Chapter 24 – Meant to be Broken
Paris, France. 11:57am, 7th November 2032.
The hard part of being undercover is to know who you are meant to be rather than who you are. Reacting to the news that Interpol has actually captured both Alex and Erin is music to her ears, but the bad part for her is that it seemed that she had nothing to do with it. All this time she had been feeding intelligence to Interpol, but from nothing but the knowledge of what flight they were on, they were captured. She still feels left out of the loop on the workings happening back where she can be Charlotte and discard this personality named Jess, they never told her of any impending or pressing need to contain them as quickly as possible. She was prepared to wait it out for as long as it took to get them behind bars for a long enough time period to nullify any future potential thefts. This Jeremy character seems to be doing that task for her, foiling his plots at every turn and willing to do it at every opportunity.
Yet, there was still a lingering sense that the job had not been done, that she could not disappear from this assignment yet. They may have been captured, but who knows what may happen next? She won't be satisfied until they are in an inescapable jail cell. The three of them have left the company of Jeremy and have retired to a café for lunch and to discuss their next move; in their heads, they vary wildly. Matt's idea of a diamond heist has disappeared far away from now that the table have turned, flipped and imploded in on itself.
"So, it's just us." Matt comments, staring at their empty table where there should be two seats more.
"We shouldn't have separated like that. I mean, I didn't think this would happen but… It's happened." Matt says, pausing to think over his words and the words on the menu. "Does anyone happen to know how to break someone out of prison?"
"You're the smart guy." Tyson replies. "It's your job to think."
"I was just a guess, I don't know. I'll get to work on a plan when we find where they are." Matt says as a finely dressed waiter comes across to take their order.
"Bonjour, What would you like?" the waiter asks in a heavy accent.
"Not yet, 2 minutes." Matt replies.
"As you wish." The waiter says, leaving the table and returning to his duties.
"Wait, what's going to happen next?" Tyson asks. "I mean, to us. It's all ending."
"We're not finished." Matt iterates enthusiastically as the waiter returns to bring cutlery despite the fact that they haven't ordered yet. "Just like all of the skunk's antics, it's only a setback which we'll come through for the better. We're not going to panic about this."
"I'm just going to the toilet." Jess says as she gets out of her chair and moves in the direction opposite to where the bathrooms are.
"Hey, Jess. The bathrooms…" Matt says to get her attention but she's intensely focused on something else. She leaves the restaurant and once she's outside she tears off down the street.
"Where's she going?" Tyson asks confusedly.
"Something's up." Matt says.
"There's something into her napkin." Tyson glances, looking to the clean white folded napkin that's resting as if was unaltered; save for the impression of a card lying inside. Tyson opens it up one half carefully and there is a white card placed inside. He picks it up with precision and reads it.
"Run." Tyson reads before passing it to Matt, not taking into immediate consideration what it means.
"We have to leave." Matt says quickly getting up from his chair. But Tyson is far more calm and relaxed; he casually unfolds his napkin to discover he does not have the same message. As Matt hurriedly slings his backpack on containing his equipment, Tyson unfolds Matt's napkin to find the same result as his own.
"That message was for her." Tyson says. "Just sit, no rush."
"No, we've gotta go." Matt says, only focused on leaving.
"Shhhhhh." Tyson says. "Sit, we're not told to run, so lets stay here and eat something nice. Where's our invitation to run?"
Matt stops and opens up his serviette, which contains nothing inside, and slowly sits down whilst looking around for any sign of trouble.
"Okay so…" Matt begins to say as he sees two cars race down the narrow street in the same direction that Jess ran off in. The two of them keep their heads down so they are not exposed. "So what do you want to eat?"
In the back of a truck on a motorway somewhere in Eastern England.
