Thanks so much to my awesome beta Lunartic Cress for editing this chapter! Enjoy and please review!
"I've got keys, so no need to break down the door. I don't want to have to replace it," Scarlet stated, moving in front of Cinder and putting the keys in the lock of Ran's second apartment. It was a small place on the first floor of what looked like a row house. Cinder raised the gun in her hand.
"Is that really necessary?" Thorne looked at the gun in disdain.
"Just in case."
"Still seems overdramatic," Thorne muttered, peering through a window into the apartment.
"No one asked you," Cinder muttered back, then motioned for Scarlet to open the door.
"Wait, wait, wait," Thorne grabbed Scarlet's arm. Wolf and Scarlet scowled at him, and Thorne removed it. "You can't go in there."
"We have the consent of the owners; we don't need a warrant."
"No, I know, I – here, look." Thorne pointed through the window. "See that little white box on the far wall? Yeah, well you see that blue light on it? The box means there is a security system guarding the house. And only one type of security system can lay claim to that signature blue light."
"Evret Security," Cinder sighed, running a hand through her hair.
"Ding, ding, we have a winner."
"Did you know about this?" Cinder turned to Wolf and Scarlet.
"No," Wolf kept looking through the window. "I didn't even know he had a second apartment! Why would he even need a security system? Unless the gang was taunting him again, but he seemed unharmed the last time I saw him..." Wolf rubbed a hand over his face.
"Hate to break it to you," Thorne made to put his arm on Wolf's back, then thought better of it. "Since the inside control panel is very visible, and I don't see any signs advertising the system, we can pretty much assume Ran bought the Evret Black Market security system. You break in, no alarms sound. No lights, nothing. Just an alert that goes directly to the police and Ran's cell phone within seconds. It's scary awesome." Thorne looked back in the apartment, his stare going wistful. "I always wanted one, but they're insanely expensive, even for me. It would have been great to guard my collection of—of hats, yeah."
No one mentioned Thorne's slip-up, instead moving on to more pressing issues. "What's the point of having no blaring alarms? Seems stupid if you ask me." Scarlet put her hands on her hips.
"Well, if you wanted a criminal mastermind's expert opinion, if I was going to invest in this particular system, I would use it to test loyalty. You tell your team members where a certain treasure is at, then set the alarm around it. You get a security alert; it means they went behind your back to steal it. And they don't know you know about their dishonesty. Ta-da, perfect test."
"Ran wanted to know if we were in the house," Wolf growled, pacing around the patio.
"Or if anyone was in the house," Cinder corrected. "If we didn't already know he was hiding something, this would seal the deal." She glanced at Thorne, who was looking back at her. Before she even phrased the question, he was already shaking his head. "Can you get in without tripping the silent alarm?"
Thorne laughed, "You're funny. There are multiple reasons why it's a favorite among thieves, and being almost impossible to not set off without the code is one of them."
"Almost?"
"Well yeah, no system is ever foolproof. You would need a way to disarm it without getting the security clearance from one of Ran's tech devices."
"So it's run electronically?"
"Of course. To even begin to hack it, you would need a—" Thorne stopped mid-speech, giving a little laugh. "You would need a Cress."
Cinder nodded, putting the gun away and grabbing her keys. " Mr. and Mrs. Benoit-Kesley, are you okay staying here and waiting for the local police to arrive?" When the two nodded, Cinder continued, power-walking toward her car. "Fill the police in on the situation. If something happens, call me immediately. We'll be back as soon as we can. Mr. Thorne and I need to find another member of our team."
…
"Are you sure Cress won't mind us barging into her house this early in the morning?" Thorne asked as the two drove into Cress's apartment's parking lot.
"She won't mind, especially since we're here to deliver a complex computer problem to solve. She loves doing those."
"What if her boyfriend's here? Agent Linh, I think you're severely underestimating the amount of awkward this situation could hold."
Cinder gave a snort. "You really don't need to worry about it." As far as Cinder knew, the closest Cress had gotten to having a guy spend the night at her apartment was three years ago, when she was placed under security detail after an unfortunate incident with her last job.
"What if that Kai guy is a huge muscly mass and decides to beat us up for coming at this hour to her house? These arm muscles may look impressive Agent Linh, but it's been a long time since they've seen action." Thorne slammed the car door, waiting for Cinder to get out.
