Hello! First of all, I apologize for taking so long to update the story, life got in the way and I didn't have much time to write and edit, but I'm back and to compensate you all for this long, long wait, I'm going to post two chapters instead of one. Since posting them at the same time can be a bit confusing for some of you, I'm going to wait a day to post the next one, but CH26 will be available tomorrow night without fail.

Anyway, enjoy and don't forget to share your thoughts about the story. Faves, follows and reviews are always welcome. See you tomorrow! ;)

Chapter 25

The elevator came to a halt and Alec immediately took a deep breath before stepping out of it and making his way to his office. In the last three weeks coming to the Bureau had become a real torture for him and undoubtedly, in the worst part of his day; not because he hated his job or anything like that, he loved it, but because the more they investigated all the active agents working for the FBI, the more paranoid he became. It was a daily struggle of having to pretend that nothing was wrong when, in reality, it was just the opposite and everything was upside down—they were slowly but surely discovering all the corrupt agents the Bureau had in its ranks.

"Good morning, Alec." Raj said, placing a cup of fresh coffee on Alec's desk.

"Good morning, Raj, and hmmm, thanks for the coffee." Alec said a bit taken aback by the friendly gesture. He was used to having agents of his team bring him coffee all the time, he was the boss, people always tried to please him, but that usually required Alec to order them to do so—with the exception of Jace and Izzy, they never did it of their own volition.

"I saw you when you arrived," Raj said, as if explaining the reason behind the attention, "and judging by your face, I figured you could use some coffee."

"I actually do, thank you." Alec admitted because it was true, he had barely slept the night before and his body needed some caffeine to finish waking up. Last night, after spending hours upon hours working with his siblings and Magnus on that list of agents they had been putting together for weeks, his boyfriend had suggested they take a break and go out for dinner alone. At first, Alec hadn't been very convinced by the idea, he had to work the next day and being sleep deprived was always a problem since his work required all his concentration, but after Magnus had used his special puppy-eyes against him, he had had no choice but to accept. So they had ended up at one of Tessa's restaurants, having dinner for free and spending a great time together.

"You stayed up working." Raj assumed.

"Yeah, something like that." Alec said, not really feeling comfortable talking to Raj about why he had stayed up late. The agent was one of the good guys, they had already ruled him out from their list of suspects, but they barely knew each other outside the office and Alec had never been one to share anything about his personal life with people he didn't know. He was a very private man, he had always been.

"You work so hard," Raj continued, "you should take a break...go out someday. I know a place not far from here that serves the best cocktails in town. If you want we could go someday after work and have a few drinks, maybe dinner?"

Alec almost spat out the coffee he was drinking. He wasn't one hundred percent sure if Raj was asking him out or if he was imagining things, but whatever this whole thing was, had taken him completely by surprise and he didn't know what to do or what to say. He knew that Raj was expecting some sort of reaction, probably an answer or something along those lines, but Alec had momentarily lost the ability to speak. What was he supposed to say? Thank you, but no? He didn't want to be rude.

Fortunately for him, before the silence between them became even more awkward, his sister entered his office unannounced and saved him.

"Don't waste your time, Raj." She said, patting him on the back. "He has a boyfriend, and I'm pretty sure he won't be happy to hear that you're inviting my brother for drinks."

"He has a...hmmm, uhh, ehh. I-I...I mean, I didn't know, but hmmm, that's good, I guess, so uhhh, forget about what I just said. I'm-I'm...I'm just gonna hmmm...go." The agent said, stuttering his way out of Alec's office.

"What just happened?" Alec asked, still very confused by the whole thing. This was the first time something like this happened to him and he wasn't sure if he wanted it to happen again—he felt mortified.

"He asked you out." Izzy said simply. "Alec, that man's been crushing on you since Quantico. I told you there was more than one agent here who wanted to jump at the chance to be with you, you just didn't believe me."

Alec shook his head and rolled his eyes—his sister was talking nonsense.

"I wonder what that boyfriend of yours would think of this unexpected invitation? Raj is handsome..."

"I guess he is, but I never pictured myself going out with anyone in the office, it's weird, besides, I'm with Magnus now."

"I know, I was just wondering what his reaction would be...is he the jealous type of guy?"

"No." Alec said. "Or at least, I don't think so."

"Too bad, I would have loved to see him doing something to claim his territory. After all, it's not a secret to anyone in this office that he's found you attractive since day one...Agent Pretty Boy." She said mockingly.

Alec rolled his eyes again.

"And speaking of him...you didn't come home last night after you two went out for dinner." She continued, taking a seat in Alec's very comfortable chair and putting her high-heeled boots on the desk.

"What are you, my mom?" Alec asked, playfully shooing her from his chair. It was so much easier now that his siblings knew the whole truth about his relationship with Magnus because not only could he be more open with them about it, but he could actually share with them all those things that made him happy and that until now, he had been keeping just to himself.

