by Gwenda Bond
“Readers are in for a treat. A spectacular prose start for DC Comics’ spectacular lady.” —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Bond cleverly reimagines star reporter Lois Lane as a teenager today. …delightful.” —Booklist
“Step aside, Katniss: it’s time for a teenage journalist to take over.”—The Hollywood Reporter
“So it’s basically Lois Lane in a Veronica Mars-esque plot, which sounds like all kinds of awesome.” —Entertainment Weekly
“This project should appeal not only to YA readers, but fans of the heroine who may have felt neglected with 20 page comics lately.” —The Examiner
“This is a story with a strong female protagonist. Lois is smart and gutsy… an enjoyable ride.” —VOYA
“Gwenda Bond concocts an intelligent novel that moves faster than a speeding bullet… May this be the first of many more.” —Shelf Awareness
“A perfect read for anyone who loves a good mystery, with some romance, and a tenacious lead character.”—SupermanSuperSite
“Lois Lane: Fallout is an innovative and overdue revitalization of Lois Lane, and stands on its own as a stellar YA debut for the character.” —The Comics Journal
“In a sea of series that keep the characters status quo and rehash the same mysteries with different names and doodads, this is a godsend. A must read for comics fans and mystery enthusiasts alike.” —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Superhero fans wishing for a fuller backstory on Superman’s love interest will find it hard to wait for the sequel, which seems like a sure thing.” —Booklist
“Fans yearning for Lois Lane action, both young and old, can find her once more in Bond’s book.” —The Examiner
“Gwenda Bond takes everything that fans loved about that book and throws even more entertainment into its sequel…” —Fantasy Literature
“Who knew a journalist could wield so much power… and win so many hearts.” —Charlie Holmberg, author of The Paper Magician Series
Table of Contents
Cover
Praise for Lois Lane: Fallout
Praise for Lois Lane: Double Down
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
Back Cover
CHAPTER 1
“You’re smiling like your world domination is nigh,” Maddy said.
“Always,” I said as I fell into step beside her on the bustling sidewalk.
This time my world-domination smile was because I’d spotted our Scoop colleagues James and Devin waiting in front of the fancy old movie theater up ahead, as prompt as I’d known James would be.
It was a beautiful spring evening in Metropolis and a group of us were converging uptown for the first showing of Madwoman, a biopic about my hero Nellie Bly and her early days of groundbreaking journalistic exposés. I was determined to do my part for its opening weekend success. Support the things you love with your dollars… and make your friends support them too. Especially when journalism is involved. This was my motto. Or one of them, anyway.
Maddy led a hearty crew that also included her perfectly coiffed twin sister Melody, Maddy’s paint-spattered boyfriend Dante, and our gaming-happy friend Anavi. James had volunteered to get to the theater early to procure tickets. I’d needed to stop by the Scoop offices en route. I had a feature to file about how boys could know when they were being creepy and, um, well, stop being creepy. It had been inspired by a topic on the upstart online gossip hub Loose Lips and a long thread by guys who were wondering whether they were part of the problem. Our boss Perry White hated Loose Lips’ crowdsourced news style, but we’d found ideas for several stories there—and just not revealed the source of our inspiration to him.
“You got the tickets, right?” I asked James by way of greeting as we met in front of the old-school marquee. He was tall, glossy-haired and -toothed, and born with a silver spoon but also a sense of fairness and a good heart.
Devin said, “Is that what he was supposed to do? I think he forgot.” His afro was getting a little longer, and today he wore a T-shirt with a nerd-cool graphic of wolves and dragons.
My eyes narrowed at James, but he reached into his pocket and fanned out white ticket stubs. “Very funny, Dev,” he said. “You’re risking my life and limb. Here they are. Although I think we may be the only people at this showing.”
I started to speak, but Maddy laughed and said, “Wait, Lois, let me guess what you’re going to say.” She tossed her head to get a lock of hot-pink-streaked hair out of her face. Her T-shirt read Her Royal Shyness—it was, as always, for a fake band she made up, though only I knew that. But lately she hadn’t been shy at all.
“Let’s hear it, then,” I said, crossing my arms.
“That’s because people are barbarians,” Maddy declared.
Anavi and Melody were talking to each other about something else. But I looked over to find Dante glancing back and forth as he followed our conversation. I felt a momentary pang for him, watching us quip at each other. Even after dating Maddy for months, he sometimes looked like he was standing outside a secret clubhouse.
I knew that feeling. In fact, I knew it much better than the feeling of being inside the clubhouse. I still understood being alone far better than I understood having good grades and a job that was a true calling and friends and a long-distance friend-who-was-more-than-a-friend. My family had moved to Metropolis at the beginning of the school year, and in the months since, it had become home sweet home, something I’d never experienced before. Soon we’d be out of school for the summer, free to spend every day working at the Scoop.
