It was about 1:00AM. Two people—a man and a girl—walked to the entrance of an office building. The man wore soft shoes; the girl wore purple nylon socks without shoes—despite the cold weather.
Using a skeleton key, the man opened the front door, and they walked in.
They walked to the elevator bank and pushed the call button; it came, and they got in. The man pushed the 14th floor button.
"There's no 13th floor," he observed.
"Most buildings don't have one, Max—bad luck, I guess."
The door opened, and they got out.
"It's room 1415."
"Right, Max."
They located it. A sign on the door read Soak & Associates.
Once again, he used the skeleton key to open the door. They walked in.
Max turned on a pen flashlight, and they looked around in the different rooms. Finally, they found what they were looking for—a combination safe. It was sitting on a shelf in a cabinet.
He picked up a chair and put it in front of the safe, and she sat down on it. Then he knelt down and took her socks off.
"Thanks, Max."
"Good luck, Ellen. Need a light?"
"No. I can work in the dark."
He switched off the flashlight. She put her right foot on the dial, and began her work. He went off somewhere, while she worked.
Within five minutes, she had the safe open.
Unfortunately, at that very moment, a light came on. Looking up, she saw two men staring at her; each had a gun! She got up from the chair.
"All right, put your hands up!," said one of them. Then he looked closely at her. "You don't have hands!"
"No, I don't."
"You mean you opened our safe—with your feet?"
"With my right foot, yes."
He smiled. "I'm impressed! Such talent shouldn't go to waste. How would you like to work for KAOS?"
"Never!"
"We can offer you double the pay you get from CONTROL."
"I'd rather die than switch!"
He shook his head, sadly. "What a shame! Well then, I'm very sorry, but I'll have to kill you. Such a waste!"
Suddenly, two shots were fired—and both men fell to the floor! And then, Max came out, gun in hand.
"Are you all right, Ellen?"
"Yes, thank you. But where did you disappear to?"
"Sorry about that! I had to go to the. . . you know!"
"Oh, I see! Well, I opened the safe. We'd better get to work quickly."
"Right!"
He rummaged through the safe. There were some plastic canisters. He picked them up.
"These must be it."
"Right, Max."
He put them in a shirt pocket, which he zipped up.
"Let me put your socks back on."
"Thanks, but there's not enough time. Let's go."
"He shut the safe, and they left the office."
"Let's take the stairs, it's quicker."
"Right, Ellen."
They walked to the stairwell and went down.
"Sure you don't want the socks? It's pretty cold outside."
"That's OK. My feet are used to the cold."
"You must go barefooted a lot,"
"More than I wear shoes! You and 99 should, too."
"Think so?"
"Everyone should. It's better for your feet."
"I see."
They went to the first floor. They walked out the door and down the street towards their getaway car.