Chapter 2: Penetration Testers
Detective Levi Ackerman nursed a steaming paper cup between his hands as he looked around Erwin's familiar office with a bored expression. From his place against the back wall, he absently listened to the blond man finish briefing the four officers situated in front of the large desk.
It had been half an hour since he arrived at Sina Police Station. Erwin had handed each of them a copy of the forensics team's preliminary report. There were five dead casino employees, a badly damaged vault, 3 million dollars missing, and an emptied safe. The vault's security system had been hacked to shambles to the point where much of the hardware had short-circuited or jammed and the program needed to be reinstalled from scratch, not that it mattered since they would need to overhaul the entire system because it had already been compromised.
The report provided little information on the perpetrators. Although they had left significant evidence of their destructive infiltration, they had left almost no trace of themselves. Even the single footage of the getaway they managed to find so far was by accident. The thieves seemed to know all blind spots and maneuvered expertly around the security cameras, but there was a moment where the vehicle swerved out of the way of what looked like a small animal in the road which allowed a glimpse of a white van.
"You are dismissed. Levi, stay behind," Erwin called out as he shuffled papers back into a folder. The raven-haired detective pushed himself from the wall and waited until the four officers filed out of the room.
"What aren't you telling us?" Levi questioned, his brow furrowed.
Erwin gave an apologetic smile, "I have a hunch, but I can't say anything until more comes to light. I don't want to bias you." The shorter man gave a momentary glare but trusted his superior and long-time friend enough to acquiesce for now. "Those four are stuck at the station for the next several days writing up their last case so you're free to use them as needed. I want you to head to the site. See if you can pick out anything forensics didn't catch."
"Incompetent shits." Levi turned towards the door and tossed his empty cup into the trash bin. "I want Hanji on this case." Ignoring Erwin's noncommittal hum, he stepped into the empty hall and made his way down to a lower floor and into a large room filled with desks. He spotted the four officers, all with tired, drooping shoulders. "Oi, you four. Get the fuck home and sleep. Be back in five hours ready to work properly." Without another word, he left for the Grand Hermiha Casino.
The forensics report didn't do the actual damage justice; the destruction was greater than he imagined. While dust had settled and the hardware was no longer smoking, rubble, blood, and char could be found throughout the sublevels of the building. It looked like something had bulldozed its way through the place, smashing and slashing everything in its path.
Levi tugged on a pair of latex gloves as he knelt down next to the body of a security guard lying on his back. He grimaced at the gore spilling onto the waxed, off-white floor. The man's side looked as if a large portion had been torn out. The tattered cloth and skin was still partially attached, but the insides were a mess of shredded meat and chunks. He stood and motioned for the officer to lead him to the next body located in the surveillance room. At one of the two workstations, a black office chair was toppled over and an uncapped bottle of water had fallen to the floor leaving a fading stain on the navy blue carpet.
The corpse, a surveillance officer sprawled against the side of the workstation as if someone had propped him there, had a wound located on his upper left torso near the armpit. Levi pinched a tattered corner of the bloodied fabric to lift it from the skin but couldn't make out much beneath the drying blood. Unlike the first body, the shirt and flesh were not torn off. It looked more like a gunshot that had spread outward and burst through the skin. The open wound was smaller, presumably because the shot had been partially encased by the ribs, but there was a larger spread of blood under the body from where, he hypothesized, the auxiliary artery passing through the armpit may have been severed.
The third victim was a janitor lying face down outside a restroom. A red stain bloomed over his beige polo shirt near the center of his back. The single hole in the shirt confirmed that the man had been killed by a bullet. Levi unscheathed a pocketknife from his belt and glanced at the officer standing behind him. Receiving a nod, he deftly sliced the shirt open to reveal dark bruises covering the entire upper back. Purple blotches marred the skin and there were areas that bulged outward. However, the only open wound was the entry point of the bullet, but it looked too large to match the hole on the shirt. Levi pressed a finger to one of the bulges and found that it was soft, almost mushy, unlike typical corpses which stiffened over time.
