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M r. Blackbourne was about to start some preparations for registration day—in which Dr. Green should have been present—when he received a message from Dr. Green declaring he had to go rescue Luke Taylor.

And then, about a half hour later, a text message alert came to Mr. Blackbourne’s cell phone. He glanced at it on his desk.

Dr. Green: Luke’s nose isn’t broken but the computers are missing. Also, it sounds like they lost track of the young man. We still don’t have a visual of his face.

Mr. Blackbourne allowed himself to let out a soft sigh at the news. Two suspicious teenagers spending time at a run down motel, with completely different operations and possibly different agendas. He’d spent hours last night with North Taylor examining camera footage, only to be highly disappointed. The girl, who could be seen in the cameras clearly, seemed to always angle herself out of view when she stole wallets. There wasn’t evidence that she had done so, except for North being on the ground when she’d done it.

And then the young man with computers doing who knew what, but it was enough that he’d hide the computers and make a run for it when confronted, even resorting to violence.

Were they even connected in any way? Maybe they had misunderstood the entire operation. A motel with teenagers living out of it would have been interesting to the Academy in general and would likely be put on a project list at minimum. One of them was of interest for potential recruitment perhaps. However, which teenager were they supposed to be looking at? And were there more?

This matter with the computer however, and as Luke had been physically attacked over it, made the possibility of the teenager with the computers an unlikely candidate. Resorting to violence right away when unprovoked was not good form.

It was very likely recruitment operations would cease for him. And possibly for the girl thief. Though they didn’t even have proof she did it consistently. North was the only firm victim. So perhaps it was an anomaly. Though both would likely get looked at for a potential Academy project. Living in a run down motel wasn’t ideal for anyone, but teenagers especially... It was an Academy mission to give young people a boost, giving them a good opportunity for the future to manage themselves.

However, it was looking like even that might be a challenge at this point. They’d have to get them off the criminal path, if that was possible.

What a day.

Mr. Blackbourne alerted Dr. Green and the others it was time to return to the school for registration day for the moment. As much as he wanted to go looking for the computers and figure out the puzzle that was going on at this motel, they had to be present here at Ashley Waters High School.

The letters to Kota and the others had been inconvenient. A cryptic, old way of asking members on teams to investigate. Paper trails were usually unwelcome in recent years. It was evidence, even if they were ambiguous letters.

And none were sent to Mr. Blackbourne. They had subverted the team lead from the start.

There was usually a reason for such things. It was unclear why. What bothered Mr. Blackbourne was that Dr. Roberts, who usually had his hand in everything, didn’t even know about the letters until he had brought it to him. And even then, Dr. Roberts insisted on being given little information. “They gave those letters specifically to Dakota Lee and the others, and not certain other members, including yourself. There had to be a reason.”

“Aren’t we supposed to help them if they ask?” Mr. Blackbourne had asked.

“I’m not sure you should,” Dr. Roberts had said.

It had been too late, of course. Mr. Blackbourne had already been to the motel and had helped North, who hadn’t gotten a letter either, to go to the mall and look at footage after North’s fake wallet had been stolen.

And now... it was all getting out of hand. And with little reason to go further unless someone told them what was going on.

Mr. Blackbourne took out a notebook, writing a few notes in a cryptic way that he understood but unlikely anyone else would understand. To others, it appeared to be a coded shopping list for groceries.

One, find the source for the letters. Two, go back to the motel as soon as they could and find out where the computers had gone, if possible.

And to get the boy they had chased earlier to run again. He wanted to know where he ran off to.

Where did a kid who worked at a computer doing suspicious things run to for safety?

And then they would back out. He had a few team members left that hadn’t been caught, so it was likely they had one or two more chances to wrap up the investigation. North, Luke and others were compromised. Unless there was some grand reason they should continue, they had a bigger job to focus on. Ashley Waters High School had bigger problems than a girl thief and a boy...doing who knew what on a computer in a motel. If he had to be strict about their priorities and bring focus to the group, he would have to insist on the high school job first. The entire community was depending on their success.

He wasn’t even sure they should return, however, he wanted to know what was on the computer that whoever it was resorted to violence to prevent anyone looking at it.

But should he? Dr. Roberts had suggested there was probably a reason Mr. Blackbourne wasn’t recruited, and why Dr. Roberts insisted on knowing very little about what was really going on. They weren’t supposed to know.

When there was another knock at the door, Mr. Blackbourne tensed. Another teacher? The installation of a camera just outside the door needed to be completed soon.

