Boone smiles as he leads Louie on a tour of the ship, explaining its capabilities and features.
"So, this is nice and all, but uh, what about the treasure?" Louie asks.
Boone chuckles. "Of course you would only care about the treasure. Very well, off to treasure storage." Once there, he opens up the viewing windows on the different areas, showing all sorts of artifacts, gems, gold, art, etc. Practically anything of significant value that could be stolen, has been stolen by the Toppats. "Like what you see?"
Louie nods, amazed at just how much wealth the Toppats have. "Uh-Huh..." As he looks at it all.
"Good, because there is a lot more space to fill up. And I bet you'd want to help fill up those spaces, huh?"
"S-s-sure..." Louie says, still amazed. "So, what all do you spend it on?"
"Well, in addition to necessities and Clan expansions, luxuries, of course. Trust me, we've had lots of excessive stuff, such as a space station with death laser."
"Really!? Why aren't you there?! No one could touch you if you used that!"
Boone's smile fades into a slight frown as he sighs. "Because it was destroyed about a year ago..."
Louie notices the somber look on Boone's face, and realizes. "Oh, and, the ones on there..."
"We lost many a good men that day..." Boone says somberly.
"Oh, I-I'm sorry..." Louie says, seeing the otter in a state that implies mental scars.
"Many good friends, all of whom I considered family, gone... Many of them making the ultimate sacrifice for the Clan... I made sure they would never be forgotten, and swore that nothing like that would ever occur to the Clan ever again. It was after that when this ship took the role of primary base for the Clan."
"So, um, anyways... What next?"
"Well, ever since I've had a say in the Clan, I like to have new members say what they want to primarily do. So, let me see where you'd fit in best and we try you out in those..." Boone gets out his phone, looks through the list of positions, lists off the best-fitting ones, which include Infiltration, Field Intelligence, Reconnaissance, and Lookout.
"Huh. Which of those requires the least, you know, fighting and stuff?"
"Well, the point of these is that you go either unseen, or they do not know you are a Toppat, and either steal stuff and get out, eavesdrop, find info on locations we plan to hit, etc. So in short, none of them do. You will be trained at least lightly in combat, as a precaution."
Louie rolls his eyes. "Guh, fine, let's just get this over with."
"We begin stealth testing. You will make your way through an obstacle course for such a purpose. You have to get through, collect intel, steal valuables, and so on, all without being spotted. If caught even once, you go back to he beginning and the course is reset and randomized." Boone explains, leading him there.
Louie sighs, follows. This felt like a lot more work than anticipated. He got there, and it was in a massive indoor training grounds. "Jeez, this entire room I have to get through!?"
Boone laughs. "No, no. This is for all training. You'll just have to get through that." As he points Louie to a block building, roughly thirty-two feet high with three floors, about forty feet wide, and seventy-two feet long. It was clearly modular, and designed to be quickly changed in configuration.
"Okay, that is a bit better. So, I just clear the building?"
"Precisely. Members of the Clan will act as guards, and are armed but with only airsoft guns." He hands Louie a pair of protective eye glasses. "Safety first. They may not kill you but they can still put an eye out. Can't risk that."
Louie puts them on, not taking the chance. "So, uh, any sort of list of what I need to get?"
"Where is the challenge in that? You won't always have the info you need on a target, so you need to figure out how to get in, what is most important, etc." Boone smiles, patting Louie on the back. "I'll be timing you, but don't worry about it, this isn't about speed. It is about effectiveness."
"Alright. So, just find a way in?"
"Just do what you would do if in a genuine situation. Just be you..."
Louie grins, and realizes this would be a peace of cake, as he goes, the timer starting.
Louie sneaks around, watching guards and routines, listening to what they say, and in general keeping track of everything. He notices what look like security cameras, that have a pattern movement, and seem to track movement, locking on when something enters the peripheral. He got as good of a look of the inside as he could, and thinks out a plan, checking all the angles.
Boone watched. The kid was taking way longer than most. He was, intrigued...
Louie soon makes his move, and waits for the perfect moment to rush under a camera, and slips inside. He observes the first floor, and quickly finds two guards blocking the way, backs to him. They were talking about some mobile game. A casual conversation. He needed to distract both of them without being seen. He thought, when he feels something. A whoopee cushion. He had the perfect idea. He inflates it, straps a rock to it, and tosses it.
"I ended up buffing one of my guys and doing, like, eighty damage." The left one says.
"Nice. Yeah I kept facing that same deck last night and-" The right one starts, but is cut off by a fart sound. "Oh come on!"
"Wait, are you serious? That was totally you!" The left one accuses.
"Excuse me?! Don't you fuckin' accuse me!" The right one defends.
"Oh come on, just admit it!" The left on says with a 'it's no big deal' tone.
"It wasn't me!" As the right one tackles the left one as they get into a fight on the floor, punches thrown.
As this happens, Louie dashes past them, smirking as the plan worked. He makes sure to take the whoopee cushion with him.
Boone sees this, impressed. "Never seen that before..."
Louie sneaks around, searching each room, listening before entering. He finds some documents and a safe in one. He manages to crack the safe first, and finds documents labeled 'TOP SECRET', and some valuables. He removes them and snaps pictures of each page, before putting the documents back in the folder as they were, back in the safe as they were, and returning the safe as it was, down to the dial position.
This kid was... Very impressive. The kid was doing way better than Boone thought he would. In fact, he'd argue this was one of the best runs he'd seen.
Louie would continue through the building, searching every room. He would scan the documents for information of vital importance, taking pictures of the important ones before putting them back, pocket any loot he could easily carry, and move on. He avoided every last guard and camera. Left everything practically as it was. He was surprisingly efficient.
Boone observed, stunned. Seems he took the 'lazy' part a bit too literal. Louie was not lazy when it came to thinking. He was brilliant. He just didn't like physical hard work.
As time passes, Louie makes it to the final room on the third floor. He had pocketed anything he could carry and had gotten images of all documents he felt were important enough. Many of the guards had gone down to break up the fight on the first floor. He put an ear to the door and listened. Nothing. He looked under the crack of the door. Nothing. He slowly open the door and scanned the room. No one was there. He entered carefully and quietly, and took note of how the room was. A large, fancy desk was in the middle, set so it faces the door. Several pictures were on the wall, and stuff adorned the room.
"Jackpot..." He whispers as he first checks behind the paintings for a safe, putting them back as they were. He finds one. However, no keyhole, dial, number pad, or anything he could see to open it. It was wired elsewhere. He goes to the desk and searches it. He finds a load of documents, too many to just take pictures of, so he stashes those in his bag. He then finds a number pad under the desk. It must be for the safe.
"What could the code be?" He ponders when he sees a sticky note. It reads:
'Check e-mail for safe code reset'
Bingo. He gets into the computer and checks the e-mail. He finds one with the subject as 'Safe Code Reset'. He opens it:
'X,
How many times are you going to forget your safe code!? I keep telling you to write it down! Jeez!
I've reset it and changed the code. The code is:
5-7-8-5-6-2-1-4-4-8-3-0
DO NOT FORGET AGAIN
Sincerely,
Y'
Louie enters the code on the keypad. He hears a click come from the safe. He checks it. It is unlocked. He opens it to find a large diamond, about three inches across, along with some 8 oz gold bars. He gets it all, closes the safe, and puts the picture back. He puts everything back to how it was and decides to exit out the window. He checks it. Clear below, and a ladder leading down from it. He lowers himself down the ladder, and gets away, returns to Boone.