Sometimes what you're looking for is right under your nose and you don't even know it.
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When Alea had first heard of Woodstock military school, she had expected it to be a camp —with tents and bonfires— situated in the middle of a remote desert.

In reality, Woodstock military school was five storeyed buildings forming a pentagon around an expansive training area. There were no old sweaty men commanding young sweaty men to do a hundred push ups like Alea had envisaged.

A security guard in an army uniform handed Alea and Gabriel visitor's passes and led them towards the first storeyed building —the administrator block according to the guard.

The interior of the building was just as elegant as the exterior. The red carpeted floor was something out of a five star hotel, there were fancy paintings altruistically placed all over the walls and the sweet smelling air conditioning was to die for. Alea was grateful more for the air conditioning than anything else. California was hell on a map. It's like God was trying to give the world a taste of hell.

The receptionist —a petite blonde with crudely applied pink lipstick, a black micro mini skirt and a white button down shirt that was at least two sizes too small— pasted a plastic smile, showcasing a perfect set of milky white teeth. She took one look at the sweaty couple and pulled out two bottles of mineral water. She uncapped them and placed them atop her desk.

"You could use the refreshment. Take a seat. Our proprietor will be out to see you soon." The receptionist spoke while typing furiously at her computer. The pecking sound of the computer was making Alea's ears bleed.

"Thank you very much." Gabriel picked one of the bottles and guzzled down the whole thing, spilling water on his shirt.

"Want another?" The receptionist leaned forward exposing her very voluptuous, very round breasts. They were fake. They had to be. That was the only explanation for their being so round. Alea began to notice all the other fake things about the receptionist. Her hair was most certainly a wig, her nails were clip ons. The receptionist was basically a blonde version of Kim Kardashian.

"No. I'm fine thanks." Gabriel replied and threw his empty bottle in the bin next to the receptionist's desk.

"So," The receptionist asked Gabriel. "first time visiting California?"

Alea was instantly annoyed and she knew why. The receptionist was obviously flirting with her man. She was even staring at his chest and groin as though she were sizing him up. Unlike her brother, Alea had never been good at hiding her anger. She squeezed the open water bottle so hard that the water spilled over onto the receptionist's desk.

Alea pulled out her handkerchief and began to clean the desk.

The receptionist stopped her. "No, don't worry about the desk. I'll get it cleaned up."

Alea pocketed her handkerchief and made a big show of guiding Gabriel by the waist to the seats opposite the receptionist's desk. Next time, she would learn to steer clear of other people's men. Alea saw Gabriel smile out of the corner of her eye. That little shit. They were going to have a stern talk about certain flirtatious receptionists when all this was over. Alea took a seat and watched the receptionist clean her desk. Was she being possessive? Definitely not.

"When I heard that Marcos' daughter was paying us a visit, I had to come and see for myself. What a pleasant surprise!"

Alea turned to see a large matronly woman in a navy blue pantsuit, her greying brown hair tied up in a bun on top of her head, walking towards them. She shook Alea's hand firmly and smiled, the skin around her eyes crinkling.

"I'm Zarin Shaw. The proprietor of this institute."

Alea let Gabriel talk for her. She didn't have much of a choice. "Nice to meet you. I'm Gabriel and this is my wife, Alea." Gabriel lied.

Zarin rubbed her hands together. "Ah! So how may I help y'all?"

"We have a sixteen year old son. He's a bit on the rebellious side. We were thinking that enrolling him in a military school would help him become more..... docile." How easy it was to lie, Gabriel thought.

Zarin gave a small smile. "We are always happy to help. You can book your son a place in the next intake."

"That was not the only reason we came all the way here, though."

Zarin folded her arms across her chest. "Please enlighten me."

Gabriel made a big show of looking around before leaning towards Zarin conspiratorially. "We were also considering a donation."

Zarin's face lit up like up like a Christmas tree. "Splendid idea! Why don't we talk more about it as I show you around?"

Gabriel smiled. "That would be fabulous. Isn't it Alea?"

Alea could do nothing but nod in agreement. What the hell was Gabriel doing? The donation was not part of the plan. They had only agreed to pretend to be a couple with a rebellious son. What was he trying to do now?

Gabriel sensed her confusion and kissed her cheek, whispering against her ear. "Just trust me."

Zarin sighed. "If only my husband wasn't so averse to public displays of affection. Sorry, you didn't need to hear that. Come with me."

Alea and Gabriel followed Zarin out of the building into the scorching heat. Gabriel regretted rejecting the receptionist's offer of a second bottle. They entered a building that mirrored the administration block in terms of decoration. Zarin led them to a room where chairs were assembled in neat rows. At the front of the room, stood an exorbitant sound system.

