Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or any related media. I am not seeking any gain, either commercial or financial, from this work.
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Ms. Hertz didn't act unusual in class the next day. In fact, she seemed more professional than ever.
A sure sign that she really is nervous, Jeremy thought. He'd seen her sweating bullets yesterday. She obviously remembered their conversation all too well but was trying not to let it affect her. He noticed that she didn't ask the class a single question, likely because she was afraid that Jeremy would be the one who answered it.
Ms. Hertz's fear did little to reduce Jeremy's own. Not only was she an adult, she was also a teacher. Both gave her power over him. Plus, who at Kadic wasn't secretly afraid of her wrath, much less Jim's?
But Jeremy got the extra boost of courage he needed after class.
"What!?" Ulrich exclaimed.
He wasn't the only one floored. Aelita's announcement that she was taking a break from the Subdigitals caught all of them by surprise.
"Don't worry, you guys," Aelita reassured them. "It's not like I'm quitting or anything. I just... need a little time to myself."
"You sure?" Yumi asked.
"Mm-hm," Aelita nodded. "Don't worry, I'll be fine," she said as she walked away.
It didn't take ten seconds to prove it wasn't Jeremy's imagination. All of them agreed Aelita was growing increasingly depressed.
"But what can we do for her?" Odd questioned.
"Nothing," Yumi replied. Though she did look sad, she didn't look like she was afraid. "All we can do is give her some space and be there if she needs us."
"You sure?" Ulrich asked.
Yumi nodded. "Trust me, it's a girl thing. Besides, I know Aelita. She'll pull through."
"I still wish there was something we could do," Odd lamented. He looked up and saw Jeremy walking away. "Where you going, Einstein?"
"Oh, ugh, I was just heading to Ms. Hertz's office. I need to talk to her about that atomic physics essay."
"Great," Ulrich called out. "See if you can get it canceled."
Jeremy didn't reply. He was going to see their science teacher, but not for the reasons he stated. Maybe none of the others could think of any way of helping the poor woman, but he could. There was still one last way to make Aelita happy again.
Determination to help his friend reinvigorated, Jeremy set out to Ms. Hertz's office. He knocked on the door and heard, "Come in." He found Ms. Hertz grading students' papers. She looked up and saw that it was him but didn't otherwise react. Jeremy looked for a seat and made himself comfortable. He stared at Ms. Hertz, but she continued grading homework. They both sat there in uncomfortable silence.
A few minutes later, Jim walked in. He, too, looked at Jeremy in silence before joining Ms. Hertz behind the desk. When he sat down on a stool, she realized she could wait no longer. She filed away the rest of her papers and faced the young Belpois.
"Okay, Jeremy," she emphasized. "What is this? How do you know about our codenames?"
Here it goes, Jeremy thought to himself.
"I learned about them from Franz Hopper," he answered.
"That's impossible," came Jim's reply. "He died more than twelve years ago."
"No, he didn't," Jeremy said. "He just disappeared."
"And you're saying you've seen him?" Ms. Hertz asked.
"Well, no, not in person, but I have talked with him. He shared a lot of his data with me."
Jim looked at him hard. "The old man wasn't known for being very trusting of strangers, kid. He never even let us visit his house."
"I know that Jim, but he still trusted me."
Ms. Hertz raised an eyebrow. "I find that difficult to believe, Jeremy. I was his lab assistant. Jim and I helped him hide here at Kadic for many years. He's been gone for over a decade. If he really is back, why would he contact you but not us?"
"I can't tell you that," Jeremy admitted. "It—It has to do with why he disappeared. He didn't want me to share that."
"You're saying that he trusted you more than he trusted us?" Ms. Hertz asked, sounding offended.
"Hmph. Prove it!" Jim demanded. The P.E. teacher crossed his arms and turned away, clearly not expecting Jeremy to meet the challenge.
Jeremy glanced back and forth for a moment. "In 1993, Ms. Hertz swapped Jim's shaving cream with one of her lab solutions that gave him that scar under his bandaid and told him it was Yolanda."
"What!?" Jim exclaimed. "That was you? I got disqualified from undercover service because of that!" Jim was leaning over Ms. Hertz, who was trying to appease him with a nervous smile.
It took the two of them a moment to return to the present. "How'd you know that?!" they both exclaimed at the same time.
Jeremy smiled. It felt like he had made real progress. "I read it in Franz Hopper's diary," he gently explained. "I found his old diary by accident in an old train station locker. It was really heavily encrypted, but he later contacted me and helped me decode it. That's how I knew about your codenames."
