I hope everyone had a great summer! I sure did have a busy one… but I am back with an update for this story (finally!). Enjoy the chapter and I am looking forward to reading your feedback.

Part 25

C for Cleared

Diane Miller entered the FBI interrogation room with a file under her arm, to find a pale skinned young woman with dark brown hair held together in two thick braids and black eyeglasses that covered half of her face. "So you are the mysterious Snowflake?" Diane asked, unbelieving that the young woman who could pass as a teenager was the infamous hacker Damien Spinelli had spoken of; then again, what were cyberspace outlaws supposed to look like she wondered.

"What am I doing here?" The young brunette asked in a high-pitched voice.

Diane approached the witness and opened the folder she was holding. "Winifred Leeds, that is your real name correct?"

"You seem to know a whole lot about me already so why would I even bother answering your questions." The young hacker said then crossed her arms above the metal table she was sitting in front of.

"Look, Miss Leeds, you may not realize it but you are in serious trouble." Diane warned her. "So, if I were you I would answer all my questions and be as cooperative as you possibly can."

The young woman sighed, looked to the side then back to Diane. "Well I have a question of my own, how did you manage to find me? There is no way anyone could have found out my location!"

"Well, we're the FBI, that's what we do." The redhead forced a smile.

"Who was it? Tell me who found me!" Winifred insisted, appearing desperate to find out who had managed to surpass her own prowess.

"I'm afraid you're not in a position to make any demands Ms. Leeds, you are mixed up in some serious crimes here." The special prosecutor let the young woman know.

"Like I don't know that already…" The brunette mumbled while her eyes rolled then said. "Listen Ms. Whoever you are… I know you want me to talk and I will tell you everything you want as long as I get to meet the person that managed to decrypt my signature and that I don't ever see a jail cell." The young woman spelled out as if she had done this before.

"You think you're smart I see…" Diane commented before being interrupted.

"Oh I know the deal, I know I'm not the one you're after which means you will be offering me everything I am asking for in exchange of what I know." She adjusted her eyeglasses then asked. "Can I get a glass of water?"

Diane took a deep aggravated breath; she couldn't believe that the young girl in front of her was giving her such a run for her money; but she had one thing right, she was not the target in this investigation. The special prosecutor left the room then reentered a few minutes later with a glass of water and Spinelli following her.

"Here is your water and let me introduce you to Agent Damien Spinelli; he is the one who not only decrypted your signature but traced it back to your location." Diane introduced him, as Spinelli couldn't help a large smile from appearing on his lips.

"The Jackal is most enchanted to make your acquaintance fellow Internet Warrior." Spinelli said his hands nervously tied behind his back.

Winifred's already large eyes opened wider and sparkled. "Not more than I am, I salute your amazing talent the Jackal. No one until now had equaled my skills but I have to give it to you-"

"Alright, now you met him, start talking." Diane interrupted.

"How about the no jail time deal?" The young woman asked. "I won't be able to survive in jail, you have to grant me this and in exchange I will tell you and the Jackal everything about who hired me and for what."

Diane tightened her mouth as she thought about the young woman's request; she was just a means to an end, as they still needed to catch the big fish. "We will think about leniency but first you need to tell us what you know, if it takes us to the one we are after then we will see what we can do... Now we are listening."

Snowflake let out a sigh, her eyes never leaving the Jackal's sight. She then started talking. "Fine, I was asked to move money to an account to make it look like they came from an offshore account."

Diane sat down across from her. "Who hired you?"

"A man…" The hacker enigmatically revealed.

"Does this man have a name?" Diane said.

"Of course he does, everyone does… and something tells me you are dying to know who that person is." Snowflake let out a chuckle. "I have to say I was a bit surprised myself when he approached me but I never turn down big money or a good challenge."

"What is the name?" Diane asked losing patience.

"This name will cost you a get out of jail free card."

While Spinelli enjoyed the young hacker's negotiating talent, Diane wasn't amused. "Like I said, first tell me what you know then we will see what we can do."

"I'm not stupid, I already told you more than I should, and without a proper deal I'm not saying another word." The clever hacker said.

Diane squinted her eyes, staring at the younger and pale woman in front of her who was turning out to be a tough opponent. "Fine, you got it, no jail time but not only you tell us everything you know and if we find out you left anything out the deal is off… plus you are working for us from now on."

The young woman smiled, content with the offer. She had no loyalty to the person she had done the hacking for and would be helpful as long as she could avoid prison. "His name was Ric, full name Richard."

"Lansing?" Diane asked.

