Valian has never had such a serious demeanor, which surprised me when I came back from class to find him looking straight at me and saying, "We need to talk." Before I could say anything, he sat me down on the couch in our Common Room, where I realized that Peteron, Motteran, and Richard were there as well, looking at me with the same sort of apparent suspicion.

There, they threatened to kick me out of the Project and expose my agenda to Rachele and Carol. I couldn't believe it.

"Who's that girlfriend of yours? Rose Anne?" Valian asked. "And what sorts of favors have you been doing her?"

"What do you mean?" I said. "She's not my girlfriend, by the way."

"It seems so," said Motteran. "With her going into your room all the time..."

"That's not the point, Motter," Valian said. "I'll take it that she's simply selling herself in that way to get important information."

"I've got nothing romantic with her!" I shouted.

"How should we know to trust you on that!?" Valian said. "Who's she with?"

"I think you better tell the truth," Richard said quietly and calmly to me.

So with a lot of reluctance, I told them everything about Rose Anne, and how she was an insider for the discreet federal investigation. And it seemed to calm Valian down a little; and that's when he admitted that his avatar was the one having form-fitted into the "slenderman" figure that attacked me and Rose Anne before.

"I had to do what I had to do," Valian said. "Don't blow our cover on us. You're the one that started all this."

After that little talk, Peteron send me a ticker message saying: "You know, I feel that perhaps Rose Anne may have a bit more than a business interest with you."

I replied with: "If Rose Anne had been, she would've kept in touch with me after being re-assigned elsewhere."

Now to reflect, I can see why Rose Anne going in and out of my room may warrant suspicion. But my room is where my immersion console is; and that was the console we decided to use because that was the place we determined would help keep the investigation discreet.

And moreover, I told Peteron the truth. Indeed, I had relayed Cray's message over to North Kempton and told Rose Anne about the ordeal. She stated that Jon Fletcher would confirm this with Cray. And then a few hours later, I got a message from Rose Anne stating that Jon had managed to get in contact with Cray over the telephone, and that Cray was indeed happy and safe. Rose Anne then stated that Jon told her that her assignment was done, and that the case between me, Tom Pero, and Cray Fenton would be turned over to another department.

I will admit, though, that a part of me wished that Peteron was right. I know it would cross so many unacceptable boundaries especially on her end. But I will admit that Rose Anne is quite attractive. For a while, during our journey between here and the North Kempton plane, we had talked a lot about our pasts, with me and my interest in the card thing, how far back it went. She told me a lot about her path leading up to where she is now.

We also shared a little bit of background about our hobbies, where we've been in life. We really hit it off when we found out that the both of us had been to the same boardwalk of the town of Westport in the Meredythian Isles.

For a short time, I wondered if she was interested in me. But I realize now that this was just confirmation bias on my part. In fact, I wonder if Peteron perhaps saw that. Perhaps I might have showed it a bit too much, enough to catch my roommates' attention and also to scare off Rose Anne.