“I thought it was just some yucky love stuff?” Bette teased her.

“Okay, you caught me…I believe in yucky love stuff…happy now?” Alice said in desperation. “I’m in love with Dana, I miss her and I…oh, hell, Carmen, what’s the big deal about that Amy person? I still don’t understand what is so important about her?” Alice tried to divert the attention from her love life.

Carmen was watching all this banter between Alice and the girls and also thinking about the comment that Shane made about Lucia being gay. ‘How did I miss it? She’s my sister and I didn’t see anything that indicated she’s not straight. She’s been bringing boyfriends home all the time and never mentioned anything to me…’ Carmen was so deep in her thoughts that she completely forgot about her story.

Alice snapped her fingers and called her name again.

“Oh, sorry, I got distracted,” Carmen said, shaking her head, “When I mentioned Lucia, Amy softened up and then said that her team has some government business in Orange County, near ‘Porter ruins’, as she called it.”

“What?!!” all girls exclaimed together and Bette felt fear creeping in and grabbing her heart.

“What else did she say?” Alice’s panic-stricken voice elevated Bette’s fears to another level. Tina moved closer to Bette and was practically sitting on her lap, holding her tight as her face was turning pale.

“Not much…she wasn’t drunk enough to tell me everything, even though I tried to get more information out of her. She actually became very elusive, and only after I gave her my phone number did she say that they are investigating Professor Kroll’s team. Apparently, they received a letter about illegal activities going on in that area, including some strange experiments that resulted in suspicious flashes sometime in July. At first, the agency she works for didn’t pay any attention because the information was vague and non-threatening, but the witness persisted in calling and sending more letters. This information finally got some attention and Amy’s team was sent to investigate. And that’s all she said. Friday night was the day of their arrival to LA and they were planning to head to the scene on Monday. I think I saw the letters ATF on her badge but she was waving it around too fast so I could be wrong.”