A/N: This picks up around an hour after the last chapter.

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"Sir, I got the footage from the guardhouse." RO knocked his CO's cabin urgently. "I'm going to play it in the ship's office. Swain, Dutchy, Charge and Captain Roth are already there."

"Great, lead the way RO." Mike followed his radio officer to the ship's office. He noticed that the ship was now buzzing with activities, no doubt because they were supposed to sail in under 30 minutes and most of the crews were already here. The problem was that their XO was still nowhere to be found.

Once they arrived in the ship's office, RO made a beeline straight to the computer, while Mike closed the door behind him to ensure privacy.

Inside the room, everybody was tense. They had been waiting for this footage ever since the guardhouse informed them that Kate had left the port in her own car but with another woman as passenger. They were suspecting that the woman had been Ms Cruise because the agent was nowhere to be found as well although her belonging was still stored in Kate's cabin.

"The guardhouse said that the recording started at this minute." RO pressed 'play' and the video started showing Kate's SUV approaching the guardhouse. They could clearly see Kate's smile as she greeted the guard and showed him her ID.

"That looks like a genuine smile to me." Jim commented, "she doesn't look to be under duress."

From this angle, they couldn't really confirm the identity of the passenger, but the silhouette and the hair seemed to fit with Ms Cruise.

"Is there no other angle, Robert?" Swain asked curiously.

"I think there is another one from the front. Let me find it."

A few minutes later, the video was showing Kate's SUV again but this time from the front. It was still a bit blurry but the angle made it easier for the guys to confirm their suspicion.

"That's her." Charge stated firmly.

"Yes, that's Madelaine." Jim confirmed Charge's statement.

"What do we do now?" Dylan asked anxiously. "Could we try to ping her phone's location?"

Mike looked at RO questioningly, "Robert, can you give it a go?"

"Yes, Sir." RO then left the office to go back to Comcen where his full equipment was.

"Swain, do you still have contact with the local police here?"

Swain nodded. "I can try my old partner in the force."

"Good, maybe ask him to listen to the radio chatter if there was any incident involving Kate's car or if anyone had seen or heard any altercations involving someone with her descriptions?"

"Will do, Sir." Swain left the office to make some phone calls.

Mike then turned to the SAS Captain, "Jim, do you have any other contact in the ASIO besides Ms Cruise?"

"There is another agent that I sometimes deal with."

"Is he or she trustworthy enough?"

"Hard to tell Mike." Jim shrugged, "but at this point, we probably don't have a choice."

"Alright. Make the contact. Maybe ask them to try and locate Ms Cruise from their end. If we found her, I think we would find Kate as well."

Jim nodded before also leaving the office.

"Charge, go up to the bridge, monitor the engine and all other systems up there. We need to be ready to go just in case we have any leads that we can pursue."

"Aye, Sir."

"Dutchy, how are you holding up?" Mike asked his bosun when Charge had left the room.

Dylan looked up to meet his CO's eyes. "Worried, Sir. But keen for something to do."

"Good. I need you to be level-headed for this." Mike looked at Dylan seriously, "I know it's hard. But Kate deserves the best from all of us right now. Understood?"

Dylan squared his shoulder and nodded firmly, "understood, Sir."

"Very well, get 2Dads to go with you to the locker room and prepare all our weapons, ammo and gears. I want them spotless and ready to go when we need them."

"Will do, Sir."

Mike nodded, "I will officially inform Navcom about Kate and the fact that we can't go anywhere. Let's meet again in a couple of hours to touch base."

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"Ok, everyone, sit reps."

Swain went first. "Sir, RO managed to ping the location of the X's mobile phone to the nearest tower. It looks to be in the vicinity of the shopping centre or the adjacent train station. I called my cop mate and asked him to look around there. Nothing so far yet but he promised to get a few more uniforms to canvass the area for her car."

"Can't they review any CCTV footage around there?" Mike asked.

Swain shook his head. "They'll need a warrant for that and the court won't be open until 9am tomorrow."

"Bloody red tape." Charge commented bitterly.

"Jim?" Mike went to him next.

"ASIO said that Madelaine's mobile phone was turned off so they can't track her that way. But they can see that her last phone call was made from the vicinity of the shopping centre. So, we can at least confirm that she was indeed with Kate before they both disappeared."

