"Those two" (Dawnstarshine and I.K.A. Valian) provided the reviews once again. Since neither guessed it, I might as well reveal the in-game reference from last chapter. After certain battles, Genis would ask Lloyd what Lloyd thought of Genis' spell, and Lloyd would call Genis "the greatest sorcerer in Isela." In the last chapter, Lloyd replaced "sorcerer" with "cameraman" in reference to Genis always holding his video camera wherever he goes.

Namco owns Tales of Symphonia. Martin Scorsese owns The Departed. Felix Chong and Siu Fai Mak own Infernal Affairs.


"The mana piece is placed in a stable condition, in a box with relatively inert properties, so basically nothing can happen to it," Sheena reported as the four researchers began their investigation of the souvenir from Undine. And as usual, Lloyd, Colette and Genis were to join them in dissecting this piece of mana, just as soon as Genis could buy new tape for his video camera first.

Frank and Raine could see Mark and Sheena take out a bunch of strange looking machines and position them around the inert box. Plugging in wires and rearranging the lab bench, the machines blinked on with some weird sounds and lights flashing. "I have to admit, I've never seen such machines before," Frank commented.

"A lot of these are relatively new, thanks to a few grants from some very generous people," Mark explained, "Most of these are the latest technology in analyzing mana, and I'm glad we get to use them firsthand."

"While we're on that subject," Raine chimed in, "I couldn't help but notice that Sheena handled those machines very well back in Thoda, when they were set up to disrupt the mana flow of Undine. Were you ever involved in studying or designing those machines before?"

"Ah, well, I'm not that good with them," Sheena shrugged, trying to stay humble, "It's just I realized I had to do something at that time, or else that cave would become our graves. I just pressed a bunch of stuff and lo and behold, the machines shut down."

At this time, Lloyd and company stepped into the lab. Genis finally bought the long sought after tape and popped it into his video camera. "Okay, we're ready to roll," the young half-elf announced, "Just do what you have to do and I'll record it."

The group chuckled as they returned to the lab bench. Mark and Sheena continued to prepare the machines while Frank and Raine took notes at the end of the bench. Genis positioned himself at the other end and zoomed in his camera into the machines. Lloyd and Colette stood a fair distance away, staring a hole into the inert box, but something told Colette that Lloyd was not at all comfortable here. "Lloyd?" she called.

The brown-haired teen turned to look into the concerned face of his long-time friend. "Is something wrong?" Colette asked, "You seem really out of it today."

Lloyd struggled to hide his expression. Realizing that he had no choice, he decided to tell the truth. "It's just that call from my dad really made me wonder. When I called him back, the number was not long distance, meaning he was most likely in the Palmacosta region. That makes me wonder: if he's around the region, why didn't he tell me he was coming, and why didn't he make a call to me earlier?" Lloyd wondered aloud.

"Maybe he's just busy," Colette replied, "After all, you know how many trips he goes on in his job, so maybe he just forgot to call you upon his arrival."

Lloyd winced. "It shouldn't be, because he hasn't gone on any long business trip for four years, and he's pretty responsible when it comes to calls and confirming whether I've arrived yet or not. Makes me wonder if he's hiding something," Lloyd trailed off.

Colette looked at Lloyd like he had two heads. "You want to clarify that? What makes you think he's hiding something?" the blonde questioned.

"It's just he's been acting really awkward recently. Back in June, when I asked him about his case on my mom's death, he called her the 'initial departure'," Lloyd explained, "Both times with the summon spirits, he seemed to be concerned about the dangers of the situations, such as Efreet blowing his top or the hijack at Thoda, but then he'd act like as if nothing happened. I have a strange feeling like he's expecting everything to just fall in place and happen as they should."

The two's thoughts were interrupted as a certain silver-haired individual stepped up to them. "Uh, you two lovebirds might want to pay attention please?" Genis called out his two teenage friends, "We're about to start analyzing the mana piece."

Shaking from their thoughts, Lloyd and Colette approached the lab bench to get a closer look. Genis also moved from his position from the end of the bench towards to centre to get a wider shot. He now stood beside Raine, who could not help but cock an eyebrow at her younger brother. "Lovebirds?" she asked.

