Hello! I'm back with a new chapter! The end is practically around the corner and as I warned you all from the beginning, a lot of things are going to happen, so hold on tight and just enjoy the wild ride ;)
As per usual, I won't say much about the chapter to avoid spoiling the story, but I hope you like it. Writing these last few chapters hasn't been easy for me 'cause I'm too attached to these characters and saying goodbye breaks my heart, but as I've been saying, it's time to move on and write something new.
Anyway, don't forget to share your thoughts about the chapter, fave, and/or follow the story.
I'll see you all next week for the last chapter!
Chapter 31
Alec was in his office, pacing behind his desk while he waited for a very important call. He had spent the last 24 hours reading and deciphering what Magnus had left for him and trying to come up with a plan to stop Valentine once and for all. He didn't know exactly when the heist was going to take place, all he knew was that it could happen in a few hours, but regardless of that, time was ticking and every minute he wasted waiting for news was a minute Valentine could use to put his plan in motion.
To say that Alec wasn't ready was a great understatement. He had been trying to do what he had promised he would do—think outside the box—but it had been harder than he had expected. His instinct told him to proceed in a certain way, but what he had learned over the years, all those rules they had drilled into him, told him otherwise; it was a constant struggle between what he knew he had to do and what people expected him to do.
He had spent hours upon hours on the phone discussing with the captains of the other eleven cities and even the director of the Bureau himself what he knew of Valentine's plan and what he had in mind to stop him. At first, they all had shown some hesitation toward Alec's plan, but after listening to his explanation as to why he thought they shouldn't act as the FBI always did, they all had changed their minds and had supported him. It had helped that everyone was aware that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that they couldn't waste it. For decades the FBI had tried to stop Valentine and all their plans had failed, so they all agreed that it was time to do something different...something new.
Alec's phone rang and he rushed to his desk to answer it.
"What did you find?" He immediately asked.
It was Ragnor. Alec had been working with him and Raphael to try to incorporate the best of both worlds to bring Valentine down. From the very beginning, it had been clear that the only way to beat a criminal like Valentine was to create the perfect team—criminals and federal agents working together for the greater good. And that was what Alec had been doing in the last few hours, creating his dream team.
"The address Magnus left for you is correct, we're here." Ragnor informed him.
Alec exhaled relieved, he had been waiting to hear that. The plan he'd been scheming for hours had been designed under the assumption that all the information Magnus had left for him was valid, so knowing that he had not wasted his time was a huge relief.
"Is Magnus there?" Alec asked. He knew that his boyfriend was still alive because they needed him to break into the back, but he was still worried about him. He needed some kind of reassurance that he was fine.
"We don't know for sure, there's a lot of security around the building, but we think so," Ragnor said, "there are a lot of people gathered here, Alec, dangerous people. We've seen them come and go like crazy in the last hour, we think they're setting everything up."
"So it's gonna happen soon."
"Definitely." Ragnor confirmed.
"Have you heard anything from your contacts in the other cities?" Alec asked. Ragnor and Raphael had put together their own groups of criminals to collaborate with them. Alec didn't know how they had managed to convince them to work with the FBI, but they had done it. So now, just as he had at his disposal thousands of agents in each city, he also had some criminals willing to work with him in this operation.
"Yes, Raphael just talked to them." Ragnor shared. "All the other buildings are secured as well, there are not as many people in them as in here, but we're assuming that's because everyone is still in town or on their way to their respective cities."
"So we can confirm that where you are is their main operation center, right?"
"For sure, this amount of people isn't normal." Ragnor said.
"How long do you think they're gonna stay there? I mean the people who will be in the other cities."
"Not long, as I told you, they've been leaving in the past hour, but if you're planning on ambushing them now, then let me tell you that that's not a good idea, Alec. I've seen some of the criminals here and they aren't like us, they won't hesitate to kill you and all your men if you try to stop them, you have to be smart. Do you remember what I told you yesterday when you called to share what Magnus had left for you?"
"Yes, and don't worry, I won't try to stop them now, I'm actually going to follow your advice...as incredible as that sounds."
"You are?"
"Yes, I already have a plan, but I'm going to need your help...again."
"What do you need?"
"How fast can you and Raphael get me government-protected blueprints? I'm talking about the ones that no one should know about—the classified ones. I could request them myself to the Bureau, but given the circumstances and that I don't know who I can trust here I don't want to do it. Maybe with my father's help I could get them in a couple of days, but I don't have days...I have hours at most."
"Well, it certainly depends on the blueprints, but Raphael is pretty quick, so a couple of hours tops...what do you have in mind?"
Alec smiled. "I'll text you—for safety." He said.
"You're learning." Ragnor said approvingly.
"I am."
"Well, then I'll wait for your text and report back to you later."
"Alright, thanks...and please? Don't move from there, okay? And let me know if anything happens."
"Count on it...bye."
"Bye." Alec said, hanging up and exhaling loudly. The fact that now he knew with certainty that all the information he had was accurate was a relief, now he could actually go and inform the rest of his team and the other divisions working with them about the plan he had been scheming all morning. He had been postponing the meeting, asking for more time to put all the pieces together, even though the clock was still ticking and not in his favor.
Alec took a deep breath, gathered a few of his things, sent Ragnor the text message, and walked to the conference room, where most of his team was already waiting for him. He entered and immediately everyone looked at him expectantly, he had kept them waiting for hours.
"First of all, sorry for making you all wait for so long." He said, looking at all the agents gathered there. They all looked tired, and that wasn't strange, no one had slept since they had found Jace, but Alec appreciated the support.
"I know the past 24 hours have been intense to say the least," he continued, addressing everyone in there, "we all have gone through a lot and before continuing with this I want to take this moment to thank you all for your unconditional support. As the newly appointed captain of this division, it means a lot to me to know that I can count on all of you in times of crisis. This Institution has gone through a lot these past months, but I hope that together we can bring it back to its former glory."
A general clamor of approval filled the room.
"Now, the reason I made you all wait after we got back from Renwick's was because I needed some time to plan things carefully. As you all know, thanks to the collaboration of Magnus Bane, we not only were able to rescue agent Jace Lightwood, who is now recovering in the hospital from all his injuries, but now, we're in possession of a very detailed description of Valentine's plan." Alec said, making a little pause to continue. "I've been consulting the captains of the other offices targeted by Valentine and the director of the institution himself to establish the best course of action, and we've come to the conclusion that we cannot proceed as the FBI would in a situation like this one. Since the beginning of this, more than two decades ago, the FBI has been at a disadvantage against this criminal. Valentine Morgenstern isn't like any other criminal we've ever faced, he was one of us, he knows what to expect from us and that is why he's been able to circumvent the system for years. We have to stop that, and for that, well...we'll have to do something different, something new...the opposite of what we would do if things weren't different."
"You mean...?" Izzy questioned, so far Alec hadn't shared his plan with anyone in the office, not even with his sister.
"Yes, Iz, we're not going to stop them." Alec said, already anticipating the storm that would come after everyone realized what that meant. "We're going to let them rob the banks."
"What!?" Some agents started asking—everyone was confused.
"Have you lost your mind?" Alec's father asked. He had been reinstated in his position as Deputy Director of the U.S. Marshals Service this morning after passing his evaluation.
