They made an outside circuit of the high brick walls first, then jumped with
an easy bound to the top of the east wall by an overhanging tree that would
give them cover if anyone was still in the house. Jasmine reached out to
steady Elenora as she swayed dangerously for a moment, then they both huddled
into the shadows of the tree and studied the house with all of their
heightened senses. She could detect no trace of Tamanji, Lee or Jonah. That
made her uneasy. Maybe they had just come for a once over look at the house
and Tamanji had left the Order a calling card, just to let them know she knew
they knew she was here.

 Jasmine raised her eyebrows questionally at her sister, who shook her head
back, confirming her. They leapt lightly down into the yard, hugged the walls
just in case as they headed for the front of the house. Jasmine knocked on
the double doors, waited for a few minutes, knocked again, then tried the
handle. It was locked.

 "Maybe they went out to breakfast or something." Elenora suggested.

 "We'll hope it's something that simple." Jasmine answered back in a serious
tone. "Well, we still have to get my scarf. Let's hope that Tsuzuku," she
smiled, liking the way his foreign name tickled her tongue, "wasn't so
enthralled with it that he's taken to wearing it. The back windows were open.
Let's take a look."

 They ran back around the huge old house, Jasmine jumping up to grab onto the
sill of the big picture window at the west side and chinned herself up to
glance in, Elenora keeping watch on the ground. She didn't see anything
unusual, pushed herself up and swung her legs over the sill. As soon as she
was mostly in the room she muttered "Ah, hell." She could 'taste' the cold
tang of the after impression of Lee's power, but it was faint, as if he
hadn't brought it all the way into being. Then she saw the girl.
 
 "Elenora! Careful!" She summoned her sister as she pushed off the sill and
headed for Matsuri Toba's still form.

 She knelt down beside her, reached to take her pulse under her jaw, frowned
at her gasping attempts for breath. Her heartbeat was fast and thready under
her fingers.

 "Is she O.K.?" Elenora asked as she came to them.

 Jasmine shook her head, pulled the cel phone out and flipped it open, pushed
Matsuri's shirt off her shoulder as she saw the small spot of blood on it,
narrowed her eye's at the small puncture wound and darkening bruise.

 "What's the emergency number here?" She asked Elenora as she stood up,
turned toward the small sound she heard coming from somewhere else in the
house.

************

 Owaru was just paying for the manga's when the little twinge went off inside
his head, followed by a sick fluttering feeling in his stomach. Something was
seriously wrong and it concerned his brothers. He grabbed the stack, stuffed
them into his bag as he turned and started running for home, ignoring the
vendor's yell to wait, he forgot his change.

 He stuck to the alleys, hoping that no one would see him as he kicked into
high gear. He slowed to a walk as he came up the little alley that separated
their wall from their neighbors, peeked cautiously around the corner and up
toward the gates of his driveway. The three Tokyo electric trucks farther up
the street caught his attention for a moment, but they were all in uniforms
and seem busy doing something up there.

 He backed up a little ways, leapt to the top of the wall and stared at his
house, looking for anything out of place. Everything seemed all right. He
jumped down, went and let himself in the back door. He heard two tense female
voices coming from the den, snuck towards it quickly.

 He paused for a second in the doorway, exchanged startled stares with the
woman with the phone that was standing over his fallen cousin, bellowed as he
launched himself at the woman. "Matsuri-chan! What did you do to Matsuri!" 

 The woman stepped sideways, guided his blow past her with her forearm, but
lost the phone in the process, tried to back off.

 "Wait! You don't understand!" She yelled at him as he attacked again.

 He was startled as she deflected all of his punches. *No way!* He growled,
jumped and launched a kick. She caught his foot and with a heave, sent him
crashing into the wall.

 "Listen, idiot! We're not the bad guys!" She yelled at him in frustration as
she dove for the phone.

 Owaru pushed himself upright, keeping the wall to his back, full of
uncertainty, set himself in a defensive stance. Were where his brothers?

 "Jasmine, I think it's too late." The young girl kneeling next to his cousin
said softly.

 "No!" Owaru whispered, frozen with shock as the woman called Jasmine hurried
to Matsuri's side, thrust the phone at the girl as she tipped back Matsuri's
head and started to breathe for her.

