The penthouse suite had the advantage of multiple bedrooms; and of a massive TV; well over seventy inches. The sort of high-roller suite they regularly gave away to people who had wasted ridiculous amounts of money in the casino; and with a touchscreen laptop hooked up, a good place to display plans.

At the moment, a few sat-map images were on-screen; pictures of small compounds in the woods in three cases, and the desert in another. Each had some things in common; a single multi-floor building surrounded by a wide open area, isolated in the middle of the wilderness; and of course, with heavy security fences and barricades.

Butch walked in with a handful of bacon, smelling strongly of grease, casually tossing a few pieces into his mouth. "Mm! So whats this? Where are we going now?"

Jason leaned back on the couch, laptop set beside him. "Well. When a company wants to research things that are illegal... or extremely valuable and secretive... the smart ones just do it in a big city, surrounded by everybody else doing things of a similar nature.. and just tuck it into some out-of-the-way corner of a building with some good security."

He pointed at the screen. "The paranoid ones... or the stupid ones... and there's alot of overlap there... do it in the middle of nowhere with armed guards and nobody around to see what's going on. When you see a compound like this, and you can't easily figure out what they're doing? It might be worth robbing. This place, for example..."

He taps one compound. It immediately pops up, zoomed-in. "It shows up on searches immediately. Its hiring and firing people all the time, and it makes lenses. Maybe for lasers, maybe for glasses; whatever it is, we know. And what it sells isn't gonna appeal to anyone but the ones already paying for it."

The next compound appears on-screen; heavily forested area, guard towers and fences surrounding the central structure. "This place, though? No hiring ads. No information. Owned by some shell company called Wayson Medical Enterprises. Whoever they've got working there and whatever they're doing to draw all the power and materials, its expensive. They've got -something- in there worth taking, and are trying to hide it. So... we need to check the place out, find out as much as we can about it, and then move in. This is the boring part of the job, though it'll run a bit faster for me than it would for some people."

Butch gives a slow nod. "Okay. So... what do you want me to do?"

"We're gonna see how well you can dig."

Butch blinked, staring at Jason. "Wait. Dig, like... in the dirt?"

***

Wearing a lighter version of the armor he wore for the last job, Butch seemed a bit confused about the post-hole digger and hoe he carried.. and looked with interest at the long metal tubes Jason was carrying as they headed out into the forest... with a laptop bag under his other arm. "So why do I get shovels and you get mortars? Or is it a grenade launcher?"

Jason glanced down at the tubes overfilling his duffel bag. In reality, this was a bit of a con he was playing on Butch, combined with some preparation for the job. "These are mostly just metal pipes... and some triggers I made using the fabricator. Basically just gonna load these up with some grenades, set them around the perimeter at key spots, and have them ready to cause some distractions and issues when it all goes down. But. We might be waiting a week for this to go down. So... we gotta bury the tubes. Only the very tip out of the ground, then we hide the tip and cover it."

He held out a small cylinder with a pointed tip. "This is what we would call a camera shell. You might need them in the future. Basically, they come in three versions. This one, pops out a parachute and a little rotor. And essentially floats over the area for a while, giving you a top-down view until the battery dies. You can grab it and replace it after."

For a moment, he studied what would happen, and what would show on the display of his helmet's HUD if he launched that grenade. He could arc it around and get a good view of the entire compound; though the first few seconds were a bit distorted, so his view wasn't too good. He could make out the watch towers, the fences; everyone would look up and notice the camera, though.

"This second type is really just a drone launcher. It doesn't launch with much speed, but you can remote control it, tell it where to go, get an up-close view of all sorts of nonsense. Same deal, replaceable."

He put it away immediately. It wouldn't show him anything useful. Instead, he pulled out the third grenade. "This one is ridiculous. Its a breach cam. Breaks half the time you use it. An armored shell that can penetrate most bullet-resistant glass and many walls and give you a picture on the other side if it didn't break on the way through. Extremely limited utility; basically just helps clearing out buildings in hostile territory. Has a nasty habit of throwing bits of the wall into the room you just got a picture of, which means that since you might kill whatever's in there anyway. They issued us a few of these in the field, but the whole thing was discontinued so I picked some up cheap."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Except that for him, the ability to, maybe, get an image of what was on the other side of a thin wall... well. "I want you to use those and make some holes. Drop the tubes in, aimed at the building. Try to pick lines where they won't be hitting any trees. And... stay behind cover. None of the cameras are pointing out of the fence, but lets not attract any stray eyes, eh?"