"No, Agent Lightwood, I haven't." Alec said. "I've been thinking a lot about this and I believe that's what we have to do. We won't notify the targeted banks, we will do nothing to stop them. We'll let them get away with this and then we will capture them in the different security buildings they have in each city. It's the best way to guarantee the protection of innocent people and-"
"Alec," his father addressed him by name, something he very rarely did when they were in the office, "this isn't the time to play hero. What you're suggesting is crazy, if your plan fails, you will not only endanger everything, your career, your reputation and the lives of our own men, but Valentine could get away with 4.5 trillion dollars in cash. The FBI would be a mockery after that, we would be-"
"I am well aware of all the things that are at stake with this operation, Agent Lightwood," Alec said in a serious tone, "you don't need to remind me. These past few months I've seen a lot of innocent people die, I've seen careers and reputations being dragged into the mud and the FBI become the joke it is today, but I am convinced that this is what we have to do. For years we've done things the only way we know them, but it's time to change that and surprise Valentine. This is a unique opportunity and I'm not willing to waste it, we're going to do things my way."
"Alec, but-"
"With all due respect, Agent Lightwood," Alec said, he didn't have time to lose with his father, he was the boss here and they all were going to do what he said, whether they liked it or not, "but in this office I'm in charge, so if you disagree with my plan, you can address your complaints to the director of the Bureau himself. He gave me full approval to proceed as I saw fit no less than an hour ago."
Alec felt his father's gaze on him, but he kept his head up and continued addressing the team. "Now as for the operation…" he said, taking a deep breath, "we'll have to plan each ambush very carefully. According to my private sources all the security buildings are heavily guarded, so even the smallest mistake could ruin the whole operation. In the next couple of hours we'll have to plan this down to the smallest detail. Agent Branwell, I'm going to need your help to coordinate all the teams with our office. The captains of all the offices in the other eleven cities are ready to receive orders from you."
"But, but..." Lydia hesitated, "shouldn't you be the one doing that? You're in charge of the investigation, you should be coordinating everything and-"
"Precisely because I'm in charge of the investigation is that I'm appointing you as the person in charge of coordinating all the teams, including the one that I'll be leading myself. I need someone I can trust while I go in there and make sure to capture Valentine. I'm not going to stay on the sidelines watching all this play out, I'm going to be there, with my team, bringing Valentine down. Can you help me coordinate o not?"
Lydia nodded.
"Okay, well...make sure you put the best agents in each office. I'll explain the details of the plan in private later, but we're going to need at least fifty agents per city in addition to the help of the local police and the agents that the Interpol has lent us." Alec said. "If the list of criminals that Magnus Bane shared with us is correct, we're going to find some of the most wanted criminals of all time so we cannot afford to fail. The FBI needs to regain its credibility and that responsibility is in our hands."
"Tell us what you have in mind." Izzy said.
"I've consulted some experts," Alec confessed, not sharing that those experts were none other than Magnus's partners in crime, "and they've recommended me that the best time to act isn't during the heist, but right after it, so we're going to wait to catch them. This will be a huge operation, but not everyone will be involved." He said. "We have to be very patient and skilled, the key to the success of this plan will be in the way we handle ourselves in these final hours. We don't know exactly when Valentine plans to act so we have to be ready to move at any moment—in an hour, ten or even a day."
"Are you sure it's going to happen soon?" Lydia asked.
"Positive, my informants are already in all the security buildings of the twelve cities and they reported me a lot of activity, apparently they're setting everything up, so it's only a matter of time."
"Who are those informants? Why was nobody informed about this? We could have lent you more agents and-" Robert said, but Alec didn't let him finish.
"The identity of my informants is classified and I didn't inform anyone about this because as I said before, not everyone will be involved; the specific details of this operation as well as the information Magnus Bane shared with us won't be known until it is strictly necessary. I need to keep this under wraps until the very last minute, this institution is as corrupt as it can be, I can't risk my plan getting exposed prematurely."
His father looked at him and Alec saw understanding in his eyes. "Very well, Agent, the U.S. Marshals are at your disposal, you can count on us for everything you need."
"Thank you, Agent, I appreciate that."
"So let me see if I got this right," someone from the Interpol said, "the specific details of the whole operation are classified, but overall the plan is to capture all these criminals after they've robbed the banks, is that correct?"
"That is correct, Agent, as you all know, that's the most vulnerable time for any criminal, but especially a criminal like Valentine whose arrogance sometimes surpasses his common sense." Alec said.
"Even the best criminals have a weakness," added one of the agents from the Washington office, "but how are we going to get into their security buildings? Even if they were distracted believing they got away with the Federal Reserve robbery, we're talking about some of the most experienced criminals of all time. Surely they are going to be prepared for something like this, for your plan to actually work we'll have to find a way to enter and take them completely by surprise."
"I know, Agent, and I'm working on that." Alec said. "I have people helping me solve that matter as we speak, I'll give everyone involved a way to access all the buildings later. But right now, I need everyone to focus on setting up the entire operation. Even if you're not participating in the groups that will go into each building, I'm still going to need everyone's help. We need all hands on deck helping gathering the teams, checking the equipment, coordinating, etc."
"I have a question…" one of the agents of his father's team said, "have you considered the casualties we could have not only with those ambushes you're planning, but by letting those criminals rob the banks?"
Alec nodded. "Well, Agent, with all due respect, dying on the field is part of our job, every agent here knows that, so yes, I've considered the casualties we might have, but I'm also well aware that it's part of our job. As for the guards and the people inside the banks, I don't think they are going to be in any imminent danger during the robbery, I'm sure these criminals won't use guns to break into the banks."
"How are you so sure?"
"Magnus Bane." Alec said as a response. "He never uses guns."
"But this is Valentine's plan, not Bane's."
"I know, but Valentine recruited him—he needs him. Magnus Bane is the best there is for this kind of work, I'm positive he'll find a way to get into the banks without using guns."
"And if he doesn't?" The agent inquired.
"Then I'll have to bear the death of all that innocent people on my conscience, but I'm confident that won't happen and that this will be an elegant heist. Many criminals won't pass up the opportunity to say that they broke into one of the Federal Reserve banks without a single shot being fired. Criminals live on their reputation, a score like this will give them a lot—believe me."
"You seem very confident about this."
"I am." Alec said, because he was—he knew his boyfriend. He knew that Magnus was going to try to do something to help. He was sure of it. "Anyway," he continued to avoid further questions, "please, Agent Branwell, contact the captains of the other cities and assemble the teams. I need a report on that in less than an hour."
Lydia nodded and left the conference room, taking the agents from the Washington office and some members of the Interpol team with her.
"Agent Robert Lightwood, please assist Agent Branwell with whatever she needs. As for the rest of you, I'll give you instructions as soon as this meeting is over, but for now, I need everyone to leave this room. You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, and you, please stay." He said, pointing to some people.
They all stood up and walked out of the conference room; the agents Alec had asked them to stay, remained in their respective seats.
"I asked you to stay here because you're going to be part of the team that will come with me to Valentine's security building." Alec informed them. "I need my best agents for this and you all are that for me. Can I count on you?"
"Yes, sir." They all answered in unison—his sister included.
"I didn't want to share the details of the plan in front of everyone because as I already pointed out, I want to keep this under wraps until the very end. The less people know about it the better, so I'm going to ask for your discretion as well. You can't discuss the details of this meeting or the ones we'll have later today with anyone, understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Okay, so let's get started. The plan is pretty simple, we will infiltrate the security building in three stages and capture everyone in sight. The first team, that is us, will be the bait. We'll try to surprise them and capture as many criminals as we can, as soon as the confrontation begins, another team of the same number of agents will join us while all the rest, with some help from the police force and other divisions, will help us surround the building to prevent anyone from escaping. Our strong suit will be the surprise factor, so we have to be very careful about it. The idea is that they don't see us coming."
"What are our instructions once inside the building? Should we open fire?" Someone asked.
