From: magsrose@comcast.net   
      
   by MagsRose   
   See chapter 1 for headers   
      
      
      
   Chapter 6 - 6   
      
   Monica went to check out the fake painting for herself. She was   
   curious see if she could sense anything unusual. Emma chose not to go   
   with her. The whole thing was getting too weird and she didn't want to   
   dwell on it. Following Agent Reyes' advice seemed like the best idea.   
   She planned on enjoying the events for the remainder of the day.   
   Monica wanted to track down the Gunmen to check if she could be of any   
   help so she got Emma to agree to wait for her before she did anymore   
   wandering around.   
      
   When Agent Reyes saw Langly in his kilt and leather armor with the   
   enormous sword strapped to his back, she did a double take. He crossed   
   her path, obviously intent on where he was going. "Langly? Is that   
   you?" He turned around and seeing her made a deep bow in her direction.   
      
   "Fair lassie, to what do I owe the honor of your presence?"   
      
   "Frohike asked me to come and keep an eye on Emma and her friends but   
   she tells me that it's no longer necessary."   
      
   Langly reverted to his usual self to confirm the bad news. "Yeah,   
   unfortunately we don't need to be as careful anymore. The deed was   
   done right under our noses, actually, in front of our cameras would be   
   a better way to put it." He shook his head feeling like a failure. He   
   continued, "I'm going back to the van. Byers has been looking at the   
   tapes to see what we missed. He thinks he may have found something."   
      
   "That's encouraging. I'll let you go then but do you know where   
   Frohike is?"   
      
   "He was checking out the cameras he had placed around the grounds to   
   see it they had been tampered with. Just a sec." Langly reached into a   
   fold of the loosely gathered kilt that he was wearing and pulled out a   
   headset. Putting it on he asked, "Byers, can you see where Fro is?" He   
   listened for a few seconds. "Where's that?" He turned and looked back   
   the way he had come. "Got it." He listened some more. "Monica is here,   
   she wants to talk to him." More listening. "I know but Emma's   
   obviously on to it." Pause. "Alright, keep your shirt on, I'll ask."   
   Turning back to Monica. "He wants to know where Emma is."   
      
   "Tell him I left her in the booth with her friends and we're going to   
   meet back there in a bit."   
      
   "Did you hear that?" Langly asked over the headset. "All right. I'm on   
   my way." He removed the headset and put it away. "I gotta go. Frohike   
   is in the green building over there," Langly said while pointing out   
   the structure. "He and Yves are talking to security. Just flash your   
   badge and you should have no trouble getting in."   
      
   She didn't need to show her badge. Monica met Frohike and a blond   
   woman as they walked out the front door of security headquarters.   
   "Monica, where's Emma?"   
      
   "She's back with her friends in the vendor's hall. I told her to wait   
   there for me. She's on to us you know."   
      
   "Yeah, your partner blew his own cover. She's not stupid but at least   
   she didn't kick a fit."   
      
   Agent Reyes held her hand out to the blond woman, "You must be Yves.   
   My name is Monica."   
      
   Frohike introduced the two women to each other. Monica asked for an   
   update on all that had gone on briefly outlining what she already knew.   
      
   "We're now nearly positive that not only has the original been   
   switched for a fake but that it was been removed from the grounds as   
   well. I checked my security cameras and they all looked fine but I   
   found this." He dug around in his sporran and pulled out a small   
   electronic device. "The folks here say it's not theirs."   
      
   "We suspect it interfered in some way with the signals from all the   
   security cameras on the grounds, not just ours," Yves explained.   
      
   "Wouldn't you have noticed it though?" Monica asked.   
      
   Frohike shook his head. "Not if the feed was uninterrupted. I'm going   
   to take it back to the van and see if I can figure it out."   
      
   He began to walk away but Yves stopped him. "Melvin, wait. I'm sure   
   Harris has already delivered the painting to his buyer. Why don't you   
   go find your daughter and spend the rest of the day with her and her   
   friends? We might as well salvage what's left of the weekend instead   
   of sitting shut up in the van doing something that can wait until   
   tomorrow."   
      
   Agent Reyes could see that she and Yves were thinking along the same   
   lines. It would definitely help to get Emma's mind off her 'faeries'   
   to spend some time with her father at the Games as she had originally   
   planned.   
      
   Frohike brightened at the suggestion. "You know, you're right. That's   
   an excellent idea. I'm still going to go back to the van and drop this   
   off. While I'm at it, I'll pry Byers's butt out of there, too."   
      
   "It was Langly who told me where you were. He was on his way over there."   
      
   "Good, that will save me from having to hunt him down. Yves, do you   
   know where Jimmy went?"   
      
   "Yes and I'll take care of him. But first I'm going to go get rid of   
   all this make-up." Much to Monica's surprise, Yves reached up and   
   pulled off the short blond wig, revealing a mass of black wavy hair   
   underneath.   
      
   "It seems there is more to you than meets the eye," Monica observed.   
      
   Yves was amused by this statement, "And it's probably more than you   
   can even imagine."   
      
   The decision to spend the rest of the day enjoying the Highland Games   
   instead of poring over surveillance tapes was well received by   
   everyone. It was a delay of less than 24 hours but as Yves stated, it   
   wouldn't hurt to take the time off. The painting was gone and,   
   probably, so was Harris.   
      
   Jimmy really wanted to try tossing the caber and Byers wondered if an   
   old friend of his would be part of a Gaelic language choir that was   
   scheduled to perform later that afternoon. He had given up on the idea   
   earlier but now would have the time to go find out. Langly had seen a   
   vendor whose service included looking up people's genealogies on the   
   internet. He was curious as to what program the man used to do this   
   and wanted to go check it out.   
      
   Frohike just wanted to spend time with his daughter. He still felt   
   guilty for spoiling most of her plans for the weekend and wanted to   
   try to make it up to her. Emma was delighted to find that everyone was   
   now free of work and ready to have some fun. Monica was right; having   
   her father and her closest friends around drove her worries away. She   
   was too busy trying to organize the rest of their day.   
      
   When she found out that they all had something in mind, she asked only   
   that they would all be together for one event. That was for the massed   
   bands. She insisted that they all needed to hear it. Since not much   
   else went on at the same time, there was no problem making her happy.   
      
   Emma watched with satisfaction as they went off to enjoy their own   
   pursuits. She turned to find her father waiting for her. "Well, honey,   
   what do you want to do?" Emma considered her dad for a couple of   
   seconds wondering if telling him the truth would hurt his feelings.   
   Megan and Rachel had been waiting for a long time for her to be ready   
   to go see the Highland cattle with them. It wasn't really a 'bring   
   your dad along' kind of activity especially since Agent Doggett had   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)