CHAPTER 23: Finally some progress...

Celeste
After talking to Daddy earlier in the day, I knew I had some big decisions to make. I end up spending the entire day in my room thinking. When I say the entire day, I mean, the entire day. Daddy got worried about me when I didn't come down for dinner, and he hadn't seen me at lunchtime either, so he brought dinner up to me. I think it was more a reason to stop in and check on me than anything, but once he was satisfied that I wasn't an emotional wreck, he excused himself to give me my space. He did insist that I eat though.
I bring the food over to my desk, and eat while I returned e - mails. I didn't realize how hungry I really was until I took that first delicious bite. Oh, I love that man so much right now. What would I do without him? Just as I'm about to take the last bite, my phone rings on the nightstand. I put my fork down and trot across the room.
"Who in the world would be calling me at this hour? It's almost 9:00 p.m." I grab my phone and look at the screen. My smile fades as I answered. "Mr. Bianchi, so good to hear from you. It's a bit sooner than I expect."
"Hello, my angel. I'm sorry to call so late, but I thought you would want this information as soon as I was done."
"Oh, no, it's fine. I am just so grateful for your help. I am forever in your debt for this."
"Please, Celeste. You are family now. No debts required."
"You know you sure are sweet, for such a tough guy."
"Well, don't tell anyone, huh. It'll ruin my reputation."
"Hahah. Of course. It's our little secret."
"Now, on to business. I have quite a bit of information. I'm going to e - mail you a file. Do you have a safe place to open it?"
"Yes. I have a secure line here. I'm guessing it will be an encrypted file?"
"You know me so well." I grab a pen and paper and write down the codes needed to access the file once I have it.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Bianchi."
"Celeste, if you need me for anything after you decide how to handle this, I am just a phone call away."
"Thank you, but you know how tough I am. He messed with the wrong one this time."
"I'm just happy to be on your good side, my angel."
I laugh, thank him again, and we say our goodbyes. Shortly, I am staring at the file that is going to turn the tables for the entire paranormal community. I set about the task of accessing it. It takes some time, but when I am finally able to, I am astonished at the amount of information I am looking at. This man, nor any of his lackeys, has any place they could hide from me now. Mr. Bianchi sure is thorough. I cannot tear myself away from the computer, so I decide to just call Daddy. I tell him I have everything we need on Donnelly and most of the others involved with the CPE. I can almost hear the smile come across his face. I ask him to call a meeting for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, and I would present the information to everyone. He eagerly agrees and hangs up the phone. I am guessing he went straight into letting everyone know.
I am up for most of the night, organizing this file and making everyone packets. I fall asleep around three or so, but it is a peaceful sleep. I have done what I set out to do. I am happy knowing that with this information, we can save our community from this maniac. With this knowledge, and the packets done, slumber comes easily.

Ricco
The morning after my call from Celeste, I eat breakfast and wrap some up for her. She isn't at breakfast, and if I know her, she was up all night preparing for the meeting, so she slept in. I grab her some coffee, in a very large travel mug, and head toward the conference room. When I get there, who do I see? Celeste. Already hard at work, putting packets down at everyone's seats.
"Morning, Daddy."
"Morning, Celeste. I thought you slept in."
"Well, I did sleep in a little. I missed breakfast."
"I thought you might have," I say as I set a plate and the coffee down at her chair. "Sit. Eat. I'll finish passing those out."
"Ah. You're a lifesaver." She immediately digs in. "What's with the giant coffee?"
"Well, if I know my daughter, and I do, she was probably up all night working on these packets for the meeting." I flail one around in the air for emphasis.
"Guilty as charged. I just couldn't sleep until it was done."
"Ergo, the giant amount of caffeine I brought you."
"It is definitely needed today. The meeting will start in a bit. Are you ready to hear all this?"
"I am beyond ready. I hope that what Bianchi gave us will put a stop to the violence paranormals have to endure for one jealous idiot's revenge."
Surprisingly, she smiles at me. "I think you will be happy with my data collection here."
I open one of the packets. "Daddy! Put that down. It's only fair that everyone sees it at the same time."
I quickly close the packet and sneer at my daughter. "Who taught you to be such a wise and fair ruler?"
She smiles over her coffee mug at me. "Just good genes, I guess."
"Very funny. Fine, I'll wait."
It is almost time for the meeting, and everyone starts trickling in. I am antsy waiting to see this information. I watch Celeste talk among heirs and members alike, and I am so proud of her. She has so much initiative. Maybe she actually will take my seat one day. I can't stop the smile that spreads on my face just thinking about it.
"Are you ready to get started?" Celeste asks me, bringing me out of my daydream.
"Absolutely." I stand and ask everyone to take their seats. "All right, as I told you last night, Celeste got a late - night phone call from Bianchi about our current situation. She has put together a packet with all the information that has been gathered. I'm going to turn the floor over to her, so that she can go through everything with us. Celeste?"
"Thank you, Daddy. Now, the packet that is in front of you is what I compiled from the information sent to me. I'm going to go through everything page by page to explain the information, and hopefully spark something in your memory for anything we can add to what we already have. My end goal with this is to be able to have enough information to formulate an effective plan of action to shut the CPE down for good. For my father's sake, I hope to find a solution that doesn't involve me ripping him to shreds, although I'm not ruling it out entirely."
Everyone laughs, but I don't think they know she's probably serious. She then starts to go through the packet. She explains everything in great detail. She has home, vacation, and safe house addresses for Donnelly. She also has names and addresses for what Donnelly calls his generals. These are the people who handle the day - to - day operations so that Donnelly doesn't have to get his hands dirty. She even has names and addresses for enforcers throughout the country. This information is so thorough. Future attack sites, enforcer meeting sites, weapons and technology that they have, everything. She has done an amazing job with this. She has even become familiar enough with this information to answer all the questions that the council throws at her.
"Now I know this is a lot of information, but if anything comes to mind that I haven't covered, please let me know and I will add to this."
"I don't think there is anything else to know about them except their blood type, Celeste. Well done."
"Thank you, Uncle Anthony. I hope this will make it possible to stop them before anyone else gets hurt."
"If it's not, I don't know what would be." I snicker at Anthony as he makes Celeste blush with this comment.
"Does anyone have any final questions?" A round of shaking heads looks back at me. "All right, in that case, we will — " I am interrupted by the conference room doors flying open. "Ty, Devan. We are in a meeting here. Can this wait?"
Ty is the first to speak. "No, it can't, Mr. Torelli. We have a perimeter breach. Multiple signatures. Coming in from the west wall."