"You spent the night at his place, didn't you?" She said, smiling playfully at him. "Are you ever going to tell us where Magnus's secret lair is?"

Alec shook his head. "I'm going to take the location of that place to the grave." He confessed.

"That's so unfair!" Izzy exclaimed.

"Why?" Alec asked intrigued.

"Why? Alec, we're talking about Magnus's home." She said as if that summed it all up. "That place must be like a freaking museum! Be honest…how many stolen art pieces are in his house? Does he have the Dali he stole three years ago? That never made it to the black market...and what about the Pollock's painting from last year, huh? We haven't heard from it, so I'm assuming he kept it to himself."

"I haven't seen any of them." Alec partially lied. He knew Magnus's loft like the back of his hand and of course he had seen plenty of stolen art pieces, not the ones his sister had just mentioned, but many others that they had never recovered.

"He's having an influence on you." Izzy said.

"What do you mean?"

"You've learned to lie," His sister pointed out, "if I weren't your sister and the smartest of the three, I would have believed that you actually haven't seen anything, but you and I both know that's not true."

"Izzy..."

"Shhh, it's okay, you don't have to say anything, I understand and respect your silence, big brother. You're smart, I trust you know what you're doing, just remember that no matter what happens, you can always count on me—I'll always have your back."

Alec smiled at his sister. She was—when she wasn't being annoying—the best sister in the whole world. "Thank you, Iz."

"Anyway...did you two finish the list at some point during the night or do we have to pull another all-nighter today?"

Alec shook his head. "We finished it." He informed her.

In the past weeks, they all had been working non-stop, pulling strings and calling in a few favors to get the list of active agents from the 56 field offices that the FBI operated in major cities throughout the United States and even the one in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It hadn't been easy, the number of active special agents and professional staff had exceeded their expectations, making the process of shortening the list even more difficult, but they had managed and last night, after weeks of intense work they had finally finished the list. "Now it's up to Magnus and his contacts to find out who of the 516 agents we have on the new list are working for Valentine."

"How long do you think it's going to take them?"

"I don't know, days, weeks...I have no idea how easy it will be for his contacts to get information. Magnus said they would start working today, so hopefully we'll hear something about it soon."

"Alec…"

"Yes?"

"You didn't include dad and Hodge on the list, did you? I know you avoided looking at the list of agents in the Washington D.C. and New York offices because you didn't want us to be there when you had to add the names of our father and tutor to the list of suspects, but you didn't actually do it, did you?"

"I had no choice, Iz, you know we had to include them, they meet the parameters we set for this, they both graduated during those ten years that are missing."

"I know, but we know them, Alec, they aren't criminals, they-"

"I know, Iz, but as I said, they graduated during those ten years that are missing, so regardless of our personal opinions, we had to include them in the list. In our line of work we can never be too careful and you know that, but don't worry, I'm sure that we won't find anything bad about them, they are not involved in this...I'm sure of that."

Izzy sighed. "I hate to do this to them, how am I supposed to look at them and not feel bad about this, huh? I trust them, they are family."

"I understand what you're feeling, I feel the same, but we have to do it, it's our duty."

"Is there a way for Magnus to ask his contacts to check them first or something? This uncertainty of not knowing if I can trust my own father and boss is going to kill me, especially since both are here. Dad invited me again for breakfast today and I had to say no, I can't be face to face with him, Alec, I'm a terrible actress, he's going to realize something's wrong."

"Well, I don't know, but I guess I could ask him later, just remember that this isn't up to him, his contacts are the ones doing the heavy work, he's just helping."

"I know, but it's worth a try, don't you think? By the way, I've been wanting to ask you, have you met these famous 'contacts'?" Izzy asked curiously. "Are they the ones we suspect have worked for him all these years?"

"No." Alec lied.

Izzy rolled her eyes. "Like I said, you're a better liar, but still not good enough to fool me."

"Well, you're not going to get information out of me, not even if you're a walking lie detector."

"I'm not asking to get information out of you, Alec, remember that I'm not just a federal agent, I'm your nosy sister too, and as your sister, I'm curious to know about your boyfriend's friends...so tell me, are they as sexy and handsome as Magnus? Because they kinda look hot in the candids we have of them."

"You have a boyfriend." Alec said instead of replying. He knew there was no point in keep telling his sister that he hadn't met Magnus's friends, it was clear he couldn't lie to her, but he still felt a bit uncomfortable talking about them out loud.

"I know, but I'm curious. Magnus is handsome in pictures, but he's way more handsome in person, and don't ask me why, but now I'm picturing them as a gang of world-class criminals who could easily be mistaken for supermodels."

Alec laughed in spite of himself. "Well, they are not bad," he admitted, "but between you and me, I don't think they are as handsome as Magnus."

"Oh my god, you're so biased!" Izzy exclaimed.

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are and-"

"What are you two bickering about?" Jace asked, entering the office.

"I was asking Alec about Magnus's friends, the ones we suspect work for him, and-"

"Have you met them?" Jace asked intrigued.

