Epilogue

"So you let her go?" Gosalyn yelped. "But you shoulda gone after her!"

"That wouldn't have been good," Drake reminded her. "Remember? Evil Negaverse Maui and stuff?"

"Oh yeah. NegaMaui would probably not be a good thing," Gosalyn wrinkled her beak. "So what happened with Rubani and the Orchid?"

"He gave me two thousand dollars for getting it back," Maui grinned. "And per my recommendation, he donated it to a museum......." His shoulders slumped. "A museum that, three months later, loaned its collection of mythically-related items to the St. Canard Cultural Museum."

"Right," Drake nodded. "So what about Jeanie? Is she .... "

"By now, she's probably irreversably melded with her Negaverse counterpart."

"So there's no good Jeanie, bad Jeanie? It's just.... Jeanie?" Gosalyn blinked.

"Yeah, pretty much. ... The thing is, she still needs the Orchid because it augments the Negaverse energy and makes her stronger. ..... She probably managed to outwit me the other night because she already had it."

"Like Caravani and Babaluau," Gosalyn realized.

"Right," Drake mused. "But ...... what did she mean about finding something on your desk?"

"......I checked my desk as soon as I got back to my office," Maui explained. "The item I was missing was a letter from Aunt Willie, saying, among other things, how much SHUSH needed a new archivist. My guess is that Jeanie found the Negaverse portal here, in St. Canard, joined SHUSH, and started finding a way to track the Orchid through that."

"It makes sense," Drake nodded. "But .... there's still one problem."

"What's that?" Gosalyn asked.

Maui and Drake exchanged glances. "We don't know where she is...."

"Now," Gabriel Noonan instructed. "You need to learn proper stealth if you're going to be a field agent..."

"Stealth! Ha!" Jeanie giggled. "I'm a black-belt Caravani Ninja! I know all about stealth."

Gabriel rolled her eyes. "Not FOWL stealth."

"What's the difference? Oh, wait. I think I know FOWL stealth." With that, Jeanie clasped her hands together to make a mock gun, and pressed her back to the corridor wall, inching along the linoleum and humming themes from old spy movies. "TADA!"

Gabriel groaned. "No, no, no! ........ Wait here. I need a cup of coffee." Shaking her head, she strode into the employee break room, her heels clacking on the linoleum.

"Hey!" Steelbeak waved, looking up from where he was washing a mug in the tiny sink. "How goes da trainee?"

She closed the door. "Is this door soundproof?"

"Think so."

"Good."

With that, Gabriel Noonan screamed.

"C'mon, Gabriel," Steelbeak said soothingly, putting his hands on her shoulders. "It'll be okay. I mean, yer only teachin' her da ropes. Den ya won't hafta deal wit her at all."

Gabriel tensed, and Steelbeak flinched, expecting her to push him away. Instead, she sighed, sinking back onto his chest, staring at the drip of the employees' coffee-maker. Leaning her head back onto his collarbone, she looked up into his eyes. "You know who she is."

"...... Turncoat SHUSH agent, yeah." He blinked innocently, putting an arm around her waist. "Don' worry, if she rats us out, I'll take care of 'er. Ya know." He winked. "Take a bite outta crime." He snapped his beak and laughed.

"No, that's not what I meant," Gabriel said softly. "Who does she remind you of? The way she acts... her disregard for conventionality, her attitude problem ... the way she walks right in there, barely afraid of High Command..."

Steelbeak looked down at her, then pushed her out to arm's length, only to turn her around and press her to his chest in a tight hug. "..... She does kinda remind me of a soiten Archangel. Is dat why ya can't ..."

"I just can't even bear to see her. I know she'll end up like me if she stays here." Gabriel whispered into the crook of his neck, nuzzling her beak against his feathers.

"So ... what're ya gonna do?"

"Well, I remembered how you talked about your old superior, Trench, getting caught." She said slowly, stepping away and straightening her jacket.

"What's dat gotta do wit anythin'?"

"I'm going to set her up to take the same sort of fall ... then beg for her honorable discharge."

He blinked in surprise, then grinned, kissing her on the cheek. "I don' care what you say, Gabe," he said pointedly. "I don' think you've changed as mech as ya tink."