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Julius drew a deep breath before he opened the door to the restaurant. It was a quite big room, full of small tables. The light was dim, just the sunset was glowing through the glass front at the far end, making everything and everyone present look dark and black.

Where was she? Feeling a little stupid he walked past some tables without recognizing her. How should he? He had never really seen her... grown up, that is. He only knew she had blond hair - and she could have dyed it or something.

A waiter walked over to him helpfully. "Are you looking for someone, Sir?"

"Ah, well yes ... do you know the table for Miss Chevalier? She said she made some reservations..." Oh how stupid he felt!

The waiter browsed a thick book. "No ... nothing for Chevalier, I'm sorry. Eight o'clock?"

Julius nodded. Had he lost his brain? Had it all been a Fata Morgana?

"The tables for two persons are all occupied, Sir. There must have been a mistake ... I am sorry."

Julius nodded again. "Yes, it seems so. Thank you for your effort."

He turned to go and bumped directly into a young girl coming back from the toilets. 'That's my day, definitely' he thought. 'what can go wrong goes wrong ...'

"I am sorry, did I hurt you?" The girl was so thin, he had to ask. She seemed very fragile.

"No, everything's all right." She smiled. "Wait a sec - you're Julius?"

"Cornelia?"

She didn't have to answer. She hugged him and pulled him by his hand over to their table. "Magnus was so kind to take this table by the window."

"So this was why I couldn't find you." To his surprise he managed a smile.

"Yes, I forgot, I'm sorry. But I just got the address for your email from this genealogy-site and it was quite late when I realized - you wouldn't have read it."

"No problem, I've got a blackberry. So I can email everywhere I go."

"Oh" Her smile faded. "Anyway, I'm so glad she researched a little - your partner, I mean."

"Delilah. Yes, I'm glad too." They reached their table. Julius cheered up a little. He had found her, she seemed nice. The only thing he was nervous about was -"

"This is Magnus Liver. Magnus - Julius, Julius - Magnus." They sat down. "I was quite nervous about today so I didn't want to go alone."

Julius laughed in an affected way. "Yes, of course." He wished he had been as clever as her - if he had only taken Delilah with him.

Magnus - despite his stupid name - turned out to be quite a nice guy. He was two years older than Julius but they had some nice chats. Julius thought he must be her boyfriend because he got jealous whenever the waiter made a joke with her. Julius wouldn't have mind - Magnus was nice, intelligent and quite good-looking. He shouldn't have to worry. But come to think about it, he always felt a sudden pain when Delilah would look a second too long at a boy ...

"So you entered this Academy when Mum and Dad died?" Cornelia asked.

"Yeah ... always thought it would be holidaying ... but I was just five at that time. You must've been seven then, right?"

Cornelia nodded. "Yes. Mum and Dad had sent me to this residential school if you remember. But no, you were too young. I always thought they'd killed you too." She looked at the white tablecloth for a moment stroking a blotch from their tomato soup.

"Luckily it didn't happen." Magnus interrupted the awkward silence. "And we're all here to enjoy making nasty little spots on the table for the laundry to complain about."

They laughed. It was strange, yet good to sit here together.

"I thought you'd bring Delilah with you, that girl that found her?" Magnus asked. "I would've liked to get to know her."

For some reason Julius didn't like his asking this. Why did he care?

"Oh yes, I'd like to thank her." Cornelia put her hand on his. "Can we meet her someday?"

"Well ... yeah, sure, why not. She's also member of the Academy, I'll get you a permission from Al - he's the boss." Julius answered. "I'm sure she'll happy to meet you, too."

"Yes, in fact, I am." A girl had suddenly appeared next to their table stroking a strand of brown hair out of her face. "Hi, I'm Delilah, nice to meet you."

They shook hands. Julius thought Magnus met her eyes a moment too long. And way too often.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you", Delilah continued. "But I need to borrow Julius", she grinned. "I promise I'll get him back to you in a good shape. But we need to go now, Scarlett needs us."

"I didn't even finish -" Julius cast a regretful look at his Lasagna.

"Julius, we're already late!"

Cornelia stuck with Delilah - women. "Yes. We can meet later. Sometimes work goes first. Sounds urgent. But you can call me if you want - here's my number." She gave him a calling card.

"And you can have my car - it'll get you quickly where you need to be." Magnus added and threw a key over to Julius.

"Why, thanks", Delilah said. "We'll let you know when we're back. You can have the Academy's in the meantime, right?" Another key changed person and they finally left the restaurant.

"Oh, I forgot to pay", Julius realized and wanted to get back, but Delilah tucked his sleeve and pulled him with her.

"Doesn't matter. They'll be able to pay for it, won't they?"

Julius suddenly stopped "Oh yes ..." He was speechless.

"What?"

"An Aston Martin! He gave me the key for an Aston Martin!"

"Men ..." Delilah muttered, taking the key from the still petrified Julius and opening the driver's door.

"Come ON, Julius, we don't have time forever?"

Slowly he got in and carefully shut the door. "What's happened anyway?"

"A boy has been kidnapped." Delilah answered revving the engine.