The fourteen-year-old boy stepped into the apartment, which had a very unwelcoming atmosphere to him. After the detectives' encounter with the assassin that Yael had sent, much of the furniture was in a mess, and the food was all over the place. The boy quickly noticed the assassin lying in a corner, who he assumed to be dead at first. However, Matthew gave a reassuring look that meant the man wasn't dead.
The boy looked at each of the detectives' faces, trying to recall who was who. He then turned back at Matthew, who he recognised almost immediately after a second glance. "You're... Sergeant Davis from the NYPD, aren't you?" he asked to confirm. "I heard that you were working on the case about the disappearance of my sister and me."
Matthew stood in front of the boy, both in mirth and shock. He never thought that one of the people he was looking for would show up in front of him so abruptly two months later. However, he quickly realised that the boy was awaiting his response, and so he snapped out of his spell of thought. "Oh yes," he promptly replied.
"George?" Megan asked as she looked at the boy. "How... how did you get here?" she asked, equally surprised. None of the three thought that he would ever reappear again, but there he was, standing right in front of the three of them.
"The SRA sent me here," George explained. "The Salvation Rebellion Alliance. I'm sure that they had contacted you too."
Matthew nodded. "Yes, that's right. They were the ones that sent us to this apartment, too," he added.
"But where were you all this time?" Daniel questioned, curious to know where George had been hiding for the past two months. And, more importantly: why?
"There's not really much time to explain," George told them frankly. "It's a long story—and a tall one."
Matthew paced himself around the room, still contemplating the choices they would have to make. They needed to know how to get to the chairwoman, and having George appear out of nowhere, sent by the SRA, wasn't exactly helpful. It would have helped in his career if he had solved the case, if not for the epidemic, that is.
Meanwhile, Megan decided to check the news for any news on the pandemic and also for reports on the situation back in New York. She reached for the remote to turn on the television before switching to the news channel.
On the other hand, Daniel couldn't stand seeing the apartment door kept wide open. After the appearances of two people that they hadn't expected, he felt that there wasn't a need for a third one. As such, he walked over to the door and shut it, although it couldn't be locked as both the latch bolt and door chain were damaged. It still offered some peace of mind, however.
Megan focused on the news for a bit more, although she eventually turned it off. There was nothing more than reports on several bombing procedures in New York being carried out by the military in an attempt to decimate the creatures. Then again, they had to make the most of their time in Philadelphia, so she turned her attention away from the news and joined back the discussion.
Just then, Matthew received a message notification from his phone. He picked it up from the bedside table before entering the messages application. The message was from Eliot himself, so he assumed it contained important information. He clicked on it, reading the details out to himself first.
"Hey, check this out," he informed the group after reading the entire message. "I got a tipoff from Eliot. The SRA managed to track down the chairwoman's location. She's somehow preparing to sneak out of New York by some private jet to arrive here tomorrow, and she's planning to head for Yael Tower."
The two detectives gathered by the phone to see the message for themselves. They later received identical messages as well, which were probably sent in case one of them didn't check their phones. George, however, remained out of the conversation as he didn't feel like interrupting their discussion.
"Well, now that we know what she's going to do, we just need to plan out how to get to her," Megan said as he moved away from the phone and looked at the two detectives.
"And how will we do that?" Daniel question.
Silence filled the room as no one had an immediate answer to his query. However, an idea quickly emerged as Matthew focused on the unconscious assassin. It was then that he realised that the assassin might actually have a use for them after all.
"I'm thinking we could use him to find our way to the chairwoman," Matthew suggested.
Megan and Daniel turned to look at the assassin lying "comfortably" on the floor. "Him?" they both asked at the same time, rather confused.
"Yes," Matthew confirmed.
"And what are you going to get him to do? Threaten him to gunpoint and ask him for the chairwoman's location? No way," Daniel scoffed, critical of the idea.
"Well, you're right about threatening him to gunpoint. Just not the part about asking him anything at all," Matthew corrected.
Megan raised an eyebrow while Daniel pursed his lips. They both knew that Matthew's plan was going to be very specific, which was nothing unusual coming from him. However, they hoped it would be something actionable that they could accomplish easily.
"Elaborate more, please, Matt," Megan requested as she listened.
"I'm thinking that we should hold him to gunpoint at the tower lobby and threaten to shoot him if the lobby workers don't direct us to the chairwoman," Matthew said. Unfortunately, the idea wasn't perceived very well by the other two.
"Are you nuts? We can get arrested for threatening someone like this!" Daniel warned him.
"Well, do you have anything else in mind?" Matthew asked, knowing that his plan was probably the only viable one.
As a result, the two detectives went silent. They had no way to argue back, although they couldn't exactly agree that Matthew's plan was something that sane people like them should do. Unfortunately, there was no other way to go about it, and if it meant risking their reputation, they'd have to do it.
"Either way, I'm thinking this place isn't safe enough for us to camp at until tomorrow, is it?" Megan questioned her colleagues.
