Manipulation
by Time Guardian

Chapter 5- Discoveries

Quest Compound
-next afternoon-

"I'm coming home."

Dr. Quest sighed. He had phoned his adopted son, Hadji Singh, to tell him what they had discovered about Jonny, and he insisted on coming home right away.

"I'd rather you didn't son," he replied with worry in his voice, "I had a close shave, and besides, we don't know what Jonny has been through yet. He could just as easily come back and try and kill you too."

"Classes have ended here. I was going to use the free time to visit my friends at the university before I came home, but this is more important," Hadji stated, "and you cannot talk me out of it. I want to help, and as it is said, two heads are better than one."

Dr. Quest laughed, "Try four. Race has agreed to help and brought his daughter Jessie along."

"You talked Race into coming back?" Hadji replied in astonishment. "This is momentous indeed. I will be on the first available plane and will call you when I arrive."

Dr. Quest heard the click at the end of the line, and put the phone back in it's cradle. Immediately, the phone rang, and he picked the receiver back up.

"Hello?"

"It's Jessie, Dr. Quest. They let me have a study hall period, so I thought I'd check in."

"Our plans so far are coming together nicely. Hadji will be home in the next few hours, against my better wishes, but at least he will be safe here. How about you, were you able to reach your dad?" Dr. Quest asked.
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Jessie leaned against the phone booth near the cafeteria. "I called him just before I called you. He is in the air and on his way back now."

She heard Dr. Quest pause for a moment. "I promised Mr. Andrews at your high school that I would come to give a lecture to his class in the next day or so. He wanted to meet this afternoon to plan it out, so I'll be on campus in an hour. If you'd like, you can ride with me after school to pick up Race, and knowing Hadji, he should also be in soon as well."

"That'll be good...but is there any way I can go ahead and go now? Dad talked them into enrolling me in Latin of all things. That's the deadest language around and-,"Jessie complained.

She was cut off by laughter on the other end of the line.

"Your father told me you'd try something this, Jessie. Nothing doing. Go to class and I will see you later."

"Figures," she groaned, placing the receiver back on the cradle, then broke into a run when the next class bell sounded.

-Two hours later-

Dr. Quest heard the last bell of the day, and went back to his car to wait for Jessie. His meeting with Mr. Andrews had been productive, and he had gathered many ideas on index cards to use in his presentation.

He had just finished stuffing the cards into his pocket, when he spotted Jessie rushing out of the building and quickly got into his car.

Before he could ask about her day, she took a laptop out of her pack and held it out for his inspection.

"Let's go," she said hurriedly.

Dr. Quest was shocked, because he knew that this wasn't Jessie's laptop.
"Where did you get this from?"

"I'll explain when we pick up the others, but I think this'll give us a line on Jonny," she explained.

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The chase is on. More next time, promise. ();)