I spied the door leading to the holding cells just as I reached the elevator. Prisoners were kept on the top floor, furthest away from the exit and closest to the deadliest agents, behind thick, bulletproof glass where they would await their trial. Barnes was either in there or the interrogation room, pondering his fate. I wondered if he knew Mika – he claimed not to know an Augustine while in France – and expected his premature end was on its way.

            My insides clenched at the sight of Mika storming across the room, fury written into his features as he walked away from Alistair's office. I almost smile; he must have had a word with Alistair about his adventure to France. However, the humour on my lips soon died as he threw open the doors to the interrogation room, letting them slam behind him as he took that anger with him.

            "He's not the happiest person in the world, is he?" said Gabby, alerting me to her presence.

            Mika's threat rehashed in my mind. Gabby needed a warning – Collins too – but I could not have gotten away with telling her outright with Mika's mindless minions being within a few metres of us at all times.

            Gabby was an intelligent woman, and did not need to be told explicitly that something was wrong.

            "He came here quite quickly," I remarked.
"He did," Gabby replied with a sigh.
"I'm sure he must have appeared in Alistair's emails frequently," I said. "After all, the two seem very close considering he just appeared from nowhere." As his secretary, Gabby had permanent access to Alistair's emails. She should have seen Mika's name somewhere that hinted to what they had planned.
"Actually, no," Gabby replied. "My access got blocked just before he got here. Alistair claimed it was due to a recent system change but I'm not too sure."
I took a chance – a leap of faith in Gabby. "See if you can find any mention of him in Alistair's emails."
"But I don't have access to—"
"What skills do you bring to this agency?"
She frowned, perfectly plucked brows knitting in worry. "Planning, translations and hacking."
I raised an eyebrow at her last word. "You have the skills, you have the access."
She gulped with a nod. "I take it this hasn't gone through official programmes," she muttered.
I shook my head ever so subtly. "I would not ask for your help if I did not need it. And this stays between us. Don't let Alistair know."
She let out a restricted gasp, appearing to understand.

            "I've been told to go home for the night," I explained. "Let me know when you find something."

            I took a few steps back until I got another nod from her, then turned around and entered the elevator, feeling a sudden flutter at the thought of what happened the last time I was in it.

            Gabby could work both quickly and quietly, and I hoped this would be the case again. I would have attracted attention if I stayed in the office against Alistair's wishes, but if Gabby collected evidence under the radar, there was I chance of stopping Alistair before his plan fell into motion.

            I glanced between the four corners of the elevator's ceiling to settle my own anxiety, stiffening up at the blinking red dot at the front-left, facing towards the back.

My legs almost buckled, hands gripping the railing.
"Shit."

Gabby Kingston

A request from Amber was an order in my own head, and I was prepared to help her however I could.

            I did not begin the walk back to my desk until I saw the elevator door close behind her. She sighed slowly as she leaned against the rail, running a hand through her hair with a glance towards the interrogation room.

            Whether good or bad, something happened between her and Barnes. It may have been a mixture of both. She often brought back targets stone-faced and eager to pick up another job, but tonight she was shaken and reluctant to hand him over. Reluctance, in her words and Alistair, was dangerous for an agent.

            Dread filled the pit of my stomach as I approached my desk close to Alistair's office. Amber had always admired him, looking up to the Director in a way no agent before her had ever done. His word was gospel, everything she did being through his bidding because hetold her that it was right. What had changed that made her keep secrets from him?

            I prayed Alistair had become so wrapped up in his work that he did not see the look on her face whenever Barnes was mentioned. Her gaze kept failing her, findings it way to look in Barnes's direction with a countenance of rowing fear; when she left him in the elevator, she was torn up with inner conflict I could only speculate on.

            I had to help her. But first I had to know if I was cleared to do so.

            With a knock on the door, I entered Alistair's office. He was standing over his desk, a phone clutched in hand with his knuckles gleaming white.

            "I said I needed everything in place by the fifth of the month – not on it." There was a pause as he awaited a response and I began to tap my feet nervously.

