The Zeta Project Season 3 Episode 2

by clutzattack

Episode 2

THE ZETA PROJECT

THE ZETA PROJECT

SEASON THREE

Disclosure: I am a college student. I have no money. Don't bother trying to sue me because you won't make a profit. Besides—It's just a fanfic.

This fanfic is an attempt to continue the series, as if they were actually storylines that might possibly be turned into a cartoon episode someday.

Sorry it took so long to finish. (Sorry it's so long in length. I get carried away when I write.) I bought a video game that is competing for my free time, which is why this took so long to finish. I'm eventually hoping to have 13 episodes in total to make one complete season.

"The Wishing Star" Ep. 2 Season 3

"Oh, doesn't this feel so soft!" Ro exclaimed as she passed the fabric of and ice blue halter top through her fingers. "It feels like butter!"

Zee looked at the shirt that Ro was really enjoying petting. While he didn't have any sense of touch as it wasn't possible to graft nerve cells into his titanium body, he could tell what things felt like by analyzing the surface structure of the fibers at close magnification. After only looking at something for a second he could identify the texture, and it would seem real enough to him as if he were feeling it like Ro was. "It's cashmere," he said, after analyzing the fabric's fiber.

Ro took a second to glance at the price tag, "It's an arm and a leg too!" she said, hanging the top back up on the rack.

"Cashmere comes from the inner coat hair of Asian Cashmere goats. No where in that process do they use the goat's appendages…"

Ro rolled her eyes, and laughed to herself, "It's just an expression, Zee. It means that it's really expensive." They'd been together for so long, yet he still managed to amaze her with his inability to comprehend common idioms.

Zee took the top off of the rack again, and looked at the price tag. "The tag only says 189.99." It was at that second that he started to walk off with the top toward the cashier.

Ro had to quickly stop him so that he didn't go through and purchase it. "Hold on a sec!" she said, grabbing the hanger out of Zee's hand, then carelessly hanging it back again. She knew that Zee didn't mind indulging her with every want that she could possibly think of, but it wasn't practical for him to buy her everything she showed a fancy to. Sometimes it was just nice to window shop, and forget that they had an unlimited cred card. While Zee was more than anxious to buy her anything she wanted with his unlimited cred card, it wasn't practical as they were always on the road, and she was unable to store or hold onto anything that he did buy her. She'd usually end up giving her barely worn clothes to some needy person on the street whenever she bought herself a new outfit. Most of the clothes they bought, she only worn once.

Zee looked at her curiously. Ro could read in his eyes that he wanted to know why she'd stopped him. He was wondering to himself, "Didn't she just say how much she liked the feel of it?"

Ro explained herself, "We're not here to get another shirt that's too fancy to be worn outside of the dressing room. Cashmere isn't for me. It wouldn't last a day with the things we go through…"

"Then who is it for?" Zee asked.

"People who've just had a life insurance policy payoff and people who aren't in a constant marathon race with the feds."

Zee looked at her, understanding of her point of view, then grabbed the shirt off of the rack. He paused for a second, then grabbed the matching skirt and continued walking with them to the checkout station. A few minutes later, Ro came out of the store, wearing the top and skirt after having changed into it in the dressing room.

"Come on, there's still several places left look …" Ro said, dragging Zee into the next store.

They were currently in L.A., one of the biggest shopping districts for designer clothes. They'd been going from store to store for the past six hours. Despite all of the walking they'd been doing already, Ro didn't feel in the least bit tired. However, she was mentally stressed and tired of going from store to store and not fining anything that really suited her fancy. Zee had lost count of how many stores that they'd been into already. He was lucky that he wasn't capable of being physically tired. He didn't know how Ro managed to keep it up. Surely anyone else's feet would have been killing them starting about two hours ago? Maybe all of the running they did from the feds helped keep her in this good condition?

"Ugh… Would you look at that!" Ro said, pointing to a large vid screen that was hanging from the ceiling of one of the department stores. It was playing a looped video of a whole bunch of giraffe-legged and toothpick-skinny women modeling the store's clothing.

"The media certainly does portray women to be incredibly disproportioned…" Zee commented.

"Not that!" It looks like when they got up they threw all of their clothes on the floor, rolled around in them, and put on whatever stuck to them from static cling!"

Zee was not someone to dare to try and understand how fashion worked. He followed Ro as she continued further into the store. They passed an

incredibly large poster board cut out of another model in a different outfit. There was a caption next to the poster that gave a description of the dress. It was made out of silk and cost 659 creds.

"That dress is so hideous!" Ro exclaimed. "659 creds! It isn't even worth the cardboard they printed it on! Did the designer take into the account the amount of barf that would be accumulating on it every time someone looked at it when he designed it?"

Ro decided that she didn't like anything in the store and went onto the next one. With the pessimistic mood Ro was now in, Zee was sure that she wasn't going to find anything that she liked, even before they went in. Ten minutes later they came out of the store, and he noted to himself that he'd been right.

Rather frustrated, Ro was about to walk right by the next store called, "Julianne's Antique Designer Gowns."

"We're not going to stop in this one?" Zee asked, a little confused. They'd gone into every other store, why not this one?

"It's an antique store! Who wants to wear something out of date?"

"It couldn't be much worse that what's currently in style…" Zee commented.

"Good point," Ro said, then turned to go into the store. The store was most likely privately owned store, and was almost certainly the only one in existence. Despite it's title indication that it was an old fashioned store, it had several contemporary dresses mixed in with the older styled ones. Despite their old fashioned-ness, they certainly weren't used or worn out like Ro had thought they would be. Inside the store, she began to look at the dresses with little interest.

"How about this one?" Zee asked, holding up a pink dress with an enormously large skirt, which was covered with lace and bows. It also had ridiculously poofy sleeves.

"If I wanted to look like Scarlet O' Hara on Pepto Bismal…" Ro replied.

Zee picked up another ridiculously designed dress, and held it out for Ro to see. "What about this one?"

She looked at the puke green dress with its tacky fringe and overly large dangling beads. Then she looked at Zee while raising her eyebrow. Her facial expression clearly said, "That question does not even deserve a response."

Zee quickly hung the dress back up.

"How about something like this?" she asked as she picked up a slinky black, backless dress. It sparkled in the light because of the dozens of aurora borealis beads that were sewn onto it.

"The charity dinner and auction is a VERY formal occasion…" Zee said quietly. While he couldn't argue with Ro's impeccable taste for clothes, he knew that the black dress would be underdressed and inappropriate for the occasion.

Rather than arguing about it, Ro put the dress back. "Why do we need to go to this dumb dinner anyway? Finding a fancy enough dress, without looking like some mock beauty pageant contestant is harder than I thought it would be."

"The dinner and auction was organized to raise money for the new science laboratory they're planning on building. Nearly all of the modern scientists will be there to support it. Dr. Marcus Edmund should be there as well, along with the rest of his colleagues."

"But we don't know if he's going to be there for sure."

"I've had no luck finding anything about him on the net. Either he's stopped giving seminars, or that they aren't popular enough to be announced on the net… He isn't as well known as Selig was…"

The past tense usage with Selig's name was… painful. He was doing a good job not thinking about it and coping with it, but it still stung occasionally.

Ro sensed his uncomfortableness. "It's okay. I'm sure he'll be there. How could a science geek miss the opportunity to eat and spend money on a whole bunch of useless doohickeys with a bunch of other science geeks!?"

Zee felt a little better after Ro's comment, even if it was derogatory towards the other scientists. Realizing that she wasn't helping the situation very much by being picky about finding a dress to wear, she resolved that she wouldn't bother to look for something that she liked, but just for anything that wouldn't make her gag. She went to the back of the store to see if there was anything she could possibly stand to be in for a few hours.

While looking through the dresses in the back of the store, a Sales Bot approached her. "How may I help you?" it asked. "Can I get you anything? Is there any particular occasion you're shopping for? We have wedding dresses, prom dresses, formal wear, evening wear, luxury wear, and a large collection of antique dresses from several designers and from all over the world! "

Ro simply ignored the Sales Bot and continued looking. Two teenage girls about her age walked into the store, very cautiously. At first Ro suspected them of being agents, until she realized that they were just shy to be coming into a store whose prices were way out of the range of their pocket book. The girls began to look at the dresses, being very careful not to touch anything. They made their way to the back of the store where Ro was at, and were looking at the dresses just to the right of her. Being careful to keep her distance, in case they really were agents in disguise again, Ro moved to another corner of the store. Only a few seconds after the girls had begun to rifle through the dresses, did the sales clerk come up and approach the girls.