"How long has he been dead?" Levi asked the officer.
"About three hours, sir."
The detective rose to his feet. The muscles shouldn't be this soft, he thought. Rigor mortis should be setting in by now.
The last two had similar injuries, one above the pelvis and the other also at his side. The injuries almost looked like a small explosion had gone off inside the bodies. He had never seen anything like it, and he didn't know of any weapon that caused such injuries. The shredded insides, the bruising, the soft flesh. What was going on?
Levi was next led to the front of the giant vault. He trailed his eyes around the thick door and the frame. The door, though still hinged to the wall, looked to have undergone explosions around its perimeter, as if blasted out of the frame, leaving jagged edges and heavily malformed metal. The inside of the vault, however, was a completely different story. He peered inside to see that the room was in pristine condition. Not a single thing was damaged or out of place. Are these assholes bipolar or something?
Walking between the rows of metal safes to the back of the vault, he saw that the only other evidence indicating a breach was the open flap of a small safety deposit box at around chest height.
"The flap wasn't fully closed. Apparently, these safes need the security system to lock back up but they shut that down so…," the officer explained hesitantly, not completely understanding it himself.
Using the hand that had not touched the corpses, Levi pulled out the box to look into the empty space but, as expected, saw nothing indicating the contents. "Whose name is this under?"
"Someone with the initials D.S. but that's all we have. The account number, personal info, fingerprints, and iris scans were in the hacked security system. You'll need an expert to recover the information, if there's anything left at all."
Levi gave a grim nod of thanks and strode out, stopping along the way to study the stairwell doors, two walls, and a window on the first floor, which had all been blasted open to make their exit. Someone sure is trigger-happy.
The sky was already bright as he picked his way around the perimeter of the casino. Just as he decided nothing more could be gleaned from staring at rubble and pavement, his phone rang. He peeled off the rubber gloves and pulled the device out of his long, black coat. Erwin.
"What did you find?" Levi asked.
"We got another shot of the van, this time with the license plate. We're looking for a match now. We should have something by the time you return. How about you?"
"These shoplifters love their explosives. Their guns even use some type of exploding bullet. I want Hanji to try and find even a shard of the bullet. I repeat, Hanji." Levi paused for emphasis. "Erwin, don't give me a dimwit like last time; Jack or Jake or whatever his name was. A fucking 3-year-old could have done a better job." He sneered at the memory. "I also need a hacker to piece together whatever's left of this security program. Oh, and start working on getting a damn search warrant."
Levi had a nagging feeling that some piece was missing.
Shortly after he made it back to the station, they matched the van to a Mikasa Yeager, 24-year-old female living in the eastern part of Ovrud, Sina's industrial district. She had a younger brother, Eren Yeager, and no other family. No criminal background, graduated from the prestigious Mitras University. The brother was also 24 and a Mitras University graduate, no criminal background, registered owner of a company called Recon Inc. Their public social media accounts were sparse but innocuous, with several smiling pictures of themselves and a blond young man who looked to have graduated from the same university.
The profiles didn't match the typical criminal. The two looked like bright, ambitious kids on their way to success. The only thing questionable was the company. They found next to nothing on Recon Inc. – no website, nothing from web searches except the standard business registration records showing it was established during Eren's last year at Mitras U. Perhaps the company was created merely for tax purposes, or perhaps they never got around to doing anything with it.
He was again in Erwin's office nursing a cup of coffee.
"The footage of the van was pure coincidence," Erwin explained, sliding over a pixilated picture. "A patrol team was called in about a knife fight at a gas station along the border of Hermiha and Mitras districts. The team was reviewing the security tapes and the van happened to pass by right before the fight. They heard the search alert for a white van over our radio and passed the tape to us."
Levi leaned back in the uncomfortable chair and said nothing for a few seconds before stating flatly, "They don't fit the profile."
Erwin sighed, "It's the only lead we have. The van matches, the time matches, and the location makes sense."