"If necessary, yes, but I'd rather you didn't—I want all criminals alive. If you have to take someone down, then do it, but only if you're attacked. We need everyone alive, especially those who are innocent." Alec said.
"You mean Magnus Bane?" Raj asked. He was one of the agents Alec had considered good enough to be on his team.
Alec tried to keep a neutral expression as he responded. "Well, yes, among others. He, as I'm sure many of them, was dragged into this. He's been helping us, if he has to pay for what he's done in the past, he'll do so in jail not with his life. And the same goes for the rest of the criminals who were recruited. We don't know why they did it or if they were forced, so until proven otherwise, we'll treat them all equally. The enemies are Valentine and his son, so we'll go after them, understood?" He said firmly.
"Yes, sir!" The team replied in unison once more. If someone didn't agree with him or thought he had lost his mind, they said nothing and kept it to themselves.
"Now, I need you all to get ready and set everything for the operation. We'll be working on the plan to infiltrate the security building in one hour in this same room, so go do whatever else you have to do—once we start with the plan, we won't rest until it's over. Agent Isabelle will give you a list of specific things to do in just a moment, you all are dismissed." He said.
The agents, with the exception of Isabelle, stood up and left the room in a hurry. Alec took a deep breath and sat down to rest his leg for a bit.
"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" Izzy asked him, sitting down beside him.
Alec just nodded in response.
"This is more than outside the box, Alec, a lot of things could go wrong."
Alec looked up at her. "I know, Iz, but what else can I do? I've been analyzing this and letting them rob the banks is the best I can do, Valentine isn't going to be in the action, he's going to be monitoring everything from the outside, so I need to wait to capture him. It's the smart thing to do."
"I get that, but I'm worried, Alec, you're not at your best and-and-" She hesitated. "Look, if this is really what you want to do at least let me lead the team here, you can coordinate everything with Lydia and-"
"No." Alec said firmly. "I'm going in, Iz, I'm not going to stay behind and just watch from the sidelines—that's decided. I made up my mind when I started planning all this."
Izzy exhaled. "Okay, fine...sorry, but I had to try, I'm worried about you. We almost lost Jace and you're still hurt and-"
"Don't worry, everything will be fine."
"I hope so…" She said, exhaling loudly. "Hmmm, can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Those private sources you talked about are Magnus's friends, aren't they?"
Alec nodded.
"How did you convince them to help us?"
"I didn't...I...I think Magnus made them promise to help me if I needed them."
"Magnus..." she smiled, "always looking out for you."
"That's why I have to do this for him, Iz, I can't let those people hurt him...I can't."
Izzy looked at him and placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently. "Don't worry, okay? I'll be there by your side the whole time and together we're going to stop Valentine and rescue your man, I promise."
Alec smiled. "Thank you." He said, it was good to know that he wasn't alone in all this.
o-o-o-o-o
Magnus was with Jonathan and two other men already in the garbage truck they would use for the robbery just waiting for the signal to move. Magnus and Jonathan were in a small compartment in the back of the truck from where they would emerge when the time was right; the other two men were at the front, they would be in charge of driving them in and out of the bank and distracting the guards. It was very early in the morning, 4:30 a.m. to be precise, and to say that Magnus was nervous was a big understatement. They were going to break into the bank at 5:00 a.m. sharp, and although all the men were ready and in position, Magnus still wasn't sure if everything was going to work out as expected.
The plan wasn't that complicated, but it required a lot of coordination and even some luck. They were going to move in stages, some at the same time, some others one right after the other, but in theory, if all men kept to what had been planned everything had to run smoothly. However, Magnus had no way of knowing for sure, if he had done this with Ragnor and Raphael, he wouldn't have doubted the success of the heist, but with these men? Well, he wasn't sure of anything...he didn't trust them in the slightest.
"Should we go over the plan again?" Jonathan whispered.
"No." Magnus said simply. "We both know what we have to do, don't we?"
Jonathan nodded and Magnus just exhaled loudly. He really didn't want to go over the plan again. They had been discussing it so many times in the last 24 hours that he already knew it by heart.
First, some of Valentine's men were going to intersect the real garbage truck so they could continue the route without being discovered. Then, after following the scheduled route of the truck for some time, they would head to the bank and proceed to 'collect the garbage.' Almost at the same time, some of Valentine's men would set in motion their first distraction scene—an accident across the street—to prevent the guards from asking their men what had happened to the old garbage men and to make sure the cameras focused on the scene taking place on the street and not on them. Right after that, when they tried to leave, the truck would stop working to give Magnus and Jonathan enough time to get into the bank, empty the vault and use the truck to hide the money and leave. They were going to use more distractions once inside the bank, to allow them to hack the security system and get into the vault, but it was a quick score, no more than 30 minutes.
"Show time! All the teams move!" Valentine instructed them through the radio that they would be using to communicate with him in some of the stages of the plan.
Magnus looked up at Jonathan and took a deep breath—there was no turning back after this.
The truck began to move and Magnus took a series of deep breaths to control his nerves. There were a lot of things filling his thoughts at the moment: Valentine, the heist, the plan, but more importantly, the fact that so far the FBI had done nothing to stop them. He didn't know if Alec hadn't gotten all the clues he had left for him, if he was planning on capturing them when they reached the bank or if he had something else in mind, but he was hoping it was the latter. If the FBI tried to stop them once the robbery was in motion things were going to get ugly. He was sure that Valentine's men weren't going to sit still and let themselves get caught, they all were carrying guns, they were going to fight back any attack, and that only meant that many people from both sides could die—Alec included.
"Are you nervous?" Jonathan asked, there was a mocking tone in his voice.
"Of course I am, and you should be too...being so confident in our line of work isn't a good thing, believe me. Arrogance is the worst trait a criminal can have, it makes you vulnerable and leads you to make a lot of mistakes."
"It's not arrogance, I'm just sure about the plan, no matter what happens today, we're going to take that money with us." Jonathan said.
Magnus just exhaled because, well, that was the part that worried him most. He had made a plan to avoid using guns, to enter without being detected and get all the money, but he knew that if for some reason things didn't go as planned, all men had instructions to open fire and get the money at gunpoint. The entire heist hung by a thread and there was nothing Magnus could do to change it.
Slowly, the truck started to collect some garbage; Jonathan was complaining about the smell ever few seconds, but Magnus just ignored him and tried to concentrate on what he would have to do once they made it to the bank. He knew that a lot of things depended on him, and precisely because of that, he couldn't afford to fail, he had to concentrate and-
"Get ready, the next stop is the bank." Valentine told them through the radio. Magnus and Jonathan both had earpieces to listen to everything. They wouldn't be able to hear what was happening in the other eleven locations, their line of communication was only with Valentine, but it was better than being completely cut off.
"We're almost there." The driver told them through the little slit that connected the cabin with the small compartment in the back of the truck. "Wait for our signal."
Magnus and Jonathan said nothing, but nodded. From now on and until they were out of there, the communication between all of them had to be minimal.
The truck stopped and Magnus heard the unmistakable sound of the automatic service door being opened. The truck moved again and just like that, they were inside the building.
"Who are you?" The guard asked the driver and the copilot.
"New guys." The driver said as he had been instructed, they had rehearsed that part thousands of times in the past few hours. They had assumed that the guards would be puzzled by the sudden change in personnel, and that was why they had not only forged some IDs, but they had plotted an entire explanation for that. "The old guys got into some trouble for stealing from the bosses."
"Really?" The guard asked intrigued, and Magnus had to suppress a smile. He didn't know why, but gossip always worked when trying to con someone, it helped distract people from what was really happening.