            "I understand the difficulty in their acquisition, but you were given weeks of notice," he growled. "Fine. A twenty-percent increase if you can deliver them by the weekend. Yes, the third. The address was emailed to you weeks ago." His grip on the phone tightened. "Okay. Goodnight."

            He ended the phone call with a harsh tap and tossed the device atop the sea of papers scattered along his desk. Usually, Alistair was a tidy man. Everything he had was immaculate: books were stacked alphabetically, documents in colour-coded files, the desk always polished. What I walked in on was a bombshell.

            "Can I help you?" he asked, his voice tried and gravelly.
"Sorry for interrupting, sir. I was just wondering if you need anything."
He did not look at me, his mind elsewhere. "No thank you."
"Are you sure? I could tidy your desk for you if—"
"No! No. It is alright. I can manage alone."
I looked at my feet and nodded meekly. "Apologies, Director."
"It's fine," he said. "Now please excuse me. I have some phone calls I need to make."

            With a polite smile, I left the Director to his own business, aware he was preoccupied enough to do some snooping.

            Although pleased I could do that, it was disappointing to see how the Director had evolved over the past few weeks. He was not a man without emotion, but he had grown disconnected from the agents who served him. His attitude had been on the decline for weeks, building up until Amber left for the Alps. Since then he had aged, and with that his temper grew.

            I sat down at my desk, kicking forward to roll the chair closer. I had time to help Amber, but maybe no more than a few hours before Alistair finished his phone calls.

            The thought of going behind my boss's back made me anxious, but the feeling I got while thinking of Agent Knight sitting at home all alone without poor Scotty to be there for her was far worse.

            My hand hovered over the keyboard, barely brushing the plastic tiles. Would hacking into the Director's emails be classed as treason? It sounded so stupid in my head – of course it would be! There were less consequences for me personally if I kept my head down, and there was still a chance that Amber had been compromised by Barnes and was working for him... but I didn't believe it. She was not easily swayed by mere words, and her admiration for Alistair could only be damaged by the Director himself.

            I glanced at the framed photograph by the pink pot of pens on my desk, chewing on my bottom lip as I studied grandmother's wise smile accentuated by her laugh lines. She would have known what to do. In any other situation, I would have picked up the phone to beg for advice but breaking protocol was a fireable offence. I tapped my fingers along the desk, the rose gold charm bracelet she gave me twinkling at the movement as the same words of wisdom revolved around my head.

            Trust your gut.

            It was such a simple sentence, almost as simple to follow and yet many people did not. My head told me I was at risk of losing my job if I accessed the files, though my gut trusted Amber, telling me that Alistair's visible stress was not due to building paperwork but something much darker.

            I had to help.

            Stretching my fingers first, I began typing in Alistair's old email password as a starting frame, finding it to have been changed.
"Fudge," I sighed.
"Is there a problem?"
I gasped and almost fell from the chair. "Collins!" I shrieked. "Why would you sneak up on me like that?"
He blinked, astonished. "I did not sneak up on you, I just wanted to see if you were alright. You look very distressed, even from across the room."
I glanced at the monitor of my computer, noting how apprehensive my features were in the faint reflection, soon sensing a blush arising. "I am fine," I insisted, unbuttoning my blazer. "I was just concentrating, that's all."
"Did you think I was Alistair?"
"No!"
He stifled a smile that bothered me. There was a common theme regarding the senior-level field agents: none of them ever let themselves smile. It was as if all their humour was sucked up by Scotty, who released it all tenfold.
"You aren't very discreet, Miss Kingston," he said.

            I groaned and rested my head on the desk, my curls blocking out any surrounding light.
"In fact," Collins continued, "you are very lucky that it was me who came over here. Mika's been patrolling around the office for a while, paying particular attention to the two of us."
I frowned as I raised my head, combing back my hair. "Amber doesn't trust him."
"Neither do I," he confessed. "And something tells me you don't either."

            I looked at the ground for thought, then braved facing Collins again. Him and Amber were highly similar in their mindsets after intensive training from Alistair – it was reasonable to think they would both question suspicious activity, even if it surrounded the Director himself. Collins, however, clung to the rules far more tightly than Amber ever did, preferring protocol over efficiency. His success rates were lower than Knight's, but I could not think of a time in which Collins had suffered an intervention meeting, whereas Amber – and by extension, Scotty – had on multiple occasions.

