Double Down (Lois Lane)

by Gwenda Bond

  But I hesitated, one last loose end to tie. “You won’t tell him our plans?” The clone could wreck everything by mentioning jail and Boss Moxie and Mayor Ellis.

  “You have to go.” He sat back down on the stool. “He won’t hear anything from me. I am nobody. I have no reason to tell.”

  “Well, thanks, nobody,” I said. “You were very helpful for a nonexistent being. Think about what I said. We’ll see you later.”

  Maddy and Melody were already at the door, and I grabbed their arms. “We are going to wait until he’s almost up his side of the stairs and then we are going to run—as fast as we can—down on the other side. Got it?”

  “I hate running,” Maddy said.

  I laughed. “But you’d probably hate getting caught by whistling science creeps more.”

  We stepped out onto the landing. The sisters followed my lead and we went slow and quiet over to the stairs we’d come up. The doctor’s feet landed hard with every step on his way up the other side.

  I wanted to run now, this second, like we were in a race. And we were, but we had to wait for our moment if we were going to win. If we went too soon, he’d change course and beat us down, intercept us at the door.

  Donovan lived like a ghost, leaving no tracks in the world outside this building. As the clone had said, I couldn’t predict what this ghost was capable of.

  We would leave here, and then I’d provide a tip about this building later. Have it raided as an illegal laboratory. I had Mayor Worthington’s file, so there was nothing to tie him back to it except the twin. No one would admit he was a clone, and I had my hopes that he’d come to see the opportunity I offered was real. We could help him, while the others went away.

  Donovan reached the top landing, face tight with anger and trained on the door.

  “Now!” I said, and pressed Maddy and Melody ahead. Their feet made a terrible racket, but they were moving fast, like they were supposed to.

  I should have been moving too.

  But the mad scientist and I looked at each other. I needed to start running, follow Maddy and Melody, but I seemed as frozen as Melody had been in the tank.

  The anger disappeared from Dabney Donovan’s face, replaced by a weird calm. “You will not see me again,” he said.

  I don’t know what made me move—the creepy certainty in his words, or Maddy shouting, “Lois! Come on!”

  Donovan continued across the landing and into the laboratory, no longer rushing. And with not so much as another glance in my direction.

  I didn’t think running was strictly necessary anymore, after his odd reaction, but I ran anyway. Flying down the steps, I didn’t slow until I hit the bottom, praying the doors would open, that Donovan hadn’t locked himself in.

  They did, and I burst outside onto the sidewalk, where Melody and Maddy were waiting. James and Dante were headed toward us.

  “When you tell other people to run, they expect you to run too,” Maddy said. “Let’s go!”

  James dashed up to us, and then pivoted to head back the way he’d come as we all went to the alley. “Cabbie’s waiting at the other end,” he said. My friend had come through again.

  “What happened? Mel, did you get cured?” James asked as we reached the alley and its welcome shadows.

  “Yes,” Melody said. “I think I did. I don’t feel him anymore.”

  “Phase one, down,” I said. “It went as well as we could’ve expected, except… Donovan saw me.”

  “What?” James said. “Do you think the rest of the plan is blown?”

  “I don’t think so. The double won’t tell him anything, except that we were there for Melody.” I wondered what kind of conversation Donovan and the clone were having. If Donovan deactivated him, we’d be missing a key piece of evidence. But I didn’t think he would. Not yet. Moxie was too important to tick off.

  But an insurance policy on that would be nice.

  “James, you mind going back home and making sure your dad makes the call, now?” I asked. “Tell them to be at your house at 2:45, and make sure he specifies that he wants to see the clone there too.”

  James blinked. “I thought we were shooting for after school.”

  We’d reached the opposite end of the alley. My cabbie pal stuck his meaty hand out the window and waggled his ringed fingers in a wave. I held my finger up: one sec.

