Chapter 4: Second Chance
It was near midnight. The moon was full, casting some light onto the deserted city street. There were a few parked cars but none of the surrounding stores were open and there wasn’t a person to be seen in any direction.
Johnny crouched from his position beside one of the cars, looking at the bank doors with a special thermal eye piece. Nancy crouched down beside him.
“Looks like the alarm on the door is standard, shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.
As Johnny looked through the special eye piece, he was able to see all the electrical wiring through the walls and door of the bank. He could even see the connecting pieces where the electrical circuit was able to monitor the status of the door.
“Of course it shouldn’t be a problem,” Ackers voice came loud and clear over the ear pieces both Johnny and Nancy were wearing. “Our technology is years ahead of anything you’ll find in the common world.”
“This is supposed to be a front for the United Order, so the technology will be quite a bit more advanced,” Johnny said.
There was a moment of silence on the other end.
“Right, I forgot about that,” Ackers admitted.
Silence dropped down out of a tree beside Nancy, giving her a smile.
“Boo,” she said, as she skipped on ahead to monitor the area.
Johnny shrugged at Nancy.
“If she picks on you it means she likes you. She bugged me for a year before she finally warmed up to me,” Johnny tried to explain.
“I’m used to working alone,” was all Nancy would say, keeping a stoic expression.
Johnny nodded, and finally put down the eye piece. He could tell that Nancy’s ego was still bruised from their fight earlier.
“Still, she’s not that bad. If you get Red mad, on the other hand, I would leave the country. Her good moods are worse than most people’s temper,” Johnny said.
“Don’t talk about me behind my back.”
Johnny jumped as he saw Red leading Vinnie toward the doors. Her hair seemed like it was tied back even tighter than normal, making Johnny wonder if the stress on her scalp contributed to her high tension. She had two small square grenades in each hand and checked both sides of the street as she walked.
“What do those do?” Johnny asked, indicating the objects she was holding.
“They go bang.”
“I figured they did that, I’m just worried about what type of bang they make,” Johnny clarified.
“Guess we’ll all find out, if we’re lucky,” Red smiled back with an eerie looking sparkle in her eyes.
She walked out into the middle of the street, Vinnie following right behind. Together the two walked up to the doors of the closed bank.
Vinnie bent down on one knee and started examining the door. He pulled out a thin glove from his pocket and put it on his hand, pressing the glove against the door and listening.
Johnny rose from his spot behind the car and indicated that Nancy should follow.
“I guess the stealth part of this operation is over,” Nancy said. She looked around as they walked toward the front door.
“If Red and Silence aren’t worried, it means that the coast is clear for now. But the stealth part will be officially over when Big Petey starts breaking things,” Johnny answered.
They walked up to Vinnie and stopped, watching him listening to the glove he had pressed against the door.
Vinnie was sliding the glove around the door in small circular motions, every now and then he would tap one of the fingers of the glove against the door in alternating rhythms.
“What is he doing?” Nancy asked.
“Listening,” Vinnie answered before Johnny could. “I can hear what you’d call the heart beat of the electricity. Using this glove I can deaden certain electrical pathways, and trace superficial surface currents for it to follow. The superficial currents won’t last more than a minute, but it will be enough time for us to bypass the alarm and slip inside.”
Vinnie tapped a few more times.
Big Petey walked up to the group while they were all watching Vinnie intently.
“We done yet?” he almost bellowed at the group.
Everyone jumped with a start. Red flashed him an angry look.
“We’re supposed to be doing this the quiet way,” she added with a glare.
“I don’t know how to do things quiet,’ Big Petey responded. “Where’s Silence?”
“She’s around somewhere. She’s always hiding when explosions are ready to go off,” Red answered with a sarcastic look around her.
“Okay, it’s ready,” Vinnie declared as he stepped away from the door.
“About time,” Big Petey said.
He grabbed the handle of each door. Everyone took a step away from him.
“I could just pick the lock,” Nancy offered.
Big Petey strained all his muscles and then pulled. Both doors were ripped off their hinges as they came apart from the building. Big Petey threw them down to the ground with a yell.
“That’s no fun,” he replied as he peered into the building.
Red walked forward, still holding her square grenades.
“Hurry up, there’s people inside and we still have a Chip to find,” she said angrily as she led the way.
They all walked inside, Nancy bringing up the rear of the group and still looking for any traces of Silence.