Skye took a bite of her second slice of pizza. She and the rest of the teens were in the family room, eating, while the adults were gathered in the kitchen and dining room. All the adults had shown up on time, Mike Peterson, Izzy and Vic, Bobbi and Hunter, Jessica Jones along with Jeri Hogarth, Akela Amador, and Clint.

Melinda was fairly quiet while everyone ate. She was still processing what Phil had told her about Raina confronting Skye. Her first instinct was to pull Skye out of school again and go down to the school to chew out the teacher and security for not protecting her kid. She managed to get one slice of pizza down and then grabbed one of the trays of desserts and headed into the family room. She stood at the entrance for a moment watching the teens. Donnie and Thomas were talking animatedly while shoving pizza down their throats, Jemma and Ryan were holding their own conversation, although quieter than the other one, but Skye was still and unnaturally quiet, chewing on a bite of pizza while staring off into space.

Melinda than cleared her throat moving into the room, "I brought dessert."

"Yay!" Donnie jumped up and took the plate from her setting it down on the coffee table. The others rushed over excitedly. Except Skye. She remained seated on the lounge chair. Melinda walked to her and sat down on the arm of the chair.

"You okay?"

Skye looked up at her and nodded.

"Phil made caramel apple mini tarts."

Skye smiled. "Yeah he was making them when I was on my computer. Maybe later."

"Okay. Not hungry huh?"

"Nah. I managed a slice and a half though."

"I only got one slice down. Come on. Take a walk with me."

Skye got up and followed Melinda to the door, both grabbing jackets from the foyer closet and they went out onto the porch.

Melinda glanced at the sky seeing that it was almost dark and spoke. "On second thought, let's stay here." She moved to sit on the swing on the porch and patted the spot next to her.

Skye sat down too and looked expectantly at Melinda.

"I got the whole story from Phil. About Raina and her cronies."

"Yeah I figured he told you. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry for what? You didn't do anything wrong."

"I didn't think. I didn't even notice how deserted the school was till I got to the bottom of the stairwell."

"Your teacher should not have asked you to stay that long without offering to walk you to Phil's classroom. You should never be that vulnerable in school."

"Okay."

"It won't happen again. Phil is going to talk to all the teachers, making sure they understand."

"Okay. I did start recording them on my phone."

"I heard."

"I might have stretched the truth a little, about a special phone ap and such."

Melinda laughed. "Yeah, but that's okay. And not far off from the truth. I'm pretty sure your hacking skills may be that good."

Skye smirked at her. "Probably. But someone made me promise to give that particular talent up."

"No, not give it up, just to channel that talent into more legal options."

"Right."

"You know my first reaction after he relayed the incident to me was to pull you back out of school."

"Really?"

"Yes really. I don't know why but those kids are out to get you. To intimidate you and even hurt you. It's worrisome."

"I was a little sacred. There were four of 'um. I wasn't gonna go down without a fight though. If it would've come to that."

"That's what worries me. I know you, Skye. I know you won't back down. I – I just don't want to see you get hurt any more than you already have been."

"Do you want me to back down?"

"When you're outnumbered sometimes it's best to cut your losses. I just don't want you to get hurt."

"Yeah you already said that." She grinned at Melinda. "Never had someone care so much about me before."

"You do now."

"Yeah." She was quiet for a moment. "I think she – I mean Raina was sending me a warning. She said we have no idea what we are up against. Said we can't win."

"Hmm. She's wrong."

"I just can't wrap my head around how she and they others at school fit into the big picture. Why is she with them? What is her angle? What does she get out of being so – being with – supporting JJ and Grant? I thought it was just a school hierarchy class thing. Jocks and cheerleaders, nerds and brainy kids, geeks, outcasts. Like just an entitlement thing cause some people are better off, or richer, or have sport talents and stuff. But – but it is more than that. It's not just exclusion from groups, it's downright threats and bodily harm and – and even rape."

"Manipulation and control."

"Yeah. But why? We have all these things we know, the school stuff, the weird cult group, St. Agnes, that rehab center, the other businesses, that lab – all connecting to the Brody's, Malick's, Ian Quinn and the Wards. Garrett and other teachers, and my former foster family. But what is the factor that connects everything. And why are Donnie and me in the middle of it? His mom. Her boyfriend. David Hamilton. The purple preacher guy. Raina. Ryan and his family. Thomas and his."

