Chapter 36 – Out of the Shadows

Bank of England Gold Vault #1, London, England. 9:03pm 8th November 2032.

A short, unseen person steps off the scales and walks calmly parallel to the Coopers. Covered completely in a black body tight suit and black tinted one piece face mask that completely obscures anyone trying to look at the face. This suit is not just for identity protection; it has technology sewn into every thread. Explosive detection and deterrence, a full heads up display on the inside, assisted movement to make each punch stronger and each leap longer, this is only scratching the surface and not even scratching the technology attached to a belt around the waist.

"Who are you?" Erin asks, taking the lead. The figure walks along the ground where bodies of tranquilised police and guards that have tried to get inside before stepping on one body and over them calmly and sternly towards Erin, who holds her ground and asserts the very large height advantage over the enemy.

"Stop!" Erin warns. The figure stops and a hologram appears in between them.

Pick up the bags… we're leaving.

"Who are you?"

That's irrelevant

"Take off the mask, it's not a vacuum in here." Erin replies.

Pick up the bags… we're leaving.

"I can't trust you unless you take of that mask." Erin argues.

I have Matt.

Alex lunges reactively at the unknown figure in anger; in using him for leverage. He swings his cane towards the facemask, hoping to break it and reveal the identity underneath. However, the cane is blocked, taken out of his hands and thrown back to Erin.

He's not a hostage, I saved him from being put in your situation. He would not have made it out without tripping the alarms.

"Then, why are all these police on the ground?" Erin asks.

Clearing a path. Take the bags; we have to leave as soon as possible. Matt is safe, he's just a kid; so I gave him some toys to play with.

The text always seems to be right in front of them, regardless of where they move. Erin tries to spot where the projectors are coming from, but that search reveals nothing. Reluctantly, They both pick up their bags to find that their own masks have been tied to a strap. Alex eagerly puts his back on whereas Erin takes more time; it's not a important to her as it is to Alex. This pint-sized person walks up a set of stairs whilst something remarkable happens. Alex and Erin watch from behind as the jet-black suit morphs into a different shape. It turns into a police officer in full uniform.

"It's camouflage." Erin deduces and relays to Alex. She saw the long thin tail turn into a much shorter and slightly fatter one with a small ball of fur on the end and knows that the poodle that she sees walking in front is not the true identity actually underneath the suit. The poodle officer walks up to the ground level before turning back around to a door labelled 'museum entrance', the door is opened to exhibits in the adjacent museum including the gold bars on display; the only two 99.99% gold bars inside the bank. Quickly, they exit out of the side entrance into a sidestreet, where an aptly black motorbike is parked on the opposite side of the road.

"That can't fit all of us at once." Alex notes as he gets closer to it. As soon as he says this, the rear end extends out enough to seat all three of them; a deliberate modification amongst others. The police officer has now changed back into black outfit they saw first, and now climbs onto the motorcycle followed by Erin and Alex on the very rear, holding onto each other for stability. At this distance, Erin gets a really good look at the fine detail in this outfit. All over this person's entire body, hexagonal plates of various sizes cover this outfit, with smaller plates around area where it needs to be more flexible such as the arms and shoulders. In the centre, rising up from halfway up the back to the neck is a small pocket completely enclosed with plates which Erin thinks is where the power supply is located; a weak spot she notes for later whilst the motor cycle tears off into London with the electric engine delivering instant power to the rear wheel and sending the three of them into the main road.

However, it becomes clear for both Alex and Erin after the first few minutes where they are heading. They are being taken west along the Thames before cutting inside towards Hyde Park, very close to where Tim lives; in fact, they stop outside a house that's on the same block but directly opposite to each other. As soon as the bike stops, the figure gets off; signalling for the passengers to get off as well. They both watch as the motorbike is manually pushed over to a specific spot just inside the black wrought iron fence, before the ground beneath it descends along with the motorbike; along with a replacement of the concrete slab to cover it from the elements. The front door opens automatically to reveal an immaculate interior, as if it had just been renovated. There is no wear on the floorboards or any fading on the paint and also no dust accumulation anywhere; it is as close to godliness as can be.

The person waits for Alex and Erin to step inside before closing the door to prevent prying eyes from seeing what is about to happen. Without any visible command that either of them can see, a section of the flooring lower before sliding underneath itself to reveal a black nothingness underneath. Both racoons feel uneasy about going in there, thinking it might be a dungeon of sorts where they would be imprisoned. However, once the unknown figure jumps down inside and a ladder rises from the hole, it's clear that this is where they have to go. Once underground, the only light they can see is coming from a massive screen divided into tens of small pictures rolling simultaneously.

