Thanks so much for the feedback again! It helps inspire me to write! Decided that with the momentum I've got I should keep things moving. :)

(x)

Liz walked inside of one of the office's many conference rooms, specifically to one they'd dubbed 'The Blue Room'. Anytime someone asked her why they called it that, she told them, "Because it's not green." She sat down at a finely polished, expertly made cherry table. She liked furniture. Liked the warmth and grain of the wood, the precision of the crafters, and the way the truly extraordinary ones only seemed to get better with age.

Sitting in a plush comfortable office chair at the table among her peers should have made her feel calm and on her game. But somehow the agency seemed to take the comfort out of the usually comfortable, no matter how much she tried to pretend it was otherwise. Meera and Ressler filed in behind her and took their seats while Red strolled into the conference room behind them, looking like a man who'd happened upon a quaint, charming park and didn't have anywhere else to be besides.

Cooper walked in, took a seat at the head of the table, and let a file drop down with a smack onto the tabletop. "Okay, people, what have we got so far?" His gaze fell to her. "Agent Keen, why don't you start us off?"

"What we have here," she began, her voice confident and professional, "is a world-famous art thief who is now adding 'hacker' to his list of trades. In the past, he has successfully gone about his heists without making his name or identity known. Now, for the first time, he is using the technology usually reserved for bypassing security systems and stealing prized possessions to instead ignite and provoke world governments." She unclipped a stack of paper and passed around a clean, concise fact sheet. The one she's typed furiously for ten minutes and only once checked for typos in the limited amount of time given. "He is a career thief, motivated by profit. Now, he is emerging as a hacker. Hackers are notoriously known for doing what they do to bolster their own low self-esteem by violating technological barriers. The attributes that both career thieves and hackers have in common is their love for and their addiction to the thrill. The thrill of the hunt, the thrill of a challenge… and sometimes even, the thrill of being caught. The Cat must have been practicing and perfecting his hacking skills before he used them and now has chosen this time to employ his skills. So… why would he do that? It could be that he just woke up, looked at his calendar, and said 'Today's Tuesday. Time to be a hacker.' Or it could be a move made out of necessity or even desperation." Liz pointed to her sheet. "As you can see, I believe who we're looking for is a white or Asian man in his late twenties to early thirties. He travels alone. He travels light. He is an expert on both working and evading the system."

Ressler put in his two cents. "I don't see it that way. I think Agent Keen isn't seeing this for what it is. We're dealing with something much more serious. Someone who believes himself to be a criminal mastermind, who sees himself as above and better than the general public. Some people play golf. Some people go wave-running. This guy gets his rocks off by embarrassing whole governments, consequences be damned. For all we know, this guy's pinned his wanted poster up on his ceiling above his bed. I believe anyone who tries to stop him will be putting their life on the line."

Meera said, "Could be more to it than that. It could be a play for power. Maybe he's grown tired of the art scene. If you think about it, he has operated for four years now in the public eye and never once been caught."

Red made an interested noise. He stood looking out of the fishbowl glass window. He held a glass and sipped from it as if it were scotch, when it was only ice water.

Meera looked at him briefly and then continued, "I believe he's grown bored, and what do people do when they grow bored? They shake things up. They seek a new enterprising challenge."

Liz nodded. "Maybe this is his way of making himself known on a more international level." She looked at Red. "For all we know, he's gunning for your old job and trying to get it in a public way."

Red cracked a smile. "I hadn't heard the position was vacant."

Ressler turned to Cooper, "I disagree with Agent Kane. I think we're looking for someone older."

Cooper asked, "What makes you say that?"

He smirked. "We're looking for someone who would have seen that film while they were a pre-teen, teenager at the latest."

"What film?" Liz asked.

He said, "Darkman. It came out in 1990. Starred Liam Neeson. That speech he gave on the loudspeaker was verbatim from the Nintendo game that came out after the movie."

Liz caught herself almost smiling. "I didn't know you were a video game enthusiast."

Ressler replied, "I'm full of surprises."

Meera and Liz shared a short, but impressed glance. It was a good catch.

