Owen visited Jessica one last time before returning home. She was practically unrecognizable by now, a pile of mush that was somehow still alive. It made him wonder - could the souls still save her even, or had she gone past any salvation? Owen frowned. But what good is there if I don't try at all, either?

That seemed to be the bottom line, in the end. Arriving back at his apartment, he made several minor changes to the plan, though ensured the overall idea stayed the same. His plan was fine as it was, if not a bit too straightforward. Wasn't there a saying for something like that? Oh yes, it looked fine on paper. It looked beautifully on paper, in fact, as if nothing could wrong.

But Owen knew better.

And for that, he couldn't help but worry, unable to do anything else other than think over his plan. Imagining every single mistake that could occur. What if Alexis' information was inaccurate? Or what if Schulmer - Schultheiss - popped up at the wrong time, or they walked too close to his bunker by mistake?

The thoughts continued to pester him, and so he battled with himself that afternoon, muttering things under his breath. 

That was before Hob came, at least. And it was only when the man knocked on his apartment door, that the whirlwind in his head stopped.

"Sorry for not coming early." Hob gave a guilty smile, glancing at the clock as Owen fully opened the door. "A bit past eight. I was just worried that the other person wouldn't be early either, and you would have to wait for them anyway before explaining. Which means you would have to put up with me for longer." Both of them laughed.

Owen rubbed his eyes. "About that... well, the other person isn't coming, actually." Owen shrugged and walked over to the nearby table where all his plans were, sitting down. Hob followed. "Don't worry about it too much, though. The break-in's still possible. It just might be a bit more complicated."

Hob looked at the mess of papers scattered on the table. "You planned all of this?"

Owen gathered the papers together, suddenly realizing how disorganized it was. "Eh, I had enough time. Beside, most of them are just scribbles or thoughts that I'd thought to jot down. The plan itself isn't much."

"Then what is your plan?" 

Owen tookout a paper from his pile, placing it down on the table and revealing a map of the province. Pointing to a dot that he marked in the center of the page, he said, "Here we are at Agarlan. And this is Malille, the city where GRAILCORP headquarters is." He traced his finger to a nearby marking of similar style. "The two of them are surprisingly close to each other, actually. I'd say it would take about... half a day's drive to get there? " 

Hob shrugged. "Fair enough." 

"We need to break in and escape as soon as possible, ideally around ten in the morning tomorrow. Which means that we have to go on the road soon. And once we get there..." He paused. "That's where all hell breaks loose. As a bit of context, the building has three different security protocols. Code Green, which is normal, Code Yellow, which occurs when there's generator failure, and Code Red, which occurs only if the building is completely falling apart. Respectively, Code Yellow replaces electrical mechanisms with non-electrical ones, and Code Red shuts everything down."

Owen took out another paper, a rough sketch that he drew himself. "This is a map of the GRAILCORP interior, according to Alexis." Seeing Hob's confused expression as he heard the name, Owen explained, "Some other person. I'll talk about her later. But for now..." He tapped a grid in the very corner. "This is the generator. And this..." He tapped a center grid. "This is the entrance from the first floor to the restricted stairwell, which leads to both the GRAILCORP soul factory, and the vault where all the souls are contained." 

Hob sighed. "Go on. I just need to digest this information a bit. Sorry."

Owen nodded and waited for a while before continuing, "You can probably guess by now that we need to break into the stairwell. That's the problem, though. The only way to get through is if you swipe an access card into this thing beside its door. At least, that's the standard way to get through. Code Yellow has a backup mechanism, though, which makes it much easier. Instead of having to completely steal a card to get in, we just need to find out a certain PIN. Which Alexis said she'd do." And if Alexis was true to her word, she would.

Hob looked at the papers again. "And I'm assuming we trigger Code Yellow by doing something to the generator?" 

"Right. That's your role, then. You need to get past the guard and go into the generator room. Once you're in, you need to set fire to the generator." Owen frowned at the idea, but it was the only way. "I have a box of matches that I dug up a while ago. It's hardly used, and there's plenty."

