Blanka assisted Nigel with gathering ice and applying it to his shoulder. The ordeal at the windowless tower and the trauma of getting shot had taken a lot out of Nigel. He took one of the pills the medic provided.

Only a few left. I’ll need to get more if I want to keep the pain at bay.

Nigel was snapped out of these thoughts by an incessant knocking on the door. When Nigel didn’t get up, the knocking turned into banging.

“Just wait, I’ll be right there,” Nigel scoffed.

“No, rest, I’ll get rid of them,” Blanka said.

“Is Nigel here?”

Nigel recognized the voice of his father.

“I think you should leave and let Nigel rest,” Blanka replied.

“Rest? From what? Too much sex?” Rick said as he barged in.

Rick paused when he noticed his son.

“What do you want?” Nigel asked.

“You’re hurt!”

“Yeah, that happens when you get shot.”

The blood drained from his father’s face. He started pacing; Nigel knew from experience he only did that when he was worried about something. He remembered how much his father had paced when Ralphie had been born.

“I’ll come back—”

“What is it now, Rick?” Nigel said.

“I . . . need your help, Nige. Something bad has happened.”

“Bad? Like getting shot?”

“She’s gone!”

A pang of fear gripped Nigel. “Who is?”

“Nozomi. Dr. Ash thinks she’s been captured.”

I thought he was talking about Jet for a moment.

“I need your help to locate her,” Rick said in an urgent tone.

“She hurt Jet, why should I help her?” Nigel asked.

Rick paused for a moment.

“She’s the only one who knows where Jet is.”

He’s probably lying, but maybe if I help him, he will help me get Jet back.

“I’ll do it on one condition. You take me to see Jet.”

“That isn’t true,” Blanka said as she applied ice to Nigel’s shoulder.

Rick looked unsure of himself. “Yeah,” he said, “but we need to get Nozomi back first.”

“Where is Jet?” Nigel demanded.

“Jet is at a safe location—only Madam knows,” Blanka said.

“And when were you going to tell me that?”

“Tonight,” Blanka replied. “It all happened fast—I was going to tell you, I promise.”

Rick looked like a wild animal about to chew off his arm.

“She is well taken care of. She is being treated very well by a doctor and his wife,” Blanka said.

“I’m sorry for deceiving you, son, but I was afraid you wouldn’t help . . .” Rick trailed off.

No one said anything for a long, tense moment.

“Can you give me any clues to her last known location?” Nigel said.

Rick looked relieved. “According to Dr. Ash, she was going to meet someone near Sakura Park a couple of days ago,” he said.

Nigel motioned for his laptop, and Rick handed it to him. Moments later, he pulled up a map of Sakura Park. “This area is huge,” he said. “Did you get any other clues?

Rick seemed to be straining to remember something.

“Oh—she did say something about a lab being close to an abandoned train station—near 91st street.”

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“Those areas are several blocks apart. Let me see what I can find.”

“Okay, I’m going back to New York tonight.”

“What? Why? Does the cyborg mean that much to you?

“I gave Dr. Ash my word,” Rick said.

Yeah, you care more about a murderous cyborg than your real family, Nigel thought bitterly.

“Well, how do I contact you? The cell phone Blanka gave me doesn’t have a SIM chip.”

“Can’t you message me?”

“No, this phone is locked down. It only contains the authenticator apps I need to get into certain hacking sites. I can’t use any conferencing apps anyway, since Mr. Chen has all of those ports blocked.”

“Wait, I’ll be right back,” Rick said as he left.

Nigel busied himself by doing a little research about the abandoned train station. In 1959, the station had been closed because there were two other stations five blocks on either side of the station.

I guess people didn’t want to walk as far for the train back then.

Nigel found all sorts of other interesting information about the abandoned station. Other than the graffiti, the station appeared to be in good shape. Nigel found some videos online of the station; they showed much of the same information he’d found from pictures online, with one notable difference. Whoever had taken the video had run down the tracks as he filmed. He noticed a maintenance entrance. The tracks were well lit, but the side tunnels appeared to be pitch-black.

I wonder what surveillance footage is available.

“I’m going to get you some more ice,” Blanka said as she left him to work.

Nigel checked the street cams around the park and the surface area of the abandoned station and saw nothing of interest. He researched for another fifteen minutes. He was fascinated with the hidden crevices he was finding. He didn’t even have to hack anything. The information was readily available online.