"I need more time!" Matt shouts from the other side of the room. The lights automatically switch on to soak the room in white to show that the person inside this black skintight suit has pulled the cap back to reveal a very frizzy mess of long blond hair.

"No, please don't kill me!" Matt pleads as he runs into a corner and looks frantically for a way out. He figures that since now the mask has come off, and the identity needs to stay secret, the only way to do so is death. However, he is completely overreacting, otherwise Alex and Erin might actually be trying to save him; just from the way this long haired assassin is walking over so calmly and playfully that makes his reaction seem too unrealistic.

"I said if he cracked the password for my computer I'd give him 10 million euros. But a bet's a bet so… no money for you."

There is an eerie silence as Alex and Erin try and figure out who this person is, but none of them seem to know.

"None of you remember me?"

Still no answer.

"Well, that means I've been doing my job correctly." This mouse says as she walks over to the computer. "But your situation now means that I can't keep doing that any more."

More silence as Erin strains to remember who this mouse is, it's right on the tip of her tongue but can't match a face to a name.

"Penelope." Alex answers, much to her surprise.

"I would have not bet that you'd be the one to remember me, considering we didn't get along that well that last time you saw me." Penelope replies.

"I don't even remember…" Alex says before remembering it all again and quickly shutting it down because that's a bank of memories he doesn't want to break into.

"Without me, you'd almost certainly be in prison, dead, broke or any combination of the three. I have been saving your backsides for years now, and watching them for a lot longer, you have to understand the risks I have taken in order to keep you safe." Penelope warns.

"Wait a second, years before?" Alex asks, the earliest he can remember a helping hand was back when the police drone was shot down almost a week ago.

"That really means I have been doing my job well." Penelope replies. "Like you two, or three if you don't want to feel left out Matt, I stay hidden; but unlike you, I keep my distance and temporarily incapacitate anyone pays me to do, the more there are or the more difficult it is, the more money I make."

"So… you don't kill anyone?" Matt asks.

"No."

"So everyone, everyone who I think is dead… isn't?" Alex asks for confirmation.

"All the guards in Finland, all those in Switzerland, all those half an hour ago; yes, that's my work. But the same can't be said for someone like Sly."

"How do you know that?" Erin asks angrily before calming down after hearing the answer.

"I'm a genius, I always know." Penelope casually replies, but Erin realises why.

"You were there." Erin answers, before further expanding her realisation with a much broader scope. "You've been everywhere."

"Sometimes I don't need to do anything, despite it being the most boring, it's what I want because I'm not going to be around forever and you're going to have to stand up for yourself without any backup and get out of your own jams." Penelope explains.

"Then why help us at all if you want us to succeed on our own?" Erin questions.

"It's a bit more complicated than that." Penelope replies. "Given how vulnerable you were after your lost your parents, and the fact that you're a high value target for some forward thinking criminals, someone had to watch over you. There wasn't anyone else from your dad's gang that wasn't either dead or in prison, so I had to do it myself. The first thing I did was set up this surveillance web, so I'd never lose sight of you from anywhere on the planet; and it was sufficient for a few years until about 5 years ago when someone first tried to kill you."

Penelope thinks over how casually she just said that, and realises that death isn't such a common subject as the others are used to.

"Maybe you shouldn't know about everything, fast forward to the start of Alex's wandering journey across the world. You started going to places that were hard to reach, and with less technology that I could control remotely. I could still watch you with a satellite feed but if something happened, help may not have been as swift as I wanted. So, when you want something right, you do it yourself; hence, I built this."

She stretches out her arms horizontally to fully show this technological masterpiece that she's covered herself in.

"It wasn't as sleek as it is now, but I have improved it over time to the point where I have all of your abilities, such as…"

All of Penelope apart from her head turns invisible.

"I don't like to use the term 'invisibility' because that's what Alex has… this is adaptive camouflage. Thousands of tiny holographic projectors that display whatever I can think of, from nothing… to a disguise…"

"And it's all mind controlled." Matt adds, Christmas has come one and a half months early.

