Chloe had always thought spy work would be glamorous and flashy. Infiltrating buildings, wearing disguises, fighting bad guys and whatnot. She never thought a whole operation would rest on answering emails. They spent most of the day in the library, refreshing the email accounts over and over. There had been no response. Of course, it was still early, but Chloe felt the possibility of another victim rested on this operation. How many people would be hurt while they waited for a response? Then she realised something. She groaned out loud and was immediately shushed.

"Alex," she said, "we're idiots."

"What? Why?"

"Because we emailed the business enquiries address."

"Yeah?"

"Why would the PA of the CEO answer business enquiries? We're more likely to get a response from a customer service rep."

Alex cursed, "yep. We are idiots. What now then?"

"What we're good at; infiltration. And this wasn't all for nothing. Your email posing as Professor Seymore gave me an idea."

Chloe went outside and found a red phone box. She called the number for the headquarter's front desk.

"Yes, hello!" she tried to sound a little more mature by deepening her voice slightly, "I was wondering if you could confirm the time of the university tour today?"

"There are multiple tours today, which one were you enquiring about?" said the woman on the other end.

"The next one…" Chloe said.

"Who is this? Which university are you affiliated with? I can't give you the information until I confirm a few details."

"You know what- I've just remembered it. Thanks!"

The girl hung up. Alex was waiting outside for her.

"It seems like they do multiple tours every day. I say we tag on the end of one."

"Classic move. Let's do it."

There was no need for disguises. Alex and Chloe were in the right demographic to look like university students after all. The Morton & Co head offices were tall and grey. Huge blue letters spelt the name over the entrance. They could see the entire foyer through spotless glass walls. Hundreds of people were coming and going. Chloe saw that the majority of them were wearing pale blue lanyards. The company colour.

"We're going to need a couple of those," Alex said.

"What are you thinking?"

"I don't know about MI6, but my uncle taught me a few things about picking pockets. You up for it?"

"Do you even need to ask?"

Pretending to window shop around the fancy boutiques, Alex and Chloe waited for their mark. It wasn't long before they found a suitable candidate. A short man with poor posture checked his watch as he passed them. Abandoning the sleek dresses on the display, they followed the employee around the corner and down the street. It was busy, people everywhere were going about their days. The sound of car engines and restaurant music were omnipresent. That was good for them. The more chaos the better.

Chloe quickened her pace to catch up with the man. They had chosen him because he had put the lanyard in his pocket rather than around his neck. She pretended to trip, bumping into his side so that he lost balance. All the employee was focussed on was the young girl who was apologising profusely. He didn't notice Alex slip his hand into his pocket and take the prize. By the time the man had forgiven her, the boy was lost in the crowd. Chloe made herself scarce and met back up with her partner.

"You're not such a bad actor yourself," Alex praised.

"And you have a talent for thievery. Good work."

Despite waiting for twenty minutes, they wouldn't spot any more easy marks. Every employee had the card around their necks, fixed with a plastic clip. Chloe chewed her bottom lip.

"I can do it," she said, "create a distraction for me."

They picked a young woman this time. Red-haired and smartly dressed. They followed her away from the area once again. The streets were still crowded and noisy. Alex was directly in front of the woman, Chloe behind. She could see the clip on the back of her neck.

The boy stopped abruptly. The employee walked right into his back and Chloe into hers. She only had a split second to get it right. If she fumbled with the clasp, the woman would notice immediately. Chloe's fingers found the clip, her thumb and forefinger pressing down on the buttons. Over the noise of the city, the click of the plastic separating was inaudible. Alex had spun around and had turned on the charm, flashing his best lopsided smile and sincerely telling the woman how sorry he was. The lanyard had slipped from around her neck and fell on the floor. Chloe quickly knelt and retrieved it. The woman turned around, sensing someone there. All she saw was Chloe gathering her dropped bag.

"Sorry," she said, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Chloe frowned at Alex, "watch where you're going, yeah? You can't just stop in the middle of the street."

"Right. Sorry."

Only Chloe noticed the corner of his mouth twitching. After another round of apologies, they went their separate ways. The girl doubled back around the block and met Alex in the square.

"You got it?"

Chloe held up the item, smiling proudly.

It was another hour before they noticed the university tour group had arrived. A group of around fifteen students were ushered in by two flustered professors. The pair slipped in behind them. As the professors signed in at the front desk, Chloe and Alex hung back at the rear of the group. The students would think they were waiting in line. Everyone else would think they were a part of the group. Blue lanyards were passed around by an assistant.

