by E. C. Myers
Neo waved her hand in the air.
“Are you sure you can handle it?”
She paused and put her hands on her hips, then leveled her gaze at him. She was smart enough to want to hear what he had in mind first.
“We’re going to steal something that almost everyone in the city needs, artificially create a shortage. Then when people are desperate and vulnerable, we’ll flood the market and charge exorbitant prices.”
Neo held up her Scroll. Dust?
Dust. He sighed. “You aren’t the first to suggest that. Maybe I should look into that, but let’s stick a pin in it for now. I had something else in mind.” He held his hands in the air, fingers spread. “Coffee!”
Neo made a yuck face and stuck out her tongue.
“I know, I know. But people just don’t have the same attachment to tea. As soon as the people of Vale have to face a work meeting without their morning cup of coffee, we’ll bring the city to its knees!” Roman clenched a fist dramatically.
Neo scratched her head.
Roman lowered his fist. “That’s the beautiful part about this.” He slumped down onto the couch. “I have no idea. So we get to figure it out together!”
Neo nodded and blinked her eyes. She turned the idea board to face Roman, picked up a marker, and started drawing. When she stepped away, Roman saw a cute cartoon of a Roman with an enormous head. A similarly bigheaded Neo was perched on top of him, balancing on his bowler hat with her parasol raised high.
Roman stroked his chin while he considered it. He nodded. “What could possibly go wrong?”
Step 1: The Boring Part Reconnaissance
Neo had no idea that planning a heist took so much time and work. So much. She’d always been on the impulsive side, but Roman insisted that a successful job took careful research and extensive scheming. The only way you could trust that the other members of your team were on the same page was for there to be a page in the first place. And they had to be able to read it and then follow the plan to the letter. Whenever he’d gone into a situation without knowing exactly what was going to happen, it either hadn’t ended well, or it was a close call. He didn’t like close calls.
Roman clearly had some trust issues to work out, but Neo was going to prove to him that he could count on her.
“First things first. We need to know where the Vale coffee warehouse is,” Roman had said. “The docks probably. That’s where you come in.”
Where Neo came in was staking out a Magic Beans, a ubiquitous coffee franchise in Vale. She already had a brilliant disguise: a preparatory school student who had a lot of homework to catch up on. She spent three days there at a tiny table in a hard seat, drinking lukewarm, tasteless tea, before a delivery truck finally rolled up outside.
She packed up her work and hurried to the bathroom, where she used her Semblance to transform into a black-haired barista in a Magic Beans hat and apron. Then she waited near the storage area until the delivery guy appeared pushing a cart piled high with jute bags stamped with the stylized logo of the Mistral Mountains Roastery.
“Oh, hey, how’s it going?” he said as he passed.
Neo shrugged.
“I know, right?” he said.
She got a good look at him and as soon as he entered the back room, she kicked the door closed and locked it. She brushed her hands together and went back to his truck. She climbed into the driver’s seat and looked through all the stops on the dashboard navigation display until she found the starting point for his deliveries. She snapped photos with her Scroll and sent them to Roman.
Good work, he wrote. Head on back. And bring me a coffee—a splash of cream, no sugar.
Neo raised an eyebrow.
When she got back to Roman’s apartment, he had spread out maps of the area around the coffee warehouse and blueprints of the building itself and was jotting down notes on the idea board. He reached for the paper Magic Beans cup she was carrying. She handed it over. He nearly fumbled it because it was lighter than he’d expected.
“Um.” He turned the cup upside down. “Forget something?”
She pointed to the name written on the side of the cup.
“ ‘Get your own coffee,’ ” he read. “Ha ha.”
Step 2: Intrusion
Even after two weeks of preparation, memorizing maps of the warehouse district, studying aerial photographs, and planning their route, Roman still wasn’t 100 percent sure he was on the right building. But it matched the coordinates Neo had scored from the freight driver’s truck.
“They all look the same,” he muttered from the roof, looking out at dozens of identically nondescript warehouses. He didn’t see how anyone could tell them apart. There was one way to find out for sure.
The good thing about all these warehouses being identical was that they were pretty much the same on the inside, too. Roman had rented one last week to assess its baseline security features and familiarize himself with its layout and weaknesses firsthand. Just like Neo couldn’t get Lil’ Miss Malachite’s appearance right just from photo references, he didn’t trust pictures and blueprints when their life or freedom was on the line.
He consulted the map on his Scroll and walked along the roof until he found the likeliest place to break in.
“X marks the spot.” Roman aimed his cane down at the roof and fired a Dust flare downward. Tools might have been better suited to breaking through to the room below, with less mess and noise, but this was unquestionably the fastest way—and the ceilings weren’t wired to the alarm system. Especially in the bathroom.
Roman waited for the smoke and dust to clear and then leaned down into the hole to look inside. He shone a flashlight from the back of his Scroll into the room.
Great. This was not the bathroom. It was the center of the warehouse’s storage area. He couldn’t make out what was inside from way up here, but the good news was he smelled coffee beans.
How had he gotten the wrong spot? He checked his Scroll and saw the map flip upside down. When he turned the Scroll over again to view it right-side up, the map flipped again.