  “We were, but my dad busted me last night. If I can make it home at the normal time, like I was at school all day, that’d be a good thing.” As long as Dad decided to enforce the rules exactly, and not in spirit. It was my only shot. “I’ll deal with our compatriot at school so we can take off the rest of the day to get the plan done. Perry’s working the lawyer angle this morning.”

  “Who’s our compatriot at school?” Maddy asked.

  “Butler,” I said. “He loves James’s dad, so even if he hates me…”

  Melody shook her head. “I don’t know how you guys keep up with each other,” she said, “and I’m a science nerd.”

  I faced Melody. The fluid from the tank must have evaporated, because there was no sign she’d been soaking wet a few minutes before. She wore a long shirt over leggings with tall boots, bone dry.

  Onto the second matter… “Speaking of keeping up with each other. You guys going to be good now? With each other? Sisters simpatico?”

  Maddy said, “I think we—”

  “Wait!” Melody sucked in a deep breath and huffed it out. “Maddy, I’m sorry. About stealing your piece when we were twelve and everything else. I’ll prove it to you, however I need to.” She paused sheepishly. “James, did you bring what I asked?”

  He nodded and removed several sheets of paper from his pocket, folded in half lengthways. He handed them to her. Maddy was riveted, like the rest of us, and Dante took her hand in his. We didn’t have time for this, but I wasn’t about to stop it.

  Melody took another breath, then unfolded the papers. I saw PRELUDE No. 2 and Gershwin at the top. It was sheet music. She raised it high and ripped it in half, discarding the pieces. “I’ll give up playing music myself, if that’s what it takes. I want us to be like sisters again.”

  “That’s not necessary.” Maddy bent to pick up the pages. “Mel, you’re forgiven. After all this… Lois made me see I’ve been kind of judgy too.” Melody smiled at her, a real smile. Then Maddy looked over at James. “Why did you bring the music?”

  Melody was sheepish again. “I didn’t really have anywhere to put it, but I thought this deserved a grand gesture.”

  “Which you saved until after we saved you,” I said lightly.

  “Hey, no one said I’m a saint,” she said, and Maddy laughed.

  I believed the rift between these two had officially been closed. “This makes me so happy, but…”

  “We need to get going,” Maddy said. “Got it.”

  Dante turned toward me. “You need me for anything else?”

  “You were a big help,” I said, “but I believe we’ve got it from here.”

  “I’m spending the day on the mural, then,” he said, now speaking to Maddy. “I have a pass and need to get it done for tomorrow. I’ll alert you if there are any strange movements going on in the neighborhood. One of Moxie’s residences is nearby, and his lieutenants are around a lot.”

  He squeezed her hand and pecked Maddy on the cheek before he took off up the sidewalk.

  We watched him go. “You really did luck out with that one,” I said.

  “Speaking of which, I want to know about this boyfriend Devin says you have in the game,” she said.

  I was not prepared for that. So I ignored it. “And on that note, those who are going to school, get in the cab. Those who aren’t… make your way to your next destination.” James had gone quiet again. He fished our phones out of his other pocket. “You want us to drop you at home?” I asked.


  “Nah, I’ll grab another taxi,” he said, passing back my phone, then Melody’s and Maddy’s. He took a second longer than he had to with Maddy’s. Semi-awkwardly, he said, “Better get going or you’ll be late for school.”

  “We wouldn’t want that,” I said. “Butler awaits.”

  And so did Devin, hopefully with a plan of attack for infiltrating the mayor’s office.

  CHAPTER 29

  Maddy, Melody, and I climbed into the cab’s backseat, me next to the driver’s-side window. Jack waited until we were settled. “Where to? You girls robbing a bank today?”

  “As if we’re criminals,” I said. “Villains fear us.”

  “I’m sure they do,” he said. “Where we going, though? I was afraid something bad happened when you called me off after your midnight ride.”

  “You’ll get your money,” I said, to answer the concern embedded in the question. “We’re going to school.”

  “Good call. Tangling with villains still requires an education.” He levered the car into gear and pulled into traffic.

