"What did you find?" John Hayes asked as his father sat down across from him at the picnic table, a chess board laid out in front of them. The game was merely window dressing, as the park was not a place business was normally conducted. They had not wanted to meet in a restaurant where they could have been overheard for this conversation, and his father was rather paranoid about listening devices, so he had preferred somewhere outdoors. There was no electrical power supply to hardwire such a device into here, and the picnic table out in the open and away from trees did not look altered in any way. Since they did not have children in tow, they had to have some sort of diversion to look like they were engaged in, thus the game. John did not think that there was any danger of enemy surveillance in the town's small park, but his father would not be comfortable unless they were behaving as if they were being watched even if they could not be overheard.

Old habits died hard. He knew from his own experience he could not go anywhere without mentally identifying defensible positions, places he could blast through to gain access deeper into a building without destabilizing it, and weapons of opportunity.

One of his current co-worker had noticed him surveying the layout in a pharmacy once, and had asked him what kind of a weapon he could find there once he had explained what he was he was doing. He had then told her about how to kill someone with a toothbrush.

Some civilians had no sense of humor.

"He's clean, but I did find a few anomalous bits of information," his father answered, setting a briefcase down on the table, and then he immediately moved one of his pawns before sitting down. "I am certain that there is more going on here than either of us originally suspected."

'Anomalous' was the word his father used when he found data that did not fit any of the theories he already had, so a new theory was needed. "Please elaborate," John asked, countering the move on the board.

He had been surprised when his wife had told him that his daughter was planning to ask one of her former teachers out, and then had later admitted that he had taken their daughter up on her offer. The man seemed personable enough, but he was significantly older than Alice. Not to mention that he would be remiss in his parental duties if he neglected to find everything possible out about the man. His own background check had come up clean, but it told him so little about the professor. Naturally, he had turned to his own father who retained connections in England in order to find out about Grabiner's background…discreetly.

Unfortunately, that meant waiting for his father to contact him like he did every year before setting him on the trail. There was a good reason his father had been declared legally dead, and now wore a new identity, but that made communication with him difficult. It had been nearly a year since his daughter had started dating her former teacher, and they were still together. Clark seemed to approve of the relationship, just as Alice approved of his girlfriend, Adelaide. But as her father, John felt he needed to be absolutely certain his baby was with someone who would treat her as she deserved.

Alice had brought Hieronymous home during a few breaks, and she had gone to England during a few breaks with him—which he had only allowed after Clark had volunteered to go along as a chaperone—and it was an indication that they were becoming very serious very fast. When watching them together…it just seemed to him that they were behaving as if had been together longer than they had said that they had. He just felt as if there was something that they were not telling him.

"No arrests, no gambling debts, not so much as a speeding ticket here, or in England," his father started. He, too, had been perturbed about the situation when John had been able to tell him of it. "The only child of a Viscount, he attended one of those schools like your children go to…one of those 'invitation only' schools. After graduation, he came here directly and took a teaching post at Iris. Aside from interlibrary loans, he did not appear to do business of any kind…at least, until about a year ago when his elderly father started passing him business responsibilities."

A Viscount? Both Alice and Clark had hinted that he was wealthy, but had never put a firm figure on it or mentioned that his family carried titles. He wondered why. "Which would roughly correlate with when Alice started dating him," he mused. "Any interesting books I should know about?"

His father actually smiled. "Precambrian biology and Russian architecture do not seem particularly threatening. I would hazard a guess that he is a true academic that prefers topics as esoteric as possible."

"I suppose there are worse things in the world than academics," he muttered, placing a game piece. "You did not mention his mother."

His father nodded. "Viscount Grabiner was already old when he married a much younger woman. They had a pre-nup that gave him sole custody of any children, and her a generous financial settlement. They divorced shortly after Hieronymous' birth. As far as I can tell, she lives the life of an affluent divorcee in South America and has had no contact with her son. The logical conclusion is that the only reason for the marriage was to provide the Viscount with an heir."

John frowned at the table as his father placed a game piece. Given that information, was Hieronymous intending to do exactly as his father had? If that was the case, he wanted his daughter to have nothing to do with him. On the other hand, Hieronymous might have grown up resentful of his father for not allowing him a mother, and if he knew his daughter at all there was no way she would sign a similar pre-nup. No, there was no danger of that. If Hieronymous so much as suggested such an arrangement, their relationship would quickly come to an end. Alice was very like her mother when it came to her family, and there was no way she would bear and then abandon a child for money. Not to mention that once married, she was unlikely to leave her husband for anything short of adultery, abuse, or abandonment.