"But they were meticulous at the casino. They were able to cripple the system and get around all the blind spots. Why would they slip up with something as obvious as a license plate?"
"The van could have been stolen. Maybe they're trying to throw us off. But we won't know if we don't investigate. You know this very well, Levi."
The dark-haired man shot his friend a glare. "Don't patronize me. Shut up and get that warrant signed if you're going to be a dick."
That caused a slight upward twitch of Erwin's lips. "Go pick up some breakfast. You seem a little cranky this morning. Your blood sugar mi-," he caught the crumpled paper cup flung at his face and let out a laugh at the offensive middle finger thrust toward him as Levi stalked out the door.
The search warrant was approved without a hitch. As soon as his temporary squad returned to the station at 10am, Levi briefed them on the situation and dragged them out the door. He, Petra Ral, and Oluo Bozado rode in a car while Gunther Schultz and Eld Jinn followed behind in another.
The city of Sina was made up of five districts: Ovrud in the north, Stohess in the east, Hermiha in the south, Yalkell in the west, and Mitras at the center. Of these, Orvud was the poorest and least urbanized, home of Sina's industrial district and majority of blue-collar jobs. Just inside its borders, remodeled housing and newly established boutique businesses mixed among deteriorating buildings and smatterings of graffiti showed the creep of gentrification. However, as they drove deeper in, the frequency of warehouses, factories, and manufacturing plants increased.
Unlike the vibrant Stohess District where Levi's own apartment was located, these streets were worn and dingy, and a dreary gray and dull brown color scheme blanketed the buildings. He wondered what caused the brats to live in the ghettoes and tried to stop himself from jumping to the conclusion that perhaps these kids actually were the bad sort.
The two cars slowed as they neared the Yeager residence and parked on the streets a block away. Mid-morning in the industrial district had few people milling around and more trucks than personal cars passing through. The fact that no one paid the detective and four officers any mind as they walked to the three-story brick apartment building indicated how familiar the sight was in these areas.
The officers behind Levi tensed when they saw the white van with the matching license plate parked at the far end of the block, just sitting out in the open, undisguised and unhidden. At the slight tilt of Levi's head, they split into two teams, Gunther and Eld circling around the back and the remaining three heading up the main entrance. They approached the dirty glass door with a buzzer on the wall next to the keyhole. It didn't take long for the dark-haired man to pick the pitiful lock. He pressed down on the handle to pull the door open and stepped into a hallway dimly lit by a flickering ceiling lamp. From the inside, they could see that the building was a three-story walk-up with two units on each level. Levi cringed at the stained walls and grime caked on the corners of the tiled floor. When was the last time anyone cleaned this filthy place?
Keeping the entrance propped open for Gunther and Eld, the three quietly made their way over to the back of the hall and stopped in front of the green door labeled 1B. Levi unholstered his gun and held it firmly in his right hand, pointing it at the ground and positioned slightly behind his body but ready to raise at any second. He gestured for the two officers to stand to the sides of the door so only he would be visible through the eyehole.
Raising his left hand, he rapped his knuckles against the door loudly and took a step back to give himself space. No answer. God he hated the knock-and-announce rule. It would be so much easier to pick the lock and give themselves the element of surprise.
He was about to knock again, when the deadbolt suddenly slid out of place and the door opened as far as the chain would allow to partially reveal the blank face of a woman in her early twenties. He recognized her as Mikasa Yeager from the pictures.
"Sina Police. I'm detective Levi Ackerman" Levi said with an equally blank face. "You are suspected of breaking and entering, theft, and murder. I am here to bring you in for questioni-"
Before he finished, her eyes fell to Levi's half-hidden hand and widened slightly as she spotted the gun. Faster than he could react, she slammed the door and slid the deadbolt back in place. Motherfucker.
Petra immediately spoke into the radio, "Gunther, Eld, we've been denied entry. Watch the windows!"
"You have until the count of three to open this door," Levi called out, aiming his gun at the lock. His patience was wearing thin. "Or we will shoot the fuck out of it."
