8

Trump Card

Part Eight: The Debut of Hax

Über's fingers rattled on the keyboard of the small laptop, as he gazed intently at the screen. His lips moved as he murmured to himself, going through the steps we had planned. Entering one last command, he hit the Enter key with a flourish, and pulled the laptop cover closed. "Eight twenty eight and counting," he announced in his resonant voice. "The hack is good to go. Ready when you are, Hax."

I opened my mouth to reply in the affirmative, then paused. This is it. This is the point where I can't pretend any more that it's just a game, not any more. If I do this, I'm a supervillain. I'm a criminal. If I get caught, I go to jail.

"Hax?" L33t's voice was dubious. "Are you wimping out on us?"

"Give me a moment," I managed. "This is a big step."

"Huh," he sneered. "I knew it. You talk a good game, but -"

Über overrode him. "We're working on a limited time window here, Hax. Is this a go or a no go?"

I took a deep breath. I didn't want to be a supervillain, but I hadn't really been given all that many choices to begin with. At least this way, this path, was my choice, not someone else's.

"I'm in," I confirmed. "Let's do this."

"Woo hoo!" crowed L33t. "Let's kick this puppy!"

"Don't ever let Bitch hear you say that," advised Über dryly. He checked his watch. "Thirty seconds to go time. Phase one, mark."

I wanted to ask who 'Bitch' was - in my perusal of the PHO boards, I had never encountered that name - but there would be time later. "Mark," I echoed.

My first criminal act as a supervillain was under way.

We had taken a couple of days to get ready; L33t whined a bit about this, but Über seemed to be okay with it. I suspected that he was observing me closely, in order to make sure I wasn't setting them up for a betrayal down the line. That didn't bother me; I was putting their powers to good use.

From Über I picked up a range of skills suited to my purposes; running, jumping, basic martial arts, sneaking and hiding, and so on. I found that the skills lingered after I swapped my power focus to L33t, but tended to fade unless I made use of them semi-regularly. That was fine with me; I intended to use them just as often as I needed to.

L33t was sullen about the fact that I could apparently use his power to pursue avenues that he had already 'used up'. During my time in his workshop, I constructed two devices. One was a hand-held wireless taser - it had a limited range and not many shots, but it also had the advantage of being ninety percent off-the-shelf hardware; I'd had to tweak the capacitor that acted as an energy magazine to hold more power than normal, but the end result was a pistol that would fire maybe six debilitating shots before I had to recharge it. And it would fit into a holster in the small of my back.

Drawing, aiming and firing that pistol; that was one of the skillsets I practised assiduously.

The other device had drawn scorn from L33t, and dubious glances from his partner.

"A cape detector?" Über had asked. "Really?"

I nodded, still fitting the headband into place, then flipping down the goggle lenses. The cigarette pack sized module sat comfortably at the back of my head; it hummed slightly when I flipped the switch to power it up.

"Really," I told him. "It's only got about a twenty yard range - I had to sacrifice range for precision - but the right lens has a HUD that shows me rough distance and bearing, and the left will show a dot when I'm looking right at someone with powers." And, although it wasn't relevant, the lenses also optically corrected my short-sightedness.

"So does it tell you what the powers the person's got?" he asked.

I shook my head. "But that's what my power's good for," I reminded him.

"But can't you already do that if you're up against a cape?" Über wanted to know.

"Only if I know he's there," I pointed out. "If I'm focused on someone and another cape is sneaking up behind me, or behind a wall, I really want to know about it. Might be a powerset I can use, right there."

"You realise," L33t jeered, "if you get caught wearing that thing while walking down the street, they'll go after you for trying to find out secret identities."

"But I won't be using it for that," I protested. "Besides, my powers work just fine even without it."

Über cleared his throat meaningfully, looking from one of us to the other. "L33t, shouldn't you be making stuff too?' he suggested. "After all, we still need to get through security."

"She's hogging my workbench," complained L33t.

"Not at all," I contradicted, stepping away from the bench. "All yours. Thanks for the loan."

Muttering under his breath, L33t had reclaimed his workspace, and set about constructing devices of his own. I shared a glance with Über; he shrugged expressively. He and I had pooled our talents - freshly acquired, on my part - to plan this heist, and I found that we synergised well. L33t, on the other hand, was still visibly resentful of my presence.

