6 days before the job

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Blaise is standing in front of the door, waiting patiently. And it's been terrifying all of us.

I have no idea what is about to happen but I'm so psyched to see it. This makes me feel like a bad person.

Oh well Minnie seems to have lost that side of her conscience as she holds her camera in her hands, waiting to film stuff.

Fahad is making a fresh fruit salad for Pandora, and Rey will not stop staring at him like he's from outer space, angrily muttering something about Batman.

Kai is, oh my God, she is sitting on the couch. The kitchen cabinet just has a Power Ranger action figure on top of it which most likely belongs to Monique.

Kai is so polite to let the power ranger sit there.

Alby is studying the floor plans with Dhara, Ariadne has gone back to sewing security costumes, Elara is painting the important object, and Cassie is most probably reading that A rated book whose cover makes Yuri giggle like a fifteen year old every time.

Cassie said it's for educational purposes. And I'm married to Shrek.

I just lean on the bookshelf, mindlessly flipping through one of my books. Trying to concentrate when my mind is racing a million miles per hour. The day is coming, and we don't know how to lift the ring, or get the fuck out of here. The only thing we have been successful at, is infiltration. And wasting the funds.

I massage my forehead, trying to make sense of everything. To try and find a way to tie it all up. The long corridors are stupid. The privately owned rooms are stupid. The security team is stupid. The vault in which the ring is stored is stupid.

I am stupid.

For thinking this would work in two weeks. This fucking project needs two months.

I thought we were ready.

The door bursts open and Yuxian steps in with a smile, "I missed all of you very sincerely, the last two hours!"

"Drinking buddy!" Rey tries to hug him but he dodges it for his own sake.

And then Yuri rushes in, and bound by habit, goes and gives Rey a hug, tight enough to actually break Rey.

"Where's the annoying one?" Kai asks Yuxian who just smiles at her.

"Good morning, or should I say, evening?" Yuxian greets Kai, and she flings a throw pillow at him.

"Yeah, where is Jian?" Minnie asks, wide-eyed, gripping the camera tightly. Oh my her left eye is twitching, that's how impatient she is.

"He uh went to the beach...?" Yuxian's eyes move from side to side. Guilty freak. His tell is the easiest one to recognise damn.

I love doing that. Finding that one telltale sign that the person is lying.

Minnie takes a quick sharp breath before she lies; Blaise takes a short pause, different from the long pauses she usually takes to answer questions; Yuri closes her eyes for ten milliseconds; Pandora clicks her tongue; Dharuna wipes her brow; Monique tries to not speak in French; Elara scratches the back of her neck; And Rey... Her entire posture changes.

Now Alby and Cassandra, I have no fucking clue. It drives me nuts that I can't figure out their tell. But that's the special talent of my grifters.

And when Jian lies... He leans on his left foot.

"Okay then, I'll check the beach," Blaise tries to go out of the door when she is pulled back by Rey.

"You have so much work to do baby," Minnie stands in front of her.

"But-"

"Sorry, Blaise. This whole thing has to wait," I tell her.

"Zhong Yuxian! Get unpacked and get your ass here!" Dhara shouts from behind the monitors.

Yuxian gives her a salute, doesn't meet Blaise's eyes and rushes into the room I have to share with him and Minji, again.

"Rey! Drag the other twin here dead or alive, I don't care. If we don't find him, then this one dies" I call out to my lovely, tiny, psychotic, fighter who is cleaning her purple contacts, while I am pointing at Yuxian.

"On it!" She grabs a pair of socks.

"Rey! I thought we were friends!" Yuxian calls out to her teasingly while she closes the door.

"Why did he not come in with you?" I turn to Yuxian, my eyebrows raised quizically.

"He's a big fat coward," Yuxian laughs, "Can't do confrontations."

I let out a frustrated sigh. Why are these two so petty?

"I can fucking see that," Blaise plops down next to us with pen drive with the floor plans.

See? Petty.

"Don't be mad, he's not in the wrong here, you know?" Yuxian says in a soft voice.

Blaise just huffs, her nostrils flair slightly and she moves her dark hair away from her face to try and infiltrate yet another server.

"Calm down sweetheart, we got work to do," I pat her back and sit down in between Alby and Blaise.

