"Olivia never accepted me at all," Jason cut her off. "She believed I should have applied myself and been a doctor or dentist or whatever the h.e.l.l her youngest son turned out to be." He let out a breath and told her how disappointed she was to have an accountant in a family of doctors, dentists, and ill.u.s.trious sorts. Even my father was someone of some importance. He was a major general I believe...played an important role in the Sudan nearly twelve years ago...I really should have paid more attention to his war stories.

Audrey looked away from him and muttered more apologies for the way she acted. He saw her eyes and knew she felt unheard and alone. Come now Audrey. Please just try and enjoy your time here. Ignore him and be happy. That's what your mother wants to see.

Jason took a few steps away from her and examined the spread of food throughout the kitchen until he came upon a pot roast near the countertop stove. Alan's work, no doubt. Perfectly sliced and arranged, not to mention the seasoning and garnish...I would have settled for a pie, but they're still in the oven and I really would like to avoid burning myself. But...this is all for her anyway. He took the dish off the counter and flipped the platter and its contents onto the countertop.

"Jason!" Audrey called out.

The meat fell out all across the counter and floor while the juices flew across the room and onto his shirt and pants. The vegetables followed suit and luckily for him the dish didn't slip from his hand and shatter on the wood floor. Luckily the commotion garnered the precise reaction from Alan that he wanted.

"What on earth is" Alan began as he rushed into the kitchen, but he stopped horrorstruck upon the sight of Jason caught red-handed holding the spilt roast, plate, and vegetables in his hands and all across the counter. For a moment Alan seemed as if he couldn't breathe, as his expression crossed from anger to sorrow and despair to frustration. Audrey's stepfather spent the following fifteen minutes chastising her husband on his etiquette, manners, clumsiness, carelessness, and so many other errors and imperfections that he couldn't think or spare a single word of critique or judgment for her.

7:13 PM.

