Chapter 9.

The couch creaked as my dad sat down next to me. I saw his smile out of the corner of my eye. I also saw the look of concern and knew the words before they came.

"You should get some rest honey."

"I can't. We only have thirty hours left. In thirty hours Fintan will be dead."

"The Ministry isn't known for keeping their word," his blue eyes studied my face intently, "If we give them what they ask for they'll kill Fintan anyway."

"I know that, alright!" I jumped up, hands waving with frustration, "But what am I supposed to do? Sit around and act like it's not my son's life at stake? You know you'd be doing the same thing if it was me or Knight."

"Of course I would," he answered and sighed deeply. The bags under his eyes reminded me that this was taking a toll on him as well.

I sat back down next to him and stared at the blank television across from us. "I was just going to watch the video that the Ministry sent…do you want to watch it with me? See if we can pick up anything they didn't?"

He looked like he wanted to say no, "I'll watch it once with you Lydia, but then I have to go help Knight. He and Medulla have been working on the court case with the lawyers."

I set up the DVD player. I knew that the court case was our key to defeating the Ministry but I couldn't help feeling miffed that people weren't putting more effort into finding Fintan. The Strongholds were helping the agency check the last few places on their list but they hadn't expected to find anything. Everyone else was involved with sleeping (Quincy, Maj, Shyla and Layla) or rousing support for the upcoming court battle (Mr. Boy). I couldn't really blame them- it was a pretty hopeless situation, and nobody works well without any rest. As if to verify my statement, my dad yawned and looked at his watch.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"About five o'clock. Sun should be coming up soon."

The screen came to life when I pushed the play button. We watched as Fintan appeared onscreen. He was sitting in a chair against a white wall, imprisoned with power-draining handcuffs. The usual sunglasses were missing and the presence of Ministry members was denoted by the barrels of guns showing on either side of the screen. The whole set-up was very bright, as if strong lights were pointed right at Fintan.

"This is an official message from The Ministry of Elements," his voice sounded hoarse, "To the Agency and whoever is concerned with my kidnapping," he blinked several times, "The Ministry issues this ultimatum- unless all evidence pointing to their involvement in criminal acts past and present is delivered to them and all efforts to bring them to court are suspended within 48 hours, they will execute me. Intent to follow-through with this deal can be issued to the Ministry member who will be waiting in Hero Haven at the blue table near the t-shirt stand," he paused and blinked erratically as the light shining on him grew stronger, "Any attempts to arrest this Ministry member will result in my immediate execution."

The screen went blank. My dad got up and stretched his arms.

"I didn't see anything Lydia," he said sadly, "I think the Agency would have picked up anything."

I nodded, but my finger was poised above the play button on the controller.

"You just have to promise me not to try and use your new power."

I nodded again- I'd learned my lesson about changing history the hard way. Still there was the small thought that maybe I could help.

"You can't help Fintan that way."

"Ok dad," I said with a little exasperation and pushed play.

He walked away as the recording started again.

They really powered up the lights, I thought to myself as I winced in empathy. Fintan looked nervous and uncomfortable as he blinked under their brightness. The observation embedded itself in my consciousness as I watched the rest of it. When it was over, I pushed play again- thinking that by the time the sun was shining I would have the whole video memorized. By the fifth replay I was dissecting sentences, trying to fit random words together to form some sort of message…but there wasn't any that I could discern. The lights powered up and Fintan, blinking, finished his message again.

My heart stopped, my fingers trembled violently. Blinking…

"DAD!" I yelled loudly.

000000000

"Ok, so explain this again- in English?" Maj asked, rubbing her eyes. She, Layla and Quincy had just arrived. It was six o'clock in the morning. 29 more hours, I thought absentmindedly.

"It's pretty simple," Quincy answered before I could, "Basically Fintan used Morse code."

"By blinking?" Maj deadpanned.

I nodded, "We took down his blinks, figuring that the longer ones were dashes and the shorter ones were dots. It sounds crazy- I just kept thinking that his blinking seemed a bit out of place."

"So what did the message say?" Layla asked, laying a hand on mine.

"It said: red lantern."

Magenta rolled her eyes, "Wow, he goes to all the trouble of using blinked Morse code and he can't come up with a clearer message than red lantern?!"

I sighed, "They're trying to run the words and the letters through their system. I don't really know what that means, but I'm sure the Agency has ways of checking out things like this."

"I'm sure they do," Layla agreed with a comforting smile that was ruined by Magenta snorting her disbelief.

