by Alex Kings
The female shook her head. “Not from you. Just …” She pulled a few pilfered trinkets from her coat to demonstrate. “Just to steal.”
“How are you going to get that out of here?” Eloise said. “They check everyone leaving.”
The two Petaurs blinked.
“Hey, Rayne?” said the female. “How are we going to get that stuff out of here? They check everyone leaving.”
“My dear Ikki, that's easy,” said Rayne, handing the last hard drive to Mero. “We simply hide the stuff on a firework, let it get exploded outside the walls, then pick it up later.”
“A firework?” said Eloise. She paused. “Never mind. Good luck with your thieving.”
“Thanks!” said Ikki with a friendly smile. “You too!”
“I don't wish you any luck,” said Mero.
Eloise led them back down the corridor at a run. Outside the building, Mero checked his watch. “We've got just under four minutes.”
“Get to the drone station now,” said Eloise. “I'll stand watch.”
They rounded the mansion into the main garden and headed for the unloading station.
And then Tommy Egliante emerged from the crowd, striding right towards them.
Chapter 22: Time's Up
Mero pulled the bag closer to him, blocking the view of its contents.
Egliante headed straight for them, arms open in a friendly gesture. “Eloise, wasn't it? How are you finding the party so far?”
“Absolutely wonderful,” said Eloise.
Hoping that he was only interested in talking to Eloise, Olivia made to move away. But before she could, Egliante's gaze settled on her and Mero. “And I see you've been befriending the staff,” he said.
Eloise nodded. “You caught me,” she said with a smile. “I commandeered these two to have them give me a tour of the grounds. I hope you don't mind.”
“Not at all,” said Egliante. “They are here to serve you. That is why I hired them.”
“And they serve very well,” said Eloise. She looked at Olivia and Mero. And for a fraction of a second, as she met Olivia's eyes, her gaze become intense. Get moving, it seemed to say. I'll catch up with you later.
Olivia gave a little bow. “May we be excused, sir, ma'am? We have duties to attend to.”
Egliante waved a hand at them dismissively. “Of course. Go.”
Olivia and Mero moved off at a brisk pace towards the unloading station.
“Two minutes,” said Mero.
“See? A minute to this and a minute to get away. Easy,” said Olivia, trying to show off a nonchalance she didn't actually feel.
“Yah, yeah,” said Mero.
They reached the unloading station. As they went for the door James stepped in their way.
He wasn't smiling.
“Another delivery,” Olivia said with a guilty smile.
“Important?” said James.
“Yeah.”
“What did you say your names were?”
Mero offered a large, obviously unfriendly smile. “Tell you what. You let me do this urgent job, and I'll give you my name and my entire life history, alright?”
James seemed to think about this, then shook his head. “See, the thing is, I asked my supervisor about you two, and he wasn't sure either. So he went to ask his supervisor … ”
Mero rolled his eyes.
“ … who I believe should be asking Mr. Egliante any moment now,” finished James.
Mero nodded thoughtfully. “So Mr. Egliante will know. Fine by us. But we're still doing something important, so could you let us through.”
“He said he'll call me right back,” said James. “It shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.”
Mero held up his watch. They had fifty seconds left.
*
“Of course,” said Egliante, “it's not simply enough to have power. What is power if it's not used? Nothing. I earned my power over these people –” he gestured across the grounds “– and I express it by throwing a party, so I can allow them to enjoy themselves – and remind them who is in power.”
Eloise offered a smile. “And how, might I ask, did you earn all this power?”
“Well, my dear, there are some things a man must keep to himself. It is almost time for the opera. I trust you will be –”
He was interrupted by an alert chiming in his ear. There was a problem with the vault.
“Excuse me,” he told Eloise curtly.
“I … of course.”
She looked troubled, but he had no time to worry about that. Egliante turned and walked briskly towards his mansion. He opened the comms subvocally to his senior control staff and started giving orders:
“Lock down the magtubes immediately. Nothing goes in, nothing gets out.”
“Right away, sir,” came the reply. “Magtubes closed.”
“Has anyone left the garden in the last half hour?”
“No, sir. Only thing using the magtubes have been the drones. Shall I send in armed guards?”
“No,” said Egliante. “I don't want to interrupt the party yet. All of Volpone's elite are here. I refuse to let them know someone had been inside the vault.”
“Quite so,” said the voice on the other end. “And the thieves may not realise we're on to them. Good move, sir.”
He closed the channel. As soon as he'd done so, one of the guests came up to intercept him. She was a middle-aged woman in a formal gown. “Mister Egliante,” she said, sounding not at all pleased and ignoring the fact that he was in a hurry. “Someone has stolen my necklace.”
He had to keep up appearances. He came to a halt, briefly. “That is dreadful news,” he told her. “I will lock down the garden and do a search of all staff.” That, at least, gave hm a nice excuse he thought.
The woman nodded sharply, satisfied. “Thank you,” she said.
“Please don't tell anyone,” Egliante said, inspired by his recent conversation over the comms. “The thieves may not realise we're on to them. Now please excuse me.”