"Well, I guess that's what we are going to try to do. Connect people to people, maybe even events to people. Figure it out."

"You know the other thing is why are so many files just missing? Police files. Redacted files. Hospital files, St. Agnes files. Like they just disappeared into thin air? You know they don't, right? They are out there somewhere. I just wonder if that case Bobbi and Hunter talked about when they investigated that center as they said a while back, if that could be important?"

"It could. I'll mention that tonight. Maybe we can look through their case files. Mike and Izzy were looking at other cases."

"Mike is Ace's brother. He told me what happened to his brother. He was hurt around the same time that your son – that Jamey was – when you had the accident, right?"

"Yes. Before. A couple months before."

"And your friend, Akela, lost an eye from a gunshot?"

"Yes that was right around the same time too. Along with Idaho's car accident."

"Were you all working the same case? Was it about the Enlightenment Center?"

"No. Not really. Clint and his wife had split then too. She – she cheated on him. She was seeing Ian Quinn. Clint was with me, but his head was not really in the game. We were investigating the Momentum Labs explosion. Mike was following a case about a new illegal drug that was causing psychosis. A lot of the victims were from the area downtown. Akela and Idaho were working cases of prostitutes and homeless murders. Many times, the victims couldn't be identified."

"Sucks huh. When you realize there are connections but can't figure out why. Almost makes you want to hack into secure files."

"Skye." Melinda gave her a stern look. "But before that we were on another case about a possible cult with runaways being lured and never heard from again. That case took us upstate a bit to the country. A ranch actually. By the time we got there though it was abandoned, and no trace of any wrongdoing was found. We – um me, Akela, Idaho. Mike. And Clintwere on that one together with as few others. I just – I need to get – look up details. To see who else cause we had a couple lower agents and officers doing a lot of the grunt work." Melinda took in a sharp breath. "It was a strange time though. Police files went missing. Cameras stopped working. And evidence, mostly DNA tests mostly, were going missing. Drugs and weapons also disappeared. A mole within the police was suspected. But no official investigation ever happened. At least not one I was aware of." She paused and looked thoughtfully at Skye.

"Skye. How easy was it for you to hack those places?"

"Easy enough. I mean I'm super good at it. But a lot of the firewalls were easy to get by. Almost like the people who did it never suspected anyone would try to get in."

"How much land did you say Malick owns downtown by that Center."

"Almost all of it. Within about a five or six block radius. Under many subsidiaries. Here in Kingston and over in Lincoln Park. What's weird about them, something I caught – is both towns have the enlightenment centers, and a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, a subsidized day care, a halfway house, a women's group home shelter, a juvenile group home, a pharmacy, and business offices in both places. Also, there are low income housing projects bought out by Malick and he never raised the rent, which is weird cause he's gotta be losing money on them. That lab place has a smaller one in Lincoln Park. And Graviton United – Quinn's corporation has offices in both places and a factory of some kind here in Kingston. Four winds is also owned by Malick under the Summit Medical Group. A Daniel Whitehall runs it. He's in a couple pictures with purple preacher guy."

"Come on. You come with me. Everyone needs to hear all this."

"I have it all written down and I have the info I hacked."

"I know. But you also have up here." Melinda tapped Skye's head softly. "It's all fresh to you. I want you there. They will have questions and you can help piece everything together for us."

"Okay. Hey I need to talk to some of 'em first."

"To apologize?" Melinda smiled as Skye nodded slowly. "Okay. You do that first. Then be prepared for a ton of questions."

"Okay."

Skye went inside and found Bobbi and Hunter and apologized to them first. They took it rather well and Bobbi even told her someday she might make a good agent or cop. Hunter also took it in stride thanking her for not getting hurt, killed or kidnapped on his watch because he said that Melinda would have never forgiven him. His theatrics aside, it warmed her heart to know that they both cared enough about her to actually care about her and tell her. The next apology was to Victoria. For dragging Jemma into her plot and for using Jemma's computer. Victoria was actually dismissive of her telling her that Jemma made her own decisions although she did tell Skye she accepted her apology. After her apologies, Skye remained in the dining room with the adults, as they read through all the documents that she gave them, including both her and Thomas's notes on their respective pasts.

She sat next to Melinda and just listened to the adults as they shared information and thoughts on all the materials she had provided and those they had also brought along. Melinda was also quiet, but she was busy typing on her computer. Skye didn't know what Melinda was typing. She listened to the buzzing conversations as the adults talked about the things they were seeing. Finally, Jeri Hogarth quieted everyone, getting everyone's attention.

