24 Hours

3:00 p.m.

I sat in the wooden chair in the center of the interrogation room. Ordinarily, I would have taken this downtime to get some shut eye. But even though my eyes were closed and my body was physically drained, I found it impossible to sleep, probably because Falcon and Parrot were sitting at the desk in front of me playing chess. My mind refused to slip into the unconscious so long as people were watching me.

Just sleep, they're not looking at you. This was probably true. The two were completely absorbed in their game of chess. I don't think they cast a single glance my way the entire time we were in the room. My eyelids grew heavy. Slowly, they drifted down. For a moment, I enjoyed the peace, the rest.

But I could feel their eyes bearing into me. They were rising from the desk, grabbing a knife or a rope and inching towards me. My eyes flew open.

Falcon and Parrot leaned forward in their chairs, absorbed in the game of chess.

Come on, Claude. Just sleep! This is so dumb, you need your rest!

Stretching his arms, Parrot leaned back in his chair, so far back, in fact, that I thought he would crash to the ground.

"It's nice to get a break," Parrot said, the first time someone had spoken in more than an hour.

"Yeah, though Raven probably won't be too happy when he walks in," Falcon said.

"Why?" Parrot questioned. "It's not like he gave us anything else to do."

"I know, but we're in a time crunch. You know how the boss gets. If he finds us sitting around, he's going to think we're wasting time."

Parrot shrugged. "True."

I found it ridiculous that we were sitting around here, while I was supposedly expected to do two more jobs that day. Can't I just do my part and then go home? I'm tired.

"If you're in such a time crunch, then why aren't you doing anything?" I muttered under my breath.

"What Raven means by a 'time crunch' is that we have a certain amount of time to accomplish a certain number of tasks," Falcon explained. "Some of those jobs don't involve all of the team members, like right now. The people who are needed the most to do are always Cougar and Calico, cause they're our muscleman and cat burglar."

"It's not like a distraction can crack a safe," Parrot added.

Falcon squinted at him. "Weirdly put, but yeah. The person who's good at diverting attention can't crack a safe, or do really heavy lifting jobs, or hack into a security system. Same with the driver."

"Not complaining, though," Parrot said. He put his feet up on the table. "I like my down time. And we basically get paid the same amount."

Falcon laughed. "The man's right. Cougar's been in the hospital at least four times as much as me."

"Four times?" I repeated. I doubted I could survive one trip to the hospital.

"His greatest weapon is his fist," Parrot said, "But his fist isn't impenetrable."

Faint footsteps echoed in the outside corridor along with indistinct voices.

"Quick, they're coming!" Parrot whispered. He shoved the chess pieces into a plastic bag and stuck it in the desk drawer. Falcon folded the board and placed it in the drawer, too. They sat down in the two chairs, hands folded on the tabletop just as the door opened. Raven strode inside without a second glance at them.

"That was too close," he declared. "I can't understand how it happened. The entire job was jeopardized."

What is he talking about? Could it be that the detective agency came after all?

"I think the kitchen boy called for help," Calico said. "I found a cellphone on him."

"Check his call history," Raven said. "In fact, check everyone's call history."

"That's going to take a while..." Calico broke off as Raven spun around, eyes like daggers.

"We will make do." Raven's glower shifted to me. I shrank in my chair. It was like he knew what I had done.

"What happened, boss?" Parrot asked.

"As we were loading everyone into the truck, a black sudan pulled up and started shooting at us. They started to chase us down, but Cougar and Calico managed to take them out. We have them bound in the truck for questioning. We think they're from The Civic Criminality Detective Agency detective agency."

So they did come! I wanted to leap for joy.

"What? They're onto us?" Parrot exclaimed.

"Yes, they somehow picked up our trail. And I think they know what we're doing." Raven shook his head. "I can't understand it."

"We don't have to understand that now," Calico stated. "We need to question the people from the diner."

"But don't you understand? This messes everything up. It might slow us down, in fact, it might inhibit the completion of..."

"Of course I understand. But we can't waste time on the issue either. Right now, we have to prioritize, and interrogations come first."

Calico met Raven's icy gaze with her fiery, amber eyes. The two stared at each other, equally determined to not give in. But after a minute, Raven sighed.

"You're right. Okay, let's focus on that. Here are the assignments. We'll have two interrogation teams. Team one is Calico and Falcon. Team two will be Cougar and me. We'll start with the people who tried to interrupt the job, the people from the black sudan. They probably have the deepest ties to the agency. Then, we'll move on to the staff at the diner, and finish with the customers...if we have time. Parrot and Jordan, you're going to hack into everyone's phones and..."

"What?" I cried. No no no no! I can't hack into innocent civilian's phones!

"We don't have time for arguments!" Raven barked. "You are responsible for hacking into every device we give you. Parrot, your job will be to search the devices for information. We have until about five p.m. to collect the information we need. That's two hours." Raven's eyes narrowed as he turned his gaze towards me. "Two hours. You better be done in time."

I gulped. "How many phones is this?"

"However many I say." That answer would suffice.

I wanted to sob. I was so close to being rescued! Now I'm stuck hacking into people's private devices in order to find information.

"Uh boss, what kind of information am I looking for?" Parrot asked.

"Anything that would be useful to the job."

I wrinkled my brow. If that's not the vaguest answer I've ever heard in my entire life, then I don't know what is.

But Parrot nodded like he knew exactly what to do. "Got it, boss."

"We're all set then," Raven said. "Falcon, Calico, and Cougar, round up all of the tech you can find. I'm talking phones, wristwatches, ipods, whatever you can find."

"Right away, boss," Cougar said. He marched from the room with Falcon and Calico.

I slumped in my seat. This was going to be a long two hours.