We arrived at City Hall some time later. Luckily, we knew exactly where to go to get to Mayor Davis's office. Well, Lincoln did. His sister Leni once interned with Mayor Davis, and then ended up running against her for mayor. Then there was something about digging up dirt on her because she was digging up dirt on Leni? I dunno, I wasn't there for that. But there's no shortage of adventure when it comes to Lincoln Loud and his family. Case in point, our investigation.

We ascended the stairs, side-by-side, and came to a pair of wooden doors - the kind you really had to heft open. Fortunately, we had Liam, who had "the muscles of a country boy", in his words, so the task gave him no trouble at all. Right in front of the doorway was the front desk, which was manned by a lean, stern-faced Hispanic girl with a bob haircut who looked to be in her late teens.

"Uh, hello, can I help you?"

"We're here to see Mayor Davis!" I announced. In retrospect, it may have been politer to say, "We'd like to see Mayor Davis," but I wanted to get across the fact that we weren't taking no for an answer.

The lady leaned over the desk at us, narrowing her eyes. "Do you have an appointment?"

"Well, no, but…" I said, although my voice trailed off once I realized how short-sighted we had been. Did we really think that we were just going to be allowed to walk into the mayor's office and start grilling her?

"Well, see, we're from the Action News Team, and we wanted to—"

Stella was quickly cut off by a secretary's stern glare and sharp tone.

"If you're with the press, you can contact Mayor Davis's press secretary to schedule an interview."

…

Yeah, that wasn't going to sit well with any of us. We didn't come all this way just to be told to come back later. We exchanged determined glances and silently agreed that we weren't going to leave until we got some answers.

Fortunately, there was a bench in the lobby just a few feet from the front desk. If we were going to spend hours staking out Mayor Davis, the least we could do was give our weary legs a rest. Without another word, we walked over to the bench and took our seats, prompting an annoyed groan from the receptionist. Her hand coiled around a can of Red Bull, tight enough that the can creaked from the pressure, and she shotgunned a gulp of it before turning to address us.

"Okay, seriously? I told you that you have to contact the press secretary in order to get an interview."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, we're on a pretty tight deadline," I said. "We can't afford to wait around until the press secretary gets back to us."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before," she scoffed. "Every reporter that comes in here says that they need their story on the editor's desk by yesterday. You're not special. Go away."

Now this was starting to tick me off, and judging from my friends' faces, I wasn't the only one. Were we really going to have to go through the same sort of stonewalling we got from Newsman Tucker—

…

And then it hit me. Newsman Tucker was being obstinate because he had something to hide. Could this lady be hiding something, too?

But before I could share that thought with the rest of the team, I was interrupted by Zach, who apparently had the same epiphany.

"Seems pretty suspicious, if you ask me!" he exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at the receptionist. "What are you so afraid of, huh? Are you in cahoots with Mayor Davis?"

Sheesh, Zach. So much for keeping your cards close to your chest.

The receptionist raised an eyebrow. "Um, I work for her. The heck are you talking about?"

"So you admit it!" Zach barked.

Ginny facepalmed. "Look, I'm not happy about this red tape, either, but I don't think this is doing us any favors, Zach."

The receptionist let out a deep, weary sigh and massaged her temples before addressing us again. "Look, I know you're still just kids, so I'm going to explain this to you gently. When you have a job, you have to take extra care to stay in the good graces of your employer, or else you lose that job. And I am not going to jeopardize this internship that could be my first stepping stone towards a political career. Understand?"

I slumped forward, as my head and shoulders suddenly felt three times as heavy. That first sentence already made me feel small, and the rest of what she said just clinched it. With one stinging blow, she smacked us all back down to reality. We were kids. I glanced at the others, suspecting that they were getting ready to slink out of the office in shame…

…but what caught my eye was Lincoln's face. He had that tight-lipped, squinty-eyed face that made it clear that the gears in his head were turning. It seemed like the receptionist had just given him an idea, although I couldn't imagine what it was.

"You make a good point, miss," he said, hopping up off of the bench and taking slow, measured steps towards the front desk. "And I understand that you don't want to burn any bridges before your career even takes off. But this internship of yours won't last forever. Soon you're going to be looking for a position somewhere else, or even running for office yourself."

He rested his arm on the counter, leaned forward and looked the receptionist right in the eye. "Now, imagine that if you could tell those voters that, as an intern, you helped crack open one of the biggest scandals in the history of Royal Woods. You'd sure have my vote."

