A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and encouragement! I'm always glad to know you're enjoying it. And the action starts... now.

Disclaimer: (insert disclaimer here)


Nancy paid close attention as Peter and Chase outlined the suspicious misfortunes that had befallen them in the past few weeks, including missing computer equipment and a pair of threatening notes. Her notebook felt heavy in her purse; in any other case she would be taking down notes, but right now, not knowing who could be watching, she couldn't afford to look like anything but an enamored girlfriend.

"So, tell us what you've told people about us." Vanessa requested. "We want to have our stories straight..."

"Good idea." Peter nodded. "We tried to keep details to a minimum, but we have been talking about you to other people, you know, to establish a story."

"We started with your names." Chase said. "We thought it'd be easier for you to keep your first names, but we changed your last names so your families wouldn't get contacted by the press or anything, god forbid. So you're Vanessa Blyton and Nancy Laurence. Nessa and Nancy."

"Awesome." Nancy said. "Are you sure you guys haven't done any of this 'cloak-and-dagger' stuff before?" she teased. "Because you're doing everything right."

The boys laughed. "It's mostly just common sense." Peter said. Looking at Nancy, he said. "You're really eager to get started on this, aren't you?"

Nancy flushed. "Yeah, I am. I'm just like that."

"Hey, no, that's great." Chase said. "That's what you guys are here for."

"Not that we're not enjoying your company." Peter added mischievously. "But I think it's time to take you to the lab."


"Nice place you've got here." Nancy commented, looking around at the sheer vastness of the research facility building they had arrived at after a short twenty-minute walk.

"Thanks." Chase said proudly, as if the institute really belonged to him. "Best research facility in the city. In the state!"

"In your opinion." Peter finished teasingly.

They entered the large building together. Nancy noticed a security check in the front of the building requiring both brothers to show their IDs. "Are there other security measures?" she asked Peter after they had successfully passed the guards.

"Sure." Peter replied. He and Nancy had dropped back and were walking behind Vanessa and Chase now. "Each individual office has an alarm lock and a safe, and everyone keeps backup disks in a safe deposit box just in case."

Nancy nodded. This was good, but she had to say that it wasn't great. She didn't trust locks: she knew from experience how often they could be picked.

"We're almost at our office." Peter noted. "It's just around the corner here and down the hall- hey!"

A woman in a lab coat and surgical mask had rudely bumped against Vanessa as she turned the corner, sending Vanessa sprawling to the ground. "Why don't you watch where you're going?" she asked impatiently, pulling the mask down so it hung around her neck.

"Hey, lay off, Kate." Chase said.. "You bumped into her, not the other way around." He extended a hand to help Vanessa up. "Are you okay?"

Vanessa took Chase's hand and nodded, getting up quickly and brushing herself off. "This your new girlfriend?" Kate said with a slight sneer.

"That's right." Chase said. "Kate, meet Vanessa. Nessa, Kate Osbourne, one of my colleagues."

"Pleasure." Vanessa said flatly, wondering why the woman was acting so mean.

Kate turned to Chase. "Sorry, but I was in a bit of a hurry. There was a chloroform spill in my lab." It was clear that her apology was directed at Chase and not Vanessa.

"Kate's researching the use of anesthetics on the human body." Chase explained to Vanessa.

"Oh," Vanessa said politely. "That sounds interesting..." Suddenly she sniffed the air. "Is something burning?"

Peter and Nancy had come up behind the group. "I smell it too." Peter said uneasily. Quickly he took off towards the source of the smell, and Chase, Nancy, Vanessa, and Kate followed. The group stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall. They could hear the crackling of flames inside.

"Our office!" Peter cried, yanking on the door handle and entering the room, followed closely by Chase. A cloud of smoke drifted out, making their eyes water. Blinking the tears out of the way, Peter stared in muted horror. The desks – his and Chase's- were on fire!

Suddenly the fire alarm started clanging. "Bit late for that!" Kate exclaimed. "Come on, we have to get out of here!" she grabbed Chase by the arm and pulled him out of the room. Peter, however, stayed floored to the spot, coughing violently.

"Out of the way!" Nancy shouted. Peter numbly stepped out of the room as she and Chase made their way in armed with fire extinguishers from the hallway. As they aimed the streams of foam at the flames, the fire subsided.

Vanessa stomped out the few remaining embers with her sneakers. Then, without warning, the fire sprinklers went on, drenching Chase, Nancy, and mostly, Vanessa with its freezing spray.

"What is going on here!" Chase yelled angrily, running over the the ruins of his desk and trying to shelter it from the water.

Nancy backed out of the office, out of the shower of freezing water and into Peter. "Seems like your sprinkler system's a little late too." she commented breathlessly.

Peter slid off his suit coat and slipped it around her shoulders in a chivalrous fashion, putting a friendly arm around the shivering girl. "That's not the problem." he groaned as the sprinklers shut off as abruptly as they had started. "It's just that the sprinklers were supposed to be disabled in here. Now anything that wasn't destroyed in the fire has been ruined by the water!" his arm slid away from her shoulders as he joined his brother and Vanessa in the middle of the room.

"I suppose there's no way this could have been an accident..." Vanessa said softly, pushing her dripping hair out of her face.

"Gee, the door was unlocked, the file cabinet was opened, the sprinklers were messed with... what do you think?" Chase snapped at her. Immediately feeling sorry, he apologized, "I didn't mean to yell... it's just-" he gestured helplessly at his trashed office.

Vanessa shook her head forgivingly. "It's okay." she answered, teeth visibly chattering. "I understand." She folded her arms over her chest uncomfortably, casting a glance at Nancy, who was signaling at Kate standing at the door. Nancy obviously didn't want Kate to listen to this conversation.