Genis shrugged. "Hey, they've known each other forever, right?" Pressing record again, he intently filmed the inert box as a strange silence fell upon the room. Nobody spoke a word while the analysis proceeded, and all that could be heard were the sounds of the machines. Suddenly, a smell comparable to a burnt barbecue wafted up towards the crowd, causing some winces as the sickening odour reached individual noses.

Then, as sudden as appearance of the smells, the inert box began shaking, causing a lot of the equipment to be knocked into each other. Mark and Sheena began grabbing as many moveable fragile objects as possible and took them out of the way. The shaking now turned to rumbling as the lab bench groaned and creaked, threatening to collapse in on itself like a building in an earthquake. All members present in the room held their breaths, anticipating the grand finale.

However, the grand finale seemed to have faded to a small pop, as the machines merely hissed and cracked. After sputtering a couple more times, everything came to a halt, and the box no longer moved. Sheena stepped forward to the box and took a gander at the readings from the machines. After trying to decipher the results, she looked up at the crowd with a smile. "I think we can officially interpret what the mana piece has to say," Sheena announced, "It's like an old film reel, and it can somehow rebroadcast its message into readable format with these machines before us."

The group nodded in amazement. "Well then, let's get to work, shall we?" Raine suggested, "We have a lot to do to understand what this piece of history is all about."


"But above all that, you didn't manage to get a good look at the face? That might not be completely helpful to us," Captain Burton analyzed the night-time chase at the cinema from his major crimes counterpart. Although he was sympathetic to the failed attempt, Burton still remained unconvinced that the clues would be of any help.

"But at least we know what type of information Forcystus may have given to his spy, and we can anticipate how long it'll be before Cruxis makes their next move," the captain of Major Crimes replied, "It should also be about time that you send the expert in communications on the case of the Cruxis mole. How's the investigation so far?"

"Unfortunately, due to her lower ranking in the unit, she doesn't have access to most of the important files and computers," Burton explained, "I merely gave her the files of each officer in the unit and ask her to go through them by hand right now."

As the two captains spoke in the office, said communications expert was busily flipping through a bunch of files held in brown folders. But those were not the profiles of each police officer in the Special Investigations Unit. Rather, they were Cruxis members, given to her by Forcystus to check if any of them matched the officers in the unit. She glanced through each one thoroughly, all the while making notes and mumbling to herself about which members may have had police connections.

As she flipped through the pages, there was one person's profile that intrigued her: Gilbert Irving. Not only was he the only human among the higher ranking members of Cruxis, it also stated that he was a police officer for five years before joining Cruxis. Getting suspicious, she grabbed this file and marched off to the police database computer located in the back room of the unit.

Luckily, there was no one in the room at that time, so the officer had all the time in the world to search for the police mole. Scrolling through the screen, she clicked on a few icons. Glancing nervously over her shoulder, she typed in a couple of passwords to access the database for officers involved in special investigations, including those of the undercover sort. Beads of sweat were beginning to appear on her forehead as she clicked the mouse to proceed into the database.

As she accessed the database, a bar was empty, asking her to type in the name of the officer she was looking for. "Irving, Gilbert," she muttered as her fingers pecked at the letters. Clicking the mouse again, she waited for the computer to load the names. But to her horror, such a name did not exist at all. "Strange," she murmured.

Meanwhile, back at the captain's office, Burton raised another concern. "The problem not only lies within the fact that Cruxis' mole may reveal our operations to Forcystus, but the fact that the mole can also search up our databases and possibly find some clues as to who the mole that the police sent into Cruxis may be."

"Actually, you don't have to worry about that," the captain assured Burton, "I have seen to it that the police mole does not have any electronic records accessible by any unit's computers. The only one that can get through it is the one in Chief Marshall's office, and only he and I know the password to the mole's files. That also means that the chief and I are the only people to know the true identity of the mole," he concluded.

Burton's face became relaxed, relieved to hear that the police's plans were defended quite well. "Let's hope we can keep it that way," Burton said, "I don't mind being kept in the dark about the mole's identity, if it helps to keep our operation intact."

