Author's Notes: Yes, I know... another long wait. And I hate to dissapoint anyone following this, but this "chapter" is more of a two parter- the action isn't really finished until the next installment as I want to keep chapter lengths somewhat reasonable. Oh well, this is the best I can do. On another note, a lot is going on in this chapter. Most of it should be explained later (and there is much to be done!), but you can always ask me if there is something that you might be confused about. Thanks, as always!

Chapter 11- Cards on the Table

Bush-method communication has traditionally been used only once a day. The day prior to the festival, though, I received at least five slips of paper that I would respond to between shipping loads. To summarize what was said, Mark had agreed to our plan. We would meet up at ten in the morning when I would split up the keys to the various warehouses. Mark would take the one next to Haila's café. The one next to Julia's house went to Lily. Vaughn was to search the one by Pierre's house, though we knew that he would have to leave early to help set up for the festival. The final warehouse, the one by Nick's diner, would be tackled by me and Chelsea. Obviously, they trust me the least, so they tag teamed me with the most experienced one of us.

We chose ten o'clock because that's usually when Kirk ferries Regis over to Meadow Island to begin preparations. That would knock our two biggest threats out of the way. Still, all of us knew to use extreme caution. We gave ourselves only forty-five minutes before we agreed we had to be out of there.

I'm not actually sure if I've explained the reasoning for searching the warehouses. Maybe it's pretty obvious, but it's worth explaining. What it really came to was thinking of Sabrina's sudden Departure. I find it hard to believe that it is a coincidence that it occurred right after I gave her the keys to search for some books. Regis's reaction when he returned the keys to me afterwards would suggest that I more or less caused the Departure, too. It would explain why Regis doesn't really want any more people getting in there than he has to. Because that is where he is keeping all of his dirty material.

I told my family that I was, as usual, going to spend the time before the festival with Mark. Our boyfriend-girlfriend thing has turned out to be quite the convenient excuse. For once, I was actually the first person besides Mark and Chelsea to arrive at the ranch. When Vaughn and Lily entered, I immediately pulled each of the individual keys off of the ring and handed them out to the appropriate person, reminding them of which warehouse the key is used for. That was the extent of the talking, as Vaughn was ready to move out to make the most of the time he had before having to go. Mark and Lily were shortly behind him, leaving me with Chelsea.

"I know this is your idea, Natalie," she started as we moved towards the door, "but you are following my lead on this. We're going to have to be careful getting there, especially considering this warehouse is right in the open. We can't let anyone know we are looking around who might tip off Regis."

I didn't really have any desire to argue. Though I don't always get along with Chelsea, I trust her much more than myself on this one issue: keeping us alive.

After crossing the bridge back to Verdure, Chelsea crouched over and moved into some brush by Julia's house, which I reluctantly had to mimic. I wasn't sure what she was waiting on until I saw Pierre cross by carrying some dishes. Once he had stumbled back into his house, Chelsea nodded and jumped up. Upon corssing the road, we slid across the road to our next stop- more shrubbery, this time in the grass growing against the walls of Nick's diner, which no one bothered to cut properly. Chelsea slowly crawled until she could see around the back of the building to make sure that neither Eliza was out playing on the beach or Denny fishing. Satisfied, she stuck her hand out back to me so I would give her the last key on the ring. Once I had, we both charged across the open, slamming into the warehouse at half speed. It looked rather cool, but it actually kind of hurt my shoulder. More of concern, though, was anxiously waiting until Chelsea managed to finally turn the key in the door knob. Once she had, we both jumped in and quickly closed the door behind us.

Based off the intensity of the previous events, I was ready to start punching or kicking things. But once I managed to get my breathing back until control, I became increasingly serious. I think the environment had as much impact on this as the gravity of the job. The warehouses are cold and deadly quiet. There are still some signs that the building was once inhabited. Given the things I've learned this spring, the place seems even more morbid.

Chelsea patted a bookcase in the corner. "You look for things in these books. I'll take this chest right here."

And thus began our search. I looked through all of the pages in every book on every bookcase, but all I found was a couple of old pencils. Chelsea rummaged through the rest of the storage. The only places that weren't searched were things that I told her I have used often enough that I would have seen something before. Chelsea pulled off the head of a broom to see if something would fall out. I tried looking for documents hidden in some frames that showcase drawings of fish and the sea. But we found nothing.

I was peering into some vases when I finally had enough. I tossed the vases back where I found them and threw my arms up.

"There's nothing here, Chelsea. Gosh, I was I knew which warehouse Sabrina went to."

