Jerome was back at the apartment above the Thai restaurant, and had the kettle boiling for yet another delectable serving of Mr. Noodle. Not exactly the most nutritious of meals, but he was keeping a low profile as instructed to by the boss. Keeping low also meant little or no take out foods. He didn't mind eating the hot, watered down noodles, especially since he had his own secret for making them extra special. What he did was pick up a box of those cup-a-soup packages and just dumped one of those into his Mr. Noodle and that made the broth a soup that was just as good to consume. Jerome was rather proud of his creation and took his slice of noodle/chicken soup heaven back to the desk where he was watching traffic on the Internet. He was keeping tabs on emails and what not. As instructed to by Edgar, Jerome was only looking around and not touching or hacking into anything while they were gone. So far things were rather quiet, and he wasn't paying that much attention anyway, he was too busy trying to make sure he didn't spill any of his soup on the keyboards. Jessica was sleeping on the couch, resting because she was too nervous to do anything else that was remotely helpful. Just the thought that Devon and Edgar could be meeting up with her mother today was too much for her to handle. She spent most of the morning running around and talking about what could happen and how things could change. After asking frantic questions and pacing around like a chicken with its head cut off, she finally rested on the couch, which was just fine for everyone else in the building. She wasn't the only one with nerves, but no one else was showing their hands and kept them close to their chests.
Moth was not a fan of Mr. Noodle or anything else that Jerome had stocked the shelves with so she refused to stay underground and went out for a slice of pizza. She wasn't too fond of the restaurant below as well, so Jerome shrugged it off as Moth being Moth and kept his thoughts to himself. He wasn't her keeper, and not in a position to tell Moth what she could and couldn't do around the apartment. She blended anyway, and there was no way the boys would suspect someone like Moth to be working for Edgar so she had that going for her. He relaxed into his seat and slurped back some more noodles. He was about half way through his delicious meal when Jessica stirred awake for the first time in a few hours.
"Good afternoon." he said to greet her back to the real world.
"How long have I been asleep?" she asked as she sat up and began to rub her eyes and focus.
"Edgar and Devon have been gone for over five hours. If they are not knocking on the lady's door, I'd say they're damn close." Jerome took another slurp and looked back to her after finishing his bite of noodle, "You feeling better?"
"My nerves are getting to me a little. I can't believe that I could see her later on today." She got up and walked over to the kitchen to get something to drink. There was a pot of coffee on, but she passed on it and moved on to the fridge and took a can of soda, "How much longer should they be?"
"I'm not sure." Jerome said as he looked back at what he was working on, "But we're supposed to stay put until Edgar gives the all clear."
"Do you think they'll be alright out there?" Jessica asked, not sure what they were going to find out there.
"They'll be fine," Jerome said with a confident grin, "When I was speaking to Tuck a few days ago, he informed me that Devon and Edgar have a history that goes quite a ways back. He never got into detail with me about it, but assured me that when they're on the same page, they're a team that you wouldn't want to mess with. Now that they have a common enemy, I feel sorry for the group that has to deal with those two when they're focused."
"I guess," Jessica inactively acknowledged as she seemed distracted for obvious reasons. She had been distracted and not herself the entire day. Jerome could understand how she felt. There was a chance she was soon going to be reunited with a loved one that was thought dead. Just the idea seemed overpowering so it was only natural to be not only distracted but a little tense as well.
Jerome had tried his best to help out but it wasn't any good. She hadn't eaten anything that morning, and that was the first good sleep she had in a long time. He would have tried to get her out to get some air, but was being very cautious this day because the last thing he wanted to do was burden Edgar with something else on such a huge day for him and Devon. He was more guarded than usual, and had made preparations for tense days like the one they were currently experiencing. The incident with the fire that took Tuck and almost a dozen other people also made him a little apprehensive and thus justified to make sure security was not an issue with this place. Since Edgar was footing the bill, setting the place up to his satisfaction was not a problem and taken care of with ease. Jerome was almost half way through a pizza pocket that he nuked up a few minutes ago when something caught his attention. There was a red light flashing just to the right of his mouse. Chances are it hadn't been flashing long but he was a little edgy himself. He turned to face Jessica and snapped at her in a hushed whisper.
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"The silent alarm has been triggered," Jerome informed her, "Head for the back door."
He then turned back to his two computers and typed in a special code. Once the codes were tossed into the system, the computer released a virus on itself and the other systems in the apartment and started to wipe out all useful data from them in record speed. In less than five minutes, all systems would be wiped clean as if they were just bought from the computer store. After punching in the codes for the systems, Jerome was out of his chair and only a few steps behind.
