“What're you doing?” The suspicion in his mentor's voice was second nature, not personal. “Did something happen?”

Ken knew that as well as anyone. It came with the job.

“Sinja's fine. I was just double checking his vitals.” He smiled as her neutral expression returned like fists raised in front of her blatant worry. “I know how indispensable he is.”

“Right.” Natasha nodded. Her gaze withdrew from the room behind him and and hardened as he spoke again.

“Especially to you, coach.” He stepped aside and invited her in with a precise extension of his arm. “I was just leaving.”

She hesitated, then shook her head with a potent, tight-lipped smile. “He doesn't need both of us checking up on him. Looks like it's canteen time.”

Canteen time? Is she hungry? His own appetite had dwindled to non existence since he received the message that morning. Or perhaps since he first saw the old photo of the person his seniors referred to as Sinja.

“I see. I should go too.” He stepped into the corridor and her attention flitted back to the interior of the room before he closed the door. “The captain called.”

“Des? Why?”

“He's taking that boy to Surveillance.” He still hadn't identified the source of the recognition that flickered across the other teenager's eyes. Even I wanted to, I wouldn't know what to ask first.

“Boy? He's probably the same age as you.” She muffled a laugh as they started walking and left Sinastar behind.

“... He seems younger.”

“Sometimes even Co-Jo seems younger than you.” She pointed out. “Try not to offend him too many times, okay?”

“I rarely try to.” Countless infuriated faces and judgemental stares popped up at the back of his mind like the images of a creepy slide show. “It just happens.”

Natasha stifled another laugh with her fist. “I guess you can't help being you.”

“Is being me such a bad thing?” He paused as they reached the junction between the canteen and the corridor leading to Des' office.

“You know it's not.” She almost seemed disappointed that he would entertain such a weak minded question and he tried not to roll the itchy sensation of her gaze off his shoulders. “If anything, it's a compliment.”

“Why would it be a compliment?” He faced her dull windowless corridor.

“Because it's easy to forget yourself when you're following orders all the time.” She bumped her knuckles against his collarbone and left without saying anything else.

He rubbed the spot before walking in the opposite direction. He walked in the middle of the corridor to avoid the ghostly hands that reached for him from the walls. They solidified instead of disappearing when he closed his eyes.

Don't worry, coach. Nothing I do now will ever make me forget the things I've done.

<><><><><>

“So you guys check out weird crimes that don't look – uh – normal?” Jason looked up as Dee returned from the small water fountain next to his desk and placed a plastic cup of water on the table in front of him. “Thanks.”

“What did I tell you about asking questions?” The captain sat down again on the edge of his seat.

“But I already told you everything.” Everything besides all the zai stuff. And about Saytarnia. And their transforming thing.

Dee pointed at him with his ballpoint pen. “And what did I tell you about lying to me?”

“You didn't –”

“You're right. It was my mistake for expecting you to understand that much.”

“I'm not –” Now that he had heard Jason's side of the story, Dee seem too keen on the sound of Jason's voice.

“Withholding information isn't always the same as lying.” His eyes narrowed. “You shouldn't ever tell anyone everything, kid.”

Then why the heck are you grilling me like this?

“Jason. My name's Jason,” he said when the other's eyebrows rose. “If you don't tell people anything about yourself, why would they trust you?”

“Do you know everything about your friend, Satara? Or Sinja?”

He shook his head with a knowingly self-conscious grin.

“I don't think I have to ask if you trust them.” Dee looked at his smartwatch. “To connect with people, all you need to know about is your common ground. Everything else is just extra baggage that'll weigh you down later.”

“Is that why you don't seem to know much about Sin?” Jason chuckled and drank from the plastic cup under Dee's exasperated gaze. His throat ached. “But the longer you hang around with someone, the more you find out about them, right? I mean, you don't always notice the big, important things but it's the small things that count, right?”

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“One, that depends on the person.” Dee stood up and Jason followed his lead without a second thought, drinking the last bit of water. “Two, in our line of work, we don't have to deal with that too often.”

“But you look like you've known Lala and the others for a while?” The implication of his words settled like a heavy meal in Jason's stomach.

