A/N: Hey guys! I'm just going to say that I have read all of your comments on Shadowwalker and the prologue of Marseille, and I will make sure that this story will be better than the one before! Especially the ending; that wasn't my best work, I admit. (And we'll see more of Ellie in this too.) But now to the story.

Chapter One – The Tintin Section

It was almost night on Mockingbird Road.

A figure was rummaging around in a back room, cleaning and replacing every glass for tomorrow's workday. The figure stood again, satisfied with her work, and grabbed a beige coat and a newsboy hat from off the corner table, reappearing in the dimming light of the café. She draped the coat over her shoulders, setting the hat on her head over her platinum blond hair. The brim cast a shadow over her strikingly green eyes.

Ellie Baxter, co-owner of Baxter's Café, took a look out at the many booths and tables that littered the floor of the café. She was surprised to see a man sitting at a corner booth. Not so much a man, she thought, but a boy, probably just around sixteen. He was definitely Asian, with the almond-shaped eyes and the black hair that slightly covered his right eye. He drummed his fingers on the table anxiously.

"Sir, we're closing up," Ellie said to him, standing in front of the booth. "You'll have to come back tomorrow."

"I'm looking for someone," he replied. His accent told Ellie that he was Chinese, but he obviously knew English well.

"Looking for whom, exactly? And why are you looking here?"

"My friend has been here before. He's told me that much."

Ellie sat down across from the Chinese, pulling a notebook from her coat pocket. "Describe him for me, then. If he ever comes back around I'll tell him you're looking for him."

"Alright. He's not so tall," the Chinese started, drumming his fingers on the table once again. "He has ginger hair, growing up longer in the front, and he owns a white fox terrier that may have followed him in…" He stopped speaking when he stopped hearing the scratch of a pencil on paper.

Ellie looked back up from her notes. "Why are you looking for Tintin?"

The Chinese's eyebrows went up. He surely wasn't expecting her to know him immediately. "You know him?"

"I do. As a matter of fact, he was here not too long ago." Ellie shrugged sympathetically. "But he's left for Marseille to follow another story. I'm afraid you've just missed him."

"Hmm…" The Chinese stared down at the table, deep in thought.

"I can tell him you came by. I know the telephone number of the hotel he's staying at in Marseille." She took out the notebook again. "What's your name?"

"Chang Chong-Chen."

Ellie scribbled that down, then stuffed the notebook in her pocket. "I'll ring him soon and give him the message."

"Thank you." Chang stood. "May I ask your name?"

"Ellie Baxter. I kind of run the place."

"Of course. Thank you, Ellie Baxter." He smiled, then started for the door.

Ellie remained where she stood, watching him leave and pulling her cap a little lower over her forehead. "Good evening, Chang Chong-Chen."

-x-

The next morning came with the chatter of magpies and warm sunlight streaming through the windows. Ellie looked around the sitting room in the apartment she and her father lived in. Books about ancient civilizations were on every available table, opened up to random pages. There was even more paper, piled up everywhere – from the bookshelf to spare corners of floor. Through all of the clutter, she spotted a bundle of black-and-white print on the floor, snatching it up and untying the many pages of news. Why does Father always lead the newspaper right in the middle of all of his clutter?

She scanned the articles. The news was the same it always was: glorified politicians' speeches and special conferences that did absolutely nothing. It was on the second page – "the Tintin section," as she called it, since this was where his stories always seemed to go – that she got to the real news. She saw Tintin's profile to the right of the article, but it was not he who had written it.

The headline was PLANE CRASH OUTSIDE REIMS, TWO MISSING. She kept reading.

PARIS – Last night at around midnight, a Belgian plane bound for Marseille crash-landed in a field just outside Reims, running into a set of train tracks and barely missing an oak grove. The plane's engine had flamed out, said the plane's captain and he had been unable to regain control before they hit the ground. Two of the passengers of the flight are missing: a French crewman, Pierre Lefevre, and Belgian reporter Tintin. Other passengers say that the boy reporter had just gotten up from his seat and disappeared into a back room when the plane's engine caught fire. Paris officials have suggested foul play, and detectives are currently looking into the suggestion. Should foul play be discovered, the boy reporter would be at the top of the suspect list.

Ellie stared at the picture of the fiery wreckage that was posted right under the article, shaking her head worriedly. Chang would be very upset…She knew she had to do something. She threw down the newspaper, digging around the apartment for her suitcase. I'm not going to sit here and do nothing.

"Where are you going, Elizabeth?"

Ellie smiled. Her dad was definitely careful of where she went, but he was working right now. She could hear it in his voice. "France. I'm visiting a friend there for a little while. I won't be gone too long."

"…Someone has to run the shop," the voice called back.

"Get Lenny to do it. He's always looking for more pay." Ellie wasn't the only one who worked the café, although it seemed that way sometimes.

"Lenny's gone…gone to Wales to visit family…"

"Lenny's gone?" Ellie echoed. That's odd. He's never said anything about family in Wales… "Well, get someone else to do it. I'm leaving for Paris tomorrow."

"Alright." The conversation ended there.

Ellie shook her head, stuffing more clothing and such into her suitcase. He could sell me off to Koreans if he was in the middle of something.