by P. S. Power
As they were waved to sit, on some old-fashioned sofas that reminded him of the late thirties or there about, he waved at their hostess.
“Up on a hill in case of a giant wave?” He knew what a tsunami was, but didn’t love using Japanese words like that. Not if there was another way to put it. That was… Probably a thing to let go of. He kind of hated the Japanese. The Krauts, too. He’d been over in Europe during the second world war, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to hold a grudge at all.
Now though, after sixty, nearly seventy years, he probably needed to re-think that. He was old enough to know that countries fought. It wasn’t personal, for the most part. Taking it that way just led people to other problems.
Settling next to Brian, she smiled at him.
“Not that one. It could happen, but isn’t that likely. It’s just that beach erosion is going to remove half the city down there over the next fifty years. This still won’t be beach front, but it will be here.” Turning to the man next to her, she touched his leg. Above the knee.
Both the others got what that meant. Howard could tell by the tiny smirks on their faces. Those looked a lot alike, then, the kids kind of seemed that way, too. Similar noses, earlobes and eyes did that. They had different hair. Kerry was doing a nice blonde thing that was very straight.
Across from him, on a love seat with Mr. Yi, Katie started to explain things, at least.
“This is probably one of the most complicated heists I’ve ever heard of, outside of a movie. We might pull it off with a solid team, if I was leading them. Then, we might not. We have a safe that needs to be opened up however. With the skills that we have in this room, we can do it. In and out, inside of thirty minutes.”
That got different responses from the others there. Brian just seemed to think that was fine, as if getting loot from other people wasn’t even a thing to question. Denis looked a bit skeptical and Kerry just seemed confused. Almost hurt by the idea.
“We’re supposed to steal things?”
Howard winked at her.
“Exactly. We don’t know what, how the split will be handled, or anything about the situation. If Katie says that most pro teams would fail, which I think was her point in getting us in, then it’s just true. She learned with one of the best thieves in the world.” He was joking around, smiling a little at the lady.
She looked very serious for her part. It was nearly harsh seeming.
“That’s true. Howard Resnik was one of the greatest thieves of the twentieth century. Probably in the top six at the time, including me, and trust me, the other four were all Infected. Without that edge, he might well have been the very best. He wasn’t Infected, at the time.”
The look she gave him was pretty direct. Everyone there was bright though. At least enough to get that the new guy that had given them a fake name might just be the Howard in question. It didn’t hurt that Kate had yelled that out on their first meeting. Of course, he wasn’t actually hiding from anyone. An old man had vanished during a major flood, after a giant storm. It wouldn’t even make the papers.
It was just that he hadn’t wanted to explain to Gary and Ethyl while he was saving them. Where they were now, he didn’t really know. Part of him cared, of course. He wasn’t dead inside or anything. It just wasn’t that important. Not really.
When you took on a new name, the trick was to be consistent with it. It meant making a change, even if it took time to get used to the new one. You lived things, all the time, or you weren’t going to be good at them. Not at the level he wanted to play, anyway.
He waved at her then. Brie, he supposed, if that was what she called herself now.
“So, what have you got for us?”
She grinned then.
“Everything. From the combination to the safe, including the time window that it needs to be used, right down to what it will take to distract the man that’s in charge of it long enough to get at things. I have the updated blueprints for the building, the alarm codes and specs… I even know what’s on the thumb drives that I want you to get. In the envelopes too. Information. The kind that some people would go to war, possibly the real kind, to keep from getting out.”
Brian inhaled sharply.
“Fuck. That’s… Kiddy porn? Something with stars and politicians?”
The woman, his old friend, possibly the oldest one living, if Devorah wasn’t kicking around the place in a back room, actually teared up a little bit.
“That and worse. Worse than just snuff films. This is worldwide though. We have to get the proof, then break this thing open. It isn’t just this one job. If we don’t get this done though, in five days’ time, we won’t have another chance for six months. That will cost. In lives.”
It was a bit mercenary, since everyone else seemed in, already. Not that Howard wasn’t. Just the challenge of it sounded fun. Hard as well, but as Brie had just pointed out, they had powers. The team was impressive that way. Any of them could have walked into a bank and come out with everything they had inside, he was willing to bet.
The thing there was that, if he was pulling a job, he kind of wanted to get paid.
“So, I get a one fifth share of… Films no one should ever watch?” He wasn’t trying to be an ass over the idea. It was going to seem like it, he didn’t doubt, but it hadn’t been his point.
The others looked a bit scandalized, even if they were all in on the idea, except Brie, who nodded at him.
“There’s also a half million in unmarked bills. About four pounds of precious metals, in coins… Some stocks and bonds, but we need to burn those if you pick them up. Some plans for tech that would get us about… Oh, half a million on the black market. So, you get one fifth of all that? It isn’t a lot, but you were never in it for the money, were you, Howard?”
That was just true.
“I do like to eat though. Having clothing and a place to sleep at night isn’t a horror show either, if you get me?”