Something that I said must have inspired Chelsea. "Sabrina… you said that she was looking for a book on medicine or something, right?" "That's the impression I got." "Then if she saw something, or at least someone thought she might have seen something, it would be around books about medicine. I shook my head. "I already checked all the books." "I didn't say that I was going to check the books. Just where is the stuff on medicine?"

I told her that I remembered seeing a couple of books on medicine on a bottom shelf in the corner where an old bed laid covered in dust. I had never gone back that far in the warehouse before. Too wet and moldy. Chelsea didn't seem to care.

After pulling the books out and handing them to me to hold, Chelsea laid down and stuck her head where the books used to be. She remained there looking around for a few seconds before pulling her head out. "There's something back here in the wall. Hold on."

She reached behind the shelf and pulled hard. There was a soft popping sound. Carefully, she removed a square of wood paneling that she held by two holes built into the wood. She set this to her side.

"Hand me a flashlight, would you? I can see something way back in there."

Figuring that her hands would be too full to actually use it, I sat next to her and directed the light over her shoulder where we could see what we were doing. From my position I could tell where Chelsea was reaching around a wall of bricks that the foundation appeared to sit on. It's somewhat hard to describe what was going on, as I don't really know a whole lot about building houses. The best way explanation I can give is that Chelsea reached back under the building between the exterior and interior walls. Once I could see that she was holding something, I moved away so she could get out.

When she was finally separated from the bookcase, she moved towards what appeared to have been a dining table and laid her find on it.

I knew we had found something important when I saw the box. It was made of black metal, about the size of a nice, thick book. Fortunately, whoever put it there thought it was a good enough of a hiding spot that he neglected to put a lock on it.

Chelsea bowed and gave the honors to me to open it. When I did, wads of paper nearly jumped out onto the floor. I don't know if it was caused either by built up pressure or if it was simply filled up too full. Probably both.

I definitely promote the second option because it really was full of random paper. Some were in envelopes, others were these small slips that had lots of numbers, and a large amount had these intricate grid systems.

Chelsea quickly went after the graph paper while I began to pilfer the letters, as those were the only things I actually knew what were. I quickly realized that we had found just what we were looking for. Everything was addressed to Regis Regison of Regison Mining and Metals.

The first one I took a look at was really old looking. It went as follows (well, sparing some of the unimportant stuff that isn't worth sharing):

Dear Mr. Regison,

It has come to our attention recently of an incident that occurred on your Sunshine Island facility some three years ago. We fully support your ambitions as chief operating officer there, but the board must take considerations in the knowledge that these events are liable to disclosure. IF OSHA investigates, and our account of what happened is accurate, the impact on both the corporation's financials and reputation would be monumental. For this reason, we would like to give you the opportunity to prevent this information from being released due to your relationship with the company. However, we will have no choice but to step in on the situation if matters are not dealt with in a timely manner.

Below is provided the names of those that need to be contacted, as well as information you may need in regard to them.

There were six names and addresses, which I suspect is the reason that he kept this letter. I was deeply intrigued by the story, so I found another that had been written by the same person. This letter was written just two years ago.

Dear Mr. Regison,

Your father is deeply sorry in your resignation from the company. However, he is allowing the dropping of the Sunshine Islands facilities from the company's inventory. The mine was a minor asset to begin with and has been reduced to near no value since the accident. The board has agreed to a transfer of the facility to your name. However, your father has denied loaning you any amount of money for your current situation. Your nephew's role in keeping operations running cannot be understated, and whatever you owe him is completely for you to deal with as you have retired from Regison Mining and Metals. Your father was upset enough in your decision that he changed his phone number so you would not be able to access him while you remain on the Sunshine Islands commune. However, if you ever wish to reconcile with him, we have provided his new contact below for your own benefit.

We all wish you the best in your future endeavors.

Now, you probably expect that I'm completely clueless on what that meant- but you're wrong. It was a lot to process, but I got the idea. Sort of. Chelsea appeared to be making a similar conclusion. She showed me a couple of her mystery papers and started pointing to things as if I understood what the point of the lines and numbers were.

"Take a look at this, Natalie. These are Regis's financial forms. Here's one of his journals… a whopping two million dollars flooded out to six different sources in a short period of time. I recognize one of the people that Regis was giving money to. He was busted for taking bribes to keep regulation infringements off of the books. I'm guessing this is off of the official accounts, which means that this data could be enough to earn Regis a few years in the pen. Anyways, Regis has been booking regular losses for years now. And just recently he has been taking in monthly payments from a Regison Mining and Metals. Someone has been keeping the Community from going under."