"No."

"Yes, he has." Izzy said. "Anyway...I asked him if they were as handsome as Magnus is because, well, we have to admit that the man is way more attractive in person than in pictures, but of course he thinks Magnus is the handsomest of them all, so I was telling him that he's biased and-"

"Well, he has to be, right?" Jace said. "He wouldn't be with him if he didn't consider him attractive."

"Do you think Magnus's attractive?" Izzy asked Jace.

"Well, I don't think that's really my place to say, Alec is the one who should answer that."

"And he already did, but...do you think he's attractive?" Izzy insisted.

"I suppose?" Jace shrugged. "I mean, I don't want to sound all cocky, I promised Clary I'd try to dial it down a notch, but let's be honest, we're extremely attractive people, we're meant to draw attractive people to us."

"Yeah, we are!" Izzy exclaimed, high-fiving Jace and smiling pleased with that statement.

"You do realize that with what you just said you included Simon in your definition of attractive people, don't you?" Alec pointed out. Jace was known for not being Simon's biggest fan, at least not on the outside because Alec was sure he liked him more than he admitted.

"I...I...well, I guess he's not bad." Jace admitted a little flushed.

"Oh my God! I'm gonna call him right now to tell him that you think he's hot!" Izzy exclaimed, immediately pulling her phone out of her pocket to call her boyfriend and expose her brother. But before she could do more than unlock the device, Jace launched himself at her and tried to take the phone from her hands.

"Jace! Let go of me!" Izzy complained.

"Not until you give me that phone, Isabelle!" Jace exclaimed.

Alec laughed, amused at the behavior of his siblings. It reminded him when they were kids and they fought over stupid things like who should have the red crayons or whose turn it was to watch TV. It had been so long since then that Alec tried to enjoy the moment as much as he could, but when he realized that Izzy was practically strangling Jace to retrieve her phone, he had to stand up and intervene.

"What are you two, five?" He said, taking his sister's phone from Jace's hand and putting an end to the fight. "I'll keep this phone until you two calm down." He added in his usual I'm-the-older-brother-don't-mess-with-me tone. "Not even Max behaves like this anymore, I can't believe it, look at you two, you're a mess! If people in the office didn't know that you two are brother and sister they would have a feast with this, we are federal agents, but the Bureau loves gossip." He pointed out.

Izzy and Jace looked at each other and realized that Alec was telling the truth. They both were a complete mess, their appearance was disheveled and their clothes completely out of place—they looked as if they had been caught fooling around.

"Ugh!" His siblings exclaimed, and they all burst out laughing at the implication of Alec's words.

It was nice for a little change to laugh as if nothing bad was going on. For just a few seconds there were no cases to solve, problems to face or criminals to catch, they were just three siblings making fun of each other and sharing a nice moment together.

"Did I miss something?" Hodge asked, entering Alec's office. He was looking back and forth between the three of them, but his eyes were clearly fixed on Jace and Izzy's disheveled appearance.

"No, Izzy and Jace were just having a little disagreement that included some wrestling." Alec said still laughing.

"Nothing to worry about, I presume?" Hodge inquired.

"Oh, no, just a silly thing." Jace admitted, playfully pushing Izzy. "She was just being annoying—as per usual."

Izzy pushed him back and rolled her eyes. "I'm never annoying," she said, fixing her hair and clothes, "now, can I get my phone back, please, Alec?"

"Just behave, okay?" Alec warned her, before handing her back the phone.

"I always behave." Izzy said, smiling at them. "Anyway, I'm gonna go get those files you asked for, so if you all excuse me." She added, disappearing from his office in an instant.

Alec hadn't asked her for anything, they hadn't even started working on today's pending cases, they had just been talking, but he knew how hard this whole thing had been for her. She had been having a hard time looking at Hodge and their father in the eye, she had been avoiding them for weeks, coming up with silly excuses to avoid being in the same room as them.

"Do you need anything, Hodge?" Alec asked, to try to get back to his professional self and start working.

"As a matter of fact, I do...I have an assignment for you." Hodge said. "So...can we have a talk?" He added, clearly expecting Jace to walk out of the office and give them some privacy, but the other agent seemed oblivious to that and had already taken a seat in one of the chairs.

"What is it?" Alec asked intrigued.

Hodge hesitated looking at Jace for a second, but ultimately took a deep breath and started talking. "Well, I just got a call from one of my CIs and he told me that there's an informant who's willing to give us some names of people working for Valentine in exchange for an immunity deal."

"Are you serious?" Both Alec and Jace asked excitedly.

Hodge just nodded.

"Is he going to come here or something?" Alec asked, now very interested. This was amazing news for their case.

"No, that's the problem, he doesn't trust us. He wants a meeting with one of us first to make sure we're not going to make a fool out of him."

"Where?" Alec asked.