The motorway is much smoother than the rural b roads, which makes for good news for the shackled and bound raccoons now wearing a host of restrictive devices to make sure they can't escape. The agents, who still have not removed their riding protection or helmets, have gone for overkill on these teenagers; not knowing if they can slip them like Houdini, or even worse, their father. They each have handcuffs tied to their back with two zip ties tightened just enough to bind them but not enough so that they can escape from them. They also have a zip tie around their ankles so they can't get up easily. Alex has his backpack containing his cane as well has Erin has had the briefcase and her cane taken off her with resistance, as well as taking anything else they had in their pockets, even Alex's treasured mirror which they didn't know why he had it. Now they are trying to unlock the briefcase. The four agents have moved to the front of the bay whilst Alex and Erin are slumped opposite each other at the back.
The agents have naturally tried brute force to break the case, which didn't work at all. They have brutally forced Erin to unlock the handprint and retina scanner by holding her down and grabbing her hands and holding her eyelid open in the dim light. No doubt this worked her up significantly, becoming aggressive towards the officers and wearing each punishment like a badge of honour. Alex is silently proud, but he's also ashamed that he's not fighting like his sister; he sits in the corner silently, reacting without tenacity when scuffles break out.
Jess was right; he is the weakest minded criminal in the world.
Erin breathes in hard to recover from being held down by the cold and lifeless agents who don't seem to have any restraint in their actions. All her muscles relax after tensing as hard as she could so they could not manipulate her body to activate the briefcase. Now they only have the very long code left to enter.
"The code." One of the agents asks through his helmet. This agent is simply pleased that they have fallen right into their trap, even better that he's trapped them and not because of Charlotte. Erin is defiantly silent in the semi darkness lit only by a bright LED torch. The agent lifts his boot and presses down on her stomach until she struggles to breathe, a horrible sight for Alex to bear witness to.
"The, code." He asks sternly, apply more pressure to her abdomen. Erin begins to splutter and gasp for air.
"Hey!" Alex snaps, he won't let her take all this damage. "Come beat me, she's had enough!"
"Okay, you!" He replies, and points for one of the other agents to begin working on Alex simultaneously. He gets his own share of the 'fun', soles of boots pressing down hard on his head and chest, kicked and punched repeatedly; but neither Alex nor Erin give in or say a word apart from the involuntary groans and muffled moans from being assaulted continually. They only stop to ask more questions.
"What is inside the briefcase?!" He asks getting impatient, but he gets the same silence as before.
This continues for several minutes of interrogation followed by more violence executed without remorse. The only thing that stops them is a sudden bump on the smooth highway, which causes the truck to veer violently to the left, which the driver struggles to correct. The agents loose balance inside, either steadying themselves against the left side of the truck or on the stationary quad bikes. The trucks slows down as it grinds along it's wheel rim, as it turns into the emergency lane, another tire is shot out to further cripple it's movement.
"They have backup!" He shouts full of rage that the seemingly perfect capture is unravelling before him. It was going to prove that he is the better agent.
"Don't unlock the rear! And keep driving!" He shouts to the front, hoping the driver can hear him. Pride is partly overriding his emotions now, it is all slipping away. The truck is moving at an unsustainable crawl as it grinds the rims down with the unattached rubber wobbling around. The truck stops, much to the head agent's anger.
"Keep going, secure the briefcase!" He instructs as he gets onto the phone to call for backup. "We're being ambushed! We need an immediate extraction!"
The agents drag Alex and Erin to the back of the truck to make it harder for any potential invaders to defeat them. Outside they can hear the whirring of a low hovering helicopter, which they think to be just above the motorway, trying to execute a landing. Alex and Erin are shielded by the leather-clad bodies of the agents who stand ready, trying to defend their possessions. There is banging on the rear of the door, someone trying to knock but they don't respond. The outsiders begin to unlock the rear doors, swinging them open to reveal light that burns everyone's eyes, the ramp still provides partial protection like a retractable wall. But a single person reaches high enough to swing it down overrides it manually. Outside, there is a major traffic jam unfolding behind them which they see, the helicopter still has it's blades whirring to their left and at least 10 people are waiting outside dressed from the neat to the more practical and equipped to various degrees of self protection. Nevertheless, as soon as the ramp is down, they all begin to rush inside and overpower the 4 agents, dragging them away from the captives.
