Lonely Thieves

Act I, Part IV

Megumi's Side (April 7, 7:50 pm)

Megumi firmly believed that luck was a large part of a thief's skill set. Develop your skills as much as you want, study your target until your heart is full, but at the end of the day, luck was going to make the difference between a successful thief and a criminal behind bars.

The situation before her now was evidence of that. Several days before, she had begun scouting out the mansion, trying to make a floor plan for her eventual heist. She was hidden behind the fence and had her camera-obscuring implants on, so she had let her guard down when one of the assistant cooks had come up behind her. But instead of interrogating her, the cook grabbed her hand and pulled her up while hopping over the fence.

"Come on, you're gonna be late too, right? We'll apologize together!"

So it was that Megumi found herself working as a server for the upcoming gala. It was a little unexpected, but this did clear the problem of how she was planning to infiltrate the party. Furthermore, she was able to get a better grasp of the mansion's layout than if she was still stuck outside trying to study the windows from behind the fence. Luck was already playing a big part in making this heist become a reality.

Tonight, the ball was set to start in a matter of minutes, so the cooks were running to and fro as they tried their best to finish the main appetizers. As a new server who had yet to actually attend at a party, Megumi was not trusted with a lot of the initial prep work, so she wasn't currently doing anything at the time. However, that didn't mean that she was allowed to just wander around the mansion either, so she was waiting with the other servers in the break room on standby.

About ten to fifteen minutes after the party had gone underway, one of the senior butlers came into the room with a cart full of champagne glasses and trays. He and a couple other butlers began assembling the champagne glasses on the trays, then turned to address the servers.

"Everyone here will take one tray and then head straight to the ballroom," the butler declared in a commanding tone. "Make sure you give a glass to anyone with an empty hand!"

"Yes, sir," replied the servers. They then stood in a line as they retrieved the trays one by one. Megumi held the tray steadily in her left hand as she felt the weight of the glasses shift. She then followed the other servers out to the hallways and down to the ballroom where the party was being held. She kept an eye out for any strange sights, but didn't notice any emerald necklaces hanging about the place. She sighed as she continued through the foyer on to the ballroom, which was already filled with celebrities and socialites from all over Twilight.

Megumi glanced at the glasses set upon her tray. 16 glasses to hand out to any attendee not already holding a glass. She looked around at the room and saw many of the attendees already holding drinks thanks to the servers that were already working when the party had started. Still, she needed to get rid of these drinks as quickly as possible. After all, there was no value in staying in the ballroom, which didn't have the necklace she was looking for.

She started looking around the room for people to unload the glasses onto. Surprisingly, she did not have to look too hard. There were plenty of partygoers who still had yet to have a glass of champagne, and soon Megumi was down to her last glass. While trying to avoid looking too eager, she scanned the room for anyone who was still empty-handed and spied a handsome older man in a black tuxedo holding an empty champagne glass.

Megumi walked up to the man and offered him the final glass. "Would you like to have another drink, sir?"

The man let out a wry smile and took the drink she offered him. "Thank you. I could use a drink or too. Calm my nerves a bit."

"Are you nervous about meeting the Hayasaka family?"

"Huh? No, that's not – well, I am worried about that, actually, but I was thinking about something else." The man ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I wonder how long she's planning on making me wait..."

"Are you talking about your companion?" Megumi asked curiously.

"That's right," the man confirmed somewhat nervously. "She went to the bathroom a while ago. I hope she didn't get lost looking for it."

"Sounds like you're not used to the place," Megumi remarked with a giggle. "Is this your first time at the Hayasaka estate?"

"Looks like you found me out. I hope I'm not making it too obvious."

Megumi smiled and hid her mild disappointment. She had hoped to glean some info from the guests while handing out drinks, but she had underestimated just how uppity these high-class snobs could be. Not a single person could be bothered to even thank her for the drink, and the one person who finally acknowledged her existence was a neophyte celeb who was acting like a freshman at university. There was no other way; she'd have to find her own route around the mansion.

Suddenly, Megumi realized that the lights had begun to dim, and the ballroom had fallen silent. A burst of light from a spotlight illuminated the door to the north, as they opened to reveal a large rotund man wearing a tuxedo adorned with an obnoxious amount of gaudy jewelry. This was Tom Hayasaka, the patriarch of the Hayasakas and CEO of the Hayasaka Zaibatsu. Behind him were two beautiful young women. The woman on the left wore a lavish gown made of silk and silver threads, and a diamond tiara adorned her raven black hair. The woman on the right, in contrast, wore a military suit denoting a superior in the Hayasakas' private security force. They were Kaname and Ingrid Hayasaka, and they were the granddaughters of Tom Hayasaka.

