There were times when it was calm in the house. In those times, my father would pull out his razor and sit in front of my mother, who would shave him. Her hands were always steady. The only time her hands were gentle. She never cut him. Not even once.”
Of all the things he could’ve said, that was unexpected. She thought it had to do with proving a point to Lionel. While it had shown Lionel a point, it wasn’t the one the man died with and it wasn’t the one that Serena thought. Serena took in his relaxed posture, the slightly glazed eyes lost to memory and the fond smile on his face. It was such a departure from what was previously known of the man. He had shared something highly personal. Samuel Kale was still someone special.
Serena stood, “Let’s go to lunch. I’m hungry.”
Samuel stood as well and offered his arm. They both realized that this was a time for waiting and setting plans. She could do that and had no doubt that he could as well. Trouble would find them soon enough; but until then, they’d prepare as best they could.
Part VI- Soft Hands and Gentle Reins
“There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.”
Niccolo Machiavelli
Samuel Kale watched her. He watched her and he waited for the perfect time to pounce. For the time when he would gain some measure of satisfaction for breaking her so thoroughly. It would be a delicious victory because he had to do it the right way. Lana Lang may have been a fickle and pathetic human being but she had certain things she’d respond to.
He didn’t want her mere cooperation. Kale wanted to have her utterly and completely. So that she would not even think to attempt to question his motives and his point of view for even the barest of seconds. Some would say that a victory over such a person…such a woman…would have an asterisk besides it. But what did those people know? Lana may have been simple, but she could be stubborn if you didn’t approach her the correct way.
She was a young, untamed filly. Approach on the correct side, correct her efficiently and without fail, and give her a treat; and she’d be yours forever. A person would be able to drive her to exhaustion and then death and she would be willing and none the wiser because the only thing in her view was the treat.
Kale had spent long moments considering the best way to approach her. Being the janitor for the high school limited him. He couldn’t be seen conversing with her in any capacity. It would be far too suspicious. Why would a janitor be speaking privately with local town princess and future Luthor? So he had to adopt an entirely new persona and look. She could be swayed with a handsome face, a nervous one, or a fatherly one. Considering that he wanted no part in touching or flirting with her, he would not be donning a mask of devoted admirer. He also refused to be submissive around her so that ruled out playing the part of the nervous guy. It left him with father figure. “Only marginally less odious than the others.”
That was how he found himself in The Talon watching as Lana Lang spoke with Clark Kent. How he found himself observing them was beyond him. He wanted so much to inflict violence on Clark Kent for pandering to that simpering…whore. Her he just wanted to shoot in the face. Kale didn’t particularly desire investing time in her death. She was too…easy…in that regard. Killing her would provide no challenge and even less satisfaction.
Where he had been lean and fit before, he had the beginnings of a paunch. His hair was beginning to show the signs of gray. His eyes were gray and not the blue they normally were. Samuel looked like someone’s father, but he looked good. It would appeal to Lang’s vanity and her need for a father-figure.
Kale wondered if she ever fantasized about Lionel Luthor. It would make sense. Daddy Luthor had money, influence, could fake care and concern like no one else; but most of all, Lionel Luthor looked world worn enough to lend an air of authority that came with parenthood.
It would appeal to someone like her. He could be wrong though. She might’ve rejected Lionel in her mind because he was too intense. Boy Wonder Luthor was in the zone of being as intense as his father, but still was willing to modulate it for others. Lionel was uncompromising in that way.
Kale watched as Lang’s eyes flicked to his own. He held her gaze long enough to let her know that there was interest. He saw the answering spark. For the last few days as he watched her, Serena had begun planting leads in the Luthor database that Lang regularly played in. Serena had also had Dr. Langston drop a few hints. Those hints were obvious and heavy handed, but Lana had soaked them up like an empty sponge. Despite the fact that she was inept at such games, there were times when Lang was discerning. She had to believe in her cleverness. These tidbits had to be fed, but not so that she couldn’t reasonably believe that she put the picture together herself.
It was why Kale was looking forward to this aspect of dealing with her. He had to have a gentle hand on the reins to give the illusion of freedom. He had to be patient. He had to cajole a response. The joy would come when she realized how outclassed she was. It would come the moment she realized that she was nothing and he was the cause. Lana Lang would tame herself and that was so very thrilling. It would almost be on par with killing Lionel Luthor. She would be a worthy conquest.