"His relationship with his father is also interesting," his father was continuing. "Most trust-fund babies can't wait to get their hands on their parent's cash. As far as I can tell, he had not taken a dollar…or a pound…from his father since graduating and landing his current job. Until he took possession of some moderate-sized companies at about the same time he started dating Alice, anyway."

"A falling-out recently mended," he mused, countering his father's move on the game board. "Do you have any idea what the conflict was about, or why it is now resolving?"

"Viscount Grabiner keeps most of his personal life private," his father said. "However, it is known that he wants to see his grandchildren before he dies. He has been heard saying that he did not care if his son married a chamber-maid, as long as he got grandchildren out of the deal. I would hazard a guess that considering Hieronymous' relationship status with Alice, he thinks his son is moving in the right direction. Once again, I have no evidence but it is likely he would encourage any step his son could take that would lead toward getting grandchildren."

"But would it happen because Hieronymous actually is interested in Alice for the right reasons, or because he wants to show his father a grandchild before he dies and keep in good standing in the will?" he mused.

"Like I said, Hieronymous appears to treasure his library card more than the cash," his father reminded him.

"Does he live on campus, or is he more accessible than that?" was his next question.

"This is where it starts to get…anomalous," his father said, frowning at the table. "I believe that he was residing at the school, but there was a house recently purchased by a 'Lady Alice Grabiner' not far from the school."

His eyes widened at the obvious conclusion. "Please tell me that his mother's name is Alice."

"Actually, it was her middle name, but I think it is still worthy of investigating," his father admitted, "since she has not been known to have had any contact with her son."

John could not hold back a sigh of relief. There was nothing like suggesting that his baby girl had gotten married without telling him or her mother to get his blood flowing. But there was still the possibility….

"This is where it really gets interesting," his father said. "A friend of mine did find a marriage license issued to a Hieronymous Grabiner and an Alice Carleton. It was signed by Lady Carleton's guardian…the same Lord Carleton that pays for your children's' educations…because she was seventeen at the time of the marriage."

He had no words for that, trying to process what his father had just told him.

Wait…seventeen?If this 'Alice Carleton' was really his own Alice, she had been married when she was seventeen! He doubted that there were two 'Hieronymous Grabiners,' with an unusual name like that.

His father opened his briefcase, and slid a news-clipping across to him. It appeared to be Alice standing with a man while cradling a newborn child. But the clothing styles were wrong…they were not contemporary.

"This is actually the picture that appeared with the birth announcement of Lord Carleton's daughter, Aimee. Aimee disappeared from high society when she was thirteen, supposedly being educated abroad, before she was said to have eloped with an American soldier. Her mother looks remarkably like Alice. Are you certain that your in-laws are actually your wife's birth parents?" his father asked.

He had floated in freezing water until he was numb. He had fought and killed, and had nearly died time and again. He had tried to stance the flow of blood from one of his buddies as the man died in his arms. He had been on missions that had gone wrong, and it had been all they could do to get out alive. He had been one choice of a wire cut from life or death. It had still not prepared him for this.

The entire time, his wife and children had been the stabilizing force in his life. He had never considered that his wife might not be who she said she was. Even if there had been an incident that had forced Lord Carleton to seek foster-parents for his daughter, thirteen was plenty old enough for her to remember her birth parents. She should have known that she had been 'adopted,' but had never shared any indication of that with him.

Still, he trusted his wife implicitly. She had never failed him. He guessed that it was possible that she could have had a head injury of some sort and forgotten her old life, but that would not explain why her foster parents thought she was their own daughter and had pictures of her as a young child. But the resemblance and Carleton's generosity in providing for the children's educations…and his signature as Alice's guardian…were facts that were impossible to ignore.

And he came to the obvious conclusion. That his wife and children had secondary identities as English nobles was a lesser concern. What worried him was that Alice was married, and was hiding it from him and her mother. He had no idea what had possessed her so that she would marry at such an early age. She had always been so responsible. From observing her interactions with her…husband…he would have to get use to that word…he guessed that she had done so willingly. But why had she felt that it had been necessary? His first thought was that maybe she had become pregnant, but he dismissed that idea as she had not looked pregnant when they had seen her during breaks and the baby would have been here by now…unless she had become pregnant and then had lost the baby.

He desperately hoped that there was some other explanation, and then remembered that both she had her husband were nobles. Perhaps it had been some political maneuver, though he knew such arrangements were less popular than they had been centuries ago. Even if that were the case, there was still the question of why she had not told him. What possibly could have happened that she would have thought that she could not tell him or her mother? They had always been very clear with their children that they would always love them no matter what happened, that whatever they had done, they could always come home. It was always better to have problems out in the open where they could be dealt with. He and his wife considered this stance absolutely necessary, especially with the twins that they considered would be the most likely to get into trouble. He had never suspected that Alice would be the one hiding something of this magnitude from him.

