Marc looked up from his papers as Jake and Chance came in from the back of the shop. "Um, Jake, your sister called."

Jake nodded. "I kinda figured she might."

Confused, Marc asked, "How's that?" Jake explained, which led Marc's face to break out in a huge grin. "Well, all right!" Marc high-fived a not-entirely-enthusiastic Jake. "But...you don't seem all that excited about it."

Jake started to say something, then simply shook his head and sat down. He tried again. "I'm not entirely sure I did the right thing."

"Hm. If it means anything, I think you did the right thing. I don't know Kate all that well, but...I dunno. It seems to me like she deserves to know."

Jake smiled back, a bit weakly. "You're probably right. Still, it means I got a lot of explaining to do." He reached over and dialed the phone.

Marc jerked his thumb to the door, and said, "You want me to...?" but Jake held up his hand and shook his head.

Suddenly, Jake sat up straighter. "Kate? Jake. Look, I'm sorry about...all that today...no, listen, I'd...it's something I'd rather not talk about over the phone. Can you get up here to the City anytime soon?...Tomorrow is cool, sure, but you don't have to rush or anything...no, I guess not. Lunch then?...All right. See you then. Love ya." He hung up the phone, then put his head down on the receiver. "How am I gonna explain this all to her?" Jake shook his head to clear it. "Well, I got a whole day to worry about it."

"How was Selinda?" asked Marc.

"The doctor was nice enough...told me everything I wanted to know."

"Anything you can use?"

"Probably not." Jake nodded at the stacks of files. "Any progress here?"

Marc nodded. "Actually, yeah. Chance?" Chance drew a chair up next to Jake, across from Marc. "OK, first off - whoever the leader of this...this grand unification theory of Jake's is..."

"Dark Kat," said Jake and Chance at the same time.

Stopping, Marc looked up. "You both seem awfully sure."

Chance shrugged. "Who else could it be?"

Marc thought, then said, "Well, if it's Dark Kat, why does he sometimes take you on himself, and other times he sends someone else to do his dirty work?"

"Heck, I dunno," said Chance. "Maybe he gets lazy. Does it matter?"

Marc shrugged. "Well, I guess it doesn't really. Hopefully,we'll figure it out soon." He paused, then looked backat the map on his desk. "OK, those lizards that were down in that development. Think about that area for a sec." He paused, tapping his pencil on the desk. "What else is down there?"

Jake frowned. "The new stadium?"

"Right. What else?"

Chance jumped in. "They're gonna be putting in those outlets stores down that way soon."

"And the old horse track's down there," added Jake.

Chance added, "And the nuclear power plant." He stopped and turned to face Jake, who had turned to face him.

Marc was smiling, bobbing his head. "Looks like you're thinking the same way I am. Did the doctor say there might be some sort of radioactive component to those lizards?"

Jake nodded. "Yeah, she said as far asshe knew, all mutagens were radioactive. You're thinking that that's where Dr Viper's getting his radioactive stuff?"

"Well, it's not something you can order from a catalog or anything."

"So where does that leave us?"

"In good shape. Looky here." Marc pointed to a map he had spread out on the desk. "Here's the MegaKatCity nuclear plant, and here's where I found the lizards." He tapped the two locations with his pen. "Now, my guess is you'll find...well, whatever it is you're going to find in this area here." He drew a rough oval around the two locations.

"Unless someone dropped those lizards there," interjected Chance.

"Possible, but it's not really likely," said Jake. "Why would anyone do that? I say you and I do a flyby in that area and see if we can't nose something up."

"Roger."

Turning back to Marc, Jake asked, "You got anything else?"

"Mmm, yeah, there was one more thing here I was curious about." Marc reached behind him for another file. "I've been digging through some other sleazoids you two have taken on. So tell me about this...Hard Drive character."

Chance smirked. "That freak. He pretty much turned most of the city against us for a time."

"Yeah, I seem to remember all that. What's he like?" asked Marc.

"The perfect bully. Real cocky as long as he had that surge coat on, but shut that stuff down and Boom! he was a spineless little dweeb."

Marc shuffled through some newspaper clippings. "Last thing I have on him says you landed him in jail."

"Yeah, for life, with any luck," Jake mused.

Nodding, Marc glanced down at the paper, then looked closer. "Wait a sec here. It says here that Dark Kat was tossed in as well."

Chance smiled. "Oh, he was...like, for four days."

Also smiling, Jake leaned back. "I slept really good those four nights."

"He broke out, huh?"

"Yep - the Creeplings dug him out." Chance shook his head, and added, "We warned them that might happen, but they don't listen too good down there."

"But this Hard Drive guy is still there?"

"Oh, yeah. His real name's Vic. Vic Something. He's a little...not right...up here." Chance tapped his forehead. "He was a bit too close to some of those explosions, I think."

"Or a computer virus got to him," mused Jake.

"Well," suggested Marc. "Since you at least know where he is, maybe he'd be willing to talk."

Jake frowned. "He didn't seem much interested in talking when they sentenced him."

"Maybe not. But maybe you didn't know what questions to ask."

