Incident [TEXT]

You take soft steps towards the light shining on the wall, closer towards the voices. You pause at the next corner and lean back against the wall. If you moved to your right a little and turned your head, you might be able to catch sight of the owners of those two silhouettes. As it is, their shadows on the wall to your right are enough company for now.

You hear a male voice and female voice, both speaking in hushed and hurried tones.

“All I'm asking is, what the hell do we do if we end up going toe to toe with Number 6 himself?”
“We don't,” replies the female voice. “We call for backup and distract and corner him until we've got enough people to risk it. Hope to hell that he didn't bring too many people with him. Of course, there's the obvious problem...”
“Yeah, we don't know what he's capable of. If you go by the rumours he could give the Red Queen a run for her money, but we don't fucking know. I just want to know if my heart's going to explode or if I'll just go nuts and start eating my fingers. Y'know?”
“Which rumours have you been hearing? If he's anything like the Red Queen he won't bother with that melodramatic crap. Probably won't feel a thing. But it's a wonder she didn't come down here herself. Word is she was raging when she heard Number 6 had broken in here.”
“Wait, really? I didn't know there was anything in here that was worth something.”
“How about that hostage?”
“I guess. Do you know who it is?”
“No. Kierkgaard has a name and a photo, but she's tightlipped about it.”
“Seems kind of risky. What if one of Six's people poses as the hostage? They could get taken directly to the Queen's right hand man.”
“Woman.”
“Figure of speech. Whatever.”
“I guess they think that risk is worth it. People are guessing either a lover or an illegitimate child. Either way, it's someone that can be used against her and I guess she doesn't want their identity becoming common knowledge. But it's not going to look good if Number 6 gets away with breaking into her property and kidnapping somebody who should be under her protection.”
“Declaration of war, huh? It's weird, I thought Number 6 was for the sparkers. Seems like a strange fight to pick.”
“If anyone can agree on anything, it's that this whole thing is off. Stinks of a trap.”
“And we don't even know how we're going to die.”
They get a chuckle out of that one.
“It looks like they've got the perimeter secured. Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah. How many scouts are they sending?”
“Seven pairs, including us. The Old Bank is big, but not that big. One of us'll run into something.”
“Just hoping it's not you and me.”

The two of them fall into silence. You take the opportunity to examine the window.

It doesn't have a lock, which is promising, and the ledge outside is decently wide. About two feet. It's not ideal, but it could be worse. If you unlatch it all you would need to do is lift the sash and climb up onto the sill. Even so... you might only be on the first floor, but it's still a long way down. You'd likely survive. That's the best that can be said for a fall like that.

You take a moment to consider. It sounds like you don't have much time to hide. But it also sounds like you might not have to. If what you overheard is correct, then not only is Number 6 the much bigger deal here, your situation is apparently that of a hostage. It doesn't seem like anyone wants to kill you.

All you need to do to get out of here is waltz up to those two people and ask to be rescued.

But if they decide that you're not the hostage for whatever reason, you don't like the look of your chances.

What will it be?

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