The next morning, Sam, Clover and Alex had decided to reconvene at the Mali-U cafe to go over what they had learnt so far about the missing lamp, with Daphne planning to join them, once she had dropped Trevor off at his boarding school for the term. The cafe had recently been reopened, having needed to be rebuilt after being trashed in the Protection Droid skirmish a couple of years ago. The damage had been so extensive that Virgil had to close the place for repairs, which meant the the girls lost their jobs in the process. But now the place was back in business and as the spies entered the building, they grinned to see that the cafe had been fully restored to its former glory.
"Hey there, girls," called out Virgil, waving at them from behind the counter.
"Hi, Virgil. Sweet job you've done getting this place sorted," commented Clover as the girls walked over to their former employer.
"Totally! You'd never think that it was once smashed up by a load of out-of-control robots," added Alex.
"Thanks, girls," grinned Virgil. "Love the new hairdo, by the way, Alex. Say, now that we're back in business, would you three be up for coming back here to work?"
"Sorry, Virgil, but we're way too busy with studies at present. But thanks for the offer," smiled Sam, as they ordered some coffee, and made their way over to one of the tables. A short while later, Daphne arrived to join them.
"Sorry I'm late, girls," said Daphne. "Principal at Trevor's school wanted to discuss some new after-class activities he thought Trevor might be interested in."
"No biggie," said Sam. "How did Jerry do looking after Trevor?"
"Pretty good, actually. They spent the whole time playing with Trevor's action figure collection. They were having such fun that I had a hard time convincing my new boss that it was time for him to head home! Anyway, getting back to the mission briefing, any new clues pop up?"
"Not really, Daph," sighed Clover. "Since seeing Frank, we haven't got one single lead!"
"Well, I did get the scanner watch to go over every detail of the lamp in that photo Frank gave us," cut in Sam, trying to give some positive input. "And the WOOHP database has found a match for that fancy light burner. Seems it has quite a history too."
"How so?" asked Daphne.
"Well, according to legend, the lamp originated from the ancient kingdom of Suruka. Several thousands of years ago, the gentle and peace-loving Princess of the kingdom was all set to be crowned Queen, but her younger, jealous sister had other ideas."
"Sounds a similar story to what happened between Queen Tassara and Makeda," commented Alex, remembering the mission that had occurred so early on in the spies' careers.
"Yeah, only this one didn't have such a happy ending," said Sam. "The younger sister used a magic spell to turn the Princess into a genie and imprisoned her in that lamp. Civil war broke out in the kingdom, and during the skirmish, the lamp was thrown into the rivers and washed away. It was thought to be lost forever."
"And what happened to the sister? Don't tell me she got away with betraying her own sister?" asked Daphne.
Sam grimaced a bit at the next bit of the story. "No, in the end, her side lost the war, and she was put on trial and, um... kinda lost her head. Literally."
Clover nearly choked on her latte upon hearing this. "Eww, that's just gross!"
"Totes!" agreed Alex. "So the lamp has been bouncing around the world all this time?"
"And now it's in the hands of this Dash Dawson guy," added Daphne. "But what would he want with it?"
"Wealth and power, probably," said Sam. "The legend further states that whoever possesses the lamp will be entitled to three wishes that the genie can grant."
"Oh man, with that kind of power, he could wish himself into becoming ruler of the world overnight!" realised Clover with horror.
"Exactly, so we need to find Dawson fast," said Sam. "Jerry's ordered an all-out search for him, and all airports and passenger terminals are being monitored, in case he tries to leave the country. The moment the search produces a lead, Jerry will call us."
"But at the moment, all we can do is sit back and worry," sighed Daphne.
As the girls fell into worried silence, Ray came into the cafe and went over to join them.
"Hey, everyone. Why the glum faces?" he asked, sitting down next to Alex.
"Oh, nothing, Ray," smiled Alex as she kissed her boyfriend on the lips. "Just potential 'end of the world' stuff."
Unsure whether Alex was joking or not, Ray decided that the girls could do with a change of topic. "Say, have you girls noticed something odd going on with Trent recently?"
"Odd? In what way?" asked Sam.
"In the way that he seems to have become a billionaire overnight!"
"Say what?" exclaimed Clover. "How did that happen?"
"No idea," said Ray with a shrug. "All we know is that he drove into Mali-U this morning with a spanking new car, really expensive clothes, and a girlfriend as well. Everyone tried to ask what was going on, and he just said that he came into some inheritance or something."
"Yeah, but a billion dollars? Something smells fishy here, cause I've never heard of Trent having any wealthy relatives," said Sam skeptically.
"Oh, I don't know. I've known stranger things happen in the fashion business," commented Daphne.
Whilst snuggling up to Ray, Alex just happened to glance at the entrance and noticed Trent coming in, accompanied by an attractive girl with long black hair.
"Whoa, you weren't kidding, Ray!" breathed Alex as she and the others stared at Trent, who looked far more happy with himself than they had ever seen him before. Gone was the overly-formal suit he had worn as Mandy's intern, replaced by a more casual attire consisting of a white t-shirt, a brown suede jacket and dark-blue jeans. He walked with a much more confident stride towards the cafe counter, arm-in-arm with his mysterious lady companion, who looked about her surroundings with some wonder.
"Whoa! You don't suppose he's got scorpion DNA in him again, do you?" gaped Clover, as they all took in this new Trent.
Sam rubbed her chin thoughtfully, her attention having shifted to the girl next to Trent. "Now where have I seen that face before...?"
Her eyes widened in sudden realisation and she quickly checked something on the screen of the scanner watch still attached to her wrist.
"No way! I don't believe it!"
"What's the matter, Sammy?" asked Alex as the other looked at her in puzzlement.
"When the WOOHP database came up with all that research into the lamp, it included an old painting of the princess before she got turned into a genie, and... well, see for yourselves!"
Sam held out the scanner watch for everyone at the table to see, and their eyes widened as they saw the image on the screen.
"Far out!" breathed Daphne. "It's the same girl who's with Trent!"
Clover rubbed her eyes in astonishment. "But that means Trent's girlfriend... is the long-lost princess of Suruka!"
As the girls were busy watching Trent and his genie girlfriend, none of them were aware that another pair of eyes were watching from a distance. Upon arriving back at his hideout, Dash Dawson had been dismayed to find that the lamp he had gone to so much trouble to steal was missing! He had quickly realised that he must have dropped it when that bird flew in his face, so he had made his way back to Mali-U as swiftly and discreetly as possible. This was not as easy as he would have preferred, for now every law enforcement agent was on the lookout for him, but eventually he found himself a good hiding place amongst some rocks, and he had begun scanning the area with some powerful binoculars. To his dismay, he had seen that the genie, whom he recognised from his research, was walking around with some guy, which presumably meant that he had the lamp! But what was worse, he could see those three pesky WOOHP spies as well, who had also seemed to have noticed the genie!
"Drat!" he swore to himself, as he realised that his task of recovering the lamp would be next to impossible to achieve on his own. He was going to need serious help if he was going to reclaim his prize and take care of those spies as well. Fortunately, he knew someone in Los Angeles who would be more than happy to help out. His French cousin, Caron de Verley, a suave master thief, who, unlike Dash, had never had the misfortune of crossing swords with WOOHP.
"Yes, Caron would be just the guy to help out with this ones," muttered Dawson with a thin smile, before he jumped out his hiding place and slipped away before anyone could notice him...