excuse me while I yawn...

Names and Notes

some several days later...

Ruby entered Spectrum HQ for the fifth time that day, after having loads of breaks for her teenage brain to 'kick into gear', in which she mostly ate jelly donuts and hung out with Clancy. She couldn't take Anabel and her mom off her mind no matter how hard she tried. Nor could she get rid of the memory of the mysterious woman down the drain pipe. Could Mrs Johnson, Anabel's mom, be the same person? They had the same bleached hair but it was kinda common in uptown Twinford to bleach your hair. It could've been anyone. But Ruby decided to stay on the lookout - after all rule 53 clearly stated "Guilty until proven Innocent". Most would think it was mixed up and that Ruby wrote the words in the wrong order, but it was a statement she swore by. Anyways, if she had made a mistake she would've torn the page out. Can't they see that?

"Howdy partner." Said Hitch casually, greeting Ruby as she strolled into the lab. "Hi there stranger." She replied. Hitch pointed to a glass full of bright yellow liquid on the other side of the room. "Banana milk huh? Thought you were my bodyguard not my personal caterer."
"Look kid do you want the milk or not 'cause I haven't eaten since yesterday?" Asked Hitch, turning his whole body to put his hands on his hips and stare at Ruby. "Ok, ok, I'm just saying!"
"I don't wanna be either of the two things you said but here we are so I know you don't want to crack these codes but..."
"Huh? You suddenly become a dumb bozo or what? Cracking codes is what I do for fun." Said Ruby. "Well obviously. I just thought that since Halloween is quickly approaching you might have your attention diverted." Said Hitch. "What, you think my priorities go #1 - get good costumes for Halloween #2 - eat jelly donuts #3 - save all the agents from possible death?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know how the teenage brain works?"
"When it's full of donuts it works well. Remember that. Right. You gotta code for me or what?" Hitch pointed to the signatures lay infront of them on the work surface. He left Ruby to it. She placed a finger on the first signature - that of Agent Darwin - and ran her finger down the list until she reached her own name in her scrawly handwriting. Along the way she noticed that there were some names she didn't recognise. Ruby knew each and every person in Spectrum 8 by name and face and there were no new recruits.

Agent Trinity
Agent Adams
Agent Orford
Agent Declan
Agent Weatherby
Agent Ivon
Agent Roland
Agent Norman
Agent Young
Agent Barley
Agent Forrest

The names were all there in black and white. The first thing that Ruby noticed was that Declan and Young's signatures were exactly alike. The second thing that she noticed was that all the names were kinda odd. Declan was supposed to be a first name and the surnames were all very random. If an idiot had written them out they would look more like this: (Ruby thought)

Agent Andrews
Agent Brown
Agent Cattermole
Agent Dunkirk

etc....

The words in front of her could definitely be real people, but Ruby knew at this point they weren't. She also suspected that the guy, or guys, filling the sheet in were trying to think of some names to make it look full.

A few hours later, Ruby's head was hurting from all of the information she tried to take in at once so she stumbled to the cafeteria and got herself some water and paracetamol tablets. Usually Spectrum's cafeteria was chock-a-block full of busy agents going about their daily business with American pancakes in their hands, but today it was deafeningly silent. No one behind the counter, the only sound being the low buzzing of the vending machine as it kept all the soda freezing cold. She walked up to the kitchen and opened the sliding door, falling over the threshold and on to the stone cold floor where she lay for around three hours, undisturbed.

Hitch stood up from his black computer and made his way into the tiny corridor - this department was royal blue. He ran his fingers along the smooth walls as he rounded the corner into the lab where Ruby was working. Except she wasn't. Darn it Redfort, thought Hitch, Where in Louise's name did you go? He sighed before noticing the papers Ruby had been so closely studying. He saw the register and looking around to check no body was watching him, he sat down on the stool and bent over the signatures. After a small while he noticed something extremely strange. Something Ruby had also noticed. The surnames were very... odd. They didn't match any of the faces in his head, and Hitch, like Ruby, knew everyone. His agent code training taught him that there was a code in everything.

After spending the next three hours putting the names in every possible order they could go in, Hitch noticed that number 21, the names made a word. Two words.

Trinity
Weatherby
Ivon
Norman
Forrest
Orford
Roland
Declan
Barley
Adams
Young.

T W I N F O R D   B A Y.

Coincidence? No. Thought Hitch. It had to be a clue. He grabbed the paper in his palms and sprinted back out of the room and down the corridor, running through all shades of dark blue and purple before reaching white. He knocked on LB's door. No answer. He knocked again, more definitely this time. No answer. He pushed the door open slightly. There was no body in the office. He ran towards the white desk in the center of the office. Nothing was on the surface apart from an a4 piece of paper. Almost like the movies, words had been made with cut outs of magazines.

Where is LB?
Where is LB?
You will never find her
Unless you face me.

Hitch had only just finished reading the note when smack. A blow to the back of his head. He blacked out.