"So…" Alfred muttered as he and Arthur walked past the rotating cube that flashed the title 'Scotland Yard'. Usually Arthur would find himself borrowing the interrogation facilities of the Scotland Yard, as usually the MI6 ones were busy. Despite how much the Yard hated it, the MI6 knew that they could use it as much as they needed. "Are we gonna play 'good cop, bad cop'? Dibs on bad cop!"
"Really?" Arthur asked, darting a harsh glare at the American. Arthur stared at him intensely, picturing the American sitting before him in handcuffs, terrified of the possibility of going to prison. It was a stare that chilled Alfred to the bone, making him think of Arthur's eyes in his nightmare; there was that same glare of fury, making Alfred eyes widen and mouth tighten with fear as he remembered seeing Arthur lay dead before him… Even remembering that he had a dream like that made Alfred's knees go weak with anxiety. Alfred's fear was reflected onto his face and that made Arthur smile and tease, "Are you sure you want to be the bad cop? I'm terrible at playing nicely…"
"Alright, fine, you play bad cop!" Alfred whined, making Arthur chuckle, unaware of the anxiety he had unleashed on the American.
Arthur had been to the Scotland Yard base so often; he knew the entire area like the back of his hand, easily able to escort Alfred towards the interrogation rooms, where they met with Ludwig and Gilbert.
"This dick was caught trying to run from the safe house," Gilbert explained as he opened the door to the observation room, where on the wall was a large glass window that peered into the interrogation room, where the young man with blonde hair sat at the table, unaware that he was being watched.
He sat impatiently, his huffs blowing on the shaggy blonde hair that bordered his face; his green eyes were narrow and angry, as though he was waiting to attack anyone unfortunate to walk through the door.
"His name is Vash Zwingli, a petty criminal from Switzerland, migrated here four years ago and has been in and out of jail ever since."
"Does he have any connections to Braginski?" Arthur asked.
"Not that we know of. I think he's just a pawn, sent to throw us off," Ludwig explained, "there is no way in hell that he is responsible for the Shakespeare attack, or Feliciano's kidnapping."
"But he can help us find out who sent him," Alfred pointed out.
"Exactly," Gilbert replied, "Arthur, you and I can do our good cop – bad cop routine. And then Ludwig and I need to go, and Alfred can help you with the rest of the investigation. We have stuff that we need to do."
"Like what?" Arthur asked.
"Kiku and I think we've found another lead to a possible kidnapper," Gilbert explained, "it's hard to explain, I'll brief you two later."
"Fine," Alfred replied before the Germans left the viewing room. "Ludwig may be right; I don't think this man is responsible for Feliciano's kidnapping, or the attack on the Globe."
"I know," Arthur replied, "but if we scare him with all of this information and accusations, he will confess who hired him, and lead us right to the real kidnappers."
The agents watched as the door opened and Gilbert walked in, with his arms crossed over his chest.
"You're a real idiot," Gilbert hissed, "thinking that you could kidnap the wife of an MI6 agent."
"I didn't know she was MI6!" Vash confessed, "If I had known who she was, I wouldn't have done it."
"It doesn't change the fact that you did it, and now you're gonna be in a whole other world of shit," Gilbert explained as he took the seat and sat across from Vash, before sliding the file in his direction, "you're being accused of more kidnapping, and terrorism."
"Terrorism!?" Vash hissed, "why the fuck am I being accused of terrorism?!"
"Don't play stupid, Vash, you're smarter than that, you know exactly who hired you; and what they have done…" Vash's eyes narrowed as a smirk crossed his lips as Gilbert continued to speak, "you can get a lighter sentence, and even have the terror charge dropped if you help our investigation."
"I wouldn't tell you, even if I knew who they were." Vash admitted, "They are very protective of their identities."
"Well," Gilbert sighed, "I'm only trying to help you out here; I know you're not a terrorist, you're not responsible for what happened at the Globe Theatre. But we do know that you can tell us who did…"
"I thought the bad cop was supposed to go first in the interrogation," Alfred pointed out as he turned to look at Arthur, who was intensely watching Gilbert interrogate the suspect through the glass.
"Gilbert and I like to shake things up a little, give them something that they won't expect," Arthur explained before he sprang into action and began to march out of the viewing room, "now's my queue."
Alfred couldn't help but feel excited, he waited patiently as Gilbert continued to speak nicely to the suspect, until the door bombed open and Arthur marched in. His eyes went straight to the suspect, staring down at him like he was nothing but a petty criminal.
