Time: 2:46

Location: The flash drive room

I wake up to blinding light. I blink my eyes as they try to adjust. It takes me some time, but I finally realize that I am tied up on an uncomfortable chair with scratchy rope. I struggle to remember what happened, but then I realize that I jeopardized the entire mission. How did they know I was in there? Were they just lucky to catch me or did I not notice an extra security precaution they had? It doesn't matter now because I had failed and now I'm trapped in the enemy's fortress.

I scan the room to try an figure out where I am and I realize I am in the room where they stored the secret flash drive. The safe door is closed and I'm guessing the flash drive is back in there. I look around more and I almost yelp in surprise when I see a tall, brawny man standing in the doorway.

"Agent 24601," the man says. His deep, scratchy voice fills my ears and warns me that he could be trouble if I anger him. He is in the poor lighting of the hallway (unlike the blinding light in this room) so I can only see a figure; not the details of his face for shadows cover it.

"How did you know I was here?" I say. The man chuckles evily. The man saunters over to one of the desks in the room. It looks heavy, but the man has no trouble moving it. He has his back turned to me the whole time so I still can't see his face. I stretch my neck to try to see around him. On the floor, I see a small, black box with wires connected to it. The wires run though the carpet. I realize how they knew I was here; a weight sensor.

How could I have been that stupid? I should have known that they would have had a back up security system in the room with the most important thing they possess. I mentally slap myself in the face for not thinking of that. When I touched the ground, it must have triggered a silent alarm and warned them that I was there.

I hear a very quiet, but very distinctive clinking sound that I should be able to recognize, but I couldn't put my finger on it. The man must have noticed it too because he looked up and looked around, but then it stopped and he must have decided to just ignore it.

"I guess your boss didn't think that we would have a back up plan. Maybe you should have too," he says as he turns around. I gasp. I realize that the man standing before me is the leader of the enemy force; Javert.

Once again, the clinking noise begins again; constantly tapping as quietly as possible. A look of annoyance crosses Javert's face. He is clearly bothered by this sound.

"What are you trying to pull 24601?" He says bitterly. The noise stops and he once again looks around the room.

"I swear, I have no idea what that noise is," I say. I really am telling the truth; I am just as confused and curious as he is.

"Don't play dumb 24601. I know this is one of your tricks. You are well known in this place you know. We have learned much about you and your missions; the tricks you have played so you could escape, the plans you have excecuted. We very much wanted to be the ones to bring you down."

I hear the noise again and this time I recognize it; it's the tapping of the air vent. Javert growls and looks all around the room looking behind all of the desks and in the hallway. When his back is turned, I look up at the air vent above me and see Agent Champ waving at me.

I know that I have back up, but I need a way to escape. I need to distract Javert to somehow get free of these ropes and escape.

"You wanted to destroy me Javert? What about Agent Champ? He is very powerful too. That is the reason why the boss assigned us as partners for this mission," I say plainly.

Javerts eye twitches and his expression turns from shock to pure anger.

"There was another?" He screams. My plan is working so far. I pretend to look like I didn't mean to say that. Javert stomps towards me and leans down to look me in the eye.

"Where is this other agent?" He bellows at me. I shake my head violently and he whips out his gun and aims it at me. I stare at the revolver pointed at me.

"Tell me now 24601," he says as he presses the gun to my nose.

"He was in the security room hacking into the security system and shutting it down the last time I had contact with him," I say. Javert backs up a bit and losens his grip on the gun.

"I thought you did that," He says still aiming the gun at me.

"No, I wouldn't have time to go all the way down to the security room and then come back here. Someone would have surely noticed the security was off by the time I would be half way here since I wouldn't have been guarding the room. The guards in the security room change shifts every fifteen mintues and it would take me over twenty to get here from there without being seen; well if I were to go on foot. If I were to climb, it would take me much longer and by that time I would be captured. The boss isn't that stupid that he would only send one man for the job." Javert raises and eyebrow and keeps the gun level to my face.

"You seem awefully eager to share this," He says adjusting the grip on the revolver.

"I think you and I know that you would be too if you had a gun point straight at your face and in the hands of one of the most dangerous men alive." Javert frowns, clearly unable to argue that point. I give him a satisfied smirk. Javert notices this and raises the gun and whacks me in the side of the head with it. It was hard enough to make me bleed and probably have a decent size bump later, but not enough to knock me out or kill me.

Javert backs away into the halls and disappears around the corner. Now that I have gotten rid of Javert temporarily, I have to get out of these ropes. Then I remember my pocket knife. I twist and contort my arms until I grab the knife from my back pocket and start sawing the ropes.

The rope is thick and hard to cut, but I finally am able to cut through them. I stand up and the ropes drop around my ankles. I step out of the rope and look up at the air vent. Champ has already opened the vent and is staring down at me. I grab the rope from the ground (the rope that was previously tied around me) and tossed one end up to Champ. He catches it and I begin to climb up it.

I pull my body up into the air vent and pat Champ on the back.

"Thank you Agent, I owe you one," I say to him. He nods and puts the metal on top of the opening.