That got waved at. Laughed at a bit too, if only by Brie.
It was hard to remember to call her that.
“Oh, don’t worry. I can set you up that way. We aren’t really running this officially, so we can get some funds from alternative means. Insider trading and a few other tricks I’ve learned over the years. Even if we gave the money away, we’d still need to take it. These people don’t deserve to have anything from what they do. If it wouldn’t lead to hundreds of deaths, innocent lives, I’d burn the building down on the way out.” She actually growled then, sitting forward and looking at Brian. “That was my plan, when I was going to do it alone. Not that it will matter. When we do this, people will die.”
He wasn’t tracking that. It was interesting, but Kerry sat up a bit. Her voice was a little rough.
“Yes. They will. I’m surprised that you didn’t get with Cindy or Penny on it.” She didn't enlighten him as to what that was about. No one did.
“That isn’t what I mean, but we should keep it in mind. It’s another reason we can’t do this officially. The main one is that a lot of the people that we need to destroy are so high up in the political system that we’d see the IPB nuked again before they went down. If they realized it was us. They won’t, doing it this way. Not if we’re careful.”
There was a nod from the curly headed guy then.
“Because we’re going to hit them out of left field? Sounds fair. I don’t really know how to do this kind of thing. Does watching Ocean’s Eleven count as an education for this kind of op?”
Smiling, Brie stood up, but shook her head at the same time.
“Not even a little. If we went in with a plan that loose and sloppy, we’d all end up in prison. Except that we can all pretty much escape at will. That would give us away though. Let’s move to the ready room? I have a table and all the information we have, so far.”
That got him to nod, and Tabby to meow. He couldn’t tell how he knew, but she had an actual message for them. It was so clear it felt like she’d nearly spoken it
.
“She’s hungry. Is there food here? Or a place for her to hunt?” He was a bit peckish himself, having not eaten since the night before. It was most of the way through the day, as well.
Kerry smiled then.
“I could cook something? I’m probably not needed for this part.”
Looking at her, Howard shook his head.
“That isn’t true. You’re probably the second most important person in this. Maybe the most important. If we need to shut down the power, or the alarms, that will be your job. Can we get some alarms for her to practice with, Brie?” That was the first time he managed to call her that without it feeling like a lie.
There was a smile for him and a small nod.
“We can, and I have that here. There’s some stuff for all of you. Denis, I know that you don’t think you’re doing much for this, but you still have to memorize all the data. You’re the backup and extraction if everything goes totally wrong. In that case, you might still have to get in and extract the files yourself, somehow. If we fuck this up, a lot of little kids will die. They might anyway, but I’d rather go to sleep at night knowing that I’d done everything I could, wouldn’t you?”
It was a fair enough thing to say, but the man looked miserable over the words. So far, he hadn’t seemed that lazy, so it probably wasn’t over the work involved. The fellow, dressed up in his fatigues and looking decently military, finally glanced over at him.
“Yeah. Um… When I was a kid, my father ran a Christian cult. He had dozens of wives and took all the girls for that… As his wife, at age ten. There was a lot of abuse. Sexual and otherwise. I didn't do anything to stop it. Not even after I popped, when I could have. I should have killed the bastard then, but I ran, instead. I was seventeen.”
Brian shook his head, standing up himself.
“You probably couldn’t have done it, at the time. You’d been brainwashed for your entire life. That you could pull it off now is kind of amazing. He’s dead, anyway. We need to stop these people from doing the same thing. Or worse.”
Their hostess waved at them again. To follow her, this time.
“We’ll feed Tabitha first, then do the people? I have some things for all of you. Let me get you all set up first. You’ll want to review everything, right Howard?”
That was just the truth. Always, if possible.
“Yeah. First, we need to make sure we can do this. Notice, she didn't just have Brian teleport the stuff out of the safe, for some reason. Or get Kerry to float it out a window. That has to mean something special, doesn’t it?”
There was a single rather delicate, finger pointed directly at his chest then. Brie didn’t smile at him, though it was clear that she wasn’t scared of the idea that he’d brought up.
“Naturally. The whole building is protected from that kind of thing. It’s… mechanical in nature. It won’t stop you though, Howie. Not going in. Even better, there are mirrors all over the place there.”
They were led into a large study. It really did have papers and files on the large wooden table. Also, five computers. He thought that’s what they were, anyway. Pointing at the black things on the table, he tried not to sound as old as he felt.
“I didn't know that Tabby could use a computer. One of those must be for her, unless more people are coming? Trust me, the computer revolution passed me right by, thanks. I wouldn’t even know what they were, if they hadn’t shown up on television over the last decade or two.”
Brian settled at one of them and gestured to the chair next to him then.
“I can help you with that. Let me look into that, while you check the files out? Then we can cover all of it. Den, Kerry… Tabby… You three should do the same.”
That was a weird thing to say, but didn’t seem like he was making fun of any of them. The little cat rolled her eyes at the man, and walked out, following along with Brie.
