The next day, after it had been established that my spine hadn't telescoped, I got up bright and early to try and piece some sort of idea together. Fortunately, I wasn't doing it alone.

Rouge, after considerable persuasion (read no persuasion), had decided to stay the night. At the moment, the aforementioned bat was curled up on my bed, her red silk negligee contrasting nicely with the white sheets.

I sat in my old leather armchair across from the bed, leaning back against the soft back of the seat, facing the bed avec Rouge. Weirdly enough, my street smarts are at their peak in the presence of hot chicks. That's a fortunate plus for me.

I tried to conjure up all I knew, which wasn't much. Tails was missing as a result of either a prototype car or the aspect of Chaos power. Apparently, there was at least one group that didn't want me in the picture, and they appeared to have the Chaotix and Shadow with them as well.

Or was Shadow with another group? Whoever was working the chipmunk and Vector would know that having Shadow try to scare me and have the Chaotix bully boys soften me up was worthless. It would be like trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer. Overkill, Sonic would have said.

But then why had the Chaotix come to my place? Before Espio cleaned my clock, I could vaguely remember the sallow chipmunk mentioning something about something I had to have had. But Sonic, after all, had departed from this world leaving Tails and me nothing but aches and pains. I could remember that day very well. That one time on Angel Island itself where Robotnik had tried to plant a nuke on the island to take us all out. By the end of the day, Robotnik had been down with the fishes, with Sonic to keep him company. That spot was now the location of some big enterprising firm. But in any case, I didn't have what they wanted.

Unless…

I reached into my coat pocket and withdrew the manila envelope that had been passed to me on the train. It jingled.

Opening it, I found nothing but a small key and a slip of paper with a small card attached.

I read the paper first.

Knuckles,

These two items enclosed are the two keys to safe #3246 in Station Square. I wish I could explain further, but I am being pursued at the moment, and I myself am unable to gain access to the safe, which requires a thumbprint as well.

Take care of yourself,

A friend.

Very nice. Looked like I was now part of another case that was a mystery only to me.

I was jolted from my train of thought when Rouge stirred on the bed. The red silk was pulled seductively against her breasts as she opened her eyes.

She smiled at me, a gesture I gave right back. That old lurch in my midriff, caused only by love or gunshots, rose once again.

"Good morning," she cooed.

"Morning to you, sexy," I replied.

"Penny for your thoughts."

"Involving you, or the case?"

"Both," came the reply.

"Well, on the case, nil. If you're free, I'd like to try and find out just who'd be interested on emerald energy."

"Business before pleasure, Knuckles?" She pouted prettily on the bed, batting her long lashes at me.

"Work is work," I said coyly.

Of course, that was before I lay back down on the bed. Business will have to wait.

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Later, she was sitting at the kitchen table, with me scraping up (read lavishly serving) a breakfast consisting of pancakes, sausages, bacon, and everything in between.

Between mouthfuls of this world's finest breakfast (it is, too), I tried to turn to the problem at hand.

"Does Prower manufacture emeralds?"

She swallowed first. "No, why?"

"Because if a company as big as Prower needed emerald energy, they'd be pretty desperate to get the contract."

"At the present, the two major emerald companies are Robco and Cinos. Robco's a splinter group from Robotnik's old outfit. I can't really tell you anything about Cinos."

I could, but not a whole lot. It was a success story that had reached every paper and touched every heart. It had come completely out of nowhere two years ago, and had since dominated the emerald commune just as mercilessly as Robco.

"Okay," I said, leaving emeralds aside. "How could we find Tails?"

"Other than following the women?"

I snorted, but she had a point. With Tails current standing in society coupled with his boyish innocence that refused to die, he had been voted by Angel Magazine to be the Sexiest Mobian Alive five times in a row. Add to that an old weakness for the ladies, and what you had was a long analogue of females in Mr. Prower's life.

Which begged the question of why Amy would really care enough to be paying mucho dinero to see him again. After all, Tails must have been about as faithful as Bill Clinton after one too many.

Not my business, not my business…

But the more we thought the more it became clear: Shadow had been working for someone other than the people who hired the Chaotix. Whether that was Cinos or Robco, or neither, it didn't matter.

And the more we thought about that, the more it became apparent.

We needed to find out exactly who Shadow was working for. Which meant only one thing.

We needed to burgle Shadow's place.

Yup, it's the case to end all cases, I thought, realizing that I now was forced to walk into the most dangerous place in Station Square.

But probably not walk out.

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Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease review!

-TK