Chapter 6

Rosalie Daniels was a beautiful woman. Her blonde hair and green eyes shone with a sort of passionate fire. Her voice carried a slight southern accent.

"You're from the south?" Jinx asked.

"Yeah. I transferred here recently from Savannah, Georgia."

*Can you help us?*

"I can try. Jake told us both about your friend, she was at the funeral, right?"

Snake Eyes nodded.

"I saw her, she was upset. But I noticed nothing to warrant a disappearance or anything else."

"Suspecting a criminal element playing in this, Ro?"

"No, Jake. I don't think there's any crime involved, at least not directly." Ro said "I can't be certain but there's a possibility that your friend wanted to disappear. These kinds of things sometimes happen when a close friend dies. The ones left behind sometimes leave to re-evaluate their own lives or just to be alone for a while. Or there is the other possibility." Ro said, turning to the five Joes, "Would you describe your friend as protective of her friends?"

"Yes." Falcon replied.

"I'm going to tell you something that might be what's going on. It doesn't happen very often, but it could just be the case here. Before I do, I need to ask are you in the military?"

"Yes."

"Is she?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I thought so. She's protective of her friends and military trained..."

"Where are you going with this Ro?" Jake asked.

"Are you leading to where I think you're leading to?" Sara said.

"Vigilante justice." Ro stated simply. "It's a possibility, one that I doubt really. But it's best not to assume anything. Besides if there was anything of that nature going on the department would of heard of it by now. Outside of those possibilities I don't know what to tell you really."

"We were told you could help us." Falcon said.

Ro motioned to Jake to close the door. Then she said softly, "Who told you that?"

"He didn't give his name." Stalker said.

"What about a description?" Jake asked.

"He was about 6'11" wore all black..." Jinx began.

"Olive complexion, shoulder length wavy dark hair. Speaks in riddles, says something that makes no sense to you at the moment then disappears without a trace, and he can drop the temperature in the room about 15 degrees." Ro finished.

"That's the guy."

"Hey, Ro. Isn't that your informant?" Pez asked.

"Yeah, I'm not sure what his game is this time, But I need to know what he said to you, word for word if you can remember."

"He said that he is forbidden to tell us anything directly, only to tell us that our friend is well and in the city, 'playing fox to the lion as well as the hounds.' He also said 'As the fox advises the lion, he becomes cunning,' and that we have already met the lion. that we would meet the hounds, then the fox...perhaps; then he told us your name, what you do and that you could help us and be our guide. Then he said that when we found you, Rosalie Daniels, we'd be a step closer to finding our friend."

"That makes absolutely no sense at all." Jake said.

"We know." Falcon said."

"I don't know, makes sense to me."

"What do you mean, Ro?" Sara asked.

"Well, basically he told you that your friend is baiting someone, advising someone else and hoping to catch the one she's baiting in a trap of some sorts."

"You figured that out just by that riddle?" Stormshadow asked.

"Yes. He always talks like that, it's simply a matter of confusion tolerance.

"He mentioned that. What is confusion tolerance?" Jinx asked.

"Exactly what it sounds like. It's the ability to tolerate confusion."

"So what really happened?" Falcon asked.

"Not any of my theories, that's for sure now. My informant has never been wrong before, so I'd go with his explanation. You can't find anything on her on any computer search or missing persons file, can you?"

Snake Eyes shook his head. *Why do you ask?*

"I think your friend may be working with some high up in the government. My informant's specialty is knowing about this sort of thing. If there's enough connections and no other way, they can erase an identity. Basically how it works with witness protection, I think."

*You believe she's working with the government on something?*

"Most likely. I wouldn't put it past my informant to know such a thing, he has his ways. I'll get in touch with him and see if I can get him to keep a look out for your friend. He's never lied to me before, so it's safe to say your friend is safe. I can have him get in touch with her, if you want. But I wouldn't recommend it, from what he says these things get dangerous at times."

*Can you ask him to find out what he can and tell us?*

"I can do that, I can't have him come to you directly besides he'll only talk in riddles some more. I can have him tell me and I relay what he says to you after I translate his words. Is that good?"

Snake Eyes nodded.

"Okay, I'll get in touch with him as soon as I can and work from there. If you'll tell me where I can get in touch with you, I'll let you know as soon as I've got something."

"We're at the Carson Hotel on Lexington and 7th, Rooms 528-533."

"Any one of those rooms?" Ro asked.

"Any one, someone will probably be in one of them at any given time."

"Okay then, I'll let you know when my informant finds anything."

*Thank you.*

"No problem."

Jake, Sara, and Ro watch as the five Joes leave the office and the building. After they're gone, the group talks amongst themselves behind the closed office door.

"Good thing you decided to get that blond wig, Scarlett."

"I know. I figured if they saw me without it my cover would have definitely been blown, so I got it and the green contacts."

"What do you intend to do?"

"With them, Sara?"

"Yeah."

"Exactly what I told them. We're going to continue this until we reach it's end and the White Bulls are all behind bars where they belong. My friends may have a part to play in this operation, if you look at it the way Danny did. Everything happens for a reason and I think there was a reason for me to have my 'informant' tell them to find Rosalie."

"They could probably be of help to us, now that Dante's sure someone's trying to catch him and his White Bulls."

"Jake's right. I think Dante's starting to suspect us of trying to bring him down."

"I know Sara. I've had my source tailing him lately and he's proven to be very cautious. My source has yet to find anything useful to us."

"I hope he finds something soon, cause even an eyewitness account is not enough for a conviction."

"I know Sara. I hope he finds something too."

"We need to be careful. If he finds out anything it could be deadly for any of us."

"We all know the risks, Jake. We all entered this willingly."

"Okay what do we do, Jake?"

"Scarlett, keep your source on him. The three of us will watch him here and try to make sure one of us is nearby on the street to watch him there. We'll move in shifts, no more than one of us watching him at a time if possible; and keep out of his sight if possible unless you're supposed to be there. Be ready at any time, we might have to step up our operation at some point."

"Why? What's going on?"

"One of the White Bulls is getting ready to retire, Sara. He wants to talk so he can retire with a clean conscience. Dante's eager to get rid of him permanently, we need to try to get to him first, so we have more than one account of some of the things they've done."

"How did you know that?"

"I am an intelligence officer, Jake and my source has been tailing Dante for a while now. He reports everything back to me, so I should know."

"In any case, we'll have to move fast when it starts." Jake said.