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xp_logsThe heist continues as MA and Natasha focus on opening the security door.
The security door to the gallery had been closed as the ceremony started. It was impressive; almost as thick as a vault door and locked behind a complex two part verification system with a passive alarm attached. Even if they defeated the codes, opening the door without isolating it would still alert the security room the second the door was opened.
The wig was really the worst part. Marie-Ange huffed chestnut bangs off her face, and adjusted the line of the clingy latex minidress. The skirt was easily ignored, wigs - no matter how high quality - itched. She peeled herself off the arm of the man she'd almost glued herself to, giggled, and patted his lips with a gloved hand. "Oh, you cute thing. I have to go take a smoke first, and then I'll get right back to you, kay?"
She'd found her cover in one of the little private alcoves of the Club, and as she strutted off, it looked like he had no intentions of leaving anytime soon.
The wig had come off - tossed into another private alcove before Marie-Ange slipped out of the main Club building and into the gallery building. "I was sat there with that man for thirty minutes." She complained lightly, as she peeled the gloves off and shoved them into the bust of the dress, now covered in a gauzy wrap jacket that elevated it from slutty to strangely elegant in an art deco style. She slipped through the crowd, with the expression of a woman who dearly needed the ladies lounge. "He likes smokers. I have a nicotine habit now."
She met Natasha coming from the other direction as they passed Darcy, and Marie-Ange gave the shorter woman a quick nod. "Oh lovely glasses, so elegant." She said, greeting Natasha with a pleased smile.
Natasha desperately wished one of the cloaking devices had been practical for this mission instead of having to spend her time ignoring the irritating floater that'd gotten trapped under one of her contact lenses. Her normally green eyes were a dark chocolate brown that complemented her recently dyed deep raven hair. She flipped said glasses up into her hair and rubbed at her eyes. "They're one of my favorite mission glasses. It almost makes me want to wear them all the time, but that would be a bad idea."
Keeping work and life separate was supposed to be a thing, but well sometimes that wasn't as easy as it was supposed to be. She'd ditched her server uniform and her own wig several passes ago through the behind the scenes hallways and was dressed in a sleek off the shoulder deep purple gown with matching clutch and dazzling high heels. The one out of place item was the backpack she'd retrieved from one of the air ducts leading toward the kitchen. Being one of the nameless faces that no one paid attention to offered many opportunities to stash things in unexpected places.
Noise from the gala was an indistinct murmur this far removed from the main area and with the cameras and guards neutralized they were left to do their work. "Now, where's this door we're supposed to crack," Natasha said as she glanced at the suspiciously blank wall they were standing next to.
"I imagine that is half the problem." Marie-Ange said, pulling a clip from her hair. "Battery, please and thank you?" She took the tiny battery from wherever Natasha had produced it from, and twisted it into a socket on the underside of the hair clip.
It felt more than a touch absurd to wave a Swarovski crystal covered barrette and listen to it chirp, but after a few long, slow passes at the walls, it did. "Hidden sensor. Do you think handprint or retinal scan?"
The clutch was deceptively filled with mundane items. The battery had slipped from the bottom of a lipstick tube holder. "I'd expect both for the illusion of high security." Natasha gave an arch look at their surroundings. "For which, I have some rather pointed suggestions."
She pulled out what looked like a compact from her clutch then reached into her bra to retrieve the USB drive filled with the retina and handprint scans of everyone currently employed by the HFC for security along with a copy of their internal database. She plugged it into a slot on the compact then moved closer to the sensor. She twisted the mirror around to project the appropriate retina scan and required handprint.
"With as much money as Shaw and Frost throw into this place, I think it is not much illusion." Marie-Ange said. She plucked the tight material of her dress away from her skin, and pulled a sheet of clear material off her skin. "Body heat sensor, yes?" She said, pointing to the handprint scanner. "So that no one can do what we are doing and project an artificial handprint." She plucked another clip from her hair, slotted it into the tiny gap that had appeared after Natasha's mirror blinked lights at them, and pulled out a long flat panel. "Body tape. Not just for keeping this horrible dress on my chest."
"At some point, we should find better uses for all these fun gadgets and toys we have access to. It seems such a shame to let them languish, unused, for months on end until we randomly need them." Natasha frowned and wished suddenly for the simplicity of hacking into a console instead of this minefield of high tech manipulation. "We should have a girls' night out. With a bingo card of tasks we should accomplish to confuse the random drunk men we meet."
