VIII

Riddle Me This

"Coming!" Elizabeth called to the impatient knocking on her door. She wrapped a towel around her wet hair and finished buttoning up her shirt. She ran to the door and threw it open. "Kevin! What're you doing here? I thought you had to go to work!"

"I'm back now," Kay said in a strange voice. "Come, you must leave with me now."

"But I thought you said MiB was the safest place for me."

"The building has been infiltrated," he said in a voice that sounded unlike Kay's. Elizabeth looked at him with suspicion.

"Are…are you sure?"

"Yes, now come!" Kay grabbed Elizabeth gruffly by the arm. Startled, she tore away.

"Kevin! Watch it, that hurts!"

"I'm sorry," he said automatically. "You must come with me without delay. You are in grave danger."

Something wasn't quite right here, Elizabeth thought. Something was definitely off. She shook her head slowly and began to back away. "Look, I'd rather just take my chances here, if you don't mind…"

"I do mind."

Again Kay grabbed Elizabeth. She tried to tear herself away; her intuition was screaming at her to get away from this man – or thing – as quickly as she could. As she struggled, Kay's grip tightened to the point where her circulation was being cut off. He cupped his hand over her mouth. "Do not struggle. Come with me peacefully."

She struggled violently as he dragged her out into the hallway, calling attention to herself from the other people passing by. Kay's grip only tightened as she resisted; now he was truly hurting her. "Do not mind her," he said to the crowd that was gathering. "She's just being uncooperative."

Elizabeth fought to scream, doing everything in her power to get Kay's hand off her mouth so that she could shout for help. But he was simply too strong. Too strong for her. Too strong to be human. Her arm throbbed where Kay was clenching it and her ribs ached from how he was holding her as he hauled her down the hallway. She knew this wasn't Kevin. It couldn't be. She had a real fear that the man holding her wasn't a man at all – it was a Dlrow.

___________________

Ten minutes later, Kay and Jay raced down the hallway towards holding room I-5B. Once there, Kay threw open the doors without a second thought, recklessly searching the room in some hopes of finding Elizabeth. "Liz!" he shouted as he tore the bedding off the bed. "Elizabeth, are you here?!"

Jay searched the bathroom, tearing back the shower curtain, looking for escape holes or any signs of struggle. He noticed the bathtub was still wet. "She must have just been here!" Jay called out to Kay.

"Well, she's not here now," Kay said in a worried voice as he sank down onto the bed. He looked wearily around the room. No signs of struggle. They must have taken her.

"A message for you, sir," said a young man standing nervously in the doorway. "You left it here for yourself, and instructed me to bring it to you once you returned."

Kay stood up, looking at the man searchingly. "Did the man who gave that to you look exactly like me?"

The messenger looked at Kay strangely. "Yes sir. It was you, sir. I'm sure of it."

Kay snatched up the message and opened it up. "Another riddle," he said. Jay read over his shoulder:

I'm a symbol of the city,

I'm also the welcoming committee.

She waits for you inside of me,

With a glowing light that anyone can see.

The final battle is about to begin,

Gather your wits again and again.

"Who would've thought the most vicious aliens in the universe also had a poetic side?" Jay said sarcastically. "I'm so glad that the monsters we're fighting to save the world from are so damn clever."

"'I'm a symbol of the city, I'm also the welcoming committee…with a glowing light that anyone can see.'"

"What do you think they're talking about?"

"Statue of Liberty. New York Harbor. Let's go, kid."

________________

Despite the situation, Jay stood at the prow of the MiB nautically mobile operational system (see: boat) with arms outstretched and a grin on his face. "Whoo hoo hoo! I love this thing!" he cried above the roaring motors. The boat skidded over the harbor easily, saddling up next to Miss Liberty herself in no time.

The first thing to greet Jay and Kay as they exited the boat were four security guards impaled upon iron shafts with looks of shock still apparent on their faces. The agents flinched. "Bad day to be a security guard," Jay commented under his breath as they trotted up to the main entrance of the statue. They both drew their guns. Kay kicked in the door and aimed at the doorway. Nothing.

"Think it's a trap, Kay?"

