It had been a raid by a joint operation by the Metropolitan and Oxfordshire drug squad on a large farmhouse that had finally freed Merlin. They had received intelligence that the buildings were being used as storage for drugs and guns so a raid was planned. When the armed police arrived two men were seen running off and they were caught and recognised by some of the policemen as Valiant and Cendred. The pair were well known henchmen within the criminal community with bad reputations, although the police had never been able to arrest them for anything. The farmhouse was searched; a couple of guns and a stash of drugs was found and removed. Then a start was made on the out buildings, and it was in one of these that Merlin had been kept. The Police found a door locked so used a rammer to burst the door open. To their complete surprise instead of guns they found a half dead, naked young man curled up on the floor and chained to the walls by chains with metal cuffs round his wrists. The room was barely eight foot square and was cold and damp. Merlin's appearance shocked even the hardened police officers present. It took the police some time to free a terrified Merlin. It was obvious that at first Merlin had thought he was being attacked as he cowered even further into himself, refusing to speak. But after one of the officers cut the chains Merlin seemed to understand. He managed to tell his rescuers that his name was Merlin before passing out in fear and exhaustion. The police couldn't locate the keys to the metal shackles around Merlin's wrists, so decided to leave them in place and get his to the hospital as soon as they could. An ambulance had accompanied the raid as the police had expected to find armed men at the farmhouse. One of the constables had gone to ask them to attend once he had seen the naked man. As soon as they entered the room the ambulance crew started to work on Merlin to get him ready to transport, the first task was to get an IV line in and start the fluids he so desperately needed and they lifted him carefully onto the trolley with a policeman helping to support his leg. The ambulance crew were reluctant to give the young man much in the way of pain relief as he so obviously malnourished and in going into shock. As soon as they could they loaded him in the ambulance and blue lighted him with a police escort to The John Radcliffe Hospital 20 miles away in Oxford. The paramedic radioed ahead, to warn the A&E staff of the condition of their pickup. On arrival at A&E Merlin was taken straight to the critical care area for full assessment, a full team of medical staff were awaiting his arrival. Merlin had only been there for 10 minutes when his heart stopped beating. The stress and lack of fluids and nutrients had weakened his body beyond its tolerances. A full Crash Call was put out and resuscitation commenced.