Tapping his fingers on the desk, Jake asked, "And what questions would those be?"

"Did you ask him where their base of operations was?"

Jake thought for a minute with a confused look on his face. "No, actually, we didn't. Now why the heck didn't we do that?"

Chance suggested, "'Cause we was so happy that the city liked us again?"

"That was probably it."

"So maybe this Vic guy will talk..."

"...in exchange for a reduced sentence." Jake snapped his fingers. "You know, you might just have something there. He was working with DarkKat for a while, and so maybe he saw how the whole setup worked. And while we're at it, we'll see if we can pump him for some more info on DarkKat."

"Cool. Can you get in to see him?"

Chance growled, "We'd better. After all, aren't we the ones that put him there?"

T-Bone and Razor entered the visiting room. "You've got fifteen minutes," said the guard. They nodded, then watched the guard slam the door shut.

Vic sat on the floor in the corner, trembling. T-Bone and Razor exchanged glances. Obviously, this wasn't going to be a simple cut-and-dry interrigation. Walking up next to him, T-Bone leaned down and bared his teeth.

"Hi-ya," T-Bone boomed. "Remember us?"

Vic lifted his arms over his head. "Don't you touch me," he blurted out, then started babbling. "Don't hurt me - I know my rights - don't you touch me..."

"Oh, for Pete's sake..." T-Bone picked him up (which made Vic yelp) by the arm and dragged him over to a chair. He then sat him down, then sat down in a chair next to him. "Look, we ain't here to rough you up. We just got some questions for ya."

Vic sat at the table, looking downards, still trembling slightly.

Razor leaned over the table towards Vic. "Listen, you were in league with Dark Kat."

Vic began rocking himself back and forth, and babbled out an answer. "Not my idea. No, it weren't my idea. He thought of it. I didn't wanna do it..."

T-Bone got in Vic's face. "Oh, you didn't want to, huh? I seem to remember you rather enjoying yourself in the TurboKat."

Vic shook his head vigorously. "No, no, no, no, no. All his idea. I just wanted to try the things out, make a little money, have some fun..."

Remembering what they went through, T-Bone growled. "Fun, huh? How'd you like it if we decided to have a little fun here?"

Vic threw his arms over his head again. "No, no, no, no," he sobbed.

Razor said, "Calm down, T-Bone. We're not going to get anywhere like that." He turned back to the wreck of a kat before him. "Listen, Vic, maybe you can tell us something about Dark Kat."

Vic set his lip. "Uh-uh. I can't. I can't."

T-Bone sat down and leaned close to Vic, who shrunk away. "What if it meant you might get out of here a bit early?"

For the first time, Vic seemed to grow almost lucid. "Out? Get me out of here?"

"Yep." Tossing his foot on the table, T-Bone leaned back and grinned. "How's jail treating you, bud? Makin' a lot of friends?"

Lip quivering, Vic didn't respond at first. When he did, he simply repeated, "Get me out of here?"

"Well, not today, of course. But maybe we can talk the court into lettin' you out a bit early - on good behavior, co-operating with the state, you know?"

"You feel like talking?" asked Razor. Vic hung his head, then nodded. "Good. First off, that cave where we captured you two. That wasn't

DarkKat's base, was it?"

"Oh, no," said Vic. "We just worked there. Not a base really. Just some equipment, some computers. He set up some computers for me. I like computers."

"Do you know where his actual base is?"

"His base? His base..." Vic grasped his head with both hands. "His base? His base? I don't remember...don't remember..." Suddenly, he

looked up, his eyes large. "I do! I do remember! It was...away from the city!"

T-Bone rolled his eyes, but Razor pressed on. "OK, good. Do you remember where?"

"Um...his base. His base. It was...south. South of the city. It was..." Again Vic put his hands to his head. "His base...it was..." Suddenly he banged his head down on the table, hard. "Don't remember...don't remember!"

"Hold on there. Easy. Was his base, by any chance, near that nuclear power plant?"

"Don't know, don't remember...NO!" He looked up. "No! Yes! It was near the power plant. I went through the power plant! When I went there, with my coat, I went through the power plant! I had to be careful - very powerful, could've killed me. But I made it through OK."

T-Bone clicked his tongue. "One point for the black kat."

Razor nodded, then turned back to Vic. "All right, then. You worked with Dark Kat to..."

"No, no. I didn't work with him. He just ordered me around. Told me what to do."

"OK, fine," said Razor, deciding to let him have his way with that. "So he was in charge."

"Yeah, yeah. He said, you know, do this, wear your suit, take the plane. I did. It was a good idea. But it didn't work. And now I'm in jail."

T-Bone and Razor exchanged glances. There didn't seem to be any more information to get from him. Razor stood up and said, "Well, thanks for your help here. We'll talk to the courts and see if we can get them to let you out a bit early - if you're on your best behavior."

"Oh, yes, yes," said Vic, laying his head down on the table. "I shouldn't have taken orders from Dark Kat. That wasn't right. I didn't like taking orders from Dark Kat."

T-Bone had just stepped into the doorway when Razor heard Vic mumble quietly, "...and the other guy. I didn't like him, either."