Author's Note: Happy New Year, everyone. My assignments are gonna pile up in January, so updates may slow down (more than they already have). Enjoy.

Chapter 5: Infiltration

"So you guys ready?" Rebecca asked the duo, having unexpectedly gotten up from bed a few minutes earlier.

"Yeah, like, since a few hours ago, yeah," Sonic replied, sounding more energetic than he had been in the past week. Though Tails didn't say it out loud, it made him feel a lot better hearing the hedgehog express such liveliness. "Thought you went to sleep?"

"Yeah…I didn't expect to get up so fast," she said as she sat down on the couch and dusted her pajamas. "I'm not sure why…maybe I'm just worried."

"About what?" Sonic asked, before quickly adding, "uh, I mean, besides the obvious."

"The leak from my department," she answered, eyes unfocused and glancing everywhere around her living room, "it's just…if there really was leak, or worse, a mole, I have no idea who it could be."

Perhaps it was her tone, or the way she looked so concerned and bewildered, but whatever it was, Sonic found himself plopping down beside her. "I dunno…you could try and guess, you know, start with some guy, maybe work your way from there, see what you can dig up. Just thinking out loud."

"I know," Rebecca said with a nod, "though I've never been that close to them. My current colleagues, I mean. The ones I knew that were there from my first day are no longer with the police. Jason was the only one left, and he, well, you know."

"Then, what about your boss?"

"He's…fine, I suppose. I probably know him second-best after Jason, though that doesn't mean much. That reminds me, other than reporting, I haven't said much to him much after what happened at the club…or others, for that matter."

Sonic shrugged. "Well, you have your reasons for that."

"I know…still, it seems a bit sad of me," Rebecca said with a small, guilty smile. Then, slowly, she got up. "Alright, don't let me keep you. The markets should be clearing about now. Go on ahead, you can use my balcony if you want."

Before Sonic and Tails could reply, Rebecca's phone unexpectedly ringed. Startled, she looked at the screen. "What the-that's my boss," she said, hanging her mouth open.

"Huh…he normally call you this late?" Sonic asked with a raised brow.

"Never before," she answered. "Damn it…you know, this might sound a bit crazy, but try and see if you can find something related to him when you pay those hitmen a visit. His name is Chow Tak-yin, here," she continued as she wrote the name down on a scrap of paper on the coffee table, in both English and Chinese, before handing it to them. "Just wanting to be sure."

"Sure," Tails said with a nod as he fit the note into one of his tail pockets, wondering if it was more likely for such information, if it existed, to be on Yeung's computer or the USB drive. All the more reason for them to hit two places at once.

"Appreciated. OK, I better take this, I'll tell you what he says to me later." Gesturing to the surprised duo to stay silent, she answered. "Wai?"

"Rebecca," Chow's scratchy voice came on, sounding rather different, softer, from how he did when he was on duty, "sorry I'm calling you so late…I must have disturbed you."

"Oh, no, actually…I found it a bit hard to sleep too." As she replied, her finger pointed at her balcony while her eyes told them to move out immediately.

Having no more reason to stay put, Sonic and Tails walked outside. After giving one last look back at Rebecca, the fox flew into the air and picked the hedgehog up with him, vanishing from view.

"Oh, that's good," he said. "Look, uh, you probably are going to ask why I'm calling you now…it's just that, what happened in the Heart of Asia today, I was worried something had happened to you after you hanged up."

"I'm fine," Rebecca replied earnestly, "it's my fault too for not assuring you properly, or the others. I made it back home safely."

She then heard what sounded like a sigh of relief on the other end. "Oh, thank god."

"Are you normally so dramatic?" she couldn't help but ask in response.

"Ah, sorry. It's just that the gunmen today acted so quickly, came without warning…I was worried about what they could have done. Especially after what happened to Jason, you know? I really didn't want to lose another subordinate."

"So that's why," she replied, understanding. "You're alright yourself, right?"

There was a short pause before he answered. "Yes…if you're okay, then I'm okay too."

