Chapter 26 – On the Rebound
Kensington, London, England. 8:21pm, 7th November 2032.
*(Contains Drug References)*
Another long shift, connected to all parts of the world to do his bit in saving the lives of people, has ended for Tim Mcsweeny. Another night alone in his house, still getting used to having it to himself again. He walks up the steps to get out of the rain and to unlock the door but he can hear voices inside, voices that he doesn't know of. Are these people getting revenge for what Alex has done?
"Hello?" The walrus shouts into his own house.
"It's us!" Erin shouts back from inside. This settles his nerves and allows him to enter with the knowledge that he's not being broken into. He hangs his overcoat on a conveniently placed hook mounted on the wall.
"You didn't tell me you'd be…" He begins to explain as he turns around to see two others sitting at the table. "Are you friends of Erin's?"
"We're studying some documents together here, there was a fire at Erin's place so she took us here." Answers the quick thinking Matt.
"Well… I'm sorry to hear that Erin. Looks like you'll be here tonight. I'll get spare bedroom sorted out." Tim says, starting to walk up the stairs.
"It's okay, we're going out soon. We'll be fine." Erin replies. Tim stops and returns to go down the stairs to see Alex sitting down at the far end of the table, it is a surprise to see him here.
"Alex? D'you come here as well? Out of money again? Come to accept my job offer?" Tim asks as he moves towards the four of them. Matt begins to shuffle together the more sensitive documents he thinks that they don't want him to see.
"No, I heard about the fire so I came down to help. I'm not broke either." Alex notes, looking uninterested at the documents on the table.
"I hope your not saying that out of pride, sometimes you need to swallow it and do what's best for yourself. I know this is what you want to do and that you think it's the only thing you can do. But you can surprise yourself by seeing how good you are at something else; something you can fall back on with some stability." Tim explains as he opens his phone to check on Alex's bank balance. He is immensely surprised with the 6 figure sum sitting prettily inside. He takes a look at Alex just to make sure there isn't anything which seems to have changed about him, that amount of money can't just appear like that. It's a look of confusion that Alex can see.
"I'm not broke." Alex repeats.
"Apparently not." Tim agrees with a wide degree of surprise. "Okay, I'll uh… let you get to it."
The walrus continues into the kitchen to reheat a meal for dinner.
"We should head off somewhere." Erin says quietly. "Any thoughts?"
"We could try a hotel room." Matt answers. "You've got the funds."
"What about that empty hideout place you showed me near your apartment?" Alex answers. "That should be empty, shouldn't it?"
"Okay." Erin answers, getting out of her seat to tell Tim of the news. "We're going out."
"Okay, bye." He replies. Erin packs the sheets back into the envelopes and places them in her backpack next to the Thievius Raccoonus. They all pack up and leave within a minute, heading towards the nearest tube station.
"Was that your father?" Tyson asks in amazement. "He's let himself go a bit."
The other three stop and turn to him in confusion.
"You're not seriously that dumb, are you?" Matt asks, just to be safe.
"Of course not, I really had you all fooled there." Tyson replies. Matt is not pleased, sarcasm is about as invisible to him as Alex can be.
"Ooookay then." Matt replies. "Hey, I've just thought… your dad is a doctor." Matt asks, but he gets the feeling that he shouldn't use the term 'dad'. Not because it's legally incorrect, but because it's biologically incorrect. "…Um, Tim is a doctor, couldn't he make some sense of those medical documents? He could tell you what they mean."
He gets silence back, because he is trying to probe the very… particular relationship that Alex and Erin have with the walrus. Matt decides to keep quiet and not run the risk of offending the very people that he wants to be with. The rat doesn't want to be alienated, it's his dream to this, a dream he doesn't want to end.
They push on their journey, taking the underground to an above ground station that allows them to take a train headed towards Oxford. Even though for most of the journey there is hardly anyone else to accompany them for any part of the journey, they don't talk much to each other. Everyone in this group has their own agendas to deal with, each figuring out what to do next. Erin wants her stuff back, Alex is trying to survive, Matt is trying to hang on and Tyson is hanging on for the ride without a care.