"Can they track who she made the last phone call to?"

"It was to an unregistered number. Possibly burner phone."

They all sighed. It was hard not to think of the worse in this kind of situation.

"Anything else?" Mike asked around once more. "Where is RO by the way?"

"He's busy with a special project, Sir." Dylan answered cryptically while looking at Swain.

"What are you two up to?" Mike raised his eyebrows at the two Petty Officers.

"Ms Cruise left her laptop here, Sir. I thought RO could do a little digging on it to find out more." Dylan confessed.

Mike smirked, "I don't want to know about the digging, but if there is good information on the device, I want to know about it."

"Yes, Sir."

Charge then asked the question in everybody's mind, "I'm still confused as to why would the X go anywhere with her in the first place? They are not friends. Pretty sure the X is still suspicious about her."

"True." Swain then smiled fondly at the specific memory in his mind, "in fact, I think you'd be proud of her for channelling you yesterday, Charge. Before the boarding of that FFV with Semtex in it, she insisted on extra plates for us solely because she found it odd that Ms Cruise objected to that particular boarding so vehemently."

"See?" Charge raised his eyebrows at the story, "and not to mention the dodgy 'interrogation' yesterday. If you can call it that. When I looked at that video again, I thought Ms Cruise was just casually chatting with the guy in austere, like they were friends."

"Charge, that's a big leap."

"With all due respect, Sir. The X is now missing and was last seen with Ms Cruise. Maybe she guessed that out of all the people in this ship, the X would be the one smart enough to put two and two together eventually and that's why she decided to take out the X from the equation."

Mike sighed at Charge's insistence. "Alright Charge, we'll table that possibility for now. I know that Kate was a little bit shaken by the guy in the fishing hut that committed suicide in front of her yesterday. But she seemed fine to me this morning. Dutchy, do you have any further insight as to the state of her mind yesterday that could cause her to interact closely with Ms Cruise today?"

Dylan looked at everyone's expectant faces and reluctantly divulged their personal chat yesterday. "She felt like everything was out of control, Sir. This was just after the raid at that hut. She then wanted me to promise her not to blame myself if something happened to her or to Hammersley's crews."

"That sounds like a premonition and very cryptic." Charge was looking at Dylan in shock.

"Did you ask what she meant?"

"Yes, but she didn't get a chance to explain, Sir, because we were then called to the bridge for the search of the cruiser with the Caesium."

Jim's voice then interrupted their discussion. "I think I can explain why she said that to you Dutchy."

Dylan frowned, "Jim?"

"I might have mentioned my suspicion about Madelaine to her." Jim sighed. "Look, I've never thought that Kate would actually go to an outing with her. I just thought that while they were rooming together, Kate could try listening into Madelaine's late night phone calls to see if she could identify anything suspicious."

Dylan was now outraged. "What the hell Jim? Kate is not a trained spy!"

"Hang on Dutchy." Mike held his hand up to Dylan to pause his outburst and stared hard at Jim instead, "that still doesn't explain Kate's words to Dutchy about blame. You have something else to share Jim?"

Jim stared back at everyone before continuing, "I shared my theory to her that if Madelaine were indeed a double agent, she would try to find someone to be a scapegoat and Dutchy would be the perfect candidate as he had a tendency of taking the blame upon himself if something bad ever happened. And I also said that if I were the bad guy, I would have targeted her to get to Dutchy. Because she would be his biggest weakness."

Before anyone could prevent it, Dylan already grabbed Jim's collar and pushed him back against the wall. "Damn you Jim! You just endangered her life!"

"Wow mate…." Swain and Charge each held Dylan's shoulder and tried to push him back from the SAS Captain.

"Dutchy, let him go!" Mike ordered sternly.

Dylan finally let go after a few more seconds. He then shook his shoulder away from his mates' grip and walked back to the other side of the office to cool himself down.

Jim straightened his uniform before addressing the office once more. "I still stand by my theory. You are a damn weak link in the operation, Dutchy. Kate knows it too. That's why she was trying to free you from all the blame if anything went wrong by saying those things. And that's probably why she was hanging out with Madelaine all the sudden, because Kate now sees it as her responsibility to solve the problem by taking out Madelaine before she had the chance to use you as scapegoat. Kate is protecting you. Whereas it should have been the other way around!"