The henchmen then cut the zip ties off Alex and Erin whilst another takes away the briefcase and races outside to get away. Naturally, this upsets both Coopers who struggle against the people trying to free them.
"Give it back!" shouts Erin but it doesn't have an effect as the briefcase disappears from sight. She kicks out at the henchmen before they hold her down in order to safely untie her legs as well as Alex's.
"Get your stuff and we'll get you of here." He explains quickly.
"Not without that case." Erin sternly refuses.
"What case?" He asks like he doesn't know as their canes are handed to their handcuffed hands. "Take your stuff and get up, before the police come."
Alex gets up with more ease than his sister, who still wants that case back badly. In any case, they both pick their stuff up and trudge out of the back of the truck, knowing that police will arrive any moment now and have them watched as soon as they get there, which is a situation nobody wants. This helper opens up the rear of a sedan to let them into their ride away from the confrontation. Once inside, this henchmen runs away to his own method of escape and the car pulls away down the clear highway to whisk them away. From Alex's seat, he can see the sniper's high tech rifle sitting on the front passenger seat; this is the marksman's car he saw earlier. The marksman that shot down the drone, which cleared a path for him in Finland and crippled Le Paradox's guards so they had a chance to run away; but Alex isn't thinking about that, he's glad to simply be out of Interpol's hands.
"Where are we going?" Erin asks. There is no response; the still balaclava-covered sniper is silent throughout the entire journey back to London. Covered in bulky black clothing from head to toe as to show no part of the skin, to conceal the identity from those who want to seek it out. It is an hour of forced silence until they reach London, where the sniper drops them right outside their foster father's house. They think that Jeremy must have had them under surveillance for a while and fed some of this information to his subordinates. When the car stops, the driver waits patiently for the passengers to leave on their own.
"Thanks." Alex thanks awkwardly to the driver for getting them out safely and quickly; but he doesn't know whom he's thanking, which is what made it awkward. They both take their stuff and leave, entering thanks to Alex's key to the house. The driver is still there when they both go inside… watching, and thinking… thoughts like that must be quashed. This causes the marksman to drive away, fearful of what might happen from staying to close for too long.
The house is empty, doctors still have to work in weekends as injury and illness don't stop simply because it's a Saturday.
"What are we going to do now?" Alex asks, more to vent out his frustration at failure more than wanting an answer. "We don't know… what's even in there or why everyone wants it so much."
"Why don't we find out?" Erin responds.
"How? We don't even…" Alex protests as Erin unzips his backpack. When she does this, it brings an incredibly wide grin to his face at the disbelief of what he thinks she has done.
"That's not…" Alex replies, still in awesome disbelief.
"Possible?" Erin completes as she takes out three identical A4 sized brown paper envelopes. "I only complained about the case, not what was inside so technically, I wasn't lying."
"You emptied when you opened it? Didn't you?" He asks.
"Let's call it quick thinking and leave it at that." Erin replies. "We should see what everyone wants so much."
"Yes let's." Alex replies. Erin takes the three envelopes and puts them out on a table. Each one has a cryptic title. They have 'What you want to know', 'What everyone wants to know' and 'What you don't want to know'.
"Let's not find out what we don't want to know." Erin says, pushing for the final envelope.
"Then why give it to us in the first place?" Alex asks.
"Reverse psychology perhaps?" Erin wonders, "Or maybe it's… What would we not want to know?"
"That we don't exist and this world isn't real?" Alex jokingly guesses.
"Don't be stupid." Erin replies. "Let's see what we want to know."
"What gives Bentley the right to say what we want to know or not? I remember that he's smart but he can't read minds." Alex says as Erin opens it up and gives it a quick glance.
