An explosion sounded.

“Fuck!” Val fell off the couch. My fucking beauty sleep! Her ears were ringing, and her head ached from yesterday. What the hell was that sound? Thunder? That loud? It sounded like it had struck the roof.

She stumbled her way over to one of the windows at the front and groggily pushed the curtains to the side—it wasn’t raining. It wasn’t dark either; it was actually pretty sunny. The fuck? She pulled out her phone, squinting to check for the news.

A gang war? The reporters weren’t even really sure what it was, but the streets behind them were in utter chaos. People screaming, crumbling buildings, exploded water pipes. But where was everyone else? Was she really the only one to have woken up from this? She searched around only to remember—

Right.

Coach was probably still out on his super early, crack-of-dawn exercise run. And Bread? Well… It was probably best that she didn’t know. Plus, a gang war usually happened every once a month anyways. It wasn’t really anything special. Sleep, on the other hand, was much more important for her skin. She couldn’t afford pricey skincare. Au naturel had to do for now. But as she headed back for the comfy embrace of the couch, her eyes suddenly lit up with a crazy idea—

The Grand Heist!

This was perfect! A chance of a lifetime! She had learned of a place for a potential heist a few weeks back. If successful, the payout was going to be fucking psychotic! She wouldn’t have to worry about money for months!

She’d initially planned on taking Bread after the first little heist, but that didn’t really pan out the way she’d planned. Without his ability, this heist should’ve been impossible. She’d never actually intended to carry it out, but with all the chaos running rampant from the gang war drawing all the authorities away, even if she did make a mistake, it would take a sliver longer for them to make it over.

The heist location was described as a mansion known for its lack of human security—no guards or any kind of hired guns. At first glance, it seemed too good to be true—a literal walk in the park. But that was because the place had made a name for itself as the impenetrable fortress of Novus Lokris. It contained the most technologically-advanced, deadly, cutting-edge security system one could ever get their hands on.

Simply put, human security was considered inferior. Compared to all the autonomous drones, chemical detectors, and advanced biometrics, a biological human—however cybernetically advanced—couldn’t compete. And at that kind of level, surveillance cams were just a given.

Bread wasn’t exactly perfect for the job though. He could probably overload a small portion of the security, but back-ups still existed. A smart system like that wouldn’t go down that easily. But if she could attach multiple communication blockers and signal displacers in tandem with Bread’s electrical surge, she could, at the very least, redirect all the security bots and drones towards another part of the mansion. And the fact that the mansion was huge would backfire since it would take that much longer for all those machines to return.

But Bread was now a no-go. He probably hated her.

She wasn’t intent on giving up though. With or without him, she was going to make this work. She wanted the money. No, she needed it. And this gang war?

It was the perfect storm.

The residents themselves were a different story. She almost felt bad for them. It was apparently owned by some rich guy who was never home for his wife and kid. But as bad as their family situation was, it wasn’t her problem. She was going to take the one thing they valued most—their family heirloom.

It was a first edition book by a famous author she’d never heard of. Apparently, the residents were direct descendants.

She snatched up her phone, put on her handy-dandy fingerprint encryption gloves, and lightly packed a few things into her bag that she thought would be useful—flashlight, decoder, lockpicks, miniature toolkit, and a bunch of other goodies. Then she was off. She quickly made her way towards the front door only to be stopped by a familiar face…

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Bread.

“What do you want?” she said. She feigned nonchalance and brushed his stares away. “You’re not stopping me.”

“I know.”

“You know?” What did he know? “I don’t… know what that means.”

“I want to help.”

Help? After that big ass fight? What was he planning? “What do you mean, help? You’re really not here to stop me?”

“You were right. I was wrong.”

“You’re—I thought…” She stumbled through her words. “Okay…?”

“Take me with you.” He pointed at her bag, eyes looking determined as hell. “I know you’re going somewhere again.”

What the fuck was happening? Was Bread always like this? Did he usually change his mind this quickly? No, she was sure he was a bit more stubborn than that. He was the kid who couldn’t shut up about going outside to see new stuff. He couldn’t even forget about that promise she’d made with him inside Simular. He didn’t act like this before. Did something fry his internal memory?

What was he thinking?

…

She couldn’t say no.

They positioned themselves in front of the luxurious gate of the mansion, hiding within the blind spot of the cameras. Val turned to Bread—

“Can I trust you?”

Bread nodded.

“Do you promise?”

He nodded again.

“Okay.” She could test his resolve later. What mattered more was the heist. She had to investigate the area as best she could before she went in.

The place was decorated in fancy, golden pillars and marble, seemingly influenced by ancient Greek architecture, but there was still an air of modernity behind the material choices and the building techniques. It had a lot of entrances and glass panels for enhanced stylistic flair, and the place was completely isolated from the public eye, gated away like an entire rich, private community.

“Can you shut it down through that?” She gestured towards the gate keypad.

Bread nodded. He placed his hands on the keypad, and immediately, sparks started flying off the metal.

While Bread worked on that, she’d focus on diverting the signals. She pulled out all her equipment that was going to be put to use—blockers, displacers, some wrenches—

“Done!”

“What?” He was done? Already? “What do you mean, done?”

Bread pushed the front gate. It slid open without a hitch.

Wasn’t there supposed to be an alarm going off for that? A simple short circuit shouldn’t have been able to completely shut everything off. And it wouldn’t have taken this quick either. “How… did you do this?”

“It’ll come back on in ten minutes,” he said. “I made the system reboot.”

“The entire thing?”

He nodded.

“You…” What the fuck? She couldn’t stop grinning. This kid had just turned off one of the most sophisticated security systems on the planet in the blink of an eye! “We’ll talk about this later. Stay here.”

“What? I can’t come?”

“No. Too dangerous.”

Bread pouted. It didn’t seem like he liked that answer, but it had to do for now. This wasn’t the time to argue.

She put away all her tools and made her way inside. Bread was right. All the interior lights had turned off, the security cams were dark—literally everything had shut down. How was that even possible? For such sophisticated systems like these, parts of the security should’ve been split apart so as to defend against attacks that could access the entire electrical system. This would only be possible if someone could navigate through the software and manually reconnect all the disjointed sections. Was he somehow diving deeper into the system? But that should’ve required hours of work and years of experience…

Whatever. Not important.

She finally arrived just outside a thin glass window pane. It was already slightly ajar, so she jumped inside—a kitchen. Hundreds of pots, pans, and utensils dangled from the ceiling, but she quickly moved past all that. The heirloom was on the fourteenth floor. She had to be quick. The residents must’ve already realized something had gone wrong when all the electricity went out.

She made her way into a hallway. To her left, there was a staircase going up. She pulled out her phone to pinpoint the location she had mapped out previously using info she had bought from her old data broker. Then she started to climb. With each and every step, she gained more and more momentum. She was going to succeed, make enough to sustain their lives. All she needed was that book.

…

Fuck, I’m rusty. It took an eternity to climb a single floor. Why the hell was it so spaced out? No, now wasn’t the time to be complaining. She was halfway there. Just a few more flights. But then, she heard an echo from below—

A loud, solid thud.