Cinder rolled her eyes. "Will you stop worrying? If anyone's going to beat you up, it's me if you keep getting involved in Cress's love life."
"Noted," Thorne nodded. The two made their way into the apartment complex. They followed an old woman in the door, arriving right at Cress's apartment. "But I still need more blackmail for getting my Rampion." Cinder rolled her eyes, but Thorne still wasn't done talking. Cinder was starting to think he would never stop. "Also, aren't you concerned about me knowing where Cress lives? I could now break into her apartment if I wanted to."
"Good luck with that. Cress's apartment is the most secure residence I've ever seen in my life. No thief is getting in there, much less a so-called criminal mastermind. And it's beyond your radius anyway. You come here alone, I and the entire police force hear about it."
"Does the FBI school train you how to make effective threats?"
"It's an acquired skill." Cinder finally rang the doorbell. They both waited for a few moments until Cress opened the door.
"Uh, hello?" Cress rubbed her eyes, tilting her head to the side. "Did I miss something important?"
"Sort of. We need you to hack into an Evret Security System guarding Ran's second apartment," Cinder stated as Cress let the two into her house, shutting the door and locking it, then punching in a security code. "Also, good morning."
"Thanks?" Cress squinted at the two. "I feel like I've had this dream before."
"You've dreamt about me?" Thorne grinned, looking around Cress's apartment and taking in the empty take-out containers and music posters hung on the walls.
"Yeah, but you were definitely wearing a suit last time." Cress rubbed her eyes, pulling her oversized sweatshirt sleeves over her hands. "And there was something about chocolate…"
"Okay Sleepy Cress, give me ten minutes, I can get some chocolate, then how about we take a ride on my Rampion? If you could just tell me— "
"That's enough," Cinder stepped in, elbowing Thorne in the side. He cursed, holding his side and shaking his head at Cinder. "It's not a dream Cress. We really do need your help."
"This is strange," Cress buried herself in her sweatshirt, her hair falling into her face. She flopped down onto her sofa, ruffling a few papers on her coffee table in the process.
"Trust me, I know it's weird, but please Cress, wake up. We need your computer skills at their full power level."
"But Carswell Thorne is making me breakfast," Cress gave a huge grin.
"Cress, wake up. For all of our sakes."
"I could splash water on her? That should do the trick," Thorne suggested, pointing to the adjoining kitchen. Cinder shot him a glare that shut him right up. She shook Cress's shoulder again. Cress jolted, her head snapping up.
"Good morning," Cinder smiled at her friend.
"I…" Cress trailed off, her wide eyes rapidly taking in her surroundings, including a grinning Thorne in her kitchen. "I'm pretending this is a dream, and none of you are here and most definitely do not remember anything I said in the past five minutes." Cress quickly shut and grabbed the open manila folder spread out on her coffee table and hugged it close to her chest. She then turned to Cinder, "Do not tell Iko about this."
Cinder laughed, "You know Iko is going to find out sooner or later."
"This is really bad," Cress whispered. "I'm going to need more caffeine." Cress got up and scurried to her refrigerator, picking up assorted papers scattered about as she did. She made sure to stay several feet away from Thorne, her blush picking up. "So sorry about the mess, I really never have time to clean. Well, I probably do, but there's this new show on Netflix, and the episodes automatically play, so just please, ignore the mess."
"You're fine," Cinder waved away her friend's concerns.
"And I've seen much worse, trust me," Thorne hummed. "If you want to see a real mess, visit a master forger's office. You would not believe the things you could find in there."
"Like stolen Venezuelan Dream Dolls?" Cinder raised her eyebrow.
"Possibly."
Cress opened the fridge, sticking the folder and papers on a shelf. Cinder made herself at home in the living room, Thorne following suit.
"The usual to drink?" Cress asked from the kitchen.
"Yeah," Cinder called back. Cress rejoined the two, handing Cinder an iced coffee while keeping an AMP for herself and giving one to Thorne. He took it gratefully and Cress pretty much turned into a big ball of blush. Cress thanked her lucky stars he hadn't commented on the embarrassing dream thing again. Oh, man, when Iko found out...