"Finding everything alright?" the woman asked them politely. Ro could sense a haughty tone in the woman's voice. She was clearly eager to make a sale because she was paid on consignment, but to Ro it felt like the woman was thinking of them as a trespassers rather than customers. They certainly didn't look like the type of person who could afford to shop in such a store. Ro wouldn't look like she was rich enough either if it wasn't for the Cashmere outfit Zee had just bought her earlier.

Shyly the girls replied that they were fine, then hurried out of the store when the woman wasn't eyeing them anymore. The woman next came up to Ro. Unfortunately because she was human, and not a robot, Ro couldn't simply ignore her. She noticed on the woman's nametag, that her name was Julianne. She must be the owner of the store.

"Having a nice evening?" the woman asked.

"Yeah. It's great." Ro said shortly. She wasn't interested in chatting. She wanted to find a dress, or to rule out all of the dresses, and get out of this store…

"If you don't mind me saying… You look like a woman with highly defined taste in clothing…"

Ro rolled her eyes when the woman wasn't looking at her. It had to be her new outfit…It made her look like she was really rich… "Finding something to match it, seems to be quite difficult though," Ro commented, eager to end the conversation. She was just about to go and find Zee so they could get out of the store when the woman stopped her.

"That's the kind of passion that I like to hear! Our SPECIALTY antique gallery is in the back if you'd like to see if anything there suits your needs," the woman said eagerly. "I don't usually take people back there, but you seem like someone who would appreciate it."

Ro was ready to politely tell the woman that she didn't really think that she'd like anything in the gallery, judging by what was already on the store floor, but Zee had somehow managed to come up behind her without her noticing, and answered for her, "We'd love to."

She didn't bother to ask Ro who the gentleman was. She was rather pleased to see that she now had two potential customers to sell to, rather than one. She instructed the Sales Bot to watch the store while she took a Ro and Zee into the back room of the store for them to see the collection.

No sooner had Ro stepped through the doorway into the back room did she see the perfect dress. It was elegantly being modeled on a dress form and was positioned right in the middle of the room. "Oh my," she commented as she walked up to it to get a closer look and to admire it.

The dress was white with small, colorful flowers and leaves embroidered onto the strapless bodice section. The skirt was made out of continuous rows of a chiffon lace overlapped and layered all the way down to the floor. The dress even had a small train to it. It was obviously not a wedding dress, even though it was white. It was perfect.

"This dress is from the French Designer, Giovannie. It dates somewhere from the mid 1990's. It is a petite size 5, and has never been worn before. It's been sitting here in my gallery since I purchased it from a museum who no longer had room for it."

The woman's voice was rather distant as Ro gazed at the dress. It was gorgeously stunning. She did catch her say that the dress happened to be just her size…However, if this was a dress from a museum, and had never been worn before, what right did she have to wear it to some Charity Dinner? It would be completely inadequate…

The woman could tell that Ro really liked the dress. She had a baited customer now. "So… Would you care to try it on?" she asked slyly. If she could get a customer to try on a dress, she had a p percent increased chance of sale for that dress.

"If it's a museum collectible, then I don't really think I should," Ro protested.

Seeing that Ro's interested had slipped, Julianne commented, "I always thought that fashion was made to be worn out in the open, and not to be kept in storage where no one can appreciate it…"

Ro wondered if the woman realized the irony of her comment…Right at this moment, they were in the back room of her store, staring at dresses that were completely shut away from the rest of the viewing public… They weren't even on display in the main section of the store where they could at least be seen by others, and admired, even if they couldn't afford them…

"You might want to see if it really does fit," Zee urged her. Ro couldn't believe that he was supporting her.

"If you insist…"

Very eagerly, Julianne went and removed the dress from the dress form. She carefully handed it to Ro and showed her where the back room fitting room was.

Ro took the dress into the fitting room to change into it. She kept on worrying that she would accidentally step on the dress while getting in it, or that she might rip it or snag it on something. What a nightmare that would be! She was only trying it on because Zee had insisted. This dress was too fine for her to wear. She'd feel guilty if she wore it outside of this store room. She was feeling guilty for being the first person to try it on… When she was in the orphanage she used to imagine being able to afford such finery, but now that it was possible, she didn't think that she was worthy of wearing it…

Zee waited patiently for Ro to come out of the fitting room. When she finally did come out, Zee could only look at her with his mouth hanging open. Wow. She looked amazing! An Aphrodite of her own time.

"So what do you think?" Ro asked, as she paraded around in the dress. "Am I fit for the Academy Awards?"

"How much?" Zee asked Julianne quickly. This had to be the dress for Ro. Nothing else would compliment her natural beauty as much as this one did.

Ro braced herself for the price which she knew was going to be absurdly high. Julianne gave them the a quote the price equivalent of two new sports cars. Zee didn't even blink as he pulled out his cred card and handed it to the woman.

She accepted it greedily. "Just give me a moment to go and get the paperwork…" she said, then left them alone.

"WAIT A MINUTE! Are you crazy?" Ro asked Zee. "Can't we just take a picture of it?" she asked, as she brought out the holomorphic capture wristband.

"And have you pretending all night long?" Zee replied. Ro realized that this would be a little inconvenient, to pretend that she was wearing something when she wasn't. Like, how she'd have to pantomime holding up the hem of her dress when going up stairs when there was nothing really there, but air…

"Well no, but still! This is a museum collectible!"

"She said she'd rather see it worn than in storage," Zee countered.

"Yeah. Worn by some queen or a vid star!"

"Then we can donate it to one of them when you're finished with it."

It just felt so nice to have Zee's support for this purchase. But it was still outrageously expensive! Ro usually wasn't one to be complaining about price, as Zee did have an unlimited cred card, but was this purchase practical? There were still several stores she could look in…

"If you really don't want it, I can go tell her to cancel the transaction…" Zee suggested. Ro liked the dress too much to tell him to stop the payment transaction, but she couldn't mentally justify getting it. "If you feel bad about the price, then we could just use public transportation for the next month rather than buying another car or two…" Zee added.

Ro had to agree that this was a good plan. "Well… maybe we can just get a regular economy car and not another sports car…" She said, her guilty feelings having nearly completely vanished. Zee smiled. Ro seemed to say the cutest things when she was shopping.

Julianne still wasn't back with Zee's card and the paperwork, so Ro continued to meander around the dressing room in the designer dress. She looked at herself in a full-length mirror. "You know… You can't wear a dress with this kind of neckline without a necklace… And you certainly can't wear a dress like this without any jewelry to go with it, either…" She commented.

"If we catch a plane sometime today we'll have plenty of time to go to Tiffany's before we have to get back here for the dinner." The dinner was going to be held three days from then. With that much time, they might even be able to squeeze in some sight seeing.

Ro then went to the dressing room to change out of the dress. While she was in there, Julianne came back with Zee's card and the papers. After filling out a bunch of fake information on the papers, the dress was theirs. As soon as Ro got out of the fitting room, Julianne took the dress from her and wrapped it up in a large garment bag. She handed the dress to Ro, then escorted them back into the main section of the store.

"Ugh… It looks like I'm carrying a body bag! And it weighs half as much!" Ro complained, as she tried to get a good handle around the bag. No sooner had she said this did Zee take the bag from her arms, and being a gentleman, carried it for her. They got on a bus to go to the airport, where they would get first available tickets for Tiffany's in New York.

"Here are the IU mission locations and the IU cred charge reports," Rush said, handing the file diskettes over to Agent Bennet. They were in Bennet's office back at the NSA headquarters. As was customary, they were working on getting a lead to find out where Zee and Ro were. "They're the most updated ones we have available. I had to twist Jerry's arm to get him to put aside his other work to print them up for me," she smirked.

"Thank you, Agent Rush," he said, taking them from her and loading them into his computer in his office. This was the starting process for locating Infiltration Unit Zeta.

"Sorry that I couldn't get any specifics on the IUs' individual missions."

"Don't worry. They're above my clearance too. We just need the geographic locations they were assigned to." With the two files open, Bennet did a quick sweep for all purchases made within a 30 mile radius of one of the IU's mission location. Several purchases were identified.

"Eliminate highlighted, purchases from list," Bennet instructed the computer. Purchases in those 30 miles radiuses usually weren't Zeta's but the assigned IU's. The list was greatly shortened, but was still rather lengthy.

