"What is that?"

Hidden under Max's fingers was a small square envelope, the contents of which were a mystery to Matteo, but judging by the expression on his boss's face, it was nothing good.

"Why don't you take a look for yourself?" Max slid the envelope in his direction, and Matteo took it without hesitation and opened it. The paper fell out first, followed by the CD. Matteo picked it up and unfolded it, suddenly looking at the handwritten note.

"Thought you'd like to see this. -R." 

It didn't take Matteo long to put everything together in his head and realise that the R stood for Revenger. His alias automatically evoked negative emotions in him, and he frowned before shifting his gaze to the CD that was now lying on the table.

"What's on it?" He looked up at Max.

"I don't know," Max admitted. "I was waiting for you. I thought you'd want to see it first."

All the peace Matteo felt after last night was suddenly gone. It was once again clear that he could only be happy in one part of his life. And this time, it was the Revenger who destroyed his calm, not his feelings.

Matteo took the CD that was now burning in his fingers and took it to the computer. There was no point in hesitating any longer, for he was sure that what he was about to see would drive him mad even more than he already was.

The Legion had the highest quality computers, so the entire contents of the CD quickly appeared on the screen. To their surprise, it contained only one video. No message this time.

With bated breath, he clicked on the video and opened it to full screen. Max leaned over his shoulder, his hand on the back of the chair, and Matteo was sure he was as expectant as he was.

The first thing they saw was a dark tunnel. Only it wasn't a tunnel. It didn't take Matteo long to recognise the place in the recording, for he had been there a few days ago, wading in the water.

"That's the building," he said aloud to alert Max. "I was there. In San Dence."

Max didn't answer, but his hand tightened on the back of the chair.

The video was dark, and Matteo wasn't sure if the camera was even able to record audio, but he managed to find out very quickly. 

The first thing he heard on the recording was the sound of laughter. Matteo wasn't sure if it was one person or more, but he already had a bad feeling about it.

That uneasy feeling deepened when the laughter was joined by what sounded like an imitation of crying. Only this time it sounded like a woman. 

It wasn't long before Matteo could make out two figures suddenly appearing in the frame. Once they were visible, Matteo not only got an answer to the question of how many people were there, but he also found out why this footage was so important.

"They're a bunch of idiots," a male voice said, and Matteo associated him with Nixon in his head, although he still wasn't 100% convinced that it was really him. There was still a chance that Revenger had a master plan and was trying to lead him on a false trail. That chance, however, was very small.

The man chuckled and continued. "They shouldn't call themselves superheroes, but super naïve."

The response to his words was female laughter. Then she finally spoke, and Matteo's blood froze at her words. "I'm sorry we couldn't save your daughter. We did everything we could," she said in a voice that was clearly laced with irony. They both laughed again and moved closer to the camera for a brief moment, their faces clearly visible in the shot, and Matteo had no doubt that he was looking at Theresa and Nixon. 

The video was coming to an end, but before it did, Theresa spoke again. "At least they were rich. Do you think I should buy the Bugatti in blue or black?"

The screen went black and a couple of controls appeared on it, offering Matteo the chance to play the video again. He did click on it, but instead of watching the whole video again, he went to the part where the faces of the two superheroes were visible as if he needed to make sure he saw correctly.

"Look for the date," Max instructed him. His face was stoic and gave nothing away, as did his professional tone. Matteo was all the more certain that they had stumbled onto something crucial.

He did as he was instructed. It was no surprise that when he clicked on the video information, he was presented with a date similar to the fake George footage. 

While the recording with George was from April 2006, this video was a little older - from December 2005. Matteo had no idea if they were related, but Max obviously knew more.

"Fuck," his tone sounded outraged, but immediately after that he let out a sigh that could only be associated with disappointment and despair.

"You know the date?" Matteo turned to him. 

Max ran a hand through his grey hair and closed his eyes for a moment, as if to calm himself. Still, he managed to nod at Matteo. 

"I'm not sure," Max started, but then corrected himself, "I don't want to be sure, but I think I know exactly what they're talking about."

"Max," Matteo addressed him. He didn't want to press him, but he needed to know what he knew. The situation was getting more and more complicated and there weren't many people they could trust. Matteo needed to be sure that he could trust Max one hundred percent and he expected the same from him.