Jim and Ms. Hertz looked at him for a minute. When she was satisfied Jeremy was telling the truth, Suzanne let out a long sigh. "Okay, fine. But what does that have to do with us?"
"I'm getting there," Jeremy reassured her. "Look, let's just start by making sure we're all on the same page here.
"Franz Hopper's real name was Waldo Schaeffer. Before he became Kadic's science teacher, he worked on a military project called Project Carthage. After he left it, he went into hiding and settled here until he disappeared again in 1994. Everyone here already knows all of that, correct?"
They both nodded. "And you know that from Professor Hopper's diary?" Ms. Hertz asked.
"Yes," Jeremy answered.
"Then why are you here? What do you want?" Jim asked.
"I'm here because I need your help," Jeremy pleaded. "You promised Professor Hopper that if you ever had the chance, you would help him find his wife. I need to know if you are still willing to keep that promise. I want to find her as well, but I need your help."
Ms. Hertz glanced at Jim, resting her chin on top of her bundled hands. "That's all you want? To find Anthea?"
"Yes," Jeremy responded.
"And what are you going to do if we refuse to help?" Jim asked with one eyebrow raised.
"Nothing," Jeremy sighed. He looked at his teachers earnestly. "I want your help, but only if you're willing. If you really don't want to do this, then you're free to walk away. I won't say a thing. I promise. Will you help me?" he finished.
Ms. Hertz leaned back in her chair. She looked deep in thought.
"Suzanne?" Jim questioned.
"I am seriously considering it," she admitted.
"What!" Jim exclaimed.
Ms. Hertz gave him a small smile. "What the heck, Jim? It's been a while. Life was starting to get boring."
Jim couldn't help smirking himself. "True," he conceded.
Ms. Hertz faced her brightest student once more. "One question, Jeremy. Why do you want to find Anthea so badly?"
Jeremy stared at the floor. He knew his answer would be a disappointment.
"Actually, Ms. Hertz, I've worked really hard not to lie to you so far. I'd like to not start now. So for now, I'm going to answer, 'I'm not ready to tell you that yet.'"
Jeremy looked up. Instead of being upset like he expected, Ms. Hertz looked, if anything, amused by his response.
"Fair enough," she shrugged. Then she took on a much more sober tone. "But what do you want, Jeremy? Jim and I have no idea where she is."
Jeremy couldn't help feeling a little disappointed, but he didn't linger on that. "First, have you tried looking? Did you do any of your own research or investigation after Franz Hopper disappeared?"
"Yes," she indicated. "But we didn't find anything. If you were expecting us to have the answer, then I'm afraid not."
Jeremy groaned. "Well then, can you tell me what you did do? Like, everything you did try looking into?"
Ms. Hertz and Jim spent the next thirty minutes explaining everything they had tried. Jeremy had to admit they were pretty thorough.
"Honestly, Jeremy, I've got nothing. I just don't see any way of finding her. Do you?" Ms. Hertz asked.
"No," Jeremy sadly agreed. "But I'm not giving up."
He thought for a moment. "Franz Hopper mentioned a theory that someone involved with Project Carthage might've kidnapped her to try to blackmail him into returning to the project. I'm gonna try looking into that."
Jim nodded. "Suzanne and I have still got contacts in the military. If you can get something solid, then we might be able to help. But I gotta warn you, kid, the military doesn't turn on its own very easily."
"Let's focus on trying to find out who it was first," Jeremy replied. He would cross that bridge when the time came. "What about you, Ms. Hertz?"
"I knew everyone in Project Carthage. If you have some suspicions about who it was, then I can look into it for you."
"Okay," Jeremy said. "Thanks, you guys." He picked up his belongings and prepared to leave.
"Jeremy, wait!"
He paused right as he was about to open the door. When he turned back, he saw Ms. Hertz looking at him harder than he had ever seen before.
"Be careful!" She emphasized. "This is a very serious thing you're getting into. You shouldn't even know about Project Carthage. If you get caught, Jim and I won't be able to help you."
He nodded. "I understand. Thank you, Ms. Hertz."
Jeremy turned the handle and left.
Jeremy spent the next few days brainstorming as hard as he could. He'd asked Ms. Hertz and Jim to send him what data they had. Which wasn't much.
There was simply nothing to be found. Both teachers had even tried revisiting Professor Hopper's old home in the mountains. Nothing. If there was a trail, it was long gone.
