Never Say Goodbye

Chapter 21: Trust & Jealousy

He arrived home to find Bart already there. He immediately confronted him on what he learned but he failed to get answers. His demands only resulted in the younger man running out. Though he felt guilty at how brash he had been, he knew he had to protect Bart. And there was only one person who could help him now.

When he reached Chloe’s apartment, he found her in conversation with Lois. Fortunately, she had been on her way out so he was able to talk to her alone.

He didn’t know exactly how to start the conversation but when he made a cryptic comment about secrets, Chloe was on his case.

“Clark, what’s going on?” Chloe asked.

“I have a confession to make,” Clark said, “The guy who saved you at the planet . . . he didn't exactly get away. It's Bart.”

“What?” Chloe said, looking shocked, “Wait a minute. Bart can superspeed, too?”

“He's actually a lot faster than I am,” Clark informed her. “That's the truth. I'm sorry I didn't tell you.”

“It's fine,” Chloe said dismissively. “You were protecting him. It's okay. I mean, if anyone gets it, it's me. But why are you outing him now?” He gave her a weak smile; he knew Chloe would understand.

“I think he's headed for trouble, and I need to find him,” Clark said. “Can you GPS his cell phone?”

“Yeah, I can try,” Chloe said, “Do you have his number?” She headed to her computer and he told her the phone number.

As Chloe searched, he filled her in. “He broke into a Luthorcorp plant down in Mexico. Now I think Lex is on to him. If he tries to break into another facility . . .” He trailed off, but he knew she got the message and understood why he was so worried.

“No good,” Chloe said finally, “His phone must be off.”

“What about call history?” Clark suggested, “Can you pull that up?”

“Legally?” Chloe asked, with a smirk, “Absolutely not.”

She turned back to the computer and with a few quick strokes, she pulled up the history. Both noticed that there was a repeating number dialed to somewhere in Metropolis.

“There’s over a dozen calls to that number in the last 24 hours.” Clark pointed out.

“Let’s see who’s on the other end.” Chloe said. He watched as she did a reverse phone lookup on the number.

“Artemis Global Consortium?” He read. “Never heard of them.”

Chloe continued searching. “It's a subsidiary of J.L. International, which is a satellite company currently orbiting . . . Queen Industries?”

Clark felt as if he was going to be sick. “It's Oliver,” Clark said. “He's using Bart to attack Luthorcorp.”

“I can’t believe he would put Bart in danger like that.” Clark said.

“Well, we both know they can’t stand each other, Clark,” Chloe replied, “You don’t know how far he would be willing to go to get one up on Lex.”