 The girl started punching the numbers into the phone then stopped with a
gasp as Matsuri began to glow gently with a pale green light. Both the girls
backed off quickly as it engulfed her, hid her from sight, then faded.

 "Matsuri-chan?" Owaru asked tentatively as he rushed to her side, gathered
her up into his arms.

 The woman knelt next to him, pressed her fingers to his cousins throat,
looked relieved. "She'll be all right." She told him, examined Matsuri's
exposed shoulder. All that was left was the faint brown outline of the
bruise.

 "Who are you?" Owaru growled as he hugged Matsuri to him and backed them
away on his knees.

 "Tanaka Jasmine. This is my sister, Elenora. You're Ryudo Owaru?"

 "What are you doing in my house?! What happened to Matsuri?! Where are my
brothers?!" He demanded.

 The two girls exchanged uneasy glances. "Matsuri was drugged, I think. I
have no idea where you're brother's are. Don't you?" Elenora answered.

 Owaru shook his head, fighting tears. He just 'knew' that something terrible
had happened to his brothers. For the first time since he'd been a little boy
he was truly scared.

 "It's O.K. Owaru." Jasmine told him gently. "Do you have any smelling salts
in the house?"

 Owaru shook his head, practically bristling with distrust.

 "Elenora, go to the car and see if we have any in the first aid kit, would
you? And bring in the basket while you're at it."

 Elenora nodded, understanding. They both knew that Matsuri would be out for
hours from the manifestation of her power to save her life but this would
give her a chance to report to the Order's people who would be doing the
clean up at the Observer's station and see if they had any  new info to
share.

 "Your one of them, aren't you?" Owaru accused.

 "One of who?" Jasmine answered calmly. This kid was scared out of his wits
and being what he was, it wasn't wise to push him too far.

 "An agent of The Four Sisters. What do you want with us? Why don't you just
leave us alone!" He finished in a yell of frustrated anger.

 She kept the shock out of her voice and off her face as that little bit of
information clicked into the puzzle. Shubata had thought that the trouble the
Ryudo's where having was local. Now she knew why Tamanji and the other's had
been here. The Big Boy's had gotten to them and they where in a whole heap of
trouble.

 "No, Ryudo Owaru, I swear to you that I'm not an agent of The Four Sisters.
I'm just here to get my scarf back." She gave him a small smile. 

 He looked at her stunned. "Your scarf? That dragon scarf?"

 "That's the one." She said in a friendly tone.

 "You're Tsuzuku's girl?" He sounded relieved now.

 She cocked one eyebrow at him, intrigued by his wording. "Tsuzuku's girl?"
She echoed.

 "Yeah, you know. Isn't that why you gave it to him? Tsuzuku's the only one
who can smell the perfume on it." Owaru asked her, uncertain again.

 That caught her totally off guard and she reached over and lowered herself
into one of the chairs, stunned. *Tsuzuku Ryudo? My dragon? No way!* But it
made sense. Why else would the scarf do that? How could she have been so
blind?

 "Where is it, Owaru?" She asked, full of dread. Tamanji had been here, the
scarf had been here, Tsuzuku Ryudo had been here.

 "I don't know. Hajime had it this morning. We had to put it into two plastic
bags before it stopped bothering Tsuzuku. What's wrong?" Why did she look so
frightened?

 Jasmine closed her eyes, concentrated, tried to call the scarf to her. It
wasn't in the house.

 "Oh, God!" She whispered, leaning forewords to cover her face with her
hands. Tamanji would know! And what she could do to Tsuzuku Ryudo with that
knowledge frightened her.

 "What's wrong!" Elenora yelled as she burst into the room, the basket
swinging in one hand, ran to her sister.

 "Tsuzuku Ryudo's my dragon, Elenora. And Tamanji's got him and the scarf."
She whispered in English.

 Elenora nodded to herself. She'd know that from the time Jasmine got back on
the bus without it. She should have told her. Now they were in it deep.

 "It'll be O.K., Sis. We'll just go get them back." She said it in Japanese,
gave Owaru a reassuring smile and Jasmine a big hug.

 "It's not going to be that simple. Tamanji's working for the Four Sister's."

 "Oh, man!" Elenora whispered. This was getting worse and worse.

 Jasmine rubbed at her forehead, then straightened. "Owaru, we're going to
have to trust and help each other. Can we do that?"

