In my returning week back to the Academy, I made sure to put my nose to the grindstone to evade suspicion as Paul and I did some quiet digging in-between classes.

"All calls made from and to the Agency are taped." I told Paul as we crouched over our mock crime scene, laid out in the shadow of the Fortress. "It wasn't easy, but I got access to the recordings for the common room phone…"

"Is there anything that's off limits to you?" He rubbed his arms a bit, undressed for the mid-morning weather.

"You have your way of getting information, and I have mine. Speaking of, anything else on that phone number?"

"It's a burner. But if you really want to give it a try, I think it'd be okay if you gave him another call….you did say you'd be in touch…"

Instructor Mejia passed by, and we pulled on our gloves, looking busy. Her nose crinkled with slight suspicion but she thankfully moved on.

"I want to wait for O'Malley first."

Paul sighed patiently. "No one knows where he is." It was true - no one had seen O'Malley since my night at Cat's Cradle, yet he was still listed as an active Instructor in the system. Still, the Agency did not seem overly concerned about his disappearance, which meant he was probably out on a last minute assignment.

"Someone has to. And I have a feeling he knows about David...it'd be best to do it with him."

"We'll wait until the weekend."

I nodded in agreement. "Until then, we listen to the conversations…see how his father's holding up in the infirmary."

The prison confirmed that David's father was indeed ill. I noted they were considering moving him to a hospice type facility for better care. This put me on alert. Obviously, we had to take his condition at face value, but if he was feigning illness it would be a great way for him to make an escape during the transport.

Felipe wandered by us now, and I made eyes at Paul to drop the subject. Paul and I were both in agreement of pursuing this ourselves, unsure of who to trust.

"You guys make any progress?"

"Claro." I pointed to the victims back. "There's signs of liver mortis here, which means our victim was flipped over into this prone position after at least 12 hours of her death."

"That's not what I mean." Felipe's voice was low. "About our other problem."

Paul shook his head, his inky hair flopping with the motion. "Why?"

"I was looking at some fotografias that I took in our room when we first received our Communicators and I realized -" he showed us a photo now, zooming past David's grinning face and towards his bookshelf.

"Send that to me please. I'm trying to get access to the phone conversations but haven't had much luck yet." I fibbed.

"Cuidado, nena. Don't attract too much attention to yourselves with this. We don't know who's involved." He walked back to Liza.

Paul gave me a sidelong glance, and I nodded with understanding - he felt guilty keeping Felipe in the dark. A part of me did too, but I shooed those thoughts away, putting myself into the present moment and giving our mock cadaver my full attention.

Later that week, after a few late nights of sifting through the recordings we established a few things.

"I don't think David was using any of these books for their code." Paul pushed his hair back from his forehead. "I've run all these visible titles by the numbers he's given, and it's all nonsensical stuff."

I readjusted on his bed, crossing my legs in a half lotus. "Maybe it wasn't really a book. Just a numbers pad."

Paul closed his laptop in frustration. "Great. Well, that's the end of that. If they were using a numbers pad, different numbers would correspond to different words every time. It's uncrackable."

"It's not the end of it...just need to take a detour." I chewed my lower lip. "We need to find a way to get on that transport."

I had confirmed that because of David's father's relatively good behavior in prison and the world's changing view of those in the penal system, he was going to be allowed to live out his last days in a heavily supervised hospice facility. ACME was aware of his movement and the potential for danger it would cause, and would be present as backup for the DOC. I did still believe that David's father was actually sick - although Paul heavily disagreed - and because of it, he would do anything to help his lineage preserve his work before his death.

"Amiraj did say we would be shadowing Agents on Monday. Maybe I can change our assigned persons…" he opened his laptop again, keys clacking softly. "Oh."

"What is it?"

"Nothing." His answer was too quick for my liking, and I got up to look at his screen.

"Paul…" He was partnered with Zackary, the head of Cybercrime at ACME. Paul was recruited for a speciality, and it would be extremely important for him to meet and make a good impression on the man. "I can't take that away from you. Just get me on the transport then."

"No, I'm coming with you too -

I stopped him. "While I appreciate it, it's too obvious if we both go. Devineaux doesn't like me already...no one would think twice about his 'decision' if it was just me."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." I squeezed his shoulders. "Besides, it beats what they had in mind anyway."

Paul chortled. "Yeah, I can't see you exactly enjoying 'forensic accounting'."

I turned up my nose, and he laughed again, but suddenly sobered.

"What is it?"

"You were originally supposed to be with O'Malley, see?" He pointed to the screen. "You were reassigned a few days ago."

I made a small noise of frustration. "Where in the world could he be?"

Paul returned to the main database, and with a few keystrokes, pulled up O'Malley's profile. "Still nothing."

O'Malley was still listed as active duty, posted to the Academy, with no open assignments. I had asked around out of personal concern, but not even Amiraj knew what had happened, even mentioning that Devineaux was scrambling to find a replacement for his unexpected hiatus.

I stood up now, pacing the room. "Change of plan…I know who would just love to have me around instead…."