Ean pushed the horse as fast as it would go to get to the bookstore. He burst through the front door to find Samuel helping a female customer.

"Thank you for your business. Say hello to your husband for me."

The woman waved at Samuel and walked out of the store.

Samuel turned to Ean. "You smell like you need a hot bath."

"Grab some clothes. You're sleeping in the castle tonight," Ean demanded.

"What's going on? Have things in Riverside become worse?"

Ean grabbed Samuel's shirt sleeve and pulled him toward the living quarters. "Riverside is back in Argonian hands. I encountered the militia leader again and had the Brindle guards arrest him. As they dragged him off, he said the Man In The Purple Hat was coming to eliminate a spymaster hiding in Argonia Central."

Showing a speed and strength Ean had never seen before, Samuel yanked the footlocker from the closet. He rifled through its contents, pulled out a long, thin stiletto knife, and strapped it to his leg. His grim look let Ean know not to ask about it.

Ean grabbed a change of clothes for himself and clothes he thought might fit Aria. Minutes later, he and Samuel were both astride the horse and racing to the safety of the castle.

* * *

Ean entered his office to find scattered papers and notes covering every surface. Aria and Ingar looked at him with worried expressions.

"Dozens of survey reports have come in about suspicious activity throughout the kingdom," Aria said, her voice tense. "Events are escalating faster than we anticipated."

Ingar nodded in agreement. "There are multiple sightings of someone in a purple hat," he added, his eyes narrowing. "It's as if he's a phantom taunting us, appearing and disappearing at will."

Ean and Samuel shared a glance, then began arranging the sightings in a timeline, searching for patterns to predict the movements of the Man in the Purple Hat. A puzzling conundrum soon emerged - either the sightings were false reports, or their elusive opponent had the ability to be in multiple places at once.

"This doesn't make any sense," Ean muttered, rubbing his temples as he felt a headache coming on. "How can one man be in two regions simultaneously?"

Ingar hesitated before speaking up. "My business partner is a triplet," he said slowly. "When they were kids, the three boys played pranks on people by appearing to be one boy coming and going from different directions."

Ean shuddered at the implications of Ingar's words. If the Man In The Purple Hat was working with others pretending to be him, it would explain the impossible sightings. To hunt him down, they'd have to scour the entire kingdom, seizing every person they found wearing a purple hat. Meanwhile, the ringleader could move about in the confusion, orchestrating the chaos.

"Everyone keep up the good work. I have to put another plan in place. Aria, while I'm gone, do you think you could make a dozen bottles of knockout gas?"

"Certainly. The royal herbalist has all the ingredients I need."

Ean thanked her and headed for the Royal Guard barracks.

Guard Blackwood spotted Ean and ushered him into the guard's operation center. A large map of the kingdom was unfurled on a massive map table. Little guard figures were placed on points in each region.

"I took your list of names and addresses and dispatched a guard member to each to perform covert surveillance as you requested. Can you tell me why I did that?"

Ean addressed Aaron and the other guard commanders. "An evil genius known as the Man In The Purple Hat has established a network of agents in Argonia and Brindle. They've carried out assassinations, spread rumors, and fomented riots and protests in both countries. Yesterday, we intercepted his instructions to his agents. I altered the instructions, sending each agent to a different address tonight. That's what your guards are watching for."

"What's your next step?"

"To give the Royal Guards the privilege of taking apart his network. We want these individuals taken alive which is why I'm having knockout gas created."

The garrison commander addressed Ean. "I'm putting a lot of trust in your information. We can't just knock out and arrest citizens for being in the wrong place. How do we positively identify them as agents?"

"The instructions were included with a package of gold billets. When they open the packages, they'll be exposed to a fine powder made of ground seashells that is highly reflective and nearly impossible to wash off. You'll notice it on their hands and clothes."

"I'll ensure each team is informed to look for the powder. If you don't mind, we have multiple raids to plan. I will let you know how it goes."

"Best of luck," Ean said and returned to his office.

He assisted Aria with the knockout gas and delivered the bottles to the garrison.

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Until he felt that his friends would be safe, he coerced them into remaining at the castle with him.

Two hours after sunset, Aaron informed him the guards had a ninety percent success rate. One target hadn't shown up. Ean thanked him and promised the king would be informed of what they had accomplished.

"What was that all about?" asked Ingar.

"The new letters we put in the packages the other day instructed the recipients to meet in different isolated or abandoned buildings around the kingdom tonight. I tasked the Royal Guard with capturing the agents. Guard Blackwood informed me of their success. They'll interrogate the agents until we get a location for the Man In The Purple Hat."

Samuel gave Ean a pat on the back. "Congratulations on a successful operation. You've proven the king's council was wrong about appointing you as the Spymaster." He yawned deeply. "Now that you've made the streets safe again, I'm going back to the bookstore to do some additional research."

"With the agents in custody, it should be a slow night here. Why don't you spend the night in your own bed. Come back in the morning," Ean said as he escorted his mentor out.

* * *

With the Man In The Purple Hat's network disassembled, the information flowing into Ean's office slowed to a trickle. With war still a very real possibility, it was a certainty Brindle had agents in Argonia. With his networks on high alert, he shifted focus to discovering and capturing them as well. He established a two-hour watch schedule for the night. He, Aria, and Ingar took turns sleeping while one of them remained awake and working.