She watched as MA attached the body tape to the panel and then a few tense seconds before the door beeped an acceptance and slowly clicked open. "Wait, let me spray with laser detectors. There's someone in here that I know is too old school and hates the new tech." She pulled a delicate looking purple vial topped with a gold stopper out and spritzed the doorway very generously. Several criss-crossed lines of laser beams appeared in the mist.
Marie-Ange rolled her eyes at the beams, and hopped up on one foot to pull three pieces of embellishment off her heeled sandal. "This is now excessive and well into paranoia." She pushed the tiny pieces of glitter into the doorway, reflecting the lasers back at themselves. "Those will burn out fast, but I think there is enough time, and it is that edible glitter from the baking store, so no residue." She wiped her fingers on the material of her dress. "We should absolutely have that night out. Someone other than us needs to have to wear the edible glitter shoes though. They smell like cotton candy."
"I wouldn't mind cotton candy as much as I do if all the places weren't trying to add it as their hot new scent for whatever weird thing they're wanting to promote next." Natasha glanced down at the hand scanner panel again. Somewhere along the way she'd remembered to isolate the door, right? It was always part of the routine. She frowned and pulled out what appeared at first glance was a small metallic index card sized card case. She waved it over the scanner until it beeped. "Well, glad I didn't make that mistake. Though, if I hadn't isolated the door and we'd opened it, the security response leaves much to be desired. With this time lag, someone had to have knocked them out with sleeping gas."
"I think they were knocked out by Darcy in a low cut dress." Marie-Ange was already putting her bag back together. "Door is isolated, electronic security is bypassed, we have passcodes to... " She gave Natasha an amused look. "To pass on. Is it time to very much not be in this outfit, yes?"
The door slid open, showing the way into the gallery. The go signal was sent again as they melted away back to the party, this time passing it off to a team outside of the building, on the roof.
Felicia and Topaz face the complex laser security grid.
There was a complex detection system within the gallery itself; a combination of lasers and motion detectors in order to capture any unauthorized movement in the main area. Fortunately, they had a security expert on tap. The security system was tied into the overall apparatus of the guts of the club, making it a challenging system to defeat.
It was unsurprisingly easy to make underpaid guards care less about their jobs than they already did. One of the ones Topaz drained had already been half asleep by the time they approached. The emotions were going right into the semi invisibility spell cloaking herself and Felicia - enough to throw off any cameras in the area and keep people from actively looking at them. "Think that's everyone," she murmured, still casting a mental net around to make sure no one else was approaching.
Felicia, who'd remained entirely silent, watchful, as Topaz worked, finally caught her glance. Her grin was delighted, red lips split thin in a show of teeth and her tongue running along them. "Well. Consider me entranced," she said, waiting the appropriate beat, before hooking her harness into the large grapple gun she'd been carrying around with her like a dog mom and her pup that had decided it was too tired to walk anymore.
"I do love to watch you work. It's too bad you'd ultimately make my night job too easy, because oh we'd have so much fun together," she continued, offering the second hook for her to strap in.
Topaz took the hook without a second thought, blinking a few times. As a rule she stayed as much out of everyone else's head as possible, because there were some things she didn't need to know, and her co-workers' feelings were absolutely one of those things. It was tempting to check if Felicia was just messing with her, but she shoved that down, deciding to play along. "Where's the fun in anything being easy?"
"I'm in this photo and I don't like it," Felicia choked out after a surprised laugh, giving the clip a little tug to test it's security, and happy with the result, turned to the grapple, making a few quick adjustments. "But didn't they tell you? We're bringing slut back," she finished with a grin, tugging Topaz close and blindly firing roofwards.
If Topaz let out a surprised squeak at the sudden change of ground to no ground beneath her feet, she'd never admit it. And maybe she clung to Felicia a little. But in her defense, this was a new thing. They landed easily on the roof despite all the fears that flashed through her mind in the split second between no ground and ground again, and she let out a shaky chuckle. "You do that often?"
Felicia gave her a sly smile, slowly unhooking the two of them and dropping the grapple to the ground, sharp claws drawing along Topaz’s harness with a scraping sound. “My partners aren’t usually so cute, but,” she said, before letting go, heading over to the vent. It came off easily and she began the second hook in. “Yeah.”
There was possibly a brief moment of short circuiting before Topaz ducked her head. "Ah... right, well..." Another quick mental net caught another guard, distracting her. "Bloody hell, they have enough people watching this place?" she muttered, forgetting the situation for a moment.
