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"Damn it! Christ, I hate that kid!"

Tom Benson was in his surveillance room, using the same surveillance tools and camera feeds Alan was utilizing, searching frantically for traces of either Eric or Diane. They had made the mistake of issuing a search warning for Eric, but omitting Diane, who would have been easier to locate. It was much too late to alert all of his squads and police officials before she escaped the city. The only hope they had was if she took a plane, which would allow them to encounter her in New York, and possibly find Eric as well. They were clueless as to where he was, since he had supposedly jumped from the plane, and flown somewhere they would probably have never found him. On the other hand, they did know he was heading for New York, thanks to the flight he took. They were scanning frantically across the terminal cameras, in case he would be there, but the crowd was much too dense for the city of 300,000.

Benson was quite surprised with Alan's sudden progress. For once, he had correctly positioned his squads and security, and found a few leads. In the end, he knew it was better for him to have taken the case, in light of the fact he was situated where their wanted man was heading. However, Tom knew he would definitely have been the one demanding the right to move forward with the interrogation; even if he "supposedly" overdid it with Matt Renault. He also knew Parker would not have been able to handle such pressure, and since no one else would be qualified, he was the only option. All consequences aside, he enjoyed manipulating people like he did.

He continued to walk around the room, hands behind his back, glancing occasionally at computer screens along with the data showing up on the widescreen projection in front of the room. He quickly grew tired of it. At the end of his mental endurance, he went over to the phone on the table in the right corner of the room, picked up the wireless phone, and dialed "0". Soon enough, a woman answered on the other side of the line.

"Hello?"

"Yes, could you transfer me to Alan Parker please?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Benson. One moment."

A few dial tones and a small click later, yet another woman answered the phone. "Hello, Mr. Alan Parker's office."

"Hello, could you transfer me to Alan's office phone please?"

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Parker is at a press conference at the moment. He won't be back for another hour and a half. Would you like to leave a message for him?"

He sighed. "No, thank you."

He hung the phone back onto the receiver and watched his team work for a minute. Seeing they had most of it covered, he walked out of the room, down the long corridor to his office. It was big, clean, and had two separate rooms for separate uses. The first room, accessible via the front door, was more of a lobby than a workspace. His secretary was seated in a large desk, organizing Benson's paperwork, his schedule, and any other task the former did not have time to accomplish. Two windows on the north and east sides of the room covered the walls, while a few plants covered the others beside two armless chairs. The next room, which was blocked off by a door requiring a security card, was on the west side of his secretary's room. This room was his office, and largely resembled his secretary's, with a desk in the middle, and a large LCD television hanging from the south-eastern corner. The desk contained a powerful laptop on one edge, and piles of classified documents stacked on the other.

He went and sat down in his chair, where he stared at the pile of documents, shook his head in refusal, and looked toward the remote lying beside his laptop. He picked it up, pressed the power button, which turned the flat-screen TV on, displaying an Ultra High-Definition image. The channel shown was the American syndication of BBC news, the English television network's daily news broadcast. Interestingly, they were displaying Alan Parker's press conference. In sight of this, Benson put down his remote and listened to what they had to say. Parker was on a podium in a large room, surrounded by a few bodyguards, with the media's microphones hanging on separate holders. One of the reporters cut over a few others who were also trying to get a question in, getting Alan's attention.

"CNN would like to know whether you can confirm the rumors stating Eric had an accomplice during the plane flight. Our reports say a few witnesses claim to have found a lady with the dragon prior to the attack. Can you verify this?"

"No, I cannot", Parker responded, knowing that revealing such a detail could spoil a possible surprise attack. "We will be looking into the matter and will announce any findings related to that piece of information, later."

Another few journalists trying to get their questions in crowded the atmosphere with racket. This time, a woman received the opportunity. "Mr. Parker, Americans are petrified over this situation. Many feel very unsafe leaving their homes knowing there is a dragon running around the streets. How were you not able to keep him in Canada?"

Alan seemed to have prepared for such a question as well. In fact, he had answered a similar one in a more recent press conference. "Simply, we underestimated him and his plans, and discovered the way he managed to cross the border undetected. We are currently taking necessary actions in order to make sure this will not repeat itself in the future, including discussions with the Canadian prime minister over border crossing security and enhanced criminal detection on both of our parts. We can assure you this was a onetime deal."

Another question was asked by the same journalist. "Yes, but what measures are you taking to prevent this case from getting any more dangerous than it already is?"

"I have already explained that. We are monitoring him very closely and making sure he does not attempt anything of these proportions ever again. We will be increasing security in many locations we suspect he is heading, and launch more investigations in the areas we know he has been in."

More struggles to get a question answered ensued. Alan pointed a journalist out of the several dozens with his finger, which gave a man the go-ahead. "Hello. We've heard a lot about the first accomplice, Mr. Renault, but recently we have lacked any details of his whereabouts since the murder of Mr. Gerald in Fargo, North Dakota. Could you please explain this?"

"I cannot disclose information on that matter. Next question."

The same man asked another question. "But Mr. Parker, reports suggest that there were SWAT teams set up near his home in Fargo, North Dakota shortly before the murder. We are aware Eric had a flight from Fargo to New York, and it would have made perfect sense to see him or Mr. Renault being affiliated with the murder. Could you please explain this for us?"

Benson knew this was a tight trap for Alan. "Once again, no comment. Next question, please."

