After his arrest for dereliction of duty, his fellow STS Agents locked him up in a holding cell at the main STS Station Headquarters. The cell was a large, featureless room meant for a dozen or so inmates being held overnight or for initial processing. Built-in benches molded into the seamless walls allowed the incarcerated to sit and maybe sleep. There were no windows in this holding cell, but very high up, perhaps twenty feet or higher, was a transparent glass ceiling so that natural light shined into the cell during the day and stars could be seen at night when the lights were turned off. The doors to the cell were made of the same transparent glass so that guards might look in and check on their detainees. However fragile this glass might appear, it was made of some super strength material which proved unbreakable by the numerous detainees who tried to escape before, none of whom ever succeeded.

Luc reclined on a molded bench, lying down on his back with his hands behind his head. He stared up at the sky and saw it turning pink and purple as dawn arrived. He was calm despite the severity of his situation. Lucky for him, he was the only one in the holding cell tonight.

Never thought I’d be in here before, he thought. I hope Viviane got my hint and didn’t tell the Captain to take her back to Bastian and Aveline.

A guard came in to check on Luc. This happened every two hours. This time, the guard on duty recognized Luc and tried to taunt him into talking.

“Hey Luc, I heard you got yourself into trouble with some girl. Who was she? Was she worth it?”

Luc knew the guy was pushing his buttons. “Oh yeah, she was definitely worth it. You probably wouldn’t know, ‘cuz you can’t get a girl in the first place, but them’s the breaks, right?”

“Sure, whatever, Luc, always the joker. Listen, those pretty girls are trouble! You fall for a good-looking one and then you realize she’s empty of anything else. By the time you realize it, it’s too late!”

That got Luc miffed. That was Viviane the guard was talking about! “Shut up!” Luc shot back. “What do you know about it?”

Just then, the Lieutenant in charge stormed in and startled both Luc and the guard. The Lieutenant ran up to Luc and spoke right through the glass door to him.

“Luc, you’re being released! Konnard fled the country! He’s a spy for the Order!”

“He’s what??!!” Luc could not believe what he just heard.

The Lieutenant issued an order to the guard. “Release Agent Luc from detention at once.”

“Yes, sir,” acknowledged the guard on duty. He punched a code on a panel next to the cell door which allowed the glass panels to slide open. Luc stepped out of the cell even before the doors finished opening. He asked the Lieutenant about Captain Konnard’s disappearance.

“What do you mean Captain Konnard is a spy?” demanded Luc.

“Yes, that’s what I said. Remi Konnard, our commanding officer, is a spy for the Order of One Justice. We figured it out when he didn’t arrive after several hours and started to track his whereabouts of his vehicle. We found it abandoned at the shoreline several miles outside of the city limits. We think he rendezvoused with a submarine there and slipped out of the country.”

The realization that his commanding officer was a spy blew Luc’s mind. Now, everything made perfect sense! Luc put all the pieces together in his head at last.

He’s the reason why the twins were kidnapped! He took me off High School duty the days before the kidnapping and assigned those two inexperienced new recruits to make it easier to nab the girls. And he knew the prototype amphibious vehicle would be there for the kidnappers to use! He set this all up!

Luc then remembered Viviane! “What about the woman who was with him? Viviane Fox? She was with Captain Konnard when I left her.”

“You mean Viviane Fox, the supermodel who’s been all over TV and the Internet for the past month?” asked the guard.

The Lieutenant answered Luc. “From what we can gather, Konnard took her as a hostage and they both fled the country together.”

“Goddammit!” cursed Luc. He was enraged. “He took Viviane, too! And I was unable to stop it from happening again! Rrrrr!”

Luc was very angry and upset having learned of the kidnapping of Viviane and that it was all due to his commanding officer, Captain Konnard. Luc gnashed his teeth. His eyes narrowed and his brows furrowed in rage. He punched at the transparent glass doors of the holding cell, now closed. With each punch of his fist, the door clanged with the sound of ringing glass and the light rippled off the surface.

Still no less enraged, Luc also felt helpless. What am I going to do to get Viviane and the girls back? he thought. He did not know what his next step would be, however, he did know that he wanted to give the guard on duty a piece of his mind.

Luc approached the guard to answer his earlier question. “Yes, that Viviane Fox.” Then Luc delivered a sucker punch to the guard’s stomach. Luc did not hit the guard hard enough to cause any damage, just enough to knock the wind out the guard.

Luc scolded the guard. “You don’t know anything about my gal Vivaine, so don’t talk like she’s an empty-headed airhead with only her looks going for her, you hear?”

Then Luc turned to the Lieutenant. “Can I get my sidearm back? Where is it?”

“No, Agent Luc. Even though you’re being released on account of Konnard’s manipulation and abuse of his command, you’re not to return to duty until the investigators can determine the amount of your culpability in the events that have transpired. For now, you’re on involuntary leave.”

“Culpability?” asked Luc.

The guard, still gasping for breath after Luc’s sucker punch, tried to explain. “It means ‘blame’ or ‘guilt’.”

Luc sucker punched the guard again in the stomach, this time knocking him completely off his feet so that he fell to the floor holding his stomach. He lay on the ground with spirals for eyes and stars and planets spinning around his head. Luc yelled at him, “I know what it means, you moron!”

What am I going to do now?

Luc did not have a clue.