The floor plate slides back into place, leaving a black figure outlined against a deeper black. A much worse smelling black.
Squelch.
The figure screws her earbud back in. “I do not even want to think about what I have just landed in, Tim. Now tell me how I get out of here.”
THIRTY-SIX HOURS EARLIER...
Tim locked the warehouse door behind him. “Jackpot. Blueprints. Full set”, he said, waving them at the island of light in the middle of the room. There was a metallic click next to his ear.
“Who are you and why are you in my warehouse?”. A female voice. It sounded like she had a faint Russian accent, but he couldn’t be sure.
Tim stopped. Didn’t move, didn’t even blink. In this line of work you got very used to people pointing guns at you, and more importantly, how to get them to stop pointing. The trick was to be very, very calm.
“Timothy Anderson. You took out an ad. For a hacker.”
“Yes, I did. This does not explain why you are in my warehouse. All the other hackers I’ve worked with didn’t even leave their houses. You’re not some kind of criminal, no?”
Tim raised one eyebrow.
“You know what I mean. The...” She paused and gestured noncomittally. “...creepy kind of criminal.” The gun lowered slightly, then snapped right up again. “That still leaves how you found my warehouse.”
“Your security. Worse than theirs, even.” He waved the blueprints again. “Which is pretty bad.”
A black-gloved hand reached into his field of view and slid the rolled-up blueprints out of his grip.
“Well, you can go now. Thanks ever so much for your services, and that. Your cheque’s in the mail. You know, figuratively speaking.”
Tim didn’t move.
“You can go now. Go on. Shoo.”
Tim steeled himself. This was the dangerous part. “I want in.”
“You what?”
“I want in. On this. You need me”
“Oh really. And why exactly would that be, Mr. Mysterious?”
Tim grabbed the blueprints and rolled them out on the table under the floodlights. “Digital security. Vault’s got rotating code locks, biometrics, and double keycards. I get you in. You cut me in”
“How much?”
“Nothing, of yours. You take the diamond. Then you take a manufacturing pattern. You give it to me. Easy.”
The gun snapped away as quickly as it appeared.
“Well, as long as you don’t want my diamond.” She offered a gloved hand.
“Rebeka White. I am thief.”
--
“Entry plan?”
“Right. The building is shiny and new on the outside, but foundations are old. Really old. I think we use that as cover story, use the blueprints as part of it, and go in as building inspectors.” Rebeka smirked. “Once I am in, they won’t even know I am there”.
Tim raised an eyebrow. “Security?”
“Well, normally I just make that part up as I go, but seeing as you are here, I thought you might want to handle it?”
Tim had already planned this out. He checked them off on his hand, like he was running down a list. Which he was.
“Cover story. Easy. I can add a building inspection to the maintainence calendar. Keycard. Any board member’s will do. Fingerprints might be tougher.” Tim started pacing the warehouse.
“Again, any board member, but it’ll have to be the same one as the keycard. Scanner’s optical, so a lifted print will work. Board meeting at 11am tomorrow. We’ll need to get you in and out of there somehow.”
Rebeka eyed the shelf marked ‘EXPLOSIVES’ with a grin on her face.
“I can think of a way...”
To Be Continued!
I've been watching a fair bit of Leverage lately. Can you tell?
Making up a plot for a heist story like this is really, really hard. Plot-wise, it's way more complex than I'm used to, and it's probably going to end up longer as a result, and honestly I'm not expecting it to be all that brilliant. Normally I don't do
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