Time: Morning
Place: Toronto

"What good is this going to do anyway? She's been missing for over three days already; there's not going to be any information to find," Amy asked despairingly, sulking with her chin on top of the NatMare she was hugging.

"I just can't believe it took everyone so long to figure out she was gone," Jill said.

"Well, we *were* all preoccupied with being in some *serious* trouble," Sharon began.

"Or were in the hospital," Valerie piped up. She and Jennie still looked pretty bad, but seemed relatively functional.

"And so *now*, we've got to start looking for her," Sharon continued. "Even if it's been three days, no one has been *really* looking, so if there are any clues still there, *someone* has to find them."

"Now you're beginning to sound like Susan," Jennie muttered.

"She's right, though," Jill said, beginning to really warm to the idea. "Okay, let's get this on the road. Where do we need to check?"

Sharon took a deep breath. *Finally*, they were going to actively work on solving this problem. "First thing is to check the Coroner's Building--ask people there, ask people in the area, canvas the streets surrounding--generally see if there are any clues we can find where she was last seen. We also need to check at the precinct to see if there is anything they know. And we should check with other local law enforcement types, see if they've heard about anything strange that could be connected."

"Great!" Jill bounced to her feet. "I'll check with the police. Valerie, you wanna come too?"

"Sure," Valerie said, doing a slow cat-stretch before standing.

"And we can check with the RCMP," Leslie volunteered after quickly conferring with Betsy.

"Yeah, but you'd better not take Jennie along; you know how she is around Mounties," Amy said mischievously. Jennie made a face at her.

"Sounds like a plan," G.T. announced. "I'll check Chinatown."

"I'll come too," Amparo volunteered.

"I'd better go with them," Jennie added, giving Amy a satisfied look. "Someone will have to keep them out of trouble there."

"Someone has to stay at the apartment in case Nat calls or someone calls about her," Selma pointed out. "Why don't I do that?" She yawned, laying her head back against her pillow.

"Good, and Amy, Kim, and I can cover the Coroner's Building," Sharon finished. "Let's get to it. And Jennie and Valerie, do *not* overdo. Come back here to rest if you fell bad."

They (of course) agreed, and everyone else (of course) knew they had not intention of doing any such thing till their respective areas were totally covered, but at least it had been said.

"We're looking for a lady," Kim said earnestly to the vendor. "You may have seen her around here a lot, but we want to know if you saw her anytime early last Thursday. She's about this tall--" Kim held up a hand to indicate, "mid-thirties, curly brown hair, blue eyes--"

"That woman does *not* have blue eyes," Amy interrupted emphatically.

"But she does look like anime come to life," Sharon interjected, hoping to distract Amy from her latest favorite tirade.

"Anime?" Kim asked.

"That's true," Amy said, grinning. She turned to the vendor. "Do you remember seeing her?" The vendor shook his head and moved on.

"Anime?" Kim asked again, frowning.

"Well, that about takes care of it," Amy sighed.

"Yeah. We've asked everyone at the building, along the streets. We'll just have to get a hold of the people you wrote down who they said were here but aren't working today." Sharon checked along the edges of the sidewalk, hoping to see anything suspicious.

"I don't think we're going to find anything more here," Kim agreed, giving up on her unanswered question.

"No. These guys were pros," Sharon said. "We're going to just have to wait till they contact us or make their next move."

"I hate to wait," Amy said. "I hate it."

"Well, that accomplished absolutely nothing," Leslie complained.

"At least we got to look at several of the guys in their nice Mountie outfits," Betsy said, smiling broadly.

"That's true." Leslie smiled at the memory. "But they just don't measure up to Fraser," she added seriously. "They're not bad, just not quite *that* nice."

"Let's get back to the apartment. Maybe one of the other found something more useful."

They both ran for the bus that had just pulled up to the curb.

"What a total washout," Jill complained. "Not that I really expected anything else. If they're so impressed with Nick at the precinct, *why* should I think that anyone else would be any *more* effective?"

"Well, at least now we know for sure that we don't know anything.... God, I've been around Amy for too long!" Valerie sighed. She was getting tired, and since their part of the search was done, they could head back to Natalie's and wait for the others.

