10 Minutes to go-
Ten minutes was all the time they had to complete their mission. Any longer and the distraction would begin to look suspicious to the targets, giving the team away.
Watches synced, the eight black clothed figures snuck across the street to the garage. First disabling the alarms and rerouting the security systems back into themselves to trick the systems into thinking nothing was wrong.
9 Minutes to go-
They made their way inside the massive garage. It was filled with hundreds of the flashiest, most expensive, cars and motorcycles, but the team bypassed them all. None of them were the target after all. Halfway to the target two of the figures broke off and raced to the far back wall. The other six went straight for the South wall.
There, beneath a blue tarp, was a lime green Lamborghini Centenario with lightning blue wing decals on the doors.
8 Minutes to go-
Giving a nod, their leader moved with them as they jumped into action. They threw the safety harness underneath the car, letting it unroll on its own, threw the tarp back on the top and proceeded to cinch the harness in place.
7 Minutes to go-
The whine of the crane reached their ears and they all grinned.
Right on time.
The other two team members had made excellent time in hacking into the cranes mainframe. Considering the total cost of the vehicles housed inside, it was no wonder that the owner had a retina, print and voice verification system in place for the operation of the machinery.
It just wasn’t enough for this particular group of entrepreneurs.
The larger group finished securing the Lamborghini while the crane made its way to their position. Having secured the car as well as they could before the crane made its way to them, their leader signaled two of the group to make their way to the bay doors.
With the timing being so crucial for this mission, the garage’s bay doors couldn’t be opened until the very last second. Too early and the alarm would sound before they had a chance to get free.
They couldn’t justify the time it would have taken to dismantle the secondary alarm system so they had used a side door to get in and would save the bay doors for the exit.
6 Minutes to go-
The crane arrived and the hook and chain lowered. They swiftly hooked the harness up and waved their comrades in the crane that they were done. They waited a beat to make sure that it would hold before racing to the doors to help open them when the time came.
5 Minutes to go-
The crane safely delivered the Lamborghini to the bay doors and gently set it back down. The crane was shut off and the two team members inside climbed out. Two soft thuds were heard over head and the two were soon seen sliding along the tether lines they had shot out of the specially modified air rifles.
The ground team couldn’t wait though and positioned themselves three on each side of the massive bay doors and pulled with everything they had.
Slowly but surely the doors gave way and after a moment or two the momentum made it easier to slide the doors along the tracks. The last two members hit the ground right as the others were pulling the tarp and harness from the car.
4 Minutes to go-
The team leader leapt into the Lamborghini as the other seven raced through the doors and to the getaway cars idling across the street. The slamming of the car doors was loud in the silence before a wailing siren began to sound.
Smiling, the team leader put the car in gear and shot through the closing doors. If they hadn’t jammed the doors open with screwdrivers first this wouldn’t have worked because the doors were automated and well-kept to be silent and fast.
The getaway cars all scattered down different streets as Police and private security vehicles came spilling out of the surrounding parking ramps.
3 Minutes to go-
Having successfully gotten the attention off the baseball game that had been playing at the stadium downtown, and a certain attendee who owned the pretty little car, the teams leader made sure to take a route that went right past the stadium itself.
News helicopters appeared in no time and reports starting coming in from the watchers telling the team leader that everyone else was safe and accounted for and that every news outlet in the vicinity was reporting on the theft.
Having planned ahead of time to have the streets closed on ‘official business’, it was really amazing what you could get away with when you had those orange cones at your disposal, it took exactly a minute to get from the garage to the docks at the illegal speeds used on the empty streets.
Of course, the streets were only empty until the leader had passed, after that the cars that had been waiting to get through the ‘construction zones’ were allowed out and filled the roads, stopping the pursuing vehicles from catching up.
2 Minutes to go-
Inside the car, the leader was getting ready for the last scene of the night’s play.
Ahead, stretched between two buildings, was a steel line. A second line was secured to the first at the middle with a carabiner attached to the end hanging down to exactly five feet above the road. With the Lamborghini Centenario being only 44 inches tall, the added height to the hook was needed for someone who planned to climb out of the window and hook themselves up.
1 Minute to go-
The news cameras panned out to capture what was about to happen and barely made it in time to broadcast as the raven-haired woman climbed out of the still moving cars’ driver side window and reached an arm out.
It never failed to awe and amuse the world when the famous Jamie Lecka made an appearance. She always had some new way to get in and out of heavily secured places and escape relatively unharmed. Her fame and notoriety had become legendary in a very short amount of time and she was loved by pretty much everyone because no matter what she did no one got seriously hurt.
A headache here and sprained ankle there, though that usually wasn’t her fault at all.
Not surprisingly, as soon as her name was mentioned ratings soared as people logged on to see what she was up to this time in protest. She may have been notorious, but she didn’t make such public displays often. Usually she was seen in more sedate settings like a court room.
The world watched, breathless, as Jamie was snatched from the car and swung back once before zipping straight up and appearing to walk on thin air. She tightrope walked quickly to the building on the left where a helicopter seemed to appear out of nowhere for her to climb into.
The last anyone saw of Jamie Lecka that night was a shot of her throwing a kiss to the cameras. Everyone knew who she was directing the kiss too and the world laughed at her audacity and daring.
Not all the cameras had been trained on her, however. Some of the cameras had continued to film as the Lamborghini Centenario continued to speed down the street, onto a dock and right off the end into the bay. It bobbed for a moment or two before sinking to the bottom.
The helicopter with Jamie Lecka vanished and no matter how hard they looked, the Police and privately hired guards and investigators could find no trace of her. Though they did eventually find the helicopter in a junkyard with a sticky note, with a familiar fanged smiley face drawn on it, after two weeks of searching.
©2016, Illeana Nexry.
The Dark Library 