"So what do we do in the meantime?" Quincy asked, pulling at her light brown braid.

I ruffled my hair and shrugged in response. "Knight and Medulla are still gone- my dad's trying to contact the Strongholds but so far they haven't responded," I looked at Layla with an unasked question on my lips.

She shook her head, "Warren hasn't called."

I nodded.

"All this unspoken romantic crap is going to my head," Magenta growled, "Why doesn't someone just explain what is going on with you two? I mean from what Zach said about your memor-"

I silenced her with a sudden look and was kept from any awkward explanations by the doorbell ringing. It was the Stronghold three complete with outfits. Will gave me an apologetic smile as I let them in. It didn't seem like he was as thrilled about visiting in costume as his parents were.

"So what is the new development?" Steve bellowed with hands on his hips in the perfect Peter Pan pose.

I shut the door behind them and motioned them to the living room, all the while wondering if our neighbors wondered about the strange guests we hosted. Josie and Steve waved to the girls as they joined them. Magenta giggled at Will's costume and the bashful hero took a seat next to Layla.

"We found a clue that Fintan left in the video," I began and explained the rest as best I could.

"Red Lantern…" Steve mused melodramatically.

I wondered if I would begin to act as dramatic as him after a few years in the hero business; seemed that all the comic books and television broadcasts really went to your head.

"We're just waiting for the Agency to get back to us," I added, "I couldn't really think of anything- I tried rearranging the letters, thinking of symbolic meanings, looking up businesses," I sighed heavily, "but I didn't find anything."

Josie smiled sympathetically. Will nodded and got up from his seat as his father continued to pace the floor.

"Red Lantern…" Steve said again, rubbing his chin, "Red Lantern-" he snapped his fingers, "Isn't that the name of the Chinese restaurant that Warren works at?"

"That's the Paper Lantern," several of us said at once.

"Oh. Where is Warren anyway?"

Will squirmed a bit and fiddled with the lamp he was standing near. Layla looked away, Magenta rolled her eyes, Quincy remained nonchalant.

"We haven't been able to get a hold of him," I said.

"Steve," Josie shook her head, trying to ward him off the subject.

"What?" he looked at her and then at Will, "What happened?"

"Warren hasn't been hanging out with us lately," Layla answered with faux cheerfulness, "Nothing big, just hasn't talked to us in a while."

Steve narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything else. I was sure that Josie and Steve knew a lot about the Ministry- they probably knew all about Warren's connections as well. I was surprised the topic wasn't discussed further- but I was also grateful. I didn't know how involved Warren was with Fintan's kidnapping. However, I was sure that if Fintan was to be killed, Warren's uncle would probably pressure Warren to be the one holding the gun. It almost seemed like I would have to choose which to save. If Warren refused to kill Fintan there would be no way that the Ministry would let him leave alive. Worse to think of, was both of them dying- and me without any way to stop it.

We all waited in silence for several minutes.

"I think we should call Zach," Will said suddenly. I looked up to see that he was holding the light bulb from the lamp in his hand.

"Why?" Quincy asked with one eyebrow raised.

Will stepped forward and showed her the light bulb. She handed it over to me after reading the small, printed label on the top.

"Red Lantern Lighting," I read and stood hurriedly, "But why call Zach?"

Will smiled bashfully, "Zach's dad works at a lighting company that has a warehouse in downtown Maxville- who wants to bet it's the same company?"

Layla pulled out her cell phone and dialed Zach's number.

"But why wouldn't the Agency have come up with that by now? I mean we gave them the clue an hour ago."

"Well," Steve began, "The Agency isn't exactly known for sharing information with the superhero world. They usually like to remain a separate entity. They could be scouting out the warehouse already."

I shook my head angrily, "You mean they would have just left us in the dark until we could be of some use?"

Josie nodded, her red hair falling gently in front of her face.

The house phone rang.

I picked it up quickly, "Hello?"

"Ms. Tudor, we have some new information. Our agents have found where Fintan is being held. We believe that you have a friend who's father works at the location- perhaps he could be of some help."

I resisted yelling at the man, but my cheeks reddened with unreleased anger. "Really?" I said through gritted teeth.

"Yes, so we suggest you contact him immediately and then meet us at this location, do you have something to write with?"

"Sure," I answered and waved for Quincy to hand me a pen and a slip of paper, "Alright, go ahead."

AN: All credit for the awesome blinking Morse code idea go to an Adventures in Odyssey episode ;)

I really haven't forgotten about this story, I promise. Hope you all like this chapter! Let me know!