Next Bennet narrowed the list, by extracting all purchases under 200 creds. Purchases that small couldn't tell him much. The list was a lot shorter, but reviewing each item would take some time, and wouldn't necessarily give them much of a lead as to where Zeta an Ro were. "Computer: search for set purchases of airline, bus, and or train tickets." This was usually their biggest key clue in finding Zeta. None of the other synthoids seemed to travel in pairs or with a partner. Their tickets were usually one way, and for a single rider. Whenever Zeta bought something there would be two of them bought at about the same time. The only downside, was if the IU bought a round trip ticket, which would appear under the same ticket type as two one way tickets. Luckily for Bennet, when the list came up, it was rather short.

He then ran a cross check for all purchases made in the geographic areas the tickets were purchased in. The computer brought up another list. Bennet printed the list on his printer. He handed half of the list to Rush, instructing her, "Look for anything that one of our regular IUs wouldn't purchase. Especially look for vehicle purchases."

Only a few minutes later, Rush found something. "Sir! An incredibly large purchase was made at a store called 'Julianne's Antique Designer Gowns' in L.A."

The purchase was too unusual to be another IU. "Sounds like Zeta," Bennet had to agree. Zeta had definitely been in LA. Now… where had he gone next? He looked at the transportation expenditures. Two one way, first class tickets had been purchased on the same day as the dress. They'd gone to New York. He ran up a cross reference for purchases in New York area. There were some other small purchases there that led him to believe that they were still lingering in the area.

"Get the team together. We're going to New York."

Groggy after their six hour flight back from New York, Ro stretched and yawned as she made her way out of the airport terminal. "Man, that was some major butt time! Let's not do that again, for at least a month!"

"You're going to be very disappointed then."

"Why?"

"The dinner and auction are being held on the new luxury airliner, the Wishing Star."

"The what?"

"The Wishing Star. It's the new super commercial luxury airliner. It's developed from the same technology used to make the ship we saved Bucky from, but with less military related gadgets and equipment. It's outwards appearance resembles a commercial vehicle rather than a military one too."

"You never told me this thing was on a plane! Ugh! Who wants to have airline food for dinner? Not me!"

"It will be a 6 hour cruise flight from here, to New York, then back. It's super jet engines cut down the regular transportation time down by half."

"So how did we score tickets for this thing anyway?"

"I had Bucky patch through to the reservation list and add us on."

"So anyone can just get a ticket if they know a 13 year old with a hi-tech computer?"

"The reservation list mainly consists of other scientists. There were only a few seats leftover for other rich collectors to bid on in a different auction. The tickets themselves, are quite expensive…"

"So, Doctor, will they be serving 12 courses of lobster for dinner then?"

"The ticket prices are high to generate more profit to go towards the science laboratory. It ensures that the audience has a large pocket book for the auction after the dinner."

"You and that unlimited cred card…"

"The tickets must be paid for and picked up in person. The tickets are reserved, so we don't have to worry about some one else out bidding us for them. We have about eight hours before we need to get to the entry gate. In that eight hours, we need to find time for you to get ready."

"Eight hours…" Ro said, cocking her head in a mischievous kind of way, while looking thoughtfully, "I guess that leaves us some time to do some more shopping…"

Eight hours later, a long, black limo pulled up to the airline gateway. It was just one limo out of a whole fleet of limos that were continually pulling up to the red carpet that stretched from the airline gateway to the curb. Each limo was parked just long enough to unload its passengers, before it hurried to get out of the way for the next limo behind it to pull up.

Ro had pulled herself out of the sunroof a few minutes before their driver had pulled up to the curb. Her neatly done hair was a little bit wind tossed, but not to the point that it made a large difference. As Ro's hair was a little bit short, the hair dresser hadn't been able to do much with it besides put some jeweled clips in it.

The valet assistant reached out to open the door so the chauffer wouldn't have to get out of the car to do it himself. This helped to increase the unloading time, as there were several people waiting behind them.

"This is it," Zee said to Ro.

"Let's go then. Dr. Edmund, here we come!"

The door of their limo opened. Zee was first to slide out of the seat and get out of the car. Ro next slid down the seat to the door. The valet assistant was about to extend his hand out to Ro to help her out of the car, but Zee managed to cut in front of him to extend his own hand first.

Ro placed her small, delicate hand into his, then daintily stepped out of the limo. The valet assistant shut the door, and the limo driver took off.

"Oh my! It's enormous!" Ro gasped, as she paused momentarily on the red carpet. In front of them was the rather large, commercial, luxury airplane they would be boarding shortly. It was incredible to behold.

"Ready?" Zee asked, as he extended his arm to Ro. She slid her arm around his, and they continued to walk to the boarding gate. There were several other people who were dressed up, like they were. It was apparent that Ro was the most stunningly beautiful of them all.

"Name please?" the attendant asked.

"Dr. Hunter," Zee gave her the made up name he'd had Bucky reserve the tickets under.

"Ah yes, Mr. & Mrs. Hunter," the attendant commented to herself, as she found their name on the registry. She presented the cred swipe box, and without saying a word, Zee quickly swiped his card through.

After the authorization cleared, the attendant's smiled widened and her words seemed a little more honey coated. She handed them two boarding passes. "Right this way," she directed them onboard the super airliner.

"We're married?" Ro hissed to Zee as they walked over to the platform that would take them up to the plane.

"It seemed proper," Zee replied, sheepishly.

"I feel several years older already…"

They presented their tickets to the platform attendant. He then raised the lever for the platform, and it lifted off of the ground, taking them up into the airliner. Inside the airliner, there was an attendant waiting to show them to their seats. Ro had never been treated this respectfully in her life. If only they knew that they were really fugitives from the law. "It must be because they think we're rich…"

The attendant showed them to the dining area where they would be having dinner. The long tubular section of the plane had been converted into a dining hall. There were several tables that lined the sides. The tables were already set with white linen table cloths; tall fluted, crystal glasses; and china plates with gold edging. The table was even set with gold silverware. As this was a luxury liner, everything was elaborately decorated and was made of the highest quality. It was completely furnished with wall paper and furniture. It didn't seem like they were on an airplane.

They promptly sat down in their assigned seats and began scouting around to see if Dr. Edmund was already on the plane. They didn't see him, but not may other people had boarded yet.

"So, who are we sitting next to?" Ro said, as she snatched the nametag from off of the plate of the chair next to her. "Dr. Kirby Hoffman. Anyone you know?" she asked Zee.

"Not anyone of selective importance that I'm aware of." They reviewed the rest of the names at the table. None of the names were familiar to Zee.

A few minutes later, everyone had boarded, and the plane took off. One of the attendants began to lecture all of the passengers of the great things about the airplane they were on. Ro couldn't care less. It looked just like the one she'd been on earlier, and had less technical crap to it than the other one had. She was also more interested in scouting for Dr. Edmund, than she was in listening to the attendant.

"Do you see him?" Ro asked Zee.
"Not yet." Zee replied. He had a determined expression on his face, as he continued to look intently around the room. If he couldn't see him, then Edmund definitely wasn't there. Ro found that she was having trouble telling the different men apart because they all looked like a mass of penguins, but she was sure that Zee would be able to identify Edmund if all he could see was the back of his left hand.

"Maybe we should move to another table?" Ro suggested quietly, so as not to offend the other people at their table.

Zee scanned the room for two empty seats. There were none. "Don't worry. We can wander around after the dinner, and before the auction. If he's on this plane, he certainly won't be going anywhere for the next 6 hours."

For dinner they were first served a house salad. There were small slices of apples arranged on the outside of the salad, as well as a house made salad dressing. For the main course they were served a veal cutlet tenderly cooked along with red skinned mashed potatoes. There was shrimp on the side of the plate along with string beans garnished in a special sauce. Along with the string beans was an artichoke heart sautéed in an Italian oil.

"Do you realize what this is?" Ro asked Zee, poking the artichoke with her fork. "They're serving us thistles!!"

Ro didn't care much for what they served for the dinner. Despite the price of the ticket, the dinner rations were small. No two items on one plate touched another. Dessert was more enjoyable. The waiters brought out ice cream scoops that had been completely dipped in dark chocolate. It was like eating a large bon-bon. There was a sprig of mint decoratively placed on the side. Ro couldn't help but think how sacrilegious it was for them to be placing an item from the vegetable food group on the same plate as one from the desert group.

When the dinner was finished, several attendants came in to remove the tables, and to rearrange the chairs for the auction. Everyone was now standing, and had begun to socialize with every single person around them.

"Now's our chance to find Dr. Edmund," Zee said to Ro, as he too got up from his seat. After having Zee pull her chair out for her, Ro got up and began to scan the room for Dr. Edmund. It was hard to move around in the crowd because everyone was too engrossed in their conversations to be bothered to move out of the way to let them by. The waiters were quick in re positioning the chairs in the dining room. Ro and Zee only had ten minutes to scan the room. They hadn't made much progress as it was hard to move around in the crowd.

