Just the Truth

Chapter 20

Blaire met up with us at Bianca's house the following morning, all dark bags and greasy hair. A shadow of the usual alert and put together agent she was. Then again if she was a shadow of the old Blaire before everything went to shit, I'm probably unrecognizable.

We all had breakfast  out on the terrace, our silence bringing gloom to the beautiful sunny morning. Once we had all finished eating, or at least picking at, our food Bianca gathered the plates and Blaire caught everyone up on the incident at the hospital with Eric and Sanaara.

"We have until tomorrow to give him the Continuum Files," Blaire finished with no hint of real emotion. Even when the odds have been stacked against us before, we've always continued, knowing that a solution had to be out there. But as I looked at each of the faces of my friends, I realized none of them held an ounce of hope anywhere. We felt defeated before we had even begun to fight.

"How are we supposed to get him what he wants? We don't know who he is or where to find him," Bianca asked, ending the silence. She might have been the only one with any determination left.

"Someone left this in our mailbox," Blaire said reaching for her pocket. She pulled out a slip of paper which was held inside a clear ziplock. It had numbers and letters written on it. An address...

"So he did know we were there," I realized, goosebumps forming on my arms.

"You didn't-" Jacob began but got cut off.

"Touch it? No of course not. I used gloves. But this guy seems pretty sophisticated. I highly doubt he would leave any fingerprints behind," Blaire replied. I nodded my head.

"True but we might still find something else that could help," I added.

"We don't have an analyst at hand anymore, Charlee," Lavender reminded me.

"Actually, I kind of have a person," Bianca corrected her. There was a slight blush on her face and it didn't take a behaviorist to figure it out.

"No way," Blaire smirked, looking more like herself, "The great and almighty Bianca has found a person who can not only handle not wanting to kill her, but actually wants to spend time with her??"

"Shut up," Bianca laughed grabbing her phone.

"It's not that serious but he does work for a top notch forensics lab. We met at the scene of a crime," she continued as she began dialing.

"How romantic. You know, we never analyze dead bodies like we used to, babe," Jacob said and Bianca rolled her eyes and stepped out of the room.

The mood felt a little lighter but every time a little moment of happiness occurred, I couldn't help but miss Eric.

"Nick said he's on it. If there's anything else you want me to send to him, now would be a good time," Bianca let us know.

"Ooooh he has a name," Blaire couldn't seem to let it go. I think that at this point someone would've put a stop to her teasing but it was almost like a defense mechanism for her. The retorts and teasing almost felt normal to everyone. So we let her be.

"Yeah he'll stop by in a couple of hours," Bianca smiled.

"Alright then, let's get into this, shall we?" Jacob asked.

"What do you mean?" I questioned and Lavender smiled sympathetically as if everyone knew what Jacob was talking about except me.

"It's time you tell us about the Continuum Files," she explained and I bit my lip.

"So it's basically a database," I began.

"Of what?" Blaire asked.

"Let the woman finish," Jacob shook his head and I smiled slightly in appreciation. They weren't supposed to know about this. I was supposed to take this to my grave. Or at least, until the next head of R.I.P came along.

"It has the information of every person who has worked for or with R.I.P. Everything. Their real identities, details on all of their missions, who they are associated with, last known location, childhood pet, you name it and it's probably on the database," I explained and saw the looks of horror unravel upon the faces of my friends.

"And you had that?" Lavender looked at me in awe.

"Only the head of R.I.P has access to this database. No one else, not another single living soul has seen it. I just don't understand why he wants it," I shrugged my shoulders.

"Power?" Jacob suggested.

"But he already knows everything about us, he's been one step ahead this entire time. It's clear he has power," Lavender shook his head.

"There must be something he doesn't know, something that's on the database that he needs," I reasoned.

"Yeah but what is it?"

"Ok this is crazy, even if I knew what it was, I can't give him the database. I don't have access to it anymore. I don't know how he expects me to give it to him... by tomorrow no less," I shook my head and placed it in my hands in frustration.

"Where is the database?" Jacob asked.

"Well it's online. I don't have the password anymore. We could try hacking into it but that could take forever. There are encryptions and firewalls harder to crack than the Pentagon," I explained to them.

"How long has R.I.P been active?" Bianca asked.

"You should know, you were a part of it longer than we were," Blaire retorted and I glared at her. Now was not the time.

"It dates back over two hundred years, at least," I answered her.

"So if the head of R.I.P had access to the Continuum Files and R.I.P has been active this long it means that there is a hard copy of the Continuum Files out there somewhere. It has to exist. Computers haven't been around that long," she pointed out.

"He's looking for the hard copy," I continued her thoughts.

"That makes sense. Why else would he give you an address. If he wanted the online version he would have given you an email or phone number. Something electronic,"

This still didn't help much. We had less than 36 hours to get him the hard copy of hundreds of files that haven't seen the light of day in over a decade. If we couldn't figure out where they were, someone else would go missing.

Someone else who could be in this very room right now.