And he realized that Clark had to be in on it too. There had been multiple times that he could have become suspicious that something else was going on, but Clark had managed to diffuse it. He supported whatever had happened…or at least his sister's decisions regarding it. That did not really surprise him. Those two were as much counterparts and allies as the twins had ever been.

But why the deception, why keep that separation between the life they lived with their family, and the life they lived at school?

"I don't know," he finally said in response to his father's question.

"I assume you would like to get a look at the house to see if Alice and Hieronymous are living there?" his father said, and John nodded. "Should I come to your house to say hello to the rest of the family before we go?"

"Yes, that would be fine," he said, distracted. "It's going to be dark in a few hours anyway."

"Mission tomorrow then," his father said, sounding almost nostalgia. "I admit, I came looking forward to seeing how much the twins and Nancy have grown."

"Nancy?" he asked, his mind still elsewhere. The name seemed vaguely familiar.

"Yes, the short blond dreamy one," he said smiling. And then that smile abruptly vanished from his face. "Why, has something happened to her?"

"Who are you talking about?" John asked, becoming increasingly aware that this was something he should know. It was like when a word was on the tip of his tongue, but he could not get it out…something half remembered in a dream.

Silently, his father removed a photo from his wallet and showed it to him. It was a picture of his family from few years ago…a copy of one that currently hung in the hallway…but yet, it was not the same. In this one was a little girl that had his blond hair, and his wife's face.

Nancy.

Why was a faint picture of the girl, a little older and wrapped in his arms, appearing in his mind?

"Have fun, and remember that I love you," he whispered into her ear as he bent down to hug her.

The girl squeezed him as tight as she could. "Oh, I'll remember Daddy, and I love you too, but I want you to remember. I want you to remember that you love me when you see me again."

The way the girl said that made it sound like that was her most longed-for, most desperate hope.

Nancy. He remembered, the picture of her triggering some switch in his mind. She was his daughter…his youngest daughter. Why was his memory of her so dim? How did it get that way? But if his wife could not remember her parents….

"There is something stealing daughters, and erasing memories," he finally concluded. "That is the only reason why I can't remember…how could I forget? She's my daughter!"

"You really couldn't remember her? She does not live in your house?" his father said, now clearly worried. John merely shook his head. Before, his father had merely had a difficult puzzle to solve. Before, his daughter-in-law and granddaughter were merely wearing multiple identities. As a man that had used so many himself, it was an interesting bullet point instead of an insurmountable problem, and could probably be explained. Now, he also had to explain how someone could have erased memories.

Clearly, Lord Carleton was aware of his daughter and her children. Carleton's daughter was not aware of him, though John had to wonder why Carleton's granddaughter was when her mother was not. He had not been aware of Nancy ten minutes ago, and it was a good guess that Rhonda…Aimee…was not aware of her at this time. It was just so strange to find out that his wife, the woman that he had loved for decades and was the mother of his children, had another name.

He thought back, trying to figure out when the last dim memory of Nancy was—or more precisely the last clear memory he had that she had not been present in since he could not place when that goodbye had taken place—and if could remember anything unusual happening in the surrounding days or weeks. Now that he realized what he had forgotten, he could also identify that many of his memories were…fuzzy. Conversations and events where there were holes, like the skipping of a record. In a few there was some sort of a white shadow that, if he concentrated hard enough, resolved itself into the image of the girl in the picture. The least recent time period he could find a memory without 'skips' was just before the Spring Break of Clark's freshman year. He recalled a conversation he had had with Alice regarding her desire to stay at school over the summer, and the twins' new cautious attitudes. Alice and Clark had also been quieter than they would normally be. The conclusion was obvious. Whatever event had prompted Nancy's removal had occurred before that spring break. That also meant….

"The kids know, they remember," he finally answered. "They remember their sister, but have said nothing of it to their mother or myself."

It explained a lot. Why the twins had suddenly become more cautious, why Clark and Alice had become quieter, not enjoying their school break as much as they otherwise would have. And there was Alice's sudden desire to stay in school over the summer, which he now guessed was connected to whatever had happened. Had she decided to stay away from home so she could stay with Nancy, who surely needed her after whatever had happened? An honors course indeed, but if she had lied to him so she could care for Nancy…. Now he had to wonder with Clark was actually doing with his summer, since he was now enrolled in the very same 'honors course' only returning home when they had their breaks. If they both were able to confidently use their educations at Iris as an excuse to stay away from home, it was probable that the school was connected to whatever entity that had made Nancy disappear. It was possible that it was not, though that seemed increasingly unlikely.

