The Will Stanton Affair

[Samantha McManus]

"You know how it is," Sam says to the other guard. "Kids and their bombasaurs."

She maneuvers Natalie over to an open chair.

"Now, let's call your mum."

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh turned his walk towards the facility and hoped beyond hope no human eyes were watching him sneak in.

[Narrator]

"You confiscated her phone, yeah?"

[Narrator]

Tosh turned his walk towards the facility and hoped beyond hope no human eyes were watching him sneak in.

There wasn't an obvious side entrance -- secured facilities generally didn't work that way. There were some fire exits; bless OSHA, and some windows he could attempt to force open. There was also a garage door-type thing -- goods deliveries, perhaps? -- and he knew there was a loading dock on the other side of the building, by the train tracks.

He could also go in the front door, though he would certainly be spotted that way.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah grins at the go ahead and shrugs off her trenchcoat. Waiting for the street to be relatively clear of pedestrians at least she takes to the air with a running start. Going into a wide curve she circles around the building before quickly diving down towards it's roof from almost straight up.

"Tosh, go left a little, where the fence meets the wall. I'll help you up onto the roof." her voice comes over the comm, distorted by rushing wind.

[Narrator]

Nailah was able to land on the roof relatively quietly. Normally, she would have been picked up by the cameras, but Natalie's interference kept things clean for now, at least.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Why the roof?" he quietly asked as he followed her instructions.

[Nailah Weaver]

"I like roofs." Nailah says as she pulls some rope from a pouch and lowers it down for Tosh to climb. "Sides, that way we can skip a bunch of fences and try to find a way in."

[Toshiro Narumi]

He climbed up, fighting off bad memories of gym class.

"Good idea. What now?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Think you can get that door open?" she asks, pointing at the roof access door and the large biometric lock on it.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Not without someone's hand... not fast enough anyway," he frowned before having an idea and tapping his earpiece, "Intercept. Anything you can do to the biometric lock on the roof?"

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie's eyes get slightly glazed as she descends deeper into the machine, hunting down the lock. She fishes for the 'unlock' signal that she'd seen earlier when Sam had gotten them through the first biometric lock, trying to replicate that and send it to the lock on the roof while trying to stop the lock from reporting its status to the security desk. She was rapidly reaching her depth and Sam could pick up that her mind was starting to wander away.

[Narrator]

As Natalie was getting more and more integrated into the system, as it were, she found it easier to unlock the door -- and harder to concentrate on pulling herself out.

But hey, the door unlocked! That's a thing!

[Narrator]

Nailah and Tosh's door led to...well, a stairwell. This was probably not the most shocking development in the world.

The stairwell led to a storage room, with large rolls of paper stacked like cord wood up against the wall -- presumably high-tech security paper, but, well, just paper nonetheless.

[Nailah Weaver]

"We're in." Nailah informs the rest of the team. "Just gotta find Will now."

[Samantha McManus]

Sam meanwhile has been talking to Natalie's 'mum' on the cell phone she had 'confiscated' from Natalie (in fact her own) for several minutes, in fact having called back to the headmistress.

"Alright, Missus Frobisham, make sure to give us a call when you arrive and we'll escort your daughter out to you. Thank you for being so understanding."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I hope everything is alright?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Think you can lead us to where they keep new money about to be shipped out?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"I thought you had a scanner thingie for finding him?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm sure she's a good kid, Missus Frobisham. Just have to scare them straight sometimes. She'll be alright."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I can't just wander around scanning the whole facility."

[Nailah Weaver]

"But..." Nailah stares at Tosh for a moment, confused. "Whatever. They got the paper here, so we just gotta trace where they bring it to be printed, right?" she says, trying to see if she can spot an obvious door big enough for the rolls of paper to be carted through.

[Narrator]

The only way out seemed to be the obvious way -- though Nailah's powers were pinging like crazy, telling them to bring a roll along with them.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Except they already printed him," he pointed out.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Then we'll go from there to where they cart the money to. Just... wave your scanner around as we go." she says, briefly stopping to pull a roll of blank paper from a rack before hurrying across the room towards the door.

[Narrator]

The door opened up onto a busy workfloor, with whirring sounds of machinery filling the air. Sheets of paper went flying through rollers and printers at blinding speeds, with watermarks being added, windows being cut loose and discarded, security features installed--the works. There were millions of pounds just rolling through expensive, precision machinery, ensuring that the bills were complex enough not to be counterfitable.

There was no way a person could survive going through that process -- they'd be crushed flat in an in instant. Could even Will survive being melted, mixed, pressed, diced up, inked and cropped? Hopefully, or this was all for naught.

Most of the process was automated, with sheets of blank paper being fed in on one end and coming out in huge sheets of bills on the other. There were some workers in high-visability jackets mulling around, though -- some on quality control, others ensuring the machinery was working smoothly.

[Narrator]

"I'm sure she's a good kid, Missus Frobisham. Just have to scare them straight sometimes. She'll be alright."

"So. Drop her off at the station up the road, right? Punk kids shouldn't be around here too much...anyway..." the security guard said, squinting at her screen for a second.

[Samantha McManus]

"Her mum's going to call when she's out by the gate. It's bloody November, might as well wait where it's warm."

[Narrator]

The guard didn't register Sam's response, and it didn't take a telepath to realize that something was up.

"Is that car circling us? Third time it's come across that camera..."

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie doesn't catch the guard's response, lost as she's becoming in trying to keep everything moving the way it's supposed to. She sags a little in the chair, though that probably looks like nothing more than dejected teenager.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh relied on Nailah to keep the workers from spotting them as began using his scanning device to pick up Will's trail.

[Samantha McManus]

"Intercept, they're starting to notice the loop. Switch to live feeds for outside for a short bit. We can switch them back to loops when the others are getting out."

"I think that's what they call 'cruising.' Teenager thing."

[Natalie Denisov]

The telepathic contact helps Natalie drag herself back enough that she can let the camera feeds go back to their live feeds, doing her best to make the transition seamless.

[Narrator]

"Somethings still fishy. You'd better get out there, Oliver; I'll watch the punk."

[Narrator]

Tosh relied on Nailah to keep the workers from spotting them as began using his scanning device to pick up Will's trail.

The thing almost immediately started pinging back results -- Will had DEFINITELY been here. He had even been in the storage room that Nailah and Tosh had fallen into.

The trail went two different ways -- one out a set of double-doors near where the paper was fed into the racks, and one out a set of double-doors at the other end of the facility.

[Samantha McManus]

"Alright, but you owe me a pint if it turns out to be nothing," Sam says, heading out to patrol.

[Narrator]

"Cruising. Honestly. Is that what you teens get up to these days?" the guard asked Natalie.

[Narrator]

No one would stop Sam on her way out -- she was just a security guard, after all, and was supposed to be outside.

Though...what had happened to the guard who was sent out to cover for Oliver?

[Samantha McManus]

Sam continues on out to Oliver's patrol route, looking around for the guard who's supposed to be out there.

[Narrator]

Sam continues on out to Oliver's patrol route, looking around for the guard who's supposed to be out there.

That guard was headed dangerously close to the alleyway where Sam had stashed the real Oliver.