A few minutes of silent flight later, Sonic and Tails finally came to the spot where they had to part, on top of some other old, rustic building. It was the furthest that they could go together before needing to head off to their own objective locations. Fortunately both the hitmen's hideout and Yeung's penthouse apartment were on the Kowloon side, so Tails didn't have to cross the water. "Alright, looks like this is where I get off," Sonic said as his feet touched the crumbling concrete ground, before looking back at the fox, "thanks for the ride, bud. You ready?"

"No problem. And I'm definitely prepared," Tails replied, still hovering in the air. "Remember, though, I'll be maintaining radio silence until I'm out, hopefully in an hour. Wait till I contact you, okay? See you then right here?"

"Sure! Good luck!"

"You too!"

After a wave towards each other, the two finally went in separate directions, with Sonic leaping over various rooftops while Tails hovered away. Both hid themselves behind obstacles such as water towers or billboards whenever they could while staying away from light sources to avoid being seen by any prying eyes that could be present.

Sonic needed only a few minutes to reach the same market area as before in Ma Tau Wai, which, to his relief, was finally fully vacated, possibly earlier than Rebecca had suggested - all of the umbrellas and tents were folded away, and aside from a few streetlamps, the street was blanketed in blackness. Even his fur's distinctive shade of blue would have a hard time being visible to those far away.

Satisfied with the concealment he had, the hedgehog dropped down from the four-floor building onto the tarmac, landing surprisingly quietly, and entered the cramped, decrepit stairwell, ready to pay those party-crashers a visit. Just hope I don't bump into someone along the way.

What he didn't know was that even if he didn't, it would no longer make a difference.

Breaking into a luxurious penthouse apartment and then exit without leaving a trace wasn't exactly something Tails had done before, so he had rely on his past experience with Robotnik's bases, his tools, his knowledge about home security and his own common sense in order to plan this op out properly. At the very least, he thought, this was not going to end up like what happened in the warehouse in Burbank a year ago - he was now much more prepared than that.

The first necessary step was observation. Fortunately for him, Yeung's apartment was not the tallest building in the area – the other nearby ones were of equal or greater height, and it was a simple matter of setting down on one roof, keeping watch on the side of the penthouse that was visible to him, before taking off and landing on another, where he had to be careful not to fly in front of various light sources in the background that would reveal his silhouette. The vantage points weren't all equidistant from or directly in line with the penthouse, of course, but with his binoculars Tails knew how to compensate.

After rounding the penthouse, Tails dropped back onto the first rooftop he'd stepped on, now knowing more about his target location, including details such as the possible number of rooms, where the office was, where Yeung slept and the number of security guards on active patrol.

Next he had to find a way to get inside without being detected. This was somewhat trickier. All of the windows were fully shut, and any attempt to breach them from the outside would likely raise an alarm. Since he couldn't leave any trace of ever being here, it meant that he couldn't use the cut-a-circular-hole trick like in movies.

If not the windows, maybe the door? The penthouse contained a sizable garden through which entry could be possible. He was worried, though, about the entrance there being watched by cameras, which were too small or hidden away to be seen clearly from here in the darkness.

There was one other option, a trick he'd actually used before: air ducts. Of course, this depended on how often Yeung decided to clean them. If they were full of dust and muck, he may as well plant a giant neon sign flashing I was here once he got in. The last time around that didn't matter so much, but not here.

Still, it was worth a try. Making up his mind, Tails flew over to the penthouse rooftop, towards a vent cover. Only if the ducts weren't going to work, he decided, would he try the garden entrance.

Stepping silently onto the concrete floor, the fox removed a small tool from his tail pocket that he'd started bringing along with him a few months ago, a habit that was now paying off: a multi-screwdriver whose tip could be configured based on shape and size. Quickly, he chose the correct one for the job, and proceeded to remove the screws from the cover, placing them neatly on one side before gently pulling the grate out. Once done, he turned on his WRID's flashlight and peered inside the dark hole.

Immediately after seeing the mountains of dust and debris inside that suggested it hadn't been cleaned in weeks, Tails had to resist the urge to throw up. Oh, come on, even I cleaned my ducts back on Mobius!

He placed the cover back on, but after thinking about it, decided not to apply the screws just yet. Nobody would come up here to notice it, and there was still a chance that he'd have to use the vent to get out from inside later, no matter how…uncomfortable it would be.