"Welcome to Morton & Co's head office," said a blonde woman in a pencil skirt, "our business strives for innovation in all areas. We love having engineering students like you to visit. You are our future. Now, please follow me to the security checkpoint and we will begin the tour."

The checkpoint proved to be only a single guard at a booth.

"Show your visitor passes please," said the blonde woman.

Chloe and Alex trailed at the back. Once at the checkpoint, they waved the lanyards, the side with the information facing themselves. The guard nodded and let them through. Chloe let out her breath. Even a cursory glance would show that she was not, in fact, red-headed and Alex wasn't bald. The assistant took them to an escalator to the next floor. At the top was an expansive labyrinth of office cubicles behind another glass wall.

"These are our customer service representatives," she explained, "but you're engineering students. You want to see where we design our vehicles."

They took another escalator to the second floor. This one was slightly more polished and expensive looking. A band of employees were sipping coffee in a lounge area with colourful bean bag chairs. Directly opposite that was a fully furnished kitchenette. The cubicles in this section were bigger and comfier, each with its own touch screen drawing tablet and tools. Chloe looked at a map hanging on the wall next to the escalators. There were two more floors. The top floor was labelled 'board room' and underneath that, 'Mr Vaughn Morton'. She nudged Alex to look. The two of them backed away from the group and stepped onto the moving stairs. No one gave them a second look. They quickly hopped on and ascended to the final floor. There was a lift to the final floor rather than stairs. It was all glass with white trim. To say Chloe felt exposed stepping into it was an understatement. If only one of the people in the office cubicles looked over, they'd see the two of them clear as day. Chloe wondered if the bathroom excuse would work in this circumstance.

Anxiety gripped her. The layout of the top floor was unknown. They might find a very confused board of directors staring back at them, or maybe Morton himself.

"All we need is a name," Alex said quietly.

"A face would be preferable too."

The lift reached its destination. Even though the coast was clear for now, Chloe couldn't relax. There was a front desk made out of dark wood right along a wide hall. Several offices broke off from that. Behind the front desk was the boardroom, obscured behind frosted glass. They stepped out of the lift.

"I bet that's-"

"Quiet!" Chloe hissed.

She could hear a muffled conversation. She pointed to the board room where, despite the frosted glass, the figure of a man could be seen standing up and walking to the other end of the room.

"I think they're in a meeting," she whispered.

"We need to get to that desk," Alex said, "but they'll see us if we just walk up."

The girl crouched on the ground and began sneaking up to the desk. Alex was right behind her. She read the names outside each office door, wondering which one, if any of them, was involved in the kidnappings. The final plaque read 'Vaughn Morton'. She desperately wanted to investigate the inside, but the risk was too great. If they were caught breaking into the CEO's office, there would be no excuse to cover for them. They reached the desk and Chloe went behind it. There was a name tag out front.

"Nicole Jeffreys," Chloe read, "got her."

"Let's see what else she's got."

Chloe switched on the computer monitor. It was open on a list of emails from the company server. Most of them were incomprehensible business jargon, but Chloe clicked on a thread between her and Vaughn just to check. She scrolled through conversations about meetings and enquiries- there were hundreds of them. Alex was searching through the waste paper basket as she scrolled. The girl skimmed the words, not finding anything useful. Then, she had an idea.

She typed a word into the search bar. The first she tried was 'girl'. Nothing useful. Next, she tried 'woman', then 'Christie' and 'Micheal Chapman'. Each attempt came up with nothing of note.

"Try 'Tideway'" said Alex, arm deep in the bin.

Chloe typed the word. One result appeared. It was a single email sent from Nicole to Vaughn's email.

As per your request, The Tideway is no longer in the possession of the company.

Chloe felt her heartbeat quicken. Morton & Co owned the flats? Large companies often had multiple subsidiaries. Maybe Vaughn had his hand in property management as well. More than that, it confirmed that they were involved beyond a doubt. Vaughn had known about the flats and had cut his losses. It could have even been him that sent the security detail.

"We have what we need," Chloe said, "let's go."

She deleted the search history and returned to the original page. Alex rearranged the things on the desk to how they had been.

A man laughed loudly behind them. Chloe flinched at the sound. They had to get out now, who knew where Nicole was or how long the meeting would go on. The pair made it halfway to the lift when they heard a door open. They dived into the glass lift and kept low. With luck, the board members wouldn't notice them over the tall front desk. Chloe reached up and pressed the button for the third floor. There was an option for the foyer, but the girl thought there would be too many people. Chloe only caught the glimpse of a head of salt and pepper hair before the lift had descended past the floor.