Back at the archives, the communications expert kept on trying the computer, looking through every database possible for not just Gil, but every other Cruxis member that worked with him in the past, in hopes of locating any clue. Yet every time she tried, the computer returned with the same reply: "No results on this database." It was as if the machine was taunting her fruitless efforts. Finally, she conceded and admitted defeat, grabbing Gil's Cruxis file and heading back to her desk.

As she reorganized the files and put the Cruxis profiles away, the two captains walked past her desk on their lunch break. "Hard at work, I see," Burton observed, "Keep it up. It won't be long before the Cruxis mole is flushed out."

The petite female officer smiled as the captains moved past. But deep down, she knew that the following days would become extremely tense, as she tried to hide her identity, and at the same time appear to be making progress on the investigation into the identity of the Cruxis mole in the SIU.


"Okay guys, what news do we have on the Cruxis members remaining from the Palmacosta branch? Let's start listing them off."

Gil and his partners were at a café just on the outskirts of Palmacosta. It was three days since the death of Magnius, and the threesome were ordered by Forcystus to keep an eye out for any Cruxis members from the Palmacosta branch that might have been of suspicion to the group. Knowing that some members might have been from other areas and could be carrying out orders of their respective leaders, nobody that left the building alive could be eliminated as a potential traitor. Above all, there was still the possibility that the police mole escaped as well, and might be on the way to other Cruxis bases.

"The two guys I was observing were remaining relatively low key so far," Dell reported, "I haven't seen anything suspicious from either person. I doubt they're the so-called traitors or the police mole."

"The guys I tracked ended up in police custody," Chatman announced, "Or should I say, they ended up surrendering after the police threatened to bust their place down."

Gil shook his head. "How do we know that they didn't turn themselves in because they were the moles? After all, they could make it look like they were still hard line Cruxis members until the opportune time for them to reveal their secrets to the cops."

Chatman smirked. "I knew you were going to say that, and that's why I evaluated them with my fool-proof strategy in detecting police officers. It's never failed me in the past, and I doubt it failed me this time."

Gil cocked his eyebrow, but knowing better than to question the sometimes loose-cannon Chatman, he turned to describing the people he tracked. "The ones I was after were indeed sent here from Asgard. From what I heard they were to leave town sometime today. So they could be the ones we're looking for, and I'm guessing the police mole may use this opportunity to ditch Palmacosta as well."

They sat there for a while in silence, mulling over all that had been said. It was a fair conclusion to say that the threesome was still nowhere close to the answer that they seek, but at least there was a place to start. Sighing, Gil got up from his chair and pulled out his cell phone. "I think it's only right that we let Forcystus have the last call," he decided. Seeing that his partners did not stop him, he left to make the call.

While Gil was calling, Dell turned to Chatman. "So what's your almighty theory on how to accurately detect whether someone is a cop or not?" he asked, sceptical and curious at the same time.

Chatman had that arrogant smirk return to his face again. "It's simple," he lectured the taller half-elf, "When someone appears to be really concentrated at what they're doing, but occasionally sneak peeks at your direction, then you know they have to be cops."

Dell glanced around the area, and saw relatively few people doing what Chatman had described earlier. "So are you telling me that there aren't any cops here then?"

"What do you expect? Some café in the middle of nowhere isn't exactly an area that a police officer may go, now is it?" Chatman retorted, "You should try areas where there are more people, and check out how many of them are looking your way, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about."

Just as Dell was about to try again, Gil returned and interrupted their trains of thought. "I just got orders from Forcystus, he said that the next most likely targets are probably the ones that are from Asgard, and told us to go there as soon as possible," he reported, "I say we go back to our room, return the rental, and try and get bus tickets to Asgard by tomorrow morning."

Dell seemed intrigued by the new orders, but Chatman was celebrating like mad. "See, I told you, even Forcystus agrees with my theory that the guys in Palmacosta were the cops. Who's the man now, Dell?" he taunted his partner.

Dell could only cover his face as Chatman did a victory dance of some sort. Gil cocked an eyebrow at the theatrical two. "Did I miss something here?" he asked.