  SmallvilleGuy would want to know we made it out of Ismenios unscathed. Something I barely believed myself—even if Donovan had gotten an eyeful of my face.

  I keyed in the password on my phone to log in to the messaging app, sighing when the screen took longer than usual to load.

  Part of me worried the radius of Donovan’s gadget had expanded and zapped it, and another part kept mulling over what the mad scientist had said about never seeing him again. The words lingered like disquieting music to my ears. I wanted him to go away for what he’d done.

  That didn’t mean I needed to see him again. He couldn’t know that, though. Could he? And what had the double meant about Donovan fancying himself the enemy of his former employer, Cadmus?

  Finally, the message screen came up.

  SkepticGirl1: Success is ours. Melody is by all appearances peachy. No longer spooky reacting or whatever else fancy science terms.

  SmallvilleGuy: I was beginning to get a little nervous. What if you decided to take over the lab? Embrace your inner mad scientist.

  I grinned down at the phone.

  SkepticGirl1: You’re not getting rid of me that easy.

  SmallvilleGuy: Glad to hear it. TheInventor says he’s getting closer.

  SkepticGirl1: Great news.

  Maddy nudged me with her elbow. “Is that him? The boyfriend?” She wasn’t reading the screen on my phone, because I was holding it cupped so no one could but me.

  SkepticGirl1: Gotta dash. I just wanted to check in.

  SmallvilleGuy: Go get the bad guys. We’ll talk later.

  SmallvilleGuy: And don’t get arrested at City Hall.

  I was keenly aware that Maddy and Melody were watching me. I closed my eyes, took a breath, and then faced them. “What?” I said, pretending I hadn’t heard Maddy’s question.

  “Lois,” Maddy said, “it’s really nothing to act so hush-hush about. A boyfriend, even a long-distance one, isn’t exactly top-secret material.”

  If only you knew.

  “It’s complicated.”

  “How so?” Melody asked.

  “We’re not… He’s not… We’re just friends. Good friends, who’ve been… talking online for a couple of years. And who started meeting in Worlds recently.”

  “Wait,” Melody said. “You’ve been talking online and in Worlds. Hold up. You’ve never met him?”

  “Like I said, complicated. Speaking of, shouldn’t we be talking about the rest of the day?”

  “Nope,” Maddy said. “We are talking about you. There’s nothing else we can do until we get to school.”

  “But we don’t want to turn into those girls, you know, who only talk about boys.”

  “Yes, because we’re really in danger of that, given where we just came from and what’s on the itinerary for today.” Maddy stared at me. “Give me a real reason not to, or start talking.”

  I’d wanted to talk to her about this since we met. I didn’t know how, though. Having someone I could talk to about anything—besides SmallvilleGuy—was so new. And it wasn’t like I could talk about him to him.

  “You and Dante,” I said, and when she held up a hand, added, “I’m not trying to change the subject. I promise. But you’re starting to be together, and you met a couple of days ago. The boy in question on my side, we’ve known each other for two years. I think maybe if it was meant to happen…”

  “But you also said you’ve never met. Dante and I had the benefit of being in the same place. Do you know this guy isn’t some middle-aged creep?”

  Please, give me a little credit. “Do you know me? What do you think? He’s our age.”

  “So he’s not a creep,” she said. “But he must be something more than a friend if he makes Lois Lane turn three shades of red and get too flustered to talk to me about him.”

  I pursed my lips, then blew out a breath. “You should be an interrogator, not a reporter.”

  “Back at you,” Maddy said. “It’s comforting, to be honest, to know you get crushes like the rest of us. You always seem so… together.”

  “It’s only with him that I get this way. I hate it.” Which wasn’t precisely true. I liked what we were to each other. Too much. If he didn’t feel the same way…

  Melody hadn’t butted in. It seemed like she was letting us have friendly girl talk and didn’t want to intrude. She’d extracted lipstick and a compact from inside one of her tall boots, and she finished smoothing a rosy pink over her lips, then examined them in the small mirror. She lowered the lipstick tube. “This guy, Mr. Internet, you must know each other pretty well if you’ve been talking for two years.”

