”Zuku Ichima, right?” Athena Alexandria asked, her voice seeming to boil with rage.

”Chek chek. What can I do for you?” Did I piss her off somehow- oh, she must’ve found out I took the box. Shit. Shit! Okay, okay… what do I do? Should I run- or would it only further show my guilt?

The rage in her voice died down slightly as if it hadn’t been directed at me in the first place. “I’ve got a gig for you. A good paying one. You do this for me, and I’ll even owe you a favor. You in?”

O- okay? Maybe it wasn’t about the box… owing me a favor though… “I’m in the middle of a job. I’ll finish up in the next day or so.”

She sighed, going silent for a few seconds. “That’s fine. Most of the gonks on my payroll are muscle heads through and through. This job needs a delicate touch.”

“Detes?”

“Not over the line. Come down to the bar when you’re free and we’ll talk it over. Trust me, you won’t want to miss out on this one.” She hung up, leaving me to stoop in the coffee shop.

She didn’t say how well the job paid… or really anything about it. Was this a trap to get me there? Surely not. It’d be much easier to just put a bounty on my head with her connections. What were the chances this was an actual gig then? Hmm… I could think about this later. Now though? Now it was almost time to break into the place.

I stood up from my spot in the coffee shop, packed my stuff up, and headed back for my apartment. It was time to gear up.

— — —

I returned an hour after midnight. From what I gathered watching them the past couple of days, this was the ideal time to strike. The targets would’ve just entered their first sleep cycle, giving me ample opportunity to get in and get out before anyone wakes up.

I especially needed to get out before four in the morning. From what I saw, Mr. Franz had a serious issue with waking up at four, coming down to get a drink, and then heading back up to sleep another couple hours.

Before doing anything, I double-checked my escape route. Complacency right before the big day- er, big night would be idiotic. I also went ahead and double- triple checked all my plans and backups.

I parked my bike several blocks away, strategically placed to be out of the way, and yet easy to access from my long descent down into the city from the top of Whitechapel Center. I loaded up, checking all my equipment for the fourth time tonight, and did some light stretches.

I was already sweating by the time I walked the several blocks to the base of Whitechapel Center from where I parked my bike. I had a rather long hooded trench coat, concealing the majority of my armor and head from any casual viewer. It was the best I could do in short order, though I did wish I had gone ahead and bought that temperature-controlled poncho I’d been looking at. Or maybe the armor wasn’t all that great of an idea in the first place- no, it’d work. I just needed some time.

Getting into the building was easy. This late at night, although there were plenty of people still out and about, everyone knew better than to look twice or ask more questions than necessary. Especially from a shady person in a trench coat with a concealed face.

I rode the elevator up to floor seventy-three, making it a bit more difficult to track my movements than if I just went straight up to seventy-nine. Of course, the bit of increased difficulty wouldn’t matter too much, but it might throw someone off for a couple hours.

From there, I moved swiftly, heading for an emergency staircase off to the side. I’d already checked the blueprint of the building beforehand, and they went all the way up as required by city ordinance.

There were a couple cameras in the staircase, namely a trio of them on the first three floors past eighty, but I’d already taken care of them in my preplanning phase. Each of the cameras were painted over with a fine layer of black spray paint. To cover up what I was checking, I spray painted a rather impressive mural in the hall of Raijin’s tower as if I was some delinquent kid and not a thief. Or, I guess I am a delinquent kid? But, like, one with class... Originally, I’d done it to test their reaction time to the cameras, but when I checked earlier today they had yet to be fixed. Worked for me.

I climbed the rest of the stairs without any issue, the forty flights going by in a flash. I’d really come far from my days of getting exhausted by just one flight of stairs. Something to be proud of, I guess.

I took a deep breath, the oxygen coming across clean and smooth through my helmet’s filter. This was the part I was most worried about. Cameras sat on either end of the hall, and both could trip an alarm. If I had Blackout already working, then this wouldn’t be an issue. Now though? Now it took some creative workarounds to get past the cameras.

I flicked my sleeve back, exposing the small touchscreen on my wrist. I tapped on it a couple of times, bringing a camera up into view. The camera was something I set up three days ago, overlooking a particular room in one of the apartment’s employees-only areas on the eighty-second floor. It had been a bitch and a half to find and even harder to set up.

I tapped on the far side of the little screen, pulling up a rather ugly-looking menu. It was the best I could do with my mediocre skills. An array of buttons popped up, one of which was a small fist. I tapped on it, then looked back at my camera.

In the top corner of the door, a small device blended seamlessly into the activated steel hinges. It was only visible if you knew to look for it. In one swift motion, the modified Tapper slammed a small pad down into the door, knocking on it five times before resetting into its barely visible state.

I waited a moment with my breath held. The door slid open, revealing a bank of screens on the far side of the room. A man stood just inside the door wearing a guard’s uniform.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I grabbed the hilt of my pistol and made my move, sliding the camera’s view up into my HUD. I carefully watched the guard look around in confusion as I raced down the hall to one of the four apartments on the seventy-ninth floor. The top two floors were separated into four penthouse suites, my target being the one closest to the emergency stairs.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the guard step out of the security room in slow motion. Just as I reached my target and bent over to start picking the lock, the guard looked up one side of the hall. My hands flew, cracking the lock as the guard walked out of view down the hall. By the time he returned to my camera’s view, the final pin shifted into place and the door unlocked. I silently slipped into the penthouse suite just as the guard shrugged and closed the door.

I took a deep shaky breath as I flicked the camera out of my HUD, taking in the apartment before me. Pure, raw excitement arced through every fiber of my being as the air hit my lungs. The air tasted sweeter here, almost as if the proximity to my target made literally everything better.

