Aveline granted permission to Luc letting him use her “Aveline Super Party Yacht” to travel to the island of Formose and to infiltrate the Order of One Justice’s hideout. The hope was to rescue Viviane, Anaelle and Marielle. Bastian commended Luc on his begging and groveling.

“Good job, Luc! You’re scored yourself a ship. When do you want to get started? I happen to be the captain so I’ll pilot the yacht.”

“I’m coming, too!” insisted Aveline. It was her yacht after all.

“OK, but I have to visit someone first before I go,” said Luc.

“Who’s that?” asked Bastian.

“I’m going to visit Doc Renard and let him know that I’m going to get his daughters back. I shouldn’t have left them in the first place.”

“OK, we’ll meet you at the yacht then.” Bastian gave Luc the information to find the yacht. “It’s moored in the marina. Slip K-41.”

“Great, I’ll see you there in a couple of hours.” Luc was filled with hope now that there was something for him to do. Gnashing his teeth over not knowing what to do was ruining his dental health.

Luc snuck his way back to the research offices of the National Laboratory where Dr. Leandre Renard, the inventor of teleportation technology, was director of the facility. Although Dr. Renard was an important man and Luc was just an STS Agent, their paths had crossed in the most unexpected ways. As Luc approached the building of the National Laboratory, he thanked his lucky stars that he knew the current guard on duty. It was Agent Mathis and he recognized Luc right away.

“Luc? What are you doing here? You’ve been relieved from duty, haven’t you?”

Luc had to think fast. “Hey Mathis! How’re you doing, buddy?”

“Fine, I suppose. Because you got yourself in trouble with that supermodel, they assigned me to fill in your shift here. Boy, that was dumb of you! Getting involved with a girl like that. You weren’t thinking with your head, were you?” Mathis snickered at Luc.

Although Luc felt a bit insulted by that remark, he kept his eye on the goal to sneak upstairs to speak with Dr. Renard. He decided to hold his tongue and let his ego take a bruising for now.

“Yeah, that was pretty dumb of me, huh? Say, listen Mathis. I think I may have left my pair of threat detection spectacles upstairs. You think I could run up real quick and have a look around for them?”

“What?” Agent Mathis knew Luc was dumb for getting involved with Viviane, but this was dumber than that! “You lost your threat detection spectacles? Man, you really love getting in trouble, don’t you? Those things cost a pretty penny. The top brass won’t be happy if you don’t find them.”

“Exactly! I don’t need any more trouble that what I’m already in, so would you let me go upstairs to have a look?”

“Sure, I suppose. Go ahead. And remember you owe me one, OK, Luc?”

“Thanks pal! I’ll pay you back one of these days. Just ask!”

Luc got past Mathis and ran up the stairs to the second floor to have a word with Dr. Renard.

As Luc reached the top of the stairs, he entered onto the second floor of the research offices. The familiar, endless sea of gray cubicles greeted him with stuffy dullness. Perhaps it was not a coincidence then that he should also happen to run into Kylian. Moyenne followed close behind and recognized Luc on sight.

“Luc! What are you doing here?” Moyenne was surprised.

“What happened? Why did they replace you with the new guy downstairs?” Kylian was just as surprised.

“No time to explain,” Luc told them, “Is Doc Renard here? I have something to tell him.”

Like a ghost from out of the blue, Dr. Renard had an eerie habit of showing up undetected to the shock and surprise of everyone. He scared the three of him with his gruff salutation. “I’m here!”

“Yikes! Dr. Renard!” yelped Kylian.

“I wish he wouldn’t do that!” Moyenne groaned. Dr. Renard popping in without warning must have happened to her more than on one or two occasions.

The gruff voice spoke again. “What do you want to tell me, Agent Luc Coquin?”

Luc stiffened up, bit his lip and steeled himself as he faced Dr. Renard.

“I want to let you know that I’m doing everything I can to get your daughters back. I know I shouldn’t have been so quick to give up my post at the High School so now I feel it’s my fault they were kidnapped. I’m going to try to infiltrate the Order of One Justice’s hideout and to rescue them, even if I get killed trying. If you don’t hear from me in a few days, you can assume that I either failed and I was captured or that I’m dead. I just want you to know that I tried everything I could to do what’s right by you.”

Dr. Renard was touched by Luc’s sincerity. “Thank you, Luc. I hope you find Anaelle and Marielle and bring them back home. I’ve been worried non-stop about them.”

Luc then turned to Kylian and Moyenne. “And I have news you probably haven’t heard yet. Viviane has been kidnapped, too.”

Kylian and Moyenne’s eyes widened and almost popped out of their heads!

“What??!!” they said simultaneously.

“No!” gasped Dr. Renard.

“Yes!” confirmed Luc, “by my commanding officer, Captain Konnard, no less. He turned out to be a spy for the Order. He nabbed her and took her as a hostage and fled the country back to their hideout!”

Moyenne grabbed her cheeks. Her eyes shimmered with worry.

Kylian had one hand on his stomach and the other grabbing his temple. He felt sick and started to lose his balance.

“So I’m going there to try and rescue her, too.” Luc informed Kylian and Moyenne of his plan to save everyone.

Only Dr. Renard knew the secrets of Viviane’s past and upon hearing that Viviane had been kidnapped, he knew why the Order of One Justice was interested in her. It was because of the Fountain of Youth Effect! He was sure they knew about it or else why would they have taken Viviane? But perhaps more important, he was reminded of Elise and how he could not let any harm come to Viviane. He still felt his wife, Elise, existed within Viviane somehow.

“Agent Luc, you MUST take me with you!” Dr. Renard insisted.

“Excuse me?” Luc was a bit confused.

“You must take me to where Viviane is!”

“But why? You’re such a valuable target. You need to stay safe here in your lab.”

Dr. Renard was losing patience.

“You don’t understand! They don’t really want Viviane or my daughters. What they really want is me!”

“All the more reason you shouldn’t go.” Luc thought that was logical.

“No! I MUST go with you. If you go by yourself, you’ll be captured or killed because they don’t care about you. Only I have a chance to secure Viviane and my daughters’ release because I’m who they really want.”

“How do you know?” Luc just could not see it from Dr. Renard’s point of view.

“Because I’m the one who can give them the keys to teleportation technology. That is what they’re really after.”

Kylian had been hyperventilating since he heard the news of Viviane’s kidnapping. His head swam with worry he did not even know he had for the girl he was attracted to since he first came to Capital City. Moyenne saw that Kylian was in distress with himself.

“Kylian! Snap out of it!” she yelled at Kylian.

“Viviane! Why her? Oh my god, what am I going to do?” Kylian was beside himself. “If anything happens to her, I’ll…I’ll…” Kylian could not finish his sentence because he was so distraught.

“Kylian! Ask Luc to take you with him!” commanded Moyenne. “You have to do what you have to do to save the woman you love!”

“Love?” asked Kylian to the air around him. “Is that why I feel like I’m about to explode?”

Moyenne rolled her eyes. “Yes, you dummy! Don’t you know anything about being in love?” Moyenne sighed.

“I never thought of it like that before. I mean, I don’t know how she feels about me, how do I know exactly how I should feel about her?” Kylian confused himself talking around in circles.

“You’re completely hopeless aren’t you, you idiot!” Moyenne slapped herself on her forehead.

Moyenne decided to take her case to Luc.

“Luc! You’ve got to take Kylian with you. If he doesn’t try to help, it’ll haunt him every day until he dies. You understand, don’t you?” Moyenne’s eyes pleaded with Luc.

Luc looked at Moyenne right in those eyes.

“Yes. Yes, I do.”