"The rental place down on 30th was a bust too. They haven't had a single rental in the past few days. Unless the third place is the one we're looking for then we're fucked and Historia and I have been working our asses off and taking off work for nothing." Ymir glared at the Survey Corps.

"Trust us, we hope that the last place is it too." Hanji's face was lined with worry and they ducked their head to look at their laptop. "Did you happen to get a sample of paint off of the vans at either rental place?"

"The fact that they weren't willing to talk to us after it was clear we weren't renting meant there was no way they were letting us get close to their rentals." Krista frowned and shook her head. "We both doubt that either place was lying so it didn't seem like we needed to check anything else out."

"So that leaves us with two out of three rental places being wrong as well as all four used car dealers." Erwin had his head resting forward on is steeped fingers, his brow furrowed as he continued. "If the last place isn't it ten our search area needs to be widened. Maybe the van is theirs or it came from a dealership or rental place outside of Trost."

"Pretty far away then. I asked Nifa to run the results regionally and there were just the three rental locations and the four used car dealerships in Trost that matched our requirements. The next closest place was thirty miles outside of Trost. I can't see them driving from that far away just to have a van that's more difficult for us to find. Has Armin found anything more? I know he had them for a solid six blocks." Hanji's abrupt change in topic startled Mikasa out of a stupor.

"No. They hit really bad traffic and the driver as really good at weaving in and out of lanes. There was just too much data for Armin to track. I'm sorry, but I had to stop his search. Marco isn't round to fix Armin and he was on the verge of a meltdown."

"That's completely fine. I wasn't expecting to get even that far so it's still a help to us. Do you have a map of where Armin tracked them to?"

"I doubt it's going to help much. They were definitely trying to avoid being tracked by an AI or anything like that they were zig-zagging around. They might have been heading south but there are so many one-way streets around the university that I don't think we can be sure. Armin lost them at an intersection where they might have headed downtown or towards the riverfront, but they also could have gone east to connect with the highway." Mikasa stood up and reached into her pocket to offer Hnji a flash drive. "That's all the data Armin was able to pull."

Thank you. We might be able to make some use of this. Who knows?"

"I've been hunting and tracking since I was a kid and I can't figure out how a handful of blocks are going to do anything for us if we've got no other good information." Sasha was looking at them dubiously.

"It's not as though you've been the only ones running around interrogating rental agents and car salesmen." Mike was smiling slightly at them. "Commander and Dr. Scientist have been doing back end logistics and Hawk and I have been having all sorts of lovely chats with people about what they might know."

"Speaking of. Where is the midget?" Hanji snorted at Mikasa's question and Mike and Erwin tried to cover their laughter with coughing.

"Sleeping probably." Hanji continued to talk as Mikasa's expression went taut in anger. "Some people only talk at night. Hawk's abilities are far more suited to that than any of ours. We're also completely aware of the fat that he's…"

"He's not exactly a people person." Mike shrugged. "You get used to it.

"Actually, he might be awake by now." Erwin was looking at the clock. "It's almost five now and he was heading home from headquarters around nine this morning. Hanji, do you think you could call him? He doesn't have to come here, but we can at least update him and conference him in."

"Well I'm going to go into the other room to do that, Nobody else needs to hear him if I wake him up."

As the door shut behind Hanji, Erwin turned to them and began to speak again.

"Ah. It doesn't matter if we continue while Hanji isn't here since they already know this, but we're relatively certain that the ones who kidnapped Eren and Marco were part of the Titans. I spoke with a few contacts with the Military Police and they said it's not them. The Titans kept it quiet enough that the Military Police had no idea Eren was even gone. I'd imagine that after I've asked around they'll be aware though. Not that it's a bad thing. They have access to a network we couldn't even consider being able to use and if we follow closely enough we might be able to figure some things out ourselves." Erwin stopped talking and looked up as Hanji reentered the room.

"I've got Hawk on speaker." They held up their phone. "Why don't you say hello to everyone?"

Fuck off. Anything new happen?"

"They hit up two of the three rental places and all four used car dealerships but neither were what we're looking for."

"Could've told you that. Checked your email in the last fifteen minutes?"

"We've been working through what we have. Why?"

"Nifa copied me on what she sent you. She found the van."

"She found it?!" Hanji dropped the phone on the table and practically ran to their computer. Their expression quickly fell into one of disappointment and they turned to face everyone else. "The police recovered a van matching our make and model right down to traces of chloroform. It belonged to a George Johnson. He was found dead next to the van with a single gunshot to the back of the head."

Silence settled over the room at Hanji's words. Erwin's face betrayed nothing while Mike and Hanji's expressions were grim. Sasha and Krista were staring at one another blankly while Ymir moved to bring her arms around Krista. Mikasa looked like she was on the verge of screaming.

