POV Change: Seth
Days passed and Seth spent his time collecting more information about the heist in any way shape or form. He even managed to get some more information on that Detective Locke and for the future, he was a good plant that Seth could potentially exploit or recruit.
That would take time though and for this coming heist, he would be of no use. Except that he did mention that he told the Security Head of a `bad feeling` and somehow that was enough for him to actually do something. Was it his background, or was the person he was questioning far more influential than Seth had expected?
Seth hastily retreated from that topic after he gained that information, and the rest of the night was much subtler questioning Locke's mentality and Seth rightfully exchanged his own views.
After that he needed to locate the Vault's design information to better learn of the potential security he would be facing.
The store itself was nothing special except the signboard with a vault carved into a plaque, above it was the name `Safe, n, Secure`. Seth walked in looking as average as you could in this city: shirt, overcoat, trousers, and footwear but all worn down to the bone and with no outstanding colours.
For once Seth looked semi-respectful as his place of infiltration was a high middle-class store and such, he had to dress like he earned that much. His pocket change and some of the gains from his Caravan heist were sadly sacrificed in the name of his decent dress wear.
Getting away from the crowded outdoors, the loud street was surprisingly suppressed as the doors closed and a wide array of Safe and Vaults were all stacked ceiling-high in the surprisingly large store.
Normally, designers like these kept old designs to refer to for later designs: to decrease their workload. So he needed to find a design storage area. Seth knew a place like that would not be here, in the main showcase room, it was more likely to be in an office area.
So, he walked as though he worked in the shop and made his way towards the stairs. Now Seth had no clue where to find the stairs, so he did struggle through the labyrinth of looming towers that were made of metal vaults and he couldn't understand how that was anywhere near safe but past these skyscrapers, he went until he ran into the stairs.
It did say `staff only` on the sign so Seth put on the character of a nosy customer and conspicuously slithered up the stairs.
On the office flaw was a layout of desks with people head-down working on the latest and greatest that Darters Safe's had to offer, and this was Seth's dream job mostly because he would gain access to their designs so he could then easily break into the tiny collection he had gathered, but he also enjoyed protecting peoples hard earned income...
Now the stairs led to a doorway that led to a wide office area and to the left were some private offices Seth made the bold assumption that the design storage room was to the left as well.
The workers were mumbling away at idle conversation as they worked and the sound of pencils filling in pages was proof of a productive team.
This idle noise would help Seth pass, but not nearly as much as the little walls between each desk to disrupt conversation and encourage the workers to focus on their work. Now the scummy design was going to help Seth sneak past.
He made sure to make as little noise as possible and he slowly made his way left towards the other rooms. The first door had the sign of the Senior Team Leader Jose, and the next had a Team Leader Kate sign on it.
The next door had what Seth had been looking for, Design Storage, but, `damn!` After Seth tried to enter, he found it was locked. He needed a key!
Obviously, one of the senior management had the key but Seth needed to know how he was going to enter and then take it, without them noticing. He needed a distraction, like a fire for example.
Seth loved a bit of fire as it was easily the best distraction: if only his target wasn't highly flammable then he might have conceded to his desire.
He needed more time and more information, so Seth decided to look at the rest of the doorways as there were only two left, Setht thought that maybe one of them held a clue.
The first was another storage room but this time for stationary, paper, and other things they may use daily. He had a little shock, as someone was in there, but they seemed distracted as they were avoiding doing work so did not see Seth's eyes peering in through a slit in the door.
The next doorway led to a stairway onto the roof and without anywhere else safer to be, Seth decided to go up. Above the street, looking down onto a large sea of people each buying and selling or just commuting, Seth took a moment to appreciate the view.
Large chimneys spat out smoke, dim lights emitted from poor streetlights and the sound of carriages, of horses and whips, made their presence known throughout the city. It wasn't as noisy as modern cities, cars were not here after all, but the hustle and bustle of human activity never stayed quiet.
In this forest of wooden fire risks and the occasional rich brick building, Seth stood alone on a rooftop staring around himself as the world moved around him.
Seth smiled, this was why he loved life and now, he was going to enjoy himself even more.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The plan to steal the key was simple, he would wait for everyone to leave and then he would take it from the office, assuming they'd store it there. Then he would unlock the design storage room and voila! If they took the key home, well Seth had brought a trusty hammer so he would have to make it useful.
The crowded streets made good idle entertainment and as the sun set, he noticed people that weren't customers walking out of the building. Seth quickly climbed above the doorway leading to the stairs and 10 minutes later he heard the door getting locked.
Seth really should have factored that into his initial plan, and he made a note to not make such a rookie mistake in his real heist or the consequences would have been far worse.
Seth decided that plan B was the best option, so after he noticed the final person leaving the store and locking the front door behind him, Seth began to imagine the building as a blueprint.
He imagined the walls did not exist and instead they were hollow and with the help of his amazing brain, but mostly his decent level as a Thief, he found himself looking down at the known layout of the building. From this holographic image, Seth was able to gather enough information to finalise plan B.
