Esther and Zero raced after Ruth as the three of them ran back to HQ, invoking several odd looks towards them on their way. Their base was almost a mile away from the park where they had been sitting, so it took them a while to reach the base.

When they did, they found the door locked. Esther and Zero collapsed against each other as Ruth fumbled for her key card, which apparently didn't work.

"My key doesn't work on the door," she panted. "I'm not a proper agent yet so I have to be let in by another member of staff."

"I don't have my key. Do you?" Esther asked Zero.

"No," Zero said, just as worriedly. "Great, so we're stuck out here."

Then there was a beeping sound and the door opened. The three agents hurried inside and found Stephen standing by the door release. Esther had to look away; she found it difficult even looking at him after the discovery that Stephen had been given the secret information and could have leaked it, leading to Isaac's death.

"Are you going up to see Robin?" he asked.

Esther and Zero both nodded. "Stephen, I need you to take James and go up to the records room. Search through there and see if you can find any information that tells us where Inspector Initials might have gone."

Stephen nodded. "Okay. Have you seen Rosie?"

"She was with Ferb and Gretchen when I left," Ruth replied. "And they were in Ferb's lab."

"Okay, great. Thanks." Stephen turned and hurried away.

"Ruth, can you go on ahead to the hospital and make sure we can visit?" Esther asked. "I just need to do something."

"She's not in the hospital," Ruth said. "The ceiling collapsed. We had to bring a hospital bed into the gym for her."

"Alright, then could you go there and make sure it's okay?"

"Esther, there's no staff there to stop you," Ruth said. "It'll be fine."

"Please," Esther reiterated, a pointed look in her eye.

Ruth must have seen this look because she nodded and left.

Zero pulled Esther closer so he could ask her quietly, "Are you sure it's a good idea to send our two prime suspects to a place together? If one of them is the culprit, you could be putting the other one in danger."

"They can both handle themselves," Esther replied. "Even against each other."

"James is a lot more skilled than Stephen," Zero said doubtfully. "And Stephen has more stamina and strength than James. I don't know if they'd be able to fight each other for long."

"That doesn't matter," Esther said dismissively. "It doesn't matter because it's not going to happen. I trust our friends. Neither James nor Stephen is the traitor."

With that, she began walking away. Zero fell into step next to her. "Careful that your love for our friends doesn't blind you to reality," he warned soberly. "Or you're going to have a very nasty wake-up call."

"What are you saying?" demanded Esther.

"I'm not telling you to suspect our friends and become paranoid about who you can and can't trust. All I'm saying is that you need to be aware that sometimes people aren't all they seem to be. Sometimes the lure of money is too great for a man. Or a woman," he added, seeing Esther's face. "The point is: if it does turn out to be one of our friends, I need you to be able to stay focused and professional. I just think it would be best if you open your mind to the possibility."

Part of Esther wanted to argue, but she knew Zero was right. It was way too naïve of her to believe that everybody was good and nobody would fall to corruption. She just really didn't want to believe it was James or Stephen. Both of them had been great friends to her—one greater than the other—for three to four years, longer than Esther had known Zero. James had been—apart from Isaac and then Zero—her best friend since she joined BOWCA four years ago. Stephen had only been transferred back to BOWCA from the Australian branch after Esther had been there one year, but he still quickly became one of Esther's closer friends in BOWCA.

Her thoughts were cut off when they reached the gym. Three salvaged hospital beds were set up nearest the radiator, so that any patients there would be warm. There was a figure lying in the leftmost bed. Esther and Zero made their way up to it. Esther stifled a gasp when she saw the state Robin was in: the whole area around her left eye was bruised, with the visible wound going over her nose—almost to her right eye—over to her ear, and stopping at the top of her top lip.

"What on Earth could have caused this?" Esther gasped in shock. "You said she was attacked? Who by?"

"We don't know," Ruth replied. "But since the injury is on the front of her face and there's no wound to the back of her head, we can assume she saw her attacker's face. She's unconscious from the blow but I did a quick X-Ray with the nearly broken X-Ray machine and there are no signs of internal injury to her head, so she should wake up soon." She paused. "What?"

Esther was staring at Ruth in admiration. "I was just thinking that if I didn't know who you were, I would have assumed that you were a full agent of BOWCA instead of just a trainee. You're being very professional."

Ruth blushed slightly. "Thank you. All I want is to help people."

"And you're certainly doing that," Zero said.

"Thank you."

A groan interrupted their conversation as Robin stirred on the bed. Esther took Robin's hand and squeezed it comfortingly. "Robin, can you hear me?"

Robin's eyes opened and blinked several times, though Esther noticed her left eye was closed slightly, probably due to the injury over it. "Esther…?" she croaked.

"I'm here. Do you remember what happened?"

"I-I remember I was hit." Robin frowned, trying to remember. "In the eye…it knocked me out…"

Zero and Esther both grimaced and sucked air in through their teeth. "If the blow to your eye was strong enough to knock you out, no wonder you've got an injury like that," Zero commented.

"Did you see who it was?" Esther asked Robin urgently.

She made eye-contact with Zero, and she knew he was thinking the same thing: whoever attacked Robin was most likely the culprit.

"I can't remember exactly," Robin said slowly. "The only thing I remember is that the man had some kind of blonde hair."

Esther and Zero stared at each other, both with shocked and scared expressions on their faces.

"B-but…that means…" Zero stammered.

"Oh no…" Esther's hand covered her mouth in shock. "Stephen…!"

*der gasp* XD make of that what you will I:} I purposefully didn't tell you what colour Stephen's hair is I:} I:} I:}