The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Here we go again ?
"Guys, did we just hear Keri being captured again ?" asked Tom's voice, sounding worried.
"Yes. We are going to follow," said Ilya. "They are going to a place called Control. It sounds interesting," he explained.
"Oh, Okay," said Tom's voice, sounding uncertain. "If you're sure," he added.
"Yes, we are," said Ilya confidently. He looked at Aneisha and smiled. "Coming ?" he asked. She took a deep breath and nodded, following him out into the corridor.
Dan was doing his best to move along with Oscar's help. He knew they were moving too slowly, but he was already tired. He had no strength due to the blood loss and tiredness. "Someone's coming !" hissed Carrie. She looked around and found a door. She used her passcard to open it and helped Oscar to drag Dan into the room, making no pretence of helping him to walk. Oscar lowered Dan gently to the floor as Carrie pulled the door shut behind them. She placed her spy-pod to the door to listen to what was going on outside. "I think they're heading to the cell," she whispered to the others. "All hell's going to break loose in a minute."
Dan sat on the floor, trying to get his breath back as quietly as possible. Sweat was trickling down the side of his face which he tried to wipe off with his sleeve before the others noticed. His leg was throbbing and the last thing he wanted to do was move, but in a few minutes, they would have no alternative. He looked up at Carrie listening at the door. He didn't need the Spy Pod to hear the commotion which broke out in the corridor. "They've gone ! Start a search ! They can't have got far !" yelled a man's voice.
"No kidding !" muttered Dan under his breath.
He didn't see the glance passed between Carrie and Oscar. Carrie raised her eyebrows at Oscar. Oscar shook his head. Carrie turned on the lights. "OK, let's see what we've got to play with," she suggested. The room was lined with metal boxes. Oscar pulled one from a shelf. It was locked. Carried pulled off another. "They're all locked," she said. "It would be nice to know what's inside," she said, looking at the others. "We're probably better off staying in here for a bit. There's too much action outside at the moment," she suggested. Oscar nodded his agreement.
"Give one to me. I might be able to open one," said Dan. He just wanted to be useful.
Carrie gave a secret smile to Oscar who handed down Dan his box. "Yeah, give it a go," said Oscar. He reached into his backpack and handed Dan a multi-function tool. Glad to have something to concentrate on, Dan got to work on the lock. The others started to hunt through the storage room to see what else they could find. They came to a metal safe set into the wall. "This looks electronic," said Oscar. He touched his ear. "Guys, we could do with some help opening this safe," he said. After listening to some instructions he placed his Spy Pod against the safe door.
Dan glanced up at the two older agents as they watched figures spilling across Oscar's Spy Pod screen. He became curious when they both stiffened, obviously listening to something through their earpieces. He knew that look well. Something was wrong. "What's happened ?" he asked quietly.
Oscar looked over at him, obviously wondering whether or not to tell him something. Dan sighed. "I've got a dodgy leg. I haven't lost mental capacity," said Dan resignedly.
Oscar smiled slightly and said, "Keri has just been captured by the staff here. The other two are undetected. They're going to follow Keri to somewhere called 'Control'. Have you ever been there ?" Oscar asked him.
"No. Never heard about it either," said Dan. He wanted to go chasing after Keri, but there was zero chance of that happening right now. He gritted his teeth and tried at least to finish off something he could do. "Got it !" he hissed, finally opening the box. After a glance back at the Spy Pod which was still displaying lists of numbers, Oscar and Carrie came over for a look inside Dan's box.
"So, what have we got ?" asked Carrie. They each reached inside and pulled out something. "I've got a file with lists of bank account details," said Carrie.
"Lists of peoples' names, phone numbers and descriptions of what they do," said Oscar, glancing through his folder.
