Powell's office
"Let's dig up some information on Stanton Parish," said JJ "We need to make it look like we're working if anyone comes in, if they do, we can get either Daphne or Joshua when he gets here to shake hands with them, that should give us what we need from their memories."
"We'll have a lot of work to do," said Jim "We have to clear everyone in this office, Doctor Rosen's team, as well as the soldiers and Clay, this isn't going to be easy."
"All right," said Stephanie "We'll look for the information on Stanton, when Joshua and George get here, we'll start looking into the spy."
Jim, Daphne and JJ started leafing through the information Dr Rosen had given them.
Stephanie was about to sit down and join them when there was a knock on the door.
She looked around to see Kat, the girl from the car.
"Hi again, Kat," said Daphne, getting up and smiling "My name's Daphne."
She shook Kat's hand. Stephanie looked on, looking for changes in Daphne's expression.
"You look surprised," said Kat "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing," said Daphne "It was good to meet you." She turned away and went back to the files.
"Nice to meet you too Kat," said Stephanie, also shaking her hand "I'd guess that you're here to tell us something?"
"No," said Kat "Dr Rosen said you were here to help track down Stanton Parish, but I think there's something else going on here."
"What makes you think that?" asked Jim
"A lot of people around here have been acting weird lately," said Kat "Weirder than usual, I mean, it's like they're afraid about what they say, as if they think they might give something away to someone, but we're all friends here, we would never betray each other."
"Dr Rosen believes there is a spy either inside this office, or a friend or family member who knows enough to give information to Parish," said JJ, deciding to come clean to Kat "We aren't supposed to tell anyone, our cover is that we're working on the Parish case."
"Why did you suddenly decide to tell me?" asked Kat
"I don't believe you are the spy," said JJ "And I think you could help us find them."
"Not a word of this to anyone," said Jim "This is strictly between us."
"Not a problem," said Kat "My lips are sealed."
"This might be better, actually," said Stephanie "Daphne and JJ could go with Kat to mingle with the others in the office while we stay here and look up stuff on Parish."
"Sounds good," said Daphne "Could I have a private word with you guys first?"
"Sure," said Jim, a bit confused "Could you wait outside for a minute, Kat?"
Kat left the room.
"What is it, Daphne?" asked Jim
"When I touched her, I couldn't see any of her memories," said Daphne "Similar to when I couldn't read Joshua's mind."
"You think she might be the spy?" asked Stephanie
"She isn't the spy," said JJ "She displayed all indicators of someone telling the truth when she talked about her suspicions about her colleagues and friends and what she believed about them."
"It might be due to her ability that you can't see her memories," said Jim "Why don't you ask her about them?"
"Looks like we're going to have to investigate her as well," said Stephanie "But she seems to know the people in this office very well, so she might be useful in this investigation, so investigate her, but do it discreetly."
Daphne and JJ nodded.
Corridor (Outside Powell's office)
"All right, Kat," said Daphne "We're ready to go."
"Cool," said Kat "Shall we go to the kitchen, everyone ends up there eventually?"
"Sure," said JJ "Let's go."
Kat led them to the end of the corridor where an open area showed a kitchen unit, a fridge and a counter as well as a few chairs. A black man was already there.
"Hey Bill," said Kat "I'd like to introduce you to Daphne and JJ Powell, they're here to help with the Parish investigation."
"Nice to meet you," said Bill, shaking first JJ's hand and then Daphne's "This investigation is taking a toll on all of us, we're grateful of the extra help."
As he shook Daphne's hand, an image of him and his wife at home popped into her mind. Bill had nothing to hide, or else this would have come to the surface of his memory when she touched him.
"You want tea?" asked Kat, walking over to the kitchen unit "Juice?"
"Tea, thank you," said Daphne, while JJ shook his head, both of them sitting down in the chairs in the kitchen area. Kat brought tea over for Daphne as well as herself. This seemed like a good time to ask Kat about her powers.
"My powers allow me to see another's memories by touch," said Daphne "But when I touched you, I saw nothing, why is that?"
"I'm what some comics call a muscle mimic," Kat explained "I can do anything I see done from watching it once, a side effect of this is that every six months, I forget everything that happened to me in that time, that's probably why you didn't see my memories, were you investigating me?"
"Yeah," said Daphne "I thought since I couldn't see your memories, you had something to hide, I apologise."
"Not a problem," said Kat "I would probably mistrust me too if I was in your situation."
"If you can get me into contact with the rest of your team, we'll be able to clear them too," said JJ "As I understand it, then we have to move onto tactical and clear them too, followed by friends and family."
"I hope Joshua gets here soon," said Daphne "This'll be really hard to do on my own."