Chapter 28 – It's Gone

"Randall!"

Randall was startled when he got ut of the car to find that he was nearly suffocated by a huge bear hug. Randall gasped, rubbing his ribcage.

"Randall! I was so worried! We saw what happened on the news – are you okay? Oh, goodness, you're soaked! What happened? Was it that monster? Come in, come in!"

Angela grabbed him by the arm and dragged him inside.

"I knew you shouldn't have gone, you'll get sick at this rate, and then what?"

"Angie, calm down! I'm fine!" Randall protested as she dragged him upstairs to the spare room to change. Randall looked back at the professor and mouthed "Help me!" to the professor.

Th professor laughed and entered the living room to see the others.


Brenda was alone in the living room when the professor and Emmy entered. She smiled as they entered.

"Hello, Hershel, Emmy. I see that the mission was a success!"

The professor smiled back. "Yes. We got the third artefact and no one was injured. It was indeed successful. Tell me, where has Flora gone? I don't see her."

"Oh, she's gone into town with Luke and Aurora, they needed a walk, try to clear their heads. You know, you might want to have a word with Flora."

"Oh?" Emmy asked. "Why's that? Is something wrong?"

"Well," Brenda began. "Flora seemed very upset earlier, when the kids came home. Actually, they all seemed very upset at the thought of you all being in danger without her. She hates the idea of not knowing where you are, or what's happening, and frankly, I don't like it either. I'm just glad that you made Luke stay out of these encounters with beasts. God only knows how worried I was about Luke when he was encountering the spectre in Misthallery."

"Well, we are certain that these beasts are real, and I could never put Luke in such danger, nor Flora," the professor said. "I shall talk to Flora later, and see exactly what the matter is."

"Let me," Emmy said firmly. "I need to bond more with Flora anyway; we hardly talk anymore, what with the resistance watch and everything else."

"Alright," the professor said.

"And Luke." Brenda trailed off. "He feels so useless, what with not being allowed to take part in the watch, and all the rest of it. I think sitting around doing nothing is hurting him a lot."

"Well, he may feel useless right now, but I will need Luke's assistance when I am deducing Vaughan's motives, how Vaughan intends to steal the artefacts, and everything else," the professor explained. "Luke will most certainly be using his investigative talents in the not-so-distant future."

"Good," Brenda smiled. "So long as it's behind the scenes and he's out of danger."

"Of course," the professor smiled as the front door opened.

Luke, Flora and Aurora trailed in, looking sour.

Emmy nudged Luke. "Don't frown. You'll get wrinkles, just like Uncle Leon." She smiled at him. Luke ignored her. He stared at the ground sullenly. Emmy frowned. "What's wrong with you?" she asked.

"I want to help... with the resistance. We all do, me and Flora and Aurora, and the Van De Garde's, but we're not allowed to. No one ever tells us what's going on. We're completely in the dark about what's happening. When will we get to do something about this?"

Emmy patted Luke on the back. "Soon," she promised. She turned and caught the professor's eye. He winked. "Actually, right now." Emmy steered him and the two girls towards the sofa.

"What are we doing?" Luke asked, perking up a bit.

"Deducting," Emmy said firmly, sitting on the arm of the chair. She turned to the professor. "So, where do we begin?"

Luke and Flora eagerly pulled out notebooks and pens and prepared to start jotting down information. The professor smiled.

"Well, I believe we should start at the start."

"Vaughan sent us letters, demanding that we tell him where Emmy was," Luke said. "But we didn't know where she was. He kept threatening to hurt people, and every time we went to the police—"

"—we were met with resistance and threats of violence," Brenda finished.

"But we deduced that Vaughan wanted to have the image of a psycho, so that no one would stand in his way," Flora said.

"And that he only did what he did to get to Emmy, not to threaten Luke into giving away Emmy's actual location," Brenda added.

"It worked," Emmy said. The professor stood up and put an arm around her.

