The next day went by slowly. Charlie actually couldn't wait until he heard of the reply to Manfred's message. Even though he would prefer a better 'client', there was no doubt that the adventure he landed in was exciting. Although, could he call it an adventure? No, it was more of a 'think hard about your next move and carry it out efficiently' kind of adventure.

So in other words, a mystery. I'm a detective. Charlie thought. He smiled at that. Cool.

It wasn't until break that a younger boy told Charlie that he was needed in Manfred's office.

"I'm here!" Charlie breathed out as he burst through the office. "Right, so did the kidnapper come up with a reply?"

Tancred, who was standing by the door when Charlie flung it open was rubbing his forehead, growling, "Oi! Next time don't fling it open. I swear, you nearly broke my head, Bone."

"Oh, sorry Tancred." Charlie added meekly. He noted the lightning flickering above Tancred and took a wide step away from him. "So has the kidnapper answered yet?"

"You know, why don't we give the kidnapper a name?" Olivia asked, walking in through the door behind Charlie. "I mean after a while, the word 'kidnapper' does get tiring."

Manfred watched as Charlie, Tancred, Olivia, and somehow even poor Fidelio (how he got dragged in, we may never know) battled it out.

"We can call the kidnapper Taylor." Charlie said.

"Why Taylor?" asked Olivia.

"I like the name." Charlie said.

"There's Shadow." Tancred suggested. "Shadow sounds mysterious."

"No, too mainstream. How about Jay?" Charlie said as the others piled into the room.

Olivia clicked her tongue. "No, it can't be a regular name like that. It should be something mysterious sounding, like Roberto!"

Everyone in the room stared at her. After a moment of silence, Olivia folded her arms and said, "Well it sounds like a mysterious name to me!"

"It doesn't matter now." Emma said quietly. "We should be worrying about the message. Sir," she turned her focus to Manfred. "Did the kidnapper respond?"

Manfred looked down at a folded piece of paper on the desk. "Yes, the kidnapper responded. I haven't read it yet, but once we are all ready, I'll read it."

Lysander did a quick head count and said, "We're all here. Go on and read."

With trembling fingers, Manfred quickly unfolded the letter and read aloud, "It seems as if you don't trust me. On your behalf, I'll allow you to talk to Jade every day for one minute. Then, after the money is turned in, Jade will be on the phone until she returns to the gates of the school."

Manfred looked up. "That's all it says." he said.

"Then that does it." Charlie said. "Emma, you're going to have to forge Dr. Bloor's signature so Manfred can get his money."

Emma sighed. "Alright. But um, Manfred, sir? Do you have anything with your father's signature on it? I have to study it before I try."

Manfred opened the top left drawer of his desk, rummaged through papers, and tugged a piece of paper out from a stack of folders. "This is the last time I got his permission to withdraw money."

Emma accepted the paper. With her sharp eyes, she carefully studied how the lines form and she reached up to the pencil tucked behind her ear. "Is there some paper I can practice on?" she asked Manfred.

So there they were, all of them huddle around Manfred's desk as Emma bent over the paper, carefully copying the letters of the signature. At first, she felt as if she didn't make the 'H' in the name narrow enough and immediately started anew. The second time, she said that the 'l' was too tall and started over.

After a brief session of trial and error, Emma was able to copy the signature perfectly and was able to scribble it down on paper in seconds, as if the signature was her own.

"You truly are amazing." Tancred breathed in admiration. "That was only your seventh time."

Emma blushed, ducked her head, and asked Manfred for a pen as he got out the withdrawal form from the bank. "This is the only form so don't make a mistake." he growled.

"Don't growl at her." Tancred snapped.

Manfred looked as if he was about to snap back but thought better of it and left it. Emma wet her lips and practiced one more time on her practice paper before she placed the pen down to forge a signature.

She did it perfectly.

An audible sigh escaped everyone's lips and Manfred took the paper from her. "Thank you Tolly." he sighed. "We did it. We have a signature..." The words came out of his mouth in a weird sounding way. It was difficult for him to say 'We did it' with the very people who were against him for so long. He looked away from them, not able to hold their triumphant gaze any longer, even if their triumph was for him.

"Now we can get Jade back." Gabriel said. "That was easy."

"She's not back yet." Lysander said. "And if this kidnapper is endowed, then he or she may have something up his or her sleeve."

"You're right." Olivia said. "We can't let this kidnapper get away. We'll trick him! Or her. We'll track the kidnapper down after we get Jade and get the money back."

Manfred sighed. "Maybe some other time we'll think about that but right now I'm more concerned about getting Jade back."

There was a silence, and the group exchanged glances. "You know what? We need a name for the kidnapper." said Gabriel.