Alex helped her to her feet. A thin layer of sweat sat on her skin and she was breathing deeply, the adrenaline wearing off. The lift reached its destination and they alighted into the office space. A woman was approaching them, tablet in hand. They passed her and she didn't look up.

"Nicole?" Alex said. Chloe froze. What the hell was he doing? He had stopped in the hall and was facing the girl. The woman with the tablet had also stopped and looked around.

"Did you call me?" she asked, looking very confused.

"Oh, no, sorry," Alex laughed and pointed at Chloe, "you must have the same name."

"Ah," was all the woman said before boarding the glass lift.

Now they had a face.

They dodged the university group who had returned to the foyer and left the Morton & Co building. Chloe didn't say anything until they had reached the underground.

"How did you know it was her?"

"It was mainly a guess, but there were a few things that caught my interest," he explained as they ducked behind a side road, "she was wearing big glasses, right? There were glasses cleaner and cloth in one of the desk drawers. The other thing was that she was chewing gum. There were wrappers in the bin. I thought it was worth a shot to try the name trick."

"You're a regular Sherlock Holmes," she said, impressed, "but you created a new problem for us."

"I know. She knows our faces now. But with luck, she'll never see us again."

"Should we follow her today or should we wait? We have our equipment now."

They had wrapped the tranquiliser guns along with the stun guns in a bag and threw it in a bin in an empty alleyway nearby- just in case they had to go through a metal detector at the offices.

"It's your call."

She checked her watch. It was 4 pm Chloe sucked in air through her teeth. Her gut was telling her to wait. It wasn't clever to make too many waves at once. But the reality was that time was limited. They didn't know when someone else would be taken, or what was being done to them. That fear drove Chloe to her decision.

"You go and get our stuff. I'll watch her here."

Nicole Jeffreys proved to be a diligent employee. There was no sign of her leaving until 9 pm. The sky had grown dark and the streets had cleared some. Alex had returned hours before with their gear. The only place that both gave them a view to the revolving doors and a reason to wait around was the sandwich bar not quite opposite the building. The person at the counter was not happy they were staying so long. Chloe had bought several drinks to justify their stay, but it was the boredom that was hardest to deal with. She couldn't even focus on talking to Alex as her attention had to stay on the exit.

The heat of the evening pressed in through the doors. The girl was beginning to feel drowsy as her lack of sleep caught up with her. Maybe they should have gone home and waited. MI6 always taught not to go in unprepared. The tranq in her bag gave her a little confidence, however, but lack of sleep was a killer. It impaired your judgement and worsened your reflexes. Not something you want when your full attention is required.

Chloe had to stop herself from leaping out of her seat when Nicole came into view. Her head was down again, looking at her tablet and sipping from a thermos. Trying to look casual, the pair left the shop. Chloe thanked the relieved looking shop assistant for the drinks. Nicole turned a corner, heading towards the nearest station. That was one thing Chloe had been hoping for. If she had a car or got a taxi, they would lose her. Instead, they followed her to her train and boarded the adjacent carriage. A short five-minute journey later and the woman took a second train. They had to run as the doors almost closed before they could get on. Chloe could see that Nicole was still answering emails from the tablet. She left the underground and headed to a block of expensive-looking flats. There was an intercom at the front with a keypad built-in. Chloe took out her phone and zoomed in on the woman's fingers as she entered the code.

"Four. Seven. Three. Seven," Chloe said out loud.

"How are we going to find her flat?"

"Just wait."

The girl watched the windows of the building. Most were illuminated, but some remained dark. A few minutes later, a light came on on the second floor.

"Nice."

"What are we going to do about cameras? I bet there will be at least one in the hall. No one can know we were here."

There was no way to climb the outside of the building. They had to enter through the front door.

"I think we're just going to have to wing it," she said, "give me your hat. I'll sneak in and hide somewhere. Then I need you to set off the fire alarm or cause some kind of distraction to get her out of the room."

"That isn't much of a plan, Chloe."

"We have to do this tonight. I won't wait."

"Fine," he sighed, "go. I'll wait for your signal."

Chloe tied her hair up and shoved it under the baseball hat. It couldn't even be called a disguise, but it was something. She confidently walked up to the entrance and typed in the code, feeling the boy's eyes on her back. There was no one in the hall and no one behind the front desk. The girl kept her head down, noticing a camera in the corner of the ceiling. There was a lift but she took the stairs, taking two at a time. She counted the doors until she found the right one; number eight. There was soft music coming from inside. She could hear Nicole singing along badly. The girl looked for somewhere to hide but could find none. No storage cupboards or empty rooms to speak of. She went back to the stairwell, looking for somewhere suitable. The double doors were held back to the wall on hooks. Having found her hiding place, she texted Alex the go-ahead.

