Sixty Seconds to Midnight

Alright! Two of you are free. As Rook comes in the door, Angelique instantly trips him. He's probably going to figure out it wasn't an accident, but first, he's got to get off the floor. The two guards who were in here already are focused on that mess at the door. Here's your chance, but it's only a brief window before Rook picks himself up. There will almost definitely be repercussions for Angelique either way after that. You've got ONE action each before we have to move into combat proper - or give the whole thing up.

There's a sudden flurry of activity.

Angelique moves quickest, kicking at Rook's face. She doesn't connect, but that movement earns her compatriots enough time to burst into action. With his hands now free, Ferret whips out the Walther TPH that the quartermaster added into his gear, firing once and hitting Rook in the shoulder. At the same time, Swissknife's foot knifes up, sweeping into the nearest guard. Electricity sparks from the tip of his shoe, and the guard drops to the ground, writhing incoherently.

On Zane's part, this is apparently par for the course - or at the very least, not entirely unexpected. He shakes his head, as if in commiseration, and says, "I'm truly sorry that you can’t understand: what I do, I do for the good of the Free World." With that, he reaches underneath his desk and stabs at a button hidden there. There's a soft thunk and his chair descends into the floor behind the plexiglass barrier. Seconds later, the room’s digital display begins to flash.

One minute to midnight.

The last guard goes down under Vincent's assault and that leaves only Rook in play. He eschews pulling his gun in favor of pulling his combat knife from his thigh, and swipes at Vincent with it, hoping that his misstep will help him land the blow.

He missed because of the rumble that shakes the entire place. In the swirling maelstrom of melee, you almost missed that sound. A deep, grating rumble from beneath your feet. Suddenly, seawater washes over your feet, flooding in from the open door. The island is sinking!

Not only must you finish dealing with Rook, Zane’s device must be disarmed before the ICBMs are launched and World War III starts! The device on the far wall that tracks the missiles probably contains an override of some kind, if you can figure out how it works. Zane had controls on his desk too, you remember. The problem there is that the plexiglass barrier is still up, and it won't be easy to take it down.

Angelique dives for Rooks gun. Her fingers close around it, and she twists... but Rook is ready for her. The gun's barrel slips from her grasp as Rook sidesteps, a carefully place foot sending her almost sprawling on the other side of him from where she'd started.

A few feet away, Ferret manages to pry open the side of the display to find a security keypad. The wiring on it is complex, but he manages not to misstep so badly that the system locks up, and he doesn't trigger any security protocols. It feels like he's getting a handle on it. At the very least, he knows what won't work now.

As all this is happening, Vincent gets an uninterrupted look at the barrier. It extends from floor to ceiling, held up in position by an electric motor located about two feet from the ceiling on the inside of the barrier. If the water continues to rise, it will eventually fail, but you'll have scant seconds after that to stop the launch.