The news traveled all over the world rapidly. Li Sang, the man behind the outbreaks that followed the Fee City outbreak was captured. Sammy had made the call to Maurice and Charlie, and Jess who had all volunteered to look after their eggs while Gloria and Sammy where out. From the soft "mews" in the background and slight giggling from Charlie and Jess, it was apparent that the largely Cheetah Chakat and the Foxkat was instructing the Persian Chakat on the finer points of being a "mommy." Maurice obviously knew about parenting, as shi had helped raise Snowflake, but it was clear that Charlie trying to help Maurice at least mentally prepare for what shi would experience in the next month. From there, while Sammy and Gloria didn't yet know it, news agencies flashed the news around the globe, much the same way that the death of Osama bin Laden had been announced a few years before. The only thing that remained was the actual announcement from either the President, or one of the leaders from one of the other countries that had been working in the global task force to catch Li Sang to make the formal announcement.
For the moment, Sammy and Gloria were relaxing as they waited for their plane to be ready for take off to fly them back to Janace with Li Sang.
"So this will be the end, eh?" Sammy asked to Gloria and glancing over to where Li Sang sat, "We take Li Sang back, he stands trial before an international tribunal and the US and China demand he be executed."
"For Li Sang, yes," Gloria nodded, "Which will mean we can spend a very long time together... and be extraordinarily happy together."
Sammy smiled, remembering hir transformation, and while it triggered the Hong Kong outbreak, it had brought hir back into Gloria's life. Shi hadn't seen Gloria since they had been in college, and Gloria had forgiven Sammy for transforming hir into a Dracokat. They then also found that both had been ovulating before their transformations and they sired two eggs in each other.
"Will they make you go back to China?" Sammy asked.
"If I don't retire or request a permanent transfer to work with the UN?" Gloria said with a sigh, "Most likely."
"What about our eggs?" Sammy asked, "we still have about eight months until they hatch, but they are our children... I want to be able to love them all."
Gloria then sighed heavily. China still had strict laws to limit their population, and with good reasons for those laws. If they had too large a family, they would overpopulate the country and the entire country would starve to death. To prevent that, under Chinese law, Chinese families were limited to one or two children and no more. Sammy and Gloria had each laid two eggs, and while Gloria was certain that Mikkie and Danna would be all to happy to "adopt" their soughters if shi was recalled to China, Gloria really didn't want leave any of hir children behind either.
"I do too," Gloria nodded, "I haven't figured out how to do that yet outside of retirement or requesting a different assignment where we can keep our children outside of China... but then we still have some last bits of work related to Li Sang's entire operation. We'll need to find and either shut down or take control of all of the labs that he either set up or bribed."
"Retire," Sammy urged, "Retire... we can work to raise the cattle and sheep in Janace. We can be with my sither. We can be a family."
"After we finish all the work that must be done," Gloria promised and hugged Sammy.
Meanwhile Li Sang sat quietly. He was the sole mastermind behind the outbreaks and had pulled off a few masterful stunts in using the outbreaks to spread chaos. He was at a bit of a loss as to how they had caught him, but he did know that the Kats could easily kill him given the natural weapons they'd gained in their transformation and didn't fight, especially when Sammy and Gloria had caught him when he was away from any fire arm. But if they felt they had won and it was over, they didn't know about the fail-safes he had put in place earlier, with secret orders to up to five different labs around the world, even though he didn't know that one of the five had been found and busted. The chaos they would unleash should he ever be captured would create so much of a distraction that he might gain a shot at escape, or at least seeing something happen that would turn the governments of the world to kill the Kats with their armies. After all, the Kats that had been tracking him had worked so hard to improve the Vaccines and stop the outbreaks that if the armies of the world decided to exterminate them, they had the numbers and the bullets to do so. Li Sang figured his last trick would get them to make that decision and he would have the last laugh on the Kats.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Meanwhile in Miami, things began to calm down. The ruse that was to lure Li Sang out into the open had worked perfectly as Raul hung up his phone.
"That was Gloria," Raul announced to Maria and Snowy, "they caught him."
"He's been arrested?" Maria asked.
Raul nodded, "Which means we win."