"Let's get back," Jill said before Valerie could continue. "Taxi!"

Amparo, G.T., and Jennie walked through the doors of a familiar building in Chinatown. An older Asian gentleman approached them.

"How may I help you?" he asked gently.

"We're looking for Caine," Amparo explained.

"I am sorry. Peter is not here right now."

"No, no," Mary G.T. corrected. "We're looking for Kwai Chang Caine--Peter's father."

"Yeah," Jennie added, "we need help." G.T. glared at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, neither Caine is here. They are out of town for a few days."

"Oh," the three women chorused sadly. Then, also in unison, although their stresses fell on different words, they said, "Maybe you could help us."

The older gentleman smiled. "What is your problem?"

"We've lost a lady--she's about 5'5", mid-thirties, brown curly hair, hazel eyes--"

"Good thing you didn't say blue," Jennie muttered.

G.T. glared at Jennie again and continued "We were hoping you might know of someone who might have heard about her. She's been missing since Thursday."

"I myself have heard nothing about anything like this. If you would like, I can give you a list of names of people to check with," he offered.

"That would be great," Amparo said quickly.

Less than an hour later, they had covered the sadly short list and were still completely without a lead.

"I'd have thought he'd have more information for us," Amparo said, disappointment clear in her tone.

"Yeah, isn't he supposed to be more helpful?" Jennie asked.

She never got her answer, because at that moment, G.T. grabbed her arm, staring.

"Wait here for just a second," G.T. said, hurrying quickly away. Jennie and Amparo watched her as she approached a tallish, dark-haired man who had the distinctive air of a government type and dark glasses.

"It's not easy being green..." Jennie murmured.

Soon G.T. headed back toward the others. As soon as she'd joined them she said grimly, "Well, he doesn't know anything about what's going on, and at this point, I'd say if he doesn't know, no one knows--at least not anyone *we're* going to be able to contact."

"Okay, so what's next then?" Jennie asked.

"We get you back to the apartment," G.T. said firmly. "You look like hell."

"Really?" Jennie asked. "At least I'm consistent. I feel like hell too."

"And what does hell feel like?" Amparo queried as they sat at the bus stop.

One by one the groups reported, once the last few NatPackers had straggled in. "Nothing." "Nothing." "Nope." "No calls." "Nada, niente, zippo."

"Glad to know we all at least got the same results," Sharon said.

"Yeah," Jennie agreed. "At least we know that our data is consistent with itself."

"Jennie, you need sleep!" Selma pointed out.

"We *all* need sleep, Selma," Jennie said, then added as Selma opened her mouth to reply, "Except you."

[Nothing NatPack-related happened on November 14.]

Time: 6am EST
Place: Your Mailer

The Bartley House is pleased to announce that three very special items have been placed with us for a private FK auction. The auction will be a blind bid auction. A blind bid auction is where each bidder submits a bit without knowing what the other parties are bidding. Each faction, character, or private party, may submit a bid. The highest bid will win. Bids must be submitted in dollar figures. Virtual chocolate is not an acceptable form of currency.

All bids must be sent to waraddr@aol.com. The subject heading must include the words. AUCTION BID.

All bids MUST be received by 6am, November 17, 1995. After the bids have been tabulated and compared, the top bidder for each item will be awarded the documents, providing they are adequately able to meet the monetary obligations. The announcement of the successful bidders will take place that the Expo Center, at 8pm November 17, 1995.

The items are:

1. A bound leather journal book of erotic fiction, written by a Natalie L. Much care and attention has been paid to the making of this book. Each entry has been hand-written, and all drawings have been authenicated as being absolutely, hand-drawn, no computer generation.

2. A book of famous and not-so-famous women complete with numerous pictures and a rating system. Bartley House beliefs that this rating system covers several categories: including, personal appearance, personality, and intelligence. This comprehensive listing starts with a Gwynth circula 1226 all the way through to the 1990's to a woman only known as NL (no name was available at the time this goes to press, but our researchers are currently working on this small detail).

3. A family tree, done in brilliant colors and completely hand-drawn. This family tree traces direct descendants for almost two thousand years, from the fall of Pompeii to present day America. It is unique in that it traces its descendents entirely through the female line from its male ancestor.

