Shouting. An alarm. Footsteps down the corridor. Doors being smashed open. It was dark, the power was out, he had made sure of that. The air was cool thanks to the air conditioning of the expensive office, but Matt was sweating as he ran, moving this way and that, in and out of corridors, through rooms, up a flight of stairs. This wasn't going according to plan. Where were the papers? And more importantly, where had they taken Indigo?
He took another flight of stairs and emerged on an as yet empty floor. He strained his ears, searching for any sign of his partner. Suddenly, there it was. He could pick out the muffled "mmphing" coming from his left, about 20m away, behind some sort of dampening barrier. He moved towards it but then he sensed another presence on the floor, a large presence. He held his breath to focus, and estimated it was a large man, muscular, wide, not too fast, pacing up and down the corridor near to where the gagged sounds were coming from. Preparing himself for a fight Matt crept towards the corridor, his black trainers making no sound on the deep carpet. Pausing for a moment to gauge the man's position, he then crept around the corner.
He had been right, the guard was huge. He was wearing a typical police style uniform and stood much taller than Matt, who himself stood at just over 6 feet, and much wider. Knowing the large man would turn at any second Matt crept towards him, picking up the gagged moans coming from inside one of the rooms on the corridor. Silent as ever, Matt crept closer and closer, crouched, until, about a metre away, he lashed out. A perfectly formed kick arced its way towards the guard's head, and connected. The big man stumbled, and spun around angrily, but Matt had already moved to the side and sent another powerful kick into the man's knee. Attempting to use his strength to his advantage the giant surged towards Matt, holding his hands out to grab him in the small space, but Matt, light on his feet, ducked under the grasp, firing repeated shots, rapidly, into the side of the man's stomach. Not stopping for breath the guard grabbed a large plant pot containing a typical office fern and hurled it at Matt, who reacted quickly, leaning to the side as the weaponised decoration slammed into the wall beside him and smashed into a thousand pieces, but that was only a distraction.
Once again the big guy rushed forward, raising his leg up to aim a forward kick into Matt's chest, but Matt was too fast, stepping to the side as the kick came forward he instantly snapped his fist out, catching the guard square in the nose. Stumbling backwards the man snarled angrily before this time taking a slower approach, adopting a solid fighting stance and inching towards Matt. Matt saw the kick begin to move, but also saw the lack of tension in that leg's muscles, and knew it was a fake. He let the leg harmlessly smack his strong thigh as he read the combination of punches perfectly, dodging and parrying each one, not moving backwards but moving around the big guy, until the opening appeared and a loose left hook left a hole in the guard's defense and four more punches were fired into his side. As Matt bounced on the balls of his feet he sensed the guard was getting impatient, and knew it was his moment. As the guard rushed one more time towards him, this time attempting a low tackle, Matt brought his knee up powerfully, connecting sickeningly with the guard's nose. The tough guy was out cold before he hit the ground.
Catching his breath Matt grabbed a role of silver duct tape out of his bag and set to work on the unconscious guy. Tape around his ankles, above and below his knees and thighs, around his wrists and then many times around his chest made him secure, and then finally several wraps around his mouth and head would keep him quiet. Leaving the trussed up guard in the corridor, Matt found the room with the muffled gagged shouts and opened the door.
Inside the room was small, but neat, with a desk on one side, an office chair, a filing cabinet against the far wall sitting next to the large safe in the corner. Matt crouched down next to the safe, hearing the moans from inside.
"Indigo be quiet for a moment, I need to hear the lock" he said, and immediately the sounds stopped. He held his head close to the cold metal as he twisted the dial, hearing it click as the various locks opened. Finally he cracked the last one, and he stood back as the door swung open. Inside, a gorgeous red-head wearing an expensive, slim blue dress, was securely tied up and curled up to fit the dimensions of the safe. He pulled her out and examined her bonds. Tight rope around her ankles, calves and thighs, all of which were on show due to her loose dress being caught up around her waist. He wrists and elbows were bounded tightly, her arms welded together and ropes above and below her chest sure made their mark. In her mouth a red ball gag. "Aw that's pretty, it matches your hair" Matt smiled, acknowledging the glare he received from his partner before setting to work untying the ropes, leaving the gag in. As he finally pulled the last ropes off her elbows and helped her remove the gag he looked back into the safe, and his heart jumped for joy. "Are those, are those the papers?" he asked, uncertain.
"Yes, I couldn't believe it, those idiots kept me right next to the thing we were trying to take, I guess this was their secret spot or something" Indigo replied.
"Well whatever happened, we've got to get out of here, I can hear people coming up the stairs." Matt grabbed the papers, helping Indigo to her feet, and they darted out of the room. "Wait, damn it, they're coming this way" he whispered, looking around him. He only saw the window. Indigo, barefoot, clenched her fists, ready for a fight, she had escaped captivity before, and she was going to do it again. Suddenly a group of about 10 or 15 guards rounded the corner, not as large as the one who was now writhing around on the floor beside them, but still bulky. They walked slowly towards the two intruders, who edged backwards. Indigo leaned towards Matt and whispered something.
"Give up guys, just let us take you down" one of the guards said in a deep voice. Matt looked around one more time, and sagged his shoulders.
"Ok, ok" he said, putting his arms up, nodding at Indigo to do the same. The two walked towards the group of guards and met them in the middle of the corridor.
"On your knees" the deep-voiced guard said. The two did as they were told. The deep-voiced guard gestured to two others to bind the new captives, and they stepped forward, reaching to grab the captives hands.
"NOW!!" yelled Indigo, and the two burst up from their kneeling positions and attacked their captors. Indigo threw hers over her hip whilst Matt finished his off with a couple of powerful punches to the face. As the rest of the guards surged forwards the two intruders sprinted back towards the window, Matt in front, Indigo just behind.
"You've got nowhere to go!" yelled one of the guards.
Not paying any attention to the mob of guards running behind them, Matt slipped his backpack off and held it in front of him, and then he dived into the window. The glass shattered, and all of a sudden he was falling into the cold night sky, but there was the roof that Indigo had said was across the street, he landed, rolling to ease his fall, and felt Indigo land beside him, not looking back, the two kept running.
They found their car waiting for them a few blocks away, and, checking that no one was watching them, they climbed in. Matt deposited his rucksack in the back while Indigo gunned the engine and pulled away.
"Well that was eventful" Matt said, as they pulled onto the highway and joined the other cars in the early morning traffic.
"When are these missions ever not?" replied Indigo.
"Good point, have you got the bug?" Matt asked.
"The bug?!" Indigo brushed back her long hair and felt her ear, "Shit, it's gone, damn it, it must have fallen out". Matt frowned.
"That's not good, but there's nothing we can do now, we'll just have to hope it fell out during the jump."
Back at the building, the guards had released their companion and were surveying the damage, when they got the call that the boss was on the premises. Her high heels echoed in the halls as she walked into the building. She reached the floor of the fighting and turned into the corridor.
"What's the situation" she said, in a smooth, seductive voice. One of the guards stepped forward, nervous.
"Well, they, they've got our papers-" Jessica glared at him, "but, but we found this on the floor" he said hurriedly showing her the small earpiece in his hand. "We, we think we can trace it and find out who did this" the nervous guard continued. Jessica looked at the technology, and then around the corridor one more time, before she grabbed the man's tie and pulled him towards her. She was tall, and with her heels on she was taller than him. She looked down at the trembling guard,
"Find them, or I'll have to take my anger out some other way".