"Yes, there was a lot of yelling and one or two lawsuits, it was pretty ugly, but anyway…" the driver made a pause, "here are our IDs." He said clearly and both Magnus and Jonathan looked at each other. That was the signal for Valentine's men to move and put in motion the first distraction scene. Some stuntmen were going to pretend to run over some pedestrians to distract the guards and help with the cameras. All the people involved in that scene had been hired by Valentine, they were professionals, so in theory no one really was going to get hurt—it was just an act.
In the next ten seconds everything changed. Magnus heard the crash and some screams across the street: the 'accident' had happened. The cameras were now on them and not on the truck.
"Shit!" The guard exclaimed. "Everything looks good, take the garbage and go, I'll see if I can help."
"You want us to call 911?" The driver asked.
"No, it's fine, I'm sure someone else already did."
Jonathan started to move, but Magnus stopped him. "Not so fast, wait for our signal."
The driver and the copilot climbed down the truck and started to load the garbage, doing it slowly and without haste. Magnus and Jonathan got ready.
"Any minute now." Magnus whispered, trying to calm his nerves, never in his life had he been so nervous about a score.
The men climbed into the truck again and just as they had planned, the moment they tried to start the engine, the truck broke down and began to smoke. That had been planned with the sole purpose of generating some attention to them, but still not raise any suspicion of what was really happening.
"What's going on here?" Another guard asked the driver.
"I don't know, it was fine this morning, it must be the engine or something."
Magnus could hear the sirens of both the police and the ambulances that were approaching the accident scene—it was chaotic out there. That part of the plan had made Valentine smile broadly, he had found it extremely amusing to break into the bank with the police outside the building.
"Well, fix it and get the hell out of here!" The guard said.
"Yes, sir." The driver said. "I'm just going to take the toolbox out of the back to see what I can do." He said.
"That's our signal!" Jonathan exclaimed in a whisper.
Magnus nodded and got ready to get into the bank. "We're going in." He notified Valentine through the radio.
The driver quickly opened the back of the truck to take out the toolbox and let Magnus and Jonathan out of the secret compartment. Meanwhile, the copilot was opening the hood of the truck to help cover the camera in case it was aimed at them and not at the accident on the street.
"Good luck." The driver whispered.
Magnus and Jonathan hurried to the service door and taking full advantage of the commotion that was happening outside, made their way into the building, quickly cracking the access code of the door and entering without a hitch. They were dressed as part of the maintenance staff to avoid being questioned in case someone noticed them, so once inside they had no trouble blending in.
"We need to find another trash container." Magnus told Jonathan. "I'll go get one, you stay here and don't do anything stupid or I'll tell your father." He added, pointing to the radio he had hidden under his clothes—Valentine had given him some sort of authority over Jonathan for the duration of the robbery.
Jonathan rolled his eyes but nodded, getting into the first maintenance room he found. Magnus took a deep breath, and trying not to draw too much attention to himself, walked through the corridors until he found what he was looking for. They needed something big to hide the money once they had broken into the vault and a trash container was ideal.
Pretending to take it outside the building, Magnus pushed the container back to where he had left Jonathan and softly knocked on the door, leaving the container in the hallway for later.
"It didn't take you that long." Jonathan said approvingly.
"I'm quite good at this." Magnus answered, already moving to where they were supposed to go next: the security room. They couldn't deactivate the security system as they would normally do because that would alert the police of their presence there, but they still had to hack it to get a free path to the vault.
"We should set the second distraction scene in motion or-"
"Not yet." Magnus said, trying not to sound too exasperated. Jonathan's inexperience showed in his eagerness to do things before it was the right time. He wasn't bad at what he did, he was actually pretty good, but he was very, very inexperienced. "We have to wait until we're there."
Jonathan said nothing else and just followed Magnus through the hallways until they reached the security room. Magnus used the radio and sent Valentine the signal. Almost immediately the guy inside the security room shifted in his chair and using the radio, alerted the guards on Liberty Street of 'an unusual' activity that was taking place on the corner of William Street—an unidentified subject approaching the bank in a suspicious way.
It was all part of the plan, Valentine had paid a drunken homeless guy to walk down the street and start yelling nonsense to get the attention of the security guards.
"Control 2, please report." The guard said. He was staring at the screens and pointing all cameras at the guy and the corner where he had come from.
Magnus looked at Jonathan and nodded. The young Morgenstern entered the security room as quietly as he could, and in a quick, pretested movement, put the security guard to sleep. Magnus had to admit that Jonathan was quite skilled when he wanted to.
Magnus entered the room and immediately started hacking the security system—the unidentified subject was now leaving.
"Control 2, the situation is under control, keep an eye just in case." Magnus said, using the radio to inform the guards.
"Now what?" Jonathan asked.
"Now, I'm going to take screenshots of the current state of the cameras so they display while we're here and if someone checks them they don't see us entering the vault."
"Okay...and what do you want me to do?"
"Hmmm, you can hide that poor guy." Magnus said, pointing to the unconscious guard.
Jonathan nodded and not so carefully, started to drag the security guard into the corner of the room to hide him behind the equipment. Magnus just took a deep breath and trying not to think too much about what he was doing, started hacking the system. When he was done, he used the radio to inform Valentine of the progress in the robbery and remind him that from now on and until they left the bank, the radio would be off. In the vault they couldn't access with any type of electronic device, there was a sensor that triggered the alarm if that happened.
"Ready?" Jonathan asked. He was staring at the screens to see if what Magnus had done had worked while throwing glitter all around. Magnus knew that Valentine had ordered Jonathan to leave the glitter traces to be able to pin this score on Magnus too.
"Yes, change your clothes and let's move, we don't have much time."
They both stripped off their maintenance coveralls, stowed them in one of the drawers there, and adjusted their uniforms. Valentine had gotten them exactly the same uniforms that the security guards were using so they could come and go as easily as possible.
"Do you have the bags?" Magnus asked, remembering that Jonathan was supposed to be carrying the bags to take the money.
"Here." Jonathan said, pointing to his back and chest. He had hidden them there.
Magnus nodded and just exited the security room, making his way to the vault at a steady pace. He knew this place like the back of his hand, he had been studying it for days. The vault was in the second basement of the building, protected by all kinds of security and a group of guards. Before arriving there, they had had no idea how many guards were going to be guarding the room, but now that the only thing that separated them from the vault was a wall, they could see that there were only three. They were still outnumbered, but it was a number of guards they could handle easily.
"How are we gonna get rid of them?" Jonathan whispered.
"Divide et impera…" Magnus said, "divide and conquer."
"But how?"
Magnus poked his head around the corner of the wall to observe the guards and plan something. A lot of things could go wrong, but his mind was already devising a way to get rid of them, so he just smiled at Jonathan and leaned over to whisper him the plan.
Jonathan looked at him. "I don't know if you're absolutely crazy or you're just brilliant."
"A little bit of both." Magnus said. "Now go, and remember to keep it casual."
Jonathan nodded and moved, heading toward the guards. The plan was simple, they needed to put the three guards to sleep, but since they outnumbered them, first they had to get rid of one of them. Divide and conquer.
"We need some reinforcements upstairs." Jonathan said.
"Who are you?" The guards asked, but none of them moved. The fact that Jonathan wore a uniform was helping.
"Oh, sorry about that, I'm Sebastian Verlac." Jonathan said, introducing himself with that charm he possessed. "I'm new here—today is my first day. Technically, I start with the 6:00 a.m. shift, but there was an accident upstairs on the street and some of the guards are helping, so they sent me to get some help. They said you guys had to be fetched in person since electronics devices aren't allowed in here."