"So, he only wanted to look evil to scare us away," Luke said thoughtfully. "Well, that was never going to work."

"Hmm..." the professor was deep in thought about that last comment. "You're right, Luke. I believe that those actions were also a test, for me."

"For you?" Emmy asked. "Why would Vaughan want to test you?"

"I believe he knew that you were an old acquaintance of mine, and that in hard times, you would call me for help," the professor explained. "He must know that you are friends with Luke, and that he would do the same. He knows that, one way or another, I will get involved in this situation."

"But how?" Luke asked. "How could he have gotten that information?"

"Well, the professor has made the papers quite a few times, solving mysteries and whatnot," Emmy replied. "I suppose all Vaughan had to do was ensure that he had the right Emmy Altava, and then whoever else was mentioned, he could manipulate. He must have seen your name in the papers too, and your picture."

"And with that, he put two and two together..." Flora said.

"And he tracked you down and proceeded to threaten you to lure Emmy out." Brenda smiled. "It all makes sense now!"

The professor smiled. "Indeed!"

"But I still have lots more questions about Vaughan," Luke frowned, flicking back a few pages in his notebook. "Here, I made a list. Question one is ticked off, because you already answered it, Professor." Luke smiled as he ticked this one off of the list. "Here's question two: how does Vaughan know Emmy?"

"Well, Emmy already told us that Vaughan burned down Emmy's house when she was little," Flora said. She looked at Emmy uncertainly.

"Its okay, Flora," Emmy said, forcing a smile on her face. "I can handle it."

"Do you want to leave the room for a moment?" the professor asked, taking her hand.

"Erm..." Emmy nodded. "I don't want to cry all over anyone." She got up and left.

Luke stared after her. "Well, Vaughan killed her mother and brother in that fire, didn't he?"

"Yes," the professor said. "Vaughan was sent by Targent to manipulate Emmy's father. He was an archaeologist. He obviously knew something about the Azran, be it about the Grounds of Rebirth or something else, and Vaughan had to get that information at all costs. So he burned down Emmy's aunt's place and killed Emmy's mother, Paloma Chovanek, and her brother, Daniel."

"God," Brenda breathed. "I never knew. Poor Emmy..."

"But I don't think that's everything," The professor frowned.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked. "So you think that Emmy's been keeping something from us?"

"I know she is. I asked her if she knew Vaughan from somewhere besides the fire, and she said that he locked her up and beat her—"

"WHAT?!" Luke exclaimed. "She kept that quiet!"

"She didn't want to worry us," the professor explained. He remembered what Vaughan had said:

"It's all an act so that you will not worry. Believe me, she is deeply unhappy. I only want to help her, but Bronev is the only person standing in the way of that. I need to stop him from taking Emmeline away from me, and you're the only person who can stop him."

He also remembered what Emmy had said before:

"I... I know something else, about Vaughan. But... I'm... I'm not ready."

"She told me that she knew something else about Vaughan, but she wasn't ready to tell me," the professor said slowly.

"Well, after telling you that, she was probably too upset to want to relive whatever else he's done to her," Brenda said, worry written all over her face. "That's poor girl has been through enough."

"So Vaughan killed half her family and kidnapped her," Luke said, scribbling this down. "And she definitely knows something else. That raises another question: what is that something else?"

"I have a theory, but nothing more," the professor said. "But we really shouldn't speculate on that until Emmy is ready to talk. We don't want to hurt her, do we?"

"No," Flora said, looking upset. "I can't believe all that has happened to Emmy. I hope we get Vaughan soon, before he can do anything else to her."

"Yeah," Luke agreed. "Here's another question: Bronev obviously knows more than he's letting on. He's been acting really suspicious lately, and so has Celeste. I heard them whispering before in the hallway, and as soon as they saw that I was there, the stopped. And they were definitely whispering about Bronev keeping something from Emmy. And I think it was something huge, because Bronev was panicking at the thought of telling Emmy."