I shook my head in disbelief. "From the letters I've seen, this person has also been getting on Regis's nerves."

It was only a matter of who it was. But both of us came up with the same name rather quickly. Chelsea, though, would say it first.

"There's only one person that I know of who could afford to loan so much to Regis- our good friend William. I knew that Regis's family owned a pretty successfully mining company, but I had no idea that Regis was still working for them when he moved to the Islands. I thought the mine was independent, only for the Community's benefit. A lot of the profits from it must have gone to the company, not the Community. I also had heard that Regis had a rather wealthy nephew by Regis's half brother. I had never thought that it could be Will. He's never said anything about being related to Regis or Sabrina."

Well, no duh, Chelsea. That would be stupid if you are worried about being attached to the Head of the Community in any way. Will has obviously played this pretty smart. He's been entirely unassuming in his behavior. No one would ever have thought that he could secretly be running the whole show.

I kept my thoughts to myself, though, while Chelsea continued to pour out more information that she found interesting. She finally stopped rambling and began to thumb the pages uncomfortably.

"I need to get these documents back to the agency. But I can't move them without the possibility of Regis checking up on his box. If only there was a copier on this forsaken rock."

"Well…" I began, "you could always try using the magic clicker."

Chelsea straight up told me that she thought I was joking. In my defense, I did figure that it probably wasn't called that. But I had never heard a name for it, so that's what I came up with when I found it as a child. When I was younger, I probably did a bit too much of exploring around the warehouses. In this particular one I found this box with a lens that had a button I would click. When I did, whatever I was pointing at would show up behind some glass on the box like a painting that is real. I had a habit of making clicks of either myself making faces or Elliot doing something stupid that I could look at using some sort of control on the box. It was only about a year ago that I put it back where I found it in case I got in trouble for having it. It was still where I left it under the room's sink.

"It's called a camera," said Chelsea when I gave it to her. "It's not particularly new and its batteries are probably corroded."

"The magic cy-… the cylinders. I know where to find those." In hindsight, "magic" is a rather stupid word to call something by. I could be real immature when I was younger. It actually is pretty impressive that I was able to deduce that replacing the batteries would fix the camera, though. The word "batteries" is not unfamiliar. I know that those things were used in flashlights, which must make them electronic. I had rarely used a flashlight in the past, so I never made the connection with the cylinders. The flashlight must be one of the few things that we can actually use of this kind. Anyways, I kept the batteries for the camera in a nearby box.

Chelsea inserted the batteries and after a nerve-racking couple of seconds, the glass lit up. Even Chelsea looked mildly pleased.

She handed me the evidence that she considered important for me to take clicks of. When we had finished with that, Chelsea took the camera to make sure that the camera clicks were clear. My mind drifted a little while she worked until she began to laugh.

"What do we have here, Natalie?" Apparently, she had moved the controls far enough that the clicks on the glass cycled back to the oldest ones I had taken. She was rather amused by my earliest attempts of trying to take clicks of myself.

I didn't find it funny.

Before she could go much further, I jumped over her and wrestled for control of the camera. Chelsea's stronger than I, but she didn't put up much of a fight. When I had yanked it out of her hand, I ran with it across the room before she could make another move for it.

"That's quite enough of that." I tried to act angry, but both of us ended up fits of laughter almost immediately. At least she didn't see the clicks I had taken of Regis to try proving that he was a vampire. She actually would have been upset by that.

Our fun was cut short when I looked out the window and saw Kirk's boat approaching Verdure. He was accompanied by Regis.

"Chelsea… we need to get out of here." She still thought I was joking. "Yeah… why's that, Natalie?" She asked. "Regis is on his way to the island."

Chelsea's face paled as she began reorganizing the papers back into the box.

"Chelsea… this is not the time. We need to get out of here now!" "Hold one, I have to do this."

She closed the box and was beginning to replace it under the house while I watched the window. To my dismay, he took the path that led only towards our warehouse.

I was even more panicked this time. "Chelsea! We have to go right now! He's coming this way!" I had already begun to open the door to leave when I realized that she hadn't made an attempt at moving. I grabbed her by the shirt and tried to pull her out of the wall. She shouted at me to let go.

"He's going to see us! Forget the box or we are both dead!" I insisted.

Chelsea worked with blinding speed. Before Regis was within fifteen yards of the warehouse, she already had the panel replaced and rearranged the books. But there was no way that we could get out of the building. I could explain my presence, but I could never answer as to why Chelsea would be with me. I've been told before to only go in alone; otherwise I would just say that she was accompanying me. Plus, there is no reason why we should be in the far back corner when the boxes are on the other side of the room.

