"I can't tell you anything without Professor Collins agreeing to it." Professor Barnes said: "I'm gonna need to call him."
"No worries, I just asked him to come here." Professor Dorothea Clarkson said.
"What? Why involve more people here?" Thomas almost jumped: "I thought this needs to be hush hush!"
"Relax, Randall can be trusted." Professor Barnes nodded: "We already have two headmasters here, so what's the harm in bringing in a third one? I think if eventually we're gonna let him in on this, then the sooner the better."
Thomas and Aimee turned to Glenda Grimes, who nodded at them and gave them an assuring look.
"So, now that's sorta settled, please let us know something, since we helped catch three potentially very dangerous spies." Caroline stepped forward and asked: "This kinda proved that we're not responsible for bringing in the contaminated material right? Mind if you could drop the bullshit hearing?"
"No." Professor Barnes, Professor Dorothea Clarkson and Glenda Grimes said at the same time.
"What?" Jason protested: "Why? Ask Ms. Wong! She could definitely vouch for us!"
"It's not what you think." Glenda Grimes said: "Josephine would be sending someone over as well, as your 'counselor'. And you don't need to worry about it at all - all you need to do is to come to the hearing on time, preferably a bit earlier."
"What? She didn't tell us that." Caroline frowned and looked at Jason, who shrugged with a confused look on his face.
"It just happened." Professor Barnes said, and she looked around in the room at Glenda Grimes and Professor Dorothea Clarkson: "And uh, I think I still need to tell you that I would like to thank you for… you know, leaving your medicine in Professor Kapur's office."
"Professor Kapur? What happened!?" Caroline frowned and stared at Professor Barnes: "Is she okay?"
"She's more than okay." Glenda Grimes patted Caroline's shoulder and smiled: "In fact, she said she's feeling quite good after being fed the medicine from both your jars. Which totally makes up for the fact that you led two pieces of shit agents into her office."
"What?!" Caroline and Jason raised their voices at the same time.
"Alright my dear colleagues, this'd better be worth my time. Can't leave a top priority and well funded research project in the hands of research assistants and air head supervisors." just this moment, Professor Randall Collins, the headmaster of Anderson House came into the room in a storm: "Oh, and - students, what can I help you with? And since when do we involve students in top secret stuff?"
"Professor Collins, these are Aimee, Thomas, Caroline and Jason." Professor Barnes introduced the four students in the room to Professor Randall Collins: "And, uh, students, this is Professor Randall Collins, headmaster of the Anderson House, our best expert in Energy Theory and Energy Construct Theory."
"You forgot Theories on Energy Signature and Radiation." Professor Randall Collins nodded at the four students in the room: "Nice to meet you, but can you explain the reason why you're here? You didn't get hurt right?"
"They didn't, but not for the lack of trying on those suckers' parts." Professor Barnes said.
"Ah, cool, so you're still up for the hearing right? We can't do this without you. We'll need you on the stand to bait them." Professor Randal Collins sat down on the side in the air and asked.
"Uh, Randall, we still haven't told them yet." Glenda Grimes frowned and said.
"Oh I'm sorry ... Yikes."
"Okay, Randall, I asked you here to give everyone a little debrief on our investigation." Professor Barnes said.
"Um, okay? What do you want me to say?" Professor Randall Collins took a look at Professor Dorothea Clarkson.
"Well, to save time you can skip the part where you are doing this investigation and probing my staff and students without telling me because you're worried I couldn't keep a secret." Professor Dorothea Clarkson blinked at both Professor Barnes and Professor Randall Collins: "And just tell me what you found."
Glenda Grimes shook her head: "Dorothea, let's not..."
"Oh, nono, I would LOVE to hear about the reasons on why I am not to be trusted with this information, okay? I understand it's not a good time now, but I would love to hear it some time later..."
"Assistant Professor Matthew Vyn!" Professor Randall Collins sensed the tension and immediately yelled out a name.
The room went silent, even Professor Dorothea Clarkson.
"Vyn… that's a rare name right? Why does it sound so familiar?" Thomas asked Aimee with a low vice.
"The first victims from the unsolved serial murder. Almost half the family got slaughtered." Aimee whispered back: "Not a common name, but not super rare either."
"Be extra careful there." Professor Dorothea Clarkson said very slowly: "You know that you're talking about a very pristine and promising scholar in my house."
"Hence why I don't want you involved." Professor Barnes sighed.
"Okay! Okay! Please elaborate." Caroline had to budge in: "Let's just talk, and let things out in the air shall we? Nobody gets offended or pissed, okay? At least not while we're here."
"Right." Professor Dorothea Clarkson flicked her fingers and said: "Right, you're right, civilian girl. Randall, spill."
"We've started our investigation ever since we heard of that Shapeshifting Hog from the hunting ground with traces of Kekugora in its system." Professor Randall Collins said: "There were two students who were almost fatally injured that day. Not sure if any of you heard of that report."
"Yeah, Caroline saved them." Jason chuckled.
"Oh, is that you?" Professor Randall Collins smiled at Caroline: "Now I'm starting to get it - anyway, we actually started looking into the hunting ground records, including animal and beast population survey logs, plant and vegetation records, even entry records and we actually found a lot of abnormalities and inconsistencies that are not explainable under normal circumstances - "
"What Randall was trying to say is that - " Professor Barnes cut Professor Randall Collins off: "Someone's been cooking the books, starting from hunting ground entry records, to plant and vegetation population records."