Chapter 33 – Too Important to Fail

Interrogation Room #1. 6:41pm, 8th November 2032.

Sitting in the room all by himself is the rat, handcuffed to the stainless steel table fixed to the ground like the chair he's sitting on. Matt faces directly towards the only door in the tiny, pale green square room but he's looking at the one security camera in the top left corner, like trying to stare into the eyes of whoever's watching. He constantly thinks of a way out, his attention constantly drawn to the metal clasp around his wrist and how to get rid of it; if only he had the lockpicking skills of his partners.

He shifts himself upright a tad once he hears the door being unlocked, waiting to see who's going to be applying the pressure tonight. The door swings outward and an owl stares down at the young rat who tries to look disinterested in him but inwardly is really unsure of what is going to happen next. The owl scratches his brown and black speckled feathers near his neck as he shuts the door on himself. He turns and stares into the rat, slowly pacing across to the right before stopping in the corner.

"Nervous?"

"Dunno, should I be?" Matt asks, playing it cool to calm himself down.

"No, not at all." The bureau chief replies as he sizes up his opponent. "You're the one they chose? Hmmm, I don't see why they should have. Your computer's hard drive is being examined as we speak; is there anything that's on there that you would like to talk about before we make our own judgements?"

Matt stays silent, his tired look floating between the owl and the door.

"Do you know anything about Bentley turtle?" The owl probes.

"Thanks for the comparison." Matt sharply replies.

"He works for us now." The owl responds back as he slowly paces from one side to the other. "The smartest criminal alive is not smart enough to hide from us forever and I highly doubt you'll differ from that pattern. So, what I want to see from you is one of two things. Ideally, in a perfect world, you would heed my warnings and not commit any computer related offences nor any offences relating to thievery; better still, any offences at all. However, I know that is not going to happen. I see a smart, decent minded people falling into a life of crime and for what? A shorter life expectancy? Prison time? …No wonder they're overflowing. I look at you and I see a smart, decent minded teenager being dragged into a life of crime by none other than Alex Cooper. Which begs the question I asked earlier, why did he choose you?"

"He didn't choose me." Matt replies.

"So it was by chance? Coincidence perhaps?"

"Antonio Regazzoni."

"Who?" The owl says before he realises what he's said. He waits as the team outside the room searches for that name on their database and relay that information wirelessly to their leader. The owl disguises this by pacing around, looking deep in thought. He gets fed the news and can't help but to laugh at the things he's hearing.

"Excuse me." The owl apologises as he tries to prevent himself from laughing further. The laughter dies down slightly before the owl speaks again as Matt thinks about what he's missed.

"I can't believe it… it's going to be so easy to bring Cooper down it shouldn't be this funny."

Matt tries to remain calm but the thought of failure is gnawing at him, he has to know where he has gone wrong.

"Why do you say that?"

"You're so naïve and loyal to anyone and everyone that comes to help you, it's just…" The owl says before breaking into another spot of laughter. "It's just you're more naïve than what's possible, and you're supposed to be the smart one."

It couldn't get any better for the chief, there's just one thing that would make his day even better.

"I don't suppose you know the location of the Cooper vault?"

Suddenly Matt's face changes briefly into surprise before determination not to let this one piece of information go. Sadly for him, the owl notices that he knows what he is talking about.

"This just keeps getting better and better. So, to cap off the easiest disassembly of the Cooper gang in recorded history, tell me the location of the Cooper vault."

Matt forcibly stays silent.

"Even in the wake of such stupidity, you still cling inexorably to your false hopes." The owl says disappointedly. "Very well, thanks to Bentley, we have various liquids and serums that each do their separate things. One such serum makes the recipient say the truth to whatever question we ask. The only problem with it is, the more you try to resist it the more painful it gets. So, we prefer to only administer it when all other options have failed. Therefore, I'll give one you one last chance to tell me where the Cooper vault is."

Matt stays silent.

