Author's note: Some adult language.
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Raul and Maria made it quietly to the main police station where the Rio police were not only struggling to manage the outbreak but were also holding the prisoner that had been taken shortly after the bomb had been placed.
"If I may ask," Maria spoke to the police chief, "If you were able to arrest the man who placed the bomb, how did you avoid not dismantle the bomb?"
"The crook had some remote that we didn't know of, and based on how he was dressed, we couldn't have even guessed that the bomb had a remote on him..." the police chief sighed, "if it weren't for the fact that my officers had actually ordered injections of the Justin Vaccine they would probably be Kats by now."
Raul and Maria nodded and followed the police chief through the halls of the police headquarters building. Some people gave them second looks, as to a great extent, despite the rapid growth of the Kat population around the world, there were still a great number of people that had not fully adapted to having them around or didn't accept them. Raul even numbered among them at one point. He remembered the Paris outbreak and sighed heavily. His unit in the French Army had been in the general area in preparation for a major review to honor the unit's history, and then the outbreak started and his unit was forced to provide additional manpower to try and contain the outbreak. At the time, with Fee City being the only official Kat community, and with Maurice Chakat and Catherine "Snowy" Snow being the main figures behind the Fee City outbreak, he had seen it as Americans in their arrogance deciding to play around with things they weren't supposed to. Then it was revealed that one of the scientists that had been called in had assisted in bringing about the outbreak, which was the first great sign that these outbreaks were being helped along by someone else. Thanks to Sammy, they knew know that the man behind these things was Li Sang, but after being interrogated, the scientist revealed that other then being contacted on the phone, he'd never seen who he was working for or where his boss was operating from. That revelation made Raul apologize for his gruffness and volunteer to work with the UN task forces that were set up after the Paris outbreak to begin hunting the man behind the outbreak, who had been in London.
In the six years between the Paris and Sydney outbreaks, Raul had red up on the files related to the Old Chakat Industries, particularly with the results of the investigation of Maurice and Snowy by the American FBI. In that he learned that while the theory that they could end war through the Virus was silly, he had to admit that maybe it wasn't so much about playing God as it was trying to make the world better. And now, Raul was a Foxtaur and still working for France and for the UN to try and solve the issues that were coming about from these outbreaks. He had come a long way, and figured that as the Kat population grew, preferably either through the birth of new Kats or through voluntarily taking the serum, more people would adapt to accept their presence.
Catching Li Sang so that these outbreaks were not spread by terrorists would go a long way to doing that, and that was why Maria and Raul had returned to the police headquarters the the Chief of Police for Rio De Janeiro. He lead them through the station, with both Maria and Raul being careful to give people the ability to move through the halls without making them jump out of the way to avoid their Taur and Kat bodies. They were eventually lead into the main holding area where they found a lone man seated on a bench in one of the cells. He was dressed in a white tee shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants that had no pockets. By the looks of him, Raul wouldn't have suspected him carrying a remote on him either.
"Do you know who he is?" Raul questioned.
"He said his name is Liam Hatcher, but that was about all we could get out of him," the police chief spoke, "you think you can get more?"
Maria nodded, "the crimes you can charge him with are minor and mostly connected whatever crimes the Kats commit before they get control of themselves. As such he'll feel comfortable stonewalling you. However, based on the news coverage that the UN has received in its efforts to catch Li Sang, we might be able to scare something out of him."
"Do not bully him," the police chief warned.
"Wouldn't think of it," Raul replied.
The two then approached and the man, Liam Hatcher, looked up to see them coming. The man was dirty and dark stubble covered the area where any man would have beard. If he was growing one, couldn't do that great a job of doing so. He did look somewhat nervous as Maria and Raul came and sat down outside his cell.
"You can relax, we won't hurt you," Maria said calmly, "We're just going to ask you a few questions..."
"Yeah right... I've seen all the reports on you guys on the news," Liam answered, "You're going to take be back to Janace..."
"Only once the papers for extradition have been completed, and while we expect them to be completed and approved before we leave," Raul said slowly, "Taking you back to Janace to stand trial for acts of terrorism and "poisoning" will not necessarily mean the death of you..."
"America loves the death penalty, buddy," Liam replied.
"Then please cooperate with us," Maria urged, "Cooperate and we can pull some strings and get your sentence reduced to a prison sentence if the courts decide to use the death penalty... the concept of you avoiding extradition is impossible. It would be best if you cooperated."
