“We are currently in the best position we could possibly be. Minor obstacles have already been cleared, like the statues that used to surround the Marble Mary. We stole jewelry and created leverage. The security measures put in place after our little robbery are laughable. A chain with a lock on the front door. Ground-breaking stuff.” Five confident grins looked up at Ekster as he spoke to his team. “But the Salon’s opening party is this Friday and we’re wholly underprepared.”
The five grins immediately dropped.
“And whose fault do you think — Ow! Max!!” Mina cried, jerking away as Max pinched her arm.
“I fully recognize I’m part of the problem,” Ekster admitted, gesturing for Mina to calm down. “After all, Driver warned me about putting amateurs on a tight deadline. What can I say? My arrogance in thinking I’d assembled an unprecedented set of wildcards got the better of me.”
“Well there you go folks,” Åke turned to the group. “If you’re ever insecure about your skills, remember you were cherry picked by the grand curator himself!”
“Exactly,” Ekster said pointedly. “So don’t make me clean up after my mistakes.”
Dust cocked an eyebrow. “Is that a threat?”
Ekster glanced at Driver. “A cheeky one.”
“Curator, you digress,” Driver gently smiled.
“I digress!” With a resonant tone, Ekster restored the room’s attention. “Let’s talk facts.” He tapped his laptop into action with a smash on the spacebar. The projector which Prisma had so thoughtfully connected beforehand, whirred into action. Slowly but surely a powerpoint presentation with no more than three bullet points appeared on the wall behind him. Åke recognized the concise and, in all honesty, vague manner in which Ekster liked to draft his briefings.
“First of all,” Ekster pointed at the top bullet point. It said: Friday, 1:30 AM. “The date of the heist is set for this Friday night. We leave the HQ one-thirty sharp, whilst the Salon opening party in Paris is in full swing. Questions?”
Mina raised her arm and spoke before being acknowledged. “Åke doesn’t need to attend this party?”
“No, no,” Åke quickly answered. “Frog hates ‘em. He’s in the Salon commission for political reasons, not for funsies. Doesn’t want me to go. Says it causes reputational damage by association.”
“Valid,” Ekster concluded. “Other questions about time and place?”
Max had a question. “Dust and I will have to take position on a vantage point, right? How will we get there?”
“Great question, Max,” Ekster responded. “Driver?”
“Almost done putting together a rolling shell. Just needs finishing touches and a wrap. A BMW E36, very inconspicuous, very nice. You’re gonna love it, kid. But Dust will have to drive.”
Dust quietly grinned at Max’s disappointed expression. “Let’s look over the map together and decide which vantage point offers the clearest view of the terrain.”
“Alright!” Max instantly perked up again.
“Good stuff,” Ekster placidly continued. “Second point.” He knocked his knuckle on the wall where the bullet point was projected. It read: statue timing leading. “Time is not our enemy here,” he clarified. “But I want all of us in at the same time and out at the same time. We waste no second. Mina and I swap and sweep the jewelry in the exact same time it takes Driver and Åke to wheel the Mary into the van.”
“Serious question,” Åke spoke without waiting for his turn. “Are we a hundred percent sure Mary’s not mounted to the floor?”
Ekster stared him down.
“Please say you thought of that.” Åke added.
“Of course I did,” Ekster replied calmly. “Logical deduction tells me the statue’s center of gravity is balanced enough to allow for it to be self-stable. Securing it would serve no purpose beyond half-hearted theft prevention.” He laughed hollowly. “So yeah, I dare to bet we can just lift her up.”
“And she weighs…?” Åke hesitantly added.
Ekster rolled his eyes. “I don’t mean lift her up as if she’s a sack of potatoes. She weighs around three hundred kilograms. Driver’s got this hydraulic transport lifter.”
Åke turned to Driver with unsure eyes, who answered with a reassuring nod. “Custom build. Looks like a brancard, it can rotate ninety degrees from vertical to horizontal position.” He gestured with his arm how the device worked. “Rolls right into the van. Works like a dream, I’ve done it a million times before.”
“You’ve done it — no, okay man, just checking,” Åke said, only half-convinced.
“We’re not attempting the impossible here,” Ekster said with easy confidence, leaning on the kitchen table. “It’s by far the heaviest thing we’ve ever transported.” He turned to Driver. “Remember that insurance claim I forged last year? The one where your contact had you haul cargo from the port to his depot? It’s half a miracle we even managed to get through that one.”
Driver simply laughed and shook his head.
“Yeah,” Ekster agreed. “Not doing that again. Enfin.” He looked over the other five team members. “Other questions about logistics?”
“Yeah,” Mina started speaking. “So, just from experience, when you chuck a bunch of things together in a sportsbag, it creates an unorganised mess. Twenty three pieces of jewelry are quite a bit to carry around, let alone find what you’re looking for in the heat of the moment. How will we solve that?”
Ekster snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “Good fucking thinking Mina. I worked on that.” From underneath the table he conjured the black sportsbag Mina had purchased at Central Mall. He shook it with rough movements. Dampened metal clanking sounded from the bag. He set the bag on the table and unzipped it. As everyone leaned in, Ekster lifted out three layers of thick black foam, each with square cutouts cradling the jewelry.
“Voilà,” he said, quite obviously pleased with himself. “All you need to do now is study the floor plan and return the jewelry to its original position. We could put it wherever, but it’s more fun to make it harder for them to work out what we did.”