"You'll want to know this." Erin says, handing the envelope and some of it's papers half hanging out of the open end. "Only, you."
"What is…?" Alex asks automatically, but as he reads the first few lines of the top sheet, he is almost… taken back, not overwhelmed in a sense but like a big chunk of his life is now known. Riding the wave of satisfaction and relief, he inspects the contents of the envelope.
"This… this explains it all." Alex says. "How invisibility… works."
All he hopes from this is to gain some control.
"It's so… detailed." Alex remarks, putting the pile of papers on the table. "I can't read all of it now, let alone understand it."
"Okay, so… Should we know what everyone wants to know or what we don't want to know?" Erin asks to Alex.
"I'm scared to know what's in the last two." Alex makes known. "If it's anything like the first then… I don't want to know anymore. It's like blackjack, I'm on 20, I'm not going to draw another card; there is almost nothing that could make it better. I'm satisfied in knowing that perhaps, somewhere in here, is the key on how to get it under control."
This goes against what Erin was thinking, in fact, she was most intrigued by what see didn't want to know. She wants to know everything she can, therefore it makes the statement incorrect.
"We've got to do this." Erin says frankly, holding the last envelope up to show Alex.
"No, wait!" Alex stops, he doesn't want to know what he doesn't want to know. "Okay, let's see what everyone wants to know and then I'm leaving it at that."
"Um, okay." Erin somewhat agrees. She tears open the seal and inside finds a collection of sheets, detailing the location of the legendary Cooper vault, along with some photos of the exterior but none of the inside.
"That vault in Zurich is not the Cooper vault." Erin says. "It's in the pacific on an island."
Alex's reaction is more unmeasured that Erin's.
"We have an island?" He asks himself. This was never mentioned in the Thievius Raccoonus in order to protect them against being tortured for that very sensitive knowledge until they were ready to hold it and lock in inside for the rest of their lives. "And that vault in Switzerland was not it? How could it be any bigger or more elaborate? Maybe there's some loot stored there, but a vault kept on an island… that doesn't sound like I'm in the same reality. I mean, and I have to just say this again for myself, a vault… on an island!"
"Why not?" Erin wonders. "Where else would all our ancestors store their loot undetected?"
"I always imagined there were many safes around the world and that one in Switzerland was the biggest of them all, making that one the Cooper vault. How much loot could there possibly be?" Alex explains.
"A lot?" Erin answers.
"Hmph" Alex grunts, but he's becoming fearful; his shoulder's struggle to carry the burden that is being put on them with every envelope opened. "It's all happening so fast. I don't think I'm ready all of this."
"Alex." Erin calls to him.
"You… you're ready to know this stuff and take responsibility, I don't even have any confidence that I can even live up to my own expectations; and even they're set very low." Alex explains, descending into a self-pitying mope.
"There's nothing I can do to help you change that, remember? It's all you." Erin replies.
"I spend nearly 2 years trying to do that, running away from my problems and travelling to new places in order to find solutions. Those solutions never came." Alex continues.
"If you waited for things to just lap up at your doorstep, you'll grow old quickly. You have to go the solutions, you have to make them work for you. The Thievius Raccoonus didn't make great thieves," Erin explains.
"… great thieves made the Thievius Raccoonus." Alex joins in like he's said the exact same words hundreds of times.
"Exactly!" Erin exclaims. "So, we're going to get back at Le Paradox, we're going to do this on our terms, not on his. We will go to him like you will go find those solutions."
"But how?" Alex asks, poking the most obvious flaw in her dreams.
"We'll figure it out, no one's impervious to everything." Erin answers.
"Except him." Alex replies. This frustrates Erin severely.
"If mum or dad were here, they'd kick you into next week for saying that! There's probably, I don't know, millions who'd gladly trade spots with you. How many people can turn invisible? One, that's you! Only you! And... how many people can jump across a busy street?" Speaks Erin, giving a motivational speech.