"Somewhere in Brooklyn. My CI said this person was going to be waiting for someone from the FBI to show up at this address at noon on the dot." Hodge said, handing Alec a piece of paper with an address in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

"Red Hook, Van Dyke and Barnell street?" Jace asked, looking at the address. "There's nothing in there."

"Do you want me to go?" Alec asked just to be sure. Hodge had said he had an assignment for him, but it was better to make sure he had heard correctly.

"Do you think you can handle it? Because if not, I can send someone else or go there myself." Hodge said.

"No, of course I can." Alec said. This was something good for the investigation—crucial even.

"As you can see this is very important for the investigation," Hodge added, confirming Alec's thoughts, "my CI said this person was going to give us important names, probably of the criminals who have been helping Valentine."

"I know," Alec agreed, "and don't worry, I got this."

"Do you want us to take your car or mine?" Jace asked.

"Hmmm, Jace?" Hodge intervened. "This is a one-man mission, you don't have to go with him."

"Of course I have to go, Alec is my partner, if he goes, I go...that's the deal I signed up for."

"If this informant sees more than one agent, he could get scared and decide not to talk." Hodge explained.

"I understand, but I won't let Alec go alone to meet this mysterious person." Jace said with determination. "Besides, I don't think my presence there is going to change things much, if this person really wants to talk they'll do it whether I'm there or not."

"Jace is right, I don't think the fact that he's there with me is going to be a problem," Alec agreed, "it's just two of us, Hodge, we're not taking any backup, besides, I'll be the one to approach him, Jace can stay in the car."

"Okay…just don't spoil this, is that clear?" Hodge warned them. "Take a draft of the immunity agreement with you as proof of our good faith, but don't let anyone know about this yet, especially the agents from the CID and the Interpol, I don't want them trying to sabotage this lead."

"Yeah, don't worry, we'll keep this on the DL." Alec said.

"Good, well, I gotta go, I have a meeting with the review board in a few minutes and I can't be late, they want to see how we're doing with the case."

"Having the CID helping us isn't enough for them to trust us? Unbelievable!" Jace exclaimed.

"You know how they are." Hodge exhaled. "But anyway, it's better if I don't keep them waiting, they aren't known for their patience."

"Hodge?"

"Yes, Alec?"

"Thanks for the trust...I promise I'll bring you those names and solve this case."

Hodge didn't reply and just stood there by the door, looking at him in a very strange way, as if he were suddenly sad or conflicted about something, but Alec couldn't really tell.

"Is everything okay?" Alec asked. His boss had really spaced out.

"Yes," Hodge nodded, "I'm sorry about that, I just...I just kinda had a moment here, but nothing to worry about. And I'm sure you'll solve this, after all, you're our best agent, so it's just a matter of time before you put all the pieces together." He said and left the office without another word.

Alec and Jace looked at each other and shrugged—that had been weird.

"I'll go get the draft, okay?" Jace said.

"Okay, yeah, I'm gonna call Magnus to let him know about this. Maybe if we do get these names, he could double-check them for us before bringing the information back here, don't you think?"

"Yeah, that's a great idea." Jace said. "Then I'll meet you in the car in twenty minutes, okay?"

"Okay." Alec nodded and pulled out his phone, calling his boyfriend immediately.

o-o-o-o-o

Magnus took the cups of coffee he had prepared and handed one to each of his friends. Both Ragnor and Raphael were at his home, helping him with the list of agents he, Alec, Isabelle, and Jace had put together in the past three weeks. Raphael had set up some sort of extension of his home-office in Magnus's living room, with a couple of high-tech computers, all kinds of funny looking devices and even some printers.

"Thank you." Ragnor said, immediately taking a sip of the hot drink.

"I didn't know you liked coffee." Raphael pointed out, taking a sip of his cup, too.

"I don't...but Alec does." Magnus winked.

Since Alec had started staying over at his place, Magnus had made sure to always have the best coffee in town, just as he had a penchant for alcoholic drinks, his boyfriend had a strange fixation for coffee and its derivatives.

"Of course he does…" Raphael said, rolling his eyes.

Magnus just smiled and sat down, joining his friends at the table to help them with the list. Magnus knew that the sooner they knew who in that corrupted institution were helping Valentine, the sooner they would find a way to get to the criminal himself and put an end to all this. He was confident that finding Valentine was only a matter of time.

"How many do we have so far?" Magnus asked curiously. Raphael was making what he called a first elimination round to shorten the list even more, but he had already written down a couple of names on a new list.

"Five…"

"So many?"

"Yes, but remember this is only the first stage, okay? This is a very superficial investigation to shorten the list. It's completely normal that we get a lot of names, in fact, I'm expecting to discard just ten percent of the names you gave me, so we need to-" Raphael was saying when Magnus's phone rang, interrupting their conversation.

Magnus didn't even bother to look at the screen and just answered the call, raising his finger to ask Raphael to give him a couple of seconds to take the call—everything could wait when it was his boyfriend who was calling him. "Alexander, my love! I have excellent news for you!" He said excitedly.

