The ride there is quiet, marked by the hum of static and the insistent scratching of raindrops against the outside of the window. The scenery is a mesh of grey is much darker against the tint of their windows. The bright of tarpaulins tied to the top of the local stores billow as they pass.

The streets are no more cheerful. The crawl makes everyone cranky on the narrow roads where cars think they have all the space to overtake. People move slower, umbrellas in hand as their conversations carry them to the streets out of turn. They are drawn by the immunity that comes from being more vulnerable in the dark.

Inside the van, Tony's eyes furrow as he turns the knob of the radio back and forth. His eyes are fixed, brows knit together as he bites his lip and twirls the knob fluidly. His hands move like beached waves, each insistent turn met with either the scream of static or his eyebrows knitting impossibly closer.

Mac sighs. It's enough a distraction to be indifferent to the gaps and holes of asphalt that make the tires thump to a different beat. The sound of static however, bounced around the car insistently. The first few times, Mac didn't seem to mind but now his shoulders square and tense slightly behind the wheel.

"Almost got it." Tony turns the dial indecisively back and forth, often stopping and then making big turns in the opposite direction.

Mac takes the sharp turn at the intersection, the houses seem to squeeze close together as they pass them. Lines of electricity above trickle down, being more and clumped together. There are kites and birds between the thick black lines. Often, a squirrel seemingly lost. 

Mac finally decides to open his mouth. "So what are you looking to play exactly? Party music?"

They've practically passed every genre station there is on local radio. Probably more than twice at the rate he was going. He's even went through the entire roster of AM from the looks of it. "Ano ba hinahanap mo, Kiko?"

"My station. I think they discontinued it." Tony furrows his eyebrows, in deep thought.

"What?"

"I found a station that plays all my favorite music so I've been listening to it nonstop for the past month."

That explains the blaring of music from Tony's room for the past few days. "Do you remember the name?"

"Nope."

Mac looks over at him from the driver's seat. The fiddling was already getting to him. Quietly, he reaches for the knob and turns it halfway. The static tunes out to silence for a brief while as he did so.

An old pop song plays.

"Lucky guess." Tony smiles and punches Mac's shoulder in thanks.

"Seriously, Kiko." Mac laughs a little at the choice of song but doesn't change it. He hummed along for a while until Tony decided to belt out the chorus. 

"What-Goddamnit Kiko, sit the fuck down." Mac smacks him with his cap to get him to sit down again. "The car's moving."

Tony rolls his eyes. "KJ."

"And put your seatbelt on, I don't want to get caught because some idiot can't keep his karaoke skills in check." Mac stops the car as traffic piles up, he fiddles with the small blade concealed in the inner cuff.

"The one thing I can't take sitting down-"

Mac smacks him with a cap again. "Fuck off, Francisco."

Tony laughs as the cap sinks past his eyes and the rim slaps at the bridge of his nose hard. He pouts when Mac refuses to notice that he hurt him. Mac takes the hat a few minutes after and Tony rolls his eyes.

The car runs a bump rather fast and Tony bumps his head on the roof of the car.

"Okay, fine." Tony concedes. Mac snorts as Tony finally decides to sit down properly and buckles his seatbelt. The music blares.

As they take another turn and they're taken surprised by another hump. The concealed items jump in the hollowed out seat at the back. Tony snorts then clicks his tongue for good measure. Rookie move not to strap them properly.

"Yeah, yeah." Mac concedes. He was sure he double checked everything a while ago. No use beating himself up now though. "It's more important was that they were prepared in the case of a shootout. The important shit's in the glove compartment for easy access."

"Ayt." Tony yawns.

Traffic makes them crawl a little closer to their destination. The energy of the song bumps around the car.

"Let's go over things, shall we?" Mac sighs a little as he goes over his mental checklist while the car is stalled.

Tony makes a vague gesture to continue. "Go on."

"There's an abandoned building round the corner near the Mandaluyong high rises." Mac pulls up the picture in his phone from the text. "It looks like an abandoned project but has not been taken down."