With only one other entrance available, Tails flew again higher into the air, checking the garden, especially the double doors, carefully. Soon he was able to make out a small dome camera right above it, the kind that made it difficult for others to see what direction it pointed at, but considering its position here, it wasn't too hard to figure out. A closer examination revealed that it wasn't pointing directly ahead or below, but slightly towards the left. He also saw that the door was locked by, of all things, an electronic keypad, right within the camera's field of view. Did Yeung have to type in his code every time he went to the garden to rest?

The fox thought carefully about how to proceed, or rather, how not to. He could not risk being spotted by the camera while he tried to hack the keypad, as it was likely being monitored in real time, and the security room didn't seem to be anywhere nearby from his earlier reconnaissance. In all likelihood it was on the ground floor of the whole building, and even if he did go all the way down there, he had no method of knocking out the guards without using his tails as blunt weapons, and that was out of the question here. And there was the chance the security room itself was being monitored. And there was the chance that the camera footage is stored on an internet archive and not only on an on-site tape, which would require even more effort to erase or replace…

Checking the camera's position again, Tails could only think of one more solution. It had its own risks, but not really any more than needing to manipulate footage, and far simpler – if he couldn't open the door, he could have someone else do it for him.

Landing on the roof directly above the door, the fox reached downwards and, taking a deep breath, knocked on the glass once, lightly but audibly, before shrinking back and ducking behind the barrier around the rooftop.

As he'd intended, he soon heard the door open up below him, and he peered over the barrier to see one of the guards inside walking out into the garden, looking around for any signs of the source of the knocking sound. Satisfied that it didn't indicate the presence of an intruder, the man turned around and headed back in.

This was the moment to act. Right after he was sure he was out of the guard's field of vision, Tails leapt over the barrier using his right hand, swinging himself downwards with his feet extended. He made sure to be doing so in front of the right door, just out of sight from the camera.

The guard continued walking as he heard the slam behind him, not noticing that only one of the doors had fully closed – the one on the right was held open by just a few inches, caused by the red and white shoe that had silently wedged itself between the door and the frame.

Grabbing onto the ledge tightly with his gloved hands, Tails climbed down slowly while gently pushing the door inwards as well as keeping his namesakes pointing upwards behind him. He had to admit he was panicking slightly, hoping that the guard didn't suddenly turn around to see him doing his clumsy Spiderman impression. It almost made him fear being embarrassed more than being caught. Almost.

After lowering himself enough, Tails was able to see through the door's glass window and check if the guard was still there, and was relieved to see that he wasn't. Taking the chance, the fox moved as much as he could to the left as possible to avoid the camera, before letting himself drop. He made sure to land on the floor not on his feet, one of which was still busy keeping the door open, but on his hands and tails, as they cushioned him nicely enough and made less noise upon contact with the shiny marble floor.

Finally, he sat up properly and held the door open with his hand, before crawling inwards and very slowly letting the door close, not wanting the guard to hear the doors close a second time.

Once the door snapped back into its frame with a gentle click, Tails couldn't help but smile at his efforts so far. I'm in. He got onto his feet and proceeded to sneak deeper inside, keeping an eye out for further security.

It took Sonic a bit longer than he'd expected to find Apartment 313, as he'd had to hide in a dark, stinky corner for a few minutes as two tenants came out of their homes to talk in the stairwell before walking all the way down. Rather than annoyance, however, the hedgehog instead actually felt bad for them in a way – this dump, with its odor and decay everywhere, really didn't seem like the best place to be forced to live in.

Eventually he made his way to the target apartment, standing in front of its entrance, a rickety wooden door. He peered into the keyhole, although he wasn't able to make out much beyond what seemed like one guy sleeping on a cheap mattress, and…an open window, large enough for him to enter? Interesting…

Right there, Sonic knew what to do. Not wanting to waste time, he raced back down the stairs, checked the street to make sure there weren't anyone out there, before heading out and turning to look at the windows up there. Fortunately, not many of them were open, and Sonic had already memorized the location of the apartment, allowing him to determine which one it was from the outside.