"Correct." She confirmed.

"And there it is!" Spinelli jumped of joy swinging his arm in the air. "We finally have a way to tie the Dastardly DA to my queen's set up! This is exactly what we were looking for!"

Diane continued her line of questioning. "Did he ask you for anything else?"

"Yea, matter-of-fact he did… he asked me to erase some records which, unfortunately for you I have already done."

"Great!" The special prosecutor sarcastically exclaimed. "He must be trying to wipeout any sign of his business dealings with Corinthos. Right now we can have him for fabricating evidence against a federal agent but if we want Corinthos as well we need proof of them working together."

"Perhaps the Jackal can reverse Snowflake's work?" Spinelli offered.

Winifred shook her head. "Impossible, the Jackal may be good but these files were washed away. Swoosh! You won't find anything."

"I can still try." Spinelli defied her, confident with his skills. "Snowflake may not forget that the Assassin of the Internet has managed to solve the tricky puzzle her signature was made of."

Diane jumped back in. "Alright... You won't go to jail miss Leeds but from now on you work for us so you might want to start trying to recover these files." Diane informed her witness then added looking at Spinelli. "Mr. Jackal, work with her and do what you do best to recover these records. I will let Agent Webber know that she is free to go." The Special prosecutor declared then left the room satisfied with the results of the interrogation.

Carly arrived at the safehouse Johnny had converted into a secure meeting place for the two of them. It was a small cabin, a few miles away from Port Charles where they wouldn't run the risk of being seen together by anyone they knew. She didn't think she would come back to this place since she had broken things off with Johnny and told him that continuing to see each other behind Sonny's back was a guaranteed death sentence because someone would end up finding out; and someone had. Now that Jason knew about them and was threatening to expose the affair, everything was different.

The blonde woman entered the room with her key and saw Johnny quickly jump to his feet and rush towards her to take her in his arms. He held her closely before saying. "Did your really mean what you said earlier? You really want to give us a chance?"

Carly let out a sigh then freed herself from his embrace. She held the man's hand and led him to sit on the sofa. "Yes, I meant what I said but there is something important I need to talk to you about first."

"What is it? See I knew you were hiding something from me when I saw you!"

"Something happened, something that could change everything."

Johnny jumped back to his feet. "Wow wow what are you talking about Carly? What have you done?" He was crazy about this woman but knew how volatile she could be.

"Ok sit down and I will explain everything." He did as she asked and sat back down. "You know how you told me you took care of Jason? Well you didn't."

"What? That's impossible. And how would you know anything about that anyway?"

Carly shook her head. "I met with him earlier today, he was hurt but he is definitely alive."

"You what? You met with him? Again! Carly! What were you thinking? This man is a major threat and he must want revenge even more than he did before!"

"He contacted me and I... I... had to make sure it was real, that he was really alive. I first thought someone was playing a prank on me." She justified herself.

Johnny ran a hand over his face in total shock over what she was telling him. "Oh my god… I have to tell Sonny about this, we have to find him before-"

Carly held the man in place by holding his arm. "No, Johnny wait, you can't do that. You can't go to Sonny with this."

"Why not? I was responsible for taking care of Jason and I failed… Sonny's not going to like that."

"He can't find out he is still alive because… because Jason knows about you and me." She dropped on him.

"What? How can he possibly know? Did you tell him?" Johnny asked to know.

Carly shook her head. "No! Of course not... he found out somehow, he probably saw us I don't know."

"Shit! And now what? What does he want?"

"He wants Sonny... He asked me to dig up some information about a dirty deal he has done with Ric and I found something that I think could really hurt him." Carly said then grabbed a folded document from the back of her jeans pocket and handed it to Johnny. "I have thought about this and maybe it's not such a bad idea. Sonny more than deserves what is coming for him for the way he has been treating me and well we could finally be together once he is out of the picture."

Johnny read through what seemed to be a list of sales records with outlandishly high figures then looked at Carly. "And he thinks that could be enough to send Sonny away?"

Carly nodded. "Yes… something about laundering money through fake sales in a shop Ric owns. He could take years if he is convicted for this."

Johnny's mind was trying to process while thinking of every angle. "It's not that simple though Carly, going after Sonny is a big deal… you know how dangerous he can be. Plus if he goes down I'm pretty sure I'm going down with him."

Carly hadn't thought about this in details. "We could leave, now before the shit hits the fan. I will pack up Michael's things and we would leave early in the morning."

