A/N: The reason I am playing that V doesn't like guns is that is how I read it in the book, Thousand Dollar Tan Line. She didn't like them, at least that is how I perceived it. Thanks.

Chapter 20 Foreboding

Keith had scheduled their flight for 6:10 the next morning. They all knew that the early trip to the airport merited them to all turn in early. Talking briefly about what Norris had confided to them about what Lamb had ordered, all three accepted that sleep at this point might be a better plan instead of hashing it over that night.

Mac was pleased at how easily Dick gave in to sleeping on the couch, because she had figured it would be another night on the floor of Veronica's room for her. She had assumed he would throw a fit when she didn't invite him into her room or into her bed. Of course, thinking back to how shitty she had treated him earlier in the day, she really shouldn't have been surprised. Mac just wasn't ready to apologize or say anything at all to him about…them. Whatever 'they' were, she still wasn't ready to face it. So, feeling like the coward she figured he thought she was, she locked herself in her room for the night. Mac could feel his eyes on her when she turned back to slowly close her door. His stare proved too strong and she met it, causing her heart to tighten in her chest while he held her gaze. His eyes were asking permission to join her. She could see it. Not responding to his silent request, she finished pushing the door closed and the tie was broken. She crawled into her bed exhausted and, trying to ignore the distraction of the smell Dick's skin in her sheets, fell asleep immediately.

The sky was the clichéd vanilla. Mac stood at the end of a well-manicured neighborhood looking at how each yard perfectly trimmed with white picket fences and a vibrant array of flowers in each home's windows. Dick was with her, suddenly walking up the front steps of one of the nicely kept houses and ringing the doorbell for her. He held her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "This will be fine. Dinner and then we can get out of here."

They stood, smiling at each other, not noticing anything else around them. She leaned up into him, letting his lips lightly touch hers. Just as he began to deepen the kiss, the door opened to reveal Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair, beaming out at them over the threshold. "We're so glad you could come, Mac. We didn't know if you would. Oh, and Dick, what great timing! Madison is waiting for you." The two outside broke their embrace. Dick disappeared instantly as her mother told her, "Honey, we'll see you a little later. Go on in and make yourself comfortable inside."

In a flurry, Mac was alone, waiting for whatever it was that she was waiting for in the living room. The room was filled with pictures, of the Sinclair's on vacation, with groups of friends, and there, at the end of a long row, was a picture of Mac from elementary school. It seemed out of place, as if hung quickly to hide the fact that there were no other pictures of her included in the collage.

Lauren appeared, her head shaved, the scarf missing, her eyes wide and round as saucers. "Madison?" Confused, Mac just watched her. Again, Lauren asked, "Madison?" and then turned and walked out of the room. Alarmed, Mac felt compelled to follow her out of the room and up the stairs to a long hallway filled with closed doors. Lauren had disappeared and Mac felt the beginnings of panic. "Lauren? Lauren?"

Trying all of the knobs but finding none would turn Mac's heart began beating erratically, the sour taste of bile filling the back of her throat. She began banging on each door, calling out her sister's name in terror. Finally, at the end of the hallway, after trying what seemed like twenty doors, one opened. She stepped into a well-lit room, white and cottony. There was a bed in the midst of the cloud-like atmosphere, and there were two lovers, naked and writhing, in the center of the bed. Mac's eyes were unable to tear away from the scene as the woman, who was on top, flipped her blond hair back in ecstasy, the man's hands running smoothly down her arms as she laughed in pleasure.

The woman must have heard Mac's gasp because she looked back at her and Mac could see it was Madison. The blond looked pleased to be caught. Not wanting to look, but looking nonetheless, Mac watched in revulsion as Dick rose up from beneath Madison to pull her towards him as she bucked into him, all her attention back on him. They came together, both shouting out their pleasure into one another's mouths but when Madison looked back at her it wasn't Madison that Mac was now watching, it was her own self, with a smirk on her face like she was the cat that swallowed the canary. Dick's head was buried in her neck, his hands raking down her back as Mac pulled at his blond locks to pull his mouth into hers. The guttural noises they were both making were erotic as they began their frenzied coupling. The Mac in Dick's arms was coming undone as he kissed his way down her neck.

