Marcus arrived at 1100 with a folder and the expression of soone who had spent the previous hours productively.
Zeph was at the table. Functional—Tank’s supply run had produced actual food, which had been consud in quantities that confird the four-day-old rice had not been adequate nutrition. Sarah had made tea. Maren had left with instructions and a contact number. The room had the specific quality of people reconvening after a crisis with the crisis still present but the imdiate ergency resolved.
"The Rust Kings," Marcus said, placing the folder on the table.
The room absorbed this.
"The Rust Kings," Zeph said.
"The theft thodology—mory suppression at precision level, no System trace, clean extraction from a secured location—required an awakened with a specific consciousness-adjacent ability." Marcus opened the folder. "There are eleven awakened in Northern Bastion with the right skill profile. Cross-referenced against the pre-System artifact broker network and known acquisition interests, three erged as viable candidates. Cross-referenced again against groups with both the capability and the operational structure to execute a targeted theft of this complexity, one group remained." He tapped the folder. "The Rust Kings have been running pre-System artifact acquisitions for two years. The key fit their operational profile exactly—high-value, pre-System origin, dinsional energy applications. Whether they understood the specific function is unclear. Whether they care is equally unclear. What they have is the key."
"They operate in the pre-System artifact space consistently. The key would have been an obvious acquisition target for anyone in that network." He pulled out a second docunt—a floor plan, detailed, the specific quality of sothing compiled from multiple sources rather than a single blueprint. "Their base of operations is a converted warehouse in F-District’s industrial sector. Forty five minutes from this building."
Kael looked up from the floor plan. "Forty five minutes."
"They’ve been in the sa district the whole ti," Tank said, with the flat quality of soone filing this as information rather than irony.
"How current is this map," Zeph asked.
"Updated three days ago," Marcus said. "I have a source inside the district’s property managent system. The warehouse layout has not changed significantly in six months. Entry points here and here." He indicated two positions on the floor plan. "Primary security is standard awakened-level—motion detection, dinsional energy sensors, two guards on rotation at the main entrance. The interior security is more complex.
"When do we go," Tank said.
"Tomorrow," Marcus said. "And this is why the timing matters." He pulled out a third docunt—an intelligence report, the margins annotated in his characteristic compressed notation. "The Rust Kings have a significant operation running tomorrow morning. Fourteen of their twenty-two active mbers will be off-site from 0900 until at minimum 1500. The remaining eight cover the warehouse but their senior combat mbers are among the fourteen departing."
"They’ve left the building undermanned," Kael said.
"Intentionally from their perspective," Marcus said. "From ours, it is a window." He looked at the group. "The window opens at 1000 when the departing mbers clear the district and closes at 1400 when the first rotation returns. Four hours."
"aning we have to go tomorrow," Marcus confird. "Which gives us tonight to plan and prepare."
Zeph looked at the floor plan. At the entry points. At the security notations Marcus had annotated in the margins. His eyes were clear—Maren’s soul-level healing had addressed the depletion, the eighteen-hour fragnt suppression window had produced genuine sleep for the first ti in four nights, and food had done what food did when a body had been running without it.
He was functional. Not optimal. Functional.
"The key’s location inside the building," he said. "Do you know it."
"Not precisely," Marcus said. "The Rust Kings use a secure storage room on the building’s second level for high-value acquisitions. My guess is that it is here." He indicated a position on the upper floor schematic. "The room has a dinsional energy lock—pre-System compatible, which suggests they acquired the lock specifically for pre-System artifact storage. Standard System-level bypasses will not work on it."
Whisper wrote and held up the notepad: I CAN OPEN THE LOCK. GIVE THIRTY SECONDS AND THE RIGHT TOOLS.
"You’ve worked pre-System locks before," Marcus said. Not a question.
Whisper wrote: THE TRANSLATION PLAGUE GAVE COMPREHENSIVE KNOWLEDGE OF PRE-SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION THODOLOGY. LOCKS INCLUDED. I HAVE BEEN READING THIS NOTATION FOR MONTHS.
"That’s extrely useful," Seris said.
Whisper wrote: I AM AWARE.
"Good enough," he said. He looked around the table. "Who’s going."
Tank said: "I’m going." No discussion required or invited.
Whisper held up the notepad: OBVIOUSLY.
Kael: "I’m in." The living tal arm flexed once—the unconscious confirmation gesture he had developed since the integration.
Seris looked at the floor plan. At the security notations. At the guard rotation. "dical support on site is more useful than dical support outside," she said. "I’m going."
Zeph looked at Marcus. Marcus looked at the folder. "I will coordinate from outside and manage contingencies. My value inside that building is limited. My value as the person who knows where everything goes if it goes wrong is not."