"You saw the video?" Alex says meekly.
"Of course I did, it was brilliant! I don't have the guts to do that, no one does but you." Erin says. "Now, the question is… do you have the guts to see what's in here?"
"There's a warning that tells us not open it." Alex warns.
"Some rules are meant to be broken." Erin replies, grasping the final unopened envelope in her hands.
Erin hands it out to Alex who gingerly accepts it, like the figurative weight of the contents has suddenly become the actual weight. He takes a deep breath and slides his finger along the seal to break it. He turns his head away, not yet wanting to see what it is. He fishes inside for the contents, 3 sheets of paper, and feels for anything else which he doesn't.
"Are you ready?" Alex asks in anticipation. He still can't look at it; if he looks, there no turning back. There is no memory wipe device they can use, no time machine to prevent him from doing it; the very permanence of knowing what is inside is an icy chill that freezes Alex before he can do anything else. He pushes the paper back into the envelope and shuts it.
"I can't do it." Alex admits. "I just… can't."
"Here, I'll do it." Erin offers, acting like it's no big deal. She receives the final envelope from Alex and opens it, pulling out the pieces of paper for herself to read. Even Alex can see the effect it has on her immediately, even for someone so calm and controlled, it hits her like a freight train. She quickly and hurriedly pushes the papers back inside, now on edge, looking around for a place of refuge. She races away up the stairs with the envelope in her hand and into the nearest room she finds. Alex follows behind but at a nervous walking pace, he's concerned for her but he's not sure what to do. He climbs the flight of stairs and stands at the landing; he knows which room she is in, he can hear her… hear her… crying.
He almost wants to break down himself, simply because his sister is doing so. Alex hears how she's trying to supress it, trying to stay strong in the face of such unwelcome news. He can only let her be, letting it all play out uninterrupted as he waits just outside of the room. A thought is realised, he did this. Because he was too chicken, because he was not strong enough to do so, it caused her to shoulder all the pain. He wishes that that time machine were on hand right now, so he could change it all. He would rather be in tears than her if it meant she was okay. The crying stops as all her tears are used up and deep, sniffily breaths take their place. Even when she is stopped making such saddening sounds, Alex dares not attempt to enter, nor disturb anything.
"Alex…" Erin says through the door, trying to be as normal sounding as she can be. "I know you're out there…you need to come in here and see this for yourself. Once it's done, it's done and we can continue our lives. I don't want to keep it from you, that would only make it worse. So please, just come in here so we can do this together."
Alex gingerly grasps the door handle and opens it very slowly, he sees Erin sitting upright against the foot of a double bed with red, moist eyes that have been rubbed vigourously. The envelope is sitting on her outstretched thighs, the tab opened but the contents still inside. When she sees Alex, she tries with all of her self-control to stay that way; self-controlled.
"Just take it." She pleads. "I'm here, I'm right here." She says softly.
Alex takes the envelope again, a second chance which he doesn't want to mess up. So, like being forced to eat foul tasting food, he takes the sheet fully out of the envelope to leave him no chance of chickening out. He takes just a peak, a peak that turns into an intent stare at the words printed on the page. Words he can't comprehend, words he want to not believe, words he doesn't want to think exist. He tries to twist their meaning with great futility; there is only one meaning that they can take:
Sly Cooper is dead.
Of course, that's how it's been for ten long years, but it's not what they knew.
"I'm here." She repeats softly again. Alex drops the evil papers without a care and tightly clasps his hands around Erin, both wrapped in the same belated grief. Alex's break down is more emotional than Erin's, he has no care for staying in control, not a care in the world to hide his feelings. He lets it all go whilst Erin offers a shoulder to cry on. Time passes, they don't know how much, but it's enough… enough to finally silence the grief and the tears and the woes as they come to terms with their new reality.
Yet somehow, Interpol considers them highly dangerous. It's hard to see so when they're like this.