HTH

Chapter Twenty Six

One Police Plaza, Lower Manhattan, 2021

Lance finally had him. After all the events of the past week, he was ready to savor this moment. The capture of this high profile fugitive was definitely gonna help his chances of getting promoted by the end of the year.

"Oh really," HTH responded. "I don't think we've ever met." He glanced behind Lance at the mirror for a second before returning his sight to Lance.

Lance sat down. "Sergeant Lance, NYPD."

"Kinda already got that last part, from where we are," he responded smugly.

Lance faked a grin. "Funny." He leaned in. "You know what else what else would be funny? You trying to get out of charges for the murders of Dian Nyugen and Ronald Wrenworth."

HTH looked to be expressing surprise and laughed slightly. "Wrenworth?! Oh gosh, I forgot about that. Feels like so long ago...I've had a busy week, but I'm sure you'd know that. After all, if you still care about that, that probably means you've been on my case this whole time."

Lance leaned back. "Pretty sure the statute of limitations on murder isn't 3 days."

"True, true," HTH responded. "Well to be fair, he had it coming. He was a bad hombre. Ties with the mob and everything."

Lance was somewhat taken aback. "Ties to the...nevermind. Whether he 'deserved it' or not, it's still murder." He decided to change course on the conversation. "What about Dian Nyugen? What's your deal with him?"

"Well he killed my girlfriend, then after years of us fighting, he kidnapped me, experimented on me, forced me to do his dirty work, then stabbed me and threw me off a building. But that's just the short version of the story."

Lance furrowed his brow in confusion. "Wait wait. Go back. He experimented on you? Why you?"

HTH had that smug look again. "Why sergeant. You don't think a normal person could do what I've done, do you?"

Lance leaned towards HTH. "What do you mean normal?"

HTH paused for a moment before replying. "Nothing important. Point is, there's another one just like me now, and knowing Dian he probably doesn't have as good morals as me." Now it was HTH that leaned in. "If you want to avoid a political disaster, I would suggest sending every man you have to the Javits Center as soon as possible."

"We don't negotiate with---" Lance was saying before HTH interjected.

"Terrorists? Wow...I feel almost insulted." He sat upright. "Guess I'll have to do it myself."

And with that last word, the entire room went pitch black.

---

Kara was watching Lance begin his interrogation when a pop up appeared on the screen of her laptop. Some words on a black background that filled up most of the screen.

Hello

Impulsively, Kara pecked out a response.

Who is this?

Look up.

She looked back up and saw HTH staring back at her for a moment, before he returned to looking at Lance.

Perplexed, she typed back another response.

How are you doing this?

That's not important. What's important is that you let me go.

Kara was intrigued, and was about to ask him what he meant when some websites popped up on her screen, all from news sites. She took a moment to read the headlines.

Does Candidate Wrenworth Have Ties With The Scaramucci Gang?

Tech Giant Nyugen Cleared of Ties To Arson in Bethesda

NyuTech Welcomes N. Korean Government

Then there was a compressed folder labeled ASIS File - Nyugen. She opened it and found dozens of document and image files dating back years.

Another message appeared.

Read through these. Then you'll know I'm on the right side here.

I need you to trust me. I need the NYPD to get their men to the Javits Center today.

Kara didn't respond; she didn't know what to say. She was still trying to process this amount of information when another message arrived.

Guess I'll have to take care of it myself.

Suddenly all of the pop ups closed, revealing a dialog box underneath all of it, going through code. It took her a moment, but Kara realized what was happening at the last second.

He was hacking the system the whole time!

Suddenly everything went black. The only thing Kara could see is her laptop screen. She rushed out of the observation room but stopped when she heard sounds of fighting. There was a second of just footsteps, and then the lights came back on. Officer Diaz was on the ground unconscious, his gun missing as well as his ID badge. Kara looked down the hall and saw a figure in dark clothes running into the stairwell.

Lance emerged from the interrogation room and saw Diaz. "What happened?? Did you see where he went?"

"Down the hall towards the stairs," she replied.

Lance rushed towards the stairs, yelling something into his radio. Kara didn't hear what he said. Instead, she headed back to the observation room and went on her laptop. She started looking over the ASIS folder's files, deciding whether to trust this man who broke out of NYPD custody and killed 2 people this week alone.

---

Jay burst into the hallway on the cell floor, surprising the evidence lockup guard. She raised her gun, but before she could fire it Jay shot it out of her hand. "I'm not trying to hurt anyone. Just get out of my way," he told her quickly.

Looking somewhat scared, she stepped backwards quickly. Jay went in and found his backpack. Then he found the control panel and opened Maddy's cell.

Maddy still laid on the bench, not having moved at all. Jay opened the door and shook her. "Maddy!"

She opened her eyes and took a sharp breath, bolting upright. "Dian! Helicopter!...wait...what... where are we?"

"We got arrested," Jay said, helping her up.

"Oh," she said with some disappointment.

"But I'm breaking us out."

"Oh, well that's good!" she said, finding her balance as Jay pulled her out of the jailroom and lead her down the stairs.

"Shouldn't we be going up?" Maddy asked. "So I can, y'know, fly us out of here?"

"We need to go a long way really quickly, and I'm guessing you're still too tired to fly both of us all the way to Brooklyn."

Maddy considered this before deciding he was right. "So where are we going?"

They arrived on one of the lowest floors, a concrete hallway leading to a metal door. Next to the door was an array of weapons, and after glancing at them for a second, Jay grabbed a sniper rifle with a long scope. He pushed the door open and Maddy saw what his plan was.