“There are always exceptions to the rule.” Someone knocked on the door and Dee strode over to open it. “Speak of devil –”

“I've got the file.” Ken held up a small USB. His gaze flitted to Jason and away again. “I can wait out here if you're not ready to go.”

“Go where?” The other teenager's silent disregard tugged Jason towards the door even though he wasn't sure if he was supposed to move. Are we going to look for Tara now?

“The surveillance room,” said Dee, gesturing at the USB before Ken tucked it into his pocket. “There's something I need you to see.”

“What is –” Jason stifled his curiosity as the latter looked at him. “– Okay.”

“Let's go,” said Dee and Ken dipped his head in a oddly familiar way.

Jason bit back several questions and followed them all the way into somewhere that resembled a CCTV room where security guards often took naps when no one else was looking. He gawked at the screens attached to a third of the wall opposite the door Dee closed behind them but tried to restrain his gaze as the latter's attention hung over him like a steel block.

Ken turned on one of the many computers that formed a neat row across the desks in the centre of the room, clicking and glancing up at the screens repeatedly. His cursor swept deftly across one and his fingers flew across the keyboard as required. Looks like he's their jack of all trades. Does he check out weird crimes too? Are they all detectives? But this doesn't look like a detective agency. Lala said they investigate and support people involved but what if they do more than that?

He opened a folder and clicked on a file. A video loaded on the screen. Are they like supernatural crime fighters? Dee didn't say anything about zai but neither did I. Is he waiting for Sin to give him the go ahead? Or do they have some other way of dealing with it?

Ken skipped to somewhere in the middle of the video and paused it once it was ready to play, looking at Dee over his shoulder. The older guy motioned towards the screen with a finger and Jason looked at it, swallowing more questions. Can they help us find Saytarnia? Is that why Sin joined them?

After pressing play, Ken leaned forward with both hands on the desk, his lean body highlighted by the white glow of the monitor in front of him. The video was that of a quiet motorway, recorded as if the camera had been fixed to a street light, with the odd vehicle travelling both towards and away from its lens. Must be from a traffic camera.

He remembered the rumble of moving vehicles and the mild old manure scent of the surrounding country side half a second before three cars stopped and turned to block the closest lane. Men spilled out across the road and knelt behind them, positioning their weapons as they waited.

That's us! A small, dark shape hurtled up the motorway towards the cars and Jason's stomach tightened as he recalled the screech of tires, Sinastar's fingers tight around his wrist, and the prickle of zai flooding his skin. How did they know exactly when we were coming? Can they hack into the cameras too?

The new perspective blew his mind. Sinastar's zai seemed to rear up out of nowhere. The shock-waves rattled the camera as the abandoned motorbike collided with it and the orange flames mixed with his Blue Fire looked like someone had opened a gateway to hell beneath their ambushers' feet. Panicked cries radiated from their body language as the men scrambled in all directions to escape the danger and reform. They couldn't have seen us past that fire, even if they weren't freaking out.

“We got that footage not long after Sinja said he was en route,” said Dee. His gaze lowered and Jason stopped massaging his left wrist, folding his arms behind his back. “Know anything about it?”

“Why would I know anything about that?” he asked. Stop asking me stuff I can't answer! “It looked like a proper big explosion though. What was that blue shield thing?”

“Shield?” The captain's eyes snapped up to his face at once. “Why do you think it's a shield?”

“Uh – 'cause that what it looks like?” He held up his hands and splayed them in Dee and Ken's direction. The other teenager's subtle shift in attention made it harder to cover up his mistake. “Have you ever watched Avatar before? He sometimes uses water and rocks as a shield.”

“Avatar?” Dee looked at Ken who had already typed something on his phone.

“It's a cartoon about a boy with elemental powers,” he said with suppressed smile that didn't reach his abruptly cold eyes.

The hell is his problem now?

“Yeah, him. Obviously, that kinda stuff isn't real, right?” Jason tried to smile too. Why are they looking at me like I'm the suspicious one here? They're ones who can get traffic camera footage.

“Right,” said Dee after a couple of long seconds as Ken removed the USB and shut the computer down. “So you didn't see any signs of it on your way in?”