"If you don't want me exposing those spicy photos you took for your high school boyfriend, you will never call me a sweetheart again," Blaise says and my heart stops as her words settle in.

"Don't you dare-" I cut myself off as I look into her dead brown eyes.

Rey thankfully decides to call me at this particular moment and I rush away from the group to answer the call.

"Oh I love you," I tell her.

"As much as I love professions of love to my beautiful soul, Jian is sitting alone at the curb of the taxi pick up site and he's not getting up and it's making me uncomfortable."

"I'm on my way. You get the wonderful job of going on a dinner run. Don't waste money on tequila I swear to fucking god."

"Ugh, whatever," I can feel Rey rolling her eyes.

Time to beat a tall guy's ass.

*****

I run out the hotel lobby and onto the main road to see Rey and Jian sitting in the curb next to each other, talking.

I switch my Bluetooth on and immediately get connected to Blaise, "I've located them. Now stop waiting on us and get back to work you morons."

I can almost feel Blaise roll her eyes as she says, "Whatever."

I shift a little on my slider-clad feet, and I can't bring myself to interrupt their conversation. I just listen.

"You think it's so easy?" He asks Rey.

Rey shrugs, "It's better than never you know? One thing I learned from my mama was that you should have the least amount of what-ifs in your life."

"It's easy to say. Choices are difficult to make," Jian retorts, shaking his head while wrapping his hands around his spidery legs.

"I killed my father," Rey replies to that.

Silence.

I clear my throat and Rey jumps in her position, before whirling around to face me with wide eyes. The panic in her eyes disappears as she beholds me.

"Alicia, good, you're here. I'll take off then," Rey gets up, leaving behind an uncomfortable presence.

Jian turns his wide eyes towards me, "She wasn't kidding, was she?"

I shake my head, "I'm afraid not."

I set myself down right next to him, and hold my knees to my chest like him, it's getting a little cold now.

"I'm sure she had one hell of a reason," He goes back to looking down, a few of his hairs falling in front of his eyes.

"You tend to hurt others when you are protecting yourself," I sigh, "It's the decision at that moment, of either being selfish or selfless, that defines the rest of our lives. I am glad she chose selfishness."

"I understand," He dips his head down, "Sometimes the selfless option doesn't pan out."

"Now would you tell me why you're wasting precious time here?" I ask him with all the gentleness I could muster.

"I very bravely tried to tell Blaise the truth, thinking that we won't meet for long, but now that I am back, I don't have the courage to go face to face," He talks to the ground.

"What is the truth?"

Jian seemed to hesitate, but then he just sighs and starts talking.

"Our gang knew of Blaise's gang's plans. The bank was an easy target and my gang wanted it to themselves. We had decided to ambush their gang and take the loot, but one of her gang members was an undercover cop and alerted the police. We found out before their own gang. The police made a slow advance and began tracking Blaise down and she didn't even know, so I hacked into her device and logged her out of the bank server and changed her location to mine. That threw the cops off and Blaise got out of there because she lost connection, not because she knew that the police were sniffing their tail," He pauses and takes a deep breath.

"That job was supposed to be Blaise's 'big break' to try and get into Richard's gang. You know? The one where Blue had started out as well. And she blames me for ruining it for her. She then spent the rest of the year hacking small accounts, barely scraping by. I spent four months in prison before my gang broke me out of there," He exhales.

Small jobs was how I found Blaise in the first place.

****

"Now that we want to take a step ahead on the thief hierarchy, we can't just use plain old thieves' instincts y'know? We need a hacker," Minnie had said to me, as we walked down the sunny streets of Brighton, England. It was not raining, which was so, so surprising to me.

Brighton was so beautiful. The streets and roads were mostly made of grey stone and cement, and when they collected rainwater in the ridges between the stones, it looked so rustic and beautiful reflecting the few rays of Sun after rainfall. There were red telephone booths everywhere which I was sure were hardly used at that point, and those double-decker buses...don't get me started on how AWESOME those were.

And oh my the dudes with the British accent...I might just settle down and raise a cute family here.