"That's how you know we're stealing something worth it," Felicia replied, giving her harness a test. This was going to be a squeeze, and she made a fruitless press at her chest, as if she could go back in time and wear a more aggressive compression bra. "It should be an easy straight shot down, the line is already prepped for the panel point and then I just climb back up, but please promise me you'll pull me up if I get stuck."
"Promise," Topaz said, magic wrapping around her fingers like gloves to reinforce them. "Not likely I missed anyone at this point, but if I did, you'll be covered if someone comes around."
"Best girl," Felicia grinned, before dropping feet first into the vent.
Just as she said, the fall was straight down, with her elbows tight to her sides and arms crossed over her chest. They'd gone over building plans, done the measurements, but there was always the chance for error, and she wanted her hands available at the right height if things got too narrow. Even with the line prep slowing her down just before her mark, there was still the jarring sensation of coming to a halt, before she realized the panel had landed perfectly at throat level, and she got to work removing the front.
Topaz was leaning over the hatch, looking down at Felicia and still casting about every now and again for a sign that someone was coming. But all was quiet.
"Okay, panel accessed, snippy snip here, plug in bypass key there..." Felicia thought out loud, obviously more for Topaz's benefit than anything. The silence could be deafening. "Just waiting for the little green light and- there she is! Coming back to you."
The monologue was appreciated. Topaz leaned back as Felicia made her way back up, offering a hand to help when she was close enough. "All good?"
“Perfect. The whole system is set to bounce the grid into a completely useless, very expensive laser show.” Felicia grinned, her black glove holding tight to Topaz as she pulled herself up the final feet. “So… drinks?”
As the systems switched over and went down, there was another click, and they finally had a clear run at the book. The complex system was still on, but neutralized enough for the final team to move in.
Finally, Gabe and Kevin go in to collect their prize. And that's where everything goes wrong.
Gabe had taken advantage of an incredibly racist approach by the local catering company to come in as a temp dishwasher in the kitchen. He was pearl diving along with three other Hispanic men who barely noticed when he left for a ‘bathroom’ break. Kevin was switching identities rapidly, including his clothes, which the older man rarely did due to the strain on his powers. They met at the now open doors and walked into the gallery.
“So, we just need to open it up and switch the book. Ten bucks says it will be easy?” Kevin said.
"Define easy." Gabriel, a black backpack in one hand, tried to survey the room, but his thefts had always been more petty than this, so it's not like he entirely knew what potential traps to look for. "Not that it matters. I'm not taking that bet. Pride before the fall, and all that."
"Fair enough. There's the cabinet." He gave it a once over before pulling out a roll of tools. "So the glass has a contact alarm to bypass and that should be it." He went looking for a panel at the base to get into the system. "Book look normal to you? No wires or anything on the stand?"
"Book looks fine," Gabriel replied, leaning toward the glass. "One trip wire on the stand, not sure what it's connected to. And it looks like there's a sensor inside — I'm guessing infrared. Not sure how we're going to trick that."
"The sensor and the trip should both be connected to the power supply of the stand. Powering it down should take both out of the equation without setting off anything." Kevin said. "There we go." He quickly unscrewed the corners of the panel, moving fast as their window was closing.
"Get ready to swap it out with the forgery as soon as I say you're clear."
Gabriel nodded, pulling the fake book out of the backpack. He looked at it closely as Kevin worked, comparing it to the book on the stand. "Not bad," he said, as if he were an expert in detecting forged artifacts. "This whole thing feels suspiciously like Indiana Jones, even if I can do this whole thing faster than him."
"The pressure switch was actually used in ancient times. It's not entirely Hollywood bullshit. It had-" Kevin suddenly paused. As he pulled off the plate, he could see a contact pad. He turned over the panel to find a matching one. "It's a trap. Get out now!" He hissed, stuffing the kit back into his jacket.
"Seriously?" It took Gabriel a second to realize Kevin wasn't doing a bit, but the look on the other man's face convinced him. And then the alarms started going off. "Damn it." He shoved the forgery back in the backpack and threw it around his shoulders. "I — good luck," he said. He thought about pausing to ask Kevin how he would escape. But instead, he fired up his powers and got the hell out of dodge.
Meanwhile, with Gabe safely out of the way, Kevin stepped beside the door as the first four guards rushed in, and suddenly a fifth guard was there, waving in the next rush of them before going the other way down the halls. A waiter made the turn into the second gallery and by the time he reached the main room with the introductions, he was safely hidden behind the blandest face possible, anonymous in the crowd.