"I'm not kidding!" he called out, "Move your ass to the back exit."
They both ran to the back door of the apartment that led to the fire escape. Yet when they looked out the window there were over six men in black suits waiting outside. They had the back covered, so Jerome had to move onto plan B. He had planned an extra exit strategy for just such emergencies, one that would make Batman proud. When the building was empty one night, Edgar had workers pound through a wall that connected their apartment to the building next door. The people next door didn't know about it, but Edgar made Jerome promise to only use it when necessary. This seemed like the right time as he grabbed a fake bookshelf that was in the bedroom, and unhooked it from the wall, it pulled back to reveal the secret door to the next building. They both rushed through to the other side and when Jerome shut the cabinet behind him, he locked it with a deadbolt that was only made available from the inner part of the door. It would be enough to buy them some time. When the two of them emerged into the other apartment, there was a woman in the kitchen making something to eat for a small child. She let out a scream, something that neither he nor Edgar could have suspected, but was entire possible since two people just appeared in her apartment for no reason at all uninvited.
"I'm so sorry!" Jerome said as he held up his hands, "We took a wrong turn, we're leaving right now!"
He and Jessica made their way to the front door and into the hallway of the building. The woman who owned the apartment was in such a tirade while she was dialing the police to come over, she didn't notice Jerome took two coats off the rack as he and Jessica walked out the door. The put the coats on and walked down the stairs to the main floor and quickly scooted out the front door. There was a decent crowd at the main entrance, as they seemed to eagerly watch what was going on. It appears there were a lot of police men there to help out with the busting of their apartment. This was good because it gave Jerome and Jessica the cover they needed to slip out the door and blend into the crowd.
It seemed like they were going to get out of there without a hitch, when suddenly they saw a man dressed rather similar to the guys out back. He was only twenty feet away and likely being a look out in case they managed to by.
"You!" he called out to them both, "Don't move an inch." He cried as he pulled out his sidearm and started to run towards them.
The minute he shouted that out, the uniformed officers turned around and also noticed them. Jerome grabbed Jessica as she tried to run, but he knew it was over. There was no point trying to push their luck.
"Let the uniforms take us." Jerome suggested. "Force them to do a transfer of custody. It should create a paper trail, which will make it easier for Edgar and Devon to find us."
Jessica seemed upset at first but realized he was telling the truth, they were caught so it was best to go their way rather than secretly into the custody of those who might have killed Tuck and the guys. Jerome raised his hands and backed towards the uniformed officers while screaming out for everyone to hear.
"I am not resisting arrest!" Jerome called out with his hands up.
The crowd then turned and began to watch as Jerome and Jessica fell to their knees as instructed to by the cops. Jerome kept screaming out the same thing over and over again for everyone watching to hear, "I am not resisting arrest!"
He finally stopped saying it after they were escorted away from the guys in black and tossed into the back of a car waiting outside. Jerome knew this was the last thing Edgar needed on his plate, but a public arrest may have been the only thing that saved their lives. Yet things took a turn or the worse when the car was taken by two of the dark suited men. Jerome turned to Jessica.
"Tell them nothing." He told her, "Let me handle this."
Jessica nodded as the car pulled away, scared and at the same time disappointed that she wouldn't be there to hear how today's plan went.
As the car pulled away, the one of the men in the front couldn't help but make a comment, "You two are in a lot of trouble."
"Believe it or not," Jerome started, trying to bait them, "Whenever a PI is taken into custody, we usually take that as a sign that we're making progress and are on the right track."
"You have a right to remain silent." the guy behind the wheel said as they finally managed to navigate the car through the crowd and out onto the road, "I suggest you take advantage of that."
"Wow," Jerome responded with heavy sarcasm, "The fact that you goons know any of the Miranda rights is astonishing, giving the fact that you pretty much disregard any rights we have. Your whole secret gustoppa crap is a little too movie cliché for my liking. You'll get nothing from us... and unless you have a computer genius on hand within your tack team, that computers should have wiped itself clean by now. You've got nothing."
"Is this your idea of handling it?" Jessica asked a little worried.
Jerome smiled and sat back, "Tell them nothing." he repeated as he relaxed and prepared himself for the unavoidable. They were in custody and going to be questioned sooner than later. He only hoped Edgar would have better luck on his side because they were royally pooched.