But before he could begin to count, they heard a muffled shout of, "Eren! Get up! What did you DO?!" Seconds later, he heard the sound of the chain unhooking and the sliding of the deadbolt. This time, the door opened fully to the woman who now wore a half angry, half worried expression. Her voice, however, was perfectly steady as she invited them in. "I apologize. Please come in, along with the others that must be stationed nearby."
She didn't blink when Petra and Oluo stepped into view or when Petra lifted the radio to inform the two men outside. She merely straightened her red scarf and said, "Please put away your guns, remove your shoes, and take a seat on the couch. Eren will be out shortly. Would you like anything to drink?" They did everything but holster their weapons.
This must have been the oddest entry and search situation in Levi's four years on the force, especially when, after setting down three mugs of tea on the birch coffee table in front of them, the girl dragged a half-dead kid who must be Eren Yeager into the living room by his ear. He was only dressed in low-hanging gray sweatpants and was trying to pull on a red t-shirt over his lean but muscled chest, an impossible task with his sister tugging on his ear.
"G'morning," Yeager mumbled absently in a voice still rough with sleep as he plopped down on the recliner at one end of the table. He pressed his palms to his exhaustion-laden eyes. "I would have gotten up in 5 minutes," he said with a yawn. He managed to pull on the shirt but didn't notice that it was inside out. "Why does Armin get to stay in bed?"
"Because Armin wouldn't have done anything to cause trouble. You, on the other hand, are probably the reason why we have guests." Only then did the boy notice three people situated shoulder to shoulder on his couch holding handguns. He did a double take, and the remnants of sleep instantly cleared from his eyes. "Wha…?"
But obviously his brain hadn't fully woken yet. By this point, Levi had strong doubts about this idiot being the perpetrator, but you could never be sure about their acting skills.
He saw movement in his peripheral vision and tensed when someone else walked into the room. It was the blond-haired kid from the pictures, the Armin they had mentioned in their bickering. He was fully dressed and holding a rectangular object wrapped in brown paper. Shooting the three on the couch a nervous smile, he introduced himself as Armin Arlert and pulled four chairs from the kitchen table to set around the coffee table. "I saw your friends from the window," was all he said before sitting down across from them.
Once all eight people had settled in their seats, an awkward silence fell over the room. Usually, Levi would have gotten straight to the point, but watching Eren's changing expressions as he fidgeted was more telling.
"So what do you guys want?" The kid finally blurted out.
Mikasa reached over to shake his shoulder. "Wake up, Eren. You need to make a good impression since they want to arrest you."
"Huh?" The boy immediately sat up, his demeanor becoming alert and serious. "On what charges?" Levi hid a grimace at the sudden change. He hated dealing with temperamental people; they tended to clash with his own poor social skills.
"Breaking and entering, property damage, theft, and murder," the detective listed off.
"What!?" Eren exclaimed.
"The Grand Hermiha Casino was robbed last night. There are 3 million dollars missing and five dead."
"That wasn't us!"
"There is no denying that the white getaway van is registered under Mikasa Yeager and sitting outside this building."
"Then you've got the wrong van," Eren insisted, looking peeved at the insinuations. "We didn't do it. I swear."
"There is video footage of the van as you were leaving the casino. We have a warrant to search both the van and this residence. Tell us what you did last night."
"It. Wasn't. Us," Eren repeated. "We robbed a bank last night, not a casino."
Everyone froze.
.
.
.
What the fuck? Levi fought to keep the bemusement off his face and gripped his gun tighter. What dumbass confessed to a crime while being suspected of a similar crime? This one apparently. "Yeager- Care to elaborate?" He asked in a deceptively detached voice laced with a threatening undertone.
Arlert groaned and dropped his face into his hands, wearily breathing out Eren's name on the way down.
"I mean, what I'm trying to say is. Last night, um, we don't even know where Hermiha Casino is," the brunet stumbled through his words, ruffling his hopelessly messy hair and looking flustered from his slipup.