"There has to be something. There has to be." Mikasa's voice was shaky and her knuckles were white as she clenched her hands into fists.

"No dice. I called Nifa when I saw the email and hadn't heard from anyone. She said she's trying to push more analysis shit through the lab but the bastard was just released from Rose Penitentiary. Did time because of his involvement with the Military Police in a string of robberies and drug running, also had two charges of manslaughter… the list goes on. He shouldn't have been out this early with a record like his, but here he is dead not a week after he got out."

"Well he was almost certainly involved with the Titans."

"Commander?" Mike was giving him a puzzled look.

"His tattoo of the Military Police crest on his left arm was partially burnt off and healed. You can see it in the crime scene photos Nifa sent. You wouldn't do that if you were going to just not involve yourself with a gang in a prison. You'd only do that if you were renouncing your allegiances. Given everything, I think the Titans are gaining a presence in the prison system and that he's linked to them."

"So they got one of their own to lend them a van only to shoot him in the head for his trouble?" Mike's voice was quiet and he brought his hand to his face to brush his stubbled chin.

"And those are the people who have Eren and Marco?" Mikasa tried to catch their eyes, but Mike and Hanji refused to meet hers. Erwin didn't meet her eyes so much ad he simply matched her gaze. She deflated and hung her head. "We can't do anything more, can we?"

"Not with the information that we have. We should start looking into George Johnson. Dr. Scientist, get a hold of Nifa and Moblit and see what they can pull. Nose, you and Hawk should check out his place. Maybe there's something there." Erwin paused as Sasha, Krista and Ymir moved forward to stand next to Mikasa, all of them looking at him expectantly. "I'm sorry, but I don't have enough here to give you something and I can't throw you into situations like this blindly."

"Situations like what? Checking out a dead guy's house?" Ymir snorted at Sasha's comment.

"It's not that I doubt any of your abilities, but we have more experience with this."

"And we're supposed to get that experience how?" Erwin opened his mouth to respond but Levi's voice came through before he could get in a word.

"Oi. Brats. Worry about your shitty wounded pride when you've got your friends back. You want them back with as little damage as possible? Let us do our fucking jobs."

An awkward silence fell over them and everyone shifted around uncomfortably. Sasha mumbled a half-hearted apology that Erwin brushed away, gesturing that it wasn't her fault. He began to dictate to Mike and Levi what he wanted them to check out while Hanji chimed in based on what little additional information Nifa was able to give them. Erwin had just started to go over what he wanted them to ask the neighbors when Mikasa's phone went off. She pulled it out and looked up at everyone else.

"It's Armin." She picked up the phone and put it on speaker.

"I've got new data."

"What? Armin, I told you to leave the van alone. Besides, we found the van."

"No, I mean that I got a brief signal from Eren's phone!"

"You what?!" Her eyes flew wide and everyone turned their heads to look at the phone in her hand.

"It was a really faint signal and it was really brief so I only have rough coordinates. Eren's phone must be out of battery and his phone was somewhere without signal period. "

"Well where is he?" Mikasa's voice took on a panicked edge.

"How rough?" Erwin was standing up and walking over. "Can you send us the coordinates?"

"Yep! Sending them now."

"This looks familiar. Hawk, can you see this on your end?"

"It's the northwestern area of the palisades. Hell of a place to bring two kids."

"We have to go then!" Mikasa's tone was excited. "We know where they are, so let's go."

"Unfortunately, we really don't." Hanji gave Mikasa an apologetic look. "Armin, how large of an area does this map cover?"

"One point zero one nine square miles. There are lots of structures in the area as well as informal alleyways though and I don't have accurate vector data for that area so that's going to be a lot of area to cover."

"See, we need to go ourselves!" Krista's fists were balled up and her jaw clenched for a moment before she relaxed slightly and her expression softened. "We need to get our friends."

"Please don't think that we don't care, but we can't just go charging in half-cocked like this." Hanji's voice was soft as they tried to smooth things over.

"Then what are we supposed to do? You promised me that we would be included and I feel like you're just trying to push us out now."

"If all of us rush in then they're going to know that we're there and we'll have lost the element of surprise." Mike kept his voice level as he continued. "We need as few people as possible. Don't we, Commander?"

"I'm sorry that we're making you completely nocturnal, Hawk but we need you to check out the palisades tonight. You have the coordinates."

"Yeah, let me just clear my busy social calendar first."

"Very funny. What time do you think you'll be there?"

"After dark, before dawn."

"Because that's not incredibly vague." Mikasa's voice was sarcastic.

"Ever been to the palisades? It's a fucking disaster. Put Hanji on so we can go over the details."