Paris, France Lauren readied herself for the evening as she whispered her a.s.surance to David over her cell phone, """" the boy on the other end asked."" she told him. """"She smiled, ""Lauren hung up, grabbed her purse and a sweater, and left her parents home via her bedroom window. She landed on an uninhabited part of the sidewalk outside her room and quietly closed the window. She crossed the Pont Neuf and headed north from there.She followed the road seven blocks from her house. Lauren walked through the streets and knew that there was still another twelve blocks before she reached her friend's party, but only four blocks until she met up with David.The evening was young and there was still a good deal of people, both tourists and locals on the streets. Lauren never enjoyed walking alone through the city, even though she'd lived there her whole life. She always liked the thought of walking alongside some young man with whom she shared a special bond, and though it might have made her seem weak, she wasn't against the romantic idea behind it.Cafes, restaurants, shops, clubs, and groceries littered the sides of the streets, and even though a majority of them were closed or closing for the night, the few that remained open breathed a new life into the city. Lauren watched the line of people all dressed to impress at one of the nightclubs across the street from where she was; the men looked as if they spent their last sc.r.a.ps of earnings getting there and the women seemed as though they expected each and every man there to buy their drinks. (Lauren did note how biased she was and felt as though she could have been entirely wrong about the whole lot of them, but her impression stuck and she felt no need to adjust it).She pa.s.sed by a small terrace outside of an Italian cafe and overheard bits of conversations between various couples; some talked about their days, others mentioned current events, and one couple simply smiled and laughed with one another. Lauren hardly made it to the end of the walkway when a young man with curly brown hair jumped out from behind the edge of the building and startled her. David laughed at her slight shout right before she hit him in the arm and playfully called him a name.They walked close beside one another and talked about how their days were, which were both filled with sleeping in until nearly four in the afternoon, chatting with friends, and planning their evening with one another."" she suddenly asked David.He shrugged and said he didn't know. """"""Lauren admitted he had a point and tried to put the matter behind them." David asked her. ""Lauren said she probably would be. "" she joked.David told her how he wasn't overly fond of her in the first place and that her drug habits only irritated him more. """"He said it was because everyone they knew was there. ""He sighed and agreed with her.They walked a bit further before David frowned and slightly glanced behind them before he muttered, ""Lauren glanced backward for herself but failed to notice anyone. "David nodded and paused a moment before he told her to act as if nothing was wrong. """"He smirked and a.s.sured her that they could handle whoever crossed paths with them.Lauren stuck close to him so they wouldn't lose track of one another, though she truly felt the need to bask in his confidence and hoped it would rub off on her. They barely made it to the end of the street before an Asian man in a trench coat stepped out of an alleyway and caught them. Lauren's heart raced at their capture, but David was entirely calm. The man retrieved a badge from out of his coat, flashed it, and proceeded to introduce himself as Detective Hiroshi Mizuno as he retrieved a small notepad from his coat."" he asked them."" Lauren said with a fake smile, ""She tried to leave but the man stopped her, "" His eyes gleamed briefly and a smirk caught his lips. ""David let out a breath and asked what the detective wanted.Mizuno simply said he and his a.s.sociates had a few questions about the young woman they dropped off earlier in the day. """"The detective nodded and asked them if they happened upon her after a blinding light appeared out of nowhere. ""Lauren said she couldn't recall anything of the sort, but David confirmed Detective Mizuno's query before she had the opportunity to finish. ""The man only told them he couldn't be certain. """Mizuno shrugged and said he wouldn't mind meeting with her once more to finish questioning her, but said he had other matters that superseded finding a lost Palestinian girl. He jotted down a few notes in silence before he flipped the cover back over the pad, stowed it in his coat, and thanked them both for their time.The detective only took a step before he turned back and asked if they knew a young woman named Reine Forestier.Lauren nodded and said they did. ""Mizuno simply told her a little bird mentioned it and asked whether they were on their way to a party of hers. """" David asked.The detective told them the Prefecture of Police were alerted to the presence of illicit drugs at the site of the party. ""He turned to leave but Lauren asked why he gave them the forewarning. Mizuno simply said, without turning back, that he felt obligated to mention it since they helped Afifa. ""David and Lauren watched as the man disappeared into the bustling crowd ahead of them."" David said after a moment of silence between the two of them.Lauren only nodded and agreed as they started walking in the same direction as the detective."Lauren shrugged and asked if he was hungry. ""He said it sounded like a good idea to him. After another second he smiled and mentioned how they should find a place near Reine's to watch the event unfold.Chapter 5.August 17th, 2029 1:21 PM.Baltimore, Maryland Detectives Sage and Felton returned to the station from speaking with secretaries at Caroline Reynolds' summer school and learned about the intern-subst.i.tute that Caroline Reynolds mentioned in her diary. Angela Walsh was a twenty-six year old intern of the Baltimore City Public School System, attended the University of Maryland, and was