"What happened?" Alec asked, intrigued.

"We're making some progress with the list, Ragnor and Raphael are here with me and so far we've found five agents who could possibly be colluded with Valentine."

"That's great! Do I know these agents?"

"I don't think so?" Magnus said, motioning Raphael to pass him the list. "We're doing this by state and from west to east, so the chances that you know them aren't high, but who knows...it's a small world after all. We have one agent from Seattle, another from Portland, and three from the Sacramento office, the-"

"We haven't finished California." Raphael interrupted him.

"Oh, and Raphael says we haven't even finished California, so chances are we get more. There are four offices in that state alone, so..." Magnus added.

"Can you send me the names?" Alec asked.

"Of course, but remember that this is a very superficial list, nothing is confirmed so far, we're just getting started."

"You're right, I should wait until you have a more accurate list."

"That's probably the best, in fact, I was going to wait to tell you, but since you called I figured you would like to hear we're making progress...by the way, what happened? Are you okay? I'm not complaining, but you almost never call when you're working."

"Hmmm yeah I'm fine, it's just that we're also making progress and I wanted you to know about it...we got a tip."

"Really?" Magnus asked intrigued—that sounded like good news.

"Yeah, my boss just told us that one of his CIs got us a meeting with an informant who's willing to give us some names of people who work with Valentine in exchange for an immunity deal."

"Well, that's great! And are you giving it to him?"

"Yes, we're meeting with him first and stuff, but yeah, if the information is useful he's going to get his deal."

"When are you going to meet with this man or is he in the Bureau already?" Magnus asked, wondering who that informant might be, not many people were willing to open their mouths and give information, no matter what they offered them in return.

"No, Jace and I are on our way to meet with him right now. He'll be expecting us at noon." Alec said. "I just wanted to let you know because I'm going to need your help to double-check the names we get before handing the report to my boss."

"Oh, okay...yeah." Magnus said, not really knowing what else to say.

For some reason he couldn't explain, he'd had a bad feeling when Alec had told him he was going to meet the man outside the Bureau's premises. It was great that they had an informant willing to talk, that always made things easier, but this sounded too good to be true. Especially since it had been months since it had become public knowledge that Valentine Morgenstern was still alive and it hadn't been until now, that they were closer to finding him, that people had suddenly decided to talk. Maybe he was being paranoid, but he didn't believe in coincidences.

"I know what you're thinking." Alec told him.

"You do?"

"Yes...I think the same, it's dangerous and too good to be true, but I can't not go, Magnus. If this turns out to be true, this could be our only chance to get names, real names."

"We're getting real names." Magnus reminded him.

"I know, but that's going to take us some time, we could get these names today. We're working against the clock, Magnus, every minute Valentine and his son are free is another minute they use to hurt innocent people and we can't allow that. I know this meeting is potentially dangerous, but it's a risk worth taking, don't you agree?"

"Yeah, but…"

"I'll be careful, okay?" Alec assured him.

Magnus took a deep breath—maybe he was being paranoid. "You're not going alone, are you? Because if you are, then I'm going with you. You said you'd meet this man at noon, right?" He said, glancing at his watch to see how long he had. "It's 10:35 a.m., if you give me twenty minutes, I could meet you near the Bureau and go with you."

"There's no need, I'm not going alone, Jace is going with me."

"Oh, okay, that's good...but still both be careful, alright?"

"We will. I'll call you as soon as the meeting is over and I'm on my way back to the office, okay?"

"Okay, but please, Alexander, I'm not saying this lightly—be careful. If this informant you're talking about is serious and knows about Valentine's allies, he's not one of the good guys...that much I can assure you."

"I know, and don't worry, I'll be careful."

"I love you."

"I love you too. See you tonight for dinner, okay?"

"Okay...I'm gonna make pizza from scratch." Magnus said, to lighten the mood.

"You know how to make it?" Alec asked surprised.

"Of course!"

"You're lying."

"No, I'm really going to make it, Ragnor brought me all the ingredients this morning."

"No, you're lying about knowing how to make it." Alec said, and Magnus laughed.

"I'm becoming a bit powerless against you, my love, you don't miss anything." He said because that much was true. A few months ago he still got away with a couple of lies, but now it was as if Alec could see right through him, even when they were talking on the phone and technically there was no way for the agent to know when he was lying. "And yeah, I have no idea how to make it, but I promise that by tonight I'll be an expert on pizza-making."

"I just hope not to die of food poisoning." Alec said jokingly.

"You're offending me."

"Am I?" Alec laughed. "Anyway, I gotta go, I'll call you later, okay? One hour...two tops."

"Okay, love you."

"Love you too. Bye." Alec said, ending the call.

