The Dali Deception

by Adam Maxwell

  She screwed the lid on as she began striding toward the door. Four drops. Was that too many? Would she permanently damage him? As she stepped back out into the cool air she heard the actual sound of the guard’s footsteps moving across the reception floor.

  She whipped her phone from her pocket and glanced at the video feed coming to life on the screen. He was craning his neck to look at her walking away, but he was unconcerned. Fantastic. He looked down to the desk and picked up his cup and then, sitting back in his chair, he took a long gulp.

  Zoe winced and hoped for the best.

  *

  Lucas ran his finger around the collar of his light blue shirt then touched the embroidered badge on the breast pocket.

  “Guard drank the coffee and just ran off to the bathroom.” Zoe’s voice came through his earpiece as closely as if she was sitting on his shoulder. “Hope you’re in position, Lucas.”

  “All dressed up and nowhere to go,” replied Lucas.

  “I never did ask,” Zoe continued. “Where did you get the uniform from?”

  Lucas groaned.

  “Did Violet tell you to ask me that?” Lucas asked.

  “What? No. Why?”

  Lucas picked at a bit of lint on the neatly-pressed line ironed into his trouser leg.

  He shook his head. “You’re not the only one who can find out stuff, you know.”

  “I know that. Apparently in the olden days you could find things out without using a computer,” Zoe laughed.

  “In the olden days?” Lucas sighed. “Great, kid, don’t get cocky. I did it the old fashioned way. I followed one of the security guards home then went through his bins.”

  “Why the hell did you – oh, hang on a second, he’s picking up the phone. I’m going to have to answer it. I’ll keep you on the line if you like.”

  Lucas shrugged. The sound of a dial tone echoed in his inner ear, but was broken by the discordant melody of the numbers being dialled. There was a ringing.

  “Watchmen Security,” Zoe answered the call. She sounded posh. Probably putting on her phone voice, Lucas thought.

  “Yeah, hi, listen, this is guard 187 slash 2411 at location 657.”

  “One moment please,” Zoe tapped at a keyboard. Lucas had a mental picture of her sitting at a computer filing her nails whilst playing a sound effect of a keyboard being tapped. “Confirmed. Password please.”

  “Blodwen.”

  “Blodwen?”

  “Blodwen. It’s my niece’s name.”

  “Confirmed,” said Zoe. “What can I do for you, Neil?”

  “I’m ill. Really ill,” the guard continued.

  “Are you going to be able to continue to the end of your shift?” asked Zoe.

  There was a low rumbling noise in the background of the call.

  “No. You need to get a replacement over here. Fast. I – well, something has disagreed with me and I keep – it’s just that...” He fell silent for a second. “I keep going to the toilet. I’m very unwell.”

  “I understand,” said Zoe. “Hold the line please.”

  There was some hold music playing in Lucas’ ear.

  “Lucas,” said Zoe. “I’m going to tell him ten minutes. You reckon that’s about right?”

  “Yeah,” replied Lucas. “Should be. I’m just round the corner so–”

  “Shh,” replied Zoe and cut the hold music. “Neil? Are you still there?”

  There was a groaning at the other end.

  “We can have a replacement there in ten minutes.”

  The security guard hung up.

  “So you were going bin diving?” asked Zoe matter-of-factly.

  “Yes, princess. It was necessary,” Lucas groaned.

  “Sounds like I’d rather stick to computers, to be honest.”

  “Well, before I dived straight into the bin I found out that he didn’t have a computer,” said Lucas, with more than a little smugness.

  “He didn’t have a computer? Where did you do the surveillance? The 1970s?”

  “I found out from going through his rubbish that he got his uniforms dry cleaned. So I robbed the dry cleaners.”

  “Petty crime? Good job there, skip rat.”

  “Piss off. I got a uniform didn’t I, geek girl?”

  “You know I can electrify your earpiece and shock you, right?” asked Zoe.

  Lucas laughed. Then he stopped laughing. “Not really?”

