The moment Erraiel steps on stage, I take it as my cue to leave. There’s nothing else for me to do here. As much as I want to stay where the action is happening, I have something else to do — something only I can do.

I slide open the doors to the balcony and secure the end of my rappel line to the metal railings. Neiv watches me with an arched eyebrow.

“You do realise you can just use the elevator and I’ll erase your footprints, right?”

I grin as I climb over the railings. “Where’s the fun in that?”

“Typical Wenzie.”

They’re the last words I hear from her before I leaped off the balcony with my hands outstretched, taunting gravity. Then my arms strain when my gloved hands wrapped around a metal rung.

We specifically chose a room on this side of the building because of the access it provides to the technical ladders. It’s also in the northwestern part of the building, away from the highway and in the shadow of its own domineering figure. The technical ladders are the ones used by technicians when the hotel encounters electrical issues in each floor. Being here, it should be easy for me to disrupt the ongoing auction.

As much as I’d like to, I have a plan to follow.

Instead of climbing down the ladder as it was originally intended, I wrap my rappel line around one sturdy rung and allowed gravity to be my accomplice. Every now and then, I leap off a couple of meters to speed myself up. Neiv gives me a running commentary as I descend.

“Three more items until Erraiel’s turn.”

“She’s going onstage. Huh, the necklace is quite popular.”

“Bidding just reached 10 million credits.” I swore under my breath. 10 ing million for a necklace?

“Scratch that, it’s already at 14 mil. Damn, I wouldn’t even think of wearing something like that.”

“Is it sold already?” I ask.

“Not yet, but Evanschel’s fighting for it. He doesn’t even have the credits for it.”

“He’s arrogant.”

“Kalyn is quite convincing.” I don’t respond. “She followed him around for what, two? — three weeks?”

“Eleven days.”

“She managed to snare a man in eleven days? Damn.”

“That’s Kalyn.”

Feet on the ground, I sprint to a distant parking space where we parked our car. We haven’t used this car for this job yet, and I made sure to change the plates the night before. I am no Erraiel, but I’m skilled enough in driving discreetly. I know all the unmonitored streets in the city. Memorised it so many years back that it’s become an inherent part of me.

“We’re already at 18 million with increments in hundred thousands. There’s only Evanschel and the guy who owned Avistell Airlines.”

“What do you think?”

“With the way Kalyn is pressing herself against him, he’s not gonna want to back down from this?”

I tried not to picture it in my head. “Good. I’m almost there.”

As I coasted through the streets of Pulstrane, past borough after another, through the changing landscape, I began to think about this job. Kalyn always emphasised putting the right person for the right job. It’s the very foundation of every plan we make for a job. We play to our strengths to ensure that we will never be backed into a corner we couldn’t get out of.

I reached Evanschel’s private hangar and this time, I have to get inside despite the multiple security measures set up. I’ve prepared for this, even simulated it multiple times, but nothing beats the real thing. When all’s said and done, we have to make sure none of us leaves a trace.

The hangar itself is harder to breach. Because the security cameras are closed-circuit and monitored directly instead of being broadcast to a mobile surveillance system, Neiv will have to jam from the source. Skilled as she may be, she can’t be in two places at once. And they need her in the Diamond Tower more than I do.

The last time, I did it while the security features were disabled by Evanschel himself. This time I have to do it the old-fashioned way.

Problem number one, security cameras. Many of the security cameras around the hangar are motion-activated, which means that it only turns on when it detects movement. A simple silicone spray usually does the job and I can enter the gated premises.

Another thing, the laser sensors are too complicated for me to navigate. I am skilled, not a miracle worker.

The only solution we came up with was to shut down the electricity in the area. It’s the only weakness I discovered in their security: they relied entirely on the energy they siphon off the public electrical system instead of having their own power. For someone who spent a lot of money on security, it was stupid of him to overlook this flaw. I don’t blame him though, I’ve seen the price tag.

Thankfully, there is no bad weather to obstruct me.

I climbed over the fence surrounding the perimeter, satisfied all the external security cameras have been taken care of. From the small bag, I pulled out a pair of gloves especially modified to magnetically stick to the metal walls of the hangar.