"Only for the short term," Snowy reminded them, "We don't yet know how many of these sorts of labs are out there, and we don't know how many of them are actually fraudulent Chakat Industries facilities. We need to find those labs. Even if they don't have orders... they are producing the Virus and apparently the Vaccines as well, based off of what I've found..."
"And charging outlandishly high prices," Maria commented, "Chris told me how much shi paid to get the use of hir legs back and it's at least TWICE what the new Chakat Industries has charged for individuals wanting to buy individual shots to become Vaccinated Kats."
"The money isn't the issue," Snowy answered, "these outbreaks have created chaos, and even without their leader, they can still cause chaos and are abusing what was created to be an end to war and racism and STDs..."
Raul and Maria both nodded.
"Which means we'll need to talk more with our two scientists," Maria commented, and then looked back to Snowy, "You really intend to turn them into Kats?"
"If the courts allow it as punishment," Snowy answered, "It would be just punishment, considering how many people have become Kats thanks to their work for Li Sang."
"It may be ironic," Maria commented, "but you'll run right into laws designed to protect against cruel and unusual punishment. Settle for a long prison sentence."
Snowy only sighed as the three of them made their way into the room where the two scientists were being held while they were waiting for the appropriate vehicle to transport them to Janace. The two scientists looked to them with some fear and nervousness.
"You here to mutate us?" one asked nervously.
"No," Maria answered, "though that could happen in the future..."
Maria knew that would never be allowed under any country's law, but a little bluff might go a long way.
"Depending on how well you cooperate," Maria answered.
The two scientists looked toward their captors.
"We need to know how many labs Li Sang has had," Raul spoke, "and how much contact you had with the other labs."
"We talked with the other scientists, yeah," the first spoke.
"Do you know who they are?" Maria questioned, "where these labs are?"
"How many of them are fraudulently using the name Chakat Industries?" Snowy added.
"We're the only ones using the Chakat Industries name," the second answered, "That we know."
"Do you know the names of the other scientists?" Maria repeated.
"No," said the first.
"Where are the labs at least?" Raul asked.
"Out of the way," the second said, "we know they're in big cities, but not the largest cities in the countries they're in. Mostly so that when we're told to start an outbreak we're not in the direct line of fire."
That wasn't much and left the scientist's three interrogators a bit frustrated.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In what had been the lobby, Chris sat with the woman who had greeted hir when they had all come in. It was a little difficult for Chris, as hir tail was not the narrow or fluffy tail that the other Kats had, and since shi wasn't a taur, shi couldn't just sit on hir haunches the way the others did. As such, hir thick muscular tail forced hir to sit sideways on a chair allowing hir tail to rest on the ground. The woman sat nervously and still seemed distressed by the fact that the scientists that had been her employers had been working for Li Sang.
"I still can't believe I was working for a terrorist," she said slowly.
"He was a deceiver, and you're free now," Chris said to her, "Ms. Snowy says shi'll take over these offices for the New Chakat Industries and depending on what law says after all the trials, you might still get to do what you were originally doing... curing the sick and injured... but for the right people this time."
That actually made the woman look up with a little more cheer.
"Really?" she asked.
"Hey, you gave me a shot at walking again and I can swim far faster than any Olympian," Chris gave a smile on hir dolphin's bottle-like nose, "Regardless of who the boss was, I wouldn't go back if I could."
"You're going to stay a Kat?" the woman wondered, "what about your folks?"
"They said they'd come and manage things and would work for Snowy, so it can't be all bad," Chris smiled again and then cupped hir breasts, "and besides, don't you think I make a sexy Dolphkat?"
"Christopher MacDurmat... are you... are you hitting on me in a time like this?" the woman asked.
"I'm just trying to cheer up a good friend, Christine," Chris answered.
"So what do you plan to do? Do you plan to go to Janace and be part of the "Kat Kops?" Christine asked, "Or..."
"I might stay while they're hunting down the rest of these labs," Chris answered, "after that, I was thinking about going into the diving business... you know look at old wrecks and recover stuff for archaeologists and sociologists... or take photos of sea life..."
"You could do that last bit from here in Miami," Christine commented, placing her hand on Chris's hand.
"And close to a good friend," Chris said back with another smile.
Christine only smiled back.