  “Nah, not really,” Zoe laughed. “Now get your arse in gear, you’re up.”

  Chapter 42

  “Thank God you’re here, mate,” said the security guard – and retched.

  Lucas smiled warmly and under his breath said, “Jesus, Zoe, how much of that stuff did you give him?”

  “What? Why?” Zoe sounded panicked. “Exactly the amount Barry told me to give him.”

  “Are you new?” the guard asked Lucas, standing up and putting on his overcoat.

  Lucas nodded. “Pretty new, but I’ve been on shift here a few times. They put me all over Kilchester.”

  The guard nodded and staggered from behind the desk. “Did the same thing to me when I first started. Listen, thanks for covering for me. I’d probably ditch the milk in the fridge if I were you. Just in case this is food poisoning.”

  Lucas nodded and made his way behind the desk. “Food poisoning, eh?”

  “It’s pouring out both ends, mate.”

  Lucas picked up the cup he knew contained the drops, then paused as he called to mind where the kitchen was. Zoe had rendered the whole thing in 3D and Lucas had been playing the bloody thing like a game. He had to admit it made things a whole lot easier than blueprints and schematics.

  He turned around and walked through to the kitchen.

  “Security guard has cleared the perimeter.” Barry’s was the first voice to come through as Lucas sat down at the desk in reception and adjusted the security monitors. “We’re good to go, people.”

  “Confirmed, everything is A-Okay in here,” said Lucas.

  “I know we’re good to go, dumbass.” Zoe’s voice was in his earpiece but also approaching him in his actual ear. Lucas raised his hand in greeting as she strode across to the desk, his gaze dropping back to the monitors as Violet and Katie strode across the car park toward them.

  “Good morning, skip rat,” said Violet as she entered reception.

  Katie ducked her head as she approached the door, returning to her full height as she came inside. Smirking.

  “Oh piss off, all of you,” said Lucas. “Sometimes you’ve got to do what needs to be done.”

  “Quite right,” said Violet. “Now Zoe, you best get your shit together – otherwise when we get downstairs we’re going to make quite the spectacle of ourselves, aren’t we?”

  “I’m on it,” said Zoe and jogged towards the door behind the desk. Reaching it, she tapped at her phone once more and the lights on the card reader to the side of the door changed from red to green. Zoe smirked, pushed it open and continued through to find the junction box she had located on her previous visit.

  “After you, my dear,” said Violet to Katie and gave a little bow.

  Katie walked to the lift and pressed the call button. Violet walked over to stand by Katie’s side.

  “Good luck,” said Lucas.

  Violet and Katie stared at the lift doors. There was a bong as the lift signalled its arrival, followed by a grinding noise as the lift doors slid open. Violet let Katie fold herself into the tiny box. She looked on as Katie bundled herself in there, not really sure if they might have to take two trips. When she was sure Katie was packaged securely she joined her inside, then turned back to face Lucas and pressed the button marked ‘–1’.

  “I’m too fucking talented to need luck, Lucas,” she said as the doors slid shut. “And if you stick with me, one day you will be too.”

  She winked and the doors closed in front of her.

  The lift’s lights blinked and it began to slowly descend.

  “I’d t
urn around and face you, but...” Violet said.

  Katie gave her a dig in the back with her index finger.

  “You all set with everything you need?” asked Violet.

  No response.

  “Thought so,” said Violet. “This lift is slow, isn’t it?”

  Violet edged around to face Katie, who was contorted from crouching her great bulk in the tiny box. Violet smirked. Katie rolled her eyes.

  “Can you still hear me?” asked Zoe. Her voice was different, it had a more tinny quality, but the signal wasn’t broken.

  “Affirmative,” confirmed Violet. “How are you progressing?”

  “All cameras in public areas belong to us,” said Zoe smugly. “Can you check the tablet I gave you? I can’t get a signal from it.”

  Violet opened the top of a canvas satchel she was carrying and fished out the tablet computer Zoe had given her.