"What happened?"
"A man run over some pedestrians, it's crazy." Jonathan said, keeping it casual. "I wanted to help, but they said they needed someone with more experience, so I was sent here instead."
The man standing in the middle, and whom Magnus supposed was in charge, immediately stepped out of the formation and volunteered to go. "I'll go." He said.
"Great, you have to report to the guy at the Maiden Lane's door, hmmm-"
"Jacobs?"
"That one, sorry, I'm still learning the names."
The man said nothing else and just turned around and walked away. Jonathan took his place in the formation and started to make small talk with the guards.
Magnus just waited.
He knew he'd have one chance and once chance only to do this right, so as quickly as he could, he took the small bottle of ether he had in his pocket and poured its content into a rag; getting ready to emerge from the shadows as soon as they guard passed next to him and put him to sleep.
It was a big man, a few feet taller than him, but Magnus was built so he had no trouble knocking him down and dragging him to hide him in the nearest maintenance room.
"I'm sorry." He whispered as he tied the guard's hands and feet.
Magnus took a deep breath and emerged from the small room, putting on his best poker face and heading for the vault.
"There you are!" Magnus exclaimed, looking at Jonathan. "They want you back upstairs."
"They do? I thought I was supposed to stay here." Jonathan said, frowning as if he were really confused. Magnus had to give him that—he was a pretty decent actor.
"Well, I just follow orders, so come on, let's go!"
"Are you new too?" One of the other guards asked.
"Yeah, that's why they sent me to fetch this one...the newbies always have to run the errands." He said. "I'm Harry, by the way." He said, extending his hand toward the first guard to greet him.
The moment their hands touched, Magnus quickly pulled the guard toward him and put him to sleep while Jonathan did the same with the other guard.
"Well done." Magnus said, when he saw Jonathan's quick reaction. Both guards lay on the ground unconscious.
"We're way too good at this." Jonathan admitted.
"We are." Magnus agreed somewhat reluctantly. "Anyway, tie them and let's move...we don't have much time and it's a lot of money to move for only two men."
Jonathan nodded and went to the left side of the room to do what so many times they had rehearsed during these days: break into the highest security vault in the country. It was always planned as a two-man job, not that it could have been done otherwise, the security mechanism of the safe was really complicated—almost uncrackable. It would require a lot of precision and the best of both their abilities to open it.
"Ready?" He asked Jonathan who just nodded and started drilling the safe doors to pull out the wires and help Magnus open it. Meanwhile, Magnus grabbed his stethoscope and slowly began to turn the dial to hear and 'feel' the locks inside the safe. It was something he had done his entire life, so he was pretty good at it.
Jonathan pulled out the wires of that side of the safe and set them ready, moving to the other one to do the same. They had to disable the electronic system of the safe to turn it into a mechanical one and make it easier to open.
"Done." Jonathan said, both bundles of wires were outside the safe through those small holes he had drilled.
"We need to cut them all at the same time...RGB, okay?" Magnus instructed him.
Jonathan nodded and after one last shared look, they cut the wires one by one—red, green, blue—exhaling with relief when none of the alarms went off.
"Now we just crack it." Magnus said. "It has five wheels so it's a five-number combination, not ideal, but not impossible either...you wanna try to crack it yourself?"
Jonathan shook his head. "You do it."
"Okay…" Magnus said, leaning on one side of the safe with his stethoscope to hear the internal mechanism as Jonathan turned the dial to guess the combination. "Start turning it slowly, now."
Jonathan did as he was told, turning the dial slowly. Magnus paid a lot of attention to the sounds and let his criminal self take control of the situation so they could open the safe on their first attempt and get what was on the other side of the doors as quickly as possible. "Drop." He said, when he heard the two clicks that the drive cam notch made when it slid under the lever arm—they had their first number.
"12." Jonathan said, resetting the lock and doing the process all over again.
"Drop." Magnus said.
"6."
They did the same until they had all the five numbers—12, 6, 5, 73, 28.
Magnus looked at Jonathan one last time and then using the combination he had gotten, tried to open the safe—the door opened without any trouble. They had done it.
"We could run away with the money and be free from our fathers." Magnus told Jonathan. He had no interest in the money, though he had to admit it was more than he had ever seen together in his life, but he was trying to find Jonathan's good side—if there was one, of course—to try to sabotage Valentine's plan from within. "With all this money we could hide wherever we wanted and-"
"Shut up or I'll kill you." Jonathan said, pointing to the gun he had carried with him.
"Okay, fine, it was just an idea, like you said, we're too good at this." Magnus said resignedly and just grabbing the bags Jonathan was handing him. They were garbage bags, so they could put them in the container and take them to the truck without any trouble.
As fast as they could, they put all the money in the bags practically emptying the vault in less than ten minutes. Trying not to waste any more time, they grabbed the bags and started to carry them to the hallway where Magnus had left the trash container. They both had a pretty good condition, so it took them only a couple of trips to bring all the money upstairs.
"We have to go change again." Magnus informed Jonathan. The «getting out of the building» part of the plan was the trickiest one.
"Just you." Jonathan said, climbing into the container.
Magnus nodded approvingly, he hadn't thought of that, but certainly the fact that only one man pushed the container out of the building made more sense; so Magnus wasted no time and went back to the security room to get the coverall and make sure the guard was still unconscious—he was.
Magnus returned to the hallway and pushed the container, making his way out of the building. Before opening the service door, he took a deep breath and prepared himself for the worst. The radio had been off for a while now, so they had no idea what could be waiting for them outside, for all he knew the FBI could be there waiting for them.
"Hurry up!" Jonathan whispered from inside the container.
Magnus didn't answer, but opened the door. There was still some commotion out there, one of the ambulances was still parked there, tending the wounded, and Valentine's men were still trying to 'fix' the truck.
A strange feeling of satisfaction took possession of him. He was about to walk out of the Federal Reserve Bank with thousands of dollars in cash and not even a single alarm had gone off. He knew he shouldn't feel excited or proud about this, but he couldn't help it, what he had done was quite impressive.
"Thank God you're still here!" Magnus exclaimed, directing his words to the garbage men. "We forgot one container." He said, pushing it so one of them could empty it in the truck.
The gate guard looked at him but the moment he noticed that he was just another member of the maintenance staff, he turned his attention back to the truck and kept trying to help the driver fix it.
"What happened here?" Magnus asked, approaching the truck.
"I don't know, for some reason we can't start it." The driver said.
"May I take a look?" Magnus asked. "I was a mechanic before mopping floors for a living." He added.
"Be my guest…" The driver said.
Magnus got closer and pretending to know what he was doing, started to manipulate the engine of the truck.
"Try turning it on." He told the driver, who immediately jumped into the cockpit to start the engine. The engine, as if by magic, roared.
"There you go!" Magnus exclaimed satisfied.
"Thanks, man!" The driver exclaimed, quickly closing the hood and climbing back into the truck.
"What was it?" The guard asked Magnus.
"A wire that got disconnected, happens all the time."
The guard rolled his eyes and addressing the garbage men said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Get out of here!"
"We're leaving, thanks for the help" He exclaimed, waving goodbye.
Magnus pretended to get inside the building again but at the very last minute, climbed into the back of the truck and hid among the bags of trash and money. The truck drove away and as they made their way out of there, the radio turned on again.
"All banks were emptied, we'll see you in a bit." Valentine informed them.
Magnus felt a chill ran through his body. It had worked, his plan had actually worked. They had done it, no, he had done it. He had robbed the Federal Reserve and lived to tell the story.