"Ladies, and Gentlemen, if you could please take your seats, we'd like to begin the auction as soon as possible."

"Already?" Ro pouted.

"It seems they want to get this thing started soon so that it will be over by the time we land in New York," Zee commented. He led Ro to two open seats and they sat down, still tentatively looking for Dr. Edmund.

When the attendant saw that everyone was seated, she continued, "I'd like to introduce Dr. Sesody, who will be our auctioneer for this evening. Please bid high as the proceeds will be going to sponsor the construction of a new science Laboratory, which will be based in Los Angeles. However, we like to remind you to please bid responsibly. And now… our auctioneer for the evening… Dr. Sesody!"

With that small introduction, Dr. Sesody took the podium. The woman resumed her seat behind him, and began to feed him the items for the auction. She first set out a large canvas on an easel. The canvas itself was about four feet tall by five feet wide. The picture that was painted on the canvas was of several fairies in an ethereal, tranquil setting. The painting was very realistic. When Ro had first seen it, she had almost thought that it was a real picture. It was pleasing to look at, but wasn't something she wanted to have hanging in her house.

"Our first item for this evening is Richard Slevosist's painting, "The Fairy Garden." It was donated by the Stardom Museum. Who will start the bidding at 10,000?"

Ro couldn't possibly see who had just placed the bid, but obviously someone had because the auctioneer then began to ask for a higher bid. "Do I hear 15,000?"

The price continued to increase but Ro couldn't possibly see who was bidding! No one seemed to be making any movement of any kind. Zee had warned her about this, as a wrong move could be mistaken for a bid, but these people all looked like wax statues!

"Going once for 75,000. Going twice for 75,000… SOLD to the gentleman, from Japan," Dr. Sesody announced, as he slammed his gable down on the podium.

Ro scrutinized the crowd to see if she could spot a Japanese man, but she still couldn't' see anyone. "This really stinks, you know that!" she pouted to Zee.

"I'm sorry you're not finding it interesting."

"I don't see how I could expect to spot Dr. Edmund, when I can't even keep track of who's bidding!"

"It's hard, as everyone uses subtle, but apparent gestures when bidding. I'll try and point them out to you for the next item."

"Don't worry about it. It's more important that we find Dr. Edmund."

The next item was a free dinner with Adam Heat and a private tour of his home estate. There were more women bidders than men this round.

After that there was the original screen play of last year's academy award winning movie, autographed by the director, and cast.

The fourth item was a rather peculiar vase. Ro didn't think much of it, and neither did the rest of the audience. It seemed like the first bidder was going to luck out and win it for an all time low price of 2,000 creds. It seemed that way, until Ro saw Zee make a hand gesture. The next thing she knew, was that the bidding had not closed, but was going on.

"ZEE! What are you doing?" she hissed. He didn't reply, as he was intensely focused on the bid competition he was having with the other bidder.

"ZEE!!" Ro hissed again, when the auctioneer called out the bid to be 10,000 and Zee made the signal with his hand again. "We don't need it!" she said, as she jabbed him in the side with her elbow. It hurt her a lot more than it hurt him. She hoped no one had heard the soft metallic thud. More than likely her grunting, from holding in the pain, would cover up any suspicions.

"Do I hear 20,000?" the auctioneer continued.

This time a new bidder joined in the competition. "Do I hear 25,000?"

The man sitting down the row bid the third party bidder out again. Zee up-ed the bid once more. "Do I hear 35,000?"

"Zee! We don't need to be wasting that kind of money!"

At this point, two more bidders had suddenly taken interest. Zee's interest had started a chain reaction that was spreading around the room like a wildfire. The once boring pottery piece that was going to be the cheapest item was now one of the hottest items. Everyone was itching for a chance to bid on it. The auctioneer was becoming breathless as he tried to keep up with the bids.

Sporadically, the man who had fist bid on it, stood up and shouted at the top of his lungs, "120,000!"

"SOLD!"

The man sat down back in his seat, and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"You want to tell me what's going on?" Ro asked.

"That man is Gregory Calhoun. He's got the biggest collection of Franscican vases in the entire world. This vase is probably the least he's ever paid for one of his collection vases."

"So?" Ro said, rather irked. She couldn't see the connection. It certainly wasn't nice of Zee to start bidding on some piece of pottery and not tell her why, or for him to answer her question in a round about way.

"I was just trying to help out the cause…" Zee said sheepishly.

"By bidding on items you don't want?"

"It certainly seemed to have worked."

"Don't do it again."

There were several more items, and then the auctioneer's assistant brought out a small envelope. When the auctioneer announced its contents, Zee became extremely anxy. "Who will start the bidding at 1,000?"

Zee made a hand motion similar to the one he'd used when bidding on the vase. "What is it now?" Ro asked him, rather irritated.

"It's two tickets for a private tour of Dr. Angeline's new science tech foundation."

"Why do we want those?"

"Dr. Angeline specializes in stem cell research. The research of stem cells is mainly used for the development of cloning technology, but it also is the basis for the reproductive capabilities of the semi-synthetic synthoid's organic materials. It's very likely that Dr. Selig may have worked with her at some point in time. If so, then she may have some way to possibly track down more of his other work or an archive of some of his older files. Also… she has level three clearance in the NSA. We could use the opportunity to snag a retinal scan or her finger prints while viewing her lab. Her clearance isn't as high as Edmund's, but it might give us a little more access to some of the NSA's files regarding Selig."

Ro had learned by now that it's not best to argue with Zee in matters such as this one. After Zee's bid, someone else placed another bid. "Ugh. Who else would want to go to such a thing? It's not even free…" She looked down the aisle they were sitting in, and for the first time, she could single out the other person who was bidding against them. Whoever they were, they weren't Edmund.

Zee bid again. The money was nothing to him. He had an unlimited cred card. Again, the man bid. He was rather calm as he tugged on his ear each time. No one else joined in the bidding spree this time. It was solely Zee and this other bidder. The price was getting rather high for this simple pair of tickets. The man seemed determined however, that he should win and not Zee.

Zee glanced over at the man with a look in his eyes, daring him to bid again. He did. Hastily, Zee upped his bid again. The auctioneer could sense the tension between the two parties, but continued in a rather calm voice to announce the bid standing. He watched as each party increased their bid. The rest of the audience seemed to have caught on, for they were now watching both of them go at it.

"Zee… Everyone's looking!" Ro whispered to him. The dozens and dozens of eyes on them were making her feel nervous.

The intensity of the bidding increased. "There are other ways… We don't need it…" Ro plead with Zee. She couldn't take this drama anymore. But, Zee was more than determined. This was no longer an issue over the tickets. It had become personal. Zee was not concerned over the price of the bid. All he had to do was up one to whatever the other guy bid. With an unlimited cred card, money was not an issue. He couldn't see however, how this guy was able to afford the tickets. Why did he want them so badly? Zee certainly knew why he wanted them, but looking at their initial value as a whole, he couldn't see why anyone else would want to pay as much for them as the bid was now at.

The bid finally topped out, with Zee winning. The man had a stern expression on his face, as if he was heavily debating whether he should really bid once more. The better judgment got to him, and he did not up bid Zee again. Ro could see that he was highly tempted to do so, and that he was not just casting false bids as Zee had been doing early. The man had really wanted those tickets.

A few more items were brought out. These went much quicker, and with less tension. After these few items, the attendant went out of the room to get the next item. She came back into the room, rolling a cart that had a small, but heavy looking safe on it. She withdrew a key from her pocket, which she used to open the safe. From the safe she withdrew a rather large diamond necklace. The one that Ro was wearing right now was almost comparable to it if it weren't for the large diamond that was hanging from the auctioneer's necklace.

"I have here the Isabella diamond necklace."

"Who will start the bidding at 1,000,000?"

It was at that moment that the man who had been bidding against Zee for the tickets stood up. At first Ro thought he was fuming because he'd lost the bid, and that he was going to come over to them, but he didn't . Instead, in a loud he quite plainly said, "Hand the necklace over."
Everyone turned to look at him. As they did so, they could see the plasma gun that he held in his right hand. A few other men stood up in the audience, as well as one woman. They made their way out to the edge of the seating, then from various pockets, withdrew similar fire arms.

The entire assembly, was in shock.

"Who invited them?" Ro muttered under her breath.

"It looks like it's the Elites."

"The who?"

"The Elites are an expert crime team. They specialize in events like this."