"At the thought of telling me what?"

Luke jumped and turned around and saw that Emmy was back, standing at the doorway. She didn't look very happy.

"Luke said that he overheard Bronev and Celeste talking in the hallway the other day about Bronev supposedly keeping something from you, the professor said. " Now, I don't know how true this is— Emmy!"

Emmy turned around and walked off. The professor ran to the door and called out to her. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to talk to Leon!" she shouted back, slamming the back door behind her.

There was an awkward pause.

"Well done, Luke," Flora said.

"I didn't know she was there!" Luke protested. "And I was only telling you what I saw!"

"I'm sure she'll be fine," the professor said, sitting back down. He wasn't looking forward to that conversation later on. "I don't know what Bronev could be keeping from her, though."

"Well, Emmy told me that they were inseparable for years," Brenda said. "It must be from before they met, because he was in prison until very recently."

"Hmm..." the professor thought.

"Do you think... it's about the fire?" Luke asked. "I mean... what else would he want to keep from her?"

"I think you're spot on, my boy," the professor said.

"But what could he possibly know about the fire if he only met Emmy after the fire?" Brenda asked.

The professor paused, deep in thought once more. "I'm not sure..."


Emmy ran down the street, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of her uncle, or Celeste. She had to know if what the professor had said was true. She spotted her uncle and Celeste walking up the road on the opposite side to her, chatting. Her uncle didn't look happy.

"Right," Emmy said to herself, and she crossed the road. They stopped when she got to the other side.

Bronev forced a fake smile on his face. "Hello, Emmeline. I wasn't expecting you to be out so late. I thought that you would be resting."

"Um... no," Emmy stopped. She was angry with her uncle for supposedly keeping something from her, but she couldn't just bite his head off there and then. She loved him too much to do that, especially in public. She swallowed. "Are you okay, Uncle Leon? You seem a bit... off."

"Oh... I'm alright, Emmeline. Thank you. But you seem a bit off yourself."

"Um..." Emmy took his arm. "Well... I need to talk to you... later."

"About what?" Bronev looked at her.

"I... I told Hershel..." Emmy swallowed. "About Vaughan. When he kidnapped me, I mean. I didn't tell him—"

"I understand," Bronev said softly, placing an arm around her shoulders. "How did he react?"

"He took it quite well, considering. I suppose he had to... I was crying..."

Bronev kissed Emmy's forehead. "When was this?"

"Yesterday, about an hour or so before you arrived."

"I see. Well, at least you're trying to keep Layton in the loop." Bronev smiled.

"He is very suspicious of you, though. And Celeste."

"Well, we knew that from the off, didn't we?" Bronev smiled.

"Luke said that he overheard you and Celeste talking about something you're supposedly keeping from me."

Bronev and Celeste stopped in their tracks. They both froze.

"Did... did he specify?" Bronev choked.

"No," Emmy said. "But I can tell right now that you are. Tell me."

Celeste sighed. "You know that Leon is only trying to protect you—"

"I understand that," Emmy said. "But I need to know what it is, at least before Hershel finds out. And he will."

Bronev sighed. "It's Vaughan..."

"What about him?" Emmy asked.

"He is the same person that I saw that day... when Rachel and I were taken away from the boys..."

Emmy covered her mouth. She looked shocked.

So did Celeste.

"WH... why didn't you ever tell me?" Emmy said, choked.

"I didn't want to upset you even more," Bronev said, hugging her tighter. "You're in enough of a state as it is."

"Oh, Uncle Leon..." Emmy sounded on the verge of tears as her face was buried into Bronev's jacket.

"It's alright," Bronev whispered. "You know now. That is all that matters." He kissed her forehead again.

Bronev and Celeste's eyes met. Celeste glared at Bronev. She shook her head. "Bad move, Leon," she thought. "Bad move. That'll only make things ten times harder for you when the time comes that you'll actually have to tell her."


