There was a long pause of awkward silence after Kayla knocked. Summer never knew when the appropriate timing to knock again was, but luckily the door opened a crack before she could decide. Just a crack, though.

  “Who are you?” the girl inside demanded, with great suspicion.

  Summer slipped on her usual customer service smile out of habit. "Hi there! I'm Summer, and this is my partner Kayla. We are investigating a certain agency and we got a tip you might have some information for us."

  The girl immediately seemed relieved, opening the door to let them in. "Thank goodness you came," she told them, "You have no idea how scared I was. No one actually came to my apartment, but I saw people in the hallways, in the alley, and they were always watching me whenever I went outside to do anything. I've been too nervous to even leave."

  Kayla made sure the door was firmly shut and locked after hearing this, taking an extra glance out the peephole for good measure. "No one is approaching yet," she reported.

  "We were also worried you might be targeted," Summer admitted. At least, Harper and Ashton had been. She hadn't even known enough to be worried about it, "Can you tell us anything about the people watching you? The rest of our team is making sure the area is safe."

  "It was always a different person," the girl explained, "At first I thought I was just being paranoid, but their watching became more and more obvious. At one point I swear I even heard one calling my name. It's really creepy, too. One time I met one of the people again, but they seemed normal and they had no idea who I was. It's like they were possessed."

  Possessed? A chill ran down Summer's spine as she recalled the odd feeling of her emotions being taken over by Queen Heart. If that was just an influence, what would actual possession be like? There was no way this could be her again. By now, she likely had taken the serum and was completely powerless.

  "What makes you so sure they were possessed instead of just lying?" Summer asked. It was good to be safe. Maybe their informant just had a vivid imagination.

  "It is because of that line in the contract," she admitted, "The whole reason I even reported it, actually. It said something about whoever signed the contract would become a pawn and lose their free will."

  "It says that openly in the contract?" Kayla questioned, startled.

  "Well, it is in really tiny print in the middle of a bunch of legal jargon," their informant explained, "I'm not even sure how I saw it myself, but I can show you."

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  "Did you sign it?" Kayla asked, her tone wary.

  "Of course not!" she denied immediately, "but someone I know did and I am really worried. I know you guys said you are investigating, but is there anything you can do to help my friend?"

  As she spoke she shuffled around in a drawer before pulling out a file folder with "danger" written on it several times in red marker. She looked like she was holding out a live grenade as she handed it over to them. Summer took the folder just as carefully. They had already decided to read the contract if the opportunity presented itself, but what if it had some kind of mysterious power that compelled her to sign it?

  "Kayla, just in case, make sure I don't have anything to write with while I look this over," Summer ordered, her tone conveying just how grave she found the situation, "I am counting on you to save me if things go wrong."

  The girl gulped as she watched them, carried away by the mood. "Is it really that dangerous?"

  "We can't afford to take any chances," Kayla replied, carefully avoiding looking at the contract as Summer pulled it out.

  No reaction so far, just looking at the paper. It seemed like a perfectly normal contract, though she questioned the idea behind a name like Rook Agency. "Where is the fine print you were talking about?" Summer asked the informant.

  She slid over and pointed to a box full of tiny light gray words on the third page of the contract. It was full of large words that Summer was convinced weren't even real until it got to one bulletin. It was definitely the one that had caused the alarm.

  "By signing this contract you agree to be under the power of Checkmate and become his pawn. At any time or location, you will be subject to his complete control with no recollection of the events that occur under it."

  Checkmate. Something about the name mentioned seemed familiar to Summer, but the words themselves had an ominous feeling to them. Even if the rest of the contract was normal, Summer was confident that bulletin was not. She didn't feel compelled to sign anything, so the idea had likely been to stop anyone from noticing the phrase in the first place until it was too late. She slid the contract back into the folder carefully before speaking.

  "Do you think there might be a power that can bind people through contracts?" she asked out loud, "If the contract isn't necessary, I don't know why they would bother using such a roundabout method."

  "If that is true, we may need to scan the entire contract for any other hidden clauses," Kayla pointed out, "We can't let our guards down just because we found one. Even if it is the most dangerous, there might be more."

  "You can take it," the girl said quickly, "If it can be used to help stop the agency and save my friend, I will help you in any way I can!"

  “You have already been a big help,” Summer assured her, “We need to meet up with the rest of the team to know what to do for sure, but if these guys are as dangerous as you described we can’t just leave you here unprotected.”

  “This is a bit late, but can I ask your name?” Kayla added.

  “Oh, right,” the girl said as if she had just barely realized they skimmed past that, “My name is Kimberly. Thank you so much for helping me.”