Mina hummed. “Not to be a party pooper or anything, but couldn’t you just do this by yourself?”
Ekster bent over to level himself with her line of sight. “Leonhart, are you mad? This is going to be a matter of minutes. I’ve got to keep tight communication with Prisma, Dust and Driver, on top of making sure I don’t pick up any more replicas. You think I’ve got brain capacity left to navigate a maze while physically exerting myself? I am a normal human being. No, Mina, I need you to do the running.”
Mina stared back at him. “Anyone can run and think at the same time.”
“Yeah, but not everyone can run and think strategically at the same time,” Ekster told her. “In the heat of a football match, when you’re close to scoring, do you know exactly which teammate to pass to? Can you picture where every player is on the field, even your opponents?”
“Well,” Mina said, crossing her arms. “That’s kind of what playing football is all about, isn’t it.”
“Exactly,” Ekster said, standing upright again. “A heist is no different, and that’s why you work the floor. Trust blindly that the others know where they should be, be where you have to be, and we’ll all end up back in the van exactly at the same time.”
With a look around the table Ekster checked if everyone was still up to speed before extending his arm to point at the third and last point. Wrap up. “After we have perfectly executed the first two steps, and I have no doubt we will, we enter the most important phase. Listen well. We will drive to a garage up north, about five kilometres from the church. This is where Driver’s got another van lined up. We load the Mary into this van. Then, we split. Driver takes the Mary to Greece by himself, and I will prepare a way for everyone to get home safely and securely. But from the moment we exit that garage we will not see each other again.”
Everyone around the table fell quiet. Farello briefly whined, wondering why the mood changed.
“Questions?” Ekster added for good measure.
Åke cleared his throat. “Still planning to involve the cops?”
“That’ll be the fun part! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Ekster tapped the spacebar again, excitement flickering in his voice. A new slide appeared. A schedule.
“Today’s the twenty-ninth. The salon is on the third. For the next three days, Max, Dust, and Åke will focus on the basics of weapon handling. Mr Lee owns an outdoors shooting range; you’ll train there. Driver’s a capable teacher, and Mr Lee will be present to assist. The range is a bit out of the way, but Mr Lee’s brother owns a small hotel nearby where we can stay. I asked you guys to bring an extra pair of underwear today, right? Right. Mina and I will work out a plan for the floor, but tomorrow we’ll join you in the field and run the position layout.”
He paused, glancing over everyone in the room. “Just to hammer it home, getting the Mary to the van isn’t the real challenge. Our weakest point is that seven people have to work together seamlessly. I need us to communicate clearly and professionally, under pressure.” He turned back to the presentation.
“Day four will be spent going over the heist, minute by minute, until you can recite the timing in your sleep. We hit the church that same night. I don’t believe this to be rocket science… correct?”
No one was foolish enough to answer.
“Sweet. And in the meantime, no one, and I mean absolutely no one, is to bother Prisma. She needs to lock the fuck in and iron out the code for Åke’s GPS scramble.”
Prima made herself a little bit smaller with an apologetic smile. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Of course it will be,” Ekster confidently reassured her. “To get back to your question, Åke,” Ekster continued. “I will leave an anonymous tip for the cops about thirty-eight hours after the fact. By then, the Mary has been delivered and everyone will be back home.”
Åke shrugged his shoulders in a way that meant to say “it’s your party.”
“Sounds like everything’s sorted,” Ekster concluded, already with a fresh cigarette in hand. “The four of you,” he gestured to Åke, Driver, Max and Dust, “Are off to go. I already packed your gear and equipment, it's in the van. The two of us,” he glanced over at Mina, “Will get to work here.”
*
“We’re not operating as a military squad, but our training will borrow a few pages from their playbook,” Driver told the three youngsters lined up in front of him. He’d already worn them down with relentless drills, Max most of all, judging by the huffing, puffing, and nonstop complaining.
“When do I get to fire my gun?!” Max groaned, face as red as his hair.
“As soon as you stop whining,” Driver briskly responded. “Now get up on your feet, regulate your breathing, and show me you can follow simple instructions without theatrics.”
“What are these even good for…” Åke complained under his breath as the three of them were running yet another round around the field. “I know how to run some fucking laps…”
“Your patience level is abysmal,” Dust cheerfully said, easily keeping up with Åke. He even felt like she was holding back. Max was jogging a few metres behind them, the distance between them growing by the second. Farello was running back and forth between them and Max, egging the kid on with encouraging barks.
Åke looked back to watch the dog jump in circles around Max. “You’re bringing Farello along on the heist?”
Dust shrugged. “I wouldn’t have anything to do for him. He’d be bored, don’t you think?”
“On top of it being possibly dangerous,” Åke pointed out with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh yes, that too, of course! But look at him, he just loves to run around. With me, he’d have to sit still. I couldn’t do that to the poor thing.”
Driver loudly blew his whistle at them. “What are y’all chatting about?!” he hollered. “What’s there to discuss? Fifty push-ups!”
The three of them broke out into loud complaining while Farello fervidly sped around in circles.
After the physical torture Driver called ‘warm ups’, they had a quick lunch. Driver had prepared four lunchboxes. Perfectly cooked brown rice, grilled chicken breast seasoned with lemon and oregano, grilled aubergine, raw sweet paprikas sliced in parts and a handful of nuts and dried grapes. He had even made dessert, in the form of a honey-yogurt drink.