"Which does not leave us with many possibilities," his father sighed. "As your other children have not been removed, that leaves the possibilities that Nancy was privy to a secret that some group or individual did not want exposed and she was judged too young to keep secrets, she was removed for her own protection because there was a danger that was aimed at her in specific, or she has qualities that the group finds highly desirable. Given that the kids have not brought the issue to you, either they are satisfied with the reason she was removed, or believe that telling you would cause harm of some kind. It is also plausible that Iris, and possibly the school Grabiner attended, are training institutions for this group."

"We can't stop by the house, the twins might sense something was up," John decided. He had not raised any stupid children; sneaky yes…even more so than he had previously realized…but not stupid. "I don't know who on God's green Earth has the ability to erase memories, though. It's a good bet that they have a line of communication with the twins." He would have to call his wife to tell her not to expect him home tonight, and it might be a good thing that he had tomorrow off work as well. He had performed missions in less than thirty-six hours before, though he had the feeling that tonight would be anything but ordinary.

"And the twins might tip them off," his father answered.

"Come to think of it, there were an awful lot of calls to the 'heater repair' lady before Nancy disappeared, and it has not broken down since," John mused, knowing that his father would immediately translate that as they had been under surveillance. He had wondered why the heating broke so often during that winter, but as the response to the calls had always been prompt and had at least temporarily fixed the problem, he had not wondered too much about it. That, in and of itself, now struck him as odd. He should have been suspicious about that, but he had not been. He had noticed, however, that the repairs had become much more frequent as the winter progressed. The repair lady had explained to him that the part that she needed was on back-order, so she had had to fix the system with a sub-standard part until the factory sent them the new part. Now, he guessed that it had actually been some sort of surveillance, with someone sabotaging the heater to cover for it. But who would have that kind of access to his home, without him knowing, to break the heater in the basement? If they had that kind of access to his home already, why bother breaking the heater to cover the surveillance in the first place? For the amount of times it had happened, it was impossible that he would not have noticed someone fiddling with it. Unless it was one of the twins or Nancy breaking it…but that would make them complicit in the surveillance, but he was pretty sure that he or Rhonda would have caught them at it. Nancy would not know the first thing about breaking appliances, and he and his wife were careful to watch the twins under normal circumstances. No, something else had to have triggered the malfunctions.

However it had been done, someone had decided that the surveillance or whatever they had been trying to accomplish by it had not worked well enough, prompting the removal of his daughter.

His father sighed. "There is also the possibility that the kids are mixed up in something dangerous, and they believe that keeping us in the dark is protecting us. If this was the case, they must have reason to believe that your special forces training would be inadequate in this situation, and I would be the last to scoff at your abilities or training. Someone with the ability or resources to make people lose their memories with enough precision to specify which memories had to go probably developed that ability to hide other secrets. I will help you in whatever you decide to do, but once we poke the hornet's nest, we might be unable to perform a 'tactical retreat.'"

"Do you have any idea who or what this group could be?" he asked. His father had made it his business to know of secretive groups, once, and had successfully infiltrated several…which was why he was legally dead now after one of them had infiltrated back. There was no one better to ask about clandestine organizations.

His father sighed. "That specifically has the ability to erase memories? The only thing I can think of is what we codenamed Enigma…not to be confused with the machine of the same name. The only reason we actually think that they exist are discrepancies in documentation that we have found at times. Their members come on and off the grid, sometimes decades between, and have not appeared to change. The thing is, they keep to their own kind so much that it is hard to verify, and appear to only surface for any period of time when the adult members have young children. If you interview someone that claims that the person appears unchanged from when they knew them decades ago, and then you come back later, the witness will retract their statements and claim that they were mistaken. In a few cases, the agents involved appeared to completely forget about the case."

"Either they have long lifespans, or have found a way to clone themselves," John considered. Either possibility sounded ludicrous, but when there were no other options, the ludicrous was the truth. "Are they considered dangerous?"

"They have not been caught doing anything illegal per say, aside from document modification," his father admitted. "If they make corpses, they don't leave them lying about. Now, there have been a few reports of adolescents that go to those 'invitation only' schools that don't come back home, but it is never the parents that report them missing. It's usually a non-related friend that moved out of the area and then returned looking for them, but the family did not even know who they were talking about, so the witness suspected foul play. Once again, by the time we get a second interview, the witness says there was a mistake and has no idea who we are talking about. We think they have an agent inside the department somewhere, but as far as I know, we have never found the leak."