As he reached the rear door of the mansion, he got another call over the comms. This from one of the serving staff supervisors.
“Sir, I have a quick question.”
“Not now,” Egliante told him, and cut the channel. Sighing, he entered the mansion.
*
“The drones have stopped leaving,” Olivia said.
She and Mero were standing a fair distance from the unloading station. Mero had his head in his hand; the other hand clutched the bag tightly. He looked up.
Olivia was sure of it. Previously, drones had been leaving the station to reload every twenty seconds or so.
“Oh shit,” murmured Mero. “We're too late. The vault computer will have run its diagnostic by now.”
Olivia looked at him, then at the drone station. “So …” she began.
“So we're screwed,” said Mero.
Eloise strode across the lawn to meet them. “I take it things didn't go as planned?” she said, looking at the bag.
Mero shook his head. “Not quite, no.” He told her about the drones, then hefted the bag. “What does Tommy suspect?”
“Not us, I don't think,” said Eloise. “That little chat we just had was perfectly innocent.
Mero considered. “It might not stay that way for long. Unconscious guy in the vault might have retained some of his memories. Shoulda' killed him.”
Eloise started to pace, fiddling with the pin in her hair. “We need another way another way out of here.”
“The magtubes are the only way in and out, remember?” said Mero.
Olivia, looking anxiously out across the garden, caught sight of two figures in snakeskin coats scrambling across the garden.
“Not quite,” she said.
“Huh?” said Mero.
“There's another way. Fireworks.”
Chapter 23: Fireworks
Egliante reached the vault with a couple of his bodyguards and general fixers in tow. He was still speaking
into the comm:
“What does the diagnostic say?”
“It's reading the hard drives, but can't find anything on them.”
“What about the camera feed?”
“They were all fed a repeating loop. The timing corresponds with the opening of the vault. They struck just after the previous diagnostic.”
“To give themselves as much time as they could to get away,” muttered Egliante. He paused to lick the tip of his finger, then pressed the fingertips of both hands against the panel. Two green lights went on, and the door slid open.
His men waited outside while he went to the computer. When he turned it on, his comms chimed an alert and a hidden bracelet buzzed against he left wrist. The alerts came again when he used his passkey.
So that system was still working.
But his account was empty. In fact, everything on the hard drives was gone. He stared at the screen for a moment, chin jutting forward. Then he roared and punched the screen.
The sapphiroid surface didn't even crack. But the noise was followed by a faint groan. Egliante went around the computer and found an unconscious member of staff laid out on the floor.
He called his fixers in. “Get a medic,” he said through his comms.
One of the fixers went to grab the unconscious man.
“Don't move him!” Egliante snapped. The fixer froze. “I don't want this man to die before he's told me everything he saw.”
*
“Fireworks?” said Mero. “Look, I know the cap brought you on board because of your quick thinking, but have you gone completely insane?”
Olivia was leading them across the garden towards a small fenced-off area where the fireworks were laid out. She shook her head. “It's a good plan.”
“It's a plan cribbed from a couple of inane small-time thieves who are way in over their tiny heads. They're one fumble away from being caught and probably killed for crossing the wrong man.”
“You, uh,” began Eloise. “You could easily be talking about us there, Mero.”
Ahead of them a rocket launched with a soft roar, a glowing white tail behind it. After twenty seconds or so, it was out of sight. But then giant glowing blue and gold helical trails erupted across the evening sky.
“I know this type of firework,” said Olivia. “They're popular among the rich. Very powerful. It goes up a couple of miles high, and kicks out its payload a couple of miles in every direction.”
“Oh,” said Mero. Then he began to grin. “Powerful enough to go over the wall.”
“Nearly,” said Olivia. “We have to make a few adjustments.”
“So we take out the final payload and stick the hard drives inside?” said Eloise.
“That's the basic idea,” said Olivia.
“Will they survive that?”
“Well …” Olivia said. “We'll take out all the gunpowder, so it'll just be mechanical forces. The computer crystals are carbide-strengthened sapphiroid, so they can take a lot of punishment. With any luck, they'll make the landing safely.”
“That still leaves us trapped here,” said Mero.
“Yeah …” Olivia agreed.
“Still, if we can get the incriminating evidence out of here, that's a step forward in my book,” he added. Then he turned to Eloise. “The cap's gonna have a fucking long wait if he's expecting a drone. Any way we can alert him.”
“The comms are blocked here,” said Eloise. “But if I put my tablet with the hard drives, it should be able to get a message through when it's outside the compound. I'll put an automated message and a homing signal directed at Rur's comm.”
Up close, the size of the fireworks was evident. They were glistening chrome rockets twelve feet high and four feet thick. A group were lined up an automatic conveyor system behind a wire fence.
A member of staff leant on the fence beside the gate, whistling.
Olivia gave him a friendly smile. “Quick maintenance check,” she said, holding her pass up to a panel beside the gate. The gate clicked open.
The guard looked at Eloise and frowned. “What's she doing here?”