Max practically inhaled the food, and Åke wanted to learn the entire recipe; these dishes perfectly fit his dietary requirements. He ached to smoke a cigarette, but somehow he restrained himself, sensing it wouldn’t be appropriate in this company. Farello drank water and Dust finally got him to sit still and rest for a bit, even though he continuously tried to steal food from everyone’s lunchboxes. In the end, after obeying to ‘stay’, he was granted a juicy piece of chicken.
Upon arriving back to the field, they were greeted not only by Mr Lee, but also his twin daughters. Max and Åke lit up with surprise upon seeing the two girls.
“Eunji!” Åke greeted happily, as if he knew the girl intimately. Her sister raised an eyebrow at the hug the two shared.
“Hi,” Max sheepishly said to the other sister. “We sorta met. At the nail shop. You were sitting. I was walking by. I’m Max. Just call me Max. What’s your name?”
“Eunseo,” the girl replied frigidly.
“Love your dimple piercings!” Dust jumped in between them to save the vibe. “My name’s Dust.”
Eunseo seemed genuinely impressed by Dust’s looks. “Oh, hi! Your tattoos are gorgeous too.”
Farello jumped in to score some scratches behind his ear, tail wagging as he headed off to meet Mr Lee.
“You two wanted to see the guns in action?” Åke asked both girls.
“Not really,” Eunseo replied, her eyes still lingering on Dust’s tattooed arms.
“We were told the Curator would be here,” Eunji continued, looking over Åke’s shoulder at the entrance of the field. “Is he?”
Max and Åke’s grins withered away while Dust laughed at their interest in Ekster. “Not till tomorrow!”
Driver cut into their conversation, passing Max and Åke their rifle bags. “If the Curator shows up before you’ve learned proper handling, he won’t be very happy and we’ll be in serious trouble.”
“Are the three of you experienced?” Eunji asked.
Åke and Max wanted to defend themselves, but Driver answered for them. “Consider them as green as fresh leaves in springtime!”
Max’s face warped from embarrassment and Åke breathed a self-aware laugh. The twin girls looked at each other with a knowing expression.
“Show us your form,” Eunseo said. “Let’s see what we’re working with.”
The Lee sisters did not go easy on them one bit. Max and Åke jealously looked over at Dust. She was receiving the most calm and gentle marksmanship training from Driver, and was, above all, already firing a weapon. The two of them were stuck with their very pretty, but perfectionist teachers. They disassembled, assembled, loaded and unloaded their systems till their fingers hurt.
“Feel the rhythm!” Eunseo scolded Max, who struggled to remember all the steps. “That’s the only way to be quick!”
Åke’s UMP-45 was a much less complicated machine to assemble. He had gotten the hang of it quite easily, and was now watching Eunji demonstrate basic handling. With the unfolded stock settled into her shoulder, she showed him how to load, release the bolt and set the firing mode.
“We’re running .45 bullets. This little tab here releases the mag,” she said, angling the gun so Åke could get a better look. She popped the magazine free, showed it was empty, then slid it back into place with a firm click. “If you hear that, you’re good. Always listen to your gun. Release the bolt like so,” she tugged the protruding handle on the front of the gun a little towards herself before letting it jump forward. “Or lock it,” she pulled the handle back and up into a locked position, “And release it like this,” she chopped the bolt with the side of her hand. It jumped forward with a loud clang.
“Flashy,” Åke said with a laugh.
“Very.” Eunji admired the holographic tiger wrap she had done on the gun with a satisfied grin. “Alright. Dry fire first.”
Her movements were fluid, economical and practiced. “Set firing mode from safe to semi-automatic. Release the bolt. Make sure it’s in battery. Fire. Feel the trigger reset. Fire again.” She looked back up at Åke, who didn’t dare to blink. “Clear?”
“I guess so…?”
“Okay, full auto works a little differently.” She angled the gun again so that Åke could see the ejection port and pulled the trigger. The weapon hammered away in her hands. “No need to baby-sit it. Now when you fire to empty, the bolt locks back automatically. Remove the mag, put a new mag in, hit the bolt release. You’re back in action. It’s a reliable system, but the recoil is pretty nuts in full auto. You’ll notice once we put in live rounds.”
She handed Åke his weapon and watched as he copied the movements she’d just demonstrated.
“Not bad,” she commented after a moment. He’d at least remembered the steps. “Got any experience with dancing?”
Åke laughed, surprised, and ran through the motions again. “How would that be related?”
“Looks like you can remember choreography,” she said. “Ready to add some footwork?”
Sundown arrived faster than they’d noticed the time passing. The outdoor shooting range was perfectly lit with bright overhead lights, so to continue practice was no issue. Only downside, the mosquitoes were going rampant on their hot and sweaty skin. Especially for Max, who had to lay still on the floor behind his sniper rifle. After Eunseo was finally satisfied with Max’s skill level to assemble his kit, she had him run through dry fire drills. Having seen the reload animation in-game over a million times, he had that down within seconds. But he was obviously yearning for live rounds. Every time he pulled the trigger, he made the ‘bang’ sound himself, imagining the shot firing and hitting the target.
Dust had been making good progress too, now getting theoretical lessons about the basics of spotting from Mr Lee. Driver was playing fetch with Farello. The dog seemed to have an infinite amount of energy.
The only sound of a firearm being shot came from Åke’s UMP. He’d really gotten the hang of it by fully embracing the fact that this was no different from learning some choreography. With the gun set to semi-automatic, he moved past the row of targets, aiming, firing and reloading to the best of his abilities. Though the accuracy wasn’t there yet, he could handle the weapon without too much trouble.
