Ten

Time for some explanations.

Tom had a plan all along. Well, Alice came up with it. After spotting Leeper in the cafe, she quickly leaned towards Tom and whispered-

"I'll call help in twenty minutes. Be clear of them at that time. Understood?"

Tom nodded almost imperceptibly in approval. Leeper had never met Alice in the other world. Alice was trying to put that to her advantage.

When Leeper came to their table, Alice played dumb and she seemed to be unaware of who Leeper was. She told Leeper that she had just met Tom a week ago and wanted to do nothing with the matter. She even pleaded with him to take Tom and leave her alone. Tom was praying for Leeper to buy that. He did.

The plan itself was not very difficult to execute. If Tom was proud of one of his abilities, it was sneaking away and hiding at the right time. Dale trying to help Tom slightly complicated the matters, but proved to cause just enough commotion for Tom to hide under the restaurant table.

As Dale was picked out of the sky by Leeper, all his fancy equipment spilled into the restaurant. Tom had the mind to pocket some of that stuff. One of them was a hemispherical object that seemed to be a projector. Presently, the flat surface of the device had Dale's face on it. The other device was a little multicoloured cube and had a single red button on it.

Tom decided to risk getting caught to save Dale. He prayed to God for help, pressed the red button and threw the cube into the open. The result was memorable. The little cube went berserk and started glowing and singing. It was supposed to be a distraction all right.

Next, Tom took the hemispherical projector and threw it towards Dale. In seconds, it assumed Dale's form. Tom took a quick glance at his wristwatch before dashing out of the table. A minute or so remained. Tom expertly guided the real Dale through the commotion and out of a broken window into the alley behind the restaurant.

In no time drones flew into the restaurant and sprayed their cloud of radioactive fluid. The smoke bombs were deployed and tasers used. The duo was forced to sit quietly behind a container and witness the ensuing chaos.

A short while later, Tom dared to poke his head out of his hiding spot. They crawled back into the alley and emerged into the main road at a safe distance away from the restaurant, just in time to watch the prisoners fade away in the sky.

"We're doomed", thought Dale.