//------------------------------//
// 11: Trigonometry Only Gets You So Far 
// Story: Loony 
// by totallynotabrony 
//------------------------------//

The parade crowd continued to shuffle into the stadium, oblivious of the Shades and the bomb truck they had just defused.

While nopony deserving was in custody as a result, stopping a weapon from killing a lot of innocent civilians was definitely a victory.

“We should have a Shades-only pub for celebrating moments like this,” Harv suggested.

“An excellent idea,” Proficient seconded.

“I think I’d rather celebrate myself to sleep,” Roxy commented, yawning.

“Me too,” agreed Arc, mirroring her yawn.  With the bomb crisis, neither of them had slept the night before.

“Ya see Prof, that's what we've got to look forward to when we find our own special someponies,” said Harv.

One of Proficient’s ears tilted sideways. “No offense, you two, but you look like a pair of plastic bookends left out too close to the hearth. Go get some shut eye.”

Arc and Roxy nodded gratefully. They climbed into one of the Shade agency vehicles and pulled off into the night.  It was a fight to stay awake on the drive home.  Arc parked the government car in the driveway.  Showers for both of them were quick, and they were in bed before the sun set.

Sleep came nearly instantaneously, but not before a kiss.  Tired as they both were, it still carried on for several long, enjoyable seconds.  Roxy snuggled in closer and pecked him once more on the cheek. “And that's for not failing.  Good boy.”

He was so quiet she thought he might have already fallen asleep, but then she heard him whisper: “Woof, woof…”

They fell asleep smiling.

It was a pleasant beginning to spending more than twelve hours comatose.  Even in the late morning the next day, neither of them were keen to get up.  Being the Saturday after stopping a bomb plot was the perfect excuse to lie in a warm bed, cuddle, nibble each other’s ears, trade long lazy kisses and talk about absolutely nothing of any consequence to anypony but them.

Early that afternoon, they were both out of bed but still relaxing.  The phone wasn’t ringing and it was easy to forget problems outside the walls of their house.

However, the last meal for either of them was a meager food cart lunch the previous day.

“I feel like going out,” Roxy decided, looking inside the fridge.

Arc let out a mock sigh.  “Fine, I’ll put on some pants.”

They were both dressed for public quickly, although not too extensively.  Going out to the garage, Roxy paused in front of her car.  “Oh, that’s right; I need an oil change.”

“We can drop it off and get lunch while we wait,” Arc suggested.

The government car was parked in front of his side of the garage, so Arc got into that instead of his personal car.  They already trusted him to take it home, so he was not worried about a few more miles out of the way.

He followed Roxy to the dealership.  A few minutes after that, they were on the way to lunch.  Arc suggested a Neighponese grill that was only a few minutes away.

At the restaurant, conversation never really took off.  The time they waited on the food was mostly spent with their hooves touching across the table.  As hungry as they both were, neither of them interrupted eating with words, either.

In fact, there wasn’t much said at all until they were both finished and waiting on the check when Roxy’s phone rang.

She glanced at the screen with some confusion.  “It’s the lab.”

“On Saturday?” Arc asked.

Roxy shrugged and answered it.  “Hello?”

It was Carbon.  “Roxy, somepony broke in.  There’s a lot of things smashed in our room.  If you’re able, you might want to get down here.”

“Do they know who did it?”  Her expression caught Arc’s attention.

“No idea,” said Carbon.  “The police are here.  They say the video from the security cameras went to static.”

“I’ll be there,” Roxy told him.

“That didn’t sound good,” Arc observed.

“I hope it’s not as bad as it might be,” Roxy replied.

As soon as the bill was paid, they headed to the lab.  Security wouldn’t let Arc inside without credentials.  He waited in the car while Roxy went to survey the break in.

She met Carbon at the door to outer room of their combined workspace.  A few police officers were standing around, although none of them appeared willing to dig through the biomedical debris on the faint chance of turning up a clue.

“I’ve already told them what I know and checked my projects for anything missing,” Carbon shook his head.  “I can’t imagine who would do this.”

Stepping into the room, Roxy was appalled by how thorough the mess was.  Cabinets were open, contents spilling out.  Countertops had been swept clear.  Bottles were open and spilled.  Expensive equipment was damaged beyond repair.