"Our other lead was no good, which only leaves you behind…" Arthur grimaced, "you're in a lot of shit, young man."
Alfred couldn't help but chuckled as Arthur berated the young suspect with evidence that links him to the attempted kidnapping of Elizabeta, and his connections to the people who kidnapped Feliciano. Alfred could see that Vash was beginning to crumble, visibly and emotionally, he shook his head more, tightened his hands into fists and his voice became shaky as he denied the accusations.
Alfred had always loved to watch interrogations, and smiled when he remembered the few times he and Matthew had done the 'good cop – bad cop' routine… the purpose of the technique is to coax the suspect into cooperating with the good cop, which in this case was Gilbert either out of trust or out of fear of the bad cop, who was Arthur. The suspect may then seek protection by and trust the good cop and provide the information the interrogators are seeking. Alfred couldn't help but marvel at the power of this psychological weapon.
"You don't understand…" Vash sighed.
"What don't we understand?" Gilbert asked as Arthur paced around Vash, circling him like how a shark would circle a sinking ship.
"Things are changing around here; criminals are not acting anymore because something is coming!" Vash concluded, "Haven't you noticed; Roderich Edelstein has disappeared, and so has Francis Bonnefoy, the two worst criminals of London have left!"
"Edelstein is in jail, he's never seeing the light of day again—"
"And Bonnefoy is dead," Arthur spat, his eyes narrowing darkly.
Vash froze, "Oh…" suddenly, the Swiss began to appear confused, and even worried.
"Tell us what is going on…" Gilbert said quietly.
"We were told that they had run away because they knew what was going to happen to the city… everyone has started to move away, other criminals are even offering to help… the entire city is going to crumble and those who can't afford to stay are leaving… something big is coming…" Vash explained, "I was one of those idiots who agreed to help them, they gave me an address and told me to kidnap the woman in that house. I told them that I had never kidnapped before, but they didn't care because I was their only option. Oh… that reminds me."
"What?"
"They gave me this," Vash explained as he handed Arthur a small device, Arthur couldn't help but look at Gilbert with a glare of horror when he realised that Vash had handed him a memory stick. "They were using me as a fucking errand-boy, and I let them."
"Change of plans; Arthur, you and Alfred should get this to Yao," Gilbert snapped.
"Right!" Arthur replied as he dashed out of the interrogation room, leaving Gilbert alone with the suspect.
"So, you never saw the faces of the people who hired you?" Gilbert asked.
"N-no, it was always on the phone, and when I saw them, they had their helmets on," Vash sighed.
"Alright…" Gilbert muttered as he took out his phone, wondering whether it would be a wise idea to do this without Kiku, after all, this is what they had been working on.
Gilbert decided that it was worth it, he needed to exploit Vash in his moment of weakness.
"I'm going to play you some voice recordings and I want you to tell me whether they sound familiar…"
Meanwhile, Alfred and Arthur sped towards the MI6 offices, where they knew that Yao would be coming into work, judging by the rising sun.
Alfred couldn't help but worry, feeling his anxiety weigh him down into the seats of Arthur's car… He gripped the tiny memory stick and imagined what horrors it could behold. Surely this must be their response to their attack on the Globe Theatre, perhaps even an update on what is going on with Feliciano…
"Arthur… Feliciano would be dead… would he?" Alfred asked.
Alfred saw Arthur's grip on the steering wheel tighten, "They wouldn't kill him: they're using him to toy with us and keep us emotionally involved in the case. They would not kill him."
Despite Arthur's promise, Alfred's stomach couldn't help but sink.
Eventually Arthur and Alfred made it to the MI6 offices, and were relieved to hear from the receptionist that Yao had arrived before them. They ran to the upstairs office, too impatient to wait for the elevator, they were desperate to arrive to a computer and see what had happened to their friend. Alfred frowned with confusion when his chest began to ache in pain and his breathes became wheezy and deep, running up the stairs was the most basic of workouts: why was this wearing him out?
"Are you ok?" Arthur asked, looking at him from a couple of stairs above him.
Alfred knew that if he admitted that something was wrong, Arthur would only worry and drag him to the hospital, so Alfred smiled as best as he could, "I'm fine."
"But Alfred," Arthur sighed as he stepped down a couple of steps, before placing his hands on the sides of Alfred's face and staring into the American's nervous eyes.