"Sonny isn't stupid, if we disappear now then he will know I had a hand in it it and come after me, and after you, even from behind bars! Carly it's too risky." The enforcer rationalized.

"But what if it's our only chance? If I don't do what Jason wants he will make sure Sonny finds out about us and the result ends up the same. At least if we give up Sonny we have a chance to make it out alive." She took a deep breath.

Johnny held his face in his hands; he couldn't believe everything she had just told him. "I need to think about this, you are asking me to turn on Sonny! I've been working for him for years and have been loyal to him."

"You don't even like him!" Carly reminded him. "Plus you already betrayed him… you did that the minute you started sleeping with me. You have to think about how he will react once he finds out. You know he won't even think twice before having you killed or doing it himself."

Johnny let out a sigh, shaking his head. "I knew the risks I was taking being with you but I just couldn't stay away… I still can't."

Carly smiled, leaned forward and fervently kissed the man in front of her. She knew how much he loved her and was certain that it would be enough to convince him to run away with her and start over and this was why she had come to him before going to Jason with the information she had found.

Once he parted from her lips, Johnny let out another sigh as he thought about the possible repercussions if he was to do what Carly had just laid out on him. But he recognized that it possibly was his only chance at a life with the woman he loved. "Does Jason know about the document you found yet?"

"Not yet, I am supposed to meet him in twenty minutes at the park… but I wanted you to be on board with this first." Carly explained. "You have to be on board with the plan, I can't do this on my own."

"Ok... fine." Johnny told her even though he still wasn't fully convinced that the plan was a good idea. "But you are not meeting with Jason again! I will take care of that. You go home and pack a few things for you and Michael and wait for my call."

"Agent Webber, you are free to go. We just finished processing you paperwork." Diane happily told the agent.

"I am free? Does that mean you found definite proof that I was being framed?" Elizabeth said, standing in her holding cell.

"Yes and yes. Your friend Damien was able to track this hacker who has confirmed that she was hired by Ric Lansing." Diane filled the agent in on the details of the case. "We are now officially building a case against him and for what it's worth, I'm sorry I didn't believe you from the start but the circumstances made it... difficult."

"Don't worry about it Diane, I know the situation looked really bad and I am the one who should apologize for being harsh on you... I just don't deal well with captivity especially when I'm being framed."

"Understandable." The Special Prosecutor said. "Now, I was able to give you back your freedom but I'm afraid there was too much damage done for you to ever get your position back. Of course you can still fight to get your badge back but I can tell you right now, it will be a long shot."

The brunette looked down at her feet and scratch her head. "I kind of expected that." The agent said although the thought of losing her job for good was a devastating feeling, but she always knew that her career would not survive the revelation of her true paternity. "And where are we on the C case?"

"We may have a lead through the hacker, Lansing asked her to work on erasing some files."

Elizabeth crossed her arms. "Probably any business connection between Ric and Sonny or something related to their money laundry activities."

"That would be my guess as well. Spinelli is on a mission to undo her work... for some reason they seem to be enjoying this quite a lot. If I didn't know better I would call it nerdy foreplay…"

Elizabeth couldn't help a chuckle. "Thanks for the laugh, now if you would excuse me I am dying to get out of this holding cell." Elizabeth said, she couldn't wait to see Jason.

"Sure, go home and get some rest… I will keep you updated on the case." Diane said with a large beam and watched Elizabeth quickly walk out of the holding cell.

Jason was hiding behind a bench in the park, anxiously waiting for Sonny's wife to meet him as they had agreed earlier. He had taken a major gamble involving Carly and didn't know if she would be coming to meet him with the information he had asked for or if she would send Sonny straight to him to finish the job. The man took a deep breath, hoping deeply that the risk he had taken would pay off. Elizabeth was in jail for a crime she didn't commit and he had to do this for her, put an end to the investigation once and for all.

He heard steps coming in his direction and held his bandaged arm as he raised his head slightly to see who was approaching. He held his breath when he noticed Johnny was the one walking towards his direction. Jason looked to the side; ready to make the exit he had planned in case his plan went south. Carly must had called him right after they spoke and sent him there, he felt stupid ever trusting the woman.

"Jason!" Johnny called out as he reached the meeting point Carly had indicated to him. "Come out, I know you're here!"

Jason took a deep breath, ready to flee unnoticed when he heard Johnny say.

"Carly told me everything, I have what you want!"

Jason halted as he heard these words. He was conscious he now had another gamble to make; come out and risk being shot at again or trust that Johnny had switched side and was willing to help him. He took a deep but quiet breath, unclear of what choice to make...