            If Collins was willing to break the rules to investigate Mika, I should have felt confident in doing so, too.

            "No, I don't trust him," I muttered. "Which is why we need to help Amber."
He nodded and gestured towards the computer. "Have you had any luck?"
"I haven't really attempted it yet, but no."
"Any thoughts on how you can crack it?" he asked, folding his arms as he leaned over the desk.
"Alistair is smart with his security," I explained. "He usually has a string of random numbers so no-one can guess his password. They're so random that even I have to write them down sometimes."
Collins bit his cheek. "Then how do we... wait."
"What is it?" I said. Collins was a hard man to read but I knew his face – his 'idea' face.
"Agent Knight mentioned something in our meeting earlier," he said. He was telling me outright, but it still seemed like forbidden information. "When Alistair was discussing his plans, Knight brought up Alice and Freya Wight."
"His family?"
"Yes. I think she believes his actions in opposing the Government are in retaliation for what happened to his family years ago, making him compromised."
Alistair's words echoed in my head until I let them slip from my tongue. "An agent emotional is an agent reckless."
"Try a personal number relating to his family," he suggested. "A birthday or something like that."
"I don't know any! I never met them."
"None of us did. They died before any of us even left school."
"Then..." I picked up my butterfly diary where I jotted down Alistair's schedule. "I could check through here to see if there's any note of it."
Collins shook his head, platinum hair swaying. "I don't think he would write it in there. But maybe Amber knows something."
"Won't Alistair be able to trace our call?"
"Why would they unless they have informed the tracers that we need to be watched? How much suspicion do you think will be raised across the building if Alistair's closest confidants were put on a watchlist?"
I swallowed. "A lot."
"We will have to make it swift just to be sure. It shouldn't take too long to crack if she knows something."

            He whipped out his phone and began the call in one fast movement.
"Knight," he said almost immediately. "You wouldn't happen to know any dates relating to Alistair's family, would you?"

            He looked to me, still listening to Amber. "Yes, I am fine. Okay. Try the fifteenth of April 1980."

            I typed it in – it was wrong.
"No," Collins said. "The twenty-first of—what?" There was a pause before he nodded. "That would make sense. Gabby, try the seventh of February 2002."
I mumbled the words as I typed the digits. To my astonishment, the combination worked.

            Beaming, I turned to Collins, who even managed to crack a smile.
"We've got it, thank you. We will let you know if we find anything of value."

            He ended the call and craned his neck to read over my shoulder as I began scouring through his emails.

            "Out of curiosity," I said, mindful of my words, "what was the significance of the date?"
Collins looked away from the screen. "It was the day his family was officially recorded as being killed in action. The day his cause began, you could say."

            I nodded solemnly and carried on working. After a few minutes of scrolling and skim-reading, a question pondered in my mind, and I wondered if it was appropriate to ask. Considering the circumstances...

            "What are Alistair's plans?" I blurted out, checking to see if anyone was around us. "What does he want that you and Amber are so afraid of?"
He exhaled through his nose, warm and gentle features freezing over. My hands remained still over the keyboard, waiting for his answer to fire them back into action.
"A war," he said. "Alistair wants us to go to war."

            I trusted Collins and Knight enough to accept that was all I needed to carry on fighting in the only way I knew how. My hands dropped down onto the keys, and I continued to work at double the speed I started at.

Amber Knight
Exhaustion struck like a blow to the head as I slotted the phone back into the pocket of my coat. I pulled out the keys I had retrieved from Alistair's care, my hands shaking as I unlocked the door to my flat.

            I entered, unable to hold back the withering glance directed over my shoulder towards the door of Scotty's empty flat, and closed the door reluctantly behind me, locking it.

            I let out a long breath, sliding halfway down the door until my sigh merged into a groan. I tossed the keys on the sofa, nonchalant as they bounced to the floor with a patronising jingle.