"Well, our last night in Palmacosta, how do we want to spend it?" Lloyd asked as he assembled with Colette and Genis.

"We're still going over some of the stuff that the research team managed to learn from that mana piece," Genis answered, "from what I see, a lot of the info seems to be very important in applying it to studying other ruins."

After three days of studying the mana piece, the research team managed to get quite a lot of information from Undine. They learned that the summon spirit of the water elemental was, like all other summon spirits, part of the make-up of the world, with the mana controlled by each spirit serving as a link to keep the world together. Likewise, each summon spirit in Sylvarant had a counterpart in Tethe'alla, and Undine's happened to be Volt, the electric summon spirit. Unfortunately for Genis, there was nothing from the mana that could teach him any new spells, although knowing that the water element was available to him made him feel better.

"I heard Raine was trying to see how these pieces work in the restoration of health and healing cuts and wounds," Lloyd recalled, "any news on that?"

Colette nodded. "Both Dad and Raine plan to study more on that with their research, and that would continue in Asgard, where another possible resting area for summon spirits is present at Balacruf Mausoleum."

Lloyd winced. "A mausoleum? Why would these summon spirits choose to hide in a place for the dead? Royal dead, if I may add, since it's a tomb for former kings, no?"

"Wow Lloyd, you actually remembered an old history lesson. Good for you," Genis complimented him sarcastically, "Anyway, both Dr. Brunel and Dr. Owen are pretty set on exploring there. They're trying to get permission as of we speak, so they may join us in Asgard in the next few days."

Lloyd clacked his tongue and shifted his gaze away from his friends. Although he tried not to show it, but part of him did not want to leave Palmacosta yet, not when the mystery of what his father could possibly be doing in the city still unsolved.

As if she could read his mind, Colette tried to assure her long time friend. "I'm sure everything with regards to your dad is just a misunderstanding," she soothed, "If anything, I think he's busy doing his job and will be going back to Iselia in no time. If anything, you should try to access a computer and email him some of the pictures you took of Undine and Thoda Geyser."

Lloyd smiled. "You're right, maybe I'm just being paranoid. So why don't we enjoy our last night here? Let's do something fun, shall we?"

The next morning, the threesome quickly packed and loaded their bags into the blue MINI Cooper. While Lloyd stacked the back, Colette was busy calling her father. She managed to confirm that the four members of the research team were to go to Asgard with them, and they were leaving by bus later on in the day. "So assuming that we leave now, we should get to Asgard later afternoon, and they'll arrive in the evening," Colette concluded, putting her phone away.

Lloyd nodded. "Do they want any help with their stuff? I can just drop by the bus station and help them out," he offered.

Genie and Colette did not object to that suggestion, as Lloyd drove his vehicle to the bus depot and pulled into a parking spot. He turned off the engine while Colette spoke on her phone with her father. "They should be here in about an hour," she reported, "so I guess we could stick around for a while."

Meanwhile, inside the station, Dell and Chatman waited patiently while Gil went to return the rental car. Coming to the half-elves with bus tickets in hand, he informed them that their bus was to leave in an hour and a half, and they must check in no later than twenty minutes prior to that. The two half-elves nodded and returned to surveying the scene, trying out the new cop-detection technique that Chatman proposed earlier. "Look at this place, with all these people," Chatman marvelled, "I say this is a good area for you beginners to master my technique. It's not often that you get a great chance to practice, you know."

Gil shook his head. "Suit yourselves," he mumbled, pulling out a book from his bag. It was his wife's first novel, and ever since the captain made the reference to it back in the undercover mission, he could not help but read it again. Gil had to admit that his career as an undercover police officer really took its toll on him for the last ten years, as the death of his wife, compounded with raising Lloyd by himself and the constant lies to everyone around him to hide his identity, really gave Gil's confidence a pounding. Yet the place where he had found the most comfort was in his wife's novel, as the characters all showed some traits reflecting his current situation. It was as if his wife foreshadowed his undercover career and dictated each event through some indirect method.