"Very well, the average time for the serum to work is 5 minutes, the maximum anyone has gotten is 8 minutes but I reckon you won't last more than 2." The owl cockily predicts before re opens the door to two nurses who enter with a selection of needles filled with different coloured liquids along with several restraining devices to clamp the rat down so he doesn't hurt himself. This serum has a very powerful effect on any person that has it in their system. It all starts with a question asked to the victim, nothing happens at first. But whatever question is asked will begin to play on the mind, becoming the only thing he can think about. Paranoia sets in, accompanied by guilt soon after. Subjects begin to writhe around as they physically try to divert their thoughts onto something else by sharp acts of self-harm. The mind burns for not saying the answers; knocking headaches grow more intense and frequent like hammer blows biting away at the brain. Inevitably, the subject can only to one of two things to end the pain; answer the question, or death. However, by restraining the subject, the second option is no longer a possibility.

The cold metal tip of the needle is pushed into the vein under the elbow, the serum is injected; and the timer begins.

"Where is the Cooper vault?"

6:19pm

"Matt?" Erin asks into her phone, standing on the roof in the rain with Alex standing nearby. A tense silence arises when she receives no reply. Erin hangs up, wondering where he might be.

"He didn't answer." Erin comments to Alex. "Do you think?"

The phone rings, putting a massive sense of relief in her, thinking something bad had happened to him.

"Matt, what happened?"

Brief silence followed by a reply.

"Wrong person Erin." Jeremy replies. Erin move to hang up straight away. "Don't hang up, I have to speak with at least one of you, so pass the phone over to Alex or continue to talk with me."

Erin looks around for any sort of surveillance the skunk is using to see how he knows what they are doing without physically being there himself.

"Regrettably, your 'technology expert' has been taken by Interpol."

"Liar."

Jeremy is taken back by such an accusation.

"I'm sending you proof, and don't call me a liar ever again." Jeremy warns. "Otherwise I'll stop covering your behinds and you'll be left fend for yourself."

"Why do you want to help us so much? Do you have a split personality or something where on one hand, you keep my friends for hostage and on the other, you're like some sort of guardian angel?" Erin rants.

"The guardian angel role has already been filled, I'm here to make sure that you do not get yourselves into trouble. Time is short, as soon as a drone arrives with a delivery, you must head over to the Interpol building and get to the 4th basement floor where he's going to be held, presumably until he gives up the location of your secret vaults." Jeremy explains. Erin is wondering how he knows all of this whilst still being perplexed as to why he is doing this.

"Why help us?" Erin asks harshly.

"Erin," Jeremy begins. "You think about me the wrong way, like I am somehow forced to be the antagonist simply because of my name. If only you were there when the others came to see me, I told them that I am not limited by and that I can overcome the past; whatever that may be. Just think about it, the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. I should be locked away in an insane asylum if I try the same things my father tried against your's. I need you to see things differently, the way I see it; don't think of us as enemies, more like… competitors, rivals; two teams trying to accomplish the same thing. That may hard for you to see, so blind from the stories kept in your book of secrets. Those writings are permanent; they only capture a fixed snapshot in time… and they probably say nothing about me. Look over to Alex, standing there, waiting her hear what you're listening to. He should know this better than most, do you know why? It's because I spent a large sum of money, teaching him this very lesson. He'll say he figured it out on his own, but then again, it's exactly what I wanted."

Jeremy pauses briefly. "The drone about to arrive, get the items quickly before heading into the building, he can't tell the location to the police."

"Why? So you can get it for yourself?" Erin taunts down the phone but it falls on deaf ears.

"Look." Alex points out into the rain, pointing out the drone carrying a box of items underneath with it's claw bar one; the item that is most noticeable to Alex. There is another cane placed horizontally, sticking out at both ends of the drone above the box. The drone flies in and lands quickly, releasing it's vice like but delicate grip on the items it's carrying before flying away.

"Another cane." Alex states, flicking up with his foot and catching it with one hand. It's an exact copy of what Erin has in nestled in the backpack; a carbon copy.

"I have eyes too." Erin replies, picking up the box shaped slightly larger than a shoebox. "We have to get this inside."

Erin looks across to the next building separated by only a 2 metre gap.

