Death Ray

"How would the evil cats even power a giant death ray?" Asked Ryan.

"We have literal libraries full of books, I'm sure they can manage." I grumbled back.

I scribbled on a piece of paper,

1. Giant battery

2. Take over the electrical grid

3. Do I even need a three? There are so many ways!

A few days until the beam is unveiled, but they will be shipping it to its new home shortly, fantastic, please someone crash the plane its on. Should I crash a plane? That does seem morally wrong, I'm trying to be proper remember? I mentally chided myself. Surely I can save the planet some other way?

Ryan was right about the power source though, it would be hard not to notice something draining that much power.

"Ryan, pull up the map of the electrical grid." I said.

A few moments later a large map with usage rates from the city's electric department was on our screen.

"Can we access neighboring cities as well?" Noah added.

A moment later the map grew.

I glanced at it. No something still felt off, like we were being stalked. I hate this type of feeling. A shudder ran down my back but I didn't turn around or try to take apart the place again.

Something knew about us. Which means, they won't target whatever we put on the screen.....maybe, I'm still not convinced I haven't gone insane either.

I studied the screen and the electrical usage numbers that were showing up. What could be used that we weren't taking into account?

East district? No, west? also no. My eyes roved the screen until it stopped at a farm on the outskirts between the two biggest cities. Also no, that whole area had a solar farm and all were a doomsday cult. I glanced at Stripe, maybe they weren't all that crazy. A nice bunker sounds great right now. 

Wait.

My eyes shot back to the screen, solar farm.

Off the main grid, check.

Out of prying eyes, also check.

Full of large batteries, extra large check.

What death ray wouldn't love a extra large battery pack, the thing is basically portable.

I was about to open my mouth but then I shut it again. Let's test a little theory shall we?

"Where do you think they will target?" Stripe/Noah glanced at me and Kyle.

"Not sure." I replied, "Maybe the east side? There are less cameras."

"No." Kyle added, "None of these feel right, if I wanted to not be traced, I wouldn't target a city grid unless it was only small portions from lots of areas. They might already be collecting energy into, I don't know a hundred car batteries or something."

There was a knock at the door and I glanced behind us.

We all stared at it for a second then Kyle called out, "Come in."

No one entered and I rose to my feet and walked to the door.

"Room is sound proof." I added as I opened the door.

A small agent I recognized from a recent training group handed me a letter.

"That's for him." He pointed to Stripe then ran off looking terrified.

"Hey, I'm finally popular! Do you think it's from a girl?" Noah asked.

"Don't be stupid." Kyle flicked his fur. "It's probably laced with poison or something. Cody be careful even holding that thing."

I set it on the table and carefully examined it. No powder, no wires, nothing weird.

I ripped it open as the other flinched. Nothing exploded, only a small piece of paper was it in containing one word, and an emoji, a very, very terrifying emoji.

<3 Pride

I felt unease come back in mass. What was that cat up to now? Delivering a letter? Was he the terrified guy and good at acting? I glanced over at the empty doorway. Probably not, if anything the guy got pinned down by a lion in some alleyway. He might even be dead by morning.

Suddenly I stood up. "I'm heading out." I stepped out toward the door and into the hall way before walking a slight ways. Then I pulled up the camera feed and shut them all too a minute loop setting. I ran back in and over to a ceiling vent and ripped it free. There was a small mic on a cord.

The others were staring at me as I smashed the device. I frowned then ran back out and down the hall matching up with where I was before as I let the cameras roll again and continued my walk out of the building. But instead of leaving I entered my personal office and started pulling up camera feeds looking for anything unusual.

Something felt off about the room earlier, which meant something was moved. Who installed the mic? I ran through the feeds, there!

I froze and started moving pane by pane as a shadow entered the room and left it again three minutes later. I followed his trail into and back out of the building the cover slipped from his face in only small brief second. I scowled he was turned away from the camera when it happened.

I flicked to a different camera from across the lobby and zoomed in before trying to enhance the resolution of the image.

"Mason?" I muttered in surprise.

It was the guy Dart had picked to use as his human.

"But he doesn't work here?" I swapped to the key card codes.

Who's badge had he swiped to get in? I flicked through the records. A good thing he chose a time few other people were in, otherwise this would have taken ages to match up.

"Leland 'Leo' Center" I muttered, I knew him all to well and suddenly a piece of the puzzle clicked into place.

Normally no one could access these feeds, they were blocked except for the head of security and myself of course. Of course he wouldn't worry much about Stripe having access.

The dumb agent cadet who was always challenging me to duels.

"Seriously? You're him?" I stared at the screen.

Heck even his nickname Leo was fitting for the lion.