"So where are we headed?" I ask her while a kid riding a tricycle zoomed past us on the sidewalk, giggling happily. A small smile spread on my face on witnessing the parent run behind the toddler.

"An arcade. Hope you got some loose pennies," Minnie did not give me any more context as she skipped towards the railway station.

A very calming train ride later, we stopped in front of a very loud place with very very bright lights and a shit ton of kids and adults screaming around. The whirr of machines, the jingling of pennies, the victorious screams of kids just strengthened my resolve to never ever have kids.

"Sounds just like Seoul farmer's market," Was all Minji commented before pushing the door open, the one with the 'pull' sign on top of the handle.

"Minnie if you brought me to meet a low life who hacks arcade games for pennies, I will throw you in the Thames," I whispered to her as she walked ahead.

"We're in Brighton, not London," Minnie replied curtly

"I'll take you to London and then drown you," I scoffed.

"You know there's the ocean right here," Minnie smirked at me.

The little bitch-

"I prefer rivers, your dead body might float around in the ocean," I crossed my arms and stared at her. And I traumatised a kid who was playing a racing game next to us. But we don't talk about that.

We walk towards the cash register and Minnie stops and smiles at the cashier and pulls out a ten pound note.

"I want five pounds worth of coins," Minnie says, holding out the note.

"Minnie why are we wasting time here?" I got very impatient. We were there to recruit a very crucial member for the team, not play PacMan.

"Ahem, cashier, do you have change?" Minnie asks with a smirk.

Why was she flirting with the cashier? It was just this strange looking girl whose face is almost completely covered by a black hoodie. All I could see was shoulder length brown hair and a pair of glistening glasses under the hood, and slender bony fingers typed away at the laptop in front of her.

"No change, will online transfer work?" She asked. Five pounds? Wouldn't the arcade be this vending machine of change?

"Sure," Minji replied immediately. She pulled out the mobile phone we bought in London.

I had absolutely no clue what was happening. We came to London to recruit a hacker, but Minji brought me to an arcade near a police station.

"Just a minute, I will be right with you," She said to us in the sleepiest, most dull sounding voice I had ever been talked to.

"What kind of an employee are you? Your primary duty is to tend to the customer, you tosser!" An older man comes to the table to scold the girl. He was wearing a checkered sweater with a shirt inside, a general trend I noticed among the older crowd.

She was very, very silent as she looked up at him, and I finally saw her features. Crystal blue eyes, a heart shaped face, and a slender sloping nose. A very pretty face, hidden behind a gigantic hood. It felt like a fantasy story all of a sudden.

"I will give you ten seconds to apologize," She then said in a deadly calm tone, and I felt chills run down my back. She went back to typing away on the laptop.

"What did you just say to me?" The middle aged man looked at her as if she just asked him to kill someone.

She looked up again, her eyes holding a dangerous gleam, as her lips curved into a sideways smile, "Time's up."

And my phone rang. With text messages. With a credit card number and CVV, and a series of uh bad photos. Featuring checkered-sweater guy. Then finally a video. Of him furiously touching himself. On this very counter.

Minnie and I backed away from the counter instantly, and I looked at the man, with a very involuntary disgusted expression.

"What?" he asked with confusion.

"Children visit this place dude," I cringed in disgust as I showed him my phone screen.

He went so, so pale. Like a ghost. I couldn't even imagine him as a friendly ghost after watching the video.

But I scoffed internally. This girl was the one we were here for. And she just pulled a basic prank on this man, who was innocent to say the least.

Oh well that was before another message popped up, showing the same man in a... compromising position with a little girl.

This absolute scum.

I turned my head away in absolute disgust then faced the man again who was looking at my face to fathom my reaction. Standing so still.

And I couldn't control myself as I balled up my hand and swung it at his stupid face. Fucking pedophile.

He stumbled backward, holding his nose as drops of blood leaked out of it.

"Leesh!" I heard Minnie call out in surprise. I ignored her as I kicked the asshole in the area where the sun don't shine.

"STOP!" Minnie shouted and pulled me away from the man.

"Minnie let me handle this sick fuck!" I struggled.

"The police will do that," She said, and for the first time I turned towards the doors where armed policemen had begun to rush in.

We stepped away as the man lying in front of me was immediately cuffed and pinned against the wall.

