The waitress arrives with our food, and we eat in silence. The food is good, not as good as some of the other restaurants, here, but good enough. Once gone, we just sit a while staring at each other. Each of us lost in our own thoughts.

          Amlican turns to look at me. "Do you feel better now that you've eaten?"

           I open my mouth to answer, just as a couple of Salmazin pass by our table, excitedly chatting. I close my mouth. Saved by the Salmazin. Because the truth is, No. I don't feel better. My stomach still feels as if it's a boat tossed around on rough waters.

           I am able to catch a few bits of the Salmazins' conversation. "Did you hear about Mangone?" one asks.

          "No, what about him?" the other asks.

          "He's dead. They found him not to long ago, a large Raptor plunged deep into his stomach." the first says.

          "Well, I'm not surprised. He's made all sorts of enemies. Like...." that's all that I hear before they get out of earshot.

           "Move." I say scooting towards Amlican and pushing him. He slides out of the booth and stands up, offering me a hand. I accept his offer of help and stand to my feet. For a moment, I'm sure I'm going to be sick, again, but I take a few deep breaths and my stomach calms back down. "Mangone is dead. That means we don't have much time, left. We need to hurry."

          "That was my dad, earlier. He's looking for the princess as well. Maybe if he finds her, first, we will be able to buy enough time to take care of Malum." Amancia says, getting up and walking away.

           "Good idea. Where is he?" I ask, getting up and walking beside her. Amlican walks on the other side of me.

          "Well, let's see. If he's looking for the Talfarian princess, then he's going to do a floor-by-floor search. Once the floor has been searched, a Copaie guard will be placed to guard every elevator, just in case she tries to escape. So, all we should have to do is stop at every floor and look for the guards. Once we find a floor without a guard, we will find my father. He isn't going to stand by and let something this important happen, without participating." Amancia explains.

         We make it to the elevators and see a single Copaie guarding the doors. "The elevators are off limits. No entrance until our search is completed." He says, folding his arms across his chest. He's standing directly in front of the doors, so there's no hope of going around him.

          "We want to join the search." I say. I notice the guard is missing half of his nose. He was one of the guys playing cards with Mangone! The one that wanted to buy me for himself, in the other timeline.

            "No! We don't need help. Especially not from a couple of females and a Talfarian." the guard says, shaking his head.

            "I'll make sure to let daddy know that you turned down help. I'm sure he will reward you for that." Amancia says, placing her hands on her hips.

           Recognition fills his eyes as he mumbles, "Amancia? Fine. What do I care? Help yourself." He mashes the elevator call button and moves out of our way.

           We quickly climb aboard the awaiting elevator and hit the button for the fifth floor. The doors close behind us and we ride in silence. The elevator dings and the doors slide open to a residential section, with a Copaie guard facing away from us. The guard turns around as Amancia pushes the hold button.

         "What do you want?" he asks, in a deep voice.

          Amancia cuts straight to the chase. "I'm looking for my father. Is he on this floor?"

          "The General? No. He's somewhere way above us." the guard answers.

           "Back to work, then." Amancia says in her best authoritative voice.

            "Hmph." the guard grunts before turning back around.

           The doors slide shut, and we try again. Every five floors we stop but we receive the same answer. Until we reach floor forty. The guard on that floor tells us to check the next floor. Amancia punches the button for floor forty-three and the doors slide shut.

         "Let's check forty-three. If she's there, maybe we can stop her before Malum sneaks her out." Amancia says.

          "Ugh!" I growl in frustration. "I hope she is there. I'm tired of this stupid elevator.

         Amancia gives me a funny look and starts to say something but is interrupted by the ding of the elevator. The doors slide open to reveal another shopping area, identical to the one on the first floor. There is no one guarding the elevator and it appears as if it's business as usual.

          We pass a few shops and quickly look around, but we don't see anything. "Let's split up." I suggest. "We stand a better chance of finding them if we do. Amlican, you check the restaurants, because I honestly can't handle all the different food smells right now. Amancia, you check the bars, because if you get into trouble, you can always pull rank. The daddy card seems to work nicely. And I'll check the clothing stores. Just remember, don't directly engage Malum. He's dangerous and can talk himself out of anything."

         "Here, use these if you find something." Amancia says, pulling a plastic bag out of her pocket. She opens the bag, dumps three tiny round dots into her hand, and with the other hand, she presses all three at one time. There is a faint beeping sound and they a light blue glow comes from all three of them.

          "What are these?" I ask, examining the small dot in the palm of my hand.

          "Copaie Communication Devices, or CCD for short. Just place it, behind your ear, and press down for five seconds. You will hear a low beep and then we will be connected." Amancia explains. "Don't the Talfarians have something similar?"

          "No. No we don't." I say.

           Amancia laughs and then says, "I thought the Talfarians were supposed to be the smart ones."

         "How do we talk to each other?" Amlican asks, pressing his behind his ear.

           "Just like you are, now. The CCD will pick up your voice and transmit it to our CCD." she says, pressing her own, behind her ear.

          "Won't the other Copaie be using these as well? Wont they hear our conversation?" I ask, examining the tiny dot.

           "No." she says. "I paired them together. You have to have them all touching and press them at the same time to pair them."

         "Oh." I say, pressing my own behind my ear. I hear a quiet beeping sound. "Alright, let's go."

          "Hey! Not so loud!" Amlican says, his voice echoing in my ear after a three second delay.

           "They work best if we aren't so close together." Amancia says. Her voice echos in my ear as well.

           We go our separate ways, the hunt for mother and Malum is on. Now to get to them before they leave the city.