            The flat was untouched, smelling of fresh cotton and the dying plant Gabby had insisted on buying me for my birthday a few months back. It sat in the corner the window ledge, tie-dye green and yellow with its fanning leaves looking sad. I pushed off the door and headed for the kitchen, half-filing a glass of water – making sure to rinse out the dust beforehand – to quench the plant, saving the rest for myself. Gabby was a fool to buy me that thing. She claimed it would 'give me something to focus on' outside of work, but all it had become was another thing to die at my hands. I put down the glass on the ivory-white kitchen counter and staggered away, shrugging off my jacket and kicking away my shoes as the sofa was in sight.

            I fell back into the pale grey cushions and dragged down the blanket I always kept folded on top, finding it useful on the days I spent away from the agency, particularly when I lacked the energy to make my way to the only bedroom. I unfolded the blanket, sprawling it over my cold body with gratitude, closing my eyes as I pulled the frayed material up to my chin. As far as I was concerned, it was too late to move myself to bed or even change for sleeping. I always found the sofa much more comfortable anyway, finding the bed to have far too much space for me to ever relax in properly.

            The day had been a wreck from start to finish. From Derek's confession to Mika's threats, I was left more physically drained and beaten than at any point during the journey from the Alps. I rubbed my face in aggravation, from my forehead to my eyes, then cheeks, then mouth, trying to pull away the stress. Nothing worked. My mind replayed the day in my head again, landing on one moment in particular. It may have been the night before or significantly early that morning, but I remembered the feeling of it all so vividly. When Derek put his arms over me, demonstrating how to hold the pool cue properly, I felt safe – warm and confident but also slightly afraid as if I was on top of the world but unsure of how to balance on it. That thought took away the twisted void in my core, until my brain reminded me that Barnes was sitting in a cell all alone, and that I was the one who put him there.

            I groaned. Every movement, every breath, every thought was strained. My muscles ached, my shoulders ached. Everything. Just. Ached.

            I checked the time on my phone: 10:48.I had eleven hours before I was expected to be called into the office – that was far too much time to sit around with no purpose. Why did everything have to change? Why could the agency I returned to not have just stayed the same – no thuggery, no lies, treachery. But it had always been like this. It could not have simply changed overnight. For at least a few weeks – maybe months, maybe years – Alistair had become a different person, his pain moulding his soul into someone new. The moment I realised what he had become, my heart had shattered completely – in just a few days I lost those who mattered most in my life. All of it had come crashing down like a river rushing off a cliff's edge. The deception was visible now, but I was drowning in the harsh reality. My only options were to force myself to the surface, rise above it all, or go with the current until I crashed down with all the lies.

            There had to be something in Alistair's emails for Collins and Gabby to find, whether it was evidence to make a case, or crucial details regarding the meeting. If all else failed, there was a chance we could stop the meeting last minute and save those inside.

             I twirled a string of the blanket's fabric around my middle finger. I had to be prepared for a scolding for speaking out of turn so boldly, but I did not regret my words and I was willing to tell him that. Every chance I had to convince Alistair to change his mind, I would take. Because if the only way to stop him was... if I had to do the unthinkable – no. I could still stop this. I could still prevent so much death without it ending in Alistair's. What I was most worried about was whether he saw the security footage of the elevator. If he had, would he choose the mention it? After Kai, after everything Barnes had done to Alistair... he would have been furious, despite me walking away.

             I would have had more time, and another ally, if I believed Derek Barnes when he told me back at the bar. Maybe I could have planned in advance. Or maybe I could have gotten Barnes to safety before confronting Alistair alone.

             But maybes were void. I didn't plan ahead, and I did not save Barnes.

              I thought of him sitting in the interrogation room, slouched in a hard and uncomfortable chair, horrifically cold with no-one but Mika there to keep him company. My heart ached thinking of his threats, but I could do nothing. Staging a coup to release him was a ridiculous notion and frankly, I was shocked at myself for even thinking about that.

               I wished I had never left that elevator.

