In a portable office building setup outside of Sound Stage 19, Bastian and Aveline lived inside the uncomfortable space instead of their luxury, penthouse suite at the hotel across the street. Since the cramped office building was never meant to be lived in, its office-like interior was converted into a make-shift apartment so that three people could live there. Bastian and Aveline were forced to live like this because they hid Viviane at Luc’s request. However, since Viviane had been away, Aveline did not think the living conditions needed to be tolerated anymore.

“Why do we still have to live like this?” she asked Bastian. “Can’t we move back to the hotel now? Viviane isn’t even here anymore.”

Indeed, the living conditions were far from luxurious and far from what Aveline was used to. The inside of their “apartment” was disorganized and chaotic with office furniture such as desks and chairs pushed out of the way to make room for a futon sofa, an air-mattress and a couple of armchairs. One large desk, however, served as Bastian’s command and control center where he setup several of his computers, a local area network and his four, large monitors mounted in an array side-by-side and stacked one on top of the other.

“Hmm…” mused Bastian. “I suppose we can move back, until she returns.”

No sooner did Bastian finish speaking when a knock was heard at the door. Bastian and Aveline turned their surprised faces to the door.

“Ah yes! She’s back!” Bastian lit up with enthusiasm.

“Oh no! She’s back!” Aveline groaned with dread.

Bastian ran up to the door, but opened it with care. He fully expected to see Viviane return back into hiding, but instead, he only found Luc.

“Oh, it’s just you, Luc.” Bastian turned away from the door.

“You lunkhead, listen, there’s no time for kidding around!” Luc reprimanded his old partner in arms. “They kidnapped Viviane and I wasn’t able to stop it from happening!”

Bastian and Aveline were shocked by the news. They reacted simultaneously as if they were Anaelle and Marielle. “What??!!”

Luc proceeded to fill in a shocked Bastian and Aveline on the kidnapping of Viviane. Luc explained that his commanding officer, Captain Remi Konnard, turned out to be a spy for the Order of One Justice and that it was he who plotted the kidnapping of the twin girls Anaelle and Marielle and it was he who kidnapped Viviane and fled the country with her as a hostage back to the Order’s hideout hidden somewhere overseas. Also, Luc told them that he was on involuntary leave while an investigation was being conducted into any wrongdoing on his part.

After hearing about how serious events had turned, Aveline felt guilty for having been so jealous and suspicious of Viviane. She looked down at her hands while she played with her fingers. She said in a quiet voice, “What will happen to Viviane?”

Luc ignored Aveline’s question. As before, he tended not to acknowledge Aveline and he often brushed her off and concentrated on interacting with this old military comrade Bastian instead.

“I’ve got to figure out a way to get them back!” Luc was adamant.

“Luc, have a look at this.” Bastian motioned Luc over to his four-monitor array.

On one of the screens was a chat log scrolling by with lines of text. On the other screen was a map of the Eastern seaboard of the UEN showing the shape of the coastline along with the UEN’s nearby islands. Bastian gestured at the map showing the islands.

“Ever since the data from the National Laboratory was stolen by hackers, I’ve been trying to locate the destination of that data or of the hackers who pulled it off. I haven’t been able to find a copy of the data yet, but the hackers who did it have been bragging about it in the dark net’s chat rooms.”

Bastian pointed to the chat log where cyber criminals hung out and shared memes and, very infrequently, some real information with each other. Bastian continued explaining to Luc.

“Asking around about this hacker group, I heard that they operate from the rogue island nation of Formose.”

“Formose?” Luc was stunned. “They hate us!”

“Who’s Formose?” Aveline tried to get in on the conversation.

“Formose is an island nation about 100 miles off the Eastern coast of the UEN,” explained Bastian. “They do not belong to the Coalition of Countries and as such, they are a rogue nation. They’re ruled by a military junta and some of their leaders are political dissidents of the UEN having escaped from here. They seek to overthrow the UEN by force if necessary, but they are too weak and too few in numbers right now to have any meaningful impact on the UEN. The UEN still claims the island as part of its territory, but it doesn’t want to go to war with the military leaders who broke away from it at this time.”

“Let’s hope they never get enough followers or weapons to threaten us, those idiots.” Luc was with his country all the way.

Bastian tapped on the map of Formose’s Eastern shoreline. A new window opened up to reveal the details of the land formation. “Here on the Eastern edge of the island is where I think they’re hiding out.”

“But there’s nothing there!” exclaimed Luc. “Look at it! It’s all a high cliff on that side of the island.”

“Correct. However, my sources tell me that the Order of One Justice is hidden, buried into the face of the cliff on Formose’s Eastern side.”

“OK, so where in that cliff are they hidden? That’s a long shoreline, bub.”

