Chapter XVII – The Heist (Part 1)
"Taria, if you think that I'm going to help with a heist, you're sorely mistaken," I snarl at her, the volume of my voice kept low enough to avoid any unwanted eavesdroppers in the nearby alleys. "Wait," Bonnie says, facing Taria with a puzzled expression, "he didn't know?". Taria shrugs, "Yeah, I may have left that detail out. You know these Alliance types, he never would have accepted if I lead with that." Bonnie scoffs and shakes her head. "Right. Lying's the perfect way to get someone to join you," she answers. Taria sighs, "So, you're going to rat us out?".
"I'm tempted," I stone-coldly tell her, before turning my back on her and beginning to walk away. "We're stealing eighty-nine billion credits. Do you even know what you could afford with that amount?". I stop for a moment and turn back towards her, "Don't know; don't care. You're not bribing me."
"Just under eighty-nine hundred fighter drive cores. Or a cruiser. Or they could be spent to arm a shit-ton of ground soldiers. Or even to house and feed the refugees on the Citadel, if you're feeling charitable.". She stops and walks towards me before continuing, "Look, I'm a quarian. I've spent my whole life living with little, or nothing at all. I wouldn't even know what to do with all that money, so I'm giving it to people who do. It's all going to the war effort.".
After years of living on streets where almost everyone was willing to stab you in the back for a quick buck, I usually can tell whether to trust someone, whether to give them the benefit of the doubt or to leave well enough alone. However, in front of me is a person whose species I have rarely interacted with, and whose face I can't see. These clues all tell me not to trust her, but then again, these are the same reasons some people view quarians as untrustworthy, ill-willed thieves. So, against every bone in my body, I say, "Alright, this better be good. Brief me up, and I'll make my mind up later. I'm keeping my eye on you.". Taria chuckles, approaching me in a jokingly flirty way, "Well, you were going to do that anyway.". Being this close, I can see the glow of one of her eyes winking at me from behind the mask. I shake my head and follow her out of the alley.
Taria leads us to an apartment in the lower parts of the ward. The only room inside is dark and, except for a table covered by large sheets of cloth in the center, stripped of any furniture. As Taria removes the covers, the nature of the table catches my eye: it is almost the same kind as the ones found in comm rooms aboard warships, and just as capable of creating holograms as them, I'm sure. I ask her how she got her hands on such equipment. Being busy booting it up, she taps twice on a side, pointing my attention toward a Cerberus insignia. A hologram depicting the diagram of a building appears once Taria has finished turning the machine on. She then loads what I can only assume is the intel given to us by the two girls in the alley, Ally and Sarah. A few dots and lines make their way onto the hologram, on the outside of the building. "Right, these should be the patrol routes," Taria mutters under her breath.
"Alright then, let's get started," She says, enthusiastically clapping her hands once, "For this job, I needed a hacker, a combat expert, a biotic, and a thief. The hacker is obviously yours truly, Bonnie is the combat expert, and Clyde is the biotic. As for the thief, she should be here any minute," She says before stopping and looking around herself briefly, "But I'm fairly certain she's here already, isn't she?"
"You got some sweet detection software in that suit, don't you?" I hear a voice say out of nowhere. "I do. But that one was just guesswork.".
"Fair enough," I hear from behind me. I turn around just as she deactivates her cloak. A frail figure reveals herself to us, her face mostly covered in the shroud of darkness created by the black hood she wears.
"Right, introduction time. Guys, meet Ronin. Ronin, meet Bonnie and Clyde." She waves at us with a silly smile on her face, "I thought you guys would be older... and with way more bullet holes in your bodies.".
"Wait," Taria whispers, turning towards Ronin, "That's how Bonnie and Clyde's story ends?".
"Yeah, you said you read an extranet page about it."
"Should've read all of it, I guess. Well, too late to change now. Let's move on with the briefing."
She zooms the hologram in, directing our attention to one of the back entrances, marked with a large number three on the wall beside it. "According to Ally's intel, this entrance will be overlooked by these two," Taria explains. Two pictures appear on the hologram. "Aaron Kaius and Hannah Teris," she says, pointing at each image, "Ally says that they're easily distractable if we engage in a conversation about Fleet and Flotilla. I should have another enviro-suit stashed away that looks similar to Shalei's. I could ask them what they think of my cosplay as a conversation starter. While they're busy fangirling, Ronin will sneak past them and into a hatch. Bonnie, Clyde, you'll be waiting. Ronin will plant a hacking device in their main computer, deactivate the cameras, block the comms, and open a backdoor into the facility for the rest of us to use. That's how we get in; any questions so far?"
"What's the device Ronin will be planting?" I ask her. She chuckles, "I might give you an accurate answer, but I haven't got the next few hours to spare. The main computer holds access to the servers where the credits funnel through and are stored, but it is obviously defended both from physical access and hacking. It can't be hacked remotely because of the security systems and locally because of the bullets you'd get shot with. Ronin is good enough to get there without being seen, but she won't stay long. The device allows me to access the main computer from any other terminal its twin is planted in, provided they're connected somehow. In simpler words, it allows me to access the credits from any other terminal in the facility. Any other questions?"