Derek Barnes
Mika's fists laid on the surface of the aluminium table, his face twisted as if I had offended him personally. I would have been willing to co-operate more, knowing my quarrel was with Alistair and not the agents who worked for him, but from the moment he introduced himself as Mika Augustine, I decided to turn on the sweet smiles and dumb responses. He would get nothing from me, not until Alistair's promise was fulfilled, and after the countless attacks Agent Knight and I had endured throughout our journey, I was more than ready to make our personal encounter as unpleasant as I possibly could while handcuffed.

            I drummed my fingers on the table, ignoring Mika's question while my mind wandered elsewhere. Was Alistair prepared to send Agent Knight in to question me? I wanted to speak to her again – see if she had changed her mind on what I told her at the bar.

            My hand fell still. She was fiercely loyal to Alistair in a way that made me envious, and would not betray him unless the facts were staring at her directly in those pale cerulean eyes.

            I swung back on the chair and let my head fall back to stare the ceiling, stretching out my legs so I could freely rest my feet on the table, dismissing Mika's scowl as he slammed his hands on the table and walked out. Maybe Agent Knight did believe me. For all I knew, she could have been staging a plot behind Alistair's plot. I hated the thought of only having one backup plan – that being one person – but I had to trust that she was smart enough to see through the Director, and righteous enough to go against his whims.

            Unless she already had done that and was sitting in the cell next door. My chest caved at the thought of it.

            I should have tried harder to make her understand. If she did, she may have left the agency behind and I could be assured of her safety. And after that moment in the elevator...

            The door creaked open, widening my fractious grin.
"Regained some of your patience to speak to me again, Mika?"
A low sigh. "Barnes."
I blinked and sat up, pulling my legs off the table with a thud. "Alistair Wight. Nice to see you again."

            He skulked into the room stone-faced, Mika trailing behind like a dog. The Director held his blue stare as he sat down in the chair opposite me, resting his hands on the table, folding one over the other.

            "Who else knows?" he asked.
"Where is my sister?"
"You're not asking the questions, Barnes," hissed Mika.
I didn't even look at him. "I wasn't talking to you," I retorted. "So, Director, where is she?"
"She is safe."
"Anywhere near you is not what I would call 'safe' as others have found out." Alistair narrowed his eyes. "Why is she not on her way home?"
"Because you have told us nothing."
I had nothing to tell. Every other agent that knew of Alistair's plans had already been killed. But if I told him I was useless now, I would have been disposed of like the others, and Jade's fate would remain unknown. "That was not the deal. You said if I co-operated with Amber that Jade would be returned home safely once I walked through those doors."
"Deals change, Barnes. Given your past, you should know tha—" Recognition cracked the Director's statuesque features. "When did you reach a first-name basis with Agent Knight?"

            Damn. I swallowed. Amber was sure to be punished if Alistair discovered she thought of me as more than a target throughout her mission. It was safe to say I surpassed that status after the bar – even if I hurt her – not to mention the way her icy stare melted into a serene, gentle oasis for a short moment in the elevator when we almost... when we nearly...

            "That's not relevant. Where's Jade?"
"Barely a handful of agents refer to her by her first name," he wondered out loud. "Just how close did you get your claws into her?"
She was not so easily manipulated, at least not by anyone other than Alistair. As much as I would have liked to inform him of our fun night at the bar or the moment in the elevator, I would have put Amber in serious trouble. "You're quite defensive over her, aren't you?" I scowled, tilting up my chin. "Why is that? Are you worried she might do something drastic like question an order?"
"What did you tell her?" he said, his voice quietly rough, lined with threat.
"I told her the truth. You should try it sometimes."
"I have."
I blinked, taken aback by his smile. "Y-you have?"
"Yes," he said, back-straight to cast a pointed shadow. "She said she supports the war."
I frowned, shaking my head. Innocent people were to be caught in the crossfire of Alistair's war, the devastation stretching further than a battlefield. Could Amber be ruthless? Yes. Was she heartless? Absolutely not. "She wouldn't."
The Director folded his arms. "No matter your impression, you do not know her. No-one really does."
"Apart from you. Is that right?" His thin lips tugged upwards as if by string – he thought he had such a strong hold on her.

            I adjusted my position. "I think your lying."
"She knows everything, Barnes. Including your fate."

