LCL Storage Facility, Level -2, June 26th, 2014
Daniel Theisman ran a hand through shoulder-length hair pulled up in a simple bun, considering his tablet as the pieces finally began to come together.
The thieves had a pattern that they stuck to. One that had taken half a year's worth of reports to gain a glimpse of, but which his 'special measures' had confirmed within a month. Of the 6 LCL storage rooms on this level, even-numbered ones were hit earlier in the month, while their odd-numbered brethren were drained in the back half of the month. How they did it or what routes they used to get in or out, he still didn't know. But their scheduled pickup day was only two days away now. As long as he stuck around this area…
"Oh. Captain Theisman."
Daniel blinked, looking up from his tablet to see a security guard, accompanied by three people in plain coveralls carrying what looked like tool bags. "Can I… help you?"
"These technicians are here to try and fix a leak in the transfer pipes." the guard said, smiling slightly. "I've gotten them this far, but could you show them where the leak is?"
Daniel frowned slightly, taking stock of the three technicians for a moment. One man, two women. The man was a little taller than him, thin, but not skinny, with black, wavy hair to the middle of his shoulders falling free in a way that most technicians wouldn't fully be comfortable with and gray eyes that looked intently at him. One woman was a full head taller than him, with curly black hair in a bun, slightly tanned skin, and hazel eyes that darted from him to the guard to the man and back again. The other woman, a little shorter than him, had mahogany skin and shoulder-length hair done up in rows of tight braids. She regarded him rather warily with intense brown eyes.
"Well, I would," Daniel said, "if there was a transfer pipe to fix. I went over them myself just 4 days ago."
"We got called in to fix a new one that sprang up." The man said with a voice a little lower than Daniel's tinged with an accent that he couldn't quite place. "Mr. Herzinger here has been very helpful."
Daniel started to reply but stopped as he realized the words this man spoke carried a weight to them, made him want to listen to the man. He kept his expression neutral as he remembered old but unforgotten lessons. This man was trying to use one of the more common Expressive powers he'd learned about, one that plenty of out-of-towners learned if they didn't have the time to spend. This man was an Allomancer, trying to use brass to bend his mind and emotions.
'That explains a lot.' Daniel mused. But not only was Daniel wise to it, he was fully prepared to turn the power away. "Well," he said aloud, looking down at his tablet, "I should have gotten a work order for it if that was the case. Let me see if I can find one." Daniel had a very reasonable suspicion that he wouldn't be finding anything.
"So," he said as he made his way to the list of work orders on his tablet, scrolling through them, "who do you work for?"
"We're an independent contract company," the taller woman said, her voice a soft, somewhat deep alto. "We have all our security permissions in order."
Daniel paused his scrolling. "I see." he looked back up to the trio in front of him. "Well, that would be nice… if this section of the base wasn't restricted to only authorized NERV personnel, all of the engineers whom I know by face and name. Seeing as I'm head of Engineering and all."
His free hand drifted off his tablet and came to rest on the holster of his Jericho 941 as he stared down their now rather harried reactions. "So, you're going to need to explain just what the hell you're doing here, and you're going to need to do it quickly."
"We were on our way to see you after this, actually." the man said, Daniel feeling it as he poured his power into his words. "We'll get this fixed, and meet you at your office."
The words were strong, and Daniel was getting a hell of a headache throwing off this guy's influence. He winced audibly as he felt the brand on his brow beginning to glow, putting a hand over it as he felt it reveal itself briefly.
Apparently, it wasn't quite enough. "Damn it!" he heard the man say. "Go!"
Next he realized, he'd been shoved into the wall, grunting from the impact as his tablet fell to the floor alongside him. He was on his feet in seconds, brand gone and gun drawn. "Stop!" he shouted after the fleeing thieves, the trio running with a speed that no one should have been able to match. And yet, Daniel pushed himself to their speed, the strength of his body starting to match the will of his soul as he slowly began to catch up.
They darted into LCL Storage Bay 5, Daniel chasing after them into the rows and rows of massive transparent storage tanks. Then, his heart jumped slightly as he heard something shatter. 'Damn it!' he thought as he ran towards the sound. 'Did they break a tank just to cover their tracks?'
He slowed to a stop at the back wall, finding… no one. On the floor, something was finishing dissipating into nothing, a hazy, smoky substance that was gone. Vanished without a trace.
"Shit," Daniel muttered as he holstered his pistol, stalking back towards the entrance.
As he emerged, he saw the guard, clearly dazed. "You!" he said, pointing at the man, who visibly jumped. "Lock down this entire level! We can't risk them escaping."
The man, Herzinger as he recalled, nodded, turning and running towards the security station at this level's entrance. As he disappeared, Daniel opened his other eyes, scanning the hallway, the other rooms, and even the places where they might have jumped to in a short distance. Nothing. They were gone.
. . .
"I believe that the man was using some sort of engineered aphrodisiac to drug the man and tried to spray me to pacify me," Daniel said as he sat in Karl's office, the base's security chief, one Captain Ybarra, sitting next to him. "I reacted to it in a way that they weren't expecting, so they bolted towards the storage areas. I chased after them as they went into Bay 5, heard a crash like they'd broken something, and found that they'd just… vanished. It was the strangest thing. I checked that room from top to bottom, too. There wasn't a single vent out of place, nothing that could be an escape hatch."
Karl sighed quietly. "Well, now that they're wanted across the Stahlturm, either we'll find them, or they'll be sufficiently dissuaded from attempting something like that again."
"Even still," Ybarra, a stocky Basque man with a rather prominent scar on his jawline said, "I don't like loose ends. How did they just escape a locked-down level 20 meters below ground without a trace? And can they get back in?"
"Not easily." Karl mused darkly. He sighed after a moment. "Well, at the moment, we'll remain vigilant, but return to what we're doing. Unit-02 is on the cusp of being completed, and Captain Theisman needs all the time he can get to ensure that it is up to his standards and ours."
Daniel nodded, looking over at Ybarra as they stood. "I'll keep in touch with you in case there are any developments."
Ybarra nodded in turn, and they exited the office, going their separate ways. Daniel pondered silently as he walked. Now that he'd confirmed that they were from out of town, and possessed the means to get in, he still needed a motive. Why steal LCL? And to what end?
He didn't know. But he was certain he was going to find out, one way or another.