𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐗

39| JEKYLL AND HYDE

"Fuck!" Seojin swore in complaint.

"Language!" The earpiece boomed. Tobias.

Thirty-six hours after that thrilling heist, Seojin was hanging on to the rope for dear life. He had assumed that this would be short, but he had not anticipated the fall to be this dramatic. He thought he would just have to take a chance because it was about 12 feet to the ground from where he was hanging. He shifted about in his black vest, rechecking that he had everything. He grinned inwardly.

Tobias had cross-checked three times before pulling in the chords and settling on the plan. The best time to sort this out was the fifteen minutes between 3.45 and 4.00 am, when the doors were left unattended. Was it a smart idea? To sneak into a highly guarded government building at the crack of dawn, enter his DNA samples and corrupt the files. No.

Was it the only idea? Yes. Sejin would never accept his crimes. Stealing his identity was the only option.

Tobias had meticulously studied the building's security system, mapping out blind spots and identifying the easiest way to gain entry. Armed with this information, he successfully executed the plan for those precious fifteen minutes of vulnerability, leaving no trace behind.

He could argue that Tobias's actions were not morally justified, as he invaded someone else's property and potentially put others at risk by exploiting the building's security vulnerabilities, but he wasn't exactly wrong.

Earlier that day, just before the room closed off, Tobias had managed to hack into the cyber system and place a loop of recording into the security camera of that very room, showing that no one was in the area. It wasn't really an easy spot; he had to fail multiple times, got logged into some anonymous network, but he did succeed. A very risky take, but somehow it didn't cause havoc; hence, none had really sensed the glitch.

He hoped that no one would figure it out until it was too late, but he still needed to work quickly, just in case.

"You need to pull the lever down at the end of the room to block out the sensors around the computer. I tried to locate the sensor heads, but some nasty artificial intelligence is getting better at it, Seojin," Tobias had reminded him at least a dozen times.
And he had nodded religiously.

If anything, Seojin had to do this tonight, before dawn, or else everything would crumble. He would be killed, or worse, captured. Mentally and physically bracing himself, he untied the rope around himself and dropped to the ground. He landed on all fours with a muffled thud, and he held his breath for a moment, looking to see if any alarms had gone off.

As he cautiously looked around, his eyes widened in disbelief. The alarms remained eerily silent, and he couldn't help but feel a surge of relief mixed with confusion.

"Fourteen minutes, Seojin," Tobias spoke through the earpiece again, "The alarm will ring within fourteen minutes."

Something hit him in exactly those areas that needed attention: His left foot was still moving despite its numbness, as though it were attempting suicide, but the most startling of these events was what happened next. The fingers clenched tightly around his right earlobe and made a ragged sound like nails on wood.

Involuntarily, he tiptoed right through the befitting darkness, reaching for the lever. The sensors had to be somewhere around the corner, and if anything, he needed to find them quickly instead of stepping on them. The urgency in his movements was evident as he manoeuvred through the darkness, guided only by his instincts and the faint sound of his own breathing. It took him nearly three minutes just to find what remained.

The handle of the lever felt cold beneath his latex palm as he pulled it down with a sharp, decisive motion. A low hum reverberated through the air, signalling that the sensors had been deactivated. Relief washed over him as he knew he had successfully bypassed the security system.

The darkness seemed to retreat slightly, revealing a dimly lit room. "Fast, Seojin, ten minutes now," Tobias whispered again.

With cautious steps, he continued his mission, knowing that time was of the essence. The adrenaline coursed through his veins, fuelling his determination to complete the task at hand. Sneaking at his pace, he quickly toggled the spare glasses on his nose, hunching the butt and making his way to the computer at the corner.

Handling the wheeled chair, he sat right in front of the computer monitor, the glow of the screen illuminating his face. Seojin's heart hammered in his chest as he wrote quickly, conscious that any noise or blunder may alert the guards patrolling outside. The weight of the assignment weighed against him with each passing second, encouraging him to finish before it was too late. But he had logged in, and no faults were detected. Tobias knew the exact keys; he was indeed a genius.