            My stomach plummeted, chest turning shallow.

            "She doesn't care about you, Barnes. She doesn't care that Mika will grant you a painful death."
I snapped, "What did I ever do to you?" Mika stirred from his corner. "I never even met you until today!"
"You're right. You've never met me until today." He folded his arms, eyes squinting as if he could stab me with a look. "But you met Sarah."
Sarah. Sarah. I gasped. "Sarah Augustine. She was your—"

            Mika turned away as his phone rang, ignoring my paled face. When he refused to face me again, I scowled at Alistair.
"You know what happened, yet you won't tell him."
"Your decisions are to blame here – not mine."

"They were your orders."

"It was your mission. Take some responsibility for it."

            I huffed and rubbed my face. I did take responsibility for it; every day since it happened. I opposed the orders, begged to take action and help the squad, but Alistair's word had me returning to London alone with a promotion slapped on my file.

            Mika was too far gone to turn him against Alistair, but Amber wasn't. No matter how much she would deny and excuse Alistair's behaviour, her compassion for innocent lives stretched beyond her loyalty.

            "You're wrong about Agent Knight," I said.
His greying brows furrowed. "I know Agent Knight far better than anyone else," he claimed. "Do not pretend to know her."
"I'm not pretending," I retorted. "She looks up to you, idolises you, but she is not the blind dog you imagine her to be. She has a mind of her own and a strong heart she will follow when you push her too far." My lip curled. "You cannot stop her because she is her own person – not a mini you."
He shook his head with a clenched jaw. "I always disliked you, Barnes." That was expected. "You swagger about the office, grinning foolishly as though you own the world, your only skill being your charm and your wit that you waste on luring people in to bend to your whims."
"You'd know all about that wouldn't you, Alistair?"
A dark, intolerant look crossed his face. "Insufferable cur."
I snorted. "Leave the insults to Agent Knight. She does it much better."
He clenched his hand on the table then slammed it down. "I am going to ask you again: just how close did you get to Amber?"

            I opened my mouth to deflect the question, but Mika grabbed his attention instead.
"Alistair!" he exclaimed, rushing across the room from his dark corner. "Your emails have been hacked."
"By who?"
"We don't know right now, but it's coming from a computer in the office."
Doubt crossed Alistair's face. "Is it Agent Knight?"
"She was spotted leaving the building shortly after the meeting. It can't be her."

            I was unsure of whether I was relieved she was away from the agency, or disappointed she had dismissed Alistair's deeds.

            Alistair looked between Mika and I, frowning. "Bring her to me anyway."
"What about the hacker?"
"They are here within the agency," he explained. "We can lock them in, but Miss Knight is at home. If we go after the hacker now, they may have a chance to warn her."
"You believe they are working together."
"I believe my loyal agent has not been entirely honest with me." I struggled to hide my grin. "Mika, I will send you her address."
He nodded. "Understood."
"Be wary. She is adept, and will fight back if provoked."

             Mika left us alone, putting away his phone with a determined glare at nothing in particular.

            "She'll see you coming," I said when the door closed. "She's not stupid."
Alistair looked down on me. "You know, Barnes, if I go down, you're coming with me."
I shrugged and leaned back in my seat, lifting my hands to the back of my head. "I'm already comfortable. You should be more concerned about yourself."

Gabby Kingston
Although he spoke words of comfort, I did not hear any of them. Collins's lips moved in his usual calm and collected manner that I could not comprehend. I was on the edge of screaming and he spoke to me as though read aloud something as simple as a shopping list.

            Frantically batting my eyelashes, I returned to the reality of what was happening.
"Gabby, we need to focus."
"I should have seen this," I breathed. "I'm his damned secretary and I didn't even see this!"
Collins gripped my wrists and bent down to my height as I sat shaking in the office chair. "That doesn't matter," he urged. "We know now. That means we can do something about this."

            The war will be quick, he had written. The launch codes will eradicate the hostile army within minutes. There will be casualties, but it is all for the greater good. No more agents will be lost.

           "He is ready to kill millions of innocents all for reven—!"
Collins clamped a hand over my mouth. "Gabby!" he hissed. "Do you want to tell the whole office?"