The security door to the gallery had been closed as the ceremony started. It was impressive; almost as thick as a vault door and locked behind a complex two part verification system with a passive alarm attached. Even if they defeated the codes, opening the door without isolating it would still alert the security room the second the door was opened.
The wig was really the worst part. Marie-Ange huffed chestnut bangs off her face, and adjusted the line of the clingy latex minidress. The skirt was easily ignored, wigs - no matter how high quality - itched. She peeled herself off the arm of the man she'd almost glued herself to, giggled, and patted his lips with a gloved hand. "Oh, you cute thing. I have to go take a smoke first, and then I'll get right back to you, kay?"
She'd found her cover in one of the little private alcoves of the Club, and as she strutted off, it looked like he had no intentions of leaving anytime soon.
The wig had come off - tossed into another private alcove before Marie-Ange slipped out of the main Club building and into the gallery building. "I was sat there with that man for thirty minutes." She complained lightly, as she peeled the gloves off and shoved them into the bust of the dress, now covered in a gauzy wrap jacket that elevated it from slutty to strangely elegant in an art deco style. She slipped through the crowd, with the expression of a woman who dearly needed the ladies lounge. "He likes smokers. I have a nicotine habit now."
She met Natasha coming from the other direction as they passed Darcy, and Marie-Ange gave the shorter woman a quick nod. "Oh lovely glasses, so elegant." She said, greeting Natasha with a pleased smile.
Natasha desperately wished one of the cloaking devices had been practical for this mission instead of having to spend her time ignoring the irritating floater that'd gotten trapped under one of her contact lenses. Her normally green eyes were a dark chocolate brown that complemented her recently dyed deep raven hair. She flipped said glasses up into her hair and rubbed at her eyes. "They're one of my favorite mission glasses. It almost makes me want to wear them all the time, but that would be a bad idea."
Keeping work and life separate was supposed to be a thing, but well sometimes that wasn't as easy as it was supposed to be. She'd ditched her server uniform and her own wig several passes ago through the behind the scenes hallways and was dressed in a sleek off the shoulder deep purple gown with matching clutch and dazzling high heels. The one out of place item was the backpack she'd retrieved from one of the air ducts leading toward the kitchen. Being one of the nameless faces that no one paid attention to offered many opportunities to stash things in unexpected places.
Noise from the gala was an indistinct murmur this far removed from the main area and with the cameras and guards neutralized they were left to do their work. "Now, where's this door we're supposed to crack," Natasha said as she glanced at the suspiciously blank wall they were standing next to.
"I imagine that is half the problem." Marie-Ange said, pulling a clip from her hair. "Battery, please and thank you?" She took the tiny battery from wherever Natasha had produced it from, and twisted it into a socket on the underside of the hair clip.
It felt more than a touch absurd to wave a Swarovski crystal covered barrette and listen to it chirp, but after a few long, slow passes at the walls, it did. "Hidden sensor. Do you think handprint or retinal scan?"
The clutch was deceptively filled with mundane items. The battery had slipped from the bottom of a lipstick tube holder. "I'd expect both for the illusion of high security." Natasha gave an arch look at their surroundings. "For which, I have some rather pointed suggestions."
She pulled out what looked like a compact from her clutch then reached into her bra to retrieve the USB drive filled with the retina and handprint scans of everyone currently employed by the HFC for security along with a copy of their internal database. She plugged it into a slot on the compact then moved closer to the sensor. She twisted the mirror around to project the appropriate retina scan and required handprint.
"With as much money as Shaw and Frost throw into this place, I think it is not much illusion." Marie-Ange said. She plucked the tight material of her dress away from her skin, and pulled a sheet of clear material off her skin. "Body heat sensor, yes?" She said, pointing to the handprint scanner. "So that no one can do what we are doing and project an artificial handprint." She plucked another clip from her hair, slotted it into the tiny gap that had appeared after Natasha's mirror blinked lights at them, and pulled out a long flat panel. "Body tape. Not just for keeping this horrible dress on my chest."
"At some point, we should find better uses for all these fun gadgets and toys we have access to. It seems such a shame to let them languish, unused, for months on end until we randomly need them." Natasha frowned and wished suddenly for the simplicity of hacking into a console instead of this minefield of high tech manipulation. "We should have a girls' night out. With a bingo card of tasks we should accomplish to confuse the random drunk men we meet."