"Sensible," Tank said. This was the highest available complint from Tank.
Sarah was already looking at Zeph when he turned to her. "I’m going," she said.
"No," he said.
Her expression shifted. The specific shift of soone who had not expected this particular configuration of the conversation. "My Sentinel capabilities inside that building—"
"Are more valuable monitoring dinsional energy signatures from outside," he said. "You can detect pre-System artifact signatures through walls. You can give us real-ti location data on the key’s position before we commit to the storage room. From outside you cover the whole building. Inside you cover one floor."
She looked at him. He looked back with the steady attention of soone who had thought this through and was not performing concern—was genuinely calculating her greatest utility and had arrived at an answer she did not prefer.
"You just don’t want inside," she said.
"I want you where you’re most effective," he said. "Which is outside."
"Those are not mutually exclusive statents," she said.
"Sarah," he said quietly.
A pause. The two-century patience working against her own preference. She looked at the floor plan. At the building schematic. At the periter monitoring positions Marcus had already marked.
"Outside," she said finally. Not happy. Decided.
"Thank you," he said.
"Don’t thank ," she said. "Co back with the key and we’re even."
Tank spread the floor plan flat on the table and the planning began.
The entry was through the secondary point—a maintenance access on the building’s eastern face that the primary security rotation did not cover during the dayti window. Marcus’s source had confird the access was unlocked during working hours for the district’s utility teams.
"We go in as utility personnel," Kael said. "Northern Bastion district maintenance has a standard uniform profile. Basic disguise, nothing elaborate. The Rust Kings’ dayti security is reduced—they’re not expecting a targeted entry during business hours."
"They know about CV," Whisper wrote. THEY WILL RECOGNIZE HIM.
Zeph looked at CV on his shoulder. CV looked back with the compound eyes that communicated awareness of the problem and no particular concern about it.
"CV stays with Sarah during entry," Zeph said. "Joins us when we’re inside and the alert profile changes."
CV tilted its head. The specific tilt of sothing that had an objection and was registering it formally.
"I know," Zeph said. "Fifteen minutes maximum. You can monitor from outside with Sarah."
CV’s objection remained registered but unresolved.
"The second floor storage room," Tank said, returning to the floor plan. "From the maintenance entry to the stairwell is approximately forty ters through the ground floor. The stairwell is here. The storage room is at the far end of the second floor corridor. Total interior distance is manageable in under three minutes at a controlled pace."
"The resident mbers," Seris said. "Four maximum during dayti. Their positions."
"Unknown precisely," Marcus said. "The ground floor has a common area and an equipnt room. The second floor has the storage room and two residential spaces. At any given ti during dayti hours, at least two of the four will be on the ground floor. The other two may be anywhere."
"We manage contact as it cos," Tank said. "Priority is reaching the storage room. We avoid engagent where possible. If engagent is unavoidable, we contain it quickly and keep moving."
Kael: "Define contain."
Tank: "Non-lethal incapacitation. We are retrieving a stolen artifact, not conducting a punitive operation."
Whisper wrote: WHAT IF THE KEY IS NOT IN THE STORAGE ROOM.
The table considered this.
"Then we locate it before we leave," Zeph said. "Dinsional Sense will detect pre-System artifact signatures. I can run it on entry and map the key’s location before we commit to the storage room."
"That works," Marcus said. He began annotating the floor plan with the timing sequences they had established. Entry at 1000 tomorrow. Window closes at 1400. Extraction through the sa maintenance access. Sarah and Marcus at monitoring positions covering the building’s periter.
The planning ran for another forty minutes. When it was finished the floor plan had Marcus’s annotations covering most of the available margin space and everyone at the table had a clear understanding of their role and the sequence.
Tank rolled the floor plan and put it in his jacket. "Tomorrow at 0900 we assemble here. Entry at 1030." He looked at Zeph. "Sleep tonight. Actually sleep."
"Maren’s suppression window runs through tomorrow morning," Zeph said. "I’ll sleep."
"Good," Tank said. "Because you still look terrible."
"I fainted making tea two days ago," Zeph said. "Give it ti."
"You fainted," Kael said, "because you were running several simultaneous defensive protocols on ninety minutes of sleep."
"The tea was still nearly ready," Zeph said.
"That," Sarah said, standing and collecting the cups, "is the least relevant fact anyone has contributed to this planning session."
CV’s wings scattered light across the floor plan. Across Marcus’s annotations. Across the table where six people had just planned a break-in to recover a stolen pre-System key from a criminal organization eight minutes from their building.
F-District, Zeph thought. Doing what F-District does.
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