The late morning sun shone right through the thin apartment windows. The beaming rays of the sun fell right on Matthew, who was facing the window. As a result, he awoke instantly, squinting to protect his eyes from the light emitted by the glaring sun.

He turned over to the other side to keep his face in the shade and also to check on Daniel. He turned out to still be sleeping soundly, his snores blatant. Matthew smiled before slipping himself out of bed to wake Daniel.

"Dan, it's time to get up," Matthew whispered, waking him slowly. His eyes fluttered open as he got a glimpse of Matthew standing right before him. Instead of getting up slowly, however, he pranced up in fright, scaring Matthew too.

"Sorry," he apologised as he realised it was just his friend. "The sudden appearance of someone standing before me kind of freaked me out."

Matthew walked towards the bathroom to freshen up a little. He began rubbing some face cream to clean out his face. As he was washing up, he could hear someone knocking loudly on the door.

He dried his cheeks with a towel before hanging it on a metal beam and walking out of the bathroom. Daniel was already stepping towards the door, so Matthew stood by and watched him open the door, waiting to see who would appear.

The door swung open to reveal a familiar face. "Morning, boys," Megan greeted as she appeared with a bag of food. "Applebee's for brunch, anyone?"

She then entered the apartment unit, which looked almost untouched to her. She inspected the room, finding that the furnishing was nothing similar to that of her room. "Wow, there seem to be a lot more things in your unit than mine," she commented as she rubbed her fingers across the dusty tabletops.

Megan then laid the food on the dining table, unboxed the packaging and took out the disposable cutlery. Daniel poured some glasses they had with water and placed them evenly across the table, one for each of them.

Meanwhile, Matthew grabbed his laptop and a flash drive out of his suitcase before putting both items at the end of the dining table. His actions, however, were confusing to the other two.

"Uh, what are you going to do with those things?" Daniel questioned as he watched Matthew power on his laptop.

Matthew then brought the flash drive up, moving their attention to it instead of the laptop. He held it up to them so they would recognise what it was. "You both didn't forget about this, did you?" he questioned, although he knew they hadn't.

He then plugged it into the laptop, in which the files in the flash drive immediately showed up on the screen. He clicked on a folder titled "Davis", which was an obvious reference to him. The detectives observed him as he clicked on the file, assuming he knew what he was doing. However, Matthew himself hadn't gotten the opportunity to even check the files present in the flash drive and was equally anxious to see its contents.

Unfortunately, the file appeared empty.

"No," he mumbled as he shook his head in disbelief. "It can't be that there's nothing in this file."

The other two didn't comment further on it, however. They continued watching him as he tried different ways to see if there were other files present in the flash drive. However, he didn't seem to be getting anywhere with fruitless findings.

Matthew tried searching the flash drive multiple times, removing and reinserting it over and over again and unhiding hidden files, although none of them seemed to work. After many failed attempts, he decided to accept the fact that there probably wasn't any content in the file at all.

"Damn it," he cursed as he unplugged the USB and threw it into the corner of the room. As a result of the impact, the flash drive broke, its pieces dismantling from the force. He slammed the laptop lid forcefully, his face planted right onto the table in dismay.

Megan patted his back a little, trying to comfort him. However, he quickly looked back up and moved his shoulder, gesturing for her to let go. "I'm fine," he said, although the other two weren't convinced. "Really," he added with a sigh.

He then grabbed a disposable fork and stabbed it into his Alfredo pasta. He brought the noodles up to his mouth before slurping them up angrily. Megan stifled a giggle as she couldn't help but find how funny it was to see him sucking the noodles into his mouth rapidly.

"Anyway," Daniel went back to being serious, "if we're going to confront Yael, we're going to need evidence. And since we don't really have any evidence at all, we will have to create some for ourselves."

Matthew finally turned to look at him, a slightly hopeful look appearing on his face. However, he was still confused by Daniel's suggestion. "What do you mean by 'create some for ourselves'?" he questioned him.

Daniel rested his chin on his fist as he continued to elaborate on his plan. "Well, in the case that we do find the chairwoman, we'll need to get her to say or do some things that would put herself in her own demise as evidence."

Megan stopped him there before he could say anymore, however. "Wait a minute," she said as she held up her hand. "You're saying that we should secretly start an audio or video recording while provoking her such that she would say or do something that can be used as evidence against her?"

Daniel nodded. "Exactly my point," he said as he continued snacking on his burger. He then dug his hand right into the box of fries, causing Megan to cringe slightly at his lack of table manners.

The three suddenly went quiet as they all waited for one another to speak. However, they were all trying to process Daniel's suggestion. Matthew honestly thought that it was a clever idea. The only problem that they had was the fact that they had to find the chairwoman first. And at that point in time, they didn't even know whether the chairwoman was in Philadelphia, which meant they could forget about directly heading to Yael Tower.

However, Matthew was quickly reminded that they would be provided with information on the situation within 24 hours of their arrival in Philadelphia. This meant that they would be able to start their planning latest by nighttime. Despite this, there was so much for them to still work on, even with the lack of information, so he decided to continue their discussion.

Unfortunately, a disruption stopped that from happening and also paused their meal.

Violent door thudding came from outside, indicating that someone was outside their apartment. And whoever it was didn't seem to be quite a friendly person, seeing how they didn't even bother to knock and went straight to kicking their door vigorously to get the detectives' attention.