Hob raised an eyebrow. "Am I doing this alone?"

"I... I can tag along, I guess. But I also need to get the PIN from Alexis." He waved it off. "Eh, whatever. We can do that beforehand, I guess."

He nodded. "And how do I get past the guard...?"

Owen paused. "Well, I'm not sure, actually. But we'll improvise when the time comes."

"No offense, but that's kind of... risky. No offense."

Dammit, he should've thought of a concrete solution earlier! "Er, I'm sure that we'll have time to think of a way on the road to Malille. But my point is, once the generator has been cooked enough, Code Yellow should be triggered. First make sure everybody's evacuated the building - the fire alarm should do the trick, and we don't want anybody to get hurt - then enter the PIN and go into the stairwell." He grimaced. "That's where we split up. One of us needs to go and quickly inspect the soul factory, and somebody else needs to break into the vault itself. I don't know where either of them are exactly, but I know that there's somewhere at the lower ends of the stairwell. In the basement.

"Who does what, then?"

Owen sighed. "I suppose we'll decide on that later, too." Was Hob also appearing to have second thoughts now? There's no turning back either. I have to keep going. "But the factory thing should be brief. Either way, it'll be a waiting game once we're in front of the vault. We need Code Red to trigger first before brute-forcing our way in. Otherwise security comes along. You need to make sure Code Red does get triggered, though. So beat the generator to a pulp."

Hob grinned, though uncertainty still shone in his eyes. "I'll try my best."

Owen nodded. "And then after, we just take some souls from the vault and leave. The rest should be self-explanatory. Does it make sense?" 

"I guess. Can you summarize it for me again?"

He suppressed a sigh. "We need to get into the generator room and trigger Code Yellow by setting fire to the generator. This way, everybody gets evacuated, and we'll be able to input the PIN that grants access to the stairwell. From there, one of us goes inspect the soul factory, while-"

There was a sudden knock at the door. Turning around, Owen chewed his lip, thoughts spinning in his head. Who's here now? Had someone been eavesdropping? Or had somebody caught notion of his plan, and reported him to the officials?

The person on the other side of the door was no less surprising than he'd expected. "James?"

James grinned, stepping in. "Anne told me about your little idea, y'know. Well, more like I asked her. But either way, I was wondering if I could help."

Owen raised an eyebrow. "Help?" No, he was up to something.

"Yes, help. You need an extra hand, don't you?"

"I suppose." He sighed. In truth, that would be more helpful. It was always good to have somebody watch your back. Provided they weren't planning to stab you either. "You swear that you aren't up to anything?"

James laughed. "Why would I? Besides, it's practically impossible to buy souls these days. And I need one to replace the one that I had before." Spite laced the man's tone for a moment before he became casual again. "So, am I in or not?"

Owen blinked. James could've been the turning point that would define victory or loss. If he was honest, then Owen had no issues with him helping. But if he was up to his tricks again... 

Something suddenly crossed his mind, and ignoring the voice that screamed for him to decline, he nodded. "You're in. We're planning to drive to GRAILCORP soon, so we'll probably need to use your car." Come to think of it, how would he get to the city if it wasn't for James? Hitch one of those fancy buses, I think. I might still have enough pennies in my coffers. Possibly. "You also have those pocket knives, right? Good. Bring those too." For brute-forcing into the vault. Nothing else.

James shrugged. "I'm fine with all of that. The thing is, I don't even know what your plan is."

Owen smiled. "Oh, don't worry about it. We'll tell you on the road. We need to be off soon, though, and we don't have much time to waste. Er, where's your car right now?"

"Outside the apartment."

He nodded. "That works perfectly. We might as well leave for Malille now, then. Come to think of it, do you also have a shopping bag on hand? We need somewhere to put the souls once we have them, while still avoiding suspicion."

James paused, thinking. "I probably do, in the car."

"Then it works. Lead the way, James."

The man seemed to have some hesitance, but nevertheless complied. "So, what's your plan?"

"I'll tell you once we're off." Owen frowned. Now everything's ready. We just need to make sure that nothing goes wrong.

For Jessica.