  “We do.” Except for me not knowing who he is in real life.

  “And you haven’t dated anyone else?” she asked.

  “Not really. A couple of guys before I moved here, but not in a year.”

  Melody nodded. “Does he know how you feel?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “You should tell him,” Maddy said. “That’s why Dante and I got together so fast. Because he told me. I’ve never been able to make the first move, but… It gets lonely being alone. I like him, though. A lot.”

  “We know,” Melody said. “The perfect artsy couple.”

  “Sorry to break up the slumber party,” Jack said, “but here we are.”

  “Oh,” I said, surprised. “Thanks.”

  I looked outside. Even though we’d started our day early, we must have been a little late for school, as evidenced by the no one still lingering out front.

  I got out and paid the man his money. “You need me later, just text,” he said. “It’s always an adventure. And I agree with your friends—if you like that boy, you should tell him. My daughter’s just like you. Afraid to say anything.”

  “I am not afraid.” But it sounded weak, even to me.

  “Sure, sweetheart,” he said, rolling up the window and pulling away.

  Maddy tugged on my sleeve. “It’s weird to say this, but: the cab driver is right. If you feel this way about your mystery man, I can’t imagine he doesn’t feel the same. You’re pretty amazing, Lois Lane.”

  So this was what having a friend was like. It had wildly exceeded any expectations I had when I made up the plan for Metropolis.

  “You too, Maddy Simpson.”

  “Wow, you two are enormous nerds,” Melody said, but not unkindly. “You should found a mutual admiration society already.”

  “Look who’s talking about nerds,” I said. “Ms. Quantum Connectivity herself.”

  “Mel, I’m glad you’re okay,” Maddy said. “Which you must be, if you’re back to saying stuff like that.”

  “See you later,” Melody said. “I’m guessing you have more stuff to do. You know how to find me if you need me.” She pa
used on the sidewalk. “I just didn’t want you to think I didn’t want to be seen with you two. I don’t care about that anymore.”

  “Devin said he’d grab the study room, so I’ll go meet him,” Maddy said. “You’ll join us after your date with Principal Butler?”

  “That,” I said, wrinkling my nose at the odiousness of having to ask Butler for anything, “is definitely not a date.”

  *

  Ronda was typing away at something when I came into the outer office. She glanced over to see who was darkening her door and her face fell.

  “Sorry,” I said, “I know I do not come bearing donuts. Next time. He in?”

  She regarded me through mascaraed lashes. “But it’s not Monday. You don’t have to see him today.”

  “I know, I can’t believe I’m here either. Voluntarily. I need to talk to him.”

  She swiveled in her chair. “You’re not going to put him in a mood, are you? Be honest.”

  I lifted my hand in a scout pledge position. “I swear.”

  “Something tells me you were never a Girl Scout,” she said. “But fine. He’s here. Go on back. I’ll let you surprise him.”

  Ronda couldn’t know I’d been kicked out of the Girl Scout troop I’d briefly been a part of in Nebraska. The parent adviser had been skimming money off the top of our cookie sales, and I’d turned her into the national organization. Apparently I couldn’t earn any badges that way. It had been kept quiet though, so I didn’t think it was in my giant permanent record.

  Although Ronda’s Mona Lisa smile made me wonder as I headed back to the hallway to storm Principal Butler’s office. Perhaps the principal there had made a note. The troop leader had been his wife, after all.

  When I reached Butler’s office, the door was open and he was outfitted in one of his usual fashion week suits, squinting at his computer screen. Could he be… working?

  Today truly was one for the books. I knocked on the doorframe.

  He gave me the same confused and slightly dismayed reaction I’d gotten from Ronda. “Miss Lane?”

  “Do you have a second? It’s an urgent matter. Confidential,” I said.