"We'll go in there." Erin says, holding the box in her hands. She looks at the fourth floor window opposite her and looks for a landing spot on the ledge. Despite both hands being occupied, she lands effortlessly, never losing her balance. With the box in one hand, she bends down and checks the window to see if it's locked; which it is. She moves across one window to her right and tries to push up the window with one hand. It's budges a little bit, it all the encouragement she needs to continue. Using the grip on her one free gloved hand, she presses hard on the glass to apply a grip before pushing upwards. Once it is open enough to stick her fingers through, she fully opens the window and sneaks inside, allowing Alex to do the same.

"Home and dry." Alex comments, despite this tiny, unoccupied apartment not being theirs.

"Let's do this quickly." Erin says, quickly opening the lid on the box. The first and only item she sees is another backpack; another copy of what she has at the moment. She picks it out and realises it's not empty. She unzips it quickly and grabs all the stuff she finds inside, it resembles a collection of toys rather than high tech gadgetry. She grabs the most ordinary item taken from inside the bag, a piece of paper containing the typed manifest, and quickly scans through it. Alex meanwhile, is drawn to one single item more than any other… a black mask. A mask almost identical to what he remembers as what his father wore.

"Masks." Alex exclaims as he bends down, crouches on his toes, and picks up the ends of a mask whilst looking through the eyeholes longingly as if this is symbolic item of clothing is what he was missing; or it could be that he's just missing his dad. Either way, he pulls it tight over his eyes to align them perfectly before tying it around the back of his skull. He takes out his pocket mirror, not to check whether he has disappeared, but to see how he looks; and how much more he is emulating his father. This only sends more painful reminders to him that he will never be seen again. He glances down at the other gadgets which Erin is more interested in, but his vision becomes digitalised, turning everything into a shade of blue much like his shirt. He looks across at Erin; she's filled with bright orange as is he when he looks at his hands.

"What are you looking at?" Erin wonders as she gathers everything into piles to split the gadgets evenly.

"The mask… it's not just for decoration." Alex comments. Erin picks up the mask by one end and looks at it to figure out where any add-ons may be hidden, but it looks like a plain mask to her.

"I don't see how it's different." Erin says whilst holding the mask near to her face. Alex can hear her voice inside his head. He puts his fingers in his ear to check for an earpiece even though he is certain that there is nothing in his ears.

"What are you doing? We have to go now." Erin replies.

"I can hear your voice inside my head, it must be the mask but I have no idea how it does that." Alex says. Erin looks across at the other mask and decides to put it on out of curiosity to see what he's talking about.

"Can you hear me?" Alex says to test his theory out. There's a tiny delay that Erin picks up to be sure that it's working.

"Now that, is some seriously freaky stuff going on right there." Erin exclaims. "Grab the bag, all the stuff's inside. We have to save Matt or our ancestor's takings are going to disappear."

"Like we needed some extra pressure." Alex notes.

"Let's go." Erin urges Alex who's still trying to familiarise himself with the mask's capabilities. He looks down and can see people and their orange outlines walking below on the footpath. Erin moves through the window and leaps across to the nearby building which Alex does quickly as well with the world still a mass of blue and orange.

"Where is the Interpol building?" Alex asks to Erin.

The mask calculates the quickest route for Alex as his vision of the world returns to normal with only a route map nestled in the bottom left hand corner.

"It's 5 kilometres away." Alex says. "It's showing the route on here as well."

"How fit are you?" Erin asks cheerfully but seriously at the same time, heading back over to the pipe that they used to climb up to the roof from the street below. "We can run that, it shouldn't take more than 20 minutes."

"It says to use the underground to beat the traffic and to stay hidden." Alex says as they approach the top of a pipe that they used to scale the building from street level earlier. They slide down the pipe down to the ground and begin to head back into the tube station. They quickly descend down the stairs and negotiate the masses in order to follow the instructions given to him by the mask. He moves across to an exposed vent in the wall and opens it up for Erin to pass through. It leads them into a dimly lit heat exhaust tunnel that they have to bend down low in order to move through. The tunnel is dark initially but the mask enhances their vision by brightening their vision of the world to a point where they can see comfortably but are not overwhelmed with brightness.

"This mask has everything." Alex remarks quietly to Erin who's trailing closely behind.

"I wonder who made all this stuff." Erin replies back. They reach an overhead port that goes directly over the train line, but their path is blocked by a rapidly rotating fan that sucks all the heat out of the tunnel. Alex is about to stick is cane into the fan to jam the blades before Erin stops him.