"And betray my boss?" Liam answered, "Do you know what he'd do to me? He'd..."
"I doubt Li Sang will be stupid enough to send people into Janace, Colorado, a place populated largely by Kats who are in no danger of going into a mindless state of lust," Raul answered, "We'd either smell or hear the assassin coming..."
"You think he'd kill me? He'd turn me INTO one of you sick freaks," Liam answered.
"And we'll do everything we can to preserve your humanity," Maria told him, "but it would be in your own best interest to cooperate with us... if not, things could be worse for you than becoming a Kat. You said you want to avoid being killed... are you really going to just stonewall us and run the very real risk that the US government will have you executed once you're on US soil?"
That made Liam pale visibly and he then looked down.
"Fine," Liam said slowly.
"Where is Li Sang?" Raul asked, "Where does he live? Where is he making his plans?"
"He's mostly been hiding out in Southeast Asia and Indonesia... he's bought off land or officials to have his own private bases and airfields to get what he needs," Liam answered.
That considerably narrowed down the search area for Li Sang to a hand full of countries on the Asian mainland, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and possibly even going as far as East Timor and the island of New Guinea (which was divided between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea).
"Do you know exactly where these sorts of safe houses are?" Maria asked.
"No, I just know the general area," Liam answered, "and he doesn't necessarily stay in those bases all the time. He may actually go to overlook an outbreak or coordinate it with some other members of his organization."
"Who is doing the scientific work for him?" Maria asked.
"Don't know, and that's not my job," Liam replied.
"Why is he launching these outbreaks?" Raul questioned, "Li Sang has been a criminal guilty of everything but breaking the law of gravity and committing genocide... and that's probably only because the law of gravity is a scientific law of nature and he hasn't murdered enough people of the same group to qualify for genocide... yet... so why is he spreading a virus that if left unblocked will turn the hold world into the "ultimate" creature who's sole drive in life, once they get their minds back, is to love and be loved?"
"You really think all of this is about you furry freaks?" Liam actually laughed, "that Sang is just creating Kats for the fun of it?"
Maria and Raul both focused their eyes on the man as he continued.
"Did you not see all the chaos that went into these outbreaks?" Liam answered, "The cities went into chaos as the new Kats just started fucking each other and you all rushed to get them under control. The chaos and distraction was more than enough for Li Sang to hack into the various major banks and bank accounts... sometimes in person, sometimes remotely using a computer hacking program and exchanging funds into his own accounts and then withdrawing the money."
That made Raul's eyes widened. He remembered their being a string of minor robbery investigations as well as a handful of Counterfeiting of Money charges as well after the Paris outbreak. This was the final answer as to why Li Sang was launching these outbreaks. They were nothing more than the cover for bank robberies.
"Do you have Li Sang's number?" Maria asked after a moment.
"No," Liam answered, "He calls us."
Raul then turned to the police chief, "Did you announce to the press that you arrested him?"
"Had to... it would calm the people down," the police chief answered, "why would... oh danação."
"So much for setting a trap for Li Sang," Raul sighed.
"At least we know the general area he's operating out of," Maria answered, "that'll make it easier at least."
"Still tough," Raul reminded hir.
"Better than having to execute the same search on a global scale," Maria replied, and then turned to Liam, "We thank you for your cooperation and will make official notes so that your sentence will reflect your cooperation."
With that they then left to find Talia making her way into the police headquarters with the Dolphkat. The Dolphkat was handed what looked like the Vaccine Bomb that had been detonated over Mt. Everest and then headed out. Both Raul and Maria moved forward quickly.
"Talia, who was that?" Raul asked.
"Chris, he is the only human who became a Dolphkat, the rest were normal Bottlenose Dolphins," Talia answered, "He volunteered to swim the bomb to the other side of South America and set the bomb off in the Andes."
"Get him back!" Raul practically roared, "the bomb CAN'T get wet or it won't work or worse detonate prematurely!"
"Not to mention that it'd take him WEEKS to swim around South America to get to the point where its highest point is, and that's assuming he uses the Panama Canal," Maria answered, "It may be even longer if he goes around the southern edge of South America. If he wants to help, we're more than happy to have it, but we will fly the vaccine bomb and detonate it that way."
Talia looked a little confused.
"It's safer, trust us," Raul told hir.