Kale watched as Clark Kent left. The impatience was practically oozing off her. She wanted to confront him. To prove to him that she was the clever one and that she was only deigning to speak with a peon like himself. His mind supplied the villainous chuckle, which caused him to actually chuckle.
She walked over to his table.
“Show time.”
********
Lana supposed that the man thought himself clever. He had been following her for the last two days. At first, she thought that Lex was keeping an eye on her; but from offhand comments from Dr. Langston, she soon deduced that this man was looking for an ally. Things had changed, and not for the better, ever since Lionel had died. Lex was barely around; and when he was around, he was impatient and abrupt with her.
She had to figure out a way to help him. Lana honestly cared for him. Lex was strong, he was rich, and he was smart. She enjoyed being with him. There were times when she thought that this was the best relationship she had ever been in. But then there were other times, when she knew that Clark was the one for her. There was something about him that appealed to her on a multitude of levels. It wasn’t just that he was gorgeous; it was that he was sweet and kind too.
Forcing her thoughts back to the man who had been following her, Lana mentally prepared herself. She needed to protect the town from whatever Lex was planning. Only she had the appropriate tools to effectively remove whatever threat he posed. She could infiltrate his system because she was so close to him already. Despite this, Lana knew that Lex didn’t kill his father. His grief and rage were real and not something that could be faked; especially since she knew him so well.
Lana poured herself some coffee, approached his table and sat down. She figured that being direct and to the point would help her cause more than trying to play games, “Why are you following me?”
“Really? This is how she begins? Amateur.” Kale gave an inner snort of exasperation. Her voice wasn’t whiney, but it was close enough. Now that he was seeing her up close and personal, Kale had no clue as to what people found so compelling. She was pretty in her own way, but not the incomparable beauty that this town seemed to think she was. There were no less than five females in this establishment alone that he would be willing to debauch; and she wasn’t on that list, even discounting personality. “Maybe if I expanded that list to ten.”
He could probably get Lang into bed if he truly wanted to, but what was the point? He’d be cheating on Marissa, it would take more time than he was willing to invest in such an activity, and he was actually repulsed by Lang. It was a revulsion he hadn’t felt since he’d last lain eyes on his mother.
And he was sure that she’d be boring. She dated these town boys. The only one to be in a position to actually teach her anything worthwhile would be Luthor and he doubted that she’d be a willing learner. For the proverbial cherry on the sundae, her physical form was unremarkable. There was nothing there for a man to truly enjoy.
At any rate, he had to begin playing his part. If he analyzed the dubious wiles of Lang any longer, he might actually haul off and shoot her in the face. Kale imagined ruining that pretty face that she was so proud of. Maybe not kill her. Just scar her for life. That would require no real effort.
He could imagine the slur of her words from a ruined jaw… the visible indent of her skull where fragments splintered off. Kale would shoot her at an angle so as not to hit anything vital and would use bullets that would go straight through the body. He wouldn’t want it to lodge in her, then she might die. The entire point was for her not to die. Her screams, the blood, the puppet jerk of her body as she twitched in pain…it would be beautiful, but it wouldn’t be art until she felt the first twinges of self hatred as she looked at herself in the mirror and imagined the pitying whispers of the town folk. Then…then it would be a masterpiece. It would be something to savor for a lifetime.
He felt lust course through his body for her. For that image. She would never look better to him and he wanted it. The image of her bloody and torn form, her pained screams, and her twitches were superimposed by the image of her under him in submission. Whatever lust he had felt moments prior quickly left him. Kale could never hurt a woman that way. It was wrong on many levels for him. He was disgusted with himself for entertaining such a thought for even a moment.
Kale shook his head and glanced around The Talon. He had to seem slightly nervous and cautious. As if he were preparing to give her some profound secret. It was what she expected. It also served to clear his head from his violent imaginings. He’d call Marissa tonight.
His voice was a whisper when he finally answered her, “People say things. They say that maybe you’d be in a position to help. My name is Anthony Burner. We can’t talk here, but here’s where you can reach me,” Kale handed her a card with only his name and a phone number.