"Yep, and it also multiplies my own movements like an ultra thin exoskeleton so I can run, jump or climb as fast as any of you." Penelope adds. "Back to the really interesting part. A month into Alex's journey, I was first approached Jeremy Le Paradox, he somehow found me and wanted to take you for himself and groom you into his empire. I didn't want him to do that, considering… that I had to make up from what I did the last time I worked with someone called Le Paradox. I managed to bargain that if I paid 500,000 Euros each month, he wouldn't do anything to you if I didn't watch. But I didn't trust his word, so… I did what I do best; make up an alias and hide my real identity. You know Penelope, but more people know me as 'the black shadow'. Using this suit as my cover, I caught Le Paradox red handed only days after our agreement. I then sent him this evidence along with my blackmail, threatening that I would tell Penelope, myself, what had happened unless he paid 1 million euros a month. So, on the one hand I paid him half a million and on the other I took 1 million; effortless extortion."

"Not long after, Le Paradox decided that he should buy out the Black Shadow's services, this meant I had a way inside his business. I initially planned to get myself in a position where I could get it in a state so that when you two were capable, you could tear him apart. But he kept me on a tiny leash despite knowing nothing about me. For a while it was all, I did jobs for him; he paid me an exorbitant fee kind of arrangement until Alex came back into London, at which point... both of our interests were aligned. He wanted me to watch over you and make sure nothing happened to either of you, but I was doing that anyway, so I was being paid for what I was already doing privately. But a day after that, he explained that he was going to do some very provocative things to you and that he'd want me not to intervene. Being the type of person he is, everything has a price, so I drained him out of more money before reluctantly agreeing. I knew that if it all went wrong I would be forced to break my cover and save you, causing the largest criminal organisation in Europe to turn against me; but I had to take that risk. I've watched helplessly as he did all these things that have happened to you, and thinking about if all the money that I earned was worth it; and I didn't even need the money in the first place, I get a bit greedy sometimes."

"What's worried me the most is not Le Paradox, but what Rasmus is doing. He's cold… colder than me, not bound by any legacy or honour, he forced me to do this because he tried to kill you three. I managed to save Matt just in time but the two of you had disappeared, I tried to track you down with the masks I made for you or your phones but they weren't functioning."

"You made this mask?" Alex asks.

"Who else?" Penelope asks. "No offence Matt."

"None taken." Matt replies as he's still dazed by such an elaborate ploy and how it all works.

"Anyway, Rasmus is the one you have to worry about. Le Paradox is easy because he plays by the same rules as you do."

"No he doesn't." Erin swiftly replies. "What he did to Alex…"

"Rasmus is worse, if he was in charge, he wouldn't push you off the roof of a building, he'd put a bullet in your brain and be done with it. He won't give you any chances, you saw when he shot you with tranquiliser darts as soon as he saw you."

"And that was you giving him a beating." Matt adds.

"Yes. Rasmus may not have the same ability as Le Paradox, but his mentality is frightening because he doesn't value you any higher than any other thug for hire. Le Paradox doesn't know because all he sees is a profitable business and two safe raccoons. With the debt ceiling deadline coming up, he wouldn't have known you were dead until many hours after if you drowned in that cavern and after he'd left with all of the gold."

"Wait!" Matt eagerly shouts. "I've figured it all out. If Jeremy is focused on the debt ceiling, then I don't think his plan was to steal the gold at all; he wanted to use the bank's wealth for his financial scam where he'd make billions without having to physically steal anything. This, this gold theft is Rasmus alone, it has to be how it is because Jeremy hasn't said anything about it, and he wasn't even on the ship with Rasmus; since he's so personal with everything, he would have surely presided over such a large undertaking, therefore I don't think he even knows what's going on."

"Maybe you're smarter than I thought." Penelope replies.

"You already knew." Matt responds

"Yeah." The personal value of this discovery is dwindling by the second, as he is not the first to think of this.

"So, what's the point of telling us all of this?" Alex asks.

"More information helps you make better decisions." Penelope replies as she waits for the answer that aligns with hers.

"You want us to go after Rasmus instead of Le Paradox." Erin answers.

"Yes."

"But how should we trust that from someone who works for Le Paradox? Maybe your just covering him up whilst you point us in the wrong direction." Erin responds, stepping forward slowly to try and pressure the mouse, but Penelope hasn't lost an inch of cool.

"Some of the time you'd be right, other times wrong; I'm telling you that the second option is true right now." Penelope replies. "If you decide to go after Le Paradox, you'd be making the wrong choice; better the enemy you know than the one you don't."

"You could have made this simpler, a lot simpler." Alex remarks.

"Rasmus is using a ship to transport the gold, he's not going to have travelled very far."

"You could have stopped him for us." Alex adds. "You didn't have to involve us in your plan, is the maintenance of your double identity more important than us?"

"Why don't we have both instead?" Penelope asks. "You two have to put a stop to him."

They all pause to consider the task at hand.

"Do you have a plan?" Alex asks to Penelope.

"4 so far."