That last remark prompted the lady's eyes to widen. "I'm sorry, what are you reporting on, exactly?" she asked. "I assumed this was about school lunches or something."

"Not exactly, ma'am. We're investigating Incognito Labs. Maybe you've heard of them."

For the next few seconds, the receptionist had a look of abject shock frozen on her face. I suspect that this whole process would have gone a lot quicker if we had just led with that. Oh, well. Better late than never, I guess.

Once the shock wore off, she gripped her energy drink, shotgunned another gulp, and stepped away from the desk. "Follow me," she said, walking down the hallway towards the elevators.

Yes! I wanted to jump up and cheer, but stopped myself. I imagine the "indoor voices" rule counts double when you're in a government building. Instead, I just scurried after her, and the rest of the gang followed behind.

"Much appreciated, ma'am," said Lincoln. "What's your name, by the way? I want to credit you properly when this is all said and done. I'm Lincoln Loud."

"Valeria," she said, without turning around. "Valeria Martínez."

She walked us down a long, ornate hallway. Our shoes clicked against the hardwood floor, which was so brightly polished that we could practically see our reflections in it. The end of the hallway was marked by a door with Mayor Davis's name emblazoned on it in gold. Valeria stopped in front of it, took a deep breath and sipped her energy drink before rapping on the door with her knuckle.

"Who is it?" called a familiar voice from inside.

"Valeria," she responded. "There are some ki… reporters here who would like to see you."

"Tell them to contact my press secretary."

I had to suck in a groan - although, in retrospect, I should have expected that sort of response.

"I did, Mayor Davis, but they're quite adamant about seeing you now."

There was a brief pause.

"What publication are they from?"

Valeria looked back over her shoulder at Lincoln.

"Tell her we're from the Action News Team," he whispered.

"The Action News Team."

The next thing we heard was a light flutter of laughter coming from behind the door. "That cute little Middle School news show? Oh, all right. Let them in."

I felt a pang of resentment as Valeria opened up the door and walked us inside. I was pleased that she was able to get us in, but ouch. On the other hand, if the Mayor wasn't taking us seriously now, she would soon enough. The office had a cozy yet professional atmosphere, with a green, bushy carpet that crinkled under our feet, and wooden walls decorated with news bulletins celebrating the Mayor's greatest accomplishments.

We walked up to the neat, polished walnut desk of Mayor Davis, which was stacked with miscellaneous paperwork, photos of her family, and a clicking Newton's cradle. The Mayor, perched at her desk, was peering down at us with a relaxed smile. "So, you need a quote for your news story?" she asked.

Lincoln looked up at her, his face stern and determined. "We're investigating the recent disappearance of several news figures and pundits," he said. "I'm sure you've heard about Katherine Mulligan and Marcus Meyer going missing within a short time frame."

All of a sudden, she didn't look quite so relaxed. "Well, young man, as Mayor, I pledge to do what I can to ensure that both of them are found and returned posthaste," she said, trying to keep up her professional tone. "However, my knowledge of the case, at the moment, is limited."

"Oh, I think you know more about the case than you're letting on," said Stella. "Mayor Davis, would you mind telling us what you know about Incognito Labs?"

A pregnant silence ensued after Stella posed her question. For what seemed like five whole minutes, not a sound could be heard aside from the pounding of my heart and the click, click, click of the Newton's cradle. This wasn't going to be easy.

The Mayor had dropped her lighthearted facade completely; her facial features were now hard and rigid, like a marble statue of a vindictive goddess.

"I will reiterate what I said to you before," she said tersely. "My office's knowledge of Incognito Labs is limited, given their reclusive nature and their near-nonexistent relationship with the press."

And right off the bat, she gave us an opening. I was going to capitalize on it, but Liam beat me to the punch.

"Well, now, is that the truth?" he asked. "'Cause it seems mighty strange to me that you'd accept… lemme see here…"

He took out his notepad and started flipping through it. "Mmm… ah… seven thousand dollars from a company you don't know nothin' about."

Davis flinched at this, her eyes popping open. "W-where did you get that figure?!" she demanded.

"All campaign donations are public record, Mayor Davis," I said. "You, of all people, should know that."

This was great! We were less than a minute into our line of questioning, and we already had her on the defensive. We just had to keep up our momentum.

"Well, it doesn't matter," she said huffily. "Money is money. When you're on the campaign trail, you don't have the time to vet every single donor who offers you a donation."

Tsk, tsk, tsk. She clearly thinks we know a lot less than we do. Sooner or later she's going to have to learn that she can't get away with lying to us.