Butch grumbled, and set to work with the post-hole diggers, making holes... with truly ridiculous, trivial ease. If he'd had a larger set, designed for his massive strength, each hole would have been a single, easy stroke. Instead, he kept making having to re-dig the same spot a few times... with a progress most fence-setters would envy but Butch found frustrating.

For Eyeball, he took his hand-held grenade launcher, and the Breach cam... and started to slowly circle the building. He set a tablet out, and started to make notes. Set positions. The glass, for the most part, was mid-grade bullet-proof. The bottom floors seemed to be mostly offices. The top floors were... on the outside, hallways. But the breacher grenade would sometimes pierce that interior wall if it were angled just right... and Jason started getting a picture of some sort of interior manufacturing facility for chemicals.

The only thing it reminded him of was a meth lab. This though... involved certain levels of organic tissue, and tons of ridiculously expensive equipment.

On the top floor, he got a momentary glimpse of the security room; and with some careful angles, got a few better shots. The place had cameras everywhere, even the bathrooms, and by holding his gun at the right spot he could essentially watch what they saw on him. A few of the images he could see were frankly horrifying; if he angled it the wrong way the breach camera would be embedded in someone's torso, and he'd get flickering images of lungs splattered on the floor.

He found the server room after a few more minutes of checking. Third floor. Enormous coolant systems there... too much for the server room itself. There was another room beside it, sealed off. Another possible valuable location.

After a very long, slow, half-circle of the complex, he returned to Butch; who'd dug dozens of holes, only a handful of which were even vaguely pointed in the right direction. Saving his basic layout information, he worked along with Butch for the next hour; planting tubes at the right spots, and the right angle. He was even able to precisely line things up so that he could take out all of the elevators and the stairwells... granted, things could change between now and then. Even just some humidity would make things hit the wrong spots and let the security team spread throughout the building, and of course, call for help; so they needed some backup. At least a couple people, but to start... someone who could be on the roof, quietly and unnoticed, and take out the security room.

And he knew just who to call.

****

"Sssorry man. Can't do it. Got something else I need to work on over in europe. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to work with the Titanslayer, but plans." The slightly sibilant voice of Ripper was a bit disappointing. "What did you need anyway?"

"Too bad. I need someone to get onto the top floor of a building, middle of nowhere, drug or kill the guards and stop an alarm from going out."

"Got the deets for the place?"

"...What?"

"Oh. You know where everything is, what needs to happen, so forth? And... just how valuable are we talking?"

"I know exactly where the security room is, the rooms with the greatest chance of valuables, the server room... but not exactly what we're stealing. I'm willing to pay a quarter mil up front just in case the loot isn't enough to make it worth splitting; if its worth less than that, I'll eat the loss and move on."

"Well then. My sister might be the right one for the job. She's been looking for work... and she's got wings."

Jason blinked, leaning back in the van. Butch was driving at the moment, and he was vaguely concerned that this might result in something terrible at any time... but hell. Everybody's gotta learn someday, and he wasn't doing too bad so...far. Yup, that used to be some sort of animal. Maybe a raccoon. Besides... they might need multiple vehicles during the getaway.

"Like... feathered wings? And can actually fly?"

"Well, no. She's like me, except with wings. And instead of turning invisible, she can fly, and spit fire. Pretty badass. She goes by Green Dragon, because there's like fifty dragons out there, and most are like... the Incinerator Dragon, or the Death Dragon, or such nonsense."

"Kinda like 'The Ripper Chameleon', huh. Just a bunch of furries with punk-rock names."

"Touche. But they're called 'Scalies'. And we have a remarkable number of fans among the ladies."

"Whatever. Just give me her number if you want me to talk to her, and I'll see if she's interested. And probably that russian guy, too."

Jason could hear a low chuckle from the other end. "Clone, seriously? That guy's an asshole. Good luck."

Watching Butch narrowly avoid slamming into another vehicle, Jason settled his hand on Butch's shoulder. "Alright. Thats enough for today. We're getting into busier traffic. Lets swap seats, and go get the rest of what we need. We might be collecting something thats really cold.. so I figure we should grab a freezer truck."

As Butch pulled off on the side of the road; narrowing missing a mile marker sign; Jason gave a laugh. "Well, not sure if it'll survive having you drive it for too long, but I think you will. Ready to go buy your first car?"