Without purchase for my feet, I have to rely on my upper body strength to pull me up. It’s like climbing an incredibly smooth rock face with your body dangerously close to submitting to gravity. My arms strain but I carry on. The hangar is only three stories high so I’d probably end up with just a few broken bones if I fall.

Neiv takes it as the perfect time to reappear. I was already enjoying the silence.

“Wenzie, where are you?”

I manage to grunt through clenched teeth. I meant to say ‘not now’ but it comes out like a meow which I doubt she understood.

When I reach the sloping roof of the hangar, my breath is ragged and my arms are aching from being taut for a long period of time. I crawl across the roof until I’m directly above the jet. Using a portable drill driver, unscrewing the bolts that hold the roof material to the foundation beams is easy and took me less than a minute. I only need a small opening to slip into.

After screwing a small automatic winch into the metal beam, I give my signal to Neiv.

“Remember, you only have eight minutes before the power comes back.” She switched from our private channel to the one all of us are in. “Blackout in three, two, one.”

Grid by grid, I watch the city lights flicker into darkness until it becomes an all-encompassing entity. The timer in my watch begins as soon as the power in the grid the hangar is in goes out. I slide the night vision goggles over my eyes and the world takes on a green tinge.

I slip into the hole I made and abseil down swiftly.

The jet’s airstairs are already disengaged when I reached the ground. I thought the device I attacked to its computer system only works as a data transmitter. Neiv revealed during our planning that it also carried a virus she developed to hijack the jet’s control system remotely. She explained it to me extensively until Erraiel pointed out that I’m an ignorant Luddite. 

The interior of the plane is oak-paneled and velvet-lined, lit by dim yellow lights. Plush couches at one side, tables at the other side with double seats. Carpeted floor. It wasn’t called a luxury jet plane for nothing.

But I don’t have time to drink in the details. I walk past the dining room and the kitchenette, the bedroom, and into a small walk-in closet. At first glance it seems like nothing is amiss, but the blueprint revealed a large chamber right behind it. The question is, how do I get to the other side?

I try pushing the full-length mirror but it doesn’t budge. Pulling at hangers and door handles doesn’t reveal the entrance to the secret room. But it has to be here.

“Neiv, a little help. I can’t find the door to this guy’s chamber of secrets.”

“Hold on. I’m looking at the blueprint. Okay, there’s supposed to be a trigger mechanism to your left and the mirror will slide to the side once it’s activated. What do you see?”

“Suits — expensive ones. How many suits does this guy need?”

I push them ot the side and start feeling the paneled walls with my hands. When my fingers pass over an indentation on the otherwise smooth panel, I know I found it. Pushing it down does exactly what Neiv said.

The entrance reveals a room as big as the bedroom, lined with expensive paintings, jewellery, and rare artifacts — ones rich, dumb wannabe collectors would willingly spend their money on. I have to admit, this guy is a serious collector with good taste. Too bad the only thing he’ll be collecting now will be scratches on prison walls.

Everything valuable he owns is here. Over the years, Evanschel accumulated a medium-sized company’s worth of riches which he’d hidden all over the city. We needed to give him a reason to bring them all together. We started with near-misses about his embezzling. The last thing he wants is to get in controversy, so he’ll run and lie low. And he’s too much of a control freak to leave everything behind.

The data transmission device I planted in his jet showed us where he’d been in the city, which was all over the place — each dot corresponding to an assumed hiding place of his precious belongings.

Next was the power of suggestion. We got him interested in the necklace the same way Kalyn caught his interest. Since we got this job, we’ve been casually hinting at him about the necklace in a way that his conscious mind will not register. Eleven days before the actual auction, Kalyn made casual appearances at random moments without being conspicuous.

It wasn’t his first time seeing her at the part, but his brain was tricked into believing it was. It helps that the man thinks with his like most men.

It’s tempting to take them all, but I don’t. We’ve decided to only take the ones that were illegally obtained so the authorities will have no record of it, and it will still cost a pretty penny once resold in the black market. Also crossed out from the list of “to take” are excessively big paintings. It’ll be too hard for me to transport alone.

Plus we needed to leave evidence of his embezzling to convict him. What better way to prove that a man is living beyond his means than to show just how much he’d kept away from official records?

I work quickly, glad to have a minute to spare before the power turns back on.

As the winch pulls me and the bag upward, I hope the others also completed their respective jobs.