"Okay. We have all read a lot of this, but I think we should all focus on the same things now. Maybe start at the very beginning while someone takes extensive notes. Let's piece all this information together. Who can type fastest?"

Victoria spoke up. "Probably me. I can bullet point each thing and add in summaries and thoughts."

Jeri nodded and continued "Okay. Let's start with Skye and St. Agnes and the foster system. We know these things. Skye was dropped off as a baby at St. Agnes. The place was designated a Children's Group Home in 2001 for Ulster County supported by county funds. Before that it was run exclusively by the Catholic Churches, totally reliant on their support and public donations. In 2005, it was taken over by a company called Insight Corporation. Skye was dropped off there in the year 2004. Skye spent time at the Home but also was placed in many foster homes. Her files at St. Agnes were deleted, at least many of them. The Hamilton foster home ones for example. Also, there are no hospital files on that specific event that occurred at the Hamilton's. Skye was old enough to know what hospital she was in and it was the Ulster County Hospital. There should be records on her. Records on Donnie and Sara are also missing. And the Hamilton's appear to have fallen off the face of the earth."

"Until the kids saw them on Saturday night at the Unity Spiritual Center." Izzy added.

Jessica Jones shuffled some papers. "Which is also owned by Insight Corporation."

"Right." Vic spoke up. "Which is one of Malick's holdings. He owns the majority of the shareholders of Insight Corporation.

"And Ian Quinn owns the rest." Bobbi said.

"Wait. St. Agnes is owned by Insight Corporation?" Skye interrupted.

Jessica Jones answered. 'Yes. It's one thing I traced down. Through a source."

"A source?"

"Yup. No I'm not telling you the source. At least not now."

"But why would they buy out a group home and privatize it?" Skye wondered.

"Why indeed. Just add that to the many questions we have with no answers." Izzy spoke.

"All I know is they did the same with many other places, including Four Winds, homeless shelters and daycares." Jessica added.

"Okay so let's go over all the places Malick owns outright, or that Quinn owns, they own together, or own under other business entities." Vic stated. "Let's make a list. I have Skye's list here and let's talk it through, so we don't forget any."

"Okay." Izzy nodded. "First is St. Agnes and Unity Spiritual Center. And Four Winds Rehab."

Melinda added, "Momentum Labs, Quinn Technical Research Center, Summit Medical Group, Good Samaritan Homeless Shelter, Graviton United, Lydon Warehouses."

"That's where I was shot. In one of the warehouses." Mike interrupted. I thought Carter Lydon owned those?"

Skye nodded, "Yeah, his company is listed as the owner but digging deeper I found that it is a subsidiary of Malick Real Estate. As are many of the buildings like the gym, the pharmacy, the daycare. As well as all the housing down there in that area. It was a county government run low subsidy housing but when they were going to shut it down, Malick purchased it and kept it for lower income people. He didn't raise any of the rents and even started a program they could apply to that paid part of the rent."

"Which on the surface sounds great." Vic spoke.

"Altruistic." Izzy said sarcastically.

"Yeah. But what business mogul owns properties that they lose money on?" Skye asked.

"He pawns it all off on serving the community. Tax right offs as well." Akela answered. "Another part we are investigating. Business dealings and taxes."

"Okay. Before we go off on a different aspect, let's finish the properties." Vic suggested. "We can get back to that later."

"Anyway, Malick owns so much property downtown in both Kingston and Lincoln Park. All around both of the Unity Centers. For blocks and blocks. The daycares, homeless centers, soup kitchens, housing, halfway houses, group homes, warehouses, and science labs. What's the connection? Or connections?" Skye remarked.

"Maybe there isn't one?" Hunter shrugged. "Not to all of them at least. Maybe some are just coincidence."

"No, I don't think so. But I don't think the properties angle should be our focus. We should focus on the people connection of those properties. Like how they are all connected. The properties are important but focusing on the names of people could bring more answers. Least that's what I think." Bobbi looked around at everyone. "Like why that part of town, who benefits, and what illegal things, if any are going on in those buildings. We already know that the Unity Center is doing some kind of medical stuff in their basement, thanks to Skye."