Now having a method of entry that didn't require noisily breaching the door, Sonic grinned and jumped onto the awning, which he used to bounce himself right up to the window, before grabbing tightly onto the ledge. The age of the building caused the plaster to crumble underneath one of his hands the moment he held it, briefly surprising him as he thought he would fall. Fortunately his other hand's grip remained secure.

Pulling himself up, Sonic clambered into the dark apartment. Although he continued to move silently, he wasn't really concerned anymore if someone outside had seen him climb in, as it didn't matter anymore. He was already this close. All of this would soon be exposed anyway.

Despite the darkness, he could see that the apartment was less trashy and, for lack of a better word, falling-aparty than the corridors and stairwell, but was nevertheless rather obviously aged, with cracks on its walls and floor and its interior colors all faded. And was that a cockroach that just scurried by?

There were only two rooms, one being the bathroom and the other being everything else combined together. There was only one actual bed, already occupied, so the other three guys had to sleep on mattresses on the floor. Carefully, Sonic stepped over them, trying to see where he should start looking.

To his surprise, it didn't take too long. His eyes soon lay on the large bag that he'd seen one of the men carry earlier from Rebecca's car, which was now placed in the middle of the room on the floor, amongst the three sleeping men. He made his way over to it and slowly handled the zip, or rather zips, to open it up, at the same time wondering about their decision to place it out in the open, rather than hiding it somewhere. Either they had no space to stuff it in here, which seemed rather likely, or they found it easier to guard it like this.

The answer came unexpectedly as, right after he'd opened the zip all the way but before he could check inside, Sonic suddenly heard the clicks of handguns cocking around him, freezing his movements. Inwardly, the hedgehog groaned. So that's why they put it there.

There were no further cameras inside the penthouse, Tails gladly found out, probably due to personal privacy reasons, which made his life easier as he got to the opulently decorated office he'd seen from his surveillance earlier, where a computer sat on an oak desk. He was lucky he was able to get to the room before his leg started aching again.

After closing the wooden door behind him, the fox checked the room for anything of note that wasn't visible from the outside. The most important one, it seemed, was the air vent in the ceiling, above a lit-up recessed area with some Buddhist statue. It seemed to be about the same size as the one he'd opened on the rooftop. He hoped he wouldn't have to use it, but he could not afford limiting himself only to escape options he liked.

Again making sure there were no cameras, Tails went over to the computer, pushed the power button and sat on the big chair, preparing to do what he'd come here for. The machine, needless to say, was password-protected, but he'd downloaded a password cracker program on Rebecca's laptop earlier, which was now stored on his WRID and could be launched via USB rather than a CD.

Connecting the WRID using its short integrated cable, Tails set the computer to boot from the USB drive instead of from the hard drive to let the program start automatically. The process would hopefully take just a few minutes, as was the standard. Until the password was discovered, he was just going to have to wait.

So far so good. Tails hoped that Sonic's own infiltration was going as smoothly as this.

In hindsight it seemed rather obvious. The bag was right there in the center, where he could be easily surrounded, and they had their hands hidden in some way while 'sleeping', either under their pillows or their bodies. He had no idea how they had expected him, but that was exactly what was happening now.

As surprised as Sonic was, however, he was most certainly not afraid. He may have been cornered, but he was still the fastest thing alive, not just in running but in reflexes. What advantage did these guys have?

Sonic observed their positions using his peripheral vision, and, confident in his ability to break out of this bind, almost smirked. Let's see what you guys got.

He ducked down and spun on the ground with his legs spread out, intent on kicking the two who were closest to him and behind his back and making them fall. He did not expect, however, their own legs to quickly move in and block his kicks, while still menacingly holding their silenced pistols over his face.

Their own moves had caught him off-guard again, and it was only by his own accelerated thinking did he manage to swipe the guns away with his hands at the last millisecond as they went off, thumping 9mm holes into the ground just a few inches away from his head to either side of him.

Okay, you guys got lucky there. Without delay or panic, Sonic sprang upwards with his head towards the man on the right, trying again to knock him down, feeling sure that he would score this time…only for them to deliver a sudden punch using their left hands, striking directly at his forehead.