Zarin spoke using elaborate hand gestures. "The lower floor of this building is where we have our assemblies and roll call. The second floor, is the dining hall and the third is the sanatorium."

Alea and Gabriel walked around the building, taking their time to admire everything —even the voguish vases—  so as to stay longer in the sweet smelling air conditioning.

When they were done with the second building, Zarin led them out. She pointed to three buildings. "Those three buildings are the dorms. We shall not enter them because they can be a little.....complex. They are young men. Hygiene is the last thing on their minds at the moment."

Gabriel was only slightly offended by her stereotypical comment. Not all young men were messy. It was like saying all women were clean or that all women could cook. And everyone knew that not all women were clean and not all women could cook. Gabriel chose to keep this fact to himself.

"Lastly, this, here, is our training area. It is mostly for lighter training. The more vigorous exercises are done in the forest behind the school."

At the mention of the forest, Alea felt an unusual tingle in her neck.

"Everything is all really nice here. I'm sure our son will love it here." Gabriel said, oblivious to Alea's rising fear.

"Yes, all the buildings were refurbished not so long ago. So everything's new and up to date. I can proudly say that our school is at par with the real world —technologically speaking of course. You know with technology, everything is much easier. Even bank transactions, these days, can be done online."

Gabriel felt his heart stop. "Pardon?"

"I am not a fool and I really wish that the two of you wouldn't take me for one. You could have done the donation online. There was no need for you to come all the way here. Want to know what I think? I don't think you have a rebellious sixteen year old son. I don't think you even wanted to donate money to this institute." Zarin turned to them, her face stern. "So why are you really here?"

Gabriel had that deer in the headlights look. "Umm, we wanted to get access to someone's military records. He was a student here."

"Which student is that?" Zarin stood arms akimbo, waiting.

"Matthias Martin Finn. He is Alea's brother —step brother." Gabriel ammended.

Zarin was still not moved. "And why is that?"

"Because he is considered a prime suspect in a string of murders in Boston. We don't really want all his military records. We just want a recent picture of him. Can you help us?"

Zarin hesitated. "You know I can't give you access to a student's records without a proper warrant. But I know how I can help you. Come with me."

Alea and Gabriel followed Zarin back into the administrator block, up the stairs and into her office. Zarin pulled out a gold key chain and opened a door in her office. Gabriel paced the office while Alea sat pensively in one of the chairs.

Zarin came out five long minutes later with a box in one hand and a stack of files balanced precariously on her other hand.

"The school likes to keep tabs on it's student's progress in the military. These are reports and news articles on our student's stay in the military. I hope you find something on Matthias in there."

"Thank you so much. God bless you." Gabriel was this close to blessing her whole dynasty as well.

Zarin chuckled. "No need to be all formal with me. If you need me, I will be in the record room doing some cleaning." Zarin grabbed her spects and left.

Alea picked up a thick pinkish file. It was dustier than the rest. The fastener, which had corroded to a reddish brown color, snapped open in her hands, sending papers flying across the room. Alea sighed and bent down to pick the papers.

One of the papers landed on Gabriel's thigh. He picked it up to give it back to Alea and froze. It was a copy of newspaper article dated ten years ago. Gabriel read the headline countless times, his heart racing.

"Zarin?" Gabriel called.

Zarin poked her head out of the record room. "Hmm?"

"When do they award someone with a purple heart?" Gabriel asked.

Zarin removed her spects, frowning. "It's given when someone is injured or killed as a result of enemy action while serving in the military. Why do you ask?"

"Because it says here that Matthias was  awarded a purple heart as he was the sole survivor of an air strike in Afghanistan.

Zarin came out of the record room and picked the article from Gabriel. After giving it a cursory glance, she said. "It does say so. The article isn't complete, though. Look for the other part maybe there is a picture of Matthias being awarded or something. Both of you take one half of the floor, I will take the other."

Gabriel and Alea began searching the floor, dreading what they would find. Zarin was being more meticulous. Her spects were back on and she was arranging all the papers into a neat pile on the carpeted floor.

It wasn't long before Alea patted Gabriel on the shoulder frantically. She handed him the other half of the article with shaking hands. Gabriel stared at the paper incredulously. It just couldn't be true. The man who was being referred to as Matthias —the one who was smiling from ear to ear in the picture— was one of their friends.

Matthias had been right under their noses the entire time. No wonder he was always one step ahead of them.

"We need to call Archer now. Alea?" Gabriel called.

But Alea was not listening. She was spinning away. Her legs were wobbly. She heard, as if from far away, someone yelling Catch her!  Alea felt strong arms at her back and then nothing.

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This is a double chapter update so scroll right ahead to the next chapter.