Eunji was obviously pleased with his progress, watching on like a proud teacher, though the sharpness in her observant gaze never softened.
“Watch your breathing. Hold it when firing. Anticipate the rhythm of the recoil. Tighten your left-hand grip. Steady. Watch your posture!”
“I’m getting a whiplash,” Åke breathed at the end of the track. “You sound eerily similar to my old ballet teacher.”
Eunji laughed. The two of them had grown pretty friendly by now. “Perhaps that’s where I got it from too. Now back in first position, soldier! If your feet aren’t bleeding, you haven’t been dancing!”
A couple of hours later, Åke and Max thankfully threw themselves onto their hotel beds. Every single muscle in their body ached, down to their fingers. Nevertheless, they both had a satisfied grin plastered on their faces.
“I don’t know what’s better,” Max said. “Holding a sniper rifle or having a hot girl yell instructions at you.”
Åke snorted. “Better show ‘em what you’re made of tomorrow, otherwise I think you’ll have a hard time getting any.”
Max rolled on his back with a grunt. “I think I’m too scared of them to get any.”
Åke chuckled with his face down on the pillow. “Don’t overthink it. Gotta get the reps in.”
Max hummed and stared at the ceiling. “I can’t wait to hit some targets,” he said after a while.
Åke stifled a laugh. “Don’t call girls targets,” he teased, watching Max blush so hard it rivaled his hair in redness.
At the crack of dawn, Driver blasted them awake with his whistle before bursting out in song. He yanked the curtains open and let the morning sun blast through the room.
“Good morning beautiful doves!” He sing-songed. “Rise and shine! Breakfast’s first come, first serve!”
Åke groaned in agony and attempted to hide himself under the covers, which were brutally ripped away from him by Driver. Max had been so shocked from the sudden noise, he’d ended up falling out of bed.
“Ouch…” he groaned as he rubbed his hip. His eyes were so puffy he could barely open them. “Feels like I only slept two seconds.”
“Second that,” Åke said, squinting his eyes against the bright sunlight. It looked like this day would finally be a sunny one again.
Mr Lee, the Lee sisters, Dust and Farello greeted them at the breakfast table. Max and Åke swooned at the sight of the twins in their matching black and white training suits.
“G’morning,” Max greeted them with a shy mumble, probably remembering Åke’s joke yesterday.
Åke waved but took a seat at the far end of the table, beside Dust and across from Mr Lee. Max sat next to Driver, facing the sisters.
“We just found out you rank top ten in Down Sight,” Eunji told Max as soon as he had loaded his plate with toasted bread, fresh tomatoes and sausages.
“That's crazy actually,” Eunseo said over her coffee. “We play too, but like super casually. I think we’d be eaten alive in a ranked match.” She laughed, probably for the first time since they'd met. The piercings in her cheeks shimmered.
Max grinned awkwardly. “No way, you two know how to operate real weapons. Down Sight is just a game.”
Eunseo sat up a little straighter. “Just a game?! Are you mad? Didn't you see how CellSystem totally aced that secret service training course a couple of weeks ago? That was sick as fuck, totally put those bloated officers on their spot.”
Max shoved some sausages in his mouth. CellSystem was Down Sight’s number one, top player of the entire world, and the leader of Cell Squad. He was extremely athletic on top of having a sergeant as dad.
“That's CellSystem for you…” Max said with his mouth full. He swallowed. “Top ten’s a crazy bunch. My squad’s in a constant battle with number nine and eleven. Just defending the tenth spot is a headache, let alone climbing that freaking rank.”
“Do you play full-time?” Eunji asked, sounding impressed.
“Err, no,” Max admitted. He poured himself a tall glass of orange juice. “Wish I could. But if I skipped school even more I might as well drop out.”
The twins glanced at each other.
“If you're already top ten…” Eunji started.
“You should consider how far you can go when you commit,” Eunseo continued.
“You should ditch school,” Eunji concluded in all seriousness.
Max choked on his orange juice. “Yo, my mum's gonna twist my neck,” he managed to say, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m going to college after the summer.”
Eunji pursed her lips disapprovingly.
“Are you?” Eunseo challenged him. “Think about what you want real hard, before you commit your time to something. Mastery can't be done casually.”
Max looked between the two girls in front of him, and glanced at their father. “You’ve been working in the shop for long?”
“Since we can walk,” Eunseo said proudly.
“If your environment isn’t offering what you need to achieve your goals, it's your responsibility to put in double the effort and get it done anyway,” Eunji wisely said. “Now can you finish that plate already? I actually can't wait to see you fire that sniper.”
Max blushed a little and shoved every last piece of food in his mouth as fast as he could.
The twins smoked too, so Åke had no excuse to refrain any longer. While waiting for the others to exit the hotel, they chatted about a couple of brands Åke had modeled for. They were particularly excited about a certain jewelry brand.
“Compared to the models they usually hire, you’re such a clean-cut guy,” Eunseo said, pointing him up and down with her cigarette between her long nails.
“Yeah everyone else is heavily tattooed and stuff,” Eunji giggled. “You should get a couple of tattoos!” She suddenly suggested with vigor. Her sister’s eyes lit up at the idea.
“You two are bad news,” Åke snorted.
“I’m this close to convincing Dust to get her lip pierced,” Eunseo said, holding her thumb and pointy finger a centimeter apart.
