Songs: Brother Dege - Too Old To Die Young; IAMDYNAMITE - Where Will We Go

Everything went really fast once we had gathered the information we needed. We got out of there quickly and worked through the night again to make a good plan for breaking in. We slept in late after that and then got up to start working on our plan for getting the Vault Key fragment.

The whole problem with that was that it was locked in a safe, inside a huge mansion that was quite well guarded. It was somewhere on the outskirts of the city. The one thing that was good for us was that the grounds the mansion was on were huge. There was no way it would be guarded at all places and at all times.

But if we were being honest, this was more of a job for Tina and Brick. Mordecai and I would be responsible for staking out the place and keeping them up to date with everything, Anouk would have to pull up some connections so the party could go in and make an arrest with the Vladof troops as soon as we got out, but Tina and Brick would simply have to do the hard work.

Tina's job was probably the most important one. I had sat down with her all day and we had been working on a tiny little bomb, that was extremely small and would do just enough damage to get that safe open. Brick would need to get her in, trying not to kill anyone, and Tina would have to plant the bomb, detonate it, get the Vault Key Piece and then make a run for it.

It wasn't such a bad plan, the only thing that worried me was the fact that we couldn't really go in, guns blazing and shooting everyone around us. That was usually our modus operandi, but it wouldn't fly in this situation.

And the whole problem was that none of us was used to it and it made everyone nervous. Anouk didn't seem too worried and I was honestly wondering how she could be putting this much trust in us at all times. It just seemed really ridiculous - we were the most unsuited people for this job.

But here we were, again connected over the ECHOnet and staking out the mansion. Mordecai and I were watching out on opposite sides of the grounds while Anouk was staying ready to go and take over the place with Vladof military. It felt strange to be backed up by so much fire power and still having to be sneaky. But apparently Vladof preferred it if we did our thing and left the rest to them.

It had been pretty easy to get onto the grounds as they bordered on some woods, which made being stealthy quite easy. Brick and Tina had gotten in by picking the lock to the back door. There was no way to be sure no one would see the two of them, but the strategy for that was for them to just act as if they belonged. They knew exactly where they had to go and at least on the lower levels everything seemed to work out fine. It got more troublesome, the closer they got to the actual safe.

That place was secured with a whole lot of contraptions and whatnot. Thankfully the owner was so paranoid about it that he barely let anyone get even close to it. Which meant there were less people that could potentially spot Brick and Tina. So far it seemed like they hadn't run into anyone yet.

It felt a little strange how smoothly things were going for them at the moment, especially since that part of the plan wasn't too well thought out. But Brick and Tina had easily made it all the way to the safe and Tina was currently starting to attach the bomb to the locking mechanism.

It was a tedious job that required a lot of focus and precision. Tina was good with those things when she wanted to be. But whether she wanted to be good really depended on her daily form and lately she had been especially cranky. All that was left to hope for was that she wouldn't accidentally blow herself up. When we mentioned it to her, she seemed pretty offended.

"How are things going, Brick?" I asked him through the ECHO. There wasn't much happening around the mansion from my vantage point. It was the middle of the night after all. There were a few servants patrolling the grounds, but with how much of an area there was to cover, they weren't really any serious trouble at all. I had been watching a bunch of crows for the last ten minutes.

"Everything is going fine and dandy." Tina answered quickly instead of Brick. She sounded a little annoyed, probably due to how tedious this particular bomb proved to be. It had been a chore putting it together already.

"That's good, Tina. The bomb giving you any trouble?" I asked. I just heard her huff on the other end.

"No bomb has ever given me trouble, girl, so stay in your lane." Tina replied snappily. I chuckled a little.

"Tina!" Mordecai said in a reprimanding tone.

"Didn't think you'd be having any trouble. Brick? Everything good on your end?" I wanted to know.

"All good. It's really quiet and I don't like it one bit, but apart from that all... seems to be good." Brick replied. He sounded like he was actually quite nervous about something. I had never thought I'd live to see the day that Brick was getting nervous. But apparently today was the day.

"Mordy? Have the guards come around to your side yet?" I asked him. I was getting really bored. This was too easy and if I started thinking about it, I'd get just as nervous as Brick was.

"They did, but only just a second ago. What's up with everything being so quiet?" Mordecai replied.

"Anouk? Any ideas why things are so... easy?" I wanted to know. She might have an idea or something.

"Not sure. It is a little weird, to be honest. But there is no way that they could suspect anything. At least they wouldn't suspect us breaking in. Maybe they got tipped off by someone about that raid that's happening once you guys are out." Anouk said. Her voice sounded far away and was distorted by lots of static. It was probably difficult to get any good signal this far outside the city.

"But how would they know about that?" I asked.

"Oh, Vladof wanted to get dirt on this guy for a long time. Why else do you think I could get this all sorted so quickly?"

"We've got the bomb placed." Tina interrupted, before I could start asking Anouk any questions. This guy being a target for a long time had not been something any of us knew. I sometimes wondered how much Anouk was deliberately keeping from us and whether she did it to keep us out of trouble or if there was something else to it. If I was being honest, I didn't really want to know.

"Detonation in 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... NOW!" Tina shouted into her ECHO device.

"Right, guys, get the Key and then get out of there as soon as you can." I told them. That bang would not go unnoticed.

"We've got some guards coming in, they definitely heard it." Mordecai agreed. I heard some shuffling and scrambling on their end.

"We have the key and we're coming out now. Let's hope no one spots us." Brick replied. From the sounds of it they were running. I quickly climbed down from the tree that I had been using as a vantage point and made my way towards the forest at the back of the mansion.

This was where we'd meet up and get out of there together. The four of us that was. In the meantime, Anouk would be moving in with the Vladof troops. I think they had even gotten some iron bears with them, which I was a little disappointed to miss. But it was all probably to make things easier for us.

So far we had been pretty well off following Anouk's advice. From what I understood all the hushed operations were mostly so we wouldn't have to stay somewhere and answer questions for ages. Apparently, once you were found doing something suspicious, it took ages to get out of it. So for our own comfort, it was better to keep things quiet and not get caught.

"I'm at the meeting point, everyone... and I can see Mordecai. Where are you guys?" I asked over the ECHO.

"On our way, we had to hide in some hallway for a while, but we're coming out now." Brick answered.

"Hey, you alright? Everything good?" Mordecai asked when he had made it all the way to the meeting point.

"Yup, this went much smoother than I expected it to go. Brick and Tina shouldn't be long now which means we'll have our second piece soon and we can move on pretty quickly then to see where we can get the third piece from."

"That one was the most difficult one, right?"

"From what I gathered. Anouk sent me so many documents and told me so much stuff, it is hard to follow at times." I said, as I saw two figures that came running from the house. Brick and Tina.

"They're there! Alright, let's bail."

Once the two of them got a little closer we started making our way out as quickly as we possibly could. Now it was Anouk's time to shine. Once we had gotten far away enough, I echoed Anouk.

"We're all done here. You can move in, if you want."