"Alaska?" Raul said slowly as Sally finished speaking.
"Yes, there's been a bit of an outbreak in Houston, and since our satellites aren't up yet, I borrowed theirs," Sally answered over the phone, "I found him in Alaska... he isn't that far from the Canadian border and is in a remote area..."
"You just found him..." Raul answered.
"Yes, he was outside and acting like he's king of the world," Sally replied.
"And how did you know he wasn't where the guy we arrested said he was?" Raul asked.
"I looked," Sally answered.
"How long?" Raul questioned.
"Pardon?"
"How long were you looking?" Raul answered, "Our technology is good, but the satellites do not have facial recognition sensors in them, and if someone isn't looking up, you likely aren't looking at their face..."
"Are you trusting a total stranger over me?" Sally demanded.
"Not in the least, and once you give me the coordinates, I'll see what I can do to get an arrest team up there," Raul answered, "but the guy gave us a total land area of nearly two million square miles and that he had also bribed local officials. You can't just look at for even a few minutes and say he isn't there. Our prisoner even said that he isn't always at those bases. If he is in Alaska, he could be setting up a new base or whatever is going on in Houston is supposed to distract us from whatever he's doing... not knowing that we've got Rio under control already..."
"Okay," Sally sighed, "Well, from what I could see, he IS in Alaska, at least he looks like he is... and Houston isn't the only thing that's going on."
"It isn't?" Raul asked back.
"Yes," Sally answered, "Not many humans have actually transformed in Houston... the big issue is that they unleashed it on the zoo! They've transformed animals into Kats, not people!"
"Do you need help?" Raul asked.
"In Houston?" Sally responded, "I'm fine in Houston as the local police are responding well with the stocks of the Vaccine that they have on hand, but they said it's also going on New Orleans..."
"New Orleans?" Raul asked back, "the northern hemisphere is becoming immune to the virus.. and Snowy and Maurice have yet to come up with a way the virus could overpower the vaccine..."
"But not everyone has been vaccinated, and they might have infected the animals there two," Sally reminded him, "Remember it's the chaos that Li Sang is after."
In Houston, Sally shuddered when shi heard a heavy growling sigh.
"True," Raul than admitted, "if you can get a call back to Janace, have them ship additional vaccine darts to you and to New Orleans, I can drop a team off on our way to a different issue..."
"Different?" Sally asked nervously.
"We got a new recruit from Miami, who says he got the Chakat Serum/Virus as part of a medical aid type of thing," Raul answered, "Now, I understand that Snowy and Maurice haven't done anything like that?"
"No, and even if they had, they'd make sure that the resulting Kat wouldn't infect anyone," Sally replied.
"Well... Maria and I will be going to Miami with Chris to check the hospital that he got the shot from," Raul answered, "my guess is that it's one of the labs that Li Sang has and has set it up as a fraudulent Chakat Industries office... if we can get the labs taken out, anything Li Sang does will be weakened."
Sally nodded.
"In the meantime, I'll drop the rest off at New Orleans," Raul sighed.
"What about Li Sang?" Sally asked.
"Snowy, Alexis, Flake, Danna, and Mikkie can lead a capture team, you may need to include Gloria in order to cooperate with Chinese wishes," Raul answered, "Like you, Alexis, Flake, Danna, and Mikkie are only one month along in their pregnancies... they'll need to be careful, but there's no explicit risk of them giving birth..."
Sally nodded. Shi then hung up and turned to hir transformed Aunt. The Rattlekat sat calmly and was actually gripping hirself somewhat nervously. Sally could only sigh.
+++++++++++++++
What followed was a great deal of confusing movement. UN crew in Janace rushed to get additional vaccine shots ready for delivery and Raul informed those in Janace about the updates. There was some frustration vented, but the overall plan was agreed to. The only changes that happened was in the flight plan that Raul's team was flying on. Instead of flying to New Orleans and then doubling back to Miami, the pilots dropped Raul, Maria, and Chris off in Miami. Luna and Midnight also volunteered to take Liam back to Janace where the cells for him were ready.
"Never really thought I'd be back here," Chris commented as he, Maria, and Raul made their way out of the airport and began to make their way through Miami.