Well, at least for now.
o-o-o-o-o
Alec and his team were in the sewer system of the Heights, Jersey City, a few blocks away from the warehouse where Valentine and his men were currently monitoring the heist that was taking place in the twelve Federal Reserve Banks located across the country. With some help from Ragnor and Raphael, well not some, a lot of help from them, Alec had found a way to infiltrate all the security buildings undetected: through the thousands of tunnels that passed beneath all the different cities.
It hadn't been easy, some of the cities had been a real challenge since getting the updated versions of the underground tunnels had been complicated to say the least, but Raphael had outdone himself and managed to get them all for Alec in record time; making this operation and the ones taking place in each city possible. It was the largest FBI display recorded to date and all the responsibility of it lay on Alec's shoulders. If something went wrong, he would be the only one to blame and-
Alec stopped his mind from going there and instead took a deep breath to try to calm his nerves.
Every so often he had to remind himself that he had to stop worrying so much. The other eleven cities were ready, Lydia had made sure of that, and here? Well, here everything was as ready as it would ever be. He had agents covering every corner of the tunnels in case Valentine and his men knew about them and tried to use them as an escape route. The teams that would be entering the warehouse with him were ready and in position, and so were the squads that would be surrounding the place to prevent anyone from escaping.
"Alec stop fidgeting." Izzy told him. She was standing beside him, ready to go in there with him when the time came.
"I can't." Alec said, because it was true. Even though he knew that everything was ready, he was still very, very nervous.
Thanks to Magnus they had an advantage over Valentine and his men, but even so, he didn't know what was going to happen once they entered the warehouse. He was going to get in there with only twenty agents divided into two teams, what was going to happen once inside? He had no idea, but he knew things were going to get ugly for either side. He was still convinced that the less they were, the more likely they would be to surprise the criminals and succeed, but the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not he had led all these men and women to their own grave was something that had him on the verge of going crazy while waiting for Lydia's signal.
"Alec..." Izzy said, "relax...everything's going to be okay."
"We've been here for two hours and Lydia's last report was almost half an hour ago, the robbery is happening as we speak, Iz, things could go wrong, not just here, but there...in the bank. Magnus could end up injured, or worse, de-"
Alec didn't finish what he was saying because in that moment the radio strapped to his bulletproof vest chirped—it was Lydia, trying to communicate with him again.
"They did it." She said. "The twelve heists are over now, they successfully robbed all banks without the alarms going off. There wasn't a single shot being fired...you were right, Alec, they went down Magnus's route. We haven't notified anyone of what happened to give them time to get to the different security buildings, but it's only a matter of time before the banks notice what happened."
Alec exhaled relieved, unable to conceal the smile that popped out of his mouth. Magnus was fine and not only that, but he had actually managed to get into what was probably the safest bank in the whole country without triggering the alarms.
"What happened?" Izzy asked. The only one who had direct communication with Lydia was Alec so she hadn't heard what the other agent had told him. He had preferred it that way for safety, he couldn't risk someone ruining his plan. He still wasn't sure how many of Valentine's men were still hidden among their ranks.
"They did it." Alec whispered so that only Izzy could hear him. "Well, Magnus did it, he robbed the New York bank without triggering the alarms and probably helped plan the other heists."
"You shouldn't be proud of that." Izzy said.
"I can't help it, you have to admit that's quite impressive." Alec confessed because it was. His boyfriend had not only managed to plot the largest crime recorded so far, but had robbed one of the Federal Reserve banks without the alarms going off. As a federal agent he knew he should be furious about it, but a part of him couldn't help but admire what had just happened. It was very, very impressive.
"We're following them now," Lydia continued, "they are on their way there, they're driving a garbage truck."
"They used the trash collection service to get in?"
"Yes, I saw the whole thing, Alec, it all went smoothly, less than 20 minutes and they were out of there with thousands of dollars in cash...no casualties. There was an incident in front of the building, but I have a feeling it was all part of the plan."
Alec smiled, silently thanking Magnus for what he had done. He had saved thousands of lives with this. Yes, he had committed what was probably the greatest crime in all history of crimes, but he had also saved many, and one thing certainly outweighed the other.
"They're gonna be there in 10 or 15 minutes, depending on the traffic." Lydia said.
"Let me know if anything happens."
"Will do." She said, and the radio went silent again.
"Stop smiling." Izzy told him.
"I can't," Alec admitted, "he did it, Iz, he robbed the New York Federal Reserve bank without triggering the alarms!"
Izzy rolled her eyes, but smiled too. "It's impressive, I have to admit it."
"Very!" Alec said practically beaming.
The minutes started to pass and Alec began to grow impatient, that lightness that knowing that Magnus was fine and had successfully robbed the bank started to dissipate with each passing minute. Ten, fifteen...twenty. The time Lydia had guessed that it would take them to get to the security house had passed already. He was about to ask for an update of their progress when the radio chirped again.
"They're there." Lydia informed him. "Apparently they are going to park the truck inside the warehouse, not outside, we still have no visual of anyone."
Alec took a deep breath, the time had finally come. "Get the teams ready."
"On it."
"What about the other cities?"
"We have two secured already, the other teams are still waiting for the criminals to arrive, but don't worry about that, okay? I got this."
Alec took a deep breath. "Okay, then make sure all the teams here are ready in five minutes, we can't wait long...they could run off at any moment."
"Yes, don't worry...you all be careful, okay?"
"We will…"
Alec turned around to address his team, they all were watching him expectantly. "It's time, guys, remember the plan, we need them alive. Defend yourselves if you have to, but try not to kill them, their statements are valuable for a lot of unsolved cases, understood?"
"Yes, sir!" They replied firmly, but in hushed voices.
"Then, let's go." Alec instructed them, and taking command of the operation, he started leading them through the tunnels of the city.
The manhole with access to the warehouse was a few blocks away from their initial position, so getting there took them some minutes; they were trying to be as quiet as possible to avoid drawing attention to the tunnels. It wasn't easy, but they managed.
"We're here, put the men outside the warehouse in position." Alec told Lydia through the radio.
"I will, good luck."
"Thanks."
Alec took a deep breath and looked at his sister. "Be careful, okay?" As a brother, he would have preferred for her to stay behind and be safe, but he knew how valuable she was to his team; there was no one he trusted more, so having her with him right now despite the dangerous situation was a relief.
"You be careful too." She said.
"I will."
They shared one last look and Alec commanded the team. "Let's move!"
The team started to move, opening the lid and entering the warehouse in complete silence. To their surprise—and good fortune—no one was around when they emerged. They could hear some chatter nearby, but the place where they were was practically deserted. It was surrounded by shipping containers, so the visibility wasn't good, but apparently no one was guarding that hallway.
"Move silently." He warned them. "We still have the surprise factor in our favor." He whispered.
The agents nodded and started to split, trying to cover as much ground as possible while getting closer to the place where they supposed the criminals were gathered—toward the center of the building.
"This place could be a death trap." Izzy warned him. "We need more men."
Alec nodded in agreement. The shipping containers created some sort of labyrinth and that made it impossible to predict what they would find next. "Lydia," he said through the radio, "the access is clear, but the criminals are close, we're going to need the second team of agents ahead of schedule. Send them out. The place is arranged as a death trap."
"Copy that." Lydia replied.
"We need agents there." Izzy said, pointing to the top of the shipping containers.
Alec nodded and quickly asked some agents to climb up so they could get a better view of what was going on.