She watched as MA attached the body tape to the panel and then a few tense seconds before the door beeped an acceptance and slowly clicked open. "Wait, let me spray with laser detectors. There's someone in here that I know is too old school and hates the new tech." She pulled a delicate looking purple vial topped with a gold stopper out and spritzed the doorway very generously. Several criss-crossed lines of laser beams appeared in the mist.
Marie-Ange rolled her eyes at the beams, and hopped up on one foot to pull three pieces of embellishment off her heeled sandal. "This is now excessive and well into paranoia." She pushed the tiny pieces of glitter into the doorway, reflecting the lasers back at themselves. "Those will burn out fast, but I think there is enough time, and it is that edible glitter from the baking store, so no residue." She wiped her fingers on the material of her dress. "We should absolutely have that night out. Someone other than us needs to have to wear the edible glitter shoes though. They smell like cotton candy."
"I wouldn't mind cotton candy as much as I do if all the places weren't trying to add it as their hot new scent for whatever weird thing they're wanting to promote next." Natasha glanced down at the hand scanner panel again. Somewhere along the way she'd remembered to isolate the door, right? It was always part of the routine. She frowned and pulled out what appeared at first glance was a small metallic index card sized card case. She waved it over the scanner until it beeped. "Well, glad I didn't make that mistake. Though, if I hadn't isolated the door and we'd opened it, the security response leaves much to be desired. With this time lag, someone had to have knocked them out with sleeping gas."
"I think they were knocked out by Darcy in a low cut dress." Marie-Ange was already putting her bag back together. "Door is isolated, electronic security is bypassed, we have passcodes to... " She gave Natasha an amused look. "To pass on. Is it time to very much not be in this outfit, yes?"
The door slid open, showing the way into the gallery. The go signal was sent again as they melted away back to the party, this time passing it off to a team outside of the building, on the roof.
Felicia and Topaz face the complex laser security grid.
There was a complex detection system within the gallery itself; a combination of lasers and motion detectors in order to capture any unauthorized movement in the main area. Fortunately, they had a security expert on tap. The security system was tied into the overall apparatus of the guts of the club, making it a challenging system to defeat.
It was unsurprisingly easy to make underpaid guards care less about their jobs than they already did. One of the ones Topaz drained had already been half asleep by the time they approached. The emotions were going right into the semi invisibility spell cloaking herself and Felicia - enough to throw off any cameras in the area and keep people from actively looking at them. "Think that's everyone," she murmured, still casting a mental net around to make sure no one else was approaching.
Felicia, who'd remained entirely silent, watchful, as Topaz worked, finally caught her glance. Her grin was delighted, red lips split thin in a show of teeth and her tongue running along them. "Well. Consider me entranced," she said, waiting the appropriate beat, before hooking her harness into the large grapple gun she'd been carrying around with her like a dog mom and her pup that had decided it was too tired to walk anymore.
"I do love to watch you work. It's too bad you'd ultimately make my night job too easy, because oh we'd have so much fun together," she continued, offering the second hook for her to strap in.
Topaz took the hook without a second thought, blinking a few times. As a rule she stayed as much out of everyone else's head as possible, because there were some things she didn't need to know, and her co-workers' feelings were absolutely one of those things. It was tempting to check if Felicia was just messing with her, but she shoved that down, deciding to play along. "Where's the fun in anything being easy?"
"I'm in this photo and I don't like it," Felicia choked out after a surprised laugh, giving the clip a little tug to test it's security, and happy with the result, turned to the grapple, making a few quick adjustments. "But didn't they tell you? We're bringing slut back," she finished with a grin, tugging Topaz close and blindly firing roofwards.
If Topaz let out a surprised squeak at the sudden change of ground to no ground beneath her feet, she'd never admit it. And maybe she clung to Felicia a little. But in her defense, this was a new thing. They landed easily on the roof despite all the fears that flashed through her mind in the split second between no ground and ground again, and she let out a shaky chuckle. "You do that often?"
Felicia gave her a sly smile, slowly unhooking the two of them and dropping the grapple to the ground, sharp claws drawing along Topaz’s harness with a scraping sound. “My partners aren’t usually so cute, but,” she said, before letting go, heading over to the vent. It came off easily and she began the second hook in. “Yeah.”
There was possibly a brief moment of short circuiting before Topaz ducked her head. "Ah... right, well..." Another quick mental net caught another guard, distracting her. "Bloody hell, they have enough people watching this place?" she muttered, forgetting the situation for a moment.