The blond boy spoke up after a long-suffering sigh. "Please excuse Eren's absentmindedness, sir. He isn't a morning person. What he's trying to say is, we can prove that we were not at the Grand Hermiha Casino last night."
"And the bank?" Levi raised an eyebrow but showed none of the impatience growing inside. The kid must have sensed something though, because he immediately launched into an explanation.
"Seeing as you found us, I'm sure you know that Eren is the owner of a company called Recon Inc." Armin looked to the five guests for confirmation and received a nod from the detective. "I'll also assume you found nothing on Recon," he continued, taking a sip from the mug to hide a satisfied smile at the detective's expressionless face. "The service we provide is legal, but it can be mistaken for crime if taken out of context. We are penetration testers serving high-end clientele, typically banks, casinos, and nobility, to test the security of their vaults. Our job is to infiltrate, steal an object, and get out without causing major damage or being caught. Basically, we're paid to break into vaults."
"Penetration testers… That's a real job?" Eld voiced his team's incredulity.
"Yeah, and we're damn good at it," Eren said with a cheeky grin.
Armin ignored the comment. "For our latest job, we were hired by West Hermiha Bank. We spent around a week observing and infiltrating their network. Last night was the actual break-in operation and this is what we retrieved." He reached for the rectangular object lying innocently on the table. Slipping a finger under the tape, he peeled off the brown wrapping to reveal a thick, hardcover book. All five officers leaned forward for a closer look. The raven-haired man carefully flipped it open and saw the flimsy pages of an old textbook, heavily marked with handwritten notes and a doodle of a grotesque giant in the corner. It was a pretty good doodle too.
Levi couldn't help the fleeting thought that a textbook was a piss poor prize for all the effort put into a theft, and he wondered if the monetary compensation made up for the anticlimactic ending. IF they were telling the truth. But he, against all his detective's paranoia and experience with slippery criminals, was 80% convinced of their innocence even before seeing hard evidence.
Leaning back on the couch and lazily crossing his legs, Levi directed his flat gaze to Eren who stared back intently. "What's your alibi?"
The kid frowned at the skepticism in Levi's words. "We have GPS tracking on the van and our persons while we work, footage of the operation, a few pieces of hardware that were left behind at the bank, a calling card that we always leave, the guards we knocked out, the contract signed by our client. Is that enough?"
"We do our best to keep detailed records of all operations, not only for the final report but also in case the client turns around and accuses us of committing a crime," Armin explained. "It's happened in history, so we like to cover our bases."
"Can you show us now?" Levi asked, somewhat impressed.
The blond frowned. "We've been asleep since getting back around six hours ago, so we haven't had time to consolidate. You'll also probably need our client's release to view anything about the vault."
"Not necessarily," Mikasa interjected. "If the evidence is seized as part of this search, there are no legal repercussions. However," she crossed her arms, exuding hostility, "we kindly request that you first acquire our client's permission. Recon Inc. runs a sensitive business, and we have a reputation to uphold."
There seemed to be an unspoken "or else" hanging in the air.
A clearing of the throat from the side dispersed the tension. "So, can you tell us about the casino heist? Since we're being accused and all," Eren said with a curious tilt of his head. "I want to know how we compare to the real deal."
Levi rolled his eyes. "Judging from the dead bodies, the robbery took place at around 3am. They hacked the system and got in without tripping a single alarm. After taking what they wanted from the vault, they blasted their way out. People noticed after they blew a hole in the first wall. They realized it wasn't an earthquake after the second wall went down."
Eren looked momentarily star-struck but then turned away with an expression of mild disgust. "I've always dreamed of blowing up a building, but not on a job. And never a building in use. There's no finesse or respect in that. Any idiot can bash their way through. It's when you can slip in and out without a trace that you know you're doing it right," he said passionately, his eyes shining with pride and resolve.
And that's why you aren't the culprit. Not bad, brat.
A/N: What do you think?
I swear, "penetration tester" is a real job title – no pun intended haha!
November 7, 2015