Alec and Izzy kept walking until the voices became clearer. The criminals were celebrating, one of them was giving some sort of speech about having achieved the impossible and Alec immediately assumed it was Valentine. He had never heard him speak before, but somehow that raspy, confident voice fit him.
"We need to get in there all at once." Alec told the team, double checking the plan with the agents positioned on top of the shipping containers. "On three...two…"
All the agents Alec had with him stepped into the clearing at the same time. There were a lot of people gathered there, Alec estimated thirty or more. Valentine Morgenstern was among them, but there was no sign of Magnus or Jonathan.
"FBI, don't move!" Alec exclaimed, holding his gun firmly in front of him.
The next ten seconds were the definition of hell broke loose: people started running, guns were fired and, although the second team arrived just in time to help them, it turned out that they were still outnumbered.
"Move! Move!" He shouted through the chaos. "Don't let them escape!" He said, although by now he had lost sight of almost everyone around him. It was hard to see where his men were or where Valentine had gone while trying to avoid the crossfire.
"Move the other teams to surround the building!" Alec told Lydia. "They're scattering around, we're outnumbered!"
Alec didn't wait for a reply and just moved, trying to find Valentine. He knew that if he wanted to find Magnus, he first needed to find Valentine, so he moved, walking as fast as he physically could through the shipping containers, but his leg wasn't making things easier. He had been neglecting it so much for days that now that he needed to move fast, he couldn't, but that didn't stop him and he just kept walking, forcing his body to the limit.
He turned in a corner and entered a corridor, cursing when he noticed that it led nowhere. However, he wasn't the only one there, there was a man making his way toward the end of it even though it was clearly a dead end.
"Hands in the air!" Alec exclaimed. He didn't care who this person was, he was going to arrest him. Now he was sure that the operation was a success, he could hear the police sirens and the helicopters outside the warehouse—they were surrounded.
The man stopped.
"Turn around slowly with your hands where I can see them."
The man did as he was told to and started to turn around. The moment Alec saw his face, he lost his breath.
"We meet again." The man said.
It was Asmodeus, Magnus's father.
Alec felt his blood boiling with rage inside him. He hated this man with every fiber of his being, not only because of what he had done to him the last time they had seen each other, but because he had ruined Magnus's life. Never in his life had he felt the urge to kill as he felt in that moment. He was seeing red and without realizing it, he put his finger on the trigger and got ready to shoot.
"Are you going to kill me?" Asmodeus asked mockingly. "Are you going to taint your hands with the same blood that runs through your boyfriend's veins? You don't have it in you, I can see in the way you hold that gun that you haven't killed anyone." The man said and Alec's heart skipped a beat.
Magnus had told him that same thing once, many months ago, after their first time together. "...you still carry your gun with the innocence of someone who hasn't killed anyone."
"Go on, shoot me, cross that line, Agent." Asmodeus challenged him.
Alec took a deep breath. He wasn't going to fall for that, he knew better. "Get on your knees with your hands above your head." He ordered him. He had every intention of killing him, but death was too good for this man, he deserved to spend the rest of his days rotting in a cell. "I said get on your knees!"
Asmodeus smiled and without complaining, did what Alec had asked him. Alec looked at him and slowly began to walk toward him to handcuff him, but just as he was about to do it, Asmodeus surprised him, moving way too fast for someone his age and incapacitating him by using his elbow to hit him on his leg—right on the spot where that burn he had inflicted on himself was still healing.
Alec fell to his knees, twisting in pain and dropping his gun in the process.
Asmodeus quickly stood up and grabbed it, aiming it at Alec's head. "You were limping." The criminal said. "You still haven't recovered from your wounds."
Alec's breathing quickened, he knew how this was going to end.
"Here's a little final lesson for you, Agent," Asmodeus said, "to win a battle you always have to know your enemies' greatest weakness. For example, my son's is his compassion, it's always been...yours? Yours is your stubbornness. You're hurt and yet, you're still here, why? Because you wanted to rescue my son and capture us all. You weren't in your best condition for this operation and you knew it, but still, you decided to come, giving me, who I know what happened to you in that explosion, an advantage over you. You see? That stubbornness of yours is the one that has you here today lying on the floor about to die." Asmodeus smiled.
Alec tried not to react, but it was hard when the gun was still pointing at his head. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak. His leg was throbbing and he was sure that the stitches had torn loose, he could feel some blood running down his leg.
"There's fear in your eyes," Asmodeus continued, "but there's also courage...and rage." He added. "It's so telling when you look into the eyes of a man who knows he's going to die, you can learn a lot about them in those final seconds. You're a brave man Alec Lightwood and I admire you for that, unfortunately, that isn't enough for me to let you live. You see? I cannot let you arrest me again. The first time was part of the plan, I knew what my son was going to do, so I asked for some help in exchange for a deal, but this time, I can't do the same. This time it's you or me."
"Kill me!" Alec exclaimed, finding his voice again. "The building is surrounded, no matter what you do, you won't escape this time."
Asmodeus smiled a smile so similar to Magnus's that the sight sent a chill through Alec's body. "There's always an escape route, Agent, didn't my son teach you that?" The man asked. "I guess it's another lesson you'll have to put into practice in your next life."
"Shoot!" Alec exclaimed. He was getting tired of Asmodeus's game. "Shoot me and end this once and for all!"
"Oh, don't worry, I will." Asmodeus said. "I know I promised my son I wouldn't touch you, but you and I both know that I've never been a man of my word. So goodbye, Agent Lightwood."
Alec didn't close his eyes and instead looked at Asmodeus straight in the eye. He saw him getting ready to shoot, he saw his index finger starting to put pressure on the trigger and-
A shot was heard, but it didn't come from the gun in Asmodeus's hand, it came from somewhere behind them.
Asmodeus dropped dead to his knees.
Alec turned around and there, standing still with her gun raised in front of her, was his sister. She had made a clean shot, right in the forehead—an instant death. Alec blinked as she rushed to him.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"I...I…" Alec stuttered, he was still a bit stunned by what had just happened. "I, yes, I'm-I'm fine...you just saved my life." He said in disbelief, he had already considered himself a dead man.
Izzy helped him to his feet, his leg was killing him.
"The place is secured." She informed him.
"Where's Valentine? Have you seen Magnus or Jonathan?" He asked her.
"We haven't found any of them yet, we got all the others, but-"
"Go find them!" He told her. "They can't leave!"
Izzy looked at him with some hesitation, Alec knew what she was thinking.
"I'm fine, Iz, go!"
She looked at him one last time, but then nodded and walked away.
Alec got closer to Asmodeus's body and picked up his gun. There was a pool of blood at his side and his eyes were wide open—the shock of a sudden death still reflected in them.
"You were right," he told him, "in the end it was you or me." He said as he closed the criminal's eyes, not out of respect or even humanity, but because they were so similar to Magnus's that seeing them lifeless made him feel sick to his stomach.
"Good riddance." He said, walking away, but just as he was making his way out of that dead-end corridor to go join the search for Magnus, Valentine and Jonathan, realization of something he hadn't noticed before hit him. When he had found Asmodeus, the man had been heading toward the end of the corridor with determination even though it apparently led nowhere. That couldn't be a coincidence, could it?
Alec frowned and turned around, walking until he reached the end of the corridor. There was only one container there, so he looked around and not knowing what else to do, he tried to open it.
The door opened without so much as a creak and Alec discovered that the container wasn't just a container, it was a secret passage to the building next door.
"There's always an escape route, Agent, didn't my son teach you that?" Asmodeus had said.