All at once, Dick was looking at her, the Mac in the doorway, a smile on his face, and swiftly, the Madison/Mac person was gone and Dick's eyes were huge and blue, staring at her, waiting. Willing her to come to him, to lie next to him, he patted the spot next to him. "I've been waiting for you." His lips didn't move but she could hear his voice, a pleading tone as he crooked his finger at her, "Come here and let me show you just how much I need you."

Unable to resist, she stepped further into the room, suddenly finding herself next to him in the bed. His hand caressed her face, and he tipped his mouth to hers, his tongue lining her lips before he delved into the depths of her. Sighing, she pulled herself closer to him, realizing belatedly that she was now naked against him. "Why can't it always be easy like this?"

His fingers skimmed her back, reaching up to gently take a fist full of her hair, pulling her enough away from him to look in her eyes. "You can't fight this forever, Mac. It can be easy if you would just let it be. I want it just as much as you." Rubbing his chest against hers, Mac could feel his erection pressing into her belly. "You don't have to make it so difficult."

Becoming distracted by his caresses and his magic hands was exactly what she needed. Mac didn't say anything as Dick began working his way down her body, his tongue leaving a burning trail, his touch evoking a feverish rush of pleasure; but just as suddenly as it had begun it stopped. She opened her eyes to find that he had risen back to look at her, concern in his expression. "Why are you crying?"

"Am I?" Her hands reached to touch her face and she felt the tears coating it. She hadn't even realized there were tears, but the proof was there. She shrugged. "You know what they say."

Dick looked confused. "No. I don't. I'm just a burned out surfer, right? How would I know what they say?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly she was no longer with him, instead standing in front of an open window, dressed in a white silky robe, looking out into an open field, the sun beating down brightly. Mac tried to step out into the field, but there was an invisible barrier keeping her from crossing to the outside. Instead of fighting it, she just observed what was going on in the field, resigned to the fact that she could only watch.

Lauren was in the field, appearing from nowhere, sitting on a blanket, her hair long and luxurious, her coloring healthy and vibrant. She had a wide smile on her face as she pulled fried chicken from a red-checked lined wicker picnic basket. Ryan was sitting next to her, taking the food she pulled out from within the basket, helping her with the task. They were laughing and visiting, acting as if they had always known each other. Acting like family.

Further out in the field, she saw Dick. Distressingly, he was talking to both of her father's, a football in his hand. He kept tossing it in the air and catching it, but in between all of that he seemed to sense her gaze on him and his eyes honed in on hers, a slight smirk forming at his mouth. He mouthed something meant only for her, but she couldn't quite catch it. From the corner of her eye, she detected more movement, and she turned to see both Natalie and Elizabeth, her mothers, visiting together, hugging. Mac looked around the whole field, feeling like something or someone was missing. In vain she searched; there was no one and nothing else to see. Her eyes once again caught Dick's; his smile inviting and warm.

There was a movement behind her and she jumped, startled.

"They look so happy," Madison said, coming up beside her, dressed in a black silk robe. "Why aren't we?"

Mac regarded her for a long moment. "Sometimes I wonder if I even know how to be happy."

Madison laughed. "You can't be afraid of being happy. I think that's how it works. Sometimes you have to just jump."

Whatever that meant. Turning back to the window, Mac found that she had somehow crawled onto the edge of the picture window and was, in fact, about to jump. Looking back at Madison in alarm, Mac asked her, "What am I doing?"

"Just jump." Madison stepped two steps closer, arms extended as she pushed Mac out of the window. Screaming, Mac flailed her arms out, trying to catch herself. The ground hadn't seemed all that far below, but the sensation of falling was not abating. Grappling with the air, Mac couldn't seem to slow down her fall. She heard laughter above her and could see Madison leaned out of the window, waving to her as she continued her descent.