Enacting it was simple, Seth dangled off the building and looked for a window to the storage room. Sadly It didn't have one, but the Senior Team Leader's office did. It was a simple shutter system as maybe they didn't consider the 2nd story window a security risk so after leaning down as far as possible and opening the shutters, all it took was a dodgy heave-and-throw and Seth landed rather badly on the floor of his target.
He was in. Now he just needed the key. Looking around the office he saw a few storage areas of interest mainly a drawer and a cabinet equivalent.
The drawer was in the desk, so Seth gave that a go first, he took his time and had it open in no time. Inside was simple stationary and a few keys, `Wow` Seth was expecting that to be far harder.
Thinking about it, Seth decided to have a bit of a snoop around and so he looked through the cabinet for anything of use. He found business statements and evidence of some `interesting` dealings but Seth had no real interest in those.
Blackmail was not below Seth, but it simply wasn't worth the risk. The only thing he found was a document of a complaint filed by the Lord of the city who complained that his Vault's lock was acting faulty. It did have the make of the Vault in the message and so Seth noted that down to as a priority to secure.
Finally, it was time for Seth to secure the goods and with the key in hand, he opened the door to hear a person working!
Seth froze...
He questioned in a frenzy if he was too loud and ducked back into the room for cover.
He doubted what he saw, after all, he saw a person locking the front door! He forgot the back door! Seth hadn't felt so stupid since he was a young boy! He hoped for his own selfish sake that he would just learn from these blunders before he got caught!
He heard feet get up, he hid as best as he could and luckily it seemed the overtime worker was just getting a drink. Seth's heart was not appreciating this hard worker's work ethic.
`GO HOME, I CURSE THOU` Sadly, Seth's hexing skills were not up to par and the man merely got his drink and sat back down, sipping loudly enough to mock his existence to a miserable Seth.
His happy smile was long gone, but the con must go on, so Seth moved on and made his way sneakily past the sipping freak and slowly entered the metal key into the keyhole and slowly unlocked the door to the Design storage area.
Sadly, it was open.
This did not make Seth happy, as his furious appearance appeared inside the room revealed itself. Once inside, he closed the door as quietly as possible. He really, really wanted to break a few things at this point, but this miserable heist had to continue.
The design was protected inside air-locked-enchanted boxes. They were labelled and so with much haste Seth started to go through the designs dating back 320 years ago, after all, that was when the Treasury was built.
Scrolling through the paper designs Seth finally found one which had the title `Treasury Design`. He had a choice here to steal it or to attempt to copy it, Seth sadly had zero artistic talent, so he rolled it up and stuck it inside his goodie bag.
He then looked at the more recent designs and randomly threw them in his bag until it was full. He then tried to find that Lord's Safe design as his key was faulty and that was a heist with a bargain deal, he tried to remember the ones he saw on the way, but his brain was just not built for this kind of remembering. It reminded Seth of last-minute cramming and by the time 30 minutes had passed his head was starting to ache.
The fatigue and stress were getting to his head and even worse he heard the overtime worker get up from his seat. Seth quickly closed all the opened boxes, but what would he do now?
The footsteps got closer, and a realisation hit Seth like a bullet. `They left the storage room unlocked so this guy could enter it`.
A beating heart and sweaty body moved like lightning as they looked for places to hide. The room was just boxes, boxes, boxes with some labels and walkways so one could retrieve from the boxes.
Seth had an idea, and he quickly started to look in each box. `No, not this one.` the sound of steps got louder, `Not this one either!` louder, `C'mon, no!` now the steps were right next to the door! Any second the person would open the door and catch Seth!
That's when he finally found a semi-empty box. He jumped in and closed the top, the paper deafening his landing.
The box was dark, and he heard the sound of the door being opened. Seth held his breath; his heart only grew louder. Sweat, panic, fear, but Seth tried his best to calm down.
He unconsciously activated his skill, Calm Mind, and it felt as though cold water flowed through his body. It shocked him from his fear and his mind grew sharp.
He focused on breathing, `slowly, in... out. In... out.`
Seth heard the person entering the room, he heard them open a box, let out a sigh and then place something in the box. The man mumbled to himself, "Finally, I'm done for the day. (Yawn) Guess it's time to clock out, I wonder what's for dinner today?"
Seth breathed a sigh of relief and waited until the door was shut. He waited for the man to be gone but he heard the man shout from afar, "Where has the key gone? No, I can't get fired for this!"
Seth took the chance and got up from the box, taking the gamble that the man would search the office thoroughly before checking where he had been before. He opened the door quietly and the sound of the man searching got distinctly louder.
Seth slipped out of the storage room and closed the door behind him, then placed the key just in -front of the door. He then entered the door nearest, Team Leader Kate's office.
The room was much like the Senior Team Leader's office but a little worse for wear. Seth quietly ran through her office as a pastime as he heard the man finally find the key.
Seth found himself another design which was apparently a `Best Seller` which the Team Leader was referencing and so Seth picked that up. He assumed she would just think it had gone missing, or even if she did find out someone had stolen it the company would likely never tell anyone. The negative publicity alone would make their safes far less desirable.
Seth then looked out the two-story window and looked around the street before taking a leap of faith.
He landed heavily but shook it off in no time. Seth then changed his demeanor away from panicked and fearful robber to confident shopper, and with the bag of goods he was taking home, his smile was well deserved.