"That's how you know we're stealing something worth it," Felicia replied, giving her harness a test. This was going to be a squeeze, and she made a fruitless press at her chest, as if she could go back in time and wear a more aggressive compression bra. "It should be an easy straight shot down, the line is already prepped for the panel point and then I just climb back up, but please promise me you'll pull me up if I get stuck."
"Promise," Topaz said, magic wrapping around her fingers like gloves to reinforce them. "Not likely I missed anyone at this point, but if I did, you'll be covered if someone comes around."
"Best girl," Felicia grinned, before dropping feet first into the vent.
Just as she said, the fall was straight down, with her elbows tight to her sides and arms crossed over her chest. They'd gone over building plans, done the measurements, but there was always the chance for error, and she wanted her hands available at the right height if things got too narrow. Even with the line prep slowing her down just before her mark, there was still the jarring sensation of coming to a halt, before she realized the panel had landed perfectly at throat level, and she got to work removing the front.
Topaz was leaning over the hatch, looking down at Felicia and still casting about every now and again for a sign that someone was coming. But all was quiet.
"Okay, panel accessed, snippy snip here, plug in bypass key there..." Felicia thought out loud, obviously more for Topaz's benefit than anything. The silence could be deafening. "Just waiting for the little green light and- there she is! Coming back to you."
The monologue was appreciated. Topaz leaned back as Felicia made her way back up, offering a hand to help when she was close enough. "All good?"
“Perfect. The whole system is set to bounce the grid into a completely useless, very expensive laser show.” Felicia grinned, her black glove holding tight to Topaz as she pulled herself up the final feet. “So… drinks?”
As the systems switched over and went down, there was another click, and they finally had a clear run at the book. The complex system was still on, but neutralized enough for the final team to move in.
Finally, Gabe and Kevin go in to collect their prize. And that's where everything goes wrong.
Gabe had taken advantage of an incredibly racist approach by the local catering company to come in as a temp dishwasher in the kitchen. He was pearl diving along with three other Hispanic men who barely noticed when he left for a ‘bathroom’ break. Kevin was switching identities rapidly, including his clothes, which the older man rarely did due to the strain on his powers. They met at the now open doors and walked into the gallery.
“So, we just need to open it up and switch the book. Ten bucks says it will be easy?” Kevin said.
"Define easy." Gabriel, a black backpack in one hand, tried to survey the room, but his thefts had always been more petty than this, so it's not like he entirely knew what potential traps to look for. "Not that it matters. I'm not taking that bet. Pride before the fall, and all that."
"Fair enough. There's the cabinet." He gave it a once over before pulling out a roll of tools. "So the glass has a contact alarm to bypass and that should be it." He went looking for a panel at the base to get into the system. "Book look normal to you? No wires or anything on the stand?"
"Book looks fine," Gabriel replied, leaning toward the glass. "One trip wire on the stand, not sure what it's connected to. And it looks like there's a sensor inside — I'm guessing infrared. Not sure how we're going to trick that."
"The sensor and the trip should both be connected to the power supply of the stand. Powering it down should take both out of the equation without setting off anything." Kevin said. "There we go." He quickly unscrewed the corners of the panel, moving fast as their window was closing.
"Get ready to swap it out with the forgery as soon as I say you're clear."
Gabriel nodded, pulling the fake book out of the backpack. He looked at it closely as Kevin worked, comparing it to the book on the stand. "Not bad," he said, as if he were an expert in detecting forged artifacts. "This whole thing feels suspiciously like Indiana Jones, even if I can do this whole thing faster than him."
"The pressure switch was actually used in ancient times. It's not entirely Hollywood bullshit. It had-" Kevin suddenly paused. As he pulled off the plate, he could see a contact pad. He turned over the panel to find a matching one. "It's a trap. Get out now!" He hissed, stuffing the kit back into his jacket.
"Seriously?" It took Gabriel a second to realize Kevin wasn't doing a bit, but the look on the other man's face convinced him. And then the alarms started going off. "Damn it." He shoved the forgery back in the backpack and threw it around his shoulders. "I — good luck," he said. He thought about pausing to ask Kevin how he would escape. But instead, he fired up his powers and got the hell out of dodge.
Meanwhile, with Gabe safely out of the way, Kevin stepped beside the door as the first four guards rushed in, and suddenly a fifth guard was there, waving in the next rush of them before going the other way down the halls. A waiter made the turn into the second gallery and by the time he reached the main room with the introductions, he was safely hidden behind the blandest face possible, anonymous in the crowd.