“People are barbarians,” I said. Seeing “the true story of Nellie Bly” in little letters below the title on the marquee filled me with what could only be described as glee. “At least ones who don’t appreciate Nellie. Everybody pay James back.”
I passed James some money and so did the others. In exchange, he handed over our tickets. He didn’t need the money, but it was the principle of the thing. James’s family had lost some of their wealth to legal fees for his dad, but they were starting to recover. His dad was running in the emergency mayoral election set for next month, the former bogus corruption conviction against him expunged (thanks to us and the story we’d managed to get six months ago).
We proceeded into the theater, and Anavi noticed me eyeing the concession stand. “Would you like to split an assortment of refreshments?” she asked.
Trust Anavi to use a word like refreshments instead of snacks—she was a former spelling bee champ. “If you’re talking about the giant tub of popcorn I’m about to buy, then yes,” I said.
The others got candy and drinks too, and then we made our way down the grand aisles. Sure, it wasn’t a stadium-seating theater, but it was the nicest one I’d ever been in. There was a v
aulted ceiling with mosaic detail, and velvet lined the walls and the seats.
Maddy selected a row halfway down. When Dante started to go in first, she stopped him. “Girls in this row, and you boys can sit behind us,” she said.
He raised his eyebrows. Was it me or had her tone been strained?
Usually Maddy and Dante were on the same wavelength; it was the kind of sweet that bordered on nausea-inducing—not that I could talk, given the way I was with SmallvilleGuy.
Dante stepped back around Maddy with a shrug and dropped a kiss on her cheek.
James watched all this, then moved aside to let Dante in the boys’ row. Months ago, James had revealed to me that he had developed the world’s largest crush on Maddy. She’d long carried a torch for him, but she had just met Dante. So I’d talked James into not doing anything about his feelings for Maddy. Wrong timing. I had no idea whether he continued to pine, and his expression told me nothing.
We sat down. I took a spot between Maddy and Anavi and almost dropped the popcorn when my phone buzzed in my pocket. “Hold this,” I said to Maddy, thrusting the salty, buttery deliciousness at her so I could get to my phone.
Given that all my Metropolis friends were around me, there was only one person this could be.
SmallvilleGuy: Did you make it?
SkepticGirl1: Yes. It hasn’t started yet. Wish you were here.
SmallvilleGuy: Me too. Always. I wanted to let you know I won’t be able to meet later in the game—Bess needs some TLC. Vet’s coming over.
“Oh no,” I muttered.
“What?” Maddy asked, and I glanced over at her.
“Oh, just Bess the cow’s pregnancy,” I explained. “She’s having a tough one.”
Maddy bit her lip, obviously to keep in laughter.
“I’m ignoring you,” I said.
SkepticGirl1: Crossing my fingers. We’ll talk tomorrow?
SmallvilleGuy: Miss you until then. xo
“I’d make fun of you, but that expression on your face is too cute,” Maddy said, shoveling a handful of popcorn into her mouth.
“I’m keeping my silence on this one,” Anavi said.
Melody leaned over from Anavi’s other side. “You still haven’t met this guy in person?”
“Shhh,” I said, grateful for the dimming of the theater lights. I retrieved the popcorn from Maddy. “The movie’s starting.”
“Saved by the cinema,” Devin said behind me.
No, we hadn’t met yet. And I still didn’t know his actual name. But I felt like we knew everything else about each other—everything else that mattered. We’d gotten closer and closer over the past months. Which meant the physical distance between us was sometimes downright painful.
The movie proved to be perfectly cast and was heart-thumpingly exciting. I knew Nellie made it safely out of every situation to write her exposés. But I still held my breath when she was being examined by the doctors so she could infiltrate Blackwell Island for her famous story, which revealed the terrible conditions in which the facility’s mentally ill patients lived. When she posed as a factory girl, my heart swelled with sadness at the exploitation she observed.
I felt almost dazed when we emerged into the night two and a half hours later. “Please give that movie every Oscar,” I said. “If any of you didn’t like it, don’t tell me.”
Everyone laughed. “It was great,” Maddy said, lifting her hand to push back a strand of hair just as Dante reached for her hand.
Weird.
“Anyone want to ride-share?” James asked.
The others demurred, but Devin nodded. “That’d be great. Lois?” he asked.
I should have said yes, but I wanted to walk to the subway alone. I needed time to process my thoughts. “I’ll see you guys at school tomorrow.”
We waved and I gave Maddy and Anavi a hug, then exchanged a nod with Melody. I saluted the boys, and as everyone split off into separate directions, I waited on the sidewalk’s edge for honking, merging traffic to clear so I could cross.
Given how heavy it was, it’d be awhile. I didn’t mind standing here, waiting, though. After that movie, I had things on my mind.