"Jim, you are not helping." Mike interjected.

"Mike, your bosun needs to realise that he can't hide his shortcoming behind his girlfriend anymore. Kate mollycoddles him too much. He needs to man up and starts to think with his brain, not his heart!" Jim finished hotly.

"Jim, you need to leave the office." Mike ordered firmly, "sleep this off tonight and reconvene in the morning. While I am not your superior, this is still my ship and I don't need you muddying the water further. Our priority right now is to find Kate. Am I clear, Captain?"

"Crystal." Jim then opened the door and closed it behind him with a bang.

Mike shook his head at the situation at hand and looked at the remaining three men in the office. Charge looked angry, Swain looked worried and his bosun just looked defeated.

"Swain, since you are still waiting on development from your police contact, I'll put you on duty watch tonight. Decide on a few junior sailors to accompany you. In fact, while you are at it, can you set up the roster as well please?"

"Yes Sir." Swain nodded at the directive.

"Charge, if you're happy with the engine, you can end your watch now. I will see you in the morning."

"Thank you, Sir." Charge nodded at his CO before looking at Swain pleadingly, "mate, since you are on watch tonight, can I sleep at your bunk? Don't really feel like rooming with the Captain after all that crap he's spewing just now."

Swain smiled sympathetically at Charge. "Sure. You need to ask Dutchy though. He might not be too keen on your snoring as the background to his sleep."

"You can have the cabin, Charge. I doubt that I'll be able to sleep tonight." Dylan interjected. "I might just doze off in the senior mess if needs be."

"Dutchy, you need to clear your head." Mike suggested. "Do some exercise, laundry or other things that can help with your mind."

Dylan replied quietly, "I don't think that would help, Sir. Not after realising that Captain Roth is right."

"Mate, come on. The guy could've said that because he was still carrying a torch for the X and he was jealous of you." Charge tried to argue. "You are not a damn liability. You are an asset to any ship that you are a part of."

"Charge is right Dutchy. Also, our feelings are what makes us human." Swain continued. "The fact that you feel responsible for the well-being of the crews is not a bad thing. That's what differentiate a good leader from the bad one."

"And while we are on the subject of the X, don't forget that she was the one volunteering to grab that stupid footage of Moshir's camp. She totally didn't need to do that. But she did anyway, why? Because she took her oath to the country seriously." Charge gestured wildly. "No offence Dutchy, but not everything is about you. The X has always been a badass even before you came here. She would not hesitate to nail that dodgy agent in whatever way she could if given the right opportunity."

Swain couldn't help but laugh at the enthusiastic way Charge had presented his argument. He could see that Dylan's eyes had been much clearer than before too.

"The one thing that Jim might be right is the way that you always take any blame upon yourself instead of looking at things objectively. You are your own harshest critic Dutchy. You need to change that narrative." Mike added his observation. "All this time you have been relying on Kate to give you that objective evaluation. Now that she's not here, you need to start trusting your own judgement."

Dylan then looked at the three men in the room seriously after a few minutes of digesting their words. "Thank you. Let's find her, shall we?"

"Yes, that's the spirit mate." Charge patted Dylan's back firmly.

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The next morning, Dylan knocked on the door to the junior sailors' cabin urgently. "Robert, wake up please?"

The door suddenly opened to reveal 2Dads in his boxer, with half-opened eyes and a scowl. "Dutchy, what the hell? I just finished my watch an hour ago!"

"Sorry 2Dads, is Robert awake?"

"He's not here. Maybe in Comcen already." 2Dads replied while rubbing his eyes, "why? Did you guys find her?"

Dylan sighed, "no such luck 2Dads."

"Bummer." 2Dads grimaced.

Dylan shook his head. "Go back to sleep mate. Thanks." He then turned around to the direction of Comcen. His adrenaline from earlier had now started to wear off, making him felt a bit drained. He had spent the whole night tossing and turning on his bunk, unable to get decent sleep except a few hours here and there. That's why he had woken up around 5 am and started running out of the base, around the marina and esplanade for the last hour and a half. It looked like Robert had a similar idea of starting his day early except in a vastly different format from him.