Jason shook his head and tucked his hands into his pockets. I'll just say sorry for lying if Sin tells them the truth later.

“Okay. One more thing.” The older guy's attention shifted from his pockets to his face. “You said you were attacked in the therapist's clinic, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And she took Sinastar to another room right before it happened, right?” He continued to stare as Jason nodded. “You know what my next question is, don't you?”

“Tara thinks Judy had something to do with it.” He tried to hold Dee's gaze. “She acted like she was sure about it.”

“What do you think?”

He thought of how Judy faltered against Satara's aggressive questioning. To be fair, who wouldn't? Except these guys here maybe.

“Sin didn't seem too happy with her either, after it happened,” he said as he remembered how Sinastar had ignored Judy on the roof of her clinic. “So I think she might've done something too.”

“How did he act with her before?”

Well, they didn't seem that close anyway but he's not the kind of guy who'd make it obvious even if he did like someone. He internally flapped away the memory of Sinastar smiling at Satara not long after they first met.

“He looked like he trusted her,” he said. “Before.”

“Okay. Ken, take him to your room.” Dee waved at the doorway. “You should get some sleep now, kid. You look dead.”

“But Tara's still out there.” Worry settled on his skin like ice as he looked at them in turn. “We've gotta find her first.”

“Rob's back at the house. He'll let us know if she turns up there.” Dee opened the door. “I'll send out more people to look for her but we're a little low on numbers at the moment.”

“She doesn't know who you are.” Jason shook his head. “She wouldn't go off with some stranger.”

Besides Sin.

“You didn't know who we were either,” said Dee. “She's Sinja's cousin. She'll work it out.”

“But she won't trust Rob.” He tried to picture the man approaching her with his suspicious grin and the resulting scenario both amused and alarmed him.

“Neither did Sinja when he first came here.” A taut smile played about Dee's mouth. “Besides, if she's anything like him, she'll realise we're on her side. Especially when we drop your name into the conversation.”

“What if she thinks you kidnapped me instead?”

“Then she'll have even more of a reason to cooperate.” Jason's indignant voice stopped him before he could leave the room.

“You're going to threaten her with me?” His fingers curled viciously in his pockets.

“If that's what it takes to keep her safe, yes.” Dee turned back to him. “He didn't say much about it but I know she's really important to Sinja. Which means we go all out to protect her. Got it?”

His ribcage seemed to shrink without warning. “What if we don't find her before he wakes up?”

“We'll think about that if it happen –”

“But what if he doesn't wake up?” He hadn't meant to ask but the pressure in his chest forced the question out. He laughed dryly. “I mean, I don't want to jinx anything but he's hurt really bad and –”

“He's going to be okay, kid.” A shockingly uncharacteristic warmth slipped into Dee's gaze. “He's the strongest guy I know.”

“What if he's not?” Now I'm the one who needs to stop asking questions.

“Then we bring the girl here anyway and work out what to do from there.” Dee nodded but his eyes strayed past him. “She must've been living somewhere else all this time and I'm sure Sinja had a reason for pulling her away from there. We'll find out what it is sooner or later.”

That almost sounds like a threat. “But –”

“Enough worrying.” Dee spoke over his shoulder as he left. “Get some rest, kid. I'll let you know if we hear anything.”

What if they don't though? Jason swore ardently in his head as Ken's voice tickled his right ear.

“Let's go, Jason.”

“'The heck, dude?” He spun around and stepped back, clapping a hand to the side of his head.

“I'll show you to my room.” Ken scanned his face. “Is something wrong?”

“There are a lotta things wrong right now.” I'm taking it out on him too, aren't I?

“Like your friend going MIA?” The other boy didn't look like he was trying to be annoying which made his success more unbearable.

“Just show me where it is,” he muttered, walking out of the surveillance room and back into the fluorescent light of the corridor.

“Your friend?” Ken caught up with him instantly. “I've no idea but I'll help them find her.”

“Tara's not an it,” he growled. “I meant your room.”

“I'm glad.” The young agent sped up. “That's a lot easier to find.”

Will they still help us if I murder him before Sin wakes up?