"Ugh!" Stunned by the counter-attack and surprised again, this time much more so, Sonic rolled behind, away from these deceptively formidable opponents and towards the wall, his legs outstretched. When they made contact, he took two steps up the surface backwards while still facing the floor, narrowly avoiding more silenced shots headed his way. Before gravity could pull him down again, he pushed against the wall as mightily as possible, towards the one opposite him, before bouncing himself off of it and down at an angle towards the other two that had been further away from him. One of them almost punched him out of the air, although this time, Sonic, now more cautious, had expected it, and aimed his kick straight at his swinging fist rather than the face, neutralizing it, while his hands reached for the pistol the man held.

Sonic, to his relief, finally landed his first successful hit as he knocked the man down onto his bed and the gun away, but knew to immediately continue jumping as the others opened fire again. The bullets missed by scant millimeters as he leapt towards the ceiling, arms raising upwards to push himself down from there, landing right in the middle of the other three men and tackling their own guns away, while the fourth, already recovered, rejoined the melee.

Thus did the sparring begin. Their arms, both that of the men and Sonic's, were a blur as they rapidly tried to strike each other and defend themselves at the same time. Sonic noticed just how fast, ferocious and fluid each of their movements were, meeting and deflecting nearly every blow he delivered, the first time he'd ever seen any humans capable of doing this, something that earned his reluctant respect. The way one side matched the other was uncanny, even if they achieved it through completely different means – the men through years of dedicated martial arts training, the hedgehog through years of dodging projectiles fired from robots, as well as natural reflexes. A completely different sort of nature vs. nurture.

The longer they fought, the more each strike and block began trashing the place rather than the ones performing them, as the walls and nearby closets took periodic blows, their impacts causing debris to fly all over. The lack of space meant that Sonic couldn't use his trademark speed the way he normally did, by running. Blocking punches while standing in one spot was not really what he was best at, especially not for prolonged periods. As much as he hated to admit it, it seemed like he could get overwhelmed eventually, or at least the very least, get nowhere further if it went on like this. He needed to be able to move somehow to get the upper hand.

As he focused on breaking through his opponents' defense, the one nearest to the bed stepped backwards just briefly enough to grab his pistol again. There was just enough distance that he would likely be able to actually shoot the hedgehog while he was held back by the other three. Sonic, noticing this, realized he had to change tactics now, or else.

Finally he settled on an idea that could work. Never bring a knife to a gunfight, they said…unless it could help preventing it from even becoming one.

In the split second where he had just enough breathing room, Sonic stopped sparring and started spinning instead, his feet twirling him around at rapid speeds while his quills were raised and sharpened, like a deadly ballerina or oversized top.

It worked. Right there, the fighters stopped trying to attack and stepped backwards against the wall and bed, and for the first time they had expressions of concern on their mugs, although impressively enough, despite facing down a living buzzsaw that was coming closer and closer, not outright fear.

Before any of them could get the idea of tackling his legs to fell him, Sonic make sure to act yet quicker, as he normally did. He slipped out of his 'spinning top' mode in the blink of an eye, with his prepared fists hitting the nearest two straight in the abdomen, almost simultaneously. His punches, while not as strong as like Knuckles', could still be pretty mean, and here they were even augmented by the centrifugal force from his dance.

Sonic jumped up now, up to eye level height with the two incapacitated fighters, before elbowing them in the back of their heads to make sure they stayed that way, while pressing his heels onto their backs, using them as a springing board to lunge toward the remaining two, his right knee already raised towards the armed man.

The silencer on his weapon meant that he could not correct his aim in time before Sonic slugged him right in the kisser, and stepped on it with his foot again to launch himself towards the ceiling, and then bouncing back down at the fourth one, spinning. Even his training could not help him avoid the living cannonball bearing down on his face at that speed.

Only after Sonic ended his spin and landed back on the floor did the alert hedgehog, still ready to tackle at the slightest twitch, realize that the fight was over. All four were lying still on the ground. They'd put up a good fight, to be sure, but in the end they weren't anything he couldn't handle.