"It definitely isn't," Matthew said. "Anyway, I'm sure you all have been quietly begging to stay at a better place than this terrible apartment. Let's go find a better hotel."
* * *
The following day...
The three detectives all donned some long-sleeved clothing. Matthew went with a simple chequered shirt and formal pants, while Daniel decided to put on a turtleneck sweater and jeans, which was all that was left for him to wear anyway. Lastly, Megan got herself comfortable in a cardigan blouse and black pants—leggings that were similar to that of Matthew's pants.
The trio also had thick leather gloves protecting the entirety of their hands. It wasn't really the best choice in terms of comfort, especially during the hot summer, but it would serve its purpose later in their plan. And they would probably be thankful that they had worn them.
By the time they had finished dressing themselves up, they looked like hooligans, ready to pull off a heist or commit a murder. And any ordinary person would question them about their choice of clothing. Their answer to why they chose such strange clothing was simple: to protect their skin from scratches or bites from any creatures.
And with that, they were almost ready to take off on their mission. But not quite, however. Not before doing something. Since they weren't going to walk for miles just to get to the headquarters of Yael, they needed a vehicle. And they couldn't just casually drag a man with ropes tied around his hands and body and duct tape over his mouth. They needed to get a private vehicle that they could manoeuvre.
"I'll head down to the rental store nearby and get us a car," Matthew volunteered. He then hurriedly walked towards the apartment door, knowing there wasn't much time left for their plan. They couldn't be too late to confront the chairwoman, after all.
However, Daniel stopped Matthew from doing so. Instead, he decided to take Matthew's place. "Wait, I'll do it," he said, which caused Matthew to pause for a bit and turn back around. It was a little unusual that Daniel was rather enthusiastic about assisting Matthew in his task, considering he was highly critical about the plan just moments ago.
However, it wasn't a big deal to Matthew. He had some other things he wanted to check on before he left. And so, he passed the baton over to Daniel. "All right. Be back here as soon as possible. I'll have some things ready while you're away," he said as Daniel left the apartment without shutting the door.
Just then, he could be heard speaking to someone. At first, Matthew assumed that he was just talking to the janitor or a neighbour, but he knew that it wasn't the case when he noticed some unusual keywords in the conversation.
Matthew frowned but put aside his thoughts for a moment. He shut the door before picking up his gun and loading it with ammunition. He then shoved it back down on the computer desk before turning to look at George.
Only then did Matthew realise that he hadn't really briefed George on the situation. At first, it seemed as if George didn't have a role to play in the current circumstances. Nevertheless, the SRA couldn't have had him sent over just to do nothing. He pondered about it, thinking about what he could get George to do, but nothing seemed to come to his mind.
Just then, another message notification came from his phone. He checked it and found that the message was also sent from Eliot. And it seemed to be another tipoff. The message read, 'Hey, this is Eliot again. We've found that Yael has deleted almost all records of their assassination plots on you detectives, their corrupted plans and everything else. However, we've received information on the fact that the only documents left on this are all on a flash drive, which isn't directly in their possession.'
Initially, this seemed like good news, but the more Matthew thought about it, the more frustrated he became. He eventually broke down and slammed the table hard, frightening both Megan and George.
Then again, the topic of the flash drive kept running through his mind. There was no way that Yael couldn't be in possession of it, and no one else could be holding onto it. The USB was definitely in existence, but it wasn't in broad daylight. And they had no time to find it.
Just then, the thought of Daniel speaking to someone outside returned to his mind. He compared it to the way that he was talking to someone else on the phone the previous night, and it seemed the same. It was almost as if Daniel was talking to someone again, and it was probably the SRA, although the organisation couldn't really help them further at that point, as they had stated.
Matthew then grabbed out his phone and began calling Eliot. "I'm going to talk to someone first," he told the other two as the dialling began. Eliot quickly picked up the phone, and Matthew started the conversation. "Hello? Yeah, may I ask what Daniel was calling you or someone in the SRA for last night? Oh... okay. Thank you," Matthew was heard speaking. Megan couldn't quite make up the conversation, however, as Matthew wasn't in speaker mode.
"What is it?" she questioned as he walked over briefly and pulled open his laptop.
"I'll tell you later," he said as he pulled a flash drive out of his briefcase. It wasn't the one from the hospital this time, however. It was another one he never thought he'd be looking through for a different purpose now. He inserted it into the laptop and began searching through the files. He then ran some functions to check other files before clicking on one of the documents.
He frowned at the instant that he saw the information. He shook his head in disbelief as he retreated in complete shock. Everything was just laid out there in front of him, on his screen. A place that he never thought he would see the documents on. "I pray to God that this isn't true," he shuddered.
Megan walked over to take a look at the screen herself. She wondered what could be so appalling that could cause Matthew to freeze, shell-shocked. However, she soon understood why he was stunned by the screen.
"Oh my gosh."