"This really doesn't make sense to me."
"What doesn't?"
"The clean sweep could have easily turned off all these cameras," Vash explained, staring at the computer screen, "Why would they intentionally leave these ones going? Did they really want to get caught?"
"I suppose I see your point," Bella agreed as she worked to his left, "Still, who would want to be caught breaking into the biggest bank in the city?"
"Somebody intent on chaos, I'd guess," Gilbert wagered, sitting to Vash's right, "Okay, I've getting shots of our robbers entering the vault and pulling out bags, but they're keeping their masks on."
"The ones on my screen appear to be standing guard, with one of them busy at the computer over there," Vash explained, nodding backwards in the direction of the workstation a few feet behind them, "I did have one of them leave the room quickly after they arrived, it's possible they went elsewhere in the building."
"Your missing person is here, they went into the server room," Bella edited, "I think they know they're on camera."
"How can you tell?" Vash asked, leaning over to see if he could take a quick peek.
"They pause to look at the camera before waving at it," Bella described, clicking a couple more times, "In the next frames, they take off their mask. Gilbert, you better see this, I think it might be that Lithuanian you're looking for."
"Are you serious?" Gilbert exclaimed as he rose from his seat and rushed over to look over Bella's shoulder. Vash stayed in his chair, and wheeled himself closer to Bella's side to see that the man on the screen was indeed the Kohler gang's missing spy.
"That is definitely Toris," Vash confirmed, "If he's involved in this, then the others might be as well."
"Why is he showing his face, then?" Bella asked, before clicking the mouse a few more times.
The screen showed Toris waving at the camera again, before pulling something out of his pocket, showing it off for the camera, and plugging it into one of the server towers. Once that was done, Toris only smirked at the camera before walking out of the room.
"He left something for us in there," Vash determined, "Bella, head upstairs and get it."
"Right away, Vash."
Vash wheeled himself back to his workstation while Bella stood up and turned to leave the room. As Gilbert slipped behind him to return to his seat, Vash glanced around the rest of the cash count room. There were a couple technicians working on the computer that had been used in the heist last night, while Roderich and Lars spoke to management and security outside the open vault door.
Not seeing or hearing any of interest, Vash looked back at his own screen and kept watching the recorded feeds from outside the vault. After a few moments, one of the masked robbers removed their mask, revealing tanned skin, green eyes and curly brown hair, all belonging to Vash's former employee.
"Gilbert, Toris isn't the only one involved," Vash stated, "I've got a shot here of Antonio Fernandez Carriedo."
"Holy shit, really?" Gilbert gasped as he leaned over to watch.
Vash skipped ahead a few more frames, watching as Antonio addressed everyone before they also took off their masks. Vash's gaze was drawn quickly to the revealed man at the workstation.
"Ivan Braginski was on that computer," Gilbert noted, "He must have chosen which cameras got turned off."
"The boys wanted to be seen doing this," Vash worked out, "The question remains, why so?"
"That's Ivan's little sister standing beside Antonio," Gilbert identified in the shot, "Natalya looks a little more willing to work with them this time around."
"You know that Arthur will bite onto that," Vash reminded, "Whether or not you believe Natalya is trying to stop her brother, her crimes do not support her case."
"You don't have to remind me about that, I just feel bad for her getting dragged into this mess," Gilbert commented, "Can you switch angles at all? There's two people just out of the shot by the vault door."
"I'll see what I can find," Vash said, "Can you get Roderich and Lars to come over here, please?"
"Sure thing."
While Gilbert turned to wave his superiors over, Vash switched camera shots to the one just outside the vault door. As soon as the screen loaded, a blond couple were shown standing guard. The tall man was facing away, but they had a perfect view of the curly-haired woman's face.
"There she is, in the flesh," Gilbert verified as he saw the screen again, "Madeline Williams."
"What do you have for me, Vash?" Roderich demanded as he approached with Lars.
"We have identified several key players in the heist," Vash reported, "As you can see, we just found Madeline Williams, but we also have shots of Ivan Braginski, Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, and Natalya Arlovskaya. We also have Toris Laurinaitis leaving us a gift in the server room, which Bella just went to collect."
"He left a gift, you say?" Roderich checked, "They must have ulterior plans involved in this."
"Who is Madeline speaking to in that shot?" Lars examined.
"We haven't figured that out yet," Vash said, "Let's take a look."
Vash clicked on his mouse to make the camera recording move forward. Madeline moved to go past the man, before he grabbed her arm to pull her back to speak to him. As she turned away from the camera to face the man again, he turned towards her and revealed his face to the camera.
"It can't be," Gilbert muttered, "Oh Luddy, what are you doing?"
"That's a very good question indeed, Gilbert," Vash drilled, "What exactly is your brother doing there?"
"I swear to God, I had no idea," Gilbert pleaded, "As far as I knew, Ludwig spent the night at his girlfriend's apartment."
"Well, not only was he here helping the heist, but he's now associated with the others," Roderich rectified, "How on earth did he get mixed with them?"
Vash moved ahead a couple more frames, only to stop at an incriminating capture of Ludwig pulling Madeline in close to him and kissing her.
"You've got to be kidding me," Gilbert mumbled, "What the fuck?"
"Gilbert, weren't you wondering why Ludwig still hasn't introduced his girlfriend to you?" Lars recalled, "It sure looks like it's because she nearly killed us a month ago."
"Ludwig has been dating his girlfriend since before the crash, hasn't he?" Roderich double-checked, "If so, he's also broken the police codes of conduct for disclosure on that case, along with the crimes involved in associating with these criminals and breaking into the bank."