"Yeah," Bonnie says, "why do you have a Fleet and Flotilla getup?"
"Ask me again, and there won't be a soul in this galaxy that doesn't know all of your secrets."
"Touchy, touchy," she says, mockingly, "what do we do once we're in?"
"Right," Taria resumes, as the hologram switches from an outside view of the building to an inside one. "The door we go through will bring us into a depot," she says, zooming in on the room she's talking about, "as you can see, there's a big-ass door on this end. Keep it in mind, Clyde, you'll need it later. There's going to be hostiles in the room; we need to take them out without being noticed; Bonnie, that's where you come in. Clyde, you can help her, but keep it quiet. Once we're clear, I'll plant the other device at the shipping log terminal and transfer all the credits I can to several other untraceable accounts. The hangar door can be opened from the terminal, but they'll have likely locked down all systems by the time we finished stealing the credits. That's why we need a biotic, Clyde; you're going to brute-force it.". I nod slightly, prompting her to carry on, "Once it's open, all hell's going to break loose. There'll be enemies on the other side; we'll also have hostile reinforcements coming from behind us shortly after, so we either make quick work of those in the hangar, or we get killed. That hangar contains every chance they have at following us, as well as three large cargo shuttles we're going to hijack. I can fly one, and I know Bonnie and Ronin can too. Any questions before we get to the last part?"
The room is silent, leading Taria to let out a satisfied sigh, delighted to see that her explanation was clear enough for the three of us. "Very well, then," she resumes, "the hangar is where we'll make our stand. Bonnie and Clyde will hold off the enemies, I'll hack the cargo shuttles' onboard computers to unlock them, and Ronin will plant explosive charges on all the other shuttles so that they don't pursue us. Once I've unlocked all three, we leave and head to a safe house I have prepared. Then, and this is the most important step, we party hard."
Taria walks over to me, looking at me straight in the eye, "So? Made up your mind yet?".
"You explained your plan, Taria," I tell her, "not why I should choose to come with you."
"Really?" she replies, slightly annoyed, "I told you we're helping the war effort."
"Stealing from who?"
"You're kidding, right?" she says, genuinely surprised. "I know I didn't say it specifically, but I thought you understood it by yourself." I shake my head. "Very well," she sighs, "which organization in this galaxy has enough money and influence to store this many weapons and credits right under the Council's nose?" she says in a mocking voice, almost as if she was trying to have a child guess it. Before I can respond, she answers the question herself, "That's right, kids! It's Cerberus!"
After a few moments of silence, she breathes deeply, "Look. If there's something about you that I can see without hacking your files, it's that you're determined to do anything to end this war. You don't want to sit around, but they kicked you out of the team; it's going to be a while before they redeploy you, and right now, this is the best you can do to help."
She's right. I've never been a 'by the book' kind of guy. I don't like the idea of embarking on an unauthorized, illegal mission with a team of unknowns. But if it helps, and the drawbacks are nowhere near close to outweighing the benefits, so be it. "I'm in," I tell Taria.
"Whoo, that's the spirit, Ezail," Taria shouts, her voice full of enthusiasm. A few moments go by before she stops her cheering and realizes, "Shit, I said your name, didn't I?".
"You did," Bonnie says, "but honestly, these codename shenanigans have already gotten old. I don't need to hide my identity. Why'd you tell us to use them anyway?". Taria shrugs, "I don't know. So the heist would feel like a spy vid? I thought it sounded fun."
"Of course you did," Bonnie sighs, before turning towards me and reaches to shake my hand, "Ryla Kessir. Nice to meet you.". I shake her hand and tell her my full name.
"Well, since we're doing this..." Taria tells Ronin. "Ugh. Do I have to?" she says, unenthusiastically, "I wouldn't mind keeping my name a secret.".
"Your choice. Anyway, if there are no further questions, I'll be seeing you tomorrow morning," Taria tells us.
"Yes, actually," Ronin says, "How exactly will we be giving what we steal to the war effort. It's not exactly like we can turn up at someone's door with eighty-nine billion credits and three shuttles worth of weapons."
"You needn't worry about that. They're going to investigate if an N7, a former N7, a quarian hacker, and a thief transfer the money. They're also going to investigate if they receive it anonymously. But what if it was given to them by a more powerful and wealthy figure as a 'gift'?. Someone like the Shadow Broker. An insignificant couple of millions will go to an account I have created for Ally and Sarah. The rest goes to the Broker; they're willing to gift it to the war effort for us. Apparently, the war's even gotten them scared straight. They're only going to keep a million in exchange for something for Ally and Sarah. What that is, I can't tell you."
"Because you don't know?" Ronin asks.
"Because there are some people whose privacy I don't break, but I protect," she says, her voice turned serious, "those two girls already went through a lot. Best if strangers stay out of it.".
"Don't worry, we will," I try and comfort her, "I know it's hard seeing someone you care about in those conditions."
"Thanks," she says, taking a deep breath. "Anyway, you're all dismissed; see you tomorrow morning. If one of you is hungover, I'll kill them myself."