I wasn't sure whether his antipathy was due to my inviting myself on to the team, or the fact that I could do everything he could as a Tinker and more. Or it just may have been that Über and I found ourselves on the same wavelength a lot of the time when I was sharing his power, and L33t felt left out.

In a way, I kind of knew how he felt - Emma had done the same thing to me, only more so - and so I tried to avoid excluding him from the conversations altogether. Unfortunately, even when given the benefit of the doubt, a resentful L33t wasn't a very pleasant person to try to get along with. There was only so much I could do before giving up.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Shadow Stalker," Vista confided as she stepped over the rooftops.

Aegis, overhead, nodded. "You're not far wrong," he agreed. "With her on permanent base duty, our patrol schedules are all messed up."

"I haven't even been out this way for too long," the youngest member of the Wards told him. "What are the waypoints?"

"Tonight, we'll hold for a few minutes at the North Side warehouse," he replied. "Use the pause to get a feel of the area, make sure nothing's going down."

She nodded. "Good idea."

The North Side Storage Facility was a huge, blocky building. For those not in the know, the name did not excite much in the way of interest. For those who were in the know – such as Über, L33t and myself – it was a clearing-house for nearly all the high-end electrical and electronic components that came into the city. During daylight hours, secure vehicles arrived and left on an hourly basis, bound for destinations all over Brockton Bay. Any Tinker worth his salt would give an arm, a leg and the vital organ of his choice, for the chance of browsing the shelves for half an hour with an unlimited charge account.

We intended to do much the same, only without resorting to the charge account.

Of course, this robbery would not be a simple case of strolling in, shorting out the alarm system and taking our pick of the merchandise. Literally millions of dollars' worth of equipment rolled through the place on a weekly – sometimes daily – basis, and the security was beefed up to a commensurate level.

Tinker-made detectors supplemented the pressure plates, infrared detectors, body-heat sensors, CO2 detectors and so on. The walls and ceiling were coated with a thin polymer that was designed to pull away (and set off an alarm) if anything over one ounce in weight tried to crawl on it. There were sensors set to detect the sudden change in air pressure that teleporters may cause.

In short, the proprietors of the facility had done their best to reduce the utterly astronomical insurance premiums engendered by maintaining a stock of highly valuable merchandise in a city riddled with criminal capes.

I suspected that we were going to nudge those premiums up slightly.

Aegis had a lot of time for Vista. The youngest of the Wards, she had more experience under her belt than Shadow Stalker, Kid Win and Clockblocker, and more or less equal time with Gallant. He appreciated her professional demeanour, and the way that she didn't let obstacles stand in her way – both figuratively and literally.

Which was why he felt bad every time he saw her face light up, every time that Dean entered the room. Dean had an ongoing thing with Glory Girl; Vista had to know that. But still, she all but followed him around the base. And when she had the chance to go out on patrol with him, she positively glowed.

One day, not too long distant if he was any judge, she was going to come to the realisation that Dean simply was not interested in her. And the knowledge would break her heart.

As the team second in command, he felt that it was his duty to try to tell her, let her down gently. But he had no idea how to bring it up.

Phase one of the plan was gaining entry to the premises. Phase two was grabbing the gear we needed; some of what L33t wanted, but mainly stuff for me. Phase three, of course, was getting the heck out of Dodge. If the plan lasted that far.

We were all wearing basic black coveralls and masks; L33t had (predictably) protested the lack of a video game theme. Über was also less than thrilled about the departure from their regular MO, but he had given it his provisional acceptance, so long as it didn't become an ongoing thing.

L33t had opposed the entire concept of robbing North Side; it was, he protested, a needless risk for too little gain. Über had responded by waving the catalogue under his nose, until he began to read through it. It wasn't long before his eyes started to glaze, and the protests dried up.

It had taken a while to figure out how to defeat the security system, but between us, Über and I had done it. The key was a thirty-second gap in the main security system coverage. Normally, this was not a problem, North Side had a complete second security system, independent from the first one in every way, that was checked extensively before being activated. At eight thirty every morning, the primary system went down for a thirty-second self-check and diagnostic, comparing every line of code in the computerised control systems to a hardwired offsite backup. The secondary security system went online at seven thirty and was turned off at nine thirty, once it was established that the primary was well and truly secure once more.