"I agree Bobbi. We need to talk to people in that area. Visit the places, and nosy about. Could require some undercover work. But we should also focus on the past, particularly cases we all worked back around 2012." Melinda looked up from her computer. "I was talking to Skye earlier. Isn't it awfully strange that people who worked that Momentum Lab case and that cult case Akela and I along with many of you worked, had something very bad personally happen to us?"

"Yes." Izzy responded. "Mike and I have been going down that road. We talked about that a couple weeks ago. Right after Will Daniels was beat up and Skye came to live with you Mel."

"Don't forget Izzy, that the case I worked before that cult case with Melinda and the FBI, was the Christian Ward rape case." Mike added. "Then after that went bust, Melinda - you asked me and Clint and Idaho to help you and Akela on that weird cult case where parents were saying their kids were being experimented on. Runaways were saying they'd been held captive and experimented on."

Hunter interrupted. "Wait. We investigated something similar to that. I went in undercover, and we found nothing. We had gotten a lead by a drug dealer and nothing panned out. When was that, Bob?"

"Um that was back in 2015. What happened with your case?" Bobbi answered.

"We found a few runaways and reunited them with their folks. Arrested a couple of people but they were mostly low - level drug dealers and pimps. We did get a tip about that ranch though. Not downtown. A huge place about ten miles north of town." Clint spoke up.

"Yeah and we didn't really close that case, but another tip led us to Momentum Labs and shortly after Mel and I started investigating that tip the place had a huge explosion. That scientist's husband, Bauer was his name, was killed along with four other workers." Akela stated.

"Right. So we kind of backed off from that, waiting for the explosion investigation, and I got partnered up with Kara Pamalas on that drug ring investigation we'd gotten tipped on with the cult investigation, and got shot in an ambush. Idaho was killed driving his SUV 70 miles an hour into a cement barrier a few weeks later."

"And a few weeks after that Melinda's car was T-boned in a hit and run. And barely two weeks after that I was shot while off duty at a bank during a robbery."

"And Clint right around that time, Laura left you and accused you of domestic violence." Melinda looked over at him. "Which nothing ever came of the charges, but you were suspended while they investigated."

"Who picked up those cases?" Jessica asked.

"I don't know?" Melinda shook her head. Then looked at Izzy.

"Kara stayed on the drug ring case. Shockley took over the Momentum Labs on our end working with Anton Ivanov at the FBI. Clint had still been doing some investigative work on the cult case – coordinating..."

"With me because we thought Momentum Labs connected to that ranch somehow." Melinda interrupted.

"Right." Izzy continued. "After Clint was suspended, Bakshi took over his case files and then shortly after, he closed the case. Just like Shockley did with Momentum Labs. He said the explosion was an unfortunate accident and ruled out any connection to the ranch and cult."

"And Kara pulled Shockley to help with the drug case and my shooting investigation and both ended up in dead ends." Mike stated.

"Bakshi and Palamas investigated Idaho's accident. They said it was a suicide."

"Yet we all know Idaho was Catholic and found it hard to believe he would do that," Bobbi said.

Hunter nodded. "His parents said there was no way. And he had shown absolutely no signs of mental health issues, nor left a note or anything."

Izzy spoke up as well. "In fact, he had confided in me that he was going to ask his long- time girlfriend to marry him soon."

"Those two investigated my accident too. Bakshi and Palamas." Melinda added.

"Wait. What are we getting at here?" Hunter looked around the table.

"Sounds to me like you have some dirty cops. I wonder how deep it goes?" Jessica surmised.

"Kara took the call with the tip about the warehouse. She insisted on us going alone to not scare off the drug buyers. Backup was a couple blocks away."

"Wait. Did you say Shockley?" Skye asked Mike.

"Yeah. Tucker Shockley. He's been on the force for a long time. Ever since I've been there."

"Is Kyle Shockley related to him?"

"Who's that?"

"He's on the football team. One of JJ's friends. Thomas said he was one of them that raped Lanie Gutierrez. Pretty sure he was the guy who broke Leo's arm last spring."

"I don't know." Mike looked over at Izzy. "Did you know that?"

"I did. I knew the name but didn't put it together. Not sure if they are related."

"Why don't I check on that?" Victoria declared. She typed for about a minute and then looked up at the screen. "Yes. They are brothers. Half - brothers. Seems the younger Shockley has a juvie record of drug possession and petty larceny."

"Wait. Are you guys saying that not only do you have dirty cops on the payroll, but our accident wasn't an accident. That Melinda was targeted?" Phil posited.