"Of course it is. We're on an island."

They both entered, back to back so as to leave no part of themselves vulnerable, their guns still drawn. "Nothin' on this floor. Let's go up," Kay suggested. Jay nodded and they jogged up the first flight of stairs, searching the first floor. Still nothing. The second floor didn't hide anything, and the third floor looked as empty as it always had. They continued to go up and up until they were both wheezing for breath and sweating profusely.

"This is pretty smart, actually," Jay panted. "Making us die of exhaustion before we even get to them."

They began to search the torch area when they heard a sound no agent, MiB or otherwise, ever likes to hear; the sound of the only door in the room slamming shut and locking. Both of them were silent a moment, listening, but the Statue seemed quiet. No one was moving around. Kay sighed exasperatedly, a rare gesture from him.

"Well now what the hell are we supposed to do?!" he cried irritably, hitting a wall with his fist in frustration. "They've got Elizabeth and God knows what they're doing to her!"

"Hey, you've said it yourself," Jay started in a cool voice. "We don't make a move until they do. They've got Elizabeth, therefore we gotta play by their rules."

"There's got to be some way out of here…" Kay rambled to himself, searching the room for any secret doorways or trap doors in the floor. Jay watched him intently as this went on for a number of tense minutes. When it became perfectly apparent that they were, in fact, trapped, he decided to intervene.

"Hey, Kay, c'mon man, calm down."

"Goddamn French! They can never build anything right!"

"Look, we're gonna find her. Everything is gonna turn out all right!"

"'All right'? Eveything's going to turn out 'all right'? Look junior, I don't know if you're aware of the fact that the most vicious aliens in the universe have got Elizabeth."

"Man, I know that. But wiggin' out isn't going to solve anything, is it?"

"This is all your fault," Kay hissed, frowning so hard his eyes were only slits in his face. "If you hadn't dragged me away from Elizabeth this morning, I would have been there when the shape shifter showed up!"

"My fault? How is this my fault?" Jay shouted, astounded at both his partner's words and the look on his face. Kay darted to and fro in the small room, his eyes still searching for escape. Jay sighed and shook his head. "Man, I told you so. Didn't I tell you not to get emotionally involved? If you weren't feelin' her right now, you'd be calm enough to come up with a rational plan of action! Instead, I got a horny schoolboy for a partner who can't think straight enough to treat this as just another hostage situation!"

It happened so fast that later on when he was trying to tell it, Jay still couldn't remember exactly how Kay had managed to push him out the window until Jay was hanging onto the railing with just one hand, dangling hundreds of feet in the air with only concrete to greet him at the bottom. Jay grasped the railing as tightly as he could and looked up into his partner's face. It was like stone. Kay had his gun pointed at Jay's head, not a trace of emotion on his face.

"You take that back," he demanded in an icy voice.

"I'm sorry! You're not a horny schoolboy! I – "

"Not that part. The part about this being just another hostage situation."

"Kay, you gotta believe me, I didn't mean it like that!"

"What exactly did you mean, slick?"

"I meant we have to work together, Kay! You and me have never lost a hostage! We must be doing something right! If we get panicky then we don't have a chance, don't you see?!" Jay was fast losing his grip. "Remember the riddle, Kay? 'Who will it be, who will you fight' ? Who're you going to fight? Is it gonna be me, Kay? Huh? Is it gonna be me?"

Kay, upon realizing what exactly what he was doing, immediately dropped his gun and grasped Jay's wrist firmly, trying to pull him up. "Give me your other hand!" he shouted. With great effort, Jay grabbed Kay's free hand and clawed for balance on the railing with his feet. Kay pulled him over the railing to safety and they both tumbled to the floor. Both were breathing heavily. Kay looked over at Jay with a look of shock and remorse on his face. He had almost killed his partner. "Jay…"

"Help! Help me!" they both heard a distant voice cry. Kay leapt up.

"That's Elizabeth!" he cried, looking up and catching a glimpse of Elizabeth's face in the crown of the Statue. He pulled a firing cord out of his pocket and aimed for the crown. Once secured, he shot up, followed closely by Jay. Time to gather his wits. Again.