AN: Hope life is good :) So when I originally posted chapter 18, I mentioned that all the chapters were written and it was just a matter of editing before posting. Then I decided I wasn't entirely satisfied and ended up rewriting much of those final chapters (and adding another one lol). This is the first of five more, and they really are all written out, just waiting on a last round of edits. (I'd like to add a quick thank you to hermitcrab for the guest review!)

On to chapter 21, I hope you enjoy it :)

The Investigation (Part 2) – May 14th – Northern Vermont

The Irving Lina Academy was a collection of lovely Georgian buildings located on six hundred acres of lush, forested hills. Miles of trails traversed the parkland, wandering through stands of evergreens and around the idyllic little ponds that dotted the countryside. Brick-paved paths crossed the campus lawns, leading from the modernized residence hall and skating rink, to a beautiful library which dated from the late nineteenth century. An eerie marble tombstone was set into the lobby floor, its walls were full of gracefully carved stone, and large arched windows looked out on a brilliant, sun-soaked landscape. Students milled about, some lounging outdoors, basking in the freedom of completed finals, while others rushed to finish last-minute tests and projects.

Roy strolled amidst the bustle, enjoying the bright day and his temporarily earpiece-free existence, not least because he was no longer subjected to the hacker's extraneous and near-reverent views of Savage Garden. It afforded him some valuable privacy, as well, and with curved lips he gave Riza's hand a playful squeeze, the faux engagement ring again gracing a certain slender finger. They followed one of the many tidy brick pathways, ambling from one building to the next on their supposed 'tour,' pretending to decide if their non-existent daughter Roselyn might benefit from the Olympic-sized swimming pool or private stables.

The blonde shifted closer, stepping away from the purple crocuses she'd been admiring, and quirked her brow at him. "Why do I get the feeling you were the king of a fancy place like this?"

He gave a non-committal shrug. "I wouldn't say king, but I did alright."

Her laughter was light, and then what sounded like a reluctant exhalation escaped her. "Apparently we've wandered long enough."

Roy followed her gaze to the figure descending the main building's steps. "This Headmaster Dagen is determined."

"And irritating." She perched a hand on the crook of his arm, leaning her head on his shoulder. "I suppose tranquilizing him is out of the question?"

"As much as I'd love to see that," he began in amusement, momentarily distracted by the way her hair spilled over his jacket, "it's not the most subtle option."

"I can't argue with that. Just thought it might be fun."

Then Headmaster Dagen himself approached with an affected grin, thick-framed glasses on his long nose. "I hope you enjoyed your walk, Mr. and Mrs. Ryland."

"The campus is beautiful," Riza replied with a nod. "We took one of the trails and it was absolutely gorgeous. My husband was eyeing that golf course of yours."

"Guilty." He patted his wife's hand, smile sheepish. "She knows me so well."

Already reaching for his phone, the headmaster said, "We could set up a tee time for you, if you'd like."

"That's not necessary," was the blonde's dismissive reply. "We were wondering, however, if it's possible to pay for a private room in the residence hall. We don't want Roselyn rooming with just anyone. I'm sure you understand."

"Certainly, ma'am. We have a variety of options in that regard. If..."

"Overall, the school is acceptable," Roy interrupted, with the tone of one utterly indifferent to the minutiae of residential arrangements. "Our real concern is security. My business can be fairly volatile, and I need to be sure our daughter will have adequate protection."

His wife squeezed his arm, concern overwhelming her features. "Darling, perhaps Jean was right, maybe this isn't the right place for our little girl. It's lovely, but I'm not sure it's safe enough."

"I assure you, Mrs. Ryland, our security and surveillance systems are more comprehensive than many of our competitors," Dagen tensely supplied, a nervous set to his mouth as he started to fear losing such wealthy clients. They had offered to donate twenty million dollars, after all, but only in the event they entrusted their daughter's education to that particular establishment. "And we are more than happy to accommodate any personal security you've hired. They can't live with the students, but we have other housing available."

"After what happened at her last school..." She shook her head, brow furrowed with worry. "I'd feel better if she stayed with me."

