Chapter 32
"Damn," Kate shook her head as they entered the room where the power panels were. The room was not far from the entrance of the building, just to the right of the reception desk. The door had been removed, the hinges damaged by what appeared to be a laser – probably from one of the Lexosuits. The team that had been guarding the front door was being looked at by Doctor Rodgers and a couple of his medical team personnel.
"They quietly subdue the team down here and then destroy the door but leave the electrical panels intact?" J'onn looked around the room. No damage appeared to be done to the panels or the wiring. They had actually left the main panel open, which contained the main electrical circuits which headed to the smaller electrical panels.
"Well they didn't want to waste time. They probably didn't have an exact location for what they needed Andrea to steal. With us busy with the shooters and Lexosuits, Andrea would have time to hop, skip, and jump around to find what they were looking for. Also, flicking a few switches would have taken a lot less time than trying to saw through that three inch conduit – laser or no," Kate pointed out.
"They wanted a coordinated attack. They left one guy down here to kill the lights and the rest headed for the stairs," J'onn nodded.
"Hopefully we can confirm we don't have another bad guy running around. Of course that leads me to our next problem," Kate said.
"Why would Andrea take Nia?" The Martian frowned.
"Exactly. How does she get Nia to come with her?" The brunette wondered. They walked out of the electrical room, knowing they'd no help from the space. Given what they'd just discovered Nia's trip down to the power panels should have lasted all of two minutes. How did Andrea steal whatever Lex wanted and kidnap Nia? Kate stopped in her tracks throwing her left arm in front of J'onn, effectively stopping him in his tracks. He was not sure what she was doing.
"Supergirl, I need your ears," Batwoman said into her comms. Doctor Rodgers and his team had gotten all the injured personnel, leaving the two completely alone.
"I'm on my way," Kara promised. J'onn raised an eyebrow as the blonde arrived.
"You need my ears?" She asked.
"I don't think Nia ever left this building," Kate said.
"Andrea stuffed her in a closet?" Kara was being optimistic.
"We paced it out, Andrea didn't have time to mess around with Nia," the Gothamite told her. The blonde swallowed hard, closed her eyes, and then tried to focus her hearing, listening for muffled cries or a slower heartbeat. Once Kate and J'onn's heartbeats were filtered out, she filtered out her own, and that's when she heard it – not one but two heartbeats – one beating very fast and one seemed slow. Kara's eyes flew open and she used her x-ray vision to scour the nearby spaces. Placing a finger in front of her nose and lips, Kara quietly moved toward the room she was looking for. Kate and J'onn's followed her down the hall, further to the right of the electrical room. There was another door that behind mechanical equipment could be heard running. It was a smart cover to hide in as most people would not have heard anything but the motors of the air handling units.
Kara tried the door, not surprised to find it locked. She crushed the doorknob and gave it a little yank. The door opened and the three people entered the room and fanned out, hoping to cut off any chance of escape of their kidnapper.
"Hey there buddy. I'm going to need you to put that gun down ok?" Kara heard Kate talking to their quarry and quickly tried to pick her way over to her. The room was large but with the large equipment in there, the passageways were narrow, just wide enough for maintenance purposes. Kara saw Kate's cape near an alcove caused from ductwork and an air handling unit.
"I'm not doing that," he said. The man was dressed all in black and had a ski mask on, just like his friends did. Nia was unconscious and there were no overt signs as to why that would be. There was no blood so the Gothamite was thankful for that.
"No one needs to get hurt, including you," Kate said.
"I'm going to jail, no matter how this shakes out, unless you get me what I want," he pointed the business end of his nine millimeter handgun into Nia's side which caused her to moan. This guy must have really whacked her over the head in order to get her back here or maybe he lured her here, Kate frowned internally.
"It's not going to work out for you, just put the gun down and maybe we can work something out if you rat on your boss," Supergirl announced her presence from behind Batwoman. There was now nowhere to go.
"Rat on the Luthors? How long do you suppose I'd live after that? He gave her a look.
"Protective custody can work in your favor. Just let her go and give me the gun," Kara said. He looked at Kate and then he looked at Kara. Both of them didn't like where his brain was going based on the look on his face.
"I don't think so," J'onn suddenly materialized through the air handling unit and grabbed the gun with one hand and punched the guy with the other.
"Nicely done," Kate smirked.
"How bad is she?" Kara was concerned and gently tried to wake her friend, who didn't seem to be waking up.
"Could she be in a dream state?" J'onn wondered.
"I don't know. I'll get her upstairs to Doctor Rodgers. You guys deal with him," Kara carefully scooped up Nia and headed for the door.
"You think we can get something out of him?" Kate asked.
"He'll be our only lead unless Brainy found something," J'onn said, pulling himself all the way through the air handling unit and handing the gun to her. They were about to be surprised with what Brainy had found from the Lexosuit's mainframe.
To Be Continued…
