The Neo-Metropol Heist

42: Artem

Artem let the door slide closed behind him as he stepped into the dim office with Theo.
It was a generic boardroom, a long, wooden table with dormant console screens projected from the surface. Comfortable, high-grade luxury swivel-chairs lined the length of the table, clad in deep black leather.
Artem wondered for a moment what kind of work went on here - it could have been everything from discussions by low-grade managers about the delivery accounts and how to lower costs for that quarter, to the best way to world domination.
The far wall consisted of floor-to-ceiling glass, looking out onto the buildings below. Even only this far up, they could still see the roofs of most of the buildings around them.
The traffic stream was nowhere to be seen this close to the restricted space that surrounded the Neo-Metropol, but as they moved to the window a heli-ship hovered past the window, scanning the ground below with a bright spotlight.
You're looking the wrong way, Artem thought to himself, grinning.
When the heli-ship was gone, Artem looked at Theo and put his finger to his ear.
"All right," he said, "send him down and hit the switch."
This was the riskiest part of the plan so far - to get any further up the building, they would need specialist equipment, equipment that they couldn't have smuggled through the front door.
That left Cad the only option, but with no other way in, they'd had to get creative.
The reason they had disabled the external building security was to allow Cad in in a way that he wouldn't be detected. At first, the idea had sounded insane to Artem, but more than a little cool.
"You know when I disrupt the building security, it will let the good detective out of her cage?" Aphelion said.
Artem and Theo exchanged glances. They'd both seen Detective Jaeger in the security office four floors below.
Artem had predicted that the tenacious detective would follow and find them, and the trap Artem had managed to lure her into was crude, but necessary. He knew that he hadn't been convincing enough to get her to give up, she was too determined.
He could only hope that they were far enough ahead of her now for her not to be a problem. Somehow, though, he doubted that.
"Well I'm not really seeing any other option from here," Artem explained, "we're well ahead of her now, anyway, she won't be a problem."
"OK," Aphelion said, glancing between Edward and Harry, "starting the disruption timer."
There was a couple of seconds silence, and Artem flicked out his HUD across his eyes, filling his field of vision with a pale purple glow. In the corner of his vision, he saw a countdown begin.
"All right, security disruption in five, four, three, two..." Aphelion said.
Then, a new image appeared on his heads up display. A small blip falling along a straight line at speed.
Artem moved over to the window and looked up. At first, he saw nothing in the cold dark, but then he saw a small, white figure come racing from the sky.
It wouldn't have been noticeable to anybody not looking for it, but Artem saw it and his heart jumped. Cad.
At the same moment, the heli-ship appeared to their far left, a spotlight scanning the ground below.
For a split second, Artem had a horrible feeling they had miscalculated, his palms were sweaty and his spine stiff as he watched Cad plummet to the ground.
The robot fell like a meteor, looking like he would never slow and plough into the ground, but as he came level with the heli-ship, a small blast of blue fire jetted from open plates on his lower legs.
Cad slowed, only momentarily, but enough to grab onto the landing bar on the far side of the ship, the momentum vaulting him underneath and towards them.
"Step back," Artem said to Theo, even though she was nowhere near the window.
When he was barely ten feet away, Cad pushed his arms out in front of him, towards them, and two beams of red light erupted from his wrists, meeting the glass and shearing through it like a knife through butter.
In an instant, Cad pivoted and span the lasers in a perfectly executed circle, cutting the glass like a compass.
Then, he hit the window.
Instead of shattering the glass like the ballistic missile he had become, Cad simply pushed the glass circle out of place and slipped into the office with grace, executing a perfect roll and coming to a standing stop, still holding the loose glass.
"That was about as awesome as I expected it to be," Artem grinned, taking the circle of still warm, surprisingly thick glass from him and gripping Cad in a hug.
Cad simply stood there, straight as an arrow, as he usually did. But when Artem pulled away, the robot gave him a polite nod and a pixelated green smile.
Cad handed him the satchel he had wrapped around his shoulder and took the glass circle back, returning it to the window and putting it back into place, using a small jet of blue fire to singe the edges and melt it back into place.
It wouldn't fool anybody in the light of day, but they couldn't afford to get sloppy now, "good thinking, buddy."
Theo opened the bag and took out a length of climbing rope and handed it to Artem, who frowned. This was the part of the heist he hadn't been particularly excited about.
Rooting around in the bag, Theo took out a pair of metal gloves, like old chainmail or the electro-gloves she wore to thrash the living daylights out of people who stood in her way.
Instead of fingertips, however, the gloves opened out into wide, gunmetal grey plates about the size of a side-plate.
"I still don't think this is a good idea," he said, taking one of the sets of gloves and examining them.
"Man up," Theo said.
They left the office and carefully stalked through the empty corridors towards the main hallway in the centre of the maze.
"Aphelion, we're making our way to the objective," he said, receiving only static, "Aphelion?"
"Artem, I believe Mr Cain will have moved the ship out of range to avoid the detection wave," Cad said. Artem had missed his helpful corrections, even though they'd only been apart for less than three hours.
"Let's keep moving, they'll be back soon," Artem said, trying to reassure himself as his mind threw up images of Harry being shot out of the sky by the mean looking heli-ship circling the building like an ever-watchful guard dog. A guard dog with a railgun.
They found their objective nearby, the row of sealed elevator shafts lined along the main reception area. There was a welcome desk nearby that Artem imagined surrounded by hustle and bustle during the day, manned by one of Castells' creepy angels.
Cad took a hold of the space between the doors of the elevator and wrench it open with what must have been an incredible amount of force, revealing a dark shaft that led ten floors to the ground floor and fifty-five floors up to the restricted levels.
That was where they were heading - a series of R&D labs that they would have to cross before they accessed the last maintenance shaft and made the last push to where the Centenary Collection was being held before it was moved to the gallery below.
They would have to make time in the elevator shaft after the interruption in the security office, and Artem was starting to get concerned.
"Link the rope around your waists," Cad said, peering into the shaft and stepping out onto the narrow ledge.
Artem took the rope, which was actually a length of corded metal, and went to tie it around his waist, Theo took the rope from him and frowned.
"You go in front of me," she said.
Artem raised his eyebrow.
"Why?" He asked.
Theo gestured to her short dress and it took a couple of moments for the logistics of what they were about to do to click in Artem's mind.
"Oh," he replied, "of course."
Theo wrapped the rope around her waist and as the two sides touched, they fused tight against her body, so perfectly that there was no sign of a join. It would not come loose again without a shock of electromagnetic energy.
Artem took the rope and did the same, before handing it to Cad, who secured it to his torso. They slipped on the gloves and peered into the shaft after Cad.
Cad placed his palms carefully against the metal walling of the shaft and they were suddenly clamped against it with a flash of blue, firmly fused to the wall.
He repeated the process, doing the same with his smooth, flexible feet, until he entered a steady climbing motion.
Before he was yanked down into the shaft to his death, Artem climbed in after his robot companion and copied his movements. Expecting the curious magnetic gloves to do the work for him, he was bewildered when they simply slid away.
The cable tugged at him as Cad tried to pull his weight up.
"Wait, wait," Artem said, "the gloves aren't working."
Theo sighed.
"Try turning them on?" She said, her voice flat as she looked into the shaft after him.
Artem looked the gloves over and found a rudimentary power switch, he grinned and flicked them on, "my bad," he said.
The gloves snapped to the metal with a quiet clang and he followed after Cad.
They began to climb.