moved to @luvlian

When Cole and Nadine made it to the display room, they were only met with each other.

“Cole? Is that you?” Nadine asked, bringing her gun down. 

Cole followed, “Yeah it’s me. What’re you doing here?” 

“A guard told me Mrs. Feng would be here.” Nadine told him as they both started walking towards each other.

“What? A guard told me that Mr. Feng would be here.”

When they reached each other Nadine sighed, “Think they lied to us?”

Cole furrowed his eyebrows, “Probably.” 

“Well, fuck.”

“Did we actually go on a wild goose chase?” 

“Yes,” Nadine huffed, “and now I’m pissed. They could’ve left by now.”

Cole whistled down the hallway, “Now.. where is a guard I can threaten today?” he asked himself. 

As he walked by the North Wing Balcony he finally saw one, “Ah, right there.”

The security guard immediately turned around after hearing the door opening, only to be tackled to the ground by Cole. 

“Where is Mr. Feng?” Cole inquired calmly. 

Panic struck the security guard, “H-he’s in the dress display room, I swear! Please... please! Don’t kill me.” 

Nadine sighed, “I don’t even remember the last time I’ve had to shoot someone, threaten someone, or go on a solo mission.” 

As Nadine approached another door, she actually saw a security guard this time. When she opened the door, she kicked him down and dug her heel into his back. 

“Tell me where Mrs. Feng is. Now, or I’ll shoot.” she threatened as she pointed her gun at him.

“Mrs. Feng is in the dress display room. It’s downstairs, near the exit. You can’t miss it. Please.. don’t shoot.” he begged.

“Thank you. I’ll spare your life.” 

When Cole was finished hiding the body, they went out to look down at the fashion show. As their eyes scanned the area, they saw that the two people they were looking for weren’t present.

“They’re not there. Don’t you think they’d be watching their own show?” Nadine asked, still scanning the room. 

Cole smirked, “Yeah, I guess we’ll have to split up, think you can handle it?”

“Yeah, I’ll be doing the fucking clearing from now on.” Cole said rolling his eyes.  

Nadine groaned as she dragged the body, “Ugh, I said I was sorry, okay?” 

“Yeah yeah,” Cole replied not really listening, “When you’re done hiding him we can go. It’s clear.”

When he looked back at Nadine he saw that she was struggling, but gave no further help.

“Fuck he’s so god damn heavy, Cole, help.”  Nadine whined.  

“No.”

“Cooolllllleeeeeee. Pleeeaassseeee.” 

When they busted into the room, there was a security guard inside, despite Nadine’s statement that they were ‘clear’. The security guard quickly grabbed Nadine, as she was the closest one to him.

“I thought you said it was clear, Nadine.” Cole stated angrily, gun pointing to the security guard.

Nadine rolled her eyes, “I’m sorry okay, don’t say I didn’t try.” 

The security guard looked at Cole, “Put down the gun or I’ll shoot her and call for the rest of security.” he told him, gun held at Nadine’s head.

Cole groaned inwardly as he put down his gun and held his hands up. 

Soon Nadine and Cole got to the location. 

"It’s a pretty nice place." Nadine commented, looking at the building in from of them.

"Yeah, but you know the drill, we can’t just walk in.” Cole reminded her as he got out to get some rope and a grappling hook. 

They went up the side of the building and got up onto the balcony, "Ugh, I hate climbing these god damn buildings.”

Nadine complained as she pulled out her gun. Cole tolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah, that's great Nads. Just tell me if we're clear.” referring to the fact that there are security guards and they need to make sure they look out for them. 

They decided to take Cole’s motorcycle since it wouldn’t be as noticeable as bringing an entire car. But, then Cole somehow forgot where his helmets were, how do you forget where your helmets are?

“So you just.. couldn’t find your motorcycle helmets.”

Nadine and Cole gave the book to Mara and saw this it was already 6 PM, they were in that library for six whole hours! 

They had another hour to get ready for the fashion show, so Nadine and Cole went to their offices and grabbed a change of clothes. 

“Hm, you clean up nice.” Cole said, when he saw Nadine. 

Nadine rolled her eyes, “Naturally Cole, it’s a fashion show, something actually interesting.” 

They were walking through the weapons room of the agency, as they were authorized to use weapons during this kind of mission, where they need to arrest someone. 

Cole groaned, “I can’t believe we actually have to take some guns this time.” 

When Nadine came back with the continued case file, she gave it to Cole so he could read it. 

“Alright so, about thirteen years ago, there was the highest rate of missing children and an increase of labor.” Cole told her. 