"... and I have one other question. Why would Vaughan really want the Grounds of Rebirth? Targent is finished. Does he just want to make money off of it or does he actually want to bring someone back?" Luke asked.

"I believe Jai said something about that before, did she not?" Layton asked.

"Yes," Aurora said. "She said that Vaughan wanted to bring back a dead relative or something. I can't really remember..."

"I understand. Neither can I, really. We shall ask her later. Where is she?"

"She passed us on the way back from town, but Sinead was in control," Luke said. "I think she as going for chips... as usual..."

The professor smiled. "I will talk to her when she returns. But it is entirely possible that he holds both of these motives as reasons of why he would do these things."

"Yeah," Flora said. "But Professor, he has spies in the resistance too, doesn't he? Who are they?"

"I'm not sure," the professor said. "There is a distinct possibility that there are several spies in this sector and they have been there since the very beginning, waiting for their chance to strike and steal all of the artefacts, and they are still waiting. We must figure out a way to keep the artefacts from them."

"But Jai says that it is fruitless to stop them from getting hold of the artefacts," Aurora pointed out. "What will we do?"

The professor sighed. "I really don't know," he said. "This entire case has me baffled. This really is a confusing one, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Luke agreed. We still have so many questions that have gone unanswered tonight. How Emmy really knows Vaughan, Bronev keeping things from Emmy, Vaughan's true intentions and those spies... I'm baffled alright."

"Perhaps over time, more clues will emerge that will answer our questions," the professor said. "I believe that our answers will emerge as soon as we get hold of the final artefact. We must speak to Jai and get hold of the artefact as soon as possible."


Sinead walked up the road back to the estate, her stomach full. She was happy. For now.

Vaughan crept around her vicinity, doing his seventh best to keep behind her and to remain unnoticed by her. Even if Sinead was off guard, Jai would still be present to watch out for him. He had to be careful. He drew out his weapon – the Pulemyot Kalashnikova machine gun – featured in every major conflict since the Vietnam War – made in Russia. It shoots 750 rounds of 54mm bullets – that would be more than enough to kill the girl.

He felt his hands sweat as he held the gun in his hands. He didn't know why he felt like this – it wasn't as though he had never killed before. Although, he didn't particularly like his last experience of murder either. It was that murder which had started the chain reaction that caused this whole situation to occur.

Vaughan shook his head. He was angry at himself for not killing the girl (again). He decided to take the way out he took two months ago – the first time he shot this girl down. She would survive – yet again – but it didn't matter either way. So long as Vaughan got the sword at least. That was all that mattered.

Vaughan quickly and carefully unassembled his PKM and put it back into its case. He pulled out a pistol instead and took careful aim, taking care to only graze the girl, as he did before. He waited until she got to a reasonable distance and pulled the trigger.

This bullet had its desired effect – Sinead was hit in the temple, but only grazed. She fell to the ground as passersby looked on in panic.

Vaughan tore off up the road. "Get out of my way!" he yelled to whoever passed him. He shoved anyone who was in his way and ran up to the girl.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. She looked at him, dazed. "Thanks," she mumbled.

"Thank you," he smiled, and he plunged his hand into her pocket and grabbed the sword.

"Oh... no..." Sinead went white and looked incredibly frail as Vaughan ran further away, into a Rolls Royce and sped off in the opposite direction.

Sinead staggered, grabbing onto a nearby fence. She felt her head – she had been grazed again. "I gotta get home," she mumbled faintly, staggering up the road once more.


"Where is Jai?" Aurora asked worriedly, "She should be here by now."

"I'm not sure, Aurora," Flora replied, also looking worried.

A slight commotion could be eard downstairs. Flora frowned.

"Let's go," she said, getting up and heading downstairs.


Aurora was about halfway down when she caught sight of Sinead's bloody head. Sinead looked at her guiltily.

"The sword... it's been stolen," she said, close to tears. "Jai... she's gonna kill me when she gets back."