"There's a pinch in here we can use." Erin says, digging into her backpack. She grabs a small circular shaped the size of a thin hockey puck with a rotating dial mounted around the central button.

"I can disable the fan with this so we can remove it and get through." Erin explains as she sets the dial to it's lowest setting and presses the button. After less than a tenth of a second of charging, the portable EMP disables the electric motor turning the fan, bringing the fan slowly to a stop; but it's not fast enough for Alex as he impatiently jams the fan once he thinks it won't dent the cane. He hooks the cane around one of it's blades and lifts out the fan from it's socket. He puts it aside to allow Erin to go through first. She pokes her head down to see if there's a train coming before righting herself to jump into the tube tunnel; followed quickly by Alex. She looks to her left and sees the station before turning to her right and hightailing it to make some decent progress through the darkened tunnel, followed by Alex. The section of tunnel is almost dead straight before they approach their first obstacle, a station full of people. Luckily, the calculations put into the route involve more than just the quickest time.

"On the left, in there." Alex instructs to Erin to move towards a service door which they open quickly. It leads to an old metal spiral staircase with bricks lining the walls in a cylindrical way like a submerged well. After going a complete revolution around, they find the walkway down the bottom that runs straight before it ends with a door to the left that leads into the line below.

"This goes straight on for more than a kilometre." Alex says as they keep heading south west towards Scotland yard where Interpol is borrowing their facilities.

"As long as we save Matt, I don't care if this tunnel does up, down or side to side." Erin replies. They run for another minute and a half before a warning comes up in both of their sights. A flashing semi translucent red warning with two white triangles with the warning exclamation mark flanking the message 'train approaching' appears in their vision. Erin sees it and immediately puts her hand out to see where this hologram is projected, her hand is covering one eye and yet still the whole image can still be seen.

"I need to figure out how all of this stuff works." Erin says, unconcerned about the oncoming train's light's appearing in the distance as it pulls away from the station.

"Get up here, please." Alex asks, much more concerned for her safety than she is.

"Alright." Erin sighs, getting onto the fat cables along the right side of the tunnel. Leaning back against the wall, she crouches beside Alex as they wait for it to pass. As they get within sight, Alex disappears. Only a second after he does so, he gets an unusual instruction displayed.

Hold Erin

Alex looks down to his left at Erin and grabs her right wrist with his left arm. Erin looks across then down at his grip and decides to let it go as the train passes, not wanting to risk a commotion especially when an onrushing train is only centimetres away. The blur of people sitting or standing in the crowded carriages pass by with a rush of wind and roaring from the electric motors driving the wheels. They wait until they can't see the people sitting at the very back of the driverless train before they drop down and continue running.

"Do you struggle to balance on those cables?"

"No, the mask told me to hold you."

"So these masks are sentient now?" Erin jokes.

"I don't know." Alex answers. "Whatever's controlling the computer inside the mask is much smarter than we are, so it must have a reason, maybe."

"Save it for later." Erin replies. Preferring to save everything not directly related to saving Matt for later. The constant physical exertion is beginning to be felt by both thieves as they pound away at the concrete tunnel floor for several minutes before reaching their next line change underneath Waterloo station.

"On the left there." Alex points out. Erin tries to open it but it appears to be jammed somewhat. She turns side on to the door and thrusts herself into the door to force it open. She pushes the door to fully open and makes her way up the straight set of stairs whilst Alex shuts the door behind her to conceal their path.

"We have to go down the platform itself, all the way down to the other end to a service door like this one." Alex explains.

"Okay."

"Shouldn't you charge the pinch so we can take out the security cameras?" Alex insists.

"And everyone's electronic devices at the same time." Erin adds to reject his claim. "Besides…

Alex never expected she'd say anything along these lines.

"…they should know that we're coming."

"Isn't that the exact opposite of what we want?" Alex counters as they reach the door to the busy platform outside.