"Well, if that's the case," Zach said, "then why did you brag about not accepting any money from pharmaceuticals?"

Davis's eyes darted across the room, as if she was looking for someone to bail her out. I'm pretty sure I noticed Valeria shaking her head at her out of the corner of my eye. She was on her own.

"And Incognito Labs weren't just any donor," added Lincoln. "Their donation was the biggest you received in that election cycle. Now, you could have just accepted the money without checking to see what they actually do, but that sounds pretty irresponsible to me, and I think you're better than that."

He leaned over the desk, peering up at the nervous mayor with a raised eyebrow. "I think it's more likely that you know more about Incognito Labs than you're letting on."

Mayor Davis stewed there silently for a spell, the tension evident in every crease and fold in her face…

…and then, she sat up, adjusted her posture and let out a deep breath. That breath, it seemed, carried all of the tension she was holding inside, because as soon as she resumed eye contact with us, it was gone. She was stone-faced.

"Due to the secretive nature of Incognito Labs, I cannot say that I was well-informed about their company before accepting the donation," she said. "However, I knew enough about them to ascertain that they were not a pharmaceutical company, and thus I could take their donation without violating my campaign pledge. Furthermore, the controversy surrounding the company had not come to light until after the campaign cycle."

Dang it. It seemed like all of the momentum was on our side, and in just a moment, it came to a screeching halt. Aside from the campaign finance records - which she just explained away - none of us had anything definitively linking her to Incognito Labs. I glanced at the others to see if any of them had any ideas, but it was clear from their deflated posture that they didn't.

"Now, unless any of you have any other questions, I would like to ask you to leave my office."

And that was our cue. We all turned about and walked towards the exit, shoulders slumped, and let the door slam shut behind us on our way out.

"See, that's why you shouldn't barge into the Mayor's office on a whim," came a scolding voice from beside us. I turned to my left, and was surprised that the words came from Valeria, who had followed us outside.

"But I do support what you're doing here," she continued. "In fact, I have a lead that just might lead you to the information you're looking for."

Ginny swerved towards the intern, incredulous. "Wait, seriously? Why didn't you say so before?"

"What, in front of the Mayor?" she retorted. "As I told you before, now's not a good time for me to be making enemies."

We all nodded in understanding.

"Trust me, once my name's on the city ballot, you can credit me all you like. But that's for later. Anyway, the guy you're looking for is named Vic McGillicutty. He was still Davis's campaign manager when I started as an intern here. Not for long, mind you, but, you know, long enough."

Oh, good lord, not that guy. Ever since Mayor Davis canned him, he's been a constant thorn in our side. Between his sabotage of the Sunset Canyon Retirement Home and him scamming the Louds into buying a fleabag hotel room, I'd go so far as to call him a worse con artist than Flip.

"I can forward his contact info to you right now," she continued, taking out her phone. "Just be careful around him. You'll really have to pry to get an honest word out of him."

Oh, trust me, lady, we know that already, I thought. After Ginny exchanged numbers with Valeria, she received a text that included Vic's phone number and personal email address.

"Now, to find out where he's hiding," said Ginny. She then dialed the number and put him on speaker.

"Yes, hello?" came a familiar sleazy voice from the other end.

Lincoln was about to speak, but Ginny quickly shushed him. What is she up to?

"Hello? Is someone there? If this is a prank, it's not funny."

We waited with bated breath while Ginny just stood in silence, letting Vic sweat it out. I'm… starting to think that Ginny has a weird way of doing things.

"Ugh, whatever. Bye."

With that, Vic hung up. Ginny then stroked her chin in thought.

"He's at Gus's Games and Grub," she said.

I… what?

"How in tarnation did ya figure that out?!" asked Liam. I swear, he was saying what was on all of our minds.

"I managed to hear some arcade noises and an order for a watermelon pizza in the background," said Ginny with a smirk. "And as far as I know, there's only one place in Royal Woods that serves watermelon pizza."

…

Wow, she's good. She might have a weird way of doing things, but you can't argue with the results.

"I wonder what he could be doing there?" wondered Stella.

"Only one way to find out," said Lincoln. "Let's move, team."

With that, we all headed off. Y'know, I'm kinda with Stella on this one. Last I heard from Lincoln, Vic's sketchy hotel was still open. It would've made more sense to go there first, but instead, he's at Gus's. Eh, maybe he just really likes watermelon pizza (it's actually better than you think it is). But one thing's for sure. If he knows something about Incognito Labs, he's probably not gonna divulge it without a fight. And we aim to give him one.