"How'd they get onboard? Isn't this only for the rich snooty type of people?"

"They probably got the funds for it from cashing in some of their other stolen items."

"Why blow it on one dinner then?"

"The pay off for that necklace will certainly make it worth their while."

The auctioneer was speechless as he looked around for the airplane security. They were no where to be seen.

"No one's coming, so just hand it over," the man said, as he approached the auctioneer. Being old and frail, there was nothing Dr. Sesody could do to defend himself efficiently, especially since he was outnumbered.

The man withdrew a sack from the inside of his vest. He held out the sack with one hand while still keeping his gun on Dr. Sesody. "Put it in the sack if you want to live."

As the man had a gun, his power over the entire audience was clearly established. Dr. Sesody held out the necklace, then dropped it into the partially opened sack.

"Thank you," the man said, then turned to the audience. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Your cooperation is of the utmost importance. Failure to do so will result in possible serious injury, and or death."

Ro and Zee stared at the man, while continually eying the others in the group. What did they want them to do?"

"If you all could kindly stand up, placing your hands on your head, and line up against that wall over there…" he said while pointing to the side hull of the aircraft.

No one seemed anxious to leap out of their seats and comply. Each still seemed to be expecting someone to yell "PSYCH!" or for security to come into the room at any moment to take care of things.

"I don't need to tell you what will happen if you don't!" the man said, waiving his gun around.

"Should we do it?" Ro asked Zee.

"It seems we have little choice."

Boldly, they stood up, and placed their hands on their heads. Since their first initiative, the rest of the audience followed their example. They shuffled over to the side wall like a slow moving herd of cattle. Zee bent over to whisper to Ro, "I'm going to go and see if I can sneak out and radio for help. Just give them what they want and you should be fine."

"Where are you going?" she asked, worriedly. Someone stepped on the hem of her train, nearly making her trip. It was hard to not step on someone else's heels, as everyone was clinging to each other as a kind of human shield. In the instant she looked down, to see who it had been, then up again, Zee was gone. In his place was another man.

Ro gasped, startled for a moment, until she realized that it was just Zee. "Don't leave!" she begged him. She was scared, fearful for her life as well as that of the rest of the crew. She was worried about Zee. What if they caught him as he tried to sneak out of the room?

"We've got to think of the rest of these people, besides ourselves. I have to go and get some kind of help," he said, then made his way toward the edge of the crowd. It was easy, as no one wanted to be close to one of the terrorists. He then crept along the wall, and silently slipped out of the room. Ro prayed that he would return soon. Every moment he was gone made her anxiety increase exponentially.

Once they were all lined up against the wall, the female crime member spoke up, giving the audience their next instructions, "Ladies, please take a moment to remove all jewelry and valuables. Gentlemen, please empty your pockets, and remove your watches."

As Ro was reaching for the clasp of her necklace, she was approached by the woman. "You, there."

"Who me?" she asked, putting her hands down quickly.

"Come here."

"Great," Ro thought. She was certain that this was some kind of consequence of Zee sneaking out. Maybe the had seen him, and wanted her to tell them what he was up to?

"Stand right there," she said, pointing to a spot on the floor. Ro promptly stepped on the spot. "Congratulations. You've just become a hostage." Ro couldn't help but think that it was her fine dress and necklace that had made her a prime target to be a hostage. Surely someone as finely dressed as she was would fetch a rather rewarding ransom?

Zee carefully made his way down the hallway that was outside of the auction room. He couldn't be sure if there were any more of the crime team members stationed as watch guards in the hallways. Before going around a corner he would carefully listen to hear if there was anyone around it. Then he would briefly glance around the corner. If there really was no one, he would proceed. He had a brief idea of where the cockpit was, and began to make his way over to the general vicinity. As he was sneaking down on of the halls, he heard noises coming from one of the rooms. Thinking that it could be one of the elite members, he stopped walking to listen. There were several muffled voices. It certainly didn't sound like one of the crime team members. He checked again to see if the coast was clear before trying the door knob. It was locked. With his infiltrating abilities he decrypted the code to the lock on the control box to the right of the door. The green light appeared, and the door became unlocked. Zee entered it cautiously

Bound and gagged in the middle of the room, on the floor, were the security team for the airliner. The crime team had locked them in the room after binding their hands and feet and removing them of their side arms.

At first the security team didn't know what to make of Zee. He could be another of the team members, or one of the guests. They were unable to tell as both the guests and the crime team were formally dressed.

"Don't worry. I'm here to help," Zee said as he approached the group of men. He put his hand behind his back, as his holomorphic projection was temporarily distorted as he produced a small cutting knife. He approached the group carefully. They had no reason to believe him, and the fact that he was armed and they were not could not be too comforting. Zee went up to one of the security guards and began to cut the twine that he was tied with. The twine was rather efficient as it was lightweight to carry, and had immense strength for the small diameter of it.

There were large, fiery welts on the security guard's wrists and ankles from where the cord had chaffed his skin as he struggled to slip his hand out of it. The man rubbed his wrists, grateful to be free. Zee didn't bother to chat, but went on to free the next guard. The guard not knowing if he should try to apprehend Zee, or help out stood there momentarily. When he realized that it would be most efficient to have the rest of the team untied before even attempting to take on this stranger, he began to help out.

"What are you doing here?" one of the guard's asked, after they had all been untied. No one had dared to try and spring Zee yet. After untying all of them, he seemed trustworthy. Most likely he really was just a guest.

"The elite team has everyone in the auction room under their control. They're armed and they're making threats. We have to call for help."

"The only working radio is in the cockpit. They'd disabled all the others just before they tied us up."

This wasn't good. "How many more of them are there?" Zee asked, trying to get an idea of what they were up against.

"Who knows? There were seven of them that snuck up on us, though… We've been locked in this room for some time. We couldn't tell you what's going on in the rest of the plane.

Seven. There were six in the ballroom... That meant that there was at least one more. Most likely he would be guarding the cockpit or flying the plane. But what if there were more? "There's six of them in the auction room, but there could be more in hiding or in other areas of the ship. I'm going to go and see if I can get into the cockpit. You shouldn't leave this room, it's not safe—"

"So it's safe for you to go wandering around by yourself?" one of the men sneered. Zee didn't know how he could explain to them that he was made out of titanium, and that he was skilled in dealing with this sort of thing more than they were… "You can scout ahead, but we're going to follow you and be your back up," the man finished on a lighter note. "Of course, we can't do too much. They disarmed us."

Nathan, the head security guard, assumed his role as the leader and began to delegate responsibilities, "Jason, Mark. You two go and see if you can get into the storage closet and get some additional supplies. You'll need this," he added, tossing them his security key, so they would be able to unlock the door.

"The rest of us will follow Mr…"

"Dr. Hunter," Zee provided the name he'd registered under.

"Dr. Hunter. Everyone hurry and be careful not to be seen. We don't want them to become hostile by our presence. Lead the way," he said to Zee.

"Stay far enough behind me so that if they spot me, they won't see you too." With that Zee exited the room and began to make his way to the cockpit. It was important to use the radio, but also that he see if the plane was being piloted by the one of the crime team members, of if they were just holding up the real pilots. Maybe the pilots had no clue as to what was going on?

He made his way down the maze of the ship's hallways. He couldn't hear the security guards, but he was sure that they were still following him. He just hoped that they didn't get into too much trouble because they weren't armed. He didn't approve of the use of weapons, but he also didn't approve of terrorism.

He pressed himself up against the wall that was just around the corner from the door to the cabin. Using the spy camera in his finger, he checked to see if the coast was clear outside of the cockpit. There was one of the crime members, guarding the door to the cockpit. Zee retracted the camera then checked to see if any of the security guards could see him. As he couldn't see any of them, they wouldn't be able to see him. He holomorphed into one of the other elite crime team members from the auction room.

He hurried around the corner, and mimicking the voice of the team members from the auction room, he shouted, "Hey! You're needed in the auction room! Hurry!"

The man looked at him curiously, "Being the new guy here it doesn't seem proper for me to be doing this, but rules are rules…" he said, then in a quick, deft movement his pulled out his stunner. He didn't hesitate for one second to use it on Zee. "This is for not speaking the password upon encountering another solo elitist face-to-face," he said while he stunned Zee. He only used a small amount of voltage, as the shock was meant to be a punishment for not following the code rather than a mean of termination or disarmament. Even though it was a small amount of voltage, when the electrical current from the stunner traveled through Zee's metal body, it disrupted his holomorphic projectors, causing him to lose his cover as he returned to his robotic form. Zee was lucky that the electric current didn't short out any of his other circuitry, and that his holomorphic projection was the only thing he temporarily lost.