Peter seemed to pick up on Nancy's signal as well. "Kate, do you think you could take Vanessa somewhere and get her dried off?" he asked.

Kate frowned at the dripping girl, but nodded anyway, making a 'follow-me' motion with her head, then turning on her heel and leading Vanessa out of the room. "Thanks." Nancy whispered to Vanessa on the way out.

"Thank you." Vanessa grinned through blue lips.

"You sure you or Chase don't want to get dried off too?" Kate called back at Nancy.

Nancy hugged Peter's jacket around her. "Vanessa got the worst of it. I'm not that cold, thanks." she lied. The moment Kate and Vanessa were out of earshot, she crossed the room to the desks. "Okay, so what happened here? What has been ruined?"

"Nothing irreplaceable." Peter said in a puzzled tone. "I mean, our computers are toasted, but they're backed-up."

"And whoever started this fire kindly opened our filing cabinet and set our business papers on fire..." Chase said angrily, gesturing to the open filing cabinets dripping with gray, ash-filled water. "They're always locked."

"But we have computer back-ups of those too." Peter added. "They were basically just records of business transactions and bank papers, that sort of thing. And, of course, that business we're going to start."

"Tell me about your business plan." Nancy said.

"Technology is constantly advancing." Chase said with a shrug. "The second a product is released, there are people working to improve on it. We have a pretty big market for our products. Of course, we've made more than enough money already to start a company, but we're using the release of our lie detector as publicity."

"Which is why it needs to go off without a hitch." Peter finished.

"Okay, I get it." Nancy said. "Who else knows that you're planning to announce the start of your own company after the release?"

"Everybody." Peter said. "It's common knowledge. The public knew before the sabotage started."

"Makes sense." Nancy commented. "Perhaps the saboteurs are people who don't want you to start your business. What companies would be most threatened if you started your own?"

Chase considered carefully. "Well, there's lots of competition in the computer world, but I think our biggest worry would be Stoneridge Industries. They currently make the best products on the market. Oh! And Silicaid Corp. They've been trying to hire us."

"Hmm." Nancy said. "That provides both of them with motives for sabotage. Can you think of anyone with a more personal grudge?"

"Bert Rainier." Chase said immediately. "He's a grad student who works in this building too, and he'd been working on a lie detector using similar concepts as Pete and me. But ours turned out to be a lot more efficient... I think he's a little bitter about that."

"What about that Kate Osbourne?" Nancy asked carefully. "She seemed a little... frigid."

"It's possible, I guess." Peter said. "But not for professional reasons. It's just that she used to date Chase, and he kind of broke up with her pretty suddenly a few months back."

"Really?" Nancy said, surprised at this new twist. "Why? If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"Oh, it's fine," Chase said, sighing. "Kate and I had a nice thing going, but she's a really jealous person. The type of person who'd fly off the handle for practically no reason. We started fighting about her jealousy problem a lot, and then I just couldn't take it any more, so I broke it off. I wouldn't say it was 'sudden'."

"Do you think she'd try to sabotage your career to get back at you for dumping her?" Nancy asked.

"I really don't know." Chase replied uneasily. "I mean, I'd like to think not. That seems a little extreme for her. She's not really a bad person."

"Who isn't?" Vanessa asked, coming back into the room. She wore a dry t-shirt, and her hair was no longer dripping, although it was still plenty damp.

"Kate." Chase replied, smiling at her.

"Right." Vanessa said, smiling back. "And speaking of Kate, she called the fire department about the fire and asked if they could bring someone in to determine the cause."

"Good idea." Nancy said.

"Yeah." Vanessa said. "And they're here now, so we have to clear out and give them room to work."

"Cool." Peter said. "It's been a long few hours anyway. It won't hurt to take you girls to get settled in at home. They can always call us with the results."

"I was just about to suggest that." Chase replied. Eying Vanessa, he said, "It's pretty cloudy out there. Isn't it a little chilly to be going outside in just a t-shirt?"

"Says the guy in the sopping-wet business suit." Vanessa laughed. "But yeah, Kate went to rustle me up a jacket to wear."

"Great." Chase said. He led the other three down to the lobby of the building, where they met Kate, who was talking to several firefighters. They stopped talking as the Longs and their "girlfriends" approached.

Kate extended a navy-blue cardigan to Vanessa. "It's not this season's hottest fashion," she said. "But it should keep you from freezing to death before you get home."

"Thanks." Vanessa said, pulling on the sweater. It felt a little damp, but she wasn't complaining!

Nancy and Peter were describing the fire to the firemen, who promised to investigate and let them know of any findings as soon as possible. After saying goodbye to Kate and the firemen, and waving at the security guards on the way out of the building, Peter said to Nancy, "You know, we never did get to show you the lie detector."

Nancy laughed. "You're right... Oh, well, there's always tomorrow."

Up in front of them, Vanessa and Chase walked side-by-side. "Sorry about the drenching." Chase grinned. "Stuff like this doesn't usually happen to me."

"It does to me!" Vanessa assured him, thinking of Joe for the first time in hours. Life with him was never dull...

Without warning, a man popped up from behind one of the dense bushes that lined the path. He was holding a camera, and the flash lit up brightly, nearly blinding Vanessa. Chase shouted something angrily, but Vanessa could barely make out what he was saying. In a matter of seconds, an overwhelming feeling of heaviness came over her and spots swam nauseatingly before her eyes. The phantom photographer snapped picture after picture as Vanessa crumpled to the ground, unconscious.


A/N: Long chapter + Sooner than expected You can pay me in reviews (sorry, no cash or C.O.D.s). Lol. But I'm not kidding. Seriously, review!