However, Matthew already knew that whoever was outside wasn't just any ordinary, impatient pizza man that had arrived at the wrong apartment unit. The force that was being exerted on the door was so immense that it could be seen bending, which clearly stated that whoever was outside was likely a threat to them.

As such, Matthew hushed the other two detectives, instructing them to stay silent for the moment. He then latched the door chain such that if the door were to give way, the intruder wouldn't be able to get in so easily. He then gestured to Daniel and Megan to get out their guns so that they could prepare to stop the hostile perpetrator from harming them.

The three then hid in different spots in the room. Matthew stayed in the closet, leaving one door open, while Daniel hid in the bathroom. Megan concealed herself properly behind the curtains, which made a perfect plan for an ambush on the assailant.

Just then, the latch bolt of the door gave way, and all that kept it from fully opening was the door chain. However, it ceased to serve its purpose when a bullet severed the chain entirely, allowing the gunman to enter the room. Through the slit in the curtain, Megan could see the man wielding his revolver, looking around the room.

At that very moment, all three of them hopped out of their hiding spots, their guns aimed directly at the man. Their plan worked perfectly, and the man was utterly outnumbered.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath, although he still didn't lower the gun.

"Put your damn gun down," Matthew ordered, his finger on the trigger. The man was still resistant, however, and refused to let go of the weapon, although he released his grip a little.

"Look, if you shoot me, you won't know who I'm working—"

"Cut the crap, beard-man," Megan interrupted, taunting him by commenting on his appearance. "We already know Yael sent you here."

The man sighed before lowering his gun. However, the detectives still didn't let go of their weapons either, as they still wanted him to do properly what they had ordered him to do. As such, he was left with no choice but to drop the handgun altogether.

Matthew then rushed over and confiscated the gun from him before shelving it in a drawer that was beside his bed. Daniel and Megan lowered their weapons as well, but Matthew kept his pistol up. He knew that the apartment door was still wide open, which meant he could easily run out of the unit. Thus, he forced the man into a corner.

"Move to that corner there," he pointed, "and squat down, placing your hands on your head," he commanded.

The man complied, although he didn't seem to fear being shot by the detectives. Megan then removed one of the curtain straps that held the curtains together. She then approached the man and tied his hands together.

Of course, Matthew couldn't keep his aim right on the man without any rest. Furthermore, the man would be able to hear their conversation, and in the case that he escaped, he would pass the information on to Yael. It would then be disastrous if their plans failed. As such, he had something else in mind to do.

"Megan, keep your gun on him," he said as he left the room.

As such, Megan held her gun back up and aimed it right at the man. She was sure that he wouldn't be able to flee in any case.

Matthew then returned with a fire extinguisher as he carried it into the apartment quickly. Both Daniel and Megan were puzzled by his action. Even the perpetrator himself displayed a look of confusion on his face. Matthew, however, was just about to make his plans very clear to the man and everyone else.

"You'll wake up in a few hours, so don't worry. You'll have company with you once you come round," Matthew reassured him, his tone slightly sarcastic. He then raised the fire extinguisher slightly before striking the head of the perpetrator with it. He made sure not to use too much force, however, such that it wouldn't cause him much head injury but rather knock him out for a bit.

Daniel and Megan stared at the unconscious man in appalment; their jaws dropped. They then turned their attention to Matthew, who had blatantly knocked a criminal out with an item meant for extinguishing fires. After all, couldn't he just call the police to arrest and detain the man?

Or could he?

"I'm calling the cops," Daniel said as he grabbed up his phone and began entering the numbers on the keypad.

Unfortunately, Matthew stopped him from doing so just before he could press the call button. He ran forward towards Daniel before smacking the phone right out of Daniel's hand, which fell to the floor with a violent thud.

"Hey!" Daniel cried out. "Why did you—"

"You can't get the police here," Matthew stopped him. "Not under any circumstances."

"What do you mean?" Megan asked politely, trying not to side with either one of them. She thought that there wasn't any reason not to contact the police, although she did know that Matthew had a rationale for his instructions.

"If we call the cops, they'll arrest the man, and it'll likely get on the news," Matthew warned, beginning his explanation of the consequences. "And even if it doesn't, Yael still has sources to find out about whatever goes on in this city. And if they find out we are here, they'll send more men here to kill us for good."

Daniel shook his head. He completely disagreed with Matthew's idea, creating another debate once again. "But Yael already knows where we are, don't they? I mean, that man just tried to kill us!" he argued.

"No," Matthew began correcting him. "They must have had a few addresses of possible locations we might be staying in. This could have been one of them. If they were truly sure that we were here, they might as well have sent an army to eradicate us."

Daniel still didn't like Matthew's idea, however. Keeping an unconscious man could complicate things, as the spotlight on who the criminal was might go to them rather than the man. An attempted murder case could quickly shift to a hostage situation. Unfortunately, Megan seemed supportive of Matthew's idea once again.

However, just before Daniel could argue further, someone else showed up at their door. Instinctively, all three of the detectives wielded their guns, turning and pointing them towards the person that stood outside. Nevertheless, all three of them quickly lowered and loosened their grip on their weapons as they watched the person raise their hands in the air. It was evident to them that they didn't want to cause harm. There was something else about the person Matthew lowered his weapon for, though.

"George Pace?"