It had left me with a distinct craving. I wanted another big story. Nellie Bly didn’t wait for them to come to her. The last six months had been good, and we’d done some important work. But none of it front-page-of-the-Daily-Planet level important.
Something I’d learned from the whole big story clearing the ex-Mayor was that the little stories mattered too. I wasn’t above them. And I had needed to learn to be more patient.
But… bringing down the bad guys? Restoring a good guy’s honor? Helping people? That was heady stuff.
I missed it.
And, okay, I enjoyed having my name on the front page of the Daily Planet. Little stories didn’t end up there as often.
We’d been watching for jerky mad scientist type Dabney Donovan to resurface. The evil doctor had gotten away clean after helping set up James’s dad and endangering Maddy’s sister in the process. There’d been no leads. He avoided tech networks like the plague, preferring paper records. Devin set up searches for him online anyway, and he had a regular trawl looking for vacant buildings that shouldn’t be draining power and other oddities. So far, nothing. We needed to find Donovan and figure out how to take him down.
Suddenly, I wished I was going to the office instead of home. Nellie had inspired me. We shouldn’t be waiting around for Donovan to reemerge. I preferred to chase my stories, not the other way around.
Then there was the whole mess related to the person who went by the mysterious online handle TheInventor. He ran a message board called Strange Skies, catering to fans of weird, unexplained phenomena. It was where I had first encountered my online friend-who-was-more-than-a-friend, SmallvilleGuy.
Of my friends, Devin was the only one who knew most of this; he’d even met SmallvilleGuy in Worlds War Three, a real-sim holoset game Dev was super into. The game was also where SmallvilleGuy and I frequently hung out together these days.
I’d asked for Devin’s help to track TheInventor’s movements online, but he’d never been able to manage it. The last time he tried was a couple of months ago now.
What Devin didn’t know was that I suspected TheInventor of working with members of a secret government task force who were hunting for someone I owed my life to—a certain flying man. And Devin didn’t know that I also suspected one of the people on said task force was my dad.
But I needed to make absolutely certain TheInventor was playing double agent before I pressed the issue with SmallvilleGuy. Because SmallvilleGuy trusted him. Completely. And SmallvilleGuy didn’t trust easily.
I hated keeping secrets from SmallvilleGuy. This, despite the fact he continued to keep his real identity a secret from me.
But I hadn’t told SmallvilleGuy what I thought might be happening. Not yet. Or why I preferred meeting in the game to chatting on software designed by TheInventor. Not until I had proof that TheInventor might be willing to put us in danger. Or until I had proof that he had already put us in danger.
The street finally calmed enough for me to chance crossing, and so I did.
When I made it to the other side, I looked back at the theater and noticed a boy staring straight at me. He was short and too skinny for his frame, shoulders and elbows jutting out beneath a faded T-shirt. He had floppy brown hair on the right side of his head and a smooth shave on the other.
He lifted his hand in a sarcastic beauty-queen-style wave.
A horn honked and distracted me for a split second, and when I turned my head back, he was gone. No sign of him anywhere on the block. He had just… vanished.
Great, I thought, now I’m seeing things.
I took out my phone and sent Devin a text. The least I could do tonight was pursue a lead on something.
Can you give tagging my Strange Skies pal TheInventor another shot? Maybe he’s been lured into a false sense of security.
Typing the words, I thought maybe they also applied to me over the last few months. And I vowed: no more.
CHAPTER 2
After my last class the next day, I finished stowing my books in my locker and shut the door. I turned around and discovered Maddy standing behind me. Her T-shirt today was for Passive Attack. “So?” she asked.
I blew on my fingernails in a universal sign for success. “I aced that bio test. A-plus.”
“Should make your dad happy—and Principal Butler.” Maddy said it dryly. She was fully aware of how little I cared about the loathsome principal’s regard for me.
James walked up and joined us. “Hey,” he said, “I’m on my way to the Scoop. Anyone want to come along?”
I did want to, but I couldn’t. I had an impromptu date with SmallvilleGuy—he’d said he had “significant news” and refused to divulge more. No way I could wait until after hitting the office with that kind of lead-up, desperate to find another big story or not. Besides, Devin had also sent me a text after lunch saying that he’d made progress on his task.
Maddy nodded to James. “Sure, I’m headed there too. I have an album to review.”
“Great,” James said. “Let’s go.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I said.
“Um… why?” James asked, hesitating.
“Not that we would,” Maddy said. She considered. “Unless you were doing something crazy dangerous. So I guess that means we would.”
“Haha, hilarious. Have I done anything crazy dangerous lately?” I answered the question before they could. “I have not.”
It was the truth. Winter had passed in what most people would describe as calm but I would call boring. Well, almost boring. I could feel my cheeks getting a little hot. There was one person in my life who was the opposite of boring.
Always.
“I’m meeting up with Devin here about something, and then I have somewhere to be… I’m not coming by the office today. So go ahead without me.”