“If she gets her lip done, you should get a little tattoo,” Eunji said, wiggling her pierced eyebrows.
“Can’t do.” Åke shook his head.
The sisters voiced their disagreement in unison.
“It’s your body!” Eunseo exclaimed.
“Do something fun with it!” Eunji added.
“Stop, stop, stop.” Åke laughed, closing his eyes and waving his hand in the air. “I can’t say no to beautiful women.”
Eunji pointed at his hand. “Get finger tattoos!”
Eunseo loved the idea. “That’d be so hot!”
“Who’s getting finger tattoos?” Dust asked as she stepped outside.
“I am, apparently,” Åke replied sarcastically, though the idea had clearly gotten to him.
“Risqué,” Dust said with a suggestive smirk. “That’d suit you.”
Mr Lee, Driver and Max stepped outside right behind her. Upon seeing their father, the twins were quick to ditch their cigarettes. Mr Lee ended up laying eyes on Åke with a cigarette in his hand, standing in between his daughters.
“Mister Åkerman…” he warned in a lightly threatening tone. “If I keep catching you being a bad influence on my girls…”
Åke started stammering an apology, but Mr Lee didn't care to listen. The sisters giggled and Åke turned to them, a little pissed his reputation had been tarnished this easily.
“You two—” He crushed his cigarette under his foot. “Are terrible news.”
The first round of training was pretty much the same as that of the day before. They ran laps around the field and were subjected to Driver’s physical drills. The only difference was that yesterday they wore light training suits; today they carried full gear and equipment. Max was definitely pulling the short end of the stick, having to haul his entire sniper kit on his back. Åke’s UMP was extremely lightweight and Dust was only carrying a backpack, so by the second round, Driver strapped a couple of extra weights to their vests.
Half an hour later, they were completely beat. Whereas the cloudy weather had kept the temperatures relatively low yesterday, the sun was beaming down on them in full force today. Every trace that it had been raining cats and dogs all Saturday and Sunday had evaporated from the atmosphere. The weather had returned to what it usually was this time of year in summer. Dry and hot. Undesirable conditions to be exerting yourself in, even Farello had decided to take it easy today, but their trainers were unforgiving.
“Mister Åkerman,” Mr Lee started, clipboard in hand and voice cold as steel. “Your performance yesterday wasn’t terrible. You got a grip on basic handling, but there is still a lot left to be desired when it comes down to marksmanship. During target practice, you scored hundred and fifty three out of two thousand points.” Mr Lee paused. “If this wasn’t your first time holding a weapon, I would’ve told you to be ashamed of yourself. That’s an abysmal score. I’ll have you know that Dust beat your score by three hundred points.”
Max gave Dust a high five and Åke’s eyebrows twitched. “I’ll make sure to improve today, sir.”
Mr Lee squinted his eyes at him. “That’s what I like to hear. You’ll be paired with Driver today. He won’t go easy on you. The girls will join Max and Dust up that hill in the distance. Focus on Max’s marksmanship and communication between the two.”
Max got all giddy, excited to finally fire his sniper.
Driver clapped his hands together. “Let’s get to work, team!”
The hill they were on was the highest ground in the surrounding area, which meant nothing compared to the alps looming on the horizon, but it still offered Dust a clean view of the surrounding landscape. With her right eye against the rubber of her spotting scope, she scanned the vista. On full magnification, she could see kilometres ahead into the distance. While Max was sitting on the floor installing his weapon system, Dust observed every cloud, tree, bird, flower and blade of grass. She saw how Åke did his best to improve his aim, how the sweat ran down his neck to between his shoulderblades and she counted the bullet holes in the target posters. She looked at Mr Lee, who made Farello sit and stay next to him and read the notes he had written on the clapperboard. This scope was quite the powerful tool, she noticed. Nothing could escape her.
“A spotter is the eyes and coordination,” Eunseo said behind her. “The sniper is the hands and execution.”
“We’ll start with static target practice,” Eunji added, “Before focussing on how you two should work together to hit moving objects.”
Dust moved her vision to the target Max was supposed to hit. A paper dot target, about four hundred metres away from them. Quite the distance. Minimal room for error.
“Uhm…” Max muttered from his horizontal position behind the rifle.
“He’s got a hard time locating the target,” Eunseo told Dust. “He’s tunneled in.”
“Where you looking at, Max?” Dust asked him.
“I’m seeing a bunch of grass and yellow flowers.”
Dust remembered having seen the same patch of grass earlier, behind the entrance building. She zoomed in on the same area and mentally traced the route to the target dot. “Go North-West. You're not far off.”
“Tell her what you’re seeing,” Eunji instructed Max.
“Err, still grass,” Max mumbled in deep concentration. “Oh, I think I’m seeing some brick red.”
“That’s the entrance building,” Dust said. “Continiue to search North-West. Once you’ve passed the brick, go North.”
“Ugh, I’m only seeing the sky now,” Max complained.
“No rush. Saw that bird pass?”
“That was a bird?”
“Same direction.”
“Oh!” Max exclaimed after a second. “I found it!”
Dust glanced away from her scope and found Max settled in behind his rifle. The position looked awkward, yet he seemed perfectly comfortable sprawled on his stomach. His red hair was tucked beneath a cap, the brim shading his eyes from the sun.
“Alright!” Eunseo cheered for them. “There’s a row of ten targets. Dust chooses which one Max needs to hit.”
“Are you on the first one?” Dust asked, back to looking through her scope.
