Well, now, ain't this a pickle we done got ourselves into. Thought we might have some luck milkin' News Man Tucker for information, but the fella's tighter-lipped than a mime eatin' peanut butter. We were gonna have to get the dirt from someone else.

But first we'd have to find a way inside. I thought that maybe we could tag along with that Ginny lady, but shoot, she was already gone. 'Sides, we could probably cover more ground if we stayed separate. Question was, if News Man Tucker wasn't gonna let us in, then who was?

"Maybe there's someone else at the station that we can ask," said Clyde. "Rusty, do you know anyone there aside from Katherine Mulligan?"

Rusty shook his head.

"What if we disguise ourselves?" asked Zach.

"Disguise ourselves as who?" responded Stella.

Zach just shrugged. For Pete's sake, Zach, at least try to give your ideas some thought before spoutin' them out.

"I doubt that would work anyway," said Lincoln. "They're journalists, after all. They always do their due diligence."

So, that idea was a bust. But there had to be somethin'. There just had to be.

Well, we thought about it for a good long while, and then wouldn't you know it, our answer sidled right up to us. We saw this fella in a blue uniform with a big ol' trolley full of boxes of pop to refill the vending machines. I didn't know it at the time, but this guy was gonna be our ticket inside.

See, when Lincoln saw that fella, his face lit up like a disco ball, and he grabbed the five of us and pulled us 'round the corner of the building.

"Idea time!" he said. "It's a little unconventional, but it just might be crazy enough to work."

The five of us were mighty confused. Did he think that the vending machine guy was gonna let us in?

"See the guy with the trolley? I'll go over and start a conversation with him. Maybe show him some of my magic tricks. Then, while he's distracted, we grab two of the boxes off the trolley, take it aside and empty them out. Two of you will crawl inside the boxes, and the other three will put the boxes back on the trolley before the worker realizes something's amiss."

Now, callin' this plan "a little unconventional" may well have been the understatement of the year. But since nobody else had any better ideas, we decided to go for it.

So Lincoln moseyed on over and started showin' the vending machine guy how to make a coin disappear up his nose or whatever, while the rest of us made off with a couple boxes and emptied 'em out. We decided that Zach and I should be the ones to go inside the boxes - since we were the two shortest - and Stella, Clyde and Rusty loaded us onto the trolley.

There I was, sittin' in a box, arms crossed, lips buttoned shut, waitin' for the next phase of the plan. Thankfully, it wasn't too much longer 'til Lincoln finished his spiel and sent the vending machine man on his way.

As the trolley rolled through the doors of the TV station and into the lobby, we could hear the voices of all sorts of anchors and interns and other employees, chattering about this and that. Ain't nobody took the time to say hello to the vending machine man, though. Ain't that a shame? Anyway, I thought it best to lay low until I could be sure that the coast was clear.

But that turned out to be a good long while, or at least it felt like one. Voices all around me, rambling on and on, while I couldn't move a muscle or make a sound, and to make matters worse, my heinie decided that now would be the perfect time to start itchin'. I couldn't even tell how much time had passed because it was too dark for me to check my watch. You can bet your bottom dollar that I'd never agree to a plan like this again.

Then, at long last, my agony came to an end. A lady came in and said, "We go on in five," and just like that, I heard the rustle of five or six people filing out of the room, and then… silence. Carefully, I sat up and poked my head out of the box.

Turned out we were right in the middle of the hallway, which was now empty. I suppose everyone was either in the newsroom or in their dressing rooms doin' some last minute prep before the broadcast. After I climbed out of the box and hopped off the trolley, I saw that it was parked right outside the break room, and when I peeked inside, there was the vending machine man, filling up the machine with sodas and energy drinks and such. Sure was lucky that he saved the box I was in for last, but I knew I had to skedaddle before he caught sight of me.

I couldn't leave Zach behind, of course, but thankfully, he was just as eager to get out of that box as I was. Before I even had time to search the boxes, he hopped out of his and landed on the floor right beside me.