"Cress, you ready to go? We should probably be getting back to the job." Cinder looked at her, and Cress shrugged back.
"Um, you never told me what type of Evret we're talking? I need to know what supplies to grab." Cress darted her gaze between them.
"Black Market type. Silent alarm, the alert goes to police and the owner," Thorne answered.
"You'll be working outside, so everything needs to be easily portable," Cinder added.
"Gotcha." Cress got up, tugging her sweatshirt down over her gym shorts. "This'll be a pretty straight forward break-in. Lemme grab some stuff." She left, moving into a back room. Thorne and Cinder heard some loud crashing noises. A few minutes later, Cress was back carrying a book bag slung over her shoulders. "Let's go crack one of the hardest security systems on the market at 4:30 in the morning."
"Awesome," Thorne stated, jumping up and leading Cinder out of the apartment. Cress locked up, Thorne counting at least three different alarm systems as she did so. He made a mental note to never need to break into Cress's house. It would be a nightmare.
…
"So, nice Guardians of Rock sweatshirt," Thorne addressed Cress, his leg bouncing up and down with the weight of the awkward silence in the car.
Cress put her hands over her face, letting out a long groan. "Of course I forgot to change out of my pajamas."
Cinder smiled. "It's early, no one's going to care what you're wearing. At least it's the sweatshirt not those Guardians pants you own, with their faces and the spaceships. Those are creepy. The sweatshirt is at least tolerable."
"You've got the limited edition 2015 tour GoR PJ pants!" Thorne exclaimed, turning around in the front seat to look back at her. "I tried to get my hands on a pair, but they're crazy hard to find."
Cress nodded, removing her hands from over her face. "I used to work tech security at their record label. They're actually the reason I agreed to work with the label, no matter how terrible a decision that may have been in the end. But I did get some cool merch out of it."
"You would think that if they were so limited, they would at least make them better looking," Cinder muttered.
Thorne tsked and smirked at Cress. "You just can't expect a non-super-fan to understand, am I right?" Cress nodded mutely, her face turning red.
"See?" Thorne looked at Cinder. "Cress agrees with me."
"You're a bad influence."
"Aww, Agent Linh, that's the nicest thing you've said to me all day!"
Cinder sighed. "Cress, you see what I have to deal with?" Cress gave a little laugh, tugging on the hem of the sweatshirt. "But I'll let Thorne off this once, since he did bring me coffee this morning."
"Coffee?" Cress inquired, peeking her head up between the seats.
"See, I'm not all bad," Thorne grinned at her. "I'll even get you some after this, if you would like it."
"Uh, no, I don't…I don't like coffee," Cress looked off to the side, avoiding Thorne's stare.
"But energy drinks you're fine with?"
"The caffeine content is higher, they're sweeter, and they come in cool cans," Cress trailed off, blushing and looking down.
"Okay, okay, I see. But too many of them and jeez. Talk about caffeine overload."
"We know," Cinder deadpanned, looking straight ahead at the road. "Don't we Cress?"
Cress looked studiously out the window.
"It was a bad day, and I told you it would never happen again…"
Thorne chuckled, "Can I ask— "
"Absolutely not," Cinder and Cress said at the same time, and Cress breathed a sigh of relief. This really was turning into Embarrass Cress Day. Thorne laughed even more, trying to pry, and the banter continued on. It was only a few minutes later that the trio arrived back at Ran's second apartment.
"Ready?" Cinder looked back at her team, and they nodded, exiting the car and meeting Wolf and Scarlet back outside the house. "Mr. and Mrs. Benoit-Kesley, this is Agent Cress Darnel, our resident tech expert."
"Nice to meet you," Scarlet said, holding out her hand for Cress to shake, Wolf following suit. Wolf held onto Cress's hand, looking into her face.
"You can get us into the apartment without tripping the alarm, right? If Ran finds out, he'll run, and I need…I must talk with him."
Cress shrank back a bit, staring at her hand dwarfed in Wolf's. "Y-yes, it should be no—no problem at all. I just need to get my supplies set up."
"Of course, of course." Wolf swept his arm out, stepping off to the side. Cress nodded and moved forward, shrugging off her backpack. She walked up to the wooden slats of the house and pulled out a black box from her pile of tech stuff.
