We spent an hour or so talking. She told me how she and Abigale met, I told her how Alyssa was turned. We talked about how exasperating humans (and young vampires) can be. It was fun to meet up with another of such a long history.

Then she was pulled away by a child getting out of bed. She did not return.

In the morning, I followed them to the museum. I suspect they are underestimating the security system. They plan to make the switch around closing time, so Abigale doesn't have to risk carrying the artifact all day.

When the museum opens, I take the opportunity to walk through. As expected, there are cameras covering every inch of the museum, and many overlap coverage areas. Industry standard for cameras is 30 frames per second, which I can run faster than.

I walk out the door, and as soon as I am out of range of the cameras and no one is looking, I zip through the museum and run through the employee only areas to the archive room. This is where they will make the swap.

Abigale thinks the cameras can't see in the boxes. She is wrong. She has also not noticed the pressure sensors in the archive drawers. The replica will have to be exactly the same weight as the original.

I go back Abigale's desk, and quickly weigh both the original and the copy in my hands. I take the copy from her bag out of the museum and remake it out of metal instead of plaster so it is the same weight as the original. I'm pretty good at memorizing exact details, and when I compare the original and the fake when I go to replace the piece in Abigale's purse, they look identical to my eyes. It won't stand up to chemical analysis, but it will appear to be present to the sensors while we borrow the original.

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Then, I go and get my kit from the public lockers I hid it in. Heista has made me more than a few hacker programs that I can splice together to do almost anything. I use it to hack into the museum's security system from the free wifi at in a pub. I copy the footage of her taking the artifact out of the box this morning, and reverse it so it looks like she is walking into the room and placing the artifact back down. A quick run through an AI program smooths it out so everything looks natural.

Then I wait.

Every once in a while, I check the bug on Alyssa to make sure she is still alright. She is walking the museum and doing her best to look natural.

Soon enough, Abigale gets up to make the switch. At the appropriate time, I switch the relevant cameras to my doctored footage. She makes the switch, the weight it right, then she walks out.

It is a good thing I made sure everything would go smoothly. Her body language screams guilt so much, they checked the footage just to make sure. Everything checks out and she leaves with no repercussions.

I sigh and close the computer, finish my drink, and pack up. It takes only moments to catch up with the sisters. At least they are smart enough not to talk about their slight of hand until they get to the privacy of Abigale's home.

They are excited and proud they pulled a heist all by themselves. I certainly won't tell them they got help. Let them think it was that easy, they won't do it again.

When I was waiting for the sisters to finish their lunchtime conversation so I could ambush Alyssa, I took a moment to clone Alyssa's phone. That foresight pays off now as she sends a text to Damian: "I have the key, ready for next step."

Next step indeed. Let's see where they take this.