Cooper asked, "Given the profile we have, looking forward what should we expect?"

Liz answered, "More grandiosity. More drama. More public encounters. Whoever it is, they are looking for attention."

Cooper assured them, "He'll get it. Just not in the way he plans." He raised his eyes and looked to Red.

Red blinked and donned a tentative smile. "I think I'm about to get offered a penny."

Cooper cut to the chase. "You've be unusually quiet. What do you know?"

He stepped forward. "About the Cat? Or about the unfortunate hacking of your agency's very expensive security system?"

"Pick one," Cooper said.

Red leaned comfortably against the wall. Liz envied him that for just the slightest moment. How was he able to do that? To look so comfortable and at home in the most uncomfortable of settings, and not just look it, but be its very incarnate? "Hacking's not the Cat's usual style, neither is political involvement or international espionage. If anything, she works to maintain and seems to enjoy complete anonymity."

Liz sensed, instead of felt, the jolt that rocked through the room. She echoed, "She?"

Red glanced thoughtfully to the side. "I always had a passing notion that she liked being thought of as a man. I always figured it said something about how she viewed men in general. It's refreshing really. It's not often we males are seen in such a favorable light."

Liz stared at him, for the smallest moment, speechless. She'd thought she was past feeling that way when it came to Red, but it turned out she was wrong. He let them all sit there with their profiles and educated conjectures, when he knew her gender all along. "So you've met her?"

Red brushed it off. "We've had our encounters. Typically in passing. Like I said, she's not one for big meetings, at least not where she's known by her moniker."

In that moment, Liz knew what to ask for at Christmas. She wanted an internal lie detector, set just for Red. She stared at him. "Do you know where she is?"

Red set down his glass of water. "I have my suspicions as to where she's been."

Meera frowned as she to looked to him. "Where would that be exactly?"

"If I were you, I'd look for a public computer port. Within city limits. Try someplace near … a pool hall or a record shop. Or…" He looked at Ressler. "A comic book or video game store. As you've all said, she seems like someone who bores easily."

Liz said, "So you do think she's here."

"I'm here," he said. "If I were in Albuquerque, I'd suggest you look for her there."

Liz looked at him, annoyed. "How does she know you're here? Why is she seeking you out?"

"There could be an abundance of answers to both those questions, Lizzie. While I have my suspicions as to both, what you really should be asking for are my suggestions."

She looked at him incredulously. "And what suggestions might those be?"

At that moment, there was a sudden knock on the door. Cooper raised his voice, "Enter."

A tall, lanky man with a well-kempt beard and a badge hanging by a clip from his pocket walked inside. "Sir, we cataloged the bit bucket and our latest patch into the fencepost error found a com mode outside the operating system."

He said, "English, Bronson."

Bronson paused and rephrased himself, "We've located where she last logged onto a computer system. The signal's coming from an internet café in Northwest on U Street."

Red asked, "Isn't that near Buffalo Billiards?" He shook his head. "I don't know if they're even open anymore. It's been too long since I've been to that side of the city."

Cooper ignored Red's comment. He'd gotten good at that. He pointed to Red, but looked at Liz. "I want an agent with him at all times, no excuses." He looked at Red. "For the moment, you stay put. You can thank the contract for that." He turned to the rest of them. "Let's move."

Liz stood up and readied herself to leave. Before she left the room, Red gently grasped her arm. She stopped and looked up at him.

He said, "If it were me, I'd specifically put out a competing contract for the Cat. This time for more money. That way if anyone else with enough time and motivation and resources does catch up with her, they'll forget the Syrians. They'll bring her straight to you."

Liz couldn't decide which she hated more. When he so obviously withheld information or when he had an idea that might just be crazy enough to work. "If we do decide we want to try that, you better let me do the talking with Cooper."

Red smiled. Like that had been exactly what he'd planned in the first place. He leaned in closer. "The problem, just so you know, isn't that you don't think like an agent. You think excellently as an agent. But if you really want to catch her, or any of them, you need to change up your game and start thinking like a criminal."