"Are you going to Taser the system and short-circuit it?" Thorne asked, coming to take a closer look.
"No, this is a stud finder," Cress said, moving it closer to him so he could see.
"That device is obviously broken," Thorne stated. Cress frowned, inspecting the device. "Because you're pointing it at me, and it's not going off."
Cinder rolled her eyes as Cress's face got red, "It's for finding the studs in the walls where you can hang pictures and things. Just let Cress get the job done, Mr. Thorne."
Thorne held up his hands, "Hey, I can't help stating what's true." Thorne grinned, and Cinder seriously considered dropping her head into her hands and quitting. But Wolf and Scarlet were standing close, their hands locked together, so Cinder squared her shoulders and nodded at Cress.
"Do what you need to do."
Cress walked up to the wall and scanned it slowly. Whenever she heard a beep, she made a mark on the side. "One drawback of the Black-Market System is that there needs to be a rod inserted into the side of the house to transmit signals. You interfere with the signal are you're one step closer to hacking the system. A stud finder is used to find the outlier, the beep that isn't spaced out at an even interval." Cress placed a tiny metal dot on the mark.
"Now what?" Thorne asked. "We tear down the wall?"
"Close," Cress replied, rushing over to her backpack and pulling out a laptop. "We break down the firewall." Cress was instantly typing, placing another metal dot onto the back of her computer. The others watched in silence for a few minutes, Cress's fingers flying over the keys. It was a few minutes more before Cress turned toward the group, her face flushed. "Okay, it's clear to go in."
"Are you sure?" Thorne asked. "That didn't take you long at all."
"Not the first time I've had to break into this type of system. I had the basics all figured out, so it really wasn't bad at all, just had to modify it for Ran's personal account." Cress shut her computer. Cinder wiped her hands on her jeans, holding up her gun again and motioning for Scarlet to open the door.
"Are we sure?" Scarlet looked back at Cinder, and she nodded. The door opened. No one breathed.
"So…How do we know it worked?"
Cress glanced up at Thorne. "Give it a moment." They all looked at Cress for one beat, two, and then…"Yes!" Cress grinned, pulling out her phone to reveal a message from Evret Security, saying that her security system had been compromised.
"You switched the phone numbers," Thorne grinned unabashedly, clapping a hand on Cress's shoulder. The girl's eyes widened. "And this is why I don't trust tech personnel, as that was terrifyingly brilliant."
"But what about the message to the cops?" Wolf asked, looking down street and clenching his hands.
"Cress, remind me to get you a raise," Cinder smiled, holding up her phone. There was a message from Evret security, telling Cinder that she was needed to report at Ran's apartment because of a burglary.
"Okay, I'm erasing the numbers from the system now and replacing them with the originals. I just have to log into the Evert mainframe, which is easy enough with Ran's passcode I found. I'll delete the history, and then we're all clear."
"You're the best Cress," Cinder gave her team member a side-arm hug, then walked over to the open door, issuing commands to those standing around.
Cress finished up covering her tracks, then walked into the apartment to join the rest of her team, her bag slung over her shoulders. The apartment was pretty nice, bigger than hers with much less cozy-looking furniture. Everything was in shades of dark blue and beige, with fake potted plants dotting the rooms in appropriate places.
"Woah!" Thorne shouted from one of the back rooms. "Look at the size of this TV!"
Cinder answered right back, "Mr. Thorne, you are supposed to be looking for evidence."
"Hey, since it's in his apartment, it's evidence already, right? Think I could convince one of these CSI guys to pack it up and ship it to the FBI: White Collar Division conference room? Just think how cool it would be to watch an action movie with this baby."
Cinder responded with a flat out, "No," and Cress ducked into the room they were in, waiting to see where his personal computer was that she could hack.
"Over there," Cinder said automatically, pointing to a desk in the corner of the room. Cress sat down, pulled on her latex gloves, and started typing as the others continued combing the room. It took her no time at all to break his password and search through all his files. Nothing. Squeaky clean. No shady photos, no encrypted word documents, no illicit hidden search history. It was very disappointing. Cress did suppose she found a lot of incriminating evidence on his computer at the other apartment, but still, it would have been nice to find at least something here. Cress sighed, keeping her gloves on and going to join the others, who had moved on to searching Ran's bedroom.
