Weaving through the crowd while balancing a tray of champagne flutes is not an easy feat. The crowd is a live thing waiting for you to stumble and make a mistake. It is never patient, never understanding. It demands to be served with utmost respect and perfection.

That means you have to keep an eye out for anyone in your way lest you end up spilling sparkling champagne over expensive clothes. Swift and nimble, like a ballet dancer, you glide through the venue in perfect balance.

But really, when you're used to sneaking into houses and buildings undetected, the task becomes more of a nuisance than a challenge.

It's not like I have a choice. After planning extensively, we decided that I needed to be in the venue right before the event starts to help them move things along.

Unlike Erraiel and Kalyn who has a lot of connections, I only have myself and the team.

After confirming which work agency the hotel will be drawing extra servers from, it was easy for Neiv to acquire the shortlist of applicants for the auction. We picked one girl and intercepted all of the agency's attempts at contacting her.

As compensation, we'll send her wages for the work she hasn't done. The amount isn't even a single percent of our payout.

Kalyn and I also scouted the venue ahead of time, posing as visitors. The rooftop garden where the charity auction is going to take place is designed like a multi-faceted diamond with glass walls. It's basically an extravagant greenhouse designed with aesthetics in mind over utility.

This is the first time we have to infiltrate the Diamond Tower so apart from the blueprint I've diligently memorised, I created a 3D map of the entire floor plan with information on what plants are in which section thanks to the device Neiv and Erraiel developed.

To put it simply, it uses echolocation on the areas I pass through while disguised as a simple necklace pendant. It's still a prototype so Neiv puts the accuracy level between 70 to 80%.

That was two days ago.

From this high up, I'm afforded an exquisite view of downtown Pulstrane at night through the glass walls of the rooftop garden. The venue is bathed in golden light from the lanterns hanging overhead. Potential buyers in expensive apparel mingle on the floor while waiting for the event to begin.

The Diamond Tower is Pulstrane's pride and joy when it comes to hotels. With over 80 floors of luxurious suites, it's the tallest building in the downtown borough. You'd think that shady deals like this are kept underground. Not in Pulstrane. What better way to commit a crime than to have it done under the guise of charity?

At the centre, an elevated walkway eagerly awaits the parade of material luxuries these people will fight for, if only for the sake of status and power.

I make my rounds, replenishing my tray as soon as my tray is empty. This is already my sixth round, and the endless rotation is making me restless. I am saved by Neiv's voice in my ear.

"Wenzie, nine o'clock."

I turn to my left, watching as mark walks into a crowd of smiling men in crisp, business suits with young ladies in too-short dresses in their arms. I'm too far away to hear their conversation but I watch them from the corner of my eye, making my way towards them without alerting anyone. That meant I had to take a roundabout way.

Commanding the attention of the crowd I have my eyes on is a short, charismatic man with a broad forehead and a wide smile. Zyron Evanschel, CEO of one of Pulstrane's top pharmaceutical companies, Angle. He's a face many people know thanks to the number of appearances he made on television broadcasts.

According to Neiv's research, he's been continuously embezzling large amounts of money from their company to fund his lifestyle. A deeper look says he's struggling financially to pay his debts despite his embezzling.

That doesn't stop him from being here tonight, at the grandest auction event in the city with the most influential people. That definitely doesn't stop him from bidding for something.

Like all the powerful men in the city who thinks with their , there are two things he couldn't resist: power and women.

I sidestep just as a stumbling woman almost collided with me. She should have had enough of the champagne.

"Neiv, where's Kalyn?"

Somewhere within the building, Neiv is monitoring us from the comfort of a hotel room through security cameras all over the place.

"Four o'clock."

Clad in a white feathered dress that bares her shoulder to the golden light, it would've been effortless for Kalyn to steal the spotlight. But with everyone here doing the same, it's easy for her to blend in and not be noticed by anyone unless she wants them to.

She flits from one group to another, smiling, striking up a conversation before moving on to the next group. She keeps this up until she's near enough to our mark. When she catches me watching, she makes a barely perceptible nod and turns away.

It's time.

I intentionally step on the gown of the woman walking in front of me. She lurches and the champagne in her hand splashes the crowd surrounding Evanschel. I move away from the scene discreetly as if nothing happened.

As I walk away, I hear Kalyn's voice asking, "Are you okay, miss?"

Her move.

My pace quickens as I reach the edges where the shadows are thicker. The thrill of the action is beginning to fill my veins and set my heart into a steady beat, a rhythm I recognised whenever things are about to get nasty.

For them, that is.

I make my way through the thicket of gardenias in full bloom. This area is as far from the even as it can, thanks to the stinky flowers whose names I forgot. Even the nearby jasmine can't mask the smell.

While the rooftop garden is designed as a multi-faceted greenhouse, multiple vents run along the floor and a few of them exhausts the air circumvented by the hotel.

Unscrewing their covers is easy. I slip through the narrow tube, a two-by-two feet square, pulling the cover right back on as I descended, then crawl the rest of the way until I reach the grate, prying it open to gain access to the laundry chute. I fish my harness out of my bag, stick it to the metal walls of the vent and gave it a good tug just to test. Satisfied, I attach the clip to my waist and slip through the hole.

"Wenzie, hurry up."

I let the line loose as I descend.

"Wenzie, where are you?"

A grunt escapes me as my feet slips and for a moment, I think I'm falling. Then the rope catches and I lurch in the air. Heart in my throat, I find my voice. "I'm on my way."

Rappelling down the laundry isn't my choice but it's the most discreet way of getting from the rooftop to the floors below. The risk of running into someone who might recognise me afterwards is lowered considerably.

I count each floor I passed and stop the line when I reach eleven. Using my legs, I brace against the chute walls and screw the grate to this floor's vent. I crawled the rest of the way, relying only on my memory of the hotel's floor plan and hoping I'm counting correctly.

The bathroom is empty when I descend from the vent. When I crack open the door, Neiv's hunched figure is illuminated by dim night lights. Two laptops lay open in front of her, their screens divided into multiple squares and displaying the ongoing auction from different angles.

I spot Kalyn almost immediately, languidly sitting beside our mark, laughing sensuously.

"He's in deep."

Neiv starts, almost upending her chair. She turns to me with a burning glare. "I told you not to sneak up on me!"

I raise my hands in mock surrender. "I'm sorry. So where are we?"

"The auction started about four minutes ago. It'll be a while before Erraiel makes an appearance but we're keeping a close eye on Evanschel." She points to a man walking towards the backstage curtains.

"Evanschel's?"

"Yep. He can't get close because of the necklace's security." She points to the muscular man with a suitcase handcuffed to his wrists sitting beside Erraiel who's busy with her makeup.

I snort. "Just like us. We still have no idea who's selling?"

"Unfortunately, no." She brings up a new window with a stream of indecipherable code. "I still don't get why he would want us to steal something he's selling."

"Or why he's making this difficult for us."

"I thought you said this was easy."

"That was two weeks ago. Keep up with the times, Neiv," I scold. "And he's doing it for the same reason we do."

She looks at me. "What?"

"Money."