The first two hours to put our cameras in Zavlon to use were reserved for Rav and Landon. Camila and I, in the meantime, converged in her room to map out various areas we could scout when it was our turn.

   Before we knew it, Rav came knocking to inform us that the agreed time was spent. The expressions etched on his and Landon's faces were all Camila and I needed to understand that their search for Mr Sacury's lab was unsuccessful.

   Although it was barely noon, the exhaustion in the boys' red rimmed eyes and their demeanour couldn't be any more evident. Clearly, staring at screens for two hours straight took more energy than anyone could have predicted.

   Well, all this wasn't ominous at all.

   I just hoped Cami and I had better luck.

   While Rav left for his room with the announcement that he was going to take a nap, Landon joined us in Camila's room. He'd volunteered to help sync Rav's laptop with Cami's so that she and I could each get our personal view of Zavlon Academia and cover more ground.

   In addition to making sure we got more coverage of the perimeters, Landon was currently making what he referred to as 'harmless tweaks' to the laptops.

"Almost done," Landon muttered, his gaze fixated on Rav's laptop as he typed away.

   In less than a minute, he switched to Camila's device, going through what I assumed to be the same process.

   After Landon finished, he took several steps away from the desk where the laptops were and gestured for us to do the same. I was about to question the reason he did that and why his head was currently tilted upwards— almost toward the ceiling— when the answer appeared right before my eyes.

   I suppressed the amazed gasp that threatened to erupt from me just in time. Camila, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky.

   Although he didn't need to at this point, Landon explained how he'd installed some kind of software which made the laptops that were displaying the various videos captured by our cameras in Zavlon able to project those videos in a holographic form.

"How is this even possible?" Camila gaped without tearing her eyes from the holograms displayed above the very spot Landon made us back away from. "These laptops aren't even made for...this!"

"They're not supposed to be," Landon said. "But that doesn't mean it can't be done."

   I could barely pick up the subsequent explanation he gave to Cami of the process since my eyes remained on the holograms. I mean, I knew Landon had to have been good if Talise made him one of the members of her hackers' school club but this... I don't even think Talise could do this.

   This was some next level shi—.

"Well?" Landon's clear, deep voice broke my trance.

"Huh?" It was only then that I realised the person he had been referring to for the past five seconds was me.

"You haven't said a word," he raised an eyebrow. "A little too stunned by my genius, are we? Not that I blame you."

   I chuckled before admitting, "This is amazing. And really helpful. Thank you, Landon."

"Anytime," he gave me a small smile.

   Even after Landon's reply and his grin eventually drifted away, the same couldn't be said for his eyes on me. His blue-eyed stare had the most piercing effect I'd ever experienced. It couldn't really be described in a good or bad way, just, in a word... intense.

   So intense that it made me remember what he'd said earlier in the morning as we returned from breakfast. About his family and Talise not being the only ones he cared about. Something I'd been trying to forget.

   I didn't like the way those words of his triggered certain memories. Memories that, up until now, I was so sure my mind had succeeded in burying.

"Okay then," Camila's words, accompanied with a soft clap waltzed in to break Landon and me's shared trance. "Landon, thank you for your help, but I'm sure Beth and I can take it from here."

"Of course." he blinked. "I plan on heading home, anyway."

"Thanks again," I said, being careful to not look him in the eye this time.

"If you two need any help with the operations of the holograms or there's a problem, you can take my number from Aarav," he told Camila and me.

"Sure. Definitely," Camila responded to Landon's back as he walked toward the door.

"And Beth?" I turned from my seat in the chair I'd claimed to see him still lingering at the door. "If you need anything, just text, call me, whatever. Don't hesitate, okay?"

"Okay." I nodded, shooting Landon a grin right before he slipped out and shut the door.

"Let's begin?" Camila gave me a light nudge.

"Let's begin."

***

"Anything?" Cami asked as she walked back into her room.

   She just returned from her lunch break. After we'd both gone an hour with no breakthroughs, we agreed I'd keep scouting Zavlon grounds while Camila went down to the motel's dining room for lunch. Now that she was back, it was my turn. Like I was even hungry.

"Nothing." I set down the remote that rolled the cameras around the school. My arms were crossed as I glared at Rav's laptop and the holograms like all this was their fault.

   In the past two hours and thirty minutes, Zavlon remained uneventful. Every inch of the school (most of it, anyway) reported no activity. Everything was in place. The classrooms, hallways, teachers lounge and other areas where the cameras were placed lacked the unpleasant presence of any Yunies or mind controlled Zavolonians. Our school was a bloody ghost town.