Kota Lee appeared with neatly combed brown hair, and astute, green eyes behind black-rimmed glasses. His eyes sparked with curiosity when he saw Mr. Blackbourne.

Speaking of more important things, Mr. Blackbourne thought to himself. He needed to get to the bottom of whatever had Kota so distracted lately.

"Mr. Lee," Mr. Blackbourne greeted. He kept his face and tone neutral for the moment.

Kota shifted his weight awkwardly as he entered the office.

"Hey," Mr. Lee said, trying to sound casual. "I just realized this morning I never got out to Dr. Green's place with overnight bags for everyone. I guess that’s why you stopped by this morning? My mom said you’d been there.”

Mr. Blackbourne raised an eyebrow. "We did stop by," he said. “It was quite the surprise to be at Dr. Green’s condo and to find most everything is...exactly where we had left it days before. Almost as if no one had been there at all.”

Kota winced, likely knowing there was no point trying to dance around it. "To be honest...I don’t even know how we... How I forgot," he admitted. "But it won’t happen again. Now that we’re likely backing off of the...motel job.”

Mr. Blackbourne studied him for a moment. “Right. The motel job. Actually, I need your help with that.”

Kota’s face tensed. “Do you need me to call Dr. Roberts? Or someone else? To let them know that we have to stop where we are and let someone else handle it?”

Very eager to drop the investigation? That wasn’t like him. Usually Kota loved puzzles, and the motel job had been a very interesting one. “No, actually when we are not needed here, I’d like for you to go back with me to the motel. There are a few things I’d like to do before we alert anyone else.”

Kota blinked and didn’t speak for a moment, a tense, ongoing moment that Mr. Blackbourne found telling.

He was filing away every possible reason to turn him down.

Interesting.

Kota turned a little, touching the corner of his glasses. “Will it take long?”

Mr. Blackbourne suppressed a smile. If Kota wouldn’t tell him why he wanted some extra time to work on something, Mr. Blackbourne would give him a few more tasks, forcing Kota to likely confess some clue. “Probably. And also, tomorrow we’ll need you and likely a couple of others to actually head to Dr. Green’s condo and help him sort his life out. I expect he’ll need the extra hand. And if you don’t mind, I’d like for you personally to...”

Kota’s face twitched, growing tighter at the eyes and the lips as Mr. Blackbourne rattled off more things. “Right,” he said once Mr. Blackbourne had finished. “Well, let me look at the schedule and talk to the others. I might need to keep Victor and Gabriel on our side of town if we’ll be this busy.”

“I’m sure you can make arrangements,” Mr. Blackbourne said with a confident sounding voice. However, what he was confident about was that at some point Kota would have to push back, asking to drop something. And then Mr. Blackbourne would ask why.

And Mr. Blackbourne expected an answer. A solid one.

However for now, Mr. Blackbourne went back to his notebook, indicating he was finished unless Kota had more to talk to him about.

Kota backed up a step and then turned toward the door.

“How is your mother doing, by the way?” Mr. Blackbourne asked. “I noticed she was baking this morning. She usually doesn’t do that on a work day.”

Kota paused with the door open. “I... I don’t actually know,” he said quietly. “Maybe for the other nurses? She’s been sent to her old hospital for a few weeks. They’ve been needing help. So it's possible she’s baking to make friends.” With that, he closed the door behind himself. His footsteps could be heard fading down the hallway.

Mr. Blackbourne sat up then, focusing on the door. He held the pen he had been using between his fingers. Kota came up with his own conclusion on the spot, but it was said with guesswork, not with having asked her, which he usually did. He’d always been very careful around his mother, especially after what happened with his father.

Interesting indeed.

When Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green had been at the Lee household that morning and had spotted the state of Kota’s room, he’d known something was wrong.

There was only one reason Kota would use binoculars to look in on new neighbors, the only reason he’d have been up all night, forgetting tasks, wanting to get out of Academy jobs. There was something... likely someone else... that he felt needed most of his attention right now.

It was someone in the gray house across the street from Kota’s. One of the two girls, or both of them perhaps.

Mr. Blackbourne could only hope Kota would be honest with him about what was happening. There was a good reason why Kota wasn’t telling him, so Mr. Blackbourne was trying to trust him, but... it bothered him immensely that Kota wasn’t even giving him a hint.

There was something Kota didn’t want Mr. Blackbourne involved in, and he needed to figure out what that was.