“We're gonna show her around a bit,” said Olivia. “Mr. Egliante's taken a liking to her.”
The guard paused.
“Come on, we're not going to blow her up. I promise,” said Olivia.
The guard nodded. “Have fun, miss,” he said to Eloise, and went back to his whistling.
Olivia grinned as she led Mero and Eloise through the gate. She had to admit she was getting pretty good at this improv acting thing.
They headed for the second rocket. Just below the nose cone there were an array of six large hatches surrounding the circumference.
Olivia rubbed her hands together. “Right. The payload is in there. When the rocket reaches a high enough altitude, the panels come away. It launches a circle of light-focussing containers with a high power laser in the core of the rocket, which superheats the air behind each carriage and pushes it away at a high velocity. The gunpowder is in the tip of the carriage, protected from the heat and on an adjustable timer. That's where we put the hard drives.”
Eloise grinned at her. “You sound like you know what you're doing. Have you done this before?”
“I watched someone else do it once,” said Olivia.
Mero stared at her. “I hope you're joking.”
Olivia said nothing.
Something caught Mero's eye. “Oh, by the ancestral abyss,” he muttered. “Not again.”
Ikki and Rayne were sneaking along close to the ground, coming towards them.
“Hello!” Ikki said brightly.
“Goodness,” said Rayne. “Fancy bumping into you here.”
“Twice in one theft,” said Ikki.
“Quite so. Did you have our idea too?”
“How did you get here?” Mero asked, cocking his head.
“We came over the fence,” Rayne said.
“By climbing!” Ikki added.
“Well,” said Olivia, “you had a good idea with these rockets. I think we'll have to, uh, steal it.”
“See?” said Ikki, turning to Rayne. “I said it was a good idea.”
“Indeed you did, my dearest Ikki.”
“It's ingenious,” said Olivia, grinning. “How did you figure out that you could hide the goods in a payload carriage?”
Rayne blinked. He was halfway through taking a roll of duct table out from his coat. “Um,” he said, putting the tape away. “It just came to me like a flash!”
“I thought we were going to just stick them to the firework and follow it,” said Ikki.
Rayne shrugged and grinned at them.
The conveyor system picked up the rocket ahead of them and carried it down to the launchpad. A moment later it hurtled upwards with a roar and exploded into six lines of glowing silver. Theirs would be next.
“Okay, let's stop screwing around and get this done before someone catches us,” said Mero. He grabbed the bag of hard drives in his tail and scrambled up the rocket.
Eloise frowned, then turned to Olivia. “Does the rocket keep the same orientation when it goes up.”
“It should do,” Olivia said.
Eloise thought for a moment, and then pointed. “This panel,” she said. “It's closest to Rurthk's position.”
Mero sighed and shimmied around to the panel.
“Just pop the panel off. It's easiest from top and bottom,” Olivia told him. She noticed that Rayne had crawled up the rocket and was doing the same with the opposite panel for his and Ikki's own loot.
Mero pulled the panel off.
“You should see a carbide cone,” said Olivia. “The gunpowder is in a specialised device inside. Unscrew it carefully and hand the device down here.”
There was a soft squeak-squeak in stereo and Mero and Rayne followed her instructions. In the background, Olivia could hear Eloise talking into her tablet. Then Mero dropped the gunpowder device down to her.
“Now put the hard drives in its place, and s
crew the cap back on.”
“And this,” Eloise added, throwing her tablet up. Mero caught it without looking, placed it in the bag with the hard drives, and screwed the carbide cone back on.
Ikki and Rayne were still busy loading their stolen trinkets into the cone on the other side.
“Now just put it back together,” Olivia said. She squatted beside the rocket, looking for a panel down below.
There it was. The laser power control. The stronger it was, the further it would push the payloads. She dialled it up to the maximum setting. That should made sure the hard drives made it outside the walls of Egliante's compound.
Mero fitted the panel back onto the rocket and dropped down. Rayne took a few seconds more, then finished too.
They stepped back. Mero grabbed the emptied gunpowder devices and hid them in a space behind the conveyor system. Soon after, the conveyor grabbed the rocket, now loaded with stolen goods, and carried it to the launchpad.
The rocket lifted off and glowing white tail and climbed until it was out of sight.
Four lines of emerald green light lanced across the sky, reaching the horizon.
Mero let out a deep breath. “I hope it worked.”
“We'll see,” said Eloise. “Now let's see about getting out of here ourselves.”
Chapter 24: Answers
The unconscious guard lay in the vault, a strip of medical smart matter across his forehead, and another more sturdy foamed piece supporting his neck.
As soon as he groaned, Egliante was standing over him.
Egliante looked over at the medic. “Well?” he asked sharply.
The medic was gesturing at his tablet, looking at the readouts and sending neural stimulation commands to the smart matter. “He should be coming round now.”
The guard's eyes fluttered open. “Where ...” he muttered.
“You're in the vault,” Egliante said. “Someone invaded my house and attacked you. What do you remember?”
“I …”
“Tell me!”
The man closed his eyes. “I remember coming to the south wing … the party was on …”