Glad that he'd gotten that out of the way, Sonic continued to search the apartment once more, starting with the bag that had been kicked around during the fight. Opening it wide, he began digging through its contents, including several more pistols, silencers, Molotov cocktails, ammo, even grenades, but most importantly, the USB drive, the sight of which made him sigh in relief.

Placing it back, he next went over to the wooden closet, which had several jagged holes on it caused from the trashing it received earlier. He opened its double doors, seeing nothing but a few cheap clothes hanging inside, but he was sure it wasn't that simple. His attention was now drawn to the rear wall of its interior, which didn't seem straight somehow. Checking the side of the closet, he noticed that it wasn't lined up against the apartment wall – there was a clear gap between them. He tried knocking on the wood several times, and the sound he got seemed to indicate a hollow space behind.

Without hesitating he punched the inner wall near the top, and was rewarded by the surface giving way completely. Removing the thin plank of wood and throwing it aside, Sonic came face to face with even more weapons that had been hidden inside - rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, as well as some other equipment such as folded bulletproof vests and…bombs? C4?

Realizing that there was no way he could take this much stuff away with him, Sonic took the smaller items, such as pistols on the floor, the explosives, and even their cell phones, packing them into the bag. Next he had to manage the unconscious goons somehow. For this, he was able to find some rope amongst their hidden supplies, which he used to tie them up after pushing together back-to-back. It took some effort due to how heavy and muscular they were, but managed to get it done in about a minute. He was glad Tails had taught him how to tie ropes before.

Hoping he had gathered enough evidence to solve this conundrum once and for all, Sonic slung the bag over his shoulder and got out through the window, the extra weight slowing him down slightly. After dropping down on the awning and back onto the street, he moved on to the only thing left to do before leaving. Unzipping the bag, he grabbed one of the random cell phones and dialed the Emergency Services number in Hong Kong, 999.

His call was answered after only one beep, whereupon a female operator said something in Cantonese he didn't understand. "Hey, uh, yeah, I'd like to report something," he said in English, speaking more gruffly in an attempt to hide his identity, "I think there's suspicious activity going on in, uh, Ma Tau Wai, I think, in front of, uh…" He looked around for something that could identify the exact spot, "Hong Kei electronics, red sign, on the street with the market, there's a green awning over the entrance. I saw them enter apartment 313 on the third floor, about four guys…"

As he continued reporting in the same silly tourist voice, a strange feeling overcame him, one of confusion and suspicion, and couldn't believe he hadn't realized it earlier. He remembered seeing five guys come out of that van before Rebecca went off the follow them. There were only four in the apartment. Where'd the last one go?

Sonic didn't know it, but the fifth member of the group had been watching over the apartment entrance from a nearby rooftop, having alerted his comrades to the hedgehog's arrival earlier via phone call. His paranoia, it seemed, had paid off after all, and acting as sentry had been the right decision. He hadn't heard from them after Sonic came back out and entered through the window, however, and the vantage point he'd chosen only let him see the entrance for possible intruders without being seen, not what had occurred inside their apartment - he'd had to make his way down to street level before going up another flight of stairs to the building opposite the one they were in.

By the time he'd reached there and taken out his binoculars, he had been seeing Sonic tying the others up before jumping back out the window with a bag full of evidence, the sight of which caused him great alarm. He knew his men were good at what they did, but expecting them to overwhelm Sonic in a head-on fight was still a bit too much. Still, that wasn't what shocked him the most – rather, it was how he'd managed to find them hiding out here in the first place. Hadn't they taken all necessary steps to prevent the hedgehog and fox from following? Or did they have some other tricks up their (non-existent) sleeves?

Knowing the situation was dire, he was already calling the man who'd hired them on his phone while running down towards the stairs, shortly after Sonic had gone far away enough. "Yes?" the male voice said groggily upon answering.

"Sir, Sonic found out about our hideout!" the man said loudly as he rushed towards the entrance and up the stairs, "he attacked my men and has taken a lot of evidence against us and you!"

The voice on the other end was a lot more awake now, and more moody too. "What? How did you let them find you?"

"We didn't! They must have done something to track us down. Sir, we must use plan B now!"

A few seconds of contemplative silence later, he got his reply as he reached the door and busted it open. "Fine. Begin immediately. You know what to do?"