“I think so, yes.”
“Okay, take that one.”
“Max, get ready to take the—”
“Pang!”
The sniper rifle bursted with sound. The tiny red rod was perfectly perforated.
“Bullseye,” Dust confirmed the hit.
Max laughed and punched the air from excitement. “Fuck yeah!! That’s right!”
The twins looked at each other with wide eyes.
“Good shot Max,” Eunseo complimented with a steady voice, though Dust clearly caught the admiration beneath it.
“Onto the next target,” Max eagerly said, accidentally bumping his shoulder against his rifle as he settled back in. “Fuck I’m all off again,” he cursed, annoyed with himself.
“Cool down,” Eunji said with a laugh. “Or your energy will bite you in your ass one day.
“Let’s recalibrate,” Dust said, when she spotted a black Audi A8 meandering through the landscape. The windows on the side were tinted, but with every turn the car made, she caught a glimpse of Ekster behind the wheel and Mina chatting away at him. Looks like those two got a little friendlier too, she thought to herself.
“A black car is heading up here,” Eunseo noticed, as she was looking through her own pair of binoculars.
“Who could that be?” Eunji asked, a little concerned.
“Pang!” Max hit the second target without waiting for assistance. “Pang!” The third one followed suit after.
“Okay show off,” Eunseo laughed, playfully kicking the sole of the boy’s shoe. “Let’s take it easy when pedestrians are close.”
“Those are not pedestrians,” Dust said, keeping her view locked on the people in the car. “That’s our Striker and the Curator.”
With a wagging tail and eyes full of joy, Farello ran up to Mina and Ekster to greet them halfway. Mr Lee moved to stand upright when he saw them approach, but Ekster urged him to remain seated.
“No need to get up for me, Mister Lee,” Ekster said with a polite smile as he shook the man’s calloused hand. “Thank you again for your generosity in allowing my team to train here.”
Mr Lee waved his words away. “It’s nothing, it’s nothing. Least I can do to repay you. It’s my pleasure.”
Ekster answered with a meaningful look. “Let me introduce you to Mina.” He continued with a gesture to the girl beside him, knowing Mr Lee was a huge football fanatic. “She plays for Saint Bernard’s.”
“Really so?” Mr Lee enthusiastically shook Mina’s hand. “That’s very impressive, young lady! What position do you play?”
Mina beamed at the man. “Thank you very much, sir! Center forward, sir!”
“Ooh! Very nice! I can see you’ve got that fire in your eyes! It’s not been a great season for Saint Bernard’s is that right?”
Mina’s smile stiffened. “Haha… Luck’s not been on our side.”
“Luck’s got little to do with it!” Mr Lee said with the voice of a true couch coach. “Your midfielders are sleepy and slow on their feet. If they’re unable to pass you the ball, scoring is out of the question. And when defense is weak, the goalie will tire and will eventually slip up. Who’s your trainer?”
“Antonio Javier,” Mina answered, her shoulders drooped. Mr Lee’s critique was right on the money.
“Never heard of the man!” Mr Lee exclaimed. “Could be more than half of the problem! Take a look at this team right here.” He waved at the people on the field in front of them. “Bunch of underqualified misfits, if you ask me. But when the right leadership pulls everyone together, you’ve got lightning in a bottle.”
Mina side-eyed Ekster, whose expression didn’t carry a smidge of self-congratulatory confidence.
“Strong team dynamics are the real accelerator,” he said coolly.
“That’s true, that’s true,” Mr Lee agreed. “Can’t fake genuine chemistry. Not when stakes are high.”
The walkie-talkie on the table crackled with voices. Mr Lee kept it on to monitor the sniper group’s training from a distance. Whatever was coming through now, however, had drifted well off track.
“I wanna see too! Dust, Dust, lemme have a look through your scope.”
“He’s literally so handsome I’m going to die.”
“Oh my god. He’s even hotter than I imagined.”
“How tall do you think he is?”
“Those light blue eyes…”
“Fuck, we’d make such cute babies.”
Having clearly forgotten their father was listening in, the twins' carefree gossip spilled from the radio. Utterly mortified, Mr Lee snatched the walkie-talkie from the table. “Girls! Open mic!” he shouted at the receiver.
It took Ekster a hot minute to realize the topic of discussion was himself. When it clicked, he looked thoroughly flustered, and Mina had to clamp her lips shut to stop herself from laughing at his red face.
Mr Lee put his forehead in his hand. “I truly apologise on behalf of my daughters.”
“That’s — That’s alright,” Ekster said, a little shell shocked.
One of the twins awkwardly giggled through the radio. “Well, this is embarrassing…”
“Hi, Curator,” the other greeted coyly.
Ekster had seemingly lost his ability to speak.
“Enough nonsense!” Mr Lee scolded his children to save Ekster some face. “Back to training! Looks like the sniper kid knows how to aim and hit, so give him a challenge and see how well he does on them moving targets. And stay focused this time!”
“Good to hear that Max’s been performing well,” Ekster said, gladly changing the topic. He reached for his cigarettes, before remembering he’d left them in the car. He considered making Mina fetch them. A hit of nicotine would be great right now.
“Those two are not bad,” Mr Lee said. “Dust and Max I mean. Good pair. However the blond beefcake really needs to refine those marksmanship skills. He’s spraying over the place. At least he’s humble enough to keep his head down and practice without complaining, I’ll give him that.”