Again, the scenery changed, and Mac was now sitting in the passenger seat of a car. The trees and buildings outside were zooming by, evidence of how fast the driver was speeding. Feeling out of control, she turned to yell at the driver to slow down, but nothing would come from her mouth when she realized that the driver was Dick. He was absorbed in his driving, not even noticing her sitting next to him. His hands were tight around the steering wheel and he was glaring out of the window, intent on his destination.

Abruptly he turned up a heavily wooded path, one with twists and bends as it made its way up a gravel road. He acted as if he knew where he was going, guiding the car around the turns easily and coming to a sudden stop in front of a small log cabin. Throwing the car into park, he jumped out, racing to the front door. Mac watched, helpless, as the door of the cabin opened and a masked man appeared, a gun pointed straight at Dick, who had yet to see him, so determined he was to get to the front door. She yelled out in alarm as a shot rang out….

Launching herself up out of bed, Mac jolted awake. Panicked, she began breathing through her nose and out of her mouth, trying to calm herself down. Hands shaking, she crept to the door of her room and peeked out to the living room, where she could see Dick in a heap of blankets on the ground, his hand exposed and extended towards her room, fingers curled up toward the ceiling. It took all of her will to not go crawl in under the blankets next to him. She thought back to the previous morning; how she had done just that: crawled in beside him. He had been so receptive to her advances. It would be easy to do again. But she just wasn't ready to deal with the repercussions of the aftermath of another morning like the last.

Fighting the urge to open the door wider and join him on the floor, Mac determinedly shut it instead. Not in the least bit wanting to go back to sleep for another one of those doozies of a dream, however, Mac pulled out the zip drive that Veronica had given her earlier. Fingering it, she thought about what all it could contain. She was surprised that neither she nor Veronica had ever completely gone through the list contained on the drive; but she knew that once Veronica had decided to leave Neptune all those years ago with every part of her previous life packed up, Mac had assumed she should do the same, to not tempt fate. She had taken the zip drive along with many of her other "Q"-esque-type spy gear and packed it away without so much as a second thought.

But then Veronica had returned to town. And Mac decided right away to return to that previous, more enjoyable life of the spy-world. Quitting Kane Software was Step One. She had come to help with Veronica temporarily and it had evolved into a full-time job. Step Two was taking the PI test, which she easily passed. She already had taken the concealed weapons portion of it, and already had her permit.

Her father had always been anal when it came to her safety. All growing up, he had taken her to the shooting range, lecturing her about the dangers of hiking (because apparently he thought she would continue that trend when she grew up) where wild animals lived. He wanted her safe. He claimed that bear spray just wasn't enough sometimes. The animal-lover in her had always poo-pooed his theory. But the daughter in her had merely rolled her eyes while she went along with his lectures, attending the classes with him as an excuse for father-daughter the first year of college happened. She had moved out of the house and into the dorm, and there was a fire-storm in her family's household. Her parents were worried about her, about the rapes on campus, especially because one had occurred within the walls of her actual dorm room. It didn't help that they were still upset over the whole Cassidy ordeal.

She would never forget the summer after that first year when she had moved home to save money. Her dad had given her a gun and told her that he wanted her to be a smart single woman, aware of the dangers of the world. He had been intense with his lecturing. He had enrolled her in an all-women's shooting class and encouraged, no, demanded, she get the Concealed Weapons Permit. At the time, she had felt like she was humoring his over-protective fathering. But later, when she had moved into her own apartment, alone with no roommate, she had been comforted that she knew how to protect herself. Mac had kept the trend up; enrolled in defense courses, learning how to avoid and fight off potential threats and attacks.

So, when Mac had become a full-time, licensed employee of Mars, Investigations, her 'training' was a huge bonus to Keith. He rarely used her in the field, but when he did, it was with confidence that he wasn't sending a novice out that would get herself killed first rattle out of the bag. Although he hadn't exactly sent her on any death-defying cases, not yet, anyway. This case might just mark the beginning of that.