Erin is leading the way, down a street she has been down many times through the same small shopping strip to the one shop that hasn't been rented out and has naturally fallen into disrepair. She expects it to be empty since she doesn't know what has happened to it's occupants; namely, herself and the other four members of her group who have disappeared somewhere. Tonight though, someone is inside; they can tell from the small amount radiant light coming from the top blocked out by a set of freshly installed blinds.
"I'm going to see who it is." Erin says to the group before running slightly ahead to get the boost she needs to climb up to the overhang that splits the top and ground floors. She crouches down as low as to stay below the window ledge to see who is inside. Inside, there are no printers or building items which used to be strewn around the place in a semi organised fashion. This was where she would crash with her friends, build stuff mainly using already made plans from the internet and then sell them online for a profit. It was a little side business to supplement her own dealings. Now, a new business has moved in. The windows have been painted over with grey paint so she can't see a thing apart from the ambient glow and the front door now has been locked from the inside. The 'for lease' sign now has a sticker running across it to show that it has been rented out.
"The windows are painted over from the inside." She comments down to the group as she herself gets down. "We'll have to go to the back entrance."
"Wait." Matt interjects as he puts down his backpack to get out his computer. "If they've done all of these things, then perhaps they have some more security measures; ones which I can hack into."
He looks for a Wifi signal for this building but doesn't find one.
"Maybe not, it was worth a shot." Matt answers before packing up his stuff and catching up to the others who are walking around the block to get to the back.
They approach a small concrete paved lane that's curve in a V shape with a drain in the centre for the rainwater. They are walking down this lane, but Erin spreads her arms wide to prevent anyone from moving further in front her.
"Security cameras." Erin says, looking at the two cameras installed directly above the door that are facing in either direction down the lane.
'They must be hardwired." Matt comments, knowing they weren't accessible remotely.
"We should back away." Alex says, already half turning away to leave the laneway. Matt is already searching through his bag for something as they all walk away. They turn around the corner and are hidden from the cameras by the two storey brick wall of the houses facing the other way on the block.
"What should we do?" Tyson asks. "There no way we could get down the lane undetected."
"And what's the point of taking this place back if someone else has already moved in with all of this hardware? Chances are your friends knew this and ran off to go somewhere else." Matt theorises. "We should go back to your apartment and think about what to do next."
"I still think that skunk has something to do with this." Alex comments, going on a hunch he's feeling. He hears rushed footsteps coming towards them from the laneway. "Someone's coming."
Everyone begins to start to run down the street away from the main road apart from Matt.
"What are you doing?" Alex whispers in worry. "We need…"
"Listen." Matt says and waits cupping his hand over his ear for the distinctive sound he's hoping for if this new device has worked properly. He hears the sound of a body falling on the concrete.
"Music to my ears." He comments.
"You killed him?" Tyson asks.
"He'll be out for 15 minutes max." Matt says. "We should go around the other side so we don't fall victim."
"What did you do?" Erin asks in amazement. Matt pulls out a small white plastic box that has obviously been 3D printed since it's so perfectly fitted to the 7 remaining objects inside. They look brown like stock cubes, each about 2cm in length, width and height.
"Stink bombs." Matt shows the group as they walk along. "Very useful, activated simply by dropping them from at least 2 metres high, disperses quickly and knocks out anyone who comes near it."
"I thought your 'suppliers' couldn't be contacted?" Alex reminds him.
"I thought so too." Matt answers. "Tyson and I were on our way to meet you guys in London. I don't know exactly when it happened but somehow they got put in my bag when I was walking along. But the strange thing is my bag was never unopened from when we got off the train till when we got to your house. I could almost swear it was one of you two who did this because I didn't feel a thing and Tyson didn't see a thing. Do you know anyone who can do that?"
"How did you know they were stink bombs if no one told you anything?" Alex asks.
"It came…" Matt says as he searches for it inside his crammed backpack. "…with a note." Which he displays to Alex.
"You said those exact words." Alex notices as he starts to read it. "Stink bombs, Very useful, activated simply by dropping them from at least 2 metres high, disperses quickly and knocks out anyone who comes near it. You remembered all of that?"
"My memory's okay." Matt comments too modestly.
They reach the other side of the laneway where they can just see the body lying in the darkness with no one coming to see anything; perhaps he was working on his own inside that place.
"Don't we have the same problem, just from the other side?" Erin asks, looking down the laneway, facing the same problem of getting past the security cameras as before.
