Chapter 4: Getting out of Trouble
Two days later, Kaidan and Anna set out for the warehouse once more, with Anna bearing her cloaking device. They quietly slipped into an alley where they met with Slick.
"Oil," he greeted before he turned to Anna, "Shadow," he purred, and Kaidan frowned sternly at him before Slick shrugged. "Touchy. Alright, now slip under the cloak, Shadow. Here's my half of the code." Anna held out her omni-tool for the transfer, watching large sections of code download. She had seen Kaidan's section as well, and was now convinced that anyone outside of the group had no chance of cracking the vault without getting caught.
"You got everything, Shadow?" Kaidan asked, and she nodded absently, taking in what she needed from the code. She would need to flow between the two men's code to successfully get into the vault if she was reading this correctly.
"Champ sure is paranoid," she comment, and Slick huffed.
"Rose is paranoid. Used to just be my code. Had to rewrite the majority of my old code to her new specs once Oil joined us." She could easily read the annoyance in Slick's tone and wondered just how many toes she had stepped on in this group. Better yet, she wondered whether she had stepped on Champ's toes yet.
"Either way, we shouldn't keep them waiting. Slick, wait here. We'll go first, then you leave three minutes after us. Take the long way back. We'll take the shortcut. Shadow, go ahead and cloak." Slick shrugged as Anna activated her cloak. "Keep up with me if you can. Let me know now if you can't. I'll give you as much time to get into the warehouse as I can."
"I will. Now let's move." Anna said, and she and Kaidan slid into another of the many alleys in Vancouver.
"Good luck, Shadow," Slick softly called as they left. Anna sincerely hoped that they would have luck tonight. They needed it. The walk was easy enough, and Anna was able to keep up with Kaidan. But as they reached the warehouse, her heart began to pound. If Champ or Rose found her, their plan would be dead in the water. Rose stepped out of the shadows to greet Kaidan, and Anna slid around him.
"Oil," Rose purred, and Anna quelled the urge to punch her in the face. "Glad you could make it. You haven't seen Slick, have you? The boys are getting restless." Fear froze Anna's stomach and legs, though Kaidan seemed unaffected.
"No. Should I have?" Champ opened the gate and walked towards Kaidan, giving Anna an open opportunity to slip into the warehouse. Anna glanced in and saw no one, so she made her slow attempt to slide inside, holding her breath and keeping one ear on the conversation.
"Leave him be. We'll need you again tonight, Oil." Anna heard Champ chuckle and looked in time to see him ruffle Kaidan's hair, who firmly stepped out of Champ's grasp.
"I told you no field work, Champ. Either I go home or you let me stay in the warehouse." This made Anna pause. She didn't want to be stuck in the warehouse alone and grew fearful before realizing that Kaidan had to be bluffing. Mentally shaking herself, she finished her journey into the warehouse.
"Fine," Champ growled. "Have it your way, but you will do field work on the next three raids, or we pin this one on you. Got it?" Champ stepped forward, almost nose to nose with Kaidan, who seemed a little cowed.
"Very well," Kaidan answered. As she properly took in her surroundings, she noticed the other people that she had seen on Kaidan's last raid, but had never heard their names. Just as she was about to step completely away from the gate, she heard footsteps.
"Hey, Rose. Keep the gate open. I'm a comin'," Slick softly called, and Anna realized that he was stalling unnecessarily. So she reached for Kaidan's hand and softly squeezed his pinky finger. Kaidan glanced over to his side for a moment before a look of understanding crossed his eyes. He then leaned out into the alley.
"Hush, Slick, and move it. Or you'll get us all caught," he hissed at Slick. Slick then seemed to pick up his feet, and Anna saw everyone enter the warehouse and gather around Champ.
"Alright. Now that we're all here, we can start. Rose, me, and the boys will go and raid the Donnenson's building, just like we planned. Someone decided to be a little chicken shit and make a fuss about staying here, so we're going to move Oil's job to here. Fortunately, that can happen, but now he owes us direct help on three raids. He and Slick will operate the door opening and security from here at the base. Crack, you and I will take the lead. Punch, you and Snake will cover our back. And Rose," he purred, and she preened for him. "You just do what you do best."
Everyone nodded and went to work. Everyone except Kaidan and Slick left, creeping out into the night. Slick went over to one corner of the warehouse where a sizeable intel seat was located. It reminded Anna of something like one of the junior intel desks at a planet-side outpost. But what little she could see of the text and interface scrolling by told her that the software wasn't Alliance. Kaidan came closer and, grabbing a nearby omni-tool, linked it to the network, stretching a less involved electronic interface next to it.
"We're getting into the vehicle. Check that the skies are clear." Anna heard Champ say from a tiny speaker near the setup.