Step three in returning to the spy-world had been to open her bag of tricks from the past and go through them. Many of the items were outdated, seeing as it had been almost ten years that she'd owned them. But some things, such as the Castle's list, would never be outdated. She had brought that drive, along with a few other items, to keep in MI's safe, considering it information that the whole 'office' had a right to. In the back of her mind, she had wondered if and when they might need to access the list. She just never assumed it would involve Dick Casablancas and Madison Sinclair.

Taking her laptop out of her messenger bag, Mac booted it up. Taking the zip drive, she loaded it onto her desktop. Then she made a second copy of it on a second jump drive and put that directly into her bag. Then she took the original zip drive out of her computer. She purposely went into her bathroom and opened the bottom cupboard and pulled out an opened box of tampons. She unwrapped one and buried the unused tampon into the garbage. Taking the wrapper, she stuffed the zip drive into it and placed it, opened side down, back into the box. Satisfied that it didn't look suspicious, Mac placed the box back into the very back of the cupboard and shut the door, brushing her hands off as she went back into her room. If I seem paranoid, screw it. Better to err on the side of caution.

It was time to get up. If they didn't get moving, they would be late for their early morning flight. Putting her computer back into her bag, she doubled checked her carry-on as she got ready for the day. Wearing jeans and a t-shirt, she pulled out a pair of hiking boots that were barely broken in. Her parents had tried years ago to get her into the back-country spirit, but it had been in vain. The boots had sat in the back of her closet since high school. Once she had moved out of the house, the boots had served other purposes, like as a door stop. Her father would be proud to know she would be tying them on later today. They would most likely be hiking in wooded mountains by noon, if everything went according to plan. She stuffed them into the top of her bag, barely able to zip it up. Bracing herself, she then stepped out into the living room and kicked Dick's hand that hadn't moved from where it had snaked out of his blanket.

"Wakey-wakey."

He groaned. "Too early."

Mac bent down and pulled the covers off from over his head. "Didn't you tell me just this week that beauty sleep is for pussies?"

One blue eye poked open, combating the light streaming through the window behind him. "That was a line I fed you just to annoy you. I need all the beauty sleep I can get." He pulled the pillow that his head was on up and over his face. Crabbily, he said, "Leave me alone."

"Ooh, is the Dickster grumpy?" She teased him, "Poor baby."

Throwing the pillow aside, Dick abruptly sat up. "Fine. You win. But there better be sex or coffee involved."

Sucking in a sharp breath, Mac retorted, "The only thing remotely to sex you're gonna get will have to be with your hand, sorry." She turned to make her way back toward Veronica's room, telling him as she went, "But if you hurry along, I'll treat for coffee on the way."

"Well, if you're sure…" Dick called out after her, "but you know, I can make it worth your while."

How right he was. Mac shot him an exasperated look. She was barely able to see him from the dimness of the morning, but there was enough light for her to see his blanket pooling about his bare torso, the look he was giving her positively lecherous. She flipped him the bird.

Laughing, he responded by standing straight up out of the covers, his boxer briefs barely hiding his obvious arousal. "You know, Mackie, fighting this won't work forever." He turned in circles, looking for his jeans. "You don't have to make it so difficult."

Ignoring him as best she could, and trying to pretend that his words didn't bring her back to her earlier dream, Mac knocked loudly on Veronica's door. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead." Turning the knob, she slipped inside to make sure Veronica was awake. At least that's what she told herself she was doing.

Less than two hours later, they were leaving her car in the long-term parking lot. They each lugged in their carry-ons to the check-in counter, checked the guns as promised, went through security, and soon were on the plane. They lucked out with their seating arrangement; they got a whole row to themselves. Because of this, Mac sat in the middle so they could see the screen of her laptop when she went through the member's names of the Castle. Once the captain cleared the device restriction, she was booting her computer up and clicking into the file she had downloaded earlier, accessing the list.

She began scrolling slowly through it and Dick whistled, impressed. "Do I even want to even ask how you got this list?" He pointed at a name with a date next to it. "1978? Is that even relevant?"

"Trust me, Dick; everything is relevant when it comes to this list." Veronica looked around; glad to see that it was early enough most everyone around them had taken to dozing in their seat. "Keep your voice down. You never know who's listening in."