 Owaru looked down at his cousin's sleeping face, felt very lost and alone.
He had no idea even how to start to look for his brothers. That this strange
woman had tried to help Matsuri and was connected to Tsuzuku gave him hope.
He would trust her, but not too much. Not yet.

 "Hai. Jasmine-san."

 "Good. Now, why don't you take Matsuri to a bed and let her sleep." Jasmine
suggested, her eyes distant as she started to plan.

 "O.K." Owaru lifted Matsuri in his arms.

 "Mind if I go with you?" Elenora asked, wanting to get the layout of the
house and pick this dragon's brain.

 Owaru shrugged as he headed for the stairs, Elenora tagging behind. Jasmine
flipped open the phone, started dialing. She talked to Shubata first,
explained the situation, asked for a computer and a modem to be delivered to
the house. She had just disconnected and was dialing in Catherine's private
number as she heard her sister and Owaru come back down the stairs, headed
away for another part of the house.

 Elenora's innocent charm had worked on the young dragon and he was chatting
with her easily. She nodded, knowing that Elenora would pass on anything
interesting he let slip, dug the thermos out of the basket and poured coffee
into the top, willed the tremble in her hand to stop as she sipped at it as
she waited for the international call to connect.

 "Yes." Catherine's voice held no trace of sleep, even though Jasmine knew
she'd woken her.

 "Catherine, it's me."

 "Jasmine, honey? What's wrong?"

 "We've run into some problems." She fought to kept her voice calm, like she
was giving a normal report.

 "O.K." Catherine's voice paused, waiting.

 "Tamanji was here. She got three of the Ryudo brothers." She could envision
the woman she considered her mother narrow her eyes at that.

 "O.K. Now tell me what's really wrong."

 "Did you know that Tamanji was working for The Four Sisters?"

 "I suspected as much. I want you both to come home. Now."

 "I can't Catherine. Did you know that Tsuzuku Ryudo was my dragon when you
sent me here?" She tried to keep the accusation out of her voice but some of
it slipped through. As much as she loved Catherine and knew Catherine loved
her and Elenora, considered them the children she couldn't have, she knew she
was a master manipulator and would consider a line of Dragon Children born
into the Order a coup. That she might have known and not told her hurt and
infuriated her.

 "What?!" Catherine's startled response reassured her and she relaxed, let go
of her anger. Catherine would never do anything to hurt her or threaten their
relationship. She should know that by now.

 "Tamanji has him and my scarf, Catherine." She got out around the tight
pressure of tears that pushed against her.

 "Your scarf?" Catherine asked in a tight voice.

 "Yes." Jasmine answered back in a little one, wiped at the few tears that
had leaked from the corner of her eyes with the palm of her hand.

 "I'm not even going to ask how that happened."

 Jasmine waited, listening to the hiss of the connection as Catherine
thought. "You're going after them, aren't you?"

 "Yes. I've got to. I just want to know if you'll help me or not." She braced
herself mentally, marshaled all the arguments she had thought of to counter
Catherine's reason's why she shouldn't and couldn't.

 "O.K. We'll have to keep the Order out of it, though. You know that. But you
tell me what you need and I'll see what I can do. Have you checked to see if
they've left the country yet?"

 Jasmine was so surprised that she just stood dumbfounded for a minute.

 "Jasmine? Are you still there?"

 "Um...yes. I mean no. Shubata is sending a computer here. As soon as I get
it, I'll start working on it."

 "O.K. Give me what info you can now and I'll see what I can find out on this
end and call me as soon as you find anything out. Where are you, by the way?"

 "I'm at the Ryudo house." She shifted into her 'report' mode, gave Catherine
what little facts they had gathered so far.

 "O.K. Not much to work with yet, but I'll see what I can do. Call me soon,
honey and give my love to your sister. And Jasmine, be careful. Please."

 "Thanks, Catherine. I will." She hit the disconnect button, smiled as
Elenora and Owaru came into the room.

 "So, what do we do first?" Owaru asked.

 "Order lunch and get to know each other better while we wait for the
computer to get here. What would you like?" Jasmine answered.


 The computer arrived just as they where finishing lunch. Jasmine sent
Elenora and Owaru off to visit the neighbors and see if anyone noticed
anything unusual going on at the Ryudo house this morning as she set it up,
hacked her way into the linked commercial airport computers searching the
private flight logs. All but ten where small private props. She check the ten
Leers against the list of companies that had connections to any of the
corporations that composed The Four Sisters. All ten were and each one headed
for a different part of the country. She frowned as she started at the
screen, waved but didn't look up as Owaru and Elenora came back in.