A few minutes late, Chloe could smell fire. An alarm started blaring and emergency lights flashed red. She could hear doors slamming and people talking. A dozen or so people hurried right past her down the stairs. If only they looked behind them, they might have seen that one of the doors was bulging out further than normal. Chloe was pressed flush against the wall, holding the door close to her body. It wasn't glamorous, but it worked. She saw Nicole's black hair amongst the group of people.

It was another few minutes before Chloe reemerged from the spot, waiting for any stragglers to catch up. The hall was now clear. Several people have left their doors open. Nicole was not one of them. The doorknob but it didn't budge. There was a lock, but Chloe didn't have anything to pick it with. The option of forcing it open crossed her mind, but it was a bad one. She had to leave no trace. A crazy solution came into view. The flat next to the target was open. She entered, ignoring everything inside and headed straight for the balcony. The french doors squealed as she pulled them open and the night air blew in, humid against her flushed skin.

The ground was only about seven meters away, but she could still break her leg if she fell. The apartment complex residents were gathered outside, talking and sharing confused looks. She would have to move slowly. Lifting both legs over the barrier, Chloe slipped her feet between the gaps. The was about a meter distance between her platform and Nicole's apartment. An easy distance if she wasn't meters from the ground. She shuffled her feet along until she reached the gap. Her legs weren't quite long enough to reach all the way across, she would have to jump. Reaching one arm out, ready to grab the barrier, Chloe sprung from her left leg. For one terrible second, she didn't think she'd make it. It was hard to gauge the distance in the dark. Her knee hit the metal and she grabbed on tightly, scrambling her feet to find a surface. The collision had caused the metal to ring like a bell. She didn't dare look down to see if anyone had noticed and flung herself over the barrier. Her landing was rough and she rolled on her shoulder, almost knocking over several terracotta pots.

Thanks to the hot night, Nicole had left her balcony doors open. The apartment was still lit and she let herself in. Much like Morton & Co, her home was modern and clean looking. A gigantic 75-inch tv hung over a fake fireplace. The kitchen was all polished black marble and white wood finishings. A pot of spaghetti was on the stove. It looked like Nicole had been in the middle of a late supper. On the walls were dozens of paintings, some tiny, some as big as the TV and all incomprehensible to Chloe. Something rubbed against her leg and she nearly screamed. It was a large tabby cat, purring softly. At least it was friendly.

She pushed open a closed-door; the bedroom. Worth a look, but Chloe was looking for a study of some kind. The next door gave her what she wanted. It was a small room. A desk ran the length of the wall, holding a computer monitor as well as dozens of files. Above it was shelves filled with various pieces of art and sculpture. She waited no time in investigating the papers littered on the surface. Invoices, copies of emails, bank statements… nothing that pointed to criminal activity. Stacked in a little pile and tied with a ribbon were little cards. They were bone white with pale blue lettering.

"Invitations…" she whispered.

There were dozens of them. Some of the invitees were people Chloe recognised as celebrities, philanthropists and government officials, all being invited to a 'masquerade' in a few days. She took a picture of a couple of them. The sound of sirens startled out of her concentration. The police or fire service must have arrived. Chloe jumped up but didn't leave yet. Next to the written invitations were a couple of blank spares. Something made her grab them before she hurried back the way she came. Alex had texted her that she had to leave. They were coming in. She knew she couldn't use the stairs again, or the main entrance. There would be nowhere to hide. She texted him back.

I need you to catch me.

Chloe hoped she wouldn't have to get used to jumping off high places. She could see Alex waiting for her below. Every so often he looked over his shoulder, but the crowd was focussed on the firemen entering the building. Once again, the girl lifted her legs over the barrier. She turned around and crouched as low as possible. Her left leg lowered down and she went to her knee. Looking down, she saw Alex give the thumbs up. Chloe let her other leg drop and found herself hanging by her fingertips. The boy was still two meters below. A bad fall could injure them both. Closing her eyes, Chloe let go.

Alex grunted as he caught her, arms squeezing her middle. Her feet touched the floor but they were both staggering backwards, thrown off by her momentum. Alex's heel dropping over the curb saw them both sprawled out over the pavement. A few residents turned their heads, but they only saw two drunk teens staggering home.