He sighed.
May have a problem, he texted to Neo. Slight miscalculation. Blew a hole into the main area. Stick to the plan, but start the clock. Though he couldn’t hear an alarm, he might have triggered a silent alert. That meant they had thirty minutes at most before the police would arrive. Less if there was any security onsite. He hadn’t been able to confirm that part, but he thought it extremely unlikely. While crime organizations ran a brisk business stealing harvests from small coffee farmers in Mistral and selling them directly to distributors, here in Vale the risk was greater, with a lower chance of success.
“Why did I think this was a good idea again?” Roman asked himself. But he didn’t have time to second-guess the plan now. He attached the grappling hook from Melodic Cudgel and slowly lowered himself down into the room on a wire. The doors and windows were all wired with infrared beams to detect motion, but once you were inside—like he was now—there shouldn’t be any security.
As he descended, he ran through the plan again for the umpteenth time. He wasn’t here for all the coffee—just the good stuff, the imports from Mistral that only came in once a month because of the distance and expense in transporting shipments, not to mention the constant danger of Grimm attacks. They could take the entire pallet in the stolen truck Neo had waiting outside the loading dock. Now that he had broken and entered, all he had to do was grab a forklift, locate the shipment, and then break and exit.
“Halt right there!” A voice echoed throughout the large storage space. Roman peered down and saw Roch Szalt, the Huntsman who had tried to stop him from robbing the First Bank of Vale. Former Huntsman.
“You!” they both shouted at the same time.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” Roman said.
“Neither are you!” Roch bellowed.
“Shouldn’t you be out fighting Grimm or something?”
“They revoked my license. Beca
use of you!” Roch grabbed his weapon and aimed it at Roman. The claw on one end of the staff hurtled toward Roman.
Roman fired a flare from the tip of the cane, which both sent Roch diving out of the way and propelled Roman on the end of his line—out of reach of the grasping claw. He used the momentum to swing himself around and around the room so Roch wouldn’t be able to get a lock on him.
“Didn’t take you for the kind of guy who would make a late-night coffee run,” Roch said. “I was hoping it would be a quiet evening. But this is more fun.”
Roman’s brows knit together. It really was just one thing after another tonight, wasn’t it?. He was disappointed, but not angry. Sometimes even the best laid plans needed a little bit of improvisation.
Roch spun his staff around, cocked the weapon behind him, and swung. A row of sharp spikes fanned out toward Roman. One of them smashed into his left leg. Roman grunted with pain and lost his grip on his cane, dropping ten feet to the ground. Melodic Cudgel dropped down, too, and clattered a few feet away from him.
He tried to retrieve it, but Rock’s extendo-arm grabbed it first and yanked it out of reach.
“Roman Torchwick, you’re under arrest,” Roch said.
Step 3: Getaway
Neo drummed her fingers on the steering wheel of the cargo truck. Roman was running behind schedule. She hadn’t heard from him at all since his last text message, and she was worried he was in trouble. And there was chatter on the police scanner about the warehouse—their time was almost up.
Muffled laughing came from the back of the vehicle. She had tied up and gagged the driver and stowed him back there when she took his truck. When she carjacked him, he hadn’t been surprised at all. “I knew something was going down!” he’d said. “You look different, but you’re that same chick from the coffee place, right? I told the cops to keep an eye out for a robbery.”
Kidnapping a hostage hadn’t been part of the plan, but he was just so annoying. She had an idea about framing him for the coffee heist but she hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. She might only mess with him a little more and then cut him loose when he was good and scared.
Neo wrote another text to Roman’s Scroll: It’s time to go! But as soon as she hit Send, she heard a gunshot from inside the warehouse.
New plan. Neo backed the truck out of the loading dock and revved the engine. “No, no, no,” the driver managed to choke out around his gag.
Yes, yes, yes. Neo floored the accelerator, and the truck lurched to life. It was slow to get moving, but once it hit a high velocity, its momentum made it unstoppable. The metal door of the loading dock crumpled like paper with a horrific shrieking and tearing sound that made her jaw ache.
She kept the truck speeding down the length of the warehouse. Up ahead, she saw Roman on the floor, bleeding. A burly man with shoulder-length white hair and silver armor loomed over him. He turned when he heard and saw the truck barreling toward him, but rather than jump out of the way, he turned to face it down. The truck hit him and his Aura flashed gray at the impact, but he was holding on to the front grille with a fierce expression on his face. He started to climb up it, his eyes locked onto Neo.
Then he and the truck smashed into a pillar in the center of the warehouse. His Aura popped and he passed out.
Good thing he cushioned the impact. The pillar began to crack and pieces of the ceiling crumbled and fell. Neo’s mouth opened. Oops.
In the back of the truck, the trussed-up driver whimpered. He had been bouncing around the trailer as it raced around and was in even worse shape than before.
In the rearview mirror, Neo saw a forklift carrying a plastic-bound pallet of coffee headed for the truck. It pulled up alongside the driver’s window and Roman leaned out.
“Need a lift?” he said.
Neo flashed him a thumbs-up and opened the cargo door. As soon as she did, the driver jumped up and ran out of the truck. Roman casually threw his cane at him, hitting him in the head and knocking him out.