"Nadia, love, we talked about this," Roy gently said, brushing hair from her face. "We agreed this was best."

Her nod was hesitant. "I just hate to have her so far away."

"I know. We could take a look at their system, that might reassure you." After another lukewarm nod from his wife, Roy glanced at the headmaster, who had made a show of looking everywhere else. "We can review the security system, yes?"

"Of course, Mr. Ryland." The man gestured toward the nearest doorway with an arm. "Right this way."

The couple followed and, once their guide's back was turned, Riza reclaimed his hand, giving him a quick wink. The group soon entered the eastern wing of the main building, passing gauche stained-glass windows and cases housing a collection of awards and plaques from the past hundred years. The floors gleamed from recent polish, and he caught the mild scent of paint fumes as they passed another hallway, suggesting that some portion of the edifice had undergone recent renovations. After mere minutes, they reached a thick wooden door which appeared to have been reinforced, and Dagen swiped an identification card on a panel near the latch before typing in a six-digit code.

A security guard rose from his seat when they entered, expression quizzical, but moved aside at a signal from his employer. One massive screen covered the wall, showing the feeds from countless cameras, and Roy scanned them to find views of every parking lot, sections of the library and residence halls, the entrance gates, classrooms, and even the boathouse. Personally, that intrusive level of surveillance would have made him uneasy if he were truly evaluating the campus. The headmaster, however, was clearly proud as he boasted, "Our cameras are monitored twenty four hours, we have guards posted at every entrance to the property, and additional personnel make regular rounds of every building. I promise you, your daughter couldn't be safer. No unauthorized individuals set foot on the grounds. Any intruders would be swiftly dealt with. Our system is linked directly to local law enforcement, and..."

Just then Roy's legs gave out, and the blonde let out a shout of surprise, catching him as well as she could and guiding him into an empty chair. His elbows rested on his knees, head in his hands, and his anxious wife said, "Not again. Jake? Are you alright?"

He found her gaze with a nod, attempting to stand, but fell back into the seat seconds later. Dagen hovered close by, uselessly and repeatedly muttering Oh my goodness under his breath, his eyes widened as if he were watching twenty million dollars actively slip down the drain. Roy patted his pockets awkwardly and his wife rifled through her bag, heaving a frustrated sigh as she knelt before him. She tossed the guard a set of car keys and said, "Please hurry, his pills are in the center console, and someone get my husband a glass of water, for heaven's sake."

"Yes, yes, of course," the headmaster hastily replied, ushering the guard out the door.

"Make sure it's Veen, if you have it. He cannot handle tap water."

Dagen disappeared down the corridor with a tight smile, shouting unintelligibly at the unfortunate guard. As soon as the door swung shut Roy straightened, immediately moving to pan through the many camera feeds until he located the men in question. "Veen?"

"The Rylands are pretentious, in case you haven't noticed." She pushed a stool aside to claim a space at the counter and shot him a smirk. "You call that subtle?"

"More-so than your 'minor explosion' idea, yeah." He set a phone beside the keyboard, which she connected to the computer via a cable produced from her purse. "Havoc sent a photo of the car and plate. That's all they could get from the private security camera."

Riza proceeded to insert a flash drive and type rapidly into a command prompt, slowly shaking her head. "Here's hoping I remember how to do this." Other windows began popping up as she accessed the system, cross-referencing the image against the footage taken during the abduction time-frame. The process must have involved some clever program created by Havoc, because matching stills flashed across the monitor before automatically transferring to the phone.

His eyes roved the larger screen once again. "The guard already reached the parking lot, but Dagen's definitely taking his time. I could be dying and the guy looks like he's going out for a latte." His head tilted when a thought occurred, and he asked, "Whose keys were those?"

She pointed toward a shelf near where she'd previously knelt. "Not sure. They were in that lost-and-found box."

Roy paced to stand behind her, his attention briefly leaving the feeds as he kissed the hinge of her jaw. "Have I mentioned you're incredible?"