As the first rays of dawn illuminated dust motes dancing in the air of his office, Ean anticipated Samuel's imminent arrival. The roosters crowed, dogs barked, and the castle stirred to life, but the minutes ticked by. Where was Samuel? The knot in his stomach tightened with each passing moment.

A soft knock. He opened the door to find Guard Blackwood, his expression grave. With a subtle nod, Aaron beckoned him into the hallway.

"During our inventory of everything seized in last night's raids," Aaron began, his voice low, "we found this letter. It was taken from a location where the suspect eluded capture."

The letter was one of the replacement encrypted letters. A corner was torn off and the paper was browned where it had been passed over a flame. The flame had activated neat block letters in invisible ink, revealing a chilling message: 'Get out. It's a trap.' Ean's hands trembled as he clutched the letter.

"Aaron," Ean managed, his voice strained, "Did any of the captured individuals confess to being the Man In The Purple Hat or implicate someone else?"

"No. Most of them were unaware of each other. They were all captured with crude purple felt hats in their inventory which explains the rash of sightings. Unfortunately, we missed the ringleader."

"Thanks to the warning on this letter." Ean's mind was scrambled. He couldn't think clearly. What the invisible message indicated was unthinkable. Only four people had access to the letters before they were delivered. One of them was a double agent.

He knew he hadn't written the invisible message, and it wasn't something Samuel would do. That left Aria and Ingmar as the remaining suspects. Aria hadn't written any of the letters, but she knew how to craft the invisible ink. Ingmar had rewritten some letters and was an experienced spy.

As much as he hated admitting his bias, the fact they both had been raised in Brindle put their loyalty into question. A war would provide Aria opportunities to exact revenge on the empire. The militia camp so close to Ingmar's tavern rather than some place isolated seemed suspicious as well. Once he started pulling the threads of doubt, he realized he knew very little about Aria or Ingar. Everything about his networks and travels he'd revealed to them was potentially compromised.

Ean returned the letter. "Keep this letter locked someplace safe. It may be the only evidence we have that someone in my network is a double agent."

Guard Blackwood turned and walked away. Ean stepped into his office to find Ingmar and Aria had roused.

"Any news?" asked Aria

"The Royal Guard believes the person they missed last night is likely the Man In The Purple Hat so we still need to hunt him down."

"They didn't find any clues to who he is or his whereabouts?"

"Nothing so far." Technically, the letter Aaron showed him didn't provide that information, so he wasn't lying.

"Maybe he got spooked and went back to wherever he came from, and we can all sleep easier," Aria said. "Speaking of sleeping, where's Samuel?"

"It's not like him to be this late. I'll go check on him. Keep working on the briefing for the king's council," Ean said as he walked out, making a beeline to the royal stables.

If one of them is a double agent, Samuel will be able to ferret them out. I need to find him.

* * *

Ean's equestrian skill had improved with recent practice. He deftly guided the horse around, rather than through, the growing numbers of citizens going to work or the market. While citizens went about their mundane routines, unaware of the fragile peace, Ean's mind raced with the import of last night's revelations, a burden he couldn't share with them. As the king had reminded him recently, success rarely receives fanfare or reward while failure is loud and can result in execution. Samuel's contribution to making Ean quietly successful was underappreciated. He committed to letting his mentor know that when he saw him.

He tethered the horse and approached the front door. Something felt off. The shades were drawn which he expected since Samuel wouldn't be opening the store today. The street was no more or less quiet than normal. Then he became aware of what his subconscious had picked up on.

The window display contained two red books in the stack. A silent alarm. One he had never experienced but whose meaning was instantly, viscerally clear: danger.

He ducked down and crept past the windows toward the back of the shop. Realizing the door would be locked, he backtracked and felt for the key hidden above a side window.

Certain he would be heard at any second, he was tense as he inserted the key and turned it as slow as he could. With a gentle push, he cracked open the door and squeezed inside.

Samuel's spare walking stick was in the corner of the doorframe. Ean wielded it like a sword as he crept into the kitchen.

The place was silent. Not even the crackling of a fire in the stove. The kitchen was in disarray, with dented pots, pans, and shattered jars littering the floor, indicating a violent struggle.

Neatly placed on the kitchen table was a dinner plate streaked with bacon grease, a half-eaten piece of cake, and a letter pinned to the table by a blood-stained stiletto knife.

Ean checked upstairs and found no sign of Samuel. As unthinkable as it was to admit, someone had kidnapped Samuel.

He went back downstairs and picked up the letter. It was encrypted. Ean recognized at least four different ciphers used to encrypt each line. Whomever had written the letter clearly intended it for him, but they also wanted to make decryption a challenge.

As desperately as he wanted to know what the letter said, alerting the royal guards was his first priority. With luck, they would locate Samuel and his kidnapper before he decrypted the letter. He was not about to lose another mentor and vowed to turn the kingdom upside down, if necessary. He locked the back door, returned the key to its hiding spot, and then rode to the castle.

QUEST ACCEPTED: Q-028 Rescue Samuel from his kidnappers