A month after they met, Sophie and Sasha had grown significantly closer. Work was always available, a fact the two girls took advantage of in order to improve their teamwork. Having kept track of them, Rogue had mentioned how impressed she was with the skill the two of them were showing. Said skills were also why their current job had been handed to them.
The girls were heading to a classic corpo apartment, located in the City Centre. It was a gig neither of them had any experience with, considering they had to investigate a robbery. Sophie figured her own thievery skills were the reason behind Rogue’s choice. Even so, she was puzzled. She didn’t have any investigative skills. In fact, normally she was the one committing the robbery. The thought made her pause, a light bulb blinking on in her head. Right. I’m supposed to use my own skills to find clues? Might be fun.
Once they stepped into the apartment building’s lobby, they were greeted by a member of security. The man handed over a shard containing all of the details their client, Darius Lang, had provided. Obviously it wasn’t too detailed, the man was an upper exec at Petrochem after all. Still, they had his schedule, the suspected time of the break in and the various security measures employed in the apartment.
However, when the pair stepped into the man’s home, they turned to each other in disbelief.
“You’d think people this rich would know better than to flaunt it.”
“Probably just a show off,” Sasha replied from behind her, “You know how corpo types are.”
“Yeah, well, he’s showing off his incompetence alright,” Sophie shot back, her tone dry as she moved further into the apartment.
“What a dump,” Sasha mocked as they looked around.
“Right?” Sophie replied, her tone deadpan. “Who even has a personal sushi bar anymore?”
Sasha snorted, gesturing to the untouched plate of real sashimi on the counter. “It’s like the gonk was begging to be robbed.”
“Well, someone took him up on that offer,” Sophie said, dropping to one knee. There was a small dot of red on the white marble floor. Interesting.
After snooping for a few minutes, they wandered over to the location of the stolen item. They found a heavy-duty glass case, empty of the painting it was supposed to contain. Sophie examined the case.
“Sasha, can you scan this lock?” It was mangled, clearly the result of someone forcing it open. Still, Sophie wanted to see if there were any clues. A moment later she got a reply.
“Definitely shows signs of having a device used on it. It just wasn’t strong enough to break through the ICE. Must be why they smashed it instead.” Sophie hummed in agreement. “You keep looking around, I’ll take a look at the surveillance.” The netrunner wandered off, leaving Sophie to continue the search.
“Hmm? What’s this?” The thief-turned-investigator examined more red drops, similar to the one she had found earlier. She activated the scanners in her optics. It came back with a reading. “Cow’s blood? Someone that works with fresh?” Sophie moved on, mentally filing away the clue.
She walked away from the empty case, beginning to map the thief’s path through the apartment. There was a small trail of similar drops, leading all the way to the balcony. Sophie stepped out onto the balcony. Almost immediately, she was able to find faint scuff marks. Before she could investigate however, Sasha appeared behind her.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“I checked the cams, they were switched off for exactly one and a half minutes.” Sophie frowned.
“That’s very quick. Did they capture anything?”
“Nope. No sign of the culprit.”
“Which means they managed to get in, grab the painting and get out in that timeframe.” Sophie examined the scuff marks on the balcony railing. “Well, it looks like they used some kind of tool to get in and out. I’m unfamiliar with what it is though.” She thought about it for a moment. The younger girl retrieved the client’s schedule. She scanned through it, mentally matching the information of the break in to where the client was.
“Oh? How interesting. Sasha, can you get the detes on Mabo’s Steakhouse? I think I’ve got a lead.” Not even a minute later, Sasha sent over everything she could find. “They do indeed specialise in fresh. I think I’ve got our culprit, partner.” Sophie turned to look at her friend, noting her excited gaze.
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The pair of girls made their way to the restaurant. It was located in a tall shopping building and the entrance was strictly regulated. So, they had to find another way in.
“Any chance you can take control of their security?” Sophie spoke to the netrunner.
“Already in. You need me to find you an entrance?”
“Please.”
Sophie continued to observe the entrance of the restaurant while Sasha worked. “Alright, there’s a ventilation shaft you can crawl through that will lead into a janitor’s closet. Sending you the info now.”
Once she received the details, Sophie left her partner behind. It wasn’t difficult to locate the vent she needed to use. Activating Ghost allowed her to slip in without arousing suspicion. Then, it was a simple path into the restaurant. The thief arrived in the closet, then poked her head out to scrutinise the area. Sasha began offering her directions to the meat processing room, the place Sophie believed the thief worked.
With the two of them working in tandem, reaching the target location was laughably easy. Sophie peered through the door, looking at the pair of butchers preparing the fresh meat. “Can you get me the schedules for all of the butchers that work here? Compare their schedules with the schedule that Darius gave us. Who wasn’t here when it happened?”
“There are only two butchers and both were here when it happened.” Sasha paused, digging deeper into the restaurant's records. “However, one of them, William Doth, took a break for 10 minutes during his shift. The break happens to match the suspected time of the theft.”
“Fantastic. Any chance you could get Doth alone? Separate the two butchers so I can interrogate our suspect.”
“Give me a moment.” A brief pause, “alright, the other butcher is taking a break to ‘speak with the manager’. You’ll have a minute or two to get a confession.”
“Truly, you are the most magnificent partner around Sasha. What would I do without you?” Sophie joked, grinning at the giggle she got from the older girl. It was slow going, getting Sasha to be more open and happy, but she was making progress.
Once the second, unimportant butcher had left, Sophie made her move. She slipped into the bloodied room, wrinkling her nose at the stench. Her target, William Doth, was busy carving apart a meaty leg. He froze when cold metal was suddenly pressed against the back of his skull.
“Were you involved in the robbery that occurred at Darius Lang’s apartment a day ago?” The voice was female, that much William could tell. But it sounded quite young, so he tried his luck in turning around. The gun pressed harder into his head.
“N-no. I could never rob someone? I’m just a regular old butcher.”
“You’ve got one chance Doth. If you don’t tell me the truth, your brains will be joining the rest of the meat hanging on the walls. I’m sure you don’t want that to happen.” The man sighed in defeat. A brief look at the man had revealed he carried no sign of combat training, so she wasn’t surprised when he folded.
“Fine. Yes, I was the one who stole the painting. But I didn’t work alone. Marc, the chef that normally serves Lang, was involved too.”
“Where’s the painting?” The voice demanded. He provided the address. “Consider yourself lucky Mr Doth, that I wasn’t hired to eliminate you as well.” Nothing more was said and when the sweat-soaked butcher turned around, there was nobody there at all.
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Sophie sent the recording she took of the interrogation to Rogue, who would send it to the client. She met back up with Sasha and the pair headed to the Afterlife to celebrate another successful gig. A surprise system notification appeared.
Queen of Thieves has reached level 50!
Skill: Thievery (Advanced) has reached level 6!
She quickly asked for clarification. A jump of five class levels and two skill levels was entirely unexpected.
The host studied another thief’s actions and solved a thievery related case. These actions are in line with the theme of the class, hence an increased reward.
Sophie could only mutter quietly, musing that there were still functions she was discovering in the system. She could only sigh and move on, changing the way she approached her leveling in the future.
On the way to the Afterlife, Sasha brought up a personal request she had. Obviously Sophie accepted and after hearing the details, the younger girl found herself looking forward to the next few weeks.