Typing in some code, Mac quickly merged the names on the list in an excel document. "Now we should be able to find their names a little easier." She typed in 'Muldoon' and right away both Patrick's (2005) and Aidan's (2000) name popped up. "Well, there's the proof they're a part of it."

"How many other Muldoon's are there? Is their father or grandfather part of it?" Veronica asked voice low. She propped her elbow on the arm rest between them to lean in closer to the screen. "How far back are their ties?"

Mac scrolled through the search menu. "Looks like they were the first in their family."

"Interesting that they both got in," Veronica said, "I wonder what their grades were like." She looked at Dick. "I never asked, but was your dad a member?"

He emphatically shook his head. "I doubt it. Dad got his degree freaking online." Both women looked at him. "I'm kidding." Grinning he cocked his head, "But I think it was either White Collar Crime University or S.Y.O.U., Screw You Over University. Seems it was one or the other, I can't remember which off the top of my head. He graduated Summa Cum Laude, though, if it matters. That's something."

Choosing to ignore him, Veronica murmured to Mac, "Search for Jeffrey Sinclair."

Quickly typing, she found no match. Breathing a silent sigh of relief, she caught Veronica's eye, who nodded in encouragement, said, "Told ya. Let's see, hmmm…try Tennison. Let's see if there happens to be a connection at all between those guys."

Mac typed in the name, and came up once again empty. Surprised, she said, "I would have bet my left arm they were involved somehow." She typed in 'Lamb'. Again, nothing.

Veronica didn't respond, instead turning to ask Dick, "Back at Hearst, did you know anyone else that was part of this group?"

Dick took a few minutes to think about it. "I don't think so. But it's a…" lowering his voice, "secret, Ronnie. I don't think you're supposed to know who's in it until you're in."

"What about the guy, the one that came to you to begin with?" Veronica mouthed the words, 'who tapped you.' "Do you know if he was a part of it?"

Shaking his head, Dick answered, "No, he wasn't part of it. They paid him or something."

"But he had to know something, because he knew enough to talk to you. I wonder how they choose the people to do that part of it." Pulling out a pen and paper from within her messenger bag, Veronica wrote at the top Involved. Drawing one line off of it, she wrote Members and a straight line below it, writing the initials of the people they knew for certain were a part of it. She then drew another two lines off of Involved, writing Messengers and Tapped, respectively, below them. "Somehow, we've got to figure out who those messengers are. It could be as simple as them paying off a class member or just some random guy. But I remember when Wallace was approached; he said the kid told him quite a bit of information. More than a random person would normally know. Was that the same for you?"

"Man, Veronica, we're talking over eight years ago!"

"Yes, and I remember it clearly as if it were yesterday. Why can't you?"

He glared at her. "Probably because it only just started mattering like two days ago," he told her in irritation. "Maybe Wallace would remember more than what I do. Have you asked him? You realize I was drunk half the time back then." He took a breath to calm himself. "I told you the other day, yeah, the guy that came to me and he went through a schpeel. I guess he knew more than a random dude would who was paid that day. He asked if I understood what the offer was and if I agreed to the terms," shrugging, he said, "Idiot that I am, I said yes, like I told you before."

Lost in thought, Veronica murmured, "I haven't talked to Wallace, but I ought to. He's been pretty busy with his camp, maybe I can get a hold of him tonight." She wrote W.F. and D.C. underneath Tapped. "Is there any way you can remember what the guy looked like?"

Frustrated, Dick rubbed his eye sockets with his forefingers. "Are we kidding here? How the hell am I supposed to remember that?"

"Young, old, black, white?" Veronica pressed, looking at him in mock sympathy. "Come on, Dick, work with me here."

"I have absolutely no freaking idea. Only beside the fact that he was most likely college-aged, because I probably would have noticed if he would have been fifty years old or something. That's all I can say for sure."

Mac held up her hand. "Why don't you two cool your jets for a while, enjoy the scenery, Dick, since you got the window seat. Maybe sleep. Try to think back and try to remember. We'll be there before you know it. I'm going to peruse this list. See if anything jumps out at me. I haven't looked at it in ages. I can't work with the two of you bickering back and forth over the keyboard."