John had to think about that for a moment. Even if this group was largely benign and simply liked keeping their secrets to themselves, even if those missing children had merely gone 'off the grid' with the rest of the group, he guessed that they would not like being probed. He estimated that they were not too malignant; otherwise his children would not have willingly joined them.

And he wondered if that was his answer, or at least part of it. His wife might have decided not to join, resulting in the memories of her previous life and family being erased and her placement with another family. That the group had put her with parents as loving as his in-laws spoke well of them, but that she had refused to join spoke poorly. Perhaps it was a group you had to be born into, resulting in the invitations to his children.

They might have every right to invite his children, but they had no right to take one from him. For the rest of his children to go along with it, though, there had to be some other factor at work. There had to be some danger that they, or perhaps just Nancy, were or had been exposed to that the group could defend against but he could not. He did not know enough, and there was only one way to find out more.

"If it was merely that my wife and daughter had alternate identities, or that Alice had gotten married without telling me, I might let it be under those circumstances. But they took my daughter, and did not even have the decency to tell me why."

With that, his father stood, closed the briefcase, and put the game away in its box. "I have night-vision goggles in the trunk if you want to do some preliminary surveillance tonight. There is an old apple orchard next to 'Lady Grabiner's' house. You get to climb trees, though."

"Fair enough," he said, wondering if they would find a young, blond girl playing in the yard. They might be able to make it before nightfall. If she was not there, he did not know where else to look short of Lord Carleton's estates. Whatever event led to Nancy's removal had occurred prior to Alice's eighteenth birthday that had occurred during that spring break, so the timing for her marriage could have been about the same. It occurred to him that she might have married Grabiner in order to give her sister a foster father, and provide a means so she could take custody of her sister herself. He could see where a student would not be allowed guardianship of a child, but a professor would.

Although that thought cut like a knife, it was still a better situation than his first supposition. He had to admit that Hieronymous seemed like a good man, and if Alice thought she could learn to love him, or if she already did, it would not be as great of a sacrifice on her part as it might be otherwise.

Silently working, the two men got the ghillie suit out of his trunk and placed it in his father's rental, just in case someone was monitoring his own car. The local thrift store was the next stop for a pair of coveralls and work boots for his father, since he did not have a second ghillie suit with him, and because his father did not move as well as he once had. A cover as a local farmer would have to do.

John grimaced as he sat behind the wheel while he waited for his father to get out of the thrift store, after he had gotten done talking to his wife over a payphone at a nearby gas station. He had merely told her that he was out with his father and expected to be back sometime tomorrow. He and his father had discussed telling her to leave a message with one of his old friends if they did not come back, but had decided against involving anyone else. This was a family affair, and they were dealing with an unknown entity. Literally anything could happen. While they drove, they had to discuss what they would and would not say if they were caught and interrogated. Their story had to be crafted in such a manner that his children did not appear to be directly responsible for his curiosity, in case the group would chose to punish them if that was indeed the case.

He had to wonder what he could, or should, do if Nancy was indeed there. He knew just enough to know that he had no idea what was going on, and acting without good intelligence was always risky. There was also the fact that he could not shake the feeling that there would be security at his daughter's house, and that it would be good if Lord Carleton had anything to do with it. He guessed that a man that had lost his daughter would be very protective of his granddaughters. However good it was, it would not stop him from trying to find out what had happened to his little girl. He had to know if she was alive and well, and if she was with someone that loved her. After that came everything else…why Nancy had been removed, who this mysterious group was and what their goals were, why his children had joined the group while his wife had not, why his children had been so tight-lipped about the whole thing, what kind of danger they thought their youngest sister was in, if they were indeed related to Lord Carleton and what his involvement in this whole situation was.

Oh, and of course, why Alice had married one of her teachers when she was seventeen and then had hid it from him and her mother. John considered himself a reasonable man; he would have allowed them to explain themselves before shooting Grabiner, with the merits of that explanation making it possible for him to narrow down the caliber of the weapon he needed to use. After all, there were many choices ranging between homemade explosives and a water pistol. That issue had appeared to shrink once he had become aware that one of his other daughters had disappeared, but it had not gone away.

It was time he got some answers.

The End

Author's note: I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! You should know what happens next, as I used Alice's final exam to explain that. I had thought about ending it after the previous chapter, but John insisted on saying his piece, and I couldn't really tell him 'no.' Sometimes, my characters dictate to me what they want to say.

Feel free to ask me questions about the story, and please review if you liked it! :D