We couldn't hack the security system itself; multiple redundant system checks would ring bells all over if we even tried. Nor could we hack the secondary system; it was offline, on a physically isolated system, until it was activated in the morning.

So we hacked the system clock.

At eight twenty-nine and fifty-nine seconds, it would switch from PM to AM. At eight thirty, it would start counting seconds as minutes. At nine PM, it would switch back to PM, add twenty-nine minutes and thirty seconds to its elapsed time, and continue upon its merry way.

But in that half-hour interval between eight thirty and nine PM, it would switch itself off; all locks would open, all cameras would cease recording, all sensors would be ignored. The secondary security system, which would normally have taken up these duties, was on a separate timer, and would not register the primary going offline.

Of course, the exterior doors and windows would still be active; they were on yet another system. So we had to get past those as well. Fortunately, we still had L33t's talents; as irritating and whiny as he was, he was still a Tinker of some note, and he had just the thing.

As Über's watch ticked over to eight thirty, we climbed out of the car and advanced across the street. Each of us carried an empty duffel bag; I also had a backpack loaded with tools of all sorts. I didn't think I'd need to do any Tinkering while in there, but there was always the off chance. L33t, on the other hand, carried a rectangular framework, about the size of an ordinary door when unfolded.

"I still think we should have gone with a theme," grumbled L33t, even as he opened up the ungainly framework and pressed it against the side of the building, not far from a door.

"Themes are for when you're doing things in public, for your web show," I pointed out, as patiently as I could manage. "Think of this as preparation for your next show. Even award winning TV shows have dress rehearsals."

"I guess," he muttered, and pressed a button on the small module attached. There was a buzz and a hum and the area inside the frame shimmered slightly.

I glanced at Über. "Ladies first?"

He shook his head. "I'll make sure it's secure. Or rather, not secure."

Such was his faith in his partner's tech skills, he stepped forward boldly, not even testing the wall first. The faith was rewarded; the brickwork parted around him like water, and he disappeared into the wall. I nodded to L33t. "Nice."

He didn't smile, but his hunched posture straightened slightly. "Whatever," he muttered.

Ten seconds passed, and Über hadn't come barrelling out; nor had he called any of the distress phrases over the radios we all wore.

"Player one, status?" I called over the radio.

"All clear, player three," he replied immediately. "Come on in, the water's fine."

I stepped through the wall, followed closely by L33t. Blasting sirens totally failed to greet us. It was dark and quiet, lit only by emergency lighting.

We were in.

Aegis called a halt on a rooftop near the looming bulk of the North Side Storage Facility. They waited several moments, watching and listening, before he finally decided to speak to her.

"Vista," he began. "I think we should talk."

"What about?" she asked.

He decided to bite the bullet. "It's about you and Dean."

She seemed to freeze. " … what?" she asked faintly.

He began to regret speaking up, but now that he had started, he had to see it through. "Listen, Missy. I just want to tell you, as a friend. Dean likes you as a person. But he's not -"

"I don't want to hear it," she interrupted him, turning away, and putting her hands on the parapet at the edge of the building. "What's between me and Dean isn't anyone's business. Not yours, not Sophia's, not anyone's."

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Missy -"

"Shut up," she told him.

"No, you need to hear this -"

"No, you need to shut up," Vista snapped. "Look, over there."

He looked where she was pointing. In a patch of shadow between two overhead floodlights, three dark-clad figures were clustered next to the wall of the storage facility. And then one person stepped up to the solid wall … and through it.

Aegis glanced at Vista. "You saw that, just then, didn't you?" he queried.

She nodded. "Either someone's stealing Sophia's shtick," she ventured, "Or that was her just down there."

And then the other two also stepped into the wall and disappeared from view.

"Uh." Missy paused. "I'll go for 'stealing her shtick'."

"That's the North Side Storage Facility," Aegis observed, even as he took to the air. "I think they'll be stealing more than that."

"Can we bust them?" asked Missy eagerly. "Pretty please?"

Aegis grinned. "Only because you said please."

He swooped down to where the trio had disappeared. She would not be far behind.

End of Chapter Eight