[Previously]
Rebeka stood in front of the reception desk, with the blueprints rolled up under her arm. The receptionist was having an animated phone conversation with someone else. Rebeka cleared her throat and tried to look impatient, not that it required much pretense. This woman had kept her waiting for almost five minutes now. Oh, how she was going to enjoy stealing from these-
“Can I help you?”, the receptionist asked looking exasperated.
“Yes, I’m here from Arthur and Arthur Architects, you have a building inspection-”
“Just go through”. She slapped a clearance badge on the counter.
Rude and sloppy. It’s almost like these people wanted to be stolen from, thought Rebeka as she stepped into the elevator. She pulled an earbud and collar-mike from her top pocket and put them on.
“I am in. They did not even check the maintenance calendar, or my identification. Is the diversion ready?”
Tim’s voice sounded tinny through the earpiece. “Yep. On your mark.”
The elevator pinged. Rebeka sighed. Another receptionist’s desk. Rebeka assumed a worried expression and hurried up to the desk. “First batch in thirty seconds”, she said into the mike.
“I need to speak to the board. Now.”
The receptionist looked quizzical. “And why would that be”
Rebeka flashed her ID. “I’m from the company which built this building. We’ve found some problems with your foundations-”
Right on cue, there was a rumble up through the building. Rebeka saw a look of panic flash across the receptionist’s face and had to stop a grin crossing her own.
“You’d better go straight on through.”
Rebeka turned towards the board room. “Second group in sixty seconds.”, she muttered, and stepped through the door. Everyone in the room turned to face her.
“Ah- you’re already here?”, said the man Rebeka recognised as the CEO.
“Yes, certainly.” lied Rebeka smoothly. She turned and hissed into her mike. “What does he mean?”
“Hold on.” An excruciating second passed. Then: “He called the firm. Emergency building inspection. You’ll need to be fast. Distraction coming up.”
The building shook again. Rebeka seized her chance.
“Yes, I was just on my way up to warn you about some... inconsistencies in your building’s foundations. It is imperative that you evacuate the upper levels of the building-”
“Say whole building. Clear the vault level too” buzzed Tim’s voice in her ear.
“-first, followed by the rest of the building, as quickly as possible.”
“Of- of course.” The CEO ushered the rest of the board out the door, pushing past Rebeka as he did so. “All of you, leave at once. I’ll head to the security desk and alert the building.”
“Kill the lifts, now!” Rebeka muttered into her collar, standing in the corner of the rapidly emptying boardroom.
“Why?”
“He will not go to the security desk. He will attempt to lock down the vault. If you lock the lift he will have to take the stairs, which will give me time to empty it first.”
“Done.”
Rebeka grabbed a glass from the table, and ran for the stairs. She burst through the fire door in the stairwell, and spotted the members of the board already three floors down.
“Down one floor, then take the lift. Faster.” said Tim in her ear.
She grabbed the next exit and raced through an empty floor towards a pair of open elevator doors.
“Hold on.”
There was a thunk, and the lift was falling down the shaft. Rebeka held on to the handrail and swore loudly in Russian, and shut her eyes until she heard the telltale screech of the lift shaft’s emergency brakes. She brushed the hair away from her face.
“Next time you do this, I murder you in your sleep.”, she yelled, and pulled the headphone out of her ear.
The doors slid open. The vault door stood imposingly in front of her, and she grinned. This vault was clearly just for show. Laughing to herself softly, she swiped the CEO’s identity card, which she had pocketed back in the boardroom when he had pushed past her. The more selfish they were, the easier they were to con. She pressed the smudgy, print-covered glass up against the fingerprint scanner, which lit up green instantly, and punched in an eight-digit code into the keypad. She smiled again. The vault, Tim had informed her, had not only been connected to the company network, and thus, the internet, but had also not had its default keypad algorithm changed- the manufacturer’s birthday followed by the current date. Too easy, Tim had said. She was going to have to keep an eye on that one, he was good...
The vault door rolled back. Rebeka knew exactly what she was looking for. She went straight for a cabinet in the corner of the room. Fishing some lockpicks from her pocket, she opened it and pulled out her reason for robbing the place.
Six weeks ago, Asclepius Industries (the world’s leading manufacturer of scalpels and razor blades) had inadvertently manufactured the world’s largest artificial diamond while experimenting with diamond-tipped scalpels. Unsure of exactly what to do with something like this, they had opted to put it on display in their lobby, and, while the display case was being arranged, they had obviously decided the company vault (normally used for securing documents) was adequate, seeing as nobody but them knew the diamond existed. Well, nobody but them and the cabinetmaker, who owed a certain debt to the mob and found Russian accents very intimidating...
Rebeka threw the protective cover away and slid the diamond into a secure pocket strapped to her ankle. One down. She moved back to the center of the room and flicked the power on 'BACKUP STATION SIX’ and went to rifle through some documents in a nearby filing cabinet while it booted up. She would have Tim’s ‘files’ in thirty seconds flat, she thought.
The elevator pinged.
Rebeka almost panicked. She shoved the file back, and checked the computer. A progress bar was still sliding across the screen. She could hear the keypad being activated from outside. She wrenched the side off the computer and pulled out the hard drive, and slid an identical, but damaged in it’s place. Hopefully, they would think it had just crashed. Tim really had thought of everything, she realised, except the one thing she needed- another way out. The door hinges clunked and began to open. Looking around frantically for an exit, something popped into Rebeka’s head, something from the blueprints... She looked down.
The CEO stepped through the vault door. His eyes fell immediately on the open cabinet in the corner, and a look of panic crossed his face. “The diamond!” He pulled out his phone. “Get security down here now. And the police. And call the insurance company”, he said, then added as an afterthought, “And my lawyers. The shareholders are going to be angry...”
The floor plate slid back into place, leaving a black figure outlined against a deeper black. A much smellier black.
Squelch.
The figure screwed her earbud back in. “I do not even want to think about what I just landed in, Tim. Now tell me how I get out of here.”
--
Rebeka locked the warehouse door behind her. “I have it.” she said.
“And the files?”
She waved the Asclepius Industries hard disk in the air. “What is on this that you were wanting, Timothy? Is it more valuable than my diamond?” She smirked.
“Could be. It’s the schematics for all Asclepius’ razor blades. Their razors only take their own blades. Got a total monopoly on the razor market. I could sell these for millions on the black market. Or...”
He pulled up a file-sharing site on his laptop.
“I could put a little competition in their market.”
Rebeka looked incredulous. “Pirate razor blades? This is your big payoff?”
“Got all the money I need. This?” He gestured at the hard drive, and for the first time since they’d met two days ago, Rebeka saw him smile.
“This is just for the lulz.”
I think this has turned out to be the longest thing I've ever written. It's not totally coherent, and would definitely benefit from a solid editing. Apart from that, I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out. I'd definitely consider using the characters again, probably on more of a con than a straight-up theft/heist (although I'd probably need to inhale another season of Leverage for inspiration.) I definitely have a lot more respect for the guys who write Leverage now- this stuff is hard to write, and even harder to do in prose where you can't do things like flashbacks as deftly.
Fictitious Casual Fridays
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