HTH

Chapter Twelve

NyuTech Tower, 2021

Ding

The elevator doors opened, and Jay snapped back to reality. He looked down at his hand, subconsciously clenched in a fist and shaking slightly. One of the guards nudged Jay, prompting him to exit the elevator. Ahead of him was a long, blank hallway, something you would see in a hospital...or a morgue.

Jay was led down to one of the unmarked metal doors into a small room with a table and two chairs. Sitting on the table was a pizza box and a bottle of soda.

"Wow Dian, if this a date, I'm flattered but not interested," Jay said, a very smart aleck look on his face.

Dian smugly looked at Jay. "Wow, I'm surprised you remember what a date looks like, considering you probably haven't been on one in years."

Jay's mood changed very quickly.

Dian pulled out one of the chairs and motioned to Jay. "Come, sit. We need you to keep your energy up."

Jay sat down and looked questioningly at Dian. "For what? You haven't even given me your monologue about your evil plan."

Dian laughed. "Do you consider me an evil genius?"

"Sure, why not?"

Dian stood up from his chair. "Well Jay, I'm not going to reveal my whole 'evil plan'", he said with air quotes. "All you need to know is you'll be experimented on, and if you cooperate, you'll be let go." He opened the door and the two guards entered. Dian paused, turning back to Jay. "I would appreciate it if you didn't bother trying to escape. I've spent a lot of time, money, and resources to get you here. Besides, there's nowhere for you to go; you're 60 stories up, surrounded by my guards."

He turned around to the guards. "Keep an eye on him until the doctor is ready."

Dian stepped out of the room and walked to the elevator. The doors opened, and a tall man in a lab coat stepped out.

"Ah, Doctor Baker. Your patient will be ready for you soon."

"Very good." Doctor Baker walked past, but then stopped and turned around. "Are you actually going to keep him alive afterwards? He could bring the whole plan to its knees."

Dian smiled. "Relax Anthony. After we have everything we need from him, I'll kill him myself."

---

"So there's nothing?"

Lance and Kara were at the security offices of JFK Airport. Being the biggest airport in one of the busiest cities in the world, their security equipment was state of the art. The city and the airport both spent tens of millions of dollars on upgrades after 9/11. So with such an expensive and top-of-the-line system, Lance was perplexed by what the TSA officer was telling him.

"Unfortunately, yeah," the officer told him. "Around 9:50, half of the cameras in the T4 terminal began to repeat the video of the past ten minutes. By 10 o'clock they were back to normal, but we didn't notice anything was wrong until we were checking it for you."

"Any signs of a hack?" Kara asked.

"Looking back, yes, but there were no signs at the time, and nothing we could trace back to any source."

Lance let out a sigh of frustration. "Alright, we're gonna need a list of flights departing or boarding the T4 terminal between 9:50 and 10:00, as well as security footage for the 24 hours prior, in ALL areas." He paused for a second before adding another item. "And those security reports or whatever. You may not have been able to trace anything, but..." he pointed towards Kara, "maybe she could."

He turned to her. "Do you think you could run facial recognition on the footage?"

"Definitely, but it'll take time. There's a lot of cameras to go through."

Lance nodded. "Focus on areas that would make sense. Metal detectors, customs, the area around the SkyTrain terminal, during this morning and last afternoon. You've got nothing but time." He looked out the window on a plane taking off. "Perp's probably halfway to Tijuana by now."

---

It had only been four or five minutes before Vanessa felt the helicopter land again. She knew they had flown over a river, but didn't have a good enough idea of New York to know where they were now.

She waited till she couldn't hear the blades turning to poke her feline head out of the compartment. Vanessa couldn't see anyone, so slowly, she slipped out towards the open door.

She was almost out when she heard a sneeze.

The pilot emerged from the cockpit and looked up to see a black cat, frozen mid-stride.

"What the-" the pilot said as he placed his hand on his hip holster. Vanessa reacted quickly. She launched herself and scratched at the pilot's face. He fell to the ground with another sneeze. Vanessa changed back into human form and delivered a 1-2 punch knockout.

Vanessa was about to get up when she saw the pilot's NyuTech security badge. It read Jack Layton, and had the same distinct N logo as the building.

Dian must have Jay at NyuTech's New York headquarters.

She reached down and grabbed the badge off the pilot's shirt. This will probably be useful.

Vanessa stopped and looked out onto her surroundings. Past the tarmac, there was a river, a lot of roads and buildings, but from where she was standing she couldn't see anything iconic.

Well I guess I'll figure out as I go.

Vanessa changed into her feline form and quickly made her way across the tarmac. She changed back and entered the airport, trying very hard to look like she knew where she was. There were signs all around her, each saying something along the lines of "Thanks for flying at LaGuardia Airport." Each one featured a major New York landmark.

Note to self: I really should know more names of airports.

Vanessa began to follow the signs for taxis and thought about what to do next. She had no idea how to get back to that building or how to get in. She doubted she could get in alone; security would likely be very tight.

Things were looking pretty bleak for Vanessa when she stepped out of the airport into the cold, dry air of New York City. People dressed in jackets and sweatshirts darted through taxis and SUVs picking up the new arrivals. Cries of "Taxi!" came from every direction. There was one, however, that made her turn her head.

No...it couldn't be. Could it??

Vanessa took off running down the street, chasing that familiar voice calling for a cab. There was still hope that they could save Jay, but she needed help.

She finally found who she was chasing. His dark brown hair was tucked under his beanie, but Vanessa still knew exactly who it was. She ran up next to him, stepping around the pile of luggage.

"Ty?"

Suddenly there was a flash of bright purple, and before she could even blink a dark object hit her in the face.