Nadine counted on her fingers, “Thirteen years ago? That’s about when the Feng’s company started, fitting the 10 year time range that my Mom was talking about, and it does still have room to be continued. So I think this is the book we’ve been looking for!”

As they sat down Cole cleared his throat, “FILE ONE.” he practically screamed.

Nadine pinched the bridge of her nose, “Christ, it’s a case file, not a story book.”

“‘Currently 1990, this is all the information and connections we could find and or discover on missing children and child labor.’” Cole read.

“Ugh, are you fucking kidding me? Do we have to find another fucking bo-” 

“Hold on Nads,” Cole interrupted her, “it says here: ‘new information has been found, located in shelf 3241, book 592.” 

“Are you fucking seriou-” 

“Come on Nads, this is our biggest lead so far, the least we can do is check it out.” he reasoned with her.

Cole and Nadine went up to the first floor, where the library was. As the walked into the library Nadine asked, “Hi, do you have any idea where the case files are?”

The librarian looked back up at her, “Oh Nadine honey, all the books here are all the case files ever recorded in the history of the agency.” 

Nadine sighed, “I knew that and yet I still held on to the hope that we could narrow down our search.”

She asked if the librarian could watch over her jacket, which she said she could. So once Nadine took her jacket off, Cole went off into one of the aisles to start looking. 

 “How are we supposed to find files from a case from ten years ago?” Nadine asked, trying to look for the last case files from missing children and child labor, which was ten years ago.

“God knows, the organization system is confusing as hell.” Cole said, as he looked at through the titles, “Like why is The Missing Children case of 1764 right next to The Fashion Disaster case of 1997? They don’t even go together.” 

As they continued to look Cole groaned, “No, there is nothing in here about the Feng’s or any record of them in The Missing Children case of 1764 or The Fashion Disaster case of 1997.” 

As a few more hours passed by, Cole picked up two books. 

“Here try this one. It’s about fashion companies and the dates they started up.” he told Nadine, as he handed her the book. 

“Oh thanks, what are you looking at now?” Nadine asked looking at the other book in his hand. 

“Just another book about something about the connections of missing children and child labor. It’ll probably be another bust like all the others, but hey. I’ll die trying.” he replied.

As they read for about thirty minutes Cole’s eyes widened. “Woah wait! I think I found something.” 

Nadine leaned closer to him, “Wait actually?” 

Cole and Nadine went down to the fourth floor, where the offices were, and started walking towards Mara’s office. Which wasn’t hard to find, considering it’s the biggest one.

As they came inside, Mara told them to sit down. “Alright you two, so your two tasks for today are-” 

“Wait, two tasks? I thought we were just going on one.” Nadine interrupted her.

Mara sighed, “No Nadine, now if you let me continue.. Your two tasks are to find a case file about missing children and its connection to child labor. Then you two need to go to the Feng’s fashion show at this location, and arrest them.”

Cole tilted his head, “Why?”

“Well.. let’s just say that the Feng’s are somehow involved with missing children and child labor and I need to add more information on it.. but uh... you see we don’t really record where books are placed digitally and I’m busy today so..”

“So you want us to find it ourselves.” Nadine finished her sentence.

“Correct.” Mara replied, smiling. 

Cole groaned, “The library is a complete mess, though. No offense, Mrs. M,but you really need to fix it because it’s an actual headache being in there.”

When Nadine finally got to Cole’s place, they then walked over to the boat to take them to the hideout, which thankfully was close to Cole’s place.

“Isn’t it kind of weird that this is where the hideout is?” Nadine asked, when they got off the boat. They stood before Deadgrass Discoveries, a museum on the island of Deadgrass Isle. 

“True,” Cole replied, “But then again, people barely take the time to take the boat here or even go in here.”

Nadine sighed, “I guess you’re right.” As she walked into the museum 

“Deserted as always.” she commented.

Cole nodded, “Yup, and no one has been suspicious about the door.” 

JANUARY 03 

When Nadine came back from the trip, she decided to completely reorganize her room. She changed her bedding, replaced almost every single piece of furniture. Put all of her polaroids in  desk and the only thing she kept was her clothing rack. 

When she heard a knock on her door, and saw it was her mom, she asked “So Mom, what do you think?” 

“It looks great Nads, but why?” Mara asked, a little shocked that literally everything was different.

“New year. New me, Mom.” Nadine said confidently, as Mara was internally cringing.

“Alright honey, by the way go over to Cole’s and come to the hideout, I have another mission for you.”

Nadine groaned, “Why can’t you just drive me mooooommm.” 

“Just walk Nadine, Cole’s place is not that far.” was the last thing Mara said, before she walked out of Nadine’s room.