Den laughed then.
“There we go. See, that’s what you get for being so bossy. Totally dissed by the cat.”
Howard got that these people were friends, but not why that was supposed to be funny. Cats showed disrespect for almost everyone. Tabby wasn’t bad that way, or hadn’t been before, but she was definitely her own person. In the home that had been true though. Her main task had been telling them who was going to die next.
She’d been good at her job, truth be told.
Taking the building plans first, the thing looked interesting, but not impossible for them to handle. There was only one way to the top three floors. That was by a secured elevator, that needed a passkey. It wasn’t until he got to the first of the big envelopes on the table that he really got it. After he read the whole thing, going over it twice, he made a rude noise.
Just as Brie came back in, with a tray that had sandwiches of several kinds. It was a silver serving platter, that seemed to be made of the real metal.
Instead of joking about how he was going to steal the thing, he slapped the papers down on the table to get attention.
“This… Is a death trap. We’d have an easier time breaking into Fort Knox.”
She gave him a long look then, settling the food on the large table. Everyone else looked at him, even though it was her turn to speak.
“I know. We can do it, no problem. If we work together. So, are you in?”
He tilted his head, then smiled a bit, using one side of his mouth.
“You know… I think I am.”
Chapter seven
Looking across the large driftwood log at Katie got Howard stared at. After all, she had to know what was about to come. Not that he was yelling about it. They had a plan in place, and a mission to undertake. One that was all about doing something good for the world. Saving kids from being raped, murdered and worse.
He could get behind doing that, even if it wasn’t really how he’d lived his life up to that point. Then, no one had ever asked him to do anything like that before. It wasn’t as if the government had ever gotten in touch with him before. Not that he’d known about. Kate had been with him for a while, back in the day, but as far as he could tell she’d been doing something else back then.
The trouble wasn’t about that. It might not even be a real thing. Still, he didn't want to bring it up in front of the others, just in case there was a reason to hide the facts about a job like it seemed the woman was doing to them. That was always a warning sign. At least in his life it had been. Really, if the answer wasn’t the right one, he was going to have to pull out of the whole thing.
Because, him going to prison wasn’t going to help those kids at all. The same was true for the others in their new crew as well.
Brushing her brown hair out of her face, she nodded at him.
“It’s Brian, not you or the others. The… You noticed the problem?”
“That you told us that the field that prevented us from teleporting in was mechanical, but the room that it’s in has showers and plumbing, as well as a kitchen and regular food deliveries? That’s a mighty special piece of tech, if it loves Hot Pockets that much.” He knew it was a thing, since it had been on a list in one of the files. Exactly enough food for one person, with no human contact coming in for them at all. Not even a call girl or someone to relieve the person there, if it was about operating a piece of equipment.
Sighing, she nodded. Then she sat on the log. It took hopping up a bit. Kate wasn’t a huge person, being about the same size he was. More shapely, but not a giant or anything. He did the same, since there seemed to be more to the story at the moment.
“Go on.” The woman clearly didn't want to for a moment.
The lady, who was stately and clear skinned, looked out at the ocean, her hair blowing in the light wind. The clouds threatened rain, but that was all. Not a storm coming in or anything fantastic like that.
“Right. It’s not a machine at all. It’s an Infected person. A twelve-year-old boy. He produces the field all the time, so they just need to have him there. He can’t get out, but his power
will shut off some of ours if we get too close. You can get in, since the transfer out of the mirror is instant that way.”
Rolling his eyes a bit, he smiled.
“We have that one down. I just need to get out of the building?” It had been in the packet. That had been complete, if not honest about this one thing. Possibly more though, which was the real trouble with lying in the first place. Now he had to suspect she was going to do that kind of thing with him in different places.
There was a tight smile and a half nod. That seemed to be an abstract thing. A bit sad, as well.
“Yes. If you can get fifteen feet from the building, your powers will work again. Kerry’s as well. Inside the structure, almost the whole thing is covered. Even underground. His power runs through the steel girders of the building. We won’t have time for you to climb down. That was in the information. I think we can have you caught by Kerry. That or carry a mirror and light with you? I have some plastic foil that will work for that. This is their storehouse, so… well, you get that part.”
She was pretty certain on that one.
So was he.
“Yes, I really did. The overkill is insane. Twelve generators, in case the others are taken out. Sonic and infrared hooked up on every other floor, as separate systems. We can’t just cut the power, or take care of each alarm. Going in or out any window will trigger an alarm. They have twenty guards all the time. Well-armed ones that think they’re working for the government.” Which they were, more or less. That meant they’d shoot to kill, if they had to do anything at all. It was in their orders.
They didn't know what was in the vault on the upper floor. It was more like a large safe, thankfully. A kind that he’d dealt with before. A Marksmith Seventeen. It was close to being as secure as possible, but was ultimately just a thick metal box with a good combination lock. He could get in six different ways, if he had time. Two, even if he was pressed a bit, if he had the right tools.