Another reporter took a shot. "Mr. Parker, we at the BBC feel it would be in your best interest to disclose the whereabouts of Mr. Renault, with the simple reason being that the protection of the residents of the United States majorly outranks the concern of catching the dragon himself. Furthermore, I would like to ask if--"

Alan looked over to his conference planner to the right of him and signaled to quit. "I'm sorry everyone, no more questions. Thank you all for coming." As he predicted, a large number of reporters began to throw several more questions all at once, even after seeing him walk off of the podium and out of the room. He figured if he would not have gotten any questions other than conspiracy theories about Matt, - whom they had killed - there was no point in proceeding. He knew it would continue that way for the following few days at least.

...

There was a long corridor with many doors waiting for Eric. He knew if it was not for the man's info, he would have been hopeless peering into each room. He quickly found the door with the window at the top. Just to be certain, Eric took a quick peek through it, seeing it was another empty corridor which curved to the left.

He made his way through the door, looking behind him once more just in case, and shut it slowly. He walked through the hallway and made it to the bend, where he swept the area with his eyes for any unwanted visitors. Eric noticed the door at the end of the corridor and sighed in relief - loud voices came from crowds on the other side, which meant he was in the right place after all.

At the door, he opened it slightly, but shut it quickly upon seeing another officer directly in front of it. He had to get rid of him somehow. After a quick brainstorm, he recalled the man who had knocked on the door the first officer was guarding; a simple knock distracted him long enough to allow Eric to sneak past him. He decided to pursue the same tactic, proceeding to hit on the door in front of him. Surely enough, the door opened and the officer popped his head through the narrow crack of the door. Eric quickly grabbed his uniform and pulled him inside the hall, with enough force to make him tumble to the ground behind him. While the victim, dazed, was still unsure over what was going on, Eric went over and punched him point blank into his head, which made it hit the floor with a thud, rendering him unconscious.

He quickly shut the door in order to make sure nobody would have seen anything, and searched the unconscious man for anything useful. He found an ear piece, which was connected to a push-to-talk button underneath his suit. He knew this was most likely the method of communication the officer and his team utilized, and could have been useful for Eric. Another thing he found was a pistol, more specifically a Glock 41. This reminded him of the pistol he and Matt had found at the wind farm near Thunder Bay. He took it as a safety measure; however, he knew it would have been somewhat useless given the fact it was not equipped with a silencer. He also thought of robbing the suit the officer was wearing in order to fit into the crowd, however the man was rather large, which would have made his suit stand out instead of blend in.

He got rid of the unconscious body by positioning him up against the wall, which was his only viable option. He went back to the door and, once again, opened a slight crack in the door, enabling him to peer into the crowd of people. The baggage carousel was spinning, offering the arriving crowd their luggage, allowing them to leave the airport soon after.

Eric knew it would have been a challenge to get anywhere unnoticed. There was security near the bathroom doors, leaning against walls, and blocking entrances. He would have to have stuck to dense crowds and blend in, straying away from security as much as possible, all while trying to find Diane - if she was there that is. He briefly considered turning back and making his way to New York himself, but doing so would be very difficult. With the help of someone like Diane, he knew how he would manage it. All of a sudden, he thought he saw her. He was not sure, but he caught a glimpse of blond hair and a plain t-shirt, as she walked past the carousel without picking up any luggage. It was good enough for him. Another large group of people later came into the terminal searching their luggage - Eric figured this was his best chance.

...

After escaping the media frenzy, Diane did her best to stay low and go straight to the check-in counter to get her ticket to go back home. She thought maybe, just maybe, everything would go away and she would never hear of Eric again, other than the news. She did not know where he could have been, and frankly, she tried her best not to ponder over it. She loved the way he talked, the way he thought, and the way he looked, but he was right. She did not want to get into his mess.

She passed the luggage carousel and walked toward the main entrance lobby, where she could then turn left into the check-in section of the terminal, hopefully grabbing a last-minute flight back home in the following hour. Another plane had landed shortly after hers, so she stayed close to the group of people who had come off of it, supplying her with much needed cover. With the security around for obvious reasons, she struggled to look normal and stay calm at the same time. Suddenly, she felt a hand come up on her left shoulder. She jumped in surprise, and turned around to see none other than Eric.

"Eric?", she whispered, avoiding the same mistake she had made in the plane's stall. "What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

Eric did not look at her, but in front of him in order to look normal. "Keep walking, I'll tell you later. We're getting out of here."

She almost stopped in her tracks. "Eric... I'm going back home. It's okay; I won't be a bother any longer."

"No. Look, I can't explain anything right now. Just follow--"

Suddenly, while they were heading into the main entrance room, Eric's earpiece caught his attention. Instead of the repetitive status reports, he heard progress, which was bad news from him. "This is unit Y-148; I think I've spotted him, over."

Another voice came up. "Are you positive? What's his location, over."

"Uhh, around the main entrance, near the check-in counter. He seems to be heading for the door, over."

A moment of silence, and then another security guard began to talk. Diane could not hear any of this, and did not notice the earpiece in his ear, hence why she wondered why he had ceased talking. "I see him as well, over."

The original guard spoke again. "Requesting further instructions, over."

A loud voice responded to his request. "Shoot him down silently, Y-148. We can't let him get away, over."

"But sir, there are hundreds of civilians around here! With all due respect, this would be a terrible move, over."

Eric raised his right hand and placed it on his left shoulder, pushing his talk button. "He's right you know. You won't catch me, over."