"Roderich, let me talk to Ludwig," Gilbert begged, "He probably doesn't know who he's associating himself with."
"He was there the night you crashed your car, Gilbert," Roderich argued, "He arrested Natalya Arlovskaya, and was fully aware of Madeline's arrest. He has no excuse for working with the most-wanted criminals in the city!"
"He doesn't know the bulk of their files, he can't be held responsible for that!" Gilbert countered, rising from his chair, "For all we know, he's working on a lead and is hiding undercover. If he tells us what he knows, we can get him to help us shut Mathilda and her henchmen down for good. For fuck's sake, Roderich, give him a chance to explain himself before you throw him behind bars!"
Vash could feel the tension mounting in the air as Gilbert and Roderich silently glared at each other for a moment. Roderich backed down first, calming himself down as he pushed his glasses up from where they had slid down his nose.
"I will give you one chance to make this work, Gilbert," the Commissioner decided, "Convince your brother to turn himself in, and in exchange for the information he can provide us, I will lower his punishment to suspension and probation. If Ludwig refuses to cooperate, he will be discharged from the force as a rogue, and charged for the extent of his crimes. I will have a warrant prepared for his immediate arrest, and I will let Arthur prosecute him under the full force of the law. Do I make myself clear?"
"Perfectly clear," Gilbert agreed, "I will get my brother to cooperate, I swear it."
"Lars, go with Gilbert to find Ludwig and bring him in," Roderich ordered, "Let me know immediately if anything should happen."
"May I print a few of these security camera captures of Ludwig?" Gilbert requested, "He might not believe me if I don't have evidence to prove he was at the bank."
"I'll allow it," Roderich approved, "Vash, print this one with the kiss, along with a couple more with Ludwig's and Madeline's faces."
Vash quickly right-clicked on the feed, and used the program's software to send it to the printer. He then went back to the previous shots they had analyzed, and printed shots of those as well.
"They're all heading to the back corner printer," Vash told the others.
While Gilbert went to the printer to get the hard copies, Lars and Roderich backed away to speak to each other quietly for a moment. Vash watched as Gilbert came back to join the other conversation, before Roderich let the pair head out to collect Ludwig. As the two officers left the room, Bella came back in and walked straight up to Vash.
"It's for you, Vash," Bella said, holding out the object in her hand, "The tag looks like it has a message you should read."
Vash held out his hand, and allowed Bella to place it in his palm. As she withdrew her hand, Vash finally saw that it was a black USB drive of JCI design, with a tag tied onto it with a string. The small piece of paper was folded in half with a small sticker sealing it shut, and had a hole punched in the corner to tie on the string. The first side had To Vash written in red permanent marker, and Vash flipped it over to find From Mathilda written on the other side. He removed the sticker and opened the paper, only to find a short message written inside.
Your patience has paid off, we're getting to the fun part of the game now. I hope you're ready for me.
"She's playing her games again, Roderich," Vash revealed as he rose from the computer station, "I'll use my own laptop for this."
"What is it?" Bella asked as Vash walked by the pair to the other end of the room.
"That will be beyond you, Bella," he heard Roderich dismiss, "Would you please take over at the computer Gilbert was just at? The robbers have started removing their masks, you may be able to identify the ones inside the vault."
Vash reached the other end of the room, and typed the password into his laptop to unlock it for use. Once his desktop opened up, Vash plugged in the USB drive, and allowed it to load. Hearing approaching footsteps, he turned to see that Roderich was joining him, and Bella was already working on the other computer station.
"By the way, Roderich, what does Bella know about Mathilda's case?" Vash interrogated, "She recognized Toris in one of the shots we found, and seems to get herself involved with the clues we find."
"She has been on all the mob cases, that's the limit to which she knows about him," Roderich reported, "Gilbert, Lars and I are the only ones with access to the restricted files, as you and your superiors have insisted."
The USB finished loading, and opened up a very familiar program that filled the screen.
"It's the GPS tracking software again," Vash realized, "Mathilda has something else for us to find."
"What could she possibly be leading us to this time?" Roderich wondered, "Can we even trust what it tells us?"
Once the program had displayed its mapping function, Vash opened up the legend at the side of the screen, where a singular blue dot showed with an interesting description.
"The remaining mobster fugitives," Vash read aloud, "Did she find the rest of the Kohler and Vargas gangs?"
"Roderich, you better get over here," Bella called from across the room, "I have the rest of the crew identified."
Allowing the program to continue running in the background, Vash quickly put his laptop on lock again before following Roderich back over to the computer stations.
"Who have you found?" Roderich asked.
"Several of the mobsters who escaped last year," Bella identified, pointing at the faces on the screen, "There's Elizaveta Herzvedery and Feliks Lukasweiscz, along with both the Vargas twins. We even have Yao Wang, a suspected member of the Dragon Triad."
"Start printing some good shots of their faces, please," Vash requested, realizing what the plan was going to be, "We're going to need them."
When Bella nodded and turned back to her screen, Vash pulled Roderich towards the middle of the room.
"They're the ones she wants us to find," Vash quietly explained, "Mathilda was the mastermind of the heist, her henchmen carried it out, and the others fell into the trap. She knows we're still looking for them, so she's using them as bait to lure us into her game."
"Should we go through with this then?" Roderich inquired, "These fugitives do need to be brought in, but if this is step one of her plan, then could Mathilda be setting a trap for us as well?"
"I say we proceed with extreme caution," Vash advised, "We keep her involvement as quiet as possible, strike as soon as we can, and watch for any signs of planned mischief on her part."
"Give Arthur a call, we're going to need several warrants," Roderich said, "The moment that blue dot shows up on your screen, we will strike."