"Robert, are you here?" Dylan knocked the door to Comcen.

The door suddenly opened to reveal RO looking back at him with tired eyes. Contrary to what Dylan had thought earlier, RO had not been sleeping at all, preferring to keep scouring through the agent's laptop all night. "This better be important…."

Dylan frowned at the younger man's unruly hair and dark circle under his eyes. "Have you been here all night?"

"That's not important. Goodbye." RO moved to close the door but Dylan halted it with his hand.

"I have new information."

RO narrowed his eyes at Dylan but stepped back from the door and gestured for Dylan to come in.

Dylan waited until RO had sat back on his chair before starting. "Do you remember that I called from the cruiser 2 days ago to give you the info about the boat hire company?"

"Yes. Vagabond something?"

Dylan nodded. "I went there this morning and the owner said to me that the person hired 2 cruisers. Not just the one we impounded. The other cruiser is called 'The Other Planes'."

RO looked surprised for a second before turning back towards the agent's laptop and started to type something on it.

Dylan asked curiously, "what's going on? Have you seen it before?"

RO held up his hand to signal to Dylan to stop talking for a minute.

Dylan obeyed but after a few more minutes of intense typing sounds, his anxiety started to rise. "Robert?"

"I thought she was talking about a plane." RO murmured distractedly.

"What?"

"Here, look at this." RO then showed Ms Cruise's email inbox to Dylan and pointed to the line in one of the emails, 'The other planes is on route back to Cairns with the package.'.

"Cairns?" Dylan looked alarmed. "I thought the target is Sydney?"

"Not anymore." RO replied grimly.

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Mike and Swain sat in Maxine's office while waiting for her to arrive. After Dylan had reported the new information to him, he had called Maxine and requested a meeting with her to go over the recent developments. He was also hoping that the police had more information overnight about Kate. Now that the case had been classified officially as missing person's case, Swain's mate no longer had the authority to share anything with them. Any update would have to be obtained through the official channel.

"Mike, Petty Officer, Good morning." Maxine walked into the office and heading over to her desk.

Both men stood up and greeted her in reply before waiting for her to take a seat herself. Once she did, they both quietly sat back on their chairs.

"I have just finished a meeting with Defence on this new situation." Maxine opened the conversation. "We are issuing a specific alert for MV 'The Other Planes'. And we are also issuing a general alert on the eastern coast water for the threat. All assets will be deployed including Hammersley. Mike, your order is to sail at 1pm. Additional supplies and fuel should arrive on the dock in the next hour."

"Defence is taking this seriously then."

"They can't afford not to. ASIO has said that it is plausible the terrorists had managed to combine the two missing halves of the materials to a functional dirty bomb successfully and that The Other Planes is now carrying it to the intended location to be detonated. They have also finally admitted that they have made a mistake by allowing Agent Cruise to continue heading the operation even after Agent Smith's death on her hands."

"That's rich coming from them." Mike scowled. "They have turned a blind eye on our complaints about Ms Cruise all this time and not only that she has made us looked like a fool, but Kate's life is now in danger along with many others."

"I agree Mike." Maxine looked at the two men in front of her sympathetically. "And I'm afraid the news is not looking good on that front either."

"You have received more news from the police, Ma'am?" Swain asked curiously.

Maxine nodded and opened the folder in front of her. "They found Kate's car in the parking lot of the shopping centre along with her Hammersley's cap, her mobile phone and discarded piece of cloth with traces of chloroform next to the driver's side of the car."

"Any traces of blood, Ma'am?"

"No, just skid marks near her car."

Swain nodded, "OK, it looks like that they have been ordered to abduct but not to harm her. Hence the chloroform."

"What about the abductors and their car? Can anyone identify them? She was taken in broad daylights. Why did no one see anything?" Mike asked frustratingly.

"Her car was parked in the basement of a relatively old shopping centre. The lighting is not that great there and CCTV is scarce." Maxine replied patiently, "the warrant for any available CCTVs in the centre has just been approved. The police are hoping that it would capture the Rego of the getaway car. It would then make it easier for them to check its movements using any available traffic cameras in the region."

"So, more waiting."