Magnus, who had stood up at some point during the phone call, stayed by the balcony door just looking at the skyline of the city. He had tried not to express out loud how worried he was about this meeting out of respect for Alec's work and because he trusted that his boyfriend could take care of himself, but he really had a bad feeling about this meeting. First, because it wasn't going to be in the Bureau but somewhere unknown in the city, and second, because it had been someone from the FBI who had given Alec the tip. He didn't trust anything that came from the feds and their 'allies' these days, not all of them were like his Alexander. They weren't good people, many were corrupted, many were involved with Valentine, and he couldn't help but worry because, what if they had discovered that them...that Alec was dangerously breathing down their necks? They had been extra careful with all this investigation, but they still didn't know how close Valentine's men were to them and maybe they were right behind them and-

"Can you please stop walking around like a mad man, you're driving me insane." Ragnor told him. Magnus hadn't even realized he had started pacing around his living room. "What happened to your fed?"

"Nothing, the FBI got a tip...apparently, there's an informant who's willing to give them names of people working with Valentine in exchange for an immunity deal."

"Really?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, that's good news, right?" Ragnor said. "It's going to make this much easier."

"Yeah, but I don't like this." Magnus said, sharing his concern with his friend. "Don't ask me why, but I don't like this."

"You're being paranoid as per usual, my friend." Ragnor said. "This is a good thing, if this informant gives Alec some names, then we can shorten this list considerably and hopefully even find Valentine's Quantico class sooner than we had anticipated and thereby narrow down his allies within the FBI."

"Yeah, you're right." Magnus said, taking a deep breath and joining his friends again at the table. "But I have a hard time trusting anything that comes from the FBI at the moment." He confessed. "These people are corrupted, they can't be trusted."

"Who gave them the tip?"

"Alec said that his boss's CI had arranged the meeting."

Ragnor frowned a bit.

"See? It's weird, right?" Magnus said.

"Well, not really...I mean, the FBI has CIs everywhere, some of them aren't very respectful, I know one or two who work for your fed and believe me, they aren't very honorable men, but they are reliable...most of the time."

Magnus sighed—that hadn't helped to ease his nerves. "I know you're doing this by state, Santiago," he said, grabbing the list that Raphael had been writing down and looking at him, "but is there a chance that we can check D.C. and New York first?"

"Why?" Raphael asked.

"You know why."

His friend rolled his eyes. "You want to know if your fed's father is clean." He assumed.

"Well, yeah, and also all the people who work with him, remember that the CID is working with them too, so I need to know who we can trust."

"Bane, you know I always follow a protocol, I'm doing this by state to avoid drawing attention, getting this information is dangerous, we're risking a lot with this." Raphael explained.

"I know, but please?" Magnus begged. He understood what his friend was saying, but perhaps if he knew that the people working with Alec were trustworthy, he could stop worrying about this stupid meeting that his boyfriend was on his way to.

"Fine." Raphael exhaled resignedly. "But remember that this is a very superficial investigation, we won't be sure who the corrupt agents really are until I've done a more detailed investigation of them. This is just the-"

"-first round of elimination." Magnus interrupted him. "I know."

"Okay…" Raphael said and typed on his laptop the name of Alec's father.

Thousands of windows started to pop up on the different screens his friend was using, but Magnus couldn't keep up with all of them, so he just sighed and waited for his friend to give him a short version of what he had found. He had always admired Raphael's work, it was as good as that of any private investigator in town, but watching him in action was truly impressive.

After a while, Raphael exhaled and looked up from the screen. "It seems that your fed's father is clean."

"Really?"

"That's what it seems." Raphael confirmed. "Robert Lightwood, 51, married, four children, three biological, one adopted, currently Deputy Director of the U.S. Marshals Service—he graduated from the Academy in 1982. We still need to figure out if that's the same year that Valentine was there, they're the same age, but he seems to be clean. His bank accounts haven't moved significantly in years, he's loaded, of course, but apparently all that money comes from the years he's been working for the government, nothing looks suspicious here. He has properties both here and in Washington D.C. where he currently resides; his wife Maryse Lightwood works in a law firm in Dupont Circle, his youngest son, Maxwell Joseph Lightwood, is in 4th grade at a private school in McLean Gardens. His other children, Alexander, Jonathan, and Isabelle work as FBI special agents in the White Collar division here in New York."

Magnus took a deep breath. He didn't know Alec's father and from what his boyfriend had told him about him in all those nights when they had stayed up talking and sharing things about each other, he wasn't sure if he ever wanted to meet him, but it was a relief to know that he wasn't colluded with Valentine—Alec would have suffered a lot if things had turned out differently.

"I'm going to print what we have on him so you can give your fed a copy of his file." Raphael said, immediately sending the information to the printer to put together two files—one for them and one for Alec. "Here."

Magnus smiled and took the two files that his friend was giving him. He knew Alec would be delighted to hear that his father was clean.

"Now, I'm going to continue with the agents on the Washington's list, okay? New York's one is longer, so that will have to wait for later." Raphael said.