They took the hint, both aware that Mac had a point and that maybe she could work better in silence. Not long after, Dick leaned his seat back the generous two inches allowed each seat and closed his eyes to sleep. Veronica began going through her notes, rustling the papers back and forth, back and forth, marking this and that with a highlighter, randomly jotting notes down once and a while.

Beginning from the last year of information they had, Mac decided to work backwards. It would be easier to go from year to year she figured, because by name just seemed too random and hectic in her mind. They only knew a few of the names as it was, so names wouldn't necessarily mean anything to her until she could connect them with years.

Before she started, however, she went back to Aidan Muldoon's information and clicked through it. There was evidence of a sound-bite file, which she assumed would be his deep-dark secret told at hell night. She couldn't open it in the Excel file and didn't want to open the actual file while in public. That would have to wait. There were columns for each person, with their address, occupation, and other such pertinent information. According to the list, Aidan was already working at First Trust Bank while Dick was a student at Hearst. Checking, she could see that Patrick was two years ahead of Dick at Hearst and still a student at the time they had obtained the Castle's roster. She wished there was a way to access a picture of the guy. So far the only time any of them remembered seeing him was at the reunion, and at the time, no one knew it was important to stamp his face in their memory.

Taking the pen out of Veronica's hand, Mac wrote on the top of her friend's paper 'photo of P.M.' and handed the pen back to her friend. Veronica read what she wrote and nodded. "I should have already done that. I'll text Dad when we land and have him work on it. That shouldn't be too hard. I bet if we had time to look ourselves, that we could find one of him on his real estate website."

They were silent again, both engrossed in their projects. Mac turned her attention again to the file, typing in 2007 to see what names it held. Wallace's name was there, along with a few others that Mac vaguely recalled. Tagging those, she went on to the previous year. She was surprised at the amount of men considered versus the amount that joined. Not everyone seemed to accept the terms given when first approached. There were a few on this list marked 'no' who seemed to be the ones that refused right away. There were a few marked as 'kicked out'; Wallace was one of those. Mac knew for a fact that Wallace made it to Hell night and then was kicked out for breaking the rules. She wondered if he had felt any repercussions throughout the years like Dick had. It may have not have been a smart move, bringing a camera into the Hell night thing. Those in charge most likely didn't appreciate what Wallace had tried to do.

Again, she took the pen from Veronica and wrote on top of the paper, 'Wallace, ramifications for saying no?' and handed it back to Veronica, waiting for a reaction to the question. Eyeing Mac's writing, Veronica sucked in an air of breath, blowing it out slowly. "God, I hope not."

Veronica was feeling antsy. She wanted to call Wallace, but she was stuck on a frakking plane. All these years, she had worried about Logan with that stupid Russian Gorya and now, she was worried about Wallace. Why had she never thought to worry about Wallace? He attempted to do just as much damage or more to the Castle than Logan had ever done. Logan didn't even know much about the Castle, as far as Veronica knew. Gorya was one thing, something that Logan had obviously overcome, but the Castle seemed to be another force altogether. They were subtle in their dealings, as evidenced with Dick and his foundation. They made you fail without you ever realizing why. She needed to talk to Wallace.

But that would have to wait. Getting this trip out of the way was first priority, and then she could worry about Wallace. Thankfully, they were beginning their descent. Before much time, they were landing and pulling up to their terminal with everyone around them packing their belongings and heading off the plane. The three of them followed suit, each tightly clutching their bags, unwilling to lose even for a moment any of their things.

Once off the plane, they found the area to claim their guns and then went down to the car rental area to find the car rental company that Keith had already called in advance and picked up the car they would be using for the weekend. Smartly, Keith had requested an SUV that could handle dirt roads, because from what they understood and had seen on google maps, they had some back country to drive in. Not much, but enough to warrant a trusty vehicle. They signed the papers and headed on their way.