And that was when we were hit with the second surprise.

A loud alarm began to wail in the background, the noise coming straight from the police station.

The escapee alarm.

There was confusion everywhere as more policemen streamed out of the station next to the arcade, running around shouting loudly.

I turned back to the desk to see the girl in the black hoodie to have disappeared.

Minnie pulled on my arm and I just followed her, confused on my own. What the hell just happened out there?

"We need to get out of here, or we'll have to give testimonies," Minnie said to me as she lead me through a different door than we entered. We walked out of the back of the building towards where the trashcans were stashed.

"Minnie what the fuck is going on? You're scaring me," Is all I could say as I watched her pull two of the trashcans aside to reveal a huge airvent.

"Come on," She urged me in and I had to crawl through a dusty vent for about ten metres before it opened into a small empty room.

I turn and face Minnie, "How can we recruit a girl who is the reason why we're hiding in weird vent rooms right now?"

"Leesh, you saw what she did with the pedo. She also used police station wifi to send the pictures," Minnie pointed at the the WeChat messages. Police station wifi is almost impossible to crack.

I was still not convinced, "What makes her better than the others?"

Minnie leaned in closer, "She worked for the cyber corps before going rogue."

Interesting.

Minnie continued, "And she got the prisoners out, while hacking the cell, all the while using the police station's wifi."

I gasped, "Is that why she took the cashier job? For the prison escape?"

"And to catch the loser assaulting the kids," Came a third voice which made me jump. The hoodie girl stood there, along with two other people, a man and a woman, both in blue t-shirts and grey trousers, standard prisoner uniforms of the UK.

"Let me see your face," I called out to the girl whose face was still covered.

"Don't waste my time," Was the reply I got, and then a pistol was pulled out on me by the guy behind the girl.

She continued to speak, "You better not be some undercover cop."

I just smiled, "I'm Alicia Ryder, pleased to meet you three."

"Aren't you from Blue's gang?" The blonde girl behind hoodie girl asked.

"Yes she was Rebecca," Minnie addressed her, "Good to see you again, Jerry," She said to the boy who was still holding the pistol.

Ah yes my first encounter with Lexus Jerry.

"It's Becky," The blondie scowled.

"Stop this nonsense," Hoodie girl said, "I've gotten you out, Yuxian will give you directions to the safehouse, now leave us alone," She told to blondie and pistol guy. They nodded and left immediately.

"Kim Minji told me some very unconvincing stories about stealing from auctions?" Hacker girl said in a low voice her face was still hidden behind the hood for me to scrutinize her expression.

"I know you want some real jobs to do, and believe me you will get a major share of the loot, Blaise Louison" I kept staring at the hood, waiting for her to make eye contact with me.

She lifted her head, and her eerie blue eyes bore into my own, "Let's discuss this more in a place not filled to the brim with the police."

****

"She doesn't know you went to prison?" I ask him.

"She thinks I successfully handled the bank job."

"And why didn't you tell her?" I ask.

"You know how she is. She tries to be fiercely independent and would think I did that to prove some sort of point."

"And what was your purpose for getting yourself arrested?"

He sighs and rubs his forehead with a bony hand, "We were very good friends, you know?"

"Zhong Jian, in this world, as much as we honor friendship, we don't stick our necks out that far to prove our loyalty. We break them out instead of purposely going into prison ourselves," I narrow my eyes at him.

It's a sad fact, but it's true. This is not a movie. It's the real world. Where we care most about ourselves.

You could say we use the pirate code. If someone gets left behind, we leave them and rescue them when we are not compromised ourselves.

"Okay, fine. I liked her. A lot," He is looking down again, as if ashamed of admitting this to me. Something that I suspected all along.

"Is that past tense I'm hearing?" I sniff a little in the cold and wrap my jacket tighter around myself.

"Yes, no more. She likes Yuxian now, and I respect that," He gives me a determined stare, but as my eyes shift to his left knee, on which his body has begun to lean, I think I know better.

"You should tell her everything, you know?" I tell him, and that's when I hear my Bluetooth headset beep.

The beep that tells you the call is over.

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Heyo! Sorry for the length I got carried away. Hope you liked it!