"I'm afraid so, Mike. In the meantime, I need Hammersley to concentrate on finding this cruiser. Captain Roth will continue to sail with you to render any assistance."

Mike sighed. "Understood Max."

"Alright. Fair winds to both of you."

Both men replied affirmatively before getting up and turning to walk out of the door when Maxine called Mike once more.

"Actually Mike, can I speak to you for a moment please?"

"Sure." Mike then looked at Swain briefly, "go on Swain, I'll meet you at the front later."

He waited until Swain had completely disappeared from their view before approaching Maxine once more. "What's going on Max?"

Maxine stood up and circled her desk to stand in front of her best friend. "How are you holding up?"

Seeing his confused look, Maxine sighed and elaborated further, "I mean with Kate being missing? You must be worried sick."

"Of course, I'm worried about her. Everyone in Hammersley is." Mike then looked at her questioningly. "But that's not all, is it?"

"Look, Mike," Maxine folded her arms on her chest and leaned back against her desk, "I know you have feelings for her. And I think now that her transfer has been approved and of course after she is found, you should really talk things through with her…."

Mike was quiet for a few seconds before turning to the direction of her office door to close it properly for privacy. When he turned around to face Maxine again, his eyes softened as he saw her face had turned sad for a second as she had looked down to the floor before she managed to school it again and raised her eyes to meet his.

"I had talked things through with Kate almost 9 months ago now. We broke up remember?" Mike looked at her with a small smile.

Maxine stared at him apologetically, "I know I was too hard on you back then. I guess I panicked when I was questioned by the head of the fleet command. But like you said, that was 9 months ago now. The water has calmed down, both of your careers are intact and next month, being in the same chain of command would no longer be an issue. I think you owe it to yourself to try again for your own happiness."

"I'm happy here. You and Ryan are both here." Mike said pointedly.

"Don't use us as an excuse Mike." She narrowed her eyes at him. "When we had that dinner before this current patrol, you looked a bit subdued, even though you were with us. Maybe your heart is already going to the west coast with Kate. And that's OK."

"Max…."

"If you are worried about Ryan, I can handle him." She stubbornly interrupted him, "I promise that if he threw any tantrum about you leaving, he would eventually get over it. Ryan is an adult. He needs to understand that his father deserves his own happiness and we shouldn't be selfish in keeping you here."

"Max." Mike touched her elbow and held his hand there. "I have no intention of following Kate to the west coast."

Maxine looked surprised, "what? Mike, don't be a coward…."

"Wow, really?" Mike raised his eyebrows, "I'm a coward for choosing to be with my family?"

"Mike, I'm serious."

"So am I."

Maxine searched his eyes carefully, hoping that he really meant what he said. After a few minutes of staring contest, she finally accepted that he really was not leaving.

"Max, Kate and I will always be friends. Of course, I worry about her well-being now. And professionally, I am sad because she really had been an excellent partner-in-crime for the last 5 years. There was hardly any decision that I've made during those period that I haven't run pass her for input. It would be very different without her in Hammersley and I guess we'll get a taste of sailing without her this afternoon. But personally, we both have moved on from each other."

Mike then smiled at Maxine teasingly, "well, Kate definitely has. I don't know if you have noticed, but she is not the only Hammersley personnel that will transfer out to the west coast in the coming months."

Maxine tilted her head to look at him questioningly, "who else…. Oh…." Remembering a certain bosun that she had had a meeting with to present a few options available for him in the west coast. Now she understood why the decorated sailor had chosen the quickest available onshore option instead of other sea posting options with longer wait times. She then teased him back, "you know, Hammersley is a real-life love boat."

Mike laughed. "Yes, there is something in the water I guess."

"Well, I am glad you are staying here." She squeezed his elbow in return. "Take care this afternoon."

"I will." Mike then looked at her seriously, "and Max, let's have dinner once this patrol is over."

"Sure, I'll make sure Ryan is around."

"No."

"No?"

He nodded, "just us."

"Oh." She searched his eyes once more to gauge his seriousness but found only affection and hope shining through. Feeling overwhelmed, she looked down for a few seconds before finally smiling back at him. "I'll make sure to buy your favourite bottle of wine then."

"Sounds good. I'm looking forward to it."

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To be continued….