That night, Nightmare went through with the next stage of his plan. It was about 1:00am, and he was tired. "I should so be asleep right now," he thought, rubbing his eyes to get rid of the sleep. Unfortunately, there was no time for sleep tonight. Rather, he was on the rooftop of the NYPD's headquarters, preparing to break in. Suddenly, he heard a sound from below on the ground.
"See ya Charlie," one said.
"Yeah, you too. Don't forget to lock up."
"Perfect timing," Nightmare thought with a faint smile. He fell from his perch feet first onto the guard's back, not hitting him hard enough for a serious injury, but enough to make him unconscious. Nightmare took the key and walked in, locking the door behind him. He picked a random officer's desk and pulled up a chair by the computer.
As soon as he touched the mouse, the screensaver ended, and a screen popped up requiring a login number and password. "I knew I should have learned how to be a hacker," he muttered.
He rummaged through the officer's desk, looking for any card or something that might have the numbers on it. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a pink index card. Pulling it out of the desk, he typed in its numbers. For the login: .pny53737; for the password: tpl0z2. The computer began loading up.
"Bingo."
Once the desktop came up, he clicked on the "Criminal Records' icon. It took a few seconds, but after a short wait, a Word file came up with the criminal record of everyone in New York. Success.
Nightmare moved the tiny cursor down until it came to the name 'Cradock, Joe.' He smiled when he read the most recent charge: "Unarmed assault against and unarmed man. Victim currently unknown. Trial TBA. So, his friends the police had gotten his present after all. "That was fast."
The rest of the files included assault, theft, but mostly drug dealing. He had dealt in cocaine, marijuana, and heroine. Up until this point, he had never actually taken drugs, just dealt in them.
He hit the computer in frustration. This had gotten him nowhere! He already knew that Cradock was a drug dealer and not all-around great guy. This whole scheme, it seemed, had been for nothing. However, he glanced down and saw a piece of information that made his blood run cold: 'Normally associated with Freddy Dock."
Freddy!?! That was impossible! His partner and best friend couldn't hurt a fly! But then again… when he had asked John what he'd asked that punk before he killed himself, had that been fear of his plan being exposed? Had he been making sure that the punk said nothing? As much as it hurt, he had to find out the truth.
He scrolled down to the name of Dock, Freddy. Tears nearly came to his eyes. 'Accused of 1st degree murder, let out after twenty years in prison.' He shut down the computer and left the building.
He had found his lead all right. He only wished he hadn't.