Ekster huffed at Mr Lee’s description of Åke. “He’s a quick learner. Could you perhaps call him over, actually? I need to talk to him.”
While Mr Lee ordered Åke to come over through a second walkie-talkie, Ekster attempted to convince Mina to grab his cigarettes.
“Dude, go get them yourself, what the hell,” she rolled her eyes at his request.
“Fine. Then you start setting up a dummy track.”
“Alles klar! Go get your ciggies, I got this covered,” Mina said. She snatched the printed files Ekster was holding. “Hi beefcake!” She greeted Åke as he approached them.
“Hi Goldilocks,” Åke replied, quick on his feet as always. “What’s up?”
“Walk with me,” Ekster said, already on his way to his car. As soon as Åke had caught up, he said: “Prisma wants to speak to you. It’s urgent, she said.” He handed Åke his burner phone. “She’s on the sixth quick dial.”
“Who’s on the first?” Åke asked with the phone to his ear.
Ekster opened his car and found his cigarettes in the door pocket. “You are.”
Åke smiled. “Aww, that’s cute.”
“It’s alphabetical.”
“Right.”
Åke was handed a cigarette without asking for one.
“Yes?” Prisma’s voice sounded from the other side of the line.
“Hi girl! It’s me,” Åke said. “Åke.”
“That didn’t need clarification,” Prisma said, amused. “Listen, just a quick question, do you have any clue who might’ve developed the software behind your chip?”
Åke hummed in thought while Ekster held up a flame for him. “No idea. How would I know that?”
“Perhaps you remember if some company was involved, or maybe you’ve seen the control system, which could be branded.”
“Nope, sorry. Haven’t gotten a clue.”
“Hmmm…” Prisma didn’t sound too happy. “Perhaps you could maybe try and find out for me? The more I unwrap this code, the more it gives me the creeps.”
Åke raised an eyebrow at Ekster, who had been listening in.
“Creeps how?” Åke asked.
“Like, it’s too complicated. There is way more code than necessary for its functions. There are crumbs of unfinished functionality everywhere. Too many loose threads for it to be clear what exactly this chip is doing. I can’t shake the feeling that someone could be listening in with us all the time, or something.”
Åke leaned against the car, facing Ekster. “That’s quite an ominous train of thought.”
“Would that be plausible?” Ekster added to the conversation.
“Gun to my head, no. Not right now,” Prisma said resolutely. “But in this web of a script, it only takes one line to expose the backend to external influence.”
“... I’ll try and fish for some information about the developers,” Åke said, unsure of his ability to do so. “I’ll try.”
“Anything else we can do for you, Prisma?” Ekster asked, blowing out smoke.
“No,” the girl sounded on the other side. “I’ll just have to continue unwrapping this thing.”
“Alright, keep it up,” Ekster said. He took his phone from Åke’s hands and put it to his own ear. “How’s the cat?”
“Still here,” Åke heard Prisma say.
“Curious,” Ekster said. “Are you sure you don’t want to drop by?”
“Yeah, I trust you guys will ace whatever you’re doing. I just need to crack on here.”
“Alright. Good luck. See you on Friday.”
“Miss you Priss!” Åke exclaimed from a distance.
Prisma laughed. “See you soon!”
“Ciao,” Ekster said before hanging up the phone. He looked back up at Åke as if he wanted to say something, but changed his mind in the end. “Let’s get back to practice,” he said instead.
Driver, Åke and Ekster gathered around the maze of traffic cones Mina had spread out over the field.
“That’s the Mary,” she said, pointing at a traffic cone on a wooden block. “The locations where I need to put back jewelry are marked with a tennisball.”
She handed the printout of the church layout back to Ekster, who double checked her work.
“The floorplan looks much larger like this, compared to real life,” Åke remarked.
Driver stood a couple of metres away from the traffic cone maze. “I believe the van could be parked up till here,” he said. Mina put two traffic cones at his feet.
Every now and then, their speech was interrupted by the loud bangs erupting from Max’s sniper rifle.
“That’s going to echo like crazy in the mountains,” Åke pointed out.
“Could that be a problem?” Ekster asked Driver, pointing his thumb in the direction of where Max was firing from. “How many shots before someone would call the police?”
Three, four, at most,” Driver answered, crossing his arms. “Depends on the time of day. Can’t overdo it.”
Ekster rolled up the sleeves of his dark blue track jacket. “Something to keep in mind. Alright, how about Driver and Åke just start by walking from the van to the Mary. Don’t forget to cut the shackles around the door. Let’s see how long that takes.”
Soon enough, they had a rough timeframe worked out based on Driver and Åke walking from and back to the van.
“Best case scenario, it’ll take us seven minutes,” Ekster said after he’d added up the timed actions. “Worst case scenario, twelve.”
“Worste case for who?” Mina mumbled. “Twenty pieces in seven minutes is… seven times sixty…”
“Fourhundered twenty,” Ekster answered.
“Haha… Funny number,” Mina giggled. “Anway, fourtwenty seconds divided by twenty three is like…”
“Eighteen point two,” Ekster did the mental math. “You’ll have to return one piece every eighteen seconds. Very doable.”
“Doable? Then you do it!” Mina retorted.
Ekster sighed. “Mina, yelling at me to do the work won’t magically solve your problems. Many pieces are clustered together, we’ve already discussed that. You’ve got an ocean of time.”
“Well, one piece every eighteen seconds sounds very stressful.” Mina put her hands on her hips.