First things first, disable the apartment’s private security camera on the second floor. This part had already been well planned in advance. I stuck close to the wall as I stripped off the trench coat and set it and my bag down, turning into a voidal shadow. I silently moved into the kitchen and then climbed up and over the railing for the stairs.

I waited a few moments before rounding the corner of the stairs, listening for anything wrong. Faintly drowned out by the walls, a TV played somewhere. Probably the master bedroom, if I had to guess. I’d seen the flashes of a TV through their doorway the past couple of nights I’d been stalking- surveilling the apartment.

I popped open my canteen and poured a little bit of Hibisen fluid into a Scouter. Then I lightly rolled it out into the balcony walkway that led to the rest of the rooms. I carefully watched the camera on the far end through the Scouter, waiting for it to pan from one side of the room to the other. Once it shifted to the right angle, I made my move.

In the span of a few short moments, I silently slid down the hallway underneath the camera. Before the camera could start moving in the opposite direction, I took a deck of cards from my pocket and withdrew a card. A joker, of all things. I snapped my wrist up, flicking the card over the camera’s lenses before wrapping a piece of tape around it, blocking the view.

The cameras were part of Franz's private security, so I had no reason to fear my actions being discovered until I was long gone with my loot. They didn't have an active guard watching the camera, and I can't imagine they had a Shepherd daemon on watch either. Those things were too expensive for the shoddy security in the rest of the apartment.

With the camera upstairs taken care of, I had free roam of the top floor. Well, mostly free roam. There were still three people asleep up here.

I cracked the door into the master bedroom open and slipped in. A TV in the back corner of the room played the nightly news, illuminated by two sleeping figures cuddled tightly together on the bed. They both breathed deeply and easily as they slept without a care, completely unaware they were about to be robbed blind.

I was here for the vault card. If I was a gonk corpo, where would I hide it? I looked around, spotting nightstands on either side of the bed. I quietly looked through them, freezing as Mr. Franz shifted in his sleep. Empty. Well, not empty, but not holding the card. Instead, there was a rather fine assortment of medicine, drug paraphernalia, and—surprisingly—old books.

I flopped down onto my stomach and checked under the bed, spotting nothing but empty bottles and far, far too many shoes. I pushed myself back up and looked around the place once more. Maybe in the dresser? Or… maybe in the closet?

I moved to the closet first. It was a rather large walk-in with rows and rows of fancy-looking clothes. And shoes. More and more shoes. I shifted the clothes to the side, carefully looking through the racks until my hand lightly tapped on metal. I moved the clothes to the side, revealing a small dial safe.

I easily cracked it open, the metal hinges squeaking slightly as the door opened to reveal stacks of some kind of paper. I froze up entirely at the sharp sound, not daring to move as I listened for any signs of someone waking up. Only after a minute did I continue.

The stacks of papers looked to be various records of some kind. Not what I was here for, nor was I too interested, so I shifted them aside to reveal a small Mount Knocks card sitting on a slightly different kind of paper. I klepped the card and looked over the last page, momentarily taken aback as I stared down at it.

The thing was an Aether Contract. They were exceptionally rare and valuable, far more valuable than just a normal contract. The thing strictly enforced its terms with the powers of the Aether, so they were a favored item in the black market and amongst mercs where trust was low. First time I’ve ever seen one outside of the Jade Fangs though.

I thought about taking it, but it had already been marked up. They were only truly valuable blank. Still, it was odd seeing it. I briefly glanced through it. Looked like some kind of protection contract between Franz and someone else. Probably the guard.

I closed the safe back up before slipping back out into the hallway. I moved down to the guard’s room, fishing the jade dagger out of one of my pockets. Better safe than sorry.

The guard’s room wasn’t like the master bedroom. It was absolutely quiet, not even a lick of noise outside of the guard’s breathing. Even that was subtle enough to be easily missed. He slept fully clothed and ready to move at a moment's notice. Even his breathing was light as if he would wake up at any moment.

I edged around the side of the bed. From what the bear had seen, this guy kept the vault card in his wallet, so I just need to find that. I repeated my process from the master bedroom, checking the nightstands first. Nothing but spare ammo and three different pistols.

If I was a potentially paranoid guard, where would I keep my wallet? Where else, my… pocket…

I looked over at the sleeping man. He didn’t have a blanket wrapped around him, so it was rather easy to spot the several slight bulges of hidden items all over his body. Most of them were various weapons that he decided to sleep with for some reason. Idiot. Seriously, one bad turn and he’d cut or stab himself with one of his knives.

In his front pocket sat a rectangular bulge. I eyed the situation for several moments before doing anything. The guy was lying on his back, so it’d be incredibly tricky to get the wallet out through the small gap without waking him up.

I activated Lethargic Presence. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure it would actually do anything since the guy was already asleep, but I hoped it would help him stay sleeping at least.

It was a bit of a tricky angle to get my hand into his pocket. As soon as I could feel the synthleather of his wallet, the guy groaned and rolled over. I stepped up onto the bed, moving with him as I brought my dagger close to the guy’s back, ready to paralyze him at any moment, though hesitant to do so. He’d definitely wake up if I stabbed him.

He mumbled something that sounded oddly like, “I didn’t put the cat in the blender ma’,” but I couldn’t be too sure.

Whatever he was dreaming about didn’t matter as much as retrieving the wallet. With him rolled away, it was easy to withdraw the thing and fetch the guy’s card. I slipped the wallet back into his pocket. Some people, especially mercs who live and died by caution, were extremely sensitive. Wouldn’t want the feeling of missing his wallet in his pocket to wake him up.

The first and third most difficult parts of my plan were down, leaving just the second: getting the loot. My heart hammed excitedly in my chest as I moved back down to grab my stuff and continue with the plan.