About an hour into the novel, a new group of people entered the bus depot. "I'm glad you guys decided to drop by and help us out, we really need it since we will be bringing some rather sensitive field equipment to Asgard." That voice seemed very familiar to Gil, who lowered his book from his face to find the source of that voice.

"No worries, Raine," another voice said, "Colette, Genis and I aren't in a hurry to get to Asgard anyway." Gil glanced at the doorway and saw Raine arriving with Lloyd, followed closely by Frank, Colette, Genis, and two others he did not recognize.

The former police officer cursed under his breath. "I can't let those guys know what I'm doing here, it'd ruin everything," he muttered to himself. Putting away his book, he stepped away from the bench and marched towards the bathroom. On the way, he discretely kept his eyes on Lloyd, who was helping the silver-haired half-elf with some bags and boxes. That'll keep him busy for a while, Gil thought.

Instead of entering the bathroom, Gil marched to the pay phone and picked it up. Pretending he was in a serious conversation, he tried to hide his face behind the flap of the phone area, all the while sneaking peaks over it to get Lloyd and Raine's positions. His actions resembled those of trench warfare, although it was not nearly as violent, but definitely just as tense and suspenseful.

"I'll take it from here, Lloyd," Gil heard Raine tell his son, "I have to check if Frank got the bus tickets yet." Glancing at his watch, he saw that it was almost time for him to check his group into the bus terminal as well. Doing a virtual map in his head, he tried to locate a perfect route to the check-in terminal while avoiding the research team at the ticket purchase area.

But just as Gil was to put the phone back, Lloyd suddenly changed directions, and began marching towards him. "Just give me a minute, Colette," he called to the blonde, "I have to use the bathroom first."

Sensing the danger, Gil turned his head back to the phone and pulled out a pen, pretending to write down the phone number. "Can you say that again, I can't hear you very well," Gil shouted into the phone just as Lloyd moved past him. Right when Lloyd entered the bathroom, Gil slapped the phone down and hustled out to the check-in centre.

Luckily, the line there was quite short, and Gil managed to get their seats and tickets administered quickly. Clutching the tickets, he gave them back to Dell and Chatman, all the while trying to keep his back to the research team to ensure that he was not seen. Dell merely pocketed the ticket, but as Chatman grabbed his ticket, he said something quite shocking. "You're a cop, right Gil?" he asked.

"I'm…I'm sorry?" Gil stuttered, caught completely off guard.

"Everything you did earlier tells me you're a cop," Chatman continued, "When you were going to the bathroom, you were looking around quite a lot. And when you were at the tickets area just then, you were trying to spy on someone. Even when you were walking back, it seemed like you were hiding something. In my theory, all those actions constitute an undercover cop."

Dell waved a hand. "Ignore that, he's just trying out his weird cop-detection technique, that's all. I doubt it works." Picking up his bags, he pointed at the gate, "I suggest we get moving, just to beat the rush of people going in later on." He motioned to Gil and Chatman to pick up their bags and start filing into the gate. Dell would go through first, followed closely by Chatman, with Gil bringing up the rear.

Just as Gil was about to go through the gate, Raine made a turn to the bathroom, and Lloyd was on his way back out. Both people happened to be just adjacent to Gil as the former police officer was getting his ticket checked, and both happened to catch a glimpse of the side of Gil's face. "Is that my dad going through that line?" Lloyd wondered aloud, craning his neck to see better.

Raine was also aware of the situation as she turned her head to watch the tall, dark-haired figure march into the terminal. "Yeah, now that you mention it, that person does look a lot like your father," she agreed with Lloyd.

"So that confirms my suspicions," Lloyd said affirmatively, "My dad was here in the Palmacosta region the entire time. So why was he hiding?"

Raine looked at Lloyd with scepticism, prompting Lloyd to explain the phone call situation as well as the strange behaviour to her. Raine listened with some interest, but was hesitant to jump to a conclusion. "I don't think it's right for you to suspect your dad of purposely misleading you, but I do wonder why he didn't call you when he got to Palmacosta, and the reasoning behind him using such uncommon language," she pointed out, "But wherever he's going, I don't think we can track him, unless it's Asgard, of course."