Her heart sank as broken test tubes crunched under her hooves.  She headed into the back room.  A police detective was there, looking about as bewildered at the destruction as Roxy.

There were a few questions she had to answer.  Roxy gave her name and some basic information about her job.  Checking through everything that had been ruined, she found a docket for tests she had been in the process of running.  It was difficult to tell which projects would still be viable and which had been contaminated.  Likely all would have to be redone.

The one Roxy was most concerned about, however, wasn’t on the list: Smoke Screen’s cigarette.  Even after a few minutes carefully searching the small room, she couldn’t find it anywhere.

But truthfully, that didn’t surprise her very much.  In fact, it was beginning to make a lot of sense.  How would somepony know which room was Roxy’s workspace?  Why, they had probably dropped a conspicuous object with a tracking spell on it, hoping that she would find it.

Smoke Screen had probably not specifically intended for Roxy to find the cigarette butt and take it to her lab, but Roxy would bet that Smoke Screen knew she was being watched and purposely left some bait, if nothing else just to see what the Shades would do with it.

Reporting to the police officer that nothing seemed to be missing, Roxy went out into the hallway.  Carbon was still there, leaning on the wall.

“It’s discouraging, isn’t it?” he said.

“Yeah.”  Roxy nodded.

“I don’t know why somepony would just wreck things like that.”  Carbon’s voice shifted to a grumble.  “We’re working on things that effectively benefit the whole world.  Destroying that kind of knowledge is not only wasteful, but senseless.”

“Your work must different than mine,” Roxy joked.  Neither of them were supposed to be experimental researchers, and Roxy certainly wasn’t as passionate about the drudging day to day tests she did.

Carbon summoned a smile.  “I suppose.  I might be taking this too seriously.”

Roxy said goodbye to him and began to navigate the police tape to head back outside.  Her phone rang and she paused to answer it.

It was Arc, and his voice was not pleasant.  “We might have a problem.”

Roxy began to walk more quickly towards the exit.  “What’s going on?”

“I just got a call from Tammy.  She somehow learned that a sailor went missing.  This sailor is somepony that I work with at MWB.”

“I’ll be out in just a minute,” Roxy told him.

Arc hung up the phone.  Gunner’s Mate Seabreeze’s disappearance coinciding with Roxy’s lab being vandalized made it appear that Sisal Twist’s operation had not been set back at all by the failure of the bomb at the stadium.  Or perhaps this was instead their retaliation to it.

Roxy arrived and got in the car.  Arc started the engine and they headed for Shade Headquarters.  The possibility of a kidnapping was a crisis, but it was hard to feel the same way about it as the bomb plot.  It was true that Arc knew Seabreeze, but not well.  It was also only one pony in a large city, not hundreds.

Plus, Arc told himself, it wasn’t the first emergency he’d endured this week.  Maybe he was already becoming jaded by the job.  Or perhaps just desensitized.

When they arrived, no one at headquarters seemed too concerned about one sailor, either.  Arc and Roxy went to Tammy to get more information.

Seeing Tammy there Saturday evening after spending so long supporting activities all day Friday meant that she might be working as hard as anypony.

“Do you sleep here?” Arc joked.

“No, but that might be easier,” Tammy grumbled.  “I’ve been asking for help but admin hasn’t found anypony yet.  This is what I get for taking a salary job.”

Going to business, she turned her computer screen to show her guests.  “I was able to get a few security camera feeds.  Based on intercepts, I can account for where Ms. Seabreeze was up until about two hours ago.”

Grainy black and white video showed somepony who was apparently Seabreeze patrolling an empty pier.  Tammy had pulled up a digital map to locate where.

Based on body language, it looked like the job wasn’t very stimulating despite the guard kit she wore.  Seabreeze had said as much to Arc.  As they watched her pace back and forth, the video flashed with static.

“And that’s the end of it,” Tammy said.  “When the video cut out, she disappeared.”

“The security cameras at my lab also had problems,” Roxy noted.

“I think it’s become clear that everything Sisal Twist has done is centered at or within a few miles of this Navy base,” Tammy noted.  “We have to figure out what she’s after.”