"I am never doing that again," he whispered to me.

"Preachin' to the choir," I whispered back. "So, now that we're inside, where do we look first?"

He shrugged, I shrugged back, and we silently decided to just mosey across the hall until something popped out at us. The first door was passed was the door to the newsroom, and we sure as sugar weren't goin' in there. Not right now, at least. Next was the bathroom, but neither of us had to go. Eventually we started walking past what looked to be a line of dressing rooms, 'cause all the doors had fancy nameplates on 'em.

"The dressing rooms!" Zach whispered. "There's bound to be loads of evidence behind those doors."

"That may be," I whispered back, "but we've got no way of knowin' which ones are occupied and which ones ain't."

Zach looked at me, smirked and waggled his eyebrows. "Actually, Liam, there's one room that I'm pretty sure will be empty." He stuck out his finger towards the door marked with the nameplate "KATHERINE MULLIGAN".

Well, shoot, Zach. When you're right, you're right. I couldn't say I felt all that good rootin' through a missing lady's belongings, but heck, we were doin' all this to help find her, weren't we? She'll thank us later, I'm sure of it.

We tiptoed up to the door, turned the knob and creeeeaaaked it open as carefully as we could. Once we turned on the light, the room looked just how I expected it to, with notepads and pens and papers strewn about every which way. Naturally, she had a vanity with one of those fancy-pants mirrors with lightbulbs around the border. You know you've got it made when you have one of those, I tell you what.

Anyways, we got to searchin'. Zach started by rummaging through all the papers around the room, while I went to search the vanity. Next to the mirror, I found mascara, powder, eyeliner, foundation, lipstick… nothin' all that useful. Well, I suppose they are useful if you wanna look pretty, but you know, not so useful in helping us build our case.

It wasn't 'til I started searching the drawers that I found something worth talking about. In the bottom drawer I found one of those little pocket tape recorders that news folk use for interviews 'n such. I rewound it, pressed play and put it to my ear, and this is what I heard:

"Just so we're clear, you promised that I'd remain anonymous, right?"

"Yes, this is all off the record."

The first voice was a fella I didn't recognize. The second one belonged to Katherine.

"Great. Okay. I have information pointing towards the location of one of Incognito Labs' research and development facilities."

"Oh! Where?"

"Well, hold on. I wasn't finished."

"Sorry. Go on."

"You see, Ms. Mulligan, there's something else I found out in the process of gathering this information. Tommy's alive, and I think I know where he is."

"What?! Where?! Is he being held at Incognito Labs?!"

"...I'm sorry, I've said too much already. I'll text you the location of the lab later. We'll keep in touch."

"Well, all right then. This is Katherine Mulligan, signing off."

…

Well, that just opened up a big ol' bunch of questions, now, didn't it? Who the heck is Tommy, first of all, and why was Katherine so worried about him? And who was the feller givin' him that information in the first place?

I suspected that maybe "Tommy" was some fella we met before and forgot about, so just to be sure, I asked Zach. "Hey, Zach? You wouldn't happen to know anybody named 'Tommy', would you?"

"I was going to ask you the same question," Zach said. He pulled out Katherine Mulligan's daily planner and pointed to one of the items in the middle of the page. It was underlined in red ink, so I think it's fair to say that it was mighty important to her. Here's what it said:

2:00 - Meet with Tucker, discuss possible new Tommy lead

Huh. So this Tommy character was gonna be an even bigger part of our investigation than I thought. Our next course of action would be to take those two pieces of evidence we gathered up and try to gel 'em together.

Except we didn't have time to, because the very next moment, we heard a whole bunch o' commotion comin' from outside. Lots of folks yellin' over each other and such. I creaked open the door and peeked out, and from what I could tell, all of the commotion was comin' from the newsroom. Now, what could be going on there, I wondered?

Only one way to find out, I s'pose. I shot out a message in our group text that told 'em we were in deep, and then we ran off to see what was what…