"Who knows? The platform's so crowded they might not even see us." Erin says, taking the cane out of her backpack to look less threatening to the crowd. She opens the door to reveal the situation outside. She opens the door just enough to let herself and Alex through before making their way around via the back of the platform. They push past the pack of people at a calm pace to not draw attention, with Erin clearing the way for Alex to follow behind. Not once during this period does Erin actively search or even look at a security camera, eye contact would just draw more attention to themselves. No one on the ground sees anything out of the ordinary, even when Alex glances across to the side exits that lead to the surface, no one seems to know who he is. It's something he's glad to have now but he's constantly thinking of the worst possible outcome, thinking back to the haters on the internet video. He has to quickly shake disastrous images outside of his head, like being savaged by everyone he sees around him until he's weak and broken. Even worse is when he thinks of Erin being subject to the same fate. He consciously has to ignore these horrible thoughts just to think about what's happening in front of him.

They make it to the other side without any sort of commotion occurring.

"We need to keep pushing on." Erin insists as she picks up the pace into the side tunnel before entering the actual train tunnel to go underneath the Thames for a second time. It takes about 2 minutes for them to cover the distance before reaching Westminster station to make the final change. This requires them to descend downwards and negotiate a short tunnel before entering the final tunnel, of which they are getting bored of; fresh air is not far away. They re-join the general population at ' park station before rushing up the steps into the city under lights.

"To the right." Alex instructs, as they turn the corner, they spot something that they didn't expect; a crowd of people standing around someone lying down against the wall. Alex manages to just get a peak through the numerous bodies and instantly recognises who it is. Charlotte was waiting for them on the other side to intercept just before they were to save Matt; a plan which, if it succeeded, would have delayed them for long enough for Matt to spill the beans and tell everything he knows; but she has been taken out temporarily, judging from the tiny dart sticking out of her shoulder. Erin briefly looks up at the rooftops for any sign of the shooter, the 'guardian angel' that Jeremy referred to earlier, before spotting the ominous building with it's glossy windows that reach up to the sky.

"How do we get underground?" Alex asks towards his sister as he spots two police in high visibility coats standing outside the underground carpark entrance hidden by an acrylic blue feature wall. Quickly, an arrow is drawn towards the exact path he should take pointing around the right side of the wall. It then shows the features on the other side, like the positions of the police officers as well as security cameras, of which there are a lot, covering every single corner of the area around the entrance; no weak spots. Therefore, the only way for them to get inside undetected is to manually create a weak spot.

"We have to go around the wall, over a ledge and down into the carpark." Alex instructs. Erin begins to walk down the street to improve the angle with Alex trailing behind. She spots the easy way in, a small ledge preventing people from falling into the descending path towards the carpark what she aims for. Once her path is lined up, without warning, she takes off across the street and vaults the comparatively low glass barrier to jump down the several metres onto hard bitumen without being seen. Alex is less fluent in his motions as he performs the same stunt to join Erin crouching low to stay hidden in the dark. However, the roof to the carpark is adorned with several bright fluorescent tubes; it would help them significantly if they were no longer functioning. Erin takes out the pinch and turns it up to a higher setting to cover a much larger area. A few seconds pass before the lights, one by one, turn off to conceal them in the darkness.

They move down the smooth concrete floor into the first carpark level with their vision enhanced by their masks so they can see in the dark. They move against the wall, using the cars as cover in case someone happens to be in the carpark at this unfortunate time. Erin stops as she notices how to get down several levels without seen; ironically, the answer is right above them.

"That vent should go down a few levels." Erin whispers to Alex, point up to the boxy steel vent running along the corner of the roof and the wall. The openings are not big enough for them to fit through, so Erin rifles through her bag to look for something that can crack through the metal silently. She takes out what looks like a well-crafted water pistol, with a plastic body but a carefully machined light grey container that looks like a tiny oxygen tank, holding a highly corrosive paste. She peaks through the windows of the cars to see if anyone is nearby before springing up quickly to paint an area that they can crawl through. Once she finishes, she holds out her hands underneath, anticipating it's drop.

"Help me catch this." Erin whispers to Alex and he too puts out his hands. One by one, each side begins to corrode, causing the piece of sheet metal to warp and bow as it hangs briefly before dropping completely into their hands.

"Put it on the ground." Erin whispers. They place the sheet metal slowly on the ground to minimise any sound before turning their attention to the vent.