"Yeah, an abandoned building with high-level surveillance." Tony leans over to get a better look. "We're asked to do two things-"

"Video files of abuse and torture hidden somewhere inside. Out of the total, we only needs fifteen inside." Tony looks over his shoulder. "It's heavily guarded though, so we'll need to remove the anti-encoding and hacking devices inside their system-"

"-and leave with as little casualties as possible. Boss' orders-"

"-Yes, thank you Mac for reminding me why this mission is more complicated than it should be." Tony rolls his eyes. Mac seems happier about it than he lets on. "As little damage as we can manage since we're within a nosy vicinity." The mild irritation was enough to set Tony on the edge a little more. He gently brushes the handle of the glove compartment before unlatching it and pulling out the contents.

Tony picks up the gun labeled with his name in Mac's thin scratchy handwriting over masking tape. "This is too light." He peels off the label.

"We need to move fast for this one."

Tony frowns a little "But do we have enough magazines to sustain the load?"

"Perhaps. You have two guns for a reason though." Mac says. "If anything goes wrong, we can run back to the car."

"We won't have time to." The fact traffic was already taking this long was already rather worrying.

"Well, there's always improvising. Besides, it's not just the two of us taking care of this."

"Right." Tony nods and turns down the music. He hands Mac an earpiece and Tony turns his on. Mac does the same. "Are you online, my dear?"

"Took you two long enough." A cheerful robotic voice says through the earpiece. There is a reluctance in the way it speaks that makes it hard to distinguish whether it is really man or machine. "Thought you guys were gonna start without me."

"Sorry, sorry." Tony makes a rather apologetic face. "So how are things looking, G?"

"Complicated, to say the least." The voice clicks its tongue a little. There's the tapping of keys and the sounds of lights flickering. "Security isn't as air-tight as we thought. I've been reviewing the recorded calls Mac sent me earlier. The sleeper agent was pretty clear but I did some digging while waiting. I'm not sure if it's viable but check this."

Both their phones light up at the same time. Tony looks at his curiously and sees the entrance from the parking side of the building. It seems like it was taken from a satellite.

There is shuffling of papers in the earpiece. "There are only a few guards holding this area as it's secluded and ID only. Two in the front and the rest would be on the next floor where the main entrance is."

"Ah," Mac as he looks over the files sent with his finger, idly scrolling as he looks through the profiles. "I recognized some of the security people's names from the file. Maybe I can get them to at least pass through the parking lot so we know our way out."

"Go on."

More typing and the occasional shift in positions. Mac turns and they can see their target building in the distance. In the dark of the night, it seems like the only building without lights. The restless neon of the other buildings both highlight and shadow the building. It was an anomaly in itself.

"There's a blind spot right behind the fencing that can accommodate the size of the car. I'll take extra precautions to ensure the car is secure so don't worry."

"Only way in is force ba?" Mac asks.

There is a vague affirmative sound. "There's an entrance to the parking lot that hasn't been properly chained. It's also pretty construable to the public bathroom entrance next door."

Tony started fiddling with his phone as the voice kept speaking. Mac tries to take mental notes of everything. "Do we play drunk? It's the right time of night."

"Maybe not drunk." The voice sounds like it's frowning "The front ones are armed with batons and tasers by the way so be careful."

"I see twenty floors at least." Mac says. "Where are we headed?"

"Basement so that's two floors down. Looks narrow though." The sounds of paper shuffling. "There's a control panel here that's around half the size of Mac's room. Attach the earpiece to one of the ports and I'll guide you through what you need to be taken for Chuck."

"And what's that room next to the control room?"

The voice stops a little. "Tony,"

"Is it unimportant?"

"No, but hopefully it doesn't become something we need to worry about."

Oh. "Is it an interrogation room?" Tony tries to enlarge the photo as much as he can. "Looks pretty filthy."

"That's not a clear shot though." Mac looks at his companion at the shotgun seat and then pinches the bridge of this nose.

"Whatever happens," the voice in the earpiece says "I'll make sure to cover you guys so just please stay safe."

"Thank you." Tony says with a smile. As long as they remain untraceable, things should get easier. The only problem now was how to start this all off. Surely Mac and he wouldn't be able to get in at the same time and if they did they'd have to subdue everyone physically by themselves.

"How are things looking?" The voice keeps its chipper tone.

Mac drives around the area once. "Getting a good visual of the area, G. Things look pretty calm."

"The sleeper agent's files are thorough enough to match the layout I was given." The voice in the earpiece sighs. "Stay online so I can help both of you."

"Yes, G." Tony says with a hint of a smile. "Alright, team. Twenty five minutes on the clock. Let's get this over with and call it a day."

