S.H.I.T.

Clement paced up and down the stuffy room worried. He stopped, looked at the three kids and turned to Stevens.

"Are you sure we did the right thing by abducting them? What were you thinking bringing them here? They could compromise the whole operation!"

"Relax Clement," Stephens reassured him. "These two know something. They couldn't go snooping into Timothy's office without a solid reason. All we need is to get it out of them and tell them to keep off. As simple as that."

They were cut off by the sound of the three groaning and waking up. The three teens noticed that they were in a rather dark room, but it was filled with the latest gadgets of all kind. There were screens everywhere, and they seemed to be monitoring Arabella Academy and the police station. On the wall were papers stuck to it. They noticed Sheila's picture at the middle of it all with an X drawn across it in red. There was also another picture of a guy, which they realised was Rocco, and below it were the words 'The Shadow'. It was then that they realised the presence of the two older men in the room.

"Let me just start by saying that if you kill me my father's gonna use the Holy Spirit to find out who killed me and pray the shit out of your lives," Jeff began, thinking he was threatening them, but instead getting a confused look from both of the men, and both of his friends too.

"Are you going to kill us like you killed Sheila? Because we know you did," Marcus confronted Stevens.

Now Stevens was really confused.

"What makes you think that I killed the girl?"

"We heard Sheila calling out your name exactly before she was murdered," Michelle replied, seeing that Marcus and Jeff had blown their cover.

"What do you mean you heard? Were you in school at the time she was murdered?"

"No. She sent us an SOS message seconds before she was killed, and in it we heard her call your name."

Stevens thought really hard about what those three were telling him right now. Nothing of what they said made sense. He was in his office when John the Janitor came with the news of the girl being killed. He therefore wondered why these three would try and accuse him of the murder.

They were cut off by the entrance of the third man, Arnold. He was accompanied by another young man, who introduced himself to them as Calvin. Calvin was the odd one out in the group as he was the only one who was smiling, in the midst of those straight-faced men. He went ahead to pour everyone a cup of coffee, even the three kids.

"Finally, some company, to be honest it was getting really boring with these three here. Just look at them, and their grim faces," Calvin said, and then made an impression of Stevens that sent Michelle aching with laughter. Stevens looked at Calvin threateningly and rolled his eyes.

"Listen guys, I don't know why Sheila mentioned my name, but I swear I had nothing to do with her," Stevens defended himself.

"Then what's the meaning of all this?" Marcus asked, amused at how much technology could fit in one room.

"Oh! This? This belongs to a secret government organisation; Special High Investigations Team," Calvin intercepted, and realised he had made a mistake as soon as he saw the other three's eyes staring at him murderously.

"You mean SHIT?" Jeff inquired.

"No!" All the three men barked at once, except Calvin.

"I'm pretty sure it's SHIT," Marcus chimed in.

"Yeah definitely SHIT."

"Who comes up with such names as those?"

"Imagine saying I work for SHIT."

"Did the president really approve this name?"

"I guess you could say it's pretty shit working for SHIT."

The three kids bellowed with laughter leaving the four scratching their heads. Stevens decided he had enough of the teasing.

"Shut up!" he growled, the echo of his loud voice sending chills down the three's spines. "What were you doing breaking into the detective's office?"

"Can we trust him?" Jeff asked his other teammates, and they all considered their options. They weren't sure about Stevens' innocence, though they took notice of the papers on the wall and saw that they were also investigating on Rocco. Besides if they were a government agency as they claimed, then they would really help in investigating what really happened to Sheila. Finally, they decided to take run the risk and tell him what they knew. Michelle nodded at Marcus.

"We'll tell you when we're not tied up on our seats," Marcus negotiated with Stevens. Stevens nodded to Clement and he untied the three.

"Well," Marcus began, walking toward the board, "We were snooping around because of this man," and pointed at Rocco's picture.

"What do you know about that man?" Clement asked.

"For starters, he was the one who killed Tyron," Michelle remarked.

"And may I ask how you know that?" Stevens asked them.

"We were there," Jeff told them.

"You witnessed a man being killed?" Calvin asked, amazed at the three's guts.

"Yeah. We had gone to the garage to tell these two that I heard your name being mentioned in Sheila's voice note," Michelle answered.

"Why did they kill him?" Stevens inquired.

"Tyron had told Timothy that he had seen a man sneak into the school. Apparently, the man was the one who had killed Sheila. His name was Redhound, though we think that it was his code name," Marcus replied.

"So Timothy's a dirty cop and a person called Redhound was the one who allegedly killed Sheila?" Clement asked them.

"Yes," Jeff replied. "We were only breaking into his office because that Rocco guy had told Timothy that he'd collect a file about something called a Dragon Pearl from his office."

"Hold on, you mean the Dragon Pearl Necklace? I thought that thing was a myth?" Calvin exclaimed.

"What do you know about it? Because we don't have a clue about anything about it?" Michelle asked Calvin.

"All I know is that it was an extremely expensive pearl necklace, maybe the most expensive, that belonged to the Expiravit of Middlewood," Calvin answered her.

"But how are Sheila and the necklace related?" Stevens loudly wondered.

"That is what we trying to figure it out before you and that goddamned detective spoilt our plan," Marcus said.

Arnold, who up until then had not said anything, went to the board and pinned four blank foolscaps on it. On each he wrote 'Redhound' 'Sheila' 'Timothy' and 'Dragon Pearl Necklace'.

"Why are you investigating Rocco?" Michelle inquired.

"Our organisation noticed increased gang activity around Middlewood. We therefore had to be sent to investigate it. The Shadow is apparently operating here, under Rocco's control. However, we believe that he may be receiving order from a superior, or superiors," Clement told them.

"So Stevens here is playing undercover by being our Deputy Principal?" Jeff asked.

"Yes, I do," Stevens replied. "And we didn't know why they were doing it here, although we now have an idea of their objective." He paused and looked at the three sternly. "Listen here guys, we appreciate what you are telling us. I'm sure Sheila would be proud of you wherever she is, but I need you to know that these are dangerous grounds you are treading. Please reconsider being involved in this and leave the investigating to us. I promise to keep you in touch with what is happening."

"I'm sorry but we cannot promise you anything. May I remind you that we still don't trust you. We are only telling you because we think you might be of help to us, and we wanted to take this weight off our shoulders. But we are going to think about it; and I'll let you know when we get back to school," Marcus spoke for the three of them.

"I think that will be enough for today. We've all had a quite rough and disappointing day, and could use some bit of rest. Arnold here will give you blindfolds- we don't want you to know our hideout, and I will take you to your homes." Stevens told the three.

Arnold gave the three students blindfolds and they put them on. Stevens then led them out of the room, but not before Marcus had the last word.

"Guess they don't want us to find out what kind of a shithole SHIT operates in."