   Yet for some reason, I didn't want to part ways with Rav's laptop just yet. I wanted to cover every area I could possibly handle. Mr. Sacury's lab had to be close by. It just had to be.

"Beth, we agreed." Camila frowned down at me. "The time assigned for your lunch break is running out. You need to go."

"Just a minute," I stood up to realign the previous and extra holographic screens I added earlier.

   Totaling up to five, every hologram was a reflection of what each of the five cameras was covering as displayed on the laptop screen.

"I just don't get it," I groaned. "How is absolutely nothing happening? This makes no sense. The Yunies couldn't just have disappeared. And how on earth have they been able to hide over six hundred students with not even a subtle slip up? This is too weird."

"No, what's weird is the fact that you are still awfully energetic for someone who ate breakfast six hours ago—not much, might I add— and are refusing to eat lunch," Cami frowned. "Go!"

   What was she, my mother? Was Cami even listening to all that I'd just said? I just feel like we were missing something. There had to be some kind of mistake the Yunies would have made.

   Something.

"Okay, how about this?" Camila suggested. "I take two cameras now, then when you return from the dining room you get the remaining three all to yourself. But only if you go have lunch. Yay equality!...Right?"

   Oh my God, would she give it a rest alre—?

   Wait. Let me think for a second.

   Obviously, she got two cameras and I had three, that was far from equal. But wasn't it supposed to be?

   I glanced at the five levitating holograms above us. Five holograms from five cameras. Five cameras.

"Uh, Camila," I said, not tearing my gaze from what caused my epiphany.

"What?"

   Dorian and I initially conducted practice tests with seven cameras. After the explosion incident on the roof, one of them had been virtually destroyed beyond repair.

   Leaving us with six cameras.

"How many cameras was Talise supposed to place around Zavlon?" I asked.

   She looked toward the holograms before throwing a freaked out expression my way. "Beth... that's what is before us, right now. See? These are clearly side effects of starvation. Now, if you would just eat your lun—"

"Six!" I exclaimed before any offensive words directed toward her escaped my mind. "Tali was supposed to place six cameras. Six cameras which we synced to Rav's laptop earlier."

   Her sudden gasp and widened eyes made me aware that I'd finally gotten somewhere. "Yes! Tali was able to drop all the five cameras. The last camera was supposed to be for Zavlon's courtyard while she exited the school at the end of Visitation Day."

"Exactly!" I snapped my fingers. "But she never made it out, meaning that the camera was on her when the Yunies stepped in and took her away."

   I remembered Tali mentioning that she was going to keep the last camera in her pocket until her exit from Zavlon.

"Beth, do you know what this means?"

   I mean I came up with the idea, but sure, I'm the one she should be asking that.

   The excitement that came with this discovery rushing in was too much for me to point that out though.

"We're about to unearth a whole new location. A place where we would find the Yunies." I grinned.

"And where the Yunies are, the students have to be." Camila breathed.

"Precisely. But that's not all," I shook my head. "I've been thinking about this for a while now, actually. Mr Sacury claimed in his message that he was usually cooped up in a lab where he was under surveillance–by aliens, I'm sure."

"And?"

"If that was the case," I continued, "he would have definitely not had the ability to work on the mind control antidote in some other secret location. There's a chance that while creating the mind control tech, he found a way to create the antidote as well when the Yunies were not looking. If they were watching him 24/7, he wouldn't have been able to send us the message. Everyone needs to take a break or change shifts or something once in a while. That would have been his opportunity. And obviously, when he was finished, Mr Sacury couldn't take it out without being detected, so he hid at that very lab. His 'secret' lab was maybe a place within the alien lab where he hid the tech."

"Even if all this was true, we've searched everywhere in Zavlon and we've not seen any lab," Camila remarked.

"Not everywhere," I replied, my head moving sideways in disagreement again.

   Not where camera six was going to lead us to.

"Beth, as much as I want to believe what you're telling me," Camila sighed, "it's still all speculation. "

"And it will all continue to be," I affirmed. "If we don't activate the connection between camera six and Rav's laptop and see what will be revealed."

   Or should I say where?

"If we are able to find where the Yunies are, we find the students..." I began to believe Camila got lost in thought as she trailed off, only for her to snap at me, "And maybe Mr. Sacury's lab."

"Maybe," I echoed.

   Although it seemed far from it, that was all I needed to confirm that we were really doing this.

A/N: Don't you just love it when they get one of their epiphanies?! Who's excited to see where this one leads?

Please don't forget to vote and comment! Thanks for reading!