Apparently, though, Chelsea had an idea. A horrible idea that I wish I didn't have to write about. But I have an obligation to.

Before Regis had even arrived, Chelsea knocked one of the books back onto the floor and commanded me to grab her by the shirt. Before I could ask why, she pushed hard off of my shoulder, which resulted in me being thrown two steps back and her going to the ground. Her shirt was ripped in the process.

"Let go of me, Natalie! Let go, let go!"

Regis rushed up to the door to see what had happened. What he saw was Chelsea trying to escape my grasp.

"What… is this?" he asked rather cautiously.

"I just wanted a book!" Chelsea pleaded. "Something… something on medicine, you know, so we won't have an incident like Charlie again! Natalie began freaking out when she saw I was in here. I wouldn't have cared so much had she not grabbed my shirt."

"Well… you aren't supposed to be in here," he responded calmly.

"Why? Why are you in here, then?" Chelsea spat back.

Regis pulled out his ring of keys. So much for losing them. He probably didn't want to give them to Sabrina so something like this wouldn't happen. Too bad I messed that up. Twice now, if you include this.

"I happen to have one of the two sets of keys to the warehouses. There is a reason for this. Natalie's family has the other. On that note, why are you in here on a festival day, Natalie?"

That was the least courageous moment of my life. I was going to say something different, but I could tell from the look in Chelsea's eye that I was to say what she wanted me to say.

"We've had a lot of distractions in the past couple of weeks, and we have fallen behind on our shipping. I was going to grab some boxes so we could get immediately to work after the festival. The door was cracked open, and my first thought was that I must have not shut it properly last time I was here. At least until I saw Chelsea in here peeking around. I was calm until I felt my belt and realized that she must have stolen my keys when I stayed at their house the other night." I was betting on him not knowing that I usually don't carry the keys on me, or that I check to make sure they are still where they are supposed to be every time I go home.

"And where are her keys now, Chelsea?" Chelsea obediently held it out to him.

"Here's the one for this building. I have the others at home. I can have the rest returned by the time the festival starts. I… I can show them to you then. I'm so sorry, I meant to give them back. I just wanted to look for a book. Sabrina had mentioned doing it before, and it sounded like a good idea."

Regis walked across the room and helped lift Chelsea from the floor.

"I understand, Chelsea, but you must not do things such as this. Natalie, I'm glad you were here. I wouldn't have found out if I hadn't come back for the balloon pump that I had forgotten when I gathered some things for the festival earlier this morning."

Regis picked up the aforementioned pump, walked to the door, and waved us to follow him out. Chelsea tried to hold her shirt together while I grabbed a couple of boxes to legitimize my story. He bowed like a gentleman (which he is not, by the way) after he closed the door behind us.

"I will see the two of you soon. Don't worry, as long as it doesn't happen again, I'll keep what happened between the three of us."

Regis was already on Kirk's boat before Chelsea finally spoke.

"… You have the camera, right?" Her voice was very quiet. I nodded, as I had slid it into my front pocket when I saw Regis coming towards us. "Good," Chelsea continued, "drop the boxes off at your house and take the camera to the ranch."

She was obviously trying to avoid the burning question for as long as possible. Thankfully, no one was home when I threw the jumble of cardboard on my bed. Mother and Gramps were probably out getting some last minute shipping. I'm not sure where Elliot was. I have a hard time believing he actually has friends to hang out with.

As for me, I had a "friend" to take care of. Chelsea was out in the fields examining some plants when I found her. This time I actually did grab her hard by the new shirt she had put on. She stood up at my will so she wouldn't lose another one.

"What the heck was that?! Could you not come up with anything better to say?! You are going to get both of us the Departure!"

"Natalie… please let go of me." Chelsea sounded like she was speaking to a child. It only made me more charged.

"Not till you give me an answer!"

Chelsea apparently had enough of letting me be in control. In a flash of movement, she had me in some sort of arm lock until I finally grunted that I would calm down.

"With that taken care of, the only answer I can give you is that you are wrong. I don't think that we will both be killed. Hopefully, there will only be one needed."

I already knew what she was trying to do. It was obvious early on. But I just couldn't accept it until I heard it from her own mouth. But there it was. Chelsea had every intention to give herself up to be executed.

Author's Notes: I said that it would end in midstream! I thought I foreshadowed it a bit, but I am curious if anyone else saw it coming. I think this is definitely a clear sign that the end is not far off. Well, hopefully the next wait will be shorter (probably not!) so you don't have to think over this for too long.