Magnus just nodded and started to help Ragnor put some order in the mess of files they had before them. Raphael had insisted on creating files for each and every one of the 516 agents on the list as a way to keep close tabs on them, so naturally the entire table was covered with files of unknown faces.

"Who's that?" Magnus asked, when he saw a file that Ragnor had separated from the rest. The label read Lucian Graymark.

"An agent we haven't been able to find." Ragnor said. "His name isn't on the list you gave us, but it appeared twice when we were investigating other agents, however, there's nothing about him. He's not in the other list of active agents either, we already checked it, so we are assuming he's probably dead, but we still created a file just in case."

"Can I see it?"

"Sure."

Magnus grabbed the file and opened it. His friend was telling the truth, there wasn't much about this man, just his name, his former division, some past addresses and an old picture of him. Magnus took it out and looked at it closely—the man he had before his eyes seemed familiar. He was younger and had no hair on his face, but Magnus had seen him before and what was worse, very recently; not in person, of course, but still. "He's not dead." He said.

"What?" Ragnor and Raphael asked in confusion.

"This man…" he said, showing both Ragnor and Raphael the picture, "was Valentine's partner."

"What!?" Ragnor and Raphael exclaimed, surprised.

"His name is Luke Garroway now." Magnus said, sharing what little he knew about him.

"How do you know that?"

"Alec's brother, Jace, he knows him...he's his girlfriend's stepfather." Magnus explained.

"Valentine's daughter?" Ragnor asked.

Magnus nodded.

Raphael immediately stopped what he was doing and looked for the former agent's new name. "Here he is...Luke Garroway, 52, Brooklyn. He owns a bookstore?"

"Witness protection." Magnus said as a matter of explanation. "Try to find something about him—his family, friends...his class in Quantico. This man is going to lead us straight to Valentine."

"Do you think he's helping him?" Ragnor asked.

"No," Magnus said, shaking his head, "Valentine betrayed him and ruined his life, but they were partners, if we find out who Lucian Graymark was before witness protection took him away, then we'll find out who Valentine Morgenstern was when he was a federal agent. According to what we know, this man shouldn't have survived when Valentine shot him. The fact that he's still alive is a huge mistake that Valentine never foresaw and in our world, my friends, these kinds of mistakes often cost us dearly—we all are living proofs of that."

"So we just found the most important piece of the puzzle." Ragnor said with a smile.

"That's what it seems..." Magnus said, "that's what it seems."

o-o-o-o-o

Alec stepped out of the elevator and met with a very impatient Jace in the parking lot of the building. Thanks to his sister's terrible timing, it had taken him more than twenty minutes to get there and now, they were a little late for the meeting. After hanging up with Magnus, Izzy had intercepted Alec outside his office asking him thousands of questions about the last-minute assignment Hodge had given them. Alec had tried to get rid of his sister by telling her that it was late and he had to go, but Izzy was the perfect example of stubbornness and impatience trapped in a woman's body, so she hadn't let him go until he had told her everything that Hodge had told them about the informant and the meeting.

"We said twenty minutes!" Jace complained, pointing his finger to his watch to highlight how late Alec was.

The meeting place wasn't that far from the FBI headquarters, but with the ever-heavy traffic of the city, Alec knew that now his brother would have to practically fly so they could be there in time to meet with the informant at the place they had agreed.

"Sorry for the delay," Alec said, "but Izzy intercepted me on my way down. She told me you had told her about the meeting with the informant and naturally, she wanted to know everything before we left."

"I told her I would tell her everything once we were back." Jace said, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

"You know her, Jace, waiting isn't her strong suit." Alec said, getting into Jace's car. "But come on, let's go! There's no time to waste."

Jace nodded and started the engine, taking them out of the building and into the ever-clogged streets of New York City. That was something Alec didn't like much about living here, no matter the time of the year or what time of the day it was, cars seemed to pop out of the asphalt as if by magic.

"Do you think we'll get there on time?" Alec asked, when they got stuck in traffic as soon as they turned around the corner.

"Yeah, I'm going to take a shortcut." Jace said sure of himself.

"There are no shortcuts to where we're going." Alec pointed out. He had checked the map of the city before leaving his office. There was only one way to get there and that was by following the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.

"Of course there are." Jace said, winking at him and taking the single magnetic beacon they all had in their cars for emergencies and putting it on the roof of his car, letting the emergency lighting do the trick and help them get through the traffic more easily. They very rarely had a chance to use it, they were white-collar agents, their job wasn't as exciting as it sounded, but Alec knew his brother loved whenever he had the chance to use it—it made him feel cool and important.

"Just don't turn on the siren, okay?" Alec warned him. "The light is more than enough."

"You're such a buzzkill, Alec!" Jace complained. "The siren is the best part."

"Yes, when all you want is a headache for free."

"Fine." Jace sighed and just continued driving, leaving only the light on and avoiding the annoying siren. Alec had never liked the attention that the light-bars on top of the cars brought, that was why he had chosen to be a detective instead of a regular cop, but he understood that sometimes they were necessary. All of their vehicles were unmarked, so when an emergency occurred, they had no choice but to use them to help them get where they were supposed to be.