  “That’s the one,” said Zoe.

  Violet glanced up at the camera in the corner of the lift. “Should I be disturbed by your omnipotence?”

  “I am a benevolent God if you appease me,” Zoe replied.

  Violet turned her attention back to the electronic device in her hand. She pressed the power button and it began to boot up.

  “It was turned off,” said Violet. The lift shuddered to a halt, shaking the mirrored walls and creating a frightening spectacle of Katie in the reflections.

  The doors slid open to reveal the long corridor leading to the banker’s flat. Violet jogged down the corridor with Katie striding behind keeping pace.

  “I’ve picked it back up on the system. It’ll take me a minute to configure.”

  *

  Zoe sat cross-legged on the floor of the tiny kitchenette, a laptop on her knee and a very, very sore arse. She had planned every aspect of the technical assault. But she’d not had the foresight to bring a cushion.

  The screen of her laptop flickered as she scrolled and clicked, occasionally hammering some code in through the keyboard. This was the hardest part.

  What was it the secretary had said? That the system attached to the front door would silently call the authorities if it was triggered. Although she had also said there was no picking the lock.

  “Right, Violet,” said Zoe, shifting what little weight she had to try to stop her legs from going to sleep. “Plug the cable into the bottom of the tablet then slowly slide the card until it reaches halfway down the card reader.”

  “Acknowledged,” said Violet. She sounded more serious than Zoe was used to. Was this Violet getting nervous?

  Because Zoe certainly was. She watched the screen as Violet did as she was instructed. The decoder activated and began running through combinations and – there it was – the red flag, the system realising something was wrong.

  Zoe tried to buy some time up front, feeding the system conflicting messages about the presence of an internet connection, testing it until…small victory. She convinced the system that it had lost its internet connection completely. Which felt like winning, but really if there were any backup algorithms in place then they would be kicking in right about now. But it bought them time to–

  “Zoe, the light’s gone green!” Violet shouted down the line. “That’s good, right?”

  “Yes, that’s good,” Zoe confirmed. “But DON’T. OPEN. THE DOOR. YET.”

  “Zoe?”

  “Violet?”

  “I started opening the door.”

  “Fuck.”

  Zoe stared at the screen. It was going absolutely mental. Warnings, red boxes flashing. The system was fighting back.

  “Fuckfuckfuck,” said Zoe. She couldn’t handle this. There were too many ways it was trying to notify the outside world. Any second now it would connect and the police would be called.

  And then it came to her. She took the laptop and placed it on the floor beside her.

  She stood up. Not as fast as she would have liked to, because her left leg had gone to sleep. And then, with a scream, she dived over to the junction box and unplugged the master socket for the comms for the building. There was no way a signal was getting in or out of there with no internet connection.

  “Zoe? Zoe?” Violet was panicked in the earpiece. “Zoe? Are you alright? What happened?”

  Zoe waved her leg in the air and rubbed at it. “I’m good, it’s fine, it’s...” she sighed, knowing she would suffer for this later. “I had pins and needles.”

  She took a deep breath. That was a schoolgirl error; she had let herself get lost in the tech. But she was still winning. Today was a good day.

  Bending down slowly, Zoe picked a small plastic box from the gym bag that she had left on one of the counters, plugged the main line for the building’s internet connection in one end and then connected the other end to the outside world.

  The door to reception opened a crack and Zoe glanced up in time to see Lucas hurling a cushion at her. It bounced off her shoulder and onto the floor.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be making a phonecall or something?” Zoe shouted at Lucas.

  “I was, but someone pulled the plug on the phone system,” Lucas called back.

  Zoe shook her head and returned to her laptop. The security system was calling out, looking for a response, but the box she had installed was acting as a firewall.

  Zoe adjusted her posture on the cushion and set to work again. Soon she’d found what she was looking for. The red flashing boxes and streams of data calmed to a trickle and then stopped completely.