"You go first." Erin insists. Alex takes her word for it before he stands up quickly and jumps to hold onto the edge of the vent with his gloves protecting him from some very nasty sharp points made from the cutting of the metal. He lifts and thrusts himself forward at the same time so he can fit into the tiny enclosure. Once Erin can no longer see his legs, she jumps up and gets inside. Alex starts to crawl along the vent, going straight before turning right towards the centre of the building.

"Hopefully we can save him in time." Erin communicates to Alex.

"It's 20 to 7, they couldn't have done more than put him in a cell." Alex assures Erin.

"But if they know what they're getting into, they'd probably want to start as soon as possible. If Matt says anything, they'll call up law enforcement on the other side of the world and find the island before we even have a chance of getting there." Erin explains.

"So, no pressure then." Alex jokes again.

"I guess."

Alex encounters a steep downward drop where the vent goes up and down the building.

"There's a drop here." Alex comments, and there's only one way down. "It's going to look weird from your end."

Bracing against the side of the vents with his feet and arms, and whilst facing downwards. The raccoon begins to shuffle down the vent like a caterpillar, moving his legs down then bracing to allow his body to drop down a short distance. The process repeats as the blood rushes to his head; forced down by gravity. He concentrates solely on not falling or losing his grip until he gets down to the 4th basement level. He pushes himself inside with great physical relief, only to realise his sister has cheated somewhat. He sees her held up by a cable attached to the side of the vent via a silent vacuum pump. Erin simply pushes herself inside behind Alex before releasing the anchor, which she catches with her outstretched feet and pulls in via the cable to spool it back up.

"Where do we get out?" Alex asks. "There are no openings that I can see."

"I don't know. I don't have the map for the vent system handy." Erin replies.

Suddenly, the view for Alex turns from the enhanced dark vision to a world of blue and orange. He looks down to his right and sees the glowing orange bodies walking down a corridor or sitting down, most a crowded around a small area. Further into the distance, he stops an individual sitting down alone in a room on a chair. He's sure it is Matt.

"I can see him." Alex comments hopefully to Erin. "He's over there."

Alex points at 2 o'clock before they move further along the vent.

Where…is…the…Cooper…Vault?

It rings around the rat's head like a freight train doing repetitive circles around his head. The sounds seem to come from everywhere, changing direction frequently and in random directions. It feels like an ever increasingly loud and restrictive wall of noise is surrounding him. He covers his ears to hide from the noise, but it's the same regardless; the noises are in his head. All of his intelligence and logic has just gone out of the window and been replaced by raw primeval, almost childlike behaviour. Matt want to get out of the room that constantly shouts at him, instantly he tries to pull away from the table but the handcuff attached to his right wrist stops him, along with the two thick straps securing his wrists to the arms of the metal chair.

Unlike in other calmer situations, Matt would have been more patient to figure out a way to get himself out; however, control has been replaced by fear. The noises of the owl encircle him and choke all available routes to quietness. It becomes unbearable very quickly, Matt wants to cover his ears; but his thin arms struggle against the tough straps that don't move under the strain. His thoughts turn to actions without any hesitation. Matt shouts as loud as he can to try and fight fire with fire. It works less than a minute, where his throat becomes dry and the noises simply increase in volume.

"ERIN!" Matt shouts at the top of his lungs in a desperate plea for help that can't be heard by anyone other than those who are in the observation room beside Matt's hell; namely, the bureau chief flanked by researchers behind computers and investigators watching the footage on a big screen in the darkened room.

"We've got a word." The owl mentions to his team and he watches the teenage rat break down into tears.

"Erin's the female Cooper." An investigator reminds the owl.

"There's a town outside of Toronto called Erin." A researcher exclaims quickly to the boss.

Inside hell, Matt's sweat soaked shirt now has another liquid added to the fabric. The tears rolling down his neck and rolling off his hairs until they are absorbed by his shirt.

"HEEEEEEEEEEELP!" Matt shouts in another desperate attempt before going back into fearful sobbing and hyperventilating with what little energy he has left.

"This isn't what should be happening." The owl explains to his staff. Most people he has seen under this drug were very stable as they grimaced and tried to shake off the effects of the drug bravely, before inevitably giving up. No one has ever been this much in fear before whilst being subject to this drug.