 "Well?" Jasmine asked as Elenora and Owaru came to hover at her shoulder.

 "Someone saw a moving truck pull in around ten, but didn't remember the
company name. Just that it was blue." Owaru answered, made a little noise of
shock as he figured out the information on the screen. "How are we going to
check all those places?"

 "A blue moving truck?" Jasmine tapped both forefingers on the table before
the key board, narrowed her eyes, then closed them.

 "Yes. So how..." He stopped when Elenora put a hand on his arm, shook her
head and brought her finger to her lips.

 "What?" He whispered.

 "She's thinking. Don't distract her." Elenora answered softly.

 Jasmine had what Catherine called a 'functioning eidetic memory'. If she
focused and concentrated, she could remember in detail anything she had ever
seen.

 Jasmine's eyes snapped open as she reached over and wrote quickly on the pad
of paper by the mouse. "We passed it. I remember looking at it, there was
something off about it."

 Owaru frowned at the unfamiliar English characters, but recognized the set
of letters and numbers that could only come off a plate.

 "Owaru, phone book?." She gave a small, hard smile at the screen, copied it.

 "What about the planes?" He asked as he came back in from the hall with the
listings.

 "Smoke screen probably. First we have to find where that truck went."

 Matsuri staggered in, looking groggy while Jasmine was chatting with the
dispatch operator for the moving company.

 "Owaru?" She asked in a confused little voice, blinking at the two
strangers.

 Jasmine didn't pause in her conversation, just pointed at Owaru then the
door.

 Owaru hurried to his cousin, guided her gently out and toward the living
room, Elenora following behind.

 "Where's Hajime? Is he O.K.?" Matsuri asked as she leaned against her
cousin.

 "I don't know, Matsuri-chan. Can you tell me what happened?" Owaru answered
as he sat them both down on the sofa, Elenora pausing in the doorway.

 "There was someone with a gun in the window. He was going to shoot Hajime!
Where is he, Owaru-kun? Where's Tsuzuku and Amaru?" Her eye's pleaded with
him to tell her they where O.K.

 "I don't know, Matsuri-chan." He gathered her close in a gentle hug and
rocked her back and forth. "But we're looking for them. We'll find them and
get them back, don't worry. We'll get them back if I have to kill every
single one of of those bastards that took them!"

 Elenora went back into the kitchen, giving the cousins some privacy to share
their worry, shook her head at her sisters raised eyebrows as she continued
with the dispatcher. Elenora checked the tea pot, took it and a clean cup
back to the living room.

 "I did what?" Matsuri was asking Owaru when she came back in.

 "You glowed all pale green and then you were better." Owaru grinned at her.
"Guess you're a dragon after all."

 "Here, Toba Matsuri." Elenora offered her the warm tea cup and a formal bow,
hoping to make a good first impression and gain Matsuri's trust.

 "This is Tanaka Elenora. That was her sister Jasmine in the kitchen." Owaru
introduced them.

 "Thank-you." Matsuri gave her a tentative smile as she took the cup, held it
between her hands. "So, who are you and what are you doing here?" She asked
in her straight forward way.

 "Just another dragon here to lend a hand." Elenora answered with a wry
smile.

 "Really?" Matsuri stared, not sure what to think.

 "Really. My sister is the proud owner of that scarf that was giving your
cousin Tsuzuku fits."

 "Really?" Matsuri stood up, headed for the kitchen. She wanted to take a
good look at the woman who had turned Tsuzuku's head.

 Jasmine was leaning back against the table edge, head down and arms crossed
thinking when she became aware of Matsuri studying her from the doorway,
Elenora and Owaru standing behind her.

 She looked up, smiled. "Do I pass inspection, Toba Matsuri?"

 Matsuri blushed and nodded. "I didn't mean to stare. You are beautiful, just
like Tsuzuku-kun said."

 "You honor me too much, Matsuri-san." She bowed to hide her blush. Tsuzuku
thought she was beautiful? "So, are you feeling better?" She asked.

 "Hai. Have you found my cousins yet?"

 Jasmine nodded, her face serious. "Maybe. Or at least a solid lead."