Tom Hayasaka raised his hands in the air, which cued the ballroom's lights to come back on. "Welcome, my friends, to my humble abode! I sincerely hope that you are enjoying the refreshments we've prepared."

As Hayasaka continued his speech, Megumi slowly made her way out of the ballroom. She was hoping that he wouldn't be wearing the emerald necklace on his person, and it looked like that was the case. That probably meant that the necklace was being hidden away in a safe location. Megumi slipped out of the ballroom and made as if she were heading back to the kitchen, but instead of continuing down the hall, she slipped into the main hall behind the foyer. The lighting was dimmer here, and with less people around Megumi had a little bit more freedom to do as she pleased.

She quickly discarded her tray behind a nearby pillar and scanned the room. Currently, there was nobody in the main hall, as any attendees had left for the ballroom in order to speak with Tom Hayasaka. The only people left were the guards posted by the hallways meant to keep people from heading up to the second floor or to the inner parts of the mansion. Megumi would have been blocked off from heading further in... if she was a normal girl.

Megumi slid in to the side of the main staircase, out of the sight of the guards blocking the stairway. She took one deep breath and activated the propulsion implants inside her legs. She crouched quietly and then jumped with as much force as she could muster while remaining silent. She shot up into the air, and at the height of her jump she grabbed the banister and vaulted herself onto the second floor. She landed on her feet and immediately rolled around the corner. One of the guards, who was apparently more vigilant than she would have liked, glanced behind him with a curious expression.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" replied his partner, who was snacking on an appetizer brought to him by his friend in the kitchens.

"No, never mind," said the guard, who returned to his post on the staircase. Megumi let out a soundless sigh of relief and took a look around the second floor. It didn't look like they stationed any guards on the upper floor, since they were already blocking off all the entrances in the first place. Still, it wouldn't do to let her guard down. She crept her way to the inner building, making certain to keep an eye out for any other patrolling guards.

Fortunately, she was able to make it to the inner building without encountering any guards. There were still guards watching the main hallways, but nobody to stop people coming in from the second floor. Megumi found this a little suspect. Was Hayasaka Security low on staff today? Or did they genuinely believe that blocking off the staircases was enough to avoid having to place guards up here? She decided to chalk it all up to luck. In any case, mid-heist was not the best time to be thinking about this sort of thing anyway.

Megumi crept along the second floor and gazed at the office set against the right wall of the building. This was her main goal: the CEO's office. To her dismay, two heavyset guards were standing dutifully in front of the door. She clicked her tongue as she took cover behind the banister. She knew that the Hayasakas did not like leaving their important things with the Innocenti banks, so if this emerald necklace existed, it had to be inside that office.

As she pondered over possible ways to get into the room, she suddenly heard the sound of arguing from the lower floor. Glancing through a gap in the banister, she caught sight of a young woman in a party dress crying to a security guard. Had she wandered into the building somehow? Whoever she was, she had gotten the attention of the guards blocking the door, who ran down the steps in order to see what the noise was about.

This was a chance she couldn't let slip. Megumi slipped over to the door and twisted the knob. Locked! No matter; she pulled out a lockpick fashioned from a hairclip and picked it open in less than a second. The door gave way, and she slipped in and shut the door before anyone realized she was even there.

As she slipped on some latex gloves, Megumi turned around and took stock of the room. As she expected, it was a lavish office with ornate marble bookshelves, a large desk made from real wood, and a totally unnecessary chandelier hanging from the ceiling. There were a lot of things you could compliment Tom Hayasaka for even if you hated him, but taste certainly wasn't one of them. Thankfully, the office was quite small, so she didn't expect to spend all that much time searching the place.

Megumi first checked the places where people commonly hid things: in the desk drawers and the cupboards placed below the bookshelves. Naturally, she found nothing. Following that, she began looking through the bookshelves themselves. This was a bit more time-consuming, but she didn't dare overlook anything important. It wasn't impossible for a multi-billionaire like Tom Hayasaka to have something like a secret passageway unlocked by pulling on a certain book.