The man stared at the robot before him, with a confused expression. He'd never suspected that his fellow team member was really a robot! Or was he? He decided to trust his natural instincts that told him that Zee was not the real the team member, but an imposter. In this particular crime team, learning how to develop the ability to sense when you're being lied to, was critical. It's what saved them from being tricked by others, as the used the same technique to ensnare them.

"Oh I see…those security guards thought they'd send in a synthoid to pick up where they failed?" he said, grinning evilly as he turned up the voltage on his stunner. "Well, it didn't work!" he said, ready to stun Zee again.

Zee thought himself stupid for having not expected there to be some kind of initiation or password upon confrontation of another team member. Whatever it was, he hadn't done it, so he'd automatically been given away, despite his perfect disguise. That kind of questioning and planning ahead was what made them an elite crime team rather than just any group of thieves or terrorists. Zee returned to his regular holomorphic projection.

"It takes more than a robot to stop the elite crime team!" he said, lunging toward Zee with the armed stunner.

Zee agilely ducked under his arm, and moved in behind the man. From behind him, Zee grabbed the man's arm. He knocked the man's arm into the side of the wall until he dropped the stunner. Not wanting Zee to have an opportunity to pick up the stunner later, the man kicked the stunner far down the hall, out of either of their reaches. He continued to struggle as Zee tried to get a good hold of both of his arms.

With the arm that Zee wasn't holding, the man reached to his utility belt. He pulled out a club and tried to beat Zee with it with his free hand. As he was swinging it toward Zee, Zee caught it. Merely by squeezing it with his hand, Zee snapped the club into splinters as if he was doing something as simple as breaking a pencil in half.

Fear filled the man's eyes, as he was now becoming panicked. He didn't carry a gun like the other members did. He was actually the newest member. Plasma guns were reserved for those with more experience. After struggling for only a few more seconds, Zee managed to throw him to the floor and wrestle his arms behind his back. He wasn't going anywhere for now. But, how could he keep it that way? He didn't have anything to contain him with.

The man struggled, but had to admit defeat. There was no way he could get out of the pin hold he was in. Zee's worry was answered when Nathan led the rest of the security team to his aid from where they were waiting around the corner. Nathan was holding the stunner that the elite team member had kicked down the hallway. Lying on the ground, surrounded by the security team, he now realized in hindsight that he should have taken his chances with Zee grabbing his stunner rather than having given the security team the opportunity to get it.

The other security guards had some of the twine that the had been tied up with. The moved in, and began to used the salvaged pieces to tie the crime member up with. When he was tied and bound, one of the other guards began to empty out the man's pockets for any other weapons, and for anything else that might be dangerous or useful. One of the other guards removed the radio transmitter and micro phone ear set. The guard hooked the piece around his ear, and began to listen for any radio communication that might be going on between the other team members.

Feeling satisfied with the apprehension, Zee was about to move onto the cockpit to see how the pilots were and to used the radio, when he turned around to see the stunner in his face."

"Freeze. Infiltration Unit Zeta," Nathan ordered him. While they hadn't seen him transform into the other elite crime team, they had seen him get stunned and lose his cover, then return to his regular disguise. From his robotic appearance, they were able to recognize him.

Zeta remained motionless. The crime member began to laugh smugly, even though he was bound and on the floor. "Seems like I'm not the only one who's in trouble with the law," he sneered.

"On the ground. Hands behind your back." He said diffidently to Zeta. "Don't try anything suspicious." It was obvious he was worried about Zeta overpowering him as well as the rest of his team.

"Please don't!" Zee begged him. His assumption that they knew that he Zeta because they either saw him holomorphed as someone else or without his holomorph covering, was correct.

"You're a threat to National Security. I have no choice."

Zee began to wonder whether he could take out all of the security guards that surrounded him. It was most certainly possible, but not very humane. It would definitely convince everyone in the NSA that he was dangerous if he was to assault all of the security onboard. It would also link him as an ally with the crime team. If he wanted to uphold his clean record, he would have to follow their orders…He thought of Ro. How was she doing in the other room? Would he see her again after this? Was she okay? What of the other guests? He was their only hope. The security team needed him. They were unarmed, and defenseless. It was easy enough to tackle this one member, but what about six? The other six had more dangerous weapons too. Theirs were far more lethal than a stunner…

"SIR!" the guard with the ear piece interrupted them.

"What?"

"I'm receiving a transmission through their intercom network!"

"Let me hear!" Nathan said, hurrying over to grab the ear piece from the other guard.

Rather than losing some of the auditory feed, the guard instead pulled out a short retractable plug from his own radio, which he inserted into a small connecting spot on back of the ear piece. The radio transmission began to feed out through his radio. He turned up the volume, which then broadcasted the message to the small group.

It was a woman's voice that was speaking, "...we've selected a hostage and we're almost ready to go. Leave the message with the pilots now, then come meet us and…" The radio transmission was shortly interrupted by another voice. One that sounded very angry, and put-off, "If you don't let me go, I'm going to…!!"

Zee recognized the second voice instantaneously. "Oh, gosh…It was Ro!"

The second speaker was then cut off by the first woman again, "Shut-up!—Anyway… you'll come and meet us then we'll…" The second voice interrupted the first again. No one could quite make out what she said, but they could all tell that it was an insult. "Hold on, Rick…" the woman said. The radio feed that next followed was easy to understand, as the woman began shouting to the second person who had interrupted her several times. "Any more noise from you and we'll be sending your body home in Zip-lock bags!"

Satisfied that she had finally shut up the hostage from interrupting her, she continued, "Let the pilots know that we have a hostage, then return. Do you copy Rick?"

The security guards looked at a loss now. What should they do? Zee ignored the security guard leader with the stunner, and hurried to the guard with the ear piece. "Let me have it," he said quickly, then took the ear piece from him. He held the small microphone up towards his face, while pressing the small button that sent out the transmission feed. Perfectly mimicking the man's voice as well as the his speech pattern and dialect he replied, "Copy. I'll tell them."

"Good," the woman replied. "Don't be long." With that, the transmissions ended.

"They have a hostage. You won't be able to take them down by yourselves, or rescue the hostage. You need me," Zee said to Nathan.

Nathan looked at the other guards to see if they had any suggestions or input. They were all specifically avoiding his gaze, purposely trying not to get involved. "Please… the hostage… she's my friend… I can't let anything happen to her."

"We most certainly can't…" the leader said with much deliberation. "What do you have in mind?"

"Let the pilots know that we're working on something. Get on the radio and call for ground help, and air support. Meanwhile, I'll infiltrate their organization as Rick to save the hostage. We have to act quickly so that…"

"Wait. Hold on. What' the rush? It's not like they're going anywhere."

"Actually, there is reason to believe that they are. It sounds like they're planning to jump plane, or that they're going to have a pick up."

"What should we do then?" Nathan asked. Zee began to explain his plan to the group of guards. "Go to the cockpit door…"

With the plan in mind, Nathan went to try the cockpit's door knob. It was unlocked. He turned the handle, then pulled the door open, but didn't walk through it as Zee had told him to. He was glad that he didn't because as he opened the door he was nearly clobbered with a fire extinguisher. "Whoa!!" he said, stepping back to avoid it. Because Zee had warned him that the pilots might have devised their own plan to take out the terrorist, he had been forewarned, and had been able to avoid getting clobbered by it.

The pilots realized that he was not the enemy, but one of their own. "Sorry," the co-pilot apologized. "I thought you were one of…"

"Yeah. I know. That's not important though. Listen, they're holding up the entire audience in the auction room. And… they've taken a hostage. What were the instructions that they gave you?"

"They told us to fly to New York, as planned. They're monitoring the radio frequencies. Any unnecessary communication with air traffic control would result in our termination."

"Well, Rick's tied up right now, so we don't have to worry about that. But them listening in on the radio is a problem. We're going to have to bypass the regular frequencies. I have the input codes that can patch us directly to a government satellite. It's a secure line which they shouldn't be able to pick up, and besides that—everything's transferred in code." The co-pilot got up out of the chair so that the security leader could sit down and begin entering the codes. The codes were given to him for important times such as this. The pilots didn't have access to these codes, as they were only for security purposes. There were several security features such as voice identification, retinal scan, and fingerprint identification that the security leader had to input before his link with the satellite was finally granted.

