Chapter 70 "One Last Step"

There was a scanner on the right side of the vault door. Upon closer inspection, both Iris and William were able to figure out what that could be. It doesn't need both of them to know a lot about technologies to know about it.

They had utilized a retinal scanner as a form of security to guarantee the security of the objects they had put up for auction. This time, Marshal, Carter, and Dark were really stepping up their security.

"Well, this is unexpected." said William.

"What are we supposed to do now? We can't go back now, do we?" asked Iris as she looked behind, watching if there was anyone else besides them in the hallway.

William thought about it for a moment and said, "Breaking it forcefully would only alert them that someone was trying to break into the room. Which was not the best option."

A thought crossed to Iris' mind, "Since you had changed your face into that person, would that work since you copied his face and some other things?"

She was right. By this logic, he should have been able to pass the security check as he had already copied the look of a Marshal, Carter, and Dark staff member. Given his capacity for shapeshifting, it might succeed since it appeared so natural.

"Either we don't go in, or we get past their security check. Either way, it's not good for us, but at least one of the options has a chance for us to continue the mission." said Iris.

William didn't like the chances and had to gamble on this theory, but he had no choice other than to do it. With that, William gave it a go and scanned his face into the screen. He hoped that it would work.

A few seconds had passed, and the machine finished scanning. It didn't make any alerting noise or anything that set off the emergency alarm. Nothing happened for a moment. William and Iris thought something was wrong, and his scan was invalidated.

But the moment William was about to do it once again, he heard a lock opening from the inside and moving one by one. It seemed that they had won the gamble, and the vault was about to open.

They had finally encountered what might have been the most challenging part of the entire mission. William and Iris moved back from the vault and watched as the door opened on its own. Before they could complete the mission, there would be just one more step to take.

"Take everything we're going to need. It would be better if we took it from multiple angles in case they had moved it or were blocked by any other items later." said William to her.

"Got it. To think about taking from multiple angles, it feels like we're putting surveillance cameras in this room." replied Iris as she opened her purse.

The vault door had fully opened. William and Iris entered the room without wasting any more time to complete their preparations for stealing SCP-3934 from Marshal, Carter, and Dark's possession.

The room was filled with several antique items ranging from a vase, jewelry, ancient inscription, and some other things. There are a lot of varieties regarding what Marshal, Carter, and Dark have to offer to their clients.

Each item in this room was packed into a box, where it appeared they would be stored before being transported to the many bidders who had purchased them at the auction.

William could tell that most of the items here were anomalous, and they were selling them to those people who had lots of money, regardless of what they were being used for. As long as they made a profit out of it, then it's a good business for them.

One thing that kept him thinking was the number of anomalous items that Marshal, Carter, and Dark somehow got it from. Judging from the amount and how many times they had done an auction to sell these, it wouldn't be surprising if they had someone who supplied them.

Iris pulled out her camera from the purse and started to take pictures of the room from multiple angles. One by one, a polaroid came out of the camera. She picked it up and put it into her purse.

"I'm quite surprised that they had a lot of these coming to be sold later in the auction. I can't imagine how much money they'll be making out of this." said Iris as she took a picture of the room.

William had a glance at the box containing the spear that Elena had previously purchased from the auction. From what he could make out, it appeared to be nothing strange or anomalous other than a typical rusty spear.

He replied as he looked at the spear, "I sat next down to a person that bought this spear in the auction. I'm quite shocked that this person spent about 4 million dollars just for this thing."

"Wow, really? 4 million is a lot. I would've spent that money on something else if I were that person. Call me stingy, but I don't like spending a lot of money in one go." said Iris.

"Yeah, I wouldn't be spending it on something like this either. Coming from a person who doesn't make a lot of money in their youthful years. Even having two grand is already a luxury that happened to me."

William examined the other objects in the room; despite his best efforts to find SCP-3934, he was unable to find it there. Since they would take the SCP-3934 without them noticing, it doesn't matter that it was probably being auctioned as they spoke.

One thing that caught his eye the most was something that he could only describe as an old tablet of some sort. It has a writing in an ancient language that he doesn't know from what era that is.

Something was attracting him to that tablet as if it was calling him to come over. He was curious as to what he felt right now, and it piqued his interest. William walked over to the tablet and looked at it for a moment.

It was merely a tablet, the sort of item he would typically find in a museum. He extended his hand while keeping his eyes and mind fixed on the tablet. He reached out and touched the tablet right away.

In an instant, William was in another place. He quickly realized that his surroundings had changed from a huge room filled with priceless artifacts to a small room that he could only describe as a bedroom.

His hands were still touching the tablet, and he didn't let go of it the whole time. He took a few moments to examine his surroundings because he felt something was familiar with this place.

But, there was no doubt that he knew this place. Something that he could've never forgotten in his entire life. The only place that he would spend the rest of his time the most.

It was his own apartment bedroom before he was transported to the world where the SCP Foundation exists.

He was certain of it because he had items that were uniquely his own, like his clothes, the laptop he kept on the desk, and decorations he had designed for himself.

The bed was the only thing that concerned him. He wasn't sure whose blood was on it, but it was covered in bloodstains. There was no doubt that something terrible had taken place.