She spared only a glance for the cell that suddenly buzzed from her purse, and he heard the warmth of a smile in her voice when she said, "Our ride's here, and you're not helping."

"Not at all? That's weird." With a hand on her lower back, he added, "Dagen's entering his office."

"Nearly there. I'm wiping footage for the last hour, and halting the archival process." She paused to check the search progress, and continued, "We'll have ten minutes to exit before the cameras start backing up to the server again. They might see us, but we won't actually be recorded."

At her nod, he collected his phone and the cord, returning the latter to her bag as she typed in a final command. The various programs were quickly terminated and, once she'd retrieved the flash drive, he reached for the door latch, shooting a final look at the screen. "Clear."

In a few steps they crossed into another corridor, cutting through empty classrooms and hallways toward one of the building's rear exits. Once outdoors they kept their pace on the relaxed side of hurried, and meandered over the lawn in the direction of a smaller parking area often used by maintenance staff. They passed between the ridged trunks of two forty-foot hackberry trees and saw the lot ahead, hedged by a line of evergreen shrubs. After slipping through a gap in that border, the pair came upon an idling sedan with tinted windows, the paint a deep navy blue, and he opened the door for her with a mildly exaggerated flourish.

She smirked, and pulled him closer by the lapel for an impromptu kiss. "Sometimes you're a dork."

"Very true." His hand rose ever-so-lightly to her waist. "It's part..."

An untimely interruption came in the form of the clearing of an unseen individual's throat. "Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Ryland, this chariot's on a schedule." They slid grudgingly into the rear passenger seats, and Lex eyed them in the rear-view mirror. "Having fun?"

"We were," was Roy's good-natured retort.

The younger woman snorted her amusement, and headed down the lane away from the campus center. "The phone in NYC turned out to be a dead end, Miles' guys didn't find anyone. And this school is seriously messed up...hello big brother...but I guess it's great for us. Havoc skimmed the stills from your cell, and we caught a couple faces. He already has Ling running them through facial."

"At least there's some good news," Riza quietly replied, watching Irving's manicured lawns float past.

In minutes the sedan was rolling through the nearest gate, speeding along the rambling country highway on the way to a secluded airstrip. The scenery changed from stands of pines, to groves predominated by resilient maples, to richly landscaped properties and back again. Warm spring air swirled into the cabin via cracked windows, largely drowning the music which softly poured from the radio, and Lex infrequently spoke into an earpiece connecting her with the rest of the team. Roy had finished reading yet another text from his stepson, full of entertaining complaints about the hacker, when the blonde discreetly took his hand, and his mouth curved.

He looked over to find her own expression somewhat pensive, but he was only able to open his mouth before Lex said, "They have something."

Seconds later Havoc's voice boomed over the car's speakerphone: "You're not gonna believe this, but the rookie already found a match. He's smarter than he looks."

"Bite. Me."

"Anyway, meet Heinkel and Darius, basically the biggest shitsticks in the galaxy," the man continued, his tone surprisingly buoyant. "They're wanted in connection with a bunch of schemes, in fifty different countries, but it seems like kidnapping is their go-to shtick."

He leaned back in his seat. "Known associates?"

"A few. We'll keep an eye out."

"Anything else from the..." Roy trailed off, noticing the other woman's abruptly crinkled brow. "Riza?"

She looked up from the phone in her hand, expression utterly bewildered. "I just received a message from Izumi. Claims she has information about Brosh's family."

Taken slightly aback, he borrowed the device to read, even as Havoc said, "Izumi? As in Curtis? Cause if I remember correctly, she wasn't nice. Something about a spleen being thrown at some guy's face."

"That was her driver," she replied absently. "She always liked me, though."

"You're sure it's her?" Roy interjected, suspicious of both the information offered and the timing.

"As certain as I can be. It was forwarded from another number, one I only gave to Izumi."

He shook his head in frustration, his gaze leaving the device to meet hers. "Just once I'd like this situation to get less complicated."

The blonde smirked. "Wouldn't that be nice."

AN: Thank you for reading, I hope you liked the chapter, and have a good one!