Chloe didn't even stop to greet her father as she stormed back into her house, wiping at her eyes. She'd done the right thing, and she'd been right about the meteor rocks—the FBI had even confirmed it!—but she'd still been pushed away. Agent Winchester hadn't even given her a chance to be helpful, hadn't even thanked her for finding the body and getting him one step closer to solving the case. He was a jerk. A sexist, ageist jerk.

Chloe wasn't even sure where to go from here. She wanted to trust that the FBI could do their jobs, but even if Agent Winchester believed her about the meteor rocks, she doubted he'd done nearly as much research on them as she had. She glanced back through her files again, and she remembered, again, that Clark had been one of the witnesses at the bank robbery. He might be the only lead she had now. She smiled to herself, her annoyance with Agent Winchester temporarily forgotten. Most of the time, she had to stretch to find an excuse to call Clark.

She tiptoed into the kitchen to grab the phone—her dad was passed out on the couch in front of the TV. Mrs. Kent picked up, but she told Chloe that Clark wasn't in. He'd gone to the mansion to hang out with Lex for the evening. Chloe thanked Mrs. Kent and then hung up, frowning.

The Luthor mansion. That was where Agent Winchester was, too. Were they all working together? Or had Clark gone over to Lex's for some other reason? She had heard that Clark had saved Lex's life after a car accident, but she didn't know if they were close friends; Lex was a lot older than Clark was.

The one time she'd actually had a conversation with Lex, though, he'd been nice to her and had taken her seriously. He hadn't defended her against Agent Winchester, but maybe if she could get him on the phone alone, she could find out some more information. Or at least warn him about the shifter having killed someone, just in case Agent Winchester hadn't done it already.

Lex picked up after two rings. "Hello?"

"Hi, um, Lex? This is Chloe Sullivan."

"Oh, hi, Chloe." There was a hint of confusion in Lex's voice.

"I just wanted to check in to make sure you heard about the dead body."

"Yeah, I heard."

That was al he said. Chloe swallowed. "Okay, well, did Agent Winchester talk to you about the meteor rocks?"

"About Clark?"

"No . . ." Chloe wound the phone cable around her finger. "What about Clark?"

"Oh, ah . . . never mind. You were saying?"

Chloe frowned. Lex had been very different when he'd come to visit her at the Torch office. And if there was a shape shifter on the loose, she should be looking out for people who weren't acting like themselves . . .

Of course, if he was the shifter, she definitely didn't want to tip him off that she suspected something. The real Lex could be alive somewhere, maybe even trapped in his own house, for all she knew. She had to test him carefully. "Um, you came to visit me at the Torch office and I showed you that . . . book about the meteor rocks."

There. If Lex was himself, he'd just be confused and ask what book she was talking about.

A short pause, then Lex's voice said, "Oh, right. Uh, remind me what that one was about?"

Chloe's breath caught. This wasn't Lex.

"Chloe?"

"Uh, sorry, the line cut out for a second."

"Oh. You were talking about that book."

"Yeah. Um, what if I, uh, what if I show you? You were going to have me over to talk about it, and I'm free tonight, if—if you are." She fought to keep her voice from trembling.

Another pause. Chloe held her breath.

Then Lex's voice said, "Yeah. Yeah, okay."

"Um, listen, is Agent Winchester there?" Chloe had been upset with him, but she could really use his help now.

"Not right now."

"Oh." Did that mean he'd left, or that the shifter had killed him? And what about Clark? Mrs. Kent had said Clark was going over to the mansion—had he already arrived? She had to get in there and make sure everyone was safe. "Well, I'll see you in a little bit, then," she said.

"Do you need a ride?"

"No, I can get over there." It wasn't a long walk. It was dark already, but she wasn't worried about the danger of the walk over, compared with the danger when she arrived.

Agent Winchester had told Chloe not to get involved, but how could she possibly stand aside when there could be lives at stake? She didn't need to physically fight off the shape shifter, either; she just needed to find the real Lex and maybe Agent Winchester. She hung up the phone and left through the front door, carefully closing the door behind herself.

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The cold night air bit at her skin. Chloe wished she'd brought a thicker coat, but the cold also kept her awake and alert, and right now, that was a lot more important than being comfortable.

Security let her into the mansion easily, and they led her into the study. The mansion would have been incredibly cool if she'd been there under different circumstances; maybe she could talk Lex into doing an interview for the Torch when all of this was over.

Then Lex stepped out from behind his desk.

Not Lex, she had to remind herself, but it was difficult. The shape shifter looked exactly like him. It even walked like him, but she couldn't let herself think for a minute that it was him. The minute she let her guard down, she would lose.

"Thanks for coming," the shifter said.

"Thanks for having me. Do you have the book?"

"Oh!" It frowned. "Um . . . I'm sure it's around here somewhere. Sorry, I moved in recently and I'm still organizing."

It was easier to keep the truth in mind than Chloe had thought it would be. The shifter looked and moved like Lex, but it didn't really talk like him. "I think you said you were going to put it in your, uh, library?" Chloe wondered if she might be able to trick the shifter into going into a room that Chloe could lock. Most doors didn't lock from the outside, though. Maybe a coat closet, if she could find a key? Or a door that was already open, with a handle that was locked? She'd have to get awfully lucky, and she couldn't just keep tricking the shifter into different rooms.

