Escaped

Around 2 hours ago,

The text in the document in Gary's phone was exactly like this -

"this is elias blackwood typing. i Hire A lot of Expert assassins often, but this time, i did it to kidnap ralph and the other members of tgc. we found this number on his phone, and he requests you to come here because you hold critical information. come here and we might find an Alternative to end this. We are no Thief, just gangsters. come here Instantly.

wear masks if you value your life. until you enter our apartment. map is given below"

"All the words here start with small letters, except some. If I add those words together in order to form a sentence, it would be, Hire-a-expert-alternative-thief-instantly.", Elias quickly joined the pieces.

"Why is that?", Elias was a bit confused, "Well, he did tell me that he was under some kind of investigation", he was recalling his conversation with Lucian on the phone.

"I hope this would not create some kind of trouble.", Elias closed his eyes, "He says instantly. But that means I'll have to find another expert quickly! How am I supposed to do that?", Elias sighed.

"But he trusted me with this, I-I'll just have to", Elias went towards Luther and immediately asked, "Can you hire another thief?"

Luther at first seemed a little confused, but then answered immediately, "I can. I'm better at these connections than you might think!", he turned towards his computer and started talking while hovering the mouse-pointer on the screen, "I actually have a list of contacts in here, categorized by their professions. If I now go to the thief section, I'll be able to see all those contacts. This, is the best thief in Clorida.", Luther pointed towards the first position on the list, that first position was named 'V'.

"What do you mean the best thief? The best thief is literally working with us right now.", Elias looked towards the screen and said.

"You're right. You can say, the second best maybe? You know what's more impressive? No one even knows his name, he doesn't even have a famous name such as The Ghost, because most of his thefts were unnoticed!", Luther looked towards Elias, preparing to say something more.

"Done. Contact him and hire him, quickly!", Elias insisted.

Luther copied the contact email and quickly sent a hiring message to that thief. In the email, he emphasized the fact that the thief needs to start the theft immediately, and Luther mentioned a huge amount of money too, which ensured that he doesn't have any doubts or demands left.

Elias saw the whole process and asked Luther, "Luther, this is not your first time working with someone like me, is it?"

"Well. Obviously not.", Luther answered casually. He then saw his camera monitors and saw a man coming towards his apartment rapidly, after leaving a cab.

Elias looked there too. 

"Luther, quickly delete everything you did to hire him, from your side. Make sure there is no evidence of anything suspicious! I'm going to delete stuff from my phone too, oh, and Gary Loxley's phone as well.", Elias started panicking a bit and started tapping on his phone, while Luther also started deleting his emails.

Current time,

"I-I just can't. I can't do this anymore! No matter what I do I just can't gather any proof.", Ralph had both of his hands on his head, sweeping through his hair, while he was looking at the floor, thinking through the probable next steps.

"After all, what she said WAS true. Investigating Elias Blackwood more than necessary, or in short more than 1 day, would mean problems. If we force Elias to break ties with 'The Ghost' in any way, our only clues and manipulation source would be gone. I'll have to make sure Elias still contacts the Ghost somehow, so I'll be able to catch the ghost's whereabouts! Even if I catch Elias Blackwood doing illegal tasks, it wouldn't be of any benefit to me, as my mission is to catch the Ghost!", Ralph quickly looked at Elias and said aloud, "For a part of my investigation, I'll have to look at your computers for a minute, can I do that?"

At first, Elias and Luther looked at Ralph and after a few seconds, they decided to leave the chairs, welcoming Ralph there.

5 minutes later,

Ralph was again sitting on his mattress, Elias and Luther were back to their positions in front of their computers.

"And just as I expected, I found nothing. But should I accuse or question Elias right now? I shouldn't, as it will only make him more cautious.", Ralph looked towards Karl, as he was awake by now.

"Karl. Do you remember everything now?", Ralph asked Karl with a serious attitude.

Karl was trying to remember what he did recently,

"I can only remember some incidents. I disabled the signals here, right?"

"You're right. But what I want you to do now is reconnect all the signals here.", Ralph ordered.

Karl just nodded, not saying anything further. Then he stood up and went towards his backpack, which was laying on the mattress.

He then picked a strange looking device from it and pressed a button on it.

"Done.", Karl said with a tired voice. 

But then the device suddenly fell from his hands as his eyes widened, "WH-Where is Zach?", his hands got on his head and he whispered to himself, "I-I killed him!", then he just sat on the mattress, trying to remember what happened.

Meanwhile, Ralph was spraying some water on Gary's face, and it was working. He woke up instantly, after some sprays.

Gary's body instinctively started moving on its own, most probably trying to fight an invisible enemy.

"Hey hey Gary, come down. It's me, Ralph. Open your eyes!", Ralph tried to make Gary conscious.

Gary finally sat up and looked at Ralph, he instantly started looking for someone, and just as his eyes laid on Elias, he started panicking.

Gary started speaking gibberish and screamed out loud, ramming towards Elias, as he was sitting on his chair.

Gary went towards Elias with immense speed, Ralph went behind him, trying to stop him.

Luther also stood up in an instant, "What should I do? If Gary hits him even one time he is done for!"

Just as Gary was in front of Elias, preparing to throw a punch on him, something suddenly stopped him. He all of a sudden couldn't breathe properly.

Ralph also stopped right there, "Di-did he just catch Gary with one hand?"

Elias was holding Gary's neck with his left hand, so tightly that it stopped all the force he gathered from the distance. Gary was about to throw a punch but his hands surrendered and went towards his own neck to push away Elias's hand.

Elias quickly realized something and released Gary's neck from his hand, making Gary fall on the floor instantly.

Gary started coughing out, feeling pain on his neck.

Without wasting another second, Ralph quickly went towards Gary and started patting his back.

"Gary, are you okay?", Ralph asked Gary, then looked towards Elias.

Elias was looking at Gary with a nervous look.

"I-It was self defence, I saw what he did with those guards, I-I didn't want to end up like them.", Elias tried to explain.

"No no. Don't worry, I'm not blaming you.", Ralph assured Elias, then looked back at Gary and said, "Gary, I told you to not take irrational decisions. Please calm yourself, we'll do something. But first, tell me something."

Gary was still coughing a little, but he understood the situation and became calmer.

Suddenly Ralph's phone rang.

"Hello? Nicolo? What happened?", Ralph asked after receiving the call.

"Ralph! I just called the owner of the 12th house on Harper Street, and he informed me of something valuable!", Nicolo said rapidly.

Nicolo was in a different room than Lucian, as Ralph already told him not to let Lucian know that the piece of info had been stolen, neither did Ralph let Elias or Luther know it.

"And what is it?", Ralph questioned immediately.

"My trap would prove itself now! If the piece is really stolen, then it will prove that Lucian Cole is the 'Ghost'! And if not, then I can use that against him too!", Ralph thought.

"The piece has been stolen without the password!", as soon as these words hit Ralph's ear, he felt all of his plans breaking down.

Nicolo continued, "The thief stole the whole locker! Without needing to open it...