  “We now have control of the secondary system; you can enter the flat without the police coming,” she said sheepishly.

  Chapter 43

  “Pins and needles?” said Violet. “Really?”

  She pushed open the door and the lights inside the flat came on automatically. Violet and Katie swung their heads around, surveying the vast underground residence. They began to move quickly.

  There was no wandering the corridors or getting lost this time; both women had studied the floorplans and rendering Zoe had created. Both knew exactly where they were going and what they had to do.

  At the archway that served as the entrance to the den, the pair stopped. Violet nodded at Katie, who reciprocated the gesture, and Violet entered the den alone. There, over in the corner, was the prize. The Dali canvas had yet to be moved; it was where Zoe had seen it originally on the same wall as two other paintings and a mounted, stuffed fish.

  Violet darted over to it and deposited her satchel on the floor next to her.

  “I have eyes on the painting,” she said to everyone and no-one.

  “I see you still have a gift for cheese.” Barry’s voice blundered into the conversation. “I have eyes on the prize, Mr President,” he said, adopting a fake American accent.

  “Piss off, retard,” Violet laughed. “What else should I have said?”

  “I dunno,” said Barry. “It says more about you than what is actually going on. You see, if I had something important to say then I would say something like ‘Rollo Glass’s car just passed me so you lot better have your shit together’ and I think it would encapsulate all it needed to.”

  There was a silence in all the earpieces.

  “Rollo Glass’s car just passed me so you lot better have your shit together,” repeated Barry.

  “Fuck,” said Violet. “He’s early. Masks, people.” She reached into her satchel and pulled out her mask.

  “Yeah,” Barry’s voice once more came drifting thinly through their earpieces. “About the masks...”

  “You aren’t going to panic me for no reason, Barry,” said Violet, tossing the white ball of fabric from hand to hand. “I’ve already got the mask out of the bag.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Barry continued. “I didn’t forget to distribute the masks. We’ve all got one. It’s just–”

  Violet opened the ball of white material. One side of it was smeared with black ink.

  “Barry...” said Violet slowly. “Why has my mask got graffiti
on it?”

  “I had them in the bag,” Barry replied. “With a permanent marker. And I suppose the lid came off.”

  “You suppose that, do you?” Violet sighed. “Nice white stocking masks to look professional. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?”

  It was Violet’s mask of choice. No need for eyeholes because you could see through, so no-one who saw you even got your eye colour. And now Barry had managed to fuck that up. She pulled her own mask on over her head. The marker pen wasn’t particularly evident. It didn’t obscure her view. It could have been a lot worse.

  Violet stood up and looked at herself in the mirror. The ink wasn’t scribbled on the mask, rather it had seeped. An ink blot. That looked like an eagle with its wings spread.

  “Mine looks like a butterfly,” Zoe giggled across the airways. “Awww. Sweet, Barry.”

  Katie stepped into the den and walked up to Violet. She pointed at the ink blot on her mask and then pointed at her fist. Violet nodded half-heartedly. To her it looked more like two people joined at the head than a fist.

  “Well, I really can’t wait to find out what face-wrong you have prepared for me but, as I’m presently pretending to be a security guard, I might give it a miss for a few minutes,” said Lucas. “Also, they’re approaching the door, which means they’ll be at the lift in the next forty-five seconds.”

  Violet ran her fingers around the edge of the frame of the Dali painting. “Zoe, how are we going on the security on the paintings?” asked Violet anxiously.

  “It’s slow going, to be honest with you,” said Zoe. “I need more time, otherwise they’re not only going to know we’ve tried to get the painting, they’re going to know which one we tried to get. I’ll shut up and get on with it, shall I?”

  Violet growled under her breath. Everything had been going so well and now the banker was on his way downstairs, the masks were ruined and Zoe still hadn’t disabled the security system. Talk about leaving things until the last minute.

  “Three targets approaching the lift.” Lucas’ voice was quiet as he whispered his update. “Zoe, could you trap them in the lift?”