Chapter 24

“So now what?” Josh felt defeated. Their foolproof plan had been foiled by the one obstacle he never would have imagined. Somehow Jenn had already escaped.
“Well all we can be sure of right now is that this is no accident. So presumably she had help and is safe. And pretty much the only people who could get her out would be C.E.W.L.” Robert tried to reassure them.
“Wait, what makes you so sure?” Stacie was skeptical. “Does C.E.W.L. even have the resources to pull something like this off? How do we know she even escaped? She could have been kidnapped, or even worse- tortured and killed.”
“Red 1 to Blue 1,” Robert attempted to contact Jake, John, and Starr. “Do you copy?”
“Go ahead.”
“The subject is missing. Could you please assess the situation?”
Jake and John exchanged glances. “C.E.W.L.”
Robert turned to Stacie, “Are you satisfied?”
“Um, how is this possible?”
“C.E.W.L. has been working on operation lifesaver for a little while. As far as I know this is the first time its been used.”
“So, what do we do now?” Josh asked.
“As I was saying, all we know is that she’s safe. She’ll turn up sooner or later so the best thing we can do is go back home, and try focusing on something else. Like that homeless South ender in Jake’s apartment.”
Back at Jakes they realized they were famished, so John started cooking. Soon they were sitting down with plates of rice and brown squares stir fried with odd looking colorful vegetables.
“Mmm, this is delicious,” Starr said, digging in. “What is this?
"Pan-ager,” Robert said. “Fried bean curd, pan, shallots, and eggplants with rice and ager.”
“Well, what ever it is, it sure tastes good.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Jake was eager to get to business. “How are we going to find my lovely houseguest a home?”
“Yes, ow are we ‘oing to find a ‘ome for meself?” Bet joined in the discussion. “And where ‘ave ‘oo bein all afternoon?”
“Never mind,” Jake silenced her. “We’ll tell you later.”
“Does anybody have any ideas?” John had set up a large easel with a large pad of paper on which he had written “How to Find a South ender a home.”
“What about finding her relatives?”
Beth interrupted,” I ‘ve no idea where the are.”
“It’s a start.” John added his own, “Marry Jake.”
Jake grabbed the pen from John, “Marry John.”
“Let’s get serious,” Stacie laughed.
“I was,” John protested. “It might work.”
“Ay ain’t marryin no man Ay don’t ‘ardly know. No offence.”
“What?” Jake was shocked.
“Come on, let’s get serious,” Robert tried to direct the group a little.“What about looking for her birth papers?”
45 minutes later they had about 20 or so ideas ranging from the outright ridiculous -like overthrowing the government and make her president- to the slightly plausible. Actually only one idea was truly reasonable.
“Does anyone have any idea where this safe house might be? Jake? Robert? Stacie?”
They all shrugged. “Not really.”
“Ay tink Ay ight ’ave an idea.”
“Really?”
“Someone ’ave me tis map twile Ay wuz beggin.” She took out a wad of paper that had C.E.W.L.’s insignia on it.
“Well, what do you know?” Robert was dumbfounded.
“She’s found me lucky charms and me pot o’ gold too.” Josh started staring at it. “So is that it?”