"Miss Dani?" Zachary's voice answered on the other side of the phone.

"Oh! Yes! Yes?" he then exclaimed.

"What is it!? Did you find something!?" he asked her, hope in his tone... and she could hear it.

He was honestly hoping to hear some concrete good news from her, and he was practically bouncing up and down internally.

"Anything at all???" he then asked further.

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment, before she heard a small sigh.

"All right then." he replied, the hope all but gone, but a hint of optimism still remaining.

"Thank you." he said.

"I'm sure you did all you could. And I appreciate it." he told her.

"Thank you very much for this. I will be waiting for this Rylie." he went on.

"What does she look like?" he asked.

"All right then." Zachary replied.

"I'll be on the lookout for her." he told Cass.

"And tomorrow? Okay then." he went on, before pausing.

"Thank you again so much." he then said further.

"It does mean a lot to me that you're putting in the effort to help me." he told her.

"Anyway, I'll not hold you up any longer." he said.

"Bye for now, Miss Dani."

The man who was sitting there paused for a moment when she asked her question, and then clarified what she meant.

"....hmmm." he mumbled.

"That's a very interesting question..." he admitted.

---

Zachary just sighed as he sat down in his couch, pondering what Cass had told him. He'd been sitting there for a couple of hours, milling things over.

"...it's a runaround, for sure." he said to himself.

"But if it gets me closer to finding her... then I'll do whatever it takes." he then told himself... moments before he heard a knock on his door.

"...eh?" he mumbled.

"Who could that be?" he wondered, making his way to the door and opening it.

"Uh.... I... uh..." Zachary stammered, his voice caught in his throat for a moment.

"Y... yes." he finally answered.

"And... and you are...?" he then asked, before it clicked.

"Wait... are you... R-Rylie?" he inquired.

"I thought you wouldn't be showing up until tomorrow." he commented further.

Zach was silent for a moment... before shaking his head.

"Ahhhh. Right, timezones WOULD screw things up." he said.

"No matter." he said.

"This actually works better for me." he told her.

"So you're here to escort me to someone that can help me with my dilemma?" he asked her.

"3 hours?" Zach asked.

"Hm. Well, I'd still better be a little quick with my packing." he reasoned, as he invited her in.

When she was inside, he shut the door behind her, and promptly made his way into his room.

"How long should I pack for!?" he called to Rylie.

"Between a week and 2 weeks! Clothes can be washed, after all, in case of an extended visit!" Rylie reasoned.

"All right!" Zach responded.

"Thank you for coming to get me." he then thanked her.

"Fair enough." Zach replied, checking on a few more things.

He then made his way to the den where she was, grabbing his laptop and cords, packing them into a separate shoulder bag.

"I'll still need to work and make money." he told her.

"Thankfully, I'm an online journalist, so I can work pretty much anywhere." he reasoned.

With that, he did another once-over of the place before nodding and bringing a backpack out.

"All right, clothes and necessities in there, electronics in the shoulder bag... I should have everything."

"Indeed." Zach agreed as he followed her to the front door.

Once there, he did one more lookaround, and paused.

"One second." he told her.

The then disappeared into the place for close to 5 minutes, before returning.

"Just wanted to make sure I didn't leave anything turned on or running or anything." he said sheepishly.

"But okay, let's go." he finished, as they stepped outside and he locked the door.

Zach just smiled.

"Bikes are awesome." he said.

"I love how fast they are, and how they zoom along." he told her.

"So there's no need for a cab, I assure you." he then said further with a small nod.

"....do you have the extra equipment, though?" he asked her.

"Like... another helmet, or anything else you might need." he then clarified.