13.2: Museum Heist pt 2

"Okay, go," Vlqtrn said, cutting off the rest of Lus's concerns.

He stepped through the door, making sure it closed quietly, even though there weren't supposed to be any guards inside the building. It simply felt appropriate for the situation.

As the door closed behind him, Lus was thrust into a deep darkness, penetrated only by a few orange beams from emergency lights. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the dimness, but even then he was only able to make out the faintest outline of the various exhibits and artifacts which added an extra level of difficulty to an already stressful mission.

"Can I use a headlamp or flashlight?" Lus asked into the comm, keeping his voice to only a whisper.

"There are light sensors on all the exhibits. They're actually used for preservation purposes, but they might trigger something at night so I don't think you can risk it," Vlqtrn supplied.

"That's just great," Lusac grumbled as he crept along in the dark. He kept his hands wide to keep from crashing into anything since that would undoubtedly also trigger some kind of alarm.

"You do know where you're going, right?" Cewi asked after another minute or so.

"Yes. Well, sort of," Lus amended. "It's hard to see with just the emergency lights. They don't illuminate all that much, and my eyes aren't meant for the dark like all your guys'."

"You might have better luck if you focused more on getting to the artifact and less on complaining," Wsr said, and he could easily envision the smirk that would be accompanying it.

"Easy for you to say," he said to himself rather than the comm unit. Still, he did try to move a little more quickly amongst the darkened exhibits. The shelving unit with their target waited along the far wall from where he entered, making his journey something akin to a maze with all the bumbling around in an attempt to find a safe way through. After more time than he would have liked, he arrived at the shelves, and luckily an emergency light was close enough he could see more of what he was doing.

"I made it. Am I okay to extract the target?" Lus asked.

"No. Hold on a sec. I'm still trying to hack into the exhibit specific security systems," Vlqtrn replied.

"The guards will be coming to do their systems check in a few minutes, Vlqtrn. We do not have time for this," Cewi urged him.

"Blast it all. Sorry, Lus. I can't get it. You'll have to do a local breach," Vqltrn said after another few seconds.

"That's fine. I have better lighting here so I should be able to handle it," Lus assured his companions, though he had his own doubts about his abilities to perform under this kind of pressure.

Sliding the pack off his back, Lus dug into it to remove some of his tools. He tried telling himself that this was just another routine maintenance job in the fsylan tubes, but he couldn't quite convince himself of that. Now would have been a great time for his system to do… something, but instead he was stuck with vague cooking abilities and increased charm, neither of which were going to do anything for him now.

Lusac selected the all-in cutter and the circuit closer for his task. The former was a flaming knife tip at the top of a sturdy handle that was charged with a variety of power types to allow it to cut through nearly any common place materials. It could slice things like paper, wood, and glass even if they were several inches thick while dense metals like alunitanium needed to be thin sheets or else the cutter wouldn't even make a dent.

The circuit closer was far more bulky, being a dense rectangular box with a wire coming from one end. It was also far trickier to use, and if Lus wasn't careful he could blow up the system and/or himself. At this point, he'd used the closer enough in the tubes that he felt comfortable slicing into nearly any system provided he had proper access.

He took the circuit closer in hand first and set to finding some kind of entry point to the exhibits power. Once he located the wire responsible for power, he just had to get the closer attached then all power to the exhibit would be looped inside the closer for a few minutes to allow him to work as if it had been turned off.

The cable Lus needed was in a hard to reach area that blocked most of the light, but he was able to dig out of its hiding place enough to pull it mostly into the light. From there he used the cutter on its lowest setting to remove a small piece of the protective coating, exposing the live wires. Then he carefully hooked the closer's wire system onto it, and within a few seconds the lights on the box informed him that power was cut to the exhibit.

Using the all-in cutter again, he returned to the protective glass. The key here was going to be finding a way to get inside that didn't leave too much of a mess. If he was able to do it properly, he could buy the team hours, perhaps even a day or two, before the absence of the artifact was noticed given its low importance to the museum curators.

Lusac tested the cutter against the glass, and found that the glass wasn't all that strong. That meant he should be able to re-fuse whatever he cut away. A corner on the side of the shelving unit seemed to be the most inconspicuous spot for his entrance. He used the cutter on a low setting to get a neat line out of the glass and removed a circle large enough for his hand and the artifact to get through.

Taking a breath, Lus reached into the exhibit. No alarms blared so he trusted that the closer was doing its job. He managed to get ahold of the puzzle piece and bring it out of the case. Before he set to work repairing all the damage, he took this chance to truly examine the artifact they were risking so much to get. It was a piece of stone with some kind of intricate pattern carved onto it, but without any other pieces, he couldn't tell what it was supposed to be.

"Lus, we have very little time. Do you have the piece?" Cewi-Bano's voice sounded loudly in his ear, startling him enough he nearly dropped the artifact.

"I have it. I just need to clean up my mess, and then I'll be back out," he promised.

Lusac wrapped the artifact up tightly and set it in the pack. He then used a higher power setting on the cutter to fuse the glass circle back into its place. Even in the dim light he could tell it wasn't a great repair, but with the time crunch, he couldn't do anymore to fix it. Instead he deactivated the circuit closer and half glued the coating back onto the exhibit's power cable. He returned the tools to the bag, slid it onto his shoulders, and shoved the cord back where he found it.

"Alright. I'm done. Making my way back," he reported.

"Hurry, Lus. For Suns' sake, hurry," Cewi pleaded.

Lus did just that. It was much easier to return to the door which had an emergency light just above it then it had been crossing to the shelving unit so he was there in only a few seconds, waiting for Vlqtrn to once again turn off the door security.

Vlqtrn got him through, and he was back at the open window when he realized their next problem. He stared at his only exit which was currently locked behind security systems that couldn't be turned off without switching on the security measures for the floor he stood on.

"How am I going to get out without tripping any alarms?" he asked.

For several moments, nobody spoke.