OOM: Smallville

[shortofcrazy]

In the morning, Riley is settled into a circular booth in the Talon, his back against the wall and his feet drawn up onto the seat. His face is pinched -- with exhaustion, worry, frustration -- and he has a small, silver laptop on the table in front of him, along with his bigger MacBook (they're attached via a cable) and a cold cup of coffee.

Comments

[hero_farmboy]

Clark's night has been just as long. Longer if you count the speed he runs around Metropolis at. He'd gone to see Tobias first. Didn't that go well.

(She's meteor infected, Clark.)

The boy insisted he didn't know where Chloe was taken; he just identified them and then he was out of the picture. Clark had little choice but to believe him. Well, about not knowing the location. The... other part, Clark didn't know what to believe.

He'd spent the rest of the time searching the surrounding area of the hospital Dr. Bethany worked at. Several times. He found nothing.

With morning come, he'd decided it was best to give up and go back to the Talon and come up with Plan B. The light breeze in Riley's hair is the only indication of his arrival.

"Did you find anything?"

[shortofcrazy]

"--Aw jeez--" Riley's startled flail is enough to smack his hand against Bethany's laptop's screen, and as he hisses and looks up -- Clark.

Immediately, he's up out of his seat.

"Did you--"

'Did you find her' is a pretty stupid question to ask, after Clark's opener, and the fact that Chloe isn't standing next to him. Riley swallows it.

"Yeah," he says. "That whoever owns this," with a frustrated gesture at the laptop, "is even more paranoid than I am." Riley sighs. "I got past the initial layer of security, but it took all night; the stuff's incredibly complex. I don't know how much of it's because of different tech between our worlds and how much is just because you guys are from 2007 and I'm from 2004, but I've never seen anything like some of it."

He shoves his hands into his pockets. "The system encryptions should have been the hardest part, but I can't get into more than a couple of files, and none of the biggest ones, which I'm guessing are also the important ones. The ones that I did crack, they're in some kind of

[hero_farmboy]

Clark does not understand your technobabble, Riley, other than to figure out that while some information was gleaned, it's nothing immediately useful. The medical terms go over his head, too.

However, when Clark glances down at the paper, it's clear that something there is recognized. Something that makes his jaw clench and his eyes flash with what can only be anger.

"Luthorcorp. I should have known."

[shortofcrazy]

"Yeah." Riley knows enough about the Luthors -- not a lot, but enough -- to know that it's bad news.

"What about you? Did you get anything from Tobias?" he asks, desperate for any kind of a lead.