"Exactly." Olivia said, taking a seat in one of the armchairs in front of Manfred's desk. "If we have to talk about the kidnapper during class or something, wouldn't it be bad if someone overheard us saying 'kidnapper' all the time?"

"She has a point." Charlie said. "But what nickname can we use?"

"Roberto!"

"That's not a mysterious nickname Liv."

Olivia grinned. "No, but it's one heck of a name."

Charlie and company-excluding Manfred- had a strong urge to roll their eyes. And so they did.

Lysander glanced at Manfred, and tilted his head slightly to the side. "If the kidnapper is endowed, then do we know him? Is he around our age or is he older?"

Charlie personally thought Lysander sounded like an investigator even with just two questions. They were good questions though, and maybe Lysander would become some private detective, like Benjamin's parents. He could imagine it now; Mr. and Mrs. Brown and Lysander, private investigators in cool trench coats and shades. Maybe Mr. Brown and Lysander would look good in fedoras.

Only Charlie would think about hats during an interrogation.

"The kidnapper isn't anyone you know. I personally don't know him either." Manfred growled in a tone of detest. "And how would I know how old he is? For all I know it could be an ex boyfriend."

He paled. Suddenly falling into some state of depression, he laid his head down for a long, long time.

"Um, well uh..., well let's not go there yet..." Emma said nervously. She looked torn between patting Manfred on the shoulder and keeping to herself. Olivia noticed Emma's inner battle and reached out to pat Manfred for her, but not on the shoulder but on the head, adding a small, "Ooh, what shampoo do you use?"

"Livvy!" Emma exclaimed in horror.

Olivia looked at Emma blankly. "What? Can I not ask a simple question." She leaned in to sniff at his hair. "Mm, citrus."

Charlie ran forward to pull Olivia back in case Manfred decided to punish her for smelling his hair. Although he had to admit Olivia's statement tempted him to lean forward and take a whiff as well, he didn't dare to.

Manfred didn't move. Olivia gave Charlie a weird look. "You're still holding on to me."

Charlie reddened. "Oh, sorry..." He released his grip on Olivia's arm.

"You know what I'd do if I were you?" Tancred asked Manfred, leaning on his desk.

"What is it Torsson?"

"I'd find this ex and shock him stiff."

"Tanc, Manfred can't do that. He isn't a stormbringer." Charlie said.

Tancred was unfazed. "Yeah, I know." He sighed at Charlie's puzzled expression. "Stormbringers aren't the only ones who can shock you know, Bone. If you buy a taser off of eBay I'm sure you can-"

Lysander clapped Tancred's mouth shut with his hands and said, "Back to the problem...The note said that you can talk to her every day for a minute right?"

Manfred made a small noise, which was passed off to Lysander as a 'Yes.' "So if she'll be on the phone, can you track her through that?"

"Oh, so we really don't trust the guy do we?" Olivia exclaimed, suddenly bubbly. "So are we trying to get her back our way or Roberto's way?"

"Olivia, the kidnapper's name isn't 'Roberto'." Fidelio said. He looked like he was struggling not to roll his eyes.

"It could be." Olivia said defensively. "You'll never know if you don't find out."

"Oi!" Lysander called as he clutched his pounding head. With the room quiet, they could hear the slight drum beats echoing around the office.

"Sorry Sander." Olivia said meekly. "But you know...Roberto...it's such a cool name."

Lysander shook his head and Olivia backed out of the conversation. He looked at Charlie, and then at Manfred, who still had the dark cloud of depression hanging over his ducked head. "Sir, write another note." Lysander said suddenly. "Ask anything, like if you can really trust him. Don't go to the mailbox until Friday. And Charlie, don't get detention this week, okay?"

"Eh?" Charlie stared at Lysander. "Sure, but why?" Deep down, he knew that whatever Lysander was thinking, it included him. Was he supposed to feel flattered that Lysander thought he was a worthy candidate for this mission, or would he feel unlucky, because he was a worthy candidate for this mission?

Either way, he was going to do it; there was no stopping Sage. Lysander...Sage.

Huh...James Bond isn't the only name that can be said like that and sound cool... Charlie thought to himself.

"You're going to have to watch that mailbox." Lysander said.

Tancred straightened out immediately. "Oohhhh, I get it! That's cool. Charlie is going to keep an eye on the mailbox and see if anyone but the postman goes to get the letters from it, right?"

"If that's the case, we can find him." Emma said quietly.

Olivia smiled broadly. "This is like a mystery film. Should the rest of us stand by though, in case Charlie gets into trouble."

"Believe me, you have no idea how many times he gets into trouble." Fidelio grinned.

Charlie sent Fidelio a 'Hey!' look before muttering, "Fine, stand by if you want. But I can do it perfectly fine by myself."

How wrong he was...