“Is there some way we can track Seabreeze?” Arc asked.  “Hair or something?”

Tammy nodded.  “I think so; I’ll ask Granite.  But where are you going to get some of her hair?”

Arc paused.  “Well…I can search her cubicle.”

“You do that.”  Tammy turned to pick up the phone.  “I’ll have Granite meet you at the base.”

Leaving the building, Arc and Roxy got back in the car and headed for MWB.  After going through security and making up an excuse for being there so late on a Saturday, Arc made his way to the office.

It took him a moment to remember where Seabreeze’s desk was.  The cubicle was unadorned, containing only a few pens on the desk.  There was a black uniform jacket over the chair, apparently left there for cooler weather.  As much of that as there was in San Palomino, anyway.

Arc hesitated before touching any of somepony else’s things.  Remembering that he’d recently done worse with fake IDs and lying to security, he picked up the jacket and looked through the lining.  Sure enough, there were a few hairs that matched Seabreeze’s color and length.  Sticking them to a piece of tape for safekeeping, Arc replaced the jacket and left the office.

When he came out of the building, the sun was getting towards twilight.  There might be an hour or two of daylight left.  Back in the car, Arc and Roxy headed to the meeting with Granite.  Tammy had given them a place outside the gate to rendezvous.

Granite had credentials for them both, although he noted that Arc already had some.

“Left them in the other car,” Arc explained.

Granite muttered something about being prepared and got into the government car with Arc and Roxy.  The three of them approached the gate.

“We’re here about a sailor’s disappearance,” Arc said as the guard examined their identification.  He found the authorizations satisfactory and waved them through.

It wasn’t difficult to find the empty pier where Seabreeze had been.  Arc didn’t see anything significant about the area.  Perhaps that was part of why she hadn’t seemed thrilled about guarding it.

Down the way were a few destroyers and some auxiliary ships.  A few miscellaneous warehouses and service buildings holding who knew what backed the piers.  It would be nice if these didn’t have dead bodies inside like the train yard warehouse.

“Tammy said you had a sample of hair?” Granite asked.

Arc produced it and gave it to him.  Granite took it and knelt, unpacking his kit.  Arc and Roxy waited and watched, for all the good it did them.

The tracking spell seemed like an amalgamation of  leaves, strange trinkets, and perhaps some actual magic input.  It was difficult to tell.

Arc tried a joke about some of the ingredients.  “What are you making over there, the Koltucky Fried Sweet Potatoes secret recipe of eleven secret herbs and spices?”

Granite gave him a look.  “Screw you.”  After a moment he added, “And it’s not eleven.  The real recipe is different.”

“How do you know that?” Roxy asked.

“You spend enough time with Shades, you learn these things.”

After a few more minutes, Granite produced a piece of quartz with an eyelet that he hung from the chain he always seemed to be carrying.  He dangled it in front of him, carefully watching it.  After a moment, the crystal seemed to sway all by itself and pull like a dog tugging at a leash.

“Just a simple direction finding spell is all I can do right here,” Granite said.  He pointed in the direction the crystal did.  “She’s that way.”

It was almost directly at the setting sun: west across the bay.

“Out to sea?” Roxy muttered.

“How far?” Arc asked Granite.

Granite shrugged.  “Like I said, it’s just a simple spell.”

“Well then, we’ll triangulate it,” Arc decided.

“Math?” Granite asked.

Arc smirked.  “We all have our talents.”

Opening a compass app on his smartphone, Arc took a bearing in the direction the crystal pointed.  The three of them got in the car and drove up the wharf as far as they could go in a straight line, Arc carefully observing the direction.  Stopping there, he took another bearing on the crystal.

With some quick calculations, he figured the distance, if not the exact location.  “It's about a mile from the pier where we were.  The bay is less than two miles wide at this point.  I’d say they took her to Sisal’s boat.”

“We don’t know anything about the boat,” Granite reminded him.

Arc nodded, frowning.

“What about the seaponies?” Roxy said.  “If anypony could quickly find a boat given a vague set of coordinates, it would be them.”

“We don’t have anything else to go on,” agreed Granite.

So they called upon the seaponies.