            Yes! If the whole office knew, our numbers could revolt against the Director, and... and...

            No-one would believe us. We would be arrested for treason, having only a single email as evidence in our defence, which could have easily been forged. The Government would believe Alistair over any lowly agent. We would be seen as usurpers – nothing more.

             I sighed into his hand. "No."
He nodded and drew back his hand, careful not to release any panicked cries across the office. "This evidence won't be sufficient and the meeting next week will take place no matter what. The only thing that will happen if we report this is that we will be more closely watched or detained so we are unable to do anything about it."
"How can we stop this?" I asked. "We don't know where this meeting even is, or how Alistair will get rid of everyone there."
"He will likely use a method that will take all of them out at once," he wondered. "A fire or an explosion, maybe."
A fire or an explosion. "Dear God..."

            I leaned towards the desk, rubbing my temples. Our only chance at preventing Alistair from taking power was to ensure the Government lived long enough for us to prove he was treasonous. Even then, it was clear from a few emails that Alistair had friends throughout Parliament, their reciprocated messages being so vague that Collins and myself were both suspicious. He had contacts on the inside that could support his bid for power in a crisis. If only we knew where the meeting was, one of the field agents would have a chance at exposing Alistair directly.

            Taking a deep breath, I straightened myself up and stuck my hands to the keyboard once more, only to witness the screen turn a striking white.
"No..."
Collins stood up. "No? What's wro—" His baby blue eyes widened. "No."

            Every email vanished all at once, every shred of potential evidence eradicated in a matter of seconds.

            Collins brought a shaking hand to his mouth. "H-how?"
My eyes flitted across the screen. That was the question: how? And why? Unless... "They know." I stood up, raising my tainted hands as I stumbled back from the computer. "They've erased it all because they know someone's onto them."
"Can they trace it back here?"
"Yes!" I cried, grabbing my jacket from the back of the chair. "We need to leave. Call Amber now."

            I shut off the computer and the two of us rushed for the elevator. We walked for less than a minute as Collins opened up the contacts list on his phone, before Mika and a handful of his associates strode passed us, stopping once he noticed Collins.
"Leaving, are we?"
"We're finished for the day," said Collins. I held my breath, eyes flitting between the two of them. "Where are you off to?"
"We're bringing Agent Knight in for questioning," he said smugly. "Apparently she's not so loyal after all."
"She's gone home," Collins retorted, shooting a glare. "Can you not speak to her in the morning? She'll be exhausted after today."
"So she can escape London? Not likely. We have her address thanks to Alistair."

            Collins snatched Mika's wrist before he could turn back towards the elevator.
"What does Alistair want with her?"
"There have been some disagreements between the agent and her boss," Mika explained. "We believe she's associated with those who have hacked Alistair's account." His eyes looked towards me, tightening my throat.
"His account has been hacked?" said Collins. He was a far better liar than I, who felt guilty for every one I told.
"Yes. Now..." Mika's smirk was demeaning as he looked at his arm, where Collins gripped him firmly. "Do you want to let go of my wrist or is this enjoyable to you?"

            As though diseased, Collins tossed Mika away, frowning uncomfortably as Mika laughed. His emotions were often so well bottled up that I was taken aback.

            "I'll see you later, Collins." Mika waved lazily and ushered his followers into the elevator. They all squeezed in tightly, and I did not dare exhale until the doors shut.

            "I really hate that man," said Collins.
"We have to tell Amber," I replied.
Collins smiled and gently waved his phone in the air, showing a text message. "Already done."
"Good. But what do we do about the emails? We can't find out where the meeting is without them."
"There is one place we could look," he said, looking towards me with an urgency that fired the adrenaline in my veins.
"Where?"
He didn't miss a beat. "Alistair's office."
I sighed. I had already been told to stay out of it for the night. "Perfect."
"We should take his key-card too," he added.
I frowned. "What for?"
He held his breath for a moment, looking passed my shoulder with uncertainty. Slowly I turned around, catching a glimpse of the interrogation room door shutting.
Collins exhaled. "To release Barnes."