"I thought that if there was anyone else left they'd come out and take care of their friend, it would flush them out, but that didn't eventuate." Matt explains. "We can do this later, I can possibly get some EMP grenades which can take them out temporarily so we can…"
Matt realises something is wrong around him.
"Where's Alex?" Matt asks, looking around.
"Up here." Alex waves from the roof of the two storey attached houses opposite the shops.
"You would do that." Matt responds back in his semi-frustration that his plan has been shot down, but for a good reason because this way is quicker, simpler and generally better.
"Just wait there." Alex instructs before he heads across the rooftops.
"Is this a regular thing he does?" Matt asks to Erin.
"What do you think?" Erin replies, watching for her brother to appear in the laneway. She waits for a few seconds before seeing Alex leap down from the roof to right in front of the door, the blind spot of the camera system. He then takes out his cane, swings it out in his hand and cuts the cables running from the cameras using the hook of his cane. He gestures with his hand to get them to come to him as he looks towards the door to figure out how to open it. Just doing that little course of climbing and jumping down, even grasping the cane and using it felt good. It's given him a mild confidence boost in his head; his ability was never in question. Meanwhile, the group rushing towards him is figuring out what to do next, but Alex has already unlocked the door before they arrive. He's on a rush, no time for thinking, just straight to the action.
But he doesn't fling himself straight into the building, he slowly opens the door so that it doesn't squeak or give away his position. Alex couches down low and begins his sneaking up the stairs slowly. Erin waits outside, along with the rest of the group.
"How many greens we got?"
"About 2000."
"Red?"
"Around 350."
"Keep it up or we won't make the quota."
Greens and reds are the street terms for a duo of recently underground alcohol drugs which are designed to work together. Like traffic signals; green is for go and red is for stop. Green is basically a concentrated solvent form of alcohol which is added to any drink to make it alcoholic after it is dissolved into a liquid. Each green is 10g of pure alcohol, or one standard drink, so naturally it's the more preferred option to sell. But, the red is almost essential; a green is almost always accompanied by a red. It ends the effects of alcohol in less than 5 minutes to bring the person back to being sober, allowing them to exit a party as if they never walked in. Why is alcohol on the underground? Taxes. Tax has kicked alcohol into a realm for the rich, tax is into the thousands of precent compared to the actual cost. Operations like this are not affected by such taxes and therefore can make a sizeable profit margin whilst still being relatively cheap. There is an exact product available legally, but it's much more expensive. It is the perfect business to invest in, if the illegality doesn't faze the investor.
Alex takes a tiny peak around the corner, he sees the two workers focused on nothing but production. He sees the plastic bags and the tiny distillers near the wall but what surprises him most is the small stack of money; not because of the amount but because of it's look. They have, in their possession, the Le Paradox currency. It seems to charge Alex with an irrepressible need to steal something from them with the hope that he could dent the skunk's operations; I only by a small amount. He sneaks in like a shadow inside the room and takes all of their money, most of it in the underground currency, a tiny amount in more widely acceptable cash. He takes a look at the pills but decides to leave them alone, he's not planning on hosting a massive house party any time soon; 300 people can't fit into Erin's apartment; and Alex is not ready to send a message to Le Paradox, he's not even thinking about that at the moment; his entire focus is now on getting out, which he does as silently as he went in.
"What's inside?" Erin asks eagerly.
"Drugs." Alex replies. "But, they've got this."
He shows them the odd wad of money that they have seen before.
"We should go." Erin instructs to Alex. "You did just steal a wad of money, fake or not."
"Perhaps that's a good idea." Alex comments before he takes off along with the rest of the group, running away from the scene as if they were being chased, which they weren't simply because they never noticed until they were gone from complete sight. Even the guy who was knocked out later woke up and simply went back to work, wondering why he was out in the open lying down on the ground. Perhaps it were the pills.
9:03pm, Erin's Apartment
"Do you know what this means?" Matt asks to the rest of the group as he stares at a note bearing Le Paradox's constantly staring face like they are staring off each other.
"You're the smart guy." Tyson replies as he is doing sit ups against the wall next to the tiny bathroom. "Tell us."
"You should know, he only told us two." Matt responds back.
"When was this?" Alex asks.