She would look his name up to see if he worked for Luthor. He didn’t, of course, but that was the whole point. He would just say that he had been attached to some deeply buried project. It would work in his favor. Kale had documents and other things that he would give her. She’d provide a spectacular distraction for Luthor because he would be forced to plug whatever holes she created with her fumbling attempts to do whatever it was she thought she had to do.
Lang was far closer to Chloe Sullivan and provided a direct pipeline to her so Serena wouldn’t have to rely on various janitor plants at the Planet, plants in her classes, or any of the maintenance staff at the apartments she lived at. He thought it was a stroke of genius to hire such. Who paid attention to the people who cleaned or fixed your things?
It had been pathetically easy to plant janitors and the like. There was a background check, but it was nowhere near the caliber needed to root out the false documentation that Serena was able to procure. It was safe to say that Kale had a more than healthy respect for Serena. She was smart and capable. He had learned so much from her in the time that they had worked together. She was more than able to kill him if she wanted. It gave Kale a thrill. This was a worthy woman.
Kale stood, gulped the rest of his coffee, and left a tip for his server. The waitress had been nice, funny and engaging. She deserved the ten dollar bill he left on the table. He was a generous tipper because there was nothing harder than serving idiot people. Besides, he could feel her pain. He hated being a waiter for the two years he did it. Kale could feel her eyes on his back as he exited The Talon. It was Lang’s show for the time being.
********
Marissa sounded cheery when he called her that evening, “How is my favorite guy?”
Samuel raised his eyebrows, although she couldn’t see him, “I’m your only guy.”
It made his heart race in delight when he heard her giggle, “Chip keeps me company.”
His voice was laced with amusement, “Chip? Our neighbor that loves to wear golf clothes and that ridiculous beanie even though he doesn’t golf and is more than a little over weight? That Chip?”
Marissa let out a huff of amused exasperation. He could imagine her rolling her eyes at him, “Be nice, Sammy. Chip has personality. Besides, he’s lonely.”
Samuel knew Chip was nice. He liked Chip. He laughed a little himself, “Tell him to have a beer for me.”
“Sure thing.”
He spoke with her for an hour before he felt good enough to go to bed. There was something about Lana Lang that put him off balance. He went to bed thinking only of Marissa.
********
Kale received the call from Lana Lang two days later. When he met with her, he knew he had her when she leaned towards him and gave him a few leads on a database that had once belonged to Lionel Luthor. He had known of one, but not the other she mentioned. “She’s useful after all.”
It hadn’t surprised him that Lionel was able to keep a few secrets. Lionel was stubborn and would’ve held the most damaging secrets close to vest even while being tortured. Especially if those secrets damaged the son he professed to care nothing for, but needed.
Lionel may not have loved his son in the way a father should, but he still wanted his son’s respect and admiration. It gave him power and everything in Lionel Luthor’s world began and ended with power.
Lang was strangely gung-ho about spying on Sullivan. It was disconcerting. Of course, it was probably aided by the fact that he had dropped a few misleading hints as to the nature of the relationship between her friend and her fiancé. Serena had gone to a lot of trouble in creating emails that showed Lex Luthor’s intense interest in Sullivan. The icing on the cake had been when he revealed that Luthor kidnapped Sullivan. Kale didn’t even have to lie.
But she needed one more final push to his side. One push that would mean that he had her completely. That push came when he gave her documented proof of the closeness between Sullivan and Kent. Lana deeply wanted to know Kent’s secret. It was an obsession. So when he showed her abbreviated footage of Chloe aiding Clark at the quarry when he discovered Kent’s secret, he saw her go ballistic. The implication was clear; especially the way he had edited the video he had taken with his cell phone. Chloe Sullivan, best friend of Clark Kent, knew his secret. She didn’t throw anything or pace, but she did clench her teeth and ball her fists. “Even her rages are pathetic and childish.”
He won her when he showed her that both men in her life held Chloe Sullivan in such a higher regard than she could ever be; whether it was because Sullivan was a threat or a confidante. It didn’t matter. It also meant that Chloe Sullivan was smarter than she could ever be and Lana Lang finally understood that. In those moments, Lana Lang was intimately acquainted with her uselessness and her inferiority in the eyes of the universe. Lana Lang wasn’t the priority and it drove her to the biggest mistake of her life.
Kale could’ve crowed with delight, but he settled for another inner villainous chuckle.
Back to Chapters 7c and 7d
Onward to Chapter 8