“Who’s your friend?” Roman asked.
She swatted a hand in the air. Never mind.
“Right.” Roman glanced at the pillar. “When you move the truck, that thing’s coming down, so I’d rather not linger. Plus, I believe I hear the distinct sound of sirens approaching. I’ll load this coffee and then let’s get out of here.”
Step 4: Profit?
Back at Roman’s they celebrated their victory with ice cream sundaes. Not only had they gotten the coffee they wanted, when the rest of the warehouse collapsed from the damage in the fight, it had ruined all the coffee they didn’t take. It wouldn’t be long before they were the only source of coffee in Vale and they could set their price.
Of all the successful heists Roman had done, this one felt the best. And maybe it was because he had come out of it richer than he’d ever expected: with a partner who could keep up with him. Better than that, Neo complemented him—and she had watched his back.
It also was nice to share this moment with someone who wasn’t focused on splitting the profits. Neo was in it more for the mayhem than the money, just like him.
“Long ago I decided I never wanted a sidekick,” Roman said. “But then I met you.”
Neo spun and kicked him in his side. Caught by surprise, he flew across the room.
“Okay, I deserved that,” he said. “What I meant was: a partner in crime.”
He looked up and Neo was standing over him, offering a hand to help him up.
He took it.
Neopolitan was having second thoughts. As much as life at the school had improved, more and more it felt like it wasn’t giving her what she needed. She had already surpassed everything the teachers could give her, so she was just biding her time each day until she could start her real lessons with Roman.
Couldn’t she just quit and work with him?
Unless she could come up with the information he needed to get Lil’ Miss Malachite off his back, he’d never agree to that. And if she left the school, she’d lose her only insider access and her best chance at helping him. Besides, she wouldn’t have anywhere else to go.
Meanwhile, it was clear that Lady Beat was becoming impatient with Neo. She wanted her to either bring Roman in herself or set him up so Melanie and Miltia could finish the job.
I need more time, Neo typed. She had used the phrase so often, her Scroll autofilled it for her.
“You have three days, or I’ll expel you from this school and send you back to your parents.”
Neo scowled. But she nodded and decided to step things up. And tonight was the night she was going to break into the Room. She texted Roman to cancel their usual plans.
Everything all right? he wrote back.
Just need a night in. To do the thing, she texted.
Right. The thing. Gotcha.
Then a little later, he sent: Which thing?
Neo rolled her eyes. He would either figure it out or he would understand when she gave him an update—if there was anything to update.
The Room was where Lady Beat spent all of her time when she wasn’t teaching or sleeping. Neo had stumbled across it while snooping throughout the school, opening every door, every drawer, every cabinet. Some doors were locked, and Neo had managed to pick those without too much trouble. Usually they were just broom closets, storage rooms, or computer labs. But she had never been able to break into the Room.
So she had staked it out to see who was using the room, and of course it was Lady Beat. She was there almost every night, for most of the night.
But tonight, she had gone out for the evening right after class, dressed for a meeting, so this was Neo’s chance to finally get inside.
Neo presented an illusion of an empty hallway while she knelt by the door and unrolled her lock-picking tools.
She laughed when she saw the lock. It was the same as the one Papa had put on her bedroom door. She hadn’t been able to open it then, but she’d been practicing on locks of all types with Roman since.
&n
bsp; Even so, it was a tricky lock, and she was nervous. It took her six tries to open it, pausing and listening constantly for footsteps.
She opened the door, slipped inside quickly, and shut it softly behind her.
The room was lit by the soft glow of a computer screen and keyboard set up on a long console with lots of blinking lights and illuminated dials.
Some kind of command station? Was this a security system for the school? But there weren’t even any security cameras in the building.
Neo sat down in a comfortable swivel chair in front of the computer and tapped on the keyboard. A lock screen popped up and a light above the monitor blinked on. A camera.
“Commencing face scan … three … two …”
Neo quickly shifted to look like Lady Beat.
“One … Accepted.”
The screen flashed green and a command prompt appeared. Then a holo screen appeared on the far wall opposite the door and the computer.
It was a security feed after all, broken up into squares in a 12 x 12 grid. Most of the squares were black and grainy, except for one. Which showed the computer screen she was looking at.
Neo put her hand in front of the screen and waved it. Her hand moved in the video on the holo. She brought her hand closer to her chest and moved it around until she found the camera.
The triskelion pin.
The same pin that every student at the school wore. So that was why there was no need for security cameras—they were each wearing a body cam, and sending the footage back to this viewing room.
Neo pressed the arrow key on the keyboard and the holo display shifted. More scenes, but not from inside the school. Some of these were dark as well, but several showed footage from the streets of Vale. A couple showed dinner plates, in restaurants, on a counter in a private kitchen. One showed a woman touching up her lipstick in a mirror. Neo spotted the triskelion on a brooch pinned to her black cocktail dress.
What had Roman said? His online search had shown this pin being worn by socialites all over the city, graduates of Lady Browning’s Preparatory Academy for Girls. Many of them were leaders in government, executives, entrepreneurs. Partners to important people. Reporters. Bankers.