Ekster gestured at the field in front of them. “How about you try, before you complain?”
The two leered at each other before Mina reeled her attitude back in. “Fine,” she briskly said.
As soon as Ekster called the ‘go’, Mina raced off into the cone maze. She pantomimed yanking items from a bag and putting them back in place, her movements unrealistically fast. She took the wrong turn a couple of times, but still managed to get back at the van within three minutes.
Ekster paused the stopwatch and showed her the time. “Apart from the fact that you’ve just smashed and shattered everything, you’re definitely fast enough.”
“I see,” Mina said, barely out of breath. “That offers perspective.”
Ekster turned out to be a remarkably effective coach. He kept track of everyone’s time and position, calmly giving directions from the sidelines. By the fourth run, the three on the field walked up to the van at the same time, with thirty seconds left on the clock.
Mina cheered and jumped up to give Driver a double high-five.
Mr Lee’s voice sounded through the walkie-talkie he’d handed them. “Who’s hungry?”
After a quick lunch, during which Ekster had seemingly vanished into thin air, to the disappointment of the twins, the teams returned back to their practice.
Mina hosed her sportsbag over her shoulders, after she had loaded it up with weights to act as the jewelry.
“It’s heavier than it will be in reality,” she told Åke. “That way it’ll be hard now, but a walk in the park later.”
Åke, who’d been training with a weighted vest today, patted the girl’s shoulder. “We’ll be the fastest thieves ever in recorded history, if we keep this up.”
The rest of the afternoon went as smoothly as it possibly could. Dust and Max had steadily kept up training their marksmanship on moving targets, during which Max had to assemble and disassemble his sniper a couple of times, just to test if he remembered how to. Moreover, they switched spotter and sniper position every other shot, to better understand the other’s role.
Down in the field, they were running through the plan with their eyes practically closed. Even Farello had joined, excitedly following Mina around at the foot. She made him sit and stay when she needed him to, and Farello had a grand old time playing with her.
“I have to say,” Åke told Ekster, catching his breath after what felt like the hundredth round, “I am believing you more and more, when you say this won’t be hard to pull off.”
“It’s going to be so easy, you’ll think it’s boring,” Ekster said. “But if you start slacking now, you’re dead meat out there.”
Åke laughed. “Thanks for the warning. Though I almost question if this job asks for this level of preparation.”
Ekster side-eyed him. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“No, not like that,” Åke said. “But you’ve had Driver and his homemade brancard device all this time. I think you could’ve just stolen Mary the first time you saw it. Or what am I missing here?”
Ekster looked ahead into the field, at Driver and Mina doing coolingdown stretches together while Farello mimicked them. “The bigger picture.”
“Hm?”
“The other day, on the phone, you said something about seeing the bigger picture.”
“Yeah?”
Ekster thought for a moment. He seemed to be organising his thoughts. Or considering his words. “I wouldn’t achieve much by stealing the Mary on my own. It would serve no purpose. Nothing about this is about her. The Mary’s just…” He seemed to actively struggle finding the right thing to say.
“An excuse to get a team up on their feet?” Åke offered, sensing where Ekster was going with this. “A way to prepare us for the real thing?”
Ekster rubbed his chin. “Something like that.”
Åke laughed and shook his head. “What about the North-South State Museum heist you’ve got in the oven? That one’s already looking more complex.”
“Yeah that one… that’s a step in the right direction.” He was about to say something else, when he saw Max, Dust and the Lee twins approach them. “Oh no,” he said.
Åke, who wasn’t aware of the open radio debacle, held Ekster in place by his arm when he tried to walk away again. “Where are you going? The Lee sisters are dying to meet you, you know. You’ve got fans. And they’re pretty too, you lucky bastard.”
Ekster shook his head with a pale face and actively attempted to back off, but ultimately couldn’t free himself from Åke’s hold.
The twins appeared uncharacteristically bashful, each trying to nudge the other into going first as they approached Ekster.
“H-Hi!” Eunseo ended up greeting him. “I could literally die from embarrassment, holy shit.”
“It’s so cool to finally meet you,” Eunji chirped from behind her sister. “We’ve been looking forward to it,” she said with a light blush on her cheeks.
Ekster looked thoroughly uncomfortable. Åke elbowed him after he failed to even say a single word.
“Uhm—” Ekster cleared his throat. “I’m sorry,” was the only thing he said. “I mean,” he quickly backtracked after seeing Åke’s horrified expression.
“Ah, don’t worry!” Eunji quickly waved her hands in the air. “We totally made it awkward, haha.”
“It’s just that, you’re like our childhood hero, you know,” Eunseo said. “I always felt like, somehow, you were looking out for us. If it wasn’t for everything you’ve smuggled into the city for us, it would’ve been nearly impossible for us to connect with our ancestral culture.” She stared at the ground, too embarrassed to look Ekster in the eye. “S-So, thank you for that.”
Ekster stared at the floor, too. He fumbled with the ring around his pinky finger. “It’s the only noble cause my skills can be of use for,” he finally said with a small voice. “I’m grateful to have been of value to your family.”
Åke stared at Ekster, taken aback by this side of him that was vulnerable and, most remarkably, honest.
Chapter 2 - Friday Night Things
Chapter 6 - Sweet Superstitions
Chapter 9 - Unparalleled Potential
Chapter 11 - The Bigger Picture
Chapter 12 - Unforseen Victories
Chapter 13 - To be Announced
© 2022 Heist Club
Developed by Blauw Films
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