Jeremy tried to think logically. Think of this like any of those other challenging programs you had to solve, he told himself. What were some of the ways he used to use to try and figure out solutions to problems he didn't even know existed?
Divide and conquer was one. Keep narrowing down until you isolate the origin of the problem. That was the most common method that programmers use to locate the source of a bug. Another was breakpoints. Execute instructions step by step, with checkpoints at each step, to record the state immediately prior to whatever part of the program crashes.
Unfortunately, both those methods were useless right now. Jeremy needed something to work with. Some raw data. Right now, he didn't even have an entry point.
Jeremy tried to fight the despair. He couldn't give up. He couldn't! Aelita was counting on him.
"You shouldn't get your hopes up, Jeremy," Ms. Hertz had tried to warn him. "Jim and I have already thought of everything."
Thinking back on that finally gave him an inspiration. Ms. Hertz didn't know everything about Franz Hopper. The old Professor hadn't told her everything about his personal life. So what did he know about that Ms. Hertz didn't? Aelita, Lyoko, and X.A.N.A. came to mind. But none of them were connected to Anthea's disappearance. What else was there?
The Hermitage! Jeremy nearly laughed when the answer finally came to him. Why hadn't he thought of it before?! Jim and Ms. Hertz had specifically told him they hadn't visited Franz Hopper's old home there before.
It all seemed obvious now. He and Aelita had scoured the Hermitage many times before. But the exact same thing could be said of Franz Hopper's diary, and look how that turned out. They'd only been searching for clues about X.A.N.A., not Aelita's family.
Maybe it was time to see if the old Schaeffer house had one last secret to give up.
Jeremy sighed. What on Earth made him think it would be that easy?!
He'd spent five days pouring over every corner, every paper, every square centimeter of the Hermitage, and still nothing.
It was beginning to get hard keeping this a secret from his friends. If Aelita found out he was visiting her old home behind her back, she would be very upset with him.
Finally, he could put it off no longer. There was nothing. He headed downstairs with a heavy heart. There was nothing here and no other leads back home. He had nothing left to find Anthea with now. He had failed.
He looked forlornly at the house one last time. Was there anything he missed? Anything out of the ordinary. This was his last, best hope.
As he scanned the outside one last time, his eyes widened. There, right above the door, was a camera lens. Nothing unusual by today's standards, but Franz Hopper had built his future home back in the eighties.
That implied a certain amount of paranoia. Jeremy already knew that Professor Hopper was paranoid, of course, but he also knew that he was right to be. The Men in Black had been after him as well. And in 1994, they'd found him. That was the cause of everything. X.A.N.A.'s rebellion. Franz Hopper's capture. Aelita's ten-year slumber and reawakening. Even the formation of the Lyoko Warriors. It was all caused by the Men in Black.
And if this was a security camera, then they might just be caught on tape.
Heart racing, Jeremy went to check the cables.
"I've got it!"
Several papers went flying as Jeremy burst into Ms. Hertz's office unannounced.
"Jeremy?" She asked, too surprised to complain about the mess he had created.
"I think I've got something on the Men in Black!" Jeremy eagerly announced as he took a seat without invitation. "Professor, you said if I needed some more information about anyone who was connected to Project Carthage, you could try to find out more, right?"
"Yes," Jeremy's science teacher responded, still unsure where this was going.
"Well, if I got you a picture of their face, build, and body, including their exact height at a specific point in time, do you think you could work with that?" he asked.
Ms. Hertz was silent for a moment. Finally, she nodded. "I think I could make that work."
"Great!" Jeremy said. He handed her a small stack of photos and papers he'd assembled. Ms. Hertz briefly skimmed Jeremy's work before asking, "Where did you get this?"
Jeremy smiled before explaining, "I got them from Franz Hopper's old home. It turns out he had some security cameras installed on the day the Men in Black came for him too! I got the security footage, and since I knew the size of all the objects in the background, I was able to determine the exact size of the men in the picture. Then I used image enhancement software to get a better view of their faces."
Ms. Hertz blinked then turned back to the images for a moment. When she looked up, she looked vaguely impressed.
"Not bad, Jeremy. I'll see what I can come up with." Before Jeremy's balloon could swell, she took on a more sober expression. "Jeremy, this is good work, but it might not be enough. This is about the men who tried to kidnap the Professor, not the ones who kidnapped his wife."
"I know," Jeremy acknowledged. "But it's our only lead. Let's see how it goes."
Ms. Hertz nodded. "I'll see what I can come up with. Just give me some time."
"Thank you, Ms. Hertz," Jeremy told her before leaving.