"We're saying it's a viable possibility." Izzy answered him.

The entire group turned silent, contemplating that awful possibility.

Finally, Hunter spoke. "That means that Jamey was murdered. And so was Idaho."

"And losing my eye was no accident of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was planned."

"So I ended up in this chair purposefully being betrayed by my friends on the force."

"Pretty sure they were aiming for more than that Mike. Unfortunately, I think you were all targeted to be killed. But I guess they saw that they accomplished their goal anyway by taking you all out of the picture. You and Akela no longer able to work the field at least temporarily. And Melinda quit after Jamey was killed and Phil injured so badly." Victoria voiced. "Same result. Also, Clint being suspended meant all your cases could be closed out rather quickly by other officers."

"I read the report. Palamas made it a point to get me the file and said they'd investigated thoroughly and concluded that it was a drunk driver hit and run, the car was from out of state. And that the case was cold, and they had no leads. She said a witness said the plates were from Ohio, the witness only caught two numbers and Bakshi tried to track it down but came up cold." Melinda stated.

"Bakshi was the one I asked to investigate the evidence disappearance in the Ward kid's rape case. Mike added.

"I was the target," Melinda's voice wavered.

"Mel. You couldn't have known." Izzy reached for her hand, but Melinda jumped up. "I'm gonna go get answers."

"No. Melinda just no." Phil stepped in front of her.

"They murdered him Phil. They murdered our son."

Victoria also got up and spoke. "It is beginning to look that way. But we cannot tip out hand. Mel, we need to figure this out. Stay focused on the big picture. Or we don't get them all. You know more than anyone how this works. We need to continue to investigate, place all the puzzle pieces, make a plan. Start to bring them down."

Melinda turned to Vic. "How?"

"I think this is a good start. Right here, we need to continue to make connections. And we need more help."

"We need some people to go undercover." Akela stated. "I can possibly provide people to do just that."

"What we also need is to get hold of all the files. Including missing ones. Also, a ton of CCTV videos at the station have disappeared. Bakshi claims it was a glitch. They could be a start." Mike voiced.

"How. If they're gone..." Hunter started speaking.

"Nothing is ever truly gone though. Not files, none of it. You can bury it deep, but it's always there, somewhere there is a footprint you can follow." Skye interrupted Hunter.

"She's right. It's why we need to keep inventing better firewalls and internet security features." Vic nodded at Skye. "Skye. Exactly how good are you?"

"I broke into all your state-of the art security on your own computer. And Jemma's that you put heavy security features on. I hacked into Malick's files, as well as some of Quinn's and others. I hacked my own files at St. Agnes. I might have – maybe – at one time – hacked into the FBI – but it was only to find out about me and when I was looking for info about Sara."

"No. Absolutely not Victoria." Phil spoked up then. "That would be illegal."

"Not if she's working for the police. Not if you can obtain the correct warrants." Jeri was intrigued.

"But that would tip them off. Wouldn't it?" Skye asked.

"Not if we do it right."

"By that she means to disguise the true intent. But discover does not require intent if information is revealed during the course of a random search or search for other listed things." Jessica grinned at Jeri. "Believe me, this lady can work wonders within the system. And I might know a couple of very reliable people who could go undercover with me. Good people."

"Could you get in, Skye? Could you get into the police files and camera feeds? Or if not, do you know any known hackers who could?" Vic asked the girl.

"Just exactly how did you even learn to hack and how did you get so good at it?" Jessica looked the young girl up and down.

Skye answered Jessica first. "It's something that comes easy to me. And not naming real names, I did learn from a guy – someone I stayed with for a while in hell's kitchen once when I ran away. Goes by Micro. As for could I," she looked at Vic, "probably. Especially on a good computer and with some log in knowledge which I assume one of you could provide."

"I don't think it's a good idea." Phil declared. "Not at all. You could be placing Skye in danger."

"They'd never know it was me Mr. C. So no danger at all. If I can help in any way, I'm down for it. The bad people need to be stopped. And I need – we need answers. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. If cops are in on hurting folks, if they covered up things, that's just wrong." Skye looked at Melinda. "Just so wrong."

"Do what you have to do Jeri. Let's do this. Let's find out the truth." Melinda reached over and squeezed Skye's shoulder. She then turned to Phil. "We won't let anything happen to Skye Phil." He nodded.