"Yes. And sir, you better check your own house. It may have been breached too!"

"And you better not screw it up this time. Meet you at the spot in an hour."

"Understood." And with that, Yeung hung up.

He began untying his comrades with one hand while the other still clutched the phone, which he used to dial another number. "Wai, On gor?" the other voice said. "What's the word?"

"We've been compromised," he said tersely, relieved that the others were waking up now, albeit with visible headaches, made obvious by their cringing. "Plan B. Do it now."

"Roger that." That was all they needed to hear before the line went dead and Plan B began.

"Hey, get up, quick," the hitman told his gang, helping them up, "we need to pack up and get the hell out of here in five minutes."

Yeung had already gotten up from his king-size bed, now out of his slumber and fully in emergency management mode. Slipping his feet into the slippers, he impatiently got up to his door and swung it open. A guard happened to walking nearby as he saw his boss come out and approach him in his striped pajamas with a frown. "Boss? You're getting up?" he asked quietly, hoping he sounded innocent enough.

"Did you see anyone come in?" Yeung showed no sign of tiredness as he made the demand, only worry and forcefulness, which was rare of him.

"No, I didn't see anyone," the guard replied, although the way he was asked was already making him sweat.

"Are you sure? What about the cameras?"

"They did not report seeing anything either." He was already gulping mentally. Did the boss find out something that he or security hadn't? Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Being a security guard wasn't exactly a high-paying job…

"Never mind," Yeung said dismissively, shaking his head as he walked out and closed the door, "continue patrolling. I'll be back soon."

Having broken into the computer minutes ago, Tails was still busy searching for possible files when he heard the voices outside. Uh oh.

His search had been slowed down by the fact that most of the data was in Chinese, and the few folders and files in English he'd checked were irrelevant. Only by copying and pasting the names into the online translator was he able to finally come to something that seemed important – folders titled 'Police profiles' and 'Shipping manifests' – but now someone was already coming.

Knowing that they were probably headed here now, it was time to improvise. Tails had told Sonic earlier that he wouldn't copy anything off Yeung's computer, but he didn't have a choice now. Fortunately the relevant files he had to copy had a total size of just forty megabytes, and his WRID read and wrote pretty quickly.

Once everything had been copied, Tails closed everything and hit the reset button on the machine, setting it to boot back from the hard drive before letting it start up normally. This was when his keen ears started hearing the footsteps outside, the soft tapping against the faux wooden floor slow but ominous. Come on!

As soon as he was able, Tails hit the shutdown button on the login screen, knowing that taking these steps was necessary to make sure Yeung wouldn't get a notification that his computer hadn't shut down properly the last time. Finally, it was time to bail, but Tails knew there was nowhere to hide in this room. In the last few seconds he had, the fox took the only option available to him.

The door swung open, and Yeung Chiu-wah practically marched into his home office, eyes scanning the place like a hawk…and finding nothing out of the ordinary.

But Yeung was not so easily convinced. He looked downwards to check the carpet. It did not appear to have been disturbed. He went over to his desk to check his computer. It was off. He turned it on. The booting process did not show any sign of a forced shutdown. He logged in. His password was still the same. He checked the folders with the most sensitive information related to what the hired hitmen knew. The files were all still in the same place. He looked around the entire room again. Overall, there was nothing to indicate that anyone else had ever been here.

Or was there?

Tails, now hiding in the ceiling air ducts and watching through the vent – thank god that thing used magnetic attachments – couldn't tell what Yeung was thinking as the man seemed to stare at the Buddhist figure in the wall and the nearby closet, the same things the fox had used to reach the ceiling without spinning his tails, which would have been too noisy. Was there something he had…noticed?

After that brief motionlessness, Yeung walked back out the door. "Ah Man, zeon bei ngo ge ce," he said gruffly to someone, probably the guard.

Tails had no idea what that meant, but he was sure it didn't sound like Yeung was going back to sleep anytime soon. And for that matter, neither was he, he thought as he crawled through the dusty duct, holding his nose and moving slowly to avoid making noise.