The building looms, unfinished and of cement greys. There isn't much to distinguish it from the night but that the presence of guards roving about and the bright lights near where they stand.

They stop at an intersection. The light turns red and the young street vendor selling cigarettes perks in recognition at the sight of Mac rolling down his tinted window. He tries not to make it obvious by averting his eyes.

The little boy's pace quickens, peddling his wears until finally trotting to Mac's window side.

"Bayad po." Mac smiles and hands him a twenty for a handful of candies and smuggles a folded hundred peso bill behind it. "Salamat, Errol."

The boy's eyes light up but he refuses to make eye contact with older man. "Kamusta po kayo, Sir Matt?"

"Ilan sila sa loob ng building na yan?" Mac says as if it's the most common thing to talk about and points to their target building.

"Puro guardiya lang po sa loob. Isang mamang matanda pero di siya lumabas kanina katulad ng dati." He holds up two fingers then closes his hand and then six. "Dalawa sa harap. Anim sa loob. Feeling ko po mas marami kasi walang umuwi kahapon sabi ni Kuya Jericho."

"Salamat ulit, Errol." Mac smiles as the light turns yellow. "Maghello ka rin sa Mama mo ha."

"Opo, opo." Errol doesn't wave but there's a skip in his step as he runs back to the sidewalk.

"Is this the kid you visited in Ortigas the other day?" There's a small light near where they're turning. Tony adjusts his hat and puts on his shades then leans on the window.

"No, that's Ed. Errol's the kid of the lady who owns that sari sari store in Shaw my parents like."

Mac drives up to the side where the guards stay.

"Scuse me po," Mac says with a convincing smile "Saan pwede mag-U Turn dito?"

"Uy, si Sir Chan!" One of the guard's face lights up. "Kakatapos ba kayo ng trabaho?"

"Rolly, kamusta." He grins "Nagpick up lang ng kaibigan."

Rolly laughs a little. "Friday na Friday talaga o. Parang ilang buwan na noong sinundo natin yung Papa mo sa airport na lasing rin." He looks from the seemingly drunk companion back to Mac. "One way kaseng road na to pag gabi eh."

"Saan ang ikot kaya?"

The other guard chips in. "Pwede naman kayo pumasok ng parking. Pag labas ninyo, EDSA na siya."

"Sigurado ba kayo?" Mac keeps the gratitude in his face.

"Uy, okay ba." Rolly smiles at both of them. "Basta mabilis kayo. Pass lang naman, diba?"

They thank the guards and enter through the back way. The parking lot is quiet and enough to fit a small party. There are evidences of attempts to expand it that were abandoned. The picture in Tony's phone is almost a splitting image of the area in front of him. The guards have moved and the night was pretty dark as it is.

The soft glow of the lamps outside the fencing was enough to get them through the parking lot without getting lost. The guards of the back entrance watch idly, slumped in their chairs and watching the clocks for their shift to end. Guns have been deposited to the side, almost out of reach for most of them. The car reaches the end of the parking lot and Mac rolls down the window to signal for them. The chill of the air and the low lights almost makes their eyes look half-lid if not closed.

One of them reluctantly gets up. He staggers a bit and laughs with his buddies before walking to the rusted gate. It takes a few good pushes, the gate groaning with years of disuse. The guard waves at them as they get onto the road and take the long way to an adjacent building within range but just at the blind spot of it all.

"We all set?" Mac says once the car is parked and his gloves are on.

Tony refused to bring his so he just messes his hair. He pulls off the loud necktie he was wearing and pulls a grey jacket over himself. He checks himself in the mirror as he slicks his hair back haphazardly. "Everything ready?"

The voice over the earphone crackles a little but makes a vague affirmative sound.

"Then we're a go." Tony steps right out of the car and Mac blinks stupidly for a moment.

Mac unbuckles his seatbelt hastily and presses the soft earpiece gently, knowing Tony could hear him from it. "And where exactly are you going?!"

"To fix this shit so we can go home, Mac." His voice is clearly cheeky on the phone. He sounds like he's skipping on the sidewalk.

Mac pinches the bridge of his nose and gets his gun. "I'll cover you so just give me the signal."

"Roger that, Maccy boy." He says with an airy laugh that makes Mac's irritation soar a little more. For fuck's sake.