"What did Magnus say about the meeting?" Jace asked as they quickly made their way through the city. They were already near the entrance to the tunnel. "Is he going to help us double-check the names?"

"Yes, I told him I would call him as soon as we had them."

"Good. You guys have plans for tonight again?" Jace asked, trying to make small talk.

Alec knew that Jace was still trying to get used to the idea that Magnus was his boyfriend, so he appreciated that his brother showed interest in what they did as a couple. It hadn't been as easy for him as it had been for Izzy to accept Magnus in their lives, but even so, Jace had been very supportive from day one and Alec was eternally grateful for that. He had feared so much the reaction his siblings would have if they discovered that he was dating a criminal that now that the whole truth was out, he wondered why he hadn't told them before—he would have saved himself many sleepless nights.

"Yeah, we're going to have dinner and hang out at his place, it's the only time of the day we can be together, so it's becoming some sort of tradition for us." Alec said. "And you...any plans with Clary?"

"Yeah, we're going to tell Jocelyn and Luke that we're moving in together—no big deal."

"So it's official." Alec stated with a smile. He was happy for his brother's happiness.

Jace nodded. "She wanted to wait until her brother appeared, but I told her it was better if we pretended things were normal for the sake of everyone in her family, you know?"

"What did you tell her about him?"

"What we agreed with Magnus the other day...that according to my informants Valentine had tried but failed to take him, so we suspected that the reason behind his disappearance was because he had managed to escape and was hiding to protect them."

"She bought it all?" Alec asked, not quite believing she had fallen for that lie. When Magnus had suggested it two weeks ago during one of their daily evening meetings, he had told them that he didn't think Clary was going to fall for it, but apparently he had been mistaken.

"Yeah, every last word. She even has theories as to where he might be hiding, but don't worry, I told her not to try to find him because she could put him in danger."

Alec chuckled, there was no doubt that love could blind a person. In these past months he had realized that emotions had a lot to do with the way we perceived people. When you loved someone you became blind and overlooked all their flaws, focusing only on their virtues. "Love really blind us." He shared his thoughts out loud.

"It does...but it's not a bad thing." Jace said.

"I know…" Alec admitted.

They remained silent for the rest of the way, engulfed in their own thoughts until they made it to the address Hodge had given them.

"We're here." Jace announced, looking around.

They could see the Governors Island from where they were, but as Jace had said earlier when Hodge had first given them the address, there was nothing there, everything around them was completely deserted—like in apocalyptic movies. The buildings were abandoned and, although it was barely noon, it seemed that there was no one in the vicinity; it was an impossible concept in this overpopulated city, but strangely, for this kind of clandestine meetings, people always seemed to find deserted spots.

"Do you want us to patrol the area for safety? We have a few minutes." Jace said, checking his watch to make sure they still had time.

Alec nodded. Although he hadn't been expecting anything less from this meeting—each and every one of them were predictable—it was better to make sure that they weren't walking right into a trap.

Jace immediately turned the car around the block and surrounding streets, but there was nothing that could make them suspect that this was nothing more than a meeting to exchange information. The block just consisted of a series of abandoned warehouses with some local businesses that were mostly closed—nothing out of the ordinary.

"Nothing suspicious." Jace said.

"Park around the corner, just in case."

Jace nodded, parking the car a street behind the warehouse where they would meet the informant.

They got out of the car and Jace immediately pulled his gun from the holster beneath his leather jacket and took aim, but Alec stopped him. "If he sees that we have our guns out, he could get scared and back out, put it down."

Jace sighed, but nodded. "Okay, but I'm not staying in the car, I'm coming with you. Everything seems fine, but warehouses aren't the safest places there are."

"Alright." Alec nodded, and cautiously crossed the street and started to make his way to the meeting place with Jace trailing behind him.

From a distance the warehouse seemed closed and as abandoned as the rest, but once they got closer, Alec noticed that the door was slightly ajar and unlike the others, this place looked cleaner, as if someone had already been there. It reminded him of that building Magnus had made him go with his postcards, the place had been uninhabited, there had been no doubt about it, but it hadn't been completely abandoned.

"You think he backed out?" Jace asked. They were walking around inspecting the place, but there was no apparent sign that anyone was there. It was already past noon and no one had tried to approach them.

"No, I think he's already waiting inside." Alec said.

"How do you know that?"

Alec didn't answer and just pointed to the warehouse. There, in the shadows of the abandoned space, the silhouette of a man was visible, he was wearing a black cloak, so there was no way of making out his face, but he was moving, walking deeper into the building.

"Do you think we should...?" Jace asked hesitantly.

Alec nodded. "I think that's what he wants."

Alec and Jace shared one last look and with caution, followed the man inside. Who he was and what information he had? Well, they were about to find out.