Jason got into work even earlier than usual the next day. He was so early, in fact, that the only person at the Foreign Affairs Department was the Secretary himself. Jason knocked on the door.

"Come in!" came a voice from inside.

Jason opened the door and stepped into the office. The man behind the desk looked up. His eyes widened in mild surprise.

"Mr Secretary," Jason greeted him formally.

"Mr Watson, you're here early," Secretary Liu replied, "If you're here for that family history report from Britain, I'm afraid it's not here yet. I did tell you it was likely to take a week or two, did I not?"

"You did, Mr Secretary; I'm here about something else."

"Oh?" Cheng Liu eyed Jason more closely. It wasn't so long ago that Cheng had been an Auror in China, and he was still quite good at reading people. "You've got a lead on the case, I take it?"

Jason grinned. He didn't have to ask how Secretary Liu knew; the man's skill as an Auror was well-known. In fact, when Jason was studying famous Aurors in recent history as part of his own training, Cheng had become something of a celebrity to Jason.

"I believe so, Mr Secretary. If we could contact Mexico's government again, I'd like to ask them if the apartment complex had any surveillance cameras, and if so, if they could get the footage to us as soon as possible."

"Hmph," Secretary Liu started, "Knowing them, they'll probably just tell you to come out and get it yourself."

"If they do, please let them know that the large number of wands they ordered will likely take another month to get to them. Unless, of course, they could send someone to pick them up and drop off the footage at the same time," Jason said.

Secretary Liu looked surprised. "How did you know about that?"

"The one filling the order happens to be a friend of mine," Jason explained.

Secretary Liu chuckled and said "Very impressive. You'll go far in this line of work, Mr Watson. You can count on it."

Jason did his best to hide his elation at being praised by his hero. "Thank you, Mr Secretary. So you'll let them know, then?"

"I will, Mr Watson."

Jason's day was considerably better than the one before. After his talk with the Secretary, Jason discovered that one of Sally's teammates was currently on vacation in Florida. Jason took the Floo Network to Miami and quickly located the hotel she was staying at. He went in and asked the concierge about her. Before the concierge could even respond, however, a bubbly voice came from behind Jason.

"I'm right here, Marcus." Jason turned around and saw a young woman with vibrant red hair, sunglasses, a light dress over her bikini, a purse hanging off her wrist, and a towel draped across her shoulder.

"Ah, Miss Martinez, there you are," Jason replied without missing a beat. "Thanks, it seems I've found her," he said to the concierge before leading the woman outside the lobby.

"So... who are you, exactly?" Maria Martinez asked under her breath as they walked.

"Jason Watson. I'm in charge of the investigation into Sally Tilbert's disappearance."

"Oh," she said. Jason noticed her tone was disappointed, as if she was expecting something else.

"You don't seem all that concerned," Jason pointed out.

"Sally can take care of herself. Sometimes a little too much. Even in practice she'd throw around powerful curses like she was actually trying to hurt her opponent. One time she was practicing with Ricardo, and after she disarmed him she hit him with a Conjunctivitis Curse. She laughed at him for a good 2 minutes before finally lifting it. When we told our coach about it, Sally said she cast the two right after each other because she didn't expect the first one to hit. Which was complete BS, by the way. I saw her cast them; she definitely did it on purpose. But she's a rich Daddy's Girl, so what can we do?"

"What can you do indeed..." Jason replied.

Maria's eyes narrowed. "I had nothing to do with whatever happened to her. Besides, she always puts up an Intruder Charm wherever she's staying. Even if I wanted to... to kidnap her, or something... I couldn't. Ask anyone else on the team, they'll tell you she's the best. She probably just got tired of dueling competetively and ran off to have actual fights."

Jason looked over Maria. He wasn't as good as Cheng Liu, but he could tell she wasn't lying. Even so, Jason didn't want to take any risks.

"Okay, then. Sorry to bother you, Miss Martinez. Enjoy the rest of your vacation."

Maria was so surprised by the abrupt farewell that she didn't even notice when Jason's tracer flew into her purse. "Oh, uh, thanks. Goodbye,"

Thank goodness for Wolfric, Jason thought. Wolfric might not have made the tracers himself, but it was his design that allowed them to be made; of that Jason had no doubt.