"She brought me a fresh baked pizza once. Made it herself." Lex's eyes were staring at a point on the wall upwards and to the right. A memory then. Upwards and two the right mean visual memory. "I came back into the office after a drink with my CFO -toasting to the success of our latest acquisition, the one we'd just signed the papers for. And there she was, sitting on my desk and chatting amiably with my personal assistant, an open pizza box between them, and a half eaten slice each. My very attentive PA, who I usually couldn't keep from fussing over me, but Chloe had her rambling on about lip gloss for a full minute before she noticed my presence. And then she tried to snap to attention, but Chloe jumped in and somehow had us all munching on pizza and debating life, the universe, and The Brothers Karamazov without giving her so much as a chance to try to press an apology. The two and a half hours before my secretary called to tell me I was late for a meeting were the least stressful moments I had all year."
"Mr. Luthor is there some reason you're telling us this?"
"Chloe doesn't exactly have a key card for the building. In fact, since it's the Corporate HQ, she shouldn't even have been allowed in the building. But she slipped right past my very expensive security like it was nothing at all. With a pizza." Lex shook his head. "A dozen rival corporations and half of the government's Alphabet Soup of agencies have tried to get bugs into my office. We're talking the CIA, FBI, NSA, Wayne Enterprises, Microsoft. They couldn't crack my security. But she breezed right through it. With a pizza." The juxtaposition of espionage and food had the intended effect of emphasizing the ridiculousness of the situation.
"So you're saying that Miss Sullivan was a very capable spy."
"I'm saying that no one bugs my offices. Oh, a few of our country's secret black ops groups that you're not allowed to know about on pain of death, and the JLA, managed it a few times, but she just filches their gear for her own use the next time she passes through, and after a while they got tired of losing equipment to her. It's really quite amusing hearing about their frustration over her confiscating their toys." The trademark Luthor smirk was on his lips. "She's so much more than that. Uncle Sam's best spies only wish they were half as capable as Chloe Sullivan."
"I admit that beating your security is surely quite impressive, but-"
"But nothing. She timed that little escapade perfectly. She arrived at my office with enough time to charm my assistant and make her feel at ease, but the pizza was still hot when she offered me my first slice. I'm not sure I could have pulled off a stunt like that with a team of experts. She did it on her own, and for no other reason than that she thought I was being too much of a workaholic and needed a break. So she ensured I had a meal where I could savor both the food and the conversation. Something I hadn't had in months."
"Sounds to me like she really cared for you. You only do something like that for someone you love."
Lex's composure showed the slightest crack, if only for an instant. "Not eros, the romantic love, or even phileo, the friendship love, but agape, the unconditional love of others simply because they are. If anyone ever truly showed the 'Love of Christ', it was her, the not-terribly-devout-but-not-quite-lapsed Catholic." He half-smiled at the irony. "I've done terrible things. I've hurt her more than anyone else, bar one. And she still loves both me and him. And isn't afraid to pull either of us up short when she thinks we need to be."
"And who is this other man?"
"None of your damn business. Look, the point is, Chloe isn't just good at what she does, she's a virtuoso. She ghosts through supposedly unbeatable firewalls and perfect security systems to beard billionaire CEOs in their dens about sweatshop labor in Thailand and getting enough sleep."
"Billionaire CEOs, plural?"
Lex's smirk is back. "I know she confronted Bruce at least once, and she's a regular in Ollie's office. When she decided Ollie wasn't coping well and had become an alcoholic, she made off with his wet-bar. Dismantled and shipped out the whole damn thing while he was stuck in a board meeting. It's there in the morning, and when he comes back to grab a file he needs before heading out to dinner, he finds a huge empty space on the wall."
"Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen?"
"Indeed. She's not all sweetness and light though. That product quality scandal at Wayne Enterprises? That was because Bruce pissed her off, and unlike me or Ollie, he wasn't a friend."
"She manufactured a scandal?"
"Oh, there's always dirt if you dig deep enough, and no one's better and finding or keeping secrets than Chloe. The Daily Planet pays her a retainer just so if she ever decides to let out a tidbit they get the first word."
"I imagine she has quite some dirt on you, then."
"Chloe could bury me, figuratively and literally. Put me out on the street, behind bars, six feet under. She could do it. Easily. Sometimes I wonder why she hasn't. She knows where more of the Luthor family skeletons are buried than I do, and a lot of the reason for that is because she was a victim caught in the crossfire of my schemes more than once."
"You realize you're basically telling me you had motive?"
"Chloe is kind, compassionate, and charitable beyond all reason, but she's not a fool. She has failsafes. If I planned to move against her, she'd know. If I did act against her, I'd be setting myself up for serious retribution when her virtual dead man's switches trigger. And putting a hit out on her would be like sending an assassin after Van Gogh or Beethoven or Stradivarius. She's a rare treasure, a master at her craft. You don't squander talent like that."
"You keep referring to her in the present tense. You don't believe she's dead."
"There's no body, only blood. I refuse to believe Chloe Sullivan would go down to something as clumsy and ham handed as that break in of her apartment was. She's not only survived but thrived through much worse. I have every confidence I'll be seeing her again."
"I only hope you're right, Mr. Luthor. I want to see her alive too."
"Do you really?" Lex's gaze is intense, and he leans forward in a pose that is confrontational and almost intimidating.
"What do you mean by that?"
"If you really want to see her alive, then the best thing you could do is close this investigation. Pull out your little CSI team and reassign your detectives. Leave this to those who are really equipped to handle it."
"You mean you."
"I was thinking of the Justice League, actually." Again, that smirk. "Oh, don't be surprised. An information broker on Chloe's level wouldn't lack contacts in the JLA. They've worked with her before. But more than that, she's bled on their behalf. They won't leave this one alone."
"I hadn't heard she was so closely involved with the league."
"From what little I know, she may well have been a member, back before it was the league. Back when it was more a club of uncertain wannabees than a proper organization." Lex shakes his head, dismissing that train of thought as irrelevant. "What I do know, is that she's one of the few people who can ask Superman for a favor and expect to have it done. The President of the United States only wishes he had that kind of sway."
"Didn't you say she prevented the JLA from bugging your office."
"Chloe doesn't like it when her friend's squabble with each other."
"Squabble? Squabble!?"
"If you have no further questions, officer, I'm planning to go dance on my father's grave. This discussion has made me... nostalgic."
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Originally Posted by westwingwolf
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