"Checkin', hold." Slick answered. "You're good to go. Moon's clouded," he informed them a minute later through a headset. Shortly after that, Slick nudged Kaidan who stood and waved his arms. Anna assumed it was to get her attention and allowed her cloaking device to flicker. Kaidan caught the flicker and made a silencing motion at Slick. After another minute, Slick took off his headset. "We're clear. They can't hear us, and I didn't find anything to monitor us in here." With that, Anna decloaked and Kaidan moved towards one of the inner doors of the warehouse.
"That's the old manager's office. First you have to get through the door, then into the vault. The code is all that you need. Do you want me to help you?" Kaidan began to bring up his own omni-tool, ready to interface with the first lock.
"That should help move things along. Go ahead." She made room for him to crouch by the door as well, and the two set to work. Kaidan used his own code to hack in and let Anna use Slick's code. Together, the two almost undid the lock when they heard Champ's voice again.
"We're almost the drop site. I'm about to drop the team. Is the drop site clean?" Rose's voice demanded. Anna glanced back, and Slick's hands were flying across the interfaces. He made a silencing motion before answering.
"Just about. Give me two shakes and I'll clear it for yah." Kaidan leaned into Anna, almost pressing his mouth to her ear.
"I'm going to help Slick. If you want, you can finish this and start on the vault before I come back. You can wait for me, but I don't know when my next chance will be before the team heads back." Anna nodded and waved him off. She would do what she had to.
Kaidan stood and quietly crossed to Slick, while Anna took control of both omni-tools. Having both interfaces made it easier to go between the two, and Anna finished the door's lock. Moving from there, things were easier with the vault, which surprisingly was a vault. It was an old vault, and she wondered where they got it from. But she didn't want to disturb them or risk being overheard, so she carried on silently. It was quite a while longer before Kaidan joined her again, and by then, she was halfway through cracking the vault. Kaidan's presence sped the rest of the hacking, and soon they were staring at the vault's contents: a data pad and a hard copy of the past year's raids.
"Bingo. Here's your ticket out. Let me start a data copy." Anna pulled out her omni-tool, but Kaidan stopped her.
"I don't want to chance this getting back to you. Let the copy go to this omni-tool." Kaidan went back into the main warehouse to get the spare omni-tool and hooked it to the pad. From there, he gave a copy to her and himself before deleting the data and transfer from them. "Now let's close the door. We don't want them thinking anything is wrong until you're gone." From there, they worked to cloak Anna and get her outside of the warehouse doors before the rest of the group got back. They nearly cut it close, with Anna only waiting outside the warehouse for two minutes before the group returned. After they passed into the warehouse and closed the gate, Anna leaned against the door, listening to the conversation inside.
"Well done, everyone. We're going to make a smaller raid tomorrow night. Remember, Oil. You're going with us then," Champ ordered.
"No I'm not," Kaidan calmly answered. Anna held her breath as the warehouse went silent.
"I don't think I heard you right. I've got evidence that you were the mastermind behind this last raid, and you think you can tell me no?" Champ had gotten used to everyone answering to his whim, and Anna knew they were messing with a potentially dangerous enemy. It killed her not be next to Kaidan, doing something to eliminate Champ.
"And I've got evidence for all of last year's raids. If you try to pin that on me, I can lead them to who was involved on what over the past year. I'm sure there are plenty of companies that want their items back." Kaidan kept his cool, but Anna could guess that both of their knees were quaking.
"Yeah, and I'm leavin' with him. I'm done with all 'a you, and I got that info too. So you'll let both of us go."
"That's impossible." Rose's tone couldn't match the composure of Kaidan's, and Anna heard her fear. "You couldn't have hacked into the vault."
"Yes we did. Go look at it for yourself. It's unlocked. Now unless you want us to go to the Vancouver PD, you won't ever bother us again. We're leaving the guild for good." Anna held her breath, scared that their information may not be enough to keep Champ from beating them.
"Go. You outsmarted us. Just go," Rose spat, and Anna's jaw fell in shock. Rose didn't seem the type to easily let go, but she wouldn't doubt it. She stepped away from the door to give the boys room to leave. Not a minute later, Kaidan and Slick quickly walked out of the warehouse, walking in the same direction until they were well outside of hearing range.
"We did it," Slick sighed in relief. "Now Shadow, I'mma need a copy of that manifesto. Ain't no way I'mma leave my ass hanging out in the breeze with no way of keeping it from gettin' smacked." He held out his omni-tool for emphasis, and Anna hesitantly made the transfer. She shared an uneasy glance with Kaidan as she then handed the cloaking device back to Slick.
"This is yours, and we couldn't have done this without it." Slick smiled at the device, then up at her.