"Sir, this is, by many years, the youngest person this drug has been administered to." A researcher explains bravely to the boss. "He's not by any indications, in possession of adequate mental toughness to fight it. This would be equivalent to the reaction of a 6 year old if we gave them the same drug."

"But why would he choose this kid to work with the Cooper's?" the owl asks calmly with the wailing and scared sobbing behind him on the screen. "He's smart but weak at the same time; you are all better options than him."

"Found something." Another researcher blurts out.

"What is it?"

"In 2022, shortly before Sly Cooper was arrested, the rat was involved in a kidnapping in the same building that Sly Cooper was residing. He was quoted as saying he came from the fifth floor before the incident. The fifth floor was where Sly was hiding out. It's probable that he met Sly and probably Alex and Erin when they were kids."

"Sentimentality. Well, it's their loss, our gain." The chief explains.

"Shouldn't we get him out of there? He's going to pass out." An investigator bravely insists.

"He has to calm down himself."

"But he won't be any immediate use if he's unconscious."

The chief weighs up the pros and cons of intervening on the emotionally and physically distressed rat.

"Let him be." The chief decides. "In 8 minutes we will release him if he hasn't yet told the location of the vault."

More seconds pass by with the rat fading further and further as his energy subsides. The noises haven't abated; his surroundings are becoming dull and blurry like the noises themselves.

"He's going to pass out."

Everyone becomes more alert as they watch their only asset wither and perhaps with it, their only lead. More tension builds in the room as the chief watches but does not act. After almost 10 seconds, the tension becomes too much for some in the room to bear; it forces them into action. The screens around the room begin to fail one by one, removing all of the light from the room. Confusion erupts amongst the people inside except for the only two people who are not supposed to be there. In the few seconds of panic, Erin manages to lead Alex out of the room; swiping a keycard in the process. She reaches the door and realises the range of the EMP blast extends to outside this room, the lights are shut off; meaning she can open the door and not be seen leaving the room. Silently, she twists the knob and opens it just enough for her to squeeze through into the narrow corridor. She leaves it open for Alex before quickly advancing on to the next room and sees the obvious title on the door of 'Interrogation Room #1' through her brightened vision. She taps the card above the scanner before flinging open the door to see in person what they have done to him.

"Matt!" Erin exclaims quietly as she rushes around the table to free him, grasping at the strap to undo the buckle. She looks up briefly at his face in worry; even in this light she can see it's anything but energetic. She tilts his head up to try and gain his attention, but he gives a dull, loopy look back. She quickly unties the last strap to free the rat from the chair.

"We're getting you out." Erin quickly assures Matt before turning to Alex who's watching the front. The power is restored, turning the room back into brightness.

"Open your bag."

Alex obediently unzips his bag on the table whilst Erin digs in the bags until she finds what she needs. She takes out the paste gun and sprays the clear goo over the chain, spilling onto the table, before immediately placing it back in Alex's bag. It eats away at the metal in a few seconds, along with making a hole in the table.

"Matt, we're leaving." Erin reminds. She holds onto his wrists to help him up but he struggles to stand on his own feet, Erin exerts a lot of effort to keep him standing; eventually deciding to wheel around and hold him up by bringing his arm around her shoulder. Alex comes and picks up his bag and takes out the cane before putting it back on.

"Alex, take your bag off and grab the black cylinder in the rear pocket of the bag." Erin instructs quietly. Alex does so and grabs it out. It's the exact same shape as the chrome plated cylinders containing the corrosive goo, the only defence being it's contents and the glossy black paint.

"This fits with the gun?" Alex asks.

"They're interchangeable." Erin succinctly explains. "Replace the cylinders. As soon as it's done, open the door and shoot; it'll create a smoke screen we can use to get out of here."

"Matt, we're about to go, okay. Get ready to move." Erin says to Matt. Alex undoes the first one, places it in his bags before doing up the black cylinder. He puts on his backpack and stands near the door.

"Ready?" Alex asks.

"Go." Erin demands. Alex turns the handle, thrusts the door open wide enough to shoot and pulls the trigger, shooting a flamethrower like spray of smoke that fills the thin corridor. But as soon as he shot, there was something massively wrong with the situation he was expecting. Despite this, Alex pushes the door open, but something blocks it from fully opening.