The door opened, and Nigel watched Blanka enter with a bag of ice, and something else.

“Your father asked me to give you this. He said it’s only to be used in an emergency,” Blanka said as she handed Nigel a new cell phone.

“Thank you,” Nigel said.

Instead of answering, Blanka gave him a kiss. “I hope you find her. You are a good person, Nigel, and she’s lucky to have you.”

Nigel was speechless. Both said nothing for a long moment.

“I’ve got to go,” Blanka said.

Nigel stood there for a long time.

I’m going to find you, Jet, I promise.

Nigel put the cell phone behind the laptop where he could retrieve it easily, then continued his reconnaissance. He performed a search of wireless cameras in the immediate area of Sakura Park using an online scanning tool called ShowALLD. He was able to log in to many of these cameras using the default credentials he got from another surface web information site.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people keep their devices unsecured. They buy them, connect them to Wi-Fi, then stop any attempts at security.

He viewed the live camera footage with views into Sakura Park. He pulled up an online map and made several correlations. He scribbled on some notecards he found in the desk drawer.

Time to get some archival footage.

He couldn’t find any archival footage cache attached to any of the cameras, since they were consumer-based models. He accessed the metadata on a few random cameras and, after following the directions on the manufacturers’ websites, he was able to log in to the archived video footage using the serial number on the cameras and a password supplied by the owner. After a few more web searches Nigel discovered that when someone bought one of these cameras and created a login, the archived video footage could be accessed from that login—or the camera’s serial number—using the same password.

I don’t have the time to crack any passwords. I bet I could guess these, though. I’ll try a few before using my cracking program.

Nigel tried a few passwords based on Broadway plays and sports teams. At first he was unsuccessful, but he found a camera that faced an area where kids played baseball and tried a few sports passwords. He was in on the third attempt.

Who uses a password of metswon2015, anyway?

Nigel was mildly curious if the sports team had a major win that year, but decided he didn’t care enough about it, and accessed the footage. He found that the camera had an excellent zoomed-in view of the park. The angle covered the main play area of the park, he could clearly see anyone walking by. He scrubbed the video footage until he found someone resembling Nozomi’s appearance. She had been walking and looking at one person. He couldn’t see who it was, but he was able to see which direction she went. He used a similar process to access other web cameras in the area. He caught additional glimpses of the person that looked like Nozomi. The best shot came from a camera placed in front of a parrot’s cage with a view of the street.

I guess someone wanted to look at their bird while they were at work!

Nigel scrubbed the video footage until he got to the approximate time when Nozomi had taken her stroll. He stopped the footage when he made an identification. Nigel continued this process for what seemed like hours until he had an approximate map of where Nozomi seemed to go. He hit a snag when Nozomi appeared to walk into an alleyway. He pulled an aerial satellite view of the neighborhood and could determine the alley was a dead end.

Two hours later

Nigel awoke to a buzzing noise.

Did I fall asleep at the computer? The buzzing is coming from the direction of the computer.

His shoulder was on fire. He tried to get a pill out of the bottle, but the remaining ones spilled on the floor. Nigel finally swallowed a pill. The buzzing noise resumed.

Nigel retrieved the phone that rested on the computer and answered.

“Nige,” Rick said, “I’m at Sakura Park. Can you lead me to the area where Nozomi might be?”

Nigel rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

“Yeah, give me a sec. What time is it, anyway?”

“It’s 4:38 a.m.”

Nigel examined his hand-drawn maps and led his father to the dead-end alleyway.

“Are you sure this is where she went?” Rick asked.

“I’m positive. She must have entered a door or something.”

“I’m not finding any exit from the alley—wait—it can’t be?”

“What are you talking about?” Nigel asked.

“I see a utility hole cover, but that’s it. I can’t see how she could have opened it.”

“She’s a cyborg and has the strength of at least two or three men. She backhanded me and flung me into the wall, and I was out cold for a while. Opening a utility hole should be easy.”

“Let me look for a crowbar. I’ll get back to you once I’ve checked it out. It leads to the sewers or something.”

“Don’t let the alligators bite.”

“What?” Rick asked in a confused voice.

“Nothing, it was a poor joke. I’m going back to sleep.”

“Thanks, Nige. I know Nozomi isn’t your favorite person, but she’s important to me.”

Is my dad falling for a cyborg?

Nigel shuddered at the thought.