"You planned this, remember. We went to Paris after Alex found Jeremy's location, turns out he was there himself. I wasn't joking when he made that offer."
"I didn't think you were." Alex responds.
"Anyway, he threatened to stop you from doing any heists whatsoever. The very fact that you've done this contradicts that." Matt explains. "This means that he's arrogant, all talk no action kind of guy. But at the same time he's overly cautious; he has at least enough guards around him to outnumber his opponents. He had at least 10 guards just for me, Tyson and Jess."
"Where is Jess?" Erin wonders.
"She had… to run off… somewhere." Tyson says between reps. "A note… It said… run."
"I don't know what's happened to her. She got this hidden note and then she took off, maybe someone from her past wants to get some unpaid debts; perhaps that's why she was working with us." Matt explains in more detail.
"Just us four then now?" Alex asks.
"Hopefully it'll be eight if my gang shows up." Erin notes.
There is a silence as they each wait for someone else to talk. It symbolises their lack of direction, which Matt intends to direct since he's the string puller in this group.
"What should we do next then?" Matt asks.
"Kill Jeremy Le Paradox." Tyson answers immediately; an answer that is brutaly harsh.
"Taking it too far there." Matt comments.
"Isn't that how you would get rid of him forever?" Tyson asks; now proceeding to do some tricep pulls.
"Zero body count, right Alex?" Matt reminds him.
"Um… yeah." Alex replies hesitantly.
"Wait… do you…want him dead?" Erin asks softly.
"No." Alex replies immediately, automatically even. "He's just been treading on my nerves like it was a footpath or something. It's annoying, this sort of conflict is what my dad faced ages ago, only it was with Le Paradox's father."
"I guess he won." Matt replies. "If you two are standing here right now."
"What I don't get is why he seems to be hell bent on us, like he thinks we're some huge threat to him even though… I guess, we're not much." Alex explains, it also gives Matt a brilliant idea.
"Firstly, you're too modest. Secondly, that is brilliant!" Matt exclaims.
"Being…" Alex begins to reply automatically, but he silences himself, realising his retort was going nowhere. "Whatever, just say it."
"He says we are a huge threat, but I doubt that he thinks that we actually are as a big threat as he says we are. His main weapon he's trying to use against us is his mouth, he doesn't seem to have any physical ability which means, if he wasn't surrounded by a whole bunch of guards every time, he could be contained. Now, his next big strength is his money, he literally throws it around like he doesn't care. What we should do next if we are going to actually go after this guy is to find out how he's got so much money and take it away from him."
"Isn't that were those, gangs come into play. Like he gets a cut from them for the business they do." Alex answers.
"No, that's how he's doing it now. We have to know what he did to make money before he was dressed in suits that are worth more than the monthly pay check of most workers. He's the son of a thief, but he doesn't have any obvious physical ability. So chances are he's done it in some way that doesn't make him go and physically pull an actual heist. Therefore, if he's a manipulator, he's probably doing something smarter than that; something less obvious." Matt wonders out loud. "Any ideas?"
"Extortion?" Alex guesses blindly, but Matt; being Matt, has another idea.
"No, better than guessing." Matt says, pulling out his laptop. "If he's as rich as he says he is and he's a criminal mastermind, he's probably got a private jet."
"He does have a private jet." Alex remembers back from when they were in Romania. "It must have been at the Constanta airport at the same time we were there."
"Perfect!" Matt exclaims. "Did you see a call sign on the tail?"
"I didn't see it, but it's the only way he could get from Romania to Switzerland and to catch me out." Alex explains.
"He saw the vault?" Erin asks.
"What vault?" Tyson asks.
"I could have got him then." Alex says. " Maybe I should have."
"Okay, on that particular day there were 58 planes taking off or landing there."
"He would have taken off… directly after or sometime close to when I did." Alex thinks out loud.
"Makes sense." Matt says. "Okay, from these flight records I have his plane's call sign which I can now use to see where this plane is in the world."
"Incredible." Erin complements. The way he has gone from such a tiny amount of information to making such a profound discovery is brilliant.
"Beat me to it." Alex says.
"The plane is in transit, planned route is from Paris to Washington D.C." Matt reads out from his computer.
"What's in Washington D.C. that he'd want?" Alex asks.
"That's an impossible question, it could be anything."