Three hundred miles away from civilization was a fenced-up warehouse surrounded by thick forestry. The road leading to the warehouse was overgrown with weeds and thick brush, their branches reaching out. Some of the overgrowth had been freshly crushed, and there were tire tracks imprinted on the patches of soil.
The gate to the warehouse was locked, but three vehicles were parked inside the fenced property. There was a brown two-door jeep with a zoo logo, a midnight- black motorcycle, and a pink Mini Cooper. Inside, the once deserted warehouse was bustling with activity.
A young man with long hair sprinted away, his hair flying wildly. Chasing him was a short woman wearing glasses, yelling at him. The two of them were bickering while running around. The man was called Dex, and the woman was called Rhea. Dex was begging her to let him keep it while Rhea was threatening to shave him bald if he didn't return it. The 'it' they were making a fuss about was a key chain. A bit childish, yes. But there was nothing normal about this group.
The two of them ran past two other people sitting at a table playing cards. Lila shuffled the cards, her ponytail swaying with her movements. Opposite her was Eli, dressed in a zookeeper's uniform.
Lila looked at his uniform and asked, "You changed your occupation now?" her brow arched. "No longer picking pockets?"
With a sly grin on his face, Eli raised his hand. In his hand was Lila's bank card that he had stolen without her noticing. "I picked your pockets, though," he said, looking so proud of himself.
Lila swore as she slammed the cards down. "You bastard!"
Eli chuckled, sliding the card back across the table. "You forgot what I taught you all those years ago. Never... turn... your back on me."
"You are a fucking asshole, you know that, right?" she shot back, though her lips twitched with reluctant amusement.
Suddenly, Dex slammed into their table, scattering the cards everywhere. Dex clutched his chest dramatically like a soccer player faking an injury on the field. He wailed exaggeratedly, but his performance left much to be desired. Rhea loomed over him. She was small in stature but incredibly strong. Lila and Eli immediately reprimanded her.
Rhea took back her keychain from Dex's hand and rolled her eyes saying, "He is obviously faking it. This dummy stole my keychain and now he is acting like I broke him in half." As though to contradict her, he groaned like an old man on his death bed.
Everyone, "..."
They fell back into old habits, fighting and bickering like cats and dogs. They were roasting each other with laughter in the chaos. It was incredibly fun to watch. Suddenly, a black van drove in, and the four of them stopped arguing. The moment Marcel stepped out of the car, they lit up, beaming like children seeing their mum return home after a day of chaos. They rushed over their excitement evident.
"What are you arguing about this time?" Marcel asked them.
Without restraint, Rhea leaped onto him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Dex, who seemed to have miraculously recovered, peeled her off of him while saying, "Why are you so shameless?"
Marcel patted her back, calm as ever. "Alright, alright, that's enough." Rhea stuck her tongue out at Dex in triumph as she got down.
Eli took advantage of Marcel's moment of distraction and swiped his wallet with a smug grin. "You are getting careless, Marcel."
Marcel chuckled, pulling a lighter, keys, and a zookeeper access card from Eli's pockets. "Will you look at that. Who's truly careless?"
Eli, "…"
Lila burst out laughing. She found it amusing seeing Eli at a loss. "How does that feel, huh?" she asked, gloating with glee.
"I thought you are retired?" Eli asked with a hint of sourness tinged in his tone. How could Marcel still be better than him when he was a literary in the business of pick pocketing?
"Thought you were still robbing rich grannies," he said with a sly smile. He pointed at his zookeeper uniform and asked, "What's this for?"
Eli sighed and said, "For your information, I was supposed to steal a bloody meerkat for a pretty little cheque before you called me."
Marcel's brow arched, wondering who in their right mind would pay to get a meerkat from a zoo. Come to think of it, years back, his grandfather asked to steal an iguana from someone's house to hold it hostage. He wasn't proud of it, but he had no choice at the time.