"Come on." Alex says despite his hesitancy to proceed further, Erin comes with Matt with barely taking his own weight with each step he tries to take. They both move through the doorway and into the smoke but they quickly encounter several obstacles littered over the floor, which they find difficult to manoeuvre over even with the electricity returning. All of which make Alex uncomfortable.

"There are bodies everywhere." Alex says, trying to deal with the situation more maturely than last time. The door would not move because a body was blocking the way.

"This room is soundproof, we would have never heard a thing." Erin notes. Alex keeps pushing forward to the elevator and presses the button to go up, immediately the door opens; meaning the elevator was already at this level. It opens and smoke enters into the elevator. Alex sees one planted item in the middle, it's a laptop; Matt's laptop.

"What's this doing here?" Alex asks back towards Erin.

"Matt, say something." Erin hopefully asks as she helps Matt into the elevator. Alex presses the up button before bending down to pick up the laptop.

"Here." Alex offers to Matt, but he can barely tilt his head up; incapable of emotions other than fear, despair and sorrow. Alex decides to hold onto the laptop himself as the lift rises. The lift moves straight past the first basement floor, where Alex pressed the button to go.

"The elevator's not working." Alex says, to the confusion of Erin; until she notices that the elevator is going up higher than what Alex called for.

"Where's it going?" Erin asks.

"Up." Alex answers correctly.

"It's being externally controlled." Erin says, looking up to find the security camera inside. "They probably know we're here."

She turns back to Alex with a concentrated stare.

"There's probably going to be police waiting there. We're screwed, but we're going to get out of this." Erin says.

"Matt, I'm going to sit you down." She says as she lowers him carefully onto the ground, still dulled out of the situation. Erin quickly opens her backpack, takes out her cane and searches for a weapon. She takes out a red canister and loads into the gun, before putting the turquoise and dark grey canisters into her pocket; they are the most lethal out of the set.

"Get ready." Erin warns as she sees Alex hurriedly get the same items out of his backpack. The elevator slows to the top, causing Erin to aim the pistol towards the door, ready for when she has to face the officers on the other side. Erin stands at the front of the elevator, ready. The doors open to reveal the top level of the building, giving them a great view of the city; but also of the detectives and various special units stationed up here. They have been waiting with guns pointed at the door. Erin wants to pull the trigger, but knows she is overwhelmed. She is just about to raise her hands when a series of small explosions sound around directly in front of her. Erin spots a small black disc the size of an ancient compact disk at the entrance of the elevator that extends out to the size of a Frisbee. She turns her head up to see that most of the detectives are on their knees, quickly disappearing from consciousness. Erin definitely knows she didn't do this, so she turns around to Alex. She heavily doubts his ability to take out more than 10 police detectives in one go, so she is not surprised to find him still hiding behind her.

"It's clear." Erin assures Alex. She returns to the rear of the elevator to pick up Matt, who now looks completely zoned out. Erin feels Matt's neck for a pulse and finds one to her relief. She lifts him up and continues to carry him out of the building. Alex takes point, still looking out for who might have done the damage that he sees in front of him.

"Stairs." Alex realises. "We can get to the roof."

"Help me with Matt." Erin commands.

"Yeah, sure." Alex says, getting his arm around Matt's shoulder to help his sister with the physical task of carrying him up the stairs. Slowly, they climb the stairs. Both are half expecting for reinforcements to arrive at any second, but they reach the top without any problems. They find the door to the roof and unlock it using the keycard obtained earlier. They move out into the rain and cold, both thinking what they are to do next besides being trapped. Luckily for them, transport is just about to arrive. A helicopter flies in quickly and lands on the only flat area on the roof. Alex and Erin trudge towards the open bay for safety. They carry Matt on board before bringing themselves on. Once they are aboard, the helicopter takes off into the London airspace at speed, making an arrow straight dash out of the city at a steep angle. They both keep turning their heads nervously, looking out of the windows for anyone following them or at Matt to see if his condition improves.

"Where are we going!" Alex shouts to the pilot. Erin looks down for a visual indicator, she notices the Thames is widening the further they go along.

"East." Erin shouts across to Alex.