Electing Veronica as driver, they all piled into the vehicle and headed east. The airport sat just northwest of the city and they needed to be in the midst of the mountains to the east, where I-80 led up through a canyon to where Park City sat just off of the freeway. According to the directions they had, Veronica knew that the cabin actually was another forty or so minutes from Park City itself, just past the small town of Oakley. They had a bit of a drive yet to go before they would be even near the vicinity, and even then, it would take some time to find the right area of cabins. The Tennison's had given them two separate keys: a key card that would let them through the gate of the cabin's association and then a key that opened the actual cabin's door. Veronica was a little uncertain of how easy it would be to find either one of those things. Earlier in the week, she had gone over the map with her dad, but had found that most GPS's didn't even show the area past the little town of Oakley. The cabin sat somewhere to the north of that town, up a draw toward Wyoming. It was giving her a headache just thinking about trying to find it.

It was a warm day. Veronica was surprised at how hot it had been when they stepped out of the airport and headed to their car, still well before noon. The car had registered ninety-nine degrees, and she could feel all ninety-nine of them. The sun beat into the windows of the car until they began up the canyon, at the mouth it had become shaded with small flashes of sunlight every few miles. As they got further up the canyon, the heat was dropping, but not as much as she had anticipated.

Traffic was light compared to California. She was able to zip right through the city and start up Parley's Canyon, a steep incline of freeway that was full of semi-trucks headed back east. Mac had pulled her laptop back out as soon as they had gotten in the car but had given up because of the lighting. It was impossible to see her screen, she claimed, saying that trying to concentrate on it made her car sick, so instead she had elected to enjoy the scenery.

The mountainsides reflected the heat, already the grass was light yellow with dryness, a tinderbox waiting to be lit. It was a wonder this area didn't have more fires that made national news, Veronica thought absently, by the look of the land, it had the potential to burn for months. The mountains themselves were majestic, however, huge and interestingly not lined with trees like Veronica had expected. Down low where the road cut through the canyon, it was more rocky terrain and grassy, its own sort of beautiful, rugged and steep.

Approaching the exit to Park City, the GPS directed them past that to the next few exits down, leading them around the outskirts of the resort town, up and through an open area that dropped by a large lake, then turning off of that road and up another highway that dropped down into small little country town. It was more hilly here than mountainous, the trees and foliage more prominent. Turning at the four-way the highway led them to, they again bypassed most of what they assumed to be the town, driving another few miles until they were at yet another four-way, where the GPS's direction abruptly ended. They were close.

Pulling over, Veronica checked her mirrors to ensure that no one was behind them and then turned to look at both Mac, who was in the front seat, and Dick, in the back. "Well, are you all ready for this?"

Having been working on her phone, Mac put it away and frowned. "How ready can we be? It's not like you can prepare for something we don't even know what to prepare for. This guy could let us in with a smile or shoot us out with a machine gun."

"Nothing has suggested this guy will be going the way of the Young Guns."

Clearly distressed, Mac responded, "That we know of."

"He doesn't know we're onto him. He actually should be in Salt Lake right now for that conference, and then be here later tonight. I think we can get in, find what we need, aka, Madison, and be out before he even knows we were here. If we can find proof of his fraud, we can call in the local authority and let them handle it from there. We just need to prove it before we can call them in." Veronica paused. "If we can't find proof, we let Dad handle it in Neptune. But I think everything on our end should be tied up in a nice little bow by the end of the afternoon."

"A bow, huh?" Dick supplied from the back seat, "Past knowledge of your little escapades tells me that a nice little bow means life-threatening situation. Where did you put those guns?" He unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned over the back, rummaging through their things, looking for the firearms. "And, by the way, wherever your dad booked us for the night better have a freakin' big-ass hot tub, because after this little present wrapping is done, I'm gonna need it."

A/N: Thanks again for reading this. I hope you are enjoying it. I may have gone a little over-board with the descriptions of the mountainside, but I have way more knowledge about the woods than the ocean, so that is why I went on and on, sorry. Hopefully, it wasn't too much of a filler for you all. The next chapter is the break-in. Thanks!