Moving Forward

Digging Deeper

Sven's POV

I went through the info Chel had found as I talked to Colt, Foxy and Shan on facetime. We were going through the files one by one, discussing everything we were reading. I paused to watch my daughter start Huey, Dewey and Louie, type a different name into each one and start three new searches. "She just put the trips to work," I informed them. "We are going to need some people going through all this information."

"I would prefer to keep our actions quiet for now," Colt was scowling. "Shan and Foxy can take over here, I be there in the morning. Victor and Luke can get their feet wet as they help set it up so the two of us can compile the data into the right files once they start their classes."

I scratched the back of my neck, feeling awkward. "She hasn't shown them the dungeon yet."

"Tell her she has no choice," Colt snapped. "I need those files."

"I heard that feather boy," Chel yelled from the other side of the room. "My babies are too delicate for your meaty hands."

"Liar," he snorted, "you're letting the elephant pretending to be your father pound on the keyboard. I have much lighter touch."

"Only because he using Templeton; that pack rat can withstand anything," She fired back.

"Summon you minions," Foxy snickered.

"Fine, but Colt owes me a new computer and rest of the parts for the one I am building now." Chel grumbles as she reaches for her phone.

"We could use a few of your computers at home base," Shan joined in. "The laptops are not cutting it."

"Fine, I will ask Victor to help me build you some." She sighed, "I have to go lead them in."

Victor's POV

"I just got to sleep," Luke whined. "Why do we have to meet her at the stupid stairs in her wing, she could have just climbed into my bed if she was lonely."

I was staring at the steps, watching the bottom section rise and show a smaller set of stairs leading down. "I think we are about to visit the dungeon Sven mentioned."

"Holy sugar pops," Luke exclaimed as princess ran up the steps towards us. Once she was certain we were dressed properly, she led us down below the basement. I swear we went down three steep flights of steps, then through a dark hallway.

"Why didn't you use the elevator?" Sven asked as we entered the computer room.

"I wanted to give them the full effect," she shrugged. She introduced us to each computer and told what task she had each one working on. She showed us the logs for each so we would be able to keep track of what one was doing what at any given time.

"Web, Charlotte, Wilbur and Templeton," I smirked. "You named them after the characters in the book Charlotte's Web."

"Ha, Huey, Dewey and Louie are from Duck Tales." Luke added, feeling proud of himself.

Luke helped Sven monitor the seven computers while Raschel and I worked on creating a program that would sort the date into individual files and forward them automatically to Colt's computer. Web would copy the files directly to his hard drive in an unlabeled file, forgoing the telltale email that could be hacked. The file went into the directory with a name only a few would know and needed a special code to open it.

We were still working on it when Colt arrived. Luke was sprawled on the couch and Sven was in a recliner, both were sleeping. Princess set him up on Templeton, and then we cuddled on a futon to get a few hours of sleep before going back to work.

Colt's POV

The information that Raschel was finding had me concerned. If it continued to go in the direction it was now, we may have more than theft to deal with. The High Council has not been able to keep on top of everything. There were only four of them left and only two who were capable of attending to their duties. At fifteen, Kitten was too young and in training. Bjorn was in his seventies and it was hard for him to maneuver in and out of society. That left Rolf and Sven to do it all, which was not as problem free as one might expect. With Bjorn's health declining, Rolf was spending more time caring for him. As for Sven, he has spent the last ten years getting Raschel to where she could function in the real world and repair the physical damage done to her. Sven was also a single parent who believed in being there for his child. Due to her problems, he could not leave her with just anyone and he had his own mental issues when they were apart.

I typed in new parameters into one of the laptops, wanting a list of similarities between the three men. We knew that they had been gay; they were rich and had no families. All found a younger lover a month or two before they died leaving their lover everything. In itself, that was expected. What caught attention was that each of their lovers was the same man, only his name and minor bits of his appearance was different. If this man had targeted three elders for their wealth and position in the Academy, how did we know that, he did not do it to others? Each man died two years apart. The red flag on the first one was identifiable only by a few. The man was friends with Rolf and would visit often; he would visit Kitten when she was recovering from surgery and entertain her by doing magic tricks. The autopsy claimed he died of a massive heart attack, but the last time Raschel had seen him was a week before he died and he had been happy. He claimed that he had passed his physical with excellence and that his new boyfriend would be relieved. I needed his medical files.