Megumi did not find a secret passageway leading to hidden alcove inside the mansion. Instead, she found a safe embedded in the wall, hidden behind several books. Despite herself, she felt a bit of annoyance at how simple it was to find, but it was hard to actually complain about it.
Megumi pulled out the books covering the door to the safe and inspected it closely. It was a top-of-the-line model with a keypad lock. She breathed a sigh of relief that the Hayasaka patriarch hadn't bothered with a biometric lock. He was somewhat old-fashioned, after all; octogenarians rarely proved themselves proficient at using modern technology. Of course, a keypad that she didn't know the code to would still pose a potent roadblock – that is, if she was just a normal thief.

Crouching down, Megumi slipped off the glove on her left hand and placed her fingers in front of the keypad, mere millimeters away from touching the buttons. She focused intently on the implants in her arm, and several wires burst through the skin on her fingertips and slid into the gaps of the keys. Inside, the wires connected to the interface and began to access the safe's security protocols. Soon, the keypad lit up with the words 'Lock Disengaged' and the door to the safe swung open. There, to Megumi's relief and exultation, was an golden necklace with a large emerald set in its center.

After withdrawing her hacking implant, Megumi gingerly removed the necklace from the safe, taking care to inspect it closely as she did. There was something special about this necklace that was worth ten billion redals, but she had no idea what it could be. Still, there would be time to figure things out later. As she closed the door to the safe and replaced the books onto the shelves, the doors to the office suddenly burst open.

Megumi whirled around to see an old, grizzled man standing in the doorway with a silenced pistol in his hand. He was wearing the uniform and cap of a security guard, but the atmosphere emanating from his imposing figure told her that he was anything but. Instinctively, Megumi had hidden the necklace behind her back, but it seemed like that was pointless.

"Hand over that necklace," the old man demanded as he pointed the gun at her.

Megumi glanced behind the old man to see the two guards slumped over onto the ground. "Did you kill them?" She asked warily.

"Tranquilizers," the man answered curtly. "I won't tell you again. Hand over the necklace."

Megumi put her hands up in the air in defeat, holding the necklace in her left hand. The old man gestured at the nearby desk with his gun. "No funny business. Put the necklace on the desk and then back away. Understand?"

Megumi nodded to show that she understood, then got up and walked slowly over to the desk. However, she wasn't interested in letting all of her hard work go to waste. As she walked to the desk, she began building up energy inside of her legs. She continued to walk back until she was to the right of the desk, and made as if to put the necklace onto the desk.

However, in one swift motion, she turned and used the built up kinetic energy to hurl herself out of the window before the old man could react. The stored energy burst through the glass with ease, and she tumbled out of the window to the grassy ground below. She righted herself as quickly as she could and landed feet first on the ground, allowing the recoil absorbers to blunt most of the impact. In an instant, Megumi turned towards the west and dashed off, the necklace firmly tucked within her vest's pocket. The old man, who by this time had realized what had happened, ran to the window and took two shots at her, but missed both times. For a moment, it looked as if he was going to try jumping out the window as well, but he seemed to think better of it, and ran out of the office to try and catch her on the ground floor.

Seeing that the old man had disappeared, Megumi slowed down and glanced around looking for any patrolling security guards. Megumi pulled out the emerald necklace and quietly confirmed to herself that it was safe. Now that she had obtained the mark, it was time for her to get out of here. Megumi resumed heading towards the west with a light run. She would get out by climbing over the fence surrounding the Hayasaka mansion and be home free.

The sound of footsteps coming from behind suddenly spooked her, and she stopped running and dove into the nearby bushes. Two security guards with flashlights rounded the corner and jogged briskly across the yard.

"Wish we'd got posted to attend the party," one of the guards complained as they passed the bush Megumi was hiding in. "I've got a crick in my neck and running like this is really making things worse."

"Stop moaning," chided the other guard. "Come on, someone apparently tried to jump the fence. We need to go check it out."

The two guards disappeared behind another corner, and Megumi slowly emerged from the bushes. She wasn't sure, but it looked like they were after someone who had snuck into the mansion grounds. That didn't bode well for her, since technically she fit that description, so that only made the need to leave even greater.

Thankfully, Megumi did not encounter any more guards as she made her way over to the mansion's fence. In less than a few seconds, she'd be out of this stuffy estate and be ten billion redals richer. As she approached the fence, however, she noticed something was wrong. As she closely inspected the fence, she realized that a thin layer of light was covering it. She whirled around and glanced at the sky. Sure enough, it had a strange sheen to it, as if the mansion was suddenly encircled by a bubble.

Megumi cursed in her mind. Whoever it was that tipped off that guards had caused them to trigger the security barrier in order to keep them inside. Now there was no escape for them, or her for that matter.

Megumi bit her lip and ran to find shelter. It looked like her luck was finally running out.