Chapter 2: This isn't Good…
Sam had come back home after a long tiring soccer practice to find his mother and sister sitting on the porch talking to a couple of police officers. That would have been normal (both of his parents were cops), except there were more than usual and they had surrounded the house with crime scene tape.
"Mom? Cam?" Sam called when got within earshot. "What's going on? What happened?" Sam ducked under the crime scene tape and jogged over to his family.
"The house looks like it's been ransacked and Dad's missing." Cami said bluntly.
"What?" Sam asked shocked.
"We need to ask you a couple questions." One of the cops had come over to Sam. "Could you please come this way?"
Sam followed the cop to the other side of the yard. Sam knew that the cops were questioning everyone separately to make sure the stories matched up.
After two hours, Sam and Cami were sitting in their mother's office at the police station. Carmelita was sitting in her chair tapping her foot impatiently while she sat at her desk. A cop was stationed outside the door to prevent Carmelita from helping on the case and Sam and Cami were there because they couldn't go home.
"Mom, when can we go home?" Cami asked after a long, tense silence.
Carmelita's expression softened. "I don't know. We might end up in a safe house for a couple days."
"But what about school? I have a soccer match coming up and if I miss it, I'm off the team!" Sam said urgently.
"I'll talk to your coach." Carmelita promised. She stood up and opened the door.
"You can't leave your office, Inspector." The ape cop said when Carmelita moved to walk out.
"I need to go to the bathroom." Carmelita said, glaring at the ape. "I think that will be allowed." Carmelita pushed past him. The ape looked back at the twins for a moment and then followed Carmelita to make sure she didn't get sidetracked.
Cami smiled and got up. "Come on, Mom did this on purpose so we can gather some info."
Sam and Cami crept down the familiar hallways. They stopped every so often to eavesdrop at a door. Cami motioned for Sam to come over to listen to a door after a while.
"Cooper's missing? Isn't that a good thing? He's been an unreliable cop since the start." A gruff voice was talking. "I knew it was a stupid mistake to make Cooper a cop. Now we've got a little Cooper running around. You know what every Cooper has been for longer than anyone can remember?"
"Yes, we know." Another voice spoke. This one was female. "We know, but we still have to find him. Fox will kill us if we don't try."
"Yeah, sure. Everyone knows she loves the guy. I don't understand how." The gruff voice said.
Cami and Sam would have liked to listen longer but they had to get back into the office before Carmelita and the cop returned. They managed to sit down in their seats right as the office door swung open. Carmelita sat back down behind her desk and said nothing.
After an hour, Cami and Sam started doing their homework. No one spoke. Carmelita started to organize her desk for the fourth time. Sam finished his homework first and then pulled out a book he had to read for English class. Cami finished not long after and started to look out the window because she now had nothing to do. The window led out to a fire escape. Cami studied the latch: it was rusted shut.
Just as Cami came to that conclusion, an alarm sounded. Carmelita, Sam, and Cami jumped up in surprise. Cami and Sam knew this alarm was for the holding cells in the station. Carmelita picked up her gun and opened the door. The ape cop was gone.
"Stay here and lock the door. I'll give you two short knocks followed by three longer knocks when it's safe. Unlock this door for no one." Carmelita shut the door.
Sam locked the door behind her. "Should we be afraid?"
"I don't know. Are you?" Cami asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, oddly enough." Sam said as he sat back down. He pulled out his book and continued reading despite the blaring alarm. Cami was looking out the window. She saw something that made her gasp.
"Sam? You might want to see this." Cami said as the alarm was shut off.
Sam shut his book and looked out the window. He gasped. The entire police station was surrounded. He pulled Cami away from the window.
"What do we do?" Cami asked Sam.
"What can we do?" Sam asked her right back. "We can only hope Mom's okay and they won't come in here."
"That's not much." Cami said. She was listening to the door. "Who can do this? Set off an alarm in a police station in the middle of the day and surround it?"