"There," he said, giving the radio over to the co-pilot again. "Let the New York Security team know that we need air assistance and ground support. Tell them our situation. Also, let them know that we think they may be planning on jumping plane, or having a pick up…Don't have the backup move in until I give you confirmation that the hostage is safe. We don't want an accident because they got a little anxy by our presence. " With that said, Nathan was ready to set off to complete the second part of the plan. As he was nearly out of the cockpit, he had a second thought, "Oh… and one more thing…" He seemed to struggle with his conscious for a moment before adding, "let the NSA know that Infiltration Unit Zeta is onboard too."

"What?! Bennet said, outrage when he heard the news. "Gone again!?"

"Sir.. It's not your fault they left. We tried the best that we could…"Rush tried to console him.

"That's not going to cut it with Lemack! He wants results!" Bennet shouted. It caused all of the people in the Liberty Island gift shop to stop what they were doing and look at him.

Bennet could feel their eyes on him. "Come on, we're heading back," he said. He straightened his uniform then walked out of the gift shop. Rush followed Bennet promptly. "West!" she called over her shoulder.

West put down the fake Liberty torch flashlight that he was playing with and reluctantly followed them out. They began to walk back to the NSA vehicle that was parked a couple of blocks away. It was impossible to find parking in the city. They'd been tracking the purchases made by Ro and Zee all over New York, stopping off at several of the locations to see if they could find any clues as to where they'd gone next. This particular location had been the Statue of Liberty gift shop. They'd found no clues. It was in the gift shop that Bennet had received the upsetting news that the researcher had just received the new credit reports, and had found Ro and Zee's return tickets to L.A.

"They've gone back to L.A… Let's hurry up and get to the airport," Bennet grumbled. They would have to begin their investigation all over again.

It was on their way to the airport, however, that a distress radio transmission came in… "Sir! You should hear this!" the communications specialist piped up.

"Put it on the loud speaker," Bennet instructed him.

"I'll replay the message…" he said.

The frequency had lots of background static, but the voice could still be clearly understood, "This is the airliner, the Wishing Star. We are currently under siege and control by the elite crime team. They're holding up the audience and they have selected a hostage. They may be planning on jumping planes or having a pick up. We are requesting ground support for when we land in New York, and air support should they be planning to jump plane. If any air support is sent, please maintain your distance until confirmation of the safety of the hostage is secure. On a side note: Infiltration Unit Zeta is onboard. If anyone receives this transmission, please respond on this secure frequency. All other frequencies are being monitored. This is the Wishing Star…"

"What's Zeta doing on a luxury liner?" Bennet asked himself. He turned to the person who had brought up the cred report, "Is there any record of their tickets for this?"

"Not yet sir…"

"CURSES!" Bennet slammed his fist down. How could they possibly catch them if they were always a day behind? On rare occasions Ro and Zee would be in the news, which was always a good lead, but when they weren't it was near impossible to find them! He calmed down after letting go some of his anger. "Send them a message that the NSA is coming," Bennet ordered the communications operator. "Also, send a message to the New York airport. Request the current flight path and the position of the Wishing Star. Contact the NSA headquarters. Have headquarters dispatch an aerial team. Tell them that we'll be waiting for Zeta at the airport." He spoke quietly to himself, "This time. I've got you!"

Outside of the auction room, Zee holomorphed into Rick. He paused to wonder whether there was any special way he should enter the room. Once he thought about it, he realized the best way was to just open and walk through it casually. Someone who wasn't confident, like a security guard trying to peek inside first, would open it slowly. Or if the security team were planning for a surprise attack they would throw open the doors to startle them… Maybe he should knock to let him know he was entering? Then… how many times would he knock? The wrong number would be worse than not knocking at all, as the number of knocks could be part of a code…

Preparing for the worst, he opened the door. No one really noticed his entrance but the guests. They were still standing against the wall. Several of the older guests looked like they could have a heart attack at any moment Maybe some of them already had? The crime team was gathered in the middle of the room. Also in the middle of the room was Ro! She didn't look scared, but mad.

Zee worried about what he would say to them if they spoke to him. He had no idea what the codes and secret passwords were… And here, he was outnumbered. Also, Ro was in danger here.

The woman crime member of the group saw Zee, "Good. We're all here."

The man who had told the auctioneer to hand over the diamond necklace went over to Zee and shoved a large bag into his hands, saying, "Hold this…" Zee took the bag from him. It was incredibly heavy. He knew right away that this was the bag that they'd complied all of their loot into. It was heavily weighted from all of the gold and diamonds. He warned Zee, "If you lose that bag. It will be your head to pay."

Great… he was being put in charge of holding onto their spoils. If the NSA ever saw him like this he would never be able to clear his name… The man who had handed him the sack then walked over to the woman of the group. As he was standing behind her, she lifted her hair up to reveal her back. The man began to undo the zipper of her dress. The dress itself was rather full at the bottom with an enormous skirt.

Ro had an expression of, "What a slut," on her face until she saw that this wasn't really true. When the woman's dress was unzipped she stepped out of it lightly. Underneath her dress, she was wearing a skin tight nylon body suit. Upon stepping out of the dress, she helped the man to rifle through the several layers of the skirt. Randomly sewn onto the under layers of the skirt were what appeared to be parachute packs. By the time that they had removed seven of the packs, the dress was considerably slimmer in appearance. It no longer had a large bell shaped skirt, but was more tubular.

Everyone in the audience couldn't help but admire the work that was put into this. The woman and the man appeared to be the leaders of the crime team. They began to hand out a parachute to each of the team members. The woman instructed the team members. Should we get separated remember: If you try to jump out the front of the plane you're going to get sucked into the engine. If you try to jump out of the middle you'll get cut in half by the tail. The only safe place to jump out is the back of the plane. Remember, free fall for 40 seconds before you open your parachute. When you land, destroy the evidence. They're made out of nylon, so they'll burn quickly."

"You brought the special parachute, right Nadine?" the man asked the woman.

"Of course," she replied.

With that, they began to put on their parachutes. To Zee they were very primitive in nature but nothing else could be the convenience of their disposability. When he was handed his parachute he promptly put it on as everyone else was doing.

"Where's my parachute? Well… it looks like there aren't enough. I'll guess I'll just stay here then since I know none of you want to feel what it's like to become a human pancake…" Ro commented. She hadn't said anything since Zee had entered the room. Hearing her speak gave him hope. Her voice didn't scared as he knew she was, but confident. Was she confident because she thought that he was doing something to save her? Did she worry about him? He wished that he could let her know that things were going to be okay. He was here to save her.

"You'll be coming with me. My parachute is equipped with two harnesses for this purpose," Nadine answered her question.

"Look. You don't want me for a hostage. I'm not going to make you a profit. I don't have anyone who will pay the ransom…" Ro protested.

"We don't want you for ransom purposes… If you haven't noticed you have one of the most petite figures here…" It was true. Ro was the skinniest figure of the whole lot. She was undoubtedly the youngest as well. "As we were sure no one in this room can sky dive on their own, we didn't bring an extra parachute, but one with two harnesses. As we're both lightweight, we can share the same parachute without putting too much stress on it," the woman explained. "You're purpose is just to keep them off our tails until we put enough distance between us and security. Now, no more talking!"

Once everyone had their parachutes on, they walked over towards the door. The woman held tightly onto Ro's arm, as she pulled her along. Ro struggled, "Let go of me!"

Nadine ignored her, "Thank you all for your generosity! We'll be leaving now. Don't anyone move from that wall. If anyone tries to follow us, the consequences could be fatal," she gave her last warning.

No one looked like they were even dreaming of following them, or trying to make a last stand. They all had an expression on their faces which resembled a deer in the headlights of a car. Zee was in the middle of the group as they were walking out the door. Nadine and Ro were bringing up the rear while the other male leader was in the front of the group.

It was after everyone had come through the door and had walked halfway down the hall that the security guards from the air ship stepped out in their surprised attack. Jason and Mark had been successful in obtaining some defensive arms. They surrounded the crime team from the rear and front. They were quick and skillful as they engaged the crime team. "But how?" was heard from one of the crime teams. "How did they escape?" another asked.

The fighting broke out. The security team was ready with handcuffs and more twine to tie up their prisoners.

Nadine looked livid as watched the security team began to wrestle all of the other team members to the ground. "Come on!" she shouted, and yanked Ro's arm as she took off with her running. Their perfect plan was ruined.

Zee threw the bag he was carrying on the ground and ran after them. Nathan watched him run after them. "Good luck!" he silently wished him as he supervised the apprehension of the rest of the crime team.