"Well, drop that job," he said as he walked toward the table. He placed a rolled-up blueprint on the tabletop. He unrolled it, revealing intricate lines and symbols. "I have something with an even bigger pay cheque. This is what we are looking at."
Rhea furrowed her brows as she leaned over to take a look. Others might not know what they were looking at, but she did. She whistled, looking at the schematics with reverence. Her fingertips caressed the laminated blueprints while saying with a stutter, "Th-This is the Ecliptic Vault by Alaric Voss, the Alaric Voss. Did you know this was his last masterpiece?"
Except Marcel, they all groaned in unison while rolling their eyes. They expressed their dissatisfaction.
"Ugh, come on."
"Here we go."
"I can't listen to another lecture on safes."
Others collected Stanleys as a hobby, other Hello Kitty merch, but Rhea's hobby was safes. Actually, calling it a hobby is an understatement. She lived and breathed their mechanics, treating them like rare art. She often geeked out over safes, and who could blame her? She was raised by the man who orchestrated the largest cash heist in history and cracked the so-called uncrackable Kraken safe.
Rhea ignored them, jumping in excitement. "There are only three of them in existence. One is beneath Mansory Diamond Co. The other, I heard, is owned by a private mercenary syndicate in Cove."
Dex tilted his head curiously, asking, "And the other one?"
Rhea shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don't know. It was a private custom order."
Tapping the tablet, Marcel said, "It's here." An image of an extravagant mansion appeared before their eyes. They all leaned in to take a closer look. Whoever owned this place was swimming in money.
Lila zoomed the image while saying, "That's a fancy place."
Marcel looked at Rhea and asked seriously, "Can you crack it?"
Rhea suddenly laughed out loud. She was wondering the same thing. Her dad had taught her everything she needed to know, but practice was not the same as theory. "Can I crack it? Hahaha… I don't know."
Eli couldn't believe it. Rhea was always so confident, and most of their jobs hinged on whether she could do it or not, and she always succeeded, so hearing her say that was unexpected. "You don't know?" he exclaimed.
With frustration in her voice, Rhea said, "This is the ultimate beast. It's the Mount Everest, no, my Mount Everest. It's inanimate, yet it operates like an ecosystem, a living and breathing ecosystem. It's mathematical following geometric rules, but it's also a work of art." She pointed at the safe lock and continued, "Its locking system is a triple-axis gyroscopic core, do you know what that means?"
Rhea didn't wait for him to respond. She said, "Forget it. Why am I even explaining this to you? You won't understand it anywhere."
Dex thought this was so troublesome. If she couldn't do it, then why not blow it up? Game over. "Can't we just blow it up if she can't handle it?"
Rhea snorted, saying, " Are you insane. The walls inside are lined with memory alloy. It shifts shape when exposed to either heat or vibrations. Brute force is fucking useless."
Dex groaned, throwing his hands up as he said, "So we can't blow it up. Great."
Marcel's gaze sharpened as he asked, "Then can you handle it?"
Rhea hesitated, her voice high-pitched, drawn out like she wasn't sure."Yeahhhh… yeah."
Marcel patted her shoulder firmly, saying, "Good, let me know if you need anything?" He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. and said," As per usual, I sent half. You will get the other half after the job is done."
Seconds later, the others' phones buzzed. Notifications lit up their screens, and their eyes widened at the string of zeros. Lila grinned. "Well, I guess I can finally get a new bike."
Eli, smirking, unbuttoned his zookeeper uniform, revealing his hairy chest. "Guess I don't need this anymore."
"Woah, woah, woah!" everyone shouted at once.
Rhea covered her eyes dramatically. "My eyes, my poor eyes!"
Lila laughed, shaking her head. "Put that hairy thing back where it belongs."
Dex doubled over, laughing.
Eli huffed before saying, "Wow. If this were Marcel taking off his shirt, all of you would be drooling. But when it's me, it's a problem?"
Rhea peeked through her fingers, smirking. "That's because he has nice packs and those abs… grrrrrr."
Marcel, "…"