"Naw. I'll let y'all keep it. 'Sides, you're a pretty little thing, and I would like tuh think I'm keepin' yuh safe out there." He winked her, and she felt grossed out. There was something very wrong with how he looked at her.
"We don't need your help, Slick." Kaidan growled behind her, and Anna gratefully took a step back.
"Later, Oil. Shadow." Slick tipped an imaginary hat at Anna before he turned around and began running softly, slipping into the night. After a minute of silent waiting, Anna turned at Kaidan, who shook his head.
"We don't have any need for it, and I don't want this staying out of Alliance hands." Kaidan stood still for a minute before he grabbed the object from Anna's hand and hurled it at the wall. She jumped, startled by the unexpected move as Kaidan lit his omni-tool. "Help me grab the pieces. We'll drop them in dumpsters along the way to the bus. Nobody will be able to piece it together. Anything looks too big, stomp on it." They continued looking and stomping until Kaidan made a noise of triumph. "There's a tracker in this, and a bug. Quite smart, Slick. But we never intended to keep it." Kaidan hurled the two bits away from them and they sprinted in the other direction, making random turns and dumping bits into dumpsters at random intervals. Five minutes later, they were standing at the bus stop, satisfied at how far they'd spread the piece of tech. And maybe tonight, she and Kaidan could get some real sleep.
Kaidan woke the next morning in good spirits. The good mood carried him through the day, a lazy day spent in the Alenko orchard, and the evening brought a wonderful sunset. He stepped out onto the porch to find Anna with her face almost pressed into one of his books and music playing. His primary concern was for the book, and he walked over to Anna first.
"What are you doing to The Silver Chair?" He asked, and Anna peaked at him from the side.
"Don't look out into the orchard. I can't stop him, and any emotional scaring are your own burdens. I warned you." Kaidan stared at Anna after her declaration, perplexed as to why she would say something like that. It was then that his father decided to step onto the porch with two beers. The man then proceeded to bend over laughing.
"Kennan, you're embarrassing the shit out of your daughter. Put the girl out of her misery and stop dancing. We all know you can't dance to save your damn life," his father proclaimed, and Kaidan finally turned to see just what was going on. It seemed that Kennan Shepard had brought a music player out there and was doing some strange interpretation of dancing out in the orchard. His father was quite right, the Commander couldn't dance. But an idea sprung into his head, and he gently took the book from Anna before pulling her up and out of her chair.
"What are you doing?" She asked, perplexed as he set the book on the railing.
"Showing your dad how it's done." At that, Anna attempted to dig her heels in.
"Oh no. No no no no!" For all of Anna's insistence, Kaidan still managed to drag her out into the orchard.
"Nobody's out here. No one will judge. Just dance and relax. The music isn't half bad either. What is this? I can't understand any of it," he asked Kennan.
"That's because you're not supposed to. They're scatting. It's an old Earth term for sounds we make that are just filler. They're sound and song without lyrics, but it isn't humming," Kennan explained, and Kaidan nodded. He had now learned something new today. After a few moments of consideration, he began dancing. It was obvious that Anna wouldn't if he wasn't willing to make a fool of himself too.
"Come on," Kaidan insisted. "You can't be as bad as your dad. How's your mom with dancing?"
"I don't know. I don't see her dance too much. Not as bad as dad? And how the hell is my dancing talent supposed to depend on them?" Anna all but snapped back, crossing her arms, though she stopped frowning once she started to watch him dance.
"Exactly. You could be a wonderful dancer for all you know. You'll never know if you don't try." He held his hand out. He couldn't dance a partner dance very well, but he knew enough to keep from stepping on her toes. She sighed and took his hand.
"You'll pay for this later," she threatened as she followed his steps. She hadn't stepped on his toes immediately, so he took that as a good sign.
"Alright. But at least give this a chance. You aren't doing terribly," she seemed to stare at him for a moment before lowering her guard, letting him lead her around the orchard before he finally let go. "Now dance on your own. You've shown that you can dance."
"If I dance for a few minutes, am I off the hook?" He grinned at her.
"Only if you enjoy it." Anna made a face at him before she shook her head and began to dance. It wasn't the most graceful dancing he'd seen, but it was better than her father. And that was a start.
AN: Ok, on the last bit, with Kaidan dragging Shepard into dancing, my inspiration was the Garrus Vakarian Mass Effect 3 Citadel date, mostly the tone of Shepard saying 'what are you doing'. It cracks me up every time. And I wanted to show the origins of the Shepard shuffle. I really don't think it's all that bad, and in my mind Kennan Shepard is much worse than his daughter. And sometimes kids just get a bad gene. Unfortunately, science hasn't been able to pick out which one dancing is, so Shepard is out of luck.