only her internship away from completing her degree. Neither of the detectives cared too much for the excess information, but the phone number and address they received from the secretaries was worth the effort.Sage returned to his office and made the call to Angela Walsh while Felton went to get something to drink. The line rang twice before someone answered, "h.e.l.lo?""h.e.l.lo, this is Detective Ryan Sage with the Baltimore Police Department. Is this Angela Walsh?" he asked."Yeah, what can I do for you?" she asked."I just have a few questions for you. First off, you are a subst.i.tute in the Baltimore City Public School System right?""Yes.""Alright, next, within the last week or so, did you meet a young girl named Caroline Reynolds? She may have been in one of the cla.s.ses you subbed in?""Yeah, I do. I heard she was killed.""And that is partially why I'm calling.""Am I a suspect?" she asked, alarmed.Detective Sage a.s.sured her she was not. "We're hoping to connect a few dots on our end and I wanted to ask if you remember anything strange about Caroline prior to her death."Angela took a moment to think but confessed that nothing stood out about her. "Caroline was a normal young woman, at least from what I could tell." Angela apologized and told the detective she wasn't sure of what he hoped she might recall.Sage told her it was fine and continued. "Let me ask you this, and this might sound strange, bizarre even, but please just give it some thought. Over the last few days, have you noticed anything odd around you? Like certain objects that were broken, that are fixed later, without your doing or knowledge? Or have you had any wounds that were suddenly healed? Anything like that?" he asked.There was a pause over the line for nearly fifteen seconds before Angela continued, "What are you asking? What kind of question is this?""I'm aware of how unusual this sounds, but I just need to know if you've noticed anything peculiar happen in the past few days."Angela left another pause, "There has been something..." Sage sat up in his chair and grabbed a pen as soon as he could and asked her to continue, "Well...it's only happened once so it's probably just a random fluke or something...But this morning I was in a hurry to get out of my house, I was running late again, but I rushed around and I picked up my coffee and ran out the door." Angela spoke quickly, "So I get in my car and realize that I've forgotten the book that I'm reading, This Side of Paradise," she added, "So I race back inside to grab the book and as I'm leaving again there's another cup of my coffee sitting on my counter, right where I had picked the other one up. So naturally I thought that I might have just forgotten it, so I grabbed that one and took it out with me," she continued, almost without taking a breath, "And when I got back in my car I found the first one still there! I mean, what is that about? And I know I didn't buy two, I don't think I could actually drink two...Is this kinda what you're talking about?"Sage sat there. He hadn't written a word since she started. And after he took a breath, he answered, "Yes actually, that sort of sounds like something we're looking for...but it still sounds like it could be a misunderstanding. I'm going to give you my personal number, call me if you find this event happening again.""Sure," Sage gave her the number, "Alright I've got it. Is that everything?" she asked."Yes, have a good day..." he said and he hung up.Sage leaned back in his chair and let out a deep sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair. He swiveled around and faced the wall behind him. On the wall were pictures of each of the victims with bits of information tacked beside a photograph of each one of them. It began on the left side of his wall, next to his map of the city, and ended with a good deal of s.p.a.ce between where Caroline Reynolds' information was and his bookshelf. Beneath Caroline's photograph was a yellow sticky note with a circled question mark on it.Aside from his new project on the wall of his office, he expanded the information within the 'Cladis Investigation' file. It included information about any occupations the victims held, brief mentioning about their families, friends, known hobbies, and notes he and Felton had taken from their brief conversations with people in their lives, which returned them to the friends and family of those nine victims. Sage hoped to add in medical details for each of them, but awaited clearance for those doc.u.ments.A knock at his door was followed by the entry of his partner, who took a seat in front of his desk. Felton asked, "Did you talk to her?""I did, but I'm unsure whether she is our tenth or not. Her story was...well it was hard to follow and it sounded almost like it was just a coincidence.""What do you mean?""She claims she grabbed her coffee and came back within a minute or two and found a second cup in the same place as the first.""So it's like she duplicated the drink.""That's what it sounded like, however she seemed disorganized and forgetful that she may have just had two cups.""That's possible," Chuck added.Chief Johnson joined the two of them and immediately asked, "Either of you two heard of something called REFOIA?" They both shook their heads, "Neither had I until today. I gather you've been adding case notes and details into our system right Sage?""Of course."He nodded, "Well whoever's behind this REFOIA managed to crack our system security, read all about your case, and now it's posted on their website for the whole world to see.""What?" Felton looked at him, "How can someone do that? Why haven't they been shut down or arrested or anything?""Apparently REFOIA's sites are shut down periodically throughout each day, but whoever's behind it continues to sp.a.w.n more by the hour," Johnson informed them. "From what I know the fed's have been trying to figure out who's running the whole thing but I guess they don't have a clue. Whoever's responsible for this is extremely good at what they're doing and unfortunately now we're dealing with the repercussions."