Cinder and Thorne weren't having much luck. Thorne was going through Ran's DVD collection, bemoaning the lack of James Bond movies.
"C'mon, that guy is a classic! How can you own none of the Bond movies, and every single Monty Python movie? This is the real crime committed here."
"Mr. Thorne," Cinder sighed.
"Wolf, help me out here. Tell me this disturbing lack of appreciation for the greatest movie collection of all time was something Ran picked up by himself and not something passed through the family."
Wolf glanced at Thorne from where he was in Ran's closet, sifting through his brother's obnoxiously large shoe pile. Cress wondered if she should offer to look through them instead, as Wolf's broad shoulders barely fit into the tiny closet. "A Ran thing. I liked all of the explosions."
"Of course you did, because they are epic," Thorne stated. "And we haven't even touched on the girls yet." Thorne winked at Wolf, and Wolf grinned back.
"Boys, please," Scarlet rolled her eyes at the two.
"Love you, honey," Wolf murmured and the room was quiet again as everyone continued searching through the personal belongings of Ran. Cress was looking behind Ran's picture frames, inspecting them for any signs of hidden compartments. She was near the closet, checking behind a photo from Ran's childhood that showed Wolf frowning at his younger brother. Cress leaned against the wall as she lifted it up an inch. Suddenly, she was falling backwards, the wall no longer supporting her.
She heard some shouts, and then large hands were catching her, placing her back on her feet. Cress gave a thank you to Wolf, and he merely nodded in reply before stepping into the small secret room Cress had unearthed. It was about double the size of the tiny closet, barely big enough for all five of them to fit. All the group found was a chair holding several pieces of paper.
"Nobody touch anything," Cinder stated as she slowly examined the room. She made sure her gloves were securely on her hands, then picked up the papers and placed them in an evidence bag. The group looked around, trying to find anything else of use.
"Any other doors?" Cinder asked.
"No," Cress replied, after leaning on all the other walls.
"This is kinda disappointing," Thorne sighed, moving around the small space. "You spend all the effort creating a secret hidden room, and you don't put anything cool in it."
"I have to agree," Scarlet added. "This is just kind of sad. A chair and some papers? What do they even read?"
"Doesn't seem like anything too important," Cinder noted, holding the papers up to the light. "They look like order forms from your business."
"Strange," Wolf mumbled, looking over Cinder's shoulder.
"Okay, so if this guy spent a bunch of time here, you think he would at least give himself a mini fridge and invest in some air freshener," Thorne said, sniffing the air and waving his arms around to illustrate his point.
"I agree," Scarlet stated, wrinkling her nose.
"Wait," Cress breathed. "Does anyone see how white this wall is compared to the others?" The pointed to the wall directly opposite from the door leading to the bedroom.
Thorne appeared next to her. He ran his hand down the wall before knocking on it.
"Doesn't that sound a little hollow to you?" Thorne asked. Cress nodded. "Hey, do you still have that stud finder?"
"Y-Yes." Cress pulled the device out and handed it over, their hands brushing. Cress blushed. Thorne didn't. He turned to the wall and scanned it, nodding when no beeps issued from the machine.
"It's a fake wall inside a hidden room," Thorne said as everyone moved closer to get a better look. "Dang, do I love this job."
"He must have got the idea from Emilie," Cinder said, walking so she stood directly in front of the wall. She pushed on it, but no door opened. "Wonder how he got access to this one."
"Maybe it's a huge vault filled with hidden treasures?" Thorne suggested, his eyes gleaming.
"Only one way to find out. Knock it down."
"Seriously?!" Thorne exclaimed, doing a little happy dance. "Hey, muscle-man Wolf, mind breaking down this wall for me? I would do it myself, but this is a new suit, and I would hate for it to get dirty." Cinder rolled her eyes as Wolf obliged, punching a jagged hole in the wall. Cinder and Thorne pulled some of the drywall away from the hole as Wolf shook out his arm. They all peered into the fake room, and everyone caught a glimpse of Ran sitting in a chair.
However, their vision was then obscured by Thorne projectile vomiting over everything.