The crime team was outnumbered, and with the additional supplies Mark and Jason had picked up, the security team was well equipped now. It was also helpful that they now had the element of surprise. They were swearing to themselves as they were now tied up. One by one they were brought to the room they themselves had been locked in. Inside, they saw their fellow team mate, Rick. It was now clear that they had been tricked! Apparently, they'd have to expand their code to not only apply to single encounters, but encounters as a group… Not that they'd ever get out of jail for what they did…

Nathan went back over to inspect the bag Zee had dropped. Upon inspecting its contents, he handed it over to another guard to lock it up for safe keeping until the plane landed. The apprehension of the rest of the crime team had gone very well. Except… they hadn't gotten its leader, and they hadn't saved the hostage. It was up to Zee now.

"You're never going to get away with this!" Ro shouted as she was being dragged down the hall. They were running very fast. It was very hard for her to keep up with Nadine, especially since she didn't want to be running away in the first place.

"Watch me!" She was leading the way as Zee followed behind. Despite the fact that Ro was a little short of breath she had plenty of energy and breath to yell insults back to Zee and the woman.

"If only she knew I'm right here…" Zee thought. "If only she knew it was really me."

Nadine finally stopped running when they got to the rear of the plane. There was a large door that was typically used for loading and unloading cargo. There were two smaller doors, one on each side, of the larger door. She went up to the one on the right side. "Turn around," she instructed Ro, holding the gun to her head.

Ro did as she was told. "It's over. He's not coming. This is it, this is the end… While it's too late for me--please… just let him be safe…"

Zee could see the fear in her eyes… and it hurt him deeply. It seemed she was giving up hope of being saved. He wanted to completely blow his cover and change to his regular form and embrace her, to comfort her and let her know he was right there.

"Put your arm through this," she instructed Ro, handing her the shoulder strap for the parachute harness. Ro did as she was told. She slid her arm through the other one as well when handed the strap. The woman instructed Ro on how to do the straps and buckles for the harness, so she didn't have to drop her gun. As Ro buckled the strap in the front for her, it felt as if she were sealing her fate.

"I'll admit that you're better than I thought…" the woman said to Zee in between giving Ro instructions. "It seems we're the only ones who made it out of that security trap. I'd have promoted your ranking if you had still held onto the bag…" she commented.

"It was too hard with all of those guards. And I figured the necklace she's wearing will cover enough of the expenses… " Zee said with Rick's voice.

"It will barely cover expenses… But we're not about breaking even. We're about profit!" she said in an angry tone. She was extremely disappointed at having lost the Isabella diamond necklace.

Zee knew that he had to do something soon. Ro had finished tying her harness on. But what could he do? The woman was still holding the gun to Ro's head. He would have to take action.

"Let her go." Zee said coldly. He wasn't going to wait any longer. He had to save Ro now. He had a few things that he could use to defend himself or Ro, such as his radial arm saws, and his weilder.

"Excuse me?" Nadine replied, in an offended tone.

Zee took this opportunity to change into his regular appearance. "Let her go," he repeated.

Her eyes became very wide as she realized that she had been tricked. "You're not Rick!"

"ZEE!" Ro cried, happily. He had come to save her!

The woman pulled the gun from Ro's head, and aimed it straight towards Zee. "You have three seconds to turn around and walk away before I fire."

Zee was incredibly quick as he ducked under the shot and came up under

the woman's arm. He was used to avoiding gun shots by now. He knocked the gun out of her hand where it slid across the floor out of sight.

"Let her go!"

"Fine!" she said rather huffily. She quickly undid the straps to Ro's harness. She then slowly started walking backwards towards the door on the right side. "This is where I leave you now," she said, as she pushed the button to open the door.

As soon as the door was open, the huge air pressure difference caused a high powered vacuum to form right in the doorway. It began to suck all of the lightweight, loose objects through it, and outside of the plane. She jumped backwards through the open doorway. Ro tried to grab the door jam, but was unsuccessful. She felt herself being pulled out of the plane, then she felt herself free falling. She didn't have a parachute… She was going to die.

"Zeeeeeeeee…." Ro's voice was heard trailing off. He didn't hesitate one second to jump through the doorway, right after her.

The speaker inside of the NSA vehicle came to life. "6 of the 7 crime members are now in custody. Hostage is with seventh member. Has not been heard of yet…

New update. Three people have jumped from airliner. Coordinates at time of evacuation are…" He then relayed a mass amount of numbers and reference points that made no sense to anyone else but the navigational expert onboard the NSA vehicle. Bennet had a rough idea of where they had jumped plane, judging from the locations provide. Even though the chance of them catching up with them before they landed was unrealistic, Bennet couldn't resist the chance to try and catch them. "Take us there!" Bennet ordered.

"Sir. We won't make it in time before they land. They'll be gone by the time we get there."

"JUST DO IT!"

Sheepishly, the man complied, adding, "I'll radio the team stationed in that area, just in case they may be able to get there sooner…"

"Just hurry!"

His aerodynamic body cut through the air resistance, allowing him to slowly catch up with Ro as she was falling. Her dress was flapping wildly at her sides as she plunged head first toward the ground. Her golden hair whipped her face… She looked like an angel, falling from heaven… He was getting closer to her… Finally, he outstretched his arms, and pulled her to him. But… There was no additional harness. He would only be able to hold onto her with all the strength of his arms, and hope that she didn't slip from his grasp.

"Zee…" she tried to say, but her words were in audible to Zee. They were falling too quickly to try and communicate at this point.

Only a few seconds later, they saw Nadine's white parachute open up. When they reached about the same height, Zee deployed their parachute as well. Ro experienced a heavy, sinking feeling as the large, billowing chute opened up and caught the air, and their descent abruptly slowed. She felt her body wanting to slide out of Zee's arms and continue falling, as well as the opposite force of his arms wrapped tightly around her, holding her up.

They began to drop very quickly as they neared the ground. Unlike the movies that they'd seen with a light touch down, they were dropping very quickly. If it was more windy their landing would have probably been smoother. Zee landed on the ground absorbing the main force of impact. He set Ro down quickly so he could release the parachute. They were in a fairly open field with only a few scattered trees; they were in the middle of a recreational park... They were incredibly lucky that they hadn't landed in any of the trees.

Up ahead, no more than a two hundred feet was Nadine. She had been less fortunate as her parachute had gotten snagged on a tree branch in the landing. She was dangling a few feet from the ground, and was frantically trying to get it off.

"We've got to stop her!" Zee said, as he ran on ahead. Ro hurried after him, as fast as she could in her dress and shoes.

Nadine had untangled herself and dropped to the ground. From there she started running on ahead. Zee caught up with her and tackled her. "Bring one of the parachutes over here…" he told Ro.

With the cords from the parachute they tied her arms and legs behind her back. When they had finished they heard the familiar sounds of the NSA vehicle approaching. "Let's get out of here," Ro suggested.

They left her there for the authorities to deal with.

However, Zee hadn't know of the invisible side seam pocket in the nylon jumpsuit, or of the small knife contained there in. When the NSA got to the site, all they found were the remnants of two parachutes.

"Call Bennet up… Let him know that they're gone again."

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"After yesterday's events? I've never been more sure than I am now. "

"Okay then…"

Ro then proceeded to the main entrance of the building, her dress and

diamond necklace in hand. There was no one in the lobby, but the receptionist. Zee pointed to the large bin on the side of the room that was labeled, "Donations for the New York Children's Orphanage." She dropped the dress and the necklace inside.

"Those ought to make someone happy."

"And incredibly rich," Zee smirked on their way out of the building.

Before the woman could thank them for their contributions, they had already walked out the door. Curious to see what they had left, she got up from her desk after they were a considerable distance away from the building. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the dress and the necklace. She quickly ran out the doors to try and thank them again, but she couldn't see them on the streets anywhere. They were already gone.

On a subway train, heading out of New York city, Zee commented, "I didn't see Dr. Edmund… but we never really got a good chance to look…"

"Don't worry. We'll find him. If not… I'm sure he'll be at the dedication for that new science building in a couple of months or so…"

"I didn't get a chance to claim the tickets for the tour of Dr. Angeline's lab either…"

"Guess we'll just have to sneak in the old fashioned way …"

Zee had to wonder what kind of an influence he was being on Ro. It seemed that rather than progressing towards sainthood she seemed to be more mischevious when he was around. He smiled to himself and thought about how wonderful it would be when they didn't have to run anymore… But he was then saddened… Would Ro leave him once his name was cleared? What if they found her family? Would she leaver him for them? He didn't want her to miss out on such an opportunity because of him, but he knew that in his subconscious thoughts, he was actually hoping that they didn't find them so she didn't have to make that choice. That way they would always be together.