Lloyd led Raine to the terminal where he thought he saw Gil walk through. One look at the sign above it confirmed the point of contention: indeed, the bus being boarded right now had Asgard as the destination. "You know, before my dad took this new job, he used to be a police officer, that means he was quite a sleuth," Lloyd told Raine, "But now, it looks like I may have to do some sleuthing of my own."

As Lloyd was about to march off, he turned to Raine one last time before they left for Asgard. "You'll help me keep this a secret, right?" Lloyd asked in a hopeful manner.

After pondering it over for a minute, Raine agreed. "I do wish to get to the bottom of this. Knowing that your father is a family friend, I am quite worried about this, so I'll keep it a secret for you. In fact, I'll even help you."

Lloyd smiled and nodded, relieved to hear that he had a reliable ally in this quest. Thanking the female half-elf, he fetched Colette and Genis from the research team, who were finished unloading all their sensitive equipment. The threesome waved goodbye to the researchers and left the bus depot, hopping back into Lloyd's MINI Cooper and going back on the highway again, destination Asgard.


Shortly after Lloyd's MINI Cooper left the bus depot, the bus Gil and his partners were on also pulled out of the station. Gil was seated on the left side of the bus, with an empty seat beside him, while Dell and Chatman were at the same row, but on the right. "So Gil," Chatman began, "You've worked in Asgard before. What's their leader like?"

Gil turned to face the half-elf. "Kvar was quite a demanding character, but he doesn't try to get your loyalty in the way that Magnius does, which was through intimidation," Gil explained, "Rather, he's willing to do it through some very sick and twisted techniques, which ultimately shows his extreme cruelty towards those disloyal to him."

Dell and Chatman nodded in silence. Realizing that Kvar might be an even bigger obstacle than Magnius, it would be difficult for them to accomplish their mission. "So how did you manage to gain his trust?" Dell asked, "It's not like someone that Forcystus sent in was going to be welcomed with open arms, especially a human."

Gil smiled. "It wasn't easy, but I had to really get through to showing the guy that I'm useful to him, and that means accomplishing missions at a success rate that he's never seen before. You see, back with Magnius, I could manipulate him into trusting me, since the great oaf is probably not very good at concealing his motives. I told him that I used to work in the police force and I know how the police operate, and that I could advice him on his missions so that he could gain the upper hand."

"See? Maybe that's why he still acts like a cop, it's because the police instinct never left him in the first place. Your police detection technique doesn't work if the guy was a cop to begin with, so Gil's not a cop, he just used to be one." Dell took a shot at Chatman, who only shrugged and avoided eye contact.

"But since we're here for a different purpose, let's start discussing strategy. We know that Kvar is much more calculating than Magnius, and with that little incident at the geyser being broadcasted over the world, he's going to be much more careful. Obviously, our technique with Magnius, which was to try and use Forcystus' orders on him, will not work as well here. We must find another weakness in Kvar's group that we can exploit in order to get the job done," Gil firmly insisted.

"We know that Magnius was partially caught off guard when the Coast Guard appeared during his operation and put his plans to the fire, so even if Kvar had men and technology that can be used on such missions, he's unlikely to act," Dell winced, "It seems like he's pretty impermeable right now, and with the amount of backroom deals and rivalry going on, I doubt he'd let us investigate in fear of losing the advantage to Forcystus in the Cruxis hierarchy,"

At this time, the always unpredictable Chatman spoke up. "What if we cause some trouble from within?" he suggested, "I say we stir up some strife, and divert Kvar's attention from us. That way, his defences are dropped, and we can go in for the kill."

"And I suppose you're the one to cause this strife?" Gil retorted, causing Chatman to go silent, "I don't think we should worry too much about it right now. I'm sure once we analyze the situation at Asgard, we'll think of something." With that, he adjourned the meeting and leaned back against his seat, closing his eyes. It was already a tiring few days in Palmacosta, and the days following would be even more challenging.


Gil's two half-elf partners seem to be serving as some comic relief there, although the cop-detection skill may come in handy in later chapters. More exciting action follows, so keep reading and reviewing!