"If you feel it to be your home, you can always stay," Maria told hir, "we only ask that you take us to this clinic that helped you."
"I think I'll stick with you," Chris commented, "I really didn't have anyone when I changed... you have all been rather friendly."
Raul blinked as he had never felt himself described as "friendly" before. Honorable, firm, determined, and even arrogant, angry, and pigheaded had been used to describe him from time to time, but never friendly.
"Thanks," Raul said slowly.
They calmly made their way through Miami's streets. Thanks to the fact that the UN offices and international agencies moving to keep track of things and the fact that America had had greater contact with various Kats over the years, things were relatively calm and even friendly. Chris eventually lead them to a small clinic-like building. It looked like a small regional clinic, but had the words Chakat Industries written on the front. There was also a handful of splashing sounds, which betrayed the fact that the building was on the waterfront.
"Will all of them be working for Li Sang?" Chris asked.
"Directly... that we don't know," Maria sighed, "More than likely the only ones who know their employer is a terrorist are the scientists creating either the virus strains or the vaccine strains to transform animals. The rest have been kept in the dark and think they're working for Maurice and Snowy."
They then slowly made their way into the building. They were greeted by a lone woman who was dressed fairly formally. She smiled when she saw Chris.
"Well, hello Chris, it is good to see you again, how are your legs?" the woman asked.
"They're doing okay," Chris answered, "I'm glad to be able to move again."
"That is good to hear, what brings you back here then?" the woman asked.
It was then that Raul and Maria came into view. Maria held up a search warrant issued from the FBI that they obtained through specialized fax machines that they received while they had been flying from Rio to Miami.
"We are here to check your records of ownership and converse with your scientists," Maria said firmly.
"But we are here to cure people!" the woman stated nervously, "Have we done something wrong?"
"Not you personally," Raul spoke, "but your bosses may have..."
"But our bosses are Maurice and Catherine Chakat, it's been on our paychecks!" the woman spoke.
That confirmed to Raul and Maria that the workers had been lied to and deceived by whoever was running the building.
"Regardless, we have the warrants," Maria answered.
The woman then blinked and nodded. Thankfully she seemed to startled to do anything to alert the scientists or her local bosses. She got up and opened a door that allowed Maria, Chris, and Raul entrance into the inside of the facility. She then began to lead them through the building. They made their way into a single large room that was full of beakers, centrifuges, genetic sequencers, blood sorting machines, and large hosts of computers. There was even a large refrigerator along one of the walls. There were two men doing their work and hadn't noticed them.
"The outbreaks are not doing as much as he thinks," one scientist answered, "they've been unleashing the vaccine and it's spreading faster than the outbreaks."
"Yes, but here we can at least gain the access to doing individual doses," the other answered, "it's the only way we can override the vaccine for the time being, and in the end it'll net more money than simply robbing banks... at least in a way that's not easily traceable."
"Provided no one learns of your treachery," Raul growled and moved into the room, making both spin around in surprise.
They moved to flee, but Raul pounced on one while Maria pounced on the other. Both scientists were held down easily. They screamed obscenities and claimed that they were violated, though that didn't change the results.
"You're both under arrest for working in association with the known terrorist Li Sang, causing outbreaks around the globe, fraud, and theft of patented material," Maria said firmly.
The woman looked horrified and betrayed by what she'd over heard and clutched at Chris, and crying into the Dolphkat's fairly impressive bosom, covered in a normal bikini, since dolphins and whales had little if any hair the result of their aquatic lifestyles.
"I've been working for a terrorist?" she asked to Chris.
"Yes," Chris said slowly, "I didn't even know it till I made it down to Rio..."
"You were in Rio De Janeiro?" the woman asked.
"I swam there, to have some fun," Chris admitted, "and I did day dream a little... and I accidentally transformed a couple of normal Bottlenose Dolphins. When I got there I met with Mr. Raul Heroud and Ms. Maria Lafayette and they made the statement that the New Chakat Industries wasn't doing anything like this."
"I can't believe I've been helping a terrorist," the woman cried.
"Don't be too upset," Maria spoke up as shi and Raul got the two scientists cuffed and back to their feet, "Li Sang has been tricky and tough to catch for years."