Dan opened a little box. "Photographs and jewellery," said Dan. He pulled out a silver locket and opened it. Inside was a picture of two little girls. "These are someone's personal things," he said. "I wonder if these were their children ?" he asked. He glanced through the photographs and found more pictures of the two girls as they got steadily older. There were other pictures of what he assumed must be family members. Everyone in the photographs was smiling at the person behind the camera. He guessed that person must be another criminal. Still, they were entitled to their own life. He wondered if they were dead. What had happened to those children ? He had never, ever felt sorry for a criminal before. They deserved to be punished for their crimes as far as he was concerned, but this was much worse than any legal punishment. A person's life and whole existence had been stolen from them. Nobody deserved that, no matter what they had done. He felt shocked by his own surge in empathy for this person he had never met. Dan did not consider himself a very imaginative person and was hardly the touchy-feely member of the team. "This is sick !" he said.
Oscar and Carrie looked at one another. "We're with you on that !" said Carrie, screwing up her face. Oscar nodded in agreement. There was a click behind them and they glanced around to see the safe door swinging open. "Thanks Tom !" said Carrie. She rolled her eyes and grinned, "Okay, thanks Rose as well !" she added. This made Dan smile back. There was obviously some friendly competition going on back at base. At least he hoped it was friendly.
Oscar and Carrie walked over to the safe. "Ooh !" said Carrie, her eyes wide.
"What's inside ?" asked Dan.
Carrie reached inside and pulled out a gun wrapped in a plastic bag, like an evidence bag used by the police. "Weapons," said Carrie. "Lots and lots of weapons," she added, pulling out one gun after another, as well as knives and grenades. She looked at Oscar. "What shall we do with this lot ?" she asked him.
Oscar looked thoughtful. "Take anything we're prepared to use and then put the rest back," he said. He picked up a small device and tossed it in his hand. "This is a time delay explosive," he said. "Let's set this going with a good long time delay and blow up everything in the safe," he said.
"Good idea," agreed Carrie. Dan nodded his agreement. The two agents pulled out a few devices and put them in their bags. Dan noticed that neither of them chose any guns. He was quite relieved. He hadn't been sure if older agents would have to use deadly force. He didn't feel ready for that yet.
Oscar came over and handed Dan a couple of small, flat discs. "Stun grenades," said Oscar. "They're not too heavy. You might be able to use them," he said. Dan nodded and stuffed them into his shirt pocket. He was relieved he hadn't been relegated to being the invalid within the team. Carrie fiddled with the device Oscar had been tossing in his hand, before placing it back in the safe.
"There, that should do it," she said. "I've set it with a two hour timer. Do you think that will be enough ?" she asked the other two.
"God I hope so !" said Dan. "I'm hoping to be long gone by then !" he said. Oscar nodded in agreement. Carrie swung the safe door shut and they heard it reset.
"Now what ?" Carrie asked, touching her earpiece. She and Oscar listened for a moment. Dan saw them both giving him a calculating look. "Can you go much further Dan ?" Carrie asked.
Dan took a deep breath. There was no point beating about the bush. "Not for much longer," he admitted. "I'm too exhausted."
Carried nodded without comment and carried on talking to the team at base. "Dan can't make it very far," she reported. There was a pause. "No, there's no way we can collect or photograph everything in this store. There's masses of it," she said, waving at the rows and rows of shelves, stacked high with metal boxes. "We would take a week to open them all and nobody is going to carry that lot out of here. You need an electronic source of the information. It looks like even Perfect Match don't come down here very often," she added. "There must be electronic copies of all this stuff somewhere. Why don't you start searching for it ?" she asked.
"Okay, what do you want us to do ?" asked Oscar. He and Carrie listened to their instructions. "Okay, but then we have to get Dan out," said Oscar.
"Don't forget Keri," said Dan. "You could stick me somewhere out of the way while you help the others," he suggested. He didn't want to be the reason they couldn't help Keri.
"Let's see how far we get," said Carrie. "Tom and Rose want us to install a device to let them hack into the computer network," she told Dan. "We need to find a computer terminal."
"I know one we could use," said Oscar. "It's in the supervisor's room in the translation suite."