Alec held his gun up high and entered. When he crossed the threshold his eyes landed on two things, first, on the black car that was exiting the building at a surprising speed, and second, on Valentine Morgenstern who was standing there, about to get into a garbage truck. The garbage truck Alec assumed had been used to commit the robbery and where surely the stolen money was still hidden.
Without thinking twice and in a desperate attempt to stop Valentine from escaping, Alec shot the tires of the truck. He had always had a perfect aim, so naturally he didn't fail once. The six tires he had shot deflated in seconds.
Valentine turned around and when he saw who had prevented him from escaping, he started to laugh like a madman.
"Put your hands in the air where I can see them!" Alec said. "The building is surrounded, this is the end. Valentine Morgenstern you're under arrest."
Valentine said nothing at first and just kept laughing. "You really don't want to waste your time with me, Agent." The criminal said.
"Shut up and raise your hands!" Alec said.
Valentine raised them without complaining.
"Get on your knees!"
Valentine didn't even flinch and fell to his knees. Alec was a bit puzzled by the criminal's cooperative attitude, but he didn't dwell on it for long, surely Valentine was acting like that because he had realized that Alec hadn't lied when he had said that they were surrounded.
Alec took a step forward but stopped. He wanted to move to handcuff him as fast as possible and before one of his criminal buddies came to his rescue, but what had happened with Asmodeus a few minutes ago prevented him from doing so. He couldn't risk walking and exposing his condition, Valentine could notice that he was limping and, like Asmodeus, use that to incapacitate him. He needed to ask for reinforcements, and fast, but he couldn't do that either without Valentine realizing that he was literally on his own there.
He was pondering what to do when two men entered the building from the very same door through which the black car had just left. Alec panicked for a second thinking they were Valentine's men, but the moment they got closer and Alec could see their faces, he felt a wave of relief that almost sent him to his knees.
They were Ragnor and Raphael.
Alec knew the two criminals were going to be around, he had asked them to leave as soon as they FBI had arrived there, but they had insisted on staying saying that they had made Magnus a promise. In this moment, Alec was eternally grateful not only for that promise Magnus had somehow forced them to make, but for the fact that the criminals had kept their word.
Alec threw Ragnor the handcuffs. The other criminal immediately put them around Valentine's wrists. "Valentine Morgenstern you're under arrest for hmmm, all the crimes you've committed, you have the right to remain silent, everything you say can and will be used against you. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, then one will be appointed for you by the court and yada yada yada. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Ragnor said with a smile. "I always wanted to do that!" He exclaimed, looking at Raphael who was just rolling his eyes.
Alec tried not to smile and just approached Valentine.
"Are you okay?" Raphael asked Alec when he noticed that he was limping.
"Yeah, don't worry just an old wound from the explosion, nothing serious, I'll be fine."
"You're bleeding," Ragnor observed, "if you want we can-" he was saying when Izzy entered the building using the same passage that Alec had used.
"Ale-" She stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes were wide open with surprise, surely due to the scene currently displayed before her: Valentine on his knees being held by no other than Ragnor Fell and Raphael Santiago, Magnus's known henchmen. "You-you found him..." She whispered.
Alec just nodded and dragged Valentine to his feet, reading him his rights again. Ragnor had already done it, but that hadn't really counted, the other criminal had no authority to do it and Alec was under legal obligation to do it again. Once he was done with that, he used the radio to request for some agents to help him take Valentine and transfer him to the Bureau to be interrogated.
"Where's Magnus?" Alec asked his sister. He still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that he had just captured the most dangerous criminal of all time, he was still worried sick about his boyfriend and just wanted to hear that he was safe and alive.
"I-I'm sorry, Alec, but there's no trace of him or Jonathan." Izzy informed him.
Valentine burst out laughing.
"Where are they!?" Alec asked the criminal, but Valentine just looked at him with a mocking smile plastered on his face and winked.
"Where's Magnus!?" Alec asked again, raising his voice a few octaves. He had no time for Valentine's silly games, Magnus's safety was at stake. "Tell me where he is!" He demanded.
Valentine smiled wickedly. "My son is taking care of him as we speak...I told you that you didn't want to waste your time with me."
Alec lost his temper and grabbed Valentine from the lapels of his coat and smashed him against the truck. "Where is he!?" He asked, using all the strength he had left to subdue the criminal.
"I already told you, my son is taking care of him, so probably dying...like your brother."
"My brother is fine, we found your hiding place."
"Did you? Well, did you find the other one? Because you'll have to if you want to find your boyfriend's body. Yeah, I know your dirty little secret, Agent, but don't worry, he's being killed as we speak, you'll be able to deny your fleeting romance with him when giving your statement."
"Tell me where he is!"
"What for? It doesn't matter what you do, you'll never get there in time to save him. You failed him, Agent, after everything he did for you, you failed him. You arrived too late."
Alec let go of Valentine, the criminal's words had practically knocked the air out of his lungs. Valentine was right, he had failed him again. Magnus was going to die and there was nothing he could do to help him.
Fear gripped him.
"Tell us where he is!" Izzy said, grabbing Valentine herself and shaking him violently as she demanded an answer. "I said, tell us where he-"
Izzy was saying when a wave of agents entered the building, securing it immediately. Lydia was commanding them, although Alec couldn't concentrate much on that, he felt as if his soul had been torn from his body.
"Alec, we came as soon as-" She said, stopping mid-sentence. Her eyes were going back and forth between Valentine, Ragnor, Raphael and him. "What-what happened?" She asked.
Alec didn't know what to say. The idea of losing Magnus had him in some sort of trance in which he no longer had control of himself, he was standing there by some freaking miracle, but he was dying on the inside.
"Where are Magnus Bane and Jonathan Morgenstern?" Lydia asked, clearly realizing that only Valentine had been captured.
"Jonathan took him," Izzy explained, "when he got here they had already left. We don't know where they are."
"A black car left the building less than ten minutes ago...we saw the driver, a blond guy." Raphael said.
Alec looked up, he had seen that car and Jonathan was blond—his heart skipped a beat.
"One of our helicopters is following a black car," Lydia said, "it's heading towards what appears to be a construction site in Brooklyn, I was about to send a team after it, I was just waiting for Alec's clearance to proceed."
Alec felt as if somehow some kind of hope had been restored inside him and he saw that same hope mirrored in Ragnor and Raphael's faces as well, he hadn't noticed that they both had gone pale too.
"Go help him!" Lydia said much to Alec's surprise. "I know, okay? I'm not stupid, I figured it out a couple of days ago, I don't understand why you did it, but I trust you, so go and help him!"
"Really?" Alec asked a bit stunned.
"Yes! I'll try to buy you some time, everyone knows I came here to bring reinforcements and ask for your authorization to proceed with the chase of that car, but I can buy you some time, so go! Help him be free, I know that's what you want. You have 15 or 20 minutes at the most, we'll be right after you, but go and try to save him!"
"But-but my car is parked blocks from here and-"
"We have a car." Ragnor intervened, throwing him the keys. "It's outside."
Alec caught them in the air and almost ran to embrace Magnus's friends—he owed them so much that he felt he needed to show it.
"What are you waiting for? Go!" Lydia and Izzy exclaimed in unison.
Alec looked at them and nodded. "Make sure they can get away from here, okay?" He asked them, pointing to Ragnor and Raphael. After everything they both had done for him today, the least he could do for them was to make sure they didn't end up in jail.
"Don't worry about them, I'll make sure of that." Izzy said. "Go! Go!"
Alec nodded again, and without wasting any more time, ran to the car parked just outside the building. The pain in his leg was no longer important, he had only one thing on his mind: to rescue the love of his life.
"I'm on my way, Magnus, I'm on my way!"
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