Maybe it wasn't possible to lock up the shifter and search the house for the real Lex, if he was even still around, but Chloe figured it was still worth the try to have come here. Worst case, she would have to leave without getting any new information or helping anyone. The important thing was to keep the shifter from suspecting that she knew anything.

"Library. Right." The shifter turned toward the door, but just at that moment, a servant entered.

"Mr. Luthor. Urgent phone call."

The shifter winced, looking back and forth from Chloe to the servant, and finally said, "This will take just a moment."

"No worries. Can I use your bathroom?"

"What? Oh, uh, yeah." The shifter followed the servant out of the study. Chloe stood in the doorway watching it go. The moment it was out of sight, she bolted down the hallway, checking each doorknob.

The first two doorknobs didn't have locks. The next three locked from the wrong side. She wasn't going to have enough time to find what she was looking for.

She paced for a moment, her mind flooding with panic, but then she looked back at one of the rooms she'd passed. There were two moderate sized bookshelves, on either side of the door. If she slid the shelves in front of the door after the shifter was inside, she could jam the doorknob and effectively lock the room.

Chloe took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm and keep her expression neutral. She couldn't blow her cover now.

Lex—no, the shifter, she couldn't forget—came back down the hall toward her a moment later. "My apologies. Where were we?"

"Uh, you were going to grab that book out of your library." She gestured to the storage room.

"Oh. Let me take a look. It's about the meteor rocks, right?"

"Yeah." Chloe shifted her weight.

The shifter nodded and went into the room. It went over to one of the shelves and skimmed boxes.

Chloe shut the door behind it as softly as she could and began shoving the book case.

It was heavier than she thought it would be. A lot heavier. She pushed with all of her strength and just barely got it to slide halfway in front of the door, so the edge blocked the knob from turning. Then she went over to the other book case—more weight in front of the door couldn't hurt.

"Chloe?" Lex's voice called from inside the room. The doorknob rattled against the book case. "What are you doing?"

Chloe didn't answer. She couldn't think of a lie fast enough. She just kept shoving the bookcase.

"Hey, what's going on out there?" Lex's voice called.

"Uh, I think the door jammed, give me a minute." With that, Chloe bolted in the opposite direction.

She went to the nearest staircase and ran down it. She didn't know exactly what she was looking for, but her gut told her that if she was a shape shifter trying to hide someone from the outside world, she would have locked them up as far down underground as she could.

"Anyone down here?" she called, as loudly as she dared. She knocked on a couple of doors, wincing. She'd already blown her cover—as soon as the shape shifter got out of the room, she was dead if she didn't find someone to help her. Suddenly her plan didn't seem to fool proof anymore. "Lex? Agent Winchester?" Chloe's voice broke. She really had no idea what to do.

Then she heard a slow, steady thumping coming from one of the rooms down the hall, like metal on wood.

The door was locked from the outside; Chloe unlocked it and threw it open.

A guy with messy brown hair sat on the floor, with his hands cuffed behind his back, his feet tied together, and his mouth gagged. He was young, too—probably a few years older than Chloe, maybe not even eighteen.

"I'm here to help," Chloe whispered, untying the gag. The guy coughed, and she said, "I'm Chloe Sullivan. What's your name?"

"Sam Winchester," he said in a raspy voice. "Have you seen Lex? He's not . . . himself."

Winchester. Could this be the FBI agent's brother or something? "I know about the shape shifter. I have him locked up, temporarily anyway." She knelt at his feet and began untying the ropes. "We don't have much time. Do you know where the key is, for your handcuffs?"

"No, but if you've got a hair pin, I can get it."

"Really?" Chloe took a pin out of her hair and held it out behind his back so he could take it. "Where did she even find hand cuffs—"

"Chloe, look out!"

Chloe turned just in time to see Tina Greer storming towards her, fist raised. Chloe dodged out of the way just in time, and Tina's fist jammed into the bookshelf. The wood splintered.

So it was Tina!

Chloe had no time to enjoy the fact that she'd been right. Clearly, becoming a shifter had endowed her with some kind of enhanced strength, if she could break right through the solid wood like that.

But apparently, Tina didn't have any sort of invulnerability to match her strength. She screamed and doubled over, gripping her injured hand. Jagged bits of wood stuck out of her knuckles, and blood dripped down her wrist.

Chloe stepped back—she half expected Tina to suddenly heal and start coming after her again—but Sam stepped in and grabbed Tina by the arms. He wrenched them behind her back and put the same hand cuffs on her that he had just been wearing. Chloe breathed in to remind him that she was probably strong enough to break out of them, and that she might even have the key with her, but her eyes had started watering. She whimpered when he cuffed her injured hand, but other than that, she put up no resistance at all.

As soon as Tina was bound, Sam gestured for Chloe to follow him out of the room. He stopped in the doorway to call back to Tina, "We'll come back for you, but I've got to lock you up, you understand?"

Tina nodded, her face twisted in a deep wince, and he closed and locked the door.

Out in the hallway, Sam let out his breath. "Okay. I'm assuming the shifter locked up Lex and my brother, somewhere."

Chloe glanced down the line of closed doors down the hall. "Well, let's start looking."