About a minute later, sure enough, Tails found himself emerging from the same vent that he'd unscrewed earlier on the rooftop, something he was now thankful for. On the flipside, his fur, gloves and shoes were naturally almost totally blackened, just like when he had to do this in Germany.

Sighing, both at his method of exfiltration but also in relief, Tails screwed the vent back on before flying off the building, toward the same spot he'd dropped Sonic at. Speaking of which…he activated the communicator on his WRID to contact Sonic's earpiece. "Tails?" the hedgehog's voice came on, one that he was glad to hear again.

"Sonic, you out?" Tails asked, somewhat redundantly, since otherwise Sonic wouldn't be answering.

"Yep," Sonic replied, "glad to hear you are too. You at the meeting spot already?"

"No, I'm a few seconds out."

"Me too. See you there. You won't believe what I found."

They both arrived at the same rooftop within seconds of each other, having decided there wasn't much point racing there. "Man, you did that same thing again last time?" Sonic asked after noticing Tails' body paint.

The fox shrugged. "Yeah, I had no choice, Yeung was about to come in all of a sudden. Anyway, what's in the bag?"

"Whole lotta nasty things that kill," Sonic said as he stared at his cargo, "guns, bullets, even bombs, if you can believe it. Oh yeah, and the USB drive. And their cell phones."

Tails whistled. "Wow. Quite the jackpot you got there. I managed to find some relevant files, though I didn't have time to look over them there. Gimme a sec…" he tapped a few keys on his WRID to get to the file storage section, and checked the 'Police profiles' folder first.

A few seconds of scrolling later, Sonic noticed that Tails' expression seemed to be growing more and more uncomfortable. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Uh, well…" A now nervous Tails brought the device over for Sonic to see, explaining, "I don't know how Yeung got this stuff, but there're a whole bunch of police officer profiles, all assigned to Tsim Sha Tsui. And…" He scrolled through the scanned documents showing the names, positions, photographs of various personnel in the Hong Kong Police Force, before stopping at one in particular – that of Rebecca Cheuk, which, unlike the others, had some sort of digital marking on it, and the file name was also slightly altered to make it stand out from the others. "…it looks like he may be on to Rebecca."

Sonic was now as wide-eyed as Tails. "Crap. Then we better get going!"

Soon they both reached the balcony where they'd taken off, and were about to walk up to Rebecca's bedroom door before realizing that it was open, and the room empty. "Hey, where'd she go?"

"No idea…even her mom's missing," Tails said, checking the other bedroom where Mrs. Cheuk had been. "Something's wrong, Sonic. They wouldn't just go out in the middle of the night like this."

They both looked around the living room for any possible clues, their worries growing with every passing second, until Sonic laid eyes on a small, familiar-looking object on the couch – a red cell phone that Rebecca had used to speak with her superior before they left. "Wait, isn't that Rebecca's?"

Picking the phone up, Sonic was about to hand it over to Tails for possible analysis before the thing suddenly started ringing, startling them both. The calling number, they saw, was a private one. The mobian duo stared at each other in alarm and bewilderment, unable to tell if the timing of the call was coincidental or planned.

Not having any alternatives, Sonic decided to answer the call. "Hello?" he said, trying to sound calm and neutral, at the same time putting the speaker on.

The reply that came confirmed their worst fears. "We have Rebecca and her mother. Come at meet us in half an hour," the accented male voice said.

"Where?" Sonic demanded loudly.

"I think you know already. Half an hour, no sooner or later, or they both die." Then the line went dead.

"'Think we know'? What the hell does that mean?" Sonic looked at Tails, hoping the fox knew.

"Maybe there's something in the files here that point there…" Tails brought the WRID up and checked the folder to be sure. "The shipping manifest, right! It shows the exact location of the most recent cargo destined for Fenglong Industries that's arrived in the Port of Hong Kong. But…" His face crumpled. "How do they know I got this? What did I do wrong?"

"Hey, don't, bro. It's more likely to be something on my end," Sonic said with an extended hand, knowing how his friend reacted if he felt he'd made serious mistakes. "It's like they'd been expecting us or something. We better go."

"A-alright," Tails replied, sounding more assured now, "just…just let me wash up first."