"I don't know." Sam said as he dragged his stuff and Cami's under Carmelita's desk.
"What are you doing?" Cami whispered.
"If they come here and see our backpacks, they'll know that there are two minors here." Sam pushed the bags out of sight and straightened up. "We're going to get out of here."
"What about Mom?" Cami asked, giving her twin an incredulous look.
"Mom, can take care of herself." Sam said confidently, but Cami knew he was worried. Sam slowly peeked out the window. "If we can get to the roof, we will have a better vantage point. We'll know what we're up against and we can get out of here."
"We can't just leave!" Cami whispered urgently. "We need to know if Mom's okay and we need to help."
"I know, but we have no data!" Sam argued. "We don't know who or what we're up against! Besides, what can two unarmed kids do against all of them?" Sam japped his finger in the direction of the window.
"We're not unarmed." Cami pulled a box out of the top drawer of Carmelita's desk. It had an electronic lock.
"You can't be serious." Sam groaned. "Mom's back-up? This will no doubt end in catastrophe." Sam watched as Cami tapped in the key code and pulled out the shock pistol. "How did you know Mom's key code?"
Cami handed the pistol to Sam. "There are smudges on the 2, 3, and 7 keys. I knew it had to be a combination of the three." Cami pushed the pistol into Sam's hands when he wouldn't take it. "You're a better shot than me."
"Yeah, in video games and soccer." Sam said exasperated.
"Well, you can always kick or punch them." Cami said as she took a broom and snapped the bottom off so she was holding a long stick. "And I'll-" Cami cut herself off when she heard voices outside the door.
Sam met Cami's gaze and nodded. Cami kicked the window latch and wrenched it open as the voices struggled with the locked door. Cami leapt out onto the fire escape, closely followed by Sam. They both were on the roof before either of them registered how stupid it was to be on the roof.
"Oh, great." Sam looked over the edge at the surrounding forces. Cami yanked him away from the edge and pulled him over to the fire escape.
"Shoot it." Cami said. Heavily armed dogs were climbing up the fire escape and they didn't look friendly.
"What?" Sam asked confused.
"Just do it!" Cami yelled as Sam shot the metal stairs with a blast of electricity. The dogs collapsed on the stairs. Cami started to yank the rusted metal bolts out of the side of the building. Sam realized what she was doing and began to help her.
The old rusted fire escape fell off the side of the building. It kept anyone from coming up the fire escape, but it also gave away their position to everyone who was around the building.
"Well, that was both smart and stupid." Sam commented.
"Thanks, Sammy. Thanks a lot. Now what do you plan on doing?" Cami said sarcastically.
Sam looked around the rooftop. He saw an obvious escape route, but he kept that as last resort. He was rapidly calculating other escape routes and seeing that only the last resort would work. He looked at Cami.
"Cam, we need to jump to that building over there." Sam said calmly.
Cami looked at him incredulously. "I can't. Sam, you know I'm acrophobic."
"I know, but would you rather face heights or them?" Sam jerked his thumb in the direction of the people surrounding them.
"Okay…Oh, god." Cami whimpered.
"Come on. Run and down look down. Don't allow yourself to slow down." Sam pointed to the building that was closest. "We need to jump to that one, and probably more. Come on. You need to go first." Sam pulled Cami back to the edge so they could build up some speed for the jump.
"What?" Cami looked terrified. "Why do I need to go first?"
"I'm not acrophobic. I need to make sure you go across." Sam prodded Cami forward. "Go, I'll be right behind you."
Cami took a deep breath and started to run. She leapt to the roof. Fear was almost painful as she briefly saw the ground, mid-jump. Cami landed face-first on the roof. A loud clunk next to her told her Sam had landed.
"Come on." Sam yanked Cami up. "We need to keep moving!"
Cami heard pistols being fired at her and her brother. Sam kept Cami moving and not thinking about the heights or anything at all. Both Sam's and Cami's only thought was to get away.