“Some sources say that the entrance to the Order’s hideout is near this Formose military base.”

Bastian touched another point on the map. It expanded to show an overhead view of a military base on the Southern end of Formose. Bastian pointed it out with his finger.

“Right here, there’s a cove which creates a tiny bay hidden inside the cliff edge. It’s within a few miles of the military base which would be able to provide support and supplies for the Order’s hideout.”

“How sure are you that this is where the Order’s hideout really is?” Luc had his doubts.

“I’m 98% certain,” answered Bastian.

“That’s pretty high. Are you basing this all on human intelligence?”

“There’s one more clue. Although I haven’t been able to find the exact destination of the stolen data, on the night it was stolen…”

“The night of my last concert?” interrupted Aveline.

“Correct. On that night when the data was stolen, I had a monitor…”

“An illegal monitor,” reminded Luc.

Bastian cringed remembering that little detail from Luc. “Let’s not talk too loudly about that, shall we?” Bastian cleared his throat. “As I was saying, I was monitoring and measuring the amount of data streamed out of the National Laboratory and it was a huge amount of data. Hackers I spoke to in and around Formose were able to verify a traffic spike at nearly the same time and amount into this South-Eastern area of Formose.”

A third screen on Bastian’s monitor array displayed two line-graphs. One showed the outbound traffic spike from the National Laboratory, while the other one showed the inbound traffic spike into Formose. Also displayed were two bar graphs. One bar graph showed the amount of data leaving the National Laboratory, while the other one showed the amount of data entering Formose. The side-by-side comparison showed that the line-graphs and the bar graphs were identical as far as the eye could tell. Bastian summarized the graphs for Luc.

“So even though I can’t trace the exact path the data traveled through the onion routers that carried it, this traffic pattern is too highly correlated to be coincidental. That’s why I’m very certain the data was streamed to somewhere here on the island of Formose.”

Luc considered Bastian’s virtual detective work. “Assuming your information is correct, how am I supposed to get to Formose to save Viviane and the twins? I’m on mandatory leave from the force. I don’t have access to any military transports or resources, not that they’d give them to me. They even made me hand over my gun.”

Aveline had a bright idea! “The Aveline Super Party Yacht!” It was her eureka moment.

This time, Luc paid attention to Aveline. “The what yacht?”

Bastian tried to explain. “We have a 100-foot yacht which we use for entertaining fans and other VIPs. It was featured in one of Aveline’s music videos last year.”

“It’s pretty dope!” Aveline smiled to think about her big, expensive, luxurious yacht.

“Can it get me to Formose?” Luc asked Bastian.

“Yes, it can,” confirmed Bastian, “There’s enough power in the magnetohydrodynamic drive to easily get you to Formose and back and it can do 25 knots. You can get there in a day. But there’s only one thing.”

“What’s that?” asked Luc. Luc thought it was the answer to all his problems.

Bastian pointed to Aveline. “You have to ask Aveline for permission to use it. It’s her yacht. I just work here.”

Doh! Luc did not relish the idea of begging Aveline for help, but he swallowed his pride and did it anyway. At first, he tried to be cool about it.

“So, what do you say, Aveline? Will you let me use your boat so I can go try to rescue Viviane and the girls?”

“Hmph!” snorted Aveline. “I don’t know! It costs a lot to run the Aveline Super Party Yacht, you know?”

Luc shifted from playing cool to groveling.

“Please? I’m beggin’ you! I don’t have that kind of money! I’m a serviceman and we don’t get paid a whole lot. You’ve gotta help me! Think of Viviane and the girls!”

“Ooooooo, don’t remind me of that girl Viviane!” Aveline huffed.

“Bad move, Luc!” said Bastian. “If I were you, more groveling is what I’d be doing.”

Luc fell to the floor and grabbed Aveline’s feet.

“Pretty please? Look, I’ve got no dignity left! What else do you want me to do? Please let me use your boat to get to Formose? You have to let me! Please!” begged Luc.

“Say ‘Please, Aveline, you’re so generous and kind-hearted and talented and beautiful to let me use your Aveline Super Party Yacht,’” commanded Aveline.

Luc, dying from humiliation, manned up and repeated back to Aveline, “Please, Aveline, you’re so generous and kind-hearted and talented and beautiful to let me use your Aveline Super Party Yacht.”

Aveline grinned and was satisfied.

“Yes, I am! Took you long enough to realize it. So, go ahead on your rescue mission and save that girl Viviane and the twins. And in the future, stop brushing me off when you want to talk to my boo Bastian and show me a bit more respect, OK? I didn’t get to where I am by being lazy, talentless and dumb, you know?”

“OK! OK! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! May I get up now, your Highness?”

“Yes, you may.”