"I know," Max assured him and opened his eyes. He managed to put on a neutral expression again and headed for the door. "Come on. We have to get to the records." 

Matteo got up and followed him without saying a word. Their steps were urgent, though they tried not to attract attention, and they quickly reached the archive. 

"Try to find December 2005. November 2005 will probably be useful too," Max instructed, already walking over to one of the cabinets to begin his search. Although they also had an electronic archive, there were no complete records prior to 2008. Besides, there was a chance that if it really was Tigress and Mimic, they might have installed some kind of security to warn them that someone was on to them.

It took them almost half an hour to find the right folders, but luckily someone had taken the time to organise everything in the right order, so it was no problem to find all of December and November from that year.

Together they spread all the files out on the table and Matteo waited for further instructions. Unlike Max, he had no idea what he was looking for and the number of files was too great. Apparently, the winter of 2005 was a crime haven.

"Let's start with the first week of December," Max finally spoke. 

"What are we looking for?" Matteo couldn't help but have a go at the question.

"Kidnapping of a little girl." A shiver ran down Matteo's spine. He knew there was no time to be emotional, though. He had to remain professional, so he nodded silently and picked up the first folder. Max did the same and together they began to search.

It wasn't long before Ciara joined them. She was still working on the map of all the places where the Revenger had been spotted, and while she was taking a break, she walked past the archive and saw her teammates. She asked them a single question, and as soon as she knew what to look for, she picked up the first file in front of her.

Now that there were three of them, the search was picking up speed. 

"I think I found it," Ciara announced ten minutes later. She made room on the table in front of her and opened the file so the others could see it. Max leaned closer and Matteo and Ciara gave him space to see better, as he was the only one who knew exactly what they were looking for.

"You're right," he murmured, picking up the folder in his hands. 

"Now, can either of you tell me what this is about?" Ciara asked when Max didn't start to explain.

"Revenger left us a message this morning," Matteo said, and Ciara immediately turned to him in surprise. "I don't know how he got it to the Legion, Max will have to explain that to you, but he practically sent an envelope containing a note and a CD."

Before Matteo could explain more, Ciara interrupted him with a question, "What was on the CD?"

"Security camera footage from the underground in San Dence. Tigress and Mimic were on it. I think they were talking about one of the cases." 

Matteo pressed his lips together tightly. Although he still didn't know more, he knew from Max's reaction alone that the situation was more serious than they had previously thought. 

"About the case of the kidnapped girl?" Ciara asked, summing up everything she had heard so far.

Matteo didn't know the answer, so he turned to Max, who was still looking at the folder in his hands. Apparently, he felt Matteo's gaze on him as he looked up and their eyes met. 

Max hadn't been an open book for Matteo, but now it was easy to see in his eyes that he was troubled. Matteo had never seen him like this before and that made him all the more uneasy.

"It happened in December 2005." Max closed the folder in his hands and sat down in his original place. "A businessman contacted the Legion and said that his daughter had been kidnapped. Apparently, some criminals were blackmailing him and demanding his help, and when he refused, they decided to force him in the worst possible way.” 

Max paused with a sigh and it was obvious that he was finding it difficult to talk about. Matteo and Ciara both gave him space and eventually, he picked up again. "Myself, Tigress, Mimic, and Eclipse were assigned to the case. The day we finally found out where they were keeping the little girl, we split into two teams. Me and Eclipse were in charge of taking care of the goons and making sure that Tigress and Mimic would have a safe way out the moment they found little Leyla. But something went wrong." Max frowned.  

Matteo didn't have to be a genius to understand that this was the point where what Max thought was the truth and what they saw on the footage on the CD began to diverge. 

"What happened?" he asked carefully. 

"Part of the building collapsed." They all knew what part he meant. Max sighed again and ran his fingers over his face. "Tigress said they used explosives so they couldn't get to Leyla in time."

"On the video she was talking about money," Matteo spoke up when Max didn't continue.

He nodded. "We were paid in advance. And even though we couldn't save Leyla, we were paid to deliver her body to her father so he could bury her." 

"So there's a chance..." The room for doubt was shrinking. Everything was falling into place, and Matteo had to admit that the Legion wasn't as good as he thought. 

"There's a chance that Revenger discovered the corruption of the Legion and decided to tell us about it," Max finished for him.