Sincerely,
Warren J. Bartley
Bartley House Auctions.
Waraddr@aol.com

Time: Late afternoon
Place: Natalie's apartment

Several NatPackers looked up as Sharon entered, and realized that things were not going very well. Everything about Sharon's stance and demeanor radiated tension.

For her part, Sharon stalked into the room, shrugged out of her coat and threw it on the floor in an abrupt, violent motion. "You know," she anounced, scowling. "People who do nothing but attempt to validate their existance at the expense of others really, *really* tick me OFF!"

"Uh-oh," Jennie mouthed to Valerie.

"She's Finning," Amy whispered from nearby.

"So," GT said amicably. "How did your meeting with the Ravenettes go?"

"Do you *know* where all the coffee in Toronto is?" she said, her voice taking on a grating strident quality. Without waiting for an answer she rushed on. "At The Raven. That's right, the Raven. Susan, my *friend* Susan sat there smirking at me over a cup of it just a little while ago."

"Oh, dear," Amy said softly. Jennie began to giggle.

"Oh, well," Sharon said, seeing Jennie start to laugh. "I'm *so* glad my black mood is so entertaining! Perhaps you'd like me to trip over those stuffed animals over there and sprain my ankle. Then you can have a *real* chuckle!"

This, of course, made Jennie only laugh harder. "No," she managed to gasp out. "I think that stool over there would work better." Several others had joined her, though they were trying to be slightly more discrete about it.

"You mean this one," Sharon said, picking it off the floor. The corners of her mouth were starting to quirk up, despite her best efforts. "You want me to do my Rob Petrie imitation. Would my personal pain and injury make you feel better?"

"No," Jennie retorted. "This is entertaining enough! You're funny!"

"Well in that case," Sharon said, with slightly better humor and smiling herself, "maybe you'd like to hear what else I found out. It'll make *your* day as much as it made mine."

"What's that?" Jill asked.

Sharon turned. "Something's up with them. They were tittering all over the place about it, probably for my benefit. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but they were acting like a bunch of quivering titwillows about it."

The latter term sent Jennie off into another fit of giggles, and she mumbled something about picturing Susan with little flapping wings.

Leslie asked, "Do they still think Nat just ran out on us?"

Sharon snorted. "Of course. But what can you expect. That's what Janette did to them."

"Meow," Jill said. "You don't think they've got Nat, do you?" she asked dubiously.

Sharon threw up her hands. "Who knows. Oh, and I saw a couple of those guys when I came out of the Raven. They didn't follow me though, which means they're there to watch the club." She stopped and yawned abruptly. "Hey, has anyone checked email lately? Any word from the other factions?"

"I was just doing that," Jennie said. She looked at the screen for a moment, then leaned back. "Uh-oh," she said.

"What?" Leslie asked. "News of Natalie."

"Well," Jennie said looking slightly chagrined. "Sort of, I guess."

The others gathered around and read the auction announcement, paying particular attention to Item #1.

"Oh, bloody hell!" Sharon bellowed. "As if we didn't have *enough* to worry about with Natalie missing just now. Man!"

"That explains what the Ravenettes were so happy about," GT observed.

"I'm worth exactly sixty-seven dollars and thirty-four cents at the moment," Sharon said in disgust. "Who's organizing this? Can't we just go and blow them up or something?" A brief look of horror crossed her face, and she glanced at the note again suspiciously.

"Sharon!" Jennie admonished.

"Then what? There's no way we can outbid the Ravenettes."

"Look, it says we can go look at it it. We can go see exactly what it it is," Jennie said. "Lets get our finances together tonight. How much are we worth? We're going to have to make *some* kind of bid."

Time: 7am

This is to inform all interested parties that the location for the auction announcement ceremonies has been moved to the Toronto Convention Center.

Please remember to submit all bids to WARADDR@DR@aol.com.

Thank You,
Mr. Bartley
Bartley House

Time: 6:07pm

This is to announce to all interested parties that Item #3 on the Auction Annoucement has been withdrawn from the bid by the owner. No other details are forthcoming at this time.

Items #1 & #2 are still up for bid.

Thank You,
J.W. Bartley
Bartley House