Perry White looked over the mass of information laid across his desk. Photos, documents, notes, USB drives with audio recordings—all focused on Luthorcorp and its CEO, Lionel Luthor.
Ordinarily, even this mass of evidence wouldn't be enough to absolutely prove Luthor's guilt in any particular crime. But together with the new evidence linking Luthorcorp to the espionage on government property, it might yet prove to be more.
"See this?" said the teenage girl across from Perry, holding up her phone. "A friend of mine—the same one that figured out the tracker device was Luthor tech, by the way—also managed to tap into the sub-frequency that the trackers were running on. They broadcast a weak signal, but have barely-encrypted information that's not hard to tap into. Look at this."
Lois slid her phone across Perry's desk, and pointed at its screen. "This is a map of all the signals in Metropolis."
Perry looked at the map. Over a hundred tiny red dots were overlaid on it.
"These red dots represent the tracker devices?"
Lois nodded.
Perry accidentally tapped one of the dots on the phone's touch-screen with his finger. Audio began to play from the phone's speaker.
"...we should go straight to the press as soon as the police finish their investigation."
"Creepy, huh?" said Lois. "They've got microphones and everything."
"...My god," said Perry, his mouth agape. "There's one at the city court. And the mayor's office. And the police station."
"Yup. As well as in the main offices of all of Luthorcorps' local competitors, and all the major news outlets." Lois casually looked around the room. "There's one in here, too, somewhere."
Perry remained silent for a moment.
"...so he knows we're on to him."
Lois nodded.
Perry grinned. "Good."
Lois leaned in. "This is complete proof of Luthorcorp's corporate espionage; if they've had these things around for very long, it's probably how they managed to take over so much of Metropolis's economy so fast."
"...As well as how they managed to avoid getting nailed by the courts," Perry added, deep in thought.
"Exactly," said Lois. "It should be easy enough to prove that Luthorcorp acted with illegal foreknowledge of events."
"...And once the authorities arrest Luthor and inevitably do more digging, they'll follow the breadcrumbs to his criminal operation, as well."
"Hell to the yes." Lois gestured to the photos and files littering the desk. "And I've got a helluva lot of breadcrumbs here."
Perry leaned back in his chair and regarded Lois for a moment.
"Kid, how old are you?"
"Seventeen."
Perry shook his head in practical disbelief. "Seventeen. Do you know how old the average professional reporter is?"
"Older than me?"
"Heh. That's the biggest understatement I've heard all week. Let me break it to you this way, Lane. I have never hired anyone your age to do anything more than copy work or photography. Never."
Lois raised a challenging eyebrow. "You've never met anyone like me before."
Perry realized she was right, of course. But something else bothered him.
"Look, kid... I don't want you getting hurt. Luthor's already made you a target in the past—hell, he practically told you he'd kill you once—and if I print this story with your name, there's no telling what could happen to you."
"If it wasn't me with a target on my back, it'd be someone else. Besides, Luthor already knows that I'm the one who found him out; it's not like it'll save me just to have someone else slap their name on the ink."
Perry sighed. "Damn, kid, you really are fearless."
Lois grinned. "Always have been."
Perry let himself smile. "Well, you're still in school, so I can't hire you full time—no arguments! The best I can do is put you down for part-time, and let you write up this ONE STORY. Maybe a few side articles here and there. When you graduate, we'll see about getting you something full-time."
Lois felt an unending surge of joy flow from her toes to her head, but she did her best to push it down.
"Works for me."
"Alright then. Go write that article."
Lois slammed a file down on the desk.
"Already done, Chief."
Perry could see the title of the document peeking out from inside the file folder:
LIONEL LUTHOR: CRIMINAL MASTERMIND.
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