Alfred could feel his heartbeat raging out of control, and he could no longer tell if it was over the exercise or the power of Arthur's stare.
"You look like shit," Arthur spat, making Alfred frown.
Arthur could no longer ignore the look of pain in Alfred's eyes; it's true that the American had been complaining about a headache, could this possibly have something to do with the gas? Arthur had become paranoid over the state of Alfred's health. His once fresh eyes were plagued by those dreaded grey circles and his glowing skin had paled from the stress.
"Thanks." Alfred hissed, "Now come on, we need to go—"
"If you feel that anything is wrong, please tell me; we still don't know what I.V.A.N does…" Arthur sighed, his hand still resting on Alfred's soft skin, "I felt you shaking in your sleep last night… you're worrying me."
"I'm fine, I promise," Alfred promised.
Arthur couldn't find the time to say anything else, as Alfred continued to run up the staircase, pulling Arthur up by the hand.
They eventually reached their level, and entered the office, huffing from their journey, catching the attention of the three people in the room.
"Did you run up the stairs?" Kiku asked.
"Why?" Ludwig frowned.
"What's going on, we heard about Elizabeta!" Yao exclaimed.
However, everyone was silenced when Alfred lifted his hand, showing everyone the memory stick he held in his hand.
It was Ludwig who appeared to be hit hardest by the revelation, as his head fell into his hands as he tried his best to remain strong and shield his despair.
The video began with a dark screen, however, there was sound… the camera was being moved around, however the noise of a motorcycle engine echoed out of the computer, as well as people's voices.
Suddenly the camera was lifted, and it was the view of the river Thames, the camera panned around to show that the cameraman was standing directly in front of the globe theatre. Suddenly the camera turned again as two figures on a motorcycle passed by, both wearing black motorcycle helmets. The cameraman turned pointed down to reveal that they were holding a handgun, and as Alfred and Arthur passed on a motorcycle, they pulled the trigger and sent Alfred and Arthur to the ground and skidding.
Everyone watched in shock as the camera zoomed in to film the shocked stares on Alfred and Arthur's faces, capturing the event like a childhood film. The cameraman was extremely shaky, and was hardly able to focus as they filmed Alfred crawling to Arthur.
Alfred could remember every single moment as it was played out before him, as the camera continued to film all up to when the ground shook as the gas bomb exploded within the theatre, before the footage cut off and returned to darkness.
"They were all there, just waiting for us…" Arthur concluded, his voice shaking from the shock.
However, the video wasn't going to end there.
The next shot made everyone tense and stare in shock, as Feliciano's hunched over head was seen; the Italian was groaning and growling like an animal. Feliciano lifted his head to look at the camera, his pupils had narrowed to an incredible level, sending chills down everyone's spines, Feliciano's skin was covered in little self-inflicted scratches and bruises, as well as being unclean. Feliciano had become a lesser form of the strong and proud agent that he was before.
As expected, the red text at the bottom provided the agents with the input of the kidnappers.
'This is proof of life and of our power.
During his time in our care; Agent Vargas has undergone countless sessions of exposure to I.V.A.N.
Despite how many times he has gone through the hallucinations and pain, he cannot become used to it. We have been keeping him alive and treating him with a cure we have developed.
And so, not only do we provide the means to bring London to its knees; we have the cure that can save it.
We do not know what short term exposure to I.V.A.N does to the body, so we suggest that you keep an eye on Agent Jones, just in case something interesting happens. Yes. We know about his exposure, because we have eyes everywhere.
Cease all MI6 action now, and we will release it. If not, the death rates from the attack on Shakespeare will only grow, and more and more attacks will happen throughout the city.
This is your second warning.
You don't want to know what will be third…'
However, it wasn't over, as the screen cut to black before changing to the view of an office security camera. Everyone was confused until the reality of the situation dawned upon them, the desks were placed in the same areas as the office they stood in, they recognised the people who were walking around the office; they could see Yao, Gilbert, Alfred and Arthur talking amongst themselves, not suspecting at all that a fifth set of eyes were amongst them.
"No fucking way…" Alfred gasped as Arthur covered his mouth with his hand as his eyes widened with shock.
Everyone's eyes lifted to the direction of where the camera was pointing, to stare at a security camera that sat in the corner of the room, keeping an eye on the entire office.
Ludwig snapped and screamed as he snatched a stapler from Yao's desk and threw it directly at the camera with a powerful swing; smashing the camera and making it fall to the floor, before the German himself fell to his knees...