We make it to the other side of the road right after the man from the car into the store. Trying to look inconspicuous, I lean against the brick building facing the cafe we were just at, Kate stands underneath the very end of an awning trying to stay dry, and Michael stands plainly in the rain, facing both of us. "He looks to be arguing with an employee" Kate states, peering past me into the rain splattered window of the shop. I hear a muffled crash and some shouting, and Kate flinches. "He just slammed his computer onto the counter. God, I feel bad for the guy working." Still facing me, Michael turns his head towards the window "Do you think he's the only one there?"

"Blue hacked into the computer system, he's the only one on the schedule for today."

Michael nods, the muffled yelling continuing, and turns his face up to the sky, "God I love the rain"

"That's 'cause you were born in a desert" Kate retorts, not taking her eyes off the two figures inside. Michael scowls, not lowering his face, "Well not all of us could be born in Muther Rushke." Kate swallows down a smile and puts on a stern face "That is so not what we sound like," knowing full well that he can pull off a perfect Russian accent if he wants to, and Michael smiles, still with his face to the sky, the water dripping off his hair. I see movement across the way, our waiter is doing his best to clear our table while staying under the umbrella. A clap of thunder rumbles across the sky and he gives up, taking the $50 I had put under my untouched coffee and goes back inside. "Alright, I think he's leaving," Kate says, and a bell chimes as the door opens, confirming her statement. I look the opposite way as the man rushes back to his car and Kate frowns, "That's not the senator" Michael turns slightly and watches the vehicle driving away, "It's probably one of his lackeys, that's his assistant's license plate" he says, nodding towards the SUV. Kate follows his gaze, "Of course you memorized all the plates" she murmurs, then turns back towards us, "Alright we good?" Then not waiting for an answer, "Great, let's do it." I hand them each a slim rubber bracelet that looks like a Fitbit but without the screen and a series of buttons on the side that I pulled from my backpack. "What do you think you're gonna be?" Michael asks, and Kate smiles "I'm thinking ditzy blond white girl who needs, like some sort of like, technology piece, for like my daddies like T.V" and she twirls a piece of hair with her finger.

The rain starts to die down and after waiting another five minutes, we split up, Michael and I going through an alley to the back door and Kate going through the front. I take out my phone and pull up the security cameras I had hacked into while Kate was bribing the mistress, and puts all the cameras besides the front on a loop, filtering back the same 10 minutes of nothing going on, again so that we can break in unrecorded. Both our bracelets vibrate twice, meaning Kate is in and telling us to get ready. "Gloves?" Michael asks, holding up a pair, I shake my head and hold up my hand, pressing a hidden button at the wrist, and what looks like my bare hand changes, showing that it's actually a tight black glove embedded with color-changing lights. It's one of the few things I've actually stolen and not built or bought. He grins, "smart." I kneel down pressing the button on the other hand and start picking the lock on the door, while Michael stands aback a bit and watches the alley pretending to smoke. The lock clicks and a second later I feel three more pulses on my wrist telling me that the coast is clear. I immediately open the door, its rusted hinges silent, and sneak inside.

I'm in a dimly lit back room littered with wires and old computer hardware on wooden tables and racks of spare parts spilling onto the floor. I can feel the electricity buzzing around me, and I take a breath, be calm. I hear Kate up front muffled through a door doing her best valley girl impression trying to describe what she's calling "the thingy that does the thing to the screen" most certainly driving the poor employee mad. I spy a shelf labeled TO DO on the opposite side of the wall cluttered with electronics and quickly walk on over, stepping over thick cables running into machines and weaving between chairs. I find two laptops in a basket below the shelf, the bottom one thicker and black and the other drab grey and clunky looking. I peel off the Post-It that was stuck to the body of the top one Dude's an asshole it reads, Computer won't start. I'm guessing this is the one. I grab it and head to a secluded spot, and hear Kate say: "Hey, speaking of electronics, ya'll know what I've always wondered? How in the hell do cars work?" The side of my mouth twitches slightly as I slide underneath a desk by the wall. This is the girl who can list off every single gun model ranging from the 1940s to present models as well as telling you exactly how accurate they are. The perks of being raised by the KGB I guess. I open up the computer, press the little sun icon and the screen brightens revealing the login page, and plug in my hard drive that contains low-security programs for decrypting a password-protected computer. Suddenly, I hear a door open. The employee walks in, closes the door and lets out a groan. "Two more weeks dude, just make it through" I hear him mutter to himself as he walks past where I'm hiding. I glance at the screen of the computer, code was running across the screen as the program worked through steps.

acct <ccgt>1376160028

crtr <null>

acct <ccgb> 1376160028

crtr <accepted>

password found: HotSen69

implementing procedure

I tense up, it's too late to stop the program. He grabs something out of a rack, and the computer lets out a chime as it boots up. I hold my breath as he pauses. But he just grabs a potato chip from a bag and continues to walk back to the front "Ok so miss this is what we call an HDMI cable, it's-" And he shuts the door. I let out a small puff of air and look at the now open computer. There is the Seal of the Senate as the background picture and I unplug the hard drive and insert an empty thumb drive and start downloading everything I can. I see flashes of blueprints and email links flash by as I set the computer down and peek my head out from under the table. It finishes quickly and I close it, putting the post-it back on and crawl out from under the desk. I'm putting it back when I notice the sigil engraved on the other laptop. I pick it up and examine it. It's what looks to be an eagle with its wings raised over its head creating a kind of circle and a star emblazoned on its chest. Next to it a Post-It note read Bullet Holes, need to fix screen. I'm tempted. So tempted. I look at my watch. I'd been in here for just over ten minutes, and we had agreed on 15. I have time. I switch out the laptops and rush behind a box of parts next to the shelves. I pull out my hard drive and plug it in. The program starts running, and I tap my fingers against the body impatiently, staring through the spiderweb fractures to the words on the screen. Spotting something, I frown. There's something metal embedded in the middle of one of the spider web fractures. I look closer, pull off one of my gloves, and use my fingernail to pry it out. It falls onto the keyboard and I pinch it, bringing it closer to my face. It's tiny, less than a millimeter wide, cylindrical in shape, with a small point on one end and a flat bottom on the other. A part of a bullet? I take a photo of the bullet pattern on the screen. Just then the code stops running, and I hastily put the object into one of the many small pouches on my backpack and pull my glove back on.

acct <ccgt> 481038570

crtr <null>

acct <ccgb> 481038570

crtr <null>

acct <abcc> 481038570

Unable to access password

Curses. I unplug the program and look at my watch, 3 minutes left. If I start up another program, there's no way to stop it without tipping the owner off to the fact that somebody had tried to hack it. I could leave it at that, and not look back, but I hate the feeling of not knowing something important. I look around and see a screwdriver sitting on a table near me. I shouldn't. There's no real reason to, surely if someone had any valuable information on their computer worth stealing, they'd know better than to give it to some random shop, then again, it would be a good hiding place and I can feel in my bones that there's something going on with that damn laptop. I snatch the screwdriver off the table, turn the laptop over and unscrew the bottom compartment to reveal two hard drives, and I waste no time unscrewing the caddies for both and sliding them out of there, hearing the clock ticking in my head. I replace the screws, and after second of deliberation grab an old hard drive that is smaller than the one I took out and put it in there to bring back some weight. My bracelet vibrates twice, meaning I need to get out of here, and I quickly pop the bottom back on, push one of the nails back into place before sliding it underneath the other laptop and hurry back to the door, the two drives now in my jacket pocket. As I'm opening it, I hear the other doors handle turn and silently jump out of my skin. I dart out and close the door as fast as possible. For a second I just stand there facing the door and let out a sigh of relief. That was close. "That was close." I turn around to see Michael in the same spot as before, his cigarette now lit. I raise an eyebrow at him and he shrugs. "A homeless guy came through here a few minutes ago, asked if I needed a light. More importantly, what took you so long? I expected you out of there ages ago." Before I can say anything, Kate appears at the end of the alley, smiling, and holding a plastic bag and we go to meet her. "'Sup guys, sorry I couldn't hold him any longer, a new guy came in and he brushed me off. Blue, what took you so long?"

I shrug, now feeling slightly defensive

"Poor Kate, was keeping that guy distracted hard?" He gives her a dramatic pitying look and Kate wacks him with her plastic bag.

"It's not my fault the new guy literally cut me off to ask a question, and you, well you're lucky" now directing her attention back at me "that I'm hot and that there's a stigma against blonds, otherwise I doubt the guy would've taken the time to list off the differences between a belt for humans and a car belt for as long as he did." Michael rolls his eyes. "Oh yes," he says sarcastically while skirting around a puddle, "very lucky" at which point, Kate punches him in the arm. "Speaking of which, did you actually buy something?" Michael asks, pointing at the plastic bag with the words THANK YOU in bright red letters running down the front. "Oh come on Michael, don't you ever recognize fashion? This is the pinnacle of my collection! I've had it for ages! You must be going blind."

"Oh, right, now I see it. It goes perfectly with the whole tomboy Barbie look you usually got going on. All that plastic." He quickly steps to the other side of me to avoid being punched again. Kate pulls out an HDMI cable from her bag. "I felt so bad for him, ya know? I couldn't just leave him without buying something, even if he did brush me off at the end." Michael shakes his head and smiles